Spike wandered through the burned out factory, remembering how happy he and Dru had been here. Before Angelus come back, before that blond bint, the Slayer, set the bastard free. He stumbled and fell, drunk and miserable. He saw one of Dru's dolls, its dress burned off by the fire the pissed off Watcher had set after Angelus killed his girlfriend. Where was Dru now? With the Chaos Demon she left him for. Because he'd made a deal with the Slayer to save Dru and help stop Angelus from ending the world and she couldn't forgive him for what she saw as betrayal. Betrayal of her and her precious Daddy. Well than, that meant someone had to die and who better than the Slayer he'd supposedly betrayed them with? Now, where to find her.
But first, he needed to sober up. He tried to get up and fell back down and decided he was just fine where he was and closed his eyes. Within seconds he was passed out drunk.
Before school the next morning Willow headed for the Magic shop to pick up the ingredients for the Ward for Xander's place and smiled as the bell over the door rang. Instead of the light tinkling most stores used, the owner of the Magic store used a bell that reminded her of a gong, it was so deep in tone.
"Hi, I was just checking to see if you had my order in." She addressed the owner. "I'd like to get the Ward up as soon as I can."
"Yes, it came in this morning. It's good that you're taking the precaution, especially here in Sunnydale and it's a good spell for a beginner witch to practice."
Neither of them noticed the vampire who'd snuck in through the back looking for a snack in the form of a hopefully alone human in the shop. 'I recognize her.' He thought. 'One of the Slayer's friends and a little witch at that. Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone, lure the Slayer into a trap and get the little witch to cast a spell for me. Yeah, that's good.' He waited until the little redhead had left with her order before grabbing the clerk and draining her dry and dropping her where he found her.
Now to find the witch, given the time of day, she would probably be at the High School, the one he'd crashed last year, before Angelus came back, when Angel had offered to share the back of that boy's neck with him. Like Spike was going to fall for that, he hadn't forgotten about the soul. Angel deserved some of his ire too, but he was dust, wasn't he? The world was still here, so the Slayer must have stopped him. So first the redhead, than some Magic and lastly, the Slayer. Spike headed for the sewers and made his way to the High School and starting looking for the little redhead.
Having caught her scent at the Magic shop he made his way around the school searching for and found her in the Library talking to the Watcher, the one that burned the factory. Spike listened to their conversation and waited for a chance to grab the girl.
"I have everything we need for the Ward on Xander's place, Giles." The little witch said.
"Good, you can put them in my office, we can go over after classes let out and put it up. How much was it? I'll reimburse you."
"Don't worry about, it wasn't much." Spike peeked through the window on the Library door and saw the girl head in to what must be the office and saw his chance. He pushed into the Library and clocked the Watcher before he could react and moved to grab the girl as she came back out of the office. She barely had time to squeak before he'd tapped her chin and caught her as she dropped. He tossed her over his shoulder and headed for the sewer entrance at the back of the Library, just as the bell rang and students began to pour into the halls. 'Perfect timing.' He thought smugly as he made his way into the sewers, heading back to the factory, where Dru's things still were. Exactly what the witch would need to cast a spell on her.
Given that only the Scooby Gang frequented the Library most of the time, no one would find Giles and it would be nearly thirty minutes until he started coming to and several more minutes before he could think coherently enough to know the reason his head hurt was that someone had attacked him from behind and given that Willow wasn't either hovering anxiously or bringing help, meant someone had grabbed her. But who, was the question and why?
Buffy was in class and Faith at her new apartment. Buffy would get in trouble with Snyder if she cut class to search for Willow, that left Faith, Giles decided and Xander, who wasn't in school because of his new condition. Which might just mean they could find Willow sooner, rather then later, given Xander now had an increased sense of smell.
Giles moved to the checkout desk and used the phone to call them. It didn't take long before Faith and then Xander arrived.
Rupert Giles took one look at the cold, dark look on the man's face and the hot, nearly glowing golden brown eyes and wondered how he'd managed to miss the fact that Xander Harris hid his true self under a clown mask, much as Willow Rosenberg had accused him of hiding Ripper under the repressed Watcher.
Whoever took Xander Harris' best friend was going to regret it.