Disclaimer: See chapter 1 (Spoiler, I own nothing in this story)

Monday, May 29th, Gringotts Bank - High Volume Business Division, Los Angeles branch

Nagnok, head of all North American branches of Gringotts, sauntered into his office three doors down from the conference room. He smiled at the forethought of including the weapons and dummies in the room. They would be able to assess the Slayer's physical skills and combat prowess, and his clients would be able to relieve some of the stress he had just given them. He felt a twinge of regret at what he had done, not telling the whole truth concerning Sirius, and he was expecting some retribution for his part in the deceit, but he technically did not lie at any point, which would not help him should the Slayer decide to gut him.

Sure, the main contractual obligation he cited to them was a bet he and Ragnarok, head of England's Gringotts branch, had made, and sure, Xander's acceptance would move all the Black wealth to his territory, thus giving him higher standing within the Goblin Nation, but when Go'Derk said that Xander must accept the inheritance before the sun sets or the Goblin Nation would be obliterated, power plays and greed came a far third to obeying the longest lived Goblin King in history (by 70 years) and surviving whatever would come should he fail.

A well-kept secret amongst the goblins was that the longer a Goblin King ruled, the more the King would be able to See Truth. It was a form of prophecy or precognition or visions, not infallible in the younger Kings, but more reliable the longer they ruled. The majority of Goblin Kings ended their reigns voluntarily, when they knew the truth that there was a goblin better suited to lead than they.

An even better kept secret was that all goblins had this, but never to the extent as the Goblin King. That is why it was suicide to try to rob or trick a goblin, they would be able to see right through the deceit. As head of North American Gringotts, Nagnok had a portion of this ability, but only related to his area of stewardship. He knew, for example, that Xander would accept his inheritance, so he started preparing the missives needed for the previously unknown (to the wizarding world, at least) heir to inherit.

He had four owls to send out, one to each of the surviving siblings/cousins of Regulus, informing them of the new heir. He also needed to send Ragnarok a letter so he could prepare to move the funds to the North American vaults, and to prepare for the eventual hissy fits that the Malfoy and LeStrange families would make when they realized they would not be able to lay their hand on the Black vault. The disrespectful families didn't know how much was in it, or had any idea it was anywhere near its actual amount, but they knew it would be significant. The British ministry would try to lean on Gringotts, with the pressure being paid for by Malfoy Sr., but transferring the vaults here would negate that tactic. Their Ministry has no say in United States vaults, and the Magical Congress was on better terms with Gringotts than with their governing counterparts across the ocean.

Moving the vault to the United States would also force the reading of Regulus' will, since the Ministry would no longer be able to block it. Ragnarok suspected someone at the ministry was accepting bribes to block any goblin attempt to read the will. Evidently whoever it was had extensive understanding of the whole situation.

Black family by-laws, British Ministry of Magic inheritance laws, and Gringotts customs made the entire Black inheritance a mess the likes of which was only matched with Sunnydale. Sirius was kicked out of the family by his mother, which meant that Regulus became the Black heir according to the Black family rules. But since Sirius' father never registered the removal with the Ministry, according to them Sirius was still the heir.

To further complicate things, being convicted of terrorism prevents the individual from being recognized as an heir per the British Ministry of Magic laws. If that wasn't enough, there was a clause in the Black rules regarding being the head of the house. Someone convicted of a serious crime could not be the Head, but it seemed only the goblins knew about that caveat. So Sirius was still the heir and the head of house according to everyone in the Ministry, but anyone who knew the Black by-laws would think he lost the headship, but not the inheritance. However, the goblins knew he did not have a trial, therefore anyone who knew he didn't have a trial would think he had the inheritance and the headship. In addition, those who knew that Sirius was removed from the family, something that only actual Black members would know or share, would know that Sirius had no claim to the inheritance.

The lack of known heir from Regulus caused one of the Black women to try to claim the inheritance for their child, but Gringott policies prevented not only the claim going through, but denied giving the woman the reason why the claim was denied. They must have assumed that Sirius was still the inheritor through some unknown means. One reason Ragnarok wanted Regulus' will to be read, something that required Alexander's presence and a lack of British ministry interference, was to rid himself of the mess of keeping it all straight. It had taken Ragnarok two nights, four bottles of Dragonbreath Ale, and six diagrams to explain it all to Nagnok, and Ragnarok still claimed there were four more layers of complexity to the inheritance case, one of which involved dragons and a veela tribe somehow.

The last letter Nagnok wrote, and the first to be sent, was to his boss. If he wanted to keep his job and his head, he needed to write everything, every word, action, thought, and inference, along with giving his memory of the event. The King was very specific, he wanted all interactions with the heir and his troupe documented. It was odd how much attention this particular human was being given by the Goblin King. This sort of assignment would usually be handled by a local representative, but the instructions, including the order of business, room location, and which records were left with the clients, were specified by the King.

Finishing up the letters, and giving them to the Inter-Gringotts platypus couriers (much more efficient and useful for mail delivery between Gringotts branches than the usual owl), Nagnok looked at the time and saw he had 3 minutes until he needed to be back with the group. Even the amount of time to contemplate the acceptance had been specified. The old goblin stretched, picked up the second tome and folder from his desk where his underling had placed them this morning, then started back to the conference room, mentally preparing himself for the bombshells he had yet to deliver. Once more into the sun.

"Have you come to a decision?" Nagnok asked the question before he had gotten all the way through the door, eighteen seconds left on his timer. He placed his burdens on the table before once again taking his seat. He slipped the acceptance forms from the folder.

"I'll take it. I will need some of the services you mentioned earlier, but I figure we can arrange that later." It was good that this came from the heir himself, instead of one of his manservants. It would make the paperwork easier since he had vocalized it himself. At least he didn't have his Slayer speak, that would have been tricky for the contracts needed. Very tricky indeed.

"Very well, I need your signature on this document in blood. This here is a blood quill, provided for your convenience. It will take the blood from you without leaving a permanent mark. It will be quite painful." The older manservant picked up the proffered document and read over it, then passed it to the younger manservant.

The slayer was still in the corner hacking at the training dummies with impressive speed and determination. Best leave her business to the last, after she had gotten some more energy out of her system. Preliminary analysis of her fighting put her as lethal as a young dragon. The document and quill finally arrived at the heir, who promptly and without any wincing signed his name on the line. Without showing anything, Nagnok was impressed by the display, very few wizards had ever signed in blood without showing some outer discomfort.

"Very good. That concludes your father's business for this day. We can set up an appointment for later for you to go over all that being the Head of House Black entails, including reviewing your accounts. If it is alright with you, the second portion deals with your mother. May we proceed?" Another oddity was the Goblin King insisted that he ask permission to proceed to the mother's business. Normally such permission was never requested, doing so wasted precious time.

"What's one more shock to my life, sure, bring it on." Alexander Black's strained joking tone was evident, and Nagnok almost felt sorry for what he was going to do. Nothing was more sacred to a goblin than their mother, not even gold. The boy did give permission, though, so onward.

"Very well. Your mother left in her vault a recording for you to view when you turned 15. Unfortunately, the wards around Sunnydale, powered by the late mayor, prevented any communication from us from getting to you. Additionally, she had a few things left for you in a vault which you will need to collect by tomorrow, transfer to one of your family vaults, or renew her contract to keep the current vault. The choice is yours."

The ex-mayor's ward had been unforeseen and extremely disruptive to the business, but their treaty from 1912 allowed it, albeit indirectly. The goblin who had authorized that treaty had lost his head for that oversight, but the treaty was binding. Unfortunately, it had taken over 90 years for the mayor to die, costing the bank trillions in possible revenue. Many a night Nagnok and Ragnarok spent commiserating their respective black marks, but hopefully this year will remove them both.

"Uhh, can I look at the vault before deciding?"

"If you wish. Does Slayer Faith wish to conduct her business before or after inspecting the vault?" Dealing with the Slayer would require finesse and tact, things that all Slayers reportedly lacked. He hoped she would not take his head off, but that was the price of doing business with a being as powerful as she.

"Up to you Faith, we can do it now or later." It was interesting that the heir almost regarded her as an equal. He would have to send another missive to the England branch to update the records and information about Slayers. Things had evidently changed since the treaty.

"Whatever is cool with me." Nagnok took Xander's shrug to mean that she could proceed with Slayer Faith's business. He opened the Tome of Conquests.

"As the Slayer, you are entitled to the bounties on the vampires, demons, and demigods that are removed from this dimension. For the past centuries, that bounty has been deposited in the Watchers Council's vault. Before we get to the important business, do you wish to continue that policy?" Nagnok thought that this would be the most standard question this morning since every slayer Gringotts had ever talked with has agreed (granted that was only seven), but from Faith's reaction, he no longer thought so.

Slowly, Faith rose from her chair where she was lounging and silently stalked over to the training dummies. She picked up the large double headed axe that Xander had been using recently, and proceeded to smash a dummy to splinters.

It did not reappear.

They were spelled to reappear.

Their guard trolls had used those dummies for decades for training, and they had always reappeared.

Always.

Somehow, the Slayer had slayed the training dummy.

Nagnok could not keep the surprise and fear from his face, but luckily the others in the room were watching Faith and not him. When Go'Derk reviewed his memory, though, he would see it and he would have to face the consequences for dropping the Goblin Maskarad, but since she slayed a training dummy, he felt it was justified. Faith embedded the axe 6 inches into the wall and sat down. Nagnok mentally increased her threat level when angered to above ancient dragons.

"I think she would like to revise that agreement." Nagnok said nothing immediately at the older ones comment, but wrote a message to his assistant to draw up papers to dissolve the current arrangement effective immediately. After finishing that, he proceeded extremely carefully. The Slayer's inaudible growl (at least to human hearing) promised violence.

"There are various options available to you. You can open a vault to store the bounties, we may transfer it to a non-magical bank for a fee, or you may set up a trust fund. Do any of these options appeal to you, Slayer Faith?"

"Just keep it away from the council. How much are we talking about, anyway?"

"Approximately 8 million US dollars since you became slayer, which unfortunately cannot be recalled since they have already been paid out. That includes the death of Angelus, the destruction of the Scourge mining facility, 7 ghost passings, hellhounds, Ovu Mobani, Lurcronis, a plethora of common vampires, and so forth. That is not including the business involving the Mayor, which was the point of us contacting you." Nagnok was interrupted at that point, not that he would complain due to the interruptee being the Slayer.

The Slayer who had slayed a training dummy.

No complaint at all.

"Wait a minute, Buffy killed most of those things, why am I getting the credit for it? Shouldn't that go to Buffy?" It was a question Nagnok wasn't expecting, but luckily he knew the answer. He was thankful for all the preparation he had done before this meeting, but surprised that she didn't know this already.

"You are The Slayer. Slayer Buffy is technically the Beta Slayer, so you outrank her, for lack of a better term. Her death and revival nullified her legal ability to collect on the bounties, which passed to Slayer Kendra and then to you, Slayer Faith. As The Slayer, all slayer kills by the subordinate Slayers go to you."

"Whoa, that is messed up." Nagnok didn't know how to respond to that, so he chose to ignore it for now and continue on.

"I have started the paperwork to start transferring Slayer bounties to a temporary vault, you have 30 days to decide what you wish to do with the bounties that come in. I suggest you talk with our advisers to determine the most profitable solution for you. The papers will be ready to sign before you leave today. The main purpose of summoning you, though, is to execute the Late Mayor Wilkin's will." Nagnok ignored the sudden readiness and heightened threat of violence that filled the room. He had been expecting it, and figured the easiest way to deal with it is to muscle onward without giving them the chance to speak. He was also disappointed that none of them expressed gratitude, surprise, or caution when he waived the temporary vault fee for the Slayer.

"Per his written instruction 3 weeks ago, should he die, The Slayer would be his sole beneficiary. According to him, if the upcoming generation is organized and responsible enough to defeat him, than they are civic minded enough to take over for him. His concern was that without his leadership, the town of Sunnydale would lose that special charming quality that he had worked so hard to achieve over the last century. As such, the Slayer is now the Mayor of Sunnydale, with all the rights, privileges, responsibilities, powers, and so forth, needed to fulfill the duties of the office of Mayor. When you die, the next Slayer becomes Mayor. You have three advisers bound by an unbreakable magical oath to help you acclimate to your new responsibilities, who are even now waiting at the Sunnydale City Hall for your return.

"If you refuse or a future Slayer refuses, be aware there will be a power vacuum that will cause extensive damage, both in property and life, to Sunnydale over the resulting turf wars between the demon clans, possibly spreading to the whole state. The Mayor has made the requisite oaths and rituals needed in cases of giving an inheritance to a hostile heir, so be assured that this is not a trick or a setup. His only reasons for doing this is as previously stated, the well-being of Sunnydale, with no ulterior motive. He is, after all, dead. Per the Mayor's instructions, you have 10 minutes to decide. My two assistants will answer any questions you have within the time frame." Nagnok flipped over a 10 minute solid gold sand hourglass that no one had noticed before and walked out of the room before anyone could object.

Two of his assistants, chosen for their combat prowess and detailed knowledge of the Sunnydale Fiasco (as the Mayor's accounts were known), strode in and started fielding questions from the menservants and the occasional one from the Black heir. Nagnok's wristwatch kept him informed of the time left, and he poured himself a tall glass of Dragonbreath Ale to calm his nerves and awaken his spirit. At 30 seconds left he returned to the room. Another of the indestructible dummies had been shattered in his absence. Luckily the ale was doing its job, he was calm enough to continue giving the two young humans situations where the only answer was fixed before the question was asked.

"Alright, you crappy demon knockoff, I'll be the stupid mayor of that hellhole." Faith's … displeasure… was obvious, and Nagnok truly wished he could pass this responsibility off to another less valuable employee; he had no desire to die at the hands of the enraged slayer. He passed the required paperwork over to her watcher, who read them and passed them on to her to sign. The only thing saving the parchment from being stabbed through with the quill was the unbreakable charms, and Nagnok didn't want to see if the slayer could slay those too. He would not bet against her at this point.

After 15 minutes of reading and signing, during which the Black heir was spot reading his family's tome, all was signed and the Sunnydale Fiasco came to a close. Time would only tell if the new era under the Slayer Mayor was better or worse for business.

"With that, Gringotts has concluded its business with you, Slayer Faith. If you wish to deal with us from now on, it cannot be as the Slayer per the Goblin-Watcher Treaty of 1217. You can, however, contact us as Mayor of Sunnydale, a known and registered magical town. If, for example, the Mayor of Sunnydale wished to hire goblin mercenaries to help protect the Hellmouth, the goblins of Gringotts could facilitate such a contract." He wasn't sure why this nugget was offered, or why Go'Derk had ordered him to present it after all signing was done, but so were the wishes of the King.

Nagnok had a thought about how much business a Gringotts branch in Sunnydale might do, and that amount provided a very good reason to be on good terms with the Mayor. The menservants' eyes widened in surprise as they contemplated his offer, he would make sure to notify the contract department at their extreme interest, they should be able to increase their fee slightly for any future contracts. He wondered if they truly understood about the possible ramifications of hiring goblin mercenaries.

"Now, the last point of Gringotts business is for the Head of Black to see his mother's vault. As such, I will leave you in the capable hands of my assistants. If you have any more business or questions, please return. I recommend making an appointment first, though, unless you enjoy long waits. Good Day."

Go'Derk would be pleased (hopefully) with the results of this day's meeting. He hurried back to his office, and then wondered if the new Head of Black knew he was a wizard. The goblins could pull no history of him going to a wizarding school, nor did he have a wand on him.

Well, it was not his problem, and Nagnok decided to go home early after sending the requisite letters and forms. He deserved it. It had been one stressful day.