What's My Line
The woman who had taken to calling herself Jenny Calendar hurried across the small courtyard of Rupert Giles' apartment complex. She hesitated on his doorstep, eager to see him, but dreading the news she had to tell him and couldn't put off any longer.
Jenny ducked her head and closed her eyes, breathing out slowly to center herself. Swallowing the lump that had risen in her throat, she knocked.
Rupert opened the door and smiled when he saw her, greeting her, "Jenny."
Jenny took a measured step over the threshold and replied with a slow, deliberate kiss. "Good evening, Rupert."
He took her coat, revealing the clingy black dress she'd worn for the occasion. She put a little sway in her hips as she went passed him to the base of the stairs, watching him watch her with a smirk.
Once he'd shut the door and come back into arm's reach, Jenny ran her hands up his chest and started undoing the buttons of his shirt, exchanging inane pleasantries that weren't really important enough to pay attention to.
Somehow, they made it up to Rupert's bedroom by the time he was down to just his pants. Jenny slipped her shoes off and pushed the straps of her dress off her shoulders, letting it fall into a little puddle of black fabric around her feet. She wasn't wearing anything under it, and smirked at the way Rupert's breath caught.
Jenny crawled onto the bed and started playing with herself while Rupert finished undressing. He was hard and ready by the time he joined her, kneeling between her legs and running his lips over her breasts.
Rolling them over, Jenny straddled his waist as she reached over and grabbed a condom out of the nightstand. She tore it open without ceremony and reached behind her where Rupert's manhood laid against her buttcheek.
Rising on her knees, she positioned him and sank down, sheathing him in her body with a sigh of pleasure. Jenny's hips undulated, rolling forwards and back on him as she leaned down and kissed him like it was her last chance to do it.
Ruperts hands roamed over her skin, caressing her just right. He played her body like a guitar, coaxing from her flesh a slowly building crescendo of orgasmic harmony. Notes, a melody of touches, flowing through her, raising her up and up and...
"Ahhhhhh!" Jenny cried as her sweltering core spasmed around her lover's hardness and she fell against him, trembling in ecstasy.
Once her orgasm passed, Rupert rolled them over and spread her legs wide, sliding his arms under her shoulders as his thrusts slowly built back up to a firm rolling pounding. Jenny moaned loudly, throwing her arms around his neck as they kissed deeply, their tongues questing for a saliva-soaked embrace.
Quite a while later, cuddled together and basking in the afterglow, Rupert looked at her with some concern.
"Jenny? Is there something wrong?" he asked.
Sighing, Jenny was both glad and annoyed that Rupert was perceptive enough to notice that she was... well, saying goodbye.
"I'm leaving, Rupert," Jenny confessed, then quickly added, "town. I'm leaving Sunnydale."
"Why now?"
"I... have to," Jenny started.
"Jenny..."
She shut her eyes and swallowed hard. "My name isn't Jenny."
Rupert shifted and propped himself up to get a better look at her.
"My real name was... is... Janna Kalderash," Jenny told him. "I was sent here by my clan, to ensure the vengeance of our family is not broken, to make sure that through all his days, Angelus continues to suffer."
"The curse," Rupert put together, sitting up and sliding his legs off the bed. "Your ancestors were responsible for the curse?"
Jenny reached for his shoulder and flinched when he pulled away. "Yes. And now that Angel is dead, my family is calling for me to answer for my failure."
Rupert looked over his shoulder at her. "You lied to me, to us, about everything."
Jenny knelt beside him. "Not everything! Only what I had to, Rupert. These are old secrets, and they aren't mine to tell."
"Then why are you telling me now?" Rupert asked.
Jenny pressed herself to his back and rested her head on his shoulder. "Because you deserve to know why I'm leaving. Because I want you to know the truth, even if my family doesn't. Because I trust you. And because I might not be allowed to come back."
Rupert let his head fall back and stared heavenward with a sigh. "When are you departing?"
"Tomorrow," Jenny admitted softly.
Rupert didn't reply for a while, but he did caress her arms where they were wrapped around him. Finally, he said, "In that case, I suppose we ought to make the most of tonight."
Jenny let out a little relieved laugh, and surreptitiously brushed a tear away.
Buffy and Xander were at school, and the normalcy was kind of surreal after they crazy week they'd had. Amidst the bustling activity of displays and banners being set up for Career Week in the lounge, the two of them sat at an out of the way table with a pair of career aptitude tests and the obligatory number two pencils.
"So... shrubs. Do I like shrubs?" Buffy wondered.
"What kind of shrubs?" Xander asked.
"I don't think they care," Buffy said.
"Hm, am I a people person, or do I keep my own company?" Xander read. "Agh, who wrote this test?"
"Maybe we should just mark 'B' for everything and go hang with Giles," Buffy suggested.
"Speaking of Giles, you got him to talk yet?" Xander asked.
Buffy shook her head. "Every time I bring it up, he changes the subject and gets all Watcher-y with and extra side of British. I don't like it, Xander. I don't like it that Giles is against us on this."
"I'm not sure he is," Xander confided. "I mean, he's being all disapproving, but he's not trying to talk us out of it."
"I know. It's weird," Buffy agreed.
Coming in their direction with a test of her own, Cordelia read, "I aspire to help my fellow man." She marked her test. "Check. As long as they're not smelly, dirty, or something gross."
Xander slowly turned his head to stare at her. "Cordelia Chase, ladies and gentlemen, always ready to offer a helping hand to everyone who doesn't need one."
Cordelia smiled evilly. "Which, lucky me, excludes you."
Xander opened his mouth, and then just shut it and smiled mysteriously. Cordelia rolled her eyes and strode off.
With a grin, Xander remarked, "She still doesn't know. Nobody told her yet." He laughed.
"You know, she'd probably jump on the chance to be Fae," Buffy pointed out.
"Aw, do we have to?" Xander whined.
Buffy smacked his arm. "Xander!"
"Kidding! Kidding. Jeez," Xander groused good-naturedly.
"You know, its funny," Buffy mused after a while, prodding her own test with her pencil. "This sort of thing used to really bum me out, 'cause it was like, why bother. My fate was sealed the moment I was Called." She grinned. "But now that I've got a future to look forward to, everything's so different and none of this matters anymore. It's not like we even need jobs, now."
Xander nodded. "Why are we even taking this thing, again?"
"Because we don't want to abandon our lives here, and this is Snyder's hoop of the week," Buff reminded him needlessly.
"Right, well, it should at least be good for some entertainingness," Xander said optimistically.
"Read it again," Spike ordered.
Dalton leaned over the stolen book, flustered. "I'm not sure. It could be, uh... deprimere... ille... bubula... linter."
Spike flipped through the pages of the paperback dictionary to the indicated words. "Debase, the beef, canoe."
Dalton smiled hopefully, and Spike couldn't take it anymore. His fist smashed into the dweeby vampire's face. Spike grabbed him by his collar and loomed threateningly.
"Why does that strike me as not right?" Spike wondered sarcastically.
Drusilla looked up from her carefully arranged tarot cards with a moan. "It all falls apart. Miss Edith says we're barking up the wrong tree." Drusilla barked a few times to illustrate. "Nothing he can do, Spike. Secrets. Secrets locked up without a key. Useless secrets." Drusillia gave Spike an unusually lucid stare. "Can't work without daddy." She flinched at something only she could see. "Burn it, rip it, make it gone, Spike. It taunts me."
Spike hurried around the table to comfort her. "Your sire. It won't work without your sire?"
Drusilla nodded into his chest and Spike slammed a fist into the tabletop. "Sodding Angel! Lousy pillock manages to be a pain in the arse even when he's dead."
"Does that mean we don't need the book?" Dalton asked.
"Get rid of it," Spike said despondently.
Drusilla nipped at his chin. "Don't fret, my love. You'll find a way to make things right."
Spike scooped her up into his arms and kissed her. "Damn right I will. We'll keep searching. I promise you, Dru. You will be strong again."
Xander let himself into the Summers house through the kitchen and strolled into the living room. He found Buffy slouched nude on the sofa, staring listlessly into the space just beyond her knees.
"I know that look," Xander sighed. "You're thinking about Angel, aren't you."
Buffy just nodded.
"Don't move," Xander said. "I'll be right back."
Xander let himself out and jogged to the nearest convenience store, where he grabbed a tub of Buffy's favorite ice cream and a small variety of snacks to go with it. He paid cash and jogged back to the house.
Buffy was where he'd left her, her nude body slouched into the sofa cushions. She looked up as Xander came in and held up the ice cream.
"Willow ideas are usually good ideas," Xander told her sagely.
Buffy cracked a smile and let out a little laugh. Xander tossed her the ice cream and a spoon, which she snatched out of the air. He dropped the other snacks on the coffee table and started taking off his clothes, piling them on the armchair.
Once he was down to his skin, Xander flopped onto the sofa next to Buffy. She opened the ice cream, jammed the spoon into it, and carved out an enormous bite. Buffy pulled the empty spoon through her lips with an expression of bliss on her face.
"No brainfreeze," she remarked smugly.
The two of them shared a comfortable silence as they took turns with the spoon.
"There was just no point to it," Buffy finally said. "Why didn't he tell our others what sunlight would do to him?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Xander asked impishly.
Buffy snorted. "Aren't you supposed to be all in supportive mode right now?"
Xander rolled over so his chest was on the seat-cushion between Buffy's legs and his elbows were outside her thighs. He put his chin on his hands and looked up at her with his best expression of wide-eyed earnestness.
"Angel's loss will be an ache we shall carry in our hearts for years to come," Xander murmured. "He was the light in our darkness, the fire in our souls, and the beauty of the universe is diminished by his destruction. Without our Angel, life is meaningless."
Buffy stared at him for a good ten seconds before she cracked up. "Okay! Okay! Stop it! That was all kinds of disturbing."
With a mock shiver, Xander returned to his seat. "Yeah. I feel dirty now."
Buffy gave him a playful push, and ate another huge bite of ice cream. "It's just, me and Angel were just starting to have something, and then he goes and dies in a completely avoidable way."
"He did a lot of good, even though he had a whole mess of issues," Xander admitted. "His issues had issues, and he still made with the helpfulness. Sort of."
Buffy leaned into his side and put her head on his shoulder. "I miss him."
They spent a long while just reminiscing and remembering their times with Angel. Buffy snuggled into Xander's side as they talked, finding herself resting her hand on the base of his shaft while the arm he wrapped around her settled his hand on her breast.
It was still a little strange how much it wasn't strange, to just let their hands settle where they naturally gravitated, unrestrained by their years of being raised to believe that touching those body parts was a Big Deal. It was simple intimacy, intended as comfort, and if the source of that comfort was also sexually suggestive, that didn't make it any less comforting or genuine.
For over an hour, Buffy and Xander spoke their thoughts and memories of Angel in no particular order. Tears ran down Buffy's cheeks often and freely, trickling onto Xander's pectorals.
Briefly smiling through her tears, Buffy remarked, "It was kind of neat to see Angel geeking out over something, even if it was just for a moment."
"You'd think that'd be when he'd have noticed he was about to leave Earth's shadow," Xander mused.
"It was a great moment. I'm glad I'll always have it, but you're right," Buffy said with a despairing little laugh. "That was the moment that doomed him. And now he's gone forever."
With a sob, Buffy buried her face in Xander's chest and swung a leg over his hip. Xander pulled her onto his lap as she molded herself against his front, needing to feel the closeness. His big firm hands stroked her back as she clung to him, holding as much of her skin against his as she could.
Buffy's grip slowly tightened as she cried, until Xander couldn't really breathe, but that was okay. Buffy's body shook and heaved as she let free all her grief for Angel, and probably everything else she'd been holding in, while she was at it.
Without warning, Buffy pulled back and reached down between them, gripping his manhood and aiming it into her pussy. Without hesitating, she slammed her hips down, splitting her folds open on his cock, and started riding him in a frenzy. It was violent and brutal, enough to actually hurt. She would have broken his bones and given him friction burns if he were still human. But he understood. Buffy needed to feel. She needed something physical that was intense enough to counterbalance her anguish, so she was throwing literally all of her strength into fucking him as hard as she could.
It was odd, how he felt about it. The old Xander, the one who wanted to court and claim Buffy, would have felt used. But he was over that, now. Once he untangled it from honest lust, he knew it for the childish possessiveness it was. Their friendship was a worthy thing just the way it was, and he was unconflicted about being there for Buffy, whether she needed a hug, a laugh, or a savage fuck.
Xander dug his fingers into Buffy's flesh, pulling himself up for a deep, hard kiss. They'd had a nearly cold start (a level of arousal that would have made intercourse physically impossible for humans of either sex), so despite Buffy's vicious pace, it took her more than five minutes to reach her first orgasm, and Xander a little longer than that. Buffy barely waited for her first orgasm to pass before she started up again. Xander climaxed hard, and since Buffy wasn't slowing down, he was almost immediately brought to another, and another, chaining together into one long cascade until Buffy started cumming just as much and lost enough control over her muscles that she couldn't keep going.
Buffy collapsed against Xander's chest with a long sigh. There was no sweat, and the hard breathing was due to psychological appropriateness rather than a need for oxygen, but the two of them were practically covered in their lubricating fluids and cum.
Buffy groaned when she noticed. "Oh crud. I just ruined my couch, didn't I."
"Don't worry, I got most of it with my Utility Cloud before it could soak into the fabric," Xander reassured her. "It should be fine."
Sexual fluids in Fae were very similar to their human counterparts, but improved like everything else, designed to evaporate more slowly and leave less residue when it does. In life as the Giaa intended, it was entirely redundant, but the Giaa Seed had only been concerned with the optimal design according to its objectives. Redundancy was incidental and inevitable.
Buffy looked up and met Xander's eyes. "Sorry if I went a little overboard."
"It's okay," Xander said gently. "More than. Totally of the good. It must be hard having to watch your strength all the time, and in the middle of a much-needed breakdown that's got to be worse than ever. I'm glad you could let go some."
"Breakdown?" Buffy repeated flatly.
Xander just gave her a look.
"Okay," Buffy gave in, "so it was totally a breakdown."
"Feel better now?" Xander asked sincerely.
"Some," Buffy said wryly.
With an encouraging smile, Xander leaned down and met her lips with his. It was simple and gentle this time. Buffy started moving her hips in a languid roll. There was no urgency to it, just the natural consequence of having her vagina squeezing around a hard phallus.
"Hmm. I wanna do this in my bed," Buffy said. "Put the ice cream away for me, will you?"
Buffy started to climb off of him, but with a smirk Xander moved with her, grabbing her butt to hold her steady as he rolled to his feet. Buffy latched onto him with a laugh, legs around his waist and arms around his neck.
"Sure thing, Buff," Xander agreed cheerfully, picking up the tub of ice cream in one hand while the other wrapped around Buffy's back.
Fluids dripped from where they were joined as Xander carried her into the kitchen, but the drops splintered into mist and then into vapor before reaching the floor.
Xander shut the freezer and headed up the stairs with Buffy wrapped around him. Once he reached the second floor, Buffy suddenly started giggling. She climbed off of him, pulling away and making Xander's cock slap wetly against his belly when it slipped out of her.
Then she grabbed him, and the next thing Xander knew, Buffy was carrying him bridal-style into her room.
Xander blinked, and grinned. "Oh hah hah, Buffy. Very funny."
Buffy snickered, dumping him on her bed. "I thought so."
In a simple enclosed chamber of soft white deep within the Eliezera, four birthing pods bloomed open. The four occupants exchanged grins as they floated out, giddy with glee at their awesome cleverness.
Four voices spoke at once. "Summary program's running. No errors."
One of the four at the left end of the row checked, "Sync test. Number."
"Twenty. Number." "One-hundred eight. Color." "Blue. Rhyme." "Due two. Fear phrase." "Frogs are the bane of joy."
Four voices giggled.
"It worked," the four chorused happily.
One corner of the sky was just starting to lighten when Jack O'Neill pulled their rented SUV into the hotel parking lot. Beside him, Samantha Carter was engrossed in something on her laptop, paging through some obscure science thing from the database Willow gave them. In the back seat, Daniel Jackson was fast asleep, propped against his passenger door, and Teal'c was reading a comic book of all things.
They'd all slept during the plane ride, but Daniel had been wearing himself out more than usual, practicing with his rediscovered super cosmic powers, even if said powers weren't quite so super or cosmic anymore. On the other hand, he could actually use them without breaking Rules this time.
"This is the nicest hotel in the town?" Jack asked incredulously as he parked.
Carter looked up and blinked. "We are a few miles from the interstate, Sir. And apparently they don't get many tourists here."
Teal'c put down his comic and shook Daniel's shoulder. "DanielJackson, we have arrived."
"Guh?"
Jack hopped out and stretched. "I'll handle the checkin. Then... coffee. Definitely coffee."
Everything was arranged in advance, so all Jack had to do was show some identification to the skittish night clerk. Four keys in hand, Jack strolled back to the SUV and tossed his team theirs. Daniel caught his with telekinesis, and then plucked it out of the air with a grin.
"Daniel," Jack ground out.
"What, Jack? It's not like I'm using classified technology," Daniel argued. "Besides, there's nobody around."
Jack grunted. "Look just don't... push it. For cryin' out loud, you're like a kid with a new toy."
Daniel manfully resisted the urge to pout.
Xander watched Buffy sleep. She'd said she wanted to get in the habit of sleeping for at least an hour every night, just in case there was a slayer dream waiting for her. Once Willow finished her project, the end of the world wouldn't actually be the end of the world, but it would still kinda suck.
A sudden humming noise made Xander sit up in alarm, but a moment later Willow materialized in a flash of light, and he relaxed.
"Wills!"
"Hi guys!" Willow greeted perkily.
Buffy woke up with a little sigh, and smiled when she saw Willow. Willow pounced, her nude body falling onto the bed between her two friends as she hugged them both.
"Wait, if you're here," Xander began. "You did it? You're done?"
"Nope," Willow chirped. "In fact, I'm working on it harder than ever!"
"Huh?" Buffy inquired, then she frowned in confusion. "Wait, why does my Dreamlink suddenly think your name is Willow-para?"
Willow's grin got wider, and she settled back on her knees, bouncing excitedly. "Okay, so you know how normally a Giaa keeps blank bodies on hand in case someone needs an emergency upload?"
Buffy and Xander nodded.
"I found ours!" Willow announced. "See, the SSP is a really challenging problem, and even though I can work constantly, and tirelessly, it's really the sort of problem you need more than one brain working on. So when I found our backup blanks, I... well, I kinda hijacked them."
Xander suddenly laughed. "You didn't."
Willow nodded eagerly. "I used the blanks to make copies of myself! I set it up, and went comatose for an hour or so, and when I woke up there were four of me."
Buffy's jaw dropped. "You cloned yourself?"
"Of course not," Willow admonished. "How would you even do that? You can't clone something that doesn't have DNA. What I did was split myself, into four perfect copies."
Buffy shook her head. "Well, as long as this isn't gonna be an Attack of the Evil Twin thing."
"Way cool," Xander said, "but isn't it gonna be awkward having four of you running around?"
Willow shook her head. "I thought of that. I wanted the four of me to be as interchangeable as possible, so I wrote a summary program to do an automatic memory update thing, so all of me can stay in sync. I also picked random names that don't really mean anything, so you can tell each of me apart but also sticking with the being-interchangeable thing."
"Wait wait wait, does that mean you're the Willow Collective now?" Xander teased.
Willow laughed. "No, Xander. It's more like we're four separate people with four separate minds, but we all share the same long-term memory. That's not really how it works, but the effect's mostly the same."
"Ah, oh well," Xander said with a mock sigh.
Impishly, Willow made her face blank and her posture robotic, and intoned in a deep voice, "We are the Willow. Lower your pants and surrender your hugs. We will add your affectionate and kinky distinctiveness to our own. Your flesh will moisten to service us. Resistance is futile. You will be snuggled."
Willow barely managed to keep a straight face long enough to finish, since Xander was cracking up and Buffy was snickering into her hand. Xander grabbed Willow and pulled her down into a kiss.
"You know," Xander said. "That'd probably've been more impressive if there was more than one of you doing it."
Willow-para pouted playfully. "Yeah, but Willow-rhom and Willow-kink are working full time on the SSP, and Willow-icos is looking after the ship, landscaping Venus, working on safety protocols for Venus-grown stuff, and keeping Dawn company."
"I should visit her after school today," Buffy said.
"Oooh, that's right, it's Career Week," Willow remembered.
"Oh, here I am. Hm. Personal shopper, or motivational speaker. Neato!"
Samantha Carter, clad in her dress-blues and carrying a case of pamphlets and brochures and such, strode passed the well-dressed teenage brunette and into the designated section of Sunnydale High School.
Jack O'Neill was waiting for her inside, having set up a table and curtain in their allotted space.
"Tell me again why we're putting on this dog and pony show?" Jack muttered to her.
"Well, Sir, there could be any number of reasons this particular cover story was deemed necessary," Carter pointed out.
"Politics?" Jack guessed as he helped her arrange the materials on their table.
"That is one possibility, Sir," Carter replied noncommittally.
Jack grunted. "The part I'm not getting, is why would our modesty-challenged friends set themselves up as highschool students?"
"At a guess?" Carter said. "Long-term strategy. The younger they claim to be, the longer they can maintain the assumed identities."
Jack glanced at her. "Long-term, you say."
"It doesn't necessarily disagree with the claim that their continuing interest in this town is purely personal." Carter paused. "Do you think Daniel and Teal'c are going to find anything... under our purview?"
"Oh, probably," Jack said airily. "That is the way our luck tends to run."
Willow spotted Giles carrying a stack of books towards the library. Donning the resolve face, Willow grabbed Buffy's arm and followed after him.
The two of them arrived in the library just in time to see one of the stacks Giles was carrying begin to tip and fall. Buffy caught the books and steadied them.
Giles let out a sigh of relief. "Buffy. Thank you. I've been, uh, indexing my archive of Watcher diaries. You would be amazed at how numbingly pompous and long-winded some of these Watchers were."
Buffy plopped down in a chair. "Color me stunned."
"Hi Giles," Willow greeted.
Giles swung his head around, startled. "Willow. Ah, you're back?"
"More of the or less," Willow said. "The program isn't done yet, so most of me is still working on it so we can save everyone."
Giles raised a finger and opened his mouth, then shook his head resolutely and turned to Buffy. "So, uh, I trust last night's patrol was fruitful?"
"Just the usual slayage," Buffy told him sourly.
"I see," Giles said. "Well, uh, I'm afraid I have some news. It seems Miss Calendar has had to move away from Sunnydale. Some sort of family trouble, I believe. She told me she wouldn't be returning."
Willow gasped. "Oh no!" She gave Giles a big hug. "Are you okay?"
Giles smiled faintly despite himself. "I'll endure."
"Bummer, Giles," Buffy offered.
"Ahem, ah yes," Giles said, pulling a small envelope from his pocket. "She asked me to give you this, Willow."
Willow pulled out the note and grinned bashfully. "She's arranged for me to take over teaching her class for the rest of the term."
"When's she leaving?" Buffy asked.
"This morning," Giles revealed.
"Drat," Buffy complained. "She was in on stuff. We could have offered her the upgrade."
"I don't think it'll be too long before I finish the SSP," Willow consoled. "A few weeks, at most. What're the chances she'll die in a car crash in that time? Or get attacked by a vampire? Or have a spell go wrong? Or choke on a chicken bone. Or..."
"Very comforting, Wills," Buffy deadpanned.
Willow grinned sheepishly. "My bad."
Giles had winced at each possibility and was pinching the bridge of his nose by the end. Willow and Buffy exchanged a sly look.
"Well," Giles diverted. "Perhaps one of you would like to help sorting one of these stacks?"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Seriously, what is your deal, Giles? First you're all condemny, and then you're totally with the ignoringness. Why won't you talk about this?"
Giles polished his glasses. "There is nothing to say. You have argued yourselves into an unassailable position. Any counterargument I could raise, you can simply dismiss by saying it will cost lives, never mind that those lives are already forfeit in the natural order."
"But any other way will cost lives," Willow protested. "And, okay, violating the natural order and stuff, but why should we cooperate with a natural order that's busy murdering us by the billions? And in such slow and cruel ways to boot?"
Giles floundered for a moment. "Because." He rallied. "No, that is not the issue, Willow."
"Then why'd you bring it up?" Buffy asked.
"That's not..."
"Then what is?" Willow interrupted.
"Free will. Choice," Giles said. "You intend force this, this upgrade on everyone, and I will have no part in that."
Willow shook her head. "We're not taking away anyone's choice, Giles. If anything, we're giving them one. Right now, there is no choice. Only death. But we have an alternative!"
"A proven alternative," Buffy added.
"And I'm working really hard to make sure nobody gets left out of that choice," Willow continued. "So what if we don't ask what they want before we turn them into Fae? The choice is the same either way. Being dead, or being Fae. Anyone can still make that same choice after we upgrade them. The way we're doing it just means nobody gets left out, nobody's choice gets lost in the din, and nobody has to make their choice under duress."
Giles sighed. "No one is going to see it that way, Willow."
"At least they'll be alive to have an opinion," Buffy grumbled.
"Be that as it may, I still will not be party to this irresponsible scheme of yours," Giles stated firmly.
"Irresponsible nothing!" Willow protested. "We are taking the course of action that leads to the least deaths, period. Maybe I don't wanna be party to this irresponsible attitude of yours!"
"Willow..." Giles nearly growled.
"Okay, different subject," Buffy cut in. "What about you Giles? Why don't you want to be Fae?"
Giles polished his glasses again. "I recognize that there are advantages, but even if I thought those advantages worth trading my human existence for, I simply cannot afford to disappear for... how long did you say?"
"Between two and three weeks," Willow answered reflexively.
Buffy grunted in frustration. "Giles, this is the same thing I had to realize myself, and the same thing I told my mom... You'll still have your human existence, in all the ways that matter."
"Please, Buffy, Willow," Giles sighed. "Can we talk about this later? I have a lot of material to sort through."
Buffy and Willow exchanged a look, and Buffy hopped out of her chair. Willow gave Giles a bit of a kicked-puppy look, which set him to polishing his glasses again. Buffy slung a comforting arm around Willow's waist as they pushed through the swinging doors.
When Xander spotted the two members of SG-1 at one of the Career Week booths, he froze to the spot and swore loudly enough that the vehemence of his profanity seemed to pull a sadistically grinning Principle Snyder straight from the ether.
"Such language, Harris?" he gloated.
"I believe it's called English?" Xander offered.
Snyder grinned. "Detention, Mr. Harris."
Buffy? Willow? SG-1 is here, Xander sent.
What? How? Why? Buffy replied.
Oh... tadpoles, Willow swore.
After Snyder went off to harass someone else, Xander ambled over to where Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter were giving him bland looks.
"Colonel. Major," Xander greeted cheerfully. "Come here often?"
"Xander," Jack nodded. "Almost didn't recognize you with clothes on."
The woman in the next booth over gave the Air Force Colonel a shocked look. Carter wanted to facepalm, but settled for a discreet elbow to Jack's ribs. Xander grinned, and tried not to laugh maniacally.
"Ah, that... came out wrong," Jack said.
"So, what brings you to this here humble little town?" Xander asked.
"Why, to tempt and inspire the next generation of fine young airmen, of course," Jack claimed.
"Uh huh," Xander deadpanned. "Great. Well. I just don't think the Air Force is for me. So... seeya 'round."
"Wait," Carter said. "There are a few things we need to discuss with you three."
Wills? Do you mind if SG-1 meets us at your place? Xander sent.
Buffy and Willow had just then arrived in the lounge. Willow caught his eye and gave a kind of half-shrug half-nod.
Xander faced Jack. "Know where the Rosenberg residence is?"
Jack glanced at Carter, who nodded.
"We'll be there all evening," Xander told them.
"Alrighty then," Jack said. "Pamphlet?"
Xander went over to where Buffy and Willow were standing. A goon in a suit was looming over Willow. The red-head gave her fellow Fae a bewildered look and followed the goon into the large, black-curtained Ix Software booth.
"Oh boy," Carter groaned.
"What?" Jack wondered.
"A major software conglomerate may have just recruited an alien," Carter said.
"Poor alien," Jack deadpanned.
Willow followed the big guy in the suit through the curtains, blinking in surprise when a waiter in a white jacket offered her a tray of appetizers.
"Try the canape. It's excellent," suit-guy suggested.
Willow shrugged and grabbed one. "What is all this?"
"You've been selected to meet with Mr. McCarthy, head recruiter for Ix, the world's leading software concern. The jet was delayed by fog at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, but he should be here any minute. Please," the guy said, gesturing towards a black leather couch, "make yourself comfortable."
"But I didn't even take the test yet," Willow pointed out in confusion.
"The test is irrelevant," suit-guy told her. "We've been tracking you for some time."
"Is that a good thing?" Willow asked.
"I would think so," he said. "We're extremely selective. In fact, only one other Sunnydale student met our criteria."
Apparently that was all he had to say, because he turned away and left the booth with his partner. Willow stared after them, feeling a little stunned that the big bad Ix Software had actually noticed her.
"Wowza," Willow whispered to herself as she took a bite of the various-whatever-on-a-fancy-cracker.
Willow turned to see who this other student was, and found that cute guitarist boy sitting at one end of the leather couch, staring suspiciously at another tray of canape. Willow went and sat next to him.
The boy glanced over at her, and did a double-take. After a moment of staring, during which Willow tried for a friendly smile, he held the tray towards her.
"Canape?" he offered.
"I got some," Willow said. "I'm Willow."
"I know," he blurted. "I mean, I'm Oz."
Willow perked up a little, catching the signs even in that short exchange that Oz might have a crush on her. It was either that or he was afraid of her, but Willow couldn't think of why that would be true. All of Eelesia's experience let her easily recognize his interest, but Willow wasn't sure what to do about it. All of Eelesia's experience was with a culture where nobody thought their affections or desires were something they should keep to themselves. High school culture, on the other hand... Oh to heck with it. High school culture could go lick a frog.
"I've seen you around. You're in that band," Willow said. "Hey, um, do you have a crush on me?"
Oz's eyes snapped onto her as he gaped slightly. He finally nodded. "Uh, pretty much yeah."
Willow grinned. "Cool."
Oz slowly smiled.
"So, um," Willow started, waving a hand to indicate the large curtained-off area they were in. "I guess you're good with code, huh?"
"It's a definite possibility," Oz admitted.
Kendra Young flattened herself atop a pile of luggage as the airliner's cargo hatch opened up. A baggage handler climbed in and started setting up to move the luggage, but then he noticed where Kendra had torn into one of the cargo nets in search of water. Kendra scowled at her carelessness.
"What the hell?" the baggage man muttered.
Kendra shifted her weight to spring, and the man looked around for the source of the noise, pulling out a flashlight and brandishing it like a club.. "Hey, you're not supposed to be in here!"
Leaping from her hiding place, Kendra kicked out. The man's head snapped back, and she quickly followed up with two more strikes to ensure he stayed down for a while. Kendra peered out onto the tarmac, smoothly jumping down when she saw the coast was clear.
Kendra had made it to the hellmouth, and she was ready to hunt.
Jack parked the rented SUV at the curb in front of the well-kept two-story suburban house.
"Nice place," Jack commented.
Carter gathered up the NDAs and followed Jack and Daniel up the walk while Teal'c adjusted his hat. Jack rang the bell.
A call of, "It's open!" came from inside.
Jack exchanged a glance and a shrug with his team and opened the door. The four of them let themselves in. Once they were inside, the door suddenly swung shut on its own as a naked Willow stepped into the foyer.
"Hi guys," Willow greeted. "Come in, have a seat, and all that stuff."
Willow padded back into the den. Jack and his team exchanged awkward glances. It was one thing to have the aesthetically idealized Fae going around without any of the important bits covered in the context of them being clearly alien, but in the American suburbs it was just disturbing.
Following the naked redhead, Jack looked around, noticing the sparce impersonal way the house was decorated. His eyes landed on a framed picture, showing a couple posing with a young girl who was obviously Willow. Jack frowned inwardly. Willow claimed to be six-hundred-something years old. Unless that picture was a fake, something wasn't right here.
In the den, the end tables had been pushed out to make room for a nest of pillows and blankets between the three-seater and the two-seater. A naked Xander was seated with his back to the two-seater.
"And you looked so normal, earlier," Jack snarked.
Xander shrugged. "Normal is relative."
"Ah, where's Buffy?" Daniel asked.
"Visiting her daughter," Willow told them as she plopped down by Xander's feet. "She'll be down in a minute."
"Buffy has a daughter?" Carter asked, surprised.
"Yeah, her name's Dawn," Xander shared.
Carter set the NDAs on the tables and took a seat on the sofa. "How many of you are there? We've only met you two and Buffy."
"Oh, a few," Willow said vaguely. "Buffy's coming."
Before anyone could ask, there was the familiar hum of an Asgard beam, and a naked Buffy appeared in a white flash. She was holding a bundle of something dark and clothlike, which she tossed to Xander.
"So what's the what, huh?" Buffy asked. "If you wanted to talk to us you could have just called, you know."
"Well, a few fine folks... and some less than fine folks... are a tad worried about how you've set yourselves up here, Miss Summers," Jack told them. "Throwin' around big words like infiltration, and such. And hey, I thought you told us you couldn't do the beaming thing?"
"Well, now we can, no thanks to you guys," Buffy said.
"When you turned us down, I went looking elsewhere," Willow explained. "Imagine my surprise when I found an invisible al'kesh just sitting in orbit, all abandoned and stuff. I thought you told us the goa'uld didn't have that technology?"
"They don't," Carter said. "Unless... You're talking about Osiris' ship! It has a stolen Asgard system."
Jack put his elbows on his knees and frowned. "You know, we've been looking for that."
Willow grinned hopefully. "Uh, finders keepers?"
"Can we get back to why you're here?" Buffy asked. "We told you, we just wanna be able to see our friends."
Daniel gazed at them thoughtfully. "How long have you three been living here? We were under the impression that it was a relatively short amount of time between your arrival and your ship's."
"That's... complicated," Willow told them.
"We've got time," Jack said.
"Not that kind of complicated," Willow said evasively.
"Well what about these friends of yours?" Jack asked. "How much do they know?"
Willow went on being vague. "You don't need to worry about them."
"Why don't you let us decide that?" Jack said.
"Because they don't need to be involved," Buffy said. "They've done nothing to deserve your attention."
"So you say," Jack grumbled.
"So..." Xander prompted after a short silence.
"Well, um," Carter began. "The other reason we're here is to ask you to sign these Non-Disclosure Agreements. It'll be a good start at putting the higher-ups at ease. It's a concern that you might inadvertently divulge classified information about the Stargate Program."
"Oh, and since we're living down here and we've got human identities, we can sign an agreement and have it not be totally meaningless," Willow guessed.
"That's the idea," Carter told them.
"Well alright, hand 'em over," Xander said.
Willow, of course, finished reading her copy first. She set it down and gave SG-1 a frown.
"We will not agree to this," Willow said. "We haven't and we won't talk about the Stargate or about you guys to anyone who doesn't already know about it. That is reasonable. But this says we're not allowed to talk about anything unearthly, and that is a ridiculous demand."
"Wait what? Lemme see," Buffy demanded.
"It's a matter of national security," Carter started to explain.
"No, that is total crap," Buffy said. "You don't own us, and you certainly don't ownspace. Even the goa'uld attacked in ships. You're in charge of the Stargate, and you've got ships like the Prometheus, and that's a big national secret. Okay, fine. We won't tell anyone about you. But we didn't come through the Stargate, and neither did the invasion fleet we battled. How can you possibly think you have a claim on that information?"
"There are some things the world isn't ready to know," Carter tried again.
"Well, yeah, but who made that your call? If the existence of the goa'uld actually is one of those things, you don't need to hide it. People will do that just fine on their own," Buffy shot back.
"You can't possibly know that for sure," Carter pointed out.
"I so can," Buffy argued, but paused as she got sidetracked. "And you know what's strange? That urge to ignore anything The World Isn't Ready to Know never seemed to happen in our old universe. Maybe it's not that people are like that, but something's making them that way." Buffy glanced upwards. "Non-interference my butt."
Carter opened her mouth to continue down that line, but Jack interrupted her.
"Look, if you don't sign, I'm gonna have to go back to my bosses and tell them you're a security breach," Jack said. "That's not gonna end in fun times for anyone."
"Buffy," Daniel soothed. "This is to protect your friends as much as it is to protect us. You've already had first-hand experience with the kind of danger they could be in from certain people who might think they know something about you. With your NDAs on record, it's less likely those unscrupulous people will think your friends are worth troubling with."
Buffy grimaced.
Willow shook her head. "That's rather flimsy, Doctor Jackson. No, Buffy's right. We'll agree to keep Stargate Command a secret, but you have no authority to tell us what to do with information that didn't come from your organization."
Xander nodded in agreement. "Look, none of us are interested in going on the news or dealing with a media circus. We just want the same courtesy you're expecting from us."
"Oh, there's no way that's going to go over well." Jack glanced at Carter. "I don't necessarily agree, but they have a point. Can we modify the NDAs?"
"Here," Willow said, handing over her copy before Carter could answer. "I crossed out all the parts we don't agree on."
Carter looked it over. "We're going to need to call this in."
While SG-1 was in the other room, Xander stood up and unfolded the bundle Buffy had thrown him. There were three pieces. There was a black half-jacket, something that resembled a pair of black denim pants, while the last looked kind of like a really wide belt made of smaller belts and folded shiny dark red fabric.
"So what is it?" Xander asked.
Buffy shrugged. "Well, while I was playing with Dawn, I mentioned to Willow about your guy problem. It's kinda unfair how you have to put up with discomfort 'cause guy clothes totally aren't designed for Fae. So Willow made that."
"I'm calling it an underbelt, for now," Willow told him. "Even though you don't wear anything over it. I designed it myself!"
Xander arranged the belt and held it out in front of him. It was seven inches wide around the sides and back, and made of a braid of glossy black leather. It was lined on the inside with something like red satin over a thin layer of padding. The shiny red fabric encased the lower edge of the belt-braid in a layering of folds that rose halfway up the width of the outside of the belt, while at the upper edge a faux-collar formed by thicker padding jutted up and outward from his waist. In the front, the braid fanned upwards to a peak, while on the inside, Xander felt a wide groove in the padding to accommodate his manhood.
"Inventive," Xander complimented, giving Willow a proud smile.
Willow hopped up and kissed him. "I made the pants to go with it. See the the wires sticking up from the waist?"
Xander nodded. The pants looked like black denim, but felt softer. Once Xander held them out, he saw what Willow was talking about. The sides of the pants were slit, forming a 'V' shape with the point down at the knee. There was nothing that would hold the pants up on their own, but sticking up out of the front and back were a series of small metallic wires.
"The wires are superconductive, to be easy to manipulate," Willow continued. "A human would never be able to put these on, but all you have to do is feed the wires into the little openings on the bottom of the belt and into the little tension clamps sewn into the leather."
"Cool. What about the jacket?" Xander asked.
"Um, it's just a jacket, I thought it'd still be a little too conspicuous if you went completely bare-chested," Willow explained.
Xander held said garment out in front of him. It would cover his arms, and his shoulders, and not much else. The bottom corners would just barely cover his nipples, and the sides would cover maybe three ribs.
The outfit wasn't something he could wear to school, and it kind of looked like something an anime character would wear, but it would let him go out where clothing was required without it being a burden.
Just then, SG-1 came back into the room.
"Looks we'll have to get back to you," Jack O'Neill told them.
Samantha Carter explained, "Our higher-ups are willing to compromise, but they want to go over the altered documents and draw up new ones before we agree."
Willow smiled innocently. "See, we can all just get along."
Jack chuckled despite himself, and turned to wave his team towards the door, calling back a flippant, "We'll see you at school, kiddoes!"
Once they were gone, Buffy pulled a shimmery white folded bundle out from under the end tables. "I'm gonna follow them and keep watch for a while. Last thing we need is SG-1 getting themselves eaten."
Quickly donning the airy silver-white shorts and tanktop, Buffy slipped out the back door and took to the rooftops. Her bare feet were soft and silent as she dashed from house to house, tracking SG-1's SUV.
Kendra ducked under the vampire's clumsy swing and drove Mr. Pointy into his back. As the vampire dusted, Kendra quickly scanned for further threats. The alley was empty, and her instincts were quiet, so she slipped her stake back into her pocket and continued towards this 'Willy's' establishment she'd overheard a pair of vampires talking about.
There was no sound, no hint, except a slight raising of the hair on her neck and a whisper of cloth from above. Kendra snapped around, spotting a figure leaping between two rooftops back the way she'd come, a fast-moving silhouette against the stars and a flash of skin and silver in the street lamps.
Kendra sprang to the side, leaping from wall to wall across the alley until she reached the flat rooftops of the blocky brick buildings. Scanning the horizon for movement, Kendra caught a glimpse in the distance and moved to follow.
She didn't know what she was chasing. She didn't think a vampire could jump like that. But it wasn't human, and that made it Kendra's concern.
As she tracked it across the town, Kendra frowned. She was having trouble keeping up, and she kept losing track of her quary. If it noticed her, it'd be able to get away from her easily.
Fortunately, the demon seemed to be cutting a fairly straight course. After a mad dash across the rooftops of the town, Kendra came to overlook a hotel parking lot. She was actually somewhat out of breath, and stuck to the shadows while her breathing calmed.
Then doors of a big boxy car opened, and her instincts screamed at her when she laid eyes on the largest of the four figures that emerged. The distraction cost her, and she lost track of the roof-jumper, but that could wait. Whoever the other three were, they were human, and all to likely oblivious to the danger they were in.
Kendra started looking for a good place to stage an ambush.
Buffy perched on the roof of the hotel, laying idly in a little nook with her eyes closed, watching the feed from the sensor fog Willow had isolated for her. Okay, so she was totally spying on SG-1, but it wasn't like she was going to use anything she learned against them, and it was the easiest way to make sure they didn't get eaten.
Jack O'Neill apparently agreed with Buffy's argument, but didn't think it was worth going against orders for. He also apparently thought there was something off about the Fae's story, but he wasn't sure what.
Teal'c wasn't concerned either way, and mostly just watched TV.
Samantha Carter sympathized with the Fae's alleged motivations, but thought the government was in the right and the Fae ought to play by their rules if they wanted to live on their planet. She didn't say it in quite those words, but that was the sentiment.
Daniel Jackson... Buffy gaped in surprise. Daniel was practicing magic. What the heck? When did that happen? Daniel was standing with a look of concentration on his face as the bullets from his spare clip slowly orbited in front of him. Apparently he was improving in how many objects he could levitate at once, but his practice wasn't improving how much mass he could move.
Buffy settled back down, letting her mind wander while she kept a virtual eye on them.
Teal'c announced he was going to the vending machines, and asked if anyone wanted anything. Buffy watched as he put on his hat and left the suite.
Teal'c studied the selection of snacks. A reflection in the glass front of the vending machine was his only warning. Teal'c dove to the side as a knife buried itself in the glass. He rolled to his feet in a defensive stance, and caught a glimpse of his attacker before she was on him again.
A teenage girl, skin in the middle ranges, form-fitting clothing and tied black hair, with an expression of cold determination.
Teal'c parried a stab, staggering under the unexpected force of the blow. The girl ruthlessly followed up with a kick that Teal'c twisted to absorb, but it still struck his ribs with insane strength. He felt something crack.
Ignoring the pain, Teal'c planted his feet and exchanged a blindingly-fast series of strikes and blocks with the girl, adjusting his tactics as though he were fighting a goa'uld. She wasn't, though. She was too strong even for a false god, but Teal'c didn't have time to puzzle out what she might be.
He took a shallow cut to his arm in exchange for finally knocking the knife out of her hand, but she adapted instantly, using his disarming strike to move into a grapple. Teal'c grunted in pain as the girl dislocated his shoulder, taking advantage of the close proximity to head-butt her.
The girl stumbled back and Teal'c struck out. His open-hand strike missed her throat by inches, but his followup kick landed. It should have broken her leg, but it was like kicking solid steel, and she caught his leg before he could pull it back.
Pulling a second knife from somewhere, she plunged it into his caff and tossed him onto his back. The air rushed from his lungs as Teal'c hit the concrete, and a moment later the girl was on top of him, holding her knife to his neck.
"You answer or you die," the girl said in a heavy accent. "What are you?"
An unexpected voice answered from right behind her. "Funny. That's what I was gonna ask you."
The knife lurched away from his neck, almost tearing itself from the super-strong girl's grip, but she held on and whirled to her feet to face the newcomer. It was Buffy, clad in a tiny tanktop and shorts that were made of some exotic silvery-white material. The unknown girl lashed out with a spinning kick that Buffy stopped cold with an arm block. Teal'c raised an impressed eyebrow.
Buffy darted inside the other girl's guard. Her knife sank into Buffy's torso under her arm, but, obviously, failed to penetrate. Buffy grabbed her and slammed her against the wall, stunning her, then spun and in a move that violated everything Teal'c knew about leverage, hurled the other girl over the iron railing and into the parking lot.
A moment later, Buffy was at his side. "You alright there, Teal'c? That leg doesn't look too good."
The mysterious accented girl hit the tarmac with a distant thud, and Teal'c noticed that the railing in the direction Buffy had thrown her was bent inwards, as though it had been pulled towards Buffy by some immense force. Ah, so she did it all with magnets, as O'Neill would say.
"I will survive," Teal'c said. "My leg was wounded cleanly. It is my shoulder that is the greater injury, I believe. It can wait. You should apprehend the assailant."
Buffy nodded. "I was gonna. Just wanted to make sure you weren't gonna bleed out."
Slowly and carefully, Teal'c staggered to his feet. Buffy smiled at him and turned, leaping over the railing and landing in a crouch next to a little green hatchback. The dark-skinned girl in the stylish pants wasn't moving when Buffy reached her, but looked to be more or less intact except for a swelling ankle and the whole being knocked out thing.
Lifting the unconscious girl in her arms, Buffy was greeted by the sight of Jack, Carter, and Daniel rushing out of the stairwell with weapons drawn.
"I called it. I freakin' called it. Why'd I have to be right," Jack was muttering to himself.
"We need chains. Heavy ones," Buffy ordered. "Rope or plastic isn't gonna do more than slow her down. Whatever she is, she's almost as strong as me."
Jack shut his mouth, clearly thinking back to when Buffy had made the SGC's badasses look like kids with capguns.
"Is she Fae?" Carter asked.
"Well, seeing as she's got visible injuries and's all out cold and stuff, I'm gonna go with no," Buffy said, rolling her eyes.
Kendra slowly came to. Her head was pounding and when she tried to move, the cold metal of chain dug into her arms and legs, torso and neck. She looked up and found herself surrounded by seven looming figures, two of which, a tall man and a blonde woman, had guns pointed at her.
The demon she'd attempted to interrogate was standing back, favoring one leg as he regarded Kendra impassively. She glared suspiciously. Did the demon have these humans under his control? Then she noticed the other three.
It chilled her a little that she didn't notice them sooner. Her instincts were sending her confusing signals, and that threw her off. No demon or vampire she'd ever met had felt like those three. There was the blonde girl in silvery-white sleepwear from before. Beside her was a red-haired girl in a black strapless top (with short sleeves but no shoulders? How...?) and a green pleated skirt, and next to her... Kendra fought not to blush. A very fit boy in a black jacket that left most of his sculpted torso bare, and an odd ruffled red sash belt wrap thing around his waist.
"Alright, let's start with an easy one," the armed man with graying hair said. "Who and what are you?"
"Ah am Kendra," she announced defiantly. "Ah am de Vampire Slayer."
The little blonde in white's jaw dropped. "Huwhuh?"