It was shortly after Eris and Spike arriving at Giles' house that they discovered the man had been attacked. Spike, of course, cared little for the health of the British man, and instead chose to sit down across from him and watch Eris and Willow start to tend to his injuries.

"What happened?" they heard Buffy ask as she came inside, having finished her patrol for the night.

Giles was covered in bruises and deep scratches that were still bleeding, "it's my fault, I should have known," his voice was shaky, and you could hear the pain he was feeling in every word. "The Word of Valios, is the name of a talisman, not a book. I blame myself entirely. I had it here."

"You had it here?" Xander asked as Willow came in with an icepack for the large bump on the older man's forehead, "ok, first I thought you were being too hard on yourself, but…"

"I bought it at a sorcerer's estate sale. I really only glanced at it once. I thought it was a knockoff."

"Shh, relax Giles, its ok," Eris soothed as she dabbed gingerly at the scratches on the side of his face to clean off the blood.

"Well, they have it," Buffy said with a sigh, "and they probably have their sacrifices by now, too."

"They're on their way to perform the sacrifice now."

"On their way where?" the Slayer asked Giles, "you found out what the ritual is for?"

"The Hellmouth. They're gonna open the Hellmouth. The one in the library."

The group became silent, all realising the severity of the situation and the horrible memories that were created by the Hellmouth. They shared scared and worried looks with each other until Buffy stood up, "looks like we're going back to high school."

"Not me, I hate the stinking place," Spike commented from his chair at the back, "I didn't even go there when I had nowhere else to go. I took being around you lot over that place."

Eris sighed and placed the bloodied cloth on the coffee table, "you can stay here and be bored, or you can come along and watch as the world ends if we don't manage to save it."

"Do we have to take him?" Xander complained, "he's been bumming us out all night."

"Better than having him try to dust himself again," Eris shot back as she stood up from the couch.

"Wait, back up, dust himself?" Buffy looked at Spike and the others in confusion, "what did it miss?"

"Don't you dare tell the Slayer!" Spike complained, not wanting the shame to return.

"Spike got depressed that he couldn't bite and kill people, so he tried to end his life."

Buffy went silent for a moment, taking in Eris' words before she burst into laughter, "oh that's amazing, that made my day!"

"I'm going to kill you one day, pet," Spike hissed at Eris, wishing violent murder on her.

"My neck is right here, come and get it," she brushed her hair away from her pale neck and started caressing it, inviting him to drink.

"Buffy make her stop!"

The highschool was just as disturbing and disgusting as they remembered it. The walls were caving in and covered in mould. The roof was dripping down and threatening to completely collapse. The memories were stained into every crack and crevasse. No one wanted to be here.

The gang had left Giles behind so he could rest after his vicious attack. But they still outnumbered the three demons they found chanting before a whole in the library where the Hellmouth kept itself.

Buffy ran in first, wanting to surprise them enough to grab all the ritual items and keep them away from the demons. They weren't making it easy however, as their claws and demonic strength kept everyone pushed back or pinned to a wall.

Xander and Eris were taking on one of the demons together whilst also keeping the vial of Blood away from it. "Kick it in the shin Xander!" Eris shouted from behind the demon as she punched it in the back of the head.

"Trying to!" he shouted back as he missed the kick but managed to land a punch to the demon's head instead.

The demon seemed to have had enough and turned to shove Eris to the ground and tried to grab the vial of blood from Xander's hand. They wrestled for a few seconds but the demon managed to get the vial and jump into the crack. "ok, I guess we won," the ground rumbled shortly after, proving otherwise, "the demons, they are the sacrifice!"

The group shared a surprised look but quickly returned to their fight, trying their hardest to keep the demons from trying to sacrifice themselves. "Eris! Go get the bag from Spike!" Buffy shouted as she fought the bigger of the 3 demons.

Eris shouted, "ok!" and ran over to grab the bag right as the demon punched Spike in the face, enraging the vampire enough to punch him back with no hinderance or pain.

"No pain," he said to himself in realisation before punching the demons face again, even harder than the first time, "I can fight a demon," glee filled his body, as did the usual bloodlust. His vampiric face took over the human one and soon Spike was completely engrossed in his fight. He landed punch after punch, kick after kick, he hounded the demon without a single second of reprieve, "that's right, I'm back, and I'm a bloody animal! Yea!" he grabbed the demon and with full force, kicked him in the stomach which made him fly in to Eris and knock her to the ground which caused her to drop the bag.

"Watch it!" she shouted back at the vampire who paid her no mind, he just grabbed the demon once more and lifted him in the air. "Stop! Don't throw him he has the bag!" she tried to yell but it was in vain, Spike ignored her shouts and threw him into the hole, sacrificing another demon.

"What? I was helping!" he tried to defend, but no one was having it. Eris had gotten back up and wacked him in the back of the head, "ow!"

"Shut it, you deserved that!" she hissed before the building started to shake again.

"Get out of here before the building comes down!" Buffy shouted during her attack on the last demon.

The others gathered themselves and headed outside of the room where they were stopped by Graham in full military gear, "babe! What are you doing here?" Eris asked as she hurried to him.

"When Riley told me you were trying to stop the world from ending I had to come and help," he pulled her to him and checked her for any injuries, "you weren't hurt, were you?"

"I'm fine, only a few scrapes."

"Wait, Eris' boyfriend is one of the soldier guys?" Xander asked in surprise, which also made Spike perk up.

"This is Eris' new boy toy?" he said with a snarky tone as he looked Graham up and down, sizing him up, "you really are dating a stiff."

Graham looked at Spike, connecting the dots, "this must be the one night stand jerk."

"Oh, mentioned me has she?" he shot back with a smirk, "was a lot more than one night, solider boy."

"Ok, drag him back in the room, I'm pushing him in the hole," Eris hissed whilst Graham held her back.

"What's with all the noise?" Buffy asked as she walked in with Riley beside her.

"Riley? What are you doing here?" Willow asked in surprise.

"Well, hey. Willow, and Xander right?" Riley said awkwardly as he looked at the group, "jeez, what are the chances, huh? Yeah, Graham and I were just passing by, and we thought we heard people inside."

"They know Riley, covers blown," Graham said in slight amusement, "no one walks around casually in military uniform."

"Cover? What cover, I don't know what you are talking about I-Don't I know you?" Riley asked Spike who had been hiding himself from the blonde military man as he was one of the men who captured him.

"Me? No sir, I'm just an old pal of Xander's here," Spike replied, changing his accent from British to American.

Graham leant over to Eris and whispered, "why did he change his accent?"

"Cause he's a twat, don't pay attention to him," was her response, Graham may have been her boyfriend but she wasn't going to reveal that Spike was one of the vampires they captured. She felt like that would be taking it a step too far. "Can we get out of here, please? All I can smell is mould and rotting flesh."