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Author's Chapter Notes:
CHAPTER PAIRING: more like un-pairing in this one!

DISCLAIMERS: All BtVS characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions. I'm just fixing their mistakes! Ha!

AUTHOR'S CHAPTER NOTES: Aaaaaaand...the shit hits the fan! Enjoy the beginning of chaos! :D (Note: this chapter is a bit dark!)
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"Where is he?"

Giles had been through countless trials in his life, battled demons, withstood Angelus's cruel tortures, and still he remained strong, never gave in. But with a broken and battered Buffy boring into him with desperate eyes, he thought he might finally have met his match.

He reached an unsteady hand out to her, cupping her gaunt cheek. Once it had been so rosy and soft, and he had worried that she would think more of keeping its sweet look than of her sacred duty. Now he wished for those early days.

"Buffy," he said softly, "you saw what happened to him. What makes you think he is...well, somewhere?" Giles tried to sound gentle, unsuspicious.

She didn't react to his touch. Without emotion, she simply replied: "Drusilla."



Willow was starting to sense where she was again, as well as voices. She couldn't feel anything yet, so she just assumed she was still on the bed. But she could tell Spike and Tara were near. She kept hearing Drusilla's name mentioned but not enough of the conversation to know what about. So, she concentrated as hard as she could, through her self-imposed sleepiness.

They were still trying to find a way to wake her up. She was relieved about that. Spike was complaining about someone who was supposed to have arrived to help. Tara was suggesting... Dru? That didn't even make sense. No no no no no. Somehow, Willow had to shake herself out of this, and fast.



"I'm not sure that's wise, pet."

"But, if she's as skilled at magic as you described her, then maybe she can figure out a counter spell?" Tara would take any solution at this point. "Hey, maybe you could, like, hold Willow's eyelids open a little and Dru could work her thrall and convince her to wake up?"

Spike looked at the gentle witch and sighed. He was such a pushover. What was it about women that made his sense of reason and self-preservation fly straight out the window?

"Right. Next problem is that I've no idea where she could be."

Tara frowned at that. Doing a locator spell for Drusilla wouldn't be as accurate as the others she had done. This would take time. More time than she thought she could bear.



Dawn didn't actually start panicking until she saw Buffy's cell phone placed neatly on the kitchen counter, in plain view as though to make a clear point: she hadn't expected to return.

She tried to think back to earlier yesterday evening, hoping to find a clue to Buffy's current whereabouts. Dawn remembered the typical sibling argument, then the pouting after the mention of something that reminded one or the both of them of Spike, then the normal goodbye while she was locked in her bedroom on the phone with her new boyfriend before she fell asleep, and then waking up at noon with no sign that Buffy had ever returned. All the things Dawn knew her sister always carried with her on patrol were prominently left in the apartment to be found, resting in order on the counter the way Buffy always put them right before she packed them on her person for each patrol.

Her first thought after discovering this little tableau was to call Giles. Only, his phone had been busy. She tried and tried and kept getting a busy signal. Plan B was to go out and search for her sister. Every cemetery she could think of, she visited. When she got to Highgate, she found her only clue: Mr. Pointy.

It was resting on an old grave, in an area of the cemetery even Dawn knew would have no use for a Slayer. How it got there could only be the stuff of nightmares. In full-blown terror, Dawn ran as fast as her feet could take her to Giles' flat.



"Drusilla?"

Giles looked at Buffy like she must be delusional. Whether that was because she allowed Dru enough time to talk to her or she believed Dru, Buffy didn't know. But that look was serving only to fuel her rising anger.

"Where did you see Drusilla?"

Buffy propped herself up. "It doesn't matter. What matters is what she told me."

"And that was?" Giles shifted on the floor to restore the physical distance between them now that Buffy had moved.

"That he was back." She looked at him now, her eyes cold and sharp. "And that you knew."

Giles blinked at her, the pause before speaking giving him away. "Buffy, Drusilla would say anything to trap you. She knows just what to do to cause you to stumble. We've been over her past in the Watcher diaries..."

Buffy's head shook. "No. She had her chance, and she didn't take it."

"What are you saying?" The alcohol was no longer numbing him. He could feel the fear trying to break through.

The Slayer sat up. "I'm saying that I offered her the blood of a Slayer and she declined because she saw the truth."

Giles didn't know whether to cry or be sick. How many levels could he possibly fail this girl for this situation to be happening right now? So he did the only thing his body consistently remembered to do. He removed his glasses and moved to clean them.

But Buffy had anticipated this. Angrily, her hand shot out and snatched the offending object.

The force of her movement shocked Giles and sent him reeling back onto the floor.

"Don't you dare do this to me!" she growled, her grip tightening enough that he could hear the glass crackling.

Suddenly the apartment door burst open.

In a flurry of long hair and limbs, Dawn rushed in, panting. "Giles! Giles! I can't find... Buffy!"

Upon seeing her sister, she moved to embrace her but stopped when she took in the scene.

Giles was on the floor looking as though he was preparing to be hit. Buffy was standing facing him, blood dripping down her hand from what appeared to be Giles's shattered glasses. "What...what's going on?"

"That's what I was just about to find out, Dawnie." Buffy's words were spoken the same charged way she used to talk to Spike back when he was trying to kill her.

She released the broken glasses and let them fall to the floor, ruined. When Giles went to retrieve them, she stomped her foot down, keeping them there.

"Where. Is. He?"

"Buffy, please..."

"God help me, Giles. If you don't tell me where Spike is..."

Dawn gasped. "Spike?"

"I... I don't know," Giles replied, softly, broken.

Buffy gave an anguished laugh. "Of course. And, let me guess: you were only protecting me. Doing what's best for me. Welcome to Sunnydale!"

The tension was rising in the room, but Dawn didn't budge. Her mouth was wide in shock as the realization of what was being said sunk in. Spike was alive. And Giles didn't tell them. An inaudible scream echoed through her skull.

Giles shook his head. "No, you don't understand. My duty, as a Watcher..."

The growl that escaped from Buffy's small frame stilled the room.

"What about your duty as a human being? As someone who claims to love me?"

His lips moved, but no sound came out.

"You and Angel, Willow and Xander... I'm not a person to any of you, am I?"

Giles turned his head away, but Buffy thrust her hand out to stop him.

"You're going to tell me everything. And you're going to tell me now." She did not release her firm grip on his jaw. "The very least you owe me is the truth."

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