Author's Note: I really can't apologise enough for the almost year long delay between updates! A combination of life being hectic and inspiration not being forthcoming has really affected this story more than either of my others. But know that I certainly am not abandoning this fic, and have lots of ideas for where it is going over the next chapters. When you really love an idea like I love this one (and Buffybot), it's difficult to push through the dry periods of writing, when every word you type feels inadequate.

This chapter is a little short, but I hope it will get things moving once again.

Still, I hope you guys continue to enjoy, and I thank you for your patience.

Chapter 10: Puppet

The construction site was vibrant with activity. As Buffy walked alongside Xander, she was bombarded with a great number of new sights and sounds she had never experienced before. The creaking of great steel beams as they swayed from thick cables echoed from high above her, accompanied by the thundering ringing of drills, generators and other electric equipment as well as the shouts of working men barking instructions to one another across the layers of scaffolding, which towered into the pale blue sky.

"Okay Buffy, time to put this on." Xander instructed her, holding out a bright yellow plastic helmet.

"Why must I do that?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Health and safety Buff," Xander explained. "Every guy on site has to wear one of these."

"But I am a girl," Buffy pointed out helpfully.

"Even so," Xander insisted with an emphatic hand gesture, before Buffy finally took the helmet in her hands.

Buffy lifted the hard hat over her head, taking a moment to fiddle ineffectively with the chin strap before Xander interceded.

"Here," Xander offered, a half-smile on his face as he placed his hands under Buffy's chin and tightened the strap in a single, smooth movement. "It just takes the special touch."

Xander stood back for a moment, examining Buffy as if she were one of the tables he had repaired two days previously. "Well, you've got the hard hat, the utility belt, a set of particularly flattering tools on you... the bright pink top might be a bit much, but other than that - I'd say you're ready to go."

"Yes," Buffy agreed with a grin. "I think so too."

Buffy immediately started to stride away, moving confidently towards the unfinished building, however within a few seconds Xander caught up with her, practically leaping in front of her and holding out his hands for her to stop.

"Woah, hang on there Buff," Xander said. "I've gotta introduce you to Tony first."

Buffy was confused. She was here to earn money – not meet Xander's friends.

"I don't understand," Buffy said, cocking her head to one side thoughtfully.

"Tony's supervising this part of the project," Xander explained. "He's responsible for all equipment and personnel that come on site. C'mon, I'll introduce you."

Buffy followed Xander as he walked across the dry, dusty earth which covered the site, approaching a table where three men appeared to be peering over a set of blueprints.

"Hey Tony!" Xander called out jovially.

A pale, dark-haired man turned from the table. He peered at Xander from narrow green eyes, which merely squinted further once he noticed Buffy. When Tony said nothing, Xander moved quickly to fill in the gap.

"This is Buffy – you know, that friend I told you about."

"Hello," Buffy greeted him with a wide grin, holding out her hand in greeting. To her surprise however, Tony made no move to take it. She wondered if her polite greetings protocols were incorrect – but they had never failed her in this way before.

Instead, the supervisor merely looked at Xander, contempt written so plainly on his face that Buffy's empathic programming was left in no doubt about his feelings.

"You kidding me Harris?" Tony finally spat, crossing his arms as he spoke. "We're weeks behind as it is – now you want me to babysit some little girl?"

"I do not require a babysitter." Buffy explained helpfully. "I am twenty years old!"

Tony never moved his eyes from Xander.

"Give her a chance," Xander implored him. "Trust me, she's stronger than she looks. Eager too!"

Buffy grinned at that. After all, she was very excited to start helping the people she was sure would be her new friends. Tony however just gave her a sceptical glare, drumming his fingers against the surface of the table, before turning back to his colleagues.

"Good luck Buff," Xander said from behind a tight grin, giving Buffy a friendly nudge before he began to move off towards the building. "I'll be back to check on you later!"

Buffy felt something as she watched Xander walk away. It was so rare for her to be cut adrift in this manner. At almost every other occasion, Willow, Tara or Dawn was almost always with her, whether she was preparing a meal for her friends, or accompanying Dawn to a school event. They would tell her what to say, what to do, they knew best. It was only very recently that Buffy had been given much opportunity to think about anything, and it made her feel uncertain.

After barking a series of orders at the men around him, Tony finally turned to address her.

"Alright princess – since we're stuck with you… why don't you start hauling some of that steel? If you can, that is. Without hurting yourself, or breaking a nail…."

Tony smiled as he spoke, but Buffy did not trust her base programming. There was a cruelty in that smile. Buffy had seen it before – in Razor's face when he struck her, when he threatened her. Behind him, she could see a few workmen chuckling. Either she had unintentionally let slip a particularly humorous remark, or there was something more going on.

Buffy crossed to the pile of red steel beams, bending her knees to grab one in each hand, before turning to face the men again.

"Where am I going please?" Buffy asked politely, as Tony stared at her with his mouth hanging open. One of the other workers pointed towards the building, and with a quick thank you, Buffy merrily tromped towards the entrance.

Buffy was pleasantly surprised by the good manners the workmen seemed to have as she wound her way up the various floors. They all bolted out the way of her when they saw her coming, she didn't even have to ask them! On the other hand, she couldn't help but notice that they did look a little startled as she approached, which perplexed Buffy slightly.

But then again, she was very pretty.

Warren stared intently through his stealth-binoculars, peeking surreptitiously at the building site through the window of the Trio's enormous, yet naturally - entirely anonymous - black van.

His lips curled upwards into a smile when he saw the familiar flash of blonde hair walking across the construction site.

"It's go-time," Warren informed his two 'partners', lowering the binoculars and turning to face them with an expression of cool confidence. "Prepare – to be amazed!"

At that, Warren pulled up his grey hood, before placing the yellow hard hat purposefully on his head.

Andrew and Jonathan looked at each other a little uncertainly.

"Umm… remind us exactly what you want us to do?" Andrew asked, twiddling his thumbs as he sat at his station, a panel covered in blinking red lights and countless individual switches.

Warren rolled his eyes. "I place the inhibitor on the Slayer – I radio you goons to activate the omega pulse sequence, I retreat to a safe distance – then we watch the show!"

"How do you plan to get that thing on Buffy without her noticing?" Jonathan asked. "She's got like – ninja reflexes…"

Jonathan demonstrated this with a few choice waves of his hand, straightened in a karate pose.

Warren dismissed his concern with a wave of his hand, a flicker of annoyance passing over his face. "Leave that to me, whine-athan. And don't… don't call her that."

"What, Buffy?" Jonathan questioned.

"Yes Buffy!" Warren snapped. "She's our nemesis dude! The enemy! Why do you think we called ourselves the Trio?"

Andrew glanced around the van nervously. "Because there are three of us?"

"Because it's cool!" Warren blurted. "We're evil geniuses dude! We need to be taken seriously - we can't rule over Sunnydale by yelling 'bow before Andrew' or 'tremble at the mighty Jonathan'."

"I guess..." Andrew conceded.

Warren couldn't help but notice the small smirk that overtook Jonathan's face for a moment, before his deferent expression returned, and he nodded in agreement.

Satisfied he had the situation under control, Warren opened the van door, dropping himself onto the pavement before turning back to face them.

"Now that's behind us – sit tight. I'll be back soon."

The other construction workers eventually seemed to get used to Buffy as she walked up and down the building site. One after another, she continued to carry set after set of steel beams to one of the upper floors, following the directions of her exciting new colleagues.

As Buffy lowered the latest pair of steel beams onto the growing pile she had constructed, she caught sight of a burly, ebony skinned workman shaking his head at her.

"Have I done something wrong?" Buffy asked with concern.

"We're paid by the hour new girl," the man said, crossing his arms. "Do me a favour – try not to ruin it for the rest of us?"

At that, the man walked away, leaving Buffy standing there with knotted brow.

That was an unusual reaction, Buffy thought. She ran his response through her social programming for a moment. Maybe… maybe there was such a thing as being too helpful. If Buffy helped too much – then everyone else would be able to help less, which made them feel bad.

Yes, that must be it.

"Hey there Buff," Xander called out as he approached from behind a plastic sheet, his usual cheeky grin on his face. "I hear from Tony you're doing a bang-up job!"

"I did not know that." Buffy said, her thoughtful expression vanishing in favour of a broad, serene smile. "But yes – I am very good at this."

Xander chuckled, reaching his hand back to scratch the back of his head. "Well actually he just sorta shrugged and mumbled 'she'll do'… but trust me, from Tony it's basically the same thing."

"I understand," Buffy replied. When she had first come online, she could never understand why anyone would say anything other than what they felt. Since then, however, she had learned that people were a little more confusing.

"C'mon," Xander said, inviting her to follow with a wave of his hand. "Think I've got another job with your name on it."

Buffy immediately moved to follow her friend as he walked through the forest of wondrous materials and equipment that surrounded them. Before she could follow Xander out of her current section however, Buffy found herself reaching for the nearest support beam as something heavy slammed into her with no warning.

Buffy's slaying program kicked in immediately, swivelling around to face her attacker with raised fists. However, before she could properly analyse the situation, the male figure who appeared to bump into her had already passed her, not even seeming to acknowledge what he'd done before vanishing around a corner. He didn't look like a demon – though under the grey-hooded top he wore it was difficult to tell.

"What's up Buff?" Xander asked from behind, causing Buffy to turn around to face him.

"Someone knocked into me," she replied, furrowing her brow thoughtfully. "I could not see his face."

Xander nodded, pursing his lips and looking past Buffy for a moment. "I wouldn't worry about it. Some of these guys, they like to throw their weight around – especially when it comes to newbies."

"Should I do the same?" Buffy asked, wondering if it was their version of a greeting.

"That would be a bad idea," Xander advised. "Don't worry about it – keep doing what you're doing, and even the worst jackasses will get used to you soon enough."

"That is good," Buffy decided. "Otherwise, I might end up slaying them by mistake."

Xander attempted to restrain a laugh, before beckoning her to follow him once again. "Come on."

Once again, Buffy jovially fell into step behind Xander, yet within a few moments, she knew something was wrong. At first, it just seemed as though Xander was walking at an unusually fast pace, but then within the span of a second he vanished from sight entirely. Buffy tried to move to catch up, but found herself knocked aside once again before she could so much as react, this time tumbling over a toolbox into the nearest corner. When Buffy looked up again, she saw that every worker on the site was now moving like Xander, flickering rapidly across the floor as if they were characters in one of Dawn's VCRs, fast forwarding past the parts she found boring.

Something was very wrong. Perhaps her initial knock had done more damage than Buffy had first realised, but either way – Willow wasn't here to run a diagnostic.

Buffy reached for the nearest support beam, pulling herself carefully to her feet. She hesitated before emerging from the corner, trying to time her movements so she could follow after Xander without ending up headfirst on the floor again.

If she could even recognise Xander. The construction workers were now little more than blurs to her ocular components, moving from one position to another, hovering like bees above their workstations, before buzzing on to the next task which seemed to complete itself instantly.

Beginning one of Giles' breathing exercises to focus herself, Buffy hurried out of the section. She had got barely ten metres however before one of the blurry figures materialised in front of her, seemingly out of air. Buffy stopped dead.

"What you doing new girl?" Tony sneered at her. "You lost or something?"

"I'm trying to find Xander," Buffy explained earnestly, still trying to clear the disorientation from her processor. "He has a job for me."

Tony's facial expression didn't change – as if he hadn't even processed the information.

"Forget Harris," he said finally. "I need a steady pair of hands up top, someone with their head on straight. Think you can handle that blondie?"

Something in the way Tony spoke reminded her more of a demon's challenge, than a genuine question.

"I can do that," Buffy accepted. She didn't want to leave Xander – but he had carefully explained to her that Tony was in charge, so she was sure Xander wouldn't be too upset – and he would find her if he really needed her.

So, Buffy followed Tony as he walked and weaved through the mass of workmen, still attempting to understand what had happened moments before. It didn't seem to be a mere malfunction. With the lack of any other clear explanations, she concluded it must have been some sort of spell. It affected Xander too – and everyone around her.

But before she could really try to understand the connotations of such a spell, the strange enchantment began all over again. Tony sped away up the nearest ramp, flickering until he became nothing more than a smudge on the floor above. Then she was being knocked to the floor all over again, things she could not process were slamming into her. Eventually, she managed to crawl across the floor into an alcove she thought out of the way, and waited, trying to take up as little room as possible. The images around her seemed to rush faster and faster, until everything Buffy could see seemed to be a single chaotic blur.

"Buffy!" Xander exclaimed, as everything seemed to suddenly snap back to regular parameters. His face seemed both angry and relieved simultaneously as he stared down at her. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I was following you," Buffy insisted, pulling herself to her feet looking around at all the other workers who seemed to have returned to normal speed. "But something very strange happened. I…"

"Buffy…" Xander cut her off. "You can't just… vanish for hours in the middle of the job!"

"But I didn't – Xander-"

"I'm sorry," Xander continued, as if he hadn't heard her. "But you're done."

"I don't understand," Buffy replied softly, a deepening frown on her face. "There is nothing more for me to do? I cannot make more money?"

"Just… Just head home to Willow, alright?" Xander replied in a pained voice, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "See if you've knocked a screw loose or something."

With that, Xander vanished into the sea of working men, leaving Buffy alone in the crowd.

"There she is!" Warren exclaimed joyfully, pointing to the slight blonde girl in the bright pink top who was walking towards the edge of the site.

"You think she's going home sick – or do you think they fired her?" Jonathan asked, traces of concern in his voice.

Warren rolled his eyes, fixing Jonathan with a distasteful look. Why was he so determined to step on his triumph? "Who cares?" he scoffed. "Hey – if they did, I think that deserves some extra points."

Warren raised his arm, before pointing forwards towards the windscreen. "And now… we follow."

Warren grabbed the keys and turned them in the ignition, a sneering smile growing on his lips. On his first attempt he had made the slayer powerless. And it was only just beginning.