A/N Okay, so Jack's going to be playing with Magic before the Scoobies come back for another visit and maybe others on SG 1 will be too. I can definitely see Carter as a Technomage, like Jenny Calendar, not to be confused with the technomages of Babylon 5. Yeah or nay on Dawn visiting somewhere Xander would definitely have a ball?

So, back to Sunnydale and a crisis is coming, I did say they'd occasionally have their own issues to deal with.

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"We were barely gone twenty four hours." Xander stared at Giles. "And Sunnydale had a melt down while we were gone?"

"A fear demon caused a wave of paranoia in the population." Giles told the returning Scoobies. "Amy, a boy named Michael Czejak, who's a witch like Amy and Andrew Wells, who has been dabbling in demon summoning, were targeted and nearly burned at the stake. Fortunately, I was able to make a revealing potion and forced the demon to reveal its true form, while Johnathan went invisible and untied the captives and Harmony raced buckets of water to put out the fire. We did well, I think."

"Sounds like it." Xander agreed. "If Michael does Magic, is he interested in joining the group?"

"No, in fact, he stated his desire to give up practicing Magic and leave Sunnydale as soon as he graduates. People are just too strange here, in his opinion."

"It's not just his opinion." Cordelia muttered. "And this Andrew? Who is he, anyway?"

"Apparently he once summoned flying monkeys to disrupt the school play. Which is far more benign than demon summoning." Giles shook his head, well remembering his own demon summoning days and how badly that had ended. "I bound his ability to do Magic, as I do not believe he can be trusted. The lad seems to have a very loose connection with reality, I'm afraid."

"Probably for the best." Xander agreed. "Well, it'll be a month before we head back to Stargate Command and the Buffster's having her own eighteenth birthday. And I still need to get her a present, but I put off shopping as long as possible."

"Come on, Doofus, I'll help you find something." Cordelia tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and the two headed out for one of her favorite past times and one he dreaded and the rest of the group dispersed as well, Dawn being the only one who'd slept on their trip to Stargate Command. Giles had just seen a tired Jenny, his last guest, out when the doorbell rang, signaling another visitor. He opened the door to see someone he'd never expected to see standing at his door, Quentin Travers, Deputy Head of the Watchers Council.

"Quentin? What are you doing here?"

"Here, in this benighted country or here, on your doorstep, Rupert?"

"Both, since they amount to the same thing."

"Miss Summers eighteenth birthday is approaching, you know well that means it's time for her Cruciamentum."

"You can't possibly be serious?!" An incredulous Rupert Giles stared at the man. "What point could there possibly be in enacting that arcane abomination? Vampires have been gone for over a year, Sunnydale has barely experienced any supernatural activity in that time and no Slayer has been subjected to it in well over a century anyway."

"It's a time honored tradition that should never have been abandoned in the first place and regardless of whether the vampires are gone or not, the Slayer must be prepared for the possibility of them returning. It was a mere fluke of Chaos Magic that allowed that boy to destroy them in the first place. Thus, I am here to administer her test."

"How? There are no vampires to pit her against."

"There are other supernatural threats. You have a duty to perform, Rupert and you are expected to perform it." Quentin held out a box. "If you are going to be so rude as to leave me standing on your porch, I suppose I have no choice but to hand this to you here. It contains the crystal for the focus of the spell to put the Slayer in the hypnotic state and the Cruciamentum formula." Giles reluctantly took the box Quentin was holding out to him. "You have just enough time to prepare her. We will be getting the site prepared. I will stop by tomorrow to discuss it in more detail. I trust you will have remembered your manners by then and have tea prepared for me."

Rupert Giles closed the door and set the box on the desk in his study and stared at it. He couldn't do this, he couldn't betray Buffy like that. He'd never expected Quentin Travers to show up on his doorstep and inform him that an archaic exercise in cruelty had been reinstated by the Watchers Council. What had been happening in the Council in the 14 months or so since Xander as Dr. Strange had cast that spell and changed the world that they would regress to being willing to visit this horrifying cruelty on Buffy and presumably on Kendra Young, the other Slayer, as well? Wait, Kendra was actually a few weeks older then Buffy, which meant they'd already enacted it on her and no one had told him. Had the girl survived or had another Slayer been Called? Or was the line dead with no vampires still existing? If so, it was doubly unnecessary to inflict this torture on Buffy.

Mind made up, Rupert Giles reached for the phone and began seeking answers to his questions and brainstorming a means of protecting Buffy.