With Age Comes Wackiness

#

Part 1:

Buffy's dreams were plagued with nightmares and memories and few people alive or dead had so many memories that might as well be nightmares. She tossed and turned in her bed, drenched in sweat, and even the cool body lying next to her could do little to help her as she was caught up in the past and muddy divinations of the future.

She remembered crossing the fifth circle of Hell with Angel by her side, crossing the Styx where those who had allowed anger and fury to dictate their lives were eternally consigned to battle each other in the muddy waters of the black river. She remembered the air full of anger and rage, infecting them to the point where they almost came to blows several times.

The city of Dis, towering over burned-out wasteland, was the point where the fifth circle of Hell, the eternal resting place of the furious and angry, gave way to the sixth circle, where the heretics were said to dwell. The city was surrounded by impossibly high walls of gray steel, manned by creatures the likes of which even the Hellmouth had never seen, radiating scorching heat in all directions. Getting in had not been easy.

Simply being inside had been worse. Anger and fury held sway even here and those of the damned who were free to move around found themselves infected by it, striking out against each other and their captors both, the latter but amused by their antics and finding great joy in beating them down again and again.

Dante had written that the city imprisoned the heretics, but Buffy and Angel soon learned that this was not exactly true. Speaking out against a God who might or might not exist was not what brought one to this place of eternal torment. Heresy alone did not suffice to consign one to imprisonment inside a burning tomb, forever locked in with nothing but one's screams to keep one company.

No, Dis was the punishment for those who had tried to set themselves up as God or gods, those who had used religion and faith as a tool for power, who had abused the faith of others to enrich themselves, who had sent people to their deaths under the banner of a God they themselves never believed in. Everyone from TV priests to religious cult leaders and kings and queens reigning and inflicting cruelty in the name of God, they all ended up here.

Buffy had no idea how long it had taken them to make their way through this city, a labyrinth of streets lined with burning graves, the air filled with screams that never stopped. She did remember questioning her sanity more than once during those months, years, maybe decades they had spent there. Then there had been those times she had stopped questioning it because she had no longer had any.

She and Angel had been at each other's throats more than once, the only thing keeping them together their need for each other, both physical and emotional. They had even hurt each other, sometimes intentionally, giving in to the demons inside themselves that so easily came to the surface in this environment.

She cried in her sleep, reliving the torment of this terrible time. She remembered hiding among the graves as the demons strode through the streets of Dis. The Furies had known somehow that there were entities in their city which had no place here and they had searched for them ceaselessly. Tisiphone, Megare, Alekto, all three of them terrible and beautiful at the same time, impossible to describe with mere words. The Medusa had walked the streets as well, her gaze sufficient to turn even other demons to stone. Other creatures that Dante had never described had been with them and both Buffy and Angel had, at times, been insane with fright and terror.

Somehow, though, Buffy had almost been thankful for the madness that had overcome them both in that place at one time or another. In a twisted way it had made crossing Dis easier than their travel through the fourth circle, where Pluto had hunted them all through the endless days. In Dis she had allowed her thoughts to tumble away into madness, convinced that their times on Earth had been nothing but a dream to make the reality of Hell more bearable, and this insanity had softened the world around them. Everything had seemed unreal after a time and even the ceaseless screaming of those imprisoned in their fiery graves had ceased to make an impression on her.

In her nightmares, though, Buffy was unable to retreat into the inviting ease of insanity. The images of Dis flickered through her mind with brutal clarity, every pain and anguish as real as a nightmare could be. She screamed and whimpered as the Furies' whips descended on her back, reliving the months or years she and Angel had spent in captivity in Dis' dungeons at the mercy of the Erynnes.

Interlaced with the nightmares, though, were other images. Some detached part of her mind recognized the familiar humming of a Slayer's prophetic dreams. In the midst of Dis' burning streets she saw herself, dancing to a music that had replaced the screams of the damned, Angel by her side. Both their eyes were glowing in demonic colors, lighting the crimson twilight surrounding them. There were other shapes, dancing as well, rubbing against them. She could hear Angel growl as someone touched her, saw the demon coming to the forth.

Buffy woke with a scream as Angel broke a human body in half and she saw herself giggling in delight.

"Buffy?" Angel was taking her into his arms without a moment's hesitation, knowing that his mate had once again been reliving the memories of their journey. He, too, saw it in his dreams sometimes, but somehow it seemed to much worse for her. Especially now that the reality of Hell was removed, replaced with life on Earth once more.

It took minutes for Buffy to calm down, to remember that Hell was in fact behind them, no more real than a nightmare now. They had made it through all nice circles of the Inferno and had come out alive, if not unscathed. There was nothing to be afraid of anymore.

Then why was she trembling?

"Just a dream," she mumbled to herself as Angel rocked her. "Just a dream."

"More memories?" he inquired softly.

She nodded, swallowing with a dry throat. Her blood cried out for the moisture that was running through Angel's veins, but she clamped down on it immediately. She had long ago learned to live with the fact that she was addicted to her mate's blood but refused to let her life be governed by it.

"There was more, though," she finally said, regaining her composure. "There was ... I don't know how to describe it, but I think it was one of my prophetic dreams."

Angel gave her a quizzical look.

"It's been a long time since you have had one of those, hasn't it?"

Buffy nodded, remembering exactly where and when she had last received mysterious insights via her dreams. It had been the night after Angel had lost his soul when it had been revealed to her that Jenny Calendar was somehow involved in these events. Ever since that terrible time her strange pipeline to the future had been silent.

"What did you see?"

Buffy closed her eyes, once again seeing the burning streets of Dis.

"Us, the two of us. We were ... we were dancing. Wildly, uncaring. Our eyes, they ... you were in game face and me ... me, too. Or ... close to it anyway."

Angel unconsciously tightened his grip on her. He knew how frightened Buffy was of the changes she had undergone in Hell. It had not been that bad before they had returned because there had been nothing and no one to compare herself to. Now, though, she saw herself among her human friends, saw her face in the mirror, had experienced her demonic temper unleashed upon a human being.

He knew Giles was still looking for information on what else they might expect or maybe even on a way to undo what he had been forced to do to her with his tainted blood. Angel prayed every night that the Watcher would be successful.

"Something was wrong with us," Buffy continued, unaware of his thoughts. "It was as if ... I don't know, as if we were high on something. There were other people there and they ... one of them approached me, touched me, and you ... you broke him. You broke him in half and I just watched and laughed."

Angel closed his eyes, not liking what he heard in the least. No one knew better than him what could happen if the demon inside him were to be unleashed again. Neither did he doubt that, even without a soul, his feelings for Buffy would barely change, especially now that she was not quite human herself anymore. Angelus would love having her around and he would be highly possessive, too. Seeing anyone touch what he considered his... it would not be pretty.

"Anything else?" he asked. "Some clue as to when or how this might happen?"

"Nothing, no. Maybe it's just ... I don't know, some kind of warning not to let our guards down. I mean, you saw what happened when I let my temper get away from me with Xander."

Angel remembered. Just a day after their return and they had confronted Xander. Buffy had been so angry she had nearly killed the boy.

"Then we'll be careful," he said, pulling her closer against him. "And we'll be staying away from everything that could make us high."

He smiled, which caused her mood to brighten considerably.

"That would have to include each other, wouldn't it?" she asked with a naughty smile on her lips.

"I wouldn't go quite that far."

#

Mayor Richard Wilkins consulted his To-Do list and saw that he had not been mistaken about his appointment two days from now. With the big day less than a year away now things were getting more and more hectic. There was barely a moment to spare for anything not connected with it and a small part of him felt that he was letting his voters down, preoccupied as he was.

Well, it could not be helped. Looking ahead he knew that all his voters' problems would be solved no later than a year from now anyway. Dead people had few problems.

Speaking of dead people, he once again remembered that his problems with Angelus and his little entourage had yet to be solved. Information he had acquired since the failed assassination attempt on them two weeks ago had shown that his suspicions had indeed been correct. Buffy Summers, the Slayer, was now a blood junky. He was not yet certain how this could have come to pass, but it was almost certainly connected with that unfortunate business with Akathler.

Well, he had put things into motion to ensure that they would not cause more disruptions in his carefully laid-out plans. As these would need a bit longer to take effect, though, he had to do something to keep them from interfering with his important appointment. Something would need to happen to distract them and everyone else in this wonderful town of his. Sunnydale’s residents had, due to a century of careful grooming on his part, developed what had to be the most powerful ignorance in all the world, but even that would probably not be enough for what he had to do two days from now.

No, something had to happen. Something to distract them. A little chaos unleashed, but nothing that was terminal in nature. He did not want people to die, at least not many of them. He still had a need for them come the big day. No, what he needed was something flashy but mostly harmless. Something guaranteed to draw the attention of the Slayers and their vampire companion. Something like ...

His lips spread in a smile as he remembered what had happened about ten months ago. Yes, something like that would do just fine. Now he just had to hope that the man in question was available for a little contract work.

#

Part 2:

Buffy was not having a very good day for several different reasons. There was the nightmare she had had, of course, mixed together with prophetic flashes of something horrible happening, something that would cause her and Angel to flip and kill people.

Added to that was the fact that she was out in daylight, something she had really lost the taste for. The demon blood flowing in her veins detested the light and while it did not cause her skin to burst into flames it still irritated her to no end, made her feel as if thousands of bugs were crawling under her flesh.

As if all that had not been enough she was visiting her mother. Not that visiting her mother was generally a bad thing. Joyce and her had made great strides back towards a loving mother-daughter relationship. Buffy could not help but think that this was also partly due to Faith, who was still living in her mother's house and gave Joyce some first-hand experience what being the Slayer meant. Helping Faith deal with her issues had helped Joyce deal with her own about Buffy.

Most of the times Buffy was happy to see her mother nowadays. Not today, though. Today her mother was not alone and Buffy knew exactly what, if not who, the woman standing by her side was.

"Hello Buffy," Joyce greeted her with a hug and a brilliant smile. "This is Danielle Burg, your new tutor."

Ms. Burg was a woman in her thirties, long brown hair tied in a loose ponytail, dressed in a black pants suit that accented her figure. She certainly did not look like any of the teachers that Buffy dimly remembered from High School. Light brown eyes were set into a friendly face as she walked forward and offered her hand to Buffy.

"Pleased to meet you."

Buffy hesitated, then remembered her manners. Okay, so she might be determined to hate this woman on general principles, but that was no reason to be rude. She was an adult, after all, even though Angel was just about the person one who treated her like one.

"Why don't we sit down?" Joyce motioned for the living room couch, the table in front of which held coffee and an assortment of mainly sugar-based food. Buffy, who had only gotten out of bed an hour or so ago, was not too keen on cake and cookies, but felt that she could really use the coffee.

"So," Ms. Burg said after sipping a bit of her own coffee, "Joyce tells me that you have received a lot of informal education from your boyfriend?"

Buffy threw her mother a look. They had spoken about what to tell this tutor and what not to, the supernatural aspects of Buffy's live and the reasons for her quitting school falling firmly into the latter category. Burg was not supposed to know anything beyond the fact that Buffy had been thrown out of school and, instead of applying at another, wanted to privately finish her education.

"I might have said some things about Angel's skills in art and history," Joyce admitted. Buffy knew that her mother and Angel had managed to get quite civil with one another mostly due to Angel's extensive knowledge of classic art.

"He is quite firm there, yes," Buffy told Burg after a moment. "He also taught me a lot of languages."

"Ah," Ms. Burg nodded. "Quel langages par exemple?"

"Le Français, certainement," Buffy answered. "Außerdem spreche ich Deutsch. Espanol. A few others."

"Quite impressive. I am afraid our High Schools are not producing too many youths with multiple language skills."

Buffy smiled, stifling the urge of giving Ms. Burg a taste of some of the demon languages Angel had taught her. Most of them were almost indistinguishable from guttural sounds anyway.

"Our main focus would be on mathematics and the sciences then, correct?" Ms. Burg inquired. "That's what your mother told me."

"Yes, pretty much."

"Good. I have worked out a first draft curriculum based on what I already knew about you. What say we look over it together and then make some lesson plans?"

Buffy found that, from everything she had seen of Ms. Burg so far, hating this woman was going to be a really tough job.

#

"Well, I don't think we'll need more than two lessons a week to get you in shape for graduation. You should congratulate your boyfriend on a job well done."

Burg was smiling a brilliant smile at her and Buffy found herself returning it. Danielle, as she insisted Buffy should call her, had proven to be a very engaging person and maybe this whole being tutored thing would not turn out so bad after all. It helped, Buffy smirked, that Danielle was very impressed with the range of knowledge she already possessed.

"So we'll start next week, right?"

"Right! We'll start with mathematics. Most unpleasant thing first. You should get the books I wrote down for you until then."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Joyce assured her. "My daughter has good ties to a librarian."

"Oh, the boyfriend?" Danielle inquired.

"Giles? Certainly not." Buffy made a disgusted face at the notion.

"Just a friend of the family." Joyce's smile never wavered, but Buffy could not help but hear the slightly strained undertone in her voice as she said it. She had noticed these past few weeks that the room temperature seemed to drop considerably whenever her mother and Giles were in the same room. Was this some leftover hostility from the summer and her mother's denial over what had happened or something else? She made a mental note to find out.

Danielle packed up her things. "I'm looking forward to next week, Buffy."

"Yeah. Me, too." Buffy was surprised to find out that she was actually looking forward to it. Oh God, she was turning into a nerd in her old age. Once again she had to stifle a giggle as she tried to imagine what Danielle would say should she find out that Buffy was actually about two decades older than her.

When the door closed behind Danielle Joyce turned around to look at her daughter.

"See? It wasn't that bad, was it?"

"No, it wasn't." Buffy plopped down on the couch. "I actually like her despite my best intentions not to."

Joyce sat down beside her, smiling.

"I know things are strange, Buffy, but I am glad you are getting an education."

"I'll never have a normal life, even with it. You know that, right?"

Joyce sighed. "I know, Buffy. I know."

Buffy knew that her mother still was not all that comfortable with the notion that her daughter would never marry and have children, never live in a home surrounded by a white picket fence. She was doing her best to accept it, doing much better than Buffy would ever have expected her to, actually, but some part of her would always pipe after that unattainable dream.

The door opened and Faith strode into the Summers home, bag with her training gear slung over one shoulder.

"Hi, B," she greeted her fellow Slayer. "How went meeting the great and terrible tutor demon?"

"She was quite nice actually. I think I'm gonna like tutoring with her."

"Cool," Faith said, then her face turned desperate. "You wanna trade? I would never forget it, really! I'd owe you forever and ever."

Buffy chuckled, remembering the horror stories Faith had told her about the tutor Giles had found for her.

"Sorry, no go!"

"That's just swell, girlfriend. I thought we were buds."

Faith threw herself onto the couch beside the two Summers women, sulking.

"Abandoned by my sister in being Chosen. This is too much." Then she saw the cake standing before her. "I think I have to do something drastic to cheer myself up."

Buffy and Joyce could only stare in awe as Faith consumed the cake in no time flat, at the same time telling them about things that had happened in school today where she had been training with Giles. Buffy thought she made out the words 'band', 'new uniforms', and 'chocolate' somewhere between bites.

#

Danielle Burg opened her cell phone and dialed the number of her employer.

"It's Burg. Yes, everything went well. I will have my first lesson with her next week, two times a week. No, she does not suspect a thing. I actually think she likes me."

Mayor Richard Wilkins III was very pleased upon receiving that piece of good news.

#

Part 3:

Earlier that day:

"G-man, can I ask you something?"

Giles looked up, still feeling rather exhausted from the workout he had just gone through with his younger charge. Faith had a thoroughly different style from Buffy, one he had a hard time putting a name to. She was not as strong and fast as Buffy was, not yet at least, but she made up for that with something he would describe as wild abandon. It was almost impossible to put a finger on her once she started moving, never being where he expected her to be.

As a result he was quite worn out after half an hour of sparring.

"You can ask me anything, Faith," he replied. "Just please stop using that nickname."

"I use nicknames for everyone I like or haven't you noticed? You should feel honored."

He managed a smile. The Council had sent him a letter yesterday telling him that the paperwork was almost done and soon he would be Faith's legal guardian. Maybe it was time he got used to her antics.

"Well, I will try. What did you want to ask me?"

Her demeanor changed from that of a tough and frightening warrior to that of an insecure child. Giles was still amazed at how this young girl managed to live with so many different facets to her personality.

"It's about B and the whole not telling the Council guys that she's back."

Giles nodded, Buffy having told him that Faith had talked to her about that a few weeks ago. He had wondered when she would bring up the topic with him.

"Buffy feels that it would not be the most prudent course of action to let them know of her return," Giles said, "and in this instance I agree with her."

"I know. She said that they would not be too thrilled with what happened to her. The whole vampire blood thing."

"The Council has little tolerance for things that are not thoroughly human, Faith. It might not be the most flexible way of thinking ever devised, but considering that most things that are even partly demonic are quite definitely hostile towards the human race it has proven to be quite practical."

"But you belong to the Council as well and you don't seem to have a problem with what has happened to B." Giles looked down, rubbing his eyes.

"Does it appear that way?" he wondered, more to himself than Faith. "I suppose it might."

Straightening he put away his combat padding, then walked over to his desk where he opened a bottle of scotch and poured himself a glass. Maybe this was a mistake, but he was rather tired. Tired of keeping his worries and fears to himself, tired of weeks of looking through books and finding no answers to what was happening to the girl he considered his daughter.

"When Buffy came back I was without doubt the happiest man alive," he told Faith after downing his first glass of Scotch. "Oh, I was furious with her for doing something as stupid as jumping into a portal leading to Hell, but still ... I thought I had lost her. Getting her back was ... I can't describe it. Then I saw what she had become, but it could not dampen my joy, not much at least. She is still Buffy, the same girl I knew, and everything else is secondary, right?"

Faith studied him, unsure of what to say. She had not known Giles for all that long, but right now he seemed like a complete stranger to her. A tired, old stranger.

"I was even happy that Angel, the real Angel, was back. It was hard at first, looking into his face and telling myself that this was not the same man who had tortured me, who had killed the woman I love. But I managed. Somehow I managed."

He sat down heavily, refilling his glass.

"A few days later, though, I started to realize that Buffy had changed very, very much. Is still changing, in fact. There is very little information on what a vampire's blood can do to a human being, especially over this long a time. I only know that whatever it's doing to her, it is still ongoing. I... I am afraid of watching her change, Faith, unable to do anything to stop it."

Faith sat on the desk next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"She is still B, right? I mean, even if she turns even more vampiric than she already is, it doesn't change that, right?"

"I don't know, Faith. I just don't know."

Faith watched helplessly as Giles buried his face in his hands. Was there anything she could do? These people had become her friends. Buffy was without doubt the best friend she had ever had, almost a sister due to their joint nature as the Slayers. She knew that Buffy was not exactly human anymore, but until now she had not spent much thought on what that meant or what it could mean in the future.

Was Buffy going to change into a monster? A monster that she might have to slay one of these days? She was not sure she could. God, why was she even thinking about this stuff?

"Let's train some more," she finally said, jumping off the desk. "Might help us get rid of the gloomy thoughts."

Giles looked up, nodding.

"Yes, that might be a good idea. Uh, Faith..."

"I won't tell anyone about your worries, G-man. Promise!"

He smiled at her as they prepared to spar once more.

"I want to talk to you about that harpy of a tutor again, though," Faith added after a moment, causing Giles to groan.

#

Willow and Oz stared in horror at the things that the devil himself, or the closest thing they had ever met, had delivered into their hands.

Band candy. For the band. New uniforms. Fuzzy hats that went with everything.

"This is just ... evil," Willow proclaimed.

"In a very subtle way, though," Oz said. "Evil spreading through chocolate."

Xander, who had also gotten chocolate handed to him, was slightly less terrified about the inherit evilness of Principal Snyder's railroading them into selling the chocolate. Chocolate was chocolate after all and, seeing as Snyder was evil, who could possibly blame him if this evil chocolate was never circulated among the unsuspecting populace? The world would probably thank him if he simply destroyed it.

"Don't even think about it!" Willow gave him a glare, guessing at his thoughts. "Knowing Snyder he'll work us until he has the money so you're going to sell that chocolate, mister!"

A part of Xander was glad that Willow was glaring at him in this way again. It proved that they were getting closer again, though very slowly. Most of him was terrified of his friend's stare, though, and quickly abandoned his plan to stop evil from spreading into the world.

"Okay, okay, I'll give my best," he mumbled.

The past two weeks had seen a very gradual return to normal, or what passed for normal here in Sunnydale. Xander had apologized to Angel and the souled vampire had proven willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least. Willow, who had never been comfortable with hating his guts, was almost treating him good again. Oz ... well, Oz was Oz. He still didn't say much and what he said often left Xander confused. Most of the times he just figured that Oz went where Willow went.

Buffy still was not talking to him, barely tolerated his presence. He could not really blame her for that. After everything he had done ... no, he immediately clamped down on his thoughts. What was done was done. He was not about to forget it, but brooding over it accomplished nothing. When he had told Angel that he was sorry the vampire had asked him what he was going to do about it. The only thing he could do was try and do better in the future. He was determined to do just that.

Other than standing around during the big fight two weeks ago he had not had much opportunity to do it, though. They still were not any closer to finding Amy's killer or figuring out who had sent the assassins after them. The two humans among the attackers, the only ones who had survived, had escaped while the gang had still been busy scrubbing off the remains of the slime demon.

"Oh, chocolate!"

Faith came down the corridor, immediately spying the goods held in their hands. Their eyes met briefly and Xander managed not to flinch at the hostility in the Slayer's gaze. As far as sides went Faith was firmly on Buffy's, meaning that she was not about to give Xander any break until her fellow Slayer did. Which probably meant never. Which inevitably reminded Xander of the other brunette female who seemed determined never to give him a break, either.

He had barely seen Cordelia at all these past two weeks.

"Keep your hands to yourself, Faith," Willow warned the approaching Slayer. "This is band candy and we have to sell it to make money for the band. They need new uniforms."

"And fuzzy hats," Oz added.

Faith looked confused for a moment, then realization dawned. "Snyder?"

"Snyder," Oz confirmed.

"Good luck, guys!"

"You could help us, you know?" Xander realized that it was his voice posing this question moments before Faith glared at him again. He took an involuntary step back.

"Yeah, right," she just said, then turned around to leave.

"Maybe you shouldn't be pushing your luck with her, Xander," Willow reminded him.

Xander looked down, wondering when this would be over with. He hated feeling this guilty. How had Angel managed this for a hundred years? Maybe he should ask him.

Maybe he could sell him some chocolate.

#

Part 4:

Deputy Mayor Allan Finch did not particularly care for his current circumstances. Not that they appeared to be all that terrible to the naked eye, no. In fact he was certain that quite a few people would consider a chocolate factory a rather nice place to spend time in, especially one filled to the rafters. Allan was not among them, though, and it had nothing to do with his diet plan.

"Everything is going according to plan?" he asked the man standing next to him, trying to hide his nervousness. This was the first time his boss had sent him out on his own to take care of something and Allan did not want to mess it up. Not only because the Mayor would certainly find interesting ways to express his dissatisfaction, but mostly.

"Production is ahead of schedule," his companion answered. " Distribution is up to you, of course. Assuming nothing goes wrong there we should have quite a nice bit of chaos come nightfall."

"And the effects are temporary?"

"As you insisted, yes. To tell you the truth I was a bit disappointed with that part of the contract, but..."

His voice trailed off and he darted forward, quickly snatching a chocolate bar out of the hand of a worker about to take a bite.

"Believe me," he told the man, "you do not want to eat this, mate!"

The worker just nodded, not particularly inclined to argue. Allan could sympathize. There was just something about this man called Ethan Rayne that made his skin crawl.

Not as bad as the Mayor did, but still ...

#

"I think that was the last of it," Willow announced happily, counting the dollar bills she had gathered.

"I think you ripped us off," Buffy said, nibbling on the chocolate bar Willow had sold her. "You're supposed to be my best friend. The least you could have done was give me one for free."

Willow just shrugged and leaned back against her boyfriend, the two of them happily snuggling on the couch in Angel and Buffy's apartment. It was their last stop on the selling spree Snyder's evil plan had sent them on, as they had all planned to meet up here anyway.

"Big group patrol still on for tonight?" Willow looked around at the other people present.

Buffy and Angel were cuddled together in the big loveseat they had bought after Buffy had moved in, feeding each other pieces of the chocolate bars. Faith was sitting cross-legged on the floor, munching some chocolate of her own. It was Giles' chocolate, actually, but she had told him in no uncertain terms that part of his duties as her legal guardian would be supplying her with ample amounts of sugar-based food, so he might as well start now.

Rounding out the circle was Cordelia, who made use of the remaining couch space. The brunette girl had really grown into the group during their absence, Angel thought. He remembered her being every bit the outsider he himself had been, only helping out now and then, but never accepted into the inner ranks of the Scooby Gang.

These days, though, she was part of the group and she and Willow actually seemed able to stay quite civil with each other for extended periods of time, another thing he remembered having been different. Willow for her part was pretty much the same he remembered, almost perpetually happy and quirky, though she seemed to have gotten a lot closer to her boyfriend since the last time he had been part of the group. Before Angelus.

Shaking off the bad memories that threatened to spill over him he looked at the newest addition to their little family. Faith had found her place in their circle with surprising ease. Angel was glad for that, as everyone had been able to see how desperate she had been when coming to Sunnydale. Desperate to be needed, to be liked. She had been here for only a month but he already caught himself thinking of her as family now and then. Like the little sister he had lost so long ago.

"I still have trouble with this concept sometimes," Cordelia said to no one in particular. "Patrolling for vampires and demons as a fun after-school activity." She shuddered.

"Definitely beats selling band candy for Snyder," Oz offered.

"Do we even have a band at school?" Buffy asked. "My memories of the last two school years might be ancient history, but I think I would remember hearing a school band."

"I think they played at that football game you missed because you were out hunting Spike and Drusilla."

Buffy frowned for a moment, but could not quite grasp the memory in question.

"If you say so. Anyway, big group patrol still on for tonight. Bronzing afterwards. Lots of dancing and snuggling."

She directed that last part at Angel, who gave an exaggerated sigh at learning he was supposed to dance tonight.

"Slow dancing," he whispered to her.

"Spoilsport," she whispered back.

"I ... uh," Willow began, her fingers nervously folding and refolding the bills, "I kinda invited Xander to join us."

Icy silence reigned for a long moment as both Buffy and Cordelia froze in mid-motion, looking at Willow with narrowed eyes. Yes, Angel thought, Xander. The one part missing from this circle, at least when one compared it to how things had been. There had been a time Angel had been jealous of Xander for his closeness to Buffy. He had respected him occasionally when the boy managed to get past his own pettiness and turned out to be a good guy after all. The day he had saved Buffy from drowning at the Master's hand. The way he had protected her in the hospital when Angelus had come to visit.

He had erased all that with his own stupidity, though, and even if Angel could not honestly blame him for his actions on the day he and Buffy had one to Hell, he could very well blame him for his intent. And for the many screw-ups afterwards.

Willow fidgeted under the stares, but decided not to back down.

"He ... well, I mentioned it and ... he didn't ask to come along, but I..."

Buffy finally shook her head and looked down.

"I guess it's okay, Willow. Just don't expect me to be friendly with him, okay?"

Willow nodded sadly, but added "He's sorry for what he did, Buffy."

"Yeah, so he said. Forgive me if sorry doesn't really cut it after thirty years in Hell, Will. Angel is giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he used up every bit of credit he ever had with me with those stupid stunts he pulled. You won't get more from me than tolerance."

Willow, seeing the way Buffy's eyes gleamed amber when she spoke, decided to let the topic slide for now. The only thing that could maybe smooth things out between Buffy and Xander was time, so she would just have to be patient.

Buffy jumped off Angel's lap, stuffing the last piece of the chocolate into her mouth.

"Okay, sun's gone down. Let's go kill some demons so we can get to the party part of the evening!"

They all rose, preparing to leave. Angel spent a moment admiring Buffy's enthusiasm. She was really throwing herself back into life here on Earth. It would never be the life it had been, of course. Too much had changed for that, especially themselves. He was glad to see her like this, though. Wanting to party, stuffing herself with chocolate, even her whining about finishing her education. She was an adult now, of course, in every way, but he saw flashes of the old Buffy now and then.

Despite the many things that were still not right, and there were quite a few of those, he could not help but think that life was good right now. Which did not mean too much coming from someone who had returned from Hell about six weeks ago, of course.

He just hoped he had not just jinxed things.

#

Part 5:

The vampire’s body remained upright for a few seconds after Buffy chopped his head off, just long enough for said head to roll across the ground and cause Willow to jump out of its path with a little shriek. The Slayer spun away from him in the same movement that had decapitated the vampire, slid the sword back into the sheet she carried on her back, and let herself fall right into the arms of her lover. Buffy and Angel shared a kiss as both body and head crumbled into dust.

“One more for the good guys,” Buffy giggled between kisses.

“Kiss or dead vampire?”

“Both!”

Faith, who had dusted a vampire of her own and was busy wiping its remains from her jacket, watched Buffy and Angel with a smirk on her lips.

”Check out the lust bunnies!” She shook her head. “Is it just me or are those two trying for new cuteness heights every other night?”

“Just every other night?” Cordelia shrugged.

“They are cute,” Willow protested their sarcasm. “Well, cute in the way that they decapitate vampires between kisses, but...”

“We get the message, red,” Faith said, chuckling under her breath. She could not help a funny feeling, though. It was more than just her usual bout of slight depression whenever she saw Buffy and Angel so obviously in love. No, something was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and it was not those loser vampires they had just taken care of.

Buffy did not seem to feel it, though, and seeing as she was by far the more experienced Slayer Faith was ready to disregard her intuition for now.

“Enough work,” Buffy told the others. “Let’s go party!”

Or maybe disregarding her intuition would be a mistake after all.

“Uh, B, we have another two cemeteries to check, remember?”

“They’ll still be there tomorrow night.” She snuggled into Angel’s side. “I want to party!”

Faith waited for Angel to say something, as he was usually the responsible one in that pair. Well, not that Buffy was usually irresponsible in any way. She had heard some wild stories about how Buffy had tried to balance sacred duty and fun life as a valley girl from Willow and Cordy, but the only Buffy she knew was the one who had gone through hell. She took her duties seriously and, though she was slowly picking up quipping again, was quite demure most of the times.

Angel said nothing, just looked at his girlfriend with a look in his eyes that caused sweat to break out on Faith’s brow. Angel should get an arm’s license for that look. There was that feeling again, her senses seeming to scream at her that something was wrong.

“What the lady wants,” her sensitive hearing picked up his whispered words, “the lady shall get.”

Why was Angel talking with an accent all of a sudden?

“Uh, guys,” Willow suddenly called for attention. “What is that?”

Everyone except Buffy and Angel looked where she was pointing, seeing a large group of people trail into the graveyard. For a moment Faith feared that they were vampires mounting some kind of major assault, but her senses stayed quiet. Those were humans, ordinary humans, and not the youngest of humans, either.

They were singing and carrying quite a few bottles of alcohol along with them.

“Is there some kind of graveyard party scheduled for tonight?” Faith asked, looking at the newcomers, who had yet to see them.

“This is gross,” Cordelia added. “Most of these guys are old enough to be my parents.”

“Some of them are,” Willow said in a shocked voice, seeing her father among the crowd. Ira Rosenberg, who was usually about as lively as a rock, was singing along with some others, throwing back the occasional sip of beer.

“Now this is weird,” was Oz’ only comment.

“Buffy, do you...,” Willow turned to ask the Slayer for her opinion on the matter, but found that she was talking to empty space. Buffy and Angel were gone.

“Okay, this has gone beyond weird.”

The group of adults was camping out near a big crypt, men and women in their late thirties to early fifties squatted down on the ground and kept singing ancient rock music, quickly consuming the beer they had brought along, nibbling on chocolate bars between sips.

“Shouldn’t we do something about this?” Willow asked, spotting her father in an intimate embrace with a woman who definitely was not her mother. The redhead looked in serious danger of fainting right now.

Faith became aware that the others were looking at her, apparently waiting for her to decide something. When had she suddenly become leader of this little group?

“We should check in with Giles,” she said, refusing to sound intimidated. “Maybe Watcher-man knows whether something weird is going on.”

Two cars suddenly roared across the cemetery, two men in their forties behind the wheels, barreling over quite a few tombstones as they raced against each other. They passed close to the group of beer-drinking squatters, who hooted after them.

“Weird, yep,” Cordelia said.

#

Xander was sitting on a couch in the Bronze, waiting for the others. He was glad that Willow had told him about tonight, gladder even that she had invited him. She would probably attract some static from Buffy because of that, but it seemed his best and oldest friend was willing to go out on a limb for him again. Maybe things actually were improving a little.

He had not accompanied them on patrol. Somehow being close to Buffy while she was in Slayer mode and beheading vampires with that sword she always used as of late did not seem like the most healthy thing in the world to Xander. Time, he kept telling himself. Give it time. Lots of time. He just wondered why time was taking so long to pass these days.

Why were there so many adults in the Bronze today?

Rising to get himself another drink Xander suddenly spotted two familiar figures on the dance floor. Buffy and Angel were there, dancing close to one another. No, dancing was the wrong word for what they were doing. He had some fond memories of the dance Buffy had performed with him in order to make Angel jealous about a year or so ago. That was nothing compared to what he was seeing right now.

His attention was finally diverted when the band playing on stage was pushed aside by a couple of middle-aged men with bare upper bodies, all of them looking extremely drunk and eager to party. One of them grabbed the microphone and bellowed some kind of lyrics Xander had never heard before.

Wasn’t that Mr. Jameson, a teacher from school?

Looking around the stuffed exterior of the Bronze, most of the stuffing being done by people at least twice his age, Xander could not help but think that something strange was going on here. Much stranger than the fact that Buffy was busy licking Angel’s chest where she had unbuttoned his shirt. God, that was a visual he could have done without.

#

Kicking the discarded tweed suit into a corner Ripper lit himself a fag, stuffing the last piece of chocolate into his mouth at the same time. God, what had he been thinking? Moving into a place like this? Wearing these stuffy clothes?

He could think of only one possible way to wash the stink of years as a prude off himself. He needed to get laid. Fast!

Now where would the pretty girls be hiding in a boring town like this?

#

Part 6:

Buffy moved to the rhythm of the music, rubbing against the solid coldness of her lover, and did not have a care in the world. Why had she been so bleak these last few weeks? Because of Xander? Amy? Assassins? School? The changes in her own body? None of them were all that important, were they? They would still be there in the morning so she might as well take the night off to have fun with Angel.

Thankfully her lover seemed to have no problems with that at all. Which was kinda strange as she remembered him being something of a stuffed shirt now and then, always putting duty and obligation before his own happiness (though seldom hers). Not tonight, though. She had seldom seen Angel so lively and certainly was not about to complain.

Something else was strange, though. They had entered the Bronze looking for some partying, but the party going on all around them was not the kind she had expected. What were all these old people doing here anyway? Not that she cared much as long as they did not get in the way of her fun.

One of Angel’s hands wandered beneath the thin material of her top and chased all wayward thoughts from her mind.

“Like that, me love?” Angel asked her with a heavy Irish brogue to his voice. It sounded incredibly sexy. A moan escaped her as his fingers found one of her nipples.

“Me like,” she whispered, her nimble fingers quickly unbuttoning his shirt to return the favour. His skin gleamed like marble in the flickering lights and Buffy traced her tongue across his cool flesh, enjoying the taste of him. A growl built low in her throat as she felt the blood just underneath that pale marble surface. The blood was calling her with a sweet siren’s voice.

“Want a taste?” Angel’s fingers brushed across her lips and she eagerly sucked the digit in to her mouth, running her razor-sharp fangs across his skin until it broke. A few droplets of his sweet, sweet blood ran down her throat and Buffy pressed closer against him, wanting to taste more of him. Much more.

Suddenly the music stopped, only to be replaced by a middle-aged man bellowing into the microphone. Loud booing could be heard from the few teenagers present, though the older guys seemed to find the whole thing just peachy.

“What is this, senior citizen week?” Buffy looked disgusted. “They’re ruining our night out.”

“Want me to make it up to you?” A voice asked from behind her. Buffy turned to look at a man in his thirties, dressed in what might have been hip clothes about half a century ago. He was leering at her. “Nice young thing like you needs a real man to have fun with.”

“So what are you doing here?” Buffy hissed at him, but the man seemed ignorant of the danger he was putting himself into. Angel narrowed his eyes, which were flashing amber.

“Spunky kid,” the man continued undressing her with his eyes. “Maybe daddy needs to put you across his knee.”

Moments later the man found himself sprawled across the floor, the people around him quickly stepping back in fear. His jaw was clearly broken, blood spilling from his split lips. Before he even had time to recover he was grabbed by two strong hands.

“What was that about putting someone across your knee?” Angel asked him, even as he draped the man’s back across his own knee and started pushing down on his neck and hips. “You should really mind your manners, mate. Me thinks you need a little reminder of how to treat the ladies.”

Buffy leaned over the helpless man, smiling.

“You owe me an apology,” she sang in a teasing voice as Angel applied more and more pressure to the man’s back. He groaned in pain.

“What was that? Didn’t understand you.”

#

Xander could not believe his eyes. What was going on here? If this night had not been strange enough before it sure was now. He had seen that man come on to Buffy, obviously out of his right mind what with Angel hovering so close to her with a very possessive look on his face. He was too far away to hear what they had been saying at first, even without the music it was still too loud, but everyone quickly went silent when Angel suddenly punched the guy, breaking half his face.

No matter how little Xander might still think of Angel he knew the vampire would never intentionally use his inhuman strength for something like this. It was not like that guy had been about to attack them.

Then Angel draped the guy’s back across his knee, bending him at a very unnatural angle. Buffy did not do anything to stop him. Quite the contrary, she seemed to be enjoying herself.

A part of Xander almost cheered, thinking he had been proven right after all. Angel was still a monster and now he had turned Buffy into one as well. Was that not what he had always told everyone? A moment later he shook his head, violently pushing those thoughts away. Something strange was going on here tonight and it was not just Buffy and Angel. Something was causing everyone to act crazy and it had apparently infected them, too.

None of that really mattered for that guy whose back Angel was about to break, though.

Considering that neither Buffy nor Angel were too fond of him at the moment even when they were in their right minds Xander figured that what he was about to do might very well qualify as his most stupid act ever. Still, someone had to stop them from doing something that they would regret the moment they regained their sanity.

It looked like it was up to him.

#

“Giles?” Faith pounded against the Watcher’s door but received no answer.

“Looks like he isn’t home,” Willow said. “Where could he be this time of night?”

Faith quickly reached below the door mat and produced a key, earning stares from the rest of the Scoobies.

“How come you know he has a key hidden there and we don’t?” Cordelia asked.

“He’s my legal guardian,” Faith shrugged, “or will be soon. I thought it couldn’t hurt to insure myself access.”

Quickly unlocking the door they went inside, stopping once they saw the state of the living room. Clothing was strewn everywhere, most of it tweed, discarded like so much garbage. Two large boxes stood close to Giles’ stereo, filled with records. More records were spread across the floor, along with some photographs and an honest-to-good acoustic guitar. The room smelled of cigarettes.

“Did we enter the wrong apartment?” Willow asked, looking around in shock.

“Wow,” Faith said, digging through the records. “Giles has some vintage stuff here.”

“Cool collection,” Oz commented, squatting next to her.

“Hello,” Cordelia interrupted them. “Can we postpone the musical discussion until we find out why all the adults in town are suddenly going retro on us?”

“Adults,” Willow whispered. “Buffy and Angel are adults, too.”

“Oh great, does that mean they will be running wild as well?”

None of them found themselves particularly calmed by that idea.

“This is definitely not good,” Faith said, standing up again. “Not good at all. We have to find out why everyone is going whacko on us. Any ideas?”

The only thing she got was a lot of blank looks.

“Let’s go to the Bronze,” she sighed, again wondering how she had suddenly inherited the reigns of command of this little group. “I figure this is where all the wacky wayward wonder years guys are going to party.”

#

Joyce Summers realized two things at the same time. One, she was out of chocolate, which was definitely not a good thing. The second was the fact that, despite wearing the hottest outfit she could find (one from her daughter’s closet no less, meaning it was about two sizes too small for her, which was definitely a good thing considering her plans for the night), she was not attracting any guys at the moment.

There were quite a few of them out on the streets, which was puzzling for some reason she could not quite put her finger on. Somehow it seemed wrong for many people to be out after dark. She did not spend much thought on it, though. There were more important things to worry about.

“Why do they call you Ripper?” a sweet female voice asked somewhere behind her. Joyce turned around to see a guy in jeans walk down the street, a woman on each arm and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

She recognized the guy. Rupert Giles, the school librarian. Didn’t he usually wear tweed? Well, considering what she had found herself wearing earlier tonight (just because she was forty-two did not mean she had to dress the part, damn it!) she did not really have any stones to throw.

She was angry at Mr. Giles for something, that much she knew. She just was not quite sure what it was. Something to do with Buffy and all that responsible parent thing she had going. God, how had she ever ended up like this? Divorced, living alone (except for Faith, who was bunking in her house. Now that girl knew how to dress sexily), agonizing over how Buffy had moved out and was now actually older than she was.

Buffy was living with a guy and no doubt they had regular sex. Something Joyce found herself terribly short of. Giles had not noticed her, walking on with the two sluts on his arm. Joyce sniffed, these two could not be older than thirty-five or so. What did they know about satisfying a man?

Convinced that Giles (or Ripper, the girls had called him Ripper) would be heading to where the party was she decided to follow him.

#

Part 7:

"Something is definitely not right here," Faith mumbled as the gang made its way toward the Bronze.

"Do tell," Oz deadpanned, looking around.

The streets were littered with adults of all ages. Some of them were simply hanging out, drinking beer, and hooting at women passing by. Others were playing soccer, baseball, or football. Still others were racing their cars. The occasional crashing sound in the distance told of how that was generally a very bad idea.

"I don't mean that," the Slayer said. "I mean ... here we've got all these people hanging out after dark."

"So?" Cordelia asked.

"So where are all the vampires?"

"Hey, she's right," Willow said. "This is like an all-you-can-eat-buffet for the undead and no one is eating."

Faith sighed, wondering what exactly she was doing here. She was the Slayer, which meant that she was supposed to go out and kill the monsters. Since coming to Sunnydale she had certainly had a lot of opportunity to do that as this town seemed to house more demons and assorted creatures than the rest of America put together.

Only there were no monsters here tonight. Just a lot of people behaving like they were dumb teenagers instead of supposedly responsible adults and since everybody's favorite Slayer Buffy Summers seemed to be among said crazy people it all fell on her. Where in the Slayer handbook did it say that she was supposed to be good at solving riddles? Or at taking charge of a group of teenagers who somehow wound up saving the world now and then?

It was not like she really had any sort of plan or even an inkling what to do right now.

"Where do you think all the vampires are?"

Cordelia, Oz, and Willow were looking at her again and she did not like it at all.

"How the fuck should I know? I just wish there were a few of them around so I could dust them."

Willow seemed a bit taken aback by her outburst, but was quickly distracted by her own racing thoughts.

"Maybe they all ate the chocolate, too, and are busy having teenager fun themselves. Or maybe they are all out of town for some reason. Or maybe..."

"Slow down, red!" Faith put her hands on the young witch's shoulders. "B, Angel, and me slayed a couple of vamps earlier tonight, remember? They behaved normal enough."

"They were all fresh risers," Oz interjected.

"Right," Cordelia chirped in. "Not like they have a choice about when to wake up, right? But everyone who is already dead ... undead ... whatever, they're all gone."

Faith was glad that someone else seemed to be taking over the thinking part. God, she really wished Buffy or Giles where here. Or even Angel, figuring that he was older than sin he probably had the planning thing down pat, too.

"Gimme," someone yelled.

"Get your own you stupid son of a bitch!"

Faith looked up to see two men in their forties fighting tooth and nail, looking ready to kill each other over ... a piece of chocolate?

"I'll kill you, you...", one began.

"No one is killing anyone here," Faith interrupted, going between them. They both immediately turned on her, but found themselves outmatched. Moments later they were down on their butts, nursing aching jaws. Faith was holding the chocolate.

"Good chocolate, eh?" She dangled the candy before them.

"Gimme!" One of the man surged up again, only to receive a moderately painful blow to his stomach which sent him down again.

"Why are you so crazy about this chocolate?" Faith asked them. "Tell me, boys, and Aunty Faith will give you the good chocolate."

#

"Uh, guys?"

Angel looked up from the guy he was breaking across his knee and his eyes narrowed, blazing amber. Buffy took notice of the new arrival as well, her face warping with revulsion.

"Xander," she spat out.

"Yeah, me," Xander said, rapidly losing whatever courage he might have had to begin with. "Look, I'm not sure what's going on here, but I don't think you really want to hurt that poor guy."

"Oh, really?" Buffy took a step toward him, looking liable to rip him to shreds at any moment. "And I suppose you are the expert on what I really want, right?"

"Uh, Buff..."

"I seem to remember a time when you decided that I should not want Angel, so you did everything you could to force us apart. Like not telling me about a certain soul restoring ritual my best friend was performing at the moment. Remember that, too?"

"I ... I said I'm sorry for that." Xander took a step back, noticing that Angel seemed to have lessened the pressure on the guy's back a bit. Now if only he could get them to let him go without making himself the next candidate for a broken back. Or broken anythings.

"Sorry," Buffy repeated mockingly. "I seem to remember you saying that before. Quite a lot actually, at least as of late. Words are cheap, buster, especially when you're only saying them to save your own ass."

Xander had half a second to see Angel standing up, simply shoving the other guy off his knee and seemingly forgetting about him, when Buffy's hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat.

"I don't know what was holding me back before," she said as she began to squeeze, rapidly cutting off his breath, "but I should have done this a long time ago."

"Yeah, give it to him," someone was cheering from the sidelines.

Xander threw a desperate glance at Angel, but this time the vampire seemed in no way inclined to hold back his girlfriend. Quite the contrary, he was smiling in a very un-Angel-like way that would have sent a shiver of fear down Xander's back if he had not been too preoccupied fighting for breath. Even with both arms he could not get Buffy's hand off his throat.

"Buffy...," he managed to choke out, "... this ... isn't you. ... You don't... want to do ... this!"

"Oh, that is were you are wrong, Xander," she corrected him. "I've wanted to do this for over thirty years."

#

"The chocolate, of course!" Willow was clearly excited. "It all started when people ate that chocolate. Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

The men Faith had interrogated upon threat of chocolate removal had not been able to say why they craved the candy so much, only that they did. They behaved like junkies needing a fix.

"Snyder gave us that chocolate," Cordelia added. "How could it be anything but evil?"

"I'm wondering, though," Faith said. "We ate some of that chocolate as well, why aren't we affected?"

"Only some of us ate tons of the stuff," Cordelia remarked, giving the Slayer a look.

"It causes the adults to act like teenagers," Willow offered. "Maybe it doesn't work on those who already are teenagers."

That made sense, Faith had to admit.

"Snyder should know where it's coming from, right?" she asked the others. She did not know much about the school principal except that he was really tiny and a bastard. "Do you think he knew the chocolate would do this?"

"He's evil," Oz simply said.

"Not smart enough, though. He's more the unwitting pawn type."

"We should still find him," Willow reminded the others. "If we find out where the chocolate comes from we might find a way to reverse its effect."

Faith sighed deeply. "Okay, if you were a tiny, fucked-up principal type and suddenly went all juvenile, where would you go?"

They all looked at each other for a long moment.

"Let's start at the Bronze," Faith finally said when no one else seemed to have an idea, seeing as they had been planning to go there anyway. For the hundredth time she felt that it was a bad idea putting her in charge of this little group.

Did anyone ask her, though? No, of course not. She was only in charge.

#

Part 8:

Finding principal Snyder turned out to be far less difficult than they had imagined. Faith, Willow, Oz, and Cordelia had barely entered the Bronze, marveling at the complete wrongness of the scene unfolding before them, when a happy voice greeted them.

“Rosenberg,” Snyder yelled at them. “My favorite class nerd. I didn’t know you’d be coming tonight.”

The principal emerged from the teeming mass of dancers, most of them well over thirty, smiling broader than any student had ever seen him do unless there was an expulsion coming on.

“You brought friends,” Snyder said, putting an arm around a very disturbed Willow’s shoulder. For a long moment he stared at Oz. “I love your hair.”

Oz frowned heavily, unconsciously running his hand over his blonde spikes, but Faith ran out of patience quickly. Grabbing Snyder by the lapels of his jacket she backed him up against the nearest wall.

“Listen up, gnome!”

“Call me Snyder,” he smiled at her. “I like a girl who knows how to handle her man.”

“I’ll manhandle you, gnome, unless you tell me where that fucking chocolate is coming from.”

“The chocolate?” Snyder seemed confused. “I don’t know, it came through the school board. It tastes mighty good, though, doesn’t it? Wish I had another piece right now.”

“Where did the packages come from then? Who delivered them?”

Snyder was mumbling something about a factory on the outskirts of town when a commotion on the dance floor drew everyone’s attention. Faith looked up just as the crowd was parting to make room for a body flying through the air.

“Tired yet?” a voice asked, coming closer as the body came to rest at Faith’s feet. A familiar body. “I haven’t even started.”

Buffy emerged from the crowd, her demon eyes blazing right through the contact lenses she wore almost constantly these days, her face warped by fury. Her approach made the hairs on Faith’s neck stand up straight, her every instinct screaming ‘DEMON’ at her.

Xander struggled to get back to his feet, his neck visibly bruised.

“Buffy,” Willow went between the Slayer and her prey, something that Faith considered a really bad idea at the moment. “What are you doing?”

“What I should have done a long time ago,” she answered, simply brushing past her best friend. “This stinking loser got it coming.”

“But ...,” Willow went on helplessly as Buffy reached down to pull Xander up for another round. Reacting more on instinct than anything else Faith interjected, grabbing Buffy’s wrist and pulling her off the helpless boy.

“What are you doing?” Buffy hissed at her.

“Look, B, I know he’s got it coming, but I don’t think you really want to do that. Not your style, girl.”

“What do you know about style? Do you even own any clothing except those leather pants?”

One moment ago she had been a hissing monster, now she sounded more like the kind of snob girl Faith had hated in high school, the ones who had always made fun of her. Come to think of it, why was Buffy behaving like the demon bitch from hell anyway? Everyone else had simply been turned juvenile by the cursed candy.

“Got a problem, baby?” Angel approached through the crowd as well, moving with a kind of arrogant swagger that Faith had never seen on him before. The broad grin on his face alone was almost enough to make Faith blush and she never blushed. She did not know much about Angel but if he had not been a great womanizer in life than she would join a nunnery.

“Get out of my way, Faith,” Buffy growled, the demon bitch back.

Faith was desperately trying to come up with some kind of idea. She did not want to fight Buffy and she especially did not want to fight Buffy and Angel. The last time she had done that it had ended in her being knocked unconscious, quite roughly so, and neither of them had been under some kind of curse then.

Besides, they were her friends now, and she did not want to harm them, even if she were certain she could.

“That’s quite enough, Buffy,” a sharp voice suddenly came from behind them. “You are really embarrassing yourself.”

Both Slayers turned a surprised look on Cordelia, who was giving Buffy a stare that could have made plants shrivel up and die in seconds.

“Cordelia, what...?” Buffy began, more confused than angry.

“Try and remember that you are the Slayer, girl,” Cordelia continued. “While you are indulging your childish urges here the town is going nuts. It’s your job to beat up the bad guys, remember?”

“But ... but Xander...”

“Xander’s not a bad guy, just monumentally stupid. Besides, he isn’t going anywhere. You can beat him up after you do your duty and save the world. Do we have an understanding of the priorities here, young lady?”

Faith could not help a smile as she saw Buffy fidget in indecision. From the looks of things Cordelia had hit just the right nerve, coming off as the parent from hell to remind Buffy of her sacred duties. Faith had never meet teenage Buffy, but from everything she had been told the girl had been a sucker for duty, trying to live up to everyone’s expectations of her even while she was whining about her lack of a life.

“Every adult is going crazy, Buffy,” Willow said, trying to sway her friend. “We need your help.”

Throwing a glance at Angel Faith saw that he seemed to be waiting for Buffy to decide, though he was still throwing some very unfriendly glances at Xander. Noticing that Faith was looking at him he locked eyes with her, giving her a look that made her knees go weak. God, what it had to be like if he got close enough to use his hands ...

“Get your act together already,” Cordelia admonished Buffy, pulling Faith out of her x-rated thoughts. “We don’t have time for your usual angst and woe.”

Buffy gave the cheerleader a look that reminded Buffy of a brat child angry at not getting her way, but she finally took a step back from where Xander had managed to get back to his feet.

“Okay,” she huffed, crossing her arms before her chest, “but don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Xander.”

Draping Angel’s arm around her she started for the exit. “Let’s kick some evil ass!”

Faith and everyone else present breathed a sigh of relief.

“You should take Xander and head for the library,” she told Willow and Oz. “Maybe you can find something to lift this ... whatever it is. Besides, I don’t think having him close to B is a great idea right now.”

Willow nodded, moving closer to Xander to support him. The boy was massaging his aching throat, looking quite the worse for wear.

“Be careful, Faith,” Willow said. “I think the cursed candy has done more than simply regress Buffy and Angel to teenagers.”

“Like what?” Faith asked, having wondered about that herself.

“I’m not sure, but ... well, Angel is a vampire and Buffy is at least partly demon because of his blood. Maybe ... maybe they’re having problems controlling their demonic ... instincts, whatever.”

“Great,” Faith mumbled, then looked at Cordelia. “Think we can keep them in a line a little longer?”

“Watch me!”

Faith grinned at the brunette, then grabbed Snyder, who was busy trying to sneak away from these people who did not seem to be as much fun as he had originally thought.

“Let’s go chocolate hunting, gnome!”

#

Piling into Cordelia’s car they reached the chocolate factory in record time, Buffy and Angel jumping out before the vehicle had even come to a stop. The air was filled with the smell of candy and it seemed to draw them in.

“Evil chocolate central, I assume.”

Two guys in worker clothing were busy handing out fresh chocolate to a small crowd of people, all of them jockeying for position as if they were at a rock concert. Buffy and Angel were quickly making their way to the front of the crowd, pushing aside everyone who did not get out of the way fast enough. Faith and Cordelia were running to catch up.

Then suddenly Buffy froze.

“You’re nothing but a selfish ignorant,” a British-tinged voice accused.

“Oh yeah? At least I didn’t wear tweed for the last two decades, you ... librarian, you!”

Faith could not quite believe what she saw. There was Giles, Mr. Stuffy-British-Watcher himself, dressed in Jeans, a dirty white shirt, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He was currently caught in a heated argument with none other than Joyce Summers, who seemed to have raided her daughter’s wardrobe for the sultriest stuff she could find, never minding the fact that most of the stuff was two sizes too small for her.

Joyce was looking quite trim for a forty-year-old, though.

“Mom?” Buffy approached them, looking liable to faint any minute now. “Giles?”

“Shut up while your elders are talking,” both of them yelled at the same time, then went back to bickering. Buffy was close to tears, Angel immediately there to comfort her. Though his idea of comforting was bordering on the obscene.

“This isn’t quite going as planned, is it?” Cordelia asked.

“Does that really surprise you?”

#

Part 9:

“We should probably head inside,” Faith said. “I don’t think we’re liable to clear anything up out here.”

Giles and Joyce were still bickering, quite loudly so. The way they were going at it almost made Faith think that they might have ... nah, not Giles and Joyce. Then again they were under the influence of cursed candy, regressed into horny teenagers. There was way too much bickering going on between them.

And way too much PDAs from Buffy and Angel.

Shaking off those thoughts and disturbing images Faith looked at Cordelia, the only clear-headed one present except herself.

“Think you can keep a lid on things out here for a moment?”

“I’m not going to break up those two,” the brunette said, pointing at Buffy and Angel with an air of disgust. “I might be able to keep Giles and Mrs. Summers from killing each other. No guarantees, though.”

“Fair enough. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Please hurry!”

Faith found herself giving Cordelia another grin, surprised at how the former cheerleader was pulling her weight. Usually she was too busy bitching about having to help. She remembered that little talk she had overheard between Cordelia and Xander, the first glimpse of true feelings she had ever seen on the brunette’s face. More and more Faith found that people actually had the capacity to surprise her in a positive way, something she would have said was impossible before coming to Sunnydale.

Still grinning she threw herself into the crowd of chocolate addicts, quickly making her way to the front. The two worker guys tried to stop her, but barely managed to slow her down. One found himself flying through the air, the crowd quickly parting to get out of his way, the other came to rest in the wrecked remains of a few chocolate boxes.

People immediately swarmed over the liberated chocolate bars as Faith made her way inside. The warehouse was filled to the rafters with chocolate boxes, probably enough to make all of California go crazy.

“Someone will have to burn this place to the ground,” Faith whistled with just a tiny bit more enthusiasm than was proper. Passing an open box she quickly stuffed a few chocolate bars into her pockets. If the six bars she had consumed so far had not regressed her to babyhood she figured a few more could not hurt. They did taste quite good.

“This is far out,” a voice said behind her.

“Giles?” She turned to look at him. He was not alone. “What are you all doing in here?”

Buffy and Angel were there as well, still arm in arm. “What? You think you can hog all the ass-kicking fun around here? I should remind you I’ve been the Slayer about thirty years longer than you, girlfriend.”

Cordelia came in with Joyce, dragging the woman along. “Sorry, but stepping in the way of fun loving vampires and Slayers is not part of my job description.”

Snyder snuck in behind them, looking around with his little gnome eyes, taking some chocolate from the same box Faith had ripped off just a minute ago. Faith was about to launch into a string of curses, not able to think of anything better to do, when she heard a faint voice from somewhere behind the boxes. A distinctly British voice talking to someone.

“Yes, it worked perfectly,” the voice said. “The town is wide open.”

Faith stealthily made her way toward the source of the voice, followed by the rest of the gang. Thankfully all of them were quiet as well, even Joyce and Giles.

“You can start anytime you want.” The speaker was a man with greying hair, dressed in black pants and a silk shirt. Faith had never seen him before.

“Ethan Rayne,” Buffy suddenly said, sounding like she had just discovered something rather unpleasant.

The man called Ethan turned around, looking at the newcomers with an uncomfortable statement on his face.

“You might want to hurry,” he told whoever was on the other side of the phone, then hung up.

“Hello, Ethan,” Giles said, moving towards him with a cruel grin on his face.

“Hello, Ripper.” Ripper? Why was he calling Giles Ripper?

Moments later Ethan bolted, making a beeline for the stocked chocolate boxes. Faith, still a little out of the loop, needed a moment before she thought of following him. By that time Buffy, Angel, and Giles were already hot on his trail.

Ethan tries to hide amidst the boxes, but Faith had little problem homing in on the stink of his fear. For Buffy and Angel, who both ad the whole predator sense thing going rather strong these days, it was even less of an effort. Barely a minute after he had begun his flight Ethan was being dragged back out again, surrounded by quite a few super powered, angry people.

Faith also noticed that Snyder seemed to be coming on to Joyce, something that disturbed her on a level too deep to describe. Thankfully Joyce did not seem interested, just kept chewing on bubble gum.

“Who is this guy?” Faith asked Cordelia.

“I think I saw him once, about a year ago. Some kind of sorcerer, black magic guy. He and Giles used to hang when Giles was in his black magic, hate the world, walking time bomb phase.”

“What are you doing here, Ethan?” Buffy asked him.

“You know me, Slayer, just ...”

Before he could even finish the sentence Buffy punched him in the gut, causing him to double over. Angel wore an admiring look on his face while Giles jumped into the air, seeming very pleased.

Faith, deciding not to trust the questioning part to the cursed candy crowd, went over to pick him off the floor.

“Let’s do this again, shall we? What’s with the cursed candy? Who were you talking to on the phone?”

“Cursed candy, I really don’t...”

“Hit him,” Giles interrupted.

Buffy raised her fist, eager to comply.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Ethan quickly back-pedalled. “I ... I’m just the little guy here, really. Just doing a job. I was hired for this.”

“Hired by whom?”

“I don’t actually know.”

“Hit him!”

This time both Buffy and Faith raised their fists while Angel slipped into vampire face, the gleeful grin on his face turning very scary in the process.

“I really don’t! A guy in a suit, had some vampires following him around but he wasn’t one. Offered me a whole lot of money to make sure that all of Sunnydale was distracted for tonight.”

“Why tonight?”

For a moment he seemed liable to deny knowledge again, but with Buffy, Faith, Angel, and Giles all standing uncomfortably close and looking quite willing to pummel him at a moment’s notice he quickly changed his mind.

“There’s some kind of demon and they need to give him tribute tonight. They wanted to be sure that no one interferes. Meaning all of you, I’d say.”

Faith gave him an encouraging smile, encouraging in the way that it would have sent him running if all possible escape routes had not been blocked by angry-looking super-powered people.

“See? That wasn’t so hard, Ethan, was it? Now be a good boy and tell us what that big heap tribute is all about, will you?”

#

In the Sunnydale hospital most of the employees were out having fun, seeing as working the night shift was not exactly the epitome of a good time. The only one currently present was a nurse manning the counter in the nursery station, but she was busy watching TV and folding little airplanes out of patient files.

Therefore she did not notice the six vampires walking out of the elevator, immediately heading into the nursery. Moments later they were gone again, leaving nothing but empty cribs behind.

#

Part 10:

“The demon’s name is Lurconis,” Faith told Willow over the phone. “Ethan here says that he doesn’t know what the tribute will be, but it’s gonna be big and it’s gonna be tonight.”

Willow, Oz, and Xander had arrived at the library, the latter making use of the ice bags that Giles had thoughtfully stored in the little fridge in his office.

“Lurconis, got it,” Willow said. “We’ll look it up immediately.”

“Great.” Faith looked over to where Ethan stood, fidgeting under the stares of Giles (who insisted on being called Ripper) and Buffy. Angel meanwhile seemed more focused on Buffy than anything else, their bodies constantly touching in a way that caused the room temperature to rise. Joyce just seemed bored, ignoring Snyder’s antics with an air of supreme indifference as she chewed on her bubble gum.

Faith thought about inquiring after Xander, if only for Cordelia’s sake, but then decided against it. They had more important stuff to take care of than that boy’s latest stupidity. She did not know what he had done, but approaching Buffy and Angel when they were quite obviously not right in the head was stupid enough all by itself.

“Found something,” Willow’s voice chirped through the receiver a few minutes later. “Lurconis. A demon that empowers people who give him regular tribute. And the tribute ... oh.”

“Red? What is it?”

“Faith ... Lurconis eats babies.”

Faith’s face fell as her blood ran cold. Babies?

“It ... it doesn’t say how many,” Willow went on. “Faith, we have to stop them.”

“We will. Okay ... so, Red, if you wanted to get several babies without too much trouble ...”

“Babies?” Cordelia asked, having heard only Faith’s part of the conversation.

“Lurconis eats babies,” Faith told her, her face grim. Cordelia paled.

“Oh my god.”

“The hospital,” Willow guessed. “The nursery.”

“We’re on our way.”

#

They arrived at the hospital a short time later, not even the crazy ones among them making any trouble once they learned that a demon was going to eat babies if they did not stop it. They came too late, though, finding the nursery empty.

“Shit!” Faith looked around. “They’re gone.”

“The nurse says she saw nothing,” Giles said, coming over. “Dozy cow.”

“And now what? They could have taken the little guys anywhere. We don’t have a clue where this Lurconis guy is hanging.”

“Maybe you guys should go looking for it,” Snyder proposed. “Look up the demon and ... I don’t know, kick the crap out of it. I’ll stay here in case the babies ... you know, come back.”

“You little ponce,” Giles got in his face. “Are you afraid of a little demon?”

“Listen, Rip-face ...”

“Snyder pees his panties,” Buffy singsonged, smiling broadly at her former principal, exposing her elongated fangs. Snyder shrunk back from the sight.

“This is getting us nowhere,” Faith sighed. “We’ve got to find this Lurconis before ...”

“Lurconis dwells beneath the city,” Giles suddenly said, looking confused.

“Down in the darkness,” Angel went on. “Filth to filth.”

“Okay, you guys have been wigging me out all night, but still ...” Cordy looked back and forth between them. “What was that all about?”

“I ... I know this.” Giles slapped his hand against forehead repeatedly. “I read this somewhere. Lurconis translates as ... glutton, I think.”

“He is in the sewers,” Angel helped out, looking more like his broody self that he did all night. “I heard rumors about him once.”

“Great, the sewers.” Cordelia threw her hands up. “Only a few thousand miles of dingy tunnels to search through for six little babies and a demon. No sweat.”

“There should be a sewer entrance somewhere nearby,” Angel said. “If they went in through there Buffy and I can pick up the trail.”

“You can pick up another vampire’s trail?” Cordy asked, remembering that Ethan had said something about his employer having vampire bodyguards. “That’s great. And disturbing, too.”

“We can follow them if they’re fresh,” Angel grinned again. “But I think the scent of the babies will be stronger than theirs.”

Faith looked at him as he said that, saw the glint of hunger in his eyes, the demon inside him looking out from behind his dark orbs. Buffy had an almost identical look in her own eyes. All of which did not exactly manage to make her feel any better about the situation they found themselves in.

#

“They’re on their way,” Willow announced to the room, not receiving much in the way of feedback. Oz remained stoic as ever, handing Xander a fresh bag of ice. Xander, in turn, just gave a nod, not saying anything either.

“I guess we can just wait then,” Willow went on, sitting down beside them, “and hope for the best. What were you thinking?”

Xander needed a moment to catch up with her rapid change of topic, finding himself on the receiving end of a glare from his childhood friend.

“What?”

“You know Buffy isn’t too fond of you right now. And you must have known that something strange was going on, seeing as how they were behaving ... the way they did. Why didn’t you stay out of trouble for once?”

Xander opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again. What could he say? At this point in their relationship, with all the things he had fucked up, he simply was not sure if Willow would believe him if he told her the truth. Looking back it had been pretty stupid. There must have been a better way to separate Buffy and Angel from that guy without nearly getting himself killed.

In the end he just shook his head, saying nothing.

“That’s just great,” Willow huffed. Looking around for anything to distract her from Xander her eyes fell on a book. Quite a few books actually. Books were always good for distracting her.

“According to Faith Ethan said that the cursed candy should wear off by tomorrow, but maybe we should look into that to make sure.”

Having nothing better to do Xander and Oz both grabbed a book, following her lead.

#

“Carol. Hi. Yeah. Call Dave on the public works committee tomorrow about sewer maintenance and repair. I have some concerns regarding exposed gas pipes, infrastructure, ventilation. And, uh... cancel my 3:00.”

Mayor Richard Wilkins put away his cell, thankful that it worked this deep underground, and also thankful that he had found a competent new secretary on such short notice. None of which made him all that glad to be stuck in a sewer, though. Sadly Lurconis was not in any shape to come to his office, where all this could be conducted much more civilized. Well, some things could not be changed. He owed a good portion of his current power and position to this demon and he would pay his tribute. He was a politician who kept his word.

His six vampire helpers were preparing the babies. Wilkins took a moment to smile at each of them, always having been fond of kids. It was just too bad that these little guys would not be able to grow up to be productive members of society. Well, it could not be helped.

“We are ready,” the vampire closest to him announced. His name was Henry and he had proven himself a barely competent henchman. Wilkins was kind of sad that Mr. Trick was obviously opposed to working for him again. That vampire had had a certain amount of competence and style.

“Lurconis should be here shortly,” he said, checking his watch. “Then we can ...”

“Excuse us,” a new voice suddenly said, “but can anyone join this party?”

Looking up the Mayor saw a group of people standing in one of the access tunnels, a group he had taken steps to assure would not be here to interfere tonight. Angelus and the two Vampire Slayers stood side by side, wearing almost identical anticipatory grins.

Was he imagining things or did Angelus and the blonde girl look ... hungry?

#

Part 11:

Faith had half a second to see some guy in a suit standing at the other end of the sewer junction they found himself in before the first vampires were upon them. Suit guy quickly faded back into the shadows, making a getaway before she could get a look at his face. She cursed inwardly, pretty sure that she was letting whoever was throwing so many curveballs their way escape, but there were more important things to worry about right now.

“Here, vampies,” Buffy sang and threw herself into the fray, Angel by her side with nothing but a growl. The two of them tore into the attacking vampires with a ferocity that almost caused Faith to hesitate, giving another vampire a shot at her. She recovered just in time and kicked him in the chest, throwing him across the tunnel toward some kind of gurney.

An altar with six little bundles on top of them.

“Giles,” she yelled behind her. “Get the babies!”

Giles surged past her as she kept two vampires at bay, quickly making his way toward the kidnapped children. Joyce was half a step behind him, something Faith had protested against quite vehemently, but there had been too little time to argue properly. At least Cordelia had had enough sense to stay behind.

Pushing the gurney to the side Giles brought the babies out of the battle zone, which was quite a good thing as neither Buffy nor Angel seemed to concerned about who got caught in the crossfire. Outmatched vampires were flying every which way, Buffy ignoring at least two clear opportunities to stake her opponent in favour of inflicting more damage.

Usually Faith was all there with her when it came to putting in a little fun while slaying, but not with six babies to save. She quickly dispatched the two vamps who had attacked her and went over to help Giles. Buffy and Angel did not need any help by the looks of things and somehow Faith felt it was a good idea to get the babies away from here before they were finished.

There were several screams as Buffy and Angel finally lost their patience and reduced their unfortunate victims to dust. Three of them at least, the fourth one went flying into some kind of basin with God alone knew what kind of icky stuff inside it. At the same moment the tunnels around them began to shake and Faith’s Slayer sense began to scream at her.

“Company,” Buffy yelled, feeling the same. A huge snake stuck its head out of the tunnel and snatched up the vampire struggling to get out of the basin, gulping it down with a single bite. The undead never even had time to scream.

“Lurconis, I presume.”

“A big snake?” Buffy sounded disappointed. “I expected something flashier than this.”

“We can take him, baby,” Angel grins at her.

The snake emerged once more, having swallowed its first meal, and Buffy and Angel greeted it with kicks and punches. Lurconis’ head was bigger than all of Angel put together, though, and it brushed them away with casual ease. Angel went flying all the way to the other side of the tunnel, while Buffy crashed into Giles. Thankfully the gurney with the babies remained standing.

Faith looked at the stake in her hand, guessing that it would have a hard time penetrating the scaly exterior of the demon that was even now looking for new victims. Or maybe its tribute. The babies were crying now, quite loudly so, and the snake’s head whipped around to zero in on the noise.

“Need a plan here, people,” Faith yelled at the others, quickly moving between the snake and its prey.

Angel was back on his feet, grabbing the burning torch the vampires had brought with them as a weapon, swinging it at Lurconis. The demon edged back from the flames, but did not seem to be particularly intimated. More and more of its length came forth from the tunnel and there was no end in sight.

“The gas pipes,” Buffy suddenly yelled.

Faith looked up, seeing the exposed pipes over their heads. How Buffy knew that they were gas pipes was anyone’s guess, but Faith did not really care about that right now. The two Slayers both jumped up, each tearing a pipe out of the roof. Gas shot out into the tunnel and Angel quickly swung the torch their way, igniting it.

With two improvised flamethrowers in hand the Slayers turned to Lurconis.

#

Mayor Richard Wilkins stared at the sewer-induced stains on his jacket and sighed, throwing it away with disgust. He had known that going into the sewers was a very bad idea. All that filth, all those germs ... and now this.

Well, with things being what they were he actually had to hope that the Slayers and Angelus managed to destroy Lurconis. The power the demon had given him would not fade with its death (or so he believed) and he would be spared further tributes, freeing up his calendar a little. If Lurconis survived, though, that was when things could get rather ugly. The demon would be furious.

It was a strange thing to be rooting for one’s enemies. Said enemies thankfully still did not have a clue who he was or what he intended. Still, he really needed to do something about them soon. They were proving entirely too resourceful.

He was a patient man, though. In a few days his little spy would deliver her first report. Danielle Burg could prove to be an invaluable asset. Destroying the Slayers and Angelus through external means would be anything but easy, they had proven that much by easily repelling these assassins he had sent after them, but attacking from the inside was a completely different game.

Making his way back to his limousine the Mayor decided to use the money gathered from the band candy to replace that ruined jacket. Seeing their elected official looking his best was more important to the public peace of mind than having new uniforms for the school band, he figured.

#

Lurconis burst into flames as Buffy and Faith doused him with the burning gas, screeching in pain and quickly retreating into the tunnel it had slithered from. Faith breathed a sigh of relief, even though she was not quite sure that the demon was actually going to die. Right now that was not that important.

They put the open ends of the pipes into the basin, quickly dousing the flames. Six vampires dusted and one big snake demon fried extra crispy. Not a bad night’s work, Faith thought.

Turning toward the corner where Giles had brought the babies made her freeze, though, icy fear running down her back. Buffy was standing right next to the gurney, looking down on the six crying bundles of flesh laid out before her.

There was no mistaking the hunger in her amber eyes.

“B?” Faith approached her carefully, not wanting to do anything to set off the demon that was visibly fighting for control right now.

“They look so ... cute,” Buffy whispered, her voice shaking, sweat breaking out on her brow.

Angel suddenly appeared by her side, his own eyes glowing amber in a face that was no longer human, but despite all that he seemed calmer than her.

“Buffy,” he said, putting one hand on her shoulder. Faith could just pray that the effects of the candy were wearing off, otherwise she had no clue what to do now.

No further words passed between Buffy and Angel, but their touching seemed to speak volumes. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the monstrous thing looking out from behind Buffy’s eyes seemed to retreat, curl in on itself, and vanish back into the red darkness of her demonic blood. Faith did not know when exactly she had grabbed her stake again, ready to use it if necessary, but now she slowly lowered it.

Finally Buffy turned away from the babies.

“We should probably get them back to the hospital,” she said.

Angel just gave her a proud smile as Faith breathed a sigh of relief.

“Might as well,” Giles grumbled. “Night starts with a good shag and ends with babies. That just figures.”

“Who did you ...,” Faith began, then remembered the bickering between him and Joyce, who was even now cooing at the distraught babies. “Never mind, please don’t tell me!”

Thankfully Buffy seemed oblivious to Giles’ words.

#

Part 12:

Things quieted down quickly after that. Ethan Rayne had not lied, the cursed candy wore off shortly after dawn. Most of those afflicted, as well as those unfortunate teenagers exposed to this flash of the past from their parents, quickly adopted the usual Sunnydale method of dealing with things that could not easily be explained. They ignored it, wrote it off to bad food, too much to drink, or maybe some kind of prank where people spiked the town’s water supply. Anything but face the fact that something very strange had once again held sway over Sunnydale.

The kidnapped babies were returned to the hospital without incident, though both Buffy and Angel flat out refused to get close to any of them again until they were safely tucked away. There was no sense in tempting fate any more than necessary.

Ethan Rayne was arrested by the police for illegal distribution of non-licensed food, some technicality Willow and Oz had come up with during the research session. Unfortunately it was the best they could do, seeing as no one would possible believe all that had happened. It should have put him away for at least a few months. What the Scoobies did not find out was the fact that Ethan walked free just a few hours later, the charges against him dropped after a phone call from the deputy mayor.

Assessing the damage of the night revealed that there had been no casualties, though some people had quite thoroughly wrecked their cars, their homes, and the occasional body part. There were lots of bruises, some broken bones, and a lot of folks suffering from truly monstrous hangovers.

Having taken care of the life and death matters, though, left quite a few more personal issues to deal with for the people involved.

#

“Xander?”

His neck and jaw were bruised a lovely shade of purple and he had gone through ice packs at a frightening pace. Looking up at the one calling his name hurt quite a bit, but he did it anyway. He met Buffy’s eyes as she came toward him.

“Hi, Buff,” he said carefully. “I ... is the candy curse over?”

“Over and done with,” Buffy said, trying to sound quip, but failing miserably. “Back to my old self. Thank God.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said softly.

Buffy sat down next to him, avoiding his gaze. There was silence between them for a minute or two, the awkwardness almost tangible.

“Xander,” Buffy finally said, “I wanted to ... to thank you. And I wanted to say I’m sorry. For hurting you.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. You weren’t exactly yourself.”

“Maybe.” Buffy paused, wringing her hands in her lap. “Or maybe I just got a very frightening look at what I could become unless I’m careful.”

Xander did not know what to say to that, so he kept his mouth shut for once.

“There are a lot of things I need to figure out about myself,” Buffy continued. “I just wanted to thank you for doing what you did. That you stopped me and Angel from ... from ...”

Her voice trailed of.

“I had some of that coming,” Xander admitted. “I messed up a lot, Buff. I know I did. I just ... I just hope that I can somehow make it up to you and Angel.”

She finally met his gaze, her amber eyes still a disconcerting sight for him.

“This doesn’t make it right, Xander. I can’t just brush away what happened.”

“I know,” he nodded.

“But maybe ... maybe Angel was right. He said everyone should get the chance to earn forgiveness.”

Xander looked up, surprised to hear her utter these words. After everything that had happened he had almost given up hope.

“Do you mean ...,” he began.

“Just what I said. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Xander swallowed and nodded, realizing that Buffy had gone as far as she was able to go for today. A small part of him was a bit peeved. Had he not stopped her and Angel from becoming killers tonight? Was this all he got for nearly being killed at her hands? Thankfully he had gotten quite good at suppressing that spiteful voice. It only got him in trouble.

“Thanks,” he simply said.

There was the barest shadow of a smile on Buffy’s face.

#

“Feeling better?” Angel handed Giles a cup of tea.

“More or less,” the Watcher replied, thankfully accepting the beverage. “Though I am wishing very hard for some kind of spontaneous amnesia right now.”

Faith, sitting on the couch and munching on one of the few remaining chocolate bars, grinned at him. “This might not have something to do with the bickering between you and Mrs. S, G-Man?”

Angel gave her a look that was halfway between stern and amused. Giles just groaned.

“Maybe we should change the topic.” Giles looked very serious. “How is Buffy?”

Angel sighed, sitting down as well. “Fully recovered. Very spooked also.”

“Not surprising. What about you?”

“I’m ... well, used to would be the wrong statement, but I know what it is like to feel the urges of the demon inside me, having trouble controlling them. It’s not pretty, but I have learned to live with it. Buffy, though, ...”

Giles leaned back, massaging his temples in a vain attempt to get rid of the migraine that was rapidly developing.

“I fear I’m no closer to learning about what might yet happen to Buffy. There has never been a human being drinking vampire blood over this length of time. Not even close. Certainly never a Slayer.”

“Virgin territory?” Faith asked, reminding the others of her presence.

“Pretty much,” Giles answered. “Well, I will keep looking, but we mustn’t forget that there are other things that might have to take precedence right now.”

“Like who hired Ethan Rayne,” Angel nodded.

“Guy in a suit isn’t exactly a major hint.” Faith swallowed another bite of chocolate. “I saw this guy in the sewers, but he was little more than a shadow. Made fast tracks outta there, too.”

“Then there is the matter of Amy’s death,” Giles reminded the others. “The assassins sent after you. The two suited vampires that you caught trailing you right after you got back. Maybe it’s all connected. Maybe not. We really don’t have much in the way of clues.”

Angel nodded again. There were a lot of things that needed figuring out. Some part of him was actually looking back fondly at the simplicity of travelling through Hell.

“I should go meet Buffy,” he finally said, standing up. “She wanted to talk to Xander by herself, but I don’t want her to be alone today.”

He said his farewells to Giles and Faith, the latter finally finishing the destruction of the cursed candy. Giles had given her some words about eating this stuff, but seeing as teenagers had remained completely unaffected by it he did not have much in the way of arguments.

“I should head back home, too,” Faith said. “Mrs. S might be interested in some girly talk. Girls like to share all the dirty secrets, you know?”

Unfortunately the spontaneous amnesia remained conspicuous by its absence.

#

As the sun set over Sunnydale Harold Madison returned home, finding it every bit as empty as last night. And the night before. It had been but two weeks since his daughter had died. Amy was gone, gone forever. He had not been here, business taking precedence over his daughter.

Little more than a year had passed since he had gotten her back. He had known what kind of woman her mother was, had long dreaded what kind of influence she might be for their daughter, but the courts had given her custody of Amy, not him, so there had been nothing he could do about it. Hearing about Catherine’s death had been horrible, but somehow he had known that it would end that way.

Having Amy back, living with her, had been wonderful. Why had he not been here? Why had he allowed business to become so important that he had spent so little time with his daughter? Why was he only realizing all this now when it was too late?

Amy was dead, killed by persons unknown, and the only thing left was a tombstone and regrets.

“Don’t cry, dad,” a voice suddenly said, wrenching him out of his thoughts. “Everything will be fine.”

“Amy?” He looked up. This had to be a dream. Amy was there, alive, standing in the open door and looking every bit as beautiful as he remembered.

“It’s me,” she smiled at him.

“Oh my God!” He was on his feet a moment later, pulling her inside to crush her against his body. She was here, she was alive.

Harold was so overjoyed that he never even noticed the pricking of fangs in his neck until it was too late.

#

Mayor Richard Wilkins went through the first report of Danielle Burg and was quite satisfied with what he read. According to her observations the Slayer, Buffy Summers, was quite distracted during their first tutoring session, clearly distraught about something. Everything else had also gone according to plan and his people would give him the first results soon.

Seeing as Lurconis seemed well and truly dead and therefore unlikely to seek retribution for the bungled tribute Wilkins found himself quite satisfied. Things were going according to plan, more or less, and the big day would arrive as scheduled.

If nothing else went wrong.

He had barely finished that thought when Allan Finch knocked at his door, coming in to put a report on his desk.

“We just got this from one of our ... people.” Allan never liked dealing with the vampires working for them. “It seems someone new just arrived in town.”

“People come to our lovely town all the time, Allan. Who is it?”

Moments later Richard Wilkins found himself remembering that earlier thought and wondered whether it was really possible to jinx oneself.

#

“We are there, my lord,” the driver said. “Sunnydale.”

“Finally! Elron, would you please take care of the baggage!”

“Certainly, my lord.”

Getting out of the car the vampire stretched his legs, looking around the warehouse district he found himself in.

“So this is the town I’ve heard so much about, is it?”

“Yes, my lord.”

He sighed. “That was a rhetorical question, Elron, but thank you anyway.”

Closing his eyes, he breathed in deeply.

“Quite a set-up you’ve got going here, Dick.”

Two more vampires were carrying the luggage from the car to the warehouse they had decided to set up shop in. It was but a few blocks away from the place where, if his information was correct, his old buddy Kakistos had met his final end. Well, he could not honestly say that he was all broken-up about it. One less potential rival.

As it was he would be able to concentrate fully on the person he had come for.

“It’s been a long time, Dick,” he continued, looking in the general direction of city hall. “We really need to have lunch and chat about old times.”

Following the other vampires inside he threw back his head and laughed.

“I WILL BURN THIS TOWN DOWN AROUND YOUR EARS! HA HA HA HA!”

“My lord, why are you shouting?” Elron asked.

He stopped laughing and frowned. “I’m not exactly sure, Elron, but I find it oddly satisfying.”

THE END

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