Buffy snuck up on Gary Hampshire, one of the council´s army of researchers. He was dunking his tea bag for the third time when she “boo´d” him and he slopped hot, stewed tea over his wrist.

"Gosh, GranB don´t do that! You frightened the life out of me."

Buffy smiled at his use of her nickname. "Wassup Gazzer, you look done in…singin´ the Apocalypse blues?" Buffy leaned on the side of the sink and poured his tea down the sink. "Here I´ll make you a fresh cup."

Gary sat down at the long refectory table and held his head in his hands. The research department had been tracking the latest portents of a new apocalypse for three months and they were still no closer deciphering the prophecy. None of the staff were fluent in ancient Sumerian; a fact they hadn´t told Buffy yet.

His tea appeared before him and Buffy slid into the seat opposite him; her own coffee steaming before her.

"Ok, Gary, you´ve drawn the short straw…you can´t get any further because…"

"None of us can translate from Sumerian." His eyes lasered into the table. Buffy sighed but remained silent. This gave him courage. "I´m afraid only the senior Watchers were required…"

"Giles could do it and he´d kill anyone who labelled him senior anything." She smiled bitterly. "It seems this Apocalypse has hiccups. Eighteen years ago they all died except me…"

Giles sat surrounded by coffee cups and half-eaten meals. He traced references with his finger and turned pages voraciously, checking and double-checking to reveal any clue to help Buffy. He found none.

He pushed the books aside and pulled off his spectacles, his eyes squeezed shut over hot tears of frustration. Buffy was thirty years old, if he didn´t find anything in the next few days she wouldn´t see thirty-one.

The phone rang and he pounced on it, it was Buffy asking if he was all right and whether he had found anything.

"Nothing yet, Buffy, but that doesn´t mean there is nothing to find." He cast a glance about his book littered floor. "There might be something in the rare book collection of the British Museum. I could call in a few favours."

Buffy was being extra patient, he could tell, in recent years a bond of mutual respect and trust had formed between them. Each knew the other would deliver their best or perish in the attempt.

Giles hung up the phone determined that Fate would not have another Slayer´s life not while he had breath in his body.

Giles cradled the book in his arms like a babe. The courier, Gary Hampshire, had travelled with the volume to ensure its safe arrival. He was a young man of twenty with serious grey eyes that lit up when he was excited.

Giles made them tea whilst Gary perused his bookshelves. "Mr. Giles, some of these books were thought lost centuries ago…" He picked up a thick leather bound almanac and gazed at the title. "…this one has annotations…um, last Monday? There was an incident last Monday?"

"Yes, a small gathering of "Thrypin". They invited us to their monarch´s embalmment ritual… Turns out they´re not "flesh eating" demons after all."

Gary´s brows had nearly climbed off his forehead by the end of recounting the ritual.

"Willow adapted Thrypin dipping syrup into a rather tasty salad dressing…how did you like lunch?" Giles couldn´t suppress a giggle when his guest choked on his last mouthful of baby leaf spinach. He recovered quickly though as Giles cleared the table for the evening research session.

Gary left just as Willow and Xander arrived, each of them exchanged glances with Giles before slipping uninvited through his open door.

Much later in the evening they had drawn a blank on the coming apocalypse and there seemed only one course of action to save the Slayers life. A sacrifice was required.

"Willow, I need to discuss something with you…" Giles drew Willow apart from Xander and spoke in sotto tones to her, Xander only became aware of some of the conversation as his friend began to weep and hug Giles.

Xander had never seen the two of them so close, it made him feel isolated and "out of the loop". Soon Willow released Giles and the two of them exchanged a curt nod, an understanding had been reached between them, where one led the other would follow.

Buffy fell silent lost in her own thoughts. Gary poured his cold tea away and made a fresh pot for them both.

"Did he let you know what he was doing? Did any of them hint…"

"No." Buffy shook her head and wiped the tear from her eyelashes. "I had no clue, I believed we were going to win, vanquish the demon and go home for pizza… Just like we always did. It was the one time that Willow lied to me, I don´t think Xander knew either, they were the best friends anyone could ever wish for and I love them dearly."

She stared into her teacup and re-lived the last moments of the battle. Giles stood like an oak in the centre of the battlefield knee deep in slain demon. His eyes and expression were grim with determination. She had been fighting the ´biggest bad´ for a couple of hours, spurred on by the enemies´ screams of agony as she put them to the sword.

Then the battle noise fell away and she heard quite distinctly the fight between Giles and his opponent, the clash of steel on steel and bone crunching blows. She saw Xander stagger and fall, his arm loosely cradling his stomach. Immediately Willow was at his side throwing a magical force field over her friend.

Giles flinched, as he seemed to feel Xander´s death. He spared a glance at Willow and she released the force field, it settled over Buffy. The Slayer was safe. Willow lay beside Xander gratefully and surrendered to her own mortal wound.

Buffy screamed and hurled herself at the invisible barrier. It was strong, stronger than the Slayer, built with love. Willow was gone but her love remained.

Giles squared his shoulders and beat back the demon twice more before finally succumbing to a broadsword ripping through his spine. The instant that happened an energy bolt cracked open the ground on which they fought and swallowed everything, Willow, Xander, Giles and demon army all gone.

Buffy reached out a shaking hand to test the force field it too had evaporated. She crawled over to where Giles had fought so bravely and picked up that which remained …his eyeglasses, she cast around for any sign there had been a battle there moments before but there was none. Bird song, the scent of forest flowers and the busy-ness of bees replaced the cacophony of the apocalypse.

End Part 2

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