Joyce Summers' Art Gallery, Sunnydale, November 14th 1997
The deranged robot calling itself 'Ted Buchanan' had found itself yet another victim - Joyce Summers.
The original Ted, a sickly inventor back in the 1950s, had created the robot after his wife had left him. He'd intended for it to be a 'better' Ted Buchanan, possibly the man he'd wanted to be but had never been. Unfortunately, while Ted was brilliant with hardware, his programming skills left a lot to be desired - because the robot had then kidnapped Ted's ex-wife and held her captive in his bunker o' love until she'd died. Subsequently, the cycle had continued long after the original Ted's death, with three other women resembling Mrs. Buchanan being kidnapped and dying in captivity.
Smiling, the robot met Joyce at the art gallery where she worked. "Joyce! Sorry I'm late."
"Oh, that's all right. How was your day?" Buffy's mom smiled back.
"Well, it's computer sales. Pretty much what you'd expect, right?" Ted joked, causing Joyce to giggle.
Unbeknownst to either of them, the duo were being monitored by Willow and Oz - the robot spy versions that had been substituted for the real deal by Jareth, anyway. The Willow robot frowned at her 'boyfriend'. "What's it doing, trying to seduce Mrs. Summers?" she asked in confusion.
"Must be a programming glitch. You already reported this to DELOS, right?" the Oz robot asked.
"Yeah, why?"
The male robot shrugged. "Have to admit, we haven't exactly been keeping up appearances lately. So, want to go make out at the Bronze?"
The female robot could feel the emotional link to its human template respond, and very enthusiastically, to that idea. All it said, though, was, "Okay." Thus, the two 'teenagers' left...
Later at the abandoned warehouse that was his current lair, Spike made his plans to kill the Slayer.
"Once I kill the Slayer, luv? That bloody gun-toting little wanker is next!" He laughed in a darkly evil way.
"Spoike! No, don't you dare touch my Kitten!" Drusilla growled at him.
Spike looked ready to argue, but with his sire now finally healed thanks to the Gem, he decided against it. He simply said, "Fine luv, I won't hurt the trigger-happy little git." He lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. "For now, anyway."
The Bronze, November 17th 1997
It had been a long day at school - so that night, Xander went to the Bronze to relax and unwind a little. He hadn't been expecting to meet Cordelia there, but he did so anyway. Huh, kinda odd how they kept running into one another so much this year...
He saw her holding court within the nightclub, wearing a stylish lavender-blue hip-hugging dress; one that did wonderful things for her cleavage! Shaking his head, he sat down at a booth alone. Xander then asked himself, what the heck was he doing with his life...
{ Willow and Oz paired off ages ago, and it's pretty darn obvious Buffy and Angel have done the same. Even Giles has got Ms. Calendar now! May as well face it - I'm the fifth wheel, or even worse, the *seventh* wheel around here, } Xander grumbled to himself. { Still, what are my options? Stop hanging out with the gang? Try to find a girlfriend of my own? Yeah, right. like that's gonna happen... }
"What are you doing here all alone?" Cordelia's voice distracted him from his thoughts.
"Just chillin'. Shouldn't you be with your friends?" Xander asked, as Cordy slid into the booth opposite him.
"Oh, please, they've all spread out looking for hunks and gossip by now! Seriously, dork, don't you know anything about girls?"
"Yeah, didn't you mention once that none of them would ever go out with me?" Xander joked, before he saw the glare on Cordelia's face. "What? Pretty sure you did..."
"What-ever," Cordelia glowered at him. She regretted saying that now - because darn it, she actually found herself physically attracted to the lame doofus! "What's going on with you and your tweako friends lately, anyway?"
Xander shrugged, not knowing that a Jamaican Slayer named Kendra had just arrived at the Sunnydale airport.
Or that Buffy was training with Giles at the school.
Or that Willow and Oz were watching a movie at the Sun Cinema, keeping up 'appearances'.
Or that Joyce had finally succumbed to her feelings, and started kissing Ted.
He also didn't know that Drusilla was watching him talking with Cordelia, while the demented vampiress was flitting in and out of the shadows within the Bronze.
{ Miss Edith says, Kitten mustn't talk to the wicked strumpet, } Dru thought crazily to herself. { Naughty, naughty girl. If Kitten doesn't watch out, she'll start stroking his fur and - oh! That's no way to behave! } the female vamp thought to herself angrily, as she suddenly had a vision of Xander and Cordelia caught in the throes of passion, kissing and groping one another. Then the clothes started flying, before the two bodies collapsed onto Cordelia's bed and then they started undulating wildly, moving to the thumping rhythm of the music -
Shaking her head to clear it, Drusilla left the Bronze and waited for her Kitten outside.
"If it wasn't for Angel telling me what happened on Halloween, I may not ever find out in the first place," Xander said with a sigh.
"Ugh, are you still focusing on that? Halloween was like weeks ago!" Cordelia snapped at him. "And aren't you even gonna *try* to be a gentleman, and offer to buy me a drink?"
Shrugging, Xander asked what she wanted and then wandered off to the bar - but unfortunately, by the time he got back, Cordelia was gone. { Probably found some rich and handsome-looking guy, and decided to milk him dry. } Deciding not to let the extra drink go to waste, he gulped it down before chugging the other one as well.
"That hit the spot!" Xander burped happily, before settling down to listen to the band play up on stage.
Elsewhere, Kendra silently jumped onto the back of a truck that was driving towards town. At 1630 Revello Drive, Buffy arrived home before her mother got there. And back at the Bronze, Xander and Cordy decided to leave the club for the night and headed towards their respective cars in the lot.
"You never got me my drink, loser!" she complained, as they walked along.
"Yes I did. YOU were the one who abandoned me, Cor. What happened, you suddenly found Mr. Right? Or maybe Mr. Right Now?" he fired back.
"Xander Harris, you're a complete dweeb!" Cordy snarled at him.
"Whatever." Harris ignored the insult, walking towards his uncle's car. But just then, Dru appeared out of the darkness.
"Hello Kitten," she said to him with a smile.
{ This chick is weird... } He thought to himself while backing away from her. "Sorry, I gotta go..."
No luck; with inhuman speed, Dru grabbed him. "You're coming with me," she purred in his ear. "We'll have such fun, Kitten, we will!"
Still fuming, Cordy turned around one last time - to see Xander being dragged away by a loony-looking brunette wearing a 19th century dress. Luckily, she knew enough by now to figure out her old sparring partner was being kidnapped by a vampire.
"Xander!" Cordy cried out. Heedless of the danger, or the voice in her head screaming at her not to be a complete *idiot*, she ran towards them - but it was too late. They had vanished into the darkness.
At that point, Cordelia noticed Xander had left his keys behind on the ground.
"I gotta talk to Giles - and probably Buffy as well, darn it!" Cordelia huffed to herself as she knelt down and picked up the car keys. "As if I don't have anything *better* to do on a Monday night..."