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Author's Chapter Notes:
Just moving along.
Forgive

Buffy stood back, eyeing the group. These were her friends, and now all were involved in a search that was supposed to have been a secret quest for answers to clear her mind, even her conscience. What she found was that as soon as she had shared the things that bothered her, the feeling she had only been able to get while in Spike's embrace was no longer evading her in her normal world.

She felt almost real again.

The better side of this was that Spike might be able to be included in her normal world.

Suddenly, her nose crinkled and she looked over at Willow. "Not that I don't so totally appreciate it, but why aren't you freakin' out...at all?"

Willow smiled tentatively. "Um. Hah. Why?" She felt like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar. "Oh, well...see...man...Giles, he had this thing two summers ago where we were going to catalog, and have a backup of all his texts. He was getting ready to...um..."

"Leave," Buffy finished for her.

"Yeah," Willow nodded. Still feeling extreme trepidation, she tried to feign a smile. "So we were getting into the Vampire Diaries, and he made me leave. I knew something was up, since that meant he'd have to type in and scan all the files himself."

Willow's face became more relaxed as her story continued. "He hates computers. It was the whole reason I was stuck being the one to help. Hello...computer girl," she said, rolling her eyes at her summer of imprisonment. Then she spotted the box on the table and walked to it with the other ladies following.

"I didn't find the right files for a long time. When I did, I started going through them. Oh, my God, Buffy. I was so freaking out. I mean...Spike?!"

"Did Giles know you knew?" Buffy asked, trying to take in all of what her best friend was telling her. More people keeping secrets from her. First Giles, now Willow...who else?

"Yeah, but not until just a few months ago. See, I couldn't find the files before. Not until last summer to be exact. I was trying to find a spell, a prophecy...even a curse…that might bring you back." She was a bit remorseful with that last bit. "That's when I found the hiding place behind Giles's desk. There wasn't a lock, so I just opened it and read the whole thing. My problem was that no names were mentioned."

"I pretty much figured out that Angel was one...and I sort of thought Spike might be the other, but it was just..." She fidgeted, not really sure how to tell her best friend. Willow had hated keeping secrets from Buffy, Xander, Tara, Dawn...even Anya, now that she knew anyway. Her gut had wrenched on more than one occasion while spotting Buffy and Spike arguing over the most mundane things. It was remembering the 'my will be done' spell that really creeped her out.

Buffy watched Willow for a moment. Her face twisted; she felt guilty. That was enough.

Buffy knew her friend had never wanted to hide the facts. "Giles told you not to tell me, didn't he?" The redhead nodded.

Tara and Anya stood back and watched as the friends tried to make sense of the situation.

"Well then, I guess since I already talked to him and forgave him..." Buffy smiled at Willow, and once again they embraced.

Buffy pulled away and said, "So, Wills, I take it you're all for the research?"

Tara picked that moment to speak up. "I really could use your help finding more information on Akoshta."

Willow was elated. 'Yay, Tara time!' "Sure, what have you got so far?"

"Basics of the prophecy: who, what, why...but no wheres or hows," Tara summed up.

"Uh, guys. Not to interrupt, but." Buffy headed back the way Willow had come. There, in piles against the back wall, were crates upon crates of books and files. "I'm pretty sure most of it is useless for what Tara and I have been using as research guidelines...but we should look."

All were in agreement, except for Anya, who insisted that she had to run the shop up front.

Silently, Buffy skimmed through the Diaries of Slayers, Watchers, and Vampires. Tara set up shop in the corner behind the boxes marked as having Magics. Willow got to work on the myriad of disks containing some of the oldest texts, many in Latin, but easily deciphered. Buffy walked by with another armload of books and noticed the screen that Willow was staring at intently. "Anything good?"

"Huh? Oh, well, I think I just found the long version of Anya's story...or was it Spike's?"

She looked back down, and Buffy plopped on the floor beside her after setting down the stack of books in her arms. Buffy immediately recognized the symbol in the far upper left hand corner.

"Hey, that...it's a symbol the council uses." Buffy pointed at the symbol, and Willow eyed her.

"You know this?"

"Yeah." Buffy got up and walked out of the room. She returned within a moment to show Willow Sam's Diary. The Slayer quickly flipped to the description of Ashton and Samantha's first meeting. "See? I remember I saw it before in a Diary...I just can't remember where."

This time Willow stood, left the room, and came back with a book. Spike's Diary. She held the closed book up so that Buffy could see the binding. "Diary of Master Vampire Spike" with "Slayer of Slayers" just below it and then "1880-..." At the lowest part of the binding was the same symbol. On a whim, Willow closed the Slayer Diary, and pointed out the very same symbol on the lower center of the back cover.

"Part of the reason I figured it was Spike. Your Diary, Angel's and Spike's all have the Council's 'symbol of prophets' somewhere on the binding." Willow knew the next question, so she decided she should give up the whole secret. "Just so you know, I saw your Diary when we, Giles and I, were logging information. I wasn't snoopin'." Buffy laughed, and shrugged off the question her friend had just answered.

"I need to show you something else, Buff." Willow opened Spike's Diary and handed it to Buffy. Buffy recognized her best friend's handwriting before she read. After a few minutes of silence, Buffy looked into green eyes.

"You've been keeping his record up?" Buffy was more than surprised. She leafed through the book while listening to how this had come about.

"Well, Giles said he had to leave. He also made it pretty clear that a record had to be kept. Since I already knew some of the...well, stuff, he figured I was the best choice." Willow remembered Giles telling her 'I know you understand this is gravely important. I know you'll be vigilant.' She had been.

"Wow!" the Slayer exclaimed. "So does this make you my new Watcher...or Spike's?" The girls broke into laughter.

"Angel!" Anya ran in, screaming. "Angel!"

"Here?" Buffy stood up quickly and ran over to Anya.

"No. If Spike is gone to Akoshta then wouldn't-"

"Angel!" Willow answered. "Easy way to find out." She quickly typed in the URL for AI to get an e-mail link for Wess. The page loaded in a few moments. Buffy, Anya, and now Tara sat behind her to see what she was looking for. Then they all saw it. The group at AI was looking for information on Akoshta as well.

Willow clicked the e-mail link and typed in a message:

"Dear AI, Wess, Cordy, Angel gang in general,

Obviously, we have an odd situation here. I'm guessing Angel came up missing. Spike did,
too. Here is what we have so far other than the prophecy itself.

Willow recounted the bit of information they knew for sure and finished with, “It's not much. We do know that Buffy is the link."

"A week, make sure they know that they should be gone for seven days." Willow looked quizzically at Buffy.

"Sam...both times she was gone, it was for a week."

"All information says those tested will be gone for seven days." The red head added to the e-mail.

"Anything else?" Willow asked Buffy and Tara. Anya answered, "You could tell them the story about the other Slayer and her Vampire."

"Nah..." Willow and Buffy answered back, then Willow sent the mail along.

"New baddie, or more Slay-ie stuff?" A voice came from behind the group. They turned to see Dawn. She noticed the odd expressions on their faces and really wondered what was going on.

The younger Summers frowned. "What?"


Chapter End Notes:
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