Mayor Richard Wilkins knelt in an inverted pentagram, with his hands out to his sides in supplication. Five candles were set at each point of the pentagram. Mr. Trick stood nearby holding a sword. The Mayor began the Dedication Ceremony.

"Potestatem matris nostrae in tenebris invoco. Maledictum filium tuum abomni periculo custodias nunc et in saecula!"

Translation: "Our mother of darkness, I summon thee. Curse now your dangerous accursed son and protect him into the new age!"

The building, City Hall, shook as a quake moved through the city of Sunnydale, roughly the same magnitude as the one that heralded the Master's rise from his imprisonment. While Mr. Trick looked nervous, the Mayor remained calm and simply swayed with the quake. It soon passed and the Mayor opened his eyes and checked his watch.

"I don't understand why Allen isn't here, he's usually so punctual." He stood up.

"Did it work?" Mr. Trick asked.

"Let's find out, try to take my head off."

"If you say so." Trick swung hard at the Mayor's neck, only for the sword to lodge in his neck. Mr. Trick watched, somewhat awed and definitely impressed, as the Mayor pulled the sword away from his injured, but blood free neck and the area sealed up behind it.

"Well," the Mayor pulled a daily planner book out of his pocket and opened it to today's date. Some of the items on today's checklist included:

Meeting with Boy Scouts

Reschedule Lumber Union meeting

Call Temp Agency

Become Invulnerable to harm

Meeting with PTA

He checked off the 'become Invulnerable to harm' task. "this officially begins the One Hundred Days until my Ascension. Now there's nothing either the Watchers Council, even if they had any idea what I was up to or Wolfram and Hart could do to stop me."

"The world's largest demon hunting group and evil lawyers?" Mr. Trick asked.

"The Watchers Council have stopped a lot of apocalypses over the centuries and those evil lawyers serve upper level demons. They want to bring about an apocalypse on their own terms, it's why I've kept a very low profile for the last century and am rarely seen in public. Either one of them could have killed me at any time if they suspected what I was up to. Now it's too late, nothing can stop me, not Magic, not modern weapons. Not until my Ascension."

"And the Slayer's group? They're still a nuisance and they might figure out a way to stop you. They've got a pretty good track record for a group of teenagers."

"Well then, I'll just have to keep them busy until my Ascension, won't I? They can't do any research if they're dealing with other problems, now can they? Even if they don't currently know what I'm up to, distracting them is still a good idea. Gosh, I'm feeling chipper, who's for a root bear?" Mr. Trick couldn't help but smile and followed him out of the office. Mayor Wilkins good mood lastest right up until he arrived home and found the broken, but still alive, body of Deputy Mayor Allen Finch on his front door step and he had no choice but to call and have Mr. Trick dispose of him.

"I can't have anyone knowing he was found on my property." Wilkins snarled. "It could end up in the papers, I may be invulnerable right now, but until I Ascend I have to continue to keep a low profile. Anyone starts investigating anything connected to me and it gives them a chance to figure out a way to stop me. Enjoy a free meal and give the remains to scavengers, Mr. Trick. Well, at least now I know why Allen wasn't at the Dedication Ceremony, someone was torturing him."

"Very thoroughly too." Mr. Trick agreed. "Given I think almost every bone in his body is broken. This Balthazar character?"

"Most likely, he is a demon and like most of them, he does enjoy torture. Which means he wanted information on me. Well, let him try, he's in for a surprise."

He watched as Mr. Trick drained the helpless Allen dry and then carted the now dead body off. "Now, which of that little band of plucky do-gooders should I play with first?" Mayor Wilkins mused. "I can't do anything that leads them to suspect me, but I can still have fun with distracting them. I'll have to ponder it."

Xander carefully hung up the phone after talking to the receptionist at the hospital who called to notify him that Willow had been admitted unconscious after being attacked at the High School. Terror ran through him at the prognosis the doctors had of her condition.

"Severe head trauma, second time in less then a year. Her brain is swelling and the doctors suspect a brain bleed. She's being prepped for surgery. The chances of her surviving without brain damage are less than fifty percent. We won't know for sure until she wakes up."

His brilliant Willow friend, his sister in all but blood. Brain damaged because once again, she'd been attacked at the High School and a 'gang on PCP' was suspected. Vampires. But which vampires in particular? He called Cordelia to come and wolfsit for him so he could go to the hospital, to be near Willow, to be there for her when she came out of surgery.