"The master shall rise and the slayer shall fall."

Thank god Xander had been so freaked out about buffy dying that he lost all regard for personal safety or Buffy would be dead, the hellmouth would have opened, and the earth would belong to the demons again. But buffy had beaten that prophecy as she had all the rest. Giles scanned over the rest of the page and recognised another old prophecy.

"From the ashes of the five the anointed shall rise, she will not know him and he shall lead her into hell."

There was something about that one that just didn't seem quite right, but Spike had killed the anointed one a few weeks ago. Still, something about it nagged him. Anyway there were more pressing matters at hand, Vampire activity was on the rise and he had drawn a blank as to the reasons why. Maybe he should follow Jenny's advice and actually read something published after

1066, Giles closed the book and put it back on the shelf and went to see if Jenny and Willow had turned anything up.

Buffy stepped back reeling from that last blow, these guys were getting stronger, saying that though it wasn't necessarily a bad thing it had been a while since she'd had a good fight and it had started to get boring. What was she thinking! Boring was good, stronger usually meant something was up, well either that or the world was running out of vampires and the older ones were coming out of hiding. She doubted the latter thought severely. Her mind began to drift back to parent teacher night, Spike had shown up and she hadn't killed him. In fact it had so very nearly been the other way around as had the confrontation with Chris's brother Daryl the week before, it just served as a reminder not to become complacent, she wasn't invincible by a long way. She wondered about the slayers before her, did they have friends to back them up or was it just them and their watcher, Buffy shuddered to think where she would be without Willow and Xander, probably dead. She suspended the train of thought as the vampire advanced on her, she ducked the punch thrown at her and in one movement spun around the vampire and plunged the stake into his back. The vampire turned to dust before he hit the ground.

"Another one bites the dust eh?"

Said a voice from behind her, she span round to look.

"XANDER. What are you doing here?"

Xander looked nervous and shuffled his feet.

"Uh, well, Willow is with Giles and Miss Calendar trying to find out what's going on with all of this vampire activity, you were out slaying. So I though I'd go down the bronze, you know check out which bands are playing soon, insult Cordelia, The usual."

Xander straightened up and started to look hopeful.

"Then I heard you fighting and came to see if you needed any help."

Buffy couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. Xander was one of her best friends, she knew he loved her and would do almost anything for her, and when he had asked her out she had turned him down and he'd taken it badly. Even after that he had still abandoned all common sense to find Angel and follow her into the Master's lair and save her life. Something for which she had never thanked him. In fact all she had done was treat him badly, She had danced with him that night at the bronze in order to make Angel jealous, that success was some thing which she wasn't very proud of.

"Come on lets go to the bronze."

She said to Xander, "then we'll go and see what the others managed to dig up."

Xander turned to start walking.

"Oh erm Xander."

He turned to face her again, "yeah".

She walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you for saving my life, "Xander smiled.

"Well I...I.it was nothing."

Buffy looked at him.

"Don't say that, what you did was very brave and I just wish I could do more to say thanks."

Xander's face dropped, "just don't OK" he said, " you know I don't really feel like going to the bronze anymore, I'm going home."

He turned and began to walk away.

"Damn," she whispered to herself. She had done it again; she never meant to hurt Xander but every time that subject came up she always seemed to. She looked at him as he walked away all sullen and dejected and couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"Listen, Xander, wait, I'm sorry," she started to run after him.

"Look Buffy just leave me alone, you've made your feelings perfectly clear, why don't you just go to the bronze and see if loverboy shows up."

Tears began to swell in Xander's eyes as he walked off.

Buffy looked just as sullen as Xander had when she walked into the library.

"What's up?" Asked Willow as she looked up from her computer

"Oh, nothing much," she replied. "Just trashed Xander's ego again."

"OH," remarked Willow as she walked over to the phone and began to dial Xander's number.

"Anyway, what did you guys find out," Buffy inquired.

"Nothing," came the reply, "we looked everywhere and didn't turn up a single thing." commented Jenny.

"Well that sure makes things a whole lot easier." remarked Buffy with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"He's not answering the phone," commented Willow. Buffy looked at Willow who was just putting the phone down.

"Do you think he's alright."

Willow answered, "he's probably lay in bed listening to country music that what he usually does."

Buffy just stared at the floor feeling awful.

"Why do I always do this to him. I haven't felt this bad about anything since I met the anointed one on prom night, well I mean it was a different kind of bad, but bad none the less. Know what I mean?" Buffy laughed nervously. Jenny and willow looked at each other puzzled; Giles seemed lost in thought.

"That's it, that's it." Giles exclaimed.

"What's it." the three of them said in unison.

"The Anointed One it wasn't him. She shall not know him, and he shall lead her in...to..hell. Oh dear!"