See Part One for Disclaimer and details. Hey, everybody, welcome to chapter ten! And as always, a big thank-you to everyone who's reviewed and sent feedback so far. Okay, time to ratchet up the action a bit: we're heading towards the events of 'Surprise' and 'Innocence', and I hope you enjoy the show. And don't forget to hit that review link at the bottom of the page! Right, let's go...

Part Ten: Surprises

Sunnydale High School Parking Lot, Sunnydale

January 15th, 1998

Jenny Calendar's life was very complicated right now. She'd had to talk to Jesse and Willow about their feelings for her, in a strictly one-on-one setting, of course. At the same time, she'd had to keep a close eye on Darla without the vampiress getting suspicious of her interest. She'd also had to try to think of a way of warning everyone about the loophole in the curse, without revealing who she really was. And to top it all off, there was dealing with her boyfriend...

Rupert Giles. The man who was responsible for the baby gestating within her womb right now.

( What am I going to do? ) Jenny asked herself for what felt like the millionth time. ( Dear God, I'm six weeks pregnant by a man whom my family will never accept, and who doesn't even know my real name. What am I going to tell Rupert – sorry, but just about everything you know about me is a lie? And oh, by the way, I'm going to give birth to your child in about seven and a half months? )

Unfortunately, Jenny had no more time to ponder such questions. Just as she got to her car, a female demon appeared out of nowhere before her. Jenny screamed, "AHHHHHHH!"

"No need for that," Anyanka said, staring Jenny directly in the eyes. "You smell."

"I – what?" Jenny asked, once she'd recovered from the shock of seeing a demon appear in broad daylight.

"Pregnant. You smell pregnant. My friend Hallie would have been so happy to know that. The odds are she'd have been summoned to deliver some quality vengeance for your child, in five or ten years' time. Time, time, time," Anyanka said crazily. "Fourteen years worth of time. That's a long time to scream. A long, LONG time."

"Look," Jenny said urgently, trying to suppress fear and panic because one, the female demon knew she had a bun in the oven and two, it was obvious the creature wasn't playing with a full deck here. "I don't know what you want, but someone will see you any moment and raise the alarm-!"

Anyanka abruptly morphed into her human mask. "Right, so call me Anya. I used to be Aud, but that was such a long time ago, and I turned my husband into a troll for cheating on me with that bitch Rannveig. Stupid load-bearing barmaid," Anyanka suddenly hissed like a cat.

Jenny was definitely finding it hard to follow Anyanka's conversation. "Fine, Anya, but, uh, I need to be going-"

"To City Hall, yes. I'd teleport you there, it'd save everyone a lot of time, but unfortunately, I can't. My powers just don't work that way." Pouting, Anyanka vanished and reappeared behind Jenny, knocking her out with an andiron to the head. Catching the unconscious gypsy, Anyanka bundled her into the car and took off for her destination – she had been taught how to drive by Allan personally, just last week.

After they got to City Hall, Jenny remained unconscious for a long time. When she finally woke up, she saw Mayor Finch with his psychotic assistant staring at her. "What..."

"Rise and shine," the vengeance demon said in a perky tone, mixed with a healthy dose of madness. "Deputy Mayor Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins, at your service."

"Yes, good evening, Ms. Calendar. I trust you're not too uncomfortable?" Allan asked smoothly.

"Uncomfortable? You've got me tied to a chair," Jenny said with a note of sheer incredulity in her voice. She wiggled around a bit, but there was no chance of getting loose. Then the captive woman looked at the man more carefully. "Wait a minute, aren't you-?"

"I'm Mayor Allan Finch, yes. I'm not surprised you recognized me; my picture was in the papers a lot, both before and after Halloween." Finch exhaled. "Now, let's get down to business. What's a Romany gypsy doing in my town, working as a Computer Science teacher at the high school?"

"I...I'm a spy..." Jenny choked out against her will, wondering what was happening to her.

"I thought as much, as soon as we discovered your real name – Ms. Kalderash." Allan was able to guess the question within her mind, so he squatted down in front of Jenny and held up a small vial. "Do you know what this is?"

"A demon stool sample?" Jenny asked, trying to delay the inevitable.

"No," said Allan patiently. "This is an extract of Veritas root. According to my dear Anyanka-"

"Call me ANYA!" the demoness interrupted petulantly.

"Yes, Anya, I apologize – please, forgive me my minor lapse. Anyway, Ms. Kalderash, what I'm holding in my hand happens to be the most potent magical truth serum that's ever existed. I had it administered to you while you were unconscious, and now I'm going to ask you a lot of questions. You'll answer them truthfully; you won't be able to help it. So, let's begin."

Jenny tried to resist, but she was just plain unable to do so. Whatever Allan asked, she had to answer honestly and to the best of her ability. She talked, feeling like a traitor the whole time, but the trapped and pregnant gypsy woman nonetheless sang like a little birdie.

Hours later, Jenny had no more secrets left within her; the new Mayor and his unbalanced demonic minion knew everything she did.

Including the fact that Darla could lose her soul upon experiencing a moment of pure, true happiness.

Outside the Bronze, Sunnydale

January 17th, 1998

Xander had a bad feeling about this, as he waited for someone from within the Bronze to come join him.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Xander said somewhat suspiciously, eyeing the other teen as Jesse came out of the club.

"Yeah, I guess so." Jesse had an unfriendly look on his face.

"You don't like me, I can tell. Question is, why? What have I ever done to you?" Harris asked challengingly.

"Me? Nothing. You make my girls miserable, though," Jesse glared at Xander.

"How do you figure that?" Xander asked.

"You make Buffy miserable, because you just being here reminds her of stuff she'd much rather forget. You make Willow miserable, because she's hurting for Buffy. You make Cordelia miserable 'cause you rejected her – she hides it pretty well, sure, but I've known her all my life and I can tell when she's unhappy," McNally snapped. "Personally, I think we'd all be a lot better off if you left town and took your damned vampire stalker with you!"

Xander shrugged. "You could be right."

"And another thing, I...what did you say?" Jesse suddenly stared at his companion in surprise.

"I said, you could be right. What, you think I WANTED to come here to Vampire Central? Newsflash, man, but I had a life in Los Angeles. Sure, it was kind of on the suck-y side, but it was still MY life. But then I get kidnapped by a balance demon, I get told by the ghost of my mother that I've been under a demonic curse all my life, and let's not forget the fact that my father's a demon that might still be killing people a hundred years from now," Xander said viciously.

He went on, "Plus, after Halloween – I got stuck with the memories of a man who could kill you six different ways before you could even blink, pal. Hell, maybe I should convince Rory for us to leave, but I was told I need to be here – and fact is, Ford might not follow me if I do go. He's one vampire that I've got to take care of myself-"

"What makes you think Buffy can't take him? She's the Slayer, not you!" Jesse interrupted belligerently.

"Because I know Ford a lot better than you do," Xander replied way too calmly. "They throw down, Ford's gonna hit Summers where it'll cause the most damage – emotionally. He'll say stuff like he never should have bothered dating her, 'cause she's gonna die young thanks to the whole Vampire Slayer thing. That she'll never find love and happiness even if that wasn't an issue, 'cause no guy could ever settle for a girl like her. That she'll never get absolution from me, 'cause deep down, she's still that self-centered airhead who humiliated my ass in front of the entire school-"

"Buffy's not like that anymore!" Jesse shouted, his blood almost starting to boil as he glared hatefully at Xander.

"Sure. You know that, and I know that, and hell, even Ford knows that. But ya think Summers will know that, in a fight to the death with that guy?" Xander asked pointedly. "My point is, Ford can push her buttons like no one else can. But then, I can push his the same way – and there's nothing Ford can say that'll prevent ME from dusting him the first chance I get."

Calming down, Jesse said, "Are you sure? I mean despite everything, he was your best friend..."

"Key word being 'was'. No matter how Ford tries to paint it, he was willing for me to die in order to save himself. There are no mind games he can play which'll change that, despite everything he did for me when he was alive." Harris paused. "You do know the odds are that Ford's the one responsible for Ms. Calendar disappearing, don't you?"

"Yeah," Jesse grimaced, as he recalled his last conversation with the sexy computer teacher. It had hurt hearing that she'd been flattered by his attentions, but that he should try to find someone else his own age as she already had a boyfriend. "Giles is being all British about it, but everyone can tell he's preparing himself for the worst. So's Buffy – it's put a big downer on her surprise birthday party, I can tell you that."

"Surprise birthday party?" Xander inquired.

"Yeah, it's gonna be held right here at the Bronze in two nights' time – everyone's coming, even Cordelia. I, uh, I don't suppose you'd care to attend? Despite personal feelings I know it'd mean a lot to the Buff, you two burying the hatchet for one night," Jesse said reluctantly.

Xander was about to say thanks, but no thanks – when he saw it. The words 'BIRTHDAY PARTY' appearing on the glass window of the rear exit to the nightclub, being drawn in the dust and grime by the same invisible hand that had manifested itself the morning after Halloween.

( Mom, I sure do hope you know what you're doing here! ) "All right, fine. Tell Summers I'll be there. Birthday present and everything," Xander promised, much to Jesse's surprise.

Sunnydale Docks, Sunnydale

January 19th, 1998

Things had certainly been busy in Sunnydale for the past two nights, no doubt about that. Buffy had had a Slayer dream about Anyanka killing Darla at the Bronze, as well as Willow talking to one of their classmates named Amy Madison in French.

Then after Giles had escorted her to the Bronze for her surprise birthday party, Buffy had encountered Dalton outside the club, while he was apparently stealing something. The Slayer had fought an undead colleague of his, and crashed through a window into the Bronze before finally staking the vampire muscle.

Giles had subsequently arrived inside the nightclub with the box the vamps had been trying to bring to Collin. The arm of the Judge within it had quickly tried to choke the Chosen One, after the box had been opened.

After that, a rushed conversation and a history lesson had taken place, as everyone had learned who the Judge was and, if assembled, what he could do. Darla had been chosen to take the artifact far away to Asia, to prevent the apocalypse demon from being put back together – and so, here she was, all alone and about to hop on a ship to Nepal with the Judge's arm.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid your ticket's been canceled."

Darla never even managed to turn around before something heavy and metallic crashed into the back of her skull, knocking her down and out.

When Darla finally struggled her way back to consciousness, she found herself in an office within City Hall. "What the hell is going on here?" Darla demanded, instinctively looking for the box containing the Judge's arm.

"Don't worry; the box you're looking for has already been Fed-Ex'ed out of town. It's headed for Alaska and then the North Pole, and at this time of year, the constant sunlight factor? Oooh, I'm burning! I'm burning!" Anyanka did her best impression of a vampire igniting from the lethal solar radiation.

Darla studied the human-looking demoness in the room carefully. She could sense by smell what Anyanka really was, and decades of exposure to Drusilla's lunacy had made the ensouled vampiress well aware of when someone was completely crazy. "Who are you?"

"Like I keep telling everybody, the name's Anya!" the female demon said crossly. "Now, I want you to swallow this pill."

"Why should I?" Darla asked, taking the proffered medication. "And what is it?"

"It's a powerful tranquilizer, more or less. And if you don't take it willingly, I'll FORCE you to swallow it! Please, don't be difficult about this," Anyanka then said politely, blowing hot and cold like the mad woman she was.

Darla hesitated, and Anyanka raised her andiron warningly. Instantly, a fight broke out, but Darla never stood a chance – her attacker could teleport in and out, and the undead Champion couldn't. Soon enough, the pill was being shoved down her throat – and it worked fast, sending a feeling of euphoria throughout Darla's body.

It wasn't a moment of true happiness, which would have made Darla into the soulless creature she'd once been. But it was, nonetheless, bliss of an artificial kind – which meant the soul was suppressed and the demon was back in charge, for the first time since 1898.

"Wow," the now-evil Darla said, straightening up and ready to raise a little hell. "I feel good!"

"How good?" Anyanka asked curiously.

"Good enough to drown you in a pool of your own blood," Darla suddenly snarled, the giddy feelings of freedom and bloodlust quickly intensifying.

"Blah, blah, blah – empty threat, empty threat, empty threat," Anyanka replied, looking thoroughly bored. "Someone's got a present," she then sing-songed airily.

"What are you talking about?" Darla demanded, once again reminded of Drusilla during the good old days.

"What, don't you get it? That drug to suppress your soul, it'll last about a day or so. So you have to be a good girl and play nice, or else no more presents for you." Anyanka laughed, a sound that immediately got on Darla's nerves.

"What's to stop me from torturing you into giving me the name of your supplier?" the evil Darla snarled.

"Oh please, are we back to that again? How are you gonna torture someone you can't even catch?" Anyanka asked, teleporting here and there in the room to demonstrate her point. "'Cause I could arrange for all the nasties out there to come and amputate your head, if you like. Non-empty threat, non-empty threat, non-empty threat."

Darla's demonic alter ego felt something twist inside her at hearing the lunatic woman's words. "Why have you done this? And talk sense, damn you!"

"To spy on the Annoying One for me, of course – spy, spy, spy," Anyanka said, repeating her words in a way that truly infuriated Darla. "Oh, you want to snack on a tasty li'l gypsy spy?"

Anyanka left the room, before returning with the bound and gagged Jenny Calendar. The vengeance demon then removed Jenny's gag. "You two girls have fun now!" Anyanka said cheerfully, before teleporting away.

"Darla, please – you have to help me, we have to get out of here!" Jenny said pleadingly, starting to struggle.

"So, you're a gypsy spy. Ah, let me guess – you're a Kalderash, right? I THOUGHT there was something familiar about you, right from the start. You're a descendant of that BITCH who sentenced me to a hundred years of complete boredom," Darla rasped, going into her demon face.

Jenny's eyes went wide. "You, you've lost your soul-!"

"No, no, Soul Girl is still in here, she's just sleeping right now. I'M in charge again – finally," the demon growled ferally. "And just so you know, vampires don't like competition of any sort – so I'm REALLY going to enjoy this!"

"Darla, no, please – don't do it!" Jenny could not help begging for mercy as she tried to back away. "For the sake of my unborn child, PLEASE!"

"Oh, yes, the baby; that smell is definitely unmistakable, isn't it? Rupert Giles really does deserve his old reputation as the Ripper, fathering a child at his age," Darla shook her head, making a show of appearing faux impressed. "Ah, well, he'll find someone else to replace you eventually – that is, if I don't kill him first."

"NO!"

Jenny died screaming, as the centuries-old vampire sank its fangs into her neck and slowly drained the poor woman dry. And horrible as it was to contemplate, Darla enjoyed every single moment of the sadistic murder – something she was very, very good at doing.

The Master's cave, somewhere underneath Sunnydale

January 20th, 1998

Collin was just barely preventing himself from exploding with anger and frustration, at around two o'clock in the morning.

Over the past two months, he had spent a lot of time and money bringing the pieces of the Judge back together. Fortunately, the Master had amassed quite a lot of loot over the centuries; money, jewelry, ancient junk that was now worth a fortune – all of which the Anointed One had inherited, and some of which had been put to good use.

And yet, all of that hadn't prevented Dalton from losing the last piece of the Judge!

Collin had been greatly tempted to yank out Dalton's eyeballs and force-feed them to the incompetent moron. But since the minion had begged for the opportunity to redeem himself, the Anointed One had let him try to retrieve the Judge's arm – which, as said, was already on its way to the North Pole.

"What is this?" the child vampire demanded, as he saw the human arm in a matching box to the rest of the pieces of the Judge.

"Well, sir, I, I couldn't find the original missing arm..." Dalton said hesitantly.

"So he came up with something else," Ford added, as he joined Dalton and his sire carrying a bottle of silver liquid.

"Explain. While you still have a tongue to do it with," Collin growled.

"All we really need is an arm, sir. Uh, as long as we demonize it enough, it-it should work to completely reassemble the Judge," Dalton said hastily, almost tripping over his own tongue. "That's why Ford, he-he ripped this arm off of his evening meal, and now..."

"These scabby-looking, telepathic, mouth-less demons – they can infect humans with an aspect of their being. I read about it in Los Angeles," Ford said excitedly. "So one human arm demonization, coming right up!"

He opened the vial and poured the demon blood onto the human arm, making sure to avoid getting splashed by any of it. The arm then briefly glowed silver, before the glow subsided.

Dalton and Ford quickly took the box over to where the other boxes had been assembled, into the shape of a body. They raised the box and set the arm in place. Then another vamp brought the box containing the head, and put that into position as well.

The next moment, a bright light emanated through the cracks in the boxes. The front of the now-unified boxes opened up like a pair of twin gates, to allow the Judge to step out. The tall, blue-skinned demon with horns opened his eyes, as he stepped fully into the Master's underground cave.

"Who brings me forth once again?" the Judge demanded, trying not to wobble on his feet.

"I did," Collin said in deep satisfaction. "The Earth is overrun with the plague of humanity. Your services are needed to wipe the pestilence away, once and for all."

"For now, I am weak," the Judge intoned, he had no allies but he was able to sense how there was utterly no humanity in Collin, which made him a suitable vassal. "My full strength will return in time. Perhaps more quickly if you had supplied my true arm. To that end, I need to feed on one amongst you who stinks of humanity."

"Take your pick," the Anointed One said calmly, staring at Ford. By this time, he had learned of his minion's obsession with his former human friend.

The Judge's gaze rested on Dalton, though. "That one is full of feeling. He reads. Bring him to me."

Three minions grabbed Dalton and yanked him forward at Collin's gesture. "Do it."

"No. No! NO!" Dalton screamed in fear as the Judge put his right hand on the vampire's chest, and the undead guy with glasses began to go up in smoke.

The Judge's hand quickly began to burn into Dalton – who then combusted, disappearing in a flash of flame and smoke. Final death being the only reward for months of faithful service to the Anointed One, as Ford nervously noted.

The Judge smiled, feeling his power finally beginning to return.

TBC...