Successor (BTVS)

[X] At the last second, Buffy pulled the blow, but the crack of Amy's broken jaw still rang out across the empty street.

Not only was Amy's spell interrupted, but she was knocked backwards a little by the force of the blow. Losing her footing, she slipped down the last few steps in front of City Hall and ended up prone on the sidewalk.

Despite her earlier explosion, Buffy was speechless. Giving Amy a good smack had drained some of the outrage she'd felt, replacing it with mere annoyance and frustration. Andrew looked on at the scene he'd wrought a little stunned; maybe he'd just expected Amy to meekly surrender.

Willow had enough to say for everyone though. "Amy, you tremendous bitch. I work night after night, for months, trying to uncurse you. I bring you onboard, I vouch for you, despite your shitty past decisions and your psycho mom."

"She's done something like this before?" Andrew asked, surprised. "And you weren't worried about her track record?"

Willow made a face, probably remembering the love spell incident, but didn't respond directly to Andrew and continued to dress down Amy. "We've been friends since kindergarten! And you were going to what? Cripple Buffy and set the rest of us up to die too, because you didn't feel safe, with practically everyone who matters left in town on your side? Because you wanted to get high? We were already paying you enough, you could've just bought some freakin' drugs!"

Amy just moaned piteously on the ground, and Buffy sighed, walking down to … secure her? She roughly picked her up by the shoulder, but didn't really have any idea what to do next. "Will, is there any way we can turn off her heebie-jeebies? I'm not sure what part of her I'm supposed to grab."

Willow was a little flummoxed by the question and lost momentum in her tirade, but Anya's voice answered it from up by the door. "Gag and blindfold are standard." She and Cynthia had appeared, divested of kittens and drawn by the commotion. "You probably want to secure her hands somehow too, and it looks like you've already applied the disorienting injury. What'd she go and do?"

"She betrayed our cause to Rack for power and thrills, tempting our leader with a foul trap," Andrew supplied, returning to his usual slightly annoying demeanor.

Cynthia walked up to Amy, still sort of awkwardly being restrained by Buffy, and expertly employed a couple big handkerchiefs as the gag and blindfold Anya had suggested. Amy let out another pained screech and struggled upon being gagged, but as usual, Cynthia was a consummate professional and it failed to even throw her off the task.

"So," Anya continued conversationally. "How are we going to do the interrogation? Maybe just start her off with a good round of torture? I may not be the demon I used to be, but Amy seems like a fingers kind of girl. You shouldn't actually do the pinky first though, because-"

"I don't think any torturing will be needed," Buffy said as she frogmarched Amy up the steps. "Probably."

Willow procured another handkerchief from Cynthia and gingerly picked up the blood compass from where Buffy had dropped it on the steps. "Maybe we could do just one finger?" she asked.

Buffy was once again a little surprised by the uncharted depths of Willow Rosenberg, but that was hardly a concern right now. "I think Amy will be very willing to share everything she knows with us, won't you Amy?"

Amy managed to make an affirmative-sounding whine through the gag, and the whole group moved back inside the building and up towards the conference room. Once they got there, Buffy sat Amy down in a seat and let her hands go, but still hovered threateningly behind her. Ever helpful, Cynthia provided paper and pencil, and the rest of the group seated themselves or stood nearby to get a better look.

Buffy started the interrogation. "Where'd you get this thing? Did you make it yourself, or was it Rack?"

"Rack," Amy wrote in unsteady writing.

She continued, "When?"

"Today. My house."

Buffy was hopeful for a second, though she knew it was a longshot, "Is he going to meet you again? Do you know how to find his base?"

"Not sure. Calls first. He wouldn't tell."

Buffy groaned frustratedly, and Willow picked up the line of questioning, "Is the tracking part of the compass real? Would it lead us to his hideout if we found a safe way to use it?"

Amy paused for a second, and sensing she was thinking about it a little too hard, Buffy tightened her grip on her shoulder for a second. Amy squeaked, dropping her pencil, and then when she picked it up she wrote "No. Trap." Quailing under the hostile glares from the room, she continued, "Not kill. Portal."

"Of course she'd say it wasn't a lethal trap now, to curry mercy," Anya commented skeptically, but Willow disagreed.

"No, I think that makes sense. I mean, he moves places around, it's probably one of his specialties." Willow considered for a minute. "We already thought that's why he wanted the bones, they're good for portals."

Buffy narrowed her eyes, remembering Amy's avaricious look at some of their ingredient haul earlier that week, "Amy, did you already steal some bones? Anything else? Did he make the portal with them?"

Amy paused again, but not for as long, and looking defeated, she wrote, "Yes. Not much. Other stuff too."

This sent Willow into a new spiral of outrage, and the next few minutes were spent with her and Andrew getting a full accounting of the stolen goods. Apparently it wasn't that much compared to their total supply, but the additional betrayal still stung. They were going to have to start paying more attention to inventory.

They continued like that for a while, and it was apparent that there wasn't really anything but bad news. Amy had given Rack all their secrets (at least the ones she knew about), and she didn't really know any of his in return. He'd promised her some power after Buffy was gone and the town was taken over, but at this point it was clear that was the ultimate goal of their enemies anyway.

Buffy was wracking her brain trying to think of more things to ask when Xander's voice came up on her radio and surprised the room. "Hi Buffy, sorry that took so long, but things are more stable now."

She'd totally forgotten about Xander, and was a little surprised. She picked up the radio and said, "What happened? What did you find?"

"Well, the Yeti sort of invaded the Bronze and was causing some chaos, but she didn't hurt anyone, and I've got her settled down." Everyone at the table took some time to process the absurdity of the statement, but Anya was the first one to respond. She jumped up, crawling over the table and grabbing the radio out of Buffy's hands. "Wait, the Yeti's a girl? How do you know the Yeti's a girl?"

Xander's voice responded, a little panicked by Anya's sudden intrusion, "I mean, it's kind of obvious? Not that I was looking, but she's fifteen feet tall? She can barely fit in here, I have no idea how she even got inside."

"Well, make sure you stay that way," she said. "Not looking. Yeti women are known for being quite amorous. I've cursed four different men and two women for dalliances with Yetis in my time."

"I, um." Xander stumbled over his words. "She has been kind of touchy."

"I'm coming right away!" Anya declared, giving the radio back to Buffy and getting off the table. "We obviously need to get this Yeti thing sorted out."

Buffy didn't think the situation with Amy was going anywhere fast, and figured Willow, Andrew, and Cynthia could keep her under control pretty easily in this state. "I'll come over too Xander, just in case things escalate."


The Bronze was surprisingly calm when they arrived, and the damage was minimal. Buffy had been expecting something like what she'd seen at the Sunnydale Lodge; destroyed walls and a trashed interior. Instead, the building itself was completely intact, and there were only a few broken tables and chairs, as well as a couple dented kegs of beer lying around. There was no Yeti to be seen, and Xander was standing in an open area by the corner, looking very confused.

"Xander!" Anya said, running over to him. "You haven't betrayed me for some Yeti trollop have you? Where is she?"

"There was no betrayal of any kind, unless you count something that bore a suspicious resemblance to pattycake. As for where she is, you have as good an idea as I do," he said.

Anya frowned and inspected Xander's hands worriedly, unreassured by Xander's explanation. "Ugh, she left some hair on your shirt!" She started to pick it off.

"How did she even get in? Or out?" Buffy asked. "Is she smaller than we expected? Does she squeeze?"

"Well the thing is, I'm not really sure," Xander said. "People waved me in here when I was patrolling because the Yeti was here already and making a commotion." He tried to gesture at the broken furniture, but Anya wouldn't let go of his arms so it was kind of aborted. "I kind of recognized the signs and made sure they got her a few drinks, and that seemed to calm her down a bit. We hung out for a little while and then she just … went away?"

"You hung out?" Anya asked. "Do you play pattycake with every girl you hang out with?"

"Hey!" Xander said. "She was sort of grabbing at the waiter and I got in between and kind of pushed at her hands to show her to stop. It sort of just happened after that. There weren't really any great ways for us to communicate."

Buffy was more interested in this appearing and disappearing thing. "You seem pretty confused about how she left, Xander. Did she like, just pop out?"

"Maybe?" Xander ventured. "It wasn't really a pop. More of an extended what. Trying to remember it feels like thinking about those math problems Willow used to try to teach me." He shook his head, as if trying to clear it. "So any progress on your end?"

"Negative progress," Buffy grumped. "Amy was a traitor, or a magical drug addict or something. We caught her with a booby trap but she already fed Rack a bunch of information."

Xander's eyes went wide. "Wow, Amy? I never would've expected. I mean, she did learn a whole lot of magic really quickly last year and didn't seem to have all that much in the way of a moral compass, so maybe I should've? Willow must've been devastated, they used to be really close."

"That's one way to put it. She mostly seemed to be swapping notes with Anya on which of her fingers to break first," Buffy said. "But umm, inside I'm sure she was very morose and sad."

"I still think we should've tortured her a bit," Anya complained. "Sometimes you just need to make an example of someone, especially when you're the new boss."

Xander gave his girlfriend a troubled look and changed the subject, "So Rack knows we're not all in with the whole ransom paying thing."

Buffy looked down. "Yeah. I don't think he's the kind of guy that's going to be put off much by that, but I don't know what we're going to do. Nobody's found any good leads, this jerk is really good at hiding."

"We'll figure something out Buffy," Xander said. "We always do."


Despite Xander's optimism, things didn't improve as the day wore on. Andrew wasn't comfortable summoning any more demons, though his earlier efforts had also confirmed Rack's specialty with teleportation and portals. He and Jonathan were seeing if they could work out some kind of dimensional anchor to help keep Buffy grounded, but they were worried it might not play well with the spell on the mansion and result in her getting left behind at a bad moment.

Willow wasn't helping them right now, because it turned out that she'd just fallen asleep on her feet not long after Buffy had left for the Bronze. She'd probably worked all through the night, and they were just letting her sleep for now. Buffy wanted her at her best for whatever might be happening tonight anyway.

Giles hadn't been able to get much of anything out of his contacts, though he had managed to more narrowly classify Teeth; he was a Carchar; despite their intimidating appearances they weren't exceptional at combat, or much of anything besides being amphibious really. They didn't have notable weaknesses, but since he was hardly stronger than the average vampire, Buffy wouldn't need any if it came down to a fight with him.

Buffy had held out some hope for Harmony's plan, but the fledgling had been found out and limped back to City Hall (buzzing in at the underground entrance) a few hours before sunset. Apparently there was at least one casualty of the graduation battle that hadn't come over to Buffy's side, and he'd outed Harmony when he recognized her nosing around. She proudly claimed to have dusted him for his trouble, but the damage was done, and she hadn't found out anything interesting.

Chief Matt Waters had been very cooperative, especially considering the embattled state of the police force right now, but hadn't come up with much. There were no likely fingerprints at Buffy's house, and their APB out on both Joyce Summers and 'Rack' hadn't gotten any results either. He still had uniforms driving around searching, and had even offered more rapid transportation if they needed it, but he confirmed that the mansion Willy had told Buffy about was gone from its usual location and couldn't be found.

Eventually, the hour got late, and despite doing some patrolling of her own in between Buffy had ended up back at City Hall. She figured that Rack would guess where she was again, and she didn't want anyone else handling the negotiation. Sure enough, about 24 hours after Joyce had been kidnapped, Cynthia got the call, and Buffy took it in the conference room, with the Scoobies all on hand (and awake) for backup. She put him on speaker, but they'd agreed in advance she'd handle the actual talking herself.

"So, I gather you've been a busy little slip of a mayor today," Rack said, opening the call.

"I do try to make sure my constituents get my best," Buffy replied. "Are you calling to whine that your pet rat got caught, or are we going to do this deal?"

"Oh, I'm not too sore about that," Rack said, not missing a beat. "You tried to betray me, I tried to trick you, as far as I'm concerned, it was an amusing interlude and we can call it all water under the bridge. I already know you were smart enough to gather up what I asked for, so let's just do the trade tonight and be out of each others' hair."

Giles' face was stony at that. She knew he was taking things pretty hard, but she wasn't sure if he was more angry at Rack or afraid for Joyce. He'd been avoidy about it, but she had to think with her head now, regardless.

"How do I know this isn't just another trap?" Buffy said. "Sunnydale as a whole is way more valuable than this ransom you're chasing, and your goal from the start has probably been to get rid of me so your lame 'Triumvirate' could take over."

"Well, that's just the reason I don't think I'm going to bother pulling anything," Rack replied. "I'm pretty good at what I do, but I've heard enough about what you're like in a straight fight that I don't expect to survive one if it ever happens. I'm running out of tricks, and while I think I've still got enough left to defend myself with, I'm not exactly a big risk taker. At this point I'd rather cut my winnings and take a nice ransom to Europe." He paused there, but before Buffy said anything, he continued, "On the other hand, that means if you want to keep this pissing match going, people you actually care about start getting hurt. No messing around this time."

Willow rolled her eyes hearing that, but it made a certain amount of sense. Buffy tried to fish for more information. "What about that buddy of yours, Shark-guy? He doesn't seem like he'd want to bail just like that. And where's Faith? I can't have her just floating around, ready to be a pain in my ass again."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with Faith," he laughed. "We lost track of her ourselves!"

"What?" Buffy asked. "Did she wake up?" She saw shock fly over the faces of everyone at the table, but they managed to restrain themselves. Buffy really did think it was better if they could present a unified front instead of the usual peanut gallery effect her group had.

"Maybe, but I think some vamps still loyal to Wilkins might've made off with her after Digby bit the dust instead," Rack said. "To be honest, neither of us really had any idea what we wanted to do with her anyway, our most hilarious third was kind of obsessed with the girl."

Buffy sighed. Another problem to deal with, no matter how this turned out. "Fine then, what about the shark?"

"Well, you're right that he probably wouldn't be so happy about taking the ransom and running." Rack was quiet for a while, but she could still hear his breath on the line. "I'll tell you what. I'll throw him in, free of charge with your mom, just to prove there's no hard feelings. You can ransom him off yourself, use him as an example, whatever suits your fancy. I won't have to pay him, or have him breathing down my neck about breaking the deal we had. Helps us both."

More backstabbing from Rack. She wasn't surprised, but she wasn't convinced either. "So you say you want to deal? Where do we deal? Gonna tell me where that mansion of yours is?"

"Ha! No way. Bring the ransom to Kingman's Bluff in one hour, alone, and I'll make sure you get your mom back in one piece. I'll fool that idiot gangster into being there too, I don't imagine you'd need any backup to handle the likes of him anyway." Rack hung up, and the dial tone washed over the room.

Buffy was quiet now. She wanted to hear reactions from the group.

Xander piped in first, "Well, call me crazy, but I think he's a no-good liar and we can't trust him."

"Duh," Willow agreed. "He's had secret agendas and resources this whole time. This could just be the next phase of his evil plan."

"If he is telling the truth," Giles looked pained. "It would solve our immediate problems."

"Do you think he could be?" Buffy asked.

"He's a coward at heart," Giles stated flatly. "The type of magic a sorcerer uses often reflects their character. I think Rack did this because he saw an opportunity to do it relatively easily, but someone with magic like his likes to run, they like to hide. One of his allies is already dead, so it makes sense for him to turn on the other."

"I think maybe we have to play it that way?" Oz said. "We're sort of out of time."

Willow looked a little betrayed; Buffy could tell that despite being the last kidnapping victim, she was the most gung-ho on the warpath. Oz had a point though; they'd tried to look for other angles and they hadn't found any they could use.

Vote: Does Buffy try to do the trade, or do the Scoobies try another plan?

[] Buffy brings the ransom alone, and tries to do the trade legit. She can't risk her mom without anything solid, and at least two out of three of the perpetrators will suffer for their crimes.

[] Write in a plan (try to beat Rack)

Write ins will be organized by plan; if you make a plan, name it in the top level vote and then include details and stunts. Others that like your plan can vote for it. A specific plan must defeat the legit ransom option to be chosen; the plans don't get to count votes together natively. You can still approval vote though.