I must confess, I actually love computers. I know, that's probably a surprise, but I find technology fascinating. Probably because I remember when indoor plumbing was thought wildly lavish and advanced.
I know my way around a computer, but Willow surpasses me by far.
Within minutes of us gathering around her and the computer, she had the blueprints of the electrical tunnel pulled up. Don't ask me how she did it because I honestly don't know. She clearly knew what she was doing, and that was good enough for me.
"There it is." Buffy said, pointing out a particular point on the blueprints. I had to take her word for it because to me it appeared to be a grouping of lines.
Cartography is not my forte.
"That runs under the graveyard." Willow said.
"I don't see any access." Xander said, squinting at the lines.
"So…" Giles said, and I caught a suspicious look in his eyes, "all the city plans are just…open to the public?"
Oh. Right. Giles hadn't realized exactly what it was Willow was doing. I'm not surprised. I had seen him looking bewildered as Willow had been clicking and typing, so I doubted very much he ever got around computers much.
"Uh," Willow stammered, avoiding his gaze, "well, uh, in a way."
"If one knows where to look, correct?" I added, smirking at Willow.
"R-Right." She said. "I…sort of…stumbled onto them. When I…accidentally decrypted the city council's security system." I stifled the laugh that rose to my lips and tried to hide my smile, but saw that such a precaution was unnecessary since Giles was smiling too. Good. He wasn't upset.
"Someone's been naughty." Xander teased.
"Not naughty," I replied, "simply…curious. And resourceful." I winked at Willow. "That's a perfect combination."
Buffy didn't seem as pleased as the rest of us, however. She huffed away from the table, pouting.
"There's nothing here, this is useless!" she declared.
"I think you're being a bit hard on yourself." Giles said. Buffy whirled on him. Call me protective, but I stepped between the two of them. I didn't think the Slayer would actually attack him, but…better to be safe than sorry.
"You're the one who told me I wasn't prepared enough!" she reminded him. She looked hurt, the poor dear. "Understatement." She continued, "I thought I was on top of everything and that monster Luke came out of nowhere and-" she broke off and I saw something click in her mind.
"What?" Xander asked.
"What have you remembered, Slayer?" I asked her quietly.
"He didn't come out of nowhere." She said. "He came from behind me."
"What was behind you?" I asked.
"I was facing the entrance," Buffy continued, the wheels in her mind turning faster and faster, "he came from behind me and he didn't follow me out."
"The mausoleum. The entrance is there." I said, the light dawning on me, as it were. It was so perfectly cliché I hadn't even considered the possibility that the vampires would use a gravesite for an entrance. But it made sense, giving it thought now.
Buffy nodded at me.
"The girl must've doubled back with Jesse after I got out! God! I am so mentally challenged!"
"So what's the plan?" Xander asked, striding forward eagerly, "We saddle up, right?"
I winced at the thought. Xander was being a trifle foolhardy about this whole thing. He hadn't exactly been useful last night. I wasn't blaming him, after all his whole world had just been reshaped in a matter of hours, but he had balked too much.
Why he thought he could handle an all-out battle was beyond me.
I watched the Slayer, hoping she would think the same. Evidently she did.
"There's no we, okay?" she said. She said it gently, but firmly. "I'm the Slayer, and you're not."
Xander snorted. "I knew you'd throw that back in my face."
"Xander, this is really dangerous!" Buffy argued.
"I'm inadequate." Xander said with a shrug. "That's fine. I'm less than a man."
I rolled my eyes.
"Right now you're certainly behaving like less than a man." I snapped at him. He stared at me in surprise. "You're acting like a child just because someone has told him he can't have something." I stepped closer to him, "You're still new to this world, Xander," I told him, "You know it's dangerous now, but you've only seen a glimpse of how dangerous it can get. You're not a fighter, and that's not an insult. If you came along, it would only be an impediment because you would be a source of concern. We would be worried about watching to make sure you were safe the whole time. We can't afford to have distractions right now."
Xander opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked angry, but I hoped he saw the logic of what I was saying.
Willow broke the silence that followed.
"Buffy," she said, "I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters, but I do want to help."
'Oh not you too.' I thought with an inward groan. The last thing I needed was two more souls on my conscience. If Giles volunteered to come along next I was going to launch into a tirade.
Children can be so…childish.
"I need to." Willow continued.
Thank the heavens for Giles.
"Then help me." He said, his words resounding like music to me. If he could keep Willow with him, I would be far, far happier about the situation.
"I've been researching this Harvest affair," Giles continued, leaning over Willow and staring at the monitor, "it seems to be some preordained massacre: rivers of blood, hell on earth. Quite charmless."
"That's vampires for you." I murmured.
"Indeed." Giles responded, "However, I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but perhaps you can wrest some details from that Dread Machine." He motioned to the computer. Bless that man a thousand times over.
Everyone gaped at him for a moment, and I couldn't help but let out a chuckle. Giles looked around, a bit abashed.
"That was…uh…very British, wasn't it?" he asked.
"Only a little." I laughed.
"Welcome to the New World." Buffy joked.
"I want you to go on the Internet." Giles explained. Willow smiled happily.
"Oh, sure!" she said, "I can do that."
She started typing away and Buffy turned away.
"Then I'm out of here." She said, I moved to follow her. She cast me a withering glance but I waved it aside and then crossed my arms.
"I'm coming along and there's no argument." I told her. "I think we need a little time to bond, don't you? A nice bloody battle is just the thing."
She frowned, but, much to my surprise. Didn't refuse me.
"Do I have to tell the both of you to be careful?" Giles asked. He gave me a small smile. "We still have an interview to do." He reminded me.
Buffy just smiled at him. She looked grateful. Then she looked at me.
"Fine." She said. "But we're not going to leave together. We go separately and meet up at the mausoleum. "
I nodded. I would follow her lead if she would play the leader.
"I'll meet you there." I answered, pulling my hood up. I looked at Giles and gave a small bow.
"Thank you for your hospitality, sir." I told him, to Willow I said; "Good luck with the research." And finally, to a very sullen Xander I said, "Your time will come, lad." He didn't look appeased by that, but at least he nodded.
"If you get there before me," Buffy said as we exited the library, "wait fifteen minutes. If I'm not there by then, come back to the school. It probably means I've been unavoidably detained."
"Fine by me." I answered. "Good luck to you Slayer, may fortune smile on our noble endeavor." She blinked at me and nodded very slowly.
"Y-Yeah." She drew the word out, "Ditto."