A/N: this is where things start getting interesting! Still kinda episode 1-ey

Xander felt a liquid trickling down his forearm. He looked down. His first realization: Blood. And then the second: not mine. He took another look at the vampire he had pinned to the wall, at the long cuts across the left chest.

"You gonna stake me or just hold me at an angle where I can't watch the telly?"

Xander's third realization: he hadn't brought a stake. He looked down at the bleeding vampire again, with mild confusion. Had he somehow...?

"Did it to me self." Spike slumped, and Xander let him fall towards the floor. That and he wasn't quite strong enough to hold Spike upright and pinned. "Got what I thought I wanted, found out I dinnt. And now errything's bollocksed up." Xander took a step back as Spike rocked on the floor, head between his knees. Spike stopped rocking, and looked up at Xander with an almost sober expression. "I'm a bad, bad man. Nothing I can do about it now, things I've done. You should just stake me, you know. I'm no use anymore. Kittens. Makes no bleeding sense. Gave myself an out at the end, you're not supposed to make the request again, jus' at the beginning so they can't turn the words around on you but they still did it, gave me what she deserved, right? That's what it means now." Spike giggled. "Coulda decided I meant something else."

"The what means what now?"

"Willow, there are some things you ought to know. When I left Sunnydale the first time - and I don't expect this to make up for my actions - I left in part because I believed that it would not be long before you no longer needed me there. Not just because you seemed to be growing up, or because I might have lost myself to - never mind. I had reason to believe that the Hellmouth might be closing, for good." Giles paused as he took in Willow's confusion. "Yes, like everything else, even Hellmouths can grow and die. In fact, Hellmouth is more of a categorical distinction then anything else, a measure of the weakness between dimensions, and which dimensions that weakness leads to. Hellmouths open and close fairly regularly; Sunnydale's been active for a few centuries, since the Spanish I'd guess, but during that time it's only rarely been The Hellmouth, there have been stronger ones in Beijing and Poland and New York, to name a few, and we've been keeping an eye on Cleveland for a while now. And slayers, the way the power is set up, they're meant to follow the Hellmouth. Do you understand?"

Willow swallowed. "I think I might. You mean, they're supposed to die?"

"Yes. The slayer power, the responsibility, it wears on the human mind. And the slayer isn't meant to feel empathy for the demons she kills." Giles sighed. "It's just a guess, but I think that may be why the power chooses young girls just past puberty. The unformed brain chemistry, the willingness to accept a black and white world - those are attributes that allow the slayer to do her work most effectively. And the slayer herself, itself - the slayer essence, you understand - that never dies, it simply takes a new host when the current one can no longer... stand the pressure."

Willow stared, horrified.

"In this way, I suppose slayers are not all that different from vampires. They are possessed by the slayer essence, transformed into people they would not have been otherwise. They are tools of the light, not of evil, but tools nonetheless, temporary vessels of a greater power. Now," Giles smiled sadly, "I may be wrong about some of this but we can't know for certain unless we get access to some of the Watcher's more secretive tomes. We need to know more about how the first slayer was created if we want to keep Buffy alive."

Willow struggled with her thoughts, finally coming up with the least emotionally-charged question. "What about Faith?"

"I'm not sure. The slayer line does run through Faith - she was called when Kendra died, and we haven't seen a new slayer since Buffy... But the primary essence still lives in Buffy, I have to believe. Otherwise we would not have been able to call on her to defeat Adam." Giles furrowed his brow, cleaning his glasses. "Willow, the slayer essence requires a fight, and not just any fight. The good fight. If the Hellmouth is truly moving, the slayer needs to move with it, and I'm afraid she- it - will do so any way it can."

The two sat in silence in the tea shop. "Have you told Buffy yet?" Willow asked.

"I - no, not all of it. Just what I have confirmed. That hellmouths close, that the slayer usually is called near the active Hellmouth. And if she feels antsy, wants to fight, she should listen to the impulse, listen to what the slayer is telling her."

"So, not that if she doesn't, the supposedly heroic bit of her might decide it no longer wants to be Buffy shaped?"

"I didn't think it was a good idea to tell a recently depressed person that there might be a legitimate reason for her to kill herself. She's doing well. I just didn't want to ruin it."

"I dunno Giles. I think I've learned something about making decisions for Buffy without talking to her first."

"This isn't a decision yet, just research. When there's a decision to make, we'll let her know right away."

Willow's phone rang. "Ohhh Kennedy's going to kill me."

"Kennedy?"

"Not super important, actually. Goes here - with the university, not with the magic - has a big crush of the big-lesbian-crush-type on me. Might have led her on a bit. Didn't mean to, but I think anything less than and including yelling please go away might count as leading on-ness when it comes to Kennedy." Willow looked down at her hands. "So, I kind of, um, gave up and let it happen. Just the flirting, but I um, didn't want to have to tell anyone about, um, I just didn't want everyone all sorry for me."

Giles nodded, looking slightly bewildered. "It's certainly not my business who you date, Willow."

"Oh! ok, strictly business talkies."

"Ah, yes, that might be for the best."

The two munched on their biscuits and sipped their tea.

Giles broke the silence. "So, do you need to go meet this Kennedy person?"

"Um, no, I thought maybe I could sit here with you and eat biscuits and enjoy the quiet, or the planning, or really do anything else."

Buffy walked into the Espresso Pump, feeling positively twitchy even before her first mocha cappuccino. Days without some good evil ass-kickery were just no good for Buffy. And even if that grandpa came back she wasn't feeling too excited about the ensuing fight. Usually vamps who could remember a world war were plenty of dangerous fun. Not so much the ones who lived the next sixty years as humans. There was only so much vamp healing powers could do for a missing leg. She took her coffee from the barista - that's what you had to call them now? Wasn't that some kind of law thing? and looked around to find an empty seat, when she saw a familiar figure, now topped with shorter, browner hair than she'd last seen.

"Anya!" Buffy was positively enthused. Anya was a vengeance demon again! She'd have all the up-and-up on the evil.

"Oh, hi Buffy. You look excited to see me." Anya stared at Buffy suspiciously. "Why are you excited to see me?"

"Can't a girl just be happy so see her friends?" Buffy smiled winningly.

The round-faced woman with dark curls sitting next to Anya cut in, "Anya, don't forget that she's living with him. Whore."

"Hi Hallie, didn't see you there." Buffy's winning smile broadened to accommodate a sublayer of I'll-cut-you-later. And if we really wanted to get into who deserves that particular label... Buffy shot a look at Anya, who was squirming in her seat.

"It's Halfrek to you. And don't forget that without Anyanka here I could set a thousand vengeance spells on you. Plenty of takers. She seems to think you're not worth the effort."

"Really? I could use the distraction, demon. Could be fun." Buffy spat back. "Just give me a reason."

Anya placed herself firmly between the two women. "Hallie, sit down. You don't want to die." She looked almost concerned as she turned to Buffy. "Buffy, you don't want to die either, right?"

"Yes Anya, not suicidal." Buffy huffed.

"Good! Now let's stop calling each other names. Sit down, you can tell us all about how Xander is miserable without me."

Buffy sat down on the side that faced the door, putting herself next to Halfrek, who twitched once before settling down, muttering something about how the slayer couldn't kill her. Yeah right. But back to Xander. "Oh, he's reached an all new level of wig. Constantly listening to some self-help nonsense. And the wiggiest? I think it's actually doing some good - I mean, making him realize, um, stuff."

Anya pursed her lips. "So he's miserable, right?"

Halfrek snorted. "Please, Anya. If you really wanted him to suffer you know you could."

Anya turned sharply. "I know. And we talked about this and agreed that Buffy and Xander are good enough at making themselves miserable that we should just stay out of it and let them ruin their own lives."

"Hey!" Buffy interjected.

"I'm sorry honey, you know it's true." Anya nodded pityingly as she took a bit of her muffin.

"You know, ugh, whatever. Anya, I need to kill something. I haven't seen a single vamp in days. And on the demon front just you and Clem, and other - you know, people. Where's all the evil? All the ass-kick-needing evil?"

Halfrek snorted again. "Girl, you're asking the wrong demons. We're under the jurisprudence of Vengeance. Or Justice, if you want to believe the other translation of the ancient Sumerian grammar. It's not like Evil has offices, whatever you'd like to believe about Wolfr- but that's besides the point. Anya, I'm going to work. I'll see you later." Halfrek disappeared, her half-eaten muffin clattering to the plate.

"That was weird. One moment she's all get-off-my-turfy and the next she's all poof." Buffy pouted at the spot where Halfrek had disappeared.

"Don't mind her. Something's going on, and unfortunately, it's now above my pay-grade. You'd think that over a thousand years of service would mean something, but noooo, everybody starts at the bottom. There are limits on my teleportation credit. And my credit card! It's ridiculous." Anya gathered herself. "But whatever it is, even D'Hoffryn's paying attention, which means it's big."

"Thanks for the tip." Buffy smiled. "Take care, Anya."

Anya shrugged. "You too. Stay safe, ok?"

As Buffy walked home she felt almost hopeful. Big evil! Big, fightable, killable evil! She'd find Halfrek, beat the information out of her, and go kill things. Maybe break out the scythe. She opened the door to her house, walking towards the weapons chest with purpose.

"Buffy!"

"Yeah Xand? You pick up Dawn?"

"Yeah. She's upstairs. Whatchu... Oh, you're-"

"Big evil, back in town. Going to kill it."

"Wait, you know?" Ever since he'd walked away from the crypt, he'd been wondering if he should tell Buffy about Spike. He wasn't sure if he'd done the right thing to leave the vampire alive, but it was hard to kill someone who flinched and hid from kittens. And he'd needed to get to work, and he hadn't brought a stake...

"You know? Oh of course. Anya would have told you too. Call Giles when you get a chance, would you? We need to get the research machine running."

Xander made a strangled sound. "Anya knows?"

"Well, it makes sense she'd be the first one to know. Vengeance demon again, remember?"

"Right." Should have killed him when he had the chance. No, better this way, let Buffy do it.

"Oh Xander. She still cares about you, you know that."

"Funny way of showing it."

"Yeah, she is all hung up on making sure you're miserable. Dawn, are you coming?"

"You're taking her?"

"Look, big evil? It's planning something, and that something probably isn't going to happen in a while. But it's out there and I have to deal with it, which means Dawn has to deal with it, and we made this decision together to let her be as prepared as she can be when the time comes. Besides, I really don't have any reason to believe this night's going to be much more interesting than the last. And she wants to go!"

"Fine! Just, put me down as saying its a bad idea." Xander sulked. "And I'm coming with!"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Fine. Come on. Grab a weapon." Dawn bounced down the stairs and the three walked out the door.

It didn't take Dawn long to notice the weird energy. "So what's gotten into you guys? And why is Xander coming on patrol? I thought he was making lasagne?"

"Anya gave me a tip about some big evil that's over her pay grade, and Xander's freaking out for no good reason." Buffy swished her hair.

"Wait a minute." Xander said. The three paused at the entrance to Restfield Cemetery. "This is Restfield."

"Yeah. Let's go check out grandpa and then we can try out somewhere else. Maybe St. Mary's?"

"Not Sunnydale Memorial?"

"We were there last night, Xander. No fresh graves today. Why are you looking at me like -"

"Watch out!"

Dawn twisted to see a vampire behind her. She dropped into a crouch, letting his hands swipe at empty air. She rolled away, kicking at his shins. She barely noticed Xander fighting next to her, barely holding off a vampire who looked like he was missing a leg, Buffy handily dispatching another with a swift kick to the head before being rushed by two more. The vampire picked her up and threw Dawn on top of a nearby sarcophagus. She whimpered at the impact, wondering if anything had broken. "Buffy!" She coughed, spitting out blood.

Buffy ended her fight, staking the two vampires with an ease that suggested she'd been holding herself back and ran towards Dawn, but Dawn could tell it was too late, she wouldn't make it in time. The vampire was too close, running towards her now, she could feel time begin to slow as the adrenaline pumped through her veins, telling her to stand up, run away.

Dawn realized she was still holding her stake, and pushed herself up just in time to see the vampire snarling not two feet from her. From her higher position on the sarcophagus, she toppled towards him, stake outstretched, putting all of her small weight into the motion. For a moment, the vampire caught her, its yellow eyes staring hungrily into hers, mouth twisting towards her neck. Then, just as Dawn felt the teeth about to pierce her flesh, she fell into a heap on the ground, coughing as the dust settled around her.

She looked around. Xander had finally dispatched his vampire, Buffy sprinting in the opposite direction, pinning the last vampire to a tree. A few words passed between them, then the vamp was dust. Buffy dashed back to Dawn. "Dawnie, I'm so sorry, I should have - are you hurt?"

Dawn struggled to her feet. "I'm bruised, and I think I bit my tongue, but... Buffy I did it! I killed one! All by myself!"

"You did and I'm so proud but you're covered in dirt and - did you break anything? You took a pretty hard fall there." Dawn looked at her sister, who was somehow pristine, white pants unblemished.

"I'm fine, Buffy, really. So did you get any good info from mr I-think-I-can-outrun-the-slayer?"

"No, not really. He was just babbling. In Spanish! I never paid too much attention in Spanish. Doesn't matter. You're ok, I'm ok, Xander?"

"Ok. Thanks for asking!" Xander picked himself off the ground. "So, Buffy, want to tell us about the big evil?"

"Oh, Anya just mentioned something. Pretty vague, really. Big evil, D'Hoffryn's checking it out."

"Thought he was part of the big evil?"

"Nahhh, evidently vengeance and evil are different... Departments or something. But yeah, something's brewing."

"Oh, so nothing specific, like, in a graveyard in Sunnydale?"

"Nah. Just your generic, mysterious evil." She looked positively excited. "Let's get Dawn home. Tomorrow I can go beat up Halfrek and we can find out more."

"You're the boss." Xander knew he would regret it later, but he kept his mouth shut about the other, specific evil. Buffy was just so happy, and he didn't want to ruin it. Together, the three walked back towards Revello Drive, Buffy laughing, stake twirling one hand on Dawn's shoulder. Xander sighed. He'd tell her tomorrow.

The darkness rumbled, coalesced, and broke up again into a fine mist. The vampire trembled. The darkness spoke. "Did he tell her?"

"Yes, but I don't think she understood."

"The message was clear."

"I don't think she speaks Spanish."

A deep sigh from the darkness. "I hate translating from the original. Loses so much of the meaning."

The vampire was silent.

"Very well, it does not matter. The situational irony holds. She knows, but she does not know. It is too late, we have what we need. You may go now. I release you. And I've got a call, so if you don't mind? Pass on the message to the others."

The darkness disappeared, reappeared in the middle of a pentagram surrounded by chanting figures in dark robes. Skulls lined the walls of the catacomb, grinning bleakly in the candlelight. A girl, bound and gagged, screamed silently, a curved knife protruding from her abdomen. One of the hooded figures paused to push her forward to the middle of the pentagram. She stumbled, falling to her knees in the center. Blood leaked from the wound, pooling around her knees into the dirt. The darkness sighed, hoping for the best. It crossed its fingers - or whatever passed for fingers belonging to an amorphous darkness, and seeped into the girl through the wound. The knife fell to the ground. The darkness could ate through the body, claiming the nervous system, the musculature. The ropes fell from her hands and feet, the wound in her abdomen sealed, her clothes crumbled to the ground. She began to vibrate with increasing frequency, flinging her head back, mouth opening as a column of darkness shot simultaneously upwards and downwards through her body.