Morning had come and nothing had ventured out of the cave, so Alex had arranged with Charles for a team of police officers in protective gear and armed with shotguns to take over watching it and he and the others had gone home to get some rest before heading to the classroom where Jenny Calendar was helping Willow, Johnathan and Ana research the new demons. Buffy and Faith had passed on Alex and the pack's findings to them and Willow and Jenny brought them up to date as well.
"Molly and her group think they're close to a new Ward they can put up that's specific to these demons." Jenny told them. "Given how the one attacked the girls and we don't know the reason they attacked them, getting Wards up at their homes, Joyce's gallery and the school, basically wherever the girls can be expected to be found, has to happen as soon as possible. From there they can Ward the other schools, the Police Station and City Hall."
"Buffy and Faith are alerting the other In-betweens and the neutrals." Johnathan added. "One of them might have more information than we've been able to find."
"What have you found?" Alex asked, as he took a seat next to the one he'd pulled out for Cordelia.
"We had several clues to helps us narrow it down." Willow answered. "Chief among them the fact that these demons looked female, as in obvious breasts. Most demons are like most animals, it requires a little inspection to determine the difference between males and females, because females usually only grow breast tissue when nursing young and a male's equipment tends to be much less obvious than in a human male, in many species anyway and demons tend to lay eggs anyway." A comment that had both Alex and Jesse smirking, mostly at how clinical Willow was trying to sound.
"Between that and their color, blue, we were able to narrow it down even more." Ana took up the narrative. "We think we've found something and there's a picture, so we want you to have a look at it and let us know if we've found the right demon."
"Sure." Alex agreed and Ana found the marked page and turned the book so Alex could see the picture, Cordelia leaned over to look at it too. "That looks like it," he agreed, "even if it's a drawing, it still looks enough like it to make me say if it's not the demon itself, it's a damn close relative."
"I agree." Cordelia said. "Faith left the head sitting on top of the body and even as messed up as it was, I'd say there was enough to compare and that looks like our demon. So what is it?"
"If this really is the demon in question than we have a potentially bigger problem." Willow answered. "They're called the Sisterhood of the Jhe and they exist solely to end the world. They're an apocalypse cult. No one knows where they come from and its speculated that they need to be summoned by someone."
"Someone wants to end the world and they're using these demon ladies to do their dirty work?!" Jesse exclaimed. "Okay, we know that Master dude wanted to do that, end the world."
"He wanted to use the Hellmouth to do it." Aura reminded them. "The one that's down the hall in the Library. But it's not the only one in the world and if they fail here, they could try again, here or somewhere else."
"They could even be trying somewhere else now." Jenny stated. "This could be a distraction while someone moves on something else."
"We have one chance to stop them." Willow continued. "The Sisterhood won't do anything unless certain celestial alignments happen. The book lists what those are. I propose that Jenny and I write a program and track star alignments, quickly and determine when the next one they'll be willing to use is."
"Given the fact that they're here in Sunnydale now," Alex said thoughtfully, "suggests there's one happening soon and now we know why Buffy and Faith were attacked. Demons can sense Slayers and Slayers can sense them, to varying degrees. They must know what Slayers are and assume they're the biggest obstacle to ending the world. Let's disabuse them of that notion. Anyone who doesn't want the world to end is a wall of opposition standing between them and the end of the world."
"Willow and I will get started on the program." Jenny nodded. "We can use existing programs as a base and that will speed things up. Hopefully we'll have an answer in a couple of hours as to when the next alignment is."
"I'll let my Dad know what's going on." Cordelia decided. "He can put the police on alert. It might be a good idea to have a curfew for a couple of days, keep people off the streets while we deal with the demons."
"And I'm going to recommend that we let Mr. Travers know." Alex added. "As Faith pointed out and Cordy's Dad agreed, the world is everyone's responsibility. If this is a distraction or there are other celestrial opportunities for these demons to try somewhere else, than they need to be alert to that possibility so they can monitor other hotspots."
"Any chance we can find out who did the summoning?" Jesse asked.
"Probably not." Ana answered. "The book says none of them can talk, we have no idea how they communicate with each other and no one has ever been able to communicate with them. They exist simply to end the world, which someone has to know, to be able to summon them. Although, I can't help wondering how they came to be organized with this goal. But those are unlikely answers as well if we can't communicate with them."
"We can't use speech to communicate with them." Alex smiled grimly. "But violence is a form of communication as well and one they obviously understand. So do we. Let's explain, in plain language, that this is our world and we won't let them end it."