In the next morning, the group met at Giles' house after a call he had made to all of them and had told them he had found something out; even though Pat had already had a coffee and her morning cigarette by the time she arrived there with Willow, she still looked grumpy, only grunting when Giles greeted her, her grumpiness making him smile slightly while he asked her if she wanted some coffee.
"Make it strong", the demon grumbled, sitting down on the couch; the Watcher nodded, then moved into the kitchen, wisely already having made some coffee before the other members of the gang had started arriving.
"I did", he called out, "I'm well aware of your dislikes of early morning meetings by now."
"You better found out something good", Pat grumbled in reply, prompting the Brit to reassure her that he had as he returned to the living room and handed the cup of coffee to her; she grumbled something which might have been a "Thanks", then took a long sip, looking a tiny bit less grumpy afterwards.
"I'll tell you as soon as the others are here", Giles let her know, sitting down and taking off his glasses to clean them, "and on second thought, I'm not sure if I found out something good, but at least it will be helpful."
"Okay", the demon shrugged, then took another large gulp of her coffee; Willow gave her a brief smile, as always amused by how much of a morning grouch her partner was, then checked her watch, frowning when she saw that the others were late. As if that thought had been some sort of cue, the door opened and Buffy entered with Dawn in tow, greeting the three already present members of the Scoobie Gang cheerfully, raising an eyebrow when Pat merely grunted in reply, the witch shrugging and giving her best friend an apologetic look.
"Let's hope Xander and Anya arrive soon", she then stated, "I wanna hear what Giles found out."
"Me too", Buffy agreed at once, "so we can put an end to this, before all the really bad nightmares start coming true."
"You mean the one about all of us ending as vampire food wasn't really bad already?" Pat grumbled, making the Slayer shrug before she pointed out that she had seen much worse things and had much worse nightmares than that; the demon looked as if she wanted to give a snarky reply, but before she could do so, the door practically burst open and Anya stormed in, followed by a distraught looking Xander, making them all look at her in surprise.
"This has to end!" Anya nearly shouted the moment all eyes were on her, "right now! Giles, tell us how to end this!"
"What happened?" Willow demanded to know, worried, "are you alright?"
"We woke up and the bed was full of—", Xander started, only to have Anya butt in, her voice showing just a hint of panic.
"Bunnies!" she yelled, making Pat and Giles flinch, "the bed was full of bunnies!"
"How dreadful", the demon dryly commented, unimpressed when Anya glared at her, "what were they trying to do, twitch you to death with their cute little noses?"
"Nothing is cute about bunnies!" Anya shrieked, and as if saying the word for the third time was some sort of spell or charm, a bunny suddenly sat on the living room table, looking as confused as bunnies were capable off, its nose twitching as it glanced around. With an ear-splitting shriek, Anya nearly jumped into Xander's arms, her eyes never leaving the bunny; grumbling at the ex-demon to be quiet, Pat grabbed the animal by the scruff of its neck and carried it past the trembling Anya to the front door, putting the bunny on the ground outside and amusing the rest of the gang by telling it in a surprisingly kind voice to "hop along".
"What if another one appears?" Anya cried out while Pat closed the door again, "what if there will be bunnies everywhere until—" Again, a bunny popped in existence, this time on the ground right at Anya's feet; she yelled once more, then jumped backwards, nearly making Xander fall over, the young man flailing his arms as he tried to keep his balance, managing to keep from falling down in the last second.
"Stop saying that word!" Buffy snapped, "every time you say it, one appears, can't you see?"
"So when I say bunnies, a bunny appears?" Anya demanded to know, and two more bunnies did just that, prompting Giles to shoot her an annoyed look, his voice filled with the same emotion when he spoke up. "Apparently, they do, so I suggest you do what Buffy said and stop saying that word."
"How is this possible?" Anya wanted to know, this time heeding the Slayer's advice and avoiding that certain word while Pat sighed, then moved to pick up the three new bunnies and put them outside as well, telling them to join their buddy out there; while she moved back to the couch and sat down next to her partner, Giles cleared his throat, making sure he had everyone's attention before he spoke up, starting the explanation he had called them all here for.
"It is possible because the demon behind the current situation is getting stronger", he let them know, holding up the book in which he'd found the information they all had been looking for, "if what I found in here is fully correct, it awakes in regular intervals of thirty years and makes the worst nightmares of the town where it rests come true. It feeds on the fear and other negative emotions that come from this, until it is strong enough to rest for another thirty years."
"At least it's not gonna end the world once it is strong enough", Buffy commented, "but we'll take it down anyway, before someone gets seriously hurt or even dies."
"That probably happened by now anyway", Anya shrugged, "but I agree with Buffy, we have to kill it before it makes even more bun—"
"Don't say it!" Pat, Buffy, Willow and Xander snapped in perfect unison, making Dawn and Giles exchange a surprised look, the teenager mumbling "Impressive" to herself afterwards while the Watcher just put the book back on the table, with an amused glint in his eyes.
"Sorry", the ex-demon meekly replied, briefly looking around afterwards to make sure that not saying the nasty word fully hadn't resulted in a bunny, relieved when she couldn't spot one anywhere.
"So where does this demon hang out?" Buffy moved the conversation back to the current crisis, "at the cemetery, like all its pals? Or somewhere else?"
"It prefers to witness the mayhem it causes with its powers", Giles explained in reply, "it is easier for the demon to feed when it's close to the person whose nightmares are coming true."
"So we just wait until a nightmare comes true again and then see if we can find it?" Buffy frowned, not looking very convinced, "that sounds too easy."
"It does sound easy", Giles agreed, "but it might be harder than you think right now, keep in mind that this demon has the power to make all our worst nightmares come true, and it will use just that against us when we encounter it."
"How real can those nightmares get?" Willow wanted to know, frowning as she remembered the incidents of the last day, "when we encountered that demon yesterday, I got hurt, but it was gone again the moment the demon had been killed."
"The stronger it gets, the more real they will get", Giles let her know, not telling her what she had been wanting to hear, "and eventually, any injuries sustained will remain even after the nightmare has been ended."
"So if a bunny bites me, the bite won't—", Anya started, and with an audible plop sound, yet another bunny appeared in Giles' lap, making him jump while the ex-demon let out a shriek and Pat snapped "Dammit, Anya!", glaring at the wide-eyed woman before she snatched the bunny from Giles' lap and briskly carried it to the front door, putting it outside, where it hopped off to join the other bunnies already out there.
"If you say that word one more time, I'll gag you", the demon threatened after she had sat down again, making Anya scratch the back of her head sheepishly, Buffy rolling her eyes before she once more returned the attention of the group to the demon they'd have to deal with.
"Even if it can make our nightmares come true in battle, we'll have to face it", she pointed out, "or it'll never stop, even if it just appears every thirty years."
"Yes", Giles agreed, "and at least I have some good news about all of this, the demon is perfectly vulnerable to all kinds of weapons. Also, it appears that it can only focus on one nightmare at a time, at least until it gained full strength, so, if we are lucky, it will choose a nightmare from one of us that won't keep the rest from fighting."
"First we'll have to find the demon, though", Pat pointed out, "and with all the people in this town it could be tormenting right now, that might not be easy."
"Why? We'll just go where people are screaming", Anya suggested, shrugging at the looks she received for that from the others; then, Giles cleared his throat, making them all look at him again, his voice a bit rueful when he spoke up again. "As… unconventional as Anya's idea is, it might just be what we need to do to find the demon. I suggest that we form teams of two and search town until we find something."
"Can't we make him come here somehow?" Buffy wanted to know, not liking the idea, "if one of those teams finds the demon, who knows how long it will take the rest to catch up then, and until then, it might have hurt or killed one of us, I don't like this plan."
"Me neither", Pat agreed, Xander and Willow nodding as well, "that will be too dangerous. And, hey, it has been sending us nightmares before, right? So it must have been around to do that. I'm kinda sure it'll come back and try again, maybe Slayer fear is having a special taste or something."
"Possible", Giles agreed after thinking about this for a moment, "maybe we should all stay together then, in case the demon shows up again."
"I like that better than just running around until we find something", Buffy nodded, "seeing how many of our nightmares came true already, I somehow doubt it will take long until it'll come back."
"Shall we just sit around here then and wait?" Anya wanted to know, sounding dismayed, her frown deepening at the reply Xander gave her. "No, we'll be at Buffy's house and replace her windows. Buffy, I brought the glass we'll need, I got it from work, they ordered too much for one of the projects."
"Oh, that's great", Buffy beamed at him, "so we'll all go to my place and repair my windows there while we wait for our demon to show up, sounds like fun."
"Not my idea of fun", Anya mumbled, then sighed and added "but fine, let's do that", making Xander smile at her; Giles nodded, and they all got up from their seats, leaving the house together to walk to Buffy's home, all of them hoping that the demon would do them the favour and show up there so the whole situation could be resolved quickly.