Back To Sunnydale

Flickers of flame licked around the transparent hull of the shuttle as it shot down towards the west cost of North America. Willow was floating in the center of the bubble, concentrating on keeping them on course, and Xander had his chin on her shoulder with his arms around her waist, while Buffy sat on the bottom of the bubble.

Buffy's skin tingled pleasantly as the interior of the shuttle heated up into the six-hundreds. That was one thing about being Fae that she definitely liked. Heat always felt like standing in front of a heater on a cold winter night, and cold always felt like a blast of chill on a sweltering summer day. Unless she actually reached temperatures that were dangerous for her, but she wasn't planning to go cave diving in a volcano any time soon.

Of course, the shuttle could regulate its internal temperature easily, but there was no point in wasting the energy to do that when it wasn't necessary.

"So, where are we going to land this thing?" Xander wondered as Sunnydale came into view below them.

"I was thinking we could hide it in the garage at my house," Willow said. "But it's already morning, and getting it in there would be kinda conspicuous - oh no! We're late for school!"

"We can still make it before lunch," Buffy said. "Meeting in the library after school. We need to tell Giles what's going on."

"If you say so, Buff," Xander said.

"Sure is a good thing we don't need to sleep, huh?" Willow chirped.

Buffy made a noncommittal noise, looking down through the bottom of the shuttle. "There's my house. I need to check in with my mom. I'll see you guys later."

Buffy was sucked through the hull of the shuttle and took up a skydiver pose as she fell towards the town below. Her back yard was a small target, but the BDUs caught a lot of air, so aiming wasn't too difficult. At the last second, she flipped over and landed on her feet. Dirt and grass flew up from a small crater under her feet.

A non-Slayer Fae could have done the same thing, but their landing would have been much less dignified. Fae were about three times stronger than a human of equal muscle mass, but that wasn't enough strength to stick a landing like that without going face-first into the sod. Buffy barely noticed the extra strength under the power of the Slayer, though.

Buffy stood up and headed towards the back door.

Her mom was on the phone when she came in, with the police it sounded like. Buffy winced. Looks like she was home just in time. It was about as bad as she imagined it would be. Her mom was relieved, and furious, and concerned. Buffy was hugged, and scolded, and grounded.

Finally, Buffy headed upstairs to get changed for school, her mom asking, "And what are you wearing?"

Buffy deliberately misinterpreted the question. "I know, right? It's completely fugly, the colors all wrong for me and that's just to start with. I mean, I don't do baggy, and how can something this horrendous not even be comfortable? Isn't that like a rule? And..."

Joyce eventually waved her on, shaking her head.

Going into her room, Buffy shut the door and immediately shredded the BDUs with her Utility Cloud. She sighed in relief as the scraps of green cloth fell to the floor.

Buffy looked down at the carnage thoughtfully. Ripping through the cloth was much easier than it should have been. The BDUs were made of sturdy stuff. Buffy knew that her Utility Cloud was as much a part of her as her muscles were. Did that mean the powers of the Slayer extended to the new parts of her too?

"Great," Buffy grumbled to no one in particular. "Even my Calling is rubbing my face in it. Fine! I get it! No more human Buffy. Still..." Slayer strength in her Utility Cloud could really come in handy.

Buffy went to her closet and got dressed. Underwear. Pants. Blouse. Light jacket. Shoes. Firmly ignoring how awkward she felt being fully dressed, Buffy grabbed her school things and rushed off. It wasn't uncomfortable, exactly, but even just her underwear felt awkward, like she was going out in a cumbersome disguise. That was a good analogy, actually. She felt the same way about a nude body that she did about a nude face.

She could probably get used to clothes again, eventually, but the worst part was, Buffy wasn't sure she wanted to.

After Willow landed the shuttle in a patch of woods near their neighborhood, and collapsed it into storage mode - a dense opaque sphere about the size of a beachball - so they could hide it under some bushes, Xander snuck in to his room and changed for school. Unfortunately, the modern fashion for male clothing designs was to pretend the penis didn't exist. That just wasn't going to work, so Xander had to improvise.

With his erection in its usual place flat against his abs, he could hide it with a combination of baggy pants, a loose shirt, and a tucked-in undershirt. He studied his reflection and decided it was a passable solution. Unfortunately, the flex of his waistband as he walked, while not really pleasant, was enough stimulation to make him wet. He didn't think he was in danger of creaming his shirt, but there was going to be a visible dampness.

Finally, he hit on the idea of actively using his Utility Cloud to continuously dry and clean his undershirt. It wasn't perfect, but Xander would be able to get through the day without incident.

He met Willow for the walk to school. She was dressed more daringly than he'd ever seen her, before Halloween, in what could almost pass for a Naughty Schoolgirl outfit if the red pleated skirt was a little shorter and she tied the black tanktop off to bare her middrift.

Xander slung an arm around her waist and they set off. "That's not your usual look."

"Well, I was looking through my clothes, and I just started daydreaming about that old cliche of finding yourself naked in class, only... it just seemed funny, now," Willow said. "Like, so what? I don't need clothes. They're only wearing clothes 'cause compared to me they're cripples. Which is a horrible thing to say and I shouldn't even think like that because its not their fault and - "

Xander cut her off by pulling her around and kissing her deeply. Willow pretty much melted instantly, giving him a dreamy smile when he pulled back.

"No, I get it," Xander assured her.

"Right," Willow said as they kept walking. "Well, if I could turn up naked in class and not die of embarrassment, I figured I could handle wearing something less with the confine-y-ness than my usual stuff."

Xander nodded gave her a grin. "So, you think Snyder will give us detention?"

"Maybe we can be sneaky," Willow suggested.

"Way to keep hope alive, Wills."

Willow giggled.

A series of planes landed in California, each bringing a covert NID operative. They converged in a base only a few hours from Sunnydale, and one man efficiently took charge.

Areas of interest were highlighted on maps. Photos smuggled off the Prometheus were passed around.

"These are possible images of the alien insurgents, but we'd be fools to trust their word to the SGC, so stay sharp for possible unidentified hostiles. NID private assets tracked their landing craft to this location. We are unsure of their combat capabilities, but the reports claim they could survive in the vacuum of space, so the boys downstairs are eager to get a closer look at them."

Plans were made. Assignments were given. And black SUVs rolled out.

Walking through the school was an adventure and a half for Xander. It was like when he'd first started noticing girls, only turned up to eleven. And he wasn't just noticing girls. He was noticing everyone. Thankfully for his peace of mind, he had Willow to focus on, and years of experience disliking one of the most physically attractive girls in the school. Who'd've thought he'd ever be grateful for Cordelia?

"I think we should go straight to the classroom and hide there," Willow said. "Eating lunch is gonna make it too easy for Snyder to find us."

Xander nodded. Buffy, we're heading to class early and hiding out. Where are you? he sent.

Already there. I had the same idea. I came in through the roof. Snyder is prowling the entrances, Buffy replied.

"Okay, no using the front doors, check," Xander said.

He and Willow went around the back of the school and Willow unlocked a seldom-used door with her Utility Cloud. When they made it to the empty classroom, they found Buffy reclining in one of the desks with her eyes closed. Xander and Willow slid into their usual seats.

"So how'd it go with your mom?" Xander asked.

"Was she mad?" Willow inquired.

Buffy sat up and opened her eyes. "I'm grounded for the weekend. What about you guys?"

Xander shrugged. "Not like my parents bother to keep track of me."

"Mom and Dad are in Chicago this week," Willow said simply.

Buffy pushed through the swinging doors into the library, calling out, "Giles?"

There was small crashing sound from Giles' office as the man himself stumbled out into the library proper. He looked very relieved to see the three of them.

"Buffy! Are you alright?" Giles asked. "Your mother called me this morning. She said you never came home."

"We're okay," Buffy said, glancing at Xander. "Some of us more than others, but yeah we're fine. Angel... Giles, Angel's dead."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Buffy..."

"Giles, what happened last night?" Buffy demanded.

Giles polished his glasses while Willow and Xander took a pair of seats. Buffy crossed her arms and gave her Watcher an entreating look.

"I take it you three were transformed into your costumes last night?" Giles asked.

Three nods.

"Well, you see..." And the story came out, about a man called Ethan Rayne and a spell of chaos that affected everyone who bought costumes at his shop. Apparently Cordelia stopped by the library to complain about the craziness, and that's how Giles had figured out the connection to Ethan's shop. "...so I confronted him, and I was able to persuade him to break the spell. After that everyone seemed to be back to normal."

Buffy's fingers dug into her ribs. Willow put up a hand, looking hesitant.

"Um, Giles?" Willow said. "We kind of, um, aren't. Back to normal, I mean."

"Oh dear. How so?" Giles asked. "You seem to be yourselves?"

"We remembered who we are when the spell broke, and I got my Slayer powers back," Buffy said. "But we're still what our costumes made us."

Giles polished his glasses again. "And what is that? Cordelia seemed to think you were all, er..."

"Yeah," Willow cut in. "Um, their looks were a lot with the misleadingness. We apparently dressed up as engineered super-humans from the distant future, and now we kinda still are."

"Good lord! And you're sure these effects aren't wearing off?" Giles asked.

Buffy strode over to the weapons cage. "Pretty freaking sure, Giles."

Buffy unlocked the cage with her Utility Cloud, and then pulled one of the cheaper daggers into her hand. She spun the knife in her grip, faced Giles, and rammed the point into her eye as hard as she could.

"Bloody fucking buggering sod!" Giles yelped, diving forward.

Buffy hissed in pain, quickly pulling the mangled blade from her eye socket, allowing her perfectly intact eyeball to return to its normal shape. The pain vanished almost as soon as the metal was no longer touching her, but she still reflexively rubbed her eye with her free hand as she held out the ruined dagger for Giles' inspection.

"Okay, that was kinda funny," Xander snickered. "Mean, but funny as heck."

"Yes, the Watcher is having a heart attack," Giles said faintly. "How very amusing."

Buffy blushed in embarrassment. "I should've warned you. Sorry."

Giles took the dagger, prodding at the warped steel, before tossing it onto the table and examining Buffy's eye with careful concern. "Remarkable."

Buffy caught herself about to nuzzle her cheek into Giles' hand and only barely kept a panicked expression off her face. Oh she so didn't need that. Giles was her Watcher! And a grown-up! He was a fatherly-type figure, and old. He was - younger than Lyn.

Buffy's internal rant stalled as she looked up at Giles' concerned face. The glasses. The worn lines. The hints of grey hair. The image that was simply and purely Giles. Except, he was younger than Lyn. The irredeemably grown-up Giles was younger than Lyn. Suddenly, those signs of passing years on his face didn't seem like a fundamental aspect of her Watcher's being, but instead like the first visible beginnings of a fatal genetic disease that would slowly destroy everything Giles was.

Her mind felt split in two, like she was seeing double. Immortality was the lure of the enemy. Immortality was the inevitable conclusion of succeeding at not dying. Souls were the fundamental core of what made a person. Souls were an arbitrary bit of magic tacked on to her particular universe. Seeing double. Seeing double.

Buffy wrenched away from Giles and ran her fingers into her hair. "I'm fine, Giles. No damage. No damage ever again, now, unless some demon figures out how to throw me into the sun."

"Throw you into - good lord." Giles stumbled into a chair across from Xander and Willow.

Willow, Buffy sent. I want your priority for the Eliezera to be finding the treatment facility.

It already is, Willow replied, smiling. Well, after I find the refueling routines, but yeah, I've been looking.

"So, G-man, howcome we're still all with the high-tech super-bodies?" Xander asked. "Not that I'm complaining or anything. Being all vampire-proof and batman-can-breathe-in-space is just niftykeen with me."

"I - I don't know," Giles admitted. "Any number of things might have interfered with the spell to make the effects permanent, but it would have had to have been something with considerable power - wait, what was that about space?"

"Um, yeah, we have a spaceship," Willow said. "That's where we were last night. It stayed when the spell broke, too. And that's not even the important part."

One explanation of the Air Force starship and the Goa'uld and secret alien invasions, and Giles was polishing his glasses again. But impending doom was a way of life when one lived on the hellmouth.

"Goa'uld. Goa'uld," Giles murmured. "Why does that ring a bell?"

Giles vanished into the stacks for a bit, and soon came back with a big book with Egyptian-looking thingies on the cover. "Yes, here we are. The Collected Journals of the Watchers of Egypt, Volume One. I'm afraid my Ancient Egyptian is a bit rusty, however."

Buffy leaned over Giles' shoulder as he flipped the old tome open. Willow climbed onto the table with a quick cat-like move on Giles other side. A quick thought over her Dreamlink, and suddenly the incomprehensible writing was as easy to read as English.

"I can read it for you, Giles," Willow offered. "Our ship has a complete database of all known languages, linked right into our heads."

"Good lord."

"This is a Goa'uld," Willow said, pointing to a charcoal sketch of a creepy snake-like thing. "It says here that this species of demon was the true forms of the Egyptian pantheon. They burrow into a human host through the neck and possesses them. The human survives, but loses all control of their body. Wiggy. Um, it says the victim gains the magic of the demon, but the demon can't use its magic without a host, and the magic stays with the host even if the demon leaves."

Willow turned the page, revealing another sketch, this one of a standing stone ring with odd symbols all around its face. "It says one of these Goa'uld, Ra, the god of the sun, brought a portal to the world of man. The name here translates to 'Stargate'. There are a bunch of notes about how the Watchers thought it might work, but it doesn't look like they could agree on anything."

Willow turned another page. "It says that Ra ruled in tyranny for generations, until one day, a beautiful young woman was taken to become the host of one of Ra's servants. The very next day, this woman was called as the Slayer, and the Slayer Essence destroyed the demon, freeing her. It says that the Watchers didn't get the full story until later, but the Slayer became known as Sekhmet, and not only did she keep all the powers of the Goa'uld, but something in those powers enhanced her ability to call on the skills of past Slayers to the point where she remembered the entire life of every Slayer that had ever lived before her."

Willow turned the page and continued. "Sekhmet infiltrated Ra's court, becoming his trusted right-hand and bodyguard. She learned his secrets and his weaknesses, while fostering a hidden rebellion. She didn't contact the Watchers until days before before the rebellion was to begin, and then she died within Ra's sky fortress - huh, wonder if that was a spaceship - when it fell to the Earth in flames. Ra was overwhelmed by a mob of thousands and only barely escaped through the Stargate, which was then buried by the Watchers according to instructions Sekhmet had left them."

Willow sat back. "Wowie."

"And now they're back for round two," Buffy said darkly.

"Yes, well, if these 'SGC' people you met can be trusted, it would appear they've been doing an admirable job of holding off the return of the Goa'uld so far," Giles opined.

"Hey, 'S' 'G' 'C'. Do you think the SG stands for Stargate? Like, they're calling their group Stargate Central or something?" Xander wondered.

"Oh dear," Giles sighed. "I'm afraid you might be right, Xander. I'll have to call the Council, and tell them I have reason to believe the, ah, 'Chappa'ai' is not where it is supposed to be."

Men in black camo combed the woods where the NID asset had tracked the alien ship. Many knew just what town they were prowling around and knew to carry wooden stakes and a cross and had a clip of incendiary rounds in easy reach, but several didn't, and they weren't informed by their comrades.

It was at a late hour when the call came down the line. An alien object had been found. Camo-covered figures converged on the beachball-sized sphere.

Transport was called in while others stood guard. Two men watched impassively as a third was ambushed by a wandering vampire. Once the vampire was distracted with his kill, one man cooly drew his gun and fired a single incendiary round through the vampire's chest.

The artifact was secured and driven away.

The remaining agents were ordered to split off. Half were to set up an outpost in town, half were to stake out the woods in case the aliens came back there. The corpse of their one vampire casualty was stripped of identifying person effects and gear, and left for the local predators.

Being grounded, Buffy hadn't been able to come with them, but Willow'd had an idea to interface her Dreamlink with the present day internet. Xander had gone with her to radio shack, and now they were carrying bags of electronic components into Willow's house.

"So, tell me again what you need all this stuff for?" Xander asked as he kicked her front door closed behind him.

"Well, it's like this," Willow said as she led the way up to her room. "Basically, I need to build a signal converter that I can plug into a normal internet connection. Nobody has modems that can communicate with my Dreamlink, so I'm going to try to make one. The idea is to be able to go on the internet without needing a computer."

"Sounds great, Wills," Xander said.

Willow set her bags down on her desk and Xander followed suit. Willow sent out her Utility Cloud in two directions, flicking the lights on and twisting the blinds closed. Once that was done, Xander was momentarily startled as she casually pulled her tanktop off, giving Xander an eyeful of Willow-boobies. She kicked off her shoes and made her Utility Cloud pull her socks off, then pushed her skirt and panties down and kicked them into the hamper.

"Ahh," Willow sighed, running her hands all over herself. "That's better."

"So, I guess we're doing the naked thing, then," Xander said.

Willow spread her arms and twirled around. "Whenever we can, right?"

"Right," Xander agreed cheerfully, pulling his shirt off.

While Xander stripped, a naked Willow went to her desk and started going through the bags, pulling things out and organizing them on the desktop. She tossed the empty bags in the trash and finished arranging components with a thoughtful tilt of her head.

Xander piled the last of his clothes at the foot of Willow's bed and flopped back onto the bedspread. "Yeah, I'm definitely with you on this one. Clothes only when we absolutely have to."

Willow gave him a grin, and turned back to her project. She began by examining every component with her Utility Cloud. Bits of plastic and electronics were held up in the air in front of her, floating into different positions. Her Utility Cloud made this sort of small-scale precision work vastly easier than it would have been with just her hands and eyes. She could hold multiple pieces in place, cut or solder, test conductivity, and other things, all without any tools.

Buffy undressed for bed.

Even if she didn't need to sleep, she was grounded and didn't have anything better to do. She thought about sneaking out to go on patrol, but her mom was a light sleeper and she didn't want to risk it. And, she figured she ought to sleep sometimes anyway, in case there was a Slayer dream waiting for her.

Stripping off her underwear, Buffy went to her dresser to get her pajamas, but paused with the white sushi-print in her hands. She closed her eyes and sighed, and put the pajamas back in the drawer. Alone in her room, she could admit to herself that she really did prefer nudity, and going nude wasn't a habit she intended to break.

Being a Fae was just... better. It rankled to admit, but she liked that baring her body didn't make her feel vulnerable. She liked knowing that she could lose a fight and not die horribly. She liked knowing the Eliezera was up there, a safe haven for if the worst happened and the world burned in hellfire.

The idea of her mom, and Giles and anyone she cared about, withering with age, just seemed so horrific now that it was avoidable. And she couldn't want to turn her friends and family into Fae to save them without admitting that being a Fae was better, even with the squicky stuff.

Buffy crawled into bed and pulled the covers up, snuggling into the soft sheets.

Somehow, her thoughts wandered back to the previous night, when Lyn, Zach, and Eelesia had their hours-long orgy, and her body reacted. Moaning softly, Buffy's hand wandered down to her silky-smooth vulva, fingers delving into her hot, slippery folds.

She spread her legs and sank three fingers into her moist flesh, thrusting her hips up as she plunged her fingers in and out. Her other hand went to her breasts, circling and fondling.

Buffy hissed out a breath between her teeth as her pussy spasmed around her fingers and the pleasure cascaded through her body.

She paused for a moment, then decided the hell with it and brought herself off several more times, before finally settling into her pillow to sleep.

Dreaming was somewhat more complicated for Fae than for humans. Fae had far more options. Fae could enter a virtuality by themselves or with others, through the Dreamlink. Fae could craft the parameters of a stand-alone dream they'd like to have. Or they could simply sink into some randomly-generated nonsense.

Eidetic memories were standard for Fae, and these experiences were not an exception.

The persistent Giaa-macromanaged virtualities of the first option were the Fae equivalent of video games and the social internet. Crafted dreams and recordings of crafted dreams could be shared on the Overlink, which quickly became the most popular form of artistic expression among the Fae.

Buffy chose the third option, guessing that the other options didn't count as being asleep enough for a Slayer dream to show up. She drifted off, dreaming of soft skin and roaming hands.