“Good morning, Giles,” Buffy smiled as she walked into the library. Her Watcher seemed unusually preoccupied with the Los Angeles Times this morning. “Hell-o! Earth to Giles! You know, the least you could do is go ‘hm…?’”
“Hm…? Oh, uh, Buffy. How are you this morning?” Giles continued to read the paper.
“Peachy. What are you reading this morning? How come it’s… normal? Aren’t you suppose to be concentrating on something more Hellmouthy?”
Giles glanced at the paper again. “Yes, uh, well- here, Buffy, read this.”
Buffy took the paper and glanced at its news summary and picture. Her eyes widened in shock. “That symbol…” Giles noticed her reaction.
“You seem to recognize it. How is that?”
“I dreamt of it last nite,” Buffy replied, still reading the article. “It seems that they couldn’t open it either. I knew I couldn’t.”
“You dreamt this, Buffy?”
“Yeah, another one of those full, 3-D, surround sound effects too.” The school bell rang. “Oop! I gotta go, Giles. Couldn’t have me failing chemistry, now would we?” She dashed out. Giles shook his head ruefully. His humor died when he glanced at the picture again.
* * *
“Giles was in one of those moods again. Only this time, he wasn’t burying his nose some dusty old book. Would you believe that he picked up the Los Angeles Times, for once?” Buffy was talking to Willow while they were headed for the library after school. “Well, whatever. This shouldn’t be something I can’t handle, right? I mean, look at my credentials.”
“Yeah, human-eating insects, zombies, baby-eating demons... I’d say you kicked some- yah!” Willow stumbled forward. She turned around to see who shoved her. “Xander! What was that for?”
“Only my overwhelming excitement to see the both of you,” Xander replied, grinning.
“I definitely felt the love for both of us, Xander. But next time, could you split your excitement?”
“Anytime, Will,” Xander said, unable to keep his grin off his face. The three entered the library.
“Yo, G-man! Got any bad news for us?”
Giles gave Xander an irritable look. “It seems that box the Los Angeles Times had an article on contains instructions of some sort that would make the, uh… supposed Apocalypse a mere dent in human history.”
“But what’s that got to do with us? I mean, the box isn’t here. It’s in…” Xander trailed off and looked at Giles for some help.
“A museum in L.A. I’m not sure where exactly is it. The paper didn’t say,” Giles supplied.
“Yeah, there,” Xander finished lamely. “Anyway, the point is, Buffy is in Sunnydale. The box is in L.A. What’s the connection? Unless you consider her being from L.A. before the whole let’s-burn-down-the-school-…” Xander looked at Buffy and hurriedly went on. “Uh, or she had one of those hallucinations in her sleep. You know, since her job’s pretty traumatic and al-” he glanced at Buffy again. “I’ll stop now.”
“Thanks, Xander. Your tact today is the best I’ve heard so far,” Buffy smirked.
“Um, getting back to the point,” Willow interuptted, “it’s not anything Buffy can’t handle right, Giles?”
Xander threw his hands up in the air. “And you guys yell at me for jinxing! What you just said was the ultimate taboo!”
Giles hurriedly went on before any impending argument could develop. “Ever since this morning I was trying to remember where I saw such on image of the symbol on the box and I found this.” He showed them an old leather book that was cracking on the edges. Something illegible was titled in fading gold letters.
“Giles, why can’t any of the books you use be spanking new for once?” Buffy asked looking at the leather volume with distaste.
Giles ignored her comment. “This volume is in ancient Latin and is extremely obscure and cryptic. This is the only book of its kind. There is no other copy. It does mention briefly about the symbol and box that is mentioned in the paper this morning.” Carefully, he turned to where it was referenced. “Unfortunately, I can’t make out the entire meaning of what little information the author provided. From what I can deduce, this box is part of some ritual in freeing a demon from an Otherworld. It also appears that its reputation is rather unsavory.”
“So what’s the deal? No one can open up that box and we’re the only ones who know about this and I don’t think anyone here has a burning desire to free a demon that would take over the world, right?” Willow looked around. Giles cleared his throat.
“This book was one of many given to me by the Watchers’ Council when I was sent to Sunnydale. It is my guess that the book had various owners before me. There is a slight possibility that one of them would recognize such a symbol and would try to exploit such an opportunity for personal gain.”
“Boy, you Watchers sure are a group of bad asses, aren’t ya?” Xander quipped.
“Hardly,” Giles huffed, “did we forget Gwendolyn Post so soon?”
“Which reminds me, I have to meet Faith at the Grey Oaks Cemetery in two hours and before that Mom and I had plans for a quality mother-daughter bonding activity: grocery shopping. Gotta run, I’ll fill in Faith with what’s going on… or not.” Buffy headed towards the door.
“Need I remind you to be careful?” Giles called after her. Buffy continued to head for the door. “I suppose not,” he sighed.
* * *
Abbey woke up to her alarm clock ringing. Disoriented, she looked her watch. 7:30 AM it read. Distantly, she remembered her conversation with Cyrus hours before. He was going to call again, eventually. Abbey was too disgruntled to even think about that impending conversation. Central 6 was a relentless organization. She never asked for the position she held. Heck, sometimes she wished she had never heard of Central 6.
She got out of bed and went to her window. She stared down at the bustling people going to their various destinations and couldn’t help but wonder at the vast ignorance the world had. About the countless times it stood at the brink of oblivion, slavery, and torture… how its fate often depended on her and only her. It was a burden that was starting to weigh heavily on her. And her last assignment- Abbey shook her head. Her cell phone went off.
“Hello?” she asked, having a feeling she already knew who it was.
“Good evening.”
“Evening is good but the dark is better,” she replied, not bothering to cover her irritation.
“Look, Abbey, about last night-”
“Early morning more like it.”
Cyrus ignored her interruption. “I apologize for calling so late. I had forgotten about time differences. It was just that the matter was extremely urgent and I had to bring to it your attention right away.”
“Look, Cyrus, my mind hasn’t changed since three in the morning. If at all possible, I think I deserve a break. I’m not up to going around and saving the world. Again. Tell Central to find someone else to run errands for them.”
“Abbey, you’ve got to put things in the past. You can’t just mope around wallowing yourself in self-pity. You need to move on.”
“Move on to what!” she exploded. “Move on so that I might have to deal with another scenario like the last time? Is that what you want! Dammit, Cyrus, that was barely a week ago! You want me to go out there and do it again?!” Abbey was getting emotional now but she didn’t care. She was sick of all this. Sick of the responsibility, the burden. She longed for any job than this. She was willing to live the rest of her life as a secretary to give up what she was going through now.
“Abbey, please don’t make me order you. Central 6 believes that you are the best one at the moment to handle this situation. Look, I can arrange it so that you and I’ll be partners if you wa-”
“No,” she interrupted coldly. “I’ll do your shit assignment but this time I’m working ALONE.”
“Abbey, you can’t possibly do this all by yourself.”
“I insist. The assignment, Cyrus. Spit it out.”
Abbey heard him let go a frustrated sigh. she thought.
“We’ve contacted the Watchers’ Council and they gave us a list of people in the past ten years who possessed a certain book entitled ‘Dimensional Portals to Otherworlds.’ That book had been circulated among the Watchers for quite some time. Especially for those who were stationed near or on hellmouths. I sent it through our e-mail system. We’ve already sorted for you who’s dead, who’s renegade, etc. Central 6 also wants you to keep an eye on the current owner of the book: a Watcher who goes by the name of Rupert Giles. Our sources believe that he is currently in charge of a vampire slayer. Also, you’ll need to get the vessel containing the Gynedon Codex.”
“That implies a certain amount of burglary, I assume.”
“You’re hardly a novice of that sort, Abbey. The Codex is in the Ancient History Museum in Los Angeles. I recommend that you go there first before heading to Sunnydale. That’s where the book is currently. We’ll call once you settle in Sunnydale.” Cyrus paused. “Abbey, about your partner…”
“Cyrus,” she said firmly. “If you want me to do this, I’m going to do this on my own. Other than that, I’m ready to take an unusually long, premature break from my line of work. Good bye.”
Abbey glanced at her watch. 8:08 AM. She had to pack again. She intended to take the most earliest direct flight to L.A. as soon as possible. She wanted this assignment over quickly.
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