[X] Plan replacement Cryptid
-[X] Send Joyce down the bluff to safety before killing Teeth
-[X] Give the corpse to Rory's lodge's taxidermist to help them replace their exhibit
"Useful," Buffy said derisively. "You can be useful. Do you know that until about this time yesterday, I didn't even realize you existed."
She waited, as if expecting some kind of response, but Teeth didn't seem to know what to say.
"A lot happens in this town," she said, taking on a lecturing tone. "Demons go on rampages. master vampires create drama. Weird magical effects go off and cause all sorts of hijinx. Sometimes, there are even world-ending apocalyptic threats. But none of that really concerned you, did it?" She could sort of understand why villains monologued so much. It really relieved stress.
"I … I can't say it did." Teeth just sounded resigned at this point. Maybe he'd been on the other side of speeches like this before, and he knew how they ended.
"And do you know why?" she asked rhetorically, fingering another knife. "It's because you were just a small-time mob boss, doing small-time things. But for whatever reason, yesterday you decided to step up to bat in the big leagues. How did-"
"Buffy." Her mother had walked down off the plateau and found them on the side of the hill. "What's going on?" She sounded a little confused, and Buffy remembered that most people had terrible night vision. The top of the bluff had been brighter with its exposure to the city lights, but the approach was darker.
Buffy shook her head. That's what she got for playing around when she should have been getting things done. Her mom didn't need to see this though. "I'm just finishing things up." She pulled her radio off her belt and handed it to her. "Go down to the road where it's more safe and call for a pickup, I'll be right there."
Joyce walked a little closer, squinting at Teeth, lying wounded on the ground. "It doesn't seem too dangerous anymore. You got rid of all the vampires already, didn't you?" She seemed a little worried, despite her words.
Buffy tried not to be frustrated, but was reminded of all the times her mom had gotten involved in the past year without understanding the realities of the situation. She was probably already traumatized, and she didn't need more nightmares. "Mom, just go. I need to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Joyce hesitated, her gaze wandering between Teeth on the ground bleeding through his expensive suit, and the knife in her daughter's hand. "If this is because he was rude to me, it … it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be. You don't have to do this, Buffy. Nobody got hurt."
That struck a bad chord. "Nobody got hurt? Police died at the station mom. People I'd met. This was all part of the same plan to kidnap you, send me off to some alternate dimension, and take over the whole town. A lot of people got hurt, and if they'd gotten their way they would've hurt a lot more."
"But, aren't there laws or something, to take care of this?" Joyce argued. "I mean, he isn't just some rabid animal."
"That's just what he is, Mom," Buffy said. "He's a demon. He doesn't have a soul, and he's demonstrated that he's a danger to you, to the whole town. What did you think my job was like? Do you think I can just drag him off to jail, and let the California courts take care of this? He's got a shark for a head, they wouldn't even know where to start."
Joyce looked like she was swallowing something nasty. "Buffy, I've heard you talk about souls like that before, and I don't know where you got it from. I know I didn't raise you to be religious like this, and Hank didn't even go to church."
"This isn't some fantasy!" Buffy shouted, "I'm not some hillbilly thumping a bible. Souls are real! My best friend grabbed one out of the sky and stuck it into a vampire last year. Some drug dealer even waved his hands at you yesterday and made you pass out, do you still think I'm just delusional about all of this?"
"No, of course not," Joyce snapped. "But maybe you need to rethink some of your assumptions. You're not just some vigilante crimefighter anymore, you're the mayor of the whole town. A lot of people live here, and my guess is a lot of demons live here too. If you just go around executing them whenever you feel like it, then nothing's ever going to change."
"She has a point," Teeth interjected from the ground. "Your mom's a smart woman."
"Shut up," both of them replied quickly, before turning their attention back on each other.
Buffy closed her eyes for a second to calm down, and then replied carefully. "Look. We've all had a difficult past 24 hours. You might have a point about some of what you're saying, and I probably need to get a better handle on the demon community living here. But what happened wasn't just a bad decision or a crime spree, it was totally beyond the pale."
"Buffy-," Joyce tried.
"Things like this aren't some special occurrence. They happen practically every week. I need to be able to deal with them, and it has to be fast and final. It's the way I dealt with Pat, it's the way I dealt with your fake kids, and it's the way I dealt with the last mayor. Just … go this time, and let me deal with this one too."
Joyce steeled her expression. "No. Maybe you have to do this, but if you do, then I should at least have to watch. I'm your mother, you don't need to protect me from your decisions or your life."
KILL
Part of Buffy wanted to reconsider, but she quashed it. Even if Teeth wasn't the worst kind of demon out there, some kind of drummed up trial at a time like this would look too much like indecision and mercy. With Rack having escaped, she had to make the sort of statement that would make people afraid to try to repeat his success.
"Fine. You want to see it so bad? Here it is." She knelt down, and told herself this was for her mom's own good. Then she made a quick slash across Teeth's throat before the demon even realized what was happening.
There was fear in her mother's eyes as she watched him choke and bleed out, but she kept watching until he stopped moving.
They didn't say much after that.
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"So things are still frosty at Casa del Summers?" Xander asked.
"With a side of biting wind and blinding snow," Buffy replied. She'd been awkwardly dancing around her mom since the Teeth incident two days ago, but even from their limited interactions it was obvious that she'd swung from the very temporary state of proud back to her more usual attitude of disappointed. In hindsight, killing her captor right in front of her face might not have been the best way to win an argument, but Buffy still thought that the wake-up call had been needed.
Buffy and Xander were relaxing in the little courtyard in the middle of the Crawford street mansion. The debris had been cleaned away and some outdoor furniture had been setup as part of the cleanup effort, but it was still a little worn down. It made for a nice secluded spot when people weren't training in it though. Xander had business at what had become the new City Watch base practically every day, while Buffy was mostly dodging both deskwork and mom guilt.
"Well, on the plus side, my uncle Rory is pretty happy with you," Xander said.
"He was so sad when I told him the Chupacabra was forever reduced to a stain in my outfit," Buffy remembered. "And the Yeti seems at least friendly-adjacent too."
"But now he'll have a shark-man to join his recovered Sasquatch," Xander said.
"Reduce, reuse, recycle," Buffy agreed. "If only my mom would see it that way."
"Well, the whole throat cutting thing was kind of brutal, from how you described it," Xander made a concerned face. "Plus I'm sure she was already pretty shook up from the magical kidnapping and all."
"I know I could've handled it better," Buffy sighed. "This really was the best way though. I'm concerned enough about more attempts as it is, and demons only really understand the language of murder and terror. Plus she was definitely still living in fantasy land about the whole Hellmouth thing." She shook her head. "Anyways, Willow had some ideas. She's going to do something else with the spells on the radios I think."
Xander paused, searching for the right words. "She's been working really hard lately. Are you kind of worried? I'm a little worried."
"Worried about what?" Harmony had noticed them, and was peeking out from the gateway leading back inside. It wasn't too sunny in the courtyard, but Buffy was surprised she was even getting this close. Fledges had good reason to be skittish about sun, they went up like kindling.
Xander just rolled his eyes. "Harmony, if you're announcing yourself now you've probably been listening in on us for the past ten minutes."
She smiled, showing teeth. "I know, isn't it great? I love being so sneaky and … listeny?"
"That's our Harmony," Xander said, a little sarcastically.
"Anyways, Willow is a total nerd," Harmony said. "She's probably living it up with all this nerdy stuff to do."
"Keyword: All," Xander said. "To the exclusion of boring things like sleep. And she's been so vindictive lately. She was even agreeing with Anya!"
"I don't know, maybe that's just Willow? She took Amy's betrayal really hard," Buffy said. "Having someone you cared about suddenly turn into a complete monster is a major downer, take it from me."
"But my Willow is a kind and generous spirit," Xander protested.
"Willow Rosenberg, whose resume includes presidency of the 'We-hate-Cordelia' club?" Buffy asked innocently. "We all love her, but she's never been big on the forgiveness."
"Yeah, I think Buffy's right." Harmony said. "Willow can be a bitch sometimes, but she'd never do anything that would really make Buffy mad."
"Interesting phrasing." Xander raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, Buffy just has such a magnetic personality." Harmony started a gesture with her hands but quickly stopped when one almost went into the indirect sunlight. "Willow can totally be mean, but I bet you'll always be able to rein her back in if you need to."
"Magnetic." Xander said significantly.
"Umm." Harmony's mouth seemed to lag a bit as her brain caught up to it. "I mean like, ah, she's a natural leader, and stuff?" At Xander's piercing gaze, she continued, "What? It's totally true." She folded her arms over her chest defiantly, and looked over at Buffy kind of desperately.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Harm," Buffy said. She privately agreed with Xander that this was a little weird, but didn't want to question it. Whatever was going on in Harmony's undead mind had been working out so far, and despite all the allies they had they were desperately short of anyone that could fight seriously in melee.
Her defensive posture relaxed again, and she said, "Well, anyway, enough about boring old Willow. Give us the actual gossip Xander. Anya! What's going on with you two?"
"Well, uh, it's kind of complicated." Xander was the one on the backfoot now.
"It doesn't seem very complicated to me." Buffy smiled tauntingly. "She was so super possessive the other day. She practically ripped the radio out of my hand and then ran off to fight the Yeti herself."
"Oooooh!" Harmony squeed.
"And then when we got to the Bronze, she was picking Yeti hair off him all concerned and disturbed." Then Buffy lowered her voice, "The Yeti was playing pattycake with him!"
"Total scandal!" Harmony said. "I remember Aura had a pattycake incident in first grade, those are a dangerous business." She nodded seriously.
Xander put his head in his hands. "Laugh it up guys. I mean, yes, we're dating. And she's kind of possessive, but in a nice way."
"In a nice way!" Buffy and Harmony parroted in stereo.
Xander just groaned.
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Next time, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The summer doldrums are finally setting in on the Hellmouth, and events are coming at a less hectic pace. However, there are still little incidents popping off due to all the disruption in the past few weeks. Which of these minor occurrences is actually happening when we return?
[] Teeth's mansion finally reappeared, but it seems like it was in a pretty strange place for the last few days. Ian wants to search the house for valuables to sell to help make up the deficit.
[] Harmony heard a disturbing rumor when she was undercover, and she finally got up the courage to bring it to Buffy. She won't say exactly what it is though, just that it's something Buffy will probably want to see for herself.
[] Ever since the Yeti showed up, the Bronze has had some unexplained activity late at night, (aside from the more Hellmouth-normal sorts of unexplained activity.) Buffy and Giles are staking the place out to try to figure out what's going on.
[] Andrew and Jonathan say something weird is going on at the local gaming store, but Buffy thinks they just want her to hang out with them there. Well, it couldn't hurt to check it out anyway.
