The next few weeks flew by in a blur, with no one having any time to settle down and relax. Every member of the Scooby Gang had gotten themselves deeper into their own interests and cliques.

Buffy had been shown the Initiate and other members, one of them being Professor Walsh who turned out to be one of the heads of the initiate and its top scientist, which blew everyone's mind. The Professor was naturally surprised to find out that the Slayer was real and not just a myth and immediately put Buffy through vigorous testing and training in the hopes she would become a valuable asset to the team, which Buffy was eager to prove she was.

Willow had dived headfirst into her magic studies with her new friend Tara that she had yet to introduce to her other friends. She felt awkward about her strange feelings towards the other Witch, and she didn't think the others would understand, none of them had shown any interest in the same sex.

Xander had started selling nutrition bars in the hopes that he could make some sweet cash and treat Anya to nice things. Anya however hated that there were so many boxes stacked in their room and would constantly complain, much to Xanders exhaustion.

Giles had been cursed by an old friend called Ethan and turned into a demon, which almost made Buffy kill him. Luckily, she realised it was Giles before she stabbed him, and with the others help he was able to be turned back into his human form by threatening Ethan.

Eris had started training with Giles a lot more in combat, wanting to be better prepared for anything that would put her in danger. The events with the stalker vampire showed her that she was not proficient enough in combat and defence against creatures that were stronger than your average baby vamp. Spike had helped as best as he could when he wasn't teasing her whenever she failed. He couldn't spar against her due to the chip, but he came in handy with pointing out things that he knew a vampire would do.

The pair of them seemed to not be so much at each other's throats since the night she killed the stalker vamp, the pair realised that they were stuck being around each other and could at least be somewhat nicer, even if the teasing and slight jabs remained.

Its was a couple weeks before the gang could finally go to the Bronze to hang out and catch up on what everyone was doing. Giles and Spike as usual stayed behind, but Xander, Willow, Anya and Eris met up and headed to the bar together to wait for a very late Buffy.

"Xander, you haven't been paying any attention to me tonight," Anya called out to her boyfriend once he walked over, one of his nutrition bars in his hand, "just peddling those processed food bricks. I don't know why."

Xander took a moment to swallow his bite before replying, "well, let me put it in a way you'll understand. Sell bars, make money, take Anya nice places, buy pretty things."

Eris scoffed, "she's not a cave woman Xander."

"No, that does make sense," Anya replied, not really hearing Eris' words, "all right, I support you. Go sell more."

"Uh, well, this was the only one I had on me. Besides, it's getting late. Maybe we should go."

Willow quickly jerked her head to Xander, a frown on her face, "Go? You can't go. Buffy hasn't gotten here yet."

"Let's face it, Will, she's almost an hour late. She's probably off living the life of Riley, I don't think she's comin'"

"She is," Willow continued to protest, ignoring the looks the other three gave each other, "she said she was looking forward to…To spending quality time with just us."

Eris pursed her lips and shook her head, "I dunno Will, she's been obsessed with all the Initiate stuff, hasn't thought of anything else."

"She promised," Willow looked past the group to scan the crowd, hoping to see Buffy. Luckily, and much to her happiness, the familiar head of blonde hair started coming over to them, "see? Here she comes…With Riley…And Graham…and some other guys."

Eris furrowed her brows, "huh? Graham?" she watched as the group came over, with Graham swinging around to her immediately and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Hi all, Sorry about the late-itude," Buffy seemed completely oblivious to the uncomfortable atmosphere she created with her arrival, which only caused more irritation in the group.

"Really? Huh, hadn't noticed," Xander acted like his usual goofy self, but his words were laced with sarcasm and disapproval. That and the feeling of being surrounded by a bunch of jacked up muscled men wasn't a nice feeling at all.

"Hope you don't mind us tagging along," Riley spoke in his usual innocent tone, also not noticing the awkward atmosphere.

Willow of course, being the non-confrontational person she was, waved her hand dismissively at his words, "no, no, of course not. The- The more, the...more"

"This is uh, Forrest, that's Kevin, and Jay in the back," the men said their hellos after Riley introduced them, but it only made Anya realise how many military men were currently surrounding her, which Willow and Eris noticed immediately. "We're gonna grab some drinks, anybody want anything?"

"Coke, please," was Buffy's chipper reply, the rest of the gang denied drinks, with Anya and Xander going as far as to leave the area entirely, which made Buffy finally realise there was something up.

Once the military men all left for their drinks, Buffy spoke up, "Anya seems a bit on edge."

"She's a little antsy around commando types," Willow said helpfully, "ex-demon issues."

"Didn't really give her much warning before having her swarmed in them," Eris chimed in, a disapproving look on her face.

Buffy looked sheepish when she realised what she did, "oh, you know, I didn't think that she would mind. Uh, Riley and the guys were throwing a little impromptu celebration in my honour and it made it, like, impossible not to invite them."

"You could have told them your plans, Buffy," Eris continued, not persuaded by the Slayers reason.

Willow nodded, agreeing with the raven-haired woman's words, "we just thought this was supposed to be, you know, us. Just the Scooby Corps, you know? I mean, I could've invited somebody else if I knew it was an open free-for-all."

"Yea, I could've invited my boyfriend…which evidently you did for me anyway," there was a slight bite to Eris' tone, mainly due to the fact that she had told Graham this was a Scooby gang only night and yet Buffy invited him anyway.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea. My total bad," Buffy seemed apologetic, but Willow and Eris could tell it wasn't completely genuine, as if the Slayer wasn't grasping how selfish she was being. But there was no point bringing it up, they wanted to have a good time and scolding Buffy or getting into an argument would solve nothing, "so, who did you want to invite?"

"What?"

"You said you wanted to invite someone."

Willow realised what she said and started to stammer, "no, not…no one. I mean, I meant a hypothetical someone, which is to say no one. What are we celebrating?"

Eris held in her laughter at how awkward Willow acted, it was very obvious it wasn't no one, luckily Buffy was in her own world, "I'm in. The initiative. Professor Walsh gave me the grand tour, and we're talking Grand as in canyon. You'd never believe the size of it."

Willow's eyes dimmed as Buffy talked, but she tried her best to hide it behind a supportive smile, "that's really…again, I say neat. So, what do you mean exactly? You've joined them?"

"No, not exactly. It-it just means that when I patrol, I'll have a heavily armed team backing me up. Plus, boyfriend going to work with me, big extra perk."

"Having your cousin's boyfriend going to work with you, less of a big perk," Eris said with a frown, "do you really think this a good idea? Feels like you're rushing into this."

Buffy looked to Willow, seeing her agreeing nod, "I thought you both liked Riley."

"Not with Riley, she means with the Initiative," Willow chimed in, "I mean, there's a bunch of stuff about them we still don't know."

"I know that...…Like what?"

"Well, what's their ultimate agenda? I mean, ok, yea, they-they neuter vampires and demons, but then what? Are they gonna reintegrate them into society? Get them jobs as bag boys at Walmart?"

Buffy took a moment, looking as though she was deep in thought, thinking over Willow's words carefully. But when she said, "does Walmart have bag boys?" they realised she was not.

Eris decided to chime in herself, "plus, don't forget what that 314 thing that Ethan told Giles about."

"Well, a man that worships Chaos and tries to kill you is a man you can trust."

"Bad info or not, we just think there's certain question you should ask before you go off and enlist."

The conversation was cut off abruptly by the sound of a pager beeping from Buffy's bag, followed shortly by the military men's beeping also sounding off. Buffy barely even had time to speak before she went off, which pissed off Eris so much she barely reciprocated Graham's kiss goodbye, which he noticed but was unable to find out why.

Once they were all gone, Anya and Xander returned, "are they gone?" the ex-demon asked as she slid into the chair Buffy had occupied.

"They are, they had pagers go off then they just took off," Eris said in an angry tone, "is it me Willow or did Buffy just not listen to a word we said?"

Willow sighed and started pulling at the threads of her wool jumper, "it's not just you, she outright refused to take on anything we said."

"Oh boy, what did we miss?" Xander asked

"We tried to explain to Buff how she shouldn't just blindly trust the Initiative, but no matter what we said she brushed it off,"

Eris huffed and crossed her arms, "my cousin is blinded by her hormones for Riley and the need to impress his mother figure."

"I don't want to be around the military guys, even if you and Buffy are dating two of them," Anya said with a deep frown. She feared what would happen if they found out she was an ex-demon, would they dissect her? Or neuter her like they did Spike? She would hate that, because then she wouldn't be able to spank Xander when they have sex, and she loved that part.

"That's why I always try to give you the heads up on if Graham comes around," Eris replied in support, "but Buffy doesn't really think the same."

Xander, ever the defender of Buffy, decided to step in and calm the waters, "look, its Buffy, our safety will always come first, just give it time."

Willow sighed, but nodded her head, "you're right, just sucks is all."

"I know, its not great to feel like we're on the back burner, but Buffy is finally getting a happy, non-vampire relationship, and I think she's diving in headfirst."

"So, you're saying we be patient until she swims back to the surface?" Eris asked Xander who nodded back, "fine, we can wait."

"Can we go home now?"

"Yes An, we can."

"It just aint right,", over on the other side of town, the military boys had been called in to take out what was known as a Polgara demon. A predator with no motive but for destruction. Usually Forrest would be picked as Riley's second, but to his surprise Riley had picked Buffy, which infuriated him.

"He made you team leader, didn't he?" Graham said from beside him as he looked through his binoculars for any heat signatures.

"That's not the point, I've always been Riley's second in command," Forrest continued, "instead, he picks a girl."

"His girl."

"Whatever. Three guesses on what that boy's thinking with."

"Maybe he just wanted to give you a chance to get out from under his shadow."

"Hey, I'm not under anybody's shadow. Besides, you can't talk, I know you'd pick your misses as your second if you had the chance."

"It was a joke man. Don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm just saying-" Graham cut himself off when he saw movement ahead of him, "hang on, got something."

"Target?"

"Negative," he handed the binoculars to Forrest to look through.

It took a few seconds for Forrest to see the being moving, but when he saw the cold signature and bleach blonde hair he smirked, "hello, Hostile 17."

"You two. Standard Flanking. Go," Graham quickly ordered the team, as he pulled out a gun.

His team members sprang into action, using nets to try and capture him. The hostile was however to sneaky, so Graham quickly took a shot at the hostiles back, which allowed him to see who it was…Spike, the man Eris slept with.

"Alert control and Alpha team. We've tagged Hostile 17 with a tracer, and we're in pursuit." Graham barely heard Forrest speak, too consumed by anger and confusion. Eris had slept with a vampire, which he hoped she didn't know. And even worse the vampire was their hostile; did she know and was keeping him safe from them?

There was a lot of questions that he needed her to answer.