Everything either belongs to Joss or it should, no infringement is intended and no profit is to be made. When you get right down to it I'm not really worth suing anyway unless you want a share of an underpaid civil servants wages and it just wouldn't be worth the hassle trust me.

Special thanks to my Beta Reader pcody

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Hyperion Hotel – Los Angeles – October 2004

Dawn followed Buffy along the corridor clutching a medieval manuscript which Giles had been nagging her to return for the last week. 'So let me get this straight you knew that wiping out those Scourge creeps would mean they'd be coming for us?' she asked.

Buffy nodded. 'They're fanatics' she said. 'They don't stop coming just because you kill a few of them, they only take that as a challenge' she said. 'We needed to provoke them into action and now we probably have.'

'How many of them are there?' Dawn queried. There was tension between them but both were trying to make some effort to be cordial despite the bust-up over Connor. Buffy in particular had been making an effort, and Dawn had heard a rumour via Enyo that this was down to Illyria of all people, or Gods, having a word.

'Nobody really knows' Buffy admitted. 'From what our sources say definitely hundreds maybe thousands worldwide, I guess we'll know for certain when they stop coming because we've killed them all' she reasoned. 'They're not stupid, they won't come at us piecemeal anyway.'

Dawn blinked. 'We're going to kill them all?' she asked, surprised at Buffy's dispassionate tone when she said it.

'That or break their morale instead' Buffy replied. 'We've made sure everyone knows what happened in Detroit and where the Scourge can find us if they feel like evening the score' she continued. 'They're too organised, too committed and too damn fascist for us to let them exist' Buffy told her sister. 'They're nothing but a bunch of militaristic thugs who think they're the master race' she stated as they arrived at their destination and entered the hotel gym.

'What makes the grass grow?' a girl in uniform, laden with full combat gear and with rifle slung over her shoulder bellowed at the double rank of identically equipped girls.

'Blood, blood, blood' the gunslayers intoned as one, making Dawn nearly jump out of her skin.

The girl in front of the others noted Buffy's arrival and ordered them to attention, boots smacking together as they simultaneously obeyed the order. Identical automatons carrying automatic weapons was a thought that crossed Dawn's mind at first, though when she looked harder she noted there were some differences between them, their uniforms and kit personalised in some way. One had a broadsword tied to her backpack as well as her standard equipment, another wore a necklace of what Dawn hoped were demon teeth and the one at the far end of the second row had "Chosen to Kill" written on the front of her helmet.

The helmets themselves were new, having only just arrived in time to miss being issued to the girls fighting in Pylea. They seemed to be a composite of several designs, the main body looked much like one of the modern Kevlar helmets worn by the US Army but it incorporated the "lobster-tail" at the back of a classic Roman Legionaries helmet which was designed to stop someone decapitating you from behind by shielding the back of the neck, and it had roman-style cheek-guards hanging down too. A clear visor made of bullet-proof polymer could be slid down in front of the eyes to protect them from damage when arrows or shrapnel was flying about. The girls seemed very positive about them, it beat the crap out of getting your brains ventilated, or your head chopped off anyhow.

'Carry on Jail... Charlotte' Buffy told the girl in front who ordered the others back to parade rest. What she was going to do about that nickname after she turned eighteen was a mystery, it had really caught on.

'We are at war!' Charlotte declared loudly and enthusiastically, 'Fucking A!' she added. 'War is what gunslayers pray for' she told the other girls. 'The Gods and Goddesses of war have answered our prayers and given us a new enemy to fight' she said seriously. 'We always knew they would' she said confidently, 'the Goddesses of War are wet for gunslayers, because we slay everything we see, and in doing so we keep Hades well stocked with new souls' she told the girls.

Dawn looked at Buffy and raised her eyebrows, as for Buffy herself she was wondering if she'd accidentally walked into another Scourge meeting.

Charlotte looked over the troops. 'Now we were all hoping to be eventually rotated back to Pylea for another tour' she said, 'but then peace broke out and fucked everything up' she continued sadly, 'well that's behind us now, we've got a decent enemy to fight right here in our own backyard on Earth and we are going to conquer and we are going to kick ass' she declared to a chorus of excited whoops.

'Oh wow' Dawn whispered to Buffy. 'I thought I'd seen them gung-ho before but...'

'The Slayer-Chef herself here issued a declaration of war signed in their own blood which threw down the gauntlet to these pricks' Charlotte told the girls, indicating she had noted Buffy's arrival, 'and unless they're a bunch of candy-assed fagots we'll be seeing action soon.'

'I didn't literally sign a declaration of war signed in blood' Buffy interrupted, 'that was just a metaphor when I told you above it' she explained.

'Oh' Charlotte replied with a frown, for a while there she'd been thinking the boss had seen the light and embraced a less wimpy attitude.

'Hang-on' Buffy said, narrowing her eyes. 'Does that mean that when I said I wanted the heads of the Scourge Officers you thought I meant that literally too?'

'You didn't?' Charlotte asked in confusion. Yup definitely still the hippy peacenik Buffy of old she thought sadly. 'I was going to requisition an axe' she stated, their standard-issue short-swords were great for evisceration but weren't ideally suited for decapitation.

'No' Buffy replied, 'just kill them' she ordered.

'Check' Charlotte responded. 'If we get the opportunity to take prisoners do you want summary executions or keep them alive for interrogation?'

'Interrogation' Buffy replied. 'No firing squads.'

'We usually just put a single shot to the back of the head Ma'am' Charlotte replied. 'Saves money on ammunition, but if you want live ones you're the boss' she said.

Buffy nodded. There was a theory going around that the reason Charlotte was like this was that she still had a crush on the Merc Ashton, and tried to mimic him. This did beg the question to Buffy's mind that if she had a crush on Xander instead would she be showing an equal interest in drywall as opposed to the ways of war.

'You aren't expecting to need all that gear to fight the Scourge are you?' Dawn asked curiously. 'Aren't the machine-guns overkill?'

Biting back the urge to explain the difference between a machine-gun and an assault rifle or carbine Charlotte picked out one of the girls to respond. 'Gunslayer Stephanie would you care to explain overkill to Dawn here?' she asked.

'There is no overkill, there is only "open fire" and "I need to reload",' the girl responded.

Charlotte nodded. 'It's the gunslayer way, make up in firepower what we lack in personnel' she said. 'Forever outnumbered' she called out suddenly and loudly.

'Never outgunned' the girls responded as one. Well it was better than "blood, blood, blood" Buffy thought to herself, she might see if she could get the outnumbered/outgunned thing adopted as their motto before they came up with something worse. Maybe Dawn could make herself useful for once and translate it into Latin?

Barre Circle Neighbourhood – Baltimore – October 2004

The knocking on the door was insistent enough that it took precedence over everything else including the cup of coffee her bleary eyes indicated was vitally needed. It was too damn early for visitors, this had better be good or someone was getting turned into a frog she thought as she opened the front door.

'Hi' the stranger at the door, a young woman greeted her. 'You must be Catherine Blaisdell?' she asked. 'Work over at Johns Hopkins as one of the admin staff?'

'Yeah?'

'AKA Amy Madison?' the stranger asked with a smirk. 'From Sunnydale?'

Amy blinked but decided to tough it out. 'No idea who you're talking about' she said.

'Oh come on is that the best you can do?' the girl asked with a grin. 'At least threaten me with some magicks or something.'

'Who are you?' Amy asked coldly. 'What do you want?'

'I'm just the messenger' the girl replied. 'As in "please don't shoot fireballs at the..." because it's not fair' she continued, getting a piece of paper out of her jacket pocket, it wasn't a warm day especially given the time of morning and she was wrapped up tight whereas Amy shivered slightly in her pyjamas. 'From the Chief Slayer to Amy Madison: Greetings' she began reading. 'You are hereby ordered for induction into the Mage Branch of the Slayers Council, and are to report for duty immediately' she finished and handed the piece of paper over. 'I can help you pack' she offered.

'What?' Amy responded incredulously.

'You just got drafted' the girl explained.

'I got what?' Amy repeated.

'Drafted, Conscripted, Called up for National Service is what they'd say back in the day' the girl explained. 'In short your ass now belongs to the Slayers Council' she said, 'welcome aboard.'

Amy looked at the piece of paper before scrunching it up and throwing it over her shoulder. 'I'm not going anywhere I don't want to go and I certainly not joining Buffy Summer's little army that I've been hearing about.'

The girl pursed her lips. 'If you don't come willingly we could always clap you in irons and call you a slave instead of a draftee' she said. 'You'd get more dignity as the latter and you wouldn't be the first one wearing a collar.'

'Who are you?' Amy queried.

'I'm a slayer' the girl replied honestly.

'Do I look like a vampire or some piss-ant demon you can push around?' Amy asked, letting the whites of her eyes cloud over so they became jet black.

'Ooh scary' the girl responded with a grin, her own eyes shifting to an inhuman crystalline blue. 'I didn't say I was an average slayer' she said and then releasing the damper she had on her magicks projected a serious aura which caught Amy off-guard, forcing her to project a mental shield of her own as she tried to sense the girls power and determine its strengths and focus.

After a few seconds it became apparent that focus was one thing the strange girl did not have. She might have more raw power than Amy but she'd never be able to direct or utilise it properly, it was like a chaotic restless sea of undirected energy ridden by tidal forces from two separate directions. 'I don't know what you are' Amy said, 'but if you try and take me by force I'm going to slam you through that wall' she vowed, pointing to the house across the street.

'It would hurt the wall more than me, but if you were going to resist it wasn't my job to take you in' the girl responded.

'Vincire' another girls voice exclaimed behind Amy and a bolt of green energy slammed into her back, coalescing into a band around Amy's torso that pinned her arms to her sides and changing colour to a shimmering grey smoothly lifted her off the ground leaving her floating in her hallway unable to move or speak.

'My job' the girl continued, 'was to distract you and make you close down that extra-sensory perception because of all the white-noise and interference I put out when I don't keep a lid on my magicks' she explained, giving Amy a gentle push that propelled her back from the door and stepping inside.

'Add in the mystical cloaking runes I spent all morning painting on and you didn't notice me teleporting in behind you' Willow told Amy. 'You can stop the jamming now' she told as Enyo who was closing the front door. 'You're putting my teeth on edge' she added.

'Sorry' Enyo apologised as she damped her magicks back down.

Amy force her head back up from where it had been lolling against her shoulder. 'Willow' she greeted the other witch telepathically.

'Amy' Willow replied in the same fashion, letting more than a little smugness creep into her inner voice.

'Hi we haven't been formally introduced I'm Rebecca' a third voice interrupted. 'And I am the God-PrincessEnyo' a fourth, similar though harsher voice inexplicably added, seemingly from exactly the same place.

'That never ceases to creep me out' Willow observed. She had once linked to the girl telepathically and found the two of them singing a duet in there which had been truly freaky. 'And you didn't get have to dodge or get hit by a single fireball' she added brightly.

'Saved a set of clothes anyway' Enyo replied. She was pretty resilient to damage of all kinds, physical or mystical, but her wardrobe wasn't.

'This won't hold me for long' Amy told them, mentally struggling against the band of force that held her bound and aloft.

'It doesn't have to' Willow replied out loud then grinned evilly as she reached out, put her hand against the side of Amy's head and with a push turned her completely upside down in mid air, her long hair almost reaching the ground as her legs stayed locked together, bare feet pointing at the ceiling. As petty revenge went it was certainly petty but funny nonetheless, they were definitely going to be taking photographs back at the Hyperion.

'We can come back for her stuff' Enyo told Willow. 'If you give me a minute to concentrate I'll open a portal that won't drop us out five hundred feet above the hotel.'

'I'll taunt Amy in the meantime' Willow responded gleefully.

'Why don't you just kill me and get it over with' Amy asked.

'Good... or at least bad witches with good technique are too hard to find' Willow replied. 'It's time you paid something back to the community' she told the other witch.

'What the hell makes you think I'll be a good little girl and play along?' Amy asked coldly.

'Why do people keep thinking it's a choice?' Enyo who had been telepathically listening in interrupted out loud. 'Damn I lost my train of thought there, back to square one' she said with a sigh and went back to trying to focus.

'She's right, it's not much of an option, you play for our team or we'll put you on the bench forever in a little pocket dimension we use for hard-case prisoners who are too dangerous to run free' Willow told Amy. 'If it helps we've already got a Hellgod and an Evil Vampire Psychic on the squad so you'll actually be on the less evil end of the spectrum' she continued. 'And that obnoxious upper-class English Slayer we picked up probably scores higher up the bitch scale than you too for that matter.'

'So what about her, whatever she is?' Amy asked, meaning Enyo.

Willow thought about it. 'Enyo and her Mother are more... unaffiliated rather than good or evil as such' she eventually decided. 'Thinking of mothers, you merged your mother's name and Larry's surname as your alias, I thought that was kinda cute.'

'Bite me Rosenberg' Amy responded.

'If you're a big enough pain in the ass I might let one of our staff vampires do that' Willow replied out loud as Enyo raised her hand to open a portal. 'Should I levitate when I go through?' she asked.

'Might be an idea, it won't be a long drop to the floor but I'm less breakable than you' Enyo replied as she opened the swirling black vortex. 'Amy should drift gently towards the ground.'

'Pity' Willow replied with a frown that changed to a grin as a thought occurred to her. 'Can I spin her like a top when I push her through?' she asked gleefully.

'No reason why not' Enyo replied, 'it won't affect the portal any.'

Thus it was that Amy Madison arrived in the exact centre of the Hyperion Lobby upside down and spinning at high speed in her PJ's. As a mode of arrival it did little to enhance her reputation as a mighty she-witch, but overall she would admit later that it was better than being subsequently stuffed through a portal to Vahla ha'nesh for a timeout when she proved obstinate. All that stone was freezing and they neglected to give her any more clothes, so she spent the night shivering from cold and undergoing caffeine withdrawal because she never did get that coffee either.

Hyperion Hotel – Los Angeles – October 2004

'So we decided to make it a joint homecoming, leaving and Halloween party' Gunn explained to Lorne, fresh back from Pylea and just itching to get up on the karaoke machine for the festivities tonight as they set up the sound system in the lobby. 'Made sense what with you and some of the girls are back from Pylea and most everyone else is going to start moving to Shadow Valley any day now.'

'I can't tell you how good it is to be home' Lorne replied. 'One more day on Pylea and I was going to go crazy' he said.

'Thought you might stay' Gunn told him.

Lorne rolled his eyes. 'I wasn't going to stay on a world where I couldn't even serenade the senoritas' he replied. 'Cordelia offered to make me Head of the PIA but I told her I'd rather go back to LA and see my homies.'

'You actually said "homies"?' Gunn asked Lorne askance.

'With my rhythm and moves you know if I wasn't green I'd be black' Lorne replied with a grin causing Gunn to grin himself.

'So the PIA is...?' Gunn checked as they began unrolling cables.

'Pylean intelligence Agency' Lorne explained. 'They're still putting me down as the founder and first Head of the organisation because of that little, and dare I immodestly say, spectacularly effective spy and counter-intelligence network I set up' he declared proudly. 'You know even Mom is willing to admit in public I'm her son these days' he said, 'but she says Numfar looks better in his uniform' he added with a snort. 'I guess I'll never be the favourite son.'

'Well you can put "former head of the PIA" on your resume now' Gunn told him. 'That might be worth points with the ladies.'

'To hell with that' Lorne replied. 'When I turned down that job Cordelia made me the official ambassador of the Pylean Government to the Slayers Council' he declared. 'You can call me Ambassador Krevlornswath from now on bucko.'

Gunn raised his eyebrows. 'And that'll happen when I start calling Angel "Sir", Illyria "God-King" and Cordy "Your Majesty", by which I mean never' he stated.

Lorne sighed dramatically. 'If we're ever trying to pick up chicks would you do it then?' he asked.

'Oh hell yeah' Gunn agreed, 'as long as you back up my story that I'm an astronaut' he joked.

'There's a difference, I really am an Ambassador' Lorne pointed out.

'And my story is still going to be more believable' Gunn replied with a smirk. 'Not going to be as good as last year's party' he said sadly, looking around.

Lorne shrugged. 'Most of that was down to me and Knox last year' he replied. 'I've been off-world and he said he's been spending too much time at Shadow Valley to do Halloween the justice it deserves' he continued.

'Don't be underestimating Amanda, I think she's been taking up a lot of his free time' Gunn told him.

'Knox and Amanda?' Lorne queried.

'Match made in Dungeons and Dragons' Gunn replied. 'Way I hear it she picked on him until he gave up.'

'So much gossip to catch up on' Lorne said. 'Knox and Amanda, Dawn and Connor, Wes and Faith' he said. 'It's been a regular love-nest here while I've been in Pylea with bugs nesting in my shorts.'

'You went to fight for your homeland and family' Gunn told him. 'Can't say better for a man than that' he observed as they finished setting up the karaoke machine. 'You're no coward and you'll stand up for what you think is right.'

'And you'll have me blushing next' Lorne told him. 'Admittedly it's just a darker green on my cheeks but it'll be there' he said. 'So how about your love-life?' he asked. 'I did hear tale from Freddikins earlier about a certain lady that runs a shelter.'

Gunn made a non-committal noise which clearly wasn't going to dissuade Lorne from prying further so he gave a small nod. 'I've taken her out a couple of times' he admitted.

'Good for you' Lorne told him, 'she's good looking and a good person' he observed. 'Hell of a double.'

'I'd been helping out more at the shelter when I wasn't doing detective work' Gunn explained. 'Not nearly so much evil to fight in LA these days' he noted. 'Guess I lucked out from being bored and looking for something to do.'

'Workplace romance' Lorne said with our smile.

'Yeah our eyes met over the drunk kid that tried to bring booze into the shelter and who threw up when I chucked his ass back out into the street' Gunn replied with a chuckle.

'If you ever end up with kids, make up a more romantic story to tell them' Lorne advised with a chuckle.

On the other side of the lobby at the main desk Harmony, who had returned from Pylea with Lorne, had been pleasantly surprised to be greeted warmly by Diana, who had been swamped with paperwork in her absence and who seemed overjoyed to have the vampire and her superhuman typing ability back at work. 'I mean it was great to see my reflection in the mirror and go out in the sunlight but I couldn't have stayed there much longer' Harmony told the other admin as she worked. 'No music, no TV no otter blood' she continued. 'I mean I'll go back next year for a vacation, get a tan, but live there?' she asked rhetorically, 'no way.'

'You do look a very healthy colour' Diana told her.

Harmony beamed. 'Gee thanks' she replied.

Glory walked past carrying a crate of chips and other party food, if there was manual labour to do she got picked for it. It was deliberately demeaning but as long as she made herself useful she was being given increasingly free rein over her life on other things like the short vacation she had spent with her brother Ben up in San Francisco. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted something stuck to the side of Harmony's PC and stopped dead in her tracks. 'What the hell is that?' she asked pointing.

'It's a photograph, duh' Harmony replied, it was girls like Glory that made people think blonds were dumb she thought to herself sadly.

Glory resisted the urge to rip Harmony's head off. 'I know it's a photograph you dolt' she responded through gritted teeth. 'I meant what's on it.'

'Oh' Harmony responded. 'It's my new boyfriend' she said brightly. She was glad she'd borrowed the Polaroid Camera from one of the gunslayers on Pylea, he looked really good in that uniform and the beret, not too bad out of it either too she decided.

Glory put down the crate. 'What do you mean that's your boyfriend?' she hissed.

Yup, she was definitely one of those stereotypical dumb blondes that ruined it for the rest of us Harmony realised, better talk slowly and use short words she decided. 'The man in the picture and me are a couple' she said. 'We go out together, date you know' she explained.

'I know the man in the picture' Glory snapped back. 'It's that Merc weasel Ashton.'

Harmony eyes widened. 'Oh yes, I remember' she said. 'When you were on Pylea didn't you offer to sleep with him but he turned you down?' she asked. He must prefer smart girls she thought to herself.

Glory's jaw dropped. 'He was trying to get in my pants the whole time I was there' she responded.

'And so when you offered to let him he said no?' Harmony replied sarcastically. Oh yeah like that was a likely story she thought. 'Face it sister, the man's got standards, I reached them and you didn't.'

'Standards!' Glory exclaimed incredulously. 'I'm perfect, and I'm beautiful...'

'And you're single...' Harmony interrupted smugly.

Glory raised a fist that she could drive through the vampires chest and rip out her heart with in a split second. 'I can have any man I want.'

'Not mine apparently' Harmony retorted.

'I don't want yours' Glory declared.

'Then why are you so pissed-off?' Harmony asked sweetly, game set and match to Harmony Kendall she thought triumphantly.

Glory blinked. 'Because... because he was the one that paid attention to me' she replied. It had been nice to be fawned over, more like the ways things always should be.

'Maybe he did, maybe he didn't' Harmony replied, 'but when I rocked his world I didn't hear him saying "Oh Glory" sweetheart' she told her, twisting the knife there a bit at the end.

Diana, still sat alongside Harmony looked from one to the other, this was good stuff she decided, a few passing slayers were surreptitiously, and not so surreptitiously listening in too as she reached for a glass of water.

'What? So you think you've got something I don't?' Glory asked with a sneer.

'You mean other than a boyfriend?' Harmony asked smugly, 'Yes I do' she continued, 'class and brains' she declared proudly.

Diana nearly drowned as the water she sipped went down the wrong way. Well at least the choking hid the uncontrollable laughter.

Harmony beamed again as she was cheered by a cadre of laughing slayers, she doubted that had happened to many vampires before, at least not ones without a soul she thought. It was nice to be accepted and belong, she thought happily.

'I hate this plane of existence' Glory moaned quietly to herself.

Note from the Author:

This fanfic runs on reviews... and sometimes caffeine.