"Gingerbread"
Based on the Episode Written by Thania St. John and Jane Espenson
The following story is copyright © 2022 by Mark Moore.
At night, in the park, Buffy slowly strolled along the perimeter and into an area surrounded by bushes. She heard a rustling sound coming from the bush directly in front of her and stopped instantly, her gaze fixed on the shaking branches. She pulled out her stake and got ready to fight, when suddenly she heard a voice to her left.
"Is it a vampire?"
Buffy snapped her head to the left and saw her mother walk toward her, carrying a bag in one hand and a large thermos in the other.
"Mom, what are you doing here?"
Joyce held up the bag and thermos. "I brought you a snack. I thought it was about time for me to come out and watch. Y-You know, the slaying."
"You know, the slaying is kind of an alone thing."
"But it's such a big part of your life, and I'd like to understand it. It's, um, you know, something we could share."
"A-Actually, it's pretty dull, you know; it's bam, boom, stick..." Buffy's attention was back on the rustling bush, and she nudged her mother to the side a bit.
Suddenly, a vampire jumped out at her and ran straight for her. She ducked as the vampire lunged at her with his arms outstretched. She got back up and delivered a right hook to his face, followed by a backhand punch on the backswing and a left to the face, making him take a step back.
"Good, honey! Kill him!" Joyce cheered.
Buffy did an out-to-in crescent kick, which he easily ducked. She tried to punch him in the face again, but he grabbed onto her shoulders and rolled onto his back, sending her rolling over him and onto her back. She let out a pained grunt and looked around to get her bearings.
Joyce pointed. "Buffy, he-he's over here!"
The vampire faced her and roared.
"Oh, my God! It's Mr. Sanderson from the bank!" Joyce exclaimed.
He came at Buffy with a front snap kick, which she low-blocked. He tried to punch her, but she ducked it. Buffy did a half-spinning in-to-out crescent kick, followed swiftly by a leg sweep, knocking the vampire's legs out from under him. She stood back up and got ready to punch him, but he'd had enough. He scrambled to his feet and hightailed it out of there.
Joyce pointed with the thermos. "And he's getting away!"
Buffy gave her a stern look. "Stay!" She ran off after the vampire.
The vampire surprised Buffy and knocked her to the ground. The vampire bent over her. She grabbed him and pulled him over and down onto the ground next to her. She scrambled to her knees and jammed her stake home. The vampire died.
Buffy got to her feet and went back to where she'd left her mother. She wasn't there. Buffy went searching for her.
She found Joyce over at the carousel.
"Mom?" Buffy asked.
There was no response.
When Buffy was close enough to get a good look, she stopped in horror, shocked at what she saw. The body of a young boy lay dead on the carousel, and next to it, on the sand, lay the body of a young girl. Each of the children had one arm outstretched, and drawn in black on the palms of their hands was a triangle. It had a wide U-shaped symbol in the middle with its ends extending out from the triangle and bending in a sharp arc at the tips.
"Oh, shit." Buffy looked at her mother. "Mom, I'm gonna go and call the cops. Are you gonna be okay here?"
"I, uh..."
"Look away, if you have to."
Joyce nodded. Buffy walked off to find a pay phone.
Several police cars and a coroner's van had arrived, and the detectives were looking over the scene. No one had touched the bodies yet. The police photographer stepped up to the carousel and took aim at the young boy with his camera. A series of black-and-white photos followed.
Buffy was finishing an interview with a police officer.
"So...nothing supernatural as far as you can tell, Ms. Summers?" the officer asked her.
"Well, there's that symbol. It might be something. But I'm not an expert on all things Twilight-Zoney." Buffy sighed. "Can her mother and I leave now?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Buffy walked over to her mother. The police bustled with activity around them.
"All right, let's move here. Somebody pull that car out."
Buffy reached her mother. "They said we can go home now."
Joyce was distraught. "They were little kids. Did you see them? They're so tiny."
"I saw."
Joyce shook her head. "Who could do something like this? I just..." She looked down sadly.
"I'm so sorry that you had to see this. But I promise everything is gonna be okay."
"How?"
"Because I'm gonna find whatever did it."
"I guess. It's just you can't...you can't make it right."
Buffy hugged her mother closely. Joyce began to sob.
"I know. I'm sorry. But I'll take care of everything. I promise. Just try and calm down."
The next morning, in the Sunnydale High School library, Buffy looked up at Giles standing at the top of the stairs to the book stacks.
Buffy was upset. "Don't tell me to calm down!"
Giles was taken aback. "I-I-I only meant-"
"They were kids, Giles. Little kids! You don't know what it was like to see them there. My mom can't even talk. I was worried that she was gonna crash the Jeep on her way home."
Giles took a few steps down. "I'm sorry. I...I just want to help."
Buffy calmed a bit. "I know."
Giles came down the rest of the way and went over to the center table. Buffy followed and leaned against the back of a chair.
"Do we know how? Uh..." Giles fumbled for words. "It wasn't a vampire?" He sat on the table.
"No. There were no marks."
Giles lifted his mug for a sip of his tea but stopped as Buffy continued.
"Wait. I-I mean...there - there was a mark, um, a-a symbol." Buffy stepped around the chair, grabbed a pen from the table, and sat to draw it.
Giles hurriedly set down his mug and quickly reached over to stop Buffy before she could deface the parchments lying there in front of her.
"Oh, uh, eighteenth century, papal encyclical. Write on this." Giles gently picked up the parchments and nudged a spiral notebook over to her.
Buffy flipped the notebook to a blank page and drew as Giles set down the parchments and picked up his mug again.
"I-It was on their hands. The cops are keeping it quiet, but I got a good look at it." Buffy pushed the drawing over for Giles to see. "There. Find me the thing that uses this symbol and point me at it."
"Hmm."
"Hmm what? Giles, speak."
"What? Oh, sorry. Um, no, it..." Giles picked up the notebook. "I just wonder if we're looking for a thing. The use of a symbol o-o-on a victim like this suggests a-a ritual murder and a cult sacrifice by a group."
"A group of...human beings? Someone with a soul did this?" Buffy asked, sickened at the thought.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Giles went over to the bookshelves behind the table and started his research.
"Okay. Then, while you're looking for the meaning of that symbol thingy, could you also find a loophole in that 'Slayers don't kill people' rule?" Buffy asked him.
Giles looked back at her from his crouched position and stood up. "Buffy, this is a dreadful crime, I know, and you have every right to be upset, but...I-I wonder if you're not letting yourself get a shade, uh...more personal because of your mother's involvement."
Buffy stood and faced him. "Oh, it's completely personal. Giles, find me the motherfuckers that did this. Please."
In the cafeteria, Tara and Katrina both took their trays and headed for an empty table. They sat down and started eating their lunch. Amy found them.
Tara smiled. "Hey, Amy."
Amy sat down.
Katrina smiled. "Hey, sweetie."
Amy had a huge smile on her face, pleased to show off her new short and darker hairstyle. "Hi, guys."
Katrina kissed Amy on the lips. "Hey, Amy, I like your new hair."
"Thanks."
Katrina looked at all of them. "So...Buffy's birthday is next week. Any idea on what to get her?"
Tara saw Buffy approaching. "Shh. Hi, Buffy."
"Buffy! What's up?" Katrina asked her.
Buffy sat down. "You guys didn't hear?"
"Hear what?" Katrina asked, looking from Buffy to Tara.
Tara squirmed. Katrina looked back at Buffy.
"A murder. Somebody killed two little kids."
Katrina was shocked. "Oh, no."
"They were, like, seven or eight years old. My mom found the bodies during patrol last night."
Amy was shocked. "Oh, my Goddess."
"Why was your mom there?" Katrina asked Buffy.
"More bad. She picked last night, of all nights, for a surprise bonding visit. She's completely wigging."
"Who's wigging?"
Buffy snapped her head around, saw Joyce standing there, and stood up. "Um...everyone. You know, 'cause of what happened."
"Oh, it's so awful. I-I had bad dreams about it all night."
Amy looked at her. "Hi, Mrs. Summers."
"Oh, hi, everybody."
Katrina nodded. "Hi."
"Buffy, have you talked to Mr. Giles yet about who could have done this?" Joyce asked.
"Yeah. He, uh...he thinks it might be something ritual. A cult. Uh, he's still looking. In the meantime, we're gonna add to my patrol and - and, y'know, keep an eye out."
"A cult. Like witches."
Tara coughed. Amy looked away.
"Oh, I-I-I know you kids think that stuff's cool. Buffy told me you dabble. But anybody who could do this isn't cool. Anybody who could do this has to be a monster. It's-"
"You know what? Uh, would you guys excuse us for a little bit?" Buffy asked.
Joyce nodded. "Uh, n-nice to see you."
Buffy led her out of the cafeteria. They walked into the hall and slowly started down it.
"Are your friends gonna help with the investigation, too?" Joyce asked.
"Mom, I really think..." Buffy paused. "Maybe this isn't the best place to talk about this."
"Are you embarrassed to be hanging out with your mother? I didn't hug you."
They stopped by the stairs.
"No. It's just..." Buffy paused. "This hall is about school, and you're about home. Mix them, my world dissolves."
"It's just...I keep thinking about who could have done such a thing. I have to help."
"Well, Giles can always use help in the library."
"I called everybody I know in town. I told them about the dead children. They're all just as upset as I am."
Buffy was confused. "You called everybody that you know?"
"And they called all their friends. And guess what? We're setting up a vigil, for tonight, for City Hall. The mayor is even gonna be there. Now, we are gonna get some action." Joyce smiled.
Buffy was less than thrilled. "Uh-huh. That's great. Uh..." She paused. "But you know what? A lot of times, when we're working on stuff like this, we like to keep the number of people that know about it kind of...small."
Joyce considered. "Oh. Right. Well, I-I'm sure there won't be all that many people."
That evening, at Sunnydale City Hall, a large crowd had gathered in the main conference room. Many of them were holding up signs with pictures of the two children and the words "Never Again!" Buffy and Tara walked in and looked around at the crowd.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "This is great. Maybe we could all go patrolling together later."
Tara gestured at Joyce. "At least, your mom's making an effort. My dad's probably...standing right in front of me right this second."
Her father saw them and came up to them.
"Dad?" Tara asked in disbelief.
Steve gave her a curt nod. "Tara."
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Tara asked.
"I got a call."
Joyce came over to join them. "I'm glad you could come."
Giles also showed up. He kept his hands in his pockets. "There you are. I almost didn't find you in this crush." He noticed Joyce and grew nervous. "Oh, uh, Mrs., uh...uh, Joyce. Quite a turnout you have here."
"Oh, well, it's - it's not just me, but thank you. Well, it's, uh, it's been a while."
Giles was uneasy. "Right. Not since, um..." He paused. "Not since..." He paused again. "Not for a while."
Steve looked at him. "There's a rumor going around, Mr. Giles."
Giles was suddenly worried. "R-Rumor about us?"
Joyce shot him a look of dismay.
Giles got the hint. "A-A-About what?"
"About witches."
Tara and Buffy exchanged a look.
"People calling themselves witches are responsible for this brutal crime." Steve stared pointedly at his daughter.
"Indeed?" Giles asked. "How strange."
There was some electronic feedback when the mayor tested the microphone as he stepped up to the lectern.
"Oh. Oh, a-are we starting?" Joyce asked.
The mayor cleared his throat and sniffled. Joyce made her way around, behind everyone, over to Buffy, who was frowning up at the mayor.
"Hello, everybody."
Joyce leaned over to Buffy's ear. "He'll do something about this. You'll see."
Everyone settled down to listen to what the mayor had to say.
"Um...I wanna thank you all for coming in the aftermath of such a tragic crime. Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we've had our share of misfortunes, but we're a good town with good people, and I know that none of us will rest easy until this horrible murder is solved." Mayor Wilkins picked up one of the signs. "With that in mind...I make these words my pledge to you." He held it up for everyone to see. "'Never again!' Now, I ask you to give your attention to the woman who brought us all here tonight, Joyce Summers."
He stepped away as Joyce walked to the front of the room and stepped up to the lectern.
"Thank you." Joyce considered her words for a moment before beginning. "Mr. Mayor, you're dead wrong."
People began to murmur.
"This is not a good town. How many of us have - have lost someone who - who just disappeared? Or - Or got skinned? Or suffered neck rupture? And how many of us have been too afraid to speak out? I-I was supposed to lead us in a moment of silence, but...silence is this town's disease. For too long, we-we've been plagued by unnatural evils. This isn't our town anymore. It belongs to the monsters and - and the witches and the Slayers."
Buffy looked at her mother in open-mouthed shock. She and Tara exchanged a worried glance. Giles couldn't believe what he was hearing either.
"I say it's time for the grownups to take Sunnydale back. I say we start by finding the people who did this and making them pay."
The people in the crowd began to applaud. Buffy was too much in shock to do anything but stare at her mother.
The next day, at Sunnydale High, Amy was walking through a hall and saw Michael, a fellow witch that she knew. Michael had his locker open and checked his black makeup in the mirror stuck to the inside of the locker door. A group of guys came up to him, and Roy, their leader, slammed the locker door shut.
Michael looked at him. "Watch it."
Roy smiled smugly. "Oh, sorry. Did I make you smudge your eyeliner?"
Michael rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"You gonna put a spell on me?" Roy asked him.
Amy came to Michael's defense. "Hey, what is your problem?"
Roy grabbed Michael by the shirt and slammed him up against the lockers. "Everyone knows he's into that voodoo witchcraft. I heard about those kids." He slammed Michael again. "People like him...gotta learn a lesson."
"And what about people like me?" Amy asked him.
"Get in my face, and you'll find out."
Amy got in his face and stared him down, giving him a slight smile. "Try me, asshole."
Buffy stepped up behind Amy and gave him a smile. He noticed her and suddenly thought better of going any further. He let Michael go and straightened his shirt a bit.
"No problem here." Roy nodded to the other boys. "We're walking."
Buffy followed them for a few steps, then turned back to Amy and Michael. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah. We're fine." Michael walked off.
Amy smiled. "Thanks, Buffy." She walked off.
Buffy looked back down the hall to make sure the gang was still headed away. Giles came around the corner, and Buffy started toward him but was headed off by Cordelia.
"You'll be one busy little Slayer, baby-sitting them."
"I doubt they'll have any more trouble."
"I doubt your doubt. Everyone knows that witches killed those kids, and Amy is a witch. And Michael is whatever the boy of witch is, plus being the poster child for yuck."
"Corde-"
"Expect badness. Always."
Buffy thought about that in silence for a moment and then nodded. Cordelia turned and left.
"But witches didn't do it!" Buffy yelled loudly after her, more for others to hear. She turned to Giles.
"Actually, I think they may have. My research keeps bringing me back to European Wiccan covens."
"You found the meaning of the symbol?" Buffy asked him.
Giles sighed. "I'm pretty sure, yes. There's a-a piece of information I need that's in a book that Amy borrowed. Can you find it?"
"Well, I just saw her a while ago, but I'll look for her after my next class."
Giles nodded. He went down the hall, toward the library.
Buffy looked around into the student lounge to see if Amy happened to be there. She saw Katrina sitting on one of the couches and headed over to her.
Katrina smiled. "Buffy, hi."
"Hey. Is Amy around?"
"Yeah. She's in the bathroom." Katrina pointed.
Buffy pointed. "Those her books?"
"Yeah."
Buffy found the book in question and picked it up. Underneath it was a spiral notebook. On the exposed page was the triangle symbol. Buffy picked it up and stared.
Amy walked out of the bathroom and over to her. "Hey, Buff. Whatcha looking for? You wanna borrow something?"
Buffy held up the notebook. "What is this?"
Amy took and closed it. "Why do you wanna know?"
"This is a witch symbol."
"Okay, yeah, it is."
"Amy..."
"What?" Amy asked defensively.
"That symbol was on the murdered children."
"Buffy, I didn't do anything wrong. The - The symbol is harmless. I used it to make a protection spell for all of us. With Michael. Please, you have to believe me!" Amy pleaded.
Before they could get any further into it, they were distracted by the sounds of many lockers suddenly being slammed shut. They could hear a man talking.
"Please step back. Stay away from the lockers. This is police business."
Buffy, Amy, and Katrina exchanged alarmed looks. They all headed into the hall to see what was going on.
A police officer was going from locker to locker, opening them with a master key.
At another locker, another officer took some books from a student. "Hand them over, please. The books."
Yet another officer took a string of garlic cloves from a locker and set it on a cart with a bunch of other things that they'd confiscated. Principal Snyder stood in the hall, gloating as the police continued their search. Several officers kept the students at bay. A detective led a boy away. Tara joined the group as they watched all of the activity.
Snyder smiled smugly. "This is a glorious day for principals everywhere. No pathetic whining about students' rights. Just a long row of lockers and a man with a key."
An officer found a voodoo doll in a locker.
Tara leaned over to her friends. "They just took three kids away."
"What are they looking for?" Buffy asked.
Amy looked at her. "Witch stuff. I bet they got my spells."
Buffy discreetly took Giles' book from her arms. An officer looked through a girl's purse.
Another officer stepped up to Amy. "Okay, Amy. You'll have to come with me."
Amy started down the hall in front of him. Katrina accompanied her, holding her hand.
Another police officer looked at some students. "Stay away from the locker."
One of the officers had reached Cordelia's locker and pulled out a can of hairspray.
"Hey! Get your grubby custodial hands off that." Cordelia tried to approach.
The police officer pushed her back. "Miss, you have to stay back. Miss, stay back."
"That hair spray costs $45, and it's imported!" Cordelia yelled.
In the library, a police officer kicked open the cage door and strode out into the room with a stack of books in his hands. He carried them over to the table and dropped them unceremoniously into a box. Another officer came down from the stacks with another armful of books. Buffy walked into the library as still another officer walked out, carrying one of the boxes. She headed straight for Giles and Jenny, who watched helplessly.
"Giles."
"They're confiscating my books."
Jenny put her hand on his shoulder.
"Giles, we need those books."
"Believe me, I tried to tell that to the nice man with the big gun."
They moved to the side to talk. Giles watched the activity around him, seething with anger.
"No. There's something about the symbol that we're missing. Amy said she used it in a protection spell. It's harmless. Not a big bad. So then why would it turn up in a ritual sacrifice?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know. Ordinarily, I would say let's widen our research."
"Using what? A-A dictionary?" Buffy set the book on the counter.
Jenny sighed. "They confiscated my laptop, but I've got another one at home. I can research from there."
Giles stepped back into the room. "This is intolerable. Snyder's interfered before, but I-I won't take this from that twisted little homunculus."
Snyder walked into the library, holding a cup of coffee. He smirked. "I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning."
Giles approached him angrily. "You get out! And take your marauders with you."
"Oh, my. So fierce." Snyder walked past him. "I suppose I should hear you out. Just how is, um..." He took a book from an officer and read the title. "Blood Rites and Sacrifices appropriate material for a public school library? Chess club branching out?" He sipped his coffee.
"This is not over."
"Oh, I should say it's just beginning. Fight it if you want. Just remember, lift a finger against me, and you'll have to answer to MOO."
Buffy was incredulous. "Answer to MOO? Did that sentence just make some sense that I'm not in on?"
"'Mothers Opposed to the Occult.' A powerful new group." Snyder sipped his coffee.
"And who came up with that lame-ass name?" Buffy asked him.
Snyder headed out. "That would be the founder. I believe you call her 'Mom'."
Buffy couldn't believe it.
That night, Amy came home after driving around town to clear her head. She unlocked and opened the front door and went in.
In the living room, she found her father looking over a bunch of her things taken from her room.
Her father noticed her come in. "Oh, sit down, honey."
Amy went to the couch. "Principal Snyder talk to you?" She took off her backpack and sat on the couch.
"Yes. He's quite concerned." Carl Madison looked at an old picture of the two of them together.
"Dad, I know what this looks like, and I can totally-"
"Oh, you don't have to explain, honey. This isn't exactly a surprise." Carl turned over the picture.
Amy fidgeted, confused. "Why not?"
Carl shrugged. "Like mother, like daughter. I figured it was just a matter of time." He set the picture down.
Amy frowned.
"Oh, honey..." Carl put down the picture and got up to go over to his daughter. "I understand." He sat next to her.
"No, you don't." Amy faced him. "Dad, this may be hard for you to accept, but I can do stuff. Nothing bad or dangerous, but I can do spells."
"You think you can, and that's what concerns me. The delusions."
"Dad, how would you know what I can do? You never ask. It's always all about what you wanna do."
"That's it. You're grounded."
Amy was surprised. "Grounded? This is the first time ever I've done something you don't like, and I'm grounded? I'm supposed to mess up. I'm a teenager, remember?"
"You're upset; I hear you-"
Amy stood up. "No, Dad, hear this! I'm a witch!"
Carl was disgusted now. "Oh, Amy!" He got up. "That's enough! Is that clear? Now, you will go to your room and stay there until I say otherwise. And we're gonna make some changes." He shook his head. "I don't want you hanging out with those friends of yours. It's clear that they encourage this little obsession."
At Buffy's house, Joyce was at the dining room table, surrounded by posters of the two children. She had a MOO button pinned to her blouse. Her laptop was open, and a phone and fax machine sat nearby. The place was set up like a command center. Behind her was a whiteboard full of statistics. Buffy stood near the table.
"I don't want you seeing that Amy anymore. I've spoken with her father. I had no idea her forays into the occult had gone so far."
Buffy was in disbelief. "You're the one who ordered the raid on the school today."
"Honey, they opened a few lockers."
"Lockers. First syllable: 'lock'. They're supposed to be private. And they took all of Giles' books away."
"He'll get most of them back. MOO just wants to weed out the offensive material. Everything else will be returned to Mr. Giles soon."
"If we're gonna solve this, we need those books now."
"Sweetie, those books have no place in a public school library. Especially now. Any student can waltz in there and get all sorts of ideas." Joyce got up and stepped over to Buffy. "Do you understand how that terrifies me?"
"Mom, I hate that these people scared you so much. And I-I know that you're just trying to help, but you have to let me handle this. It's what I do."
"But is it really? I mean...you patrol, you slay. Evil pops up; you undo it. A-A-And that's great! But is Sunnydale getting any better? Are they running out of vampires?"
"I don't think that you run out of-"
"It's not your fault. You don't have a plan. You just react to things. I-I-It's bound to be kind of fruitless."
Buffy was taken aback. "Okay, maybe I don't have a plan. Lord knows I don't have lapel buttons-"
"Buffy-"
"-And maybe next time that the world is getting sucked into Hell, we won't be able to stop it, because the Anti-Hell-Sucking Book isn't on the approved reading list!" Buffy yelled.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put down-"
"Yeah, well, you did." Buffy shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I have to go. I have to go on one of my pointless patrols and react to some vampires. If that's all right with MOO." She turned around and headed for the door, then stepped back into the room. "And nice acronym, Mom." She left.
Buffy visited the playground where the children were found. The carousel was bedecked with candles and flowers and pictures of the children. Buffy quietly walked up to it. She pulled her arms to her body for warmth. To her right, she noticed Faith approaching.
"Hey."
Buffy smiled. "Hi. How are you?"
"I'm all right. I think I'm better than you right now."
They both looked over at the carousel.
"I heard about this. People are talking. People are even talking to me."
"It's strange. People die in Sunnydale all the time. I've never seen anything like this."
They both strolled over to a bench.
"They were children. Innocent. It makes a difference."
They sat facing each other.
"And Mr. Sanderson from the bank had it coming?" Buffy sighed. "My mom...said some things to me about being the Slayer. That it's fruitless." She shook her head. "No fruit for Buffy."
"She's wrong."
"Is she? Is Sunnydale any better than when I first came here? Okay, so I battle evil. But I don't really win. The bad keeps coming back and getting stronger. Like that kid in the story, the boy that stuck his finger in the duck."
"Dike."
Buffy gave her a confused look, slightly shocked.
Faith smiled. "It's another word for dam."
"Oh. Okay, that story makes a lot more sense now."
"B, you know, I'm still figuring things out. There's a lot I don't understand. But I do know it's important to keep fighting. I learned that from you."
"But we never-"
"We never win."
"Not completely."
"We never will. That's not why we fight. We do it, 'cause there's things worth fighting for. Those kids. Their parents."
Buffy had an epiphany. "Their parents."
"Look, I know it's not much."
"No. No, it's a lot."
In the library, Giles was at the table, trying to do some online research. He lost his connection.
"'Session interrupted'?" Giles asked, frustrated. "Who said you could interrupt, you stupid, useless fad! No, I said fad. And I'll say it again." He typed.
Katrina and Harmony walked up to him.
Harmony smiled. "We found your books."
Giles looked at them hopefully as the two girls went to stand behind him.
Katrina shook her head. "We can't get them. They're locked up in City Hall."
Buffy strode into the library. She went straight over to Giles.
Harmony smiled. "Oh! Buffy, Trina and I found out-"
"What do we know about these kids?" Buffy asked.
"What?" Giles asked her.
"Facts. Details."
"Well, they were, uh, found in the park."
"No. Where did they go to school? Who were their parents? What are their names?" Buffy asked.
Giles took off his glasses. None of them had answers for any of her questions.
"We know everything about their deaths, but we don't even know their names."
Katrina realized something. "That never came up. Ever."
"And if no one knows who they are, where did these pictures come from?" Buffy asked.
Giles put his glasses back on and stared at the screen. "I just assumed someone had the details. I never really..." He paused in thought. "Well, that is strange."
Buffy nodded. "We need to get some information."
Giles got up. "Yeah, well, somebody else do it. This thing's locked me out."
Katrina took Giles' place. "I can look around, but Tara would really know the sites we need."
"That's great. She's confined to our room, and my phone was confiscated. The wrath of MOO."
Harmony looked at them. "What about Ms. Calendar?"
Buffy nodded. "Hey, yeah, she's got a laptop at home that they haven't gotten to."
Katrina nodded. "All right, we're in chat. If anybody's identified the kids, she'll send us the links."
Katrina opened the pages as Jenny found them.
Giles looked closely at the screen. "Oh. 'Two Children Found Dead. Mysterious Mark...' No. No. These children were found near Omaha in 1949."
Harmony frowned. "Yeah, they ain't ours. Keep going."
Before Katrina could move on, the accompanying image loaded.
Buffy stared at it in surprise. "Wait. Those are the same kids."
Giles looked at the image. "Fifty years ago."
Katrina loaded up the next page. "'1899. Utah...' 'Two Children...' 'Rural Community Torn Apart by Suspicion.'"
Giles was confused. "A hundred years ago? How is this possible?"
"There's no mention of who they were."
Buffy thought about it. "They've never been seen alive, just dead. A lot."
Katrina opened the next page. This one was dated 1649 and had a hand drawing of the two children. Jenny typed a message in the chat.
Katrina switched back to the chat window and read it. "Ah. 'There were more articles. Every fifty years. All the same.'"
Giles was intrigued. "From as far back as 1649. Can I see that?"
Katrina surrendered her place to Giles.
Giles read the German and translated it. "Written by a cleric from a village near the Black Forest. He...found the bodies himself. Two children...Greta Strauss, age six; Hans Strauss, eight."
Harmony gave a faint smile. "So they have names. That's new."
Giles stood up and paced while Katrina sat down and kept looking for more information on the Web.
"Uh, wait, wait a minute. Uh..." Giles paused. "Uh, there is a fringe theory held by a few folklorists that some regional stories have actual, um, very literal antecedents."
"And in some language that's English?" Buffy asked.
"Fairy tales are real?" Katrina guessed.
"Hans and Gre...Hansel and Gretel?" Buffy guessed.
"Wait. Hansel and Gretel? Breadcrumbs, ovens, gingerbread house?" Harmony asked, confused.
"Of course!" Giles exclaimed. "Well, it makes sense now."
Buffy nodded. "Yeah, it's all falling into place. Of course, that place is nowhere near this place."
Giles sat on the table. "Some demons thrive by fostering hatred and - and, uh, persecution amongst the mortal animals. Not by - Not by destroying men, but by watching men destroy each other. Now, they feed us our darkest fear and turn peaceful communities into vigilantes."
Buffy picked up on that thought. "Hansel and Gretel run home to tell everyone about the mean old witch."
Giles nodded. "And then she and probably dozens of others are persecuted by a righteous mob. It's happened all throughout history. It happened in Salem, not surprisingly."
Harmony looked at them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm still spinning on this whole fairy tales are real thing."
Giles stood and began to pace again.
"So what do we do?" Katrina asked.
Buffy went to the counter. "Giles, we need to talk to Mom. If she knows the truth, she can defuse the whole thing." She grabbed her coat.
Just then, Michael ran into the library with a slight limp. He had been beaten and bruised. He had a black eye, and his face was bloody.
"What happened?" Buffy asked him.
Harmony and Katrina walked over to them.
"I was attacked!" Michael exclaimed, out of breath.
"By whom?" Buffy asked.
Michael hugged himself. "My dad. His friends. They're taking people out of their homes. They're talking about a trial down at City Hall. They got Amy."
Buffy had a horrible feeling. "Tara..." She looked at the others. "Michael, stay here and hide. Giles, we'll go find my mom."
Katrina and Harmony ran out of the library. Giles grabbed his coat.
"Tell Tara to get out of her house!" Michael called after them.
Giles looked at Michael. "Stay in my office."
He and Buffy ran out also.
Buffy opened the front door and quickly entered the living room of the Summers' house. Giles was right behind her. Several people were gathered there.
Joyce looked up in surprise. "Buffy! Mr. Giles! Did something happen?"
"Mom, we need to talk to you. Now."
Joyce put down her notebook. "Well, of course, honey." She looked at the others. "Um, go on without me." She went to Buffy.
"No, we need to talk alone."
They started into the dining room.
"Look, there's more to this than-"
Suddenly, Joyce held a cloth up to Buffy's mouth and nose, and two of the men there jumped Giles from behind, wrestling him to the floor. Buffy quickly collapsed to the floor, overcome by the fumes from the cloth.
Buffy wasn't completely knocked out yet and could hear a conversation between her mother, a girl, and a boy.
"You were right. I-It was easy."
"I told you."
"It gets even easier."
"But I'm still scared of the bad girls."
Buffy's vision began to blur.
"You have to stop them. You have to make them go away. Forever."
Buffy passed out.
Tara was sitting on her and Buffy's bed in their room. She heard the door unlock and got up from the bed. She ran over to the door as it opened.
"Mrs. Summers, we really have to talk."
There, she saw her foster mother surrounded by several other adults.
"It's time to go. Oh, and get your coat. It's chilly out."
Tara was very confused. "Go? Go where?"
"I said get your coat, witch!" Joyce yelled angrily.
Tara slammed the door on them. The adults started to pound at it. Tara desperately tried to keep them out.
At Sunnydale City Hall, a crowd was gathered in a room. A few of them were bearing torches. They all calmly watched as Steve and Carl finished tying Tara and Amy to stakes.
Joyce smiled. "Hold still. Be good girls."
Buffy was between Tara and Amy, unconscious and also tied to a stake. Piled all around them were the library books that MOO had deemed offensive, ready to burn.
"No!" Tara yelled. "Why are you doing this to me? Dad?"
"There's no cure but the fire."
Amy struggled against her ropes. "Buffy! Wake up!"
"This is crazy, Mrs. Summers!" Tara yelled.
"Buffy! Buffy!" Amy yelled.
At the Summers' house, Cordelia kneeled over Giles and gave him a sharp slap to the face. "Wake up!"
She slapped him two more times, and he began to come out of it. She was about to slap again, when he suddenly reached up and blocked her swing.
"Cordelia?" Giles asked.
"Took you long enough to wake up. My hand hurts."
"Pity." Giles rubbed his temples. "Oh...why are you here?"
"Things are way out of control, Giles. First the thing at school, and then my mom confiscates all of my black clothes and scented candles."
Giles sat up.
"I came over here to tell Buffy to stop this craziness and found you all unconscious...again. How many times have you been knocked out, anyway?" Cordelia asked him.
Giles found his glasses.
"I swear, one of these times, you're gonna wake up in a coma."
"Wake up in a...?" Giles put his glasses on. "Oh, never mind." He struggled to his feet. "We need to save Buffy from Hansel and Gretel." He headed for the front door.
Cordelia followed him out. "Now, let's be clear. The brain damage happened before I hit you."
At Sunnydale City Hall, Katrina and Harmony slammed up against the doors and barged in. There, they encountered four men guarding the doors to the room where the girls had been tied up. The two girls stopped to face the men.
"What's with the grim?" Harmony asked. "We're here to join you guys."
They slowly approached the men, who eyed them suspiciously.
"No, really. Why should you guys have all the fun?" Harmony asked. "We wanna be part of the hate."
"Just so we're clear, you guys know you're fucking nuts, right?" Katrina asked them.
The men lunged for the girls, who made a fast break and ran down the hall.
Buffy began to stir back to consciousness.
"Buffy!" Tara exclaimed.
Buffy struggled against her bonds.
"Good morning, sleepyhead."
"Mom, you don't want this."
"Since when does it matter what I want?" Joyce asked Buffy. "I wanted a normal, happy daughter. Instead, I got an angry, murderous Slayer."
Carl joined Joyce, bearing a torch. "Torch."
Joyce took it. "Thanks. This has been so trying. You've been such a champ."
"Oh, you, too, Joyce."
"We should stay close, have lunch."
"Oh, I'd like that. How nice."
Joyce bent down to set fire to the books.
"Oh, you can't be serious!" Amy yelled.
"Mom, don't!" Buffy pleaded.
Joyce touched the torch to the books, and they began to burn. Others with torches set the books ablaze all around them.
"Mom, look at me! You love me. You're not gonna be able to live with yourself if you do this!" Buffy yelled.
"You earned this. You toyed with unnatural forces. You murdered the love of my life. What kind of a mother would I be, if I didn't punish you?" Joyce asked her. "Don't worry, it'll be permanent soon."
The flames were getting very close to Tara.
"Buffy, I can't take it! It's too hot!" Tara cried.
"I'm sorry, Tara. If it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened."
Amy had lost all patience. "All right. You wanna fry a witch? I'll give you a motherfucking witch! Goddess Khione, work thy will!"
Buffy shuddered. "Uh-oh."
Amy's eyes turned pitch black, and the energy of her spell began to swirl around her.
"Break these bonds!" Amy exclaimed.
She shivered as the spell's power increased around her, building ever greater strength. Finally, she was engulfed by a sudden burst of ice and wind. People in the crowd screamed as they watched. An instant later, Amy's ropes dropped to the books below. Everyone stared in amazement. Buffy and Tara looked over to see what happened to her. Then Amy levitated across the floor. The frightened adults jumped out of her way.
Buffy could only watch Amy go. "Hey! Do us!"
Amy turned and cast the whirlwind of ice at the flames, dousing them. Then Amy psychically snapped Buffy and Tara's ropes.
Tara levitated. "You've seen what we can do! Another step, and you will all feel our power!"
The people stared at them in shock and horror.
The children suddenly appeared.
"But you promised."
"You have to kill the bad girls."
Giles and Cordelia raced to Sunnydale City Hall in his car.
Cordelia looked through the things that Giles brought with them and was disgusted. "I can't believe you had this shit in your apartment. It smells foul."
"Shred the wolfsbane. That's the, uh, the leafy stuff. And then you can crush the satyrion root." Giles tried to remember a spell. "Luften sie den something. Schlumer? Schluter?"
Cordelia crushed the roots. "What are you muttering about?"
"It's a part of an incantation. It's in German, and without my book-"
"What does it mean?"
"It's about, uh, lifting a veil. Um, it should, uh, make the demons appear in their true form, which, with any luck, will, uh, negate their influence. And, uh, drop a toadstone into the mixture."
Cordelia picked it up. "This?" She sniffed it. "It doesn't look like a toad."
"No reason it should. It's from inside the toad."
Cordelia quickly dropped it in. "I hate you."
Katrina and Harmony had lost the posse and were trying to find another way in. They each struggled with doors, but they were all locked.
Katrina pounded on a door in frustration. "We gotta get inside."
They looked around for where to go next. Then they heard Buffy, Amy, and Tara scream.
Katrina shuddered. "Well, that sounded unholy."
"It sounds like she's right...above us?" Harmony guessed.
Katrina hopped up on a bench below a ventilation shaft grate. She banged on it a couple of times, and it gave way. She climbed in. Harmony was right behind.
"They hurt us."
"Burn them."
Joyce lit another torch and approached them. Amy immediately extinguished it.
"Mom, dead people are talking to you. Do the fucking math!" Buffy yelled in anger.
"I'm sorry, Buffy."
Cordelia and Giles barged into the hall outside. Giles heard the noises coming from inside and rushed over to the doors but found them locked. He looked around in desperation and unexpectedly reached into Cordelia's hair and pulled out a hairpin.
"Ouch! You got hair with that!" Cordelia complained.
Giles ignored her protests and kneeled down in front of the doors. He carefully inserted the pin into the lock and began to pick it.
"God, you really were the little youthful offender, weren't you?" Cordelia asked him. "You must just look back on that and cringe."
"Shh!"
Giles got the door open and ran in, followed by Cordelia.
Buffy saw them. Giles pointed Cordelia to a fire hose in the corner. She went to it and smashed the glass with her elbow, holding up her hand to protect her face from the glass. The noise got the crowd's attention.
"Stop them!" Joyce ordered.
Cordelia pulled out the hose and turned it on, spraying the advancing crowd. Giles started reciting his incantation in very bad, unintelligible German, muffled by the sound of the water spraying.
"You like that? Huh? How 'bout some more?!" Cordelia yelled at the people.
After a while, Cordelia turned off the water. Hansel and Gretel slowly walked up to them, closing in on Giles.
Giles raised the bottle with his potion high. "Ihr Goetter, ruft Euch an! Verbergt Euch nicht hinter falschen Gesichtern!" He threw the bottle to the floor, smashing it in front of the children.
The potion began to steam around them. Hansel and Gretel looked at each other and embraced. A moment later, the two children morphed into a single demon standing over seven feet tall. Its ears were pointed, and huge fangs jutted from its lower jaw. Its skin was red and mottled, and its hair was long and tangled.
Cordelia stared at it. "Okay, I think I liked the two little ones more than the one big one."
Joyce stared up at the demon in horror. "Oh, my God!"
The other people in the room all ran out, screaming.
"Protect us! Kill the bad girls!" the demon yelled.
"You know what?" Buffy asked. "Not as convincing in that outfit."
The demon roared and came at her. Buffy reached behind herself and grabbed the stake that she had been tied to, breaking it. It was top heavy and forced Buffy to bend over, so the tip was pointing at the demon, who couldn't stop his advance and impaled himself through the neck. Joyce looked on in disgust.
Buffy couldn't straighten herself back up with the weight of the demon's body at the other end of the stake and so couldn't see the result of her unwitting maneuver. "Did I get it? Did I get it?"
Tara smiled. "Yeah, sweetie, you got it."
Buffy got out from under the stake and straightened herself. She and Tara hugged each other and kissed each other on the lips.
Suddenly, the ceiling gave way above them, and Katrina and Harmony crashed down. The books broke their fall. They looked up weakly at Buffy and the dead demon.
Harmony smiled. "Hi, guys!"
Katrina smiled. "We're here to save you."
The two girls got to their feet. Amy walked over to Katrina and kissed her on the lips, and then they, Giles, Buffy, Tara, Cordelia, and Harmony stared at Joyce, who looked away in shame.
A short while later, at the Madisons' house, Katrina was helping Amy pack all of her belongings into their cars.
Carl just sat silently on the living room couch, ignored by both of them.
At Giles' apartment, he and Jenny had laid out what he could salvage from the fire on a blanket on the living room floor.
Giles was examining each of the books, but he had to take a break as sadness overwhelmed him. He took off his glasses and cried.
Jenny hugged him around the shoulders. "How bad is it?"
"Once I retrieved my books from the police station, I identified forty-one missing books that were not among them. Of those, seven received minor damage from the fire." He paused. "The rest are lost."
Jenny rubbed his back. "I'm sorry. Give me the names, and I'll try to track down replacement copies on the 'Net."
"It's not that simple. Ten of those books were one-of-a-kind, handwritten manuscripts, centuries old. Irreplaceable." Giles stood up, walked into the kitchen, opened a bottle of whiskey, poured himself a shot, and gulped it down.
Jenny watched in sadness, then she picked up Giles' notebook and looked over the list of titles.
At the Summers' house, in the kitchen, Buffy, Tara, and Joyce sat at the island in silence, nervously clutching cups of tea.
Joyce finally sighed. "I'm so sorry."
Buffy looked at her, unmoved. "Are you?"
"Yes, but you've gotta understand I was under the influence of those demonic...things."
"You said some very specific, hurtful things. I wonder how much of that was demonic and how much of it was you."
Joyce sighed. "Do you really wanna get into that?"
Buffy suddenly grew angry. "I fucked up! I know that! I murdered your overbearing, creepy boyfriend, who turned out to be a murderer himself! Okay?! You think I don't think about that every single day of my life?! It hasn't gone away! It's never gonna go away! I have to live with it for the rest of my life! That could be a century, a few decades, a few years, a few days, or even just a few hours! I could get killed by a vampire or die in a car crash or have a sudden heart attack or brain aneurysm! I don't know! But I could be going about my business and suddenly find myself burning in Hell!"
Tara looked at Buffy. "Is that something that really worries you?"
"A little." Buffy shrugged. "Catholic guilt."
Tara felt sorry for Buffy but could understand how she was feeling.
Buffy stared into her mother's eyes. "My point is I know I did something truly vile, but I'm repentant over it. But you tried to burn your own daughter alive, because some supposed ghosts told you to."
Joyce started crying. "I'm really sorry."
Buffy didn't say anything for a moment. She took a sip of tea and tried to calm down. Then she looked at her mother again. "I turn eighteen next Tuesday."
"What are you saying?" Joyce asked her.
"Nothing more than that...for the moment. We'll see how it goes. But right now, I don't feel safe in this house."