The three stood in a triangle around the pentagram. In the middle of the pentagram was a shimmering area of kaleidoscopic colour, with a picture in the middle. It showed the Scoobies in the Magic Box, poring over some long lost book, in the attempt to find the answer to another apocalypse.
The first raised its eyes. “They are the ones…” the voice sounded like a whisper, quiet and incredibly sensuous, while hiding a under a mask, power utterly incomprehensible.
The second nodded. “Indeed…”
The third shook its head, and looked further into the image. “It could lead to… problems… we have never used such a one before…”
“Nevertheless, he is the one.”
“He must be Chosen, as the girl was.”
“They will not like it, there has not been a Male Slayer for over a millennia. It will upset the balance…”
“The First Evil has played its hand, and now it is our turn. The Return must not be aborted.”
The three nodded and vanished.
Buffy stood next to Xander, with the others around a book that Giles had ordered from Britain. It freaked her out, and very few things ever did that to the Slayer anymore. The book appeared bound in some shimmering material, and it was hard to describe what it looked like, slightly ethereal. The pages disturbed her even more, they were thick, and had the distinct smell of rotting flesh, the words were all in some weird language as well. Giles had called it the ‘tongue of the Ancients,’ but Buffy didn’t know what that meant.
All she knew was, Giles said he could read it, and that was what he was doing, but as soon as he stopped, the words went right out of her head. That in itself wasn’t unusual, except that she could usually remember at least a few words, enough for a witty comeback when Giles accused her of not paying attention and making eyes with Xander.
“Remember that this is a very broad translation, and that it might not be completely accurate.” Said Giles. He started to read. “And it shall be that the… Three… shall come again to this world… pain and… torment… shall be their Riders, and the Chosen Ones shall fight from the depths of their souls to force back the nightmare…” He looked up at the assembled teens.
“What was I saying?” he asked puzzled.
“No clue.” Said Xander.
“Can’t remember…” Said Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn.
“What’d ya say, mate?” asked Spike, oblivious.
“Interesting…” Giles trailed off, his mind already churning with the possibility of another mystery to solve; another prophecy to avert.
While Giles and Willow were trying to find a way to read the prophecy, Buffy and Xander decided to have some quality slaying time together. Hence, they were now patrolling through the major cemeteries in Sunnydale, hoping that a vampire would be stupid enough to cross the Slayer’s path.
They had no luck whatsoever, and because of this, decided to turn slay time into grope time. The two were thus engaged when Spike arrived.
“Oh, bloody hell!” Spike muttered as he saw the couple fondling each other. He got nearer and raised his voice. “Well, well, well… what have we got here? Looks like two naughty truants! And I thought you kiddies were going to go kill vampires?”
Buffy disengaged herself from a passionate kiss from Xander, and shot Spike a dangerous look. “You want to volunteer? There’s always a window in my schedule for giving you a new home in a dust-buster.”
Xander straightened up and looked at Spike curiously. “What did you want Spike?”
Spike looked surprised at the civil question from Droopy. “G-Man sent me to go fetch you, he’s found a way to read the prophecy.”
Buffy looked sour. “G-Man?”
Xander looked insulted, and a little angry. “Hey, I put a trademark on that!”
“Copyright.” Buffy mumbled to herself. Xander caught the remark.
“Yeah, whatever… copyright, trademark, all rights reserved, who cares?”
“The government?” Buffy shot back innocently.
Spike shook his head. “God, you two are so sickening you remind me of Peaches.”
Xander pulled out a stake and advanced slowly, nearly menacing. “Peaches? You’re comparing ME to Angel? You must die for that insult to my honour!”
Both Buffy and Spike looked at him, and he put the stake away sheepishly. “OK, so you wont, but you might do someday.”
Spike just rolled his eyes. “Wanker.”
Buffy grabbed Xander's hand. “Right, Spike. Giles sent you to get us. Are you coming back too? Or going hunting?”
“Me? I’m gonna go cruise, look cool, get me some ass, and generally do all the thing a big bad vampire does.” Spike puffed up a bit.
Buffy nodded, before sighing in sympathy. “Right. Shame you’re like a little neutered puppy dog though, isn’t it?”
Spike shot daggers at her with his eyes and stalked off. Streams of swear words could be heard floating back to Buffy and Xander, carried by the wind.
Xander looked at Buffy. “You’re awfully mean to him sometimes.” He observed.
“Yeah, but hey, it’s fun,” said Buffy, “and you did when you looked after him.”
Xander snorted. “I was allowed. He was the most definitely unwanted roommate. Although, in hindsight, he was probably better than Anya.”
Buffy wrinkled her nose.
He narrowed his eyes and shot back at her, “Not that way, Pervert!”
Buffy smirked. “But you like it!”
Xander nodded in rueful agreement at Buffy’s statement. “True.”
“Giles? Spike said you found a way to read it?”
Giles nodded, and continued with the preparations for what he was about to do. Opening the book at the first page, he placed it on a scanner that Willow had brought from her dorm. He turned to Willow suspiciously, his eyes tight. “And you are sure that this infernal contraption will not, in any way, damage this book? It is absolutely irreplaceable…”
Willow sighed and rolled her eyes, before turning round on the chair she was sitting on in front of the computer and fixing Giles with a stare. “Giles, I am one hundred percent sure that the scanner will not damage the book, OK?” she turned back to the computer, muttering to herself, “Jeez, you’d think that I had to incinerate it or something…”
Giles caught the comment and leapt out off of his desk, reaching for his precious book. “WHAT? You need to BURN it?”
Buffy shook her head and stepped forward, gripping Giles by his arm and pulling him backwards, away from the scanner. “Giles, all of us have used scanners in computer class, and we can all state categorically that no burning is involved!”
Giles seemed to calm down somewhat after the assurance of all of the teens there, but still kept a watchful eye out.
Willow turned back to the computer and spent a few seconds navigating around, clicking the mouse and pressing keys so fast her fingers were a blur. Finally she stopped. “OK, it should be ready now…”
Willow moved the mouse over the ‘SCAN’ button, and clicked. As the scanner whirred, Giles looked ready to grab for his book again, but Buffy put a firm hand on his shoulder, forcing him to remain seated.
When the scanner stopped, the page appeared on the screen, and Willow ran the OCR engine of the software. Saving the page as a text file so that Giles could read it after she had printed it up, Willow started on the next page.
While it whirred again, Willow turned to the others in the room. “You might as well go home, guys. This is gonna take a while. I’ll call you when Giles and I have finished it.”
Buffy and Xander nodded, and headed for the door. It was difficult to decide who was dragging whom. Buffy turned at the door and smirked, “right, Wills. You’ll call us. See ya.”
With that, they were gone, until Xander poked his head round the door again. “Oh, Wills, don’t worry about trying my house. I’ll be at Buffy’s.”
Willow nodded and shooed him out the door.
Giles watched the two leave, a strange expression on his face. “Won’t those two ever grow up?”
Willow gave him an incredulous look. “Who? Xander? Grow up?”
Giles shook his head. “Mm… I suppose you’re right… this is Xander, after all…”
“Buff?”
Buffy turned over in bed, to look at Xander. “Hm?”
“Do you… do you ever think that it would, I don’t know… er, be…” Xander struggled with what he was trying to say, and eventually his faltering speech ground to a halt.
“Be what?” Buffy asked.
Xander shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know… better?”
Buffy sat up, and fixed Xander with her patented death glare. “Be better what?” She straddled him over his hips, and pinned Xander’s arms to the bed, leaving her face close to his. “Are we going to hold a civilised conversation, or am I going to have to extract it one word at a time?”
“How do you plan on doing it?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Maybe through… torture.”
Xander swallowed, suddenly acutely aware of how exposed he was in the position Buffy had him pinned. “Torture?”
Buffy smiled. It was a feral smile, one that Xander could remember seeing in the mirror when possessed by the Hyena. “Torture.” Buffy said with absolute surety in her voice.
Xander decided to push his luck. “What sort of Torture?”
Buffy giggled, and then clamped down on it quickly. “Did I hear a capital letter on that T?”
“Um… yes?” Xander replied nervously, “You did.”
“Good.” Buffy bent her head down, and her face disappeared behind a veil of blonde hair as it fell forward.
Xander felt one quick sensation, and his concerns floated away on a sea of passion.