CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
 
“I know you might find this hard to believe, Anya, but we really weren’t paying a lot of attention to the stock market or lottery back then… er… now. In our time.” Buffy tried to keep the impatience out of her voice as she attempted to steer the conversation back to their next problem.
 
She said, “First, we need to try to prevent the Vahrall demons from getting the relics they need to perform their ritual… As soon as you look up the ritual and reminded me of what they were, Giles. I know you have all that stuff in one of these books. I think maybe Willow found some of the information for you, but it was from one of your books. Did you look up Vahrall demons?” The “as I asked you to?” was heavily implied, making Giles frown as he answered.
 
“I did. And I found much of the information you can’t seem to recall, including the symbol you’ll be looking for to locate the proper crypt. He handed her a piece of paper.
 
“What? You thought I would remember all the details four very busy years later?” Buffy said indignantly.
 
“I’m so sorry,” Giles said with a complete lack of sincerity. “What was I thinking?”
 
Buffy glanced over the short list, and it all came back. She described the Word of Valios, saying, “You have it here, Giles, but you’d better give it to me for safe-keeping.”
 
“I had no idea,” he said. “I’d always assumed it was lost and what I have is a knockoff. I’d never have thought—How did you know?”
 
“In our time, the three demons paid you a visit and took it. Somehow they knew where to find it. If we keep it with us—”
 
Winston coughed and interrupted. “I believe, now that we know what it is and that the Vahralls can locate it through some means we don’t understand, it should be possible to ward the apartment, or at least the hiding place, to make it invisible to them. If they don’t know to look for it here, they cannot take it to use in their ritual.”
 
Giles began digging through a box of random artifacts until he found the talisman and held it up. “We can put it in the safe and then perhaps try to cloak its location.”
 
Buffy shrugged. “That works. I don’t really want to have to fight all three of them at one time if I don’t have to. Even if I do have help,” she added, smiling at Spike and Willow and Xander.
 
“I want to fight one,” Spike said. When everyone stared at him, he muttered, “For old time’s sake. That’s how I found out the chip only worked on humans.”
 
“Okay, fine,” Buffy said, shaking her head at Spike. “You guys do your invisible thing for the talisman, and we’ll try to find the crypt the Vahrall was getting the bones of a child from. I remember that symbol now. There was some reason it had to be that specific set of bones. Spike can relive his glory days there if we catch the one that clobbered me.”
 
“If we have the talisman, and you can find the bones they want to use, that should be enough to thwart the ritual. I presume the blood of a man was someone they brought there to sacrifice?”
 
“Um, no. I think they had a jar of blood with them. And all three of them were to be the sacrifices. So, no talisman, no bones, and maybe we can kill at least one of them if we catch him at the crypt, that should do it, shouldn’t it? No relics and only two demons equals no ritual to open the hellmouth.”
 
“I would think so,” Giles said. “Although I will research it more thoroughly in case we are missing something.”
 
Assuming that the plan would go well, they brainstormed about the other major dangers Buffy knew about. Winston and Willow would work on some charms for Giles, so Ethan’s attempt to change him into a Fyral demon would at worst, not work, and at best backfire in some way.
 
“Um… I’m really not interested in facing a Fyral demon with Ethan’s attitude,” Giles cautioned.
 
“Right. We’ll work on that part of it. Perhaps just making you immune to whatever he tries to give you would do it?”
 
“Won’t he just leave if it doesn’t work?” Willow frowned at Giles, who shook his head.
 
“I’d like to think so, but he can be quite… persistent. Although, if I’m aware of when he’s trying to work the spell, and am close enough  to him, I’m confident I can convince him it’s in his best interest to leave.”  He didn’t elaborate, but Buffy and Willow exchange glances.
 
“That sounds very Ripperish, Giles,” Buffy said with a grin. “Will that work?” 
 
“It did the first time. I don’t believe he waited around for the all the consequences of the candy fiasco. This year’s visit would be his third time in Sunnydale.  What did you say you did with him in your time?”
 
“I pounded on him until he turned you back to you, and then Riley arrested him… or whatever they call it when it’s Army guys doing it” She frowned. “I guess that won’t happen now. What are we going to do with him? I’m not sure I’d want to condemn even Ethan to the Initiative’s custody now that we know more about them. I wonder what they did with him in our time?”
 
“I’m quite sure he made himself so obnoxious they either killed him or threw him out,” Giles said with a grimace. “I take it you’ve never seen him again?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “Nope. Never even heard his name again. What can you do to keep him away if we don’t turn him over to them?”
 
“I’ll think of something.” The expression on Giles’s face didn’t bode well for Ethan’s continued happiness, and Spike gave him a grin and a thumbs up. 
 
“Let’s move on,” Giles said, clearing his throat. “The other thing to worry about is Faith waking up from her coma and somehow swapping bodies with Buffy. We will all need to be very cautious around Faith if we see her, and—”
 
“And, if you have any reason to doubt who I am, ask me something only I would know, ‘k?”
 
“She’s not going to fool me this time,” Spike growled. “I’ll be ready for her.”
 
Buffy rolled her eyes. “It’s all going to be different this time. Everybody’s going to know it could happen, and I’ll know to be careful if I have to fight her so she can’t touch me with that thing the Mayor gave her. And I already warned Mom.”
 
“Just in case, we’ll have another one ready for you to use to switch back right away.” Willow smiled at Winston, who nodded his approval.
 
“Giles… do you think you can ward off the wet works team before they are sent out? We don’t really know how they knew she was awake, but they got here really fast. I don’t want to have to fight them again….”  Buffy paused, remembering what they were like.  “Although I will if I have to. They deserve a good beatdown. And I don’t want them to kill Faith or take her back. We needed her against the First, and she came to help. She’s turned into a pretty good slayer in our time.”
 
“Should I be disturbed that you even know that term… ‘wet works team’?”
 
“I think you should be disturbed that you work for an organization that has such things,” Buffy snapped at him.
 
Giles coughed again. “Right you are. I will see what I can do, but it will have to wait until we know Faith has awakened.”
 
“Maybe we can get somebody in the coma ward on that?” Buffy frowned. “I’ll bet that’s how the Council knew she was awake. Somebody there told them. If we can figure out who it is, and get them to tell us instead….”
 
“Maybe we should just pay a visit,” Spike said. “You know, the current slayer just checking up on her… friend. I doubt anybody there knows how she got into that coma.”
 
“Yeah, maybe.” Buffy shuddered. “I hate hospitals.”
 
Changing the subject, Giles said to Anya, “When you have some free time, Winston and I would love to talk with you about time travel and what sorts of things are and are not possible. If you’re willing, of course.”
 
“I’d be happy to. It would give me something to do while Xander is at work all day and can’t give me orgasms.”  She frowned. “Not that I’m expecting you to do that, just—”
 
Buffy and Spike smothered smiles while, with much coughing and clearing of throats, Giles and Winston assured her that hadn’t even considered that possibility.
 
“Guess we shouldn’t share that they might think they’re engaged a couple of years from now,” Spike whispered in Buffy’s ear.
 
“No! Because that’s probably not going to happen this time.”
 
“I hope you’re right, Joan,” he said, gazing at Willow. “But I wouldn’t count on it.”
 
Buffy poked him on the arm. “Don’t be so negative,” she said in a normal tone of voice.
 
“Fine. Whatever you say, love. What say we go out and start checking out the places on this list?”
 
“You don’t want to hear what Anya has to say about time travel?”  Giles frowned at them.
 
Buffy looked at Spike, then back to Giles and Winston. “Of course we want to know what she says if it’s something we need to know. But we’re not going to be doing anything tonight that should affect the future. I mean the fight in the hellmouth is going to be different anyway because the Initiative guys are probably going to be gone by then. And if we’ve got possession of most of the relics the demons need, they aren’t going to be able to do their ritual, so there won’t be any reason for anybody to have to go down there.”
 
“I doubt changing that failed ritual is going to affect anything. Either way, the ritual never took place.”  Spike glanced at Buffy. “And the other stuff that happened—me finding out I can hit demons, we already know that. And Finn already knows you fight demons and you already know he does, so that’s really not going to be affected by us not having anybody going to visit the hellmouth.”
 
“I guess, just in case, it wouldn’t hurt for us to take a peek in there every night for a while. But we’re not likely to find the Vahrall demons if we have all their relics someplace safe.”
 
“Especially not if we kill any of them we find while we’re looking for their toys.”
 
“There’s that.”
 
Xander frowned at them.  “You know, you two are kinda scary in your old age. And I don’t mean just in the he’s a vampire and you’re a slayer kind of way.”

Buffy gave him a sad smile. “We’ve lived through some pretty… not fun… times in the past few years. People we love have died—we’ve died—and I guess it’s made us a little harder than the Buffy and Spike you know.”  She glanced at Spike, whose raised eyebrows matched the disbelief from the humans in the room. “Okay, maybe not Spike. He was already an evil badass… but he hadn’t died to save the world yet, or fought a demon to get his soul back, and then had to live with—”

“Enough, love. I think they get the picture.” Spike’s hand in hers did as much to stop her as his softly uttered words did, and she broke off her lecture.

“Anyway, yeah. I’m sorry we aren’t quite what you’re used to, but trust me, in our time when you made it to where we were, you were pretty different people too.”
 
“So I’ve been told,” Willow muttered, shooting a glance at Winston.
 
“Not gonna happen this time, Red,” Spike said firmly. “No worries.”
 
“And on that happy note, I think we’ll go look for hellmouth-opening demon relics,” Buffy said as she stood up. She smiled at Anya. “Anything you can add to the pretty much nothing we know about time travel and how many ways it can go wonky, would be greatly appreciated. It’s not that we don’t want to hear it, it’s that remembering and understanding stuff like that is more up Giles and Winston’s watcherly alley.” She gestured between herself and Spike. “We’re kind of better at killing things.”
 
“Like I said, scary,” Xander shuddered theatrically.
 
“And don’t you forget, Harris,” Spike said, laughing at Xander’s expression as they went out the door.
 
XXXXX
 
“You are such an ass!” Buffy pushed Spike off the curb as they started across the parking lot.
 
“Ah, but I’m your ass, love,” he said with a grin. “It had to be said. Need to keep him on his toes.”
 
“We need to keep him trusting us,” Buffy said with a huff. “Not scared to death of one of us.”
 
“Oh, I don’t think you scared him too badly, love. I wouldn’t worry about it.” Spike grinned as he danced away from her irritated swing at his head. 
 
“Very funny. And I repeat, you are an ass.”
 
“And I repeat, I’m your ass,” he said, pivoting in front of her so he could wrap his arms around her. “Always was and always will be.”
 
“I hope you’re right,” she sighed, resting her head against his chest briefly.
 
“You know I am,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “No hopin’ about it.  Now, let’s go find Vahrall demons.”
 
Buffy consulted the paper and said, “Looks like the first stop is Shady Rest where there’s a tomb containing the bones they need. I hope I can remember which tomb it was. I got whacked on the head pretty good that night. We might have to look at a lot of them until we find the one with the symbol on it.”
 
“Shady Rest it is. Not going to be any Buffy-whacking this time.”  He took her hand and they began walking, covering the ground quickly without really seeming to be trying.
 
 
XXXXX
 
 
“How’d we do?” 
 
Spike eyed the bones spread out on their kitchen counter. 
 
“Between these bones and the talisman that Giles and Winston are going to protect, that’s two-thirds of what they needed.  Plus, they should be down to only two demons by now thanks to your temper tantrum, so there goes their “sacrifice of three”.”
 
“Unless there are more of them lurking around Sunnydale than you know of,” Spike pointed out. “Just ‘cause we only saw the three last time, doesn’t mean that’s all there were.”
 
“Way to spoil the moment, Spike.” Buffy glared at him. “Now I’ve got to worry that they might still be able to do the ritual if they find more bones. I’m sure this wasn’t the only child buried in Shady Rest, it was just the one they wanted.”
 
“They can’t do it without the third part, right? And we’ve got a sorcerer, an ignorant but powerful witch, and a whatever Rupert was in his youth working to keep it invisible.”
 
“Invisible and unattainable would make me happier. I think we need to stay on top of this until they run out of time to do their thing.”
 
“Well, we know it’s not tonight, and that they have to find more bones, so we’ll keep checking with the magic team and if they think we need to, we’ll check the hellmouth every night for a while.”
 
 
 
 
XXXX
 
“Well, that was a bit of alright!” Spike was celebrating having managed to kill one of the Vahrall demons with his bare hands, while Buffy wiped her bloody sword off in the sand.
 
“I guess we’d better get this thing back to Giles and make sure he’s all right,” Buffy said, picking the talisman up off the ground around the hellmouth.
 
“Good thing we’ve got these, yeah?” Spike held up his cell phone.
 
“Yep. We might not have gotten here in time if Giles hadn’t warned us.”
 
“So much for magical protection,” Spike snorted.
 
“Apparently magic wards from this world don’t work against Vahrall demons from another dimension. Good to know for the future.”
 
“I’m sure as soon as the watcher is thinking clearly again, he’ll add that information to his records,” Spike said.  “How many concussions to you think he’s had in his lifetime?”
 
“No idea. Lots since he met me.”
 
“Dangerous to know, are you?” Spike said, putting his arms around her.
 
“Dangerous to be around sometimes,” she said, tipping her head back for his kiss. “You never know when you might be watching me and get yourself captured by commandoes.”
 
“Been there, done that. Rather be here now. With you. In our rented home. Where our bed is….”
 
“Giles first, bed later.”
 
“Holdin’ you to that, love. Killing that demon’s got me all sorts of energized.” He smirked at her. “An’ don’t think I can’t tell what that fight and slay did to you.”
 
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Buffy huffed, hiding her smile as she started walking away.
 
“Yes you do….” he sing-songed as he followed her out.