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The next evening finds the whole Scooby-gang as well as Spike assembled at the Magic Box once again. Even though he has not yet received word from Wesley, Giles decides to share Drusilla’s message with the others in the hope of deciphering it despite the lack of further information. The first part seems fairly easy - somehow Glory is no longer a threat. And while it is clear that the second part warns about some new danger, the watcher has, as yet, been unable to make any sense of it. “I believe it’s safe to assume that we are about to face more than one enemy, but none with strengths anywhere near that of Glory. I also believe the last sentence is a hint as to who exactly this new enemy is. I can’t think, however, of any demons that bring ‘confusing one’s century’ to mind. I suggest we go through my books on demonic species and see if one of us is able to discover something useful.” Collective groans from Buffy, Spike and Xander greet the watcher’s suggestion. “Come on Giles. I don’t wanna hit the books again, just cause the batty vampire told you that Captain Kirk would pay us a visit!” Xander whines, unwilling to start the much-hated research again - especially with one of the undead being the reason. To him Drusilla is no more than an insane formerly-evil creature who should have been staked on sight. Before anyone can reply to his complaint, Willow’s face suddenly lights up in understanding. “I don’t think you’ll need to Xan, you just solved the riddle.” “Huh? How did I do that, are you saying it’s really Captain Kirk? But he’s not evil!” “No, but you translated ‘confusing one’s century’ into being from a different one – and more importantly looking the part! Buffy, remember when you told us how those guys in knight’s-armor attacked you? You said their goal was to destroy the key.” Willow beames happily at having just solved at least one part of the puzzle. “She’s right,” Tara agrees. “Men running around in chain-mail and armor; sure sounds to me like they have their centuries confused.” Looking around the two girls can see understanding begin to dawn on their friend’s faces. “It would explain the ‘power of one’ part too, they are human,” Buffy pipes up in support of the witches theory, happy that for once she has something important to add to a research session. Her face, however, soon falls when she realizes that this might force her to have to decide between taking a human life, and protecting her sister. Forcing herself not to think about that right now, the Slayer returns her focus to her friends and declares that they have to find a way to get rid of the knights as soon as possible. After nearly an hour of fruitless discussion, Anya has finally had enough of all the talk and decides to voice the idea she has been debating over in silence for some time now. “You know guys; maybe it would be best if we send Dawn away.” The shocked gasps and Buffy’s instant refusal to let her sister out of her sight are exactly what the former demon had expected. She is sure she has thought of an answer to every argument they might bring up though, and her idea still sounds, to her, like the perfect solution. She just needs to get the others to see how right she is. “I know you think you have to be there to protect her Buffy, but just listen for a moment. You have to agree that you can’t be with her 24/7, especially if you don’t want the knights to find out she is the key. You accompanying her everywhere would only tip them off. But still if they found out anyway, they could just grab her while she is in school, seeing as they are human Seeing the dawn of understanding creep across the Slayer’s face, Anya smiles to herself and continues. “If we make up a good reason for her leaving Sunnydale though, we wouldn’t have to fear them grabbing her off the street. We could, for example, use your mom’s recent illness as the reason why she would leave town. Dawn is young enough that even her school would have to agree that she has to go with your mom in that case. It’d look like it’s not related to you and slaying in any way.” After discussing all possible flaws Anya’s idea may have, and coming up with nothing of any significance, the group instead turns it’s attention to thinking of a possible destination for the two Summer’s women. In the end, Giles comes up with the perfect solution. He offers to take them with him to England, where they can all pretend that Joyce has decided to take a vacation; her doctor having advised her that a stay in the fresh in the country air would be beneficial in helping her to recover from her recent operation. This way the knights will be unable to follow them without anyone noticing. While the others are not too happy at the idea of Giles leaving in the middle of this crisis, they all agree that it is the most sensible plan they have. It means that Joyce and Dawn will have the watcher as added protection without arising suspicions; as it will only seem logical that he would accompany them as they will stay at his home upon arriving in England. To further protect Dawn’s secret, the others agree to try and confuse the knights by leaving misleading hints about the identity of the key. This way they hope to buy some time until they figure out a way to approach them and hopefully convince the knights that destroying the key is redundant now that Glory no longer poses a threat. Surprisingly, when they explain their plan to her Joyce agrees quite readily to leave Sunnydale with Dawn and Giles. She even admits to having thought of it herself, but she feared that Buffy’s overwhelming need to protect them herself would prevent her daughter from agreeing. With Joyce and Giles working together, they have no problem convincing the school to allow Dawn to take an early leave. The school even offers that should Dawn return in time to take summer-classes, she would be able to continue her next year as usual. Having easily overcome this hurdle, the three of them are able to leave for England only a week later. Luckily the knights have yet to make an appearance, so everyone is greatly relieved that their plan seems to be working. While everyone is happy that the knights have been absent, that same absence has caused the only downside, as the gang has been unable to find the knights so far. Willow and Tara tried every location-spell they knew, but without having anything of the knights’ on which to focus the spells, they had so far been unsuccessful. Sadly this also stopped them from setting their plan of distracting the knights into motion. Since none of them knows whether the enemy is aware of the key’s human status, the gang couldn’t risk dropping hints for fear of their plan being discovered. Two more weeks pass before the Scoobies are able to establish contact. If one can call Buffy and Spike being ambushed during their patrol establishing contact. Even while fighting off their attack, Buffy tries her hardest to convince the knights to agree to set up a meeting between their leader and herself. When they finally recede, they leave behind a frustrated Slayer and a fuming vampire. Turning to her companion, Buffy realizes for the first time how rigidly Spike is holding himself. “Spike, what’s wrong?” she asks, confusion clouding her face. Spike only growls, his jaw tensely locked. Buffy sees sparks of rage dancing in his eyes before he shuts them tightly. Spike is too furious to form words. Anger radiates from his rigid form. Studying him for a moment Buffy finally realizes that his anger is not directed at her or even the knights, but at his inability to help her during the fight. This was the first time they had to go up against humans together, and his chip had stopped the blonde vampire from doing anything more than watching her fight. Trying to calm the fuming vampire she places a tentative hand on his arm, hoping the contact will soothe him. Her touch does have an immediate effect on Spike, as he quickly calms and opens his tightly closed eyes to look at the small blonde girl at his side. Seeing her smile sadly at him, he realizes she understands exactly what is upsetting him so much. This unexpected understanding from his once sworn enemy finally gives him the strength to fight through his anger, thus allowing the vampire to begin to think rationally. With a clearer mind comes the realization that their first priority at the moment should not be his wounded pride but informing the others about what just happened. Still, the fact that the Slayer seems willing to post-pone the trip back to the Magic Box in favor of reassuring him feels nice. As a matter of fact, it makes getting his priorities straight easier somehow. So instead of taking the Slayer up on her unspoken offer of comfort, the blonde vampire shakes his head to clear it, and suggests they return to the shop and tell the others about their encounter. As Buffy and Spike make their way back to the Magic Box, they discuss the knights’ behavior. Agreeing that for some unknown reason the knights had seemed to be more aggressive than before and that it would be best if the Scoobies be more careful about going out on their own. Unfortunately only a few days later, the group learns in the worst possible way that they are completely unprepared to deal with human. Buffy and Xander arrive at the Magic Box in the afternoon about three days after the ambush, and are shocked to find it closed. Xander immediately gets upset, because Anya would never close the shop during the day - not when there were profits to be made! Worried about Anya's whereabouts, Buffy is just about to unlock the door and enter when they hear the sound of someone running. Turning around Xander and Buffy’s concerns grow as they see a very distressed Willow hurrying towards them. "Buffy, Xander, thank God you are here! You have to help me, I can't find Tara anywhere! We were supposed to meet after our classes, but she wasn't there. I asked some of her class-mates, and she never showed up today. Something must have happened to her after we split this morning. Oh Goddess, where could she be?" Looking briefly at the frazzled redhead before turning to each other and quickly back to the closed shop, Buffy and Xander feel panic begin to creep up on them.
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Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel The Series characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, UPN, WB, and others. I am in no way making any money off of these original creations.