Giles couldn't even look at Willow when Buffy reported their encounter with Warren and the strange vampire, which he said was called a Turikhan. Willow looked miserable and Tara had a hand on her shoulder. Giles had just one thing to say.

"I hope you've finally learned your lesson, Willow." It was the last thing anyone said about Willow's responsibility for the current situation.

By the end of March, Potentials were trickling into Sunnydale. Xander or Cordelia, would each make sure to take time off from class and greet each one with a reassuring squeeze on their shoulder, none of them knew they got a mole sized modulator attached to them, that would allow them to pass thru the force field and into Crawford Mansion, where Joyce would lay down the house rules.

Xander would take them out to the backyard and give them what became his standard speech.

"Welcome to Sunnydale, home of the Hellmouth. Some of our attractions include vampires, more then one hundred different types of demons and recently a prehistoric type of vampire, once believed to be a myth, called a Turikhan. Mostly what we deal with is vampires. Here in Sunnydale, we don't deal with vampires they way they did in 1,000 b.c.e. No, this is the twenty first century. We've modernized how we fight vampires. Some modern ways to dust vamps include guns."

"Excuse me!" One of the Potentials would inevitably say. "Guns don't work on vampires, everyone knows that!"

"Actually, yes they do. Provided you use a large caliber bullet or a large number of bullets or an incendiary rounds, which were invented about a century ago. They're coated in phosphorus, which ignites when friction from the air passes over them. You can also load a shotgun with wooden pellets or you can use this air rifle I invented that shoots stakes, it'll hit a vampire at between 75 and 100 yards. Or you can use one of my other inventions." He held them up one by one. "This is a uv laser, max distance five feet, which will burn straight thru a vampire. This is a uv grenade, sets them on fire. Don't aim either of them at a human, they will cause a sunburn or damage your eyes. And this is my latest invention, a uv gun. It will hit a target at fifteen feet and burn straight thru as well. Allow me to demonstrate." He flicked a switch with his thumb, turning it on, aimed it at a cardboard figure with a fangy smile on it and fired. A narrow light beam hit the target and burned a hole straight thru it and it caught fire. The Potentials mouths were hanging open, as were the Watchers.

"This is how humans fight vampires, how we've always fought vampires when we know they exist. By using our brains. Humans are the most dangerous predators on this planet. We are the thing that makes other predators step wide. We learn. We learn from the animals we hunt and the animals that hunt them as well. We invent new ways of killing with every generation that walks the Earth. Watchers want you to fight in the dark, barely armed, they want you to die, so they can live. We offer you a chance to fight and live. Use the brains God gave you and decide for yourselves, stake or gun?" They would, without exception, each chose one of the uv guns.

"Let's go hunting ladies. And remember, head and heart."

And then Buffy and Faith found a Potential that had been stabbed, she was barely alive and they got her back to Xander, who healed her. She had a message for the Slayers.

"I was stabbed by a man dressed as a preacher, he said his name was Caleb and that he works for the First."

"The first what?" Cordelia asked.

"The First Evil, the thing that invented evil."

"That's not possible." Xander said. "No one and nothing invented evil. Evil is a byproduct of free will. So we're dealing with something that likes to hype its own importance, no different then the Master."

"The First. Giles isn't that what that thing that made Angel hallucinate, was called?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, it was. But it had to be summoned. Now, it seems, it no longer needs to be summoned." Because of Willow, was the unspoken thought.

That night Willow nearly killed herself. Apparently, ghostly apparitions claiming to be dead Potentials had been haunting her, the same way Angelus' victims had once haunted Angel. Xander healed her and made another trip out to the repository, looking for information on how to keep out projections, incorporeal entities and psychic projections. The repository actually had some information on it and Xander made a new device that he placed in the basement of each of their dwellings, next to the cloak hiding the shield generators.

Then Buffy encountered Caleb and he beat her nearly to death, he was that strong. Xander healed her.

"Caleb said, the First has something that belongs to the Slayer. We need to get it. These Bringers that have been popping up all over town, we should follow them and find whatever it is the First has. It could be a Potential." Buffy told them.

Following the Bringers led to finding out they were holed up in a vineyard outside of town.

"We need a plan." Xander said. "We can attack during the day, in case they've got any more Turikhans in there. Tara and Amy use Magic to blast open holes in the outside walls, to let in light. We go in wearing protective gear, including neck guards. We use the uv guns, including on the Bringers, they're no longer human. I use a uv grenade to stun Caleb and we shoot him simultaneously with multiple uv guns. As far as we know, he's human, just souped up, like a Slayer, which means the guns should work on him. Then we find what the First is hiding. Agreed?"

It was agreed.