Author's Note: Thought I might as well put up two chapters, tonight, just to get you into the story. So here's a bonus chapter for the evening!
When I reread "Elizabeth", I found a line that I'd forgotten, where Buffy says that if she were just a little bit more evil, she wouldn't want to let the Doctor leave Sunnydale; she'd be selfish and keep him there, with her. I was thinking about that a lot, when I wrote this story. This version of Buffy is the very-slightly-more-evil version of our normal Buffy. Not a lot. Just very slightly.
That evening, in a graveyard, Xander came running over to Willow, breathless. "Yeah, okay," he said. "You were right. Buffy is on patrol with boyfriendish, after all." He coughed, pointing over at a mausoleum to his right. "They're just not patrolling the cemetery, anymore, if you know what I mean."
Willow frowned, confused. "They're not…?" Her eyes went wide. "Oh." She grinned. "Well, I guess that'll make Buffy happy."
"It doesn't make me happy," said Xander. He wiped his eyes, with disgust. "I mean, why am I always the one who walks in on them, doing it?"
They caught sight of a vampire, running off — and spun around, to chase it.
"And, by the way, the whole thing of 'distracting' Buffy to get her not to stake vampires," Xander said, as he ran, stake in hand, "is really, really annoying. And it makes way more work for us."
They sprang at the vampire, who snarled, and turned on them both. It knocked Willow to the side, then rounded on Xander, sprouting fangs. Xander lunged for it, but it snarled and grabbed him by the wrist, yanking his head to the side, to expose his neck.
Before he knew what was happening, a blond blur flipped through the air and landed just behind the vampire. She spun it around, punched it in the jaw, and staked it.
Xander just stared.
Willow, getting up from the ground, also stared.
"What? No helpful-rescue thankfulness?" Buffy asked them. She shrugged, and twirled the stake in her hand. "Thanks for the appreciation overflow, guys."
"We… uh… thought you were with…" Willow started.
Buffy shook her head, with a sigh. "No. He's not around, tonight. More… 'ship time'."
Willow and Xander exchanged a look.
"What?" Buffy asked.
Xander, not embracing this task, walked over to her. "I think there's something you have to see."
Then he led her to the mausoleum he'd been in, just before.
Buffy stared, horrified — as she saw her boyfriendish making love, right then and there, to someone else.
Giles squinted at the passage in the book. "Ah." He tore off his glasses and squinted at it, again. "Now, that is worrisome." He tapped it. "Terribly, terribly worrisome."
He went back to his desk, and picked up a small metal orb. He compared it to the illustration in the book.
"Terribly, terribly, terribly worrisome," Giles amended.
The phone rang, and he raced over to pick it up. "Hello?"
He breathed a sigh of relief, when he heard who it was.
"Oh, yes, I was expecting you'd be…" He looked down at the page, and frowned, as he listened. "Yes, yes, that's fine. However, I fear we may have a larger problem on our hands." He flicked his eyes over to the metallic orb, lying on his desk. "Yes, I did. It was created by the Boundless Three — a set of powerful mages, who are dedicated to…" He paused, cut off. "Well… yes, it is," Giles admitted. "But that's beside the point. The reason they left the orb, in the first place, is because…!"
He paused, as the voice on the other end cut him off, again.
"Will you please just listen? This is terribly dangerous!" Giles insisted. "They have another method by which they could easily…!"
And, yet again, he was cut off.
Giles set the phone receiver down on the counter, and pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging his eyes and waiting for the person on the other end to stop talking. "Oh, Lord. It's at times like this that I really wish Buffy were here."
When he heard the voice on the other end of the phone stop, he picked up the receiver, again.
"Perhaps it would be best if you simply came here and read the book, for yourself?" Giles said, warily. "At least, then, you could judge if this is truly 'nothing' — or if it's catastrophic."
Giles waited for the reply. Then, "Fine, fine. I'll be here."
And hung up the phone.
"I do hope Buffy appreciates, someday, how much pain and agony I'm going through, on her behalf," Giles muttered, trying to sooth a horrible headache. He brewed himself a cup of tea, hoping it would help. He feared this would be a long, sleepless night.
"Oh, yeah, I've seen this kind of thing loads of times," Anya chimed in, as Willow struggled to comfort a crying Buffy. "A 'nighttime hobby' is never just a nighttime hobby."
Xander sighed. "Anya, please." He gestured at Buffy. "A little sensitivity."
"No, she doesn't need sensitivity," Anya insisted. "She needs revenge." She marched over to Buffy, and sat down, next to her, on the bed. "How long has this been going on? The whole 'ship time' thing?"
"Two weeks," Buffy admitted, through tears.
Anya threw open her arms. "See? Two whole weeks of sleeping around, every single night — maybe even multiple times, each night — while you knew nothing!" She shook her head, crossing her arms. "You gotta do something that'll really get him for this."
"I don't think that's going to help, Anya," Willow put in. She put an arm around Buffy's shoulders. "I think she just needs to sit down with him and… you know… talk."
Anya rolled her eyes. "Since when did that do any good?" She stood up, and shoved her hands on her hips. "Look, Buffy. There's only one way you're going to get through to him. He's a Time Lord. So you've gotta get rid of his ship."
Buffy stopped crying. She looked up, through tear-stained eyes.
"Uh… Anya, honey?" Xander asked, a little suspiciously. "This wouldn't happen to have something to do with the fact that you're still scared he'll get his memory back, jump into his time machine, and erase you from history… right?"
Anya decided to ignore that. "You gotta come at this from a position of power, Buffy!" Anya insisted. "Take his ship away, and he'll be begging you for a second chance. Time Lords become sniveling wrecks without their ships."
Buffy thought this over.
A small smile trickled across her lips.
"Buffy, think about this," Willow urged her. "You're upset, I know, but — you can't just act irrationally, here! I mean, his ship is really important to him, and taking it away…!"
"Can I bring it back, like, in a little while?" Buffy asked Anya. "You know, after I feel like he's learned his lesson?"
Anya's face fell. "Well… after about 24 hours… but… why would you even want to? I mean, wouldn't it be better if we just let the Uncreator stay here, shipless, and unable to… you know… uncreate?"
"And that confirms, completely, Anya's motives, in this," Xander said, pointing at her. Then, turning to Willow, "As far as I'm concerned — there's no reason not to. Take away the ship, and he'll have no excuse to run off, at night. Buffy can confront him about what he's been doing." He shrugged. "It's not like the Doctor can fly it, anyways. What's the harm?"
"There's a spell," Anya proposed, dragging an old book out and blowing some dust off the cover. "If you've got your TARDIS key, and are trusted by the Time Lord that the TARDIS is connected to, you can make it work. The spell will yank the TARDIS into the vortex for at least 24 hours. Then you can summon it back, using the counter-spell." She looked around herself, at the items on the shelves, nearby. "It's pretty easy. I think we've already got all the stuff we need, for it, here."
Buffy jumped to her feet. "Then let's do it."
