Author notes: I made one character slightly older than in the original Buffyverse.

- City Hall, Sunnydale, Wednesday 2 November 2011, 10:30 -

"Chief Munroe," said Joyce, using an icy tone. "Given our present circumstances, I am willing to overlook some of the faults of our past human selves. However, incompetence is not something I am going to tolerate anymore. So… tell me once again how your pathetic excuse for a police force lost sight of those mortals."

Richard Wilkins kept his best poker face while he saw the chief of Sunnydale's police break down under Joyce's glare. He didn't dare to say anything. He knew all too well why Munroe was so incompetent. He had been the one to recruit him and he had spent time making sure that Sunnydale's police would be totally oblivious to the supernatural. Unfortunately, this had degenerated into overall incompetence.

But circumstances have changed. Now we're all in the same boat.

They had managed to get the glamour barrier in place just in time and it was now strong enough to protect the town from everyday occurrences, like the many deliveries needed for a city of forty thousand people to function. There were other problems though. The Sunnydalers that had not, for one reason or another, been in town for Halloween was one of those.

The chief of police was trying to justify something else. Real gangs had never been a problem in the old Sunnydale, at least not a long-term one. Setting the vampires on 'mundane' criminal elements stupid enough to settle in town had been an elegant solution. However, it wasn't a solution that was possible anymore and it had always needed some time to implement anyway. The current issue was that a drug trafficker's men had been spotted in town and were probably setting up a lab in one of the numerous empty warehouses. This in itself wasn't a problem. What was a problem was that these people had committed federal crimes and that no one wanted the FBI in Sunnydale now.

"But… you know that scrying spells on mortals are not working well as the glamour field creates an interference. We cannot survey all…"

"Your first almost sensible argument and you waste it by making it sound like an excuse for laziness," countered Joyce. "Of course, humans in Sunnydale have to be monitored at this time. Odin," she continued, turning toward him. "I am going to deploy the Abaddon to take care of that problem. I advise your… policemen to stay out of their path."

"You… you cannot," said Munroe. "They…"

"How amusing," cut Joyce, sarcasm heavy in her voice. "Now… now you discover yourself a conscience after all those years of turning a blind eye to what this world's demonic trash did. So, spare me the lecture, weak little god and remember…there is no doublet system to protect you here should my patience come to an end."

Richard 'Odin' Wilkins felt very conflicted. He remembered the human Joyce Summers. He had met her during an event he had organized for Sunnydale's business owners. Of course, he had been interested in her. She was the Slayer's mother, and he was then the occult master of the town. In many ways she had seemed ordinary, just a freshly divorced woman fighting to give the best life she could to her daughter. But he also remembered seeing potential in her. Potential he could then not allow to flourish. He had therefore reinforced Sunnydale's apathy field with some spells of his own to make sure that she would not support her daughter.

Now, he was seeing this potential in full. Hild had done to the woman something similar to what happened to vampires. She had taken the base personality of Joyce, her desire to protect and nurture, and removed all safeguards, replacing them with raw willpower and charisma, with only Shedim honor to keep the result in check. The result was a woman who, in order to protect her community, had taken only a few moments to decide to send a death squad to murder humans.

The part of him that was still Richard Wilkins found her magnificent and would seriously have considered proposing to her even if he knew that she would have toyed with his former human self like a cat with a mouse until he was ripped into shreds. The Odin part of him had already felt her – or rather Hild's – claws. He knew why things had only lasted for a while in the alliance the Shedim and Elohim had put together. In the beginning, the marriage between Hild and Odin had been a purely political matter, but then little Urd had come, and he had hoped that she would hold her people in check for Urd's sake. She had for a while, until they were all focused on the Grand Project. They had created humanity, a race balanced between their two people, and guided it to sapience. Disagreements on the manner followed and…

We wanted humanity to be safe, to prevent them from making the mistakes we did when evolving without any guide. The Shedim wanted them to be free to make their own mistakes and learn their price the harsh way. This was just the spark needed to light the powder keg our artificial peace had become… It has happened before. Will it happen again, here in Sunnydale?

"My dear," said Richard, smiling to Joyce, "I think that you made your point and that we can reach an agreement. The Abaddon is better suited than the Valkyries to handle… surgical strikes against the mortals so I think we can agree to use them as a rapid reaction force for such cases. I would only require that… I know this is not their specialty, but prisoners would be a boon, particularly as we are looking for spies."

"Indeed… Eisheth, tell Baal not to damage them too badly. Worst case, we need enough for Bifrons to interrogate their corpses."

The secretary that had been standing silently behind her immediately started to text. Richard silently thanked Odin's memories. Without them he would have missed that slight sign in her gaze, a sign Odin had learnt to interpret during his marriage with Hild.

She is hating this but doing it anyway. Why? Yes, Shedim politics. She cannot afford to show any sign of weakness. She must convince her people she is the best ruler and that means being cruel to show she won't hesitate to take the necessary steps to protect them. Things are a lot simpler for me than they are for her…

As Richard Wilkins, the man who made a pact with demons, founding Sunnydale as a demonic playground in exchange for immortality, he would probably have only looked no further than his own interest. Odin's memories, however, had wormed their way into his very being and re-awakened things he had thought long dead in his soul. They had a common point that had allowed them to merge so well. They were both masterminds, moving pawns patiently to reach their goal. What changed however was that Odin believed in the Greater Good. Sacrifices had to be made so that a better world could be built, a world of order and harmony.

And for this, I need the Shedim under control. I know how Hild thinks, and we agree on enough things to work together. From Gabriel's analysis, the main contenders didn't change that much. Tezcatlipoca is still the next in line and I bet he still has his 'let's nuke everything and start over with the survivors' political program. So, I have to support her. The question is how… Urd. Willow hadn't come see me yet and as she was the Slayer's friend, she probably had good relationships with her before Halloween. I should be able to convince Belldandy to help… note to self: Willow's human parents may be a problem. I'll discuss how to remove it with Gabriel later.

They were wrapping up the meeting when his assistant passed him a note. He frowned. This was another inconvenience, something he needed to tell her. He concentrated a little, easily finding that familiar spot in her aura and directing a 'compressed thought' toward it with the information he desired. He caught her slight frown and quick nod.

He smiled gently as she left the room with a determined stride.

- Sunnydale Hospital, Wednesday 2 November 2011, 11:25 -

Joyce materialized in front of the hospital and walked through the entrance hall. She noticed the gazes on her, tasted the fear of some of the Elohim staff and acknowledged by a quick nod the reverence of a few of her own people. These people, however, weren't her target. The real question was why one of her daughters had decided to skip school.

I should have noticed that she didn't come back last night but… I was too tired after my late meeting with Baal yesterday and Dawn caught my attention this morning. Feeble excuses. Find someone to shadow… no, she would just find me overbearing… need to be subtler… Byleth. Byleth has reincarnated here as Belial's daughter which makes her Buffy's newest cousin. How to encourage their friendship… a family outing but not in the immediate future. Belial needs the weekend to convince his human wife to join us… a pity she was out of town to see her family during Halloween. It complicates matters but nothing that cannot be surmounted. Belial will have her under contract in no time. Note to self: read that report from Vapula about Nidhogg's readiness for ascension process. Ah! Here she is!

Buffy was sitting on a chair in the hall, a coffee cup in hand. Joyce easily noticed the puffy eyes that had little to do with the lack of sleep. There was also another point that told her a lot about the seriousness of the situation. Her daughter's hair was a complete mess, and she hadn't bothered with straightening it. Satan leaned forward, hands on her thighs, putting her face on level with her daughter's.

"Honey… won't you tell Mom what's wrong?"

Buffy raised her head, looking at her as if she didn't recognize her, something that once again made Joyce intensely aware of the changes she had gone through, including the way her physical appearance had evolved… No, what she was seeing on Buffy's face was actually different. Her daughter's gaze seemed vacant.

"Buffy, could you really look at me and not just stare in my direction?" she asked again, in a tone that Hild's memories had categorized as 'playful menace'.

The teen startled, spilling the cold remains of her coffee on the ground. She had felt that ping of panic at a voice Mara knew very well, a voice that demanded absolute obedience. She looked up, seeing a face that was the one she expected with that voice, but not quite. The tan was the same, but the eyes were burgundy and not purple. The traits of the woman were also softer, rounder than the ones of Hild and strangely familiar. Finally, she remembered.

She remembered the night before, when her mom had shown her the new appearance the Halloween spell had given her. She remembered how on the morning after Halloween she had panicked and run to Giles, not really understanding what was happening. Now, a mere day later… things were so different. Now, she remembered a lot of the things Mara knew. She knew that trying to reverse the Halloween spell would need an amount of energy able to wreck an area whose radius was counted in parsecs. She even understood the math leading to that conclusion. She knew that the only thing to do was to go with Mara's advice: make the best of the current circumstances. She was even starting to convince herself that she liked it.

But right now, she didn't feel like a millennia old badass demon. She felt the tears gather in her eyes once again, like they had done so many times in the last few hours. She felt the arms of the woman facing her hug her and the last pieces clicked back together. This was another thing Halloween had given her or rather given her back. Now her mom wasn't someone from which she had to hide her Slayerness anymore. She wasn't the one who, because she could not believe in the supernatural, had agreed to have her daughter committed to a mental hospital.

"Here… tell me what's wrong," said Joyce while continuing to hug Buffy.

"Angel…"

"I suppose you mean the student tutoring you and not some Eloah… What happened?"

She smiled as she felt her daughter tense in her arms, guessing the thoughts running through the teen's mind. Buffy had been the one to tell her Angel was a university student. A lie of course, one to hide the fact Angel was – at that time – a vampire with a soul helping her in her Slayer duties.

"Mom…" said Buffy, annoyance piercing in her tone. "The clueless act won't work with me. Mara knew Hild too well. I bet you have a dossier the size of a phone book on your desk with all the details about Angel."

"This I do, but my main concern about him remains unchanged..."

She broke the hug and let a finger trace her daughter's cheek, coming up until it reached her eye, following the trail of dried tears.

"These are not the tears one sheds for a mere tutor. These are the tears of a lover, honey."

Joyce smiled as she saw her daughter blush.

"I… I… No… I mean it's not that I wouldn't like it but…" stuttered Buffy, her gaze shifting down, not wanting to face her mother's.

At least it's Valefor and I know how to play him like a fiddle… Dawn crushing on Mikael's daughter is going to be a lot more… interesting to manage, thought Joyce.

"You still haven't told me what's wrong… Ma-chan."

Joyce smiled again, that dark, cruel part of her enjoying very much seeing her daughter suddenly turn livid at the sound of the tone Hild had often used with Mara. She felt her withered humanity trying to raise some protest but ignored it. The purpose here was not her sadistic pleasure but to force Buffy to shape up. Such weakness was unbecoming of a member of her House.

"Right, report time," said Buffy after slapping her cheeks lightly. "Last night, when I met him, I had a bad feeling about how the Halloween spell and his soul curse interacted. I could have brought him to Giles but then I remembered that the doctors here were now gods and demons and probably big shots on the healing scene. So, I brought him here and had him examined. I was right, the link between his soul and his body is barely holding. A few hours later and… all the power of a first category demon in the hands of a vampire."

"Buffy, should it happen, I want you to kill him. No discussion," said Joyce with a frown.

The Slayer looked in her mother's eyes, looking for any trace of joke and not finding any. She bit her lower lip, trying to prevent more tears from gathering in her eyes.

"Buffy, tell me why this is the right decision. Now."

The words hit her like a truck. No attempt to convince her, just an order for her to set aside her emotions and analyze the situation with cold logic. Because just as she knew Hild through Mara, Joyce knew Mara through Hild. She knew what she could expect from a first category operative with millennia of experience.

"We… we cannot afford the security risk. Too many unknowns, a war with this world's occult factions probably brewing, b…"

"Why shouldn't we try to restore his soul again?" cut Joyce, knowing what was coming.

"First time was an abomination," said Buffy not bothering to hold back her tears anymore. "Ripped a soul out of the afterlife and forced him to feel guilt for crimes the vampire did. No self-respecting demon – I mean our kind of demon – would do that. Can't do that again, unless he asked for it."

"Then it's his choice and this is the only reason why…"

"But Mom… the Halloween spell: it was forced on us."

Joyce beeped her daughter on the nose.

"Please daughter, I am subtler than that. You know the trick. It's not that there is no choice…"

"It's to make the mark believe that all other options are so bad they're not even worth thinking about," finished Buffy, remembering the Temptation 101 classes Mara followed.

"Good, now let's find someone who can give us an update on Valefor's situation. After that, I'll treat you to lunch... Buffy, one last thing: Snyder is going to give you detention for skipping."

Gears clicked in the teen's mind. She barely held back the 'totally unfair!' trying to escape her lips and lowered her head. She knew what her new and improved mother expected of her. She could feel in her guts that it was the right thing to say. In a corner of her soul, the person she had been before Halloween tried to protest, but she ignored it. Even if it hurt, that person wasn't her anymore.

"I will do it without complaining… not because skipping is wrong but because I was sloppy. I should have planned to deflect Snyder."

"Good girl," replied Joyce with a smile.

- Sunnydale High, Wednesday 2 November 2011, 12:17 -

Liberty Kendall was desperately trying to focus on her food. Earlier this morning, she had heard from one of her friends that a certain redhead demoness was looking for her. Her heart had immediately clenched at the news and the memories of the other girl in her head had been assaulting her ever since.

Calm down. You're one of the popular girls. You've joined the cheerleading squad… who am I kidding? As if Sunnydale High's football team could compete fairly against a human team!

The other memories showed her the equivalent of football some of the angels liked to play. It was different, with rules tailored to reward team playing and penalize mavericks. She… the other girl in her head had disliked it. Sometimes, she wondered if she would have fared so well without Aregna's protection, if her individualism would not have been punished.

No, cannot think about it. I'm Liberty. I'm the cool girl who is part of the school elite, the one who will take Cordelia's place once she graduates. I am not interested in…

"Linfa?"

The word hit her like a sword through the heart. The name she had tried her damnedest not to acknowledge, despite the fact she saw a halo above her head in the mirror every morning. The name that came with all those alien memories that tried to make themselves a home in her head.

She turned and saw her. In the normal world, the red-haired girl in the black and red, gothy outfit would probably have been popular in a small circle of like-minded nerds. It didn't matter that she was so cute that Liberty wanted to nibble on her pointed ears because… Liberty forced herself to focus, to think like a popular girl immersed in the game of high school politics.

Face it. We're not in a normal high school. In the new and improved Sunnydale, what really counts is the off-the-chart power I can feel coming from her. Here, Dawn Summers is royalty. Give it a month and demons will fight to get into her good graces.

The calculating part her sister had helped her develop thought that she could probably use that and the girl's infatuation with Linfa to gain immense popularity herself… She flinched.

"Are you alright?" asked that voice that made her feel so weak, that made her heartbeat go faster.

She quickly nodded, unable to control her blush. She wondered what she had just felt, and she knew. Linfa had bitch slapped that cold, calculating part of her for daring to think about using Dawn Summers in that way. Dawn Summers was Pam. A part of Dawn Summers saved Linfa several times without thinking about her own safety. Anyone hurting that girl would face the point of her sword.

This is where you belong: in each other's arms.

The thought was Linfa's, of course but… Linfa and Pam had been older than they were, something like eighteen while she and Dawn were only fourteen. They had…

"You look flushed. You're sure you're not sick?" asked Dawn as she put her hand on Liberty's brow to check her temperature.

Her blush intensified as she felt even hotter. Now, the X-rated memories of the many times Pam and Linfa had done it were flooding her brain. Her body, this traitorous flesh shaped by Halloween, remembered and was begging for more. She saw her approach, her cute petite frame, how tempting her lips looked. She tensed. She felt her body's needs, but they weren't her needs. They were Linfa's.

"Get a room, you two," said someone at the other end of the table.

The comment acted like a cold shower, and she saw Dawn blush while taking some distance. Suddenly, she had that adorable little pout Pam had when she realized she had done something not nice.

"I'm sorry," said Dawn. "I should have seen you're not comfortable with me being so close. You're probably the same as me, struggling to make sense of the two lives in your brain. I'm like you, you know. Before Halloween, I was a whiny kid for whom things were never right. I became a Goth just to have a reason to complain. But now, with Pam in my head… she taught me so much. How to enjoy flying. How to treasure my family and my friends. I bet that, if you let her, Linfa will have a lot to teach you too."

Liberty felt herself melting. She remembered what Linfa had thought once, how she had met the nicest demon that ever existed. She briefly thought about telling her to get lost but the mere idea of seeing Dawn cry was unbearable. She had to find some middle ground, or she would break.

"My sister is probably going to kill me, Pam, but… wanna be friends?" said Liberty, extending her hand.

"I would love that," replied Dawn, taking her hand and shaking it.

- At the Cordettes' table, at the same time -

"Crisis averted," said Cordelia. "Though… Harmony is still busy with her Valkyrie duties?"

"She will probably take a GED," said Aura. "She's helping her mom with setting the corps back up. So, we have some time."

"I'll have my dad talk to her dad," said Aphrodisia 'Byleth' Dillon. "The last time their respective mothers had a catfight…"

"Byleth, you realize you described one of the hottest things I can…" cut in Susanoo who was passing nearby. "Ouch, Onee-chan, you're mean!" he yelled while Amaterasu dragged him away by the ear.

"Please give me a minute to beat some sense into my idiot brother," said the sun goddess, blushing heavily.

"Sorry to be the poor devil girl from another world, but the little I know about your world comes either from the manga or what Mom and Dad are teaching me, and they didn't cover ancient history yet," said Gwen.

"Susanoo is correct in mentioning it was hot… though it was more in the super-volcano eruption way than in the X-rated one. To give you a bit of context, when we decided to cooperate on the big project to create humanity, we created an island on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to host both the Garden of Eden and our joint administrations. It was called Atlantis," replied Byleth.

"Got it. If they go for a rematch here, we end up with part of California below sea level," added Gwen.

"Yes," said Cordelia. "So, we keep an eye on our two lovebirds and do our best to smooth things over."

- Joe's, Sunnydale, Wednesday 2 November 2011, 12:27 -

Buffy was feeling a lot better. Well, she was still worried, but she didn't feel like a wreck anymore. Her Mom had been right: she needed to consider the situation rationally. This had helped her to actually understand the explanations of the healers at the hospital. It was true that Angel was not well and that they were keeping him in an artificial coma. It was the easiest way to guarantee a soul free of any spiritual strain while they were repairing the links anchoring it to his body. The treatment was heavy and would take weeks, but he would recover.

She actually felt ashamed of her initial reaction. She had completely zapped after coma, reacting like… a human. She pushed the thought aside and went back to her food. After leaving the hospital, they had teleported just outside the restaurant.

Outside and not inside because we're well-bred demons and don't want the food to end up stinking of brimstone. Even so, Mom's entrance provoked some reactions from the people here, well the divine and demonic ones. Because…

"Mom…" said Buffy, looking at the humans at a nearby table. "Will they…"

"See for yourself," replied Joyce, nodding towards the tablet sitting to her right on the table. "Specs files are in the 'S-Barrier' folder."

Buffy took it and started to navigate the menus. It was actually a Nidhogg terminal disguised to look like a consumer product. Her eyes scrolled through the text and main requirements before she shifted to the spell's source code and observed the desired section.

She wasn't as adept as Vapula at determining what a given bit of code would do but she knew enough to identify the main functions and make educated guesses on the limits of the barrier spell that hid the true Sunnydale from the outside world.

The key to how the barrier distinguished people was of course registration with either Nidhogg or Yggdrasil. The classifications were still using the same ranks – one of the few leftovers of the Atlantean Era – though the criteria for each faction differed. Class One and Two for Elohim and Shedim, with some subdivisions depending on maturity in class two. Class Three for magical creatures and humans that needed to be linked to a network, each case often having its own rules and exceptions. Finally, Class Four for those whose rights had to be suspended, because severing their access would have created too many issues.

As the Norns noticed after Fenris, when Yggdrasil's crash left them with no energy support, she thought with a smile.

She remembered one of the funniest memories of Mara during that period: seeing Urd forced back to child stage because her powers had become unstable.

"So," asked Joyce as she took another bite of her steak.

"So, talking near them is good, but talking to them would bypass the barrier. They will likewise ignore spells as long as they are not directed at them and are not too flashy. Mom… I only have some memories from Mara but… it looks costly, both in energy and computing power."

"It is. We had to take a lot of shortcuts to have it up and running during Halloween night. We already have and can still improve it but, in the end, Odin's solution will become a necessity."

"And that is?"

"Removing Sunnydale from Midgard. For the moment, however, I advised against it."

"Why? That would solve… I see," finished Buffy with a frown.

Buffy looked at her mother, at this smile she had while she looked at her, her chin resting on her hands. She knew that Joyce had guessed the conclusion she had reached and was actually feeling proud of her daughter's intelligence. There was just a 'little' problem with that. It was the nature of that conclusion.

"Mom… we're both monsters. I just understood that we are keeping Sunnydale on this plane because it's safer for us to use the mortals as human shields… and I'm not feeling ashamed about it. I must actually force myself to think it's wrong."

Why couldn't she cry? She had cried so easily before, when she had been uncertain whether Angel would live. Why couldn't she cry at the thought of all those innocents they were endangering? Why was her mother, one of the most caring people she knew, proud of her while she had to force herself to care about those people?

"Monster is such a loaded term, honey."

"The you of a few days ago would never have said that."

"No, she wouldn't," replied Joyce, toying with the food in her dish. "Buffy, believe it or not, but I made that choice for you. I have seen where the other way goes. Hild showed me. I have seen the Powers take away everything from you – including my own life – until you were the perfect pawn, ready to welcome the death they chose for you as a gift. I refused that. I chose to carve a better future for us. I embraced everything Hild offered me because hesitating will only get us killed. If that makes me a monster, so be it."

"What if… what if humans get killed in that war we're planning?"

"Honey, you should… do you remember the Crusades?"

Buffy looked at her dish and started to shake. It wasn't because of the quite vivid memories Mara had of that era, including the slaughter when the Christians took Jerusalem. It was because remembering that was actually failing to make her lose her appetite. She tried to feel bad, to remember how she had felt when she saw the memories in the dreamscape but there was a fundamental difference. Her dream body had been human. Her new and improved flesh and brain had different, darker instincts.

"I… I do and… finding it horrible is something I have to think about, an intellectual decision rather than a gut one. Mom… would it be the same if I…"

"Yes, it would be the same. For us Shedim, it is very easy to write off anyone we don't have a personal attachment with. They are just 'the others'. They only matter as far as our plans are concerned."

"Mom… I think there is a not nice word to call people like us."

"I suppose you are thinking about something like psychopath… untrue as we are not alienated. It is just that our norm is not the human norm, just like you can't expect a cat to behave like a human."

"And the gods?"

"Better to say Elohim, Buffy. Like us, their instincts are different from human ones, but they also differ from ours. We Shedim are by nature individualistic, prideful, and distrustful. Our reliance on contracts is a direct consequence of that mindset. Our pride forbids us to renege on our word and our distrust needs a formal agreement. For the Elohim… the group is what matters. They want to know their place in the great scheme of things. In practice, they ended with a caste system doubled by a web of feudal houses. To them, the 'other' is not the one they don't have a personal relationship with but the one who doesn't follow the rules."

Buffy tried to hang on to her human side, to see both systems as a mortal would. On one hand, the Shedim system guaranteed freedom. On the other hand, it was also the ultimate 'buyer beware' system because it had little in the matter of safeguards. Elohim side… it was peaceful. You were taken in charge, and you could always refer to your superiors. It also had rules, the one about first category gods being unable to lie being one of the most well-known.

She remembered something from Mara… Mara had a friend called Scox. He was a psychologist and one of his tasks had been to help some defector gods to adapt to life in Hell. 'Lost, like kids waiting for grown-ups to tell them what to do' was something he had told her during a drinking outing. The way he had been telling it, there was also another thing: many gods would not even think about discussing orders provided they came from someone with the right authority. The content of those orders was irrelevant.

And now I understand a lot better how that nightmare with the Aztecs happened… But…

"Mom… remember that I only have partial memories. What about the Norns? They do not really fall into that mold."

"First, they have some leeway as they are royalty. Second, your sister Urd has been a good influence on them, particularly with Skuld. In fact, once the other Elohim start to expect the cheeky brat to 'hold her rank'… either she will be broken, or she will start to think about defecting to be with people who will understand her genius. As you can guess, Vapula would love to have her."

Buffy made a funny face, somewhere between horror and amusement at the thought of the two gadgeteers working together. She decided to focus back on her food before it developed.

- At another table in Joe's, at the same time -

He had been looking at them since they had entered the dinner. What had caught his attention was the way a waitress had bowed to them as if they were royalty, given them a table without making them wait for even a second and how all the patrons had looked at her and acknowledged her. Even now, there was always one of the waitresses ready to react in a mere second to any signal coming from their table.

After that, of course, he had recognized who the blond one was, even though she'd had a change of haircut recently, probably replacing her standard dye with professional work. She was the reason why he was keeping an eye on Sunnydale.

Even though Altena has been hinting at a change in the cosmic balance and been scary enough to impress the high-ups… Now, what can I see about the other one? Sure, she's beautiful. Hell, all the models and actresses I can think of just look plain compared to those six feet of bronzed perfection. Even the platinum blond hair… it usually looks fake on people with her tan but not here. Here it's exotic, seductive, particularly with her lack of shirt under that jacket. That's not enough and nobody is looking at her as if she was a piece of meat. I even bet that if someone dared, half the patrons would drag the poor guy into an alley and beat him to a pulp because he disrespected her. Respect: that's what I'm seeing.

He had known some officers who could muster a small part of what she was doing naturally. The woman just oozed authority in a way that politicians would sell their soul to reach.

Would, had… Wolfram and Hart are selling that to too many people in Washington from what I have seen. It will soon be time to remind them that we are watching them. The candidates should… dangerous thought. Keep concentrating. Do not think sensitive thoughts. You're just a passing middle management guy.

He calmed, concentrating on some inane numbers, keeping a level of mental chatter on the top of his mind. He had been trained for this, trained to pass as completely mundane, unremarkable. He reached another level of concentration. It was hard but if he focused enough, he could catch glimpses of what was hidden here, of the red star on the woman's brow and of the two sickle-like ones on the Slayer's.

He paid for his meal and got out of the restaurant. He still had a few things to do before leaving Sunnydale and he had to balance speed and caution very carefully. The newcomers were not your typical demons. Typical demons did not set up encrypted communications using algorithms that the NSA would probably kill for. Typical demons did not manipulate the stock exchange to accumulate tens of millions of dollars almost unnoticed in a mere day.

So, I have to improvise… well, let's see how they will handle the little intrusion I set up.

- Warehouse district, Sunnydale, Wednesday 2 November 2011, 14:55 -

"Amy…" said a mustachioed man in a black suit.

Amy Madison looked at her father, wondering what her mother, Catherine Madison, the dark witch who thought he was just a loser who never made any money would think. To be fair, she would certainly have something to say about wearing a Mickey tie with an Armani suit.

"It's all right, Dad. We're just having some father-daughter bonding time."

"Don't forget your new Mom, honey," he said while lighting himself a cigar with the black flame on the tip of his finger.

"Right and… well, with Loki being…"

"It's all right, Siggi," said a brunette woman with Mediterranean features, raising her head from the car's trunk. "There are plenty of cute demon boys who will love to fuck your brains out. I'll give you some pointers…but for now, we have a nice family outing to conduct. I'm taking the SPAS-12. What do you want to take?"

"Don't you have a sword?"

"Sorry honey, Satan's orders," said Frank 'Baal' Madison. "Survivors must believe they have stumbled on another gang's turf… Come on, it will be fun!" he added with a laugh.

Sighing, Amy went to the trunk and took two Desert Eagles from the armory stashed in there. With the Asgardian strength she had inherited from Sigyn, they wouldn't be a problem. She concentrated a little, chanting discreetly to make the weapon's ammunition unlimited. Another thought and her clothes morphed into a black suit similar to the ones worn by her father and stepmother.

Come on… you're a big girl… a big girl who's about to kill people and who's with two psychopaths who think this will be a fun family outing… and to be fair, I'm more scared about fucking up than horrified about what I'm about to do.

She had a look at her stepmother. Her name had been Laura before Halloween, some girl her mother had called 'that white trailer trash'. It didn't matter anymore. She was Enyo now, another defector goddess who had joined Hell because it offered her better outlets to sate her bloodlust. As for her father… he was Baal. He was Hell's War Master. She could have said no, could have said that she was just a teen with incomplete memories and gone to school. To be honest, without her discovery about Loki living with Belldandy the day before, she would have. But now, someone needed to pay.

Amy got back on topic. She had her orders, which was a very soothing thing for her Elohim brain. Some guys with the Russian mafia had just thought Sunnydale was the perfect spot from which to organize their operations. The mission was to make them understand they had stepped into hell but without blurting out about the supernatural. Belial's people had provided them with the intelligence needed and now it was time to strike.

Her father kicked open the warehouse door and she lost herself in the sweet music of gunshots and screams of pain.

- A few miles outside Sunnydale, Wednesday 2 November 2011, 15:04 -

"Ouch! That must have hurt," said the man from the dinner.

On the screen of the laptop resting on car's hood, a teenage girl in a black suit had just rammed her Desert Eagle into a big man's mouth, shattering several teeth and was telling him something very offensive about his relationships with his mother in Russian.

She's rather good but… rusty. Like a veteran that has let himself go out of shape. Or a demon not yet fully used to the body it is wearing. The key word here being 'yet'.

He typed a command. A small, directed electrical shock immediately fried the electronics of the cameras he had set up in the warehouse. He could have used more data, but these newcomers had a mastery of technology rarely seen in demons. He likewise dismantled the receptor. He would throw the pieces one by one out of the window while he drove back to Vegas.

"Better to put some miles between them and me," he said while closing his laptop and getting inside the car.

Staying in his role of a passing businessman who stopped in Sunnydale to lunch would help him escape detection. Even if it created a risk, his report would have to wait for a little while. Those demons were plugging security holes extremely fast, and he had little doubt that even satellite communications would soon be monitored. He had no idea of how they would be doing that, but his hunches had a habit of being correct on such matters.

Speaking of hunches… I had a bit of luck there. That woman was probably the leader of the newcomers. The problem is that the girl she was dining with is Buffy Summers. Which means the Slayer is compromised, maybe brainwashed? The Watcher? Couldn't check on him without risking my cover. Either dead or compromised.

He drove for an hour or so and stopped at a roadside dinner to get a coffee. He opened his laptop and connected to the dinner's wireless network. Opening his mail client, he started to type, remembering the information he and others had gathered in the last forty-eight hours and sent to him.

Philippe,

Foothold situation in Sunnydale confirmed.

Initial reports indicate massive behavior changes in the town's human inhabitants. 'Regular' demon population is abnormally discreet for Sunnydale. Further investigation was not possible without breaking cover, but my current hypothesis is that the town's population is dead and their bodies the hosts of the newcomers. The Slayer seems to be likewise compromised.

The nature of the newcomers is unknown, but they have displayed an unprecedented mastery of both magic and technology. We have to consider the possibility that the latter may even surpass current human technology.

They have shown a high reaction speed to security threats, and we must consider their warriors to be modern soldiers rather than the standard demon fighters. They are still a little awkward in their new bodies, but we cannot expect this to last.

They have set up a glamour field on Sunnydale to prevent casual inspection from seeing anything. Using the sixth sutra of Pei, I was able to get through.

I will continue to set up surveillance, but infiltration of town will need careful planning.

Riley

This was just a preliminary note. He would be more thorough once back in the safety of their office. He sent the email, thinking once again about why he had resigned his commission three years ago, after that woman called Altena had explained to him the dark side of the world he was living in. He had known what needed to be done. Civilians needed to be protected from the monsters under the bed and the army he had served was not fit for it, particularly not after he had seen how much control Wolfram and Hart had over the government.

But the Soldats were. The Soldats, the truth behind the conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and the Freemasons. The rest had been easy. It was just the matter of serving a higher law than the country he had so far believed in.

- Tirgoviste, Thursday 3 November 2011, 7:45 (UTC2) -

"The Beast has been destroyed… yet the Angel lives," said the old Romani woman as she looked at the Devil, the Tower, and the Star.

She took the tarot cards and shuffled them. She had felt the curse binding the soul of the human Liam to the vampire Angel falter in the last days, before being utterly broken a few hours ago. But what the cards told her was… unexpected, showing her not what she feared, the vampire becoming once again a soulless demon but the demon being destroyed, leaving the soul free to live a new life.

"What happened?" asked Enyos Kalderash to his aunt.

"A change, an earth-shattering one," she replied as Death and the Tower appeared.

"How?"

"Chaos," she said as the Fool appeared. "A careless sorcerer," she added as the Magician followed.

"Why wasn't it foretold?"

"The signs were deliberately obscured," she said, turning the Moon, "by a force beyond our comprehension," she added, raising the Judgment.

"What will happen?"

"A new order," she said as she turned the Wheel of Fortune and the Emperor.

"And Janna? What is her fate?"

The old woman shuffled the cards one more time and drew three of them: The Temperance, the Hanged Man, and the Lovers.

"She is part of the new order. A choice lies before the Kalderash clan: we can forsake her or follow her through the change."

"What are the consequences?"

"Both paths are fraught with danger and uncertainty," she said as she drew the Tower and the Great Priestess. "We are to take sides in the coming storm," she said as she added the Chariot.

"Thank you, Aunt Sara. I will leave for Sunnydale immediately."