The Cost of Giles

Ch 12 – Big Plans, Little People

Everyone is going loony-tunes lately, Rick Stein thought morosely as he approached a young, blonde and shaking woman. She was holding a terrier in her arms and rubbing her chin against its head. Next to her, Officer Sharon Garbaldi was jotting in her notepad.

"I'm Lieutenant Stein," he directed at the sobbing witness. "I understand that you were the one to discover the… incident."

She didn't immediately respond and he glanced at Sharon.

"This is Miss Julie Marcom," Officer Garbaldi shared. "She states that she heard several 'pops' as she was walking her dog. She thought it was coming from the Crest's and went up to see what was happening…."

"… It was stupid! I know that," Julie said, as she wiped her wet cheek against the dog's coat. "I mean… how was I to know it was gunshots?! I-I didn't know what it was, it just sounded unusual…."

"Did you know the Crests well, Miss Marcom," he asked gently.

"Uh… not really, I guess. I mean, just a 'hello, nice evening' sort of way. She always seemed friendly, though. A-and her husband… he always seemed affectionate with her when I've seen him saying good-bye to her. He was a paramedic," she shared. "I mean… you just don't imagine this sort of thing happening to, you know, regular people. God, what if I knocked on the door a bit earlier? He could have shot me, too! I-I just don't understand it."

As Julie was trying to explain to the detective about how nice the Crests had always seemed, she spotted old Mrs. Mills standing on the porch of her boarding house. The flashing lights made her look even more skeletal than usual. What wasn't unusual, however, was the bitter scowl on her face.

She's always so sour, Julie thought distractedly as she tried to focus on the detective's questions. Questions that she had just been asked already by the woman cop… didn't these people talk to each other. I bet Mrs. Mills never liked the Crests… she doesn't like anyone, the mean, old crow….

Deep inside Miss Marcom's mind, the evil wisp seized on the resentment that she felt toward the Mills woman. It began to whisper to her.

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The Buffy robot patrolled the various parks and cemeteries of Sunnydale, always looking for the creatures of the night that was her duty to slay. She was also pondering the situation with Dawn… she'd noted the looks that the boy, Kevin, was sending at her sister. She recognized some of the cues that Spike used to give her and she wasn't sure it was appropriate. She considered taking the matter up with her Watcher, but it seemed like something that should be discussed with their other sister or mother, if only one of them would come back from wherever they had gone.

In the meantime, however, as Dawn's only relative left in town it seemed to be logical to conclude it was her responsibility. She didn't think that Dawn should be engaged in sexual behavior, even secondary behavior, at her age. On the other hand, she'd noted that Dawn's physical characteristics had gone through a dramatic change over the summer. With her breasts now developed and considering she had already had at least one period (the robot's sensors had detected traces of blood from her), biologically she seemed ready for mating and breeding.

But, on the third hand, with her not in a stable relationship in which to raise a child, sociologically she seemed unready.

It was confusing for Buffybot and she struggled to sort out how she should approach this new dilemma.

Suddenly, she came to a dead stop and cocked her head ever so to the left. She analyzed some onboard sensor data and recognized the tell-tale signs of Adam's presence, twenty-two meters away and on the other side of a ring of bushes.

Rainbow Park, she thought. My instruction set states I am to intercept and spy on Adam and report his 'hide out' to Willow. Secondary subset: If Adam is threatening the human populace, override primary instructions and engage.

She hesitated, listening carefully for signs of a struggle, but heard none. As the lumbering robo-zombie came to within fifteen feet, her sensors picked up several humans, two unknown-type demons and her friend and rival, the Faithbot.

Faith had been missing in action for some time now and Buffybot pondered why she was in the company of Adam for several seconds. She came to the conclusion that Faith had, once again, joined the wrong side. She'd done this before, according to the historical personal files that Willow had uploaded to her in order for her to more closely approximate her human counterpart.

This cannot stand, Buffybot thought with a trace of indignation. She is betraying our oath as a Slayer… I must engage.

And, so she did.

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Andrew glanced around, nervously fiddling with the piccolo he held. The five vampires that Warren had coerced were standing a bit too close to the rest of them. He didn't trust them for an instant and wished that Warren hadn't 'invited' them into the Trio Gang. But, he trusted Warren to know what he was doing… he'd basically planned this whole thing out himself, so if he thought the vampires were needed to defeat Giles and the witches, he accepted that.

Xander, Spike and teen-Dawn would be no problems even without Adam. All three humans had crucifixes hanging under their shirts… that would neutralize the cute vampire. And of the three, he was the only one that had any super powers.

There was a sudden loud crashing through some bushes nearby and Andrew issued a sharp scream, startled.

In front of them, with her fists already raised and clenched stood Buffy. She was lightly pivoting back and forth on the balls of her feet and looked ready to draw blood.

Andrew took a few stumbling steps backward, away from the robot and right into the vampire standing too close behind him.

"Watch out, Twig-boy," it growled at him. This dark haired and mustached vamp called himself 'Pony'. When Andrew has asked him why, he'd just glared dirtily at him, causing him to blush down to his feet. Andrew had avoided him since then.

"Faith! I should have known you'd serve evil, again!" Buffybot exclaimed with indignation.

Andrew immediately turned to look at the Mardoz Demons, who were already grinning… all pointy teeth… and stalking toward the robot in Buffy-disguise. Their horns were a deep purple-blue.

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No, no, no! We weren't supposed to meet her out here, Warren complained to himself. They were supposed to have taken care of the Scooby Gang first, and then let the pink demons loose on the Buffybot later. That was the way he'd planned this operation!

Now, the robot was looking quizzically at April and the two demon-not-so-henchman-like were actively snarling at it.

"Faith! What did they do to you," Buffybot cried in surprise and dismay. The Faithbot had a large split in its forehead synthetic skin and she could see some wiring and endo-skeletal skull-plate through the split. Buffybot turned on the Warren-human and glared at him, "You lobotomized her!"

"Forget the toy, you murderous bitch," Grenog said. His companion, Murtog, only gave a deep, base, growl.

Buffybot glanced at the two posing demons and held up a hand, "Oh, please."

She turned back to confront Warren, "I'm so going to kick your ass!"

"Warren…," Andrew said nervously.

"Buffy… now, listen to me," Warren licked his lips. "Go into standby… emergency override Picard-Red Shirt-667-Enable."

Instead of the robot ceasing, however, she gave him a disgusted look. "Willow already removed that code, Idiot."

"Uh, in that case… she's all yours boys," Warren told the Mardoz. "In the meantime, we've got a date at the Summers'."

Before the Buffybot could pursue Warren's band as they turned on their heel and marched away, she found herself with a two violent, pink demons manhandling her.

"Faith, snap out of it," she tried to yell at her fellow Slayer, and then she was knocked to the ground.

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Back at Dawn's house, the gang seemed to be making some headway with Spike, though the vampire was still acting stubborn, purely for the fun of the verbal battling.

Giles loudly cleared his throat. "I believe I'm not feeling well."

"Oh, can I get you something… aspirin or uh, something for your stomach," Tara asked, concerned.

"No, thank you. I think I'll just go back to the apartment. You will tell me how all of this turns out," he stated archly with an amused look at Spike as he stood up from the table.

"Dinner was quite good. Thank you, Tara," he added.

"You want an escort to the penis-mobile, Rupes? It's after dark," Spike smirked.

"I do wish you'd stop calling me that. And no. And is disparaging my car truly necessary?"

"I'll walk you to the door," Tara smiled at him. "And one of you needs to eat up the last of this salad."

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At Jan's, across the street from Dawn's, the two giggly girls were up in her room on the second storey. The window was open to the warm night air. They were discussing boys, of course. And, wondering if they could get someone to drive them, along with Kim, to the beach the following weekend if the weather cooperated.

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End Ch 12