Unknown Factors (Book One)

Ch.81: Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over

  "It's a loop." Xander paused his sweeping. "Like the mummy hand. I'm doomed to replace these windows for all eternity. Hey, maybe we should just board these things up until things are less Hellmouth-y." He pointed at the large window in the living room.

  "Nothing. And nothing." Anya stated while stacking up the books she had read through. "Cliff notes to nothing. Nothing abridged."

  "My searches aren't turning up anything either." Willow waved her hand to her laptop. "Are you sure this thing called itself The First?" She asked Buffy.

  "Pretty sure. It claimed itself to be the original evil. The one that came before anything else."

  "Please, how many times have I heard that lie in my demon days?" Anya popped off. "'I'm so rotten they don't even have a word for it. I'm bad, baddy-bad, bad bad. Does it make you horny?'" She mocked and there was a pause. "Or terrified, whatever."

  "When I came up against this thing, it.... I felt it. It was ancient and enormous, and it nearly got Angel to kill himself. And, if we don't rescue Spike soon, God only knows what The First will get him to do." Buffy sighed as my tail was whipping back and forth with agitation.

  "I wish sleeping ugly would come through, he's been out all night."

  "Yeah, he was just starting to squeal when spooky squad attacked. Said The First was held up in the Seal of....Danzar or something." Anya said as Dawn got up from the couch and crossed her arms while walking over to Andrew.

  "Maybe he's just faking so he doesn't have to answer any more questions." Dawn suggested, and my ears perked when I heard a loud smack. "Or maybe he's in a fugue state."

  "Dawn." Buffy stopped her sister from slapping the guy again.

  "What?"

  "He'll come to when he comes to. Keep reading. To rescue Spike, we need to figure out how to fight this thing."

  "Hey! Here! The First!" Willow sounded excited. "....Bank of Delaware, sorry."

  "Hey, Aud, there wouldn't possibly, miraculously, be anything about The First in that journal of yours, would there?" Buffy sighed.

  "No, wrong dimension."

  "Shoot." And quiet returned as Xander went back to sweeping, and everyone else returned to the books or screen they were using to find the needed information. Grabbing another book after combing through the last, I dropped it into my lap while flipping it open.

~

  "It's around this corner, I think." Andrew said while leading us through the school basement.

  "Better be right this time." Buffy said firmly.

  "I told you....I'm not sure."

  "Maybe you should get sure." Xander popped off. "I'm sick of all the run around with you- ....Woah." We entered a dirt-floored room with a giant, silver seal dug up in the middle of the floor. "Check out the goat-headed badness."

  "What's it do?" The Slayer asked, and I hardly realized when my tail grew out and started flicking from the blood I smelled in the air.

  "I don't know. Something not good." Andrew replied. "It didn't work because there wasn't enough blood. Okay!" He turned to leave and Buffy stopped him.

  "There's blood on this." Dawn stated as she was standing next to something built from metal and wood. "Oh, my God. It looks like The First made another sacrifice. Or a music video."