I don't think I was ever one for small talk. My sister had the better skill for communication because she was very sociable. I only sat there with my chin laying dully on my tantrum-filled arms on the table while she and her friends shared their dilemmas. I was very awkward around them when I was a kid and just looking at Giles just brings me back to those childlike times.

Upon arriving here, it felt like he put me in a hypnotic trance bringing out the seventeen year old I once was. After Faith hugged me, which I had never seen her do before, he just stared at me. Like he was looking at a prized jewel. He took off his glasses about three times while I walked through the door. Faith asked if I was hungry, which once again was something I never heard her say ever. Fifteen minutes passed by and Giles did nothing but stare at me.

The crackling sounds of the cinders flying in the fireplace, as the warmth of the wood burning filled us, was the only sound that was audible. The pace and sound of here was different than the warehouse, which was something I could get used to.

His cottage had this very cozy feeling that reminded me of his other place back in Sunnydale or even the magic box. When walking in, the first things you could see are pictures of the Scooby Gang and of course Faith. It felt like everyone had been here but me. Giles was like the father I already had, but wished he was anyway. Being away from him and the rest of the gang was something I didn't want to do but I knew I had to. I just hoped he knew that.

We sat sat down in the kitchen on this beautifully finished oak table. Giles had poured himself some tea from the third pot that he had made. I was not one for tea, but it was better than the water I was drinking. Still the tea had a peculiar taste so I just played with the first cup I had. He sat down in the chair leaning against his yellow colored wall and crossed his leg over the other one like a man would. He blew on his cup of tea while I leaned over onto the table like I did when I was younger, crossing my arms and laying my chin on top of them.

Curiously, I looked at Giles. I examined the aged lines that were imprinted on his face and his salt and pepper hair. I glanced at Faith as she bounced her eyes from him to me, like it was a tennis match, anxiously waiting for one of us to speak. I licked my lips and slowly sat up straight up causing a chain reaction with them moving tensely in theirs. I cleared my throat while Giles put his cup down.

"So." I said extending the O's uncomfortably as this was the only ice breaker I could think of.

"Ah yes." He responded back in that foreign accent of his fixing his glasses for the fourth time tonight. "I'm sorry for being a rude host."

"No. You've been more than helpful, Giles" I said almost running his sentence over verbally with mine. Faith smiled as she chewed on her fingernail. I pursed my lips and slouched a bit.

I knew I wasn't good at small talk.

"So how have you been?"

But I can tell Giles wasn't an expert either.

"Oh." I started. I can hear my voice becoming increasingly squeaky. "Good... You?"

"The same." His voice imitated mine slightly as his increased too. "Anything new?"

"Not, not anything interesting... You?"

"The same..."

"Oh god." Faith slammed her hands, palm faced flat down as she spoke in one exasperated breath. She bent her elbows, leveling her eyes with them. "And I thought slayers were anti-social! Can we just get to the good stuff. Jeez!"

The corners of my mouth shyly raised, showing my front two teeth. Giles' cheeks burned a glowing red.

"I didn't want to be rude," I said meekly.

"Neither, neither did I. I was trying to be a good host." He stammered through almost every word.

His shoulders relaxed as I let out a long breath.

I moved my cup around the table as the cinders cracking became audible again. I stared at Faith as she placed her head in her hand supporting it with her elbow on the table. I fingered the hole in the handle and pursed my lips again. I directed my sight to Giles noticing that he seemed pretty calm for a prophecy waiting to occur.

I tilted my head and looked back at Faith. "Does he know?"

Her eyebrows rose for a second. I don't think she understood what I was referring to until she thought about it. "Oh! No. He doesn't."

Giles straightened up in his seat, "What don't I know?"

"Are you going to tell him." I ignored his question because I didn't want to blow Faith's spot.

"Tell me what?" He tried to intervene but Faith did just as I.

"No. I was going to tell him tomorrow. I didn't think you would be coming tonight. I thought I had a month."

"Yeah, well I don't think we have that long after what happened tonight?"

Faith leaned closer, concerned. "What happened tonight?"

"Faith Lehane and Dawn Summers," Giles said successfully interrupting us. He took off his glasses. We then knew that this was serious. "What don't I know?"

"Well." Faith started. She moved around in her seat. "You know about the prophecy."

"Yes, I'm very well aware of what is coming." He placed his glasses back on his face. She looked at me and I pursed my lips again. I picked up where she left off.

"...I have a very good idea that their army is coming from here. I think they found the other hell-mouth."

Giles took it all in. He gaped at us then proceeded to take a sip of his tea. Faith placed her hand on my forearm and spoke with such a tender voice. "Now what happened tonight?"

I moved a bit in my seat tensely. "Well... I don't know. Weird stuff has been happening to me, even when you were there. Like... time jumps. When you left I told the girls to go home and it was daylight. I started to meditate and the next thing I knew, it's pitch black outside and there's no light inside of the warehouse." Giles stood up and walked around the kitchen rubbing his chin, frustrated. Faith watch as he got up but then directed her attention onto me. I swallowed hard and continued to talk. "He showed up. In the warehouse. He had me and Jordan completely cornered and and he could have killed us- me because I told Jordan to run. I couldn't quite see what he looked like because he looked like a black blur. But I felt like I knew him. Don't quote me on this but... I think it was D'hoffryn."

Giles looked over his shoulder at me. Faith looked up at Giles with a worried look. "D'hoffryn? Well no that can't be. He was obliterated when the hell-mouth closed in Sunnydale."

"Yeah, well. Did you see it with your own eyes?" Faith said flatly.

Giles began to rub his chin again as Faith stood up. She flattened her pants with her hands and then they trailed onto her hips. "What else did he tell you?"

"He said that the Vampire you dusted was just a prototype. He kept going on about a game. He knows he'll win. I'm thinking he's right, because somethings different this time. Buffy's not here anymore."

Faith looked down, hurt. I didn't want to say it, but she knew very well that it was true. Giles looked away thinking that this might be, in fact, the end of the world.

Giles had a big cottage, which meant he had beautiful wooden floors. They weren't good for my ears because I know I could hear everything. Jordan had set up in the basement downstairs because he was comfortable that way. I felt his presence coming toward me. The inconsistency of the steps tld me that he didn't want to interrupt anything. By reflex, I turned around looking at the doorway waiting for him to show up.

"Jordan." I said sweetly. I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable in any way. He walked into the room with an insecure look. I knew this didn't feel like home to him, but he was being a very good sport.

His eyes look past me. "Am I interrupting anything?"

I follow his eyes and turn around to see Giles starring at me.

I think he knows I'm defected in some way.

"N-No, Jordan. You're not. Is there something wrong?"

He walked closer to me and sighed. "With me? No. With this City? Oh yeah."

We followed him to the basement where he had set up his laptops and other computers Giles reluctantly gave him. Underneath the stairs he had everything set up. He grabbed his chair and rolled it to his computers. He looked at Faith and Giles and swallowed uncomfortably. He looked at me with a look like is it okay to trust them?

"It's okay Jordan. You can trust them." I smiled quickly, anxious about the news he had.

Firmly he nodded. "Okay." He looked into one of his laptops and began typing and clicking his mouse. "I did what I usually do; I checked all the morgues and high school newsletters because vampires and warlocks like to go for the vulnerable. I had some alright stuff with both but nothing jaw dropping. So then I hacked into the Police's database and caught a bunch of things that sounds didn't make sense. There's a Serial Killer on the loose and he goes around draining blood out of his victims–"

"Yes, I heard about that." Giles intervened. He played with his glasses as he continued, "I didn't think there was any mystical influences on that case. They found the murderer for that case. I thought it was one of those kids wanting to be a vampire."

"They found a murderer for that case, but it wasn't necessarily the murderer for that case."

"You're not making any sense here, Kid." Faith crossed her arms as her eyebrows furrowed lowly.

He looked at me for reassurance and I gave him exactly that. "In my time being alone, I've realized that nothing is ever as simple as it's supposed to be. Although we're dealing with vampires, we're also dealing with warlocks who could or couldn't be D'hoffryn."

"But how do we know that this case involves our super freaky?"

Jordan turned back to the computer and pulled up a bunch of photos and articles. "Here are a bunch of news reports from 12 different states and one of them being from Chicago. They all talk about how a killer was on the loose attacking others, draining their blood. Then about two weeks each time, the killer dies the same way. So I did a little snooping, zooming through stuff finding school reports and other things like that. I found out that all of the victims/murderers are all under the age of 17. And they

all have something in common."

He clicks on a picture and zooms in a couple of times. Giles squints his eyes as he leans closer to the computer. Tattooed on the victims neck near the wound is a phrase in another language. ηπροφητεία είναι κοντά.

"That's Greek, If I'm not mistaken." Giles has said unsure.

Jordan smiled. "Yeah it is. You know what it means?"

"Well, I don't." Faith said annoyed. "So tell me."

Jordan smiled even bigger. "It means 'The Prophecy is Near.'"

I didn't understand any of this. Why was he getting kids to do this? Why were kids doing this so willingly? "Jordan?" I had a theory but I just didn't want to say it out loud.

"Yeah Dawn?"

"What was the date on the article from Chicago?"

He turned to his computer and clicked his mouse a couple of times. "7 Years ago. Why?"

I clenched my jaw and inhaled as calmly as I could. I know I'm crazy sometimes, and I don't make sense most of the time. But something was telling me – no, YELLING at me that who ever was torturing me was the reason my sister wasn't here anymore. But I couldn't tell them anything. No, they would just push me away and say they can handle it on their own. And If I was right, I wanted revenge more than any of them. So I lied. "Nothing. I thought it would give me something but nothing."

He made an O shape with his mouth. He cleared his throat and parted his lips and then closed them.

"What is it, Kid?"

"Well I found something else."

"Well," Faith said rudely, "Spill it!"

He looked at me worried before he turned back to his computer. He clicked a few things and then looked back to us. "I tried to look for occurrences. Fimilar things. Every one, the killers and victims, all died downtown their city. If that isn't common enough they all are found dead near their city's biggest high-school. I found that weird because none of them went to the same schools, or had common friends. So I looked at the blueprints and schematics of the schools." He clicked something again. Upon the screen were flashing blueprints that too complex for it to be a school. "These are all of the 12 blueprints from the cities. And I've been trying to break this code for about an hour or two. They don't make one bit of sense. I was hoping one of you could understand it better than me."

Faith blew out of her mouth making her lips flap. "Don't look at me. I dropped out junior year."

I smiled, "I didn't make it to sophomore year."

"I may have expertise in many areas of education, but this is one area I do not think I will suffice."

"So what do we do?" Jordan asked innocently.

"The only thing we can do." he said.

My heart started to beat almost out of its ribcage. I practiced to control my breathing because I really hoped Giles would not say one thing I knew he would have to. In the matters of life and death, he would have to. In the matters of my life and death...

"We have to get Xander..."

I just hoped he wouldn't say it.

But he did.