I took another sip of my tea, enjoying the warmth despite the humidity that had plagued the weather today and this evening.

The school had been closed a good four hours, the sun had set, and Giles and I had managed to speed through six books. One had been written in Spanish and was incredibly simple for me to read, one had been written in the 18th century and Giles had sped through that, and the last four had been shorter volumes written in Latin. That had slowed our progress, but only slightly.

Now however we had moved on to the thicker, more complex volumes. The one I was reading with at least seven hundred pages, all in Latin, and I was only a quarter of the way in.

Giles had taken a break from the massive tome he was reading to go brew himself some more tea, and as he came into his office again, I saw him look at the book he had been reading, frown, then look at a smaller volume I had seen him pick up periodically.

"Anything wrong?" I asked him. He started slightly and looked towards my corner of the room. I think he had forgotten I was there. He shook his head slowly.

"Not really," he said, "just, getting a bit dizzy with all the words swimming about in my head." He chuckled and picked up the little volume while he set down his tea and stirred it.

"Perhaps we should call it a night once you've finished with that." I suggested. He nodded absently, and seated himself down at his desk again, already absorbed in translating.

The comfortable silence settled in again as we both returned to reading, but I hadn't proceeded much farther with my book about newly turned vampires when I heard Giles muttering to himself in Latin. At first I thought he was just struggling with an oddly written sentence when I heard him translate it into English for himself.

"The Master-" he began, and immediately I looked up from my book and was on my feet before I had even registered to myself that I needed to get up.

At last, an actual mention of the Master!

"-shall rise," he looked up at me, grinning like an excited child, "this is it!" he said breathlessly. I moved closer, craning my head to look eagerly over his shoulder.

"And the Slayer," he continued, but something else grabbed my attention and I frowned, looking around the room.

It was like a soft roar was in the air, like a train in the distance, but it was getting closer, and I was starting to feel tremors.

"My God…" Giles murmured, reaching slowly for his tea.

"Giles?" I said, feeling the tremors get worse and the roar rushing up to meet us.

In the matter of a few seconds, the whole room was shaking and the bookcases were swaying as Giles' cup of tea shattered on the floor, pushed off the desk by the tremors in the ground.

I braced myself and then looked at the nearest bookcase. It was closest to Giles, and teetering precariously as it rocked and gained momentum from the force of the earthquake.

"Giles get down!" I shouted when I saw it beginning to pull away from the wall. I grabbed Giles' shoulder and forced him off his chair and under his desk just before the bookcase came down on me instead.

Since I had seen it coming, I managed to stop it before it actually hit me, but that didn't stop at least sixty pound of books from landing on me.

I didn't have long to process the annoying pain of having heavy leather-bound books landing on my head, since immediately afterward I heard more bookcases collapsing and falling against each other out in the library itself, but this noise was second to the ear-splitting cracking sound as the floor split in half.

I stared at the floor in shock as the tiled floor just split, as though parted by a knife. I'd been through earthquakes before, certainly, but they never fail to amaze me by how destructive they can be. Not to mention terrifying.

Vampires, half-vampires, and demons may all be frightening in their own right, but Mother Nature can still teach us a thing or two about terror.

And then just like that, it was all over.

The ground abruptly stopped shaking, which leaves one disoriented after so much shaking. The bookcases stopped swaying, but one or two still toppled over after the sudden end to the tremors, and plaster and bits of air ducts rained down on the floor from a massive hole that had broken open from yet another crack in the ceiling I hadn't noticed before.

"Margery?" Giles' voice made me turn, and I remembered I was still holding the massive old bookcase. I set it upright, and then offered a hand to Giles as he shakily emerged from beneath his desk. He looked down at the books that had just fallen, and then out at the library.

"Oh no…" I heard him groan.

"I know." I said, joining him as he stumbled through the doorway and stared at the huge mess in dismay.

"This will take forever to clean up." He said, rubbing his forehead.

"I know." I repeated. "I think the Master can wait an hour or two while we get this sorted, don't you?"

At the mention of the Master, Giles frowned deeply, and looked back at his desk as though searching for something. Then he swallowed, turned back, rubbed his hands slowly together, and knit his brow in concentration.

"Giles," I said softly, touching his arm, "what's wrong?"

"What?" he said, "Oh, nothing. Nothing. Just…wondering where to begin."

I frowned.

"You're a terrible liar, Rupert." I told him. He flushed, and peered at me over his glasses. He looked troubled. And frightened. I had a feeling it wasn't just from the earthquake, either.

"I need to look into it further before I can tell you," he said evasively, "but for now, it's going to have to wait." He looked around at the scattered books and sighed as another piece of ductwork fell on the mound of plaster and tile.

"All right," I said, moving past him and beginning to gather up an armful of book, "but we will be discussing this later."

"Of course." He murmured, mechanically following my lead. "Of course." He repeated, and it could have been my imagination, but I could have sworn his voice broke with emotion.

We worked on through the night, and for me, it was a blessing to not be wandering the streets, afraid to sleep, afraid to go around people. It was the best distraction possible: having a simple task, even if getting it accomplished was taking a long time. I had nothing but time to waste, after all.

As I worked, I forgot that Giles hadn't slept all night, and so at one point around four in the morning, when emerged from the stacks of science fiction books I'd arranged alphabetically after their bookcase had completely collapsed, I was surprised to discover Giles slumped over a pile of books beside him.

I had to help him into his office, and even then I believe he was asleep the whole time he was leaning against me, and as I settled him onto the short little sofa he kept there for late night study sessions.

I took off my long coat and draped it over him before returning to the books, and by the time Giles woke again at eight and stumbled out of his office in search of tea, still clutching my coat to him, I had them all sorted, if still stacked on the floor.

After we'd broken our fast over a very large pot of tea, Giles and I wordlessly began sorting through our private collection, and we'd gotten half of it done when Buffy came in.

"Morning!" she said brightly.

"Good morning, Buffy," I replied, "I see you survived the earthquake after all."

"Take more than some shaky ground to kill me." Buffy said with a smirk, then glanced up at Giles, who was still in the caged off section of the library.

"Morning, Giles!" she shouted at him. He jumped and dropped the books he'd been holding before whipping his head up to look at her.

"Man," Buffy said, taking a good look around, especially at the cracks in the ground and the ceiling, "the damage looks largely structural. Are we safe in here?"

"Well, we've been here since last night and it hasn't caved in yet." I replied, then cocked my head, listening, "And the braces in the ceiling aren't groaning or creaking. We should be safe enough for the moment."

"Buffy…" Giles said, and there was something off about the way he said it.

Both the Slayer and I caught the tone, and we both turned towards him, concerned. He was staring at Buffy as though he'd though he'd never see her again.

"What?" she asked. When he didn't stop staring she felt at her cheeks and looked at me, confused.

"Do I have something on my face?" she demanded.

"No!" Giles assured her, "And, uh, y-yes. We're safe. But, it's probably best not to, uh, go, uh, up there." He pointed vaguely at the landing, and then slowly turned away from us.

Buffy frowned and looked at me, lifting an eyebrow in question.

I shrugged helplessly.

"Long night?" I murmured. But honestly, I wasn't sure. Giles had obviously found something last night that had disturbed him, and judging by his reaction to Buffy, it had something to do with her. It bothered me he wouldn't tell me, and I confess I even felt a trifle irritated that he hadn't just told me.

Then again, he hadn't seen me in over a week, and before then I hadn't exactly been acting like the most trustworthy sort, so of course I shouldn't expect him to confide in me.

But I did. In spite of all of that, Giles was my friend, perhaps my best friend and I wanted him to confide in me, which is stupid since I wouldn't confide in him, but there's the facts for you. My mind is a strange thing I seldom understand, so it would be best to give up trying to altogether.

"How you doing there, Giles?" Buffy asked, raising her voice. "You get much sleep last night?"

"Uh, well, we've uh, been working." Giles replied, but wouldn't quite look at her.

"Me too," Buffy said, "I went hunting last night, and it is awfully sweet of you to ask."

He nodded, but it didn't look as though he'd actually heard what she'd said as he came out of the cage, clutching an armful of books.

"It's getting hairy out there, guys," Buffy said, addressing me instead since I actually gave her eye-contact, "I killed three vampires last night, and one of them was practically on school grounds."

"Three?" I repeated. She nodded.

"You should have taken me with you if you were going after that many." I chided.

"It wasn't all at the same time," she shrugged, "and besides, you were busy studying with Brainiac over here."

"Their numbers are increasing." Giles broke in.

Buffy turned back to him.

"And they're getting cockier." She said, "Look, I'm not loving it, last night was a pretty close call."

She waited, we both waited, for Giles to reprimand her for taking on a dangerous task alone, but the seconds stretched on and he said nothing.

That was troubling. Giles was nothing if not good at chiding.

"Oh, uh, y-yes." He murmured distantly.

Buffy looked at me, and I shrugged again. I honestly didn't know what to say.

"Giles, care." She said, laughing slightly, but still sounding a bit hurt that he wasn't fussing over her as he usually did.

"I'm putting my life on the line battling the undead!" she held up a finger, "I broke a nail, okay? And I'm wearing a press-on!"

I briefly considered asking her what on earth a 'press on' was but decided against it.

"You could at least exhibit some casual interest," she continued, "you could go 'Hmm.'"

"Hmm?" Giles grunted, turning back around, "S-Sorry, I-I am glad that you're all right. I, uh, need to verify, um…I just, can't really talk right now."

"Fine," Buffy said, rolling her eyes, "I can't put if off any longer, I have to meet my terrible fate."

"What?!" Giles whirled around, eyes wide. Both Buffy and I jumped at this sudden outburst from him and looked at each other.

We were both thinking the same thing: Something was wrong with Giles.

"Biology." Buffy clarified, pouting, and then turned and left us.

As soon as the doors were shut I whirled on Giles.

"All right," I said, grabbing his arm and turning him around so that he faced me, "we're discussing this now."

"W-What?" he asked, refusing to meet my eyes.

"No." I said firmly. "We're not playing games with each other, Rupert. Not after all we've been through. Explain to me at once, sir, what that display of yours was about." I didn't meant for it to come out as harsh sounding as it did, but I was frightened. Frightened because Giles was frightened.

"I-I don't know how to explain…" he fumbled, nervously fumbling with a book on the desk behind him. He dropped his gaze again, so impulsively I reached out, and grabbed both of his hands. He didn't resist, and I could feel he was shaking.

"Giles," I said, dropping my tone, "look at me."

Slowly, he obeyed, and I saw his pupils had contracted, and his heart rate was elevated in agitation, if not downright fear, but he wasn't afraid of me.

"Tell me what's wrong, sweetling." I said.

"It's…it's Buffy." He said hoarsely, and he twisted his hands in my grasp so that he was grabbing my forearms, as though for support.

"What about Buffy?" I asked gently, as though trying to coax a confession out of a child.

"The prophecy, that I was reading last night," he said, in short, halting gasps, as though trying to tell me without thinking about what he was actually saying, but he failed. He shuddered, and I tightened my grasp on him.

"What is it, dear heart?" I murmured.

He took a deep breath, swallowed, then met my eyes one more time.

"Buffy's going to die."