Chapter Nine

Spike encounters Faith and Gunn on the street, and sets out with them to find Dawn. Meanwhile, Willow wakes up at the house, reverses the spel she put on Buffy and disappears, giving no response to Kennedy when she asks how she is. Spike appears to be leading Faith and Gunn on for reasons unknown, and Buffy wakes up. She and Giles have a talk about the pressure she's under and they discuss the consequences of making every Potential a Slayer. He says there's too much that could go wrong, but nevertheless backs her up even before she talks him into seeing the benefits.

Spike leads Faith and Gunn into an abandoned, darkened house. Willow appears at the decimated alley and teleports the others back to the house, with the aid of her inky black eyes. Spike disappears, leading Faith and Gunn to believe that he's betrayed them, and after a group of furry bodies push past them they decide to abandon the house - right as Spike calls to them to say he's found Dawn.

Willow delivers the group to the house - minus Spike - and disappears again. Wes explains what the Erus Veneficus revealed to him; that the First is the ultimate and purest form of evil, but only that found in this dimension. There is in fact, as everyone knows, a multitude of other dimensions, and the evil powers that reside in them form a Hierarchy between the dimensions, the First being at the bottom of the proverbial pile.
In becoming corporeal it will be about as powerful as Glory was, but this explains why the First isn't as all powerful as it would like everyone to believe. The First was cursed into this weakened position when the first Watchers created the Slayer, and by killing off the Slayer line, it will break the curse and achieve its former power.

Wes also explains who and what the Erus Veneficus is; a powerful entity from a dimension further up the Hierarchy, and also a former resident of this dimension - a human. He doesn't know his motives yet however. He also explains that in this dimension most things need to be balanced; the Slayer against the First, and the Erus Veneficus against the ball of white light, who appears in the living room and reveals itself as...Cordelia.