"It is called A Seal of Danzalthar and it is used to create an access point between dimensions. Blood activates it." Giles told them after getting a good look at the thing.

"So that's why Warren carved up Andrew? To use his blood to activate it?" Xander asked.

"Yes, and it is still active. It is not currently open, but it is active."

"What does that mean?" Cordelia asked.

"It means it is leaking Hellmouth energy."

"Giles, the Hellmouth always leaks energy, that's why Sunnydale is the way it is." Amy said.

"Normally it is a drip drip, now it is a steady trickle. And it is affecting people more strongly. I suspect many of those Bringers we have been seeing are townspeople who have transformed."

"Great, the Hellmouth, the gift that keeps on giving, even when you beg it not to." Xander said sarcastically. "How do we deactivate it?"

"With the remorseful tears of the one who activated it." Was the very unhelpful answer.

"Even if Warren wasn't dead, I doubt he'd be remorseful." Buffy said.

"I suspect you are correct." Giles said.

"So someone put it there. Question, when? Because someone obviously dug it up. So when was an access point to another dimension put there. Was it used before?" Xander asked.

"As to when it was put there. Long before Sunnydale existed. That Seal is below the level of the sewer system the Mayor created to let vampires run free. It was buried a long time ago. And since the myth of the Turikhan exists, they must have been let out at one time and then the Seal deactivated and buried. The myth of the Turikhan predates the written word, so thousands of years, at least."

"Why not just dig it up?" Faith suggested.

"Because it now exists across two dimensions. We can not disconnect it from the other side. It creates a tunnel with two entrances. We can block our entrance, but the other one still exists."

"Then how do we block it?" Buffy asks.

"By burying it again. But someone could just dig it up again." Giles answered.

"Giles, I saw a carving in the vineyard that was weird." Xander quickly drew it on a piece of paper. "Does it look familiar to you?"

Giles looked at and then got up and grabbed one of his books. Searching thru the pages, he found something. "It is used to mark territory the First has claimed. It is a mystical symbol. As far as I know it has no actual meaning by itself, just a means for the First to claim something as belonging to it."

The next day Xander geared up and headed back to the vineyard. He didn't tell anyone he was going. Cordelia was going to be so pissed when she found out, but he had to see that symbol again. Why was it familiar?

He was examining it when he heard a voice behind him.

"I see you like my little decoration." The voice was familiar. Xander turned to look at the figure standing behind him and then reached out and his hand went right thru the image of Jesse McNally.

"You're not Jesse. You're the thing claiming it created evil."

"No, I'm afraid Caleb misunderstood. I didn't create evil, I opened the door for it to come in."

"What is the point of all this? Killing the Potentials, destroying the Watchers Council? What is it you want?"

"It be free and whole again."

"Free? You're a prisoner? Like that Hell goddess we dealt with, she was imprisoned in a human body, but could periodically escape. Your Bringers allow you to periodically escape. Willow's spell wedged opened the door."

"In multiple realities. She did that spell in many, many realities. I only need one, to get what I want. You know, your attack on this place went slightly differently in other realities. In some of them, you're not so much a team as Buffy's lapdogs. There's even a few were Caleb gouged out one of your eyes. You see too much. In every reality. What are you seeing now, Xander Harris?"

"You can't tell?"

"I can't read the living, only the dead."

Xander left the vineyard and returned to the Mansion and found the gaudy necklace Angel had given Buffy. After studying it, he broke the casing holding it and stared at the very Hi-Tech looking device in his hands. It too was familiar. He needed information from the repository. After a trip out there, he went back to his and Cordelia's apartment.

"Xander, what's wrong?" She asked him. "You look angry."

"I am angry. I went back out to the vineyard. I wanted another look at the symbol. I ran into the thing calling itself the First. It said Caleb misunderstood, it didn't create evil, it opened the door and let it in. The point of its attacks on the Watchers Council and murdering the Potentials, is so it can create a situation where someone living puts on that thing Angel gave Buffy, thinking they're using it to fight a terrible evil. That thing Angel gave Buffy? It's an Asguard device. Remember the Roswell greys? The government covered it up at the time and hid everything from it. Somehow the First found out about it and sent one of his Bringers to search thru what came out of the crashed ship. This little doodad, is a consciousness transfer device. The Asguard use them to download their consciousness into a new replicated body. The First is a prisoner and incorporeal. It wants a new body. A living body. That symbol? The Alterran word for gate. Not Stargate, gate. As in the Hellmouth, as in the dimensional opening the Alterrans created in order to have a local source for Potentias. The First is the one that opened that door and probably, the first Alterran affected by it. It's trapped and it wants out."