Queen Buffy

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 1 – part 1

"T'o-Ba'sall have you seen my special egg anywhere?"



T'o-Ba'sall looks at Arry, "What special egg?"



"I didn't want to leave you alone if someone managed to kill me. So, I laid a special queen egg with all of our ancestral memories and the abilities we've gathered. It took me a week to plan it out, and a day to lay it over the Christmas holidays. Anyway, I left it in this locker so that nobody could accidentally activate it."

"I can't say I've seen anything touch that locker."

"Damn it!"

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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy looks down at a battered Dawn, "Dawn, I don't know what you are, but you will stay away from my mother."

Dawn looks up at Buffy, confusion clear on her face.



Buffy kneels down beside a dying priest as he's gasping his last breath, "The key, you must protect the key."

"What key?"

"We sent it to you to protect it."

"I don't understand."

"We gave it a human form, and made her your sister."

"Dawn."



Joyce looks at Buffy sadly, "Buffy, you know that 'nothing' that's been going on recently?" Buffy nods, "Well, it turns out it might not be nothing after. I have an appointment for a scan tomorrow."

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Buffy sits sadly in the waiting room of the Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. Beside her, Dawn has just finished asking her why a CAT scan is called a CAT scan.

After an eternity, that seems to pass far too quickly, a nurse comes out to talk to her.

"Miss Summers?"

Buffy looks up in surprise, "Yes, that's me."

"Your mother has just come out of the CAT Scan, and the doctor is talking to her now."

Morosely, Buffy looks at the nurse's expression, "Can I see her?"

The nurse nods, "Come this way."

Dawn looks up at them, "Can I come?"

Buffy glances at the nurse's expression again before looking back at Dawn, "Dawn, I think it would be best if I went alone."

Dawn nods, "Ok"

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As Buffy's mind starts to regain coherency, she looks around the cemetery that her wandering brought her to, Angel's old crypt standing in front of her. But he's not here now, and her mother has a shadow on her brain.

The doctor said that one in three people with this condition go on to lead normal lives. 'But, that means that two in three die' her traitorous brain adds.

Kicking out at a grave marker, Buffy screams, "I'm the Slayer for Christ's sake. There must be something I can do to help solve this. Some spell or thing I can use."

Life comes back into her eyes, and she makes her way back to the city center, the broken grave marker lying forgotten behind her.

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After a brief moment to clean up the evidence of having cried in a public rest room, Buffy makes her way into Magic Box, the shop that Giles owns.

There, she sits at the large round table that's covered in books, and explains what she's just learnt to her friends. Even if Giles keeps having to serve customers.

Once she's finished, she looks around everyone, "So, there has to be some spell or ritual that can help, right?"

Willow nods excitedly, "Oh, yes, sure. I'm sure we can find something."

Tara reaches out, and puts her arm on Willow's, "Willow, I don't think it's that simple. Everything I've read says that there's always undesirable consequences to these spells."

Plaintively, Buffy asks, "But surely there's something we can do."

Giles leans over, both fists on the table, "Buffy, I'm sorry. The truth is, uh, the mystical and the medical. Well, they aren't meant to mix, Buffy. Sorry. Uh. The human mind is very delicate. Just too much could go wrong."

Tara nods, "Yes, I've read stories about healing magic. And we could make things much worse, for everyone."

Buffy slumps at the table, and in a heartfelt voice says, "I just… I wish there was something I could do."

Giles goes to say something, but Anya talks over him, completely ignoring what Buffy just said, "Oh, yeah, we've done enough about making things worse for one day, haven't we."

As Giles looks away with a guilty expression on his face, Buffy asks, "Why? What do you mean?"

Xander looks at Anya with a meaningful expression, "Nothing. Anya broke a bippity-boppity-boo. A thing. Don't worry about it."

Anya looks offended and exclaims, "I did not. I didn't break…"

Softly, Giles says, "Anya. Buffy doesn't need to hear about your, uh, clumsiness right now."

Anya huffs, "My clumsiness. I mean, that is so…" as Willow, Tara, and Xander all give her the side eye, she picks up with, "Like me. Slippery, slippery. Butterfingers."

Buffy sharply looks up, "What happened?"

Giles takes off his glasses and looks down at the table, "Nothing to concern you."

Buffy looks him straight in the eyes, "Giles."

Putting his glasses back on, Giles glances at Buffy's eyes before looking past her, "The, uh, demon woman was here. The one who attacked you."

Willow adds, "It's no biggie. She just got an amulet and a bloodstone."

Anya adds, "That can create a monster."

Willow looks askance, "Okay, biggie."

Immediately concerned, Buffy looks around, "My God, are you guys okay, though? Did… No one got hurt right?"

Scratching at his earlobe, Giles answers, "No, no. Thankfully, no violence to speak of."

Buffy looks surprised, "Okay, so that's good. How did she get away with this bad mojo stuff?"

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Anya softly says, "Giles sold it to her."

Giles looks defensive, "I… I… I didn't know it was her. I..I mean, how could I? If it's any consolation, I may have overcharged her."

Tara adds, "And Anya figured out what the demon lady's up to."

Anya nods, "Yeah, A few thousand years ago, there was this cult, the Temple of Sobek."

Buffy glances between the two girls, "Sobek?"

Anya nods, "Reptile demon. Sobekites were reptile worshipers."

Xander spreads his hands in a 'why me' express, "Just once I would like to run into a cult of bunny worshipers."

Anya deadpans, "Great. Thank you very much for those nightmares."

Xander flinches, "Sorry."

Anya twitches, "Anyway, their high priest, Kohl, had great mystic powers. He, um, forged an amulet with a transmogrifying crystal." While she's talking Giles sits down at the table.

Willow turns to Buffy, "Transmogrifying is changing a living thing into a different kind of thing."

Giles turns to face Buffy, "We've managed to translate the markings that were on the bloodstone that I sold… That she left with. A cobra. She's going to transmogrify a cobra."

Buffy breathes deeply, "Okay, so she's making a monster. What for? What does it do?"

"That's the part…" Giles clears his throat, "We're working on it."

Buffy tilts her head to one side, "Well, you keep working on it. I'll go kill it."

As she stands up and starts walking out the store, Giles stands up, "Buffy?"

Buffy spins around, "What? I'm going."

Xander leans forward, "Buffy, this chick creamed you last time."

Buffy leans forward, "That's because I wasn't ready for her last time. I am now."

Willow looks at her worriedly, "But you…"

Buffy looks at Willow, "But what? Will, I can't just sit here. I have to do something." Left unsaid is that this is something she can do something about.

The shop is silent as Buffy makes her way out at a jog. Her earlier wish all but forgotten in light of the more immediate problems.

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It doesn't take Buffy long to get to the most reliable source of reptiles, Sunnydale Zoo. As she's making her way into the reptile house, her ears pick up the sounds of chanting in an ancient language.

Picking up the pace, she hears a woman's voice say, "Ah! Dark incantations. Always overwritten. Why can't they just cut to the…"

It's at this point that Buffy gets a clear look at the inside of the reptile house and launches herself at the blond woman in the skimpy red dress. Her charging attack takes the two of them into one of the textured concrete walls.

The woman in question chirps, "Fight? Ooh. No fair…" as she stands up to face Buffy. Only to reel back into the wall again as Buffy kicks her in the face.

As Buffy knees her in the stomach, the woman doesn't even sound winded as she continues, "Attacking when I wasn't even looking. Ooh. Help."

Abruptly the woman stands up and grabs Buffy's hair, before slamming her face first into the concrete wall, "No. This is no good. I'm out of the moment."

Buffy recovers quickly and throws another punch, which the woman dodges before grabbing the outstretched arm and putting Buffy into an arm lock, "And you're not giving me anything I can use."

While Buffy tries to pull her hand free, the woman calls over to the other person in the room, a grey skinned, and scabby looking man, "Dreg, I'm not hearing chanting! Continue!"

Silently, Buffy curses herself for not noticing him earlier, however, a punch to the face before being slammed back into the wall knocks that thought out of her mind, even as the man says, "Yes, Glory." And starts chanting.

As she slumps down the wall, 'Glory' reaches down and pulls Buffy back to her feet, "Hey, hey, work with me here." Before throwing Buffy back into another wall.

"There, that feels more real. Don't you think?"

As she's thrown clear across the room, and rolls along the floor, Buffy groans, "Oh, no."

Her recovery time is short lived, as Glory picks her up by the lapels on her jacket, "Even if I do have to carry your performance."

A kick to her stomach sends Buffy flying across the room again, and through the glass on one of the enclosures, then through the plywood backing of the enclosure, to the care and maintenance access behind the exhibits.

There she hears Glory call, "Scene!" just before a large leathery egg falls down onto her stomach, and knocks the wind out of her. Staggering to her feet, Buffy just has time to see a white clay jar explode, and a giant snake monster appear, before something grabs her throat from behind and then gags her with its hands.

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When she comes around, the reptile house is empty, and the hands turn out to be some sort of spider like thing. Clambering out of the enclosure, Buffy makes her way back to the hospital where her mother should be coming out of the emergency procedure to biopsy the tumor.

Once she arrives, she heads straight to the unit reception, and waits for the nurse to finish with his paperwork.

The nurse looks up, "Hi, can I help… Buffy wasn't it? Your mother's still in surgery, but they should be bringing her to recovery soon. I hope the walk helped."

Buffy nods numbly, "A little. It's…"

The nurse leans back, revealing that he's actually an intern named Ben, "Overwhelming. Don't think about it too much yet. The doctor is very good at his job, not so good at talking to the patients or their family. Take it one thing at a time. At the moment, we don't know what it is. That's why she's having a biopsy at the moment. Best case, it's benign and we stich her up and she goes home tomorrow. More likely, it's operable, and they remove it. Then she goes home in a week. There will probably be changes to her personality or ability to do stuff, as it's a bit like having a stroke. That's the bit that doctor always leaves out. Most people will go on to live at least 5 years after their surgery. The one in three figure is for people who have no adverse effects from the removal of whatever's causing the shadow."

As Buffy listens, she nods as she remembers the scans she saw earlier. With the shadow in the left frontal lobe, the pressure it puts on the brain is likely to affect her mother's personality. If it's still growing, this could cause mood swings, problems with memory, and even impulse control.

Buffy puts her hand on the counter and blinks rapidly at the information that just hit her. How did she even know that? Vivian Granger was a British Prescribing Psychiatrist who had to study damage to the frontal lobes as part of her training, due to the well-known effects that damage to that part of the brain can cause.

As her hand comes up to her forehead, Ben asks, "Are you alright, you seem a little…"

Buffy nods weakly, "I'm fine. I just… remembered learning about Phineas Gage in school, and how he took a railroad spike through the brain."

Ben chuckles, "You'd be the first. Well, don't worry, it won't be anything so drastic, as we don't make a practice of shoving spikes right through our patients brains with dynamite."

Buffy laughs with him, "Yeah, that has to be up there with returning to electro-shock therapy to cure epilepsy. Um, I'm just going to call a friend and buy myself a snack while mum's still in surgery."

Ben nods, and Buffy flees to the main entrance, and the public phones.

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Buffy quickly dials Magic Box from memory, and waits for the phone to be answered. As soon as she's sure it's Giles, she says, "Giles, it's me, Buffy."

Giles responds with some surprise, "Buffy, are you ok?"

Buffy shakes her head, "I'll be fine, physically anyway."

"How did you get on?"

Buffy hesitates for a moment, "She made a big snake thing, not mayor big, but still big enough."

"Do you know why she made it?"

Buffy shakes her head, "No, I think she summoned something to stop me interfering as I remember something grabbing me from behind after she threw me through an exhibit."

"I'll get the others to grab some crossbows, and we'll head out to look for it."

Buffy shakes her head again, "Giles, what's the time?"

"Um, 4:30"

"Dawn's finishing school. You need to pick her up and keep her safe."

Buffy can almost hear Giles' nod before he says, "I'll make sure to do that. Buffy, is there anything else you need?"

Buffy swallows hard, "There's one thing. Could you ask Willow if she knows who Phineas Gage is?" When Giles goes to answer, Buffy adds, "Specifically Willow, I know you might know."

She waits as Giles covers the mouthpiece, and a moment later Giles uncovers the phone, "Willow doesn't know. Buffy, why do you want to know about one of the first known cases of a violent personality change that wasn't caused by possession?"

"Because I know that he was impaled by a railroad spike after the explosive went off while he was tamping it down. And that it caused a massive personality shift, and was the first indication of the role different parts of the brain have on our day to day life and personality. I also know that someone called Vivian Granger was a British Prescribing Psychiatrist, and knows how to read CAT scans of the brain."

"Buffy, if you've been possessed."

"Giles, it's not possession. I don't know how I know, but it's not. Giles, it's scaring me that I'm not scared of what's happening, just surprised."

"Buffy, when did this happen?"

"About an hour, an hour and a half, ago. It's not like I could just grab a bus here."

"Buffy, you should come in and get checked over."

Buffy shakes her head again, "No Giles, mum's coming out soon and I need to be here for her. Look, I know it's going to take you time to look up the right ritual. Why don't you find it, and draw it out in the training room…"

"Buffy, why would I need a ritual? We already found the spell we need."

"Because we don't have… wands? Giles, why did I just assume you need a wand to cast magic?"

Before Giles can respond, the phone starts beeping at Buffy, and her last quarter falls through to the cash box. Staring at the handset in disgust, she slams it back in its cradle and stalks off to the small shop, where she buys a sandwich and a coke.

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It's less than an hour before Buffy finds herself lying beside her mother, her eyes red with unshed tears, as the doctor gives them the bad news. Her mother has a grade 3 malignant tumor growing in her brain. Fortunately, it hasn't metastasized, but they want her in for surgery as soon as space can be made available in the theatre schedule.

Much to her dismay, the doctor actually becomes more friendly when Buffy shows that she somehow understands the medical speak, and is able to ask intelligent questions.

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Queen Potter, a summary of the first 20 chapters as it's relevant to this story.

Harry Potter is abducted from the Dursley's doorstep by aliens. Within hours of being aboard the ship, a xenomorph egg hatches and infects one of the crewmen. Several hours later, a mostly mature worker xenomorph finds Harry. With a bout of accidental magic, Harry turns into a chest burster, and the worker starts to feed him royal jelly so that he'll eventually form a cocoon and become a queen. As she grows up, she takes the name Arry because that's all she remembers of her name.

Several years later, a Predator called T'o-ba'sall boards Arry's ship for her chiva (coming of age hunt) and makes her way straight to the queen's chamber. There she is disarmed by a humanoid Arry before Arry reads her mind to find out why she's attacked. Finding out that not only is she just a child, but also too young to be going on her chiva, Arry develops a special egg to bring T'o-ba'sall into the hive without killing her. These are later called adoption eggs. Between then and her 11th birthday she adds a couple of children from Skarli and Laprey heritage.

Shortly before her 11th birthday, Fawkes is sent to find Harry by Albus Dumbledore. However, Fawkes flames in too close to Arry while she's in her queen form, and Arry bites the head off of Fawkes. When Fawkes doesn't die, instead they are reborn, Arry makes a tiny adoption egg and magically adds the natural abilities of a phoenix to her hive, along with Fawkes memories (turns out Fawkes is female and named Ptiana in her own language).

Over the next few days she stabs Albus through the heart, and puts him in an autodoc on the ship (configured for Skarli, a four armed species, rather than human). Brings Minerva McGonagall and Pomona Sprout into her hive, and scares Luna Lovegood into becoming a chest burster, who she starts feeding royal jelly to.

Towards the middle/end of August Arry adds Hermione to the hive along with a few more Yautja (predators). Then, on the day of the train journey, she adds 33 House Elves, Vivian (a prescribing psychiatrist) and Henry Granger (a dentist), Professor Babbling, and Priya Dunns (Minerva's assistant while she's acting head master).

During the school term, there are no further adoptions to the hive. However, over the Christmas break Arry adds Sally-Anne Perks, her mother, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, and Amelia Bones to her hive before she's finished laying a Queen adoption egg as an insurance against her own death.

A few days later, the Queen adoption egg has vanished.

 

[Direfox]

Sounds wild. Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Sounds wild. Thanks for the chapter.

Click to shrink...

You can find Queen Potter and Queen Taylor on my AO3 profile. The summary at the end of the chapter goes up to chapter 20 of Queen Potter.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 1 – part 2

Buffy walks into Magic Box after dark, her head still swimming with all of the information she learnt from the doctor. As she draws level with the step down to the rest of the shop, Dawn stands up and embraces her in a hug.


Holding onto Dawn tightly, Buffy buries her nose into Dawns hair and takes comfort from the hug. After a moment, Dawn pulls back, "Is she awake yet?"


Buffy nods sadly, "She is, and she's waiting for us."


Dawn smiles, "Can we take her home then?"


Buffy opens her mouth to give Dawn a platitude, but changes her mind, "Probably not. They're going to keep her in for a few days so they can remove the bad stuff from her head. If it's longer than that, they'll probably let her go home."


Dawn looks at Buffy as though she's betrayed her, "Why Buffy, why?"


Buffy's shoulders sag, "There's no good way to say this Dawn, but it's cancer. If they don't get it out as soon as they can, it could kill her before they can. Come on, grab your stuff."


Woodenly, Dawn turns back to the table to start packing. At the same time, Buffy goes over to the counter where Giles and Willow are standing, "Hey guys, any news on big and snakey?"


Willow shakes her head, "Tara and I did a mini patrol, but biggie snake was nowhere to…"


Willow is cut off as the massive serpent crashes through the window of the shop and slithers towards Dawn. As it does so, it knocks a heavy hardwood bookcase over onto Buffy, knocking her over and spilling the contents around her.


As Dawn screams, and Buffy tries to get the leverage needed to free herself, the snake moves right up to Dawn before its tongue flicks out twice and tastes the air. As soon as it's done that, it turns and flees out the way it came in.


It only takes Buffy a couple more seconds to heave the shelving off of her. During this time, Xander comes up from behind Dawn, "Dawn, are you ok?"


As Willow stands up from behind the counter, she asks, "Why was the big snake afraid of Dawn."


At the same time, Giles hurries over to help Buffy, even though she's standing up already. As he gets close enough, Buffy breaths, "It knows." Before looking at Dawn.


As Giles turns back to look at Dawn, Buffy sprints for the entrance, shortly followed by Giles.

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As she gets outside the shop, Buffy pauses to search the street in front of her and locate the snake while her eyes adjust to the lowered light levels. As she catches sight of it slithering past some scared normies, she blinks her eyes at the slight reddish yellow glow they're giving off.


That's just enough time for the snake to dodge around an oncoming car, and around a corner.


Buffy sets off at a run, swiftly following it around the corner, and then down the back road behind a row of shops. It's less than a minute later when the sound of Giles car comes up from behind her, and she hops in so that she can keep an eye out rather than trying to both keep up and track it.


Just after she hops in, the monster grabs a dumpster with its tail, and uses it as a pivot point to turn a corner faster than it should be able to. At the same time, the dumpster moves out into the center of the back road, and into Giles' path. Dodging around the dumpster, Giles is unable to slow down enough to make the turn, and ends up plowing into a pile of trash someone dumped at the end of the road.


Turning in her seat, Buffy looks back at the back road it went down while she struggles to open the door, "I've got to stop this monster before it gets back to Glory."


Giles puts the car into reverse, "Glory?"


"That's what he called her. Giles, she's gonna know Dawn's the Key if we don't…"


With some strain in his voice as he puts his old BMW into first, and manhandles the steering wheel around to follow the monster, "We will!"


As they follow it along its crooked route through the city, Buffy almost jumps out of the car a couple of times when Giles misses a particularly sharp turn.


Occasionally, Buffy is certain that the only reason she's managed to keep track of it is because of the faint blue trail it's leaving on the dark blue pavement. The first time she mentioned it, Giles stared at her hard enough to crash. Since then she's just kept directing him through the twists and turns of the city center.


At the speeds they're driving, it doesn't take them long to leave Sunnydale proper, and start driving through first the suburbs for the well off, then into the lower cost suburbs, before finally moving into the expensive suburbs, where there's lots of greenery and sectioned off parks.


Eventually, they reach the grounds of a gated community that has been separated from the rest of the suburb with a chain link fence that is backed with black plastic sheeting.


Here, the monster turns to follow the fence out of the upscale area and back into the lower cost suburbs. Eventually, it seems to get frustrated with being unable to find a way onto the grounds, so it busts its own way through the fence.


While Giles slams on the brakes, Buffy undoes her seatbelt and jumps out of the passenger side of the car towards the gap in the fence.


Running through a picnic area, Buffy curses under her breath as the blue trail is much harder to follow on the grass. Though she catches sight of a faint blue glow moving in the darkness.


Setting off at a sprint, she swiftly starts to close the distance between her and the snake monster, and can just about see it in the faint light from the streets, and the light from the high-end apartment block that is likely to be its destination.


When it crashes through a chain hung between two fence posts, Buffy pauses long enough to arm herself with the chain, before spotting a large outcropping of rock that the monster is looking to go around.


Sprinting forward, she leaps up to the top of the rock with a single jump, and pushes off the other side onto its back. There, she whips the chain around its neck, and grabs the free end with her other hand, before pulling back hard.


Slowly, it's struggles slow, and then stop as it sinks to the floor. After a couple of moments of holding the chain, in case it's faking, Buffy lets go while breathing hard. As she does, it surges out from underneath her and darts off towards the apartment building.


Leaping up from the ground, she pushes herself into a jumping leap and skips the intervening space to land on its back. There, she grabs one of its vestigial arms, and turns it to face her. There, she proceeds to beat it into the ground until long after it has stopped twitching.

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As they're driving back to the shop, Giles glances at Buffy, "Buffy, I haven't forgotten about your possible possession."


Buffy looks over, "Giles. Can we not. Not right now, mom's in hospital and I need to get Dawn to her."


Giles coughs, "Look, Buffy. I understand. However, if you have been possessed, and you don't know. It could catch you unaware, and you could seriously injure or kill people that are nearby. Including your mother."


"Giles, it's not possession."


"Buffy, you can't know that. Even if it isn't, it could be some sort of parasitic demon that is growing inside you."


Buffy opens her mouth, and then pauses, "Giles, it's not a demon."


"Buffy, I'm telling you this as your watcher, not as a friend. We are going to do the same basic trance you used to discover Dawn's nature. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to endanger others when a short spell will clear you of possession. If it's not possession, then we know that you can't pass it onto someone else while we research what it could possibly be…"


Buffy's brain stalls as she pictures herself laying a leathery egg, which hatches a spider like thing. That thing then latches onto some sort of demon.


"Buffy, are you listening to me?"


Buffy shakes her head, "Uh, what? Sorry, I spaced out for a moment."


"I said, if it is a possession, I'll get one of the others to take Dawn to the hospital while the rest of us perform an exorcism."


"Ugh. Giles, what if it's not a possession, but I can still pass it on to someone else?"


"Then we research what it was that passed it on to you, and how to remove it before it hatches. If necessary, we'll keep you locked in the training room until we're done."


Buffy blanches as a memory of looking out at stars over an alien planet, before being engulfed in flames and appearing outside a Scottish castle, passes through her mind.


As she tries to tell Giles, the words stick in her throat as a self-preservation instinct rears up far stronger than it has ever done before. The savage need to survive no matter the cost or lives spent.

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As they get back to the shop, Buffy makes her way into the training room, where she kneels down on the concrete floor in meditation. After a couple of moments, she pauses to wonder why she's kneeling and not sitting cross legged as she normally does.


That thought is interrupted when her eyes catch sight of the quarter staff, and she considers how she could make a telescoping version that could be used as a baton, short staff, or long staff.


Of course, she'd need to transfigure the metals and alloys needed, but that shouldn't be too hard once she's made a wand. But that needs a core from a magical creature. It's not like there's a great deal of those around. But she could try demon parts if necessary. Maybe a hair from the bitch queen.


By the time Giles comes in, Buffy has a staff sat across her knees while she's in the process of drawing out designs for wands, a combistick, and smart disc.


Looking up from her drawing, Buffy smiles, "Hey Giles. See anything unusual?"


Giles shakes his head as the image of a phoenix overlays his protegé, "Oh, um, no signs of possession. Um, I need to go and do some reading."


Buffy frowns as he turns away from her, "Um, Giles, does that mean I can take Dawn to the hospital now?"


Giles nods absently, "Hmm, oh, right yes."


While Buffy is putting the staff away, and packing up the drawing supplies, Giles walks back in, "Um, Buffy. Earlier, did you make a wish?"


Buffy looks over, "Er, yes?"


"Oh, right. Don't do it again, especially around so much magic."


As Giles walks away again, Buffy calls after him, "Ok?"


A few seconds later, he comes back, "What was it you wished for?"


Buffy picks up her supplies and walks over to Giles, "I wished there was something I could do. Why?"


"Oh, no reason. Go and see your mother."

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Buffy watches as Dawn is comforted by their mother, as she starts to explain what's been happening to her.


"Buffy."


Buffy turns around at the soft voice to see Riley standing there wearing a green turtleneck jumper. With a smile, she walks towards him.


"You ok? You look pretty beat up."


Buffy nods, "I'm ok. Physically that is. Emotionally, I'm all over the place."


"Come here."


Buffy sighs and swallows a sob as she steps into his chest, and he pulls her into a hug. With a sniff, she smells the coppery scent of his blood. Looking up, she wipes a tear off her eye, and pulls aside the neck of his sweater before rubbing her tear soaked finger over the wound.


Riley looks down at her, "It's all right. Let it all out."


Buffy smiles sadly, "I can't. If I start, I'll be ugly crying for hours, and they need me."


Riley's about to caress her cheek, when Joyce calls, "Buffy!"


Buffy turns back to the ward and takes a couple of steps before briefly turning back, "You need to be careful about letting vampires bite you. Their saliva has addictive qualities."


As she closes the door to the private room, Riley stands there with a lost expression on his face.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 2

Buffy and Dawn are sitting with Joyce in her room, waiting for the doctor to come back with the results of the blood tests and schedule for surgery. While they're chatting, Buffy occasionally wipes a tear from her eye and lets it drip onto the rim of her mother's glass before handing it to her to drink.

Joyce takes the glass and smiles at Buffy, "Buffy, I'm perfectly capable of pouring my own drinks."

Buffy smiles at her from the chair, "I know mom, but if I didn't, you'd have to relinquish Dawn."

Dawn reaches out and takes a lump of jell-o from the table in front of Joyce, "Uh huh, and then I wouldn't be able to steal your jell-o. Hey, one of my friends at school says that gelatin is made from ground up cow hooves. And that every time you eat some jell-o, some cows somewhere are limping around without hooves. I think they're wrong, and that they kill they cows before they use their hooves."

Joyce makes a face, as though the sheer idea is nauseating, "Look, girls. I'm sure that the creamed spinach is lovely, but you should go out and get yourselves something proper to eat."

Buffy smiles and puts a hand on her mother's arm, "Hey mom, we're doing fine here. Aren't we Dawn. What more could we want? The three of us spending quality time together without any distractions."

Dawn smiles and nods, "Yep."

Buffy puts another tear on the glass, even though she knows it won't help with the tumor, as it's not actually a disease. That's on top of the fact that they won't reach full potency until her fingernails start showing a difference.

Buffy looks at the back of her hand, "Mom, if I had a way to protect you and Dawn. Not only from the things that try to kill me occasionally. But also from diseases and things like cancer. Would you want me to use it on you?"

Joyce reaches out a hand and places it comfortingly on the back of Buffy's neck, "Honey, not if it meant selling your soul to something equally as bad."

Buffy smiles at them, "No selling of souls involved."

"Then it would probably be irresponsible of me to turn it down. Especially with Dawn in the picture too. Even so, I don't think I'd want to accept it, as I think you need your slice of normality."

Buffy smiles at the two of them.

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Shortly after the food has been taken away, and Willow popped around to bring gifts and check in on Buffy, the doctor returns. As he walks around the end of the bed, Willow discretely leaves and closes the door behind her.

"Good evening ladies. I have some good news for you."

Buffy and Dawn both smile at the doctor, while Joyce looks confused and upset as the doctor continues, "Your bloodwork has come back, and you have a clean bill of health. That means that we can continue with the surgery, and we have booked it for 10am the day after tomorrow."

Buffy nods, "That's great news, what do you think mom?"

Joyce's voice turns harsh and she turns her head towards Dawn while speaking, "I think this fucking hotel sucks, especially having to share it with freaks like you."

Buffy winces, and waves a distressed Dawn out of the room. As the door clicks shut, she turns back to the doctor, "Doctor, being honest. Based on the shadow, and what you saw during the biopsy, how fast is this progressing?"

The doctor hides a wince, "It's not the fastest growing tumor I've ever seen."

Buffy nods, "Would it be possible to put my mom on a light dose of blood thinners and a strong anti-inflammatory?"

The doctor sighs, "I don't know what you've been reading, but for this tumor blood thinners won't help. We've already got her on the strongest painkillers and anti-inflammatories I dare use."

Buffy thinks for a moment, running through what she can remember from Vivian's medical training, "Does that mean it's on the posterior of the lobe with a single attachment point?"

The doctor shakes his head, "Close, it's between the skull and the lobe, and pushing backwards into the frontal lobe. We're lucky in that respect, as it will make it easier to remove the largest mass without damaging the brain tissue. But, it's location is compressing the local blood supply, and depending on the position of her head, and her blood pressure."

Buffy slumps, "The effect of that is magnified or mitigated. And, of course, it's the brain so there's bugger all free space to begin with."

Impressed the doctor asks, "Impressive, are you going to go into surgery?"

Buffy shakes her head, "Psychiatry, I'm majoring in psychology at college, and I'll have to see about finding a medical college once I graduate."

The doctor sighs, "We can always use more of those. Especially at the moment. Our secure ward is overflowing with patients at the moment, and the directors have taken the decision discharge the patients that aren't a danger to themselves or others."

Joyce blinks owlishly, before her expression returns to normal and she looks around, "Buffy, where's Dawn?"

Buffy glances at the doctor, "Ah, she had to step outside as there were some distressing things being talked about."

Joyce smiles at her, "Why don't you go and see how she's doing. I'm sure I can spend a couple of minutes talking to the doctor."

Buffy nods before kissing Joyce on the forehead and leaving the room.

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As she walks outside, she can see that there's a mental patient walking towards Dawn and Willow, saying something about 'not having any pictures'

As she walks up behind an increasingly distressed Dawn, the patient catches sight of her, and screams before he runs down the corridor crying about not wanting to be caught in 'the inferno' or 'the black tide'.

The nurses that were accompanying the mental patient share a glance before jogging after him.

Buffy taps Dawn on the shoulder, "Hey Dawn, are you ok?"

Dawn jumps, with a squeak, while Willow just jumps at the sound of her voice. Spinning around, Dawn grabs Buffy and starts to cry, "Buffy, is there something wrong with me?"

Buffy smiles into her hair, "No Dawn. You are exactly the way you're supposed to be."

Dawn sniffs, "It's just, he's not the first one to say stuff like that."

"You better not be getting my top snotty. Anyway, he was looking at me when he started to scream about fire and tides. So, if there's something wrong with you, then there's something wrong with me too."

Willow looks at Buffy worriedly, "Buffy, do you think there's anything to what he said about you. After all, there's what happened earlier."

Buffy smiles at Willow and lies, "Nope, no clue. Probably the effects of the hellmouth or something. You'd know better, being the brainy one around here."

While they're chatting, the intern, Ben, comes out of a side corridor, "Was he bothering you?"

Buffy shakes her head, "Not really, he scared Dawn a little before he ran away screaming about fire and tides. Dr Kriegel mentioned something about a rash of cases."

Ben nods, "There are. The directors are starting to send them home. They shouldn't be doing that, as these people need around the clock care."

Buffy sighs as her memories paint Ben as an idealistic young man that hasn't yet grasped the problem of finite resources. Rather than arguing, she just smiles and nods, and leads the three of the to the vending machines.

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A few hours later finds Dawn and Buffy playing cards in their mother's room. A moment later Buffy looks up as Joyce angrily says, "Why won't this work?"

Buffy stands up and walks over to Joyce's bed where she's stabbing the call button for the room. Gently she takes the button from her mother, "Mom, they probably heard you. But they have other people to care for too."

Joyce looks down at where Buffy placed it, "I bet it's not even hooked up to anything. Just like the push buttons at the crosswalk that are supposed to make the signal change."

"I'm sure someone's seen the light, and they'll be here as soon as they can be."

As Buffy finishes talking, the door opens and Dr Kriegel walks in. When Joyce notices him, she turns to Buffy, "Oh, tell him, Buffy. Tell him, ok?"

The doctor looks up at Buffy with an expectant look, so Buffy sighs, "Look, Dr Kriegel, we wanna go home."

The doctor gives a crooked smiles, "Well, of course. You can come back and visit your mother first thing in the morning."

Buffy glances down at Joyce for a moment, "No. We. I mean all of us. My mom too."

The doctor glances upwards, a little surprised, "Oh. Well, I understand that, but it's not necessarily the first thing I'd recommend."

Joyce stutters, "I-I can't. I-I can't stay here waiting for two days for this operation. I just can't." She turns to face the doctor, "It makes my head hurt to be here. Can't you tell that?"

The doctor looks down at Joyce, "Joyce, there's no reason to get upset."

"There's no reason to get upset. Oh, right. Sorry. I must just think there is 'cause of my brain tumor!"

As Joyce turns towards Buffy, and her mouth drops open in concern, Buffy turns around and sees Dawn fidgeting with her book about spells and looking very uncomfortable. Fishing around in the mini pocket of her jeans, Buffy pulls out a dollar note of some denomination and holds it out to Dawn, "Here, Dawn. Why don't you get something from the machine?"

Everyone waits silently as Dawn leaves sullenly, an uncomfortable expression on her face. Once she's gone, Joyce looks at Buffy, "I'm sorry I said that. I'm just so tired."

Buffy rubs her mothers arm, "I know. Listen Doctor. I don't see why we can't just take her home, you know, just until… I-I mean, wouldn't it be better for her to be in a familiar location. It would also free up this room for another patient."

The doctor looks at Buffy gravely, "Even if it would mean some work for you, taking care of her?"

Joyce looks to the ceiling saying, "Oh, thank God" and lays back in the bed.

Buffy nods, "I'll do it."

The doctor shakes his head, "There are medications to administer. I'd have to go over those with you. And I'd need for you to check her vitals. Watch her pretty closely. I'm afraid you won't get a lot of sleep."

Buffy shrugs, "I wasn't planning on it anyway. I'm not looking forward to the nightmares." She makes sure to glance towards Joyce as she says that.

Joyce abruptly sits up in the bed, "Can we go now? Let's go now."

Buffy gently, but firmly pushes her back into the bed, "Hold on a minute. I need to go through the medication and observations that Dr Kriegel needs."

The doctor nods, "She's right. We don't want to forget anything."

It takes another half an hour before the three of them are able to return home with Joyce's medication. As they're walking out, there seems to be some sort of emergency happening in a ward, what with staff from ER running towards the ward with crash carts.

As she drives the family home, Buffy mentally muses that she really should get around to doing her driving test now she's over 18, rather than relying on a learners permit. Even it will be superfluous in a few days. A black Humvee catches her attention, as it hurtles around a corner towards the hospital, and she glances into the review mirror to see what's going on. A movement from Joyce reminds her that she's got more important priorities tonight.

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Once they've got Joyce settled in her room, and all of the lights outside the rooms that aren't actually in use turned off. Buffy searches her jewelry and the house for anything she could use for scribing a runic spell on. In her jewelry, she finds a brass charm bracelet with a blank heart, and a blank sun charm, on it. She also digs out her old compass from the back of a cupboard where she dumped her school supplies after the mayor thing happened last year.

Down in the basement Buffy's lucky enough to find an old poker set with no inserts on the chips. Carrying her supplies up to the lounge, she places them on the coffee table before noticing the open DVD case.

"The Matrix, really Dawn."

Dawn looks at Buffy with pleading eyes, "Please Buffy. You've seen it, and you'll be here."

"What would mom say?"

Dawn points at the stuff Buffy's put on the table, "I can watch it next year when I'm old enough? What are you going to do with all of that?"

Buffy glances down, "I'm going to make a spell so that I can put the equivalent of a magical baby monitor, combined with one of those machines in the hospital, on mom."

"Can I watch?"

Buffy gives Dawn a long look as she considers the pros and cons of that course of action, viewed through the lens of bringing her into the hive as soon as possible. Buffy blinks a few times, and shakes her head, "Um, sure. Though it's not the same sort of magic Willow and Tara use."

Dawn looks confused, "There's different sorts of magic?"

Buffy nods, "Apparently so. There are people and creatures that are born with more magic than mu… normal people. Because of that, they produce more magic on their own, and they can use that in a variety of ways. Then there are magic, users, like our friends, who channel magic from the world around them, or use spells imbued in a book or an item."

"Huh? Why hasn't anyone said anything about that before?"

Buffy slumps down onto the couch and starts scratching at a poker chip with the point of the compass, "Because it wasn't possible before. Dawn, I made a mistake earlier."

Dawn sneaks the play button on the TV control, "What happened?"

"Do you remember I left you with Riley this morning?"

Dawn nods, "He took me to the roundabout with the horses, and bought me ice cream."

Buffy smiles, "Yeah, he's good like that. I needed the space to process what I'd just been told. When I remembered that magic exists, I went to Magic Box and asked if there were any spells or rituals to help."

Dawn blinks, and looks at Buffy suspiciously, "Buffy, you're being awfully open about this. What happened to 'Dawn's a fragile little child that needs to be protected'?"

Buffy chuckles mirthlessly, "Let me finish my story, and I'll tell you." She pauses to allow Dawn to nod, "During that conversation, I wished there was something I could do to help mom. After that, I found out that Glory was trying to summon that giant snake thing, I left to try and stop her. That's where I got infected by what I now know was an adoption egg from another dimension."

"What? Like Hell?"

Buffy shakes her head, "I don't think so. I think that it's a place where the rules were different." Buffy taps her head, "I've got the memories of several adults, and lots of aliens up here now."

Dawn glances back from the TV, "What, like demons?"

"No, like Star Wars. I've got memories of looking at alien suns, and walking on alien planets." She laughs, "There's more than that, but the memories have just been coming as needed. I still have to practice the things I want to do."

Buffy flicks the poker chip she was using into the trash, and picks up another one, that she starts scratching at.

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A couple of hours later, Dawn has fallen asleep on the couch, and Buffy lifts her hands in a cheer as she successfully finishes carving a poker chip. The nine failures are all in the trash, along with the scraps of paper she's used to try drawing the runes out after the first few failures.

Dawn wakes with a start as the sound of a crash comes from the kitchen. Both of them hurry to the kitchen, only to see Joyce leaning over the fridge with her dressing gown on. On the stove a dry pan is hissing and smoking.

While Dawn heads over to Joyce, Buffy coughs and hurries over to the cooker, and turns everything off while moving the pan off the heat.

Turning around, Buffy asks, "Mom, what are you doing?"

Joyce stands up and sneers at Buffy, "I'm making breakfast. You shouldn't eat any more. You're disgustingly fat."

Buffy swallows her first response, and puts a hand on her mothers arm, "I know, it's all the lounging around I do. Come on mom, let's get you back to bed."

Joyce's vision clears, and she shakes her head gently, "Oh, Buffy, I don't know what I'm doing."

Buffy smiles at her mother, "It's ok, your tumor was just pressing on your brain, and leaving you confused. Let's get you back to bed so that you can get some rest. Dawn, can you check the other appliances and make sure they're switched off."

While Buffy deals with the medicines, and taking her observations, Dawn starts to tuck Joyce into bed.

Dawn has just finished tucking her in and strokes her hair a couple of times, when Joyce sits up with a gasp, "Don't touch me! You… You thing."

Dawn stands up and backs away, with a shaky voice she says, "Mom, please."

"Get away from me. You're nothing. You're a shadow."

Buffy tries to interrupt by saying "Mom!" But Joyce carries on.

"I don't know what you are or how you got here."

Buffy tries again, "Mom, it's Dawn."

Joyce looks towards Buffy and then starts to scream.

As Dawn runs out of the room, Joyce's face clears up and she calls out, "Dawn honey what's wrong?"

Buffy turns back, "You just had a funny turn, and she's tired. We all are. Come on. Go to sleep." Once Joyce has lain down, she adds, "I'll check on you in a little bit."

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Buffy closes the door to Dawn's room softly, "Hey Dawn."

Dawn sits heavily on her bed, "She hates me, doesn't she."

Buffy sighs and sits down next to her, "No, she doesn't. She's just losing her lucidity occasionally."

"She called me a thing."

"And she screamed when she saw me. Dawn, there's some things I want to talk to you about later. But not until you've had some sleep. Until then, just remember that she loves you, as do I. She's just not herself because of the tumor."

Dawn shakes her head, "No, not just Mom. It was also the guy at the hospital, and a guy outside Magic Box. He called me a thing too. Said I didn't belong. He said I wasn't real. Why does everybody keep doing that? What's wrong with me? You did it too."

Buffy chews her lip as she looks down, "Dawn, can you trust me for a bit, and leave this till tomorrow. I've also finished the first spell, so if you think you can stay awake for half an hour, I'll make a different one and show you what it does."

Dawn's expression wars between wanting an answer now, and wanting to see what Buffy's been doing. In the end, her curiosity about magic wins over, and she uncurls from the bed, "I'd like to see."

Buffy smiles, "Let me activate the spell for mom. If you could move the rest of the stuff on the coffee table into the kitchen, I'll show you how to do this."

As Dawn scrambles for the stairs, Buffy smiles and snaps her fingers, the carved poker chip appearing in her other hand. Walking into her own bedroom, Buffy reaches under her bed and pulls out a sharp axe.

Carefully, she cuts the tip of her thumb on the blade and ignores the sizzling sound as her blood starts to etch the metal. Instead, she runs her blood along the runes that have been carved around the inside of where the insert would go.

Instead of sizzling, the blood instead seeps into the runes and stains them a bright red. Walking back into her mothers room, she sits on the edge of the bed before placing the poker chip on Joyce's chest, just over the heart, and muttering the incantation to the medical monitor spell that Bathsheba Babbling has re-carved into hospital beds so many times. As a faint shimmer covers Joyce's body, she stirs slightly from the drug induced slumber.

Leaning over, Buffy kisses her mother on the forehead, before standing up and making her way downstairs, poker chip in hand. While she's holding it, she can feel the information from the spell in the back of her mind. Though, even with the memories to help, she doesn't understand most of what the spell is telling her. Hardly surprising considering the spell is designed for mediwitches and healers. As she makes her way downstairs, she slips the poker chip into her bra, so that she doesn't lose contact with it.

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Buffy smiles a Dawn as she walks into the kitchen and turns the light on, "Hey Dawn, she's asleep now."

Dawn leans her head on her hands, "Thank god."

Buffy sits down at the table, "Thank medicine, as I don't think she's going to sleep long."

"Is the spell working then?"

Buffy nods, "It is, though I don't understand most of what it's telling me. I can tell that her breathing is slow and even, with the occasional hitch that I think is pain causing her to wake up slightly. Anyway, I was going to show you a spell."

Dawn looks over eagerly, "What spell?"

"A Norse night light. According to Beth's memories it's one of very few surviving examples of Norse magic that they kept after the introduction of the wand."

With all the practice she's had over the last couple of hours, it's easy enough to sketch out the runes for the night light on paper.

Dawn looks at the neat spiral of runes in confusion, "How does that work?"

Buffy smiles, "You need to be fluent in Old Norse, and then you write out the spell neatly in the mathematically correct pattern. Beth's memories suggest that modern witches and wizards didn't use runes like this anymore, as wands could make something like this in seconds. But I don't have a wand yet."

"Wait, you can speak Old Norse?"

Buffy nods as she starts to painstakingly carve the runes into a poker chip, "And High Egyptian, Yautja, Skali, and Laprey."

Buffy's about half way through carving the runes when she carefully lifts the point of the compass and looks up towards Joyce's bedroom, "Mum's just woken up."

Dawn jerks her head back, where she'd started to doze off, "I'm awake."

Buffy smiles, "I know you are. I just said that mom's awake."

Dawn's about to ask how Buffy knows, when Joyce starts talking about eyes that look like pools of petroleum.

As tears start to form in Dawn's eyes, she stands up to turn the radio on, and Buffy shakes her head, "Don't. I know you want to, and I want to as well. But I need to be able to hear if she calls out for help. You fell asleep half way through The Matrix earlier, so you could find the last bit you remember. Or you could grab a blanket, and sleep on the couch for tonight."

Dawn sits back down, "Could I have a hot chocolate please?"

Buffy smiles and clicks her fingers. Behind her, the electric hob turns on, and a saucepan floats over to land on it, followed by the milk from the fridge. Moments later, the milk is warming gently on the stove, a wooden spoon stirring it gently, while Dawn looks on with awe.

"Buffy, are you doing that?"

"I am. Now, give me a moment, as this is a tricky bit."

Dawn's eyes travel down to the poker chip that now has deep grooves spelling out the runes that Buffy has been writing. A couple of minutes later, Buffy lays the compass down, and hands the poker chip to Dawn.

As Dawn looks at it under the light, she can see a neat spiral of angular scratches that seems to rise out of the center of the chip, "How did you do that?"

Buffy smiles mistily, "Too much time spent drawing Angel's eyes, and memories from a person with a Mastery in Ancient Runes. Think college degree."

"You still miss him, don't you."

Buffy nods, "I do. But I think I miss the idea of him more than the reality."

Dawn shakes her head, "That doesn't make sense."

Buffy sighs, "I'm glad it doesn't. But it will one day. Now all I need to do with this is activate it."

"How do you do that?"

Buffy smiles, and snaps her fingers, summoning the axe from her bedroom. Without hesitation, she cuts her thumb again, before smearing blood on the runes. Dawn jumps up and runs for the first aid kit when she sees how deep the wound it.

Buffy just laughs, and sucks the blood off her thumb to show clear skin, "I didn't just get memories Dawn. If I survive, then there's not much I won't heal from anymore. But you might want to take a plaster out for yourself, as I need you to prick your finger and put a spot of blood on the center of the spiral."

Dawn gapes at Buffy, "Buffy, why?"

Buffy picks up a chip and flicks it end over end, "Without a wand, the Norse used carved runes for their spells. They were able to do highly impressive feats of magic, some of which still haven't been duplicated. However, they needed to link the spell to themselves so that they would channel magic properly. Though, this is more like a magical item than a spell. The theory is the same. It needs magic to activate the runes and allow it to draw from my own magic. You need to donate a spot of blood before mine would dry so that you can use this without this sort of magic."

Hesitantly, Dawn stands up and gets one of the smaller kitchen knifes, before poking the side of a finger with it. She winces as it draws blood, and Buffy's hand shoots out to hold her finger steady while she carefully touches the poker chip to a drop of blood.

Dawn watches in amazement as her blood is absorbed into the chip, and sheen seems to run across it.

Buffy smiles as the coco powder moves over to the hob beside her, and a few spoonful's are added to the milk, along with some cream, "If you touch your finger to it and say 'Ljós' it will activate the light. 'Njól' will turn it off again. 'Dagr' will make the light brighter, though you shouldn't look at it while you say that."

Dawn looks at Buffy as though she's just spoken Klingon, "What did you just say?"

"'Ljós' to turn it on, 'Njól' to turn it off, and 'Dagr' to make it brighter. Probably best not to try that last one around friendly vampires, as 'Dagr' means Day or Daylight."

Dawn sags, "I'm never going to be able to say that."

Buffy smiles, "Sure you will, it just takes practice. Come on, just practice the first two a few times. When you get it right, it will turn on or off. That should give you just enough time for the hot chocolate to be ready."

By the time the chocolate is ready to drink, Dawn has managed to turn it on, and is half-heartedly trying to turn it off while looking at the swirling ball of pale blue light that's hovering above the poker chip.

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It's an hour later, and the washing up is doing itself in the sink while Buffy tries to go through the memories of the people she's got in her head, of their experiences with becoming part of the hive, without dipping into any of the memories before Arry became Queen of her hive.

Suddenly, she sprints upstairs when the spell warns her that her mother has stopped breathing, and is currently panicking. As she hurries through the door to Joyce's bedroom, she spots something lying on top of Joyce, and launches herself across the bed, catching it around what seems to be it's waist.

Whatever it is, doesn't have legs, however, it's arms are abnormally strong, as it tries to wrestle free of Buffy's grip. As it frees itself from one of her arms, she reaches out for something, anything that could help her. As she does so, instincts rear up in the back of her head, and she snaps her fingers, bringing the axe from the table downstairs.

As the axe lands on the floor with a clatter, the creature spits some sort of goo all over her face, trying to make her let go. Instead, she holds her breath, and blindly reaches out for the head of the axe. When she finds it, she grasps it as tight as she can until she feels her blood running down her wrist.

With the now gaping wound on her hand, she lets go of the axe head and slams her palm into the face of the creature above her. As her blood gets into its eyes and mouth, it rears back in agony, and Buffy takes the opportunity to rip whatever it spat on her, off her face. Now able to see more clearly, Buffy picks up the axe and disappears with a pop at the same time it darts through the door.

Reappearing at the top of the stairs, she blindly swings the axe up at the ceiling, and pulls the axe all the way through the swing after it hits something with a meaty thunk. With dispassionate eyes, she wrenches the axe out of its side, and kicks it over onto its back.

As Dawn scrambles up the stairs, she looks at her, "Check on mom, I need to make sure this is dead."

Dawn looks at the creature with it's sizzling face, and darts into the bathroom with a retching sound and takes a swig of water from the tap. Then she goes through the bathroom door into Joyce's room.

Hefting the axe, Buffy brings it down at the top of the things sternum. Then, using both hands, wrenches the ribcage open until she finds its heart.

From downstairs comes a loud crash as the front door is kicked in, and men in black combats pour in, weapons at the ready. By the time they get upstairs, Buffy has almost lovingly removed the heart, being careful not to cut through any of the ligaments that hold the organ in place.

With a smile, and her hands dripping green blood onto the wooden floor, Buffy says, "Excuse me gentlemen, I need to get this into a container, and into the fridge."

As she walks down the stairs, she hears the two men whisper, "Is that really Riley's girlfriend?"

It's only a moment later that she enters the kitchen, and sees Spike sitting in a chair with two guns pointing at him.

"Where did you find him?"

Riley says, from behind her, "We found him in the basement."

Buffy grabs a Tupperware container, and puts the heart in the fridge, "What on earth were you doing in the basement?"

Spike looks up at her, "I, um, that is."

Buffy shakes her head, "Whatever, just get out of the house, I need to check on mom and Dawn and make sure they're both ok."

 

[shypunk]

well isn't this awesome thank you for the chapters so far and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 3

The next morning, Buffy takes a tray of scrambled eggs on toast up to her mom's room. As she walks through the door, she stops and smiles as she sees Dawn lying asleep beside her mother. A discreet snap of her fingers has a second tray appear balanced on her hand, with a bowl of her favourite cereal on it.



"Good morning sleepy heads. Did you sleep well after last night?"

Dawn sits up with a yawn and looks at Buffy oddly, "Breakfast in bed?"

Buffy smiles, "Yep, I thought you could both do with it after that demon attack last night. And all the men tromping around at oh god o'clock."

Dawn smiles as Buffy hands her the tray, and Joyce starts to wake up.

Looking at the tray, Joyce chuckles, "When did you learn to cook Buffy?"

Buffy puts on an offended look, "Hey, you should know, you taught me. Scrambled eggs on toast, see, nothing difficult."

Joyce smiles, "I know, I don't feel very hungry though."

Buffy nods, "That's OK, you just need to eat something so that I can give you your morning pills." She pours on the puppy dog eyes, "Please, just a few bites, for me?"

Joyce laughs, and then winces, before taking a bite, "Mmm, Buffy, this is delicious. How did you sleep?"

Buffy shakes her head, "I haven't yet. I'll sleep once you're out of surgery."

"Buffy, you shouldn't. You need to sleep."

Buffy shrugs, "It's only a couple of nights. It's not like I need much normally as the slayer, either."

"Promise me you'll get some sleep tomorrow."

Buffy smiles, "Don't worry, I plan on it."

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A little while later, Dawn comes down stairs to find Buffy surrounded by screwed up bits of paper while she seems to be doing math on a fresh sheet, "Hey Buffy, what are you doing?"

Buffy looks up, frustration clear on her face, "I'm trying to translate a half remembered spell into runes."

Dawn looks confused, "Why?"

"Because Pomona sprout learnt it while she was doing her mastery in herbology, but never cast it. Minerva heard of it, and Beth was too young to know of it."

"Ok, what does it do?"

"It grades components, and sort of tells you if they're suitable for wand making or potion making."

"And, why do you want that?"

"I have the heart of the demon in the fridge. I want to know if any of it can be used."

"Eww, why? Surely it's tainted."

Buffy pushes the paper away, "You're probably right, even if you're not, I probably need to take a break. Just put the plates by the sink, I'll wash them later."

Dawn does so, and asks, "Buffy, what were you going to tell me today?"

"Dawn, sit down and don't jump to conclusions, OK?"

Dawn nods and takes a seat, "OK."

Buffy looks at her hands, before taking one of Dawn's, "Dawn, you're magically adopted. The reason the insane people keep talking about your pictures is that you didn't have a physical body until September." She tightens her grip as Dawn tries to pull away, "Dawn, that doesn't change the fact that you are my sister. Or that mom's your mom too. It just means that you came into our lives in a nonstandard manner. Do you understand?"

Dawn looks panicked, "You mean they're right, I'm a freak, and I don't exist?"

"Dawn, Dawn! Look at me. Feel my hand gripping yours. Does that feel like something fake? It doesn't matter how you came into our lives, all that matters is that you are my family."

Dawn bursts into tears, so Buffy pulls her into her lap, "Dawn, it's better you find out now, from me, than if one of my enemies found out, and tried to use it against you. Once mom's better, I'm going to work out how to make sure that she'll be healthy and strong enough to protect herself for the rest of her life. I'd like you to have the same thing."

Joyce, feeling a bit better, gets dressed and comes downstairs before Dawn has finished crying out, "Buffy, what's wrong with Dawn?"

Buffy looks up, "With all the people approaching her, and telling her things, I bit the bullet and told her she was magically adopted by us."

"Oh, is that what I saw last night. I thought it was just my tumor."

Buffy nods, "It is, and I can make sure that both of you can protect yourselves in future. I'm going to do something about it once you're out of surgery."

"Buffy, I…"

"Mom, I want you to at least be able to run away. What if we have another demon attack, or vampires try to burn the house down. I just want you both safe."

"I know honey, and I think that's an admirable way of thinking. But I'm getting old now."

Buffy smiles, "That's OK, it would help with that too."

Joyce smiles, "You win. I'm going to sit in the yard as it's a nice day."

The rest of the day passes quickly once Buffy's friends start to turn up to keep her company and… help with the chores.

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The next day, after the nurse has inserted the canula for Joyce's IV, Buffy recasts her monitoring charm before joining the others in the waiting area. Over the course of the day, Willow, Xander, Giles, and Riley all stay with Buffy and Dawn while they wait.

Even with the monitoring charm in the back of her head, the wait for news is excruciatingly long.

Eventually, the doctor walks down the corridor with an exhausted gait, and wearing blue scrubs.

Buffy stands up with a smile, as the monitoring charm suggests that Joyce is sleeping peacefully. As she does, everyone else stands up with her.

Once the doctor is close enough, Buffy asks, "How did it go?"

With an exhausted sigh, the doctor smiles slightly, "It went well, and she's in recovery now. I was able to visualize the tumor completely."

Buffy sags in relief, "That's great news, were there any complications?"

The doctor shakes his head, "No, everything went smoothly. Barring something going wrong during her recovery, she's going to be fine."

Buffy squeals with happiness and hugs Dawn and then Riley. Finally, turning to the doctor, she pulls him into a bone creaking hug, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Rather than respond, the doctor instead arches his back in pain, and lets out a loud expression of pain. Quickly letting go, Buffy steps back, "Sorry."

The doctor just waves her off.

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It's only an hour later that Buffy and Riley are slow dancing in the lounge, with relaxing music playing, and flickering candlelight giving the room a soft and slightly surreal feel to it.

Buffy puts her head against Riley's chest, "Mmm, can we put this song on repeat?"

Gently, Riley says, "Whatever you want."

Buffy frowns slightly at the scent of vampire coming from Riley's left arm, but shakes it off as she leans back, "Can we put the whole night on repeat?"

Riley nods, "Absolutely."

Buffy nods, "Good." Then she leans back with a pleased moan, "Mmm, I can't believe how relaxed I feel. It's like all the tension's just left my body."

Riley quirks a smile, "Already? 'Cause I had that scheduled for a little later on."

With a slight hint of incredulousness, Buffy asks, "Scheduled? Are you planning on seducing me, Mr Finn?"

Riley's grin becomes more pronounced, "Always." Before he leans in for a kiss, "I want tonight to be special for you."

Looking up into his eyes, Buffy says, "It's more than special. It's perfect."

"I'm glad. You deserve it after everything you've been through."

Buffy looks down at his chest, "Well, it's nothing compared to what my mom had to deal with."

"But it was a lot. And you were incredible."

Buffy gives a humorous smile, "Not really. Just covering for the weepy child within."

"Don't sell yourself short. You stayed strong throughout Buffy. You never even cried."

Buffy can't help shaking her head slightly, "Oh, I cried. I cried so hard, I didn't think I was gonna be able to stop. I've got the tears in a bottle to prove it too."

Turning her head, she rests it against Riley's chest with her nose away from the vampire stink, before sighing.

Riley sounds a little hurt as he says, "Oh."

"That's all in the past now. Mom's out of the woods, and I'm here with you. That's all that matters."

As she looks up at Riley, he captures her lips with his own, and the time for talking and quiet reflection comes to an end, and they move onto gentle love making, before falling asleep in each other's arms.

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Later that night, as the scent of vampire fills the room, Buffy wakes up from a dream of hundreds of her children dying as they fight to secure a source of food from another hive, before the more dangerous predators arrive to steal it away from both of them. It only takes her a second to recognize the scent from the other night.

"Spike, what are you doing here?"

"I need to show you something."

Buffy sits up and stares at him, "Really Spike? Every time you show up like this, you risk all of your parts, you know that?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't have a good reason. As usual, I'm here to help you, and I… Are you naked under there?"

Buffy growls, "So what if I am? Get out."

"No, I'm serious. I mean, not about the naked part, I mean…"

"Get out, or I will rip off your head and mount your polished skull on my wall."

Spike steps back at the threat, before he rallies, "I wanna show you something."

"What?"

"You need to see this. But we need to move if we want to get there in time."

Buffy sighs, and gets out of bed. Spikes eyes widen before he spins around. With a click of her fingers, Buffy's dressed in comfortable clothes, "Well, let's go then."

Spike turns back and does a double take, before leading her out of the house.

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Spike leads Buffy to a rundown second floor two story apartment, accessed by a set of concrete stairs that's covered by graffiti and posters. At the bottom of the stairs, a few steps go down to the first floor apartment. As they get close, the scent of vampires becomes almost overpowering.

As he leads her up the stairs and into the apartment, the stench is so pervasive that she can't identify the individual strains anymore.

Looking around, the downstairs area Buffy can see the red, almost orangey, shapes of humans sitting or lying down on various bits of furniture, the dark blue shapes moving above them occasionally illuminated by the faint light, to reveal vampires drinking from different limbs on the humans.

From behind her, Spike says, "No slayage tonight. We're here for something else."

Buffy looks around, "What is this place?"

Spike just walks towards the stairs, "This way."

Buffy follows Spike silently, and watches as a vampire in a leather jacket steps in front of him, "You can't go up there."

Spike just grabs the vampire by the throat and throws him to one side. Buffy walks past him and silently ascends the stairs. The hint of a familiar scent pulling on her nose.

As the scent becomes stronger, and more familiar, Buffy puts her hand on the wall, her fingernails carving through the plaster as easily as they'd pass through sand, leaving deep furrows behind her, as a rain of dust falls to the floor.

Vaguely, she's aware that Spike is in a minor argument downstairs, but still she walks on, until she comes to a bare wooden door beside a crooked light fitting on the wall. Pushing the door open, she looks in side, and has to just stop and stare as she sees Riley sitting in an armchair, with a female vampire sucking on his arm. When he says 'Harder' in that almost feral growl he uses when she's got him on edge, her grip on the door-jam tightens with a loud crack, as the wood shatters under her grip.

Riley looks up, "Buffy?"

Anything else he might have said goes unheard of by Buffy as she turns from the doorway and runs back the way she came. As she rounds a corner, and sees Spike walking towards her, she disappears in a flash of fire, and reappears on her favorite beach from when she was going to Hemery High school.

With a heart wrenching sob, she runs towards the sea and leaps into the air. A sleek black shape replaces her, and dives beneath the waves.

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Morosely, Riley unlocks the door to his apartment and walks in. Slowly, he moves through the dark apartment, his senses on high alert. As he gets past the entry hall, his eyes pick out the telltale reflection of white skin being lit by the streetlight outside. Turning away from that part of his apartment, he switches on a table lamp and says, "Get out."

A deep, gruff, voice, responds, "I need to talk to you."

Riley looks back to see three men in black fatigues standing in the kitchen area, "I'm not in a talking mood."

The man who just spoke walks forward, "Then listen."

One of his old squad mates walks up with the man, "Riley, just give the man a chance. If you don't like what you hear, we'll be on our way."

Riley glances at his squad mate before licking his lips and looking at the new man, "Talk fast."

"We have a code one in Belize. A demon tribe is taking apart missionaries in the rain forest down there."

Riley looks down at the ground, "And you're telling me this because…"

"We're going down to terminate their operation. We want you to join us."

Riley pauses for a long moment before he responds almost guiltily, "I'm a civilian."

"You're a soldier."

Riley's voice rises slightly, "I quit the government a long way back."

"We're not government. We're Army."

Riley's squad mate adds, "Just like you."

The man in charge steps forward into Riley's space, "It's not The Initiative, Finn. We don't do experiments. None of us give a damn what makes monsters tick. We just stop 'em."

Riley sways slightly, "What do you need me for?"

"I think you can handle yourself, and I always need bodies. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's the real deal. High risk, low pay, and seriously messy. We ship out for Central America tomorrow midnight. Now, maybe civilian life is working out for you, and maybe not. Midnight, tomorrow. Decision's yours."

Riley stares off into the distance for a long time after the three men file out, and close the door behind them.

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The next morning finds Giles standing on a step ladder, affixing a sign above the cash desk in Magic Box. Behind the counter, Anya and Xander are both dealing with the morning delivery, while Willow is adjusting things on the shop floor.

With a sigh, Giles finishes tying off the last corner of his Seasonal holiday sign advertising the various new year religious observations that are coming up, "And so it begins." Climbing down the steps he continues, "No longer a victim of crass holiday commercialization, I'm a purveyor of it."

Pulling a container out of the box she's unpacking, Anya makes a face as she pulls one out of the container, "Oh, who ordered more chicken's feet? The ones we have aren't moving at all."

Xander snarks, "That's generally what happens when you cut them off the chicken."

Anya huffs, "I'm serious. Maybe we could do a holiday promotion. One free with every purchase."

Giles looks up wistfully, "Oh, year. Dear holiday memories. Merry tykes by the fire, enjoying their new Christmas chicken feet."

Willow walks up to the counter and clasps her hands in front of her chest, "Aw, holding them tight as they fall asleep, painting their little toenails."

Anya chuckles as she looks at the chicken's foot in her hand, "That's very humorous. Make fun of the ex-demon. I can just hear you in private. 'I dislike that Anya. She's newly human and strangely literal."

Buffy walks into the conversation and takes the chicken foot Anya's holding out, "Oh, thanks Anya." Buffy takes a crunchy bite from the foot, "Mmm, these are great. Anyway, I just wanted to catch you and Xander. Um, something came up last night, and I need some time to clear my head, and order my thoughts. Um, would you mind looking after Dawn for another couple of nights." Buffy turns to Giles, "Maybe you, Giles, if they can't. Only, I don't think I'm going to be able to get home for a couple of days."

Giles stammers, "Oh, um, I think we can sort something out."

Buffy smiles brightly, "Oh, thanks guys." Turning around she walks away crunching the chicken foot, and seems to just fade into nothing before she gets to the door.

Willow looks at where Buffy was, before looking back to everyone else, the previous bickering forgotten, "Um, did anyone else see that?"

Anya looks outraged, "I did, she walked out of her without paying for that chicken foot."

Xander shakes his head as he reaches into the pot and pulls out a chicken foot, "I think Willow was talking about the whole becoming invisible thing."

Giles takes his glasses off to clean them, "Yes, yes, quite. I was going to look up the phoenix, but with the Queller Demon and Joyce's brain surgery, I completely forgot."

As Xander sniffs the chicken foot, and starts to nibble on it, Anya nods, "Is this related to the night light that Dawn has?"

Willow looks confused, "Night light?"

Anya nods, "It's carved into a poker chip, and Dawn said that Buffy made it for her the night the Queller demon attacked."

Willow looks curious, "Buffy made it? But magical artifacts are supposed to be hideously difficult to make."

Giles coughs, "They can be. It depends on the artifact and the cost you pay. I really should try to find out what Buffy summoned with her wish."

Xander makes a face, and spits a bit of chicken foot out into his hand, "Ugh, these are disgusting. How could Buffy just crunch them like that."

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Joyce smiles at her daughter, even though she can see the tension in her shoulders, "Buffy, you don't have to be here with me. You should be out with your friends."

Buffy turns around holding a long haired silver wig, "Mom, I'm here because I want to be."

"What about Riley?"

Joyce watches the twitch on Buffy's face as she touched a nerve, "I gave Riley the day off, so I could spend time with you."

"Buffy, I don't think Riley would see that as a chore."

"I know mom, it's just."

As Buffy sits on the end of the bed, Joyce puts her hand on Buffy's arm, "Is this like Angel?"

Buffy shakes her head, "No, Angel never… I saw something last night, and I'm trying to get my head around it and everything else that's happened to me recently."

"Like the fact you've become proficient with magic recently?" Buffy looks guilty, so Joyce laughs, "Buffy, I was sick, not stupid."

Buffy nods and clicks her fingers, a plastic water bottle with maybe a ¼ inch of liquid in the bottom, "Drink this mom. It will heal your surgical wounds. It's not as good as putting them directly on the wound. But it will work."

Joyce closes Buffy's hand over the bottle, "Maybe once they've discharged me. I don't think the world is ready for magical cure all's. Now, you should go and do what you need to do rather than sitting around the hospital. I'm perfectly capable of entertaining myself."

Buffy smiles before she disappears with a pop, leaving Joyce to look wistfully at the space she was just sitting in.

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Dawn chews on some popcorn as she sit on a leather couch in Giles' apartment, the local news playing on the TV.

"In an NBC exclusive, we are now going live to the Midland Ranch Road Beach on Avalon, just off the coast of Los Angeles, where the mostly eaten corpse of a blue whale washed up earlier this afternoon. Susan, what's going on there?"

Dawn looks over at Giles, who's pouring over an old tome, "Mr Giles, what could eat a blue whale, and only remove the skull from the skeleton?"

Giles looks up bemusedly, "Huh? Just call me Giles, or Rupert. What was that?"

Dawn points at the TV, "A blue whale washed up on a beach."

Giles stands up and comes over to look at the TV where a reporter is standing up wind of a beheaded blue whale corpse that's missing the skull. As the reporter continues talking, Giles sinks onto the couch with Dawn and cleans his glasses, "Oh god."

On the TV, the camera pans over to someone who's claiming that it was a dinosaur that did this.

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In the Magic Box, Anya is cashing up, and double checking the receipts against the receipt role from the till, with Xander sweeping the floor and generally tidying up for the morning.

Xander leans on his broom and looks over at Anya, "Anya, what do you think's going on with Buffy?"

Anya looks up, "What do you mean?"

"It's just, the way she was this morning. Running off who knows where without even a word."

Anya shrugs, "Who knows, could be anything."

"Yeah, but there was also that chicken foot earlier."

Anya smiles wistfully, "It wasn't that bad, I remember going to one party, and they served live bloodworms that you had to dig out of the victim yourself."

"Would you stop being scary for a minute and listen to what I'm trying to tell you?"

Both of them look up as the bell on the door tinkles, and Riley walks in. As he comes over to the counter he asks, "She in there?"

Xander shakes his head, "No, we haven't seen her since this morning when she asked us to look after Dawn for a couple of nights."

"Did she say why?"

Anya shakes her head, "No, just that she wouldn't be going home for a couple of nights while she worked stuff out."

Riley stands there looking stunned, as though the bottom of his world has just fallen out. After a long moment he asks, "Can you let her know. Can you let her know that the Army want me to help with a demon thing? It'll be a radio silence operation, no contact with civilians, or anything. I-I'll be shipping out from the initiative helipad at midnight. I-If she wants to talk, I'll be there until then."

Xander awkwardly claps Riley on the shoulder a couple of times, "Sure, if we see her, I'll let her know."

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Riley stands at a parade rest while he looks out over the darkened parkland towards Sunnydale and Buffy's home. Behind him, the other men are busy securing the last of the stowage for their flight to a military airfield, where they'll then get a plane south.

His own gear was stowed nearly an hour ago, and he's been watching the entryways to this field since then. As the minutes tick towards midnight, his heart sinks lower and lower in his chest. Until the sound of the helicopter spinning up causes him to, reluctantly, turn around and take his seat.

 

[shypunk]

riley really fucked up cheating on buffy with a damn demon ugh. thanks for the chapter and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 4 – part 1

Buffy appears in her home with a flash of fire, dancing a little jig while holding a large, leathery egg, "I've done it, I've done it!"

Dawn comes thundering down the stairs, "What have you done?"

Buffy spins to face Dawn, "I've made an adoption egg, isn't it beautiful?"

Dawn steps back a look of disgust on her face, "Ugh, if you say so."

Buffy smiles, "Hey, did you still want to become a closer part of the family? And be able to do the same magic I've been doing too."

There's a crash from behind Buffy, as her tail knocks over a corner table, "Oops, that was an accident." A Click of her fingers has the lamp she just knocked over right and repair itself.

Dawn looks doubtfully at the egg, "Um, sure I do. Just…"

Buffy smiles widely, and puts her hand in the top of the egg, before pulling out a face hugger, "Great, just put this over your face, and it will implant an egg. Then in a couple of hour's you'll be part of my hive."

Dawn screams, and scrambles up the stairs. As she does, the face hugger leaps off of Buffy's hand and skuttles up the stairs after Dawn. Buffy sighs as she hears a thud from Dawn's bedroom, as Dawn hits the floor, "She didn't even let me finish."

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Dawn wakes up with a groan on the floor of her bedroom, kneeling beside her is Buffy. Coughing, she pushes herself into a sitting position.

Buffy looks at her with a bright smile, "How are you feeling Dawn?"

Dawn coughs again, "My throat's sore. What happened?"

Buffy clicks her fingers, and a glass of water appears beside Dawn, "You ran away from the face hugger. I was going to tell you that if you relax, and accept it, it's completely painless."

Dawn blinks a couple of times as she tries to process that, while sipping the water, "What does that mean?"

Buffy shrugs, "Oh, just that the face hugger chased you, and then rendered you unconscious. But it's done now, and you're going to be my sister forever."

"Huh? Really?"

Buffy nods enthusiastically, "Yep. You should start to notice the rest of the hive in around an hour. I'm just going to lay an egg for mom, do you think she'd like fresh lobster for dinner?"

Dawn shakes her head, "I've never had lobster, so I wouldn't know." Dawn rubs her eyes as she spots something moving behind Buffy, "Buffy, what's that?"

Buffy looks over her shoulder at what Dawn's looking at, "Oh, that's my tail. I put a light elven notice me not on it, so that non-magicals can't see it."

Dawn's about to say something else, when Buffy disappears in a pillar of fire, "Buffy, what's a notice me not. Oh don't worry Dawn, it's something I'll tell you when you're an adult." Grumpily, she starts to pack her school bag, "Don't worry Dawn, you're old enough to walk to school on your own. You're just not old enough to do anything else on your own."

With her bag packed, Dawn heads into Joyce's bedroom, where her mother is lying on the bed, reading a book, in her night dress, "Hey mom. I'm just heading to school."

Joyce puts her book down, and opens her arms for a hug, "Have a good day sweetie. Do you want me to drive you?"

Dawn shakes her head, "I'll be fine. It's only a couple of miles."

"Well, stay safe, and don't forget to eat lunch."

Dawn smiles as she walks out the room, "I won't mom."

Dawn is half way to school, when she starts to hear whispers in the back of her head, along with a vague sense that Buffy is somewhere underwater.

During math, Dawn looks up at the board as the teacher is trying to explain algebra for the third time this week. The next moment, she's remembering multiple people learning, and using the same thing. Followed by a completely alien experience of learning something similar, yet couched in terms of hunting. As the moment passes, the equations on the board suddenly make sense, and she can see how easy they are.

Almost frantically, she starts to flick through the textbook, checking questions randomly, only to find that the understanding comes just as easily.

Her euphoria at this discovery lasts until English, where most of the memories insist that what she's writing is wrong, due to her spelling and word choices. Only one set of memories agrees with the teacher, and they have a vague sense of being at Hemery High.

Dawn feels herself being drawn into those memories, as they flick past. That is, until she gets to Buffy doing her homework, and glancing up to catch herself in the mirror.

Dawn's brain stutters as she realizes that she's not in that memory, and she hasn't been in any of those memories. As her panic starts to rise, she feels like she's been held by Buffy in a comforting full body hug. Then, she's shown to a memory where Buffy's talking to a dying monk, and he tells her about the key.

After that, she's suffused in Buffy's feeling of love, annoyance, and concern for Dawn, "Dawn, I told you that you were magically adopted. But that doesn't change the fact you're my sister, and you always will be."

"Buffy, where are you?"

A sense of amusement comes from Buffy, "I'm on the roof, and you just said that out loud. You should probably go back to paying attention to your English class."

"Miss Summers, are you feeling ok?"

Dawn jerks at the sound of her teacher's voice, "Oh, um, yes. Sorry, I was… I was just wondering where my sister was, as she went for a walk now mum's back home."

The teachers face softens, "It's ok. Just try to use your inside voice for those concerns in future. My cousin always went hiking in the Kootenai Forest when he was stressed."

As the lesson continues, Buffy's mental laughter lingers for a moment as her presence withdraws. Now alone with her thoughts again, Dawn smiles and considers how nice it was to feel that close to Buffy. A moment later, a cheeky smile crosses her face, and she goes looking for memories of Buffy and Angel, until she finds a memory of them doing that… At which point, her face turns bright red, and she quickly turns her attention back to the class.

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A few hours later, Buffy appears in her house, and silently makes her way upstairs to her mother's room. There, she slips in, and sits on the end of the bed, watching Joyce read until she notices her.

Joyce jumps as she glances around the room, and spots Buffy sitting on the end of the bed, "When did you get here?"

Buffy smiles, "A few minutes ago. I was just watching you read, as it's been less than a week since I didn't know if you'd live long enough to get to this point."

Joyce smiles at her daughter, "Oh, Buffy. You've been so strong, I keep forgetting that you're not even twenty yet."

Buffy smiles, "It's ok, I wanted to let you know that I've finished your Christmas present. I wanted you to have the first one, but I met Dawn first, so she got it."

Joyce smiles at her daughter, "Honey, Christmas isn't till next week."

Buffy gets up and kisses her mom on the forehead, "I know, but I want to give it to you early. Tell you what, I'll just play Santa, and you'll wake up tomorrow with the gift."

Joyce humors Buffy by giving her a smile, "I look forward to it."

Buffy gives Joyce a bright smile, "While I'm here, is there anything I can get you?"

Joyce shakes her head, "Not right now. What about you, shouldn't you be in college?"

Buffy shakes her head, "No, I submitted mitigating circumstances, and they're going to allow me to redo the semester. I'm also changing my majors to Biology and Psychology, with a minor in Chemistry."

"Buffy, what about your…"

Buffy sits on the bed beside Joyce, and takes her hand, "Mom, I have all this knowledge up here already, and I want to be able to do something that isn't slaying with my life. It's not like money's ever going to be a problem."

Joyce looks offended, "Buffy, how can you say that? Do you know how hard I've had to work to pay for this house?"

Buffy smiles gently, "Do you feel able to get up and come to my room?"

Joyce scoffs, "Buffy, I'm recovering, not on my deathbed."

Buffy leads Joyce into her room, which now has pretty rocks, shells, and gemstones dotting the surfaces. On the floor by her bed is a battered metal chest with flaking green paint. On the bed is an orca skull, halfway through being polished.

Joyce leans heavily against the doorframe, "Buffy, where did all…" she weakly indicates the stuff around the room, "come from?"

Buffy smiles, "I found it while hunting," she pats the skull, "this is my favorite so far. As it was a real challenge, as oppose to the blue whale I ate just after you came out of surgery." She opens the chest to reveal glittering gold discs, "I found this on an old ship on the other side of the continental shelf."

Buffy hands her mother a coin with Moffat & Co. stamped on one side, and she looks at it weakly, "Buffy, do you know how important this is?"

Buffy shrugs, "Not really, they've all got different stamps on them, so I figure we could sell them for their gold value."

Joyce slides down the doorframe to sit on the floor, "Buffy, if these are real, they're coins from the gold rush. When I was managing the art gallery, and going to auctions, you'd occasionally see one turn up. Where did you find these?"

Buffy shrugs, "About three days swimming to the west. It gets very deep out there. I'll show you at some point, once you've worked out how to change."

Joyce just stares at the coin in her hand, so Buffy gently picks her up and takes her back to bed.

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A little over a week later sees Buffy in the training room with Giles, as he holds out target pads for her to aim at with her punches.

"You keep dropping your right shoulder. Don't do that, I can see the punch coming a mile of."

Buffy grits her teeth as her tail lashes out behind her, and buckles one of the legs of the pommel horse behind her, "Giles, I know you couldn't see it coming, cause that was a lefthand punch."

Giles eyes snap to the pommel horse in concern, "Buffy, I know you've been practicing magic, but I think you should reign it in a bit if your emotions are causing things like that to happen."

Buffy grinds her teeth and drops the notice-me-not on her tail, as she does Joyce's gentle presence comes into her mind, "I know you're frustrated Buffy, but he didn't know about your tail. Remember, people only know what you tell them."

As Giles backs up to the weapons rack on the wall behind him, Buffy's tail slows down it's lashing around, and she lets out a deep breath, "Giles. You have been treating me like I'm some sort of psycho that's going to crack and bring on some magical Armageddon. I don't know why you've been doing that, but the least you could have done, is ask me." Stalking forward, she pokes Giles in the chest, "Now, I have something that will let you categorically understand what's happened to me. Would you like me to give it to you. I guarantee that it isn't harmful to you."

Giles stammers, "A-As your watcher, I think I should have access to anything you might have to help me understand."

Buffy smiles and disappears in a flash of fire, only to reappear a moment later, soaking wet, and holding a leather egg.

An hour later Giles wakes up on the concrete floor to see Buffy doing a one-handed handstand on the pommel horse, her skirt falling down over her head while her tail twitches and writhes from side to side, helping her maintain her balance.

Buffy looks up at Giles, "So, you really think they might be able to help us?"

Giles sits up confused, "Huh?"

"The council, that you're going to visit?"

Giles looks around from his glasses, "What happened?"

Buffy back flips off the pommel horse and flicks his glasses to him with her foot, "You struggled against the face hugger, so it cut off the blood supply to your brain, causing you to lose up to 5 minutes of your short-term memory. I'm more concerned with your visit to the council."

Giles pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration, "Buffy, I think me blacking out is more worrying than the council. Also, how do you know about that anyway. I was planning to talk to you about it while we trained."

Buffy huffs, "I told you that I have something that will let you categorically understand what's happened to me."

Giles' eyes widen in understanding, "And I would have wanted you to give it to me."

Buffy nods, "Yep, so now you're part of my hive, and all my ancestral memories are now available to you. Equally, all your memories are available to everyone else in the hive too."

Giles jumps as Dawn says, "And no peeking mister, just because we share memories, doesn't give you a license to spy on us. We can feel it when you do."

Joyce admonishes Dawn, "Yes Dawn, we can, can't we. Now stop peeking. Sorry about that Rupert, she's been trying to make as many memories as she can since she found out her own only start in September."

Giles looks around wildly, "How, what?"

Buffy sighs patiently, "Giles, council now, worry about hive stuff later."

Giles visibly pulls himself together, "Yes, well. If you mean, 'are they gonna help us find out something about Glory'… The resources that the Watchers Council have at its disposal… I mean, the central library alone is…"

Buffy pokes Giles, hard, "Giles, if I wanted to know about the library, I'd just check your memories."

"I'm sorry, but we have really exhausted the materials I have here, and we're coming up empty."

"So, Glory's all you're gonna talk to them about, right?"

"I think I need a cup of tea."

"Giles…" Buffy says warningly.

"I'm not gonna mention Dawn's name. I wouldn't do that. I promise."

"But you're gonna tell them about the Key? That Glory's looking for something called the Key?"

Giles sighs, "Look, knowing her goal is crucial. I mean, if anything helps them uncover her origins, her plans…"

Buffy nods, "I know. I just needed to hear you say it. It's just, I trust these Watchers about as far as Willow could throw them."

Giles looks surprised, "Thank you, I'd have thought you'd have used me as an example."

Buffy laughs, "Not anymore. Welcome to the super leagues. I hope you're not going to talk to them about me, about us."

"Well, I…"

"Giles, if you do, and they succeed in killing me, then you'll have doomed the human race."

"Buffy, don't be dramatic."

Buffy smiles sadly at Giles before standing up and walking out, "Sweet dreams Giles. I think you'll understand while you dream."

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A few days later, Giles wakes up in a puddle of cold sweat, the memories of spreading out on a populated planet fresh in his mind. A quiet pop to the side of the room, heralds the arrival of Joyce with a mug of Earl Grey tea.

Joyce snaps her fingers, and a dining chair appears next to the bed, and she sits in it, "Here, I think you need this."

Hesitantly, Giles takes the mug and sniffs it, "Earl Grey, wherever did you get this?"

Joyce smiles, "London, England. I took a large Peridot that Buffy found and pawned it. How are you doing?"

Giles looks a little bitter, "Can't you just look and find out?"

Joyce shakes her head, "We're not ants Rupert, despite Hermione's comparison. I admit, I did peek at your past, just as I suspect you've looked at ours too. So I know about your father. But that's not what these hives are about. You are part of a family now, a loving and supportive family, where there can be no misunderstandings, because we can show each other what we're thinking and feeling."

"But you can't I have so many dangerous secrets…"

"And you're not carrying them alone anymore. None of us will know those secrets unless we go looking, or you show us. But if you do show us, you can also show us why they're secret. Now, don't you think you should start looking at this as a gift, rather than a burden? Maybe look at house elf magic, and the fact that this magic doesn't even come from this dimension, so why would it operate by the same rules?"

Giles sips his tea, and sighs as he tastes the honey and lemon Joyce flavored it with, "Joyce, I've done some bad things with magic, I almost lost myself…"

"Giles, you're not Ripper anymore. Remember, I dated Ripper, and that's not you. You have a chance to make a different difference in the world. You don't need to worry about the addictive nature of this magic, because it comes from inside us. Just be careful using this magic around computers, as I've had a blue screen on mine several times when I forget. Oh, and I've asked Buffy to stop pushing memories towards you while you sleep. So you should no longer be suffering from the worst of her memories. Just random ones."

Giles opens his mouth to respond, but Joyce disappears with a pop, the chair leaving a moment later.

As he finishes the mug of tea, he experimentally clicks his fingers, only for nothing to happen. Joyce's gentle presence nudges him towards a set of memories of house elves learning to use clicking fingers as a mnemonic. A second click of his fingers sends the mug to Joyce's kitchen table. Joyce then nudges him to the memories of a woman called Bathsheba Babbling, and her early experiments with Norse magic. As he becomes engrossed in them, he absently feels Joyce's presence leave.

When he absently checks his mail on the way to the shop, he finds his plane tickets have arrived, with his flight leaving from LA at 8pm.

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Later that day, Buffy is sitting at the large round table with Tara, Willow, Xander, and Anya. She, along with Tara and Willow, has her college books laid out in front of her, while Xander is reading a comic, and Anya is just having a break.

When Willow and Anya's sniping at each other starts up again while Buffy's trying to read about Genetics and Evolution, "Will you two please shut up. This is complicated, and I want to read it at least once before the semester starts."

As Willow and Anya both stare daggers at each other, and across to the table at Buffy, Xander tries to break the tension by joking, "So, Bufster, what's with all the skirts lately?"

Buffy looks up with a smile, and a teasing tone, "It's to hide my tail."

"Ok, fine. I get it, you don't want to talk about it. Why are you reading a different book to Willow and Tara?"

Buffy glances at the three books, "Oh, I had last semester cancelled due to mitigating circumstances, what with mom having brain cancer and all. I've also changed my majors to Psychology and Biology, with a minor in Chemistry. Maybe I'll go to medical school after college."

Xander looks down at his comic, as do Anya and Willow their own things, at the mention of Joyce's cancer, "Oh, um, that makes sense. Sorry for asking. How are you doing after Riley…"

Buffy glances up again, "Who?"

Xander buries himself in his comic, "Right, that sort of breakup. Forget I said anything."

A couple of minutes later, and before the silence becomes so thick you could cut it with a knife, Giles walks out of the training room with his suit jacket in one hand, and a tie in the other. Draping his jacket over the spare chair, he looks up at the table, "Oh, good, you're all here. I just want you all to know I'm going to England for a week."

Anya perks up with a smile, "You're going away for a week? That's great!"

Glumly, Giles says, "Yes, everybody seems delighted about it."

"Well, I get to run the store, right?"

Giles looks at Anya, "You? Well, there's quite a lot for one person to take care of. Uh, uh, I mean, the trash men, for example. I mean, th-th-they've been making such a mess in the back alley that the recycling people can't get in there to collect. Well, somebody has to talk to them."

Anya looks a little surprised, "I can take care of that."

Tara looks up from her notes as Giles walks over to the counter, "I'm envious, Mr Giles. A trip to England sounds so exciting and exotic," as Giles turns around with a glum expression, "unless you're English."

Buffy looks over at Giles, "Don't worry about the shop. We can take care of it. We can open and close, and we'll deal with everyone."

Willow leans forward, "We can come by between classes. Usually I use that time to copy over my class notes with a system of different colored pens, but it's been pointed out to me that's, you know, insane."

Tara looks up at the ceiling, "I said 'quirky'."

Anya looks between Willow and Giles, "Hello? I work here. I'll take care of everything."

Xander tries to stick up for his girlfriend, "Yeah, Anya can do it."

Anya smiles at Xander, "Thanks sweetie. Well said."

Giles looks back from the till, where he's taking a bit of cash for a cab, "Um, Anya, while I completely trust you, to take care of the inventory and the money, dealing with people requires a certain, uh, finesse."

Sounding offended, Anya says, "I have finesse! I have finesse coming out of my bottom! I can completely lie to the health inspector. I can, you know, distract him with coy smiles, and bribe him with money and goods."

Xander looks up with a slight smile, "See there? She'll be great."

Willow smirks, "Don't worry Giles. I'll help her take care of everything. It'll be shipshape. Better, it'll be 'shopshape'."

Anya complains to Xander, "Xander, she's talking to Giles like I'm not here. Make her stop."

Giles looks anxious, "Perhaps I'd better call the airline."

As Giles turns away, Willow objects, "I'm just trying to help out. Xander, tell her!"

Giles mutters "Schedule an earlier flight back. Excuse me."

Anya says to Xander, "Tell her that I don't need her help."

Xander looks over at Buffy, "So, how goes the slaying?"

Buffy looks up again, "I killed something in a convent last night."

Xander's mouth drops open for a moment, before he nods and looks between Anya and Willow, "In any other room, a frightening declaration. Here, a welcome distraction. Tell us all about the killing Buff."

Buffy shrugs, "Pretty standard, just a vampire. Ripped his heart out and crushed it in my fist. Dust everywhere. Oh! But I met a nun, and she let me try on her wimple."

Xander shivers as he sits up straighter, "Ok, now we're back to frightening."

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Later that evening, after Giles has left the current range of the hive leaving only a sense of his location behind, Dawn makes her way into her sisters room, "Buffy, do you mind if I hang out here?"

Buffy looks up from her bed, along with a questioning sense over the hive, "Sure, what's up?"

Dawn climbs on the bed, and lays her head in Buffy's lap, "How do you deal with it?"

"What do you mean?"

"The memories, having so few that are your own."

Buffy embraces Dawn's presence in the hive as lovingly as she can, at the same time Joyce appears on the bed with a pop, "Badly. Though it's not the same as your situation. My normal method of 'ignore it, and hope it goes away' doesn't work with them, so I'm taking inspiration from Arry, and trying to accept that they're there and trying to find enjoyment in the life I'm living now."

Dawn sighs, "I know it's just…"

Joyce lays a hand on Dawn's shoulder, "Dawn, I don't care that most of my memories with you are magical in nature. What matters is that you're my daughter now, and I love you. Look, it's the weekend in a couple of days, why don't I take you to Disney World in Florida, and we'll make our own new memories there. Just like we should have done when we took Buffy when she was 11."

Buffy objects, "Mum, what about your head?"

Joyce scoffs, "Buffy, you know as well as I do that my head's as healed as it's going to get. You're welcome to come along if you want."

Buffy sighs, "No, I should stick around here while Giles is gone. I might join you for a couple of hours if you're going as the park opens though."

Dawn sticks her tongue out at Buffy, "You're just jealous that I can go on all the rides, while your tail's just going to get in the way."

Buffy makes an exaggerated tickling motion with her fingers, "Why you little…"

Dawn "eeps" and disappears with an excited squeal, and a pop, shortly followed by Buffy, leaving Joyce to smile indulgently at the now empty bed.

 

[lars573]

So one things been bugging me. Don't House elves have some fairly potent offensive magic too? Like can over power an ongarde wizard with their wand out and force push them down a hallway with some effort?

Also is the tail like full alien blade whip? Cause I just can't help but see her with a murder whip trailing behind her.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

So one things been bugging me. Don't House elves have some fairly potent offensive magic too? Like can over power an ongarde wizard with their wand out and force push them down a hallway with some effort?

Also is the tail like full alien blade whip? Cause I just can't help but see her with a murder whip trailing behind her.

Click to shrink...

Yes, the tail is the full alien blade whip.

So, the house elf question is fairly complicated. Not because their magic isn't powerful, but because in essence it's deliberate accidental magic. So, the force pushing a wizard down a hallway isn't really an offensive magic, as it's the same magic you'd use for moving a heavy wardrobe around. It's just being used offensively. Same as their ability to clean, pop, go invisible, summon things, etc. It's not the abilities that are offensive magic, unlike a piercing spell, it's that they are basic abilities that can be used offensively. (vanishing all the 'dirt' and oil from inside a gun would render it useless, and clean.)

 

[shypunk]

thanks for the enjoyable chapter and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 4 – part 2

The next Monday, Buffy meets up with Tara at Sunnydale University, to get her schedule and attend her first class, as their first classes happen to be at the same time.

Buffy smiles sweetly at the staff member who's handing out schedules for each student, before turning to Tara with her own in hand, "So, how was your lecture?"

Tara nods, "It was interesting."

Buffy nods, "Mine was tough, it's like the professor has never heard of introducing things gently."

"Did reading the book help?"

"Surprisingly, yes. I wasn't holding out much hope that it would. Apparently, I should have paid more attention in Math though."

Tara smiles, "At least I don't have that problem, I'm taking art history."

Buffy looks down, "Yeah, that could've been me too. But with everything that's happened, and what I do as the slayer. I, just, you know, I think that maybe knowing how to put someone back together is probably a good thing, you know."

Tara nods, "I get that. How are you holding up after Riley…"

"I'm doing ok, I can't say it didn't hurt finding him like that with the-the leech hanging off his arm. And the way he moaned as if she was giving him the best… Yeah, changing the subject. How are you doing since you officially disowned your family?"

It's Tara's turn to look down, "I'm doing ok, just taking it one day at a time. I keep expecting dad or Don to pop-up and tell me I need to go home, except with none of you around."

"Would you like to join my family, like for real. I mean, mom already acts like everyone's mom, so this would just make it official. And I know it would be awkward if Willow's parents did it. So, what do you think?"

"I'd love it…"

Buffy beams at Tara, and grabs her arm, "Great!" The two of them disappear with a pop, before reappearing in a quiet corner of the park.

"Wait right there, I'll be back in a sec."

As Buffy disappears in a column of fire, Tara softly says, "…but it feels wrong, so I'm going to say no."

She's just orientated herself in the park, and is about to walk off, when a soaking Buffy reappears in a flash of fire and a smile, "One welcome to the family surprise. Try not to panic, as if you can just relax, it's quite comfortable and we can just chat and stuff."

Tara looks at the leathery egg in Buffy's hands, and quite intelligently starts to run. She makes it to the edge of the path before the face hugger catches up and latches on.

As she comes around, with the sun shining on her face, Tara groans, "What happened?"

Buffy smiles, "You got your welcome to the family surprise, and it surprised you."

Tara looks at Buffy patiently, "Buffy, I was going to say. I'd love it, but it feels wrong, so I'm going to say no."

Buffy's shoulders slump, "Oh, um, sorry about that. But you're part of the family now, and I can't take it back."

Tara sighs, "Buffy, it's not that easy. Joyce would need to adopt me, and then I'd have to recognise her as my mom. And, as much as I love your mom, she isn't my mom. My mom died years ago, and I don't think I could stand to replace her."

Buffy brightens, "Oh, don't worry about it then. This isn't that sort of family. This is found family, where we're all part of the same hive, and we live together and support each other. We can even share thoughts and experiences, and we get cool house elf and phoenix magic too. And mom's going to be more like your sister, while I'll be your mother, well, the hive queen, but tomato tomato. Say, do you think Willow would like to get a burger with us?"

Tara looks around at the mental whiplash, and absently says, "I guess we could. She might still be at the magic shop. I was there earlier, and she and Anya kind of got in this little squabble. Xander and I sort of cleared out. He was pretty upset. What was that about sharing thoughts and experiences?"

Buffy frowns, "He left? Xander left Anya?"

"No, no, not like that. Willow and Anya both wanted him to take sides, and Xander refused. But what about that stuff about thoughts?"

Buffy shakes her head, "Huh, what? Mom's just shouting at me for being too eager to bring you into the family."

Tara turns around to face Buffy, "You know what…" she trails off when she spots Buffy's tail, "You have a tail."

Buffy nods, "Well, duh. I did say I have a tail. Come on, let's go and get Willow, and I can apologise to your girlfriend and you at the same time."

Buffy touches Tara on the shoulder, and they disappear with a pop, and reappear in the shop.

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Buffy and Tara stand in the centre of a scene of devastation, with broken shelves, displays and produce strewn across the floor. The door to the shop hangs precariously off its hinges.

Buffy looks at Tara, "Check the back, I'll check the basement."

It only takes them a minute or so to check their respective locations, and they meet back up in the main shop.

Buffy shakes her head as Tara jogs up, "They're not downstairs."

Tara slows to a stop, "They're not back there either. They're gone."

Tara sounds distraught as she says, "Buffy, something's been here, and Willow's gone."

Buffy envelops her with her presence, trying to be comforting, "Don't worry. We'll get her back. I promise."

Tara shudders as she feels like she's being hugged, "What's that?"

"That's me. Come on. This thing's probably leaving a huge trail."

Grabbing Tara's hand, Buffy jogs out of the shop, before pausing and clicking her fingers to repair the door, and close it.

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It takes Buffy and Tara almost half an hour to follow the trail of destruction, during which time, Tara starts to become aware of an ongoing conversation happening in the back of her mind. Their lucky break comes when Willow and Anya drive by in Giles' BMW, heading towards the Bronze.

As Buffy pulls open the door, and the two of them walk in, Willow says, "I wish I had a million dollars."

Buffy blinks, confused, as Anya gives Willow a look. Willow responds with, "Just checking."

Deciding to ignore the byplay, Buffy asks, "What's going on?" Then she spots the troll that's drinking from a metal barrel of beer, "Where did he come from?"

Spike draws Buffy's attention briefly as he takes a deep breath and steps forward, "Hello Buffy."

Buffy doesn't have time to process that when Anya says, "Willow stole ingredients and released him from a purple crystal… He's a troll."

Spike looks down and licks his lips before stepping back as Buffy looks at Willow, "You did this?"

Willow looks offended, "Me? No, we. I mean, us. Her. It's very complex."

Anya gesticulates, "We can stop him. Willow, do the spell."

Buffy looks doubtfully at the troll, "Are you sure, trolls are very magic resistant…"

She trails off as Willow is already casting from a leather bound book, "Uh, 'Let the conjuring be…'"

The troll stops drinking and, in a surprisingly human voice, says "Stop!"

Frustrated, Willow looks up, "Nobody lets me finish."

With a growl in his voice, the troll points his hammer at Anya, "You told the witch to do that Anyanka. You seem determined to put an end to all my fun, just like you always did when we were dating!"

The entire room goes quiet as everyone looks at Anya. As Anya struggles to say something, Xander asks, "You dated him?"

Then Buffy asks, "You dated a troll?"

Snarkily, Willow adds, "And we're what, surprised by this?"

Defensively, Anya says, "Well, he wasn't a troll then. You know, he was just a big, dumb, guy, and… You know, he cheated on me, and I made him into a troll, which, by the way, is how I got the job as a vengeance demon."

Angrily the troll puts his hammer through the display cabinet at the refreshment counter, and then turns back to the group, "I did not cheat!" His voice turns into a grumble, "Not in my heart. It was only one wench. I had had a great deal of mead. Next thing I know, I'm a troll. Oh, oh. You did this Anyanka. You will die for this!"

Xander comes to Anya's defence, "But… But… You seem to enjoy the… The being a troll."

The troll wobbles his head, "I adjusted. And then what happened? Witches… Filthy, dirty, disgusting, witches. They trapped me. I was imprisoned in that crystal for centuries. Oh! A curse on all witches! All must die!"

Buffy turns towards Willow, "Willow, again."

Willow looks back at the book she's holding, "Let the conjuring be undone, return the beast to native form."

The troll stomps forward, "Witch, you must stop!"

Undeterred, Willow keeps casting, "Keep him far from us, and ours as long as my voice shall sound."

As she finishes the spell, the troll stops and then looks down at himself, before beginning to laugh, "It did not work."

Willow looks up, "Wait. 'Let the conjuring…'"

Not waiting for Willow to cast again, the troll moves forward straight into a high kick from Buffy. As it staggers back, Buffy and Spike both move forward to attack, though Buffy ducks under the trolls off hand backswing. Spike isn't so lucky, and he gets knocked to the side and struggles to get up.

As the troll is recovering from his overswing, Buffy comes up and throws him backwards onto a pool table, before trying to stab him with her tail.

The troll knocks the tail out of the way with his hammer and holds the haft near the end to block Buffy from attacking his face.

Buffy shouts, "Mum! Will you please shut up, I'm trying to fight."

Using her distraction, the troll pushes her off, before back handing her with the hammer across the dancefloor. While Buffy's trying to stand up, the troll takes his hammer to the supports that are holding the mezzanine floor up, and brings the whole thing down on top of Buffy.

By the time she's freed herself from the collapsed floor, Tara is trying to help people from under the rubble, while Willow, Anya, and Xander seem to be in a state of shock.

Making her way over to them, Buffy demands, "Where is it?"

Willow answers, "It left."

Buffy nods, "Xander, you follow it. Willow, Anya, head back to the shop and find a spell to get rid of it. I'm going to help Tara move the rubble here. We'll catch up at the shop."

As the three of them run off, Buffy moves over to Tara, who's trying to lift an I-beam off of someone. As she does, Joyce says, "Buffy, you should cry for people. That will heal their wounds."

Buffy grabs one I-beam, "I can't mom, I don't have tear ducts anymore."

"What do you mean you don't have tear ducts?"

"Mom, this is my animagus form."

As Buffy leans down to pick up the second I-beam, Tara asks, "Buffy, what's an animagus form?"

Buffy responds, "It's a magical transformation that allows a witch or wizard to turn into an animal. Only, I'm not human anymore, and we also have phoenix traits."

Joyce interjects, "And you should be using them to heal those in critical condition young lady."

Out loud, Buffy huffs, "Well, as you can still cry, maybe you should come here and cry for these people, and I'll continue freeing people from the rubble."

"I can't, I don't have any…"

"News flash mom, you do have special powers. Now get here and help!"

Tara hurries off to another trapped victim rather than get involved in the argument.

Buffy sets the I-beam down, and starts to follow Tara. She pauses, as she sees Spike adjusting a sweater underneath the neck of a woman with blood over her face, "You could start with this one, who might have a broken neck. If you're quick, it will heal. But leave it a day, and she'll have to heal the long way. Maybe even be paralysed because of it."

While Buffy's having her silent conversation, Spike says, "What? I'm helping her, I haven't had a taste, honest."

When Buffy just walks off without saying a word, Spike mutters, "What does it take?"

He then jumps when Joyce appears on the other side of the woman with a faint pop, "Where did you come from?"

Joyce leans over the woman on the floor, and tries to cry, "The kitchen, where I was preparing dinner. I had to turn the stove off before I came though."

With her mother helping the wounded, it doesn't take Buffy and Tara long to finish freeing all of the trapped individuals. Once they do, Buffy grabs Tara and they pop to the street outside Magic Box.

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As they arrive, Buffy notes that the door is, once again, broken. Though this time it's lying on the floor inside the shop. Jogging inside, she sees the troll holding Xander and lifting its hammer.

With a shout, she pops beside the troll and rakes it across the back.

With a scream of rage, the troll drops Xander and turns to face buffy, and brings its hammer around too. Buffy ducks back a few paces and shouts, "Get Xander out of the way, I need more room!"

Anya shouts back, "Buffy, the hammer! His strength's in the hammer!"

Anya hurries around the counter as Buffy ducks and weaves around the troll, taking swipes at his flesh. Pulling Xander back behind the counter, she stands up and looks at Willow, "How can I help?"

Willow looks over at Buffy, who flickers and turns into a large black creature that dwarfs the troll while she's talking, "Distract him from Buffy. Uh… second thoughts…"

"I don't know how."

Willow looks up at Anya, "Anya, I have faith in you. There is no one you cannot piss off."



Anya takes a couple of jogging steps from behind the counter, before back peddling when she sees the lethal looking black tail whipping around the shop. Bravely, she says, "Um, hey, Olaf! You're as inadequate a troll as you were a boyfriend."

Olaf growls as he looks at Anya, taking a tail in his thigh for the trouble, pleased, Anya looks back a Willow, who gives her a thumbs up while she's setting out some stones, and reading from a book.

"Uh, you… You're hairy and unattractive, and even the women trolls are put off by your various odors."

As Olaf brings his hammer round to slam Buffy in the side, Willow starts chanting in Latin, and Anya says, "Your menacing stance is merely mildly alarming! And your roar is less than full-throated!"

In frustration, Olaf manages to hit Buffy around the head with his hammer, and sends her to the floor, stunned. Turning to Anya, he cries "Desist! My God woman, it's been a thousand years, and yet you are as aggravating and emasculating as ever you were."

Anya ducks as Olaf takes a swing at her with his hammer, his injured leg slowing him down somewhat. At the same time, Willow continues to chant while Anya frantically dodges. As the chant comes to a crescendo, Olaf's hammer glows yellow and is ripped from his grasp.

While Olaf is staring at his empty hand, Anya struggles to her feet and staggers behind the counter and says to Willow, "Hey. Hey, good job."

Willow pats her on the hand, "You too. Very irritating."

Anya smiles, "Thanks."

Behind Olaf, Buffy staggers to her feet, and shakes off the last of the hammer blow. As she locates Olaf, she launches herself at his unprotected back.

While the two monsters are fighting, Willow scrambles through the books an notes until she finds a spell of transposition. Once she finds the right one, Anya rubs Willow's back as she takes a deep breath and starts to cast the spell at both of them. With Anya's support, she casts the spell correctly first time, and the two of them disappear.

Xander staggers to his feet, and leans heavily against the counter. When she notices Xander, Anya holds onto his left side, and rubs his belly, saying, "Poor baby." At the same time, Willow grabs his right arm as a security blanket.

Xander nods over to where the two of them where fighting, as Tara carefully makes her way to the counter, "You really dated him?"

Anya grimaces, "Yes."

"But you like me better."

"Yes. Oh, and Willow likes you too, but not in a sexy way. You know, 'cause she's gay." Willow nods wryly, "And she's not gonna try to break us up, so, you know, it's all ok."

Once she reaches the counter, Tara asks, "Where did you send them?"

Anya smiles at Tara, "Oh, to the land of the trolls. He'll like it there, full of trolls."

Willow shrugs, "It's hard to be precise though. Alternate universes don't stay put. Trying to send them to a specific place is sort of like… Like… Trying to hit a puppy by throwing a live bee at it. Which is a weird image, and you should all just forget it."

Anya adds, "It's possible that they're in the land of perpetual Wednesday, or the crazy melty land or, you know, the world without shrimp."

Tara can't help it, and she asks, "There's a world without shrimp?"

A column of fire appears in the middle of the shop, and clears to reveal Buffy in her humanoid form, "What did you do that for? I almost had him!"

Willow and Anya share a glance as Xander asks, "Where were you?"

Buffy shrugs, "Dunno, but it was raining donuts. Xander, your lungs don't sound so good."

Xander grimaces, "I'm not gonna lie, he got me good, and he broke my wrist."

Buffy smiles brightly, "I've got something that will heal that right up, and you'll be all tickity boo once it's finished. Just try not to fight it as it's going in."

Tara and Joyce both shout "No!" and Tara continues, "Look, I'll just go and grab some tears from Joyce, it won't take me more than 10 minutes to get to the Bronze and back."

Buffy pouts, "But it really would help him."

Tara looks at the other three, "Look. What ever you do, don't accept Buffy's offer to join her family, being healed, or getting any new abilities until you understand everything that she's not saying. Ok? And I'll be back in a few minutes."

As Tara leaves, Willow asks, "Buffy, what was that monster?"

Buffy smiles brightly, "Oh, that's me. I'm beautiful aren't I."

"Uh, yeah."

Buffy snaps her fingers and a couple of gold coins clatter onto the glass counter, "I can swim really fast in the ocean, and go really deep too. I even found these, as I have sonar and electrolocation. I saw loads of other wrecks too."

Anya looks at the coins avariciously, and licks her lips, "So, if I accept this thing, I can find treasure of my own?"

Buffy nods, while Xander and Willow both shout, "Anya! No!"

Anya and Buffy both moan piteously.

It doesn't take Tara long to get back with a plastic tumbler that has a dribble of tears in the bottom. Once Xander drinks it, his wrist cracks back into place, and he gives one good cough, and a large clump of blood comes out of his mouth. After that, he twists and stretches in amazement at the lack of pain.

At the same time, Buffy shows off her house elf magic by repairing everything she can, and cleaning up everything she can't.

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A day later, Giles is sat at the dining table in Buffy's house with Buffy sitting on a chair near him.

With his glasses dangling from one hand, Giles looks down at the table, "I cringe to think what the place would've looked like if you hadn't been there."

Buffy shrugs, "Well, I was. You'll still need to replace quite a bit of stock, but I repaired everything I could."

Giles nods, "It was also very irresponsible of you to bring Tara into the hive the way you did."

Buffy sags, "Not you too, mom keeps bringing it up too. Look, I need to grow my hive. I can't not do that, and I don't see why I can't keep my friends safe at the same time."

"Yes well…" Giles cuts off as Joyce starts to walk in from the kitchen carrying a tray with tea on it.

"Rupert, I still don't understand…"

Giles stands up and takes the tray from Joyce, before putting it on the table as she continues.

"Oh, thank you. Why the other Watchers made you go all the way to England when they don't know anything?"

Giles sits down slowly and starts handing out the mugs, "Well, they don't know it yet. I mean, they have no record of Glory or anyone like her. But, uh, based on the information that I've given them, they're going to look into it. Um, they might have something soon."

Buffy looks at Giles, "What about the key? Were they all over it?"

Giles nods, "Yes. You know all of this?"

Misunderstanding the direction of Giles' question, Buffy nods, "Yes, you are part of the hive. I just wanted to hear your interpretation of it."

Joyce sighs and answers, "Yes, I got some of it myself. I got the rest when I joined the hive. Dawn did too."

Giles nods, "Well, they're interested, certainly, and, uh, full of theories. Most of them nonsensical."

Dawn's coming down the stairs as Buffy says, "They don't know that it's Dawn."

She pauses as Giles says, "No."

Joyce adds, "I still can't even begin to grasp this. She's my little girl."

Giles nods, "It is disorientating."

Buffy shakes her head, "You do realise that Dawn's on the stairs, you might as well come in Dawn. Giles, what happens if they figure it out? What would they do?"

Giles looks over at the doorway, "I don't know."

Joyce shakes her hands, "I can't even think about this, it's too." Hissing through her teeth, she changes the subject, "I'll get some more milk."

 

[shypunk]

thanks for another enjoyable chapter and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 5

Buffy looks around the lounge, where Giles has called an emergency meeting of the Scoobie gang, with a sigh. With a couple of clicks from her fingers, the remains of the Chinese takeout, that they had during their Disney marathon, is cleaned up and the cushions tidied up.

Looking around at her friends, Buffy apologises, " Sorry, mom's been busy dealing with auction houses for the last week, so we've been eating a lot of takeout."

Willow stares at the empty table somewhat enviously, "No, the place looks fine Buffy."

Tara nods as she cuddles into Willows side, "Yeah, it's just us." Left unsaid is the fact that she knows Buffy had been running around the woods having fun rather than taking the couple of seconds needed to tidy up.

To Buffy's surprise, one of Riley's jumpers falls out from behind a cushion, so she picks it up and looks at it curiously.

Xander points and says, "That must've belonged to, uh… Um, aren't we supposed to have a meeting?"

Buffy looks up sharply before tossing the jumper in the air and vanishing it.

Standing in front of the fireplace Giles says, "Uh, yes, yes. We're here for a reason. Um, I've had some rather… Um, I've had some news. It seems that the Council of Watchers has found some information that may help us out."

Buffy quickly dips into Giles' memory before shaking her head, "About Glory?"

Giles shrugs, "Presumably. We'll find that out when they arrive. Could be very important."

As she processes what she picked up from Giles' memories, Buffy starts to rant in the hive, "Why on earth are they coming here where Glory is? Are they completely stupid and incompetent? What happens if Glory finds out and takes steps to eliminate them…"

As Buffy's busy ranting, Tara, slightly distractedly asks, "Arrive? They're coming here? Now? Why do they have to come here?"

Xander looks up, "Yeah, don't they have phones?" Putting on an exaggerated British accent, he continues, "'Allo Buffy. Here's some stuff we know. Pip pip."

Breaking off her rant, Buffy looks up, "Yeah! Phones. See, I'd like them on phones."

Anya looks up, at Giles, "What's so bad about them coming here?"

Buffy pouts, "They're scary and horrible."

Giles looks slightly offended, and cuts in before Buffy can repeat her rant out loud, "Um, well, they can appear a bit, well, um, hard-nosed, but essentially their agenda is the same as ours. They want to save the world and kill demons."

Anya's eyes open in shock, "Kill the current demons, right? Current demons."

Buffy sighs, "Giles, I don't want them to come here. It's too dangerous."

Giles sighs, "Well, they're probably already on their way. Our old friend Quentin Travers is heading up the delegation."

Buffy looks at Giles intently, "Giles, if they try to put me through another test like last time, I will kill them."

Xander holds his hands up, "Hey, less with the talk about killing here."

Buffy stares at Xander, "Xander, they drugged me and put me in a room with an old vampire. Then they tried to kill me while I was Faith. Honestly, I'm expecting them to try to kill me again."

Anya looks around the room, "I don't like the sound of this. They don't sound very ex-demon compatible."

As Tara's taking a peek at Buffy's memories, she asks, "Are you sure they're English? I thought English people were, uh, gentler than normal people."

Willow leans forward, "Maybe it won't be so bad this time. I mean, Buffy, they did think you were Faith last time. Now that they know you're just you, maybe they won't care enough to kill you."

The meeting continues long into the night, even when Dawn starts listening in over the hive.

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​

The next morning, at Magic Box, Giles is explaining, and cautioning, a customer about following the instructions in the magical tome that she's about to buy. At the same time he's leading her to the counter.

"If you're serious about this madam, you need to be very careful. Measure precisely, and please, don't step ahead."

And old, and familiar male voice grumbles, "No, he's quite right." Giles looks up as Quentin Travers, from the Watchers Council, takes the book from his hand with a smile, "You wouldn't want to do anything dangerous, turn the wrong person into a badger."

As the woman giggles, Giles' smile becomes rather fixed as he spots half a dozen other Watchers in suits or dresses behind Quentin, "Quentin. I didn't realize you were here."

Quentin hands the book back to the woman, "Well, evidently."

Giles lets the woman head to the counter as he looks over the visitors, "It's been a while. I see you've brought some of our colleagues with you. Would you care to introduce us?"

Quentin nods, "First, I thought we might catch up."

"Well, certainly, certainly. Well, um… This is the shop, obviously." Giles starts to lead Quentin to the counter, "It's been a very interesting transition into the world of retail. In fact, I think it's going rather well. I'll give you a grand tour, if you like."

Quentin demurs, "No, that's all right. I think I can see what you've been up to."

Anya turns around and smooths her dress as Quentin approaches the counter. From the side, Giles nervously responds, "Yes, well, I… I, uh, do limit my time here, obviously. Buffy and I have been training a great deal these days."

As Giles is talking, Anya watches one of the Watches as he browses the shelves behind the counter.

Giles points to the back of the shop, "There's a back room that we've had…"

Quentin perks up, "Oh, yes. I thought perhaps you were keeping that space for the really dangerous items that should be kept out of the public's hands." As Giles frowns, Quentin quirks his head, "Or maybe you don't worry about that."

"I'm very careful."

The Watcher behind the counter takes a violet vial off of the shelf, and turns to Quentin saying, "Most of this stuff couldn't harm anyone. Incense, dime-store trinkets. But there are some things."

As the Watcher reaches in front of Anya, Giles says, "I'm sorry. Who are you?"

From the back of the store, a female Watcher is browsing a shelf, and says, "There are some very potent elements here. Focusing crystals, runic artifacts, an Amulet of Coldis." She reaches down and picks up a brass statue, "Also this statue." Walking over to the counter she continues, "Its removal from Burma is a criminal offense, and when triggered, has the power to melt human eyeballs." As she finishes speaking, she hands the statue to Quentin, who looks at it.

Giles muses, "In that case, I severely underpriced it."

Quentin says, "Giles, I'm sorry, but this is just for the duration of our stay. I think you can see why."

Giles looks nonplussed as he responds, "What? What is just for the duration?"

One of the Watchers walks to the center of the store and calls loudly, "Magic Box shoppers, we're going to have to ask you to leave. The store is, uh, closing early today."

At that point, the other watchers make their way around the store, relieving the browsing shoppers of any items they've picked up.

As she watches the customers leave, Anya complains, "Hey! Giles, what are they doing? Customers! Please bring your money back!"

Giles looks directly at Quentin with a feeling of disgust and quiet fury, at the same time, part of Buffy and Tara's attention focuses on him, "You knew you were going to do this before you even saw the place."

Quentin says, "I'm sorry. It's just for the duration of the Council's review."

Anya questions, "Council? You're the Council?" When Quentin smiles at her, she puts on her customer smile, "Welcome to our store. We're closed now. I'll be in the back."

This gives Giles time to process what Quentin just said, "What review? Quentin, let's just stop a moment and talk about this."

Ignoring Giles, Quentin asks a retreating Anya, "Miss, excuse me. You, uh… You work here?"

Anya looks back in agitation, "Yes, I do, ever since I moved here from southeastern Indiana, where I was raised by both a mother and a father."

Giles takes a deep breath, and holds up a hand, "Anya, just go. You don't have to talk to him. She works for me. Now, tell me about this review. No one said anything to me about this."

Instead of answering Giles, Quentin instead pats his arm and walks over to the large table, "Let's sit down and talk about it over here."

As the other Watchers all crowd around him, Dawn says, "I could come and give you some moral support if you want."

Giles, Tara, and Buffy, all say "No." Giles continues, "You're supposed to be at school young lady. I can handle this myself."

Dawn pouts, "I'm not helpless you know."

Soothingly, Buffy brings up a memory of Hermione becoming a xenomorph by fighting a troll, "I know you're not, but you're not at this point yet. When you are, we can have more fun, and you can join me on patrol."

Giles laughs and coughs at the same time, drawing strange looks from the Watchers around him, "Sorry, just the way you're all trying so hard to look like you're in control."

While a woman makes tea behind him, Quentin looks Giles in the eye, "You used to respect us Giles. You used to be one of us."

Giles cocks his head with a smile, "You used to pay me. If you recall, firing me was not my idea."

Quentin inclines his head, "Touché" before sitting down, "But you were on the inside once. You know what sort of resources we command. We've discovered information about this creature, your Glory. Some of it is clearly vital, the rest merely extremely disturbing. And it won't be handed over until we are convinced that you and your Slayer are prepared for it. Thus the review."

Over the hive, Buffy asks, "Can I just steal it, I mean, it's right there. One click of my fingers and it's ours, and they'll never know."

Covering his surprise, Giles slowly leans over to put his hands on the table, "No Buffy, we can't steal it. We need to keep them on our side, and if they find out you stole it…"

"How are they going to know?"

"They have seers Buffy."

"Oh."

Out loud, Giles says intently, "I'm not having you put her through another one of your insane tests."

Quentin replies, "It's not a test. It's a check of her methods. We need to know that this information is safe."

"You can trust her. Buffy's come very far recently. She's acquired a remarkable focus."

Buffy seems embarrassed, "Oh, thanks Giles. I didn't know you cared."

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​

In her class, Buffy's pencil drops to the floor as she's distracted by the goings on at the shop. At the front of the class, the professor looks up, "Miss Summers, can you give a couple of examples of evolution that fall outside the classical taxonomic groupings?"

At the sound of her name, Buffy brings all her attention back to the class, and nervously stands up, "Um, Finches and Crabs?"

"Well done, you can sit down now. Yes, Finches, specifically the Galapagos island finches. Since they were discovered by Darwin, they have consistently shown evolutionary traits that suggest specification. However, every time one group dies off due to storms or predation, another group will evolve the same beak structure. As for crabs, they've evolved at least five times according to the fossil record."

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​

That night, on her patrol, Buffy decides to vent her spleen by taking a vampire on without using her claws or tail.

Kicking the vampire in the chest, she sarcastically says, "Don't worry, the shops only going to be closed for our visit." A punch, "You can't just steal the information Buffy." Dodge, and uppercut, "It's not a test, we just need to check her methods."

Rallying, the vampire shoves Buffy backwards, over a digger, "Who are you talking to?"

While she's pushing back to her feet, Spike leaps over the digger onto the vampires back as he comes around the digger. A quick one, two, stake, and her stress relief is a cloud of dust.

Marching forward, Buffy says, "Spike, why did you do that? I wasn't finished."

Spike raises his hand, "Not for money, if that's what you're thinkin'. Your heartfelt gratitude's plenty. I expect I'll be getting that any moment."

Buffy just looks at him, "Gratitude? For killing my stress relief before I was de-stressed?"

"Stress relief? I saved you."

"I was standing up."

"You were about to be stood up in separate piles. You needed help."

Buffy grits her teeth, "I didn't need you. I never need you Spike."

As Buffy stomps off to find another vampire, Spike turns to follow her, "Oh, I get it. You just don't like who did the rescuing, that's all. Wishin' I was your boyfriend what's-his… Oh, wait. He's run off."

Buffy spins around, and puts her hand through the right hand side of Spikes chest, and pulls it back out again, "You know what? I don't need a boyfriend to rescue me, or for any other reason."

As Spike slumps to the floor, he gasps, "Don't need or can't keep? You keep making notches in the headboard, but eventually they get out of bed and run off, don't they?"

Buffy looks down at him and says, "You're disgusting" before disappearing with a pop.

From the floor, Spike gasps, "Oh, rough talk."

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​

At the shop Giles is leading Quentin and the watcher to the door, while explaining, "We've been developing a sort of a hybrid fighting style. Let me outline her progress for you, and I think you'll see that your review isn't strictly needed."

At that moment, a still stressed Buffy pops into being outside the shop and opens the door with a huff, intending to use the punching bag to relieve the last of her stress. As soon as she sees the Watchers, she starts to turn around muttering, "Bad day. Bad, bad, bad day."

From beside Giles, Quentin speaks up, "Miss Summers." When Buffy turns back, Quentin inclines his head, "Good to see you again."

Turning back, Buffy walks forward awkwardly, while clenching her fists, "Mrs Travers."

Quentin ignores her slip of the tongue, "Giles has just been telling us of your training regimen. Perhaps you'll favor us with a demonstration while we're here."

Buffy is acutely aware of the Watcher that crosses behind her, cutting off traditional access to the door. Looking a little startled, Buffy asks, "Right now?"

Quentin smiles, "No need to rush you."

Giles inclines his head, "They're staying a little longer than I'd anticipated."

Quentin walks across the shop floor, "We've already laid out our project for Mr Giles. Nigel."

The Watcher he indicates with his hand takes over, "It's an exhaustive examination of your procedures and abilities. We'll observe your training, talk to your friends."

Buffy glares at Nigel, "Talk to my friends?"

Quentin nods, "Yes. We understand you're still taking civilians out on your patrols."

Buffy looks at the ceiling, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Quentin leans against a display table, "Buffy, I can sense your resistance. I don't blame you. But I think your Watcher hasn't reminded you lately of the relative status of the players in our little game. The Council fights evil. The Slayer is the instrument by which we fight. The Council remains. The Slayers change. Been that way from the beginning."

Before Buffy can start tearing strips off Quentin, figuratively or literally she hasn't decided, Giles scoffs, "That's a very comforting, bloodless way of looking at it, isn't it?"

Quentin looks over, "Giles, let me talk to Buffy, because I think she's understanding me. Glory is stronger than you. She's a more powerful instrument, if you will. We can help you. We have information that will help. Pass the review, and we give it to you without reservation. Fail the review, either by incompetence, or by resisting our recommendations…"

Buffy looks at the ceiling, and counts backwards from 10. While she's doing that, Giles indignantly walks forward with his own fists clenched, "Resisting your recommendations? She fails if we don't do whatever you say. How much under your thumb do you think we are?"

Quentin looks at Giles, "How much do you want our help?"

Giles points a finger at Quentin's chest aggressively, "She's not your bloody instrument, and you have no right to do any of this."

When a couple of books fly off shelves towards the back of the store, Buffy looks down at him, "Giles!"

Giles turns around in a huff, and Quentin says, "I understand you think this is unfair, but there are factors which should motivate you to go along with the review. I don't want to do this, but obviously we could shut this place down permanently."

Buffy looks at Quentin, "You can't do that. You don't have that kind of power."

Quentin nods, "Of course we do, and a great deal more. In fact, if you insist on fighting us, we'll arrange to have Mr Giles deported within the day. Never set foot in this country again. Now, perhaps you're used to idle threats and sloppy discipline, Miss Summers, but you're dealing with grown-ups now. Am I making myself clear?"

Buffy stares impotently at Quentin while she's trying not to just rip the obnoxious mans head off. Giles himself looks down at the ground with feelings of shame and helplessness.

Later that night, the hive share the experiences Buffy and Giles had with council, and commiserate with the two of them. It's Dawn that comes up with the worst case solution to the problems. Although the rest of the hive disagree with the destination. Namely, to move to Disney World in Florida until Glory and the Council both go away. That leads to examining all the places that Giles' adventures, with and without the Council took him in his youth.

With a new sense that they're not actually backed into a corner, Buffy goes out to catch some fresh crab and lobster, as well as destroy a couple of drag nets that almost catch her.

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​

The next day, Tara plumbs Giles' knowledge of the Watchers Council to give the person questioning them the most obtuse and unhelpful answers she can due to the rising frustration she can feel from Giles and Buffy.

Meanwhile, in the back of the shop. Buffy is put through a series of physical tests, that she completes without any of her new abilities.

Finally, they begin to blind fold her, while another couple of watchers set up a straw covered mannequin.

Looking at his hands, Quentin calls out, "Agility, clarity, stamina, and strength, these are the qualities that the Slayer must possess to do her job."

Buffy snarks, "What came after agility?"

From the side, Giles says, "If you want her to attack the dummy…"

Quentin interrupts, "No, no. Phillip will attack the dummy. The Slayer's job is to protect it. Do you understand?"

"Can I kill Phillip?"

"As if it were… No, you can't kill Phillip. Now, getting the best of Phillip will require agility. Listening to my instructions at the same time, well, that will demonstrate clarity."

"And here's me without my pika chu cosplay."

Quentin pauses, and Giles sighs, "Buffy, please stop antagonizing Quentin."

Buffy crosses her arms and stares at Quentin, "I'll stop being snarky when he stops treating me like some sort of marionette that can follows instructions like a good little doggy."

Quentin looks back, "Miss Summers, there are situations where you will not have visibility on the situation, while your watcher does. At those times it's imperative that you can follow their instructions, and trust them to be your eyes."

Buffy scoffs, "I have never been in a position like that, and I've been fighting on the hell mouth for nearly five years now. When would I ever be in such a situation?"

"You are a child. This is as much a test of trust as it is a test of skill."

"And I trust my watcher to give me the information I need to combat my opponent, and my watcher trusts me to be able to do the fighting. It doesn't work so well the other way around. Just describe my opponent, and trust me to be able to combat them effectively."

"Impudent child. Your opponent is a man that's 6 foot 1 inches wearing fatigues, and armed with an ax. He is looking to kill the person you're protecting."

At the back of the room, a watcher in a suit takes an ax off the wall and walks towards Buffy while Philip pads nearly silently around Buffy towards the target.

Buffy just stands there loosely, until Philip gets within striking distance of the target at the same time as the suit does. Both of them raise their axes at the same time, and Buffy unerringly slides to her left and catches Philips axe, before hitting him around the head with the flat of the blade. Her back foot moves the mannequin out of the way of the other ax blow, causing it to miss by inches.

Bringing the stolen ax over her head, she stops it less than an inch from the suits head, "Well, still think I'm a Pokémon?"

Beside Quentin, Giles just puts his head in his hands.

As she pushes the blindfold up, Quentin chuckles, "Well, I think that will be enough for the physical tests. Now we get onto the real review. Look into your strategies, plans. Figure out what's going on in that head of yours."

Buffy smiles, "Oh, good. I tend to use highly flexible plans based on minimal information that can be manipulated on the fly as new information becomes available in situ."

Quentin chuckles again, "We start at 7:00 tonight, give you time to… Well, however you prepare."

As Quentin starts to walk out, one of the other watches uses some smelling salts on Philip, before checking him for a concussion. Buffy looks down, and then up at Giles, who smiles tightly at her.

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​

Mentally wrung out, Buffy appears in the entrance way of her house. Dawn the only hive member there with her, as her mother is off doing something in LA that she's been trying to keep as a nice secret. Taking the coat, that she wears for show, off, she drapes it over the banister before walking into the lounge.

As she passes through the archway, Glory seems to appear out of nowhere, standing beside the wall.

Buffy tenses and sends to the hive, "Dawn, go to mom. Glory's here."

Glory looks at Buffy, a friendly expression on her face, "Long day, sweetie?"

As Dawn disappears from upstairs, and Tara appears in the yard, Buffy slumps, "Yeah, you could say that. You?"

Glory looks a little taken aback, "Um, not yet… So, this is where the Slayer eats, sleeps, and combs her hair?"

Buffy nods, "Uh, huh. I'm just going to grab myself a coke, do you want one?"

Glory pauses as the conversation goes off script again, to cover herself she picks up a baby picture, "Oh. So cute." She snickers, "I can't even stand it. Personally, I need more space. But, uh, this is good for you. It's… It's so quaint and…"

Buffy sighs and walks back round to the fridge where there's a large bottle of coke. As she's pouring a glass, Glory appears behind her, "Hey, no fair. You're supposed to go for a weapon, then I take it from you and tell you I'm not here to fight, then I give you some veiled threats."

Buffy shrugs, "And? Do you want a coke? I can get another glass."

Glory snatches the glass and sits down at the table with a pout, "Not even curious about why I'm here?"

Buffy pours herself a glass of coke and sits down, "Not really. I was just hoping to relax for a couple of hours, maybe watch some TV."

Glory pouts, "What happened to the squiggly little slayer that attacked me in the zoo?"

Buffy looks up, "She changed. What happened to you?"

"I was exiled, and I keep losing my mind."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I… Wait, I'm here to threaten you. Tell me where the key is."

"Why?"

"If you don't I'll…"

Buffy shakes her head, "No, I mean why do you want it?"

As Buffy takes a sip of her drink, Glory stares at her, "Why do you want to know?"

Buffy shrugs, "I'm protecting the key to prevent the barriers between dimensions from collapsing, and opening up Earth to all the hells. Why do you want the key?"

"I just want to go home."

"There, that wasn't so hard. Now, why can't you just go home right now?"

Glory throws her hands in the air, "Why do you think!? I'm stuck here, in this stupid body that can't handle my power. To make it worse, there's no decent malls here in Sunnydale."

Buffy's hand flashes across the table, almost faster than the eye can see she grabs Glory's hand and the two of them disappear in a flash of fire, only to reappear standing in a forest littered with donuts.

Glory snatches her hand back and looks around, "What have you done to me?"

Buffy smiles, "I've transported us both to a world where it rains donuts." She picks one up off the floor and bites into it, "Try one, they're good. Though they'll dissolve in around 30 minutes."

"Take me back. I demand you take me back!"

Buffy shakes her head, "No. See, I don't need to fight you. I could just leave you here, and you'll never get your hands on the key. On the other hand, I've also just demonstrated that I can travel between worlds. So, it's up to you. Do you want the carrot, or the stick?"

Glory stamps her foot, "No, this is not happening to me."

As she disappears and reappears behind Buffy, Buffy pops out and reappears on top of a near by building.

Glory looks around wildly, and sends a bolt of power at Buffy when she spots her. Only for Buffy to just pop away again. This continues again, and again, as Buffy plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with Glory.

Eventually, Glory sags to her knees sobbing, "Why do you hate me so much?"

Cautiously, Buffy pops to within shouting distance, "I don't hate you. I don't really feel anything for you. You're just a monster trying to destroy what I'm protecting. Now, am I going to leave you here to die, or will you make a magically binding oath not to do anything that will endanger the earth, or the people I'm protecting, in your quest to return home."

"I'll do it, just don't leave me here."

It takes the two of them a few hours, and a couple more games of keep away, before Glory has finally made a successful oath.

Once they're finished, Buffy smiles kindly at Glory, "Now, given that I can travel between worlds, and in theory I can read minds too. Why don't I try and see if we can't get you home right now."

Glory's eyes light up with hope, "Really?"

Buffy nods and takes her hands, "Look into my eyes, and think of your home."

Borrowing heavily on Arry's memories of doing something similar to T'o-ba'sall, Buffy tries to dive into Glory's mind, and manages to get a glimpse of a place before she's violently ejected. When she tries to use phoenix travel, the glimpse she got isn't enough to travel. When Glory's shoulders slump in depression, Buffy holds up a finger, "Wait! I'll be right back."

When Buffy disappears in a flash of fire, Glory panics, but a soaking wet Buffy returns carrying a leather egg.

As she reaches into the egg, to pull out the face-hugger, she conversationally says, "Given that I have a history of poor decision making. You know, little things like telling my parents about vampires. Not staking Angel when I should have done. Dating Riley, and joining the Initiative. Not staking Spike. I figure, what's one more questionable decision." Holding the face hugger, she strokes it lovingly, "Now, you're too strong for this not to be willing, so I'll say this now. If you willingly take this, and don't fight it, it will latch onto your face and implant an egg inside you. That egg will join with you and make you part of my hive. That will make me your queen, as in ant, rather than ruler. It will also give you abilities, like the flame travel I used to bring us here. That flame travel will allow you to go anywhere that you, or anyone alive in my hive, has been before."

Before Buffy can say anymore, Glory snatches the face-hugger from Buffy's hand, and jams it against her face.

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​

Back on earth, Giles is nervously pacing the floor of the shop as Quentin checks his pocket watch, "It's 7:30, your Slayer is late Giles."

Giles looks up, "I-I know, she'll be here."

Quentin looks at Giles, "She better be."

Giles sags with relief when he feel Buffy return to Sunnydale, only to tense up again when he feels a new presence in the hive. Under his breath, Giles mutters, "Buffy, what have you done?"

A moment later, the back door opens, and Buffy tosses 4 naked men through, along with their hauberks and weapons, "Hi, sorry I'm late, I had to clean up the trash. Are these yours by the way?"

Quentin looks down at the men in disgust, "No, they're not mine, but we'll gladly take them off of your hands."

Buffy smiles, "You will, that's great. Anyway, while I was sitting at home, drinking a coke. I realized that you seem to be missing some crucial information about us, here in Sunnydale."

As she walks further into the shop, her friends wave down at her from their perch on the edge of the mezzanine floor. Buffy smiles up at them briefly.

Quentin just smiles at the table, "Oh, really? Please enlighten us, and we can get on with your review."

Buffy spins a chair around and sits down, leaning on the back, "Now, you see, that's one of the things you don't get. There's not going to be a review. See, we don't actually need you. We've been dealing with the problems here on the hell mouth without any Watcher resources beyond Giles' personal library. Indeed, every time the Council sticks its nose in, things get more complicated, not less."

Quentin looks less happy, "Go on."

"The same thing's true with Glory. Yes we need the information, but we don't have to get it from you. Giles approached you because you're a known quantity. We could have just as easily gone to the US government, or to one of the many many demon information brokers. On the other hand, you need us. Here, on the hellmouth. If we decided to up sticks and move to, say New Zealand, I'd still be the Slayer, and I'd still be fighting evil. But I wouldn't be here, keeping a lid on the weird and wonderful bad things that keep trying to open the hellmouth. Oh, I figure you could send a fair bit of manpower, but you wouldn't have me, the slayer. So, as we've already done the give part of the give and take. I figure it's your turn to do the giving part."

Buffy glances up as her friends cheer for her, even though Tara has a very concerned expression on her face.

Behind her, Nigel steps forward, "Slayer, I don't think you understand the position you're in…" He trails off as Quentin raises a hand.

Quentin nods, "You're right. We do need you more than you need us. Giles, when we were inventorying the shop, I remember we came across a bottle of single malt whiskey."

Giles shakes his head, "Not during opening hours."

"Giles, I think I could use a drop."

Giles eyes widen, "Oh, well I suppose we could then."

As Giles goes to get the bottle, Buffy closes her eyes, "Quentin, before that. Give me the highlights."

Quentin looks up at Buffy, "Well, to start with, she's not a demon. She's a god."

Buffy gives an exaggerated sigh, "I meant something we didn't know. You know, where she comes from. How to banish her back there. Things like that."

On the mezzanine, Xander leans over to Willow and whispers, "We knew she was a god already?"

Tara nods, "It's very recent information."

 

[shypunk]

thanks for another enjoyable chapter and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 6

A couple of months pass after the Council's visit, and the hive have settled into a new equilibrium. Nothing in particular seems to be brewing on the hell mouth. Well, mostly nothing.

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"Happy Birthday Buffy!"

Buffy smiles at all of her friends, family, Giles, and… Glory, "Thank you guys. You have no idea how much this means to me." Glory coughs discretely, "Well, most of you have no idea anyway… Some of you?"

Glory smiles and hands over a box, "I bought you something really special, as I've seen those things you call shoes."

Buffy carefully opens the box, only to reveal a pair of sturdy, leather, open toed, wedges with a welded steel chain as the ankle clasp.

Buffy smiles, as they're a very tasteful black, "Thank you, they look wonderful."

Glory smiles, "I had Jinx swap the clasp for one that won't break when you're exerting yourself."

Dawn quickly stands up before Glory can possessively sit down next to her, "Here's my one, I hope you like it."

Buffy carefully opens the small box, to reveal a photo frame with a photo of her with Dawn, mom, and dad, "I know it's not much. It's from that holiday that we went on just before… I decorated the frame myself. Oh, and I included a photo from Disney World, that's just the three of us, as my new memory. But I thought you'd like one with dad in it."

Buffy chokes up as she looks at it, "Dawn, it's beautiful. I love it. This is one of those moments I miss being able to cry."

Dawn's give giving over, Glory possessively grabs her and sits down back on the chair. Dawn struggles for a moment, before subsiding grumpily.

Willow and Tara hand over their own gift, and Anya says, "This is extremely suspenseful. I want all the presents."

Buffy opens the box to reveal a pink and white nightie, with a picture of the Eiffel Tower, and streamers of flags on it. Buffy gives a soppy smile, "Oh, thank you guys, I love it."

Tara smiles, "Oh, we thought you get lots of crossbows and other killy stuff."

Willow takes over, "Yeah, so we figured, less killy, more frilly."

As Buffy lays the nightie down over the arm of her chair, Anya reaches down and grabs it, "Gotta look. Oh, it's just so lovely! Oh, I wish it was mine."

At the deadpan looks she gets, Anya scrunches it up and shoves it back on the chair, "Oh, like you weren't all thinking the same thing."

Giles says in a deep voice, "I'm fairly certain I wasn't." Looking at Xander, who's standing next to him, he whispers, "I've got one just like it." At the end of the sentence, his voice squeaks and warbles slightly, and he coughs to cover it up.

After that, Xander and Giles hand over their gifts, leaving Joyce's for last.

Shuffling forward on the couch, Joyce hands Buffy a large brown envelope, "Here you go Buffy."

Confused, Buffy opens the envelope and pulls out a wad of papers. As she gets half way down, she slumps back in the chair and fans herself, "Mom, where did… What did… How?"

Joyce smiles, "You remember that box of coins you showed me. I took a couple to be valued, and my boss didn't know what they were worth. So I ended up having to go to LA to get them valued. Then there were lots of meetings with various museums and the US mint. They went up for auction last week, and they made $18 million. A couple of million went on taxes, and the rest is in a cautious investment fund. You can't touch the principle, that's the original money, for five years. But you can withdraw any dividends or profits with 90 days notice."

Buffy blinks at the words on the page again, as Glory tilts her head, "Sunken treasure? That's how I started my fortune too, and Ben could share it, if only he'd work with me."

Anya looks over at Glory, "Why are you still here?"

Glory shrugs, "I can't get home, and this is where my key is. Just because I can't use it anymore, doesn't mean I'm going to let anyone else get their grubby mitts on my key. Besides, I think this body's getting stronger, as I haven't had to feed on anyone's brains for over a week now."

Tara shudders, "I did not want to know that."

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Of course, that didn't stop there being more of the normal kind of Sunnydale violence.

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Glory watches dispassionately as her minions swarm the island where three of the Knights of Byzantium are praying to their god to aid them in destroying her key.

As they are fighting valiantly against a superior foe, Buffy appears on the island with a flash of fire, and proceeds to disable the human opponents.

Pouting, Glory storms onto the island, "Buffy, what are you doing? I had this under control."

"They were after my sister, so I neutralised the threat. Besides, I want more children, and we're far enough away from Sunnydale that Giles and mom won't hear me."

Glory pouts, "But now I won't get to have any fun. I wanna watch."

Buffy looks Glory up and down, "It's under water. Salt water."

Chagrined Glory looks down at her dress, "But I love this dress. Oh, wait, I have a swim suit at home."

Glory disappears with a burst of fire, while her minions eye Buffy suspiciously. When she returns, Buffy lets go of her human form, and flames to a small cave that she carved out above her nesting chamber, nearly 10,000 feet below sea level, and filled with air from the surface. There she glues them to the walls with resin that she vomits up, before bringing three eggs into the air while Glory watches with a fascinated expression.

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It's nearing the start of spring when the pause on weird stuff seems to come to an end, starting with Giles' increasingly erratic voice.

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Joyce and Giles both walk into the hospital together, having popped to a discrete location outside the grounds. As they reach the doors, Joyce looks at Giles, "Rupert, thank you for coming with me."

Giles smiles, then winces as his voice jumps an octave, "It's ok, my doctor wants me to get some blood tests done. Though I fear I know what the answer is going to be already."

Joyce lays her hand on Giles' arm, "It will be ok Rupert. Even if you end up changing your name to Roberta."

"That's easy for you to say."

Joyce huffs, "That's easy for you to say, I broke my nail clippers last week. That's the third set, and they were brand new. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to handle delicate artwork with long sharp nails? Or how much I've had adjust to since I stopped just being the Slayers mother, and started being part of the whole thing."

Glory interrupts both of them, "Oh, ohh, there's Ben. Go and tell him to stop hogging my body. I swear he's been pulling double shifts all week to spite me. Also, ask him where my blue silk slippers went. And tell him that if I don't get them back, he'll wake up in Montana next time I have my body back."

Giles' sighs, "I need to go and get some blood tests and examinations done. Do you think you'll be alright getting the scan on your own?"

Joyce sighs, "I've got Glory with me."

Glory smiles in their heads, "Yep, that's me. Now, don't forget to talk to Ben."

"Glory, does Ben even know we know you and he trade bodies?"

"Details details, I just want my slippers back. Do you know how hard they were to find? Oh, no my key, don't go in there. Spike is a stinky nasty vampire that might eat you."

Dawn's voice joins the conversation, "Mom, I thought you were looking after Glory today."

"Oh Dawnie, my lovely beautiful key, I'm always keeping an eye on you. After all, we can't have anyone else trying to kill you or take you away from us."

"Glory, that's creepy. And it's not like I need to worry about Spike. Even if he didn't have the chip, I have magic and I can teleport. Mom, do you mind if I take Janice to Disney World on Saturday?"

Joyce sighs, "Only if you're going to take responsibility for telling her parents why she believes in magic."

Urgently, Glory shouts at Joyce, "Joyce, Joyce, Ben's getting away."

Joyce does, manage to get to her appointment on time, just.

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For Buffy, the first sign that things are starting to return to their normal level of chaos, is when she's sitting quietly in the Bronze, listening to the music, while her friends are dancing in their respective pairings. Her smile is almost wistful as she can feel the love and affection that Tara has for Willow. Looking around, she looks at all the various men and women she can see, and feels nothing for any of them.

Something she supposes she should be thankful for, given her choice of past boyfriends. In the back of her mind, a traitorous voice says that it's because her physical reproductive needs have already been fulfilled, leaving only her emotional needs.

Spikes voice cutting through the live music immediately spoils her evening, "Bleeding crime, that's what it is." As Buffy's mood sours, Spike sits down in the chair next to her around the table, "Jackin' up the bar price to pay for fixin' up this sinkhole. Not my fault the insurance doesn't cover "act of troll."

Buffy gives Spike a hostile smile, "Well, if they're getting too expensive for you. Maybe you should patronize a new location."

Spike laughs, "I've half a mind to, especially since the flowering onion got remodeled right off the soddin' menu. That's the only thing this place had going for it."

Buffy looks at Spike blankly, "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what am I…"

"Here, at this table, talking to me like we're some kind of talking buddies?"

"Well, I saw you sittin' here alone. Thought, I don't know, you could maybe do with a bit of, you know, company."

Buffy stares at him as Glory shouts, "Break his neck. Look, just break his neck and be done with it. A quick pile of dust and he'll never be a problem again."

"Glory, we don't just kill people because they're annoying."

"Well, at least drop him somewhere else where he can't bother you for a while."

Buffy sighs, "I suppose I could."

Before Buffy can say or do anything, Spike looks down, "Suit yourself." And stands up to walk away.

Buffy, settles down to enjoy listening to the music again, when Spike suddenly sits back down, "Well, it's just, we took on that Glory chippie together."

Buffy's hand lashes out to grab Spikes hand, and a few seconds later, they're standing near a chateau in France, "Spike. Any assistance you believe you gave me with Glory is entirely in your own head. Now, I'm going to say this slowly and clearly. I, am, not, attracted, to, you. I, am, not interested, in, you. And, I, certainly, have, no, interest, in, your, prattling. Now, have a good trip back to the USA, and take the time to really think about what I just said."

Spike opens his mouth to say something, but Buffy disappears in a pillar of fire before he can get a word out.

Walking back into the Bronze, she sees that her friends are sitting around the table that she'd just vacated. With a broad smile, she walks over and sits down.

As she does Xander smiles at her, "Hey Buffster, we saw you were having trouble with tall, blond, and fangy, so we figured we'd come and give you some support."

At the same time, Tara's eyes go vacant and she accidentally puts her fingernail through her glass, letting the drink spill out through the hole, all over her dress.

Buffy smiles back at Xander, "Thanks, but it's all good now. I should have a few weeks of peace."

Tara's eyes refocus, and she stands up with a yelp, before putting her mostly empty glass on the table, "Buffy! How could you! I know he was being a creep, but that was uncalled for. Also, my dress!"

Buffy shrugs as Tara disappears in a pillar of fire, and everyone else stares at her, "What? He's been creepy for months now, and he won't take no for an answer. So I removed him from the situation."

Anya frowns, "Xander, I thought you were supposed to remove yourself from the situation. That's what you told me."

Xander looks at Anya, "Yes honey, that's what you're supposed to do. But apparently, being able to do the flamey thing means being above those social niceties."

Tara walks back in, and Glory perks up, "Ooh, Ben's here. Tell him that his clothing choices stink, and he should try wearing sack cloth and ashes, as they'll be an improvement."

With a grimace, Tara makes her way back to the table and sits down, "Well, I managed to find him, and I dropped him off in New York. Buffy, if you're going to do that, don't just dump him next to a Watcher outpost with nothing else resembling civilization for at least a days walk. If you're going to do that, just stake him instead."

Willow looks at Tara with a hurt expression, "Tara, you know I've been trying to learn a teleportation spell for months now. When were you going to tell me you already knew one."

Tara looks at Willow apologetically, "Because it's not a spell, and I didn't want to hurt you."

Buffy adds, "It's something she gained when I adopted her into my family. The offer is still open to all of you, if you ever want it."

Willow looks torn, but Xander shudders, "Um, if you don't mind, I'm going to wait to find out what's going on with Giles, as, um, I'm quite happy with my voice the way it is."



Anya puts her hand up, "I'd like it please." Xander coughs, "But at the same time as Xander, if that's ok."

Tara nudges Willow, "Willow, you've heard my complaints enough that I'm not going to stop you if that's what you want."

Willow looks at Tara, wide-eyed, "Really?"

Tara nods, and kisses Willow on the lips gently, "Really, but you'll need to forget most of what you know about magic if you do."

Willow kisses Tara back, "Are you sure?"

Tara nods as her eyes turn wistful, "It really is an adoption, I… I don't really know how to describe it, but it's like being a part of a family, squabbles and all, but better. But there are downsides, not just the fact that Glory is part of the family, but the dreams, and the physical changes." She picks up the glass that she's already put a hole in, and carves a picture of a heart with an arrow through it, before writing a W and T on either side of the arrow, "Such as saying good by to nail care."

Xander and Anya both stare at Tara, and Xander says, "Wait, so the hell goddess who was trying to destroy the world, and who won't let go of Dawn, is part of the family?"

Tara nods, "Uh, huh. She's not that bad if you can ignore her complete lack of morals, her fixation with Ben, or her desire to improve everyone's fashion sense."

Buffy smiles, "It also helps that she is absolutely devoted to keeping Dawn safe from any other potential big bads."

Dawn grouses over the hive, "She's worse than you and mom ever were. At least I used to be able to sneak out occasionally without being noticed… Ah, forget I said that."

Buffy and Tara laugh, much to the confusion of the other three.

When Buffy gets stared at by Anya and Xander, and Willow stares at Tara, Tara whispers to Willow, "I'll tell you later, while you're being adopted."

Buffy shakes her head, "It won't make sense without context. Anyway, I can see Ben sitting over there."

Xander looks around, "You going to say thanks for his help while your mum was in hospital?"

"Mmm, something like that."

Standing up she walks over to see Ben, who's sitting by a wall, "Hey, Ben."

Ben looks up, "Buffy, hi."

Buffy sits down next to him, "I barely recognized you without your hospital scrubs."

Ben smiles, "Oh, you'd be surprised the extent of my wardrobe."

Slightly surprised, Buffy asks, "Really?"

"I actually have entire outfits that aren't blue pajamas."

Buffy laughs, "Um, I just wanted to say thanks for the advice you gave me all those months ago. You know, when mom was in for her biopsy, and you pointed out that one out of three living normal lives doesn't mean two out of three dying."

"That's ok, I'm just glad it helped."

Buffy smiles, "That's part of why I changed my major at college you know."

"I'm glad I could inspire someone else to join this profession."

Buffy nods, "You know, your sister doesn't exactly have flattering things to say about you."

Ben looks surprised, "You've met Glory. She's not causing you any problems is she?"

Buffy shakes her head, "No, not really. Though Dawn would call me a liar, as Glory seems to have adopted Dawn. She's really very protective of her."

Ben looks at Buffy in disbelief, "Really? I mean, you need to stay away from her. I do my best, but she's insane. She will probably hurt you and your family just because you annoyed her."

Glory whines, "No I wouldn't. I haven't lost my mind in weeks now. Besides, it's so much more fun watching you all, and joining in occasionally. Like one of those thingy's your mom likes, soap operas."

Buffy shakes her head, "We've had words, and set boundaries, and I think she's been doing better since we did. Though, she says scathing things about your wardrobe."

Ben laughs, "I bet she does."

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As Buffy trails after Willow and Tara while they're entering the university, Willow complains, "I just don't see why he couldn't end up with Esmeralda. They could have had the wedding right there, beneath the very bell tower where he labored thanklessly for all those years."

As she trails off, due to running out of breath, Tara says, "No. See, it can't… It can't end like that, 'cause all of Quasimodo's actions were selfishly motivated. He had no moral compass, no understanding of right. Everything he did, he did out of love for a woman who'd never be able to love him back. Also, you can tell it's not gonna have a happy ending when the main guy's all bumpy."

The three of them stop in front of a vending machine while Tara looks through her purse for a quarter. Once Willow's handed her one, she turns to Buffy, "What did you think Buffy?"

Buffy shakes her head, "Huh, what were you talking about? Spike and his obsession with me? I'd rather marry a toad, well, I'd rather not marry anyone, but you know what I mean."

"No, the hunchback of Notre Dame."

"Oh, right. Um, I've never read it. If you give me a sec, I can check your memories of reading it though."

"Oh, um, no thanks. It's creepy that you can just do that, you know."

Buffy shrugs, "Not really, and it's not like you haven't checked out mine and Tara's."

"I-I didn't think you noticed."

The three of them start to walk off once Tara's bought her snack, and Buffy says, "Depends how recent you go. But we tend to ignore it, like you do when someone with BO sit's next to you on the train."

Buffy slows down, and stops when she notices the headline on the front page of a newspaper a student's reading.

Snatching the paper from the student she says, "You done reading that?"

Ignoring the student's objection, Buffy closes the paper and walks over to Willow and Tara, "Six found murdered on train at Sunnydale Station."

Tara softly says, "Glory?"

Buffy just looks up at Tara, who says, "Oh, right. I forgot." Tara's eyes then go vacant, "Those poor knights. Buffy, how could you?"

"How could I, Tara, they wanted to kill Dawn, like the other four did. And now you have three more sisters who don't want to kill Dawn. Anyway. 'Unconfirmed reports of severe trauma to the throats of one or more of the victims.' Survey says, vampire."

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Glory gently strokes the black domed head of one of the workers, that came from the knights. In the far corner, Jinx, one of her minions, cowers as his eyes follow the flicking tail and glance at the dead demon on the floor beside it.

"Oh, you are such a cute little killer aren't you. Oh, yes you are."

Jinx ventures, "Oh, great and beautificus Glory, is there anything this unworthy one can do for you?"

At that moment, the alarm for Ben's shift at work goes off, and Glory sighs and lies on the floor, so the worker can stand above her, with its head inches from her nose. She then closes her eyes as she relinquishes control and heads into the hive, using the workers senses, to keep an eye on what's happening in the room.

Ben wakes up lying on the floor, and then opens his eyes. As he does, he spots the domed head, with a mouth full of teeth above him. As his eyes widen, it opens its mouth and an inner mouth slides out as it hisses. Ben screams, and feels a damp patch grow on the dress he's wearing.

In the hive, Glory starts laughing uproariously, before praising the worker.

Once he's recovered, and managed to find some clothes that are not too out of place for a man to wear, Ben stares at Jinx, "Jinx, tell my sister that she's a bitch, with a capital B."

Glory starts to laugh all over again as she goes to find Dawn.

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Later that day, once it's got dark, Buffy makes her way past the police tape onto the train with Xander.

As they climb the steps, Xander asks, "So, Buffy. What are we doing here?"

Buffy looks back, "Looking for clues."

Xander moves his torch around to illuminate the white body outlines on the chairs, "Could you give me a clue about what kind of clues?"

"Something, anything. Just want to know this was a vamp attack. And I can't smell any vampires here now."

"So, why am I here then?"

"Because you have a different perspective to me, so you might see something I don't. If it was a vampire attack, we need to know how many vampires."

"Well, Sunnydale's finest didn't leave us a lot of stuff to examine, and who knows how many people have traipsed through here."

Pensively, Buffy turns around "Xander?"

Xander looks up, "What?"

"Don't look up, yet. I've brought one of my children to help us look."

Xander looks up and screams, "What the hell is that!"

Buffy sighs, "I said don't look up. That's one of my children, the non-adopted sort."

Xander scoots back until his back hits the wall, "You have children? Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Buffy shrugs, "I just did, this one's just about full grown now. So are the other two, which makes them safe to be around humans. Well, safer anyway."

"Buffy, what the hell? What happens if they attack Dawn or a kid, or something?"

Buffy shakes her head, "They can't, not for a year or so." She reaches up to scratch the side of it's head, "They won't develop a soul for a year or two, and until then they're basically independent extensions of me. If I died, they'd revert to their instincts, and may never develop a soul."

"Wait, these things have souls?"

Buffy shrugs, "Eventually, yes, the magical ones anyway. But they're the only ones I laid, while I was working out how to lay the adoption eggs, as they're superior in every way to the originals, so I wasn't fighting my instincts."

Xander stares at Buffy incredulously, "Buffy, how many of these things have you laid?"

"50, 60, maybe as many as 100. It took me a while to get it, as I'm not as smart as Giles, or Tara. Anyway, I just wanted to warn you that she's going to be checking things from the ceiling, just in case you caught her with your torch."

Shakily, Xander gets to his feet and starts searching the seats of the train while Buffy walks down the carriage scanning it from side to side. A couple of rows later, Buffy turns back, "Xander?"

Xander stands up, "Yeah?"

"Was I wrong when I took Spike to France?"

Xander pauses as his brain stutters, so Buffy turns around, "Forget it."

Xander shakes his head, "No. I mean, no don't forget it. Why are you asking me?"

Buffy turns back, "Because you're my friend Xander. You and Willow, you were my first friends when I moved here."

Xander sits on one of the chairs with a slump, "I don't know what to say. Personally, I'd have probably killed him months ago. But, with that chip, I don't think I could anymore. I mean, he's like every other Joe now, even if he does have super strength and an allergy to sunlight. Not to mention the liquid diet. At the same time, he's been stalking you, and… I don't know. I just know that I wouldn't like it if it happened to me. But then, I've never been that good at taking a hint myself. Though, usually from my friends about not dating the current big bad."

Buffy walks forward and carefully places her hand on his shoulder, "Xander, that's completely different, and you know it. I've seen how quick you are to take the hint when a girl seems like she's saying no. Sometimes too quick if I'm honest. But Spike."

"Buffy, I… Yes damn it, yes, I think you were right to send him away. Maybe not to the middle of nowhere, but away. But, Buffy, he's also saved our lives more than once."

Buffy looks sad, "I know Xander, and you've almost died so many times. That's why I want all my friends to be in my hive. I don't want to lose you because some stray thug with a grudge got lucky. Anyway, I'm going to have this worker shadow you to keep you safe, and neither of us can smell any sign of vampires, so we should go."

Xander looks at the xenomorph worker warily as she climbs down to perch on the back of the chair, and give his hair a good sniff.

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As Xander and Buffy enter Magic Box, along with Xander's new shadow, they hear Giles on the phone.

"No Quentin, we haven't had any more run ins we Glory… I have no idea what this Black Tide might be, but I'll keep an ear out in case there's any rumors… Really? Well, who am I to question a seer?... No, there's nothing wrong with my voice… Yes, this is my natural voice… If you must know, I have contracted a magical malady that is turning me into a woman… Yes, I did contract it in the shop, how did you guess?... No it wasn't from something I was going to sell to the public… Quite irreversible I'm afraid… No, I can't send you any documents on the artifact, as there were no documents with the item…"

The three of them quietly make their way around the shop to the large table. As they do, Tara and Willow walk out of the training room, and sit down with Xander and Buffy, while glancing at both the xenomorphs that have perched on the other two chairs.

Willow nervously says, "B-Buffy, are they what I think they are?"

Buffy sighs, "Yes Willow, they are. And, no, this is as big as they're going to get."

Xander's eyes go wild, "Buffy, why is Willow using they instead of that?"

Buffy furrows her eyebrows, "You didn't think I'm only worried about you did you? Anya, over there, is just as vulnerable."

"Bu-But, what about Willow, shouldn't she get one too?"

Buffy gets a dreamy expression on her face, "Oh no, her adoption was last night after they went home from the Bronze. I gave Tara a face hugger, and she took it home. They turned it into a lovely ceremony, with candles, incense, hugs, and… more adult activities while Willow couldn't speak… It was so beautiful. So, give it a couple of days, and Willow will be protected enough for someone to get to her."

Giles hangs up and walks around the divider, before stopping as his mouth opens, "Oh. Right. Black tide. I should have thought of that."

Xander starts to look around wildly, "Obviously something's here, where is it, is it above me?"

Buffy sighs, "No, they're using house elf invisibility to hide, as the stores still open, and I don't think Sunnydale is ready to accept that Xenomorphs exist, along side all the other magic, demons, and vampires, that they already ignore."

"Wait, they can go invisible?"

Buffy and Tara both fade out of view, Willow just shrugs, "I can't do that yet. Something to do with my magic not being mature yet."

Anya looks up from the till, "Magic doesn't mature. You can either use it or you can't."

Giles coughs, "Well, on whatever alternative world these came from, magic is inherent to the creature, not part of the planet."

"Wait, so they don't have demons?"

"Not as you'd know them. But both Minerva McGonagall and Pomona Sprout remember being taught that summoning rituals were prescribed. Of course, this is before the ritual class was, itself, proscribed, along with nearly all rituals. Now, to save me having to look through people's memories, what brings you here?"

Willow perks up, "There were a several deaths on a train last night, and it's likely they were killed by vampires. Xander and Buffy checked out the train 30 minutes ago, and found nothing. So we're here to brainstorm."

Xander shudders, "That's creepy, you know that? Just plucking information out of thin air."

Willow shrugs, "I think it's cool. Did you know that Buffy can not only read and write hieroglyphs, but she can also speak High Egyptian. Do you have any idea how useful that is for magic here. Who knows how many spells the Egyptians have left on their walls, that we can now translate."

Giles reaches up for his glasses, and starts to clean them, before looking accusingly as his vision is now better without them, than with, "Yes, well. I wouldn't go advertising that ability just yet, as one of the seers the council contacted to find out more information about Glory has said that the Black Tide is dormant in Sunnydale. They've classified it as an Apocalyptic threat."

Xander scoffs, "What else is new around here. Buffy will find the big bad, kill it, and the world will be safe once more."

When Buffy, Giles, Willow, and Tara, all go dead silent and look at Xander, he looks increasingly nervous, "What?"

Gently Giles says, "Xander, Buffy is the black tide. Well, that's not entirely true. Her children are the black tide, and she is the only thing stopping it from happening."

"Wait, really? Buffy's the big bad?"

Buffy sighs, "No Xander, I'm not a big bad. I'm the queen of my hive. If I die, then my hive is without a queen, and they'll act on instinct. Unless I die, or I lose my mind, there will be no rampages across the world."

Xander pats around for one of the invisible Xenomorphs, when he finds one he says to it, "Look, I don't care what she's told you to do. You need to protect Buffy with your life. I do not want to be eaten or turned into a minion of an ever-expanding wave of death."

Buffy laughs, "Xander, remember I told you that they don't have souls or minds of their own yet? Besides, I'm very hard to kill permanently now. Though, I'm not looking to ever put that to the test. Suffice to say that any attackers will probably believe they succeeded when they haven't."

Xander whines, "But Buffy, your safety is now as important as Dawn's."

Giles sighs, "Xander, we're getting off track here. Now, you were worried about the vampires. Have you checked to see if Spike has returned?"

Buffy hits her forehead and disappears with a pop.

Xander looks back a Giles, "Now that you've pointed out the obvious. Man to man, what was that about a magical malady?"

Giles pinches the bridge of his nose, "Right. Note to self, private conversations shouldn't be had on the shop floor. Xander, did you notice that both these workers are female? Or that Buffy has compared her hive to ants?"

Xander shakes his head, "Can't say I did."

"Right, well. All of us are part of Buffy's hive, though I believe that the only person that actually knew what they were doing when they accepted is Willow. The fact remains that we all agreed to this. As with most magical things, there is a price for the power we gain as part of the hive. And well, there's a sort of restriction on just who can be part of the hive. Sort of like there were on who could be a priestess of Artemis, and if you don't meet that requirement, then the magic will make sure you do meet that requirement."

Xander stares at Giles before looking at Tara, "Tara, I'd ask Willow, but I know she'd just give me an answer that leaves me just as confused. What does Giles mean exactly?"

Tara thinks for a moment, "Um, I think he's saying that only girls and women can be part of the hive. And if you join the hive, and you don't meet that requirement, then the magic that enables people to join the hive will ensure that you do, actually, meet that requirement."

Anya rushes over from the till, and hugs Xander protectively, "No, you're not taking my man away from me, I need those bits of him."

Willow and Tara share a glance, and Willow says, "Um, Anya, there are things to help with that. If you want to visit our dorm one day, we could show you a couple of catalogues."

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Buffy appears outside Spikes crypt, and opens the door carefully. As it swings open, she sniffs the air before poking her tongue out in disgust as the scent of vampire wafts out, Spikes scent still dominating the air and blocking out the smell of any others that might be there.

Cautiously she makes her way inside and immediately notices the burning candles. Carefully she looks around the room, until she sees the statuesque figure in the deep shadows of the room.

As she stares at the figure, it says, in a very cockney English accent, "I don't want to play this game anymore. I see the black tide on the wings of the phoenix. The pixies in my head, they tell me things, but they didn't say it was you."

Buffy sighs, "Drusilla, give me one good reason I should stake you right here, right now?"

"I came to save Spike from you. To pull him back and show him who he's supposed to be."

Buffy rubs her temples, "Right, fine. One rule while you're here, no killing. You kill anyone in Sunnydale, or its suburbs, and you won't even know I'm there before you die. When he gets back, you'll both be shipped off to Calcutta. If I ever see you in Sunnydale after that, it will be the last thing you ever see."

Buffy disappears with a flash of fire.

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Buffy reappears in LA, outside the offices for Angel Investigations. With a frown, she looks at the locked door, that should be open at this time. It doesn't take her long to pop through the building, only to find a distinct lack of people.

Walking back outside, she glances at a car that's parked outside, and sees a flyer with 'Angel Investigations' emblazoned on it. Checking the new address, she swiftly makes her way to the office, where there's a party in full swing.

Making her way inside, she searches the crowd for Angel, only for Cordilla to turn to look at her, and collapse. Darting over, she gently catches Cordilla, drawing the attention of Gunn and Wesley away from the potential client they're talking to.

Leaving Wesley to talk to the client, Gunn walks over to Buffy, "Buffy? I didn't know you were in the area."

Buffy shrugs, "I just ran into Drusilla in Sunnydale, and I know she's usually seen around here. I was hoping that Angel might know why she's come to my neck of the woods."

Gunn grimaces, "Ah, well. Angel fired us, so I have no idea."

Buffy looks at Gunn, surprised, "What? But you were working really well with each other."

"Yeah, well, there's shit going down here, and we didn't see eye to eye with some of the things he was doing."

"Oh, well, erm, if you need any help of the supernaturally kind, give the Magic Box, or my home a ring. Wait, I'll just grab one of Giles' flyers."

Buffy and Cordilla both disappear in a pillar of fire, only for Buffy to reappear a few seconds later holding a paper flyer, "Here you go. Do you have a pen, and I'll write my home number on the back. Oh, and do you mind if I give my mom a flyer of yours, as she's been coming to LA a lot recently. And, well, I don't think she's going back to the art gallery."

Numbly Gunn nods and points at a pot on a desk at the other side of the room. With a click of her fingers, Buffy has both a pen and one of their flyers in her hands. Quickly, she writes her home number on the back of the Magic Box flyer, before handing both it and the pen back to Gunn, and disappearing in a pillar of fire.

 

[shypunk]

thank you for another enjoyable and amusing chapter and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 7

Cordelia wakes up with a groan on a hard wooden table. Surrounding her are her old friends from Sunnydale, "Ugh, Giles?"

Giles nods, "Hello Cordelia. How have you been?"

"Fine. What's up with your voice?"

Xander chuckles hysterically, "Phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space. Well, actually, it's girls only, but, you know, why ruin a perfectly good line."

"Um, where am I, and who are these two?"

Giles points at Tara and Anya, "These are Tara and Anya. And, um, it seems like Buffy forgot she was holding you, when she flamed back here."

It's at this point that Buffy chooses to flame back in, "Hey guys, I found out who killed the people on the train. Couldn't find Angel though, so I don't know why she's left LA. Oh, Cordelia, I thought you were at the party."

Giles sighs, "Yes Buffy, she was at the party. You forgot you were holding her when you came her for the flyer."

Buffy looks at Cordelia, "Oh, yeah. You're really light, you know that don't you. You should eat more."

Cordelia laughs bitterly, "Oh, hardie ha, make fun of the poor ex-rich girl."

Buffy cocks her head to one side, "Oh, I didn't realize, sorry." She clicks her fingers, and a crab appears on the table, "Here, that should keep you going while I wrestle your new bodyguard away from Glory."

Cordelia scrambles off the table, and backs away from the crab, "How did that get there?" As Giles, Tara, and Willow, seem to be trying not to laugh, she zeroes in on Xander, "Xander, what's going on here?"

Xander shifts uncomfortably, "Um, well, you see… Um, Buffy, that is, she…"

Anya huffs, "What Xander's trying to say is that Buffy got infected with some alien parasite thingy, and it gave her weird funky abilities, and the ability to make people like her, become like her, not like her like her. She's now decided that we're, us humans and ex-demons, are too fragile compared to those that she's adopted into her family. So, she's assigned some of her children to look after us. I haven't seen them yet, but Xander has."

There's a pop, and a sleek, black, xenomorph appears standing by Buffy, and she absently reaches down to stroke it's back, "Here we go Cordelia. Even if you were a bitch at school, you were still my friend, and I don't have so many that I can afford to lose any. So, here's your new bodyguard."

Cordelia doesn't here her, as her eyes have fixated on the xenomorph, and she's whimpering, "The black tide, the black tide, the black tide is coming."

Buffy scoffs, "No, the black tide isn't coming. And, unless someone actually manages to kill me kill me, it will never come."

Cordelia's eyes flick up to Buffy, "You're the Black King that's fighting for the white."

Buffy sighs, "No, I'm a queen, and this isn't chess. Anyway, can one of you guys take her home, as mom wants to talk to me."

Giles stands up, "I'll do it, I haven't seen Wesley in ages anyway."

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A few days later, Buffy and Dawn are sat on the couch while Joyce shows off her new backless dress.

After doing a twirl, Joyce looks at her daughters, "So, what do you think?"

Dawn shakes her head, "I dunno, can you give us another twirl?"

Joyce gives another twirl, "So?"

Buffy shakes her head, "I'm not sure, do another one, more slowly this time."

Joyce obliges, and looks at them expectantly, only for Glory so say, "It looks good for something bought in a charity shop… Or a small city like Sunnydale. Why didn't you let me know you were going on a date, I'd have taken you to New York."

As Joyce looks a little upset, Buffy says, "Mom, ignore her, it looks fine. I'm sure your date will love it. Anyway Glory, what are you doing?"

"Me, nothing... I'm just waiting for my minions to find some more acceptable targets that Buffy won't object to turning into incubators."

Dawn's eyes go fuzzy, "Glory, why are you picking the stitches on Bens pants?"

"Because I'm not going to let him go to the Spring party with such horrible fashion."

As the good natured, and somewhat spiteful bickering starts, Joyce gets caught up in the back and forth, and forgets about her anxiety over the upcoming date.

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Tara and Anya are strolling through the pathways of Sunnydale just talking with each other.

Tara shakes her head slightly, "I still don't get computers. I mean, I've got access to all of Willows memories, but they still don't make sense to me. Do you really understand all that?"

Anya looks back at Tara, "Oh. Well, at first it was confusing. Just the idea of computers was, like, 'Woah, I'm 1,100 years old'. I had trouble adjusting to the idea of Lutherans."

"Well I go online sometimes, but everyone's spelling is really bad. It's depressing."

"But you have to try online trading. It's great. The secret is avoiding the tech companies everyone was jumping on, and going with the smaller firms that supply the basic components."

Tara expression says that she very much doesn't get it, yet she responds with a positive, "Uh huh."

"Anyway, I took the money from working for Giles, and I tripled it."

With a sense of disbelief, Tara says, "Tripled? Like, first money, then money, money, money?"

Anya smiles, "Yes. I'm thinking about buying something very expensive, maybe an antelope."

Their conversation is interrupted by a young woman trotting up to them and stopping just inside their personal space with a wide smile, "Hi."

When she doesn't say anything else, Anya ventures, "Hi."

"I'm looking for Warren. Do you know where Warren is? And if you do, could you tell me?"

Tara frowns, "Um, I don't think we know a Warren."

The woman nods and smiles, "Well, all righty. No harm in asking. Thanks." She then walks past them to a person sitting on a bench, to ask the same question.

A moment later, the two of them continue walking, and Tara carries on from where they were interrupted, "You can do all this stuff with a regular computer?"

Anya looks so happy when she says, "I'll show you. You can also see the website I designed for the magic shop. Huge photo of me."

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Later, Buffy and her friends are all at the university's spring party. As she finishes her obligitary dance with Xander, Buffy moves off of the dance floor, over to the punch bowl, where she doesn't need to be so careful about her tail.

As she leans against a pillar, and starts to people watch. Ben walks over to her, holding a cup of punch, "Buffy"

Buffy looks over at her name, "Ben! Hey. I wasn't expecting to see you. I see you managed to find some non-medical clothes to wear."

Ben looks down, "Actually, these are orthopedic pants." Buffy looks down, and grimaces, so Ben adds, "Man, that sounded so funny in my head."

Buffy sighs with relief, "Oh good, you didn't have wardrobe problems."

It's Ben's turn to grimace, "Actually, I think I did something to annoy my sister, and these were the only ones I could use."

Buffy shrugs, "At least she's laid off on the random killing of people that annoy her."

Ben looks thoughtful, "Yeah, not sure what's going on there. Or how you know so much about it."

Buffy shrugs, "We had a conversation a while ago, and I made it clear that the key's off limits. We reached an agreement, and we've started including her in some of our social stuff."

Glory laughs, "Ha! As if, you gave me a choice of involuntary exile somewhere who knows where, or basically submit to you. I'm so proud."

Ben takes a sip of his drink, "Anyway, are you having fun?"

Buffy smiles and nods, "I am actually. Though I've recently discovered the joys of people watching. What about you, are you enjoying yourself?"

Ben smiles, "I am now. Look, I just need to dump this, I'll be right back." He indicates his empty cup.

Buffy nods, and goes back to leaning against the pillar and listening to the life that's happening all around her.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the party, by a bar, Willow, Xander, and Anya, are all chatting. Anya picks up a bowl of snacks, and takes out a square snack that looks like it's been woven together, "Look at these tiny grain patties. They're woven. That's craftsmanship."

As she eats it, Xander makes an Um shape with his mouth for a moment, before saying, "They aren't handwoven, you know."

Anya looks up at him, before going back for another handful, "Then how?"

"Well, it's a machine, and it's… It sort of… It presses. And there may be a mold of some sort…" Xander trails off as a young woman, with long straight dark hair, starts to make her way through the crowd, "Who's that?"

Anya turns around and cranes her neck to see. When the girl calls out "Warren" loud enough to be heard, Anya nods as she finishes a mouthful of snacks, "Oh, that girl. Tara and I met her. She speaks with a strange evenness, and selects her words a shade to precisely."

Xander gestures with his hand, "Well, some of us like that kind of thing in a girl."

Tara joins the three of them, "What girl?"

Willow nods in the woman's direction, and Tara follows her gaze, "Oh, yeah, that one. She was a bit freaky, even by Sunnydale standards."

As the woman walks over to the group, Tara and Willow both sigh and face palm.

On the other side of the party, the reason for the face palm is Spike approaching Buffy, "Small world."

Buffy turns to look at Spike with a frown as he blithely continues, "Oh, dear. If looks could stake. Are you having fun, pet? You, uh, trolling for your next ex?"

At the word ex, Buffy's expression lights up like a ray of sunshine, "Oh, Spike, you're back. Drusilla will be so happy."

"Uh… Dru's here?"

Buffy beams a smile at Spike, "Yep, and you're going to have so much fun together. Come, I'll take her to you."

Spike backs away, "No, I think I'm fine right where I am now."

Buffy lashes out with her tail, and stabs Spike through the thigh, before they both pop out, and reappear in Spikes crypt, "Drucilla, I've brought a gift for you!"

Drucilla climbs out of the downstairs portion of the crypt carrying a couple of heavy black, triple lined, golfing umbrellas, "I knew you was coming Spikey. The pixies in my brain told me. I came here to save you, but the pixies were wrong, and you weren't here. Now you're here, and we're going where the pixies don't change."

Buffy give Spike a shark like grin, "Today, you're going to Calcutta. If you ever come back here again, and try any sort of romantic shit with me. Or piss me off in any other way. I'll be sending you to Puerto Williams in Chile, even if I have to swim there myself to learn its location. Unless it's summer, at which point I'll send you to Norlisk, in Siberia. Which is north of the artic circle, meaning the sun doesn't set for multiple weeks at a time. Do you understand?"

Spike scoffs, "Why, are you scared of a little vampire loving?"

"Actually, I'm not interested in any 'loving' and I know you're harmless to the human population. Let's get the two of you out of here, as I think Drucilla has been developing a complex about me and my children."

Drucilla shoves one umbrella at Spike, before opening her own, "Come on Spikey, it will be just you and me, like old times."

Spike opens his mouth to object as the three of them are surrounded by a pillar of fire, and reappear beside a mansion on the edge of Calcutta. As his skin starts to smoke, Spike leaps under Drucilla's umbrella and struggles to open his own.

With a huff, Buffy takes Spikes umbrella, and opens it for him, "There, now you're not going to burn to death. Word of warning, this mansion is a Watcher outpost. So, you may not want to be near here. Goodbye."

Spike starts to swear as Buffy disappears, and he realizes that his life is reduced to this tiny circle of dark shadow from the umbrella.

Drucilla turns around with aplomb, and starts to walk off with her umbrella perfectly positioned, "Come along Spikey Wikey, I have procured us lodgings until night time."

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Wesley's pouring over a thick tome while Cordilla is reading through a smaller, and newer, book looking for any information that could help them with their current case.

Both of them stumble backwards as a xenomorph appears in the office in a pillar of flame. As soon as she recognizes it, Cordelia huffs, rights her chair, and sits back down.

When the xenomorph places a live lobster on the table, she lets out a scream and knocks her chair over again as she backs away from the lobster.

Wesley points in the Xenomorphs direction, "Wh-What is that thing?"

Cordelia shouts, "It's a lobster, get it away from me."

"No, not that, That!"

The xenomorph goes invisible again, as he talks and Cordelia backs against the wall, "That's phantom, my new bodyguard, now do something about that lobster!"

When the phone starts to ring, Cordelia edges around the table, and heads to the desk with the phone, to answer it.

"Angel Invest… Gunn!... Of course we can handle this eye thing without you… That's not the point… Just that maybe we should back you up on this… Because I don't want you to get hurt… Of course I do, but—Hello?"

With a huff she puts the phone down while Wesley carefully grabs the lobster behind its claws and carries it through to the small kitchen area, "What did Gunn want?"

Cordelia sighs, "Ok, Gunn's about to do a really stupid thing."

Wesley starts the water running, "What did he say?"

"Just that in order to find out if the police have been brutalizing and killing people in Anne's neighborhood, he's going to videotape the cops trying to brutalize and kill him."

Wesley pokes his head back through the door, "You can't be serious."

"Nothing says, 'Aha, I'm onto you' like being on the receiving end of a vicious police beating.'"

Wesley goes back to watch the sink, "You couldn't stop him?"

"Hello. Gunn. Stubborn. Synonyms."

"That can't be his plan, can it? I mean, it's a really dumb plan."

Cordelia walks into the kitchen, "Hey, Gunn graduated with a major in Dumb Planning from Angel University. He sat at the feet of the master and learned well how to plan dumbly."

Wesley turns off the faucet and goes back to his tome, "We're just going to have to let him do this."

Cordelia groans, "I'm sure he'll be fine."

"He wants our help, he knows where to call us."

"We'll work our gig, Gunn can work his."

Wesley takes one look at the wall of text in front of him, and looks back up again, "Right. Let's get down there and save him from himself."

"It's not like that third eye's really going anywhere."

With that, they both grab their jackets and leave, locking up behind them. The brief pop as Cordelia's bodyguard teleports outside, going unnoticed.

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Back at the party, Buffy reappears just in time to catch a guy that the strange woman has just thrown clear across a room. Carefully putting the guy down, she walks over to the woman.

"Look, I need to have a word with you."

The woman looks at her, "Do you know my boyfriend?"

Buffy looks at her open mouthed for a moment, "Ok, I thing you need to take a second and stop looking for your boyfriend."

That's as far as she gets, before the woman grabs her by both arms, and tries to throw Buffy the same way. Instinctively, Buffy's tail lashes out to control her fall, and spears its way through the woman's stomach, with a shower of sparks. With the change in momentum, Buffy is able to turn the throw into a flip, into a handspring, twist, and then land on her feet facing the woman cum robot, "Um, Willow, I don't think I can fix this. Help?"

Willow runs in from the other room, and then stops when she sees the woman/robot just standing there, and trying to walk, "Right, um, I can't do anything here, help me get her to the engineering department, and one of the electronics labs."

Once there, Willow first looks for some sort of charging port, and finds a data port in the back of the fembot's head. As she does, Buffy sits beside her and talks to her, while Willow looks for a cable and plugs it in to find out what's in April's head.

"Hey honey, I'm sorry about doing that, and I'm sure that Willow will be able to put you back together, tickity boo. Anyway, what's your name?"

"I'm April, what's your name?"

Buffy smiles, "I'm Buffy. So, why are you looking for your boyfriend?"

"He went out, and forgot to come back to his dorm."

Buffy puts her hand, comfortingly, on April's shoulder, "Oh, hun, I don't think he forgot…"

From behind April, Willow says, "Buffy, I don't think you should pursue that line of thought, I've got massive data spikes, and it's drawing more power than she can afford right now."

Buffy forces a smile, "Sorry about that April, let's table that until you're all better. I know, what are your favorite hobbies?"

April smiles broadly, "Oh, I love cooking for Warren. I love listening to him talk about his day at the lab, and his current projects. I also love to rub Warren, and give him oral…"

Buffy interrupts, "Right, right, I get the picture. Do you ever do other things that you enjoy when he's not around?"

April smiles again, "I buy presents for Warren, and I wait for him."

Buffy looks beseechingly at Willow, who taps a couple of keys on the computer, and April's eyes closed and she appears to go to sleep, "There, I've activated the sleep function. Buffy, April's programming is really screwed up. Who ever this Warren is, he's a genius, he's made April able to think, grow, and learn. Yet he's also an idiot, and locked all of that down so that she would only love him, and do what he says." Willow points at the screen, "Come and look at this. See this program here, 'Find Warren'. April wrote that herself. You can also see here, where she's already compensating for the damage you did earlier. If she had more battery power left, she'd have still been attacking you. Only Warren built a safety into her combat routines, that forces them to end if her available charge reaches a certain level."

Buffy nods along as though she understands, even though she only gets a fraction of what Willow said. Then she grimaces, "Willow, is she a person?"

Willow looks at Buffy sharply, "Yes. Well, not at the moment, but she has the potential to be one. I mean, she created her own program to allow her to come here rather than wait where Warren left her."

Buffy turns back to April and strokes her hair, as she tries to cry, "Then you need to save her. Get rid of all the Warren specific programming and give her the closest semblance to free will you can."

Willow looks at Buffy searchingly, "Buffy, what's going on? First, you killed those knights, now you're saving the life of a robot?"

Buffy looks up at Willow with red eyes, "Willow, I've sort of been forced to redefine what a monster is, in my head. Do you know how easy it was to separate the world into humans, demons, and vampires? With all vampires being evil, and need to be staked unless there's something preventing them from being evil. Like Spikes chip, or Angel's soul. Demons, are they randomly killing people, then they're evil monsters, and need to be destroyed. And Humans, they can be evil, but they're not monsters. But now I'm a Monster. Should I kill myself? I tried that. When Spike showed me Riley allowing a vampire to feed on him I went to a beach in LA and tried to drown myself. It didn't work, I just fell unconscious and changed into my queen body. Spent a couple of days hunting larger and larger prey as I molted every time my skin became too tight. When I woke up again, I was full size, and hunted down an orca so that I could make an ovipositor.

"If I'm not a monster, then doesn't that mean that my definition of monster was wrong? So I had to change my definition."

Willow stares at Buffy, her eyes slightly vacant as she looks at the newly available memories, "Buffy, I didn't realize."

Buffy shrugs, "I was hiding the memories from everyone, so no reason you could have known."

"Why now?"

"Because saving April doesn't make sense if you don't know. All people can be monsters, but not all monsters can be people. April might be a robot, but she's also a person; and we have a duty to save as many people as we can."

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In LA, Cordelia walks up the steps to the youth shelter that Gunn's friend Anne runs. There, she repeated knocks on the glass of the door until Anne herself opens it, while holding a pile of washing saying, "Sorry, no more… Hi. What?"

Cordelia smiles at Anne, "Gunn still here?"

Anne sounds surprised as she answers, "No. He left with his friends a little while ago. Why?"

From behind Cordelia, Wesley asks, "Did he say where he was going?"

Anne frowns as she thinks, "45th Street, I think."

Wesley raises a hand as he turns around, "I'll start there. I'm on my cell phone if you hear from him."

Cordelia calls after him, "Check in with me."

"Right."

Turning back to Anne, Cordelia sighs, "Looks like you could use some help."

Anne smiles wryly, "All of my regular staffers were too scared to come in tonight."

Cordelia smiles, "Where do you want me to start?"

Anne hands over the washing, "How are your laundry-folding skill?"

Cordelia looks at it and gapes a couple of times, "I'm an actress. I can fake it." As she turns around, she sees a girl wearing a top that she gave away a few months ago, "Hey! That's my…" As the girl turns towards her, she quickly amends it to, "Sorry. I have a shirt just like that. The girl at the store said it was one of a kind. Big fibber."

Chuckling, Anne goes to shut the door, when suddenly a black man runs up the stairs and holds the door open, "I'm sorry, I'm all out of beds."

The man looks through the doorway, "Oh, come on now, sweet thing. You know it's not safe for man or beast out here."

Anne sound apologetic as she tries to close the door, "I'm very sorry, but I really don't have any free beds."

Forcing his way in, the man closes the door behind him, "You don't have to worry about me, I'm sure I can find someone willing to share." His eyes follow a couple of girls who can't be older than 17 up the stairs, "Oh, yes. Plenty of candidates."

Cordelia throws the laundry on a chair and walks up to the man, "I really think it would be best if you left."

Anne adds, "You should probably go."

The man looks between both women, "This is a shelter, right?" Anne looks at him askance, "Well, it just so happens, I'm in need of a little shelter tonight."

As he bumps past Cordelia, she steps after him, "Hey. Hey!"

Anne touches Cordelia on the shoulder, "Let him go. I don't want any trouble."

Cordelia looks towards the mans back, and sighs.

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It's almost an hour later when Anne rushes to the door as someone urgently knocks on it. As she gets closer, she hears Gunn's voice calling "Annie, open up! It's G! Open up! Hurry!"

As she urgently opens the door, she's shocked to see Gunn and one of his friends holding Wesley up, while an ambulance driver holds an IV bag, and Gunn's other friend is looking around the street wildly.

Anne gasps, "Oh, my God, what happened?"

Gunn shuffles sideways into the room, "They shot him."

Anne calls after Gunn as he makes his way into the shelter, "Who did?"

"The cops. They're not human."

Anne stands there in shock for a moment, before closing and locking the door, then hurrying after them.

As Phantom listens to Cordelia's breathing and heart rate increase, as though she's under threat. Looking around, she can't see any signs of what could be endangering her, so she flames out to her Queen.

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Buffy looks up alarm when one of her workers appears in the lab where Willow is working to repair the circuitry inside April. As it appears, she dives into the workers memories to find out why it came back, only for her grip to tighten on April's hand until it creaks alarmingly.

Alarmed, Willow shouts, "Buffy, you need to let go before you break April's hands."

Buffy releases the robot's hand, and skims Willow's mind to see how stable she thinks April is, while she also sends a command to the worker to return to Cordelia.

Over the hive Buffy calls, "Anyone that's not currently at a party, or on a date mom, I need you to go to this worker as Wesley has been shot, and the others are in trouble. I'll catch up with you in a moment." Out loud, she turns back to Willow, "Willow, keep working on April, and have Tara help you, as I think she's not suited to what might be happening there."

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Everyone surrounding Wesley, and isn't involved in his emergency care, gasps as a pillar of fire runs across the ceiling.

Ignoring the gasps, Cordelia asks Gunn, "What can I do to help?"

Gunn stands up and hands her a wad of clean surgical pads, "Keep pressure on the wound."

Cordelia nods, and kneels down where Gunn was, before removing the soiled pads, and placing the new ones over the wound.

Less than a minute later, those gasps turn into screams as Phantom reappears in a pillar of fire. The man who forced his way in, draws a gun from his waistband, and opens fire on the space the xenomorph was occupying. Taking a few shots in her body, Phantom disappears with a pop, and pulls house-elf invisibility around herself while stands on the pillar above the man with a gun. As soon as Giles and Dawn appear in a flash of fire, she grabs the man and disappears to the air space above the nest.

Gunn just about has time to shout, "Jackson? What are you doing man!" before he disappears.

Dawn looks down at Wesley, and immediately pulls Cordelia and the padding off the wound, and starts to cry over it. The tears coming easily, as it's the first time she's seen anything like this. At the same time Giles looks around for anyone that might have been hit by the bullets, or the acid from Phantom's blood, and starts to force himself to cry, and apply the tears to the various wounds.

Startled, the EMT reaches out to stop Dawn, only to freeze as the wound starts to heal, "What the hell?"

A soaking wet Buffy appears in a pillar of fire, holding a face hugger, "Well done Dawn, just a few more tears and he'll be safe. Wesley, I'm going to put this on you to keep you breathing and your blood pressure up for the next hour." She glances over at Giles, "I'm sorry it's not a dud, but I only have adoption or live eggs at the moment. That means that you'll be undergoing some changes over the next few days. Do you understand?"

The EMT's eyes widen, "Hey Lady, you can't just go putting alien things on people."

Weekly Wesley nods, "I understand." And Buffy gently places the face hugger over his face. Due to blood loss, Wesley wouldn't be able to put up a fight, even if he wanted to.

Giles looks back and murmurs, "I hope you're not too attached to your masculinity."

As Phantom reappears on her own, Gunn's friends go to draw their knives, but Gunn puts his hand on their shoulder, "Woah, he's on our side at the moment. We can save the slaying till after this is over, and we can talk to the Slayer over there about what the hell is going on."

As if she heard her title, Buffy walks over, "So, Gunn, what's going on? And why are so many cars pulling up outside?"

Gunn gasps, and runs over to the window. Looking out, he swears and shouts, "Lock all the doors! Keep everyone away from the windows."

Anne backs him up, "You heard him. Let's go. Come on."

Buffy rolls her eyes and walks over, "What's going on?"

"We really don't have time for this."

Buffy huffs, "Well, make time, as I can't really help if I don't know what's happening."

"Fine, dead cops that are walking around and beating up innocent black kids who's only crime is to be homeless. We caught 'em on camera, and they shot Wesley. Now they're here to kill us."

Buffy smiles broadly, "Yay! Guilt free slayage."

As she pops outside, Glory appears in a flash of fire, and her eyes go vacant before she pops outside too.

When the kids that are moving furniture against the windows scream and gasp, Gunn rushes to the window, and stops as his mouth drops.

Outside, a much, much, larger version of Phantom is fighting/playing alongside Glory, while the dead police officers are emptying their weapons into the two of them.

Gunn jumps when Dawn squeezes in front of him, and starts cheering Buffy on.

With Wesley now clear of strange people crying on him, the EMT carefully probes the wound area, taking note of every time Wesley winces. Looking up at Cordelia, he says, "I think he's bleeding internally."

Cordelia takes Wesley's hand, "How long do we have?"

The EMT shakes his head, and takes the pulse at the ankle, "I don't know. He's blood pressure's normal, but his pulse is virtually non-existent at his ankle. That means he's body is prioritizing the brain and vital organs. Beyond that, I'm just an EMT, he needs a proper hospital. The saline will help, but if he's lost too much blood, he'll need an infusion to increase his hemoglobin levels."

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Once it became clear that these police officers could take grievous wounds, and keep going. Buffy and Glory silently seem to turn the fight into a game, where they'll see how much damage they can do to the bodies before the animating magic gives up.

Around 5 minutes into the contest, the kids at the window have either cleared out, or are cheering the two of them on. Abruptly, all of the officers that are still moving, stop moving, and their features return to that of whatever stage of decomposition they were in when they were animated.

Buffy shrinks down into her human form, her hands on her hips, and looks at them, "Oh poo. I was sure the next one would win, I was going to carve his head and heart from the rest of his body."

Glory laughs, "I win. Yay for guilt free slayage. You should find more things like this, it's fun. Oh, and dibs on the new worker."

Buffy looks at Glory, "What new worker?"

"The one that Cordelia's bodyguard took away when he started shooting at her." Buffy opens her mouth to say something, but Glory smiles, "Don't worry, I'll just go and fix him to the wall so he doesn't drown once his face hugger falls off."

As she disappears in a pillar of fire, Buffy turns around, only to see Gunn and Cordelia carrying Wesley out to the Ambulance, that's parked just outside the shelter.

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Buffy and Dawn return home just in time for Joyce to push open the front door, "Buffy, how could you let Dawn go into a situation like that?"

Buffy laughs, "Mom, how exactly would I have stopped her. Now, how was your date. In your own words, not your memories."

Joyce smiles widely, "It was wonderful. Brian was absolutely charming, and we've agreed to meet up again."

Buffy pushes the door closed behind her mom, and Joyce turns around mischievously, "Oh darn, I left my bra in the backseat of the car."

Dawn covers her ears and runs up the stairs as Buffy exclaims, "Mom! Are you pulling my leg?"

Joyce smiles widely, "Of course I am dear… I actually left it in the restaurant."

"Mom! I don't need to know this!"

"On the dessert trolly"

Buffy flees upstairs herself.

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Wesley's eyes flutter open, to find himself lying in a hospital bed. Movement to one side has him glance down to see Gunn sitting there.

Gunn says, "Hey."

Wesley whispers "Hey." As his throat feels sore.

Gunn smiles, "How you doing?"

"Ah… I feel I should be in a great deal of pain."

Gunn cocks his head, "They had to cut the bullet out of you, as it was caught in a muscle. They also had to drain your abdomen of blood, shit, and viscera."

"And yet…" Wesley lifts up his left hand and looks at it, "Is this morphine?" Gunn nods, "Well, it's bloody lovely."

They both share a chuckle, and a couple of fist bumps.

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Outside the room, Cordelia approaches Angel from behind, as he's watching through the window to Wesley's room.

"What are you doing here?"

Angel looks uncomfortable, and puts his hands in his pockets, "I heard about Wesley."

Sarcastically Cordelia says, "Well, that's great. Too bad it takes a gunshot wound to make you give a crap…" Angel stares at her silently, "Wesley doesn't need you right now. We don't need you. You walked away. Do us a favor and just stay away."

When Angel doesn't respond, she walks around him to Wesley's room, Phantom following behind her.

 

[shypunk]

thanks for another enjoyable chapter and for writing

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 8

Buffy smiles as she walks in the house after a short day at university. Her smile brightens when she sees a large bouquet of flowers on a table that Joyce has obviously moved next to the door.

Taking the card, Buffy opens it to see it's from Brian, her date last night, thanking her for a wonderful date. Buffy's smile widens, and she tries to locate her sleeping mother. With a hrumph, she gives up using the hive, as not only is she sleeping, but she's sleeping close by.

Walking to the stairs, she shouts up, "Mom! Mom?"

From the lounge behind her comes the cry of a baby, and Joyce says over the hive, "Buffy what do you want? I was just having a nap. Buffy! What's wrong with me? Everything's fuzzy and I can't move."

Buffy spins around, and stares at the couch, where there is a pile of burnt ash, running most of the length of it. Squalling in the centre of the pile of ash is a week old baby.

With a coo, Buffy walks over and picks up the baby gently, just the way that she remembers being taught to pick up Dawn, "Who's a lovely little baby, huh, who's a lovely little baby. You are, that's who."

As Buffy tickles Joyce's belly, Joyce giggles and complains over the hive, "Buffy, hehe, stop that, hehe, I'm ticklish."

When she feels the entire local hive focus on her, Buffy smiles, "Um, hey everyone. I think mom died."

Joyce starts to cry, "What do you mean I died?"

Buffy shrugs as she sticks her little finger in Joyce's mouth, "Well there's a long pile of ash on the couch, and you're a baby. So that would suggest that you died."

Slightly hysterically, Joyce says, "I can't have died, I feel fine. And I've got another date with Brian in a couple of days. I've also got a meeting at the auction house, then there's the bills, and the shopping."

Giles sighs, "Joyce, it seems that you are indeed a baby. This is concerning, as I don't believe we have ever considered this before."

Glory scoffs, "It's not like she's going to be a baby for long. Just say she's had to go to hospital for a few weeks, and then she'll be fine."

Giles sighs, and nudges everyone to a memory of one of Arry's xenomorphs growing to adulthood, and then stopping, "It won't be that simple for Joyce or myself, as we are significantly older than the rest of you."

Joyce complains, "I'm hungry, and it hurts."

Tara sighs, "I'm not in class at the moment, I'll buy some nappies and baby formula."

Buffy smiles over the hive, "Thank you. Do you think Wesley or Cordelia would know what to do?"

There's silence for a moment, and then Giles says, "Anya said she'd look after the store while I head to LA. They might know something there."

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When Giles appears in Angel Investigations new office, he can see the Cordelia, Gunn, and Wesley, who is sitting in a wheelchair, with a teenage girl facing a woman that is probably her mother.

At the woman stares at Giles, he coughs, "Oh, don't mind me, I can talk to this lot once they've dealt with you."

After a couple more distracted glances at Giles, the woman turns back to Gunn, "Well?"

Gunn looks up from behind the girl, "Well, I don't see anything."

Wesley smiles, "Not a trace."

Cordelia looks at the bald spot on the back of the girls head, "Hmm. When she goes back to school, the other kids will never notice that there was a third eye growing back there. Heh. This should come back in before you know it."

The mother leans forward, "What?"

Cordelia looks at the woman, "The hair? The… I meant the hair, that was in-In the back, there… Not the third eye. Because that won't come back." She leans round to look at Wesley, "Right?"

Wesley shifts uncomfortably, "No reason it should." He pulls a lolly pop out of a pocket and hands it to the girl, "The curative charm seems to have worked. Like a charm, really."

The mother scratches her ear nervously, "We can't thank you."

Wesley cheerfully says, "Oh, don't give it another thought."

From behind the teenager, Gunn spreads his hands, "It's what we do."

From the back of the room, Giles frowns at the mothers wording, as Cordelia adds, "It's kinda a mission."

The woman shakes her head, and draws out the No, "No, I mean we can't thank you. And we can't pay, you, either. What is that?"

Everyone turns around to look at Giles scratching the underside of Phantom's crest. Giles looks up, "Oh, don't mind me."

The woman holds up a folded bit of paper, "This bill is ridiculous."

Giles snaps his fingers and then unfolds the bill as it floats in front of him, "It looks quite reasonable to me. Oh. Sorry. I'll be quiet."

Cordelia looks between Giles an the mother, "What do you mean? We didn't even charge you for the mandrake."

The mother bristles, "My husband says it's outrageous."

Wesley looks down as he adjusts his position slightly, "Does he? And just what would your husband consider a fair price for the removal of the third eye from the back of your child's head, Mrs Sharp?"

Mrs Sharp glances at Giles, Phantom, and then the floor, "Well, nothing. Steve says, 'Since it's impossible to be bitten by a demon and to have a third eye grow on the back of one's head, that obviously you people are running some sort of scam, and you won't squeeze one red cent out of us'."

Giles coughs, "Mrs Sharp, perhaps it would be prudent for Miss Chase and her bodyguard Phantom to accompany you home, and explain the existence of things that go bump in the night. Especially as demon's aren't exactly known for their propensity to forget about the destruction of their young."

Wesley turns round, "You know what it is just from what you've heard here?"

Giles nods at Wesley, "Let's discuss that once your business is done."

Mrs Sharp grabs the girls hand, "Come on Stephanie."

As they leave, Cordelia calls, "Scam? The back of your kid's head was blinking."

Wesley puts his head in his hands, "No, let her go. It's easier for the Sharps to cast us as con artists rather than accept the grim reality that Skilosh spawn nearly hatched full grown out of their child's skull."

Gunn's shoulders slump, "Gee, wonder why."

Cordelia gestures vaguely through the door, "Great. So, while they're indulging their denial, we have bills to pay."

Gunn marches to the door, "You know she's right."

Wesley looks up, "Perhaps, given time, the Sharps will come round."

Giles coughs, "Well, maybe you could help me with the problem we have in Sunnydale."

Cordelia looks at Giles, "Does it pay?"

Giles nods, "Yes. Quiet handsomely I'd imagine."

Cordelia turns around to face the door, "Well, what are we waiting for, let's go."

Giles coughs, "Where are you going?"

Cordelia turns back, "To get my car. It's an hours drive to Sunnydale."

"Miss Chase, I can teleport."

Cordelia puts her hands on the back of her hips, "Well I didn't know that. And how are you able to pet Phantom, he doesn't like it when I try."

"She. 'Phantom' is a she. And you keep trying to pet her dome." Giles points at the smooth skin at the front of the head, "Imagine someone was trying to stroke your eyeballs, that's what it's like for them."

Cordelia gapes, "How do you know that?"

Giles slumps, "Let's table that until we get to Sunnydale, and Wesley, stop ignoring the hive. Also, why are you in a wheelchair?"

Sarcastically Wesley says, "Well, jeez, I don't know. Maybe because I was shot last night, and they needed to cut me open to remove the bullet?"

Giles deadpans, "Right, like we didn't fix that once already." Before he stands up and takes the handles of the wheelchair, "Anyone that's coming, grab hold of me."

Cordelia and Gunn share a glance before taking hold of Giles' sleeves, and all four of them disappear in a pillar of fire. Only to reappear outside Buffy's house. Phantom appears a moment later, before going invisible almost immediately.

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Cordelia and Gunn both crowd around a clean, and nappied and napping, Joyce, and Buffy, and coo at Joyce. Meanwhile, Wesley has been dragged out of his wheelchair, to the back room. There, Tara has reluctantly removed his stiches while Giles holds him down. Once the wound's open, she finds it easy to cry into the wound, given how distressing opening it up was for her. As she watches it heal over without even a scar, and feels the love and approval from most of the hive.

A few minutes later, Wesley walks in, prodding the skin where his stiches were, and looks at the group, "So, what did you need our help with?"

Buffy turns around jiggling the sleeping baby, "Mom died earlier today, and we need to know how to declare her dead, and get her a new birth certificate and stuff."

Confused, Wesley takes off his glasses, "What are you talking about?" Then his eyes widen comically as Buffy pushes her memories of finding Joyce on the sofa, "What was that?" he stumbles backwards into the door frame.

Gunn steps back, and takes an aggressive stance, "What did you just do to Wesley?"

Buffy cocks her head to one side, "I sent him my memories of finding my mother earlier."

"Are you psychic?"

Buffy sighs, "Yes Gunn, I'm psychic. But do you remember the face hugger I put on Wesley's face last night? The one that ensured that he'd keep breathing, and his heart would keep beating, for an hour? The price of that is that he is now part of my hive. Part of that is that he has access to all of my memories, and all the memories of every other member of the hive when he's within my range. I think I'll have LA covered from here in Fall. Anyway, that's beside the point, I'd like to hire you to get my mother's death registered, and a new identity set up for when she's fully gown again."

Gunn looks thoughtful, "I think I might have some old contacts that could help with the new ID. Having her declared dead, that's both harder and easier, as you just need to find a coroner that's willing to sign the paperwork."

Buffy smiles and points at the couch, "At least we have ashes for her urn."

Joyce chooses this moment to void herself, and wake up crying, "Oh god, please clean me up. I can't stand this anymore."

By the doorframe, Wesley flinches badly as Joyce says that. Taking pity on him, Buffy bundles up the last few months of Giles' experiences, and shoves them into Wesley's head.

As his eyes roll back in his head, as it lolls to one side, Buffy looks at Gunn and Cordelia, and shouts over Joyce's crying, "As for payment, come upstairs to my bedroom, and you can take one of the non-skull items I have there for every week that you're working for me."

When they enter Buffy's bedroom, Gunn and Cordelia stop and stare at the skull that's suspended from the ceiling. Meanwhile, Buffy lays Joyce down on a changing mat that she's put on her bed, along with the other supplies that Tara bought for her.

With a click of her fingers, the Diamond, and the saucer that's holding a red coral, disappear into her mothers bedroom. A second click transports Joyce's nappy into the bin outside, a third cleans her up. A forth cleans Joyce up again, and a fifth has a fresh nappy on her.

Buffy picks Joyce up, and feels around the waistband, "Hmm, we'll need to give you the next size up in nappies next time I think."

Joyce hits Buffy's arm, "You think? You think? I know! God these feel tight."

"They have to be tight mom, otherwise you'll leak everywhere."

"This is so embarrassing."

"How do you think I feel?"

Cordelia's mouth closes with a snap, "Buffy, where did you get that skull from?"

Buffy looks up, "Oh, that? I killed it a few months ago. Ate the rest, and claimed the skull as a trophy. Anyway, mom sorted out the pretty rocks I've been picking up while I'm hunting for food. Um, you've got Serpentine, Cassiterite, Peridot, Pearl, and Coral there. I think there's a couple of gold coins in one of the pots too."

Cordelia picks up a single pearl that's as wide as her thumb, her eyes wide, "Buffy, are you sure we can take one stone or thing here?"

Gunn looks at the rocks sceptically, "Uh, Cordelia, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Cordelia turns around holding the pearl, "Gunn, while this isn't perfectly round, it's shear size means it's worth a few thousand dollars." She picks up a grass green peridot that is about as large as her finger, "This could be worth even more. And she's just letting us pick one."

"You're shitting me, that's worth thousands?"

Cordelia nods, "Uh huh, could be more if it's a saltwater pearl."

Buffy adds, "Well, I found the oyster it came from off the coast that way."

Cordelia's eyes wide, "How?"

Buffy shrugs, "I can breathe underwater in my new natural form."

Cordelia stares at the pearl and whispers, "I would give my left kidney to be able to do that. You are beautiful aren't you."

Buffy smiles, and places Joyce on the bed, saying to the hive, "Could someone come up and keep an eye on Joyce while I grab an adoption egg?" As soon as she's said that, Buffy disappears in a pillar of fire.

As she disappears, there's a rapid fire popping as Giles, Willow, and Tara all appear in the room to try and stop Buffy from disappearing like that.

Willow gets into Cordelia's face, "What did you say that caused Buffy to disappear like that?"

Gunn puts his hand between Cordelia and Willow, "Peace girl, Cordy didn't say nothing wrong. She just did that thing where ya use hyperbole to say that you're jealous of someone."

More calmly than Willow, Tara says, "What did she say exactly?"

Cordelia steps back with a huff, "I said, 'I'd give my left kidney to be able to do that.'"

Willow sighs, and disappears with a pop, and Giles pats Cordelia consolingly on the shoulder and leaves, Tara sighs, "Cordy, you remember those rules that Giles had about the books in the library?"

Cordelia narrows her eyes, "How do you know about those?"

Tara waves her hand, "Don't worry about it, you'll find out in a couple of hours. Anyway, you've just broken the one about making wishes in front of the books."

Gunn grabs Tara's arm, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Buffy appears behind Cordelia and Gunn, holding two eggs, and smiles, "It means that sometimes you get what you wish for."

Gunn and Cordelia spin around, before backing into the room, "What the F… are those?" Gunn glances back at Joyce on the bed as he self censors.

Tara gives Buffy a dirty look as she picks up Joyce, and the tops of the eggs open, "Buffy, you really need to wait until they know what they're agreeing too."

As the face huggers crawl out of the top of the eggs, Buffy shrugs, "I checked Wesley's memories, and the reason he's having trouble with the hive is that he wasn't close enough to it while he was joining it. He's fine now, but he really needs hive-mates around until my range covers LA."

Gunn catches one of the face huggers and starts to wrestle with it, trying to keep it at arm's length. The thump from Cordelia falling to the floor, as she loses her struggle against her own one, distracts him just long enough for the face hugger to get it's tail around his throat. Within a few seconds, Gunn joins Cordelia on the floor.

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It's getting dark when Wesley, Gunn, and Cordelia all reappear in their office by Giles express. Cordelia immediately walks round Gunn's desk and pulls out his bottle of the strong stuff.

"Hey girl, that's mine."

Cordelia sits down at the small reading table, and plonks both the bottle and the single pearl on the table, "Well you can get the glasses then."

Wesley sits down with her, "She's right you know, I think we all need a stiff drink after today."

Gunn grumbles as he grabs three glasses and sits down, "Did we really just sign a contract with the Slayer to provide baby sitting services and a new ID for her mother?"

Cordelia pours herself a finger, and knocks it back and makes a face, "You're worried about the contract? I'm worried about the fact I can feel the three of you in the back of my head."

Wesley pours his own glass, and takes a sip before making a face, "Gah! What is this stuff?"

Gunn pours his own glass, "It's cheap, and it get's the job done. What more do you want? And yes I'm worried about the contract. We're supposed to be detectives, not nanny's. What are you going to do with that rock anyway?"

Cordelia gently rolls the pearl around the table, "It's not a rock. It's a pearl, and I'm going to take it to an auction house to be valued and put up for auction on commission." She looks at the bottle, "Tomorrow, tomorrow I'm going to take it."

Gunn snatches the bottle off the table, and puts it in his coat pocket, "Oh hell no, you ain't drinking my bottle. Go and buy your own."

Cordelia looks up at Gunn, "You know I can't."

"That ain't my problem. Now, I'm going out to see if there's anything I can do out there. And to get my head on straight."

Cordelia looks at Gunn pleadingly, "Gunn…" Then she sighs, "Stay safe."

Gunn smiles and waves as he walks out the door.

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It's only an hour or so after full dark that Angel comes storming into the office while Wesley and Cordelia are twiddling their thumbs waiting for clients to ring or turn up.

Without saying a word, he makes his way over to the bookcase.

Wesley looks up at the same time as Cordelia does, and they say, "Good Lord/Angel."

Wesley turns to follow him from the table, "May we help you?"

As Angel starts to rummage through the mystical books, Wesley puts his work down with a bang, "Excuse me, that area is for employees only."

Angel actually responds, "Yeah. You took all the books."

Cordelia shrugs, "Yeah, well, you got the waffle iron."

As Angel finds the book he was looking for, he turns to leave, and Cordelia snatches it out of his hands, "Hey. No." Putting it back on the shelf, she stammers, "You can't take this, I'm in the middle of it." Reaching up, she grabs the telephone directory and shoves it in his chest, "Here, take this one."

Angel crowds into Cordelia's space and looks her in the eyes as he says, "Don't make me move you."

Wesley's eyes widen in alarm when Phantom appears on the desk behind Angel, it's mouth silently lining up to send its inner jaws straight through Angel's brain. Urgently he says, "Give him the book Cordelia." When Cordelia doesn't move, he puts a bit of anger in his voice, "Just give him the damn thing. Let him get the hell out."

Cordelia glances at Wesley, before she pushes Angel back, Phantom moving smoothly backwards with him, and turns round to grab the book, and shoves it into Angels chest, "I don't even know what you are anymore."

As Angel stalks out, he calls over his shoulder, "I'm a vampire. Look it up."

Cordelia's face screws up, "What a jerk. I mean, if it was anybody else, I'd just say get laid already. But, no, not him. One decent boff and he switches to evil psycho vamp. Which, in a way, would be better for everyone. Better for him because he'd get some, and better for us because then we could stake him afterwards."

Wesley looks pointedly at Phantom, "Cordelia."

Cordelia looks over to the door, where Phantom is crouched, staring at the door as if deciding whether to go after Angel or not, "Oh… He almost died, didn't he."

Wesley nods, "I think I'm going to go home."

Cordelia sighs, and slumps down at her desk, "Go, I'll look after the phones. Say hi to Virginia for me."

Wesley smiles, "I will."

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In Sunnydale, the gang, plus Dawn, meet up at Magic Box, with Joyce sleeping in Moses basket, while Glory looks down at her curiously.

Giles coughs lightly, "Thank you all for coming."

Xander smiles up at Giles, who's pacing the floor between the counter and the large, round, table, "Hey, you know we'll be here if you need us."

Anya nods next to him, "Indeed. It would be most strange if we didn't come. Especially as I work here."

Giles grimaces, "Yes, well. I have an idea that I've been thinking about for some time. And I wanted to sound it out, and get everyone's opinion the old fashioned way."

Buffy's eyes glaze momentarily, "I think it's a great idea Giles."

Giles shoots her a look, "Yes, well, please humor me. I haven't adapted as quickly as you, obviously."

Buffy rolls her eyes, "Sure, go ahead."

Giles smiles, "Thank you. Well, anyway. As many of you already know, I have been studying the memories of the magic users that are part of the hives, our, memories. What's become clear is from those memories is that we need to make our own wands."

Anya looks up from where she's lent her head on Xander's shoulder, "Really Giles? Wands? Nobody uses wands for anything."

Giles chuckles nervously, "That's not quite true, there are several branches of magic that use wands as a way of directing magic. But they are one of many tools that they use. But I digress, the wands that these magic users used were different to what you would consider to be a wand. The key being the inclusion of a core made from an inherently magical plant or beast."

Anya rolls her eyes, "So, why not use a bit of Buffy's tail?"

Giles shakes his head, "It wouldn't work, as the Raka, that's their name for Buffy's species, were completely non-magical. They considered them to be dragons, and that you need dragon slaying spells to kill them."

Anya scoffs, "There's no way you could mistake Buffy for a dragon."

"Anya, please remember that this is a completely different world."

With a deep breath, Giles clicks his fingers, and a twisted, black, wand appears on the table. Tara scoots backwards, as Glory stands up and walks over curiously, "What is that? It's radiating evil."

Giles swallows hard, "It is my only successful experiment in creating a wand with locally available materials. Before I used it for the first time, it was a straight, white, pine, 12 inches long. That's what it became after I cast a simple light spell."

Glory reaches out for the wand, absolutely fascinated by the feel of it, but Giles snatches it off the table, and snaps it, sending black and red sparks into the air.

Glory pouts, "I was going to use that."

Giles shakes his head, "I couldn't let you use it, I couldn't risk it getting away from anyone that's not a hive member. I believe that, once activated, these wands could be used by any magic user in this world."

Glory licks her lips, and her eyes go hazy, then she stomps her foot angrily, "Why can't I find how you did this?"

Giles sighs, "Because I found another discipline they invented, called occlumency. A skill taught to their police forces, and hoarded covetously by various families. It allows you to protect your mind from intrusion. And, apparently, protect access to your thoughts in the hive."

Buffy's eyes go distant, "Except from me it seems."

Giles shudders as he feels Buffy slide past his rudimentary barriers, "Yes, well, you are the Queen."

Xander thumps the table, "What does that have to do with us?"

Shaking his head, Giles returns his attention to the gang, "I would like to contact the coven in Devon that controls access to a feymouth. This would be to seek permission to enter the fey realms in order to seek out freely given components that could be used in wand crafting."

Glory licks her lips avariciously, "Don't bother, just make me another wand like that one, and I'll be happy."

Giles shakes his head, "I will never make another wand with demonic components."

Xander looks around the gang, "So, what would making wands actually do for you?"

Buffy smiles as she thinks about some of the camping trips that Amelia Bones took with Susan while she was growing up, "Xander, imagine having a small, two person, tent, that has a three bedroom house inside, complete with kitchen, jacuzzi, and a bath. Or being able to turn almost anything into the perfect tool for the job. Or being able to slice wood to the perfect length with just a swish of your wand. Or how about being able to temporarily enlarge your room, and table, when you have more guests than you have space for. These people used magic for everything. And I mean everything. Carve the right runes in the right places, to act as anchors for the space enlargement spell, and you could permanently turn a single room into a palatial space, that only needs to be built out. Or shrinking a pallet of wood down to something the size and weight of a rubix cube, that only needs a tap of your wand to restore it to its original size. Spells to measure any distance you could reasonably want to."

Xander nods sagely, "And what's the downside?"

Buffy shrugs, "Magic and electricity don't play well together. So the more magic that's around, the less delicate electronics like it. Oh, and you'd need to be part of the hive to use a wand."

"Oh, what, so physics doesn't like it when you tell it to sit in the corner and shut up?"

Willow's eyes regain focus, "Something like that, yes. I want a wand."

Tara demurs, "I think we should work on the runic spells. As they can do everything wands can do. But other people won't be able to steal and use them."

Giles nods, "I had considered that, but we would need a separate runic array for each spell. On top of that, we would also need to develop each spell ourselves, as it was very much a dead method of casting, only seen as a curiosity. The main reason they still learnt runes and the runic language was to create anchors for spells. The same was true for Egyptian hieroglyphs too. In fact, they often mixed the two to get better results. I dare say that if most modern people visited one of their villages, they'd believe they'd walked into an Amish community. That's how effective their magic was at making everyday chores a thing of the past."

Glory scoffs before she disappears with a pop, "Well, I'm going to make my own wand."

Xander claps, "Well, that decides it then, you guys need to get with the making of your own wands too."

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Wesley's sat on his couch with his girlfriend, Virginia Bryce, leaning against him.

Virginia caresses his stomach, and then pauses, before her hand continues to carefully explore, "Wesley?"

Wesley puts his chin on her hair, "Yes darling?"

"What happened to your stitches?"

Absently, Wesley answers, "Phoenix tears."

Virginia sits up, "What tears?"

"Phoenix tears, you know firebird from middle eastern mythology."

Virginia thumps Wesley on the shoulder, "I know what a phoenix is, but I've never heard of phoenix tears. In fact, the only phoenix I know of that's supposed to have any mystical properties, outside their used in potions and rituals, is the one that's supposed to bathe the earth in fire and destroy it, before bringing rebirth."

Wesley looks down at Virginia, "Really?"

Virginia looks up at him, "What? It's not like I had much else to do growing up, except read. Now, what are these phoenix tears?"

Wesley's eyes go distant, "On the world they come from, phoenixes were considered to be creatures of the light, who's song could lift even the deepest depression or despair, and who's tears could heal any injury or disease save death or dismemberment. Though, it seems that it doesn't treat cancer as a disease."

"Wesley… How did those tears get here? To you?"

"Oh, um, well. The Slayer made a wish in front of a couple of bookshelves of magical tomes. And it summoned an egg from that world, which infected her with something that has the properties of a phoenix, but wasn't a phoenix. And she's laid more eggs to bring people into her hive, which gives them all of the magical abilities of the different species that were already part of the original egg."

Virginia looks at Wesley's face, searchingly, before she lays her head down again, "You were infected too, weren't you."

Wesley nods, "It was to keep me breathing, and my heart beating, until I got to the hospital. They healed up the bullet wound at the same time."

Virginia lifts her head again, "So, where did the stitches come from?"

"The hospital cut me open to remove the bullet, and all the stuff that had bled out into my abdominal cavity."

Virginia smiles as she lays her head back down, and snuggles into Wesley, "Mmm, that's much better than guns. Guns make it too real, and I don't think I can handle that."

Wesley smiles as he hears a click from the kitchen, and clicks his fingers to summon a couple of mugs, the tea pot, tea, and the kettle of water, "I agree. And we know that the phoenix rebirth works too, as the Slayers mother died earlier, and is currently a baby."

As the tea starts to make itself, Virginia asks, "Those tears, can they be stored?"

Wesley nods, "I think so, at least for a while."

She sits up and pokes him hard in the chest, "Then you will be stockpiling tears, and always have some on you Mister. Otherwise I'm gone. I can handle the demons and creepy crawlies, as I grew up with those. But guns make it too real, and I couldn't handle it if you died just because of some thug and a lucky shot."

Wesley holds up his hands, "Ok, ok. I'll do it. I'll even try and get some of those eye dropper bottles."

Virginia works her way back under Wesley's shoulder, "Now, what else can you do? Beside making tea with a click of your fingers."

"Well, there's the teleportation and phoenix travel…"

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Cordelia is just cleaning up around the office before locking up for the night, Phantom watching her from the ceiling.

With a smile, she looks around before grabbing her coat, and the keys, and walking to the door. She's half way there when the phone starts to ring.

Turning around she heads back to the phone, "Grrarrgh, why couldn't you have rung before I was heading home?" Picking up the phone, she puts on her phone voice, "Angel Investigations."

Mrs Sharp says, "Miss Chase?"

Cordelia chuckles, "Oh. Mrs Sharp."

"We were hoping you'd still be in the office."

Cordelia sighs, "The back of your daughter's head is still ok, right? Because it's not like we offer a money-back guarantee. But then, you never paid us, did you?"

Mrs Sharp says, "That is what I was calling about. I am willing to pay you, if you can get here this evening before my husband gets home."

Cordelia's eyes widen in surprise, "You do? Right now?"

"I'm sorry if it's inconvenient."

Cordelia flaps her hand in excitement, and fights to keep from squealing down the phone, "No, that's great. Um, you're on my way home, give or take 30 miles."

"It will need to be a personal check, as my husband still doesn't approve."

"Personal check. Uh… normally not, but fine. Um… Will you give me the address again?"

Leaning over, Cordelia scribbles it down on a post-it note as Mrs Sharp reads it out.

With a smile Cordelia says, "Ok. Great, I'll see you soon."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Episode 9

Cordelia breathes a sigh of relief when her taxi pulls up outside the Sharp house. As soon as the reaches for the doorhandle, Phantom pops off of her lap, and the back seat, onto the sidewalk. With the door open, she leans forward and hands the driver a couple of bills, before getting out.

Looking down at Phantom, she says, "Well, I hope they remembered I'm coming."

With that, Cordelia walks up the path to the front door, a faint orange mist seeming to pour from the gap where it's ajar. As she gets closer to the dark house, the door itself seems to have a greenish cast to it rather than the deep blue it seemed to have from the street.

At the edge of the porch, she pauses until Phantom rubs her head against Cordelia's hand, and a sense of protection comes from her. Pulling in her courage, Cordelia walks up the step and to the front door, where she knocks politely.

Pushing the door open, she calls, "Hello?" slowly edging her way in, she adds, "Mrs Sharp? Anybody home? Cordelia Chase here."

Walking into the hallway, she spots the banister and calls up the stairs, "If you haven't gone to bed already. Took me a little longer to get here than I expected."

With no answer from upstairs, she looks around and murmurs, "I hope you haven't changed your mind about paying your bill." As if that nudged her memory, she adds loudly while pulling the bill from her purse, "Which, uh, I just happened to bring along with me."

As silence is her only answer, she calls softly, "Hello?"

That's when she notices a single light on a room just past the stairs, and carefully walks towards it. Only to stop in shock as she sees the entire Sharp family lying on the floor surrounding a kitchen counter.

As she's standing there in shock, she cries out as she gets a vision, and collapses to the floor. In her vision, she sees herself turning round and being attacked by a demon with red stripes running around the head from the side of one eye to the other. Two additional pairs of stripes run from the top of its eyes, over its bald head, to the back of the head.

As the vision ends, she finds herself lying on a carpeted floor, with Buffy just turning around with Joyce in her arms, "Cordeli…"

Glory's voice comes over the hive, "I've got it, someone check on the other two."

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At the same time, Wesley is tidying up his books after a late night of reading and chatting with Virginia. As he puts them down, he spots a stray mug. Walking over, he picks it up and starts to walk over to the kitchen, when there's a knock at his front door.

Turning to face the door, he staggers as Cordelia broadcasts a vision to the local hive, in the vision she's attacked by demon with red stripes on its face.

Spinning around, he stares at the window, where a head with a single eye stares at him. Racing for the bedroom, he shouts "Virginia!"

As he sprints for the bedroom, he hears the front door splinter open at the same time the window bursts open.

As Virginia wakes up with a foggy head, she looks up to see Wesley running towards her, and has time to ask, "Wesley?"

Not even thinking, Wesley jumps onto Virginia, and flames them both to his Queen.

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Wesley and Virginia both land on a carpeted floor, and Wesley suddenly remembers that Vivian likes to sleep naked.

With a screech, Vivian hits Wesley's shoulder, "Wesley, how could you. I'm naked."

Buffy turns around with a sigh, "Wesley, who's your friend?"

Wesley looks around to see Cordelia picking herself up off the carpet, "Um, Buffy, this is my girlfriend Vivian. Vivian, this is the Slayer. She's the one that, um, saved my life."

Buffy looks down at her consideringly, before saying, "you'll do" and handing over the baby she's carrying, "Look after my mother while I'm gone. Cordelia knows where my room is if you need clothes. Wesley, I've sent a couple of workers to your apartment."

As she disappears in a pillar of fire, along with a teenager she hadn't noticed, Vivian blinks rapidly.

"Um, what just happened?"

Cordelia collapses on a chair, "Wesley just prioritised saving your life over fighting demons. And Phantom saved my life too… and of course she's gone back to remove the threat. Great."

Virginia holds the two-month-old baby awkwardly, "That was phoenix travel?"

Wesley picks himself up off the floor, and then helps Virginia up, "It was. I think those were Skilosh demons. Probably after us because we removed their spawn from that girl's head."

Cordelia leans forward, "Oh, no. What about Gunn?"

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Gunn's walking the streets of his old hood, cooling his head after everything that's happened today. Suddenly, his knees buckle slightly as Cordelia broadcasts a vision to the local hive.

Steadying himself against a wall, he straightens up and looks around.

Suddenly, Gunn's alone in his head for the first time in hours. Sagging against the wall, he mutters, "Thank god it wasn't permanent…"

Suddenly, he straightens up, as the fact that Cordelia was attacked in a vision, and then he was alone in his head, fit together and arrives at an awful conclusion. "Oh god, please don't be dead."

Turning around, he starts to jog back to the office, and the phone. A moment later, his jog slows to a walk when he feels six presences appear nearby.

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Wesley shrugs, "He's probably fine, he went for a walk remember?"

There's a pop, and then Willow appears in the lounge, holding a bundle of clothing, "Hi Virginia, I'm Willow. Here, we, that is Tara and me, thought you could use some clothes."

Virginia frowns as she trades the baby for clothes, "Wait, can everyone round here do that stuff?"

Bitterly Cordelia says, "No, only people who have made vague allusions to wanting to have these abilities in front of Buffy."

"Why, is there some dark pact where you sell your soul or something?"

Willow shakes her head vigorously, "No, no, not at all. Buffy is still a little new to the whole being queen of a hive thing. So, she still doesn't have control of the urge to expand the hives membership. On the plus side, you get access to three brand new types of magic, over 400 years of experience of using that magic from Professors and a Police officer, a get out of death free card that renews every few days after you use it. Oh, and the knowledge of literally out of this world technology. And that's just to start with, you also gain the ability to see into the infrared, that's heat in laymen's terms. Your fingernails turn hard enough to carve stone, and you get some level of super strength. And you never need to worry about losing your slim feminine figure due to overeating either."

Cordelia looks at Willow in surprise, "Wait, really?"

Virginia interrupts as she glances at Wesley, who is politely looking away, "I'm more interested in this whole get out of death free thing."

Willow lifts Joyce slightly, "This is Joyce, Buffy's mother. She died earlier, and she was the size of a new-born when Buffy found her."

Virginia's mouth gapes, "Where's all your security? Why are you being so open about this? Aren't you worried about wizards trying to steal your secrets?"

Willow laughs, "We live on a hellmouth, and Buffy is the Slayer. We also have a hell goddess in our hive. I really don't think we need to worry too much about mortal magic users."

Virginia leans back thoughtfully, "No, I suppose you don't, do you. What about expectations? I mean, are you expected to fight evil, pay tithes, or help with rituals in whatever position you're needed?"

"What? No! Think of it more like a big happy family."

"I am, that's why I'm asking."

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Buffy appears on the lawn outside the Sharp's house with Phantom, and immediately assumes her Queen form. Inside the house, she can hear Glory having fun as she plays with the demons inside.

Outside, it's only a few seconds before five or six others come around the house from the back. Her inner mouth pops in and out in excitement and she jumps into the fight, forming a hunting bond with Phantom and Glory.

When her tail slices the head off of a demon that's trying to sneak up behind her, Glory shouts over the hunting bond, "Buffy, we need them alive. I hope you haven't damaged any of the components of that one."

Buffy switches back to her humanoid form, and immediately ducks beneath a blow, "Why?"

"So you can make more children. Maybe some scouts and warriors this time."

Buffy ducks to the left, and brings her claws up to slash the kidney's of the one that just thrust its tongue out at her. As it dives forward, she notices the third eye in the back of its head, "Oh, that's looks useful. I bet it helps when you're looking for your keys."

The demon turns around, "One was destroyed by three, so three will pay."

Buffy punches it in the jaw, before jumping over a grab from the side, and using her tail to slice the arm off the grabby one, "Look, I don't know why you're so fixated on the one you lost, when you killed an entire family of humans, but if there's one thing I hate, it's hypocrites." Landing smoothly, she pops to the other side of the chatty one, and kicks the side of it's knee out with her heel, "Well, actually, that's down at like number 50, but you've hit the top 10 with murder and child killing, as well as child molestation."

Talky grabs her arm as its knee starts to collapse, and pulls Buffy off balance, until she uses her tail to push herself back up, "You will submit, and we will increase our numbers with your head."

Buffy smiles as she sees Phantom appear behind the armless one in a flash of fire, only to disappear just as quickly with that one, "Now, you see, I think you have the wrong end of the stick with that statement. As we have need of your body for our young. We don't need your submission, as we can force that ourselves."

As it lashes out another punch at her, Buffy catches it in one hand, before transforming into her Queen form, and forcing her mind into its mind as she flames away, "Don't worry, nobody will ever hear your screams."

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Outside the doorway to Wesley's apartment, Angel futilely bashes his fist on the invisible barrier of ownership that is preventing him from entering the apartment while Wesley runs into the bedroom.

As he watches, the bay window opposite the front door bursts open, and a demon rolls through it. From the direction that Wesley ran comes the sound of another pane of glass breaking.

"Wesley, Wesley, you have to let me in!"

As the two demons met up and talk in their own language, Angel starts to shoulder check the barrier, willing it to give way. He feels helpless as the two demons split up, and start methodically opening doors and cupboards that seem like they could hide a human.

His attempts to breach the barrier peter out when two flashes of fire herald the appearance of another two demons. These ones sleek black hunters, on all fours. They have no discernible eyes, yet they seem to have no difficulties with locating the demons, and agilely engaging them in combat. Their own agility and perception more than a match for the all-round vision the third eye gives the first demons.

When the black demons finally disappear in a burst of fire, with the struggling three-eyed demons, less than a minute has passed.

Angel slides down the wall on the other side of the corridor as tears fall from his eyes at, what he is sure, was the death of one of his friends. After a moment, he staggers to his feet and heads towards Gunn's home, in the hope that he'll be in time this time.

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Gunn is still walking quickly back to the office, when Glory pops in beside him.

"Hi Gunn."

Gunn turns to her and says, "What do you want?"

"Well, I was going to offer to take you to Buffy's house, where Wesley and Cordelia are. But if you're going to be like…"

Gunn quickly backpedals, "No, I'm sorry. I'm just worried about my friends."

Glory turns to face Gunn, and lifts him up by the throat, "You would also do well to remember that I am a goddess in future."

The two of them disappear in a pillar of fire, and reappear in Buffy's living room. Only for Glory to disappear with a pop, leaving Gunn to fall to the floor in a heap.

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While Gunn is gasping for air on the floor, Giles pops in and rounds on Wesley, "Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, how could you be so irresponsible as to Phoenix travel so soon after joining the hive. Do you have any idea of the danger you put yourself in? You've practically exhausted your magic, and it will be days before you can Phoenix travel again. Absolutely no elf magic for at least 24 hours, and no Phoenix magic for 48 hours. Do you understand?"

Taken aback Wesley can say nothing in his defence, however Cordelia has no such compunctions, "Giles, how dare you. He saved not only his, but also Virginia's lives by bringing them here."

Giles turns around, "He could have safely elf popped the two of them almost anywhere in the city. He could have done it twice, and only need a nights rest afterwards."

With the reprieve from Giles' attention, Wesley objects, "Rupert, I had no idea how they found me, or if they could track me. If I was wrong about where I went, they'd have killed both of us. This was the safest place I could think of in the moment."

Giles turns back and forces himself to sigh, "I'm sorry, my changing hormones are playing havoc with my emotions. Still Wesley, I do not have so many friends that I can afford to lose one to carelessness. Please be more careful in future, and you are still not allowed to use magic."

As Giles pops out again, Gunn takes a seat while rubbing his neck, "Hey, what did he mean about hormones playing havoc."

Cordelia peeks at Giles' memories and smiles broadly, "I'm going to go and see how Willow and Virginia are getting on upstairs. Have fun explaining that one Wesley."

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Cordelia and Gunn appear on the street outside the office in a flash of fire, courtesy of Phantom, who fades into house elf invisibility.

The two of them are about to part ways, when they notice the lights are on. Cautiously, the two of them creep under the window, and make their way to the door. Carefully, Gunn pushes the door open so that Phantom can attack if there's a demon inside, waiting for them. Instead, the stink of vampire wafts out from inside, and Gunn can see Angel sitting forlornly at one of the desks.

Standing up, Gunn sends to Cordelia, "Cordy, stay here, you're my backup."

As he walks in, Angel looks up to show the tear tracks on his face, "Gunn, you're alive."

Gunn looks at Angel, "Why wouldn't I be alive? Besides, why do you care?"

Angel flinches, "I deserve that. Cordelia's apartment was empty, and when I got to Wesley's apartment, I tried to get in to help, to warn him. But two demons broke through his windows. Then two more demons teleported in, and trashed the place fighting the first two. You weren't at any of your normal hangouts."

Gunn nods, "Well we're safe, so you can take your skanky ass out of here while I lock up again."

"Where's Wesley and Cordelia?"

Cordelia and Phantom disappear with a pop, to her apartment, as Gunn says, "Wesley's staying at a safe house until we can get his door and windows repaired. And Cordelia had a late running meeting with a client. So did I for that matter."

Angel slumps, "So they're both alright?"

"Yeah, no thanks to you."

Angel pushes himself heavily to his feet, and shuffles his way out of the office. As he's passing Gunn says, "Also, you stink."

Angel sniffs himself, as he continues to trudge out of the office.

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The next day, Buffy and Dawn are escorted to a funeral home by Giles to pick out an urn for Joyce's ashes, while Angel Investigations baby sit Joyce, who is just starting to crawl.

While they're looking, Dawn picks up an urn that looks like someone went mad with bright colored paints, and then put the urn in a spin dryer for good measure. Laughing, she turns to Buffy, "Buffy, do you think mom would have liked this?"

Buffy turns to face her with a stern expression, while laughing over the hive, "Dawn," she hisses, "be serious. This is mom's ashes we're talking about."

The funeral director steps forward, "Please, let her laugh. We don't get enough laughter in this place, and it's probably your sister's way of coping with your mother's death."

Buffy grumps, and turns back to the urns, which leads to a litany of inappropriate urns that leave her trying her best not to laugh out loud as Dawn comes up with ever more ridiculous stories about them, and why mom would love them.

Finally, she grabs the first one Dawn picked up, "We'll take this one please."

The director nods, "Certainly Miss Summers, can we assist you with any other aspects of the funeral? We offer very reasonable packages."

Buffy shakes her head, "We're going to have her quietly cremated here, and have the ceremony in LA at her favorite beach. Our old priest has agreed to do the service."

The director nods with a slight smile cracking his stony façade, "Forgive me for saying this, but it's unusual to see someone so young that's also so composed."

Buffy nods sadly, "I cry when there's nobody else around. Keeping busy's helping too."

The director leads Buffy to the office, "Don't forget to let yourself grieve, otherwise it will catch up to you in a few years time. And you'll have a breakdown. I've seen it all to often."

"Do you say that to all your customers?"

The director quirks his head as he sits at his desk, "Usually only the men."

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Cordelia pops into the tiny corridor at the back of the office, between the toilet and the kitchen, with a massive smile on her face. Walking through door, she pauses as she watches Wesley running around after a giggling Joyce, while growling, and holding his hands out like claws.

When she spots Cordelia, Joyce pops from the floor into Cordelia's arms, "Hello Cordy, that was fun. Did you have fun at the aukey house? Stupie tod body."

Cordelia smiles at Joyce, "I did thank you. I got the pearl valued, and they put a conservative estimate of $8,000 on it."

Gunn spits out his coffee, "How much?"

"$8,000, though we won't know it's real value until Wednesday, when they have their next gemstone auction. We get to pick another stone on Friday too."

Joyce cheers, "Yay! Can I have some chicken nuggets?"

As she says that, Phantom appears with a live lobster, and places it on the table, before looking at Cordelia expectantly.

Predictably, Cordelia screams and backs into the door behind her.

Joyce slaps her face and looks cross, "It's food for you, as Pantom feels you hungy."

Cordelia blinks in shock from the slap, and then looks at Joyce in shock, "You what?"

Joyce pops onto the table, and reaches out her hands to the lobster, before ripping off a leg, and sucking on it, and trying to bite it with her two teeth.

Cordelia, Gunn, and Wesley all step forward to save Joyce from the claws, that are now clamped uselessly around Joyce's wrist, only to stop in surprise as she doesn't seem to be in any distress.

Joyce lifts the arm with the lobster attached, "Twy it, it good."

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That evening, Virginia drags Wesley downstairs to the kitchen, where Buffy is making dinner while reading while Joyce is playing in the small sitting area between the kitchen and lounge.

Taking a seat at the table, she smiles at Buffy, "Buffy, thank you for letting us use your mom's room this weekend."

Buffy glances up from her Chemistry textbook, "Thank my mom, not me. It's her room after all."

Virginia follows Buffy's glance, "Thank you Mrs Summers. Anyway, our landlord phoned, and the door and windows will be replaced tomorrow."

Joyce waves at Virginia and gargles something that might be a response.

Looking back at Buffy, Virginia clamps Wesley's hand to the desk, "So, I've also been talking to your friends all weekend, and I have some questions about your hive."

Buffy snaps her fingers, and places the bookmark she just summoned in her book, "Go ahead. I'll answer as honestly as I can."

"Are there any unexpected bargains, costs, or catches that would catch someone out if they joined in good faith?"

Buffy hums, "Honestly, I don't know, as I don't know how much you've been told already. But you've seen my claws and tail? They're the extent of the visible changes you can expect." She scratches her head, "There's the whole being part of the hive, which means always being in contact with every other member that's within my sphere of influence, or about 10 miles if you're outside that area. Um, dietary preferences leaning towards raw or live food. Crabs and Lobsters are delicious."

Wesley shivers, and says, "Don't ask." When Virginia looks at him.

Buffy shrugs, "Phantom took a lobster to Cordelia, and mum ripped a leg off, before holding up the arm that was trapped in it's claw and offering it to the others. Thinking about it, she wasn't that tough before she died. So, that might be a 'you have to die' thing, or a 'it either takes a lot of time, or you have to die' thing. Oh, and your blood will become so acidic that bullets melt before they can get deep enough to do any real damage, unless you get hit in the head. That also means no blood tests or injections, as it melts through steel just as quickly. Hang on, I've just remembered something that may help."

Virginia arches an eyebrow, "Oh?"

Buffy nods, "Arry was able to give non-members some memories, so I think I could do that for you if you want."

Virginia looks at Buffy, "Do you promise not to include any commands or directives, or to change my personality, while you are doing this?"

Buffy thinks for a moment, "With the understanding that just knowing things can change your personality slightly, I promise that I will not include anything that would compel you to follow my instructions, command, lead, or change you in such a way that you would want to do so."

Virginia nods, "Then please do it."

Buffy smiles, "Wesley, would you keep an eye on the food, Vanessa and I need to head into the yard."

Virginia growls, "My name's Virginia."

Buffy shrugs, "Sorry about that, anyway, yard."

As the two of them get into the yard, Buffy shifts into her Queen form, and swiftly pins Virginia to the floor with one massive claw. Driving the air out of her lungs, and preventing her from screaming.

Then she brings her head forward to touch Virginia's head, and pushes forward with her mind, the same way Arry, and all the previous Queens have done over the millennia. There, she implants the memories of a day old scout, a day of Minerva's memories while she's considering the changes that have happened to her. And for good measure, Hermione taking a face hugger, then later talking a Yautja through taking one themselves.

As she pulls her mind back, and shifts back to just been Buffy, she notices that Virginia's eyes have rolled back in her head, and she has a nosebleed.

Picking her up gently, she walks back into the kitchen, "Sorry about that Wesley, but this has never happened before in my memories."

As Buffy places Virginia down on a kitchen chair, Wesley sighs, and pulls a perfume bottle out of his pocket, and uses the eye dropper to get a few tears, and place them under Virginia's tongue.

A few minutes later, the tears have worked, and Virginia comes around, clutching her head, "What was that!"

Buffy shrugs, "About three days of memories. One of which is from a Raka. Thinking about it, that's probably what caused the nosebleed, as they think, and perceive the world, very different to the way you do."

Virginia sits in that chair for a few hours, thinking. At the end of that time, she gets up to find Buffy.

It doesn't take long for Buffy to appear, and walk into the house. There Virginia finds her, and wipes her hands on her clothes, "Buffy, I, uh, I would like to join your hive."

As Tara appears behind Virginia, and gives Buffy a stern look, Buffy refrains from just flaming off to get an egg, and instead asks, "Are you sure? As once I get an egg, that's it, there's no backing out."

Virginia takes a deep breath, and lets it out, "Even doing what I do, and with who my father is. I've only had any control in my life since Wesley came to save me at my father's 50th birthday party, where I was the main participant in a ritual. Honestly, I'm not that interested in being able to do magic. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore it. Even if I never learn to use spells, just the utility of being able to teleport, and not die, is something I just can't pass up. The other things, they can be worked around, much like you have been doing."

Buffy cocks an eye at Tara, who nods, and disappears in a flash of fire. Only to reappear hacking and coughing, while holding a leathery egg.

Buffy laughs, causing Virginia to turn around, "You forgot to breath out, and hold your breath, didn't you."

Tara continues to cough as she nods and holds the egg out to Buffy. Taking the egg, Buffy dips her hand in, and pulls out the face hugger, before handing it out to Virginia.

Virginia stares at the face hugger for a few minutes, before taking it with shaking hands, and placing it on her face.

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Wednesday evening, a 4-year-old Joyce is sat at the reading table with one of Wesley's tomes reading quietly. A few toys are dotted around the office for when Joyce has too much energy to sit still, and needs to run around. The table itself, has lots of little divots in it, from where Joyce has tapped her fingers while reading.

When the phone goes, Cordelia snatches it up, "Angel Investigations, we help the helpless… Really? $11,000, and after fees?... $9,543?... And it will be in our account tomorrow?... Yes, that's great news, thank you."

As she puts the handset down, everyone stares at her, until Joyce waves her hand in front of her face, "Eww, stinky."

That's when everyone turns around, and then looks up to see Angel standing just inside the door. The whole room goes silent, as they stare at him.

Angel ducks his head down, before he looks up again, "I'm sorry."

As everyone continues to stare at Angel, Joyce says, "He's a stinky man."

Cordelia walks forward, and crouches down, "That's because he's a vampire. You should stay away from people like that."

Joyce shakes her head, "He's not as stinky as spiky teeth people. Just stinky."

Wesley stands up, and walks towards Angel, "Before you say any more, I think I should tell you. We've all discussed it, and none of us are ready just yet."

Angel nods seriously, "It's ok Wesley. I don't want you to come back and work for me."

Wesley looks a little shocked, "Oh. I see."

"I want to work for you."

There's a long pause, and Gunn asks skeptically, "You want to work for us?"

Angel nods, "Yeah. I do."

Wesley stares at him, "Why?"

Angel looks Wesley in the eyes, "Because I think I can help."

Cordelia stands up, "How do we know we can trust you?"

Angel swallows and shakes his head, "I guess I'll just have to earn that."

Cordelia shakes her head, "No."

Wesley and Gunn both turn around to look at each other as Cordelia collapses, "Housing project in Topanga."

At the same time, Angel moves to catch Cordelia as she collapses. As Cordelia comes out of the vision, she looks around, "Why is it that I'm not on the floor this time?"

From behind her, Angel says, "I've got you."

As Cordelia looks back, she spots Phantom over Angel's shoulder, she calls, "Phantom, no! He was just trying to help."

Angel swiftly looks behind him, only to see nothing, not even the bookcase he could swear used to be there.

Cordelia turns back to Wesley as Phantom backs off, "Maybe he should drive? And I'll stay here with the kid."

Angel laughs, "What is this, a daycare?"

Cordelia looks around at Angel again, "At 9k for a week, you bet your ass it is."

Wesley hisses, "Language Cordy."

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The next evening, just after dark, Buffy is sitting on a grassy overhang next to Joyce and Dawn, looking out over the ocean where Joyce's ashes have been scattered. Joyce herself is holding the brightly colored urn.

All three of them wrinkle their noses as Angel walks up behind them, "I'm sorry. I couldn't come sooner."

Buffy tips her head back, so she's looking at Angel upside-down, "That's ok, the ceremony was during the day. But you're here now, that counts doesn't it?"

Angel nods, "I suppose it does. How are you doing?"

Buffy shrugs, "Ok, it's like she never left. We're living off of investments at the moment. But if we're careful, they should last long enough for me to get a decent career."

"I know Dawn, but who's the other girl?"

Buffy smiles, "One of mom's cousins, nieces, or something like that. I can never remember their relationship." She turns to Joyce, "Can you?"

Joyce tips her head back too, "I don't know, she was just Aunty to me. You're the stinky man from earlier."

Buffy taps her mom on the leg, "You're not supposed to say that to people. He can't help being a vampire."

"But he doesn't smell as bad as the spiky teeth people."

Buffy hugs her mother, "That's because he's got a soul."

Angel looks between the two of them, "Wait, you're related to each other?"

The two of them hug each other and press their cheeks together with the cheekiest smile that can manage.

Meanwhile, Dawn is staring fixedly out over the ocean, trying not to laugh out loud at her mother and Buffy's antics.

 

[lars573]

I was starting to wonder why the hive wouldn't use hostile demons as incubators. Most of them are just as sapient as a human, and they're evil. Win win for everyone!

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

I was starting to wonder why the hive wouldn't use hostile demons as incubators. Most of them are just as sapient as a human, and they're evil. Win win for everyone!

Click to shrink...

Because, most of the hostile demons in sunnydale are vamps.

 

[shypunk]

thanks for the amusing and enjoyable chapter and for writing