"And this years award for the most obscure reference to a prophecy goes to..." Joked buffy, "Giles, I mean the anointed one's dead. Spike killed him remember."
"That wasn't him," explained Giles sternly.
"If you remember the prophecy said and I quote, she WILL NOT know him and he will lead her into hell. You knew that the anointed one would be a child."
"Giles I think you're taking this too much to the letter," remarked buffy, there was hint of impatience beginning to creep into her voice.
"I only knew he was a child, I didn't actually know him."
Giles countered, "I found the prophecy in the codex, with slightly different wording and didn't really pay much attention to it. I just thought that it was an error in translation but now it makes sense."
"Rupert what are you going on about?" Jenny spoke up.
"Rupert?" Willow and Buffy asked in unison sounding more than slightly surprised. Giles just looked at them,
"Yes, any way back to the prophecy. What I'm referring to is that the wording given in the codex doesn't necessarily mean he need's to be a stranger, the wording implies that you will not know who he is until he leads you to hell. or in other words it could be anyone."
"I think Giles may be right," everyone turned to look at Willow.
"Giles had worked out the day it was going to happen and something did happen on that night. But and it's a big but, Miss Calendar did point out that his sources didn't accurately work out the Mesopotamian calendar, I just ran the numbers through the computer, and well see for yourself."
Buffy walked over to the computer and looked.
"Tomorrow."
Xander lay on his bed, the CD he reserved for occasions like this was blurting out various country music hits. He had lost count of the number of times he had played it. Why did this keep happening to him. Every woman he ever liked either held a torch for someone else, or was just a big bug. When was his luck going to change. He thought about Buffy. He had saved her life and all she could do was hurt him, the only thing she could think about was Angel, couldn't care less about what he felt. No that was probably a bit harsh she probably didn't mean to, it just kept happening perhaps it would be for the best if he started to avoid her for a while.
The Next day at school Xander and Willow didn't come into the library, it took Buffy a while to track them down. She finally caught up with them in the dining hall, they were sat at a table talking.
"Willow, Xander." she called out
Willow and Xander turned to look at her then Xander made his excuses and left.
"what's got in into him?" Buffy asked.
"He just thinks he should steer clear of you for a while," came the reply.
"Given the circumstances I think it's probably wise."
"Yeah," Buffy conceded.
"But I didn't mean to hurt him, it just happened like it always seemed to."
Willow seemed to sympathise, "I know it's just that I don't like seeing Xander feeling like this, when he feels like this it sorta makes me feel bad that I can't do anything about it. Anyway I've gotta go I arranged to meet Xander in a few minutes."
Buffy looked puzzled, "you mean your not going to come and help us find out what's going on."
"NO. Xander needs me at the moment, besides you've got Giles and Miss Calendar working on that." Buffy looked shocked at Willow's reply.
"But I thought we were a team."
"Yeah. well maybe I don't want to be a part of the team any more." Willow spoke almost angrily, Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why?"
"What you did to Xander wasn't nice."
"But I already said that I didn't mean it." Buffy was shocked.
"Well maybe you should be more careful in future." came the reply,
Buffy just stood there dumbfounded as Willow left.
