Part One

She waited.

She waited for him to come home.

Minutes turned into hours. Hours turned into days...and still, nothing.

And then, when she was done waiting...she cried. Not because she was sad at the loss of her “Father”, that was an emotion lost the moment she died, but because she was alone for the first time in her young life.

And she was afraid.

Emily Wilson had so much to look forward to, not long ago. But all of her hopes and dreams turned into nightmares the night she was kidnapped from her home. She was supposed to be Mr. Trick’s insurance policy, or so she overheard him say to that mean redheaded boy. A guarantee that her Daddy would do what he asked and kill the Slayer.

Only, things didn’t go the way he wanted, almost from the beginning. Instead of the Slayer being poisoned, it was her Watcher (whatever that meant) who was the victim, and that made Trick mad. Oh, he never showed it in front of his subordinants, but she knew he was angry...she could feel it. She couldn’t explain how, being only nine and all, but sometimes...if she closed her eyes and really concentrated hard, she could almost “taste” the rage he had kept so well hidden from the others.

And perhaps that was what made Trick want her for his own child. There was something about the young girl that intrigued him...something that urged him to go one step future. And then one night, he opened the secret panel, looked upon the frightened little girl and smiled, “Hello Emily,” he said, as proper as he could, “My, do you look pretty today. And how do you feel?”

“I-I want my Daddy,” she had said to him, trying hard not to cry.

“Yes...yes, I know,” he tried to console her, kneeling down beside the chair he had her bound to.

But she knew better. She could “taste” the hunger growing inside him, and feared it. She was only nine, but she knew then that she was going to die. “Are you gong to kill me?” She asked, already knowing what he was going to say.

“No...no,” Trick tried to convince her, as he stroked her long brown hair, “To kill such a beautiful flower like yourself would be a sin. I just want to make the beauty to last...forever.”

With that, he sunk his long, sharp teeth into her soft neck.

As she paced the carpeted floor of the study, five months later, she could still remember what it felt like when he “took” her. He was so gentle, she almost felt no pain. She remembered feeling as though she was floating away from herself, off to the land of fairies, where no monsters lived. She could see a light off in the distance, and the sweet, sweet callings of her mother’s voice.

But her mother had died when she was six...

As she approached the warm light, something stopped her, tugging on her arm. Then, she remembered hearing his voice breaking through the light. He told her to drink. Drink what? she thought. But she suddenly found herself quite thirsty, so she listened to the voice...and drank.

It was then, that she felt the pain.

In the dark void of her fading mind, she could see the approach of something evil. She knew she had to get to the light before the bad thing got her, but it was too fast. And as she about to reach the warm embracing light, a part of her was ripped away by the dark one, trapping her in the void, forever.

Ah, but that was then...and this was now. And the demon, that ripped her memories from her soul and took residence in her small body, was doing just fine. Fine, except for the fact that Mr. Trick hadn’t come back to the lavish house in two day...and Emily was getting worried.

She heard the front door of the house open and raced to greet the visitor, whom she thought would be her “Father”. Instead, she was greeted by Jack, one of the many vampires that worked for Trick. He looked wreaked. His clothes where torn and he was sporting several deep gashes, and bruises all over his body. He stumbled into the foyer and fell to the floor.

Emily rushed to his side and put both tiny hands on his face, “What happened?” She asked...or rather, demanded, “Where is my Father?”

“W-we were jumped,” Jack trembled, holding his bloodied arm, “We were supposed to kill the Slayer, b-but there where two of them and...t-they...t-they...”

“They what?”

“They k-killed him.”

Emily, still holding the vampire’s face in her hands, looked deep into his eyes...straight to his soul and asked, “And you did nothing to stop this?”

There was something about this little “girl” that was un-natural, and quite evil...even by demon standards. Something that made the larger demon quake with fear, “I-I t-tried to help h-him b-but it happened so fast....I-I’m so sorry...” he began to cry with fear.

The little girl gave him an angelic smile and stroked his hair, the same way Trick had stroked her’s, and said, “Don’t worry, it’s okay. You were a very bad boy, leaving my Father to die...but I forgive you.”

Jack looked at her, through his tears and choked out, “Y-you do?”

“Oh, yes,” Emily cooed, “But, you’re wrong. There was one thing you could have done...”

“What?”

The angelic smile turned cold and hard, as her grip on his head grew tighter, “By dying at his side,” she said, snapping his neck off like it was a dried twig.

Emily watched the body explode into dust, and stood up. Brushing the dust from her pretty pink and white dress, she walked back into the study. Edgar, the human manservant to the house, and personal servant to Emily was there, arms folded behind his back. He had known her shortly after she became a vampire, hired by Trick to see to the girl’s “Formal Education”, but became more than just a teacher. Other than Trick, he was the only other person the little girl trusted...and cared for.

And now, he was disappointed with her.

“You didn’t have to kill him,” the man said with a soft, English accent, “He was loyal to you Father, and to you...”

“He was weak!” she said, her temper began to rise, “And no, he wasn’t loyal. If he were, he wouldn’t have been alive to come back here!”

“And you would have never known the fate of your Father,” Edgar said, soothingly. He sat down on the love seat, and gave a small pat next to him. Emily, reluctantly went over to him and sat down, beside the man. “You see, my dear,” he continued, “Sometimes, the better part of valor is knowing when to retreat to fight another day. Jack escaped, to warn you that the Slayers have gotten to Mr. Trick...and they might come after you. We have done everything we could to hide your existence to them, but with him gone, your safety will most certainly be compromised.”

Emily got up and went over to the computer. She turned on the monitor and sat down at the keyboard. With incredible speed, her fingers flew across the keys. She then stopped and turned to face Edgar, who was looking at her with great curiosity, “Don’t worry about me, sweet Edgar,” she smiled, “My safety won’t be a problem.”

“Why is that?”

She looked at the screen and hit the return key, “Because I’m going to kill those two bitches.”

~~~~~~

Rupert Giles sat at his desk, catching up on a mountain of paperwork. Ever since he was relieved of his duties as Watcher, he found he had a lot more time on his hands. And, for a man who was used to balancing his life at being a Watcher and Librarian, this was slowly driving him insane.

He wished he could have sent Mr. Windham-Price straight back to England, where he belonged, but that was never an option. The young, inexperienced Watcher was now in charge, and all Giles could do was sit on the side lines, and wait. Well, he wasn’t exactly out of the picture, completely. After all, with Windham-Price being so inexperienced, he did have his hands full, trying to keep the young man from either getting himself killed, or getting Buffy killed as well.

But, it just wasn’t the same.

He, was Buffy’s Watcher, and should still be, if it weren’t for the Council’s idiotic ruling. Caring too much, indeed! What was he supposed to do, send Buffy out to battle the forces of darkness and not give a rat’s ass of what’s to become of her? She was more than just a faceless warrior, fighting evil...she was a beautiful, caring, young woman, who deserved to have a chance to live. And if doing everything in his power to see to that, meant he cared too much...then the Council be damned!

But that didn’t change the fact that he was starting to go stir crazy!

And now with the Mayor up to something, and poor Faith, still in denial of what she had done only two days ago, that last thing Giles wanted was for his hands to be tied. He need to take action...to do something to find out exactly what the Mayor had planned, and he needed to do it soon. But, he knew he couldn’t do it alone.

Willow, bless her heart, had offered to help Giles get to the bottom of the Mysterious Mayor, using her considerable skills as a computer whiz to try to hack into the incumbent’s files. But with every attempt she made, there was an even greater obstacle to overcome. But, the former Watcher had confidence that they would eventually discover the truth behind the secrets.

He had only hoped that it didn’t come too late to be able stop it.

“Hi Giles,” Willow said, knocking on the wooden frame of the door to his office, “I have a free, so I thought I’d give it another crack. Hey,” she smiled, seeing the mounds of papers stacked on his desk, “You better clear that out, before someone gets any ideas, and thinks you’re a real Librarian.”

Giles looked up at the young redhead and smiled wearily, “Very funny Willow. Note, I’m hysterical with laughter. Do, you think you might have more luck with the files today?”

“Don’t know ‘til I try,” Willow said truthfully, “He’s got some pretty nasty ice to crack. And encryption codes that makes the ones in the Pentagon look Sesame Street...not that I’ve ever been in the files of the Pentagon...well, just once, and that was an accident...” She saw the blank expression on the older man’s face and realized she slipped into cyberspeak again, which was one of the few languages the Watcher didn’t know, “The Mayor has a lot of security protecting his files. What ever his hiding, he doesn’t want anyone to see. Don’t worry, it might take me some time, but I think I can crack the codes...I hope.”

Giles watched as the young woman bounded off for the computer, and smiled. She was so willing to risk her life time after time for Buffy, and for her friends. She wasn’t a Slayer...or a Watcher, for that matter, and yet she stood side by side with Oz, Xander and sometimes ever Cordelia, to help the cause. She was a true hero, because she didn’t have to be one. And for that, Giles had a great deal of respect for the eighteen year old high school student.

He stood up from his desk and stretched his tall frame. He had been stuck in Admin. Hell for the better part of the day, and seemed no closer to shrinking the “pile-o-papers”, than he was when he first started. Maybe there was a magical spell cast on the desk to keep the papers form disappearing, for every time he finished one project, he somehow found ten others to do. His only conciliation was that Snyder probably had just as much, if not more paperwork, as School Principal, than he had as School Librarian. Of course with the way his luck was running, Herr Principal probably loved doing it...or just handed it off to some poor unsuspecting secretary.

If Sunnydale High was Hell, then Snyder would be Satan. Snyder? Satan? Mmmm...sounds similar....coincidence?

Giles walked into the main room and sauntered over to the computer where Willow was hard at work. He watched the intense concentration on her face, as her hands flew across the keyboard, trying to unlock the secrets hidden within. He pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. Try as he might, he could never comprehend how she did it...how she understood all of that technical jargon that scrolled across the screen. Recently he was beginning to learn a little about computers, a fact that would have made Jenny proud, but he knew he would never be as adept at traveling through the Information Super Highway as Willow was in so few years.

“Um, Giles,” Willow murmured, “It’s kinda hard doing this with you over my shoulder...I’m nervous enough as it is.”

“What? Oh, yes...right,” he said, quickly getting to his feet, “Sorry. I-I’ll be in my office if you need me...doing my...” He groaned, “paperwork.”

Willow turned her head and watched Giles drag himself back to his office. She felt a little bad, banishing him like that, but she needed absolute concentration, and with Giles breathing down her neck like that...it was like taking a test with the teacher scrutinizing every move...make for bad results.

Her eyes followed the numbers and letters that randomly scrolled across the screen and sighed. This was not going to be easy. If she could just get in long enough to download some info, before he could lock her out again...

She paused, and stared curiously at the screen. The encryption codes vanished leaving the monitor blank. Did, she get in? She didn’t think so, but this was strange. Unless, he blocked her efforts and crashed her drive in the process. That was always a possibility. Then again...

The blackness of the screen was suddenly replaced by one ominous word. Willow read it silently to herself, not quite knowing what to do next, and too afraid to speak...

DIE!

Suddenly fingers of electricity shot out of the computer as the machine began to short-circuit. But before she could get out of harm’s way, she felt a surge of energy pass through her, heard herself scream and then...blackness.

Giles raced out of the office to find Willow crumpled on the floor ten feet from the computer, which was now a smoldering ruin. He quickly knelt down beside her and felt for a pulse. She was still alive, but unconscious. When he cradled her small body next to his, he could feel her quivering, as though she was electrified. He stroked her hair and called out her name, over and over, trying to bring her back from the land of darkness.

At that moment, the dismissal bell rang and the hall began to flood with students making a mad dash for their freedom from their daily imprisonment. And a moment later, Buffy, followed by Xander and Oz walked through the library doors, “Hey, Giles, what’s...” Buffy began. Then seeing the Watcher and a sleeping Willow huddled on the floor, the three ran over to them, “Oh, my god!” She cried out, “What happened to Willow?”

Oz knelt down beside them, and Giles gently handed Willow, to the young man. He stood up and shook his head, “I-I don’t know,” he said truthfully, “I-I was i-in my office doing paperwork while Willow was trying to...ah-ah...hack into the Mayor’s files, when I-I heard her scream. I got out here to find her on the floor, unconscious.”

Willow moaned softly, and her eyes began to flutter open, “I think she’s gonna be okay,” Oz announced to the group, who looked on in concern.

Xander turned to the computer and gaped at it, “Wow, what the hell happened here? It looks like the computer blew up.”

There was a strong smell of electricity in the air, as Buffy approached the broken machine. Sparks where still shooting out of its core, even after she ripped the plug out of the wall, “That thing must have shocked her,” She said.

“Shocked?” Xander said, looking at the distance from the computer to the slowly recovering Willow, “It damn near threw her across the room. I’d say that computer had a few issues.”

“It wasn’t...the...computer,” Willow said weakly, still shaking from the shock, “It...was working fine. Somebody...did this.”

Giles helped Oz bring her into his office and lay her down on the couch, “What do you mean, Willow,” Giles asked, “Who did this?”

Willow sat up, with the help of her boyfriend, and gave a frightened look, “I-I don’t know, but right before the computer blew up, the screen went blank and the word DIE was on it, in big letters. The next thing I know, I’m in Oz’s arms...which,” giving a smile to Oz, “by the way, is very cozy.”

“Okay,” Xander guessed, “so, whoever did this has a real, sick imagination and is good with computers. Anyone guessing ‘The Mayor’?”

“Perhaps,” Giles said thoughtfully, “But I don’t think he would want to attract that much attention to himself.”

“Whoever it was, wanted this to be personal,” Buffy added, “Why else would they tell you they were going to kill you before they try to?”

“Great, a polite psycho,” Oz quipped, trying hard not to loose his cool. If anything were to have happened to Willow, he wasn’t sure what he would do...but he knew it would not have been pleasant.

“Will,” Buffy said, “You’re staying with me until we can figure this out. With your parents out of town...again...I don’t feel comfortable with you staying by yourself.”

Willow shook her head, “Buffy, I’ll be fine. Besides, we don’t know if it was even meant for me. I mean, it’s not like it said, ‘Hey Willow, I’m going to kill you now’.”

“But...”

“And if you’re keeping an eye on me,” Willow reasoned, “How are you going to find out who did this?”

“I don’t know...”

“Don’t worry Buffy,” Oz reassured, “I’ll stay with her.” Then turning to his girlfriend he asked, “If that’s okay with you?”

“Oooo,” Willow gave a sly grin, “Staying overnight...my mom would have a cow. Sure, why not.”

Buffy turned to Giles and asked, “Okay with that settled...how do we find a cybergram killer?”

~~~~~~

Emily through a porcelain doll across the room in a fit of anger, “What do you mean, she didn’t die?! I put enough juice in that thing to fry her to a crisp!” Then regaining her composure she smiled and said, “That’s okay, if the nasty little Slayer and her friends won’t play nice...I’ll just have to get some new friends.”