"What happened to you two?" Charles eyed his daughter and Xander's dirty and smoke smelling clothes.
"Remember Chris Epps?" Xander asked.
"Sunnydale High Quarterback who died in a car accident, right?" James McNally, Jesse's father answered. He and his wife had just returned to the group after taking some time to travel and morn Jesse, their only child's, death.
"His brother Daryl was nuts. He used science to raise Chris from the dead. Chris' body was held together with cyber connectors and stitching. He was very lonely and had to stay hidden. He wanted a companion. So Daryl was making him one."
"Making him one?!" Tony exclaimed. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Neither do I, especially since I'm getting an idea where this is going." Charles said grimly.
"Yeah, there wasn't time to get to a payphone and call you guys. Buffy found a dug up grave and Cordelia hid from some vampires in an industrial garbage can. Angel found her."
"I pretended to be a damsel in distress, all fragile and everything and took the opportunity to put a magical tracker on him."
"Good thinking, Cordelia." Jessica said.
"Get back to explaining why my daughter looks like that." Charles said.
"I found body parts in the dumpster I was hiding in."
"Between the dug up grave and the body parts, we knew we had a problem. Buffy and Willow searched lockers and found an anatomy book, a picture of a jigsaw girl and an article from the paper about two girls in a car accident. Angel escorted Cordelia to her car."
"I was going to come back and report in person, since Xander couldn't get to a phone. Daryl jumped me and pressed a cloth to my mouth. I passed out."
"Meanwhile we'd put the pieces together and then Buffy went and searched Daryl's house. She found another jigsaw picture, but this one had Cordelia's head on top of the jigsawed body. We realized her car was still in the parking lot and started searching. We found Daryl and Chris set up in an old science building on school grounds. Buffy was dealing with Daryl and Chris and I was trying to get Cordy off the gurney she'd been strapped to. A fire started. I managed to get Cordy out. The fire started to burn the frankenstiened girl body and Chris stopped fighting with Buffy and tried to save it. Buffy was being overcome by the smoke and got out herself. Giles called the fire department. They brought out three bodies. They're saying one of them was decapitated by falling debris."
"That's probably the sole amount of investigating they'll do." Mary said.
"Probably." Her husband agreed. "None of the official departments around here do any actual investigating."
"Thank you for saving her, Xander." Charles said quietly.
"I'd never not try to help Cordy." Xander answered and Cordelia leaned into his embrace.
"You both did good tonight." Margaret McNally told them. "Quick thinking on both of your parts."
Buffy had been complaining about having to help with setting up with Parent Teacher night and Giles had some news that Xander passed on to the group.
"Anyone heard of St. Vigius night? It's some kind vampire celebration of a vampire that led a crusade and killed alot of children."
"Yes, we had to deal with an attack when we were teenagers ourselves." Joshua told them. "The vampires work themselves up into a frenzy for like three days and then attack humans."
"St. Vigius night is this Saturday. Giles wants Buffy on alert in case the vamps decide to celebrate."
"Great." Charles said. "We should have remembered about that ourselves."
"There hasn't been a St. Vigius attack since we were teenagers." Madelyn pointed out. "But you're right, that doesn't mean there won't be one. We'll keep an eye out and deal with any vampires that decide to celebrate."
The parents were all at Parent Teacher night when a gang of vampires attacked. They took out several vampires themselves and got a chance to see Buffy fight.
"I must admit, she fights well."Charles admitted afterwards. "Where were you two? I didn't see either of you while the vampires were attacking."
"I ended up hiding in a closet with Willow." Cordelia said.
"And I met Angelus' old pal Spike when Angel used me without telling me the plan, as a distraction. He grabbed me and offered the back of my neck to Spike. Spike is well aware of the soul and realized it was a trap and punched Angel. I asked Angel what would have happened if Spike took him up on the offer and Angel said and I quote, 'Then we would have known he was buying it.' end quote. He didn't care if Spike bit me."
"That's disturbing." Jessica said. "And more proof that this Angel has an agenda of his own. He just seems to be helpful only when Buffy can see him being helpful."
"Good luck trying to prove that to her." Tony said. "But at least you're alright."
"Yeah, until the next time he gets cavalier with my life." Xander said.
"Be on guard, that's all we can advise for now. Until we can prove they're being whammied and he's responsible, that's really all we can do." Charles said.
"Too bad we can't find out more specifics about the curse. There may be a specific trigger that breaks it. I mean the point of it is suffering, but what actually could stop the suffering?" Jessica said. "Is it feeling peace or happiness or love or what?"
"I still don't think he's in love with her. Nor do I think he's actually a good guy." Xander said. "He only helps when she see it, we've seen that for ourselves and I had to shame and force him to help me go after her when she went after the Master. He was awful casual for someone who's girlfriend was marching off to a prophesied death."
"The magical tracker Cordelia slipped on him, shows him in two places, his apartment and watching her in her bedroom. Creepy, stalker behavior, not love." Jessica agreed. "Which means the suffering isn't being lessoned by being with her. So there has to be another reason he's with her and given his obsessive behavior, I really don't think it's going to turn out to be something good."