AN: Sorry this took so long. My laptop it broken again. I'm looking into getting a new one but until then, I have no idea when updates will be.
It didn't take long for Buffy to spot the weirdness on campus. First, she saw a couple sitting on a bench where a guy was reciting a Shakespearean sonnet to the embarrassment of the girl. Then, she saw a guy proposing to his girlfriend who he promised to love more than life itself and never let go. There seemed to be varying degrees of extreme love happening. Whatever was happening only seemed to affect the male population. A few guys seemed to be unaffected and went about their business, but the ones that were affected were desperate beyond all reason.
When Buffy saw a guy literally chasing after a girl who was clearly uninterested, she finally understood just how dangerous these men were. After knocking the guy unconscious and telling the terrified girl to go home and lock her door she went straight to Giles's house.
The door was unlocked, but Giles was nowhere to be found. What a time to make a grocery run. He must have left in a hurry to forget to the lock the door. He never locked it when he was home, but Buffy was fairly certain he usually locked up before he left. There was no sign of where he might have gone, not even a hastily scribbled note beside the phone. Maybe he'd gone out to investigate.
She decided to stop and put the pieces together as well as she could. The men of Sunnydale were under some kind of love spell. A monster was literally ripping the hearts out of people. Those two things, definitely seemed connected. That meant she had to find the monster and destroy it. Only, she didn't know where to find it, what it looked like, or how to kill it.
She found Tara's number on Giles's desk and called Willow.
"Giles's is gone?" Willow asked with concern.
"Yeah, he left the door unlocked, but if he was expecting me he didn't leave a note," Buffy said.
"That's bad Buffy. This is all really bad," Willow said.
"What did you find out?"
"I did some research based on Tara's description of the monster. Turns out there's more than twenty monsters and demons that look similar. So, I factored in the psychotic romance aspect and I think I know what it is, but I'm not sure."
"We've gotta start somewhere."
"There's this idol. A lot of cultures have lore on it so there's a million names for it. Some say it's connected to this god and some say it's a demon trapped in green marble."
"So, what's it do?"
"All the stories agree that it has the power to create love so powerful it's physically painful."
"That's explains the weirdness."
"Yeah, but it gets worse."
"I just saw a guy literally attack a girl for not loving him back. How could it get worse?"
"When the idol is activated by the tears of a scorned woman, it releases the being inside. There's some inconsistency about what happens next, but everyone seems to agree it's not good and it usually involves a beast that's controlled by the being. The beast is drawn to people in love and it's job is to rip their heart out. Literally."
"So, that's why it went after Tara. Probably why it got that teacher, too. Why does the magic only affect men?"
"I'm not sure. I think the intention of the idol is to punish men and take vengeance when a woman's been wrong."
"Vengeance against men. Why does that sound familiar?"
"You don't think Anya..."
"I know that people are hurting each other while being hunted by this thing. I have to do whatever I can."
"Just be careful. There might something more solid in Giles's books. I'll come over and see if I can find anything."
"Thanks, Will."
Buffy hung up and set out for Xander's.
"Get off me, Xander!" Anya shrieked trying to free herself from his grip.
"You can't leave me! I need you! You just can't!" He clung desperately to her small frightened form, holding her close and tight.
"Xander let go!"
"No!" He shook his head. His eyes were wide and frantic as though she'd threatened to remove the air from his lungs. "I won't let you! I need you, Anya! I won't let you go!"
She pushed at his arms wrapped around her stomach, but after long days working construction, his grip was like iron. She scratched at his arm and tried to squirm away but he just held her tighter. His arms tightened until she struggled to suck in air. Her eyes started to blur and she saw spots.
"Xander?" Buffy called from the top of the stairs.
"Buffy," Anya gasped, but it was hardly a whisper.
"No! You can't take her away! I love her! I love you, Anya!" Xander shouted.
Buffy ran down the stairs and her eyes filled with shock as she saw Anya near unconscious in Xander's hold. Without another moment's hesitation, she stepped forward and punched Xander in the nose. He shouted in pain, but he didn't relax his grip.
"No! You can't Buffy! I'll die without her!"
"I'm sure it feels that way," Buffy said trying to pry his arms from Anya's chest. Buffy slowly pulled them further and further away. Anya sucked in a gasp as the pair struggled on either side of her. "But this is magic Xander. You'll be fine."
"How dare you tell me my love isn't real!"
Buffy finally managed to free Anya of his grasp. She shoved Xander away and placed herself between them. Anya watched her boyfriend with fear and hurt in her eyes.
"What do you even know about love?" Xander's eyes filled with desperate tears. "I love her! I'd die for her, I'd do anything! You killed your love. Twice! How does that make you an expert on love? You don't know what I feel!"
"Xander, please. Just calm down. I know you love Anya, but you're hurting her. You almost killed her!"
Xander shook his head. "I love Anya. I need her. She was going to leave me!"
"I was only going to the bathroom," Anya said weakly.
"This is insane."
"Why's he acting like this?" She asked Buffy. "Xander what's wrong with you?"
"There's come kind of demon making men go love crazy."
"Like a vengeance thing?"
"Do you know anything about it?"
"There's this thing called the idol of love. That's the english translation anyway. It sounds pretty, but it's actually a curse meant to make a man suffer the way he made a women suffer."
"Well someone has activated it."
"Then you'd better do something before the town turns bloody. I've seen curses like this before and it never ends well."
"Do you know where I can find it?"
"You could try the Magic Box. They have things like that there."
"Stop!" Xander shrieked. "You're talking about leaving again."
"I was talking about Buffy leaving," Anya said.
"Not that I've got any ideas about leaving you alone with her. You'll both have to come with me, but if you start acting love drunk I will knock you unconscious and leave you laying on the nearest bench."
Xander grabbed Anya's hand and Buffy led the way up the stairs and into town.
Sunnydale was in a state of unadulterated chaos. Men fought each other in the streets while others chased frighten women in circles. A pair of men, who were apparently lovers, literally tore the clothing off each other in a fit of psychotic passion.
The group weaved through the mass of love sick men and made it to the local magic shop, thankfully without incident.
"Hello?" Buffy called as they entered the seemingly empty shop. They stepped over a broken shelf and many broken vials that had once contained many suspicious fluids to reach the counter. "Anybody here?"
"Who's there?" came a frightened voice. "We don't have any love potions I swear!"
"We're not here for a love potion," Buffy told the voice.
A man hesitantly stood up from his hiding place on the other side of the counter. He eyed Xander suspiciously. "Wh-what do you want?"
"We want to know if you recently sold an idol. Green marble, probably to a woman."
He nodded. "Yesterday evening. She wanted something to punish her boyfriend with after he cheated on her. She wasn't supposed to activate it..."
"Where can we find her?"
"I uh..." He seemed to consider the trouble he could get into for disclosing costumer information and quickly decided the current crisis was worth it. "I'll check my records."
He went into the office and came back a few moments later. "I found the receipt but I'm sorry to say, the woman paid cash. No signature or electronic record."
"Great," Buffy said exasperated. "Can you at least tell me what she looked like? Maybe we can find he that way. Everyone seems to be out running through the streets anyway."
The opened his mouth to speak, but before a single syllable came out he was interrupted by the shattering of glass. Two dark figures fell through the windows at the front of the shop. They wrestled atop the broken glass seemingly unaware of the pieces that dug into their flesh.
"Angel?" Anya asked looking questioningly at Buffy. "Isn't that Angel? I thought you killed him."
Xander was too busy combing his fingers through Anya's hair and gazing longingly at her confused face to notice the vampires.
"Uh, about that..." Buffy started not really knowing where to start.
"Buffy?" Angel asked looking up from where he knelt over Spike's chest.
"Buffy!" Spike exclaimed looking at Buffy upside down.
Angel climbed off of Spike and the pair of them fought to get to her first. Buffy wrinkled her nose at the smell of them.
Anya pinched her nose shut. "What is that god awful smell?" she complained.
"You left me! You left and you didn't come back!" Angel said wrapping his arms around her as though she were the last life vest on a sinking ship.
"I tried to get to you I swear I did!" Spike said tilting his head back to display fading burns on his face on his throat as he clung to her like she was the last parachute on a crashing plane.
"I was smarter! I went through the sewers!" Angel said proudly.
"But I was faster! Angel slipped in the dirty water. You don't want him, he's clumsy and slow and he smells bloody horrible."
"I am not!"
"Yes you are. And you're a terrible singer."
"You take that back!"
"Why? Buffy thinks so too, don't you Buffy?"
"Guys, stop it!"
They stopped arguing, only to continue the fight on the floor fighting for dominance over the other.
Buffy sighed. "I don't have time for this."
"Do you think they'll fight to the death?" Anya asked watching with interest.
Buffy's eyes widened. "Okay, guys break it up. We've got a mission here."
"A mission?" they both asked stopping to look at her.
"Yes, a mission and I need your help," Buffy said.
"You need me?" they both said.
"Yes. I need you to help me find a woman who was in this shop last night."
"How do we find her?" they said, continuing to creep Buffy out by speaking in unison.
Buffy turned to the nervous shopkeeper. "Is there anything here she might of touched? Something that might have her scent on it."
He looked at her strangely but pointed toward a cabinet near the counter. "She picked up several of the gem stones in that case. She particularly liked the amethyst."
"Great. Thanks." Buffy walked over to the case and picked up the amethyst nearest the front. She held the stone out to the now standing vampires who waited patiently for her attention. "See if you can get her scent off this. We need to find her and fast."
"I'll find her for you Buffy," Spike promised before he dashed out of the shop.
"I'll find her faster!" Angel insisted as he ran off behind Spike.
"We'd better follow," Buffy said. "You guys stay close."
They waded through the mob of screaming, fighting, madmen and chased after the competing vampires. Buffy lost them several times amidst the chaos, but Angel's hulking form and Spike's stark hair made it simple to spot them again. Anya and Xander struggled to keep up. Buffy kept her eyes on the vampires but stopped several times to keep her friends close. Anya panted and Xander tried to insist she sit down and let him rub her feet which was highly appealing to Anya, but as she looked at the community bench that sat several feet away and spotted a couple that was less than clothed, she thought better of it.
Angel and Spike led them into the residential side of town. The neighborhood wasn't as bad as the city had been, but they did run past a man holding off two others with a broom on his front porch as well as a few other disturbed happenings.
As they ran past Revello drive, Buffy looked down the street to her house to make sure her mother hadn't been overwhelmed by romantic prospects and saw the last thing she'd expected.
"Oh, no," she said to herself as she stopped on the spot.
"What...is...it?" Anya panted, gasping between words and old her aching side.
"My mom. You guys go after Spike and Angel. I have to make sure she's safe." Buffy ran off, ignoring Anya as she called after her.
"Great. Now I'm left with..." she looked at Xander's big 'in love' puppy eyes. "drool boy and the fang brothers all defenseless with no slayer. This should be fun." She started jogging after them with Xander in tow. "What am I even supposed to do with this thing?"
She found the vampire's breaking down the front door of a pink, two-story. "Oh, stop it!" she snapped at them. "You can't even get inside."
She knocked on the door after shooing the vampires away. A frightened woman open the door just wide enough to peek out with wide, red eyes.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
Anya smiled pleasantly. "Yes, hello. I was wondering is you recently attempted to exact vengeance on a man that broke your heart."
"Go away!"
Anya caught the door as the woman tried to slam it closed. She shoved the door open and stepped inside. "Yes I see you did." She looked at the bloodied corpse of a man with his heart ripped right from his chest. "Nice work by the way. Sloppy and chaotic, but it gets the message across. Of course, I can't let any nasty heart eating monsters rip the heart from my Xander so where's the idol?"
"It's over there," the woman pointed a shaking finger toward the mantle of her fireplace.
"Perfect." Anya crossed the room, stepping nonchalantly over the body, and picked up the idol. The woman flinched. "I'm going to need a large bowl full of ice, please."
"I-ice?"
"Well, traditionally the punishment for vengeance is to be dismembered alive, but I believe the minor god we're dealing with is noncorporeal and I find the best way to dissuade vengeance is to cool off. Soak your head you know?"
"I see..." The woman still didn't really understand why she was going to the kitchen for a large bowl of ice, but she did none the less. She set the bowl on the coffee table and Anya submerged the idol in the frozen water.
"There. That should do it." She looked over at Xander who seemed to be coming out of a daze.
"Where... where are we?" he blinked his eyes and looked around the strange room. "Who are you?" he asked the woman. "Oh god! A body! Who's body is that? I didn't do that did I? This isn't some kind of werewolf thing is it? I'm not going all Jekyll/Hyde am I?"
"Yep, it worked. Let's go home."
"Mom?" Buffy called as she burst through the front door. There was a loud thud on the floor above her causing her to look up at the ceiling. Buffy flew up the stairs, her ears catching the sounds of what could only be pained grunts and gasps and threw open her mother's bedroom to door to find-
Nothing she ever wanted to think about but would definitely spend the rest of her life seeing as it was now permanently etched into her retinas.
"Ugh," she shuddered and back from the room. She closed the door and stared at the painted wood for a moment before dazedly retreating outside.
She found Angel and Spike on the next street over. They just stood in the grass in a stranger's front lawn staring at the ground.
"What happened?" Buffy asked them. Spike looked at her, but he didn't say anything. He just lit a cigarette and walked away. Angel left in the other direction. Buffy looked at each of their retreating backs and then at the house behind her.
Buffy walked back into town and made her way to the Magic Box. The shop was dark and dangerous to navigate. Buffy walked cautiously across the room to find the shop keeper resting his head on the counter.
"I don't know if you know what a slayer is, but this whole selling dangerous artifacts to emotionally unstable citizens thing, doesn't work for me." The shop keeper didn't raise his head or acknowledge that he heard her.
"It's my job to keep these people safe and-" Buffy reached a hand out and felt the cold shoulder of the man. He'd been dead for quite a while. "The life expectancy of a Sunnydale magic shop owner, not the cheeriest outlook." She sighed. "I planned a whole speech and everything."
