Chapter Three: Skepticism

Two Hours Later, HQ of the Sydney Branch of the Watcher's Council

"So let me get this straight." Xander said before taking a huge gulp of coffee, "You had a dream about a little girl being carried away from a battle by a demon woman. The girl gets captured and turns out to be payment for something. You're then in this dark room where you can't see a then but then all of a sudden this thing with blood red eyes and a huge set of teeth shows up, chases you and eats you and you have no idea what this 'thing' is?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Buffy replied as she took a sip of her own coffee to bolster what energy she managed to get from her brief four hours of sleep.

"You sure it's not just the flu talkin'?" he asked half serious half humorous.

"While I am not dismissing your dream outright Buffy-san I must admit that if something that large were approaching Sydney the local mystics and Council researchers would easily see it coming." Koji stated as he tried to look as though he were not still half asleep, "A demon or supernatural creature of that size would be like a small sun to those able to perceive them and the energy they give off. I am afraid that it is more likely that Harris-san's theory is more likely."

"I'm telling you it was a Slayer dream." Buffy declared firmly while not resorting to raising her voice to get her point across.

The two men looked at each other as though they were debating whether to humor her or phone up the Council doctor they had made an appointment with and ask him to come early. Her irritation at this combined with a lingering feeling of fatigue as well as the aftershocks of the fear the dream inspired in her made for a distinctly miffed Slayer. Granted a small part of her could understand where they were coming for since demon the size of a two story house heading towards Sydney would be pretty hard to miss. Still her certainty that what she had experienced was a Slayer dream and the fact that said dreams had a track record of coming true made her somewhat irritated that not even Xander was willing to back her on this.

If trying to convince them rationally won't get them to move their asses then maybe pulling rank will! Buffy thought to herself before saying "You do realize that as the oldest living Slayer and Giles' former charge I could go over your heads and get things going on my own, right?"

This snapped them out of their dismissive attitude quicker than a newbie vamp running for the hills once it heard that she was in town.

"So what do we do first?" Xander asked using his question to imply that he was on her side for the moment.

"I will attempt to get into contact with the Watchers of the Slayers here in Australia and inquire as to whether or not anything unusual or potentially ominous has occurred." Koji-kun replied as he went over to the desk of the head of this branch of the Watcher's Council, "It won't matter whether this demon is coming here via magic or physical travel since either method will have an effect on the environment."

"Guess that leaves you and me to look through the dusty old books for your red-eyed demon Buffy." Xander said as he got out of his chair.

"Shouldn't be too hard. After all how many demons could there be the size of a house?" Buffy asked rhetorically as she got out of her own chair and moved over to stand beside him.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Two and a Half Hours Later,

Main Library, Main HQ Sydney Branch of the Watcher's Council

"That settles it! Some higher being just lives to make my life more difficult!" Buffy exclaimed in frustration as she slammed yet another book shut without anything to show for her efforts.

The two founding members of the Scooby gang had been looking through the sizeable library for over two hours and while they had found plenty of entries on really big demons none of them fit with what she had seen in her dream. Add to the fact that most of the ones that came close were either extinct or stuck to areas farther north and she had a fat lot of nada to show for threatening Koji and Xander earlier. She just had to hope that Koji had had more luck asking Australia's Watchers if anything strange had happened recently or else she was going to either have to apologize to them or continue researching on her own. Research that would be a tad difficult to do since both Koji and Xander would likely be even more certain that she was ill then they had before and all the more insistent that she see a doctor.

Turning at the sound of the door to the library opening she saw that it was Koji and judging by the worried look on his face what he had to say would either be very good or very bad.

"So what's the verdict? Was I right or have you come to tell me that the people in the white coats are coming for me?"

"Well several of the Watchers I spoke to did say that their charges did experience Slayer dreams within the past eight hours." Koji said looking like Giles did right before the British Watcher took off his glasses to clean them, "However they were quite different from the one you described. Their dreams showed Sydney in ruins and at the center of the devastation was a woman with snow white hair and glowing red eyes."

She waited for Koji to elaborate and perhaps give her his theory on who the demon woman was and how to kill it. After all that was how it had always worked before. She'd have a dream, she would go and tell Giles then her Watcher would spend a few hours flipping through his musty books before telling her the who, the what and the how of the situation. However with Koji it seemed that all she'd be getting is just a repeat of what she already knew more or less. All his info told her was that either the demon she saw in her dream could assume humanoid form as well as a beasty thing or what she saw in her Slayer dream was meant to tell her just how powerful this demon bitch really was.

"That's it? No 'this is why it came here' or 'this is how you kill it'?" Xander asked with surprise enough for the both of them.

"Unfortunately no. The Slayers who had this dream stated that their dreams ended precisely when they were able to confirm the most obvious traits of the demon such as hair color, gender and its eyes." Koji said sounding just as concerned about the lack of info as the rest of them were, "They said that it wasn't like the other dreams when they just woke up at the most strenuous moment but rather like they had been forced to end their dream by an outside source."

"So what does this mean? That this demon caught them snooping and kicked them out of la-la land?" Xander asked with elevated agitation as the possible abilities of this demon grew.

"Possibly. It is also possible that this vision was sent by the Powers to the Slayers as a warning and a suggestion to evacuate Sydney as soon as possible." Koji replied running a hand through his hair in place of Giles' 'clean his glasses into oblivion' method to relieve stress.

"Makes sense. If this thing is powerful enough to destroy an entire city then I doubt we could do more than piss it off if we tried to kill it." Xander said seeking a nearby chair for stability since he didn't figure that his legs would support him in light of the ramifications of Koji's theory.

Buffy took all of this in, both the information that Koji had provided and her Xander-shaped-friend's reaction to it, and she became.

Where were the warriors whose duty it was to stand against the darkness? Where was the 'never give up, never surrender' spirit that had seen her through so many apocalypses back in Sunnydale? Since she had become the Slayer she had taken on everything that the demonic and the supernatural could send at her and she was still here. Hell! She had taken on and killed both an ascended Snake Mayor and an ex-hell goddess for crying out loud!

If she could take them down, one lone demon woman shouldn't be that big of a problem no matter how powerful. After all just because Buffy wasn't the strongest or most powerful thing on the planet didn't mean that she couldn't still come out on top. That was something she had learned during her time back in the Warring States era of Japan with Kagome and the others. If a monk, a Slayer, a miko, a kitsune kid and a foul mouthed inu hanyou could stand firm in the face of demons that could decimate entire villages, than so could she!

"Fine. Get on the horn to the local feddies and throw around what weight you can to get the city evacuated ASAP." She stated in the same tone she had used in front of the potential Slayers when she needed them to listen and obey, "Meantime I'll contact the nearest group of magic users and get them to come to Sydney so we can set up a little surprise for this demon."

"Um, Buffy, don't you think that if the Powers That Be themselves are telling us to get the hell outta dodge that we should, y'know, do what they say?" Xander asked not entirely sure of the stability of his Slayer friend's mental state at the moment, "I mean, no offense or anything but any demon that can level a city is just a teensy bit out of our league."

"We thought the same about the Mayor and Glory but we beat them in the end." Buffy said as some instinct within her refused to back down from this challenge, "How? Because they had superiority complexes and we made them choke on them! This will be no different. Koji, get moving and get the Mayor to evacuate the city! We don't know how much time we have before this she-demon shows up."

They looked at her and she could tell that they still were not entirely behind her idea to fight this thing and that fact caused her irritation to become anger. It sent her back to the days before the final battle with the First when her 'friends' had turned their backs on her just because of one miscalculation. How could she have been expected that Caleb would be so strong and deadly? All she had been given about him was a vague description and the impression that he was a real woman hater. If she had known that he was at least as strong and as fast as her she would have had the potentials on guard duty outside while she, Spike and Faith dealt with Caleb themselves inside the vineyard. True they had managed to get their acts together and come up with a plan that shut down the Hellmouth in Sunnydale but it was a close thing. She couldn't allow the same thing to happen here!

"Look! It's really simple! There is a demon coming here to destroy Sydney!" she said with anger clearly in every word, "We are the ones charged to stop demons who threaten innocents and other evil things! That means we cannot and will not turn tail and run just because we haven't faced a demon like this before! Do we understand each other!"

"Buffy, chill! I know it's our job to stop the baddies of the night out there and I'm not saying that we let this thing do whatever it wants." Xander said a bit bewildered at where the sudden hostility from Buffy was coming from, "All I'm saying is that we pull back until we have some idea on how to handle this Big Bad. We can't just charge in loaded for bear and hope for the best."

"What about what it does to Sydney in the meantime?" she asked not liking one bit the idea of the city suffering some sort of permanent alteration because she ran when she should have fought, "It could gain a foothold here that we might never be able to take back from it! I will NOT allow this demon to have its way with this city! I WILL NOT!"

To emphasize this position she slammed her right fist down onto the table holding the books shattering it in such a way so as to make it look like a wrecking ball had been dropped on it from a very high altitude.

"So if you two cowards want to run and hide someplace safe the GO!" Buffy declared angrily at the two in front of her completely oblivious to the unnatural pulsing feeling emanating from within her, "I'll deal with this she-demon on my own! Just like always!"

Knowing he had to try and calm his friend down Xander stepped forward and said "Alone is the one thing you've never been Buffy! Not since the cemetery before the Harvest. Look I'm sorry if you don't like the idea of running away Buffy but we're doing the only sensible thing. A demon the size of a house and powerful enough to destroy Sydney on its own without back up isn't going to be impressed by a pointy piece of wood."

Buffy knew he was trying to reason with her, to try and get her to see things from a different point of view, but at the moment reason was giving way against primal instinct. An instinct that called to the blood within her veins and told her to defend her territory against any and all intruders. An instinct that grew furious at the very thought of running from a foe it was her duty to defeat. This instinct was pulsing within her blood causing reason to seem trivial at the moment and an unnecessary tool in ending her approaching opponent's life. She would end this female demon's life and prove to the demon community once and for all why she was the most feared Slayer alive.

"You'd be surprised what a 'pointy piece of wood' can kill." She said with cold determination as she made to leave the library and prepare for battle, "Now if you're done trying to paint a yellow streak down my back I have a battle to prepare for!"

Before she could get even halfway to the door however Xander stepped in her way once more and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Buffy listen to how you're talking! You're acting like the gang's never been there for you and we have!" Xander exclaimed with concern as he resisted her initial attempts to yank free of him, "You're talking crazy here Buffy! Something's wrong with you!"

"Let me GO!" Buffy yelled and using all the strength at her disposal threw one Xander Harris through the air and crashing through the door to the library knocking it clear off of its hinges.

"Don't you… ever… do that to… me a-agai—" Buffy strained to say but all of a sudden the pulsing within her blood that had up until a few moments ago been nothing more that background noise was now surging to the forefront.

So potent was this feeling in her blood disorientation was quick to set in causing her to wobble on her feet and forcing her to stagger over to the nearest bookshelf and lean up against it. Fortunately for her she didn't have to worry about the disorientation for very long. Excruciating pain did wonders for distracting a person from lesser problems like that. Of course most people would prefer disorientation to an abundance of pain but then they rarely had a say in the matter. In Buffy's case she had no choice at all as the pain tearing, biting, clawing its way through her body left her oblivious to anything but its presence. She didn't even notice that she had screamed at the top of her lungs before collapsing to the ground in a heap followed by convulsions and her fists tightening up until her nails began to draw blood. No all she knew was pain and suffering.

She never even heard the exclamations of surprise and concern mixed with her name.