Chapter Two
"So what's the undead pain in the ass up to this time?" Cordelia smiled to her three friends and dropped the plastic shopping bags she carried onto the table – which were immediately torn apart by Xander who was in search of Ho-Ho's and cola. "Better not be trying another body switch 'cause, let me tell you, I can not handle being in Wesley's body again," she said with a dramatic shiver.
Xander, Willow and Laurel laughed, all remembering three weeks before when Angelus hired a Shaman to do a little mojo and swap the Scooby's bodies – Cordelia had ended up in Wesley's body but he had ended up in Willow's; Giles had been stuck in Xander's body and Xander in Cordelia's; Laurel and Spike were swapped for each other; and Willow had landed smack-dab inside of Giles' body. It had been the latest attack on the Scooby's by Angelus but not the strangest of them. Five month's before Angelus had somehow managed to curse the gang so everything they said was spoken in rhyme and sung. Two months before that he had trapped the gang in an alternate universe where they were forced to live their most terrifying nightmares. Four and a half months before that Angelus had tempted the Scooby's to an abandoned mansion and locked them inside where they were subjected to a sort of twisted rat maze complete with flesh-eating zombies, chainsaw massacre-men and a hunk of cheese at the center.
Needless to say Angelus enjoyed toying with the Scooby gang but every time he tried to slip past their radar he was caught and his plans destroyed. Angelus was getting impatient but never stupid in his playing of the game. He was an exceptional stagiest and, on several occasions, almost succeeded in outsmarting the gang. Only one thing kept the Scooby's from being beaten: Willow.
"No nothing like that," Willow laughed, "just your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill demon this time."
"Oh," Cordelia dropped down onto the couch beside Xander and handed him the Ho-Ho package he was searching for. "Angelus is taking another breather from Slayer Central torture?"
"So it appears," Willow answered.
"Well, good because I'm in need of a least a week's worth of full night sleep," Cordelia said while popping the top of a soda can.
Laurel unwrapped a burger from Bill's Burger Barn and took a bite before saying, "I'll just be happy to be doing a little normal slaying for a while."
"It's times like this I wish for the Bronze," Cordelia sighed and Xander nodded his agreement, mumbling something with a mouth full of Ho-Ho.
"What's the Bronze?" Laurel asked.
"Used to be club," Willow answered. "Back in high school it was the place to hang out but it got destroyed before you came here."
"Destroyed how?"
"Angelus," Xander answered. "Decided to throw a groovy little vamp buffet, Buffy showed up, they fought, Angelus lost, got pissed and put a torch to the place."
"It was such a shame," Cordelia said. "The Bronze was the only cool place to hang out. Now we have some want-to-be knockoff called the Silver Lining."
The three Sunnydale natives fell into reminiscing and telling stories of the Old Sunnydale – as they liked to call it – when Buffy was still alive and saving the world; before Wesley showed up and Giles was the go-to man for answers; when Angelus was still Angel and so in love with Buffy. Laurel never fully understood the pain that showed so deeply in her friends' eyes at the mention of the former Slayer and she never would because Laurel had never known Buffy; never known how utterly self-less she was when it came to her friends and how devotedly she accepted her destiny even though she hated it at times. Buffy had been the core of the original Scooby gang, its spirit and strength and even Spike agreed that Buffy had been the greatest Slayer in generations – possibly ever – and not because of her fighting ability or Slayer skills but because she was motivated by her love for her friends and supported by them wholeheartedly. Those were things Laurel would never understand and her friends almost pitied her for it.
"Now, by then he was all shades of confused and practically stumbled over his words, 'You were destined to die. It was written'," Xander said, speaking of what befell between Buffy and the Master just before she killed him.
"And Buffy," Cordelia put it, "being the smart-ass she was said, 'What can I say? I flunked the written'. Then they fought and fought some more before the Master cornered Buffy."
"My god!" Laurel exclaimed.
Smiling, Willow picked up the story, "So then the Master said, 'Where are your jibes now? Will you laugh when my hell is on earth?'"
Now on the edge of her seat Laurel asked, "What did she do?"
"'You're that amped about hell?' Buffy asked. 'Go there!' Next thing we all knew down in the library the Master came falling through the glass and landed square on a snapped piece of staircase."
"Poof," Cordelia gesticulated with her hands. "Bye-bye Master, hello saved world."
"That's amazing," Laurel sighed.
Sitting back in her seat Willow smiled and said, "Buffy was amazing."
