Restfield Cemetery, Sunnydale

July 1st, 1998

The Slayer named Kennedy Thompson honestly didn't know what to make of it all.

The rich female teen had been prepared for the time when she would be called to be a Slayer, in fact her Watcher had nearly quit the Council to keep teaching her in New York; rather than some boarding school in England. Basically, Kennedy had been taught that the world was simple to understand; higher beings were good, and lower ones were evil. Now, though, she had been told that the Roman god named Janus had informed this group she'd met last night, that the cosmic good guys had plans that would end in a dark death for most of the so-called Scooby gang.

Kennedy had thought she'd have trouble over how the other Slayer, Buffy, had decided to screw a vampire…soul or not. Just the thought of a 250-year-old dead body inside her made Kennedy want to vomit. Another thing was her Watcher didn't really know if a dead male vamp could 'complete' the act of sexual intercourse, so to speak. She just hoped to God that that other girl had made him use a condom.

But at the moment, the thing that was taking up most of her thoughts was Kennedy's current patrol partner.

"All right, that's it," Faith said, as she stopped in her tracks.

"What?" Kennedy asked innocently.

"Don't give me that Snow White innocent act," Faith told her as she straddled a low gravestone. "So far tonight we've run into five vamps and a Sapervo demon…" she stopped. "Nice neck break, by the way."

"Thanks," the other Slayer replied simply.

"But..." Faith kept going. "All night, you've been staring at me like I'm about to go postal or something. What gives?"

Kennedy grinned as she sat on a stone opposite her. "You have to ask? You're a guy."

Faith looked amused, and then she cupped her breasts through her tight shirt. "Don't think guys have a chest like this, do you?"

"You know what I mean," Kennedy pressed the issue. "This entire 'Faith' bit is too much…"

"Faith bit?" Faith demanded. "Hey! You sayin' I'm not real?"

"Mr. Giles told us about your transformation," the younger Slayer told her. "I mean, you act like you have two personalities-"

"Yeah, 'cause I do," Faith said cutting her off. "Look, X is a guy. A good guy, like I have no trouble sharing a body with him. But while we share the same general memories and likes, we're totally different people. Sure, we started out the same…" When she noticed the look on Kennedy's face Faith stopped. "Okay, full story?"

"That would be nice," Kennedy agreed. "Mr. Giles told us some things last night, but not everything."

Faith thought back to that day a month ago. "Okay, at first I literally was just Xander Harris with tits and funky new powers. His personality, mannerisms, all that stuff. But then, things changed."

"Changed, how?"

Faith frowned. "Back story first. When I change, I keep the clothes, that's why Cordy made me take the leather off last night. Becoming a guy would have ripped them apart, and that's just a sin in her book. Anyway, back in May, I still had my boy clothes on when I first became…me."

She grinned. "Mostly just a thin white cotton undershirt. Cordy was taking me over to her place to get some decent threads when Percy West and a few of his pals stopped us. The jocks did the normal 'me big stud, wanna date me?' thing. Even badmouthed X to Cordy. Anyway, basically still being X with a decent set of jahoobies, I couldn't believe how much those guys were drooling over me. C said later that of course they were going to stare at a girl with C cup breasts in a thin shirt with no bra on."

"I've heard guys do that," Kennedy mused.

"Yeah," Faith said. "I guess deep down, all men really do have only one thing on their minds. But at the time, Queen C introduced me to them as her friend Faith from Boston. Said it was the first thing that came into her mind, though she didn't know why. So over the next few days I started talking and acting like I was from Boston, I knew once those idiots started spreading the word around I was gonna need the cover to be airtight. Weird as, though; X has never been there once in his life, but somehow I really did become a Boston girl. Hell, I dunno. Giles thinks it was part of Janus's chaos stuff."

"So the Faith personality just grew up 'cause of the spell?"

Faith nodded. "I grew up pretty quick," she told the other girl. "X thinks of it like the old He-man cartoon. When we go 'Slayer', as he calls it, only the personality changes. I've had conversations with the others that keep going after the body switch between X and me has taken place, whatever the topic."

The other Chosen One had a strange look on her face. "Right. Still, I just don't see people accepting this so easily," Kennedy said from her stone.

"Oh, hey, they didn't at first," Faith admitted. "Willow freaked out the most…hell, Red actually tried to figure out a way to undo the mojo for a while, even though she can hardly levitate a pencil. Cordy, though, she was different; she could accept it in a way that no one else could," the young woman smirked, her eyes alive with love and lust. "My girl said that she's noticed tons of little things between X and me that indicated to her how we're the same person. Said my eyes look at her the same way."

Faith paused again. "By the way - you really pissed her off last night, attacking X that way. My advice? Apologize for it as soon as possible. Otherwise, that girl can and will make your life a living hell in this town. And you don't have to take my word for it - ask anyone in Sunnydale, they'll all tell you the exact same thing."

Kennedy thought about that for a moment. "Personal question?"

"Shoot," Faith told her.

"Last night I heard you and Cordelia arguing about who was going to wear some bikini outfit, and I saw her not deck you when you grabbed her ass…"

"Right. So you're asking if Cordy is a switch-hitter?" Faith grinned.

Kennedy grinned back. "I'm gay, Faith. Two more hot-looking girls around here that are also gay would not be a bad thing, in my book."

Faith shook her head. "To quote Queen C…she's very much NOT a lesbian."

Kennedy shrugged. "So then you switch back to X, I mean Xander, whenever you and her want to fool around-"

The other girl shook her head. "Up until three days ago, I couldn't."

Kennedy abruptly remembered what Giles had said last night. "So she's not gay, and yet she still stuck with you all that time you were stuck as 'Faith'?"

"Cordy doesn't look at it as her being gay," was the answer from the other Slayer. "Like I said, she knows we're the same person. So in her mind she's just with her boyfriend, whatever his outside appearance happens to be."

Kennedy smiled. "I've known a few of those kinds of girls. Any reason to say it's not gay when it is."

"Hey, if that's the way my girl wants to see it, then that's fine with me," Faith told her. "And you're not going to tease her about it, we clear on that?" The grin was now completely gone.

Kennedy held up her hands. "Won't hear anything from me, I promise." A moment's pause came before she changed topics. "So, you think you're a real Vampire Slayer?"

"Don't know for sure," Faith admitted. "But I think I have everything B always bitched about having. The dreams, super strength, incredible agility…" She shrugged. "Way I see it, until I meet the guy or thing that creates Slayers and he tells me I'm not one, then I am one."

Faith abruptly got up. "Come on, we have to finish the rounds."

As they walked through the gate onto the streets, Kennedy wondered, "Do you two talk to each other? Xander and you?"

"Nope," Faith said with a head shake. "X and I have never met, to tell you the truth. Like I said, I know what he knows, and he knows what I know. Though he did make a videotape of himself saying hi to me the other night…he thought it would be cool, but it actually turned out kind of lame since I could remember recording it 'n all."

"What about guys?" Kennedy asked. "How does he handle you…being you?"

Faith laughed a little. "Funny thing…but that's the one thing that never gets back to my roomie. I could make out with any guy I want…and X would have no memory of it. He'd recall the conversations, if there were any… but none of the physical stuff." She saw Kennedy's doubting expression. "I was all jazzed up after a decent slay, and then I saw this hot stud…well, you know how it is. Anyway, Cordy got so pissed at me - but Harris didn't recall what she was mad about."

Kennedy shrugged. "Well, I guess a non-gay guy wouldn't exactly like those memories anyway."

"Yeah," Faith agreed. "Changing sex is bad enough. But to make out with a guy when the juice is pumping…eh, maybe Janus had a heart after all. Though Giles thinks the other shoe has still to drop."

"About what?" the other Slayer asked. "Some magic backlash?"

"Could be," Faith replied as they walked off. "Got to be a catch somewhere."

----

The demon dimension commonly referred to as Hell

The same time

The last few decades had not been too kind to the vampire with a soul named Angel. He'd been beaten, tortured and burned almost daily. At this moment, he was lying on the floor of his cell trying to reach a rat that scurried around. He needed something to eat, and he had resorted to rats before.

The problem was, though, he was not sure if the rat was even real, because you never knew in a place like this. His captors could be watching him even now trying to get the rodent, but never catching it. Oh, he had been given blood to eat a few times, but he didn't even want to guess where it came from. The colors of it changed each time, and each time the pain afterwards got more and more intense.

Angel weakly looked up towards the cell door as it was pushed open. Through the light now pouring into the room from the other side, he could see the little red troll demon that helped his captors. He then figured one of the massive horned demons would come in ready for a new…day, maybe, of torture.

But Angel was surprised when a human-looking man in a dark suit with a red tie came into the room instead.

"Well, how the mighty have fallen," the man said archly, as he walked down the stone steps. "You know, it's funny, but if you only knew how many of those idiots upstairs think you're the last great hope humanity has…"

Angel just growled at the first human-looking face he had seen since arriving in this place. He wasn't so far gone as to be completely animalistic, at least not yet, as he grunted, "Am I supposed to guess who you are?"

The man shook his head. "Nope, on account of I could care less who you think I am. I just called in an old marker, and now I'm here to collect you."

The vampire didn't feel like playing another game. "Sorry, I don't swing that way."

The man laughed a little. "You don't, that's true. But we both know your other half does; I mean, should we go ask Spike about all the fun Angelus put him through that one time?"

"Since when does a demon care about another demon?" the chained vampire demanded.

"Oh, I'm no demon if that's what you mean," the mystery man told Angel. "Not to mention, I don't care what happens to that walking sack of hair bleach. Just making a point, is all." He then leaned down to be eye to eye with Angel. "Personally, I also couldn't care less what happens to you…soul or otherwise. But some people who'll remain nameless have been bitching and moaning about you lately…and it's at the point now where I'm just getting plain annoyed by it all."

"Annoyed?" Angel asked, the tiniest shred of hope appearing in his heart for the first time in decades.

"Oh, hell yes," the mystery man said; then he stopped, a smirk appearing on his face. "Guess that phrase isn't exactly appropriate here, huh?"

Before Angel could say anything, the 'man' snapped his fingers and a chair appeared behind him. He sat down and continued, "You see, there are those who think you belong down here; but others think the soul shouldn't be tortured for all the stuff it didn't do. So I have a little thing in mind that would both give me a laugh, and destroy some plans of some idiot Powers That Be."

"Powers That Be what?" Angel asked from the stone floor.

The man leaned back in his chair. "Oh, they're just a bunch of crybabies really. Fact is, a tiny bit of responsibility went to their heads awhile back, and now they think they control everything. You've already met one of their lackeys in that Whistler idiot."

"I remember him," was all that Angel replied, trying not to get his hopes up.

"Well, anyway," the man kept going. "They thought you would be the perfect person to manipulate into stopping Spike and Drusilla from using Acathla." He laughed and looked around the cell. "And that turned out real well, didn't it?"

Angel looked at his companion with sudden contempt. "Spike wouldn't even have been interested in something like that if I hadn't lost my soul, I know him. He even helped Buffy stop it from happening, in case you didn't hear."

"True, yeah," the man said to that, scratching his chin. "'Cause I'm sure that guy would have loved to go from free Happy Meals to what you get in this…place. But gettin' back on topic, now the Powers want to bring you back to Earth as the bad boy vampire with a soul to fight their battles for them."

"I don't fight for others."

The man nodded. "No, you just fight to try to help the girl you always wanted to nail from day one."

"Don't you dare talk about Buffy that way!" Angel yelled as he tried to yank on his chains.

"Hit a nerve, did I?" the man laughed. "Granted, she is part…a small part of what they want you to do. From what I've learned of the Powers' plans, the scenario is that you'd stick around Sunnydale for her senior year of high school, then you'd go off to find your own very well laid out path in Los Angeles." He smirked, "But that's not going to happen now. You see, I have a little thing going there in Sunnydale, and I don't want you stumbling around and ruining it."

"And what 'thing' would that be?" Angel asked with a pseudo-sigh. "Let me guess, you're going to open the Hellmouth and destroy the world?"

"Now why would I want to do that?" the man asked the vampire. "First of all, that would kill off all my followers, and I like having followers. Second, no world, no master plans to screw up."

The man just stood and snapped his fingers. Angel was overwhelmed by the blinding white light that filled the room, his enhanced senses overloaded as he passed out.

----

The higher dimension known as the realm of Janus

Not long afterwards

"You have really screwed yourself completely this time, old man!"

Janus looked up from his throne chair to see the balance demon barging into his personal chambers. "You again. And I assume you're referring to what I've done with your…Angel."

"Damn right!" Whistler said hotly. "We put a lot of time and effort into him, his destiny is to fight the Senior Partners and get rid of their Circle of the Black Thorn!"

"And here I thought he was supposed to stop Acathla?" the Roman god replied to that. "That IS the lie that you spoon-fed that Buffy girl, isn't it? Your bosses create so-called Champions only to send them to their deaths, and they've already made a deal with that…Jasmine thing."

"I don't question the Powers' will," the human-looking demon said with passion. "They're the ones in charge…and besides, the only thing that ends up sacrificed is the Mother. A very small price to pay to get Angel in position to destroy the Black Thorn."

"What about everyone that Beast thing will kill, and the few thousand people that Jasmine will eat?" Janus asked. "Just out of interest, do they factor into your masters' plans?"

The demon shrugged. "Who knows? But then, what does it actually matter? Humans breed like insects; a few thousand here or there won't even be a footnote in the pages of history after a century or so." At Janus's scoff to that, Whistler came closer. "Look, the Powers know what's right and what has to happen for the greater good. That insect lady will open the door to allow Angel to take over the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart-"

"Allowing him to destroy the mighty Black Thorn," Janus finished for him.

"Yes!" Whistler said, finally glad that maybe this god understood.

Janus looked annoyed, though. "Then why all the plotting and planning? Why not send in the other Champions you already have to attack the Black Thorn? If a group led by a vampire can take them out…then surely the others can as well?"

"This is the way the Powers want it," Whistler told him, sounding like a brainwashed cultist fanatic. "Beings like you and me can't hope to understand the grand design of their plans."

"You might not be able to, you fool," Janus replied with extreme contempt. "But I can see through them as easily as a human can see the stars at night."

Ignoring the balance demon's look he kept going, "Hear me well, demon, for I do not care whether you believe this or not, but it is the truth. Long ago, your Powers were given a small piece of responsibility for the human realm, and the only way for them to keep it forever…was to create an enemy that only they could combat. They set up one of their annoying master plans to manipulate those so-called Senior Partners into forming the Circle of the Black Thorn. So even if Angel and his ill-fated group were to destroy that particular demon cabal Los Angeles…more would be put into place before the blood was even wiped off the floors."

"That's insane!" Whistler said to that. "The Powers destroy evil, not create it!" He got right into the god's face…well, faces, as it were. "We both know you adding that copy of the Slayer Faith what's her-name, the one that exists in all those other dimensions, wouldn't have been that hard to undo later on. But Angel is not replaceable! Darla, Spike…even the Watcher, the physicist, and that black street kid in LA, everything is finally in place after so much planning, and you can't-"

The balance demon backed up suddenly and lifted his eyes upwards. A human would not have had a clue what was going on, but Janus did. Whistler was receiving orders from his masters. The Powers' servant had a nasty grin on his face as he turned back to Janus and said, "You're to come with me to beg for their forgiveness, old man. Not that you'll get it. Then I'll personally take out that manufactured Slayer of yours, and her male host."

Janus shook his head, not fearful in the least. "Will you? If you kill Xander Harris…then who's going to destroy those zombies a few months from now, and save the world?"

Whistler stopped dead in confusion. Despite the image he liked to put forth, he didn't know everything that was to come. "What? Zombies, what zombies?"

"You tell me, you moron!" Janus boomed in annoyance. "Because all that is supposed to be part of your masters' plans, correct?" He raised himself from his throne. "Just so you know, I will not be summoned by some gang of heathens like the Powers That Be. But you can give them a message for me."

The Roman god extended his hand out and a lighting bolt sprang from his finger and hit the balance demon, encasing him in light before he vanished.

----

The realm of the Powers That Be

Moments later

Two of the five Powers That Be turned around as their demon messenger appeared suddenly among them. They saw that he was alone, and were instantly displeased.

"Where is that fool we sent you to collect?" one demanded.

Whistler looked up in surprise. "Janus…he just sent me back to you guys. Said he was sending a message."

"Sending you back to us is not a true show of power," one of the Powers stated. "We will go to collect him ourselves…"

"Ah, guys?" Whistler said suddenly, as his hands started to glow white.

"This is unexpected," the second Power told the other as the glow quickly covered the demon's entire body.

"What's going on?!" Whistler demanded as the white heat started to burn him. "This is really starting to hur-" the demon managed to get out before his body exploded with as much force as a small nuclear weapon.

The blast destroyed much of the Powers' realm, and incinerated both Powers That Be. Both of them had thought nothing could touch them within their own domain, but they had just been proven very wrong about that.

---

Espresso Pump, Sunnydale

July 3rd, 1998

"Hey," Kennedy said as she looked up to see who was joining her. "Not planning to try to kill me, are you?"

"I should, after you tried to choke my boyfriend the other day," Cordelia replied acerbically as she sat across from the Chosen One. "But Xander insisted that I play nice with you."

"Huh. You don't seem to me the type to take orders, even from your boyfriend," the Slayer said to that.

"Oh, I'm really not," Cordelia agreed. "But Xander is being very stubborn about this. Not to mention holding out on me."

It was not hard for Kennedy to read the other girl's body language. "Ohhhh. He's withholding sex?"

Cordelia growled. "Yes!"

"You do know that it's the girl that's supposed to do that, right?"

"Don't rub it in," Ms. Chase told her, annoyed. "I mean, Xander and I were always very physical people…but after I figured out that I was ready to take that final step…oh, boy."

"Have to say, I'm surprised to hear you admitting that," Kennedy said as she took a sip of her latte.

Cordelia just waved her off. "Oh please, if you told anyone I would destroy you…" Her voice got hard. "You do realize that I would make you suffer for that, don't you?"

"Not physically, yeah, but I've heard the horror stories," Kennedy responded, rather surprised at the quick turn the girl showed. "Faith said you would take me apart if I didn't make nice."

"Oh, you got that right," Cordelia said with a smile. "You should ask her what I did to this girl back in freshman year…she's planning to become a nun now, last I heard."

Kennedy laughed at that. "Really…"

"Yeah, really," Cordelia said seriously. "Kimberly Spencer, blond, busty and dumb enough to try to spread STD rumors about me!!"

"Sounds like my kind of girl," the Slayer grinned, giving Cordy a sexy wink.

"This is Sunnydale," Queen C replied. "We got all kinds around here."

Kennedy leaned back in her chair. "Then I think I might actually like it in this place." After a moment of silence she said, "Look, I'm sorry if I overreacted the other day. And do you know any good stores at the mall around here? I do have my father's credit cards to max out."

Cordelia's eyes lit up at once. "You're rich?"

"Not to mention spoiled," Kennedy said with a grin. "My great-grandfather got into the railroad scene on the ground floor, back in the old days. Now, my family owns a fourth of uptown New York City."

"My dad's into banks, mostly," Cordelia told her new friend. "In the US, China, the UK, Amsterdam…"

Kennedy got a big smile on her face. "Let's say we hit up Rodeo Drive in LA. I need a trip to Tiffany's."

"So do I," Cordy replied happily. "But we have to take Xander along."

"He likes to shop?" Kennedy asked, surprised. In her experience, most guys would prefer to drive a railroad spike though their heads rather than go shopping with women.

"Only when I go bikini shopping," Cordelia said, instantly making Kennedy nod in understanding. "But we need someone to carry our bags…and it serves him right for holding out on me!"

"Fine, but have you considered that turning him into a pack mule is only gonna make the dry spell last longer?" Kennedy pointed out in a reasonable tone of voice.

Cordelia simply smirked, as she and Kennedy got up and headed for the entrance. "That's why that stopover at Victoria's Secret is gonna make Xander start drooling, when I model the latest lingerie for my boyfriend. We'll see just how long his willpower can last against his libido!"

"Nice," Kennedy said as they left. "I saw their latest catalog on the trip down here. He won't stand a chance."

"No problems with me doing that to a 'fellow Slayer'?" Cordelia wondered.

"Not with this girl," Kennedy laughed.

---

One hundred miles north of Rome, Italy

The same time

While it was nice and sunny for the people of Sunnydale at the moment, within this forest north of the Italian capital it was dark, cold and windy. Janus moved through the dense tree line until he came to a clearing that he was fairly sure most of humanity had never heard of.

This had been the last stand for legions of Roman soldiers nearly two thousand years ago. They had been a special unit trained to fight demons and other creatures of the night. And since most human history had buried the fact that demons had ever roamed the earth, this battle was in no human history books. The legions had been slaughtered but had done what they were tasked to do, namely save the world. It was a shame, really, that no one except the elder gods even recalled this place.

But then again, humans these days didn't even have the brains to think dragons were real anymore.

Janus came to the top of the highest hill and stretched his arms out wide. Mystical energy flowed from his fingertips as the wind started to howl with fury. While this was not his normal modus operandi, one could not find an army as easily as in the past. And having had followers in the army was just making this much easier.

"Arise from your long slumber of death, brave soldiers of Rome!" he called to the mighty wind.

Several moments went by before the first skeletal hand burst through the ground, then another, and another. Decayed bodies of dozens of fallen soldiers dug themselves out of their graves. It took roughly five minutes or so for the entire army to return, somewhat, to the land of the living. Janus just watched as they took up their fallen weapons and gathered at the base of his hill.

"Warriors of Rome!" he called to them. "You are needed once again, in a land far from here where demons are stealing children for hard labor." He waved his hand and a large portal appeared. "Go, my soldiers, and show these demons the true meaning of HELL!!!"

A terrifying battle cry rose from the army of the dead, as they started to run full tilt into the portal to face their new enemy.

----

Factory work camp, low level hell dimension

A moment later

Barse growled out at his fellow demon, "We're going through them too quickly. We need to adjust the spell."

"They're here for their entire lives," the one called Dresi told him. "How is that too quickly?"

"Because the time difference with the "surface" is too big," Barse said. "It's only two days there and humans don't breed that damn fast."

"But that city has millions of lost kids," his brother demon replied. "Why…"

"You don't have to go up there," Barse or "Ken" said. "I have to convince those sniveling little worms to come to the shelter…."

The demon's angry rant was cut off by the large boom of a portal opening. The two lower beings looked on in shock as countless decomposed warriors came screaming through to their factory.

"What in the Darkness's name-?" Dresi asked before his head was chopped clean from his body.

Barse was grabbed from behind, and spun around. He stated into the empty eye sockets of the being that had a strong hold on him. "Let me go, damn it!"

"Wwwwhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooo aaaaarrrrrrreeeeeeee yyyyyooooouuuu?" the creature demanded.

"What?" the demon said, confused "What the hell…"

A savage bone fist hitting his face nearly tore his jaw off. Once again the creature asked, "Wwwwhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooo aaaaarrrrrrreeeeeeee yyyyyooooouuuu?" It also added something else, "Wwwwhhhhaaatttt iiisss yyyyyoooouuuuurrrr nnnaaaammmeee?"

"Barse!" "Ken" yelled over the noise of the other demons being slaughtered around him.

The skeleton creature nailed him with another punch. "Wwwwhhhhaaatttt iiisss yyyyyoooouuuuurrrr nnnaaaammmeee?"

It took a while, granted. But finally, "Ken" realized that he was 'no one', at least not anymore.

What with his having foreseen what would have happened if Buffy Summers had ever ended up down here - Janus surely did love a good jest, one had to admit.

---

Third Floor of the Beverly Center Mall, Los Angeles

July 4th, 1998

Xander hated this; he hated it with every fiber of his being. It was 3:45 pm, and he was carrying at least six stuffed bags from various stores his girlfriend and Kennedy had gone to so far today. "We've been at this since nine o'clock this morning, come on! How about we call it a day?"

Cordelia and Kennedy stopped talking to each other to look back at him in incredulity. "Call it a day?" Cordelia asked as she faced him. "You can't be serious…we haven't even hit Macy's yet!"

"Yeah," Kennedy added to that. "Then we have to go Tiffany's to get that new heart-shaped diamond ring I want."

"Oh, you know what?" Cordelia said, turning to her new best friend. "I should get one too…no, how about we get our own custom-designed diamond necklaces?"

"Sounds good," Kennedy grinned. "How about matching ones?"

"Yes!" Cordy said. "It's got to be at least two carats, or else it's not worth getting."

"Oh, for the love of almighty Zeus!" Xander shouted in despair. "Cordy, give me the spare car keys so I can put this stuff in the trunk at least."

"And what are we supposed to do, just wait around while you walk down to the car?" his girlfriend asked him archly. "That is very inconsiderate of you, Xander."

"Are you freaking kidding me!?" Harris fumed, his patience exhausted. "Cordy, enough already. Just go into the next store, and I'll be back before you try on your third dress."

"Why don't you just change into Faith?" Cordelia asked him, she and Kennedy could both tell the young man had finally been pushed too far. "Then lugging those bags around would be easy."

Xander looked down at his clothes. "Does it look like these threads would fit-"

"He's right," Kennedy interrupted. "Besides being horrible enough to almost make my eyes bleed, those clothes would look ten times worse on Faith."

"Fine," Cordelia sighed as she handed over the spare keys since the other set was with the mall parking valet. "Just hurry up…and do not wreck my crystal wine glasses."

"Thank you!" Xander said acerbically as he turned to leave.

As she watched her boyfriend walk down the long hall, Cordelia decided something.

"It's true."

"What is?" Kennedy asked.

"Those clothes, they DO almost make your eyes bleed," Ms. Chase told her. "I buy him brand new designer clothes, and yet he still insists on wearing that crap?"

"It's a guy thing, or so I've heard; change the outside too much, and you mess up the inside. Besides, it's not like you can buy him enough clothes to replace his entire wardrobe," the Slayer commented.

Cordy's eyes widened in shock as she turned to her friend. "That it! Oh, Kennedy, I could kiss you!"

"Well, you know I'm game for it," the gay girl teased her new best friend.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Be serious! Now here's the plan; I buy Xander enough clothes that he never has to wear that…that god-awful stuff again! Or failing that, we raid his closet, burn everything he owns, and THEN buy him a whole new wardrobe."

"Well, I guess he does need at least one pair of leather pants…" the Slayer told her musingly, ignoring the whole arson thing.

Cordy shook her head at once. "I don't know about that. Personally, I REALLY doubt Xander would like them."

Kennedy looked at her surprised. "What? He'd look good in something like that-"

"Oh, I'm sure he would," Cordy nodded as she cut her off. "But it's something all of us noticed back when Angel went bad. All of a sudden, that guy started wearing leather pants when he went all psycho evil vamp on us. I think it was a demon cow fetish thing, myself."

"Leather jacket?"

"Duster actually," Cordelia grinned.

"Well, never mind, it was just a thought. Hey, you know…Xander's going to go ballistic at us making him try on so many clothes, later on," Kennedy told her friend.

"I know," Cordy replied. "I guess I'll just have to have sex with him at the hotel tonight to smooth things over."

"I thought you said he was holding out on you?"

"He is," Cordelia nodded. "But let's see how easily he can say no to me while I'm wearing that…" She turned the Slayer around to see the contents of a window for a lingerie store. The female mannequin was decked out in a red teddy, stockings, and heels. "I'll have him create a new world record for the time it takes him to get his pants off!" Miss Chase said triumphantly.

"Damn," Kennedy commented, on thinking of the cheerleader in that outfit. "Mind if I watch?"

Cordy lightly smacked the back of her head. "Yes I do, you horn dog!"

"Hey! I've been slaying a lot ever since I arrived on the Hellmouth," the other girl said, lamenting the fact that she would have to go back to Sunnydale tonight for patrol instead of watching Cordelia parade around the hotel room in all her…glory. "I get all worked up, but I have no one to…you know."

Cordelia grabbed her arm. "Fine, I happen to know that one of the cheerleaders on the squad is secretly gay…I'll introduce you to her when we get back to Sunnydale tomorrow. Or Monday, whatever." She started to drag the Chosen One to the store. "Now help me get this on before dweeb boy comes back."

---

Residence of Rupert Giles, Sunnydale

Roughly the same time

Giles pulled open his front door to find a surprise visitor. "Principal Snyder…uh, what are you doing here?"

"I figured you'd be at home today," the short and balding man replied, obviously annoyed. "You're English, what do you care about an American national holiday?"

"Well, I do try to get into the spirit of things as best I can," Giles told him.

"Take my advice, don't bother," Snyder said with a look of distaste. "It's just an excuse for rednecks and idiot kids to get drunk and blow things up." He sighed. "Anyway, you haven't been answering your phone lately and I was in the neighborhood, so I dropped by here to tell you that the school board has decided to hire a part-time assistant for the library, starting the first day next semester."

"What?" Giles asked, completely surprised. "Errr, I-I wasn't even aware such a position was being offered?"

"Yeah, well. Neither did I," Snyder commented acidly. "Lord knows I don't need yet another idiot on the payroll. But it seems that the board's vice president, Mrs. Williamson, she wants her grandson to have a normal job and learn the meaning of an 'honest' day's work."

This did not sound good to the Watcher. "Well, I really don't think I need an assistant…"

"Of course you don't," Snyder said, waving a hand and cutting him off. "I know for a fact that more people go into the bathrooms trying to smoke pot, rather than read anything in that library."

"Well, that's not exactly true-" Giles said automatically, but again he was unceremoniously cut off.

"Yes it is, and don't bother trying to talk me out of this," Snyder told him caustically. "It's not my idea, not to mention not my decision. But the good news…for you…is that you already know the young future criminal in question."

"I do?" Giles asked, unsure.

"Yes," Snyder said in annoyance. "Daniel Osborne, he's one of those misguided delinquents that thinks he can play decent music. He just scraped by in order to graduate a few months ago, and my opinion he'll most likely end up dead of some drug overdose soon enough. But for now, you'll just have to put up with him. Am I clear?"

"Of course," Giles replied, heaving a sigh of relief. After all, Oz was an established part of the Scooby gang, and there was no one else he'd rather have an assistant - apart from his girlfriend, Willow.

----

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale

July 11th, 1998

"So Oz will be working at the library with Mr. Giles?" the Summers mom asked the young redhead, not long after lunch.

"Part time, and for minimum wage," Willow told her. "It's a big surprise, but after he said he wasn't interested in college - apparently his grandmother doesn't want him just sitting around all day, playing the guitar."

"I see. Well, I suppose that's nice for you," Joyce told the girl. "You'll still have your boyfriend around on campus…" the mother stopped. "Does his grandmother know of his condition? I mean, the werewolf thing?"

Willow nodded before she reached down with an oven mitt and pulled out the tray of freshly baked cookies. "Yeah, 'cause Oz isn't the only member of his family to have a special time of the month deal…but she doesn't know that we know about it."

"Oh?" Joyce asked as she helped put the cookies on the other tray.

"Oz says she thinks it'll hurt her chances of re-election if the rumors start flying around," Willow informed her. "But even in this town, in my opinion the rumor of a family of werewolves wouldn't get all that much attention."

"I know I wouldn't believe it if I didn't know the…" Joyce said softly. "The truth of this town."

Willow understood the middle-aged woman's still not liking knowing about the 'real world'. "It's definitely not Mayberry, despite outward appearances," she said. "But we do what we have to."

"I've been thinking abut it ever since that 'Spike' person showed up in my house with Buffy that night. And Willow, I've come to the conclusion that I should never have moved here," Joyce sighed. "I should have found another school for Buffy in Los Angeles, or somewhere else. Anywhere else but here!"

"You couldn't have known the truth about Sunnydale, none of us did until Buffy showed up two years ago," Willow said uncomfortably, the young woman thought it would be better not to mention that if the Summers family had never come here - then she herself would have been dead a dozen times over. "I mean, the Slayer stuff - it was some big higher destiny thing or something. It would have followed Buffy no matter where you two ended up!"

She was cut off by the sound of the doorbell, and out of habit Willow glanced out the kitchen window to check if it was still light out. "I can get it, if you want?"

"No, it's okay dear," Joyce told her with another sigh. "You get the other tray out, you still have the mittens on."

Willow nodded before going back to the oven. A few moments later, she heard Joyce cry out in surprise. The redhead then moved so quickly she dropped the tray of cookies on the floor… and she was stunned to see who was at the door.

"Buffy…?" Willow asked in astonishment.

Buffy Summers looked back towards her as she came up from the hug from her mother. "Willow!"

"Buffy!" Ms. Rosenberg yelled as she ran over and hugged her friend. "You're back! You're finally back!"

Joyce hugged her daughter back to her quickly. "I'm so sorry for what I said when you left that night, sweetheart…it's just very hard to accept that your daughter's a vampire Slayer..."

"I know," Buffy told her. "But, uh, mom - I'm pretty sure you don't have to worry about that any longer."

"What? Why not?" Joyce asked her, confused. From the various talks with her daughter's friends, she knew that being a Slayer was kind of a lifelong destiny thing you couldn't walk away from.

Buffy looked to Willow and her mother. "'Cause I don't know how it happened, but…" she exhaled deeply. "My powers are gone. A little over a month ago… they just went away like that. I'm not a Slayer anymore."

"Oh boy!" Willow said stunned. "A month ago…." She asked her friend not wanting to know the answer. "Maybe around May 30th?"

"Yes…." Buffy said not liking how this was heading. "How did you know that?"

"Ah…" the redhead said not wanting to say. "I think we should call Giles…"

-tbc-