Being shaken out of a deep sleep would normally make Buffy angry, but as her eyes adjusted to the light of Methos' upstairs kitchen, she found her mind was clouded more with worry than anger. If Willow or Giles was calling her at 3AM something was definitely wrong.

Given their over abundance of slayers anything that required her attention at this time of night had to be scary.

Methos stood behind her waiting anxiously as she padded over to the phone, realizing somewhat absently that she must look like something out of a horror film with her hair sticking out every which way and her pajamas and tank top in rumpled disarray. Methos as usual looked annoyingly adorable in his boxers and sans shirt. She shook those particular thoughts away and mumbled a 'hello' in to the receiver.

"Buffy? I'm so sorry to wake you up!" Willow's voice was nervous and hesitant. Buffy could almost feel the bad mojo coming out of the phone. She was immediately on alert.

"Don't worry about it Will," she assured her friend. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid so," Willow's reply was sad, and regretful. It was obvious that the last thing she had wanted to do was to call Buffy. To do so was admitting this thing was too big for the lesser experienced slayers to handle. Bringing in Buffy meant it was probably of apocalyptic proportions and Buffy knew that made Willow sad for many reasons. It comforted her to know her friend was so reluctant to disrupt her new life, but hoped that this reluctance hadn't forced Willow to leave things any longer than she should have.

"Baddies?" She said with a heavy sigh. She could almost see Willow's nod on the other end of the phone. "Where's Giles?"

"Right beside me," was Willow's swift reply. "Look Buffy, you know I wouldn't call you on something like this unless there was no other choice, but…"

"I get it Will." She cut in, too tired to do anything but get the facts from her friend. "I understand, believe me. What's happening?"

"The short version?" Willow said wryly. "Apocalypse. Same old, same old."

"Who's doing it?" Buffy asked, fearing she already knew the answer.

"Who else?" Willow said with a dark chuckle. "Our old friend the First."

"I thought we beat it back," Buffy said, confusion lacing her voice. "We killed all the uber vamps and Caleb. It shouldn't have any power left."

"It's the source of all evil Buffy, there is no defeating it." Willow reminded her. "But you're right, its power was severely depleted and theoretically it shouldn't have been able to mount an assault of this scale just yet."

"But…" Buffy prompted.

"But, with the amount of slayers we've managed to find the balance between good and evil has been irrevocably disrupted." Willow told her. "Kind of like it was when you died. It's not enough to give the First as much power as it had before, but it still managed to give it a boost. And if it is able to gain more power, we'll be right back where we started…maybe even worse off. I don't think we can beat it again Buffy. We have to stop it before it gains that power."

"I agree," Buffy said with a nod. She ran her fingers through her hair and glanced over at Methos who was listening to her side of the conversation intently. "So how does it plan to gain this power? And how did you find this out?"

"I did a locater spell last night to find a slayer." Willow told her. "Only all I found was the location of where she was, but something interesting happened when I did the spell. I felt the first clawing at me…trying to stop me from finding her. It got so strong that right after I got the location, I passed out and didn't wake up again until about an hour ago. Because it tried to get so far inside me, I learned something about it as well. The slayer I was trying to find is in Rome and whatever it is that the First is looking for, it's linked to her. She will help to find it. You gotta find the slayer before the First does."

"Wow," Buffy said after Willow finished speaking. "Are you OK Willow? You said it got inside you. Are you…"

"Not veiny or dark," Willow assured her. "Just drained and scared. Buffy I don't know this girl's name, what she looks like, anything. All I know is that she's in Rome and we have to find her soon. I would send one of the other girls, but…"

"This is a job for Buffy Summers, super slayer." Buffy said grimly. "I get that. Sounds like this could be a pretty lengthy thing."

"I hate asking you to uproot like this, but…"

"Don't worry about it." Buffy cut in swiftly. "I'll live. It's not like this is home or anything…I hadn't even started to learn French."

"There's more to it Buffy." Willow said anxiously. "Giles did some checking and Cleveland wasn't the only other Hellmouth location."

"Let me guess…" Buffy said. "Rome has a Hellmouth?"

"Bingo." Willow replied. "Obviously that's why the power source is there."

"Makes sense." Buffy agreed.

"I'm gonna do what I can to find out more about what's going on," Willow continued. "Kennedy and I are heading to Brazil to see if we can get some help from an ancient sect of witches. Giles found some information on different covens around the world that might be able to help. It's a long shot, but…"

"Whatever it takes," Buffy agreed softly. "Thanks Will."

"I'll put Giles on for a minute." Willow told her. Then, after a seconds pause, she added softly. "Be careful Buffy."

"Always." Buffy promised. A moment later she heard Giles say hello. "So we're back in the thick of it then?"

"I am truly sorry Buffy." Giles too sounded saddened by the current turn of events. Buffy shrugged it off in favour of gaining information. She would feel sorry for herself later.

"What else do we know Giles?"

"Not much," Giles admitted. "Willow just knew the First was connected to the slayer you have to find. I'll be researching rather extensively while Willow and Kennedy are on their mission. Hopefully when this is done the First will be out of our hair for good."

"We thought so the last time too," Buffy said with a sad smile. "This thing is like a bad penny. It just keeps turning up."

"I have faith in you Buffy." Giles told her.

"Thanks." She said, trying to ignore the lump in her throat. "I'll be in touch once I get to Rome."

"If you need backup at all you let me know." Giles all but ordered. "Most of the girls are rather raw, but some are battle ready."

"Keep your slayers." Buffy said stiffly. "We'll be OK."

"Take care," Giles said before hanging up.

After Buffy did the same she turned to Methos who was watching her patiently.

"I'm going to Italy," she said somewhat unnecessarily. She was pretty certain he had gotten the idea from the conversation. "There's some bad mojo there that they need me to put down before it becomes apocalypt-y."

"OK," he said with a short nod. "I'll go with you."

"I wasn't asking for you to…"

"I know," Methos cut her off with a soft smile. "But you don't have any money or a place to live and I am not going to let you fly headlong into danger without me. It doesn't work that way."

"No," Buffy said with a shake of her head. "I'll figure something out, you don't have to baby sit me. Besides, Dawn is starting school soon and I need someone to make sure she doesn't…blow it up. It kinda runs in the family."

"You don't intend to take her with you either?" Methos stared at her and Buffy suddenly felt as if he were judging her.

"If this is half as bad as Willow says it's the last place I want her." She explained. "Surely you can understand that."

"She won't listen to you." Methos pointed out. "You know that. She won't let you go without her. Not if it's that dangerous. You won't be able to stop her…or me."

"Methos…"

"No," he said firmly. She was surprised at the determination in his gaze and backed up a step. "Look, I have a villa in Rome. We can make a new start there just as easily as we did here. Dawn can go to school there…we both know she is perfectly capable of picking up the language fairly quickly."

"What about Xander?" She asked.

"There's room," Methos replied easily. "He is more than welcome, although I doubt that it matters much to him where he lives. He's too far gone for that to matter."

She didn't like hearing that truth about Xander, so she pushed it from her thoughts.

"Why?" She asked him quietly. "You've done so much already. You don't owe me anything and I know you hate putting yourself at risk, so why dive into the heart of it?"

"Because I care about you." It was that heartbreakingly simple. She could see it in his eyes. Methos, the ultimate survivor would go right into the jaws of hell (and it looked as if that might well be the case) because he cared for her. The depth and meaning of that emotion frightened her more than she liked to admit.

"You'll help me find a school for Dawn?" She asked, her throat tight at the look of naked emotion on his face.

"I will do whatever you ask me to." He promised her. She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "When do we leave?"