"Revelations, Repercussions and Robots Oh My!!"

By Ryley Breen AKA Shadow Master

Email: rybreen@theberries.ns.ca

"'Oops'!? 'Oops' is when you accidentally break someone's window! 'Oops' is when your best friend eats a piece of chocolate cake you had been saving in the fridge!" , Xander said almost hysterically as he stared at Willow in disbelief, "This is a lot closer to a 'Man did I screw up!' than anything else Wills!"

While Buffy had to admit that Xander had a point about the understatement Willow and Tara had made in summing up their latest snafu he didn't have to rub it in like that. Turning back to the two demons who moments ago had been one she wondered what the heck had happened to make things turn out like this. Everything had pretty much gone as planned, she and Faith had charged through the front door and headed towards the master bedroom that Spike had said was Glory's on the way to the apartment building. They had come across the standard groupie demons and vampires along the way but they had been no more trouble than that fear demon that had been summoned accidentally at that frat Halloween party during the whole Initiative thing. Once they had finally gotten to the room she had figured that it was high time to put an end to the whole thing with Glory. She was tired of worrying about her sister's safety everyday of every week, not knowing whether or not the hell god Glorificus had finally figured out who was the Key. To illustrate this fact she had sent a small energy blast ahead of her and Faith and knock the door to the room right off it's hinges along with some of the wall. However when she entered the room she had found not the blond bimbo she had been expecting but something that might have crawled out of a Wes Craven flick. From there on in everything was pretty much punch and dodge, kick and dodge as well as trying to figure out where her true nemesis was hiding.

Now however thoughts of the hell goddess were pushed to the back of her mind as she tried to decide what should be done about the two uglies right in front of her. She didn't think that they were too dangerous, after all it only made sense that they would be stronger as one demon than two demons right? Well there was only on way to find out and without another word to her friends she charged the one that looked like a large scorpion person. She got one good punch right in it's jaw but surprisingly that only caused it to back up a few steps but then again that was probably more due to the size of the room than her attack. It didn't take it long after clearing it's head up to retaliate as it immediately began to try and impale her with it's tail. This of course wasn't much more vigorous than playing 'dodge the explosive energy ball' with Faith and Dawn during their training sessions but it did force her to pay attention. The Scorpion-guy then suddenly stopped using his tail and decided to change to his pincers and fists to try and take her out. This was a bit more challenging for her since it now required her to dodge four things at once rather than just one which made her wonder where this thing got it's brain. After all if she had been stuck with that kinda body, heaven forbid, she would have started with this tactic right away rather than use that phallic tail again and again. Deciding that this thing wasn't really a threat to be worried about Buffy decided to have a little fun with it before she slew it. The first part of that however was letting it grab her which meant she would have to slow down quite a bit since this thing was just too-- slow! It didn't take long and once it was convinced it had a firm grip on it's apparently helpless victim it gave her a leer that clearly said 'I've got you now!'.

"'Oh no! Whatever will I do?!'" , she said in her best damsel in distress voice impression right before returning his leer right back at him, "Y'know you really should have considered other job options before hiring on as a watch dog. I mean there's got to be some kinda tomb or pyramid somewhere that needs a half scorpion-half-man demon guarding it or something."

With that snappy patter said she began to wail away at it's head like a punching bag and with every blow the demon's grip on her got weaker and weaker. Eventually it was no longer able to hold her up and once again she had her feet firmly planted on the ground which seemed as good a time as any to add a few kicks to her onslaught. Before long the Scorpion-guy was wobbling on his legs like a boxer who was punch drunk and she figured that it wouldn't be much longer before he would be down for the count. Then they could search this place and hopefully find out where Glory had gone to and if it a good thing or bad thing that she had left Sunnydale. Just then she sensed something coming at her from the right and turned in that direction just in time to see a green leathery tail hit her right on the side of the head which sent her flying to the other side of the room. She hit the wall and surprisingly stayed there as it seemed that her clothes had caught on the wiring and broken boards which she had broken when she had impacted on the wall. Dazed for a second she waited until she got her bearings before pulling herself off the wall and onto the ground however she would soon wish that she had been a little quicker to recover. Not ten seconds after she had been hit Dawn flew from her position at the door and took Buffy's spot fighting the Scorpion-guy. However it was clear from her sloppy technique and playful attitude that she was not taking the fight as seriously as she should. Buffy knew this and she suspected that everyone else knew this as well but with most of them outmatched or in Faith's case preoccupied with the sewer-gator she was the only one who could intervene. Shaking her head to get the last of the cobwebs out she prepared herself to re-enter the struggle and back her little sister up in case she got tagged with a lucky shot from Scorpion-guy.

It was then that it happened.

Without warning the Scorpion-guy changed tactics from using his fists to using his tail but Dawn had not caught onto this and didn't see it coming until it was too late. Fear bursting into her mind the smaller blond tried in a panic to get out of the way, increasing her power level by leaps to try and get clear but it was too little too late. Had she just started to move out of the way three seconds earlier she would have been able to dodge the tail entirely but as it was the point of the tail got her in the arm and impaled it with the tail's stinger. Dawn screamed in pain as the pain from the wound ripped through her body though it was possible that the pain had come from the poison as well. This flew through Buffy's mind like a banshee on the warpath and for the next few moments all she could do was watch as her little sister, the only family she had left, writhed in pain. Her mother had only left her a few months ago and she had still not completely recovered from it and the thought that she might lose her little sister this night made all the pain come rushing back. If Dawn died it would not matter how much comfort her friends tried to give her or how many consoling speeches they used, she would forever feel alone. It was the one thing that she feared more than anything else, to be completely and utterly alone.

"NNNNOOOOO!!!" Buffy screamed in a rage and at that moment the shit really hit the fan.

In that exact moment an explosion ripped through the room that knocked every lesser mortal clear off their feet but at the same time made sure that their attention was fixed on one point. That point was the embodiment of fury as at the place where Buffy once stood was now a roaring storm of chi-energy that seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. Already the wall behind her and the floor beneath B had been blasted away and causing her to hover in the air within her self-generated energy field. This however did not even enter into her mind, all she could see was her sister twitch with pain, all she could feel was her fury and power rising like a Volcano on the verge of erupting. If anything she looked like an angry goddess ready to rain down her wrath upon the one who had inspired such fury in her and with her bright white energy field crackling around her with barely focused energies no one could blame a person for thinking that she was a goddess. Even the demons halted their attack to look at the new spectacle before them but they were given only a moments glance as a second later she seemed to disappear into thin air. A second later Dawn disappeared from her place at the tip of the Scorpion-guy's tail and reappeared in front of Willow and Dawn who had barely enough time to comprehend this before the action resumed. Without warning the scorpion demon flew though the air as though he had been hit by a train and the amount of force actually used became apparent as it smashed through the wall.

Next the sewer-gator that Faith had been fighting was propelled by some unseen force through a side wall and was not stopped by any of the walls which got in it's path. Within moments of Buffy's outburst both demons were out of the building and flying through the air with the possibility of falling back to earth growing more unlikely with every moment. Rushing to the windows the Spike, Giles, Xander, Anya and Faith looked at the two monsters flying through the air and wondered if the blows that had hit them with such force had killed them. A scream of rage snapped their attention upward and there glowing like a miniature sun was Buffy, still in the midst of her berserker's rage and powered up higher than any had thought possible for her. None of the Scooby gang could take their eyes off her as she seemed to track the two demon's flight across the midnight sky, her eyes almost glowing with power. It was then that the enraged Slayer raised her arms and flattened her palms outwards, aiming them at the objects of her fury with a vengeful precision. It was then that true fear entered the hearts of the Scooby-gang for this was a side of Buffy that they had only seen a few times before but only for the briefest of moments. It was the Buffy that had smashed the Master's bones into dust, the Buffy that been willing to kill Faith in order to save Angel and it was the Buffy that had been compelled to avenge Riley's death at the hands of the Saiya-jin Prince Vegita. Now however this volatile part of their friend was in full view and most of them were afraid of what the Slayer would do in her present state.

Finally satisfied with her aim Buffy yelled "MA-SEN-KO-HHAAA!!"

With only a flicker of light as a prelude two massive blasts of energy flew from Buffy's palms and shot with deadly precision towards their chosen targets. For those that were witnessing this scene from afar they thought that they were seeing something straight from the X-Files and for those that were skeptical what happened next made them believers. Within seconds of being fired the two energy blasts caught up to their targets and exploded with unheard of force. Windows in the immediate vicinity were shattered, trees were ripped from the ground and the light from the explosions caused all to look away until it had dimmed. When they did there was no sign of the demon's that had been targets of the Slayer's rage, just a bit of ash twisting in the wind. For a few moments all the Scooby gang could do was stare at their friend, stare at the figure surrounded by an aura of power in the form of a white field of flaming energy. Then without warning the energy field that had been keeping Buffy aloft dissipated and the blonde warrior dropped like a stone towards the ground below. Giles immediately turned to Faith to tell her to catch Buffy before she landed but as it turned out he didn't have to because just as he thought his eyes had settled on the ebon-haired Slayer she vanished in a blur. A few moments later she reappeared beneath the young Summers girl and caught her comrade neatly in her arms with little trouble. A few moments later both Slayers were inside and it looked as if Buffy had managed to recuperate somewhat although it was obvious that she was still a bit out of it in terms of balance and strength. She could mostly stand on her own two feet but it was clear that she was completely exhausted from her efforts and would need to rest quite a bit before she would be fully recovered.

With that crisis over with the group was free to turn their attention back to the youngest member of the team who was still in quite a bit of pain despite Willow and Tara's efforts. The two wicca had been the only ones who had not gone to the window to view Buffy's exploits as their attention had been solely focused on Dawn at the time. The wound the young warrior had suffered was significant and compounded by the fact that there was poison in the wound that was slowly coursing through the girl's veins. At the moment Willow was attempting to use her magicks to deal with the poison while Tara dealt with the wound itself. Surprisingly there wasn't much blood due to the small wound but that didn't mean that there wasn't quite a bit of damage to deal with. Still it could have been a lot worse and luckily both witches had foreseen the possibility of injuries during this confrontation and had brought the appropriate ingredients for healing spells. The two worked in concert with each other, each young woman's magicks helping to support the other's magick and this helped speed up the healing process significantly. Bit by bit, slowly but surely, the poison was drawn back towards the wound it had entered from until it exited the body and evaporated into thin air. Once that was done Tara began the final incantations that would seal the wound up so nicely that it wouldn't even leave a scar behind when spell was finished. Up until this point she had just been keeping the bleeding down as well as keeping away any bacteria or other such contaminants from entering the wound. It was only now, with the poison having been extracted from Dawn's body, that she could safely repair the damage done to the shoulder and seal up the wound.

"Dawn are you okay?" Willow asked as she helped the young girl up to her feet.

"Yeah, except for the numbing sensation and the image of my arm being used as a pin cushion." , Dawn moaned as she got to her feet and looked around the room, "What happened?"

"Oh nothing much, just Buff going postal and vaping the demons in a blind rage!" Xander said satirically which earned him an elbow in the side from Giles.

At the mention of her sister Dawn looked around the room and once her eyes had locked onto Buffy she zipped across the room in a blur and hugged her. The blond Slayer was naturally overwhelmed by the affection being sent her way by her sister but didn't protest given what had happened in the past few months. Of the two of them Dawn had taken their mother's death the hardest and had actually gone to the extreme of trying to cast a spell to resurrect the dead. Needless to say when that didn't work she vented her grief on the demon population of Sunnydale under the watchful eye of her big sister. That had quite nicely put a big dent in population of the underworld and given them a brief respite from all the hard work since it gave demon's an incentive to stay away. It by no means that the Slayer's job was done since there was always some sort of doomsday prophecy in the works and fresh demons who thought they'd make a name for themselves by killing the Slayers of Sunnydale. So there was almost always a convenient punching bag around if either of the two Summers sisters wanted to blast or beat something into a fine powder. Unfortunately there was only one demon, or demon goddess as the case may be, that they wanted to fight in particular and she wasn't here no had been for at least three weeks from the grime. Which brings events back to the present with the gang no closer to finding an answer than they had been before Spike had been thrown through a window.

"Ah...Dawn....need air...!" Buffy squeaked out as her face was beginning to change color from pale pink to pale blue.

Almost in embarrassment Dawn released her sister and allowed her taller sibling to knock back some O-2 to get some color back in her cheeks. Confident that they would be alright by themselves for a few moments Giles began to look around the room for a clue as to their quarry's whereabouts. He gave a brief moan of frustration as he looked at the mess made of the room in the minutes since the offensive had begun and estimated that it would take him at least an hour to sift through everything. Not even needing to say it he heard the others begin to sift through the rubble with him although some were pulling more of their weight then others in the endeavor. The lighter work left was done by Giles, Xander and Anya while those who had the benefit of magic or enhanced strength lifted the heavier items. This went on for a few minutes until Giles chanced upon a TV sized safe hidden in the floor with it's camouflage shattered by the fight. Seeing this as as good a place as any to hide the secrets of one's whereabouts he immediately cleared away the rubble around it so as to get a better look at the type of safe he was dealing with. With his apparent attention to one particular spot it wasn't long before the others were all crowded around the safe while Giles continued to try and figure out a way to open it. He had some experience with this sort of thing from his Ripper days but safe's had changed a bit since then and who knew what that hell-bitch had done to it to improve on it's innate protections.

Placing his ears up against the door to the safe next to the combination dial and began to experimentally turn it one way and then the next. The key, if he remembered the practice correctly, was to listen for the distinct click of a tumbler falling into place before turning the dial in the opposite direction. Normally for such sensitive work one would need some sort of listening device since the clicks a safe-cracker would be listening for were too soft for the average person to hear. However after years among the Watcher's Council and listening to dread demons recite forgotten languages he had grown to possess a significantly acute sense of hearing what others could not. With a bit of luck he might just be able to pull the proverbial rabbit out of his hat and open the safe within the first try or at the very worst the third. So focused on his efforts he didn't need to tell Xander to be quiet as he was no doubt spouting all sort of inane things that had no relevance on the task at hand. For awhile the next few moments time seemed to crawl by as Rupert tried to listen for the right click and hoping that he was doing it right. After what seemed like an hour he heard what he hoped was the final click as he raised himself up from the safe and reached for the handle that would open the safe now that the combination had been deciphered. Unfortunately after he turned the handle he found that the safe would still not open but instead merely laid there and taunted him with it's modern advances.

"Look, why don't I just rip the door of it's hinges!" , Faith said with impatience as she reached for the handle, "After all who cares of psycho girl comes home to find her safe busted!"

Giles tried to stop her but given the increase in her physical abilities under Piccolo she was simply too fast for him and before he had even crossed half the distance with his arm the door was already off it's hinges. The former Watcher covered his face in an attempt to shield himself from whatever was to result from the ebon-haired amazon's reckless actions but surprisingly nothing happened. Momentarily confused Giles slowly creeped forward and peered inside the safe for some clue as to why they hadn't been blown to kingdom come as well as some clues as to the hell-god's whereabouts. Inside he found a few scrolls and dusty old books which seemed to rival his own collection in terms of age but surprisingly there wasn't some sort of arcane explosive or small-but-deadly demon inside. Taking this turn of good fortune in stride he began to take out and examine the contents of the safe, noting the bizarre inclusion of a few travel brochures along with the ancient texts. For a few moments it looked as though Faith's callous action was not going to cause him to be grievously injured but that all changed when he removed one volume from the safe and heard a distinct clicking noise. Hurrying to move the rest of the safe's contents out of the way he found that his fears were justified as he came upon a digital clock that was slowly counting down from thirty seconds to zero.

"Um, I don't suppose there's anyway that this could be a good thing eh guys?" Xander said with eyes rapidly approaching the 'run-away-run-away!' look.

Not even bothering to find a witty reply to Xander's remark everyone instantly went into a flurry of action as they all went about their familiar roles. Giles immediately began to grab everything he could carry out of the safe just in case they had to make a hasty exit while Willow and Tara tried to use their magic to locate the explosives and disarm them. Unfortunately with only thirty seconds on the clock it was unlikely they would be able to manage it in time which gave the others a reason to put as much distance between them and this building as possible. As the seconds ticked by both the wicca's and Giles tried to move quicker to accomplish their designated tasks before the fireworks started. As the digital clock hit ten seconds however it was clear that nothing was going to stop the explosives from doing their job so without further adieu both the wiccas and the Watcher ran from the building as fast as their feet could carry them. As they ran they could almost feel in the back of their minds the seconds clicking by and became increasingly worried that they would not get clear in time. They were about five feet from the front door when it happened and the blast that erupted from the building was truly one for the history books as it sent columns of flame in every imaginable direction. The shockwave of the blast knocked the three fleeing Scoobies into the air but at a significantly slower rate than the flames that were approaching from behind them.

Oh bloody hell! Giles thought as his proverbial life flew past his eyes.

Just as it looked as though the flames would engulf the trio Buffy, Faith and Dawn appeared and grabbed each one of them before flying away at a speed substantially faster than the flames of the explosion. Buffy however was carrying Giles and due to her current level of exhaustion was taking up the rear of the flying group and was struggling a bit to keep up with the rest of them. Fortunately the rapidly approaching fire was providing good incentive for her and gave her the extra adrenaline boost necessary to supplement her dwindling energy reserves. Still the heat from the flames were beginning to make her feet a little too hot and she could swear that the rubber soles of her shoes were melting. Eventually though the fires of the explosions lost their race to capture the flying pair and disappeared as they strayed too far from their fuel source. This came as a spot of relief for the Watcher and his Slayer as it became clear that Buffy was running on fumes and needed to settle down somewhere quickly. Both of them soon saw where the others who had fled the building earlier had gathered and slowly drifted down from the sky to meet them. Once on the ground however Buffy promptly dropped to her hands and knees as she had utterly exhausted herself in keeping herself and Giles from becoming crispy critters. Giles attempted to reach down and help her to her feet but she shot her right arm up to stop him which caused him to stop in his tracks. Slowly but surely Buffy began to rise from her position on all fours, he legs shaking a bit with the strain, eventually managing to get to her feet but it was clear that she needed a moment more to collect herself.

I suppose it's to be expected since an elevation in power is almost always followed by an elevated sense of pride. Giles thought to himself as he began to examine what he had managed to salvage from Glory's place.

It wasn't as much as he would have liked however since some of what he had originally acquired had been knocked loose by the shockwave of the explosion. What he had managed to keep in his hands were three travel brochures, two scrolls and one volume which apparently centered around Asian myths. He found it odd to see such an odd collection of literature in the safe of a psychotic hell god but then the 'insanity' she possessed could be used to explain just about anything. He was about to look over the first brochure but it was then that his ears picked up the sounds of approaching sirens and fire trucks and decided that vacating the vicinity of a criminal act was of a higher priority at the moment. Stuffing them in the pockets of his jacket he returned his gaze to Buffy to see if she would be up to walking briskly and found that she appeared much more recovered than she had been a few moments ago. Apparently she had just received her 'second wind' since she was apparently impatiently waiting for him to give the word to vamoose. With this in mind he debated the wisdom of having everyone gather at his place after so strenuous an encounter since most of them were probably as tired as Buffy had been just a few moments ago. It was quite early in the morning and while most of them didn't really have anything pressing to do in a few hours it was probably best for them to go home and get some rest. Whatever Glory had planned it was bound to be big and they had to be completely awake and alert to deal with it when everything came to a head.

"Well there is little more we can do tonight and with the local police and fire department arriving it's probably best that we all return home." , Giles said as he looked over the weary Scooby-gang, "We'll reconvene at my apartment around noon to look over what I managed to recover."

"On the bright side even if we can't figure out what Glory is up to at least one thing went right tonight." , Xander said as he looked at the burning apartment complex, "Can't you just picture Glory's face when she comes home to find her place burned to the ground?"

The thought of the temper tantrum the hell-bitch was likely to throw when she saw what remained of her place had the desired effect as grins appeared on just about everyone's faces and even one or two giggles from Willow.

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Summers residence, The Bathroom, 7:00a.m

Ohhhh, man do I feel totally whipped! Buffy thought to herself as she got out of the shower.

When she had arrived home with Dawn and Faith she had immediately decided to have a shower to soothe her weak and exhausted muscles before going to be to catch a few Zs. Feeling like this reminded of her training sessions with Piccolo in the room of spirits and time on Kami's look-out but even he knew enough not to push her too far for health reasons. The events of the past few hours were like heavy weights in her mind and she hoped that a few hours of sleep would help to clear her mind up a bit. The one thing that she hoped would be cleared up the most was what happened between the moment Dawn had gotten stuck with the Scorpion-guy's stinger and when Faith had caught her outside the apartment building. She only had a vague recollection of what had happened and even that was more a group of feelings and impressions rather than actual memories. She remembered the gut wrenching fear as she saw her little sister in pain, the fury felt towards the forces that threatened to take the last of her family away from her and the need to vent the feelings by striking out at whatever was convenient. From there everything became a storm of those two emotions coupled with that single desire, it dominated her mind and left conscious thought on the sidelines as it worked it's will. When she was finally back in control she was weak as a kitten and falling to the ground outside the apartment building with absolutely no way to stop herself. Faith had caught her and brought her back into the room where she had originally remembered being but from there things had moved too quickly for her to consider what had just happened.

Oh well! The baddies were gone and Dawn's alright so it couldn't have been too bad. Buffy thought to herself as she looked in the mirror and began to comb her new 'do a bit.

It was during this small bit of pruning that she saw something that stopped her train of thought right then and there. It was a lock of oil black hair that was mixed in with her blond hairs that she could have sworn hadn't been there when she had looked at her haircut back at the magic shop. For a few moments she played with it and tried to determine if it was just some leftovers from Willow's amateur hair-stylist attempt or something from the battle itself. It wasn't some sort of goo that had come off one of the monsters she had fought, nor was it some charring left over from the fires of the explosion that came afterwards. After all she knew what burnt hair looked like and she knew that she hadn't gotten anywheres near close enough to the flames to do something like this. Besides the dark hair was beneath a fair bit of her natural blond hair so it couldn't have been the fire and besides it still had it's 'smoothe-as-silk' hair feel to it. If it had been burned it would have felt rougher and probably broken off at the slightest pull so it was definitely not the result of contact with Glory's security system. She examined it for a few more minutes before concluding that it was just something that Willow had missed when she had clipped off the acid-monster-goo affected hair off. It wasn't impossible since cutting hair was hardly Will's strong suit and aside from that the red-haired wicca had done a pretty good job. It would be interesting to see how she and 18 looked in the mirror the next time Goku and the gang came to visit.

Then again the next time that they come to visit it will probably be for help in beating another of their old enemies! Buffy thought with a wry smile as she remembered Garlic Senior's little night of horrors.

Putting the comb down on next to the sink she walked across the hallway to her bedroom and closed the door behind her with slightly more force than she had intended. Once she had gotten into her pajamas she slid into bed and pulled the covers tightly around her and tried to think up some more pleasant thoughts to lull her to sleep. Some of those thoughts revolved around Angel and all the good times they had together when they weren't tap dancing on each other's hearts. Other thoughts drifted towards the time she had spent with Gohan when he had showed up to be shown the ropes in protecting Sunnydale while she underwent Piccolo's training. Of course the problem with that was the fact that the teenage half-Saiya-jin was already married and from their last letter already had a daughter to show for it. Surprisingly enough her thoughts then drifted to Vegita as she imagined herself kicking the shit out of him and knocking aside his energy blasts as if they were nothing. It was true that this was probably more fantasy than reality but she had been training hard since vegitable-head had gone home and she hoped to have a rematch with him sometime in the future. After all while she was not even close to being as powerful as Vegita she was willing to challenge him if only to see the look of surprise on his face when she showed him how much stronger she had become. Maybe she would even strike a match up with Piccolo to see how she matched up with her former teacher and perhaps even spar with Goku as well. Since the increase of her powers there had been precious little in Sunnydale that could match her in terms of strength which meant that most patrols were uneventful and boring. About the only demon that had been worth fighting was Glory and with the hell god pulling a fade for the past month it was difficult finding a worthy opponent.

When I get my hands on that hell-bitch I'm going to blow her into so many bits they're going to need tweezers to pick up the pieces! , Buffy thought to herself as she shifted into a more comfortable position, No one threatens my little sister and gets away with it! NO ONE!!

With this mission in mind the Slayer fell off into a fitful sleep, her dreams filled with images of Glorificus threatening Dawn and then herself powering up to the max before blowing the hell god away. Amidst all this there was no one to notice as the strands of black hair that had appeared began to spread a bit until the numbers of hairs that had changed in color doubled in number.

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