I sensed Angel as soon as he entered the school. I'm not sure if it was because he was a vampire, or just because I'd been expecting him, but either way, there was a shift in the atmosphere, like how you just know when a friend enters the room because your subconscious recognizes their presence, their aura, only this was a bit more dark than that.

There was something predatory about his friendship, intentional or no. He mean no harm, of that I was fairly certain now, but he still had the ability to be very, very dangerous, and so his presence echoed that. For me, at least.

Giles still slept on, so I exited the office and stood facing the door while I waited for Angel to come in.

I didn't have long to wait, the door swung open and he came in, meeting my eyes almost at once.

I must have looked tense, because he faltered, then came to a halt and eyed me for a moment, a frown creasing his brow for a moment. To show I wasn't trying to look threatening, I forced my shoulders to relax a bit as I dipped my head to him in welcome.

"Hey, Marge." He said, smiling shyly and coming forward.

I winced at the nickname, but I don't think he saw it, or at least chose to ignore it.

"Angelus." I said, just to sting him back. Now it was his turn to wince.

"Angel." He corrected quietly, "It's Angel now."

"And Margery is my correct name," I commented, then smirked, "shall we come to an agreement on what to call each other, now that we know what the other wishes to be addressed by?" Angel returned the smile.

"Okay," he nodded, "Margery."

He looked around, testing the air, and then cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Is Giles sick?" he asked, "Why'd he call me? And for that matter, why are you here?"

"I was assisting," I shrugged, "and Giles is…sick at heart. We've had…we received some terrible news today."

"Oh?" He shrugged, looking confused. "What about?"

"It regards Buffy, and the Master." I answered quietly. Angel lifted his head, his face growing serious. "I'll let Giles explain." I finished.

I roused Giles to tell him Angel had arrived, and he sleepily staggered to his feet , readjusting his glasses and trying to smooth down the worst of his mussed hair before stumbling out to meet Angel. I think Giles' unkempt appearance startled him more than my foreboding explanation had.

He looked sharply at me, getting really worried now.

"What's happened?" he demanded. Giles sighed, his shoulders slumping while he began stroking his forehead. No doubt he had a headache from all the stress of the last two days.

"Come into the office," he said, "Margery, would you make some more tea while I explain to Angel what's happened?"

I nodded and Angel followed Giles to his office. As I left I heard Giles take a breath and begin to tell the tale again: "We found some ancient lore, you see, and in one of them I found a prophecy of the Master…"

When I came back with the freshly brewed tea, Angel looked as distraught and upset as Giles had earlier.

"It can't be right." He said, pacing back and forth, unknowingly moving faster than he thought, enough to blow some loose sheets of paper off of Giles' desk. Giles sighed and stooped to retrieve them.

"I'm afraid it is," he said, "I've looked for alternate sources, we both have, but nothing contradicts the Prophecy." He looked up at me and at the teapot I was holding, and sighed in relief.

"Bless you, child." He said, with the first real hint of a smile I had seen all day. I poured him a cup while Angel tried to collect himself. He couldn't stop moving, but he at least stopped pacing and instead wrung his hands together.

"I won't believe it," he said, "that can't be how this is supposed to play out, not after we've thwarted all the Master's plans so far. It just can't happen that way!"

Giles moved his hands helplessly.

"It's clear," he said, "it's what's going to happen. It's happening now."

As I started to hand Giles the tea, I felt another presence and I whipped my head around toward the door, my heart sinking in anxiety and sorrow.

It was Buffy.

"It can't be real." Angel insisted. Throwing the book of Prophecy back down on the desk. I looked back at them, but didn't tell them she was here. They'd try and cover up what was happening, and it wasn't fair. She deserved to know.

"I've checked it against everything, it's very real." Giles answered.

"Then there must be a way around it." Angel argued.

"Look, some prophecies are a bit dodgy, they're mutable, Buffy herself has thwarted them, time and time again but this is the Codex, there's nothing in it that does not come to pass."

"Then you're reading it wrong." Angel said. It was a weak argument, but it was the last one he had left.

"I wish to God I were!" Giles shouted at him, snapping. "But it's very plain: tomorrow night Buffy will face the Master, and she will die."

There it was. The dark words seemed to hang in the air after they'd been spoken. There was a long silence and I turned slowly to look at Buffy. She looked as though someone had just struck her, and well she should.

My heart broke looking at her.

God, she looked so young right then.

"Well, have you verified the text?" Angel asked, but before Giles could answer Buffy did something unexpected: she laughed. But it wasn't a joking laugh. It was a broken sound; bitter, resentful, frightened.

Angel and Giles looked at her in surprise and dismay, then looked at each other.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Giles whispered to me. I simply gave him a reprimanding look.

"She deserves to know." I said. He looked displeased, but not angry. He knew I spoke true. Angel began to approach her, and she retreated back into the library while Giles and I followed. It was a conversation I'd hoped to have to avoid, but at the same time I was relieved it was here.

Buffy turned to face us, and I saw she was crying.

"So that's it, huh?" she shrugged. "I know the drill: one Slayer dies, the next one's called…Wonder who she is." She looked at Giles, and he gave her a look…I can't really describe it as it should be described. It was full of sorrow, regret, fear, for her. He wanted to tell her she was wrong, that they wouldn't have to worry about another Slayer being called, that she would be fine.

He could promise her none of these things, and it was killing him.

"Will you train her?" she continued. Then she looked at me, "Guess you'll get a new sparring partner, huh?"

"Buffy," Giles said, "I-"

"Did it say how it was going to kill me?" Buffy interrupted, "Do you think it will hurt?" her voice broke and it sent a knife through me. She'd never looked more like a child than she did. Because she was: she was a child, frightened, forced into something she never wanted, facing something she now had no hope of defeating. She was just a child. Just a child and more than a child, but a child all the same.

Angel reached for her and she pulled away.

"Don't touch me!" she shouted, then whirled on Giles. "Were you even going to tell me?" she demanded.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to, that there was…a way around it…"

"I'm sorry, dear heart." I murmured, since I knew that was what Giles really wanted to say.

"Don't be," she said, "I've got a way around it." She looked around at us and shrugged, wiping the tears from her face.

"I quit." She said.

"It's not that simple." Angel said gently.

"I'm making it that simple!" Buffy retorted, "I quit, I resign, I'm fired, you can find someone else to stop the Master from taking over." She pointed at me and at Angel, "For crying out loud you've got a vampire and a half here and over eight hundred years' worth of experience between the two of them with this crap, you don't need me!"

"I-I'm not sure they can," Giles said, "all the signs indicate-"

"All the signs?!" Buffy repeated, she snatched up a book off the table next to her and hurled it at Giles.

"Read me the signs!" she shrieked at him. She moved to grab another book and I instinctively moved between her and Giles.

"Tell me my fortune!" she threw another book as she screamed. I knocked the book aside but made no move to stop her if she decided to pick up another one. She was angry, and scared, it was better to just let her vent it out.

I might have done the same thing in her position.

"You're so useful, sitting here with all of your books," she continued to yell at him voice dripping in sarcasm, "you're such a big help."

"No," Giles murmured, "I-I don't suppose I am." He sounded so quiet, so defeated.

'Damn this place.' I thought, clenching my jaw and my hands into fists, 'Damn the Hellmouth, damn the Master. Damn all of it.'

"I know this is hard," Angel started, but he should have just kept quiet.

"What do you know about this?" Buffy demanded. "You're never gonna die."

"Do you think I want anything to happen to you?" Angel retorted, "Do you think I could stand it? We just have to figure out a way-"

"I already did." Buffy reminded him. "I quit, remember? Pay attention!"

"Buffy," Giles said, "if the Master rises-"

"I don't care!" she shouted, yanking off the cross she wore around her neck. She took a breath, shaking her head.

"I don't care." She repeated, only much more quietly than before.

I shook my head.

"Sweetling," I said, "you know that's not true. You do care, because that's who you are, what you are."

She glared at me, but her anger broke as the tears started flowing again.

"I'm sixteen years old," she reminded me, and then looked at Giles, "I don't want to die."

There was a beat, then she threw her necklace down on the floor and stalked out. Giles started to follow, but thought better of it and instead watched her go.

"What are we to do, Margery?" he whispered when the door finally stopped swinging after she'd left.

"I wish I knew." I replied. "If this isn't a double-edged sword I don't know what is. Force Buffy to fight the Master and watch her die as he ascends, or do nothing and we all die afterwards anyway?" I sighed and turned away, feeling tears of frustration pricking at the back of my eyes.

"Death, death, death," I muttered to myself, "that's all there is in life." I laughed, if to just keep from crying.

"What a perplexing paradox. All of life is death." I turned to Giles and tried to smile, but failed miserably. He blinked, looked down at his hands, and then shrugged.

"I suppose," he said, "I suppose we-"

"Keep looking." I finished for him. Then I did manage to force a smile. "Since that's been most of what I do, I think I should be called a Seeker. Have my own title for a change."

To his credit, he managed to smile back.

"A Watcher and a Seeker?" he asked.

"Seems to fit." Angel said. We must have looked pathetic, we monsters and a broken human, smiling without joy, smiling at the end of the world.

Smiling just to keep from giving in to despair.