A week later, Buffy, in an effort to get her mind off of her mother's, who was home after her surgery, potential prognosis, was patrolling with Faith, when they were attacked by a guy dressed like a medieval knight.
"Okay, you must be one of those crazies that keep popping up all over town." Faith said. "So, just give me the sharp sword and we'll take you to see a nice doctor, who'll give you some pills and a straightjacket so you don't hurt yourself with sharp objects. Sound good?"
"You will not stop us, Slayers. The Key is the link, the link must be severed, such is the Will of God!"
"What key?" Faith asked, determined to keep Dawn safe. "The only keys I have are to my apartment and Giles' shop. Why would you want them? Well, aside from breaking in and stealing everything in sight, which, gotta tell you, not a good idea. The police in this town used to be deeply stupid, but Mayor Finch has been working on fixing that and I gotta add, you stand out. Which would make you real easy to find."
"You will not dissuade us. We know the Slayers guard the Key!"
"The only thing we guard is the Hellmouth, to keep people and demons from opening it and unleashing Hell on Earth." Buffy answered.
"We know the Slayers guard it! Why else would the Monks of Dagan have sent it to Sunnydale?"
"Okay, so these monks, whoever they are, sent this key thing to Sunnydale and you assume that means we have it? Why would you think we have it and what exactly is it?" Buffy asked, equally as determined to protect Dawn.
"The Key is energy, green in color, used to open the gates between dimensions. The Abomination will use it to return to her world and in the process destroy ours!"
"I haven't seen anything like that." Buffy said. "Faith, did someone give you anything like that and you forget to tell me, like you forgot to tell me you borrowed my new bag?"
"I only borrowed that because it went with my new pants and I had a date, I returned it. And no, nobody's given me anything like that either. Maybe you're wrong and these monks gave it to someone else, like maybe a priest or something. Gods know, we've got a lot of them in this town."
The knight looked suspiciously at them. "You do not know of the Key or possess it?"
"No we don't have anything like you described. Maybe you should look somewhere else. Now, this Abomination thing you mentioned. What is it? Some kind of demon? We can handle demons, like I said, we keep them from opening the Hellmouth." Buffy told the knight.
"The Abomination is a hell goddess, banished to Earth after losing a war against other hell gods. She was imprisoned in the body of a human male, created to be her prison. Their life forces are joined together, when he dies, so shall she. We have searched for many years, but never discovered the identity of the male who imprisons the Abomination. We do know, she occasionally is able to briefly free herself before the link between them forces her back into her living prison. When we do discover his identity, we will kill him and end the threat forever!" The knight declared, with the light of fervent belief in his eyes.
"Okay, if we see anything like you describe, we'll let you know. Where can we find you?" Faith asked.
"We are camped outside of town, in the desert. Until we are certain we have found the Key or the Abomination."
"Alright, thanks for giving us the heads up, we'll let you know if we find anything." Buffy said and watched as the strange knight walked away. After he was out of sight, they raced to the Magic Box and called the gang for a meeting.
"So the Abomination is a fallen hell goddess?" Giles asked. "You would think the Watchers Council would have heard of this hell goddess, but I was never told of it. Perhaps we should contact them, to see if they have any pertinent information."
"On!y as a last resort." Joyce said. "We should be able to figure this out ourselves. So this Key, is this the energy Jenny found when she did her evaluation of Dawn?"
"Likely." Jenny said. "I've never seen anything like it, but if it's as unique as it sounds, that would explain why."
"So it opens gates between dimensions. How would that destroy us? Would it be like if the Hellmouth opens, Hell's unleashed on us?" Xander asked.
"Quite possibly." Giles said. "With control over the energy, for as long as the gate is open, the two dimensions would bleed into each other. Once the energy stops feeding the gate, the gate would shut down. Which, at the very least, would leave us with unknown demons to contend with."
"What about the human male created to be this Abomination's prison? If the woman who attacked Buffy when we found that monk guy is this Abomination, then this guy must be here in town too. Maybe if we can find him, we can kill him and stop this Abomination and keep Dawn and the world safe." Cordelia said.
"You're advocating killing someone again?" Buffy asked, incredulous.
"Buffy, I was willing and able to kill Mayor Wilkins to protect people and possibly the world." Xander said. "How far do think I would be willing and able go to protect Dawn, a child I love who, technically speaking, is my daughter?! Pretty damn far!"
"He's not the only one." Faith said quietly. "I find out who this guy is and I'll do to him what I did to the snake thing."
"I will kill him myself, if I find out who he is. It's him or my daughter." Joyce said.