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Approaching Sunnydale High School
Xander's POV
The cool breeze of California at night brushed across his face…
The rear hatch of the special ops MC-130E Combat Talon aircraft opened up, revealing the cloud filled view of the sky complete with a picturesque sunrise. With the gear necessary for the very first HALO jump he walked towards the edge just as he'd been taught to do, listening to the countdown that would tell him when to jump…
Dammit! he thought, letting out a light growl without realizing it. It happened again!
Ever since… whatever that bit of Hellmouthiness was, he'd been getting flashes in his head of people, places and things that he knew he could never have experienced himself. For one thing a lot of the technology and clothes were decades out of date and, last he checked, no conventions centered on that era had ever happened in Sunnydale during his lifetime. More than that, though, every time he had one of the flashes it felt less and less like he was looking in on someone else's memories.
Somehow they were beginning to feel like HIS memories.
That's crazy talk! I gotta get to G-man so he can fix things, he thought as he entered the school, navigating the hallway with Dawn following behind him.
That was one of the reasons why he wanted to undo whatever changes had been made as soon as possible. Contrary to popular theory he was not completely oblivious when a girl showed interest in him since he knew that Willow had a thing for him, even if he didn't feel the same way about her. In his mind she was his best friend and sister all rolled into a single package. He could never see her as anything but those things but he knew that if he just came right out and said that it would hurt her and this would hurt him in turn. So the second he'd figured it out, he'd decided that the best course of action was to play the oblivious card.
So long as she thought of him as just a thick headed guy who couldn't see the obvious, he was safe.
Dawn, on the other hand, was a lot like her sister when it came to her approach to getting what she wanted except she had more restraint and subtlety. Most of the time. He'd clued into her crush on him within the first month or three and, while he found it cute, there were three things that made any kind of romantic relationship impossible. The first was that he was NOT a cradle robber like Angel. Regardless of her cute looks she was still, unmistakably, only twelve years old and only pedophiles were interested in kids of that age. The second was that he was pretty sure that even IF, and boy was it a big IF, the age thing wasn't an issue for him, both Buffy and Missus S would come down on him like the Titanic dropped from the sky if he crossed the line between friend and something more intimate. If he was lucky they'd keep it to simply telling him never to come within five hundred yards of any of them and severing every form of contact with him. The worst it could go would be for them to call the cops on him as a child molester, get him sent to jail and see to it that he could never show his face in Sunnydale ever again.
The third reason was that, even if by some Hellmouthy twist of reality the first two reasons were nullified for some reason, there was the fact that intimate relationships with anyone younger than fourteen and more than three to four years a junior was NOT accepted by society. If anyone suspected, or worse witnessed, activities that could not fit comfortably into the definitions of friendship or innocent but definitely into the realm of sexual intimacy, it'd be all over. For both him and the Summers family. He'd be vilified as a sexual predator and, even if there wasn't enough to get him thrown in jail, no one would want anything to do with him for fear of being accused of ignoring or even consenting to the relationship. Dawn would probably get off the easiest, with theory that she'd been manipulated by him or was suffering from some sort of mental disorder. After all, who would believe that a twelve year old knew her feelings and the situation well enough to make an informed decision on matters of romantic love and sexual intimacy. As for Buffy and Joyce, they'd be looked down on by everyone in Sunnydale either as neglectful family members for not catching onto his 'foul deeds' sooner or disgusting accomplices who were on the same level as slavers and rapists.
Put them all together and you had a pretty impressive steel wall of reasons why the two of them needed to get back to normal as soon as possible.
Why? Because due to whatever had happened, Dawn physically had advanced in years from twelve years old to fourteen or fifteen years old. More than that it'd made her more… mature in certain areas that the crimson bodysuit she wore did almost nothing to conceal. Since she'd been twelve years old the form fitting fabric hadn't been a big concern since the dark blonde had been lacking the curves that would've made such an outfit… inappropriate. Now, though, things were different and, while not as developed as Taki from Soul Edge, it was now no longer deniable that the potential to reach that level existed. Had the bodysuit been made of different fabric it would've been harder to make out one important fact: Dawn had decided to forgo wearing undergarments under her costume. No doubt it'd been her latest effort to seduce him and, while before there'd been no problem with it, now there were two decent sized problems for him to worry about.
Very decent, he thought for a moment before he ruthlessly suppressed the image in his mind, along with the lust that surfaced.
It was the main reason why he'd chosen to take the lead in their little group since his resistance would be that much more tested if he'd taken the rear.
Formation-wise, of course, not the other way the words could be interpreted.
Hopefully once the two of them got to the library Giles would have some sort of coat that could be used to cover Dawn up so he wouldn't be so… distracted.
Fortunately for him the library was least sexually stimulating room in the entire school so he'd have plenty of time to get control of himself before Buffy and Willow showed up. He had little doubt that they'd either been caught up in the same thing or noticed it happening to others, so they'd do the same thing that they always did when something Hellmouthy happened.
Pushing open the library doors, he prepared to bask in the most sexually stifling environment he knew of…
…and promptly cursed Murphy for once again pissing all over his one chance of sanctuary.
Standing and in some cases sitting around the library table were four more people, only two of which he had actually expected to see there in response to tonight's craziness.
More than that, though, it was clear that whatever weirdness had accelerated Dawn's physical development and 'emphasized' certain attributes had done the same to others.
Buffy had gained four inches in height and a full cup size, much to her discomfort judging by how she had her arms crossed to cover her larger bosom.
Cordelia had gained two inches and had also gone up a full cup size that looked like it was straining against her costume like the costume was two sizes too small.
Willow had decidedly gone up in height by a full seven inches and, thanks to what looked to be the loosening of clothes, he could see that she'd gone from a B to a C cup.
The strangest of all, though, was the presence of Missus S wearing a red and silver costume only mildly concealed by a trench coat and what looked to be a high tech eyepiece over one eye. It gave the impression of an eye patch but it had a telescope-like mechanism and a crimson lens, with thin black lines forming a sharpshooter's crosshairs. Her height looked unchanged but he had a sneaking suspicion that she had one thing in common with Cordelia now.
Their changes in physical appearance were startling enough but there was also something else that had him certain of Murphy's involvement.
All of them, even Willow though she was dressed as a scientist, had an aura of danger to them that caused an instinct of wariness to rise up from within him. It was what one might feel in the presence of a predator that had not decided yet whether to do something about your presence or ignore you altogether. Coming from one predator would be disturbing enough but from four at the same time had him gripping the assault rifle, the AM MRS-4 Rifle, a little tighter. Even though he knew he was standing in the presence of friends and allies, two sets of instincts pulled at his resolve. One insisted that he had nothing to worry about and that he was in the presence of people who meant him no harm and were important to him.
He was not sure how Cordelia fell into that category but she did.
At the moment he honestly didn't know what to say or do next.
"Dammit! Of COURSE you wound up getting the same upgrade as me!" Dawn griped from beside him, looking right at her sister.
Well, that was one way to start things off.
Giles' POV
"B-bloody hell!" he muttered upon regaining consciousness even though his entire being was still far from its usual ordered arrangement.
He counted it as no small bit of good luck that he'd been next to the couch in his office when the wave of power had swept over him or he might very well have cracked his skull open when he lost consciousness. Still, it was hardly surprising given the massive explosion of what he suspected was chaos magic that had swept over the town, completely overwhelming his mystic senses. In all likelihood anyone even the least bit sensitive to arcane energy would also have lost consciousness so he prayed that they also experienced a bit of good fortune in where they fell.
Reaching out with unsteady arms, he pulled himself into a sitting position and he had to take a moment to still his swimming head before placing both feet on the floor. From what he could feel it was likely that he would recover his full strength shortly but for the time being he would watch what he did since he had no desire to lose consciousness again.
"Dammit! Of COURSE you wound up getting the same upgrade as me!" exclaimed a voice from outside his office that his mind identified as Buffy's little sister.
An upgrade? Two people? Given what he'd experienced firsthand due to the chaos energy, he shuddered to think of what changes might've been wrought on Buffy and Dawn. The fact that the latter didn't seem to consider the alterations a bad thing but that only meant that the damage was more subtle and perhaps needed more time to work its eroding nature. Forcing himself to his feet, he carefully strode into the main area of the library…
…and got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach the moment he laid eyes on the occupants.
Six people, all of which looked like something out of one of those comic books Xander liked to read, that held themselves with a bearing that he'd never seen in them before. It made them look so out of place amongst his books and even the school itself. Indeed his mind told him that they would all likely be more at home amongst the soldiers of a nation's military or, in the case of Willow, a weapon R&D project.
He wasn't quite sure what he'd been expecting when he had heard but this hadn't been it.
"Giles? You okay?" Buffy asked with concern as she moved to his side to steady him.
"Thank you, Buffy," he said, glad that she had been there to keep him from falling on his arse again. "I am afraid that I was knocked for quite a loop by whatever happened here tonight. Fortunately the disorientation and weakness appear to be passing."
With a look he told her that he had his suspicions about what might have happened but that he did not want to say more in the presence of the uninformed.
"You can quit the code word and vagueness, Giles," Buffy said, driving a tank right through the concept of secrecy. "I'm pretty sure that boat has sailed after tonight. Besides, if mom plans on sending me off to the nuthouse again, she'd better reserve a room for herself."
"While I am not as opposed to the idea of something beyond the scientific existing, I am not quite ready to believe in vampires and demons," Missus Summers said with a faint Russian accent. "And I will not accept some crazy idea that my daughter is some prophesied warrior who has no choice but to fight until she dies. She has the same free will that the rest of us do. Destiny is a crutch used by those who don't have the resolve to forge their own futures."
He felt a headache coming on.
While he conceded that whatever had happened would make the usual civilian denial of the supernatural impossible, he did not like the idea of her becoming too involved or informed. Officially, if something like this happened, it was standard Council procedure to employ hypnosis, drugs and, as last resort, memory magic to erase all knowledge of the Slayer and the supernatural. Unofficially it was a major blow to both the Slayer's reputation as well as that of her assigned Watcher if someone outside of the pair learned of their mission. If the breach in security was handled expediently and efficiently the duo would get off with a slap on the wrist and perhaps a lecture.
If not steps were taken to remedy the situation more to the Council leadership's liking, regardless of the morality of the methods.
"Very well. You are entitled to your opinion," he said, trying his best to be diplomatic about the matter. "However please keep in mind that not everyone believes as you do. For some in the Council, destiny is something very real and to defy it risks throwing the world into chaos. If you make yourself an enemy, they will take appropriate action to resolve the situation."
"You mean they'll kill my mom?" Buffy asked in a tone colder than the deepest arctic waters.
"It will depend on how great a threat they view her to be," he replied, deciding that sugarcoating things would get him nowhere. "If they perceive her as some 'addle minded mother' who learned only the least amount of information regarding the Slayer and the supernatural, they'll make a token effort to feed her doubts and starve her suspicions. If they see her as someone who might actually succeed in convincing you to abandon your Calling they will use whatever methods are most expedient to adjust her memories to something more acceptable. Travers will likely issue a veiled threat to you about what might have happened if the situation had been more serious."
"And if it went further than that?" Xander asked, a noticeable rasp to his voice.
"If… if the threat to the Calling becomes too great, the governing body of the Council may choose to employ… extreme sanctions both to eliminate the threat and to serve as an example to others." He very much prayed that it did not come to that. "To them the Slayer and the Watchers are in a war wherein the former plays a crucial role in protecting the world. If she is not there to do what needs to be done, if she is not sufficiently devoted to the cause, then every living thing on the planet could pay the ultimate price."
"So in order to save the many they're willing to sacrifice the few," Xander remarked with a somewhat cynical tone of voice. "Gotta love the mathematics of war."
"No, I don't," Buffy said with a soldier's resolve. "If they want me to fight then it'll be on my terms. If they try to 'change my mind' then I'll show them what it means to piss off a Slayer."
NO! He had to put an end to such thoughts immediately, not out of fear for himself but for fear of Travers and his sort declaring Buffy a rogue Slayer. It was a terrible fact that many Watchers believed that, since there would always be a Slayer due to the Calling, there was no need to overexert themselves by going all out to support the current one. It was deemed 'more efficient' to limit the support to the minimum calculated to be necessary in order to emerge victorious over the forecasted demonic or supernatural threats. More than that, the members of the traditionalist faction saw the Slayer as their preferred weapon against the darkness, with everyone else merely a member of the support staff. While they did have ordinary human soldiers, it was considered an absolute truth that there was a limit to what ordinary humans could do against demons and the supernatural. Therefore, if the world was to be kept safe, then the warriors of the Council needed to be assigned to the threats they were most likely to be victorious against.
The group he was worried about was the one that was referred to in hushed whispers as 'The Ghosts' and reported directly to the governing body of the Council. No evidence existed concerning their activities and most information was rumor but it was believed that they were assigned to black ops in most cases and, when it was needed, they eliminated Slayers that proved too troublesome. It was rumored that they used modern weaponry and tactics to carry out their missions and this was where they proved to be too much for the Slayer.
Even with superhuman abilities and the inherited instinctive information of the weapons used by their predecessors, they could still be killed by human weapons.
Some of his colleagues even believed that the governing body deliberately limited a Slayer's training to melee and primitive projectile weapons even after firearms and bombs became the norm. The reason? So that if a Slayer ever turned against the Council she would be completely at a loss as to how to counter executioners armed with such weapons. Add in the element of surprise and the fact that the files of rogue Slayers were censored to hell and back, and it made it impossible for any softhearted Watcher to train his Slayer against such a threat.
He would not let that happen to Buffy!
"I assure you, Buffy, that such drastic actions will not become necessary," he said as convincingly as possible. "As your assigned Watcher I can… modify my reports to eliminate any worrying details that might alarm them. So long as we do nothing to cause rumors to start flying or prompt them to send an investigative team without informing me, that should prove sufficient."
"I can do quiet," Buffy said, a smile indicating that he'd passed some sort of test.
A giggle from Dawn and a smirk from Xander made it clear that some very much doubted the Slayer's statement.
"I can!" Buffy said, whirling around to face them, only to immediately cross her arms over her… bosom… when she realized what the sudden motion did to them.
"Maybe with some training and hard work," Xander said, conceding that there might be some chance for the blonde Slayer to become stealthy. "Right now I think we should focus on what's happened to us and what we're going to do about it."
"True enough," he said, walking over to a vacant chair before sitting down. "In matters of magic time often plays a crucial factor in dispelling it. If you could all tell me anything you recall of your experience with this phenomenon, it could help to paint a better picture of our current situation."
Time passed as he listened to the six of them and, as it did, it became ever harder to ignore the changes in each of them. More than that, there was no hesitation in their responses, no difficulty recalling the changes they'd discovered once it'd all ended, implying a clarity that troubled him. The physical alterations were troubling enough in that they hadn't reverted once whatever spell had been ended, but when added to the difficulty that came with using magic to precisely alter the mind… not good. Mental changes were also NEVER good, especially where Xander was concerned, due to the vivid detail involved and the unconscious mannerisms he caught the people before him doing.
Such comprehensive changes to both mind and body should have taken hours if not days to achieve for even the most experienced sorcerer, he thought as his mind worked to figure out just what had happened. How could this have happened in less than half an hour? It should have been impossible, especially with chaos magic involved. That flavor of arcane energy is notorious for its unpredictability, not its precision.
By the end he felt as though he was caught in a whirlpool, being drawn under with every second that passed.
He did not enjoy that feeling one bit.
The Summers Residence, Hours Later
Buffy's POV
Quiet my ass! she thought as she stripped off her Halloween costume for her usual sleepwear. It was about as quiet as a twenty millimeter cartridge going off!
She paused for a moment as she realized that she'd never fired a gun herself in her life, much less been present when someone had loaded a twenty millimeter into a sniper rifle and fired it.
This only served to rile her up even more!
It'd been bad enough two years ago when she'd gotten drafted into the whole Slayer thing against her will and, after it'd trashed her life in Los Angeles, the fires of anger inside of her only got brighter. Honestly, as much as it'd been a betrayal by her parents to send her away to an asylum after she'd tried to explain everything to them, it'd probably been a good thing. If she hadn't gotten something so sobering shoved in her face the anger that'd been building up inside of her might've caused her to do something quite destructive as a way to vent. After being drugged up, subjected to electro-shock therapy and enduring what felt like endless hours talking to shrinks, she'd seen the wisdom of keeping the truth to herself.
It'd also been motivation enough to fight for as much of an ordinary life as she could in order to avoid being sent back to the funny farm.
With her being the only one who knew the truth, anyone else seeing her do Slayery stuff would definitely think she needed a straitjacket, especially since she sucked at excuses.
When Giles had shown up, then Willow and Xander had found out about her Slayer duties, things had gotten a bit better since she no longer felt so alone but her Calling was still a burden since she had to hide it from her mom along with everyone else not in the know. The number of times she'd had to lie to her mother, to her teachers, and to potential friends that didn't make it further than that weighed on her soul.
Every day that she could trick herself into believing that she was just another teenage girl provided some soothing relief.
Given she now had a special forces Lieutenant Sonya Blade bouncing around inside her head, she was finding it harder than usual to trick herself into believing lies.
She wasn't normal anymore. That was the truth. She was the Slayer with all the physical abilities that entailed as well as responsibilities that entailed. Even if she somehow managed to force the Watcher's Council to leave her alone, that would not keep the demons from showing up around her or nullify the predatory instincts a Slayer had. So long as whatever it was that made her the Slayer remained, she would remain a target for monsters and be compelled to hunt them in turn. The supernatural world would never let her go so long as a piece of it was lodged within her and, if a way existed to turn a Slayer back into a normal girl, the forces of darkness would've used it already.
Denying these truths would only hurt her in the end and likely the people she cared about.
With a final growl of fury she threw her costume across the room, venting for the last time her anger at what'd been stolen for her by the cruel hands of Destiny and Fate.
Walking over to her dresser, she took out her 'Yummy Sushi' pajamas but, when she put the top on, she found that there wasn't as much slack as there'd used to be in the front. Looking in the dresser mirror, she found that, thanks to her bust increase, the top was almost too small to be buttoned up safely without straining it somewhat. There was definitely more to look at chest-wise than before but this also meant that she'd have to go through her entire wardrobe to see what still fit. Anything that didn't would have to be tossed since Dawn was no longer small enough to hand them down to her and that meant shopping for new stuff.
At least it'll be easier to convince mom to take me shopping, she thought as she pulled up the bottoms of her pajamas. She's probably gonna need new stuff, too.
Hearing noise coming from her window, she grabbed the nearest pointed object, a metal nail file, before whirling around to confront a possible threat.
She relaxed a bit when she saw it was Angel opening her window but only a bit.
THIS disturbed her because this was the man she loved as well as proving himself an ally to her in the past, either fighting by her side or providing important information. The second she'd known it was him she should've felt completely safe and happy but for some reason both only presented themselves in measured terms. It was as if something had shaken her faith in him and what they had together. She knew she trusted and loved him, she had the memories of feeling that way, but now those feelings had been cut in half. For a moment she considered just trying to fake the necessary responses her original emotions would've invoked but she decided she just didn't have it in her to fool anyone.
"Hey," she said, playing up the 'tired and I want to go to bed' act.
"Hey," he said as he set foot on the floor and stood up. "I take it something happened?"
"Yeah," she replied before yawning. "Giles thinks it has something to do with chaos magic but that's about it. It all happened so fast. He says he'll dig around to see what happened but it'll be a while."
"I'll check around and see if any magic users were up to anything before Halloween," Angel said, taking a moment to gaze thinkingly away before returning his eyes to her. "Chaos magic is pretty dicey stuff. Most sorcerers and warlocks stay away from it because of its unpredictable results. Only the insane or people that get off playing Russian Roulette use it."
"Great, so either a madman did this to me or an adrenaline junkie," she snarked at the image Angel had painted of the perpetrator. "I know I'll sleep better tonight just knowing that!"
"Well, one good thing about that is insane people or people looking for a thrill aren't sticklers for details and precision planning," Angel said in an effort to reassure her. "They'll have slipped up someplace and, once we found out where, we'll be able to track them down and tell us what spell they cast. We'll find a way to get everything back to normal. Promise."
She wanted to believe that.
She REALLY did.
But past experience had taught her that getting things back to normal was never as easy as it sounded and, more often than not, wound up with you just having to suck it up and accept the new circumstances. Time only flowed in one direction and life offered no do overs no matter what some people might think. You had to live with the consequences of your choices and while sometimes you got the chance to make amends, that didn't erase the mistake.
She'd work with Giles to see if there was a way to reverse everything, she owed the others that much, but she wouldn't hold out much hope for success.
"Thanks. Now if it's all the same to you, I'd like to get some sleep," she said as she walked over to the bed before pulling the covers aside. "This whole mess has worn me out."
"Sure. I'll swing by tomorrow night, at the library, if I've learned anything," he said, sounding a LITTLE disappointed that he had to leave so soon after arriving.
She knew that if she hadn't had any lingering crap from the magic spell inside of her they probably would've leapt on the chance to spend some quality time with him. Tonight, though, she just didn't have the same desires that she used to and wasn't about to fake it even for Angel's benefit.
"See you then," she said with a small grin of acknowledgment of his future efforts.
A grin was returned and then he was back out her window vanishing into the night like he had so many times before when he mysteriously showed up with info before disappearing. Shaking her head at the mess she now had to cope with, she slid beneath the covers of her bed and tried to settle into a comfortable sleeping position. It wasn't easier with her bigger boobs and more defined muscles but eventually she succeeded and closed her eyes to descend into slumber.
She didn't think her sleep would be all that peaceful with the new info bouncing around inside of it.
Guess she should be glad that Slayers didn't need as much sleep as ordinary people did.
Monday Morning
Sunnydale High School
Xander's POV
Well, this morning's off to a great start, he thought, finding it hard to say whether he was being sarcastic or honest.
After they'd left the library Halloween night he'd done his best to sneak back into his house without waking his parents since he didn't want to deal with the bother interacting with them usually produced. For as long as he'd known them they'd seemed less like parents and more like legally obligated guardians, with his mother only occasionally living up to her responsibilities to him. As for Tony, the less said about their 'relationship', the better. Put simply Tony was a drunken asshole who was about as politically incorrect as a person could get and not be shot dead by someone inside of three years. The only bright light he had was the tidbit he'd gleaned from his mother by accident one day when he'd overheard her trying to persuade Tony to be nicer to him.
Apparently Tony Harris' proverbial gun only shot blanks, so some other man out there was his biological father.
A smile blossomed on his face as he walked towards the library to get an update on the whole Sunnydale situation and he had no reason to suppress it. Just the knowledge that he wouldn't have to worry about inheriting anything biological or behavioral from Tony Harris improved his mood dramatically. He'd thought for a time about trying to track down who the guy was and even mentioned it to Willow but, according to her, back in nineteen eighty-four, the hospital where the procedure was conducted was destroyed in a terrorist assault. Pretty much everyone there was killed and the building reduced to rubble, with fires burning everything burnable to ashes along with any facts about who the sperm donor might've been. The fact that it was a military base meant digging any deeper would've got Willow the wrong sort of attention, so he'd told her to back off.
In the end it didn't matter who his biological father was because it was your mind and your soul that determined who you were, not your flesh.
In any case, when he'd tried to sneak out of the house earlier, his luck ran out since he wound up being spotted by Tony, who naturally pounced on the chance to lay into him verbally. However, unlike in the past, he didn't just stand there and take it. Instead he'd just turned away from the drunk and resumed his walk towards the door without saying a single thing as a parting shot. Tony had apparently been regularly ignored all his life and him doing it had been enough to stoke the fires of anger. The man had reached out to grasp him by the shoulder, no doubt with the intent of pounding some 'respect' into him.
That had been Tony Harris' plan.
Too bad plans had never gone right around him before and this time had been no different.
Before Tony's hand had even made contact with his shoulder his body moved on its own and, in the space of three seconds, had the drunk both dazed and on the ground. He'd almost allowed the shock he'd been feeling to show on his face but managed to keep it buttoned up long enough to warn Tony against similar action in the future before walking out the door.
I just know I'm gonna pay for that later, he thought as he pushed the library doors open. But until then I'm gonna enjoy the buzz.
Upon entering the library he immediately noticed that, while each of his fellow Halloween afflicted fellows were dressed in their usual style, there was definite evidence of either new clothes or their old ones not fitting quite right. He could hear Giles talking in his office but the words were too muffled for him to make out, so he just walked over to join the others by the central table.
"So, anyone else loving their new makeovers?" he asked sardonically as he sat down in a vacant chair. "I know I am."
"Trakhat' tebya pridurok!" Cordy spat at him with a face full of frustrated anger. "I've been finding out just what the maids and butlers really think about me AND I almost pinned my dad's hand to a table with a LETTER OPENER!"
"We've all had issues but we just gotta hang on a while longer," Buffy said, trying to reign in the socialite. "Giles' got to have some kind of plan by now."
"He'd better, Summers," Cordy said with a dangerous tone that wasn't entirely coming from her Halloween inheritance.
"How're you holding up, Willow?" he asked, looking over to his best friend, who mostly looked like she usually did but had a mild expression of discomfort on her face.
"Pretty good. Some of the info R had is pretty interesting so I've been copying it down to see if we can do anything with it after Giles gets us all back to normal," Willow replied as she scratched her neck a bit. "It's just…"
"Just what?" he asked, wondering what the con could be to Willow's inheritance.
"R… her fashion sense was a little… risqué," Willow replied as her discomfort spiked. "She liked… defying cultural norms, shocking people. Wearing my usual clothes… they don't FEEL right."
Remembering what Dawn had said about who she was having Willow dress up as, he could see how dressing the part of a mousy academic redhead would cause friction with a… free thinker. If someone'd changed his internal preferences without his knowing, he'd probably feel uncomfortable too. Still, the fact that his best friend hadn't succumbed and tried to put something more in keeping with R's fashion sense together spoke well of her strength of will.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I KOed Tony before I left home this morning," he said, deciding that the best solution to discomfort was distraction. "Bet he's still on the floor out cold!"
This DEFINITELY had the effect of distracting Willow from her wardrobe discomfort but it also put him in something of a spotlight since most people wouldn't considering knockout out their parent a good thing. For a moment he wondered what the hell had come over him to even HINT at the truth of his home life but in the end he decided not to let this secret terrorize him any longer. With all the skills the others had gained from Halloween, it was only a matter of time before the signs of Tony's venting were noticed. Then, even if Giles managed to reverse things, they'd still have memories containing the truth.
Better to confront things head on and make it clear that his life would go down a different path from Tony Harris.
Trying to hide it would only make people think he wasn't strong enough to break away from the cycle Tony's treatment threatened to send him down. By showing them the strength of his will to be different, to be BETTER, he'd eradicate any doubts in the minds of others about his ability to be his own man.
"Won't that get you into trouble later?" Willow asked, sounding a little worried.
"Maybe after Giles puts us all back to normal," he replied with a measured voice. "That just means that until then I gotta do my best to 'convince' Tony that it's smarter to avoid me than give me grief."
"I don't know what your home life is like, Xander, but be careful you don't make more trouble for yourself," Missus S said in a neutral tone but with a glint of suspicion in her eyes.
"Don't worry," he said respectfully, receiving her words. "I'll try not to get into anything I can't get out of."
He could tell from the looks he was getting from Buffy and Cordy that they wanted to know more but a single look of 'no' to each of them kept anything from being spoken.
Hearing the conversation in Giles office come to an end, everyone looked toward the room's door to find out what had been learned and how long it'd take for them to be turned back to normal.
When the Watcher exited his office, the expression he wore did not fill him with confidence since it conveyed the impression of a man that'd been pushing himself for a while. He'd only seen this state a few times since he and Willow had officially volunteered to aid Buffy in her duties as the Slayer. Each prior occurrence was a dire time and required that the Scoobies come together and pool their strengths in order to emerge victorious.
"So what's the prognosis?" he asked, deciding to bite the bullet and make things easier on the others. "How soon until we get back to our regularly scheduled Hellmouthiness?"
"I'm not sure if that is possible," Giles replied, taking off his glasses before polishing the lenses with a handkerchief. "Not in Sunnydale if my sources are telling the truth."
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, sounding worried.
"In an effort to learn more about what happened, I contact various 'freelancers' that the Council employ as an early warning system of the spread of supernatural phenomena. The ones surrounding Sunnydale were tasked with monitoring the situation here and warning the Council should signs manifest that our failure was… inevitable," Giles replied in a bitter tone of voice. "From what they have told me, the Halloween incident inundated Sunnydale with chaos magic and sadly, much like nuclear radiation, it is lingering rather than quickly dissipating. Being present in the soil, the air and the water, it will make spell casting of any sort unpredictable at best."
"So we go outside of the contamination zone and do the mojo there," he said, feeling as though the solution to the obstacle was obvious.
"That would attract attention we do not need," Giles said, shaking his head in opposition to the proposal.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked, mirroring Buffy's worry.
"The Sunnydale Hellmouth is one of the most potent sources of supernatural phenomena in the world. Only a handful of other places can boast similar occurrences. As a result of this, many individuals and organizations keep at least one eye on the place at all times. Many of those people are not the sort we would wish to become interested in us. Then there's the matter of the Council."
"It'd be a bit hard to make the Council believe everything's A-okay here if they spot us leaving Sunnydale and performing serious mojo," he said, realizing the problem and spelling it out for the others. "Even if they don't find out anything about what we were up to, they'll find it fishy when they compare it to your previous reports. Maybe too suspicious to let you operate without additional supervision."
"You think they'd send another Watcher?" Willow asked, gaining an understanding of the situation.
"Yeah, or replace him outright," he replied with his mind taking him to a darker place. "The chain of command's useless if you don't come down hard on those that don't respect it."
That was a bit of… Snake coming through but it was accurate just the same.
"Indeed. Travers and the faction he is a part of are very firm believers in tradition and obedience to the governing body is one of those traditions," Giles said, sounding like he very much did not approve of the current governing body of the Council. "The only way to determine which option Travers would employ is figuring out just how… ambitious he is feeling. Whether he wishes for a quick resolution or plans on giving us just enough rope to hang ourselves with."
"So what other options are there?" Missus S asked without giving away anything about what was going on inside her head.
"I am… uncertain," Giles replied, putting his glasses back on. "Only magic stands any chance of undoing what has been done but at the moment it cannot be used within the Sunnydale town limits. Our only option may be to wait and see if the chaos magic dissipates over time or at least reduces in potency to the point where using magic becomes an option once more."
"How long do you think that'll take?" Buffy asked, sounding only slightly upset by the news they were all receiving.
"Months at the very least, given the sheer amount of chaos magic released Halloween night," Giles replied, showing facially how he wished he had better news for them.
"MONTHS! You expect us to be able to stay sane for MONTHS!?" Cordy asked angrily as she moved forward to physically make Giles feel her displeasure.
Not wanting to see G-Man get hurt by an irrational Cordelia, he reached out to grip her by the shoulder to stop her advance… and immediately found himself in the middle of high speed combat. There was literally no time to think, only act, instincts directing how he moved from second to second and in an amount of time that he couldn't quantify it was over. The only catch was that it hadn't ended with one of them being the winner and one of them being the loser.
It ended with both of them having the other in a hold that could easily cause the receiver to lose consciousness if sufficient effort was put into it.
For a moment neither of them released their respective holds but, after Cordy recovered her senses like he had, she immediately released him so he did the same. Scampering back to her feet, the rich girl looked like she hadn't been any more in control of her actions just now than he had and this fact left her shaken. Not surprising since it wasn't every day that you found out that you had skills you never knew you had that could show up when you least expected.
Him, on the other hand, he found himself oddly pleased.
The kind of high paced fighting he'd just experienced generally could only be survived through years of training and cumulative experience.
Yet he'd done it.
Sure, he hadn't been consciously in control of every move he'd performed and couldn't consciously remember the moves Cordy had used but the facts supported the idea that the potential was there. If he could somehow bring out that potential and make it his own, he'd be the most dangerous normal human in Sunnydale.
Now THAT was something worth working towards.
He just had to make sure he 'learned' as much of Snake's training as he could before it became safe for Giles to cast the counter spell.
With a look of resolve he promised to make every day count.
Friday Morning
Backyard of Summers Home
Dawn's POV
"HAH!" she shouted before executing a kick to the tree in their backyard.
Some might wonder what she was doing kicking a tree and not just because the tree had never done anything to her in the past.
Before Halloween the backyard of the Summers home had been used for picnics and pseudo-camping trips, both of which had been fairly tame events. Sure, there'd been talking, some rough housing, but nothing truly violent. What was different this time was the fact that, due to her now older and more developed body, simply going back to school with the rest of the afflicted was no longer an option. While the others looked more or less like they had before, no one at her school would be able to ignore the changes she'd undergone. As a result her mother had called into her school to say that she'd caught a nasty bug Halloween night and was unable to attend. The general consensus between her, Buffy and mom was that they'd have another week at most before they'd have to come up with some other reason to keep people from seeing the new her.
They all hoped that by then Giles would be able to give them some ray of light to place their hopes on and pencil into their calendars.
Until then she was taking a page out of the same book as Xander, who'd admitted during the last meeting to training himself to remember what the Halloween costume had placed in his head. Now that she knew about the supernatural and that Buffy was the Slayer, she'd made the conscious choice not to sit out the fight on the sidelines. Even if she was a pain in the ass sometimes, her big sister was still family and there was no way she'd let herself be one of those people who just sat waiting for the hero to come home alive. She'd spend every minute she could without worrying her mother going through Taki's memories of her training days, going from the oldest ones and working her way forward. Most were fresh enough to contain exercises she could take advantage of but some she needed paper and pen to pull the details. In the end she was managing to work up quite the sweat, even though her body had magically been brought closer to where it needed to be to make use of Taki's skills.
It also increased her appetite decidedly as her body compelled her to replace the energy she'd used up but fortunately, according to her mom, it wasn't putting a strain on the family finances.
At least not for the time being it wasn't but who knew what the situation would be down the road.
"HAH! KI-AH!" she yelled as she performed a two hit combo before taking a step or two away from the tree.
She was getting closer to what she 'remembered' but she could still see flaws that irritated her, especially since she knew how it was supposed to be done. Apparently this was the difference between knowing how things were supposed to be and actually trying to do it. Her impatience was one of her worst features according to her mother but the head of the household had been confident that she'd grow out of it eventually.
In other words she'd learn patience after a while, whether she wanted to or not.
"Dawn! Breakfast!" Mom yelled from the kitchen like always.
Relaxing from the training mindset she'd been in, she walked over to a nearby chair, picked up a towel she'd placed there, before heading indoors. Wiping off the lingering sweat, she then took a deep sniff of the air before smiling at the scent of another wonderful meal made by her mother. Even on a gallery owner's income, her mom always managed to put together wonderful meals that never failed to satisfy her.
Buffy's attempts at cooking, on the other hand, were fit to be subjects of study for the C.D.C.
Since her culinary creations were at least edible, if not delicious, she could only presume that the cooking gene had skipped her elder sibling.
"So how's your training working out?" Mom asked, setting the plate of pancakes in the center of the table.
"I'm getting better but I've still got a long ways to go," she replied, taking her usual seat at the table.
"You'll get there," Mom said before taking her own chair. "I'll see about finding you a martial arts school somewhere close by after Mister Giles fixes us."
Huh.
"Aren't mothers supposed to be against their kids doing anything violent, like learning how to fight?" she asked, remembering the first week or so in Sunnydale when her mom had pleaded with Buffy not to get into any fights.
"Most mothers don't know they're basically living in a demilitarized zone surrounded by the ignorant masses," Mom explained as she began to put pancakes onto her plate. "Now that my blinders are off, I know that raising you here like any other teenager is just going to being playing Russian Roulette with your life. Better that you learn how to protect yourself than leave things to chance."
"Then why aren't you making plans to have us move someplace safer?" she asked since she knew that leaving for someplace safer was another way to avoid conflict.
"Well, for one thing there aren't any other schools in California that'll accept your sister, so if we wanted to move we'd have to leave the state. That'll cost money," Mom replied, cutting off a piece of a pancake. "Also buying the gallery, the house and everything else was something of an investment. Put it all together and leaving Sunnydale would cost more than we have right now."
Made sense.
With her father no longer around and only paying the bare minimum in child support, it'd all be on mom to pay for any attempt to move out of the state. She didn't know how much money was involved in a venture like that but she'd wager that it was a sizeable amount. It also meant that, unless the Summers family experienced a financial windfall in the next few months, they would have no choice but to adapt to the dangers of Sunnydale as best they could.
One way of adaptation was to learn ways to protect themselves.
"What about you? You training too?" she asked, realizing that her mom would need combat training of some kind too.
"I've managed to find a shooting range close by so I thought that I'd put in some practice there," Mom replied after swallowing her mouthful of pancake. "But that'll only cover the long distance combat scenarios. I'll need to learn something for when things get in close. Do you think Xander'd give me some lessons?"
"M-mom!" she exclaimed, choking and coughing on her mouthful of pancake.
Judging from the look on her mother's face, the woman had waited for the precise moment when she was beginning to swallow before dropping her question. Still the look of amusement on her mother's face made her think that she wasn't entirely joking when she'd proposed getting close quarters combat training from Xander.
"Why not? If that little sparring session with Cordelia is anything to go by the skills he got from 'Snake' are pretty good," Mom said, making it sound perfectly logical.
She had to admit that Xander had been awesome when he'd gone blow for blow with Cordelia that time in the library but the idea of her mother getting taught by HER future husband… EW! Images of both of them in workout clothing, getting all touchy feely either with individual move instruction or proper sparring sessions, bounced around her mind. THAT was something she never wanted to happen, much less witness herself! Sure, it'd be a different thing if she was the one learning and sparring but NOT her MOM.
NO WAY!
There had to be a way to throw up a roadblock in front of her mother.
"Maybe you should stick to guns," she pointed out, grabbing hold of the first possibility. "Even if you got some years back thanks to what happened, you're still pretty old. You might hurt yourself trying to do more than your body can handle."
"Oh, I don't plan on going for any title belts or fighting a platoon of trained soldiers hand-to-hand but it only makes sense since one of a sniper's greatest weaknesses is close quarters combat," Mom said, continuing eating like nothing was wrong. "Even if I don't get good enough to hold my own against some black ops soldier, something is better than nothing."
"Then why don't you ask Buffy or Cordelia to train you?" she asked, attacking the problem from another angle. "It'd make more sense than Xander since they're girls, too."
"No. Buffy wouldn't train me hard enough because I'm her mother and Cordelia… well…" Mom said, hesitating in her description of the Chase girl's flaws as a close quarters combat teacher.
Fortunately a teenager's active imagination made that easier for her.
Even with the Black Widow inheritance from Halloween Cordelia was still a rich girl socialite determined to remain at the pinnacle of the student body and then move up even higher. The odds that the brunette would agree to train her mom, much less be any good at it, were not good since it'd be dependent on the rich girl embracing her new knowledge.
Given how she freaked last time in the library… yeah, not going to happen.
"Then how about just focusing on your shooting for now?" she pleaded, unable to find anything better to do. "There's still a chance that Giles'll find something soon. No sense training your body if you're just going to get your years back."
"Fine. The Lady Deadshot in me is saying the same thing," Mom said with mock surrender. "Besides, I doubt I'd be able to focus on the training if Xander was doing it. He DEFINITELY hit the jackpot with his Halloween upgrade."
"MOM!" she yelled in embarrassment and opposition to her mother's antics.
Sunnydale High School
Student Lounge, Noon
Willow's POV
"Well, you know what, I'll take you there!" Buffy said, getting up and taking he friend Ford by the hand. "I'll see you guys in French!"
With that the blonde Slayer led her old friend from Hemery to escort him to the admissions office. Even as the duo left, though, the expression of teenage complacency mixed with 'you are butting in' vanished to reveal something decidedly more disciplined and suspicious. Had this been before Halloween she just would've written it off as her best friend's lingering lust for Buffy and jealousy of any guy who got too close to her. Since she'd inherited the memories and personality of MI6's R, though, the way she interpreted the world around her and even how she thought had changed. The R she became was in her early thirties so, with the Halloween inheritance, she also gained a slight increase in maturity, letting her see past many of the obstructions other teenagers couldn't.
"You think he's hiding something?" she asked, never taking her eyes off of Ford's retreating back.
"Yep," Xander replied, never losing his point of focus.
"Plan on checking up on him?" she asked as she began to prepare plans of her own.
"Yep," he said with a slight nod of his head.
"Want me to come along?" she asked on a whim since it'd mean some alone time with her crush.
"Nope. Sneaking around's easier to do if you're alone," he replied with a shake of his head. "Besides, if R was anything like Q, she was a lab jockey. Not a field agent."
"You're mostly right but she was still a member of MI-6 so she did have weapons training, even if she didn't get many opportunities to use it," she said to counter his claim that she would be hopeless outside of a lab. "She could handle both automatics and semi-automatics without anyone having to worry about friendly fire."
"Not exactly encouraging," he commented, a slight rasp sneaking into his voice. "Look, for right now we're just gonna be following him and checking out his story. We play our cards right and guns won't be necessary."
Point.
"Fine. I'll stick to the computer side of things and follow Ford's trail back as far as I can," she said, reluctantly conceding his point. "Be careful. Until we have a better idea of what he's up to, anything's possible."
"Don't worry. I'm still me but Snake'll keep me from doing anything too crazy," he said with a reserved lopsided grin. "You be careful, too."
"Please! What're the odds that someone's keeping eyes on some teenage guy's digital data?" she asked dismissively at the danger she'd be in. "Besides that, while I was good before, with R's know how inside my head I'll be magnificent! They'll never see me coming."
"Just try not to let that ego of yours get out of control," he replied with his grin growing in size. "If your head gets too big, they won't even need a scope to pop it."
"Same goes for you," she said with small smile of her own.
A light chuckle passed between them and they spent the remainder of the lunch hour just talking about the things they usually did. When the bell rang for the next class they gathered their things and left for their lockers to pick up what they'd need. She almost didn't see the point in going because if she'd been smarter than everyone but the teacher before Halloween, she was smart enough to teach at the college level now. A lot of the challenge she'd felt taking the advanced classes before was gone now and with it the corresponding satisfaction she'd felt upon overcoming the challenges. It turned out that, while there existed some minor anomalies when comparing what R knew with what was in the textbooks in class, the information was mostly the same.
What that meant was that she could goof off as much as she wanted and would likely still manage to pass any test she was given and get excellent marks on any assignments.
At least until Giles managed to figure out a way to turn her back to the way she'd been before Halloween because after that she'd have to resume putting the usual amount of effort into her studies.
That was something she'd been considering the last few days: did she really want to go back to who she'd been?
Sure, beforehand she'd been one of the two brains that supported the Slayer in her fight to keep the dark forces of the Hellmouth in check and, with further learning, her ability to contribute would also increase. She'd even contemplated asking Giles to sponsor her so she could become a Watcher like him, so she could graduate from being a civilian ally to a true comrade in the fight. It was an ambitious but nevertheless feasible.
With the inheritance she'd received from R it wouldn't take much for her skip many years of study and go straight to submitting her application to Watcher Academy, or whatever it was called. Giles never mentioned much of the particulars of the organization but she presumed that alongside the arcane aspects there had to be a division for developing new tools and weapons. With R's memories and skills for developing similar items for Commander James Bond, she could be a big help in creating new anti-demon technology. In her spare time at home she'd already begun sketching out some ideas based on what Giles had told them about vampires and the demons Buffy'd slain so far. It was just the broad strokes, of course, she couldn't go into more detail until she had a better idea of what she had to work with, but once she had the necessary information it'd all come together. She'd be able to produce a rough prototype that Buffy would be able to use in the field and once the kinks had been worked out it'd make her acceptance into the Watcher Academy all but certain.
She couldn't keep a light chuckle from escaping her lips as she walked, causing some of the other students to look at her funny but she ignored them.
Even before Halloween she'd gotten good at blocking out the words and actions of others but ever since Halloween it'd stopped being selective sensory acceptance and started being simple disregard.
Throughout her career at MI-6, the woman known as R had been forced to deal with the prejudices such an organization had towards women, as well as the womanizing tendencies of a certain double oh agent. Instead of letting them chip away at her confidence or hinder her progress, the woman had been determined to carve her own path and render her opposition ordinary rather than intimidating. Indeed, she took special pleasure in turning the tables on them and putting them on the defensive all the while doing her job.
She was still not at R's level but the more time passed, the more she stepped away from who she used to be and became… someone else.
Something else.
With all the potential that she saw ahead of her with the 'ghost' of R inside of her, throwing it all away just because it was 'unnatural' seemed like such a waste. If there were negative side-effects to the changes she underwent Halloween night, something that might threaten her life or her sanity, then perhaps she could agree to the reversion. However she'd neither felt nor seen any sign of that being the case and she HAD looked for such problematic symptoms. Was there something going on that she could not perceive with her own senses and thought processes alone?
Maybe.
It wasn't like she had access to the necessary technology to run a scan of her brain, much less the rest of her body. Add to that the fact that R's area of expertise was more technological than biological and the possibility that she'd overlooked something was very real.
Still, until some sort of evidence presented itself to prove that her 'improvements' were a danger to her continued survival, she would use them to her advantage.
And when the time came to make a decision between being Willow Rosenberg or Willow R, she hoped by then she'd know who she wanted to be.
The Streets of Sunnydale
After The End of Classes at Sunnydale High School
Xander's POV
So far, so good, he thought as he continued to tail Ford. Doesn't look like he knows he's being followed.
As soon as classes had let out he'd asked for Willow to cover for him while he went after Ford, using an excuse that would sound perfectly normal but also would give him some operational flexibility. With Buffy's tendency towards seeing what she wanted to see and ignoring the rest, he felt safe in the assumption that she wouldn't try to look past the words she'd been given. Unless something came up that made her suspicious, he should have the time he needed to see if his suspicions regarding Ford were correct.
Already he'd confirmed his first bit of suspicious info: Ford wasn't heading to the residential areas of Sunnydale but rather the more industrial areas. Sure, there was the off chance that someone had put together an apartment building out of what used to be a factory or office but he didn't think so. If Ford's family travelled in the same social circles as Buffy's, that meant middle class and people living in that niche of society tended to prefer houses and white picket fences.
More conducive towards nurturing kids and facilitating a sense of community, or at least that's what he thought.
So what was Ford doing out here? Meeting with one or both of his parents? Maybe but he didn't think so.
Seeing Ford come to a stop he immediately ducked into an alley, flattening his back against the wall to keep anything from poking out for his quarry to see, and listened with his ears for the sound of resuming footsteps. When feet started to hit sidewalk he counted to five before exiting the alleyway, resuming his tailing of Ford to wherever the new arrival was going. The pursuit had already been going on for half an hour but he didn't expect it to be too much longer. If the former resident of Los Angeles was up to something shady, he wouldn't choose a base of operations too far from the territory of his target.
As soon as he got a lock on that base of operations he'd wait until the kid left before sneaking inside to see what he could find. Anything incriminating probably wouldn't be out in the open on the off chance he brought off guests there who were not in the know about his plans. At the same time, though, he didn't believe that Ford was smart enough to be able to hide all of the clues of what he was up to. So long as he kept an eye peeled for anything… odd, he'd find what he was looking for.
It was four minutes later that it looked like Ford had finally led him to his base of operations and it looked like it was in some sort of basement apartment. Waiting until Ford went inside, he considered his options.
Without knowing the interior layout of the place simply going in the same way could very well get him caught. He needed to find a way to follow that wouldn't leave him exposed to anyone who might be inside, especially Ford. Looking about the building's exterior for another way in, he was dismayed to find that there was a distinct lack of windows aside from three that he could see and each of those had bars on them. While he could probably pry the bars off, it'd make some serious noise that'd alert anyone inside that someone was mucking about.
It wasn't until his eyes hit the roof that he saw his way in and had to grimace a bit since he'd never been a big fan of tight spaces. On the roof there was an opening for an air vent that led into the building and it was just big enough for someone his size to squeeze into so long as he was willing to move at a snail's pace.
"Not the sort of Snake skills I was hoping to experience firsthand so early," he whispered to himself but nonetheless it was the best way for him to get in without being seen.
With that in mind he crossed the street to the alley next to the building whose basement Ford went into before growling at the lack of fire escapes that would've made his ascent easy. Taking the measure of the state of the walls on either side, he picked the one to the left before beginning his difficult climb to the roof. It wasn't easy, most of the handholds were barely big enough for his fingers and thumb to get a good grip, but the memories he had inherited from Snake helped. Nevertheless by the time he reached the roof he needed to take a brief rest to recover some strength since, even with the physical changes of Halloween, he still wasn't in a condition similar to black op soldiers.
I'll need to keep training, he thought as he looked over at the vent opening. Keep pushing my limits. Can't overwork since that'll do more harm than good but gotta get as close as possible.
It took him a moment or three before he felt ready for another bit of physical exertion but once he was he made his way to the vent opening.
Looking down into the darkness, he felt fear rise within him as his mind conjured images of how his intended action could go VERY badly. With a growl of defiance, though, he silenced those fears and pulled from his mind every trick Snake knew for crawling through vents. Carefully and precisely he entered the vent head first, using the muscles in both his arms as well as both his legs to control his descent. Doing so without caring about making noise was easy but doing so while making every effort to remain unheard by the building's occupants… much more challenging.
It was especially challenging for someone like him, who was doing this for the first time.
Still, with his suspicions about Ford and his unwillingness to allow harm to befall Buffy, his resolve proved strong enough to keep his movements steady.
Without a map for the vent system in the building all he could do was keep heading down and listen for any voices he might hear, especially if one of them was Ford's. It took a while and a little bit of backtracking but eventually he managed to find the room he was looking for.
He almost wished that he hadn't.
Looking into the room, it was filled with people milling about, hanging out, and all of them shared a single theme: Victorian era vamps. While some of them could be mistaken as noblemen and women at first glance, he could see that the ones closest to the vent cover he was peering through had fake fangs in their mouths. A few of them were even reclining in stereotypical black coffins with plush blood red interiors! He could hear televisions on but he couldn't quite make out what they were playing but, considering the theme of the room's occupants, he could take a wild guess.
Vamp fans. The very thought made him feel overwhelming disgust for the people below.
How could any sane person LIKE vampires? They were monsters, murderers who preyed on mankind and saw every human on the planet as either food or playthings for their amusement! Even as a part of him tried to talk reason, pointing out that the majority of the idiots had probably never even met a real vampire, all it took was remembering Jesse to drown the reason out.
More than that, though, what was Ford doing associating with such people? Was he like them? Did he think vampires were cool? If so then he found the teenager's arrival in Sunnydale and reunion with Buffy to be more than a little suspicious. A vampire lover moving from Los Angeles to the Sunnydale Hellmouth and getting back in touch with the vampire SLAYER? Even if the young man didn't know Buffy was the Slayer, it couldn't be coincidence that he'd come to vamp central and set up a vamp lover club. Something was afoot.
Something bad.
"How're the preparations coming?" Ford asked as the teenager himself walked close enough for him to pick up the rat's voice.
"Good. Dwayne's more than half done," another teenage guy's voice said before being revealed as some geek dressed up in a Dracula cape. "He'll be done right on schedule."
"Good, we can't have the door opening any other way than how we want," Ford said, sounding like this was an important bit.
"Don't worry. Once it's shut, the only way it'll open up is from the outside," Drac Junior said, sounding quite confident of Dwayne's work.
It didn't take very long after that for him to figure out what was likely to happen.
Ford was allied with vampire fanboys and fangirls. They had a location that looked pretty sturdy and apparently were modifying the door so it could only be opened from the outside. They'd only be doing that if they meant to trap something or someone inside. Considering how Ford had come out of nowhere and gotten back in touch with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it was clear that the prick intended for Buffy to get trapped inside the vamp fan club.
The only question was why. What could Ford possibly stand to gain from capturing Buffy?
A group of teenagers couldn't possibly have the smarts or the resources to make use of a Slayer so that implied that they had a client or partner who had both. His mind immediately went to a demon of some sort, one currently living in Sunnydale or planning to move in, with the other possibility being the government. According to Giles, the Watcher's Council had a deal with all of the major nations of the world where, so long as the Council kept the countries up to date on the supernatural, the Slayer was given permission to enter those countries to fight demons. However Hollywood movies and the bits he'd managed to see clearly from his Halloween inheritance made it clear that there would always be those who were selfish.
There'd have to be someone or perhaps more than one person in a world government who wanted to just co-opt what the Watcher's had and make it their own.
That included the Slayer.
Indeed, that asset, a super soldier that would always be, was probably quite the appetizing piece of meat for any country since it'd only take a little polish to make a newly Called ready for battle.
Whatever the case, he had to get back to the others and warn them that Ford was up to no good.
Navigating his way back through the vents to his entry point on the roof was a marathon in and of itself. By the time he plopped down on the roof he was sweaty all over and breathing like he'd competed in a major track and field event.
Definitely not in the right shape for this shit, he thought as he pushed himself onto his feet and made his way back to the edge of the roof.
Imagining the climbing he'd now had to do in order to get down to the ground, he groaned and made a promise to himself that he wouldn't try anything like this for a good while.
Not until he could handle it without being utterly exhausted afterwards.
That'd take time.
He hoped he had that much time.