Disclaimer: Still don't own any of it.

--------------------

Chapter 3:

--------------------

Harry dodged several teenage girls as he made his way downstairs in search of Buffy. He was pretty sure he knew where she'd be right now. Before she went into a fight like this one, she always liked to calm the Slayer by letting loose on a heavy bag. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he glanced around and ran a hand through his messy, black hair. Now he just needed to find where she kept it.

"Hey," he stopped one of the potentials as she rushed by him. "Where's Liz- um… Buffy keep her punching bag?"

"In the basement," the girl told him impatiently.

"Thanks."

As soon as he opened the basement door, he knew he was in the right area. He could hear the impact of Buffy's fists against the bag. Faith was holding the bag in place for her as she pummeled it.

"Hey, Harry."

"You might want to switch to the meditation; I come bearing gifts," he suggested as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I know," Buffy ground out as she threw one last punch at the bag.

"Right," Harry nodded, "I forgot about that." He watched as she sat in a corner of the room with her back to the wall and closed her eyes. Buffy had always been able to sense her wand and that sword. They eventually decided that it had something to do with her Slayer side sensing the powerful magic in the weapons that belonged to her.

"I like the outfit."

Faith's comment snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned to see her looking him over. "Thanks," he said, taking up her former position of holding the bag.

"So, do you know how to use those or are they just for show?" With a nod of her head she motioned to the sword and axe that were now showing.

Harry held the bag steady as she threw a few warm up punches. "Lizzie taught me."

"So, that's how you two met?"

"Yeah. There was an evil wizard trying to kill me. The Powers sent her to train me, since the people who were supposed to just wanted to keep me locked away until they could kill him."

"And, of course, that was the worst thing they could do," Faith nodded in understanding.

"Yeah. Liz set them straight though," He grinned. "Have to say that a tiny fourteen year old girl telling off one of the greatest wizards since Merlin was one of the funniest things I've ever seen."

"Hey! I can hear you, y' know." Harry and Faith shared a smirk. "And I wasn't tiny," Buffy grumbled quietly, though they both heard her.

Faith chuckled at that. "Yep, that's got B's name all over it." She threw a few more punches at the bag. "So," she began slowly, "B mentioned that you were a wizard?" Harry just nodded with a slightly confused look on his face. "Do I get to see your wand?" she asked with a suggestive smirk.

She was expecting a blush, a stutter, or at least a look of moral outrage, not the cocky waggle of his eyebrows as he mirrored her smirk. "Maybe later."

"No! No wand showing. Don't make me come over there and separate you two."

Faith winked at Harry. "Jeez, B. Enjoying the gutter?"

"You are so not pinning that on me. 'Buffy', 'Harry', and 'gutter' are three concepts that never go together."

"She's got a point about that," Harry told Faith with a half-shrug. "They go together about as well as she and beer do."

"That was enchanted beer. So not my fault. Besides, I can hold my own against Spike doing shots of Firewhiskey," Buffy defended herself.

Faith shot her a skeptical look. "I'll have to ask him about that when he gets back."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Spike lives here?"

Buffy squirmed a bit under his gaze. "I wouldn't exactly use the term 'lives', since, well, vampire…"

"Liz," he used his best "McGonagall-no-nonsense" tone on her.

"He's good now. He's got a soul. Besides," she stopped squirming and held his gaze almost defiantly. "It's my decision. I trust him."

They stared at each other for a moment before Harry nodded. "All right," he conceded. "I don't like it though, and I don't trust him. Not after what he tried to do."

"I don't expect you to," she said gently. The corner of her lips twisted upwards into a wry smile. "Just try not to stake him on sight."

"Not even with a plastic stake?" Harry asked with a mock-pout identical to the patented "Buffy-pout".

"Damn, that's creepy," Faith commented as she noticed the look. Both Harry and Buffy turned to her with identical pleased looks on their faces. "And that's even creepier."

--------------------

Kennedy walked down the dimly lit alleyway nervously. She silently cursed for allowing Faith to talk her into this. It was crazy. Suicidal even. Waiting around as bait for the Bringers to pop out of nowhere and attack. She turned a corner and noticed a brick wall up ahead. A dead end. Great. The faint sound of a knife being pulled from its sheath caught her attention. She ducked just as the Bringer's knife sliced through where she had just been.

Before it could get in another shot, Harry grabbed it from behind and pulled it away. Buffy caught a second Bringer as it charged. She broke its wrist, loosening its grip on the knife enough to easily grab it away. With a sharp twist of the blade, the Bringer fell to the ground. She took in a breath as she surveyed the scene. Kennedy and Caridad had managed to take out the last Bringer, and Harry had his knocked out and bound with a spell. "Everyone okay?" They all nodded. "Let's get this guy back to the house then."

--------------------

"Someone get the door," Buffy called out as she and Harry carried the unconscious Bringer through the house. Giles opened the basement door and ushered them through. They set him against the wall and secured his wrists in the chains hanging from the wall. Buffy and Harry stepped back as Giles moved in to look the Bringer over.

"Would you mind waking him? I assume you used a spell of some kind to keep him unconscious?" He glanced over at Harry.

"Enervate." There was a slight wave of Harry's hand, and the Bringer began to come to.

Faith stepped forward and crouched in front of the Bringer. "Start talking. What's the First up to?"

Everyone waited impatiently for the Bringer's answer. Nothing. The Bringer opened it's mouth, slightly, as if trying to speak, and they caught a glimpse of the inside of its mouth. Or, rather, its missing tongue.

Buffy leaned closer to Harry. "This is pointless," she whispered. He nodded.

Giles opened the Bringer's mouth further. "Its tongue's been cut out." No one noticed as Buffy and Harry slipped out of the room.

--------------------

"Hey, so?" Dawn asked as Giles, Faith, Willow, and Xander joined the group waiting in the kitchen.

"The Bringer's dumb," Giles answered.

"You were expecting, what, a Rhodes Scholar?" Anya snarked.

"Dumb as in mute," Giles retorted.

"Someone ripped out its tongue," Faith explained.

"Oh, gross," Amanda made a disgusted face.

"Hey…" Dawn began, "I've been reading this old Turkish spell book. There's an old conjuration that the ancient Turks used to communicate with the dying."

"Oh, yeah. I think I've read a translation of it."

Dawn gave Willow a wide-eyed look. "There's a translation of it!" She took a breath and calmed herself before Giles could cut in. "I'm over it. Um, so the spell is used to communicate with people who can't talk. Um, like if a person was dying, this spell would let them say their good-byes or, you know, gripe about how nobody came to visit them. Would this help us with Mr. No-Tongue?"

Willow nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I just need to get together a few ingredients."

"All right. Well, cool." Faith stopped leaning against the wall and took command. "While Willow does that, the rest of us can-"

"We're back," Andrew called out. Spike stepped into the room, leaving Andrew behind.

"Spike," Giles greeted.

"Hey."

Andrew excitedly walked past Spike over to where Xander and Kennedy were standing. "Hi, everybody. I missed you guys a lot. Sorry it took so long to get back from our mission-mission, but we had to wait out the sun. Well, I think our mission went very well. We, uh, we rode on Spike's hog, which was very cool, and, uh... uh, played some amusing games, and- oh! We got some new information. You know what? I really need to urinate." Andrew scurried out of the room.

"He's a breath of fresh air, isn't he? Thank god I don't breathe," he said dryly. "So, I think we got a lead. Where's Buffy?"

"Downstairs," Dawn said.

Faith shot her an odd look. "No, she isn't. She came up here."

Dawn shook her head. "Nope. You guys were the only ones who came back up. I figured she stayed down there to keep an eye on the Bringer."

"You're sure?" Faith glanced around the room. They were all nodding. None of them had seen Buffy. She frowned. Where would Buffy… Her eyes widened slightly. She wouldn't. Ah, hell, of course she would; it's Buffy. "I'm gonna kill her."

--------------------

to be continued...

--------------------