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Knowledge is Power

Willow walked into the magic shop after seeing Tara off to her classes.

Her bag was full of texts and notes. She was now absolutely sure she was on the right track, and if she was, then Buffy was in serious danger.

"Hi, Anya." She forced a smile and walked up to the counter.

"Willow. Good morning." She smiled brightly. "Did Buffy find Spike's girlfriends?"

The redhead crinkled her brow as she took out her notebook. "I think you might want to include 'former' in there somewhere."

"Of course." Anya nodded seriously.

"Not that I know of. Didn't she come by yet?" Willow asked.

"No. I suppose that's a good thing, though. This is where everyone comes when there's 'the bad'," she said simply.

"I guess. Well, I needed to ask you some questions anyway. Shop questions." Willow opened her notebook and scanned her notes.

Anya, happy that one of the Scoobies was interested in her favorite subject, namely retail, came from behind the counter and stood beside Willow. "What can I help you with?" she said with almost too much happiness.

Willow gave her a tight smile. "I need to know how hard it is to find these items," she looked from the paper to Anya, "And anything that can be used as fuel for a spell to open portals referred to as 'Pure'."

Anya looked at the redhead, her smile fading and worry taking over her features. "Pure? As in 'The Pure'? Like Buffy?"

"I'm hoping not. That's why I'm asking. Tara and I tried to work it out, but I thought, with the store having and the 1000 years of running around, you might know of something, well… else," Willow finished, a hopeful look on her face.

Anya read through the list on the paper. "Let me see." She and Willow began going over all the items in the store and ones that Anya could easily find through outside sources.

~~`~~

Buffy rolled over trying to find a more comfortable position. Her bed was extremely lumpy tonight. She flopped her head back into the pillow and heard her skull crack on its cement surface. "Ow!" Her eyes shot open and she looked around the dank tunnel. "What the..?"

Beside her Spike was snoring, a habit that apparently came with the whole need for breathing deal.

"Spike." She shook him a bit roughly and realized her hands were covered in the muck of the tunnel floor. "Eew. So not good." She felt her hair, also matted with muddy water and other things she had no intention of thinking of.

"Spike!" She whacked him on the shoulder. "Get up!"

"Ey! What's that all about?" He asked angrily until he tried to sit up and put his hand in a muddy puddle. The cuff of the leather encasing his arm was covered in the offensive muck. "What happened?" he asked, recognizing the area.

Buff looked at him, then remembered a piece of information. "The sisters. They brought us to them."

Spike looked at her. "Right. There's a gem...or stone."

"And your ex has it."

"It's your ol' boss what gave it to her," He pointed out, defensive.

"Shut up, Spike." She stood up. "We need to see how long we've been gone." With that she headed through the tunnels.

Spike shook his head at her and got up to follow her.

~~`~~

Tara came through the door of The Magic Box a little after 1:00 to see Willow on the loft sifting through books and other items. Her first reaction was to worry about Willow being in such close proximity to the more dangerous magical items in the store. She had to remind herself that Willow had been without magic for almost a year now.

Anya walked across the floor to another shelf when she saw Tara. "Tara. Hello. We're almost done with the list," she said as she gathered another item.

It was then that Tara saw the growing pile of roots, herbs and liquid- filled bottles on the research table. "Wow." She walked over to the research area and set her bag on one of the chairs pushed under the table. "All of this is here, huh?"

"Yes." Anya nodded proudly when she added another item. "I keep a well stocked store."

"Found it," Willow announced suddenly from above. She came dawn, smiling when she saw Tara. "Hi, sweetie. How was class?"

Tara watched Willow come down with a clear bottle encased in loosely woven cloth fashioned from gold thread. "It was fine. I had a little trouble concentrating, though. What did you guys find?"

Willow set the small bottle down carefully. "Well, all of the ingredients are here. Different combinations, but most definitely easy to put together." She pointed out the bottle. "And this is 'rasgones de ángeles'. The closest thing we could come up with for 'Pure'," she explained.

Tara looked at the bottle closely. "Rasgones de ángeles?"

"Angel's tears. Wonky I know, but it could work."

Tara nodded. "So what do we do? I mean, we have it all, but we don't want Harmony or Drusilla to have them."

"I'm sure they already have the ingredients," Anya said.

Willow turned to the shopkeeper who was now coming up from the storage area below the store. "What do you mean, Anya?"

"The door to the sewers is unlocked." Anya closed the door behind her. "There wasn't any frachus root, so I went down to get it. All of the stuff is down there, too. Back up storage."

"And the trap door to the sewers was unlocked?" Tara asked.

Anya nodded.

Willow turned back to her lover. "So they probably have everything," She said, then looked at the bottle. "We need to find Buffy."

~~`~~

Giles paced the distance of the floor of his newly acquired office while flipping through the newly printed version of 'The Slayer Handbook.' He'd had the screens, once hidden behind a false wall, taken down. In the empty gaps that had held the old monitors, he'd placed items of personal importance. Pictures of his Sunnydale family sat neatly affixed in frames. A few statues and other trinkets he'd picked up along the way sat with some of the more rare texts he kept in his personal collection.

He looked again at the smiling faces in the pictures. Dawn and Buffy held each other smiling and laughing in one. Xander and Anya's wedding picture with both of them grinning ear to ear. A full wedding party picture with hideous green dresses as a background alongside black tuxes. Another picture with Willow and Tara in front of their new apartment building graced his personal memorial to the people he cared most for.

He missed them.

That made this task that much harder. He knew he was doing 'good' here, but sometimes he felt very alone in the crowd of faces all looking to him. The only thing he truly enjoyed here was his time with the children. He knew, in time, he would feel at home at The Council again, but for now things were just a little harder.

His gut twisted with nerves when a knock came at the door. It would be the young woman he'd called upon. He'd waited until the day was nearly done. "Come in."

The door opened slowly and a young teen with long, flowing black hair peeked in. "Mr. Giles? You wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, Michelle. Do come in." He motioned to one of the chairs sitting in front of the desk. "Please sit down."

Michelle, not as nervous as she had been with the old head of the Council, walked in and sat, but was surprised when Giles took the vacant seat next to hers instead of the one meant for him behind the desk. She smiled at him, not knowing why she'd been called here.

He smiled stiffly at her, trying to find the best way to approach the subject. "Michelle, I understand your family is one of the newest additions to the council."

She nodded slightly. "Yes, sir. I'm the third generation."

His smile became gentler. "Do you know why your grandparents were asked?"

"Yes. They were experts on demons. Like mother, and like I will be. Soon, I hope."

"From what I understand, both your training in their species and their techniques is coming along well."

She smiled again with some pride. "Thank you."

God, he hated this. Why hadn't anyone told her, and here in the midst of the Council?

"Michelle, you have done very well. I will say that I am sure you would have been one of our best demonologists. You take to it quite naturally."

She blanched. "Would have been?"

Giles sighed. "Michelle. I must tell you something. Something you should have known much sooner."

She twisted her face in confusion. "What?"

"Your family was chosen for more than the reason you were given."

She didn't say anything. Only sat and listened as Giles explained that in her family's history, a Slayer had been born. And that now she was a potential Slayer.

The girl sat speechless.

~~`~~

Buffy and Spike waltzed into the magic shop, freshly showered and dressed. They'd discovered how short a time they'd been gone on the way to their home and decided that panic could wait until after they no longer had to smell themselves.

Again, Buffy did not want to know what she was smelling; she just knew that it was awful, and it had to go.

Spike didn't enjoy explaining the note left by the delivery man, and swore she'd never be able to look at her sister in the eyes again. The 'spiked punch' thing was bad enough, but this?

Before either Buffy or Spike could say a word to the group as they came in, Willow ran to them. "Buffy! We have problems!" she exclaimed.

"We kinda know," Buffy pointed out.

"No, you don't. We think that Dru might be trying to change things. If I'm right-"

"She has a stone, or a crystal. She's going to try to open a portal. The world will end." she said, almost uncaring. It was old news. Happened every six months or so.

Spike gave her the 'don't be a smart ass' look. "Slayer."

"Sorry, Wills." Buffy looked at her friend apologetically. "We just had another visit with the demon twins, and they gave us a heads up."

"Oh," Willow said.

Then Anya shot Buffy a strange look. "But you were already Gifted. How did they call you back?"

Buffy walked over to the research table and saw the mess, but made no comment on it.

"Kind of a 'last ones served' thing. They need our help. Whatever Dru is doing, or will do, has some major effect on them."

"Sam," Spike said, seeming to remember something. "Sam was... something. I remember you saying Sam‘s name. And there was a girl. But not her. The girl... the Slayer," Spike rambled.

"Sam?" Willow questioned. "Why would Samantha be there?"

Buffy shook her head. "I don't think she was. Something she was doing, I remember seeing her, but I think we were, I don't know, watching from the outside or something."

"Could that be what Dru is trying to change?" Tara offered.

Anya looked at the dark blonde. "It might make sense." Any looked back at Buffy. "If Drusilla could somehow make it so Sam dies, or doesn't accomplish everything she does to earn her life... and her love, then you-"

"I wouldn't have read about it," Buffy finished as Anya nodded.

"And that would mean I'd never- " Buffy looked at Spike then stood up. "We need to take a look at Sam's diary. Maybe we can find out what Dru is trying to change."

"Shouldn't we look for Dru some more?" Willow asked.

Buffy looked at the ground and shook her head. "I don't know where else we can look. We missed them at the crypt, we lost Harm at the hospital…”

Spike knew this was making her lose confidence. She needed to finish this. And so did he. "We'll patrol. Go over every street, every alley and every crypt till we find 'em."

Buffy looked back at him. "Thanks." She gave him a weak smile.

"What about the demon things? You know, the eyes."

Spike looked at them all, full vision on. They gave no reaction. "Looks like it's been taken care of."

"I remember," Buffy said. "The demon was what they used to contact us. Find us."

"Makes sense," Willow said. "That would be interdimensional. One of the references to the demon shifting you had was dimensional travel, or being called to do so."

"So now we just need to find Dru and stop her before she does the time traveling spell," Anya said.

"Not exactly," Willow said. "Actually, we might be able to stop her just by watching out for Buffy." Willow looked back at Tara, then to the blonde slayer. "We think your blood powers the crystal she wants to use."

"So there is definitely a crystal." Buffy stated and Willow nodded.

"Ok." Buffy thought a moment. "We keep me away from it and your girlfriends," Anya giggled and Spike leered at her, "And we're good."

"Simple," Willow said.

Simple," Buffy agreed.

Spike looked over the ladies knowing that anything that seemed simple usually wasn't. Especially when it came to Dru.

~~`~~

Dawn smiled as she entered 'Body Shop.' Faith was sitting behind the counter filling out papers and didn't notice the teen come in. "Hey, Faith."

Caught off guard, Faith jumped up. "Dawn!" She settled down. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"I'm a paying customer. I can if I want," she teased and leaned on the counter, smudging the glass. "What'cha doin?"

"Filling out tax forms so I can get paid." She signed her name at the bottom of one, then flipped past it to another. "What about you? Aren't you supposed to go the The Magic Box after school?"

"Yeah. I don't need to be there until three. Thought I'd see how you were doing."

"Thanks. Not too bad. Kinda boring during the day." She shrugged. "But at least it's not fast food."

Dawn stifled a giggle. "Gotta go with you on that one." She looked around the store again. "Well, I'd better get going. Anya freaked when I was late before she started paying me. Her head will probably spin if I am now that she is."

Faith piled the finished forms on the counter. "Have fun at the grind."

"Oh yeah. A blast and a half," Dawn threw over her shoulder sarcastically as she went out the door and onto the sidewalk.

The sun shone down and again there was just a slight breeze. A little warm, but comfy. She pulled the strap of her purse on her shoulder and was about to walk down the sidewalk when something caught her attention across the street.

A brown puppy barked at her from the shade of the alley next to the store Xander had just gotten done working on yesterday. Dawn wondered if the puppy had escaped from the pet store and she walked across the street.

As she drew closer, the pup took off back down the alley. "Aw, c'mon," she said to the tiny animal. "I'm not going to hurt you." She walked in further, then around to the well shaded back of the store. The pup sat by the door and yelped over and over.

"Are you hungry?" Dawn put her purse on the pavement and unclasped it. "I think I have that last bit of a candy bar in here."

She was too busy looking through the jumbled contents to notice the back door open.

"Ah ha." She pulled out a crumpled brown wrapper. "Knew I had some-" She looked up at the puppy, but instead saw Harmony.

"Hi, Dawnie." Harmony studied the crouched girl. "You've grown." Then she hit the young teen’s head with the metal pipe she'd rested near the window after breaking in the previous night.

Dawn fell over in a clump, knocked out.

"Pure energy, hu'?" Harmony said as she pulled Dawn into the back entrance. Sweets stayed outside to keep watch.

Harmony tilted her head and studied the young woman lying on the ground inside the shop now.


Chapter End Notes:
Weeee... Thanks to everyone for the kind reviews. Thisgs are about to come to a head.



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