Buffy stared running and shouted, "Look out." when she noticed a vampire with a baseball bat approaching behind Willow and Xander.
Willow turned to look at where the shouting was coming from and got a baseball bat to the back of her head for her trouble. "Hey!"
Buffy stared in shock as the vampire broke the baseball bat over her best friend's head and all that happened was Willow shouting 'hey'. She wasn't sure who was more surprised, her or the vampire.
Willow reached out and punched the vampire in the face which sent the vampire to the ground dazed and confused with a shattered cheekbone and about a dozen broken teeth. "Not nice!"
Xander stepped forward and kicked the vampire in the nuts a couple of times. "Bad vampire."
Buffy stared as she walked up cautious, "Willow? Xander?"
Xander turned and smiled, "Hey Butterfly."
Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Butterfly?"
Xander shrugged, "I'll think of something better next time."
Will reached down and stole the broken vampire's wallet and watch. "How was your summer?"
Buffy stared at her two friends, she was fairly sure that Willow was at least two or maybe three inches taller than she had been and her chest was a lot more impressive as well. The voice was right as was the face. She wasn't sure but Xander might have grown an inch or so, "I'm guessing less interesting than yours..."
The vampire groaned, "Slayer..."
Xander kicked the vampire in the ribs. "None of that."
Buffy frowned as he heard several of the vampire's ribs snap. She asked, "Are you going to stake him or?"
Willow picked up the broken handle of the bat and stabbed the vampire in the chest.
The vampire screamed, "Bitch!"
"Oops."
Buffy laughed when the screaming vampire didn't dust, "A little higher."
Willow stabbed him twice more before he dusted, "You make that look easy."
Buffy said, "Mad skills, speaking of mad skills how come you're still alive? Not that I'm complaining but that probably should have killed you." She was also curious how Willow had enough strength to jab a two inch thick broken shaft into a vampire's chest.
Willow said, "Ah well yeah..."
Xander said, "We sort of signed up for super soldier testing."
Buffy snorted, "Yeah right..." She trailed off as she really looked at their expressions, "Wait really?"
Xander grinned, "Yep."
Willow sighed, "We didn't actually mean to but..." She trailed off as she noticed three vampires in game face coming their way, "Seriously?"
Xander said, "We had to hunt to find vampires this whole summer and now there are three just wandering around."
Buffy sighed, "It's like a welcome back party just for me."
Xander raised his hand, "I have just one word for you vampires."
The leader of the vampires smirked, "What?"
"There are some who call me... Tim." Xander conjured a small ball of fire and tossed it at the leader of the group.
Buffy watched as the vampire burst into flames and turned to ash, "What the hell?"
Willow giggled, "Oh, Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
"Yep."
The other two vampires looked at each other then started running.
Buffy snatched the broken baseball bat and tossed it into the back of the vampire on the left which caused him to dust.
Willow shouted, "You shall not pass!" Then hit tripped the vampire on the right with a bit of magic.
Xander asked, "Seriously? Lord of the Rings?"
Willow sighed, "Fine, I'll go searching for better quotes."
Buffy ran over and kicked the vampire in the head to daze him then grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket before staking him. She said, "What? It was right there..."
Xander laughed, "If the council isn't going to pay you, you've got to afford your shoe fetish somehow."
Buffy said, "I don't have a... okay fine, I might like shoes a bit too much. So, what's with the upgraded special effects budget?"
Willow said, "A group contacted us about being test subjects for a super soldier program and we figured we might as well figure out what was going on only the second we agreed we got stunned by a flash of red then we woke up with our new abilities..."
Buffy asked, "They're giving people magic?"
Xander shook his head, "No, that came later and we already had magic, we just talked Giles and some people into helping us train it."
Buffy blinked, "Wait, Giles knows about this and didn't call me?"
Xander sighed, "He thought that you needed some downtime and he's been busy researching stuff."
Buffy sighed, "Great, the hits keep coming..." She pulled herself together, "What abilities did you get?"
Willow said, "Durability, enhanced strength, a cloaking field that keeps us off cameras and scrying unless we suppress the field and fire resistance."
Buffy pinched herself, "Ouch, I guess I'm not dreaming. Nothing comes for free."
Willow said, "They actually paid us for being test subjects."
"You got paid to get super powers?" Buffy thought, 'Fucking universe hates me, maybe I can talk Giles into coughing up a clothes budget for slaying.' She opened the vampire's wallet and pulled out a couple of twenties and three hundred dollar bills. "Or maybe I'll just loot the vampires before I kill them." She thought back over the previous vampires she had dusted and wondered how many thousands of dollars she had dusted that she could have used for clothes or shoes.
Willow collected the cash out of the wallet she grabbed, "Some of them have a decent amount of cash on them."
Buffy walked over toward Xander and Willow as she asked, "How strong are you?"
Xander smirked, "I can lift a car."
Buffy asked, "What did Giles say when you told him?"
Willow said, "He freaked out a bit. I wouldn't have told him but one of the people I was sparing with accidentally stabbed me with her sword, Giles got a bit concerned when I didn't show any sign of injury."
Xander laughed, "By a bit, she means full blown wiping of glasses and a research binge."
Buffy asked, "Do you know if the group that gave you your powers gave anyone else powers?"
Willow shook her head, "I don't, I have a number that I can call if we run into problems but they weren't willing to reveal who else they helped. I didn't want to push things in case either of us needed help."
Buffy asked, "Is it safe?"
Willow said, "The only side effects are a few inches in my case and my breasts are bigger than they were."
Xander said, "I've put on a little muscle and an inch. That's a small price to pay for being a lot harder to hurt."
Buffy asked, "You're really okay?"
Xander said, "Better than okay, we're getting training in martial arts so that we're better backup for you."
Buffy pouted, "What's this talk about being backup? I want to retire, I mean you can obviously handle stuff just fine without me." She smirked at Xander.
Xander said, "Nah, you've got that mystical warrior thing going on."
"In that case, Bronze?"
Willow said, "Sure, Jane and Thea are supposed to meet us there later."
Buffy noticed how excited Willow sounded when she said Jane's name. "Jane?"
Xander said, "Willow's girlfriend."
Buffy looked at Willow, "Girlfriend? I want details."
Willow blushed, "She's cute and really talented with her tongue..."
Buffy said, "Go Willow." She looked at Xander, "How are you doing in the romance department?"
He sighed, "Hot naked girls all around and all of them are attached to Harry or another girl, I mean seriously you'd think that getting superpowers would help with a person's love life."
Buffy snorted, "Have you seen the mess that's my love life? Wait hot naked girls?"
Willow snickered, "Some of our new friends don't particularly like clothes. I think you'll like them."
Xander said, "On that note, let's hit the bronze."
The older Harry knocked on a door with his gloved left hand then put his hand behind him with his other.
A teenager opened it and looked at the silver haired man in his early fifties or so that was wearing an expensive looking black suit complete with black shoes, "What do you want?"
"I'm looking for Tara Maclay."
The boy sneered, "She's not here, she's off running amok."
"Is your father or mother here?"
"Mom died and left us to do the housework. Dad's in the kitchen drinking while he waits for my stupid sister to come home, what's it to you?"
The older Harry smirked as he raised his silenced handgun and put a couple of holes through Donald Maclay's chest, "That's no way to talk about my favorite cousin you piece of shit." He leaned down and put a bullet through the center of Donald's forehead. He stepped over the threshold and headed toward the kitchen.
Mr. Maclay turned as Harry walked into the kitchen, "What the hell?"
Harry raised his gun and shot him seven times in the chest then once in each eye to make sure he was dead. Harry put his gun away in its holster then walked over to the knife stand and grabbed a knife and carved "This is what happens when you don't pay." into the table. 'That should get the cops guessing.' He stabbed the knife into the table then reached down and took the man's wallet and keys out of his pocket. He took the two hundred dollars he found inside and put the money and keys in his pants pocket. "Bastard." He dropped the wallet on the man's face then pulled out his wand and cleaned the blood off of his clothes before walking back into the living room. He walked over to a desk that had a fair number of bills and letters, "This'll do."
Harry pulled a letter out of his coat pocket, tapped it with his wand to print the correct mailing address on it as well as the correct return address for the other Harry's mansion then he slipped the letter into the pile of recent mail. He held up his wand, "Point me, Last Will and Testament."
His wand spun to point at one of the bedrooms. He followed the direction the wand was pointing to a wall safe. He pointed his wand at the safe and wordlessly opened it. He put his wand away and looked over the contents of the safe. "Cash, life insurance and a will that leaves everything to Tara's brother, uncle or cousin on his side. Fuck that." He waved his wand over the documents and charmed them so that any changes he made to the local copies would affect every copy of the documents then he changed the will to leave everything to Tara's brother, Tara, her uncle and cousin in that order. He also directed the lawyers to look up Tara's remaining family on her mother's side. He put the will and life insurance statement back in the safe after taking the cash. He left the safe open to make it easier on the police and Tara.
He walked over to the phone, tapped his throat with his wand to change his voice then dialed 9-9-1 and waited for the operator to pick up. He used his best Texan accent which probably sounded horribly fake but at least didn't sound British, "I'm going to kill the rest of his family in a week if I don't get my money. Have a good day." He hung up the phone, put his wand away then walked out the front door and down the sidewalk. He turned to look as a nasty looking older Rottweiler dog charged the neighbors shaky looking chain link fence to snarl at him. He looked at the owner of the dog and asked in his best impression of a Texas accent, "Is that your dog?"
The man said, "Yeah, what's it to you?"
"I've just heard that the dog is a menace and your fence doesn't look like it can hold him."
The man snorted, "Buster is a good guard dog. He only attacks people that I tell him to."
"In that case." Harry smiled as he pulled out his gun and shot the dog that had attacked Tara when she was younger or at least a version of the dog that had attacked her. "Problem solved."
The man stared in horror at his dead dog then shouted, "I'll kill you!"
Harry raised his gun and shot the man in the leg, "It's people like you that give dog owners a bad name." He was just glad that it was the middle of the night as it cut down on the number of people who were out and about. He ignored the man's screams as he turned and walked off down the street until he got to an alley. He probably would have killed the nasty neighbor but other than disliking children and having a nasty dog he wasn't sure the guy actually deserved to die, that and he needed a witness.
He glanced around to make sure no one was watching then used his wand to fix his voice, change his hair color to brown and his suit to jeans and a leather jacket. He put his wand away then walked calmly out of the alley and over to 'his' car and left the neighborhood. He figured he had another ten to twenty minutes before the polyjuice potion ran out. He didn't feel that bad about pinning the murders on the leader of the local biker gang. 'Sorry Tara but you're better off without them.'
Buffy stared as she watched Jane and Willow dance on the dance floor. "I feel like I'm in the twilight zone."
Harry chuckled, "You should have seen Willow's expression the first time Jane plopped herself in Willow's lap without clothes."
Buffy laughed, "It's hard to picture Willow not freaking out."
"She went as red as a tomato the first time. She got used to it eventually."
Hermione said, "I seriously wonder about my sister sometimes, I don't remember being that kinky at her age."
Harry laughed, "You were too busy dealing with sadistic teachers and a clueless best friend. Besides, you're more than making up for it now."
"Hush." She stuck her tongue out at Harry.
Harry whispered, "You should see her chocolate underwear spell."
Hermione reached over and put her hand over Harry's mouth, "Don't mind him."
Buffy asked, "Chocolate underwear? Never mind, how did you meet Willow and Xander?"
Alex said, "I was getting ice cream for my family and friends and they were behind me in line. I asked about some directions and they were funny, we talked a bit in line then I bought my ice cream sandwiches and realized that I needed help carrying everything so I bribed Willow and Xander with ice cream."
Buffy said, "You're not what I was expecting."
Alex asked, "What were you expecting?"
"I'm not sure, I was expecting you to be a bit more geeky from what Xander was saying. I mean you're drop dead gorgeous." She hadn't expected her to be as tall as Xander either.
"I'm a geek, I'm also a girl that had to step up and learn how to deal with idiots at my old school."
"Did you have a lot of those?"
Alex whispered, "About a fourth of the school were dark magic users or at least from families of dark magic users, it made for an interesting education experience."
Harry wasn't sure if it was actually a fourth but it was probably close when you combined some of the jerks in Ravenclaw with the Slytherins.
Buffy shivered, "I'm not a big fan of dark witches."
Alex said, "I'm not either, you're welcome to stop by for the martial arts classes if you want."
Buffy sighed, "I'd like to see how Willow and Xander are doing. I wish they weren't involved with the stuff that goes bump."
"They were going to be involved with or without training."
"I know, I don't have to like it though."
Harry reached up and moved Hermione's hand away from his mouth, "You're right you don't have to like it, you don't even have to accept their help but you should understand that just because you're a slayer doesn't give you the right to say what they can and can't do."
"It's my job to keep the vampires and demons in check, it's my job to keep the world running. They should have normal lives."
Harry shook his head, "That was never in the cards for them."
"What?" Buffy looked at Harry, "What do you mean?"
"They live on a hellmouth. Ignorance is a rather stupid shortsighted defense on the hellmouth. Besides, they've got magic potential, the weird would have found them eventually even without you."
Buffy said, "But... normal."
Harry shook his head, "That's your fantasy, not theirs."
Alex interrupted before Buffy could come up with another argument about how Xander and Willow shouldn't be involved. "Do you get paid?"
Buffy sighed, "No."
"Then it's not a job. A duty or a crappy calling maybe but it's not a job."
Buffy said, "It's a sacred duty."
Alex shook her head, "That's probably a lie."
"What?"
"People might call it a duty or calling or whatever but the Slayer essence is a demon or the remains of a demon."
Buffy stared at Alex, "What? How do you know that?"
"Magic sight, I can see it. You've got dark magic wrapped all around you."
"You're saying the Slayer essence is dark magic?"
"I am and it is. When a Slayer dies the essence jumps to the next girl, it's a spell, a very old and powerful spell powered by blood magic but that's all it is. As far as I can tell you're not picked by the gods, you're not a sacred warrior, you're just a girl with a demon in her that chose to fight against the darkness."
"Do you have any proof?"
"If you really were a sacred warrior then your touch would probably burn a vampire."
"What about slayer dreams?"
"A lot of psychics aren't connected to a god."
Buffy sighed, "So you're saying that I'm nothing?"
Alex snorted, "No, I'm saying that you're extraordinary. You have no more responsibility to fight against the darkness than Willow or Xander and yet you've all put your lives on the line countless times to try to keep people safe. You didn't sign up for this crap but you've been dealing with it."
Buffy said, "If I don't then who will?"
Harry said, "The council has teams they use to deal with demons in other locations when they can't get the slayer there. I'm guessing they're paid a lot more than you are."
Buffy scowled, "Is there a point to this other than to get me more annoyed at the world and the council?"
"The point is that your life is your own. If you want to hunt demons because you have the power to than great, if not then it's your life."
"It's not that simple."
Alex said, "Actually, it is that simple. The Watchers might tell you differently but they're just people."
"I'm fairly sure that they'd try to kill me if I didn't do my job."
Alex shrugged, "It's not a job because they're not paying you."
Hermione said, "I don't think you're the type of person that can walk away from the fight."
Buffy sighed, "I tried..."
Harry said, "I can understand that."
Buffy muttered, "I doubt it."
Harry snorted, "Let me tell you the story of a bunch of stupid wizards that decided that relying on a boy to solve their dark wizard problem was a better solution than doing it themselves."
Alex laughed, "Also known as his life sucked more than yours."
Buffy snorted, "I doubt it but I'm listening."
Harry started his tale hoping that it would help convince Buffy to own her destiny rather than whining about it.
Tara Maclay whispered as she looked at the blue haired elf eared girl reflected in her compact's mirror, "Do you have any advice for meeting family that I've never actually talked to?"
Her reflection said, "Be your normal charming self and I'm sure that everything will be fine."
"That doesn't fill me with confidence."
"It's not like you could stay at the house, your uncle would have bankrupted you contesting everything and the court might have given him custody and that would have ended with us dead. We're way too cute to end up dead."
Tara reached up and ran her fingers through her dirty blond hair, "You're cuter than I am."
"You look cute, even if you don't have my adorable ears or hair."
The bus driver announced, "Welcome to Sunnydale."
"Just relax, if it doesn't work out with Harry then we'll figure something out. Now put me away before someone notices that you're talking to a mirror." The mirror Tara blew Tara a kiss.
Tara reluctantly put her mirror away in her pocket, grabbed her bags and exited the bus.
Harry had been rather surprised to find out that he had a cousin other than Dudley. "Did they send a current photograph?"
Sirius shook his head, "There wasn't time, that's why we've got a sign that says Tara Maclay on it."
Tara hesitantly walked over to the people with the sign, "I'm Tara Maclay."
Harry looked her over and noticed that she had magic, "I'm Harry and this is Sirius."
"Harry Potter and Sirius Black?"
Sirius smiled, "Yes. I'm sorry about your mother, Lily spoke very highly of her." Sirius showed her his driver's license. "See?"
Tara said, "T-thank you."
Harry said, "Do you need anything from the store or do you want to settle in first?"
Tara shook her head, "I'm okay."
"In that case, let's get you settled in."
Sirius said, "We can go over the rules in the car, don't worry there aren't that many of them."
Tara managed to smile even though she wasn't really feeling it, still Harry was her closest relative that she wanted anything to do with, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "Okay."
Sirius smirked slightly as he stopped in front of an old beat to shit 78 Camaro with a truly crappy pink and rust paintjob that had barely made it off the dealer's lot. "Isn't she a beauty?" Mostly the only reason it had made it off the dealer's lot was that he had used a couple of spells to repair the engine and the drive train enough to get it off the lot. Thankfully the seats were still in decent condition. He had repaired the windows and the lights with a couple of repair charms.
Tara stared at the car in horror that anyone would do that to such a nice car, "What did they do to her?"
Harry sighed, "I'm guessing a color blind idiot rolled it then left it to rust in the yard. We just picked it up from the car lot, we're planning on restoring it. The paint is going to get removed as soon as we get it back to the house."
Tara sighed in relief, "Good because that shade of pink is horrible."
Harry opened the door then crawled in the back. "Hopefully it actually gets us where we need to go."
Tara asked, "Is it even legal to drive?"
Sirius moved around to the driver's side and opened the door, "Technically, I filled out the paperwork, it's got working break lights, insurance and I paid the tabs." He got in the car and popped the trunk. "That said, I'd rather not get stopped as the engine barely works and I really don't want to get a citation for the black smoke that the poor girl is making."
Tara muttered a prayer under her breath in hopes that the car would get them where they need to be.
"Stick your bags in the back."
Tara was just happy that the trunk wasn't so rusted that her bags would fall through. She set her bags in then closed the trunk then closed it again harder when it didn't stay shut. She checked it then walked over to the passenger side door and got in and closed the door, "So what are the rules?"
Sirius said, "Simple enough. No killing or maiming anyone that lives in the house. No entering other people's bedrooms without permission or in the case of an emergency. No complaining if someone stares because you're not wearing clothes or you're wearing or doing something silly. Some of the girls don't wear clothes around the house. Dress how you want, just don't complain about how other people are dressed unless they're stealing your clothes."
Tara blushed, "I see..."
Harry snorted, "That hasn't been a problem yet."
Sirius said, "On that note, if you make a mess, try to clean it up or at least tell one of the Kreachers or Dobby and they'll get it taken care of. No dark magic in the house unless it's approved and no inviting anyone inside. If they can't walk over the threshold themselves than they're not welcome."
"Dark magic?"
"Not generally approved."
"You know about magic?"
"Yep, everyone staying at the house has magic."
Tara sighed in relief, "That's good."
Sirius said, "One of the bedrooms has some dangerous magical mirrors in it which means that it needs to remained locked unless we're using it. We've got two overly curious munchkins living with us. While I've shown them the room, I'd rather not have them able to enter it without an adult."
Tara said, "Anything else?"
Sirius said, "Just use common sense for the rest of it."
Tara said, "Those rules actually make sense."
Sirius laughed, "I'd like to think so." He tried to start the car a couple of times then pulled out his wand and tapped the key. The engine gurgled to life. "There we go." He backed out and started heading for the mansion.
Tara asked, "How many people live with you?"
Harry said, "Tonks, who is a cousin something removed and Sirius's second cousin. My sister Alex, her girlfriend Ginny, my friend/girlfriend Hermione and her sisters Jane, Puck and Ariel. We sort of adopted Gabrielle, Luna and Thea."
Tara said, "That sounds like a full house. Are you sure that there is enough space for me?"
Sirius said, "We've got plenty of room. You'll see once we get there."
Tara said, "Okay."
Giles glanced at the hotel door where the mysterious blue skinned girl had told them to meet, "Are you sure this is the best plan?"
Buffy said, "They're handing out superpowers. I watched a vampire break a baseball bat over Willow's head, she didn't even flinch. Maybe I'm crazy for wanting some of that but I'd feel a lot better about patrolling if I had some enhanced durability to go with the rest of the Slayer package. The zombie football player tossed me around quite a bit. I'm getting tired of it Giles."
"We still don't know what the full effects are or what the long term side effects are."
Buffy snapped, "Do I really have a long term? Something is eventually going to kill me Giles, it's just a matter of time unless things change."
Giles sighed, "I'll admit that I can see the attraction but there are risks. We don't know what they want or much of anything about them. Giving someone permanent powers takes a lot of magic Buffy."
"If you want to leave, I'll go in there by myself."
"I'm just surprised you didn't bring Angel."
"I haven't seen him since I got back." Buffy walked over and knocked on the door.
Alex said, "It's open."
Buffy opened the door and stepped inside the average quality hotel room. "Hi."
Giles stepped inside and looked at the unfamiliar blue skinned woman standing in the middle of the room in a short black dress that clung to her curves, "Greetings."
Alex gestured to the door, "If you could please shut the door."
Giles shut the door hoping they weren't making a horrible mistake.
Buffy asked, "How does this work?"
Alex said, "That depends on what you're looking for."
"I'm looking for upgrades. I need something that will let me survive being the slayer."
"You might be looking for the impossible."
"What do you mean?"
Alex sighed, "Killing Slayers is a point of pride to most demons. The longer you last the more interested demons are going to be in killing you. I'm not going to make any promises that the upgrades we can give you will see you through all of the challenges you'll have to face. You're still going to have to put in a lot of time training if you want to survive."
Buffy said, "I'll take what I can get."
"In that case we have a number of different upgrades for a number of different prices. The problem is that the buy in is probably a deal breaker."
Giles asked, "Why?"
Alex looked at Giles, "I need two things before I'm willing to give her abilities. I need parental consent and I need you to ask the Watcher's Council to pay her a fair wage."
Buffy asked, "You want me to tell my Mom? You didn't require that from Willow or Xander."
"Their parents are deadbeat absentee parents or drunks that can live or die as far as I'm concerned. Your mother is a very nice lady that deserves to know the truth."
"She locked me up in a mental ward."
Alex asked, "You should have picked up a metal fire poker and bent it into a pretzel. You should have jumped up a dozen feet or figured out another way to prove it. Proving that you've got inhuman abilities would have went a long way toward proving that you're the Slayer. Someone or something is going to use your family against you. I'd like to offer your mother the basic durability ability to help keep her safe."
Giles sighed, "I can't see them agreeing to pay Buffy. They consider it a sacred duty."
"They can well afford to pay her a professional soldier's wage. You're not supplying her food, you're not supplying her room and board and you're barely supplying her with weapons. The only service the council is doing is paying you to stay here. While that's nice and all they can step up and shoulder more of the responsibility if they want a say in how things are run." Alex caught Giles thinking about the council's wet work team. 'I guess we'll have to deal with the council at some point.'
Giles sighed, "They're not going to agree."
"They don't have to agree. You just have to ask." Alex looked at Buffy, "Are you willing to tell your mother?"
Buffy said, "She's going to ground me for life."
"You're sixteen, you'll get over it. At most she can ground you for another two years. Get Willow and Xander to help you drag a vampire back to your house and stake it in front of her."
Buffy scowled, "Fine."
Alex said, "Awesome, let's talk perks and the costs associated with them."
Giles asked, "Have you sold the abilities to other people?"
Alex snickered, "Okay, sorry... I should probably add another clause in there about forgiving me for having a warped sense of humor..."
Buffy frowned, "What do you mean?"
Alex relaxed her features and changed back to her normal look, "Hi."
Buffy stared at Alex, "Alex? You gave Willow and Xander abilities?"
Alex said, "Yep."
Giles sighed in relief, "You had me terrified of some shadowy government organization that was giving abilities out."
Buffy asked, "You're not are you?"
Alex shook her head, "Of course not. Willow and Xander are the only people we've given abilities to outside of my group. I'd like to extend the offer to you and Giles."
"How much of what you've said has been a lie?"
Alex said, "As Alex? Technically none of it, I met Xander and Willow by accident. We're here because the hellmouth cloaks our location from some rather nasty people back in England. We have no interest in opening the hellmouth or doing anything to harm the general population of humans. We lied a bit when it came to the companies offering super soldier 'formulas' to Willow and Xander but they did agree to the upgrades."
"They said you grabbed them."
"They technically agreed to the process."
Buffy asked, "Are the upgrades permanent?"
Alex said, "So far I as I know yeah. I can offer you some extremely fun upgrades."
Buffy asked, "Like what?"
"The power to create a shadow double that can attend classes for you."
Buffy said, "That would be useful. How much?"
Alex said, "I'll need help killing an extremely dangerous demon in the future. I'd like some help."
"Details?"
"They have an item that we need. Beyond that, I'm not going to explain unless we're behind some serious wards."
Buffy asked, "They're evil?"
"Yep."
"In that case I agree."
Alex said, "Cool, let's get out of here before the maid comes."
Giles sighed, "You didn't rent the room did you?"
"Nope, I just used a spell to unlock the door. I just needed a quick meeting place."
Giles said, "In that case can I suggest teleporting us to your home so we can look at what upgrades we want."
Buffy looked at Giles, "You're thinking about getting some upgrades?"
Giles said, "Spike nearly killed me at the school, he's still running around somewhere. Xander might have fried a couple of his vampires but there will be other threats."
"Cool." Alex teleported with Buffy and Giles back to the mansion.
Xander finished listening to Harry and Alex explain about the deception with the government agencies. "So basically you didn't want us to treat you different because you could give us magic powers and you were still trying to get to know us, right?"
Harry said, "Basically yeah."
Alex asked hopefully, "Can you forgive us?"
"That depends on if I can talk you into giving us more abilities and letting us watch you fuck Ginny."
Buffy stared at Xander in shock, "Xander!"
Willow said, "Bad Xander, no biscuit for you."
Tara blushed as she pictured Alex and Ginny having sex.
Alex laughed, "I'll even toss in a box of Twinkies."
Buffy stared at Alex, "What?" That was so not the reaction she was expecting.
"He's a Twinkie fiend."
"That I knew, mostly I'm talking about being okay with him watching you have sex."
Alex said, "I don't have all that much modesty." She glanced over at Thea, "I'm not as bad as Thea or Puck but I'm not worried about my friends seeing me without clothes or having fun with my girlfriend. Besides, it's not like he hasn't seen it before."
Ginny said, "I still think he was cheating at cards that time."
Puck said, "I slipped him an ace."
Xander said, "Liar."
"Or was it a king?"
Xander said, "Now you're just trying to get me in trouble."
Puck grinned, "I don't hear you correcting me."
Giles asked, "Can we acquire the powers first? I would rather be far away from here when stuff I shouldn't know about happens."
Sirius said, "Agreed."
Harry said, "I've been planning on upgrading Tara and Thea's abilities anyways. This is probably a decent time to do use a time loop to do some upgrading."
Buffy asked, "Time loop?"
"Basically Alex and I can create a ritual to set up a time loop that allows us to reset time within a certain window."
"Why?"
Alex said, "The empowerment rituals can and often do go horribly wrong. Using them without some safeguards would be stupid."
"In other words if something goes horribly wrong you can reset it?"
"If we've set up the ritual ahead of time."
Buffy asked, "What else do you use the ritual for?"
Harry smirked, "Scouting the town, it's how we figured out that the principal and the mayor are evil."
"The mayor is evil?"
Alex said, "Yep. We've been running around locating vampires during the loops and killing them once we're done with the loops."
Buffy said, "That explains why I haven't been running into very many vampires on patrols."
Harry said, "Yep."
Sirius asked, "Do you want us in the loop or not?"
Harry said, "I'd rather you stay out of the loop. I'd like you to try merging with some good demons that we create so that you can make magic items based on their abilities. I'd rather you not remember a bunch of demon memories."
Giles asked, "Are the abilities that we're receiving demonic?"
"No, all of the abilities come from neutral magical items."
Hermione said, "I'm looking forward to being able to toss around lightning."
Buffy asked, "That's an option?"
Harry said, "That and more."
Alex said, "I figure we'll give everyone flight and durability this time around."
Harry looked at Alex, "Let's go set up the ritual then we can get everyone some new abilities."
Vocah appeared in the middle of an abandoned building. He looked around at the collection of magic users that had summoned him, "Who dares summon me."
Harry said, "That would be us."
Buffy reached out and slammed her foot into Vocah's face denting his bronze colored mask. "Hi!"
Alex kicked the demon so that he stumbled back into the path of the Mirror of Opposition.
Vocah scowled as he looked into the mirror as he was attempting to get up off the floor and something that looked suspiciously like him stepped out. He summoned his scythe, "I'll kill you all."
The 'good' Vocah summoned his scythe as well.
Willow lunged forward and grabbed one of the evil Vocah's arms while Xander grabbed the other.
The 'good' Vocah stabbed the evil demon with his scythe which killed it. "Thank you for the assistance."
Buffy stared at the supposedly good demon, "Now what?"
Alex pointed her wand at the 'good' demon and stunned him. "Do you have everything you need for the combining ritual?"
Sirius scowled, "Sadly. I'm just glad that I'm not going to remember any of this."
Harry said, "I'm glad that you're not going to remember it either."
Buffy said, "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this."
"That's why we're doing it inside a time loop."
Xander asked, "What happens if the demon overpowers Sirius?"
Harry said, "That's why you, Willow and Sirius are going to be merging with him."
Alex said, "Worse case, we'll reset things and try something different."
Buffy asked, "How much time do we have on the time loop?"
"Twenty four hours which should give us plenty of time to make sure the rituals don't have any really weird effects."
Sirius started arranging the stuff for the ritual, "It should also give me plenty of time to record any useful memories in a pensieve that we can then send back."
Buffy said, "You've given this a bit too much thought."
"He's got enhanced strength, reflexes and agility as well as the ability to conjure some very powerful weapons and curse people on touch or at least the evil version could curse people. Being able to bless people on touch would be a nice ability to have, I'm not sure how that will work though."
Harry asked, "Are you ready?"
Sirius finished setting things up, "As ready as I'm going to be."
Harry shivered as Sirius finished the ritual and Willow, Xander, Buffy, Vocah and Sirius melted into a nightmarish creature with nine hands, two penises for antennae, eight legs coming out any which way, five ears, four breasts scattered around the creature's body and ten eyes two of which were glowing red. The fact that there were a couple of mouths and assholes scattered around where the mishmash of clothing didn't cover didn't make the creature less ugly to look at. "Oh gods..." He had to look away from the pit of maggots crawling around in a hole in the creature that the mask didn't quite cover.
The creature's voice sounded like it was coming from multiple mouths at once. "We are legion!"
Alex gulped, "Crap."
"Relax, we're mostly here or there. We'll complete the ritual to empower the weapon creation item first then we'll work on reflexes and agility. If we haven't gone insane, we'll work on trying to create something that lets us bless people."
Alex watched in sick fascination as the monster went to work on the item creation ritual.
Harry pulled out his pensieve and waited.
Sirius asked, "How did it go?"
Harry shivered as he looked down at his tea cup. "We summoned the demon, created a good copy then you sort of botched the physical aspect of the merging ritual. Luckily you were mostly there mentally. I duplicated the items a bunch of times using the evil mirror then sent the items plus a couple of brooms and assorted other items back with Kreacher."
"How many Kreachers do we have running around here?"
Alex said, "Way too many."
Harry said, "We'll probably get rid of a bunch of them empowering the girls so I think we'll be fine."
Sirius asked, "How did the rituals work?"
"I'll let you look at the penseive this time and you can tell me if you actually want to next time."
"That bad?"
"Worse. You changed into a hideous monster. The pensieve and the items should be with Kreacher."
"Let's go grab them then we can work on acquiring the ability to create weapons."
Harry said, "That sounds good."
Tara looked at the beautifully restored 78 Camaro, "Light purple?"
Harry said, "I figured you'd like it."
"I do but aren't you going to drive it?"
Harry shook his head, "Nah, I've got plenty of time to find and repair a few cars before I can even get my permit."
"Thank you Harry."
Harry smiled, "You're my favorite cousin. Besides, this way I can beg rides when I can't just teleport places."
Tara said, "I'm still trying to get used to being able to teleport around like a house elf."
Harry smiled, "Welcome to the family of weird."
Tara said, "Thanks."
"How are you settling in?"
"Better than I expected. I'm having fun hanging out with Jane and Willow." Tara blushed as she though about sharing a kiss with the girls.
Harry handed her the keys for the restored car, "Just remember to push the invisibility button if you hit the flight button."
"There's a flight button?"
Harry laughed, "And a biodegradable oil slick button as well as a couple of other things that Sirius though the car should have."
Tara hugged Harry, "Thank you."
"You're welcome. You should check the car out while I check with Giles and Buffy to see if they're enjoying their upgrades."
"I will, are you looking forward to Halloween?"
Harry thought about the strange magic they had seen on the costumes in Ethan's shop and their plans to create a time loop to play with a couple of different costumes. "More than I've been looking forward to Halloween in a long time."
