Please..I'd love to hear feedback. E-mail me at TreyCash@Aol.com

AUTHOR's NOTE: This is the third part of my "Prophecy Girl" trilogy. At this time I plan to keep it at three parts unlike the Vampire Trilogy that was acutually four books..shut up Alex..I know, I know. Anyway, regardless of the fact that the trilogy is it's set of stories..the character of ghost Pike will reappear in my other pieces. On other words, all of my stories are connected.

The title and lyrics are from the Eagles' song, "Take the Devil" off of the Eagles debut album titled oddly enough, "The Eagles".

This takes place after "I Held Her in My Arms" and "Learn to Be Still." So I guess it takes place the Monday after the Spring Fling.

Anyways, the inspiration for this song came to me while I was delivering pizzas and listening to the Eagles so you tell me what you think cuz Lord knows..I barely know.

"Open up your eyes
take the devil from your mind
he's been holding on to you
and you're so hard to find
the wind outside is cold
restless feeling in my soul
tempting me to get away
but there's no place a man can go
God, will you lead me where I roam?"

A Watcher knew. Whether by gut feeling, intuition or something else equally unexplainable, he was no different than the rest of the Watchers in that he had known. He'd felt a twinge of unexplainable pain in his soul the moment she had left the world of the living and he had known that he had lost his Slayer. He'd known that Buffy had died.

And then by some miracle which everyone seemed far too scared to discuss, she had been brought back. Only not the same. Rupert Giles had watched her carefully at the Spring Fling; partly to assure himself that she was in fact alive and partly to make sure that she was okay.

But she wasn't. She couldn't be. Alright people didn't need their mothers to slip sedatives into their lemonade. And alright people wouldn't fly off the handle if they discovered that their friends about the sedative. Buffy would though. True, she'd seemed almost herself when she'd run off that morning with Xander and Willow to avoid certain punishment for giving him a shiner that was just three days later beginning to fade from a purplish color to a more yellow tint. But he'd seen the haunted look in the Slayers' eyes. She was pretending.

He wanted to talk to her but she was avoiding him. Unfortunately he had good reason to believe that her conspicious absense from the makeshift library which had been set up in room 11-16A had more to do with whatever weirdness was swirling around in Buffy's mind than having used his face for a punching bag. She was purposely avoiding him and that in and of itself proved that everything was not all peaches and cream. "Giles, you've been hanging around the children too much," he admonished himself softly as he heard the phrase "peaches and cream" echo in his mind. His relatives would be shocked by the new entries into his vocabulary.

"Hey, Giles." Xander said cheerfully as he and Willow swept in through the door. Giles glanced up at them with hope burning in his eyes but it was quickly extinguished when he saw that it was in fact just Willow and Xander. The male Slayerette seemed to pick up on Giles mood shift, "Gee, maybe we should try that again, Wil..hi Gi.."

"I'm sorry," The Librarian apologized with a sigh. "I was just hoping you'd have brought Buffy with you. I haven't seen her all day. Buffy that is."

"Buffy?" Willow asked in confusion. She glanced at Xander who gave her a strange look.

"You know..our, uh..Buffy shaped friend..short, small, blonde..could kick all of our.."

"She told me she was coming here," Willow said quickly, cutting Xander off. The boy gave her a look but fell silent as Willow continued to speak. "Between second and third, I asked her if she wanted to talk and she said that she oughta check in with you. I figured she came here."

Giles shook his head, "Apparently not. Um..what period would it be now?" After four months at the school, he was still having a devil of a time remembering when specific periods began and ended.

"Fifth. All three of us have lunch now." Xander said softly. "And since she wasn't at our usual meeting place, we figured she came here."

"Right..what does she have fourth period?" Giles queried as he leaned over to the desk to pick up a piece of white paper with tiny print on it.

"Math." Willow answered instantly. "Are you looking through the attendance sheets?"

"Yes, one goes out after attendance is taken in fourth period and then another after seven..she was marked present." Giles murmured thoughtfully. "That means she's here at school."

Xander nodded, "Operation Find Buffy." He looked at the other two, "I feel like I should be saying, hey cool but I'm not." He sighed, "I'll check the East Lawn."

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Giles grabbed his shoulder. He shook his head, "No, I don't think we need to over-react. She's here at school..that's the important thing."

"Don't you want to find her?" Willow asked curiously.

Giles nodded, "Yes but I also think that for the time being we should give her the space she needs to sort everything out as much as she can..by herself anyways. She won't accept our help until she's ready to. Until then, we're just wasting our energy."

"Alright..I get it..I'm on board with this..but I think we're over-reacting..she seems okay to me. I mean..I guess she was pretty messed up over the weekend but she's okay now." Xander insisted. The idea that she was hurting and that he couldn't help tore at him.

Willow squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and then said softly,"You don't recover from dying in three days." She looked up at Giles, "We'll help her though."

Pike shurugged, "Probably. Look, I'm just here to help you out. You brought me back with you."

She spun on him and yelled, "I did not." As an afterthought she gazed around her and saw that a small group of teens that had been lunching about five feet away from her were now staring directly at her. She waved at them and giggled nervously before beating a hasty retreat towards another part of the school. After a few quick strides she arrived behind the gym. "Explain what you mean by that!" Buffy demanded.

"Well, when you died, you were with us for a few moments,minutes, whatever and when you went back, you pulled me along as your guardian." Pike answered easily as he turned his hand over and it became solid. "I gotta admit, this is a cool gig."

"This isn't a game, Pike." Buffy growled, "And I don't need a guardian. I can take care of myself..thank you..go home."

"Wait a minute..not that easy, Buff...besides..I thought you told that dude Angel and we really need to have a heart-to-heart about him..I mean c'mon..me..then him..frankly I don't..."

"Pike." Buffy said sharply.

"Right, right..you told him that you were going to allow your friends to help you deal with this." Pike reminded her as he continued to twitch his body and turn it from illusion to flesh.

"And I will." Buffy replied, looking away from him and out towards the main lawn where teens were leaping about and laughing and generally acting like children. God..how she wanted to look as stupid as they did.

"You will?" Pike asked in suprise.

"Uh huh..they can help me deal with the emotional but I'm not changing my mind about the rest. As of today, I'm disbanding the Slayerettes." Buffy told him, looking up into his eyes, daring him to argue.

He took the dare,"So in other words..they can help you..as long as it's by your rules." It was a statement, not a question and he sounded utterly annoyed.

"Damn right," Buffy replied defiantly, still keeping eye contact.

"God damn it, Buffy!" Pike howled, loudly and sharply enough to make the young Slayer flinch away. Immediately she admonished herself. Pike didn't even notice. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"You wouldn't understand." Buffy said dully.

"Try me." A new voice said from behind her. Eyebrow arched, she spun quickly.

"Cordelia," Buffy stammered. "I..um..it's oh boy..I was..just practicing lines..from.." her brow furrowed as she tried to come up with something. Finally, lamely, she said, "A play?"

"Uh huh..well in the meanwhile, you've got Willow and Xander all anxious looking for you." Cordelia said softly, sympathetically. She had no idea what had happened to Buffy but she knew enough to conclude that the smaller girl had been traumatized.

"See?" Pike said, an arrogant edge in his voice. He started to walk circles around Cordelia, looking her over. Finally he flipped his hand outwards in a decidely valley-girl motion and said sweetly, "Reminds me of those bimbos you used to hang with, Buff."

"Don't remind me," she muttered. Then she looked up at Cordelia, "That..they're looking.. for.. me." She sighed, "I just need.. fresh air..if you see them, just tell 'em I'll catch 'em later, okay?"

Cordelia was about to make a sarcastic reply but the sad, weary and almost crestfallen look on Buffy's face convinced her not to. Instead she nodded, 'Okay..but you shouldn't hang out back here talking to yourself..people will think you're weirder than you are." With that she glided away.

Buffy shook her head and muttered, "Just couldn't resist one parting jab." Then she glanced up at Pike, "Oh shut up."

"You're what?" Xander yelled, louder than he had intended to. Buffy quickly reached out, took his arm and led him and Willow to the wall outside of the Bio-lab.

"It was my decision to make, Xander and it makes sense. I gained power from when the Master bit me..I'm stronger..I may even be smarter..I don't know but a lot has changed and I think..I think it's better that the Slayerettes get disbanded."

"And what about us?" Xander asked, his voice lower now but no less hurt. "So now..Wil and I are just supposed to go home at night and hope that you're okay and know that we can't do anything to help..not because we can't but because you won't let us. And here I am thinking...no..."

"I agree, Buffy..you need us..and we need you." Willow insisted.

"I wish it were that easy," Buffy said softly.

"It is that easy," both Pike and Xander said at the same time. Buffy glared momentarily at Pike and then looked back at her two friends who were both staring at her with such pain and concern in their eyes that it was almost too much for her.

"No, it's not. I couldn't..I can't live with the idea of losing either of you. Please understand that. It was my destiny to be the Slayer and fate threw all of us one huge hairy curve and made the three of us friends.."

"And that's bad?" Xander choked out. This was too much for him.

Buffy glanced down at her boots for a moment and then looked up at Xander with blue steel in her eyes. "Yes." It was as much of a lie as the ice in her gaze. She wanted to cry but she knew that tears would only convince Xander and Willow that she needed them more. She had to be strong.

"Is this how you intended to get their emotional support?" Pike asked in disbelief. "Talk about changing game-plans..how about we throw out the part about just disbanding the Slayerettes and go for destroying the friendship all together. There's a plan."

Buffy swallowed hard, "Believe me..it's better this way." She was saying this as much to Pike as to Willow and Xander. It hadn't been her plan to shove Willow and Xander this far away but if that was what it took to ensure that they wouldn't be placing themselves in harms' way..then so be it.

Pike started to pace about and Xander kicked at the ground. Finally he looked up, "So, we're not like Buffy, Xander and Willow anymore? I mean..I may be stupid but I could swear you're saying you don't want to be friends with us anymore."

"You're not saying that, right?" Willow asked, quietly. A tear streaked down her face. It took all of Buffy's emotional reserves not to break down right then and there and admit just how much she really needed them.

Buffy swallowed hard, "That's what I'm saying."

Xander shook his head, "No..no..no..this isn't right..this morning you were like..okay..we're friends..that friendship means everything and don't ever change. What happened?" When she didn't reply, the anger that had been forming in the gut of the stomache surfaced and he yelled, "What the hell happened?" Without realizing it, he reached out and grabbed her shoulders and shook her. Oddly, the girl didn't break away although she most certainly could have easily done so.

"Death happened," Pike said dully. Buffy gave him a sad smile and looked up at Xander who was still gripping her shoulders.

"I changed my mind," With that she pushed his hands off of her and turned away. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut for a moment, she pressed back the tears.

"Buffy, don't do this.." Willow pleaded, reaching out for her friend. Buffy allowed the hackers' hand to graze her arm before she broke the contact. She could feel the emotional wall she had constructed starting to crumble. Shaking her head, urgently, Buffy pushed away from her friends and fled down the hallway towards the bathroom.

Willow started to follow but Xander caught her arm, "We need to talk to Giles."

"And pressing these two keys at the same time will make the lettering darker?" Giles asked, his brow wrinkled in confusion and a bit of irritation.

"Bolder, Rupert." Samantha Calendar said with a grin. God how she loved making him look stupid. She reached out from where she was standing above his chair and guided his hands to the keyboard, "Now..if you push this.."

"Giles!" Two voices said loudly at the same time. Giles started and nearly fell out of his chair as he turned to look at the the two Slayerettes. He blinked when he saw that Willow had tears running down her face and Xander looked like he was about to.

Standing quickly he asked, "What happened? Did you find Buffy? Is she alright?"

"She flipped, yes and no."

"What?" Giles asked, utterly confused by Willow's brisque answer.

Ms. Calendar murmured, "Buffy flipped out, they found her and she's not alright?" Willow nodded. "Gotcha..okay, what happened?"

"She disbanded the Slayerettes."

Her plan had always been to go Slaying. She needed to do something to at least momentarily take her mind off the fact that now she was truly alone. Sure, there was Giles and he would be harder to push away but she was certain that she could do it. So she had started walking and somehow or another she'd ended up in front of Xanders' house. When she had realized that, she had started to walk away, not wanting to risk running into him. She knew full well that if he pushed just a little bit harder, she would break and no amount of emotional restraint would be able to keep the pain inside. She knew that she needed time to gain control..enough so that seeing Xander and Will wouldn't rip at her until she wanted to die. That was a joke..it'd only been about six hours since the fight and already she could feel the ice cold of her heart dropping into her stomache. And that was of course when the three rejects from the B movie reel had jumped her. She'd managed to make them chase her to the end of the street where there were no houses because of construction and then she'd turned to fight.

The one she kicked growled at her and charged but a second flick of her wrist sent the stake flying through the vampires' heart. "That's for Merrick and Pike."

"Oh Buffy.." Pike said, suddenly at her side. He shook his head as he watched her fight with pure anger and hatred.

She spun around and scissor-kicked the second vampire. A small leap through the air and she came down on it's chest and prepared to shove the stake through it's hard. That was when the third appeared. Pike screamed out her name but her reaction was just a second too slow, made sluggish by her fatigue and mental exhaustion. The third vampire slammed a wood plank into her head.

Buffy grunted and fell to the side, momentarily dazed. Luck alone had kept her from taking the full blow and sustaining anything more serious than a bump on her head. Just the same, it'd dazed her long enough for the vampire to jump on her. It reached forward and swiped her across the chest. She cried out and kicked it away.

"Get up, Buffy!" Pike screamed, 'Ugly number two is.."

The second vampire swiped her across the arm. A look down at her shirt showed that the entire front of it was soaked in blood. She couldn't tell how bad her arm was but the fabric of the leather jacket had been torn clean through. Buffy screamed out, as much in pain as in anger. She kicked backwards at the second vampire and knocked him down. With her uninjured arm, she sent a stake into his heart and then she rose and turned her attention on the remaining vampire.

"I'd run if I were you but don't think it'll save you," she said coldly. She could feel the blood pouring down her arm and stomache but she ignored the klaxons that were going off in head telling her just how much she hurt. With a howl she leaped towards the vampire and threw him on his back. That was when she realized that she didn't have the stake; it was lying atop the wind-scattered ashes of the last vampire she'd dusted.

It didn't matter. She punched the vampire across the face and then proceded to repeatedly pummel him as she cursed, screamed and cried. Pike just looked on wide-eyed. He'd always known that she's carried a lot of pain inside her but he'd never realized just how much.

As the seconds turned to minutes, Buffy lost her connection to reality. The pain of her body and the fact that she had lost far too much blood for own good was irrelevant to her. All that mattered was that the son of a bitch underneath her payed for everything his kind had ever done to her or those she loved. Her pain became it's pain.

She probably would have continued beating it, not caring that it had long ago been subdued if not for the fact that her body finally gave out. She felt her knees buckle and her head swim and then the the next thing she knew, she could feel herself fall off of the vampire. She moaned and tried to rise to her feet but it was useless. A moment later, the Slayer collapsed against the pavement of the street.

Pike started to move towards her and then much to his horror, so did another creature of the night. "Buff.."

The coolness of a wet towel against her forehead brought her back to the land of the living. She blinked and tried to sit up but both the nausea and a gently restraining hand held her in place. Blinking again, she opened her house. At first all she saw were bright lights and oddly shaped colors moving around her. A gentle shake of her head cleared the images up.

"Giles?" Buffy murmured softly. "What? What..where?"

"It's me," Giles assured in an equally soft voice, "And you're in your bed at home."

"Home!" Buffy cried out, jerking upwards. The sound and feel of a hammer pounding in her head convinced the young Slayer to lie back against her pillow. "Mom?"

"Out of town," Another voice said. Xander."She left you a note. Wants you to call."

"Call?" Buffy asked uncertainly, as she moved her head to scan the rest of the room. To the left of her were Giles and Xander and on the other side stood Willow..and Angel. And then of course, just to be different, Pike laid next to her in the bed.

"Yeah, you know..the thing you do when ya pick up Mr. Ringing Thing." Xander joked. His tone was gentle and nervous. He was scared. For her. They all were.

Realizing that sitting up would be useless, she took a deep breath and spoke from where she lay, "What happened?"

"We've been searching for you all night..you didn't tell us where you would be going," Giles said, the smallest note of irritation evident in his voice. Of course the concern was more obvious. "It was Xander and Willow who found you."

"Lying unconsious on the ground with a vampire about to have Slayer for dinner," Angel said, moving towards her. "Xander took care of the vampire..Willow got me." He sat down on the edge of her bed, "What were you thinking? I thought we talked about this?" Even though his voice was soft and gentle, she could hear the betrayal in it. She'd lied to him. Told him everything would be okay.

She looked away from him and tried to bury her head in her pillow, "Please, just go away. All of you."

"They saved your life, "Buff.." Pike reminded her.

"Don't you think I know that!" Buffy screamed, a tear racing like a wildfire down her ashy cheeks. Had she seen the suprised looks on the others faces, she would have have realized that they thought she was losing it. She wouldn't have cared. "Don't you think I know how much I need them?" The world had suddenly become just she and Pike. "I love them...I need them but I don't want to lose them. God help me, I don't think I could survive that."

"You're already not surviving," Pike told her. "You can't live without love and what you're proposing and trying to do pushes yourself away from everyone who loves you."

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Suddenly aware that she had been confering with a ghost instead of the four other living members of the room, she looked up at them. It was Giles who was touching her. It sent a flash of warmth through her body.

That was all it took. "God, what have I done?" Buffy cried, bringing her hands to her eyes. She tried to cry into her hands but two strong arms swept her into an embrace. She had no idea who was holding her and it didn't really matter because the others joined the embrace; virtually forming a protective circle around the distraught Slayer.

And the others cried too. Well Xander and Willow anyways. Giles just closed to his eyes and let the feeling of the circle sweep over him. It was a strong feeling, a safe feeling. Nothing could hurt them. Another set of arms joined them but he didn't even bother looking up to acknowledge the technopagan who'd come up from the kitchen after making tea. He just reached his arms around her and brought her in to the now six member strong circle.

Giles heard her stir. At first, too dulled by his exhaustion to do much more than blink as he tried to comprehend what was occuring, he then moved into action to intercept the sleep-walking Slayer as she crawled out of bed and across the floor of her room.

She was easy enough to lift but the motion brought the girl back to her waking senses. "Giles?"

He nodded to her. Pulling her in tight he was about to put her back in bed when she tugged on his sleeve like a small child. "Downstairs, please. I don't want to sleep. Talk to me."

He knew that he should insist upon her resting. Her injuries, while not severe were serious enought that moving about could aggravate them and cause further pain. Just the same, he did as she requested. He carried the Slayer downstairs and laid her on the couch and then he sat next to her.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Giles asked her.

She smiled slightly, "Always the gentleman." Then she sombered, "Coffee..tea..I don't care. I don't want to sleep. Just promise me you won't slip me a sedative."

He nodded, "I promise." Honestly he doubted that a sedative would be necessary. She looked like she could sleep for a week if the pillow was soft enough. He leaned down and pulled a blanket across her body and then disappeared into the kitchen. A couple minutes later he reappeared with two simmering cups of tea. He handed her one and she took it with a small, shy smile that reminded him of how she'd been before the whole damn Prophecy thing had ripped away her innocence.

"Giles?" Buffy asked in small, infinitely vunerable voice, "Am I the only Slayer you've ever trained?"

Giles blinked and look back at her in astonishment. He didn't quite know what he'd been expecting but it hadn't been that. He stammered for a few moments before finally replying, "No."

"What happened to her?"

"Buffy..you're tired and weak..."

"Giles, please..what happened to her?" Buffy looked at him with such pain in her blue eyes and yet such unimaginable trust that it virtually stripped away his defenses.

"She died," Giles said sadly. "I let her down."

"Giles, you could never let anyone down," Buffy told him, her voice shaky for a moment.

"I did her and I almost did you." Giles replied. "You're right..it's easy to hide behind my books.."

"No..I didn't mean that..I was scared..I was so scared..I needed someone to listen..someone to understand. I..I never realized that you've understood this whole time. Haven't you?"

Giles looked down at his hands, "She was older than you," he chuckled, "A lot more managable than you. She knew her destiny and she accepted it easily. She was a remarkable girl."

"What happened?" Buffy asked, pulling the blanket up to her chin. Giles noticed that the gesture made her look even more like a small and very lost child.

"Lothos seduced her. I knew how dangerous he was. Notorious for being able to kill Slayers after he'd seduced him. I..didn't prepare her well enough..I should have trained her more.."

"There's only so much you can do, Giles. Even if she'd known everything about him, that might not have helped. He got me..twice. The first time Merrick saved me..the second time it was Merricks' words that saved me." Buffy said softly.

"Merrick was right." Giles whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"He said in his journals that you were remarkable..a Slayer like no other. He was right."

"That's sweet but tell me the truth..tell me you don't miss the other one..the one who didn't give you grief and turn your hair grey..well greyer than it already is anyways."