Before you begin reading this story, I would just like to tell you that continuity is not my friend. I will therefore be picking and choosing with a few elements. This story assumes that the initiative was not dismantled, merely given a new commander, and that Tara just up and left among other things... If you can't deal with that, read no further. If you can... Welcome to MY world. -- Robyn. University of California, Sunnydale. Move in day... Buffy wondered what her new roommate was going to be like. They hadn't let her stick with Willow. They had said that University was supposed to be an experience, not a rut. Oh, well. At least Will's room was across the hall. Buffy finished decorating her half of the room and sat down on the bed. Boring... Unlike last year, this time Buffy had done all of her important stuff first thing. She really didn't want to spend her whole day waiting in line-ups. Buffy started flipping through her textbooks, trying to figure out what she was taking. Willow had registered her for all of her classes this year. Will was good at figuring things out, and she'd said she really didn't mind. According to her class list, Buffy was taking Medieval History and Ancient Religions, both of which would count as humanities towards her graduation as well as having possible uses in the slayage department. She was also taking English, not the one Willow was taking though, as well as Astronomy and Intro Math 1. Well, at least some of her classes would be worth something. Laughter in the hall and a polite knock at the door brought Buffy out of her reverie. "C'mon in," she yelled as she dropped her book and raced to open the door. Outside the door were two almost identical young women. The only difference between them was that one had blue hair, and one aquamarine. Between them swung two huge brass-bound steamer trunks. Each girl held the handle of one trunk in each hand, and although both trunks looked extremely heavy, the pair seemed to be having no trouble at all. "This is room two-thirteen right?" The blue-haired girl asked Buffy. "Yeah." "Okay then. I guess I'm your roommate. I'm Charlie," the pair set down their trunks, and Charlie picked one up and started to carry it towards Buffy. "I'm Buffy. Do you want some help with that?" "No. I'm okay, but thanks," she turned to her Doppelganger. "Do you?" "Nope, I'm right here," the one with the aquamarine hair said, pointing at two-fourteen. "That's my friend Willow's room," Buffy said as the girl knocked. "I hope she's nice. I hate lousy roomies. I'm Angel by the way," she leaned across the hall to shake Buffy's hand. "She's way cool," Buffy said as Willow opened the door. Angel. Wow, thought Buffy, there's a name I just can't get away from. "Hey Buff," Willow waved from across the hall. "Is that your new roommate?" "Yeah, her name's Charlie." "And I guess I'm your roomie. I'm Angel," she picked up her trunk, and walked into her new room. "See ya Angel," Charlie said. "Hai." Charlie followed Buffy into the dorm room, and dropped her trunk next to the unclaimed bed. Opening the trunk she pulled out some sheets and began to make the bed. "This isn't bad for a two person dorm room. There's lots of space." "Yeah. I've heard about ones where there's hardly enough room to move," Buffy said. "Is that all your stuff?" "Yeah. With both Angel and I in the car, neither of us could bring much." "Are you two twins?" "Nope," Charlie smiled. "But you look so much alike." Buffy took a minute to really look at Charlie. She stood about five and a half feet tall, and her blue hair hung just below her shoulders. Her eyes were a strange kind of green that seemed to shift and change shade as she spoke. She was wearing faded blue jeans, and a jeans jacket that had a smiley face patch on one shoulder. "'Take off your coat and stay awhile,' as my mom always says," Buffy didn't know how Charlie could be comfortable making her bed in the stiff denim jacket. Charlie laughed, removed her jacket and hung it on the closet doorknob. "I hardly even notice that I'm wearing it anymore," she said. With the jacket gone, a bit more was revealed. Her shirt had 'Lucky's Bar'n'Grille STAFF' written across the back in large green letters, but the sleeves had been removed. On her right shoulder was a small black tattoo in the shape of a four-pointed Celtic knot inscribed in a circle. The symbol was also embroidered on the breast of her shirt where the company logo usually would be. Charlie kicked one corner of the trunk, and the lid dropped shut. She then flopped down on the bed and looked at Buffy. "So, where're you from?" she asked. "Me? I'm from Sunnydale. It's not that far from here." "That little town down the street?" "Yeah, that's it. How about you? Where're you and... Angel from?" "Canada." "Is that where Lucky's is?" Buffy gestured at the words on the shirt. "Yeah, although one just opened up in Washington state. It's becoming a bit of a chain." Willow watched as her new roommate unpacked a few books and put them neatly on top of the dresser. Reaching into the bottom of the chest, Angel pulled out a laptop and flipped it open. She sat down on the bed and set it on her lap. "Is that a JX-300 model?" Willow asked as she walked over to Angel to get a better look. "No, it's a custom job. A friend made it for me, and Charlie's boss programmed the OS. None of us are very fond of Windows." "Awesome," Willow watched as a typed command brought up a web-type interface with a simple two-tone black paisley background. A smiley face appeared and said "You have vid-mail." "Vid-mail?!" Willow gasped. "You have a satellite modem? "No, it's a new kind of modem that's not on the market yet. I'm helping to beta-test it. Now, let's see who emailed me," she clicked on the smiley face, and a video player popped up. A man with long blonde hair appeared. He seemed quite handsome, but half of his face was covered by his hair. "Cherie, I am very sorry, but I will not be able to visit you this weekend as I had planned. Jean-Claude and sa petite need the plane. A bientôt mon amour," he spoke with a French accent and seemed genuinely upset at breaking their date. "Damned frog. Jean-Claude is such a pain. I don't know how Anita puts up with him." "His name is Jean-Claude? Is he your boyfriend?" "No, his name is Asher. Jean-Claude is his... boss. Lemme see..." Angel mumbled to herself. "Text mail..." With a few clicks of the mouse she was into an Internet based e-mail program. "Hmmm... Mac wants to know what to get Charlie for her birthday. That's tomorrow, why'd he wait so long. It'll never get here in time.," she started to type. "Wrap yourself in a box and drop yourself in the mail." "Wow, that's an awesome laptop. How much did you pay for it?" "I don't know. I've sorta been paying for it in installments." Candlelight flickered in a darkened room, casting strange shadows on a face lined with age. "Soon. Soon it will be time. All of the elements are in place, nothing can stop me now." A knock at the door startled Buffy awake. She stumbled to the door and opened it to find a Fed Ex courier standing on the other side. "Hello?" Buffy blinked sleepily at the courier. He looked at her in her 'yummy sushi' pajamas and snickered. "I have a package for someone name of Charlie." "Umm... yeah, just a sec," she walked over to the bed opposite hers and started to poke the lumpy mattress. "Charlie, there's a parcel here for you." "Uuuhngh," a strange groan emerged from the blankets, followed by a questing hand. The hand searched the bedside table until it found a pair of sunglasses. With the sunglasses firmly in place, Charlie crawled out from under the covers and stumbled towards the door. "Yeah?" The courier guy stared at the disheveled woman standing at the door. She wore a man's dress shirt instead of PJ's, and apparently didn't care much about buttons, since none of them had made it into their proper holes. The courier guy watched as she moved in such a way that nothing ever showed. It seemed impossible that she could do that. "If you're finished staring... can I have my parcel? It's not like you can see anything anyway." "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sign here," he handed her a clipboard, and then a package. After she handed him back his clipboard, Charlie turned and slammed the door in his face, singing quietly. "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to meeeeee..." "It's your birthday?" Buffy asked. "How old are you?" "I dunno," Charlie grinned. "I kinda lost count." She ripped the brown paper off of the box, and opened the lid. Reaching inside, she pulled out an antique silver picture frame engraved with intricate Celtic knots. In the frame was a photograph of a man and a woman. It was impossible to see their faces, because they were hidden behind their long hair and seemed to be kissing. Her auburn hair mingled with his black, and in the background stood the Eiffel tower. Buffy peered over Charlie's shoulder to look at the photo. Charlie walked to her bed and set the picture on the table next to the bed. Reaching back into the box, she pulled out a pair of what looked like chopsticks. They had the metallic ring of steel when they knocked together though. Charlie dropped the box onto the bed and gathered her hair into a bun. She used the sticks to hold the bun in place, and pulled a card out of the box. She read it aloud for Buffy's benefit. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for your birthday. I was going to take Angel's advice, but I couldn't figure out where to put the bow. I hope you like the gift, and I'll see you soon." "Is it from your boyfriend?" "Yeah." "It's a really nice gift since you're not together. A photo. I'm not sure about the hair stuff though." "They're antique. There was this antique silver barrette that I wanted, but I couldn't have it so he tries to substitute. It's cute and just like him. He's always trying to make up for things that aren't his fault." "Were you teasing the delivery guy on purpose?" Buffy pointed over her shoulder at the door. "Yeah. Everyone needs a hobby." The pair got dressed and each one headed off in her own direction to finish up their errands on the day before classes started. Later that Night... "... and it said that he didn't know where to put the bow," Buffy and Willow were wandering in and out among the headstones at the Sunnydale graveyard, patrolling for monsters. Willow started to chuckle, and Buffy looked at her questioningly. "Angel got an e-mail from Charlie's boyfriend last night asking what to get her for her birthday. She told him to wrap himself up and get in the mail..." Just then Buffy whirled around, pulling a stake out of the deep pockets of her jacket. Standing behind the pair were three vampires trying to sneak up on them. "Oh come on. Three of you? It's like you're not even trying." Buffy gave an exasperated sigh as the lead vampire's face passed from eager, through confused and into upset. The emotions were distorted through his demon face, but easy enough for Buffy and Willow to pick up on. The other two, obviously minions of some sort, just looked stupid and hungry. She stood with a stake in one hand, tapping her foot. "Well?" With deep growls of hunger, all three attacked Buffy, needing to prove their superiority. They failed. While Willow looked on with a bored expression, Buffy proceeded to dust all three vamps with a few economical motions. Their end was heralded by a soft rain of dust on the grass, and the arrival of two cammo clad, masked men. "Hey Buffy," one of them said. "We were following three HST's. Have you seen them?" Riley removed his mask, and beckoned his companion to do the same. "You're standing in them," Willow said. "Oh, hi Willow," Riley said as he absentmindedly looked at the dusty grass. "Well, I guess we should get back to work." Riley's companion looked skeptical. "Two untrained civilians took out three hostiles in a matter of minutes? I don't think so." "Actually," Willow cut in. "Buffy didn't need my help." "Higgins, I'd like you to meet the Slayer," Riley gestured to Buffy. Buffy smirked and held her hand out to Higgins. He took it and started to squeeze, trying to look polite so that Riley wouldn't notice. Letting him squeeze a bit, Buffy looked him straight in the eye, grinned, and began to return the favour. Exerting just a little bit of her Slayer strength, she gave him a taste of his own medicine. "Buffy," Riley's voice held a warning note. "It's nice to meet you Higgins," she said smiling sweetly as she let go of his hand. Willow snickered softly at the pain on his face, but managed to stifle the outright laughter. Riley chose to ignore the whole thing, since Higgins really had asked for it. "So Buffy, seen anything else tonight?" "Nope. Just these three loosers." "How'd it go? Moving in I mean." "Not bad. Our roommates are kinda weird." "Not like that first one last year I hope." "Nah. My roommate Charlie has bright blue hair." "So?" "It doesn't look dyed." Riley looked skeptical. Then Willow piped up, "yeah, and Angel's is aqua." At the mention of that name, Riley's head swung around. Willow saw his expression and understood right away. "No, no, Charlie's Angel, not Angel Angel." "Charlie's Angel?" Willow realised what she had said, and everyone except Higgins started to laugh. Buffy spun suddenly as a tree rustled behind her in the darkness. Her eyes, sharpened through years of training as well as natural Slayer ability, sought through the green-black leaves. "What is it?" Riley followed her gaze, pulling his night-vision goggles back down over his eyes. "Oh geeze Buffy, it's a cat." As though realising it had been spotted, the cat leapt out of the tree and landed gently near Buffy's feet. It was sleek and black, and completely without markings. It looked up at Buffy with green eyes that seemed startlingly intelligent. Buffy sat down on her heels and looked a bit more closely at it. For some reason the cat's presence made her uncomfortable, as though it wasn't quite what it seemed to be. A glint of metal caught her eye as the cat cocked its head. "It's got earrings," Buffy gasped. "What's that in its mouth?" Willow asked at almost the same moment. As though it understood Willow's question, the cat took a step towards Buffy and dropped what was in its mouth. "It's a squirrel," Buffy said as the cat sat down on its haunches and began to groom itself. "Poor squirrel," Willow took a step closer, in time to see the cat reach out one paw and roll the squirrel over. "Its got a metal plate in its head, and one of its eyes has been replaced with red glass." "We'd better take it to the lab and have it checked out," Riley said picking the dead thing up with one gloved hand and dropping it in a plastic evidence bag he pulled from his pocket. "Why bother?" Higgins interrupted. "It's a squirrel." The cat turned to look at him and made a sound like it was about to cough up a hair ball. "Smart cat," Buffy said under her breath. The cat turned back to her, and Buffy could have sworn that it winked at her before it disappeared into the shadows. "Strange cat," Riley said staring after it. "Okay Riley, you find out anything you can about that squirrel, and get back to me. It seems like it's something that would be right up the Initiative's alley. "Why're we fooling around with this stupid squirrel? It has nothing to do with us," Higgins was on the verge of frothing at the mouth. "The Commander reviewed our new orders as soon as she got here. Our standing orders are now to reduce and monitor HST activity, study HSTs, and keep the hellmouth from being opened. You know all of this." "Yes, sir," Higgins knew he was skating on thin ice. Most military divisions didn't take well to questioning superiors. The pair made their way back to the Initiative's underground base. They walked in silence through the bustling corridors of the Initiative, not looking at each other. They had been ordered to report anything at all unusual directly to the new CO. Riley had a feeling that a cyborg squirrel was strange enough to warrant a report. Riley knocked softly on the door, and entered as soon as he heard acknowledgement from the other side. "Team leader Finn and Higgins sir," Riley said after he had closed the door behind him. "At ease," Riley looked at the woman who had replaced Professor Walsh. She was of medium height, and had close-cropped brown hair streaked with blonde. As he gave his report, he scanned the office, trying to get a sense of what she was like. On the wall behind her hung a photograph of several young people, on and around a pool table. One of them looked enough like the Commander for him to assume that these were her and her friends. There was very little on her desk, but sitting next to her nameplate, 'Comm. R. Carter,' was a small yellow plush duck. "...and so I decided you should be informed." "Yes Finn, thank-you. Take the squirrel to the main labs." "Yes, sir," Riley and Higgins turned to go. "And Finn," he paused at the door. "Sir?" "You said the cat had earrings?" "Yes, sir." "Thank-you." The two men left and the Commander sat for a moment with a pensive look on her face. She stood and walked to the picture Riley had noticed earlier. She stared at the image of herself as she had been before she joined the service, and at the young woman who stood next to her with an arm around her shoulders. "Well," she said softly to herself. "Truth is stranger than fiction, especially when you're around Robyn. With luck we'll see each other soon." She chuckled softly to herself. Buffy opened the door to her room quietly. It was kinda late, and she didn't want to wake Charlie up. As she closed the door softly behind her, she realized that she couldn't wake her roommate up, since she wasn't asleep. Charlie was lying on her stomach on the bed staring at the screen of a laptop that sat in front of her. The lid of the laptop had the same Celtic knot that Charlie had on her shoulder. "Hey Buffy," Charlie said looking up. "Hey Charlie, 'cha doin'?" Buffy flipped on the light switch and watched as Charlie blinked a few times to adjust to the change. "Nothing much. Writing a few e-mails, checking on a few things. Making sure someone's feeding my plants," she grinned. "And reading stories and stuff." Beckoning to Buffy she swiveled the computer around so that the blonde girl could see the screen more easily. "Wait a minute," Buffy said. "What do you mean feeding your plants?" First Day of Classes: Willow walked to the door of her old English class. She'd taken middle English with Professor Adam last year and thought that this semester was going to be fun. Arriving at the door she found Angel and Charlie waiting for the previous class to get out. "I didn't know you two were in old English." "Yeah, it'll be interesting," Charlie pulled out a well thumbed copy of Beowulf. "I never had the chance to read it in the original." "Professor Adam is a great teacher, I took middle English with him last year. He's a little... eccentric though." "Nothing wrong with eccentric." The students from the previous class filtered out, and the trio found seats in the second row. There weren't many people in the room, obviously the prerequisite kept a few out. "So why did you two decide on Sunnydale?" Willow looked at Charlie. "Angel says you two are from Canada." "Some friends of mine in Colorado recommended it as a good place for the Ph.D. I want," Charlie replied. Willow was just about to ask what she was doing her doctorate in when Professor Adam walked in. Professor Adam was a tall man with short black hair and shrewd eyes. His prominent Roman nose gave him a hawk like appearance as he scanned the room as though looking for something. He scratched the back of his neck. Willow had never seen him do that before. His gaze rested on Willow and registered recognition, but as it moved on to her companions the expression changed. He wasn't so much shocked as he was intrigued. Swiveling slightly Willow turned to look at Charlie. The blue haired girl picked a pencil up off of the desk in front of her. Smirking, she saluted to the teacher with the eraser end. Angel seemed to be stifling laughter as the Professor set his books down on the table at the front of the room. "Good morning everyone," he spoke with a slightly upper class British accent. "For those of you that don't know me, I'm Evan Adam, and I'm your teacher for old English. Those of you who are in the wrong place can leave now." One blushing young woman scurried quickly out the door while the Professor followed her progress. "All right, not all of you were in my middle English course, so I'm giving you a test..." Groans filled the room, along with a few voices chorusing "On the first day?!" "It won't affect your grades, but if you don't pass you'll be transferred to middle English which is being offered down the hall." As he handed out the tests, he also explained the format that the class would take. No one paid too much attention though, they were worried about the test. All except the trio in the second row. Willow of course had studied, but she wasn't sure about her companions. Angel and Charlie fell on the test with gusto. They finished it as quickly as Willow, while the rest of the class was still contemplating the questions. The questions were simple like "what text did you use?" "can you translate this sentence?" Professor Adam sat at the table looking at a book whose pages were tattered and worn. Willow was just about to get up and hand in her paper when she noticed that Charlie was up to something. She was bent over her own paper and was folding it with geometric precision. Somehow she seemed to know she was being watched, and she looked up at Willow with an impish grin. She lifted up her now finished handy work for Willow to see. It was a carefully constructed paper airplane. With a wink at Willow, Charlie sent her missile flying on a collision course with their instructor's head. Charlie had thrown it with quite a bit of force, and so it proceeded at high speed until Willow was sure it had to crash. At the last possible second however, it was plucked out of its path by Professor Adam's hand. Only once it was safely in his grasp did he look up, focusing unerringly on the perpetrator. Most of the other students were too engrossed in their work to notice what had occurred, but Willow was sure that it would not be long before this incident was all over the campus. This was southern California after all. Walking slowly to the front of the room, Willow wondered how the instructor would take Charlie's stunt. Placing her paper on the desk in front of him, she looked at Adam. He seemed unconcerned at the young woman's show of disrespect. "Miss Rosenburg?" "Yes?" "Please tell her that her aim is off." "Uh... okay." Willow, Buffy and Xander sat in the cafeteria. The two girls were between classes, and Xander had dropped by for a visit. "He said that? Isn't that the teacher that gave someone a three day suspension for calling Byron a weenie?" "Yeah. He took that one pretty personally. But he didn't seem to mind about the airplane." "That's weird." "Of course it's weird," Buffy said. "This is the hellmouth. If it's weird it's here. Nothing normal ever happens here." "I guess you're right," Willow said. "It just seems that... I don't know, I'm just getting weird feelings." "What? Weird witchy vibes?" Xander gave Willow a quizzical look. She nodded. "What from?" Buffy was all business now. "I don't know," Willow looked confused. "It just seems like something really strange is going on. It feels like I'm being watched." "Oh yes my dear. You most certainly are." Willow's image flickered as a ripple passed through the bowl in which it could be seen. As the ripple faded, so did her face. "I grow tired. So tired. But soon. Soon it will tire me no more." A withered hand reached out and stroked the edge of the worn wooden bowl. "Soon her power will be mine, and Death will stalk me no more." A small creature scuttled out of the shadows. It seemed to be a shadow itself as it climbed up the table and stood next to the bowl. At full height it stood no more than three feet tall, and it looked like it had been stolen from the outside of a Gothic cathedral. "But master," its voice was like dirt rattling on a coffin lid. "What of the others? Will they not try to stop you master?" Its long pointed grey ears twitched in agitation. "That is not their way. No one will interfere. Except perhaps her pitiful friends. How fortunate that she is rich in the Power as well. That alone would make this worthwhile. Now all that is left is to wait." "Yes master." "Perhaps you should send out more of your spies Viltor. I can no longer scry so well. This was taxing." "Yes master. I will make more." "More? Why should you need more?" "Something be hunting them all master." "Something? What could possibly..." the query was cut off by a fit of awful, bone shaking coughing. "Master? Be you all right? I go, I go." The creature disappeared through a small opening in the wall, moving as fast as its squat legs would carry it. A moment later it returned with a steaming mug of a disgusting bubbling green ooze. "Here be your potion master. Please drink. You be better soon. Only a little wait left. Then you be healthy again." "Thank-you Viltor," the old man grabbed at the mug like a drowning man reaches for the surface. While he drank the foul liquid, the imp called Viltor babbled happily about how his master would be better soon. After a few moments the old man sighed and set down the mug. "Now, what was it that was hunting your spies?" "Oh master. I do not know. Always from behind it gets them. Only once be I able to see anything." "What was it? What did you see?" "Eyes master. Green eyes that be glowing out of the dark. And always at night it hunts them master. But I will make more. And my magic be enough to hold them. You rest master, and soon you be better." Buffy walked through the University's corridors headed for her math class. Willow's bad feeling was giving her a major wiggins, 'cause if Willow was getting a bad feeling it was, well, bad. I guess I'll have to go see Giles after classes are over today. Maybe there's something he can tell me. She was so engrossed in her worries that she was almost late for her class, and ended up not paying too much attention. Buffy knew that the first day was always a review anyway, but she just couldn't keep her mind on algebraic equations. As soon as her class was over, Buffy was out the door and on her way to her dorm room to drop off her books. She was a bit startled to find Charlie doing a headstand in the empty space between the beds and stopped long enough to ask: "Doesn't that make all the blood rush to your head?" "No," Charlie managed to make a shrugging motion. "Oh, and some fella name of Giles called and asked you to stop by after your classes were finished." "Did he say why?" "Nope." "Oh well. I was just going there anyway. See ya," she turned and was about to leave. "Bye. And be careful." Buffy turned around to take a puzzled look at her inverted roommate. "Be careful? Why?" "Huh? Oh, someone said something about rabid squirrels running around all over the place," another upside down shrug. "Oh, right," obviously there were more of those cyborg squirrels around. In Sunnydale anything with glowing red eyes was considered rabid. Buffy knew that the people here were somehow able to totally ignore the evidence of their own eyes and ears when it came to anything out of the ordinary. It was really amazing. On her way to Giles' Buffy thought about Riley, and wondered if he had come up with anything about the damned things. She wondered what he was doing right now, what he was thinking. As she turned the next corner she walked into him coming from the other direction, almost as though her thoughts had conjured him up. "Oh, I was just on my way to find you," he said after the inevitable awkward moment. "Business or pleasure?" "Seeing you is always a pleasure," Riley said as he kissed her gently. "It's just that business is sometimes involved somewhere. Are you on your way to Giles'?" "Mm-hmmm," Buffy reveled in the feeling of Riley's closeness. "Then let's go." The pair continued on its way, and before too long found themselves at Giles' house. Buffy knocked politely and waited a moment for Giles to answer. The door opened a crack, and the pair could hear his voice. "Yes? Yes of course," "No, I'm sorry I don't," "No thank-you." Buffy peered around the door and giggled softly. Giles was standing near the door with the phone cable pulled taut and extended to its furthest point. He had been forced to open the door with his fingertips, since he was entirely wrapped in the phone cord. "No, I'm sorry, no thank-you. No, no I don't. No, no. Thank-you. Goodbye." With the thumb of the hand that held the phone, Giles broke the connection. Buffy and Riley helped him to extricate himself from the predatory phone cord. "Bloody telemarketers." "What did they want?" Buffy asked as she unwrapped the last coil from his neck. "They wanted me to change phone companies," Giles said as he set the phone down on the desk. "Using her damned American Guerilla tactics," he looked at Buffy. "That was quite British wasn't it?" "Yes," Buffy smiled, and Riley grinned his countryboy smile from his place behind her. "So is this going to be a full Scooby meeting? Should I call Willow?" "Yes." "No." Giles and Riley looked at each other, and then at Buffy. "One at a time gentlemen. Giles, you first," she said. "Apparently one of the teachers at the University is starting a fencing club. I felt it might do you good to learn a few things from someone with a different fencing style," Giles handed Buffy a one page flyer and waited while she perused it. "Mom keeps telling me I need to join a club," she said looking up at Giles. "I'll go for it. But the meetings don't start for two weeks?" "Yes, the instructor just moved here. I was speaking to him at the Coffee Stop. He wanted the time to get settled first." "Oh, okay." "Now, what was it you felt requires a full meeting Riley?" Giles peered at the young soldier over the top of his glasses. "Well sir, it's about the squirrel we found on patrol last night." "Squirrel?" "I haven't told him about it yet," Buffy laid her hand on Riley's arm. "Do you feel the need for a full meeting Buffy?" "I think it might be a good idea. There seems to be something going on that we need to discuss." ~*~ The Buffettes arrived in ones and twos, until Giles' living room was inhabited by Buffy, Riley, Willow, Xander, Anya as well as himself. Once everyone was settled, Riley narrated the previous evening's happenings. Buffy interrupted occasionally, until he got to the part she didn't know. "Our CO put a rush on the squirrel's tests. The Lab guys discovered that for the most part it was a bio-technological construct, but they couldn't find a transmitter. They also couldn't figure out what was running the mechanical parts, how they were grafted to the biological components, or even how it was controlled. That is until Commander Carter introduced them to something she called a thaumeter. She said she'd just requisitioned it from H.Q.." "What does it do?" Buffy asked. "Apparently it can detect evidence of any sort of magical field." "I didn't know you could do that with technology," Willow gave Riley a puzzled look. "I didn't either," he said from his perch on the arm of Giles' couch. "But I guess the Commander did. She seems pretty knowledgeable about this stuff for someone who just signed on. But anyway, it seems that this squirrel was built and controlled through magic, and it had this little recorder in its head. They pulled it out, but most of the recording had been destroyed, probably by the cat. All they got from it was an image of you," he looked at Buffy where she sat on the couch next to him, "and Willow walking through the graveyard." "Isn't your Commander going to be mad that you're telling us all of this?" Willow asked him. "Yeah," Xander jumped in. "Those army types aren't really big on sharing." "Actually," Riley looked around. "She's ordered all initiative personel to, and I quote, 'co-operate with the Slayer and her team as much as possible without compromising our internal security. This is her turf after all,' unquote." "Really? She said that?" "I wonder," Giles mused quietly. Everyone looked to him, wondering what he was going to say next. "This cat," he looked at Buffy. "You said it seemed intelligent?" "Well, yeah. It seemed smart enough to know what we were talking about." "Hmmm. Could it be some kind of a benevolent spirit? Or a new enemy making itself known? Anya spoke for the first time, "an intelligent cat? With earrings?" Buffy nodded. "Well, you've got Baast, she's Egyptian. Some kind of all knowing desert spirit I think." "Yes," Giles said. "The Goddess Who Comprehends All Goddesses, the fury of Ra, destroyer of Pharaoh's enemies. She's often represented in Egyptian mythology as a woman with the head of a cat." "Right," Anya continued. "Then you have your basic Felis demon. Their larval form looks just like a domestic cat. No earrings though. There's also witches familiars, shape shifters, and possessions." Anya counted the list of on her fingers. "There're a few other things, but nothing that really sticks out." "Okay," Buffy took charge, "Giles and Willow, you hit the books. Anya and Xander, you can help them. Riley, you check back with the initiative and see if your guys have come up with anything. I'm going hunting." "How come we miss out on the action?" Xander was indignant. There's other kinds of action you could be missing out on," Anya said. "Right. Help the librarian. Cool. I can do that." As evening darkened into night, Buffy wandered around Sunnydale. Her path was apparently aimless, but in truth it lead her through several circuits of the toughest parts of town. The parts of town where things most often went bump in the night. She walked though the park, her thoughts on nothing in particular, just listening. She was much more attuned to her slayer senses now than she had been even a year ago, but even so the feeling of being followed crept up on her. She knew there was a vampire nearby, but she couldn't be sure where it would attack from. A soft mewling sound came from her left, and she turned to see a familiar cat curled up on the bench beside her. She knew it hadn't been there a moment before. Suddenly her attacker rose from where it had crouched behind the bench. It still showed her its human face, but she knew it for the vampire it was. "Could you help me find my glasses?" It asked politely. Once it had been a fairly mild looking balding gentleman. "Umm, sure," Buffy said. She could hear someone walking towards them around the bend in the path. She needed to dust this creep, and now. Using his own ploy to get closer seemed good enough. Stepping towards him around the bench, she fingered the stake in her pocket waiting until she got within arms length. As she had expected, once she was within reach he morphed into his true vampire face. "I guess they took down the wanted posters," she said as she took one more step. "Wha?" was all he had time to say before he realised that there were several inches of sharpened wood protruding from his chest. "Either that or the netherworld's top 10 most wanted list doesn't come with pictures," Buffy sighed in mock exasperation. Her sigh however, became a fit of coughing as her erstwhile prey's remains were sucked into her lungs. As she bent over, Buffy could hear the pedestrian walking closer. Whoever it was stopped just the other side of the bench. "Are you all right miss?" A kind deep voice asked her. With one last cough, Buffy stealthily dropped the stake into her pocket. "Yes," she gasped. "I'm fine." She looked up, and up. He was tall, and had a kind yet determined face. "Are you sure?" He looked at her with eyes full of worry. "Yeah, I just need to sit down for a minute." "Mind if I join you?" "No," he seemed pretty harmless despite his size. As they sat Buffy noted absentmindedly that the cat was gone. She concentrated on the man next to her, trying to decide if he was dangerous. His long blondish hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He wore a loose creamy-yellow shirt and dark pants. "I'm Kevin," he smiled gently and held his hand out to her. She took it and returned his handshake. "I'm Buffy," in the soft light of a nearby street lamp she noticed he wore a wide leather band on his wrist. Curious, she looked more closely at his face. He seemed to be somewhere in his thirties, but his blue eyes seemed older. He laced his fingers behind his head and stretched out. She watched silently as he searched the skies. "What're you looking for?" She asked quietly. "Felis nobilis," he said. "Huh?" "Leo," he pointed upwards. "It's the constellation that depicts the Numian lion." "Oh," Buffy thought about that for a while as they both watched the stars. "Isn't that the one that Hercules killed?" Kevin sighed softly before he answered. "Yes, he did." Suddenly he stood. "I've gotta go. It was nice meeting you Buffy. I'll see you around." "Yeah, see ya." Buffy stared after him. For some reason he gave her almost the same feeling the cat did. Like he wasn't exactly what he seemed to be. A flurry of vampire activity later in the evening absorbed all of Buffy's attention. She forgot all about her strange encounter, and neglected to mention her cat sighting to Giles. She returned to her dorm room to discover Charlie reading through a very familiar book. Walking over to her desk Buffy picked up an identical copy out of her stack of textbooks. "Charlie?" "Hmm?" Charlie peered at Buffy over the top of her book. "Are you taking Ancient Religions?" "Yeah," she noticed the copy in Buffy's hand. "You too huh?" "Yeah." "Good," Charlie grinned. "You can show me where the room is." Willow and Angel had been surfing the net on Angel's laptop since Willow have arrived home from the Scooby meeting. Angel had taken Willow to some obscure research sites that could turn out to be very useful for more than just homework. Then she had turned her browser towards a peculiar bulletin board. Willow had never heard of the 'sixweb' before. "I just have to check something out Will, then you can take over." Willow watched as Angel navigated her way through several levels of security, each one with an increasingly complex alpha-numeric password. After a code so long that she lost count of the digits, Willow watched as the laptop loaded what seemed to be a simple message board. "Welcome" blinked on the screen above a list of read and unread messages. "That's a pretty complex security system for a message board," Willow tried to seem nonchalant. What was her roommate into? "The webmistress is paranoid, and our programmer guy is widely believed to be a Borg, a cybernetic organism, or is the only man alive who knows what it's like to survive on nothing but jolt cola and M&M's for a year," she gestured for Willow to take a closer look. Some of the subject headers were simple and normal, like "Read this..." or "Did you see the last episode of Mad Mortimer." As she read further however, she noticed one in particular that caught her eye. "Military applications of the Slurpee, a comprehensive study?" Willow gave Angel an incredulous look. "Mm-hmm, business must be slow." "I don't think I want to know," Willow said softly. "Probably not. Wait, here it is," Angel brought up a letter that seemed to be a complex mathematical formula, but as she read it over, Willow realised that all of the equations had been multiplied by zero. Angel scrolled further down, and Willow noticed a message written at the bottom. "Ma coeur, Anita and her friends cannot get your equation to work, and they have no knowledge of its origins. I will visit you in your dreams my fair beloved. Yours through eternity, Asher." Written underneath this were several comments, "isn't he cute when he's sucking up?", "if he were a woman...", "can I borrow him?", and "the equation looks okay to me." "Okay, that was weird," Willow said. "Asher's your boyfriend right?" "Yeah." "What a sweet message. 'I'll visit you in your dreams,'" she sighed. "Yeah, romantic he can do no problem. It's 'can I have a day off' where he runs into trouble," Angel said softly. "Here," she said, handing her laptop to Willow. "Knock yourself out." "Um," Willow said softly. "Some of us are going to the Bronze tomorrow night. Would you and Charlie like to come?" Angel seemed pretty nice, if a bit odd, and she didn't have any friends here. Except Charlie of course. "Sure. It sounds like fun. Thanks for asking." Willow wondered for a moment if Angel was going to talk to Charlie, or if she should. Angel, as though she had heard her thoughts, answered just then. "I'll talk to Charlie tomorrow. I think she was planning on staying home all night and moping, 'cause she had to leave her tubby toy in Washington." "Tubby toy?" Willow looked at her a bit oddly. "Her boyfriend. It's a saying I picked up somewhere." "Oh. Okay. Well, I guess we'll leave here around seven. We're meeting a friend there about 7:30, but it takes a while to walk there." "Walk? Nah. Charlie'll drive us. She doesn't like to let her car sit idle too long. It gets restless." "Oh." Buffy had slept in, since her math class didn't start until noon. When she woke up, Charlie had already left. Buffy wondered why her Slayer senses hadn't alerted her to the movement. She got ready, and headed downstairs. She had about enough time to catch some breakfast before her class. Walking past the lounge, she heard voices. She stopped just before the door, and recognized Charlie's voice. She seemed to be haggling with someone. "c'mon. Two-fifty. It's gotta be worth at least that much." "Okay, two-twenty-five." Buffy wondered what Charlie was up to. What was she selling? Drugs were common enough in Southern California, but she didn't want anyone selling them at her school. She heard a crack and jumped around the corner, expecting violence. "Deal," Charlie said as Buffy rounded the corner. She found Charlie talking to a skinny young man wearing a tan baseball cap, jeans, and a T-shirt. Charlie was leaning over the lounge's pool table, and had obviously just taken a shot. The young man stood with a pool cue in one hand, while the other was searching for something in one of his pockets. "Hi Buffy," Charlie looked up and smiled, her blue hair shining in the sunlight that streamed in through the window. "Hi Charlie," Buffy looked at the young man. He waved at her, and it almost seemed as though there were no bones in his arm as it flapped up and down. "Oh, this is Tal. He's on his way to L.A. and thought he'd stop in for a while. And buy some stuff I picked up on the trip down here." "What kind of stuff?" Buffy asked suspiciously. "Oh, scrap leather, electronics, that sort of stuff. Here you go," Charlie handed Tal a large plastic sack. In exchange he handed her 2 packages of M&M's. Opening another one, he began to count." "Ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four and twenty-five. And since you're such a good customer, I'll throw in a bag of the crispies." "Awww, c'mon. You know I hate those as much as you do," she turned to Buffy. "Do you like Crispy M&M's?" "Umm, sure, I guess." Charlie handed the blue package to Buffy, and returned to her game of pool. She pulled back her cue, took aim, and CRACK! In an amazing series of connections, all of the balls on the table sank into the pockets. "This is what I get for letting you break," Tal said. "I don't even get a chance to shoot." "That's why looser breaks. You know that." Buffy shook her head and resumed her journey to the cafeteria. Riley was giving the new Commander a tour of the campus, since she had only recently arrived in Sunnydale. The two had already been through the classrooms and the common areas, and now they were on the way to the dorms. The Commander paused as she heard a familiar sound, that was somewhere between a car revving and a cat purring. "Is there something wrong sir?" Riley asked. "No..." she turned and looked at what sat in the parking space next to her. A red car from the early '70's sat, its engine idling. It seemed to Riley, as he looked at it, that it was looking back. "What is it?" He stopped, slightly puzzled, as she crouched in front of the car and rested her hand lightly on the chrome of the front bumper. "A 1971 Dodge Dart Demon. 'Hemmie Red' I think the colour is called," she looked up at Riley and smiled. "A friend of mine owns one of these." She rose, and dusted off the knees of her navy blue cargo pants. Riley moved a few steps further down the path. "This one," she whispered under her breath. "Say hi to Robyn for me okay?" The car revved again then, almost as if in response, and the Initiative's new Commander walked off to follow Riley on the rest of his tour, whistling softly to herself. At 2 o'clock, as they had planned, Buffy and Charlie met in the cafeteria and walked towards the room that was to be their Ancient Religions classroom. "Do you have any other classes today?" Buffy asked her odd roommate. "Yeah, I have Medieval History. It's right after this, in the same room," Charlie replied. "Uh, yeah. I have it too." "Oh. I think it might be fun. It all depends on the teacher though. A teacher can make or break a course." "Yeah. If the teacher's boring it doesn't matter how cool the class is. Well, here we are," Buffy stopped in front of a door, that lead into a small classroom. The pair found seats in the center of the room, and were soon joined by Willow and Angel. A few other students arrived, but it looked as though it would be a small class. Buffy, Willow, Angel and Charlie sat together and the rest of the students, six in all, scattered throughout the rest of the room. That made ten, the absolute minimum number required for a class to continue. Buffy recognized a few of them. They were the ones on the fringe. One, Greg, was a conspiracy theorist, and had been at several of the more brutal Sunnydale moments. Unlike the rest of the town's population, he knew some of the things that were out there. Another student, Joanie, was one of the more frequent patrons of the Magic Box; Buffy had seen her there a few times. She smiled at Buffy as she sat down. The final bell rang, and the students waited to see who their teacher would be. The instant he entered the room, Buffy recognized him as the man she'd talked to in the park. Willow noticed her start of recognition, and leaned over to ask her what was wrong. "Nothing, I just know him," she replied. "I met him in the part last night." Buffy watched as he set his briefcase on the table at the head of the room. He was dressed differently than when she'd seen him last. Now he wore blue jeans and a white dress shirt. He still wore the leather braces on his wrists, she noticed, as he pulled a sheet of paper from his case. "Since there aren't that many people here today, we'll have roll call. I'm your instructor, Kevin Joveson." He looked down at the paper, and read the first name. "Angel?" "Present, present," she said, raising her hand. His head snapped up as Charlie chose that moment to begin whistling. Buffy recognized the tune, but she couldn't quite remember the words. She watched their teacher's eyes narrow, and knew that it meant something to him. Finally the words came to her, 'with the strength of ten, ordinary men.' It was the theme song to that old cartoon Hercules. * Robyn's Note: If you want to read the full text of these lyrics click here. "And you would be Charlie?" She nodded. "Do either of you have a last name?" "Never needed one before," they chorused. "Right... okay," Mr. Joveson continued with the short list, and smiled as he called the final name. "Summers, Buffy." "Here." "So, we meet again Miss. Summers," and then he was all business again. "All right everyone, let's get started. This class is called Ancient Religions 1500. We will study several religions from Judeo-Christian times and, if time permits, the emergence of Judaism..." The professor continued to discuss the different religions they would be covering over the course of the semester, beginning with the Greek/Roman and Egyptian pantheons and then moving into some more obscure groups like the Thugee. Mr. Joveson then paused for a moment, and asked, "Is there anything in particular any of you would like to look more closely at? Or any questions you'd like to ask?" Willow quickly raised her hand and asked about Janus and chaos worshipping "Good move Will," Buffy said under her breath. "All right," the professor said. "We'll cover that in the roman section of the course. I'd like you all to have chapters one and three read for next week's class. Don't worry they're short. Charlie, Angel, I'd like to speak with you for a moment. The rest of you are dismissed." Buffy and Willow headed to the vending machine down the hall to get a soda while they waited for their next class to start. Normally, there wouldn't be much time, but the first day of a class was usually short. After a few minutes, Charlie and Angel came out of the room laughing softly. The reached the soft drink machine, and Charlie popped in enough change for a bottle of water. "What was that all about?" Buffy asked. "Um, we've taken a class with Mr. Joveson before. He taught an archaeology class at our college back home. He's cool," Angel gave a thumbs up. "So what was all that stuff about names?" Willow wondered, almost to herself. "Oh, he just thinks it's silly to go by one name. Don't know why though, it's practically mandatory in his family." She turned and noticed that people were headed into the room. "I guess we should get back to class," Willow said. "Medieval History is about to start. This looks like it could be really interesting," she held up her textbook. "I heard that this new guy really knows a lot about the dark ages," she spoke excitedly as the group moved towards the classroom. "Well, they didn't call them the Dark Ages because it was dark," Angel and Charlie said together, and laughed. "Sorry," Angel said. "A friend of ours says that." The group claimed their seats from earlier, and realised that there weren't many more students than there had been for Religions. A full twenty people made up the whole class. "This might even be fun after all," Charlie said. "Unless of course the teacher is a complete snore." "We've been pretty lucky so far though," Buffy said. "Willow says that you guys have Mr. Adam for your English class, and she's always liked him. And we've got Mr. Joveson, who seems pretty cool." "Yeah, I've heard that Mr. Joveson's a pretty tough marker though," Willow said. "I wonder who's teaching this class. I heard they hired someone from out of state to replace Miss Martin." Just then, someone opened the door a crack, and stopped. They could hear whoever it was talking to someone in the hallway. "Adam, I didn't know you were here. I thought you were still in Greece." Willow caught a glimpse of Charlie's face as it went blank for just a second. Then the cheerful blue-haired girl was back, almost as though she'd never gone. Willow had read in books about people passing through emotions so fast you didn't know if you'd seen it, but she'd never actually seen it before. As the door opened further, she watched the girl's face for some sign of recognition. What she saw instead was a look that fell somewhere between awe and hunger. "That should be illegal," Charlie breathed. Buffy and Angel stopped talking and they, along with Willow, turned to look. "It's cruel and unusual punishment, being that damned hot." "Charlie," Angel said, watching their new teacher walk to the desk at the front of the room. "You are way too into tall, dark, and..." "Drop dead gorgeous?" The man that had walked into the room did, in fact, fit the description; from some people's point of view. Willow, as a member of the All Girl's Team, was able to view him objectively. He was about Giles' height, with long black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. He wore black jeans, a dark turtleneck, and a black and white tweed jacket. He was slim, but muscular, and had dark eyes that somehow reminded her a little of Buffy's, although she wasn't sure why. When he spoke, it was with an accent so slight that most people might have missed it. "Hello," he said. "I'm Duncan MacLeod, and I'd like to welcome you to the study of Medieval Europe. Over the next few months we will cover the religious and secular lives of the upper and lower classes as well as some of the more important wars, including the crusades," the professor pulled a few pages out of his briefcase, and started handing them out. "The printers haven't finished photocopying the course outline yet, so we'll go over that next class. The dean has asked me to oversee the University's new fencing club and I'd like to invite all of you to join. If I can arrange it, there will be demonstrations of several European fighting styles, as well as weapons and tactics. For the tactics demonstrations, I hope to enlist any of you who play chess, since the chess club was apparently dissolved a few years ago." "Yeah," Buffy whispered. "Literally. All over the floor. Yuck." Willow nodded silently. That had been a particularly disgusting situation. "Now, is there anyone who'd like to sign up for fencing?" A few hands were raised tentatively. "I'll just hand around the sign up sheet. Meetings will start this Thursday evening in the gym," the sign up sheet started to circulate, and Buffy and Willow both signed. The last people to get it were Charlie and Angel. Charlie held onto the page as Mr. MacLeod walked to where she sat and reached for it. Angel smiled sweetly up at him, and Charlie looked up at him almost expressionlesly. He smiled at each of the girls in turn, and walked back to the front of the room. Willow giggled a bit as an almost inaudible sigh escaped Charlie's lips. She wasn't the only one though. Most of the girls in the class, the exceptions being Willow, Buffy and Angel, were enamoured of their new instructor. As class ended, everyone filed out of the room with the teacher at the rear. Willow turned to say something to Buffy and bumped into someone. Turning, she realized that it was Professor Adams. "Oh, hello Ms. Rosenburg. I see you've all met Mr. MacLeod," he seemed to be looking at Charlie, Buffy noticed. But then he looked at her, Willow and Angel in turn. "Do you know each other?" Willow asked. "We've been to some of the same conferences," Mr. MacLeod said looking at Willow. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to print services about those syllabi. I hope to see you all at the fencing club meeting next week." "Good day ladies," Mr. Adams said and followed Mr. MacLeod. Angel looked at Charlie, a Spock-like expression on her face. "Fencing club? He's starting a fencing club?" "Well, we keep hearing about how different Sunnydale is," Charlie shrugged and headed back to the dorms. "Are we still going to this club tonight? I need to stop thinking about my boyfriend," she sighed softly. "Yeah, sure," Buffy said. "The Bronze is a great place to forget a boyfriend. Until he shows up there anyway," Buffy got a faraway look. The other three stared at her for a moment until Willow brought her out of her reverie. "Buffy." "What?" She shook her head. "Oh, sorry. Guess that's just me. I doubt if yours'll come all the way from Canada tonight." "Yeah, right. It'd be just dumb luck if he showed up there," Charlie shook her head. "Well, I've had enough of dumb luck for today," Angel grinned as Charlie smacked her lightly in the shoulder. "Shall we meet at the car at 7:15? That'll give us time to let Baby run for a bit." "Yeah, he's a little restless." "Huh? Who?" "Sorry," Charlie said. "My car has gained a bit of a personality over the years." "Oh," Buffy sort of understood. Even Mr. Pointy had a bit of his own personality by now. The four girls wandered back to their rooms to get ready for their trip to the Bronze. They still had several hours, and Charlie spent some time writing in her journal while Buffy watched TV, something she didn't get much of a chance to do anymore what with homework and Slaying. She flipped through the channels for a while without finding anything to watch, it was rerun season after all. She heard Charlie get up and leave, then come back a little while later. Buffy was so engrossed in her surfing that the time just disappeared. Before long Buffy realized it was time to get ready to leave. It only took a few minutes once she had her hair done. She had piled her hair up on her head, and let a few ringlets fall down around her face. A blue halter to and a pair of pleather jeans completed the look. She came out from behind the small folding screen in the corner to discover that Charlie was ready to go. Charlie's blue hair looked as if it had been in an accident involving a box of metal stakes. There were spikes sticking out of her coiled hair from several directions. She wore a pair of blue jeans and a T-shirt with a little yellow duckie embroidered over he heart. As Buffy knocked on Willow and Angel's door, Charlie grabbed her backpack and the four headed out to the parking lot. A moment later Buffy and Willow stood staring in awe. Southern California was definitely cool car country, but this was different somehow. Charlie quickly herded them into the '71 Dodge, and before long they were racing down the short stretch of highway between UC Sunnydale and the town itself. As they pulled into the lot, their progress was followed by the eyes of quite a few of the patrons making their way to the Bronze. The four young women exited their gleaming chariot to a chorus of whistles and catcalls, which all four accepted as their due. Making their way into the club, Buffy and Willow lead their new friends to the table that Xander and Anya had secured. "Hello ladies," Xander said as they sat down. "I knew I was the luckiest guy in here before, but now everyone else is going to know it too." There were people staring at their table, wondering at the 5:1 ratio of women to men. "Well, aren't you going to introduce us to your new friends?" "Oh," Willow blushed. "This is Charlie and Angel. Charlie, Angel, this is Xander, and this is Anya." "Hi," Xander waved from across the table. "Nice hair." "Thanks," they chorused. There was a pause until Xander discreetly elbowed Anya in the ribs. "What? Oh. Hello," she began stiltedly. "It is wonderful that you have come to intrude on our privacy," Xander gaped but they just chuckled. "What's next?" Anya asked herself. "Ah yes, meaningless conversation," she spoke a little louder. "So, did you do that to your hair on purpose?" "An," Xander was embarrassed again by her bluntness. "It's okay Xander," Charlie said with a smile. "Others have been less subtle." "On what planet?" Xander asked. "Funny you should ask..." Angel's voice trailed off as Riley arrived, giving Buffy a quick peck on the cheek. "Hey guys," Riley pulled up a chair between Buffy and Willow, filling the table to capacity. "How's it going? Have you learned anything about the... incident?" "No," Buffy glanced at the pair sitting across the table. "Nothing new." "Ahhh," Charlie muttered. "Oblique references to someone or something we don't know about." Willow flushed, "sorry." "No worries eh? Just making a comment. I do that too often for my own good. It gets me into trouble sometimes." "Making comments gets you into trouble?" "Sure. One of my favorites has always been 'Wow, proof siblings shouldn't marry.'" Angel snickered. "You use that one alot?" Willow asked. "You'd be surprised. It always gets a great reaction. Anyway, who is this?" She gestured towards Riley. "Oh, this is Riley," Buffy brushed her hair out of her face. "He's my boyfriend." Riley watched, concerned as the blue haired girl, who was introduced as Charlie, watched Buffy intently. Her eyes seemed to be locked on the bite scar on Buffy's throat. Riley wondered if she was a vampire. Buffy had been known to associate with them before. Spike for one. He made up his mind, tonight he would find out. She's already been tricked by too many HST's. The evening progressed slowly, with pleasant conversation about normal subjects. Buffy realized that it was nice to have someone to talk to who wasn't involved in the world of the supernatural. "Look. Teachers," Willow pointed to where professors Adams and MacLeod stood letting their eyes adjust to the light. "Oh wow. Now no place is sacred. At least Schnieder never showed his face here." Buffy turned back to the table. "Hey, where'd Charlie go?" Their strange blue-haired companion had disappeared while their attention was elsewhere. "She went to powder her nose," Angel said, waving vaguely towards the washrooms. The group sat and watched the dance floor, crowded with people who had no idea what went on in their sleepy little hamlet when the lights went out. They danced on, oblivious to the knowledge that serial killers and PCP addicts gave Sunnydale a wide berth. "Hey Riley," Willow brought them all out of their reveries. "Do you know anything about that new teacher Mr. MacLeod? I've never heard of him." "Let's see... He's replacing Dr. Green, who was arrested for extreme forms of Kali worship. He was hired on Mr. Adams' recommendation, and his background check was handled personally by..." he glanced at Angel. "...my new supervisor." "Wow, background checks?" Angel looked surprised. "Yeah, they've had some problems with the teachers here before." "K," Angel turned back to watching the dance floor. "Hey look, someone's trying to pick him up." The group studied the woman who had approached Professor MacLeod. She was tall, and had auburn hair that hung to her waist, and she wore black jeans, a white peasant blouse, and knee high leather boots. She reached the pair gave professor Adams a hug, and said a few words to him. Then she turned to Mr. MacLeod, hands on hips and said something with a stern expression on her face. He replied, and she laughed loud enough to be heard over the music. Apparently all was forgiven, because she kissed him long and hard, and dragged him out onto the dance floor. "Must've been some pick-up line," Willow said. "Oh, I think he was well and truly 'picked up' long before now," Angel said with a smile. "That is not how people react when they first meet." The music slowed, and most of the couples on the dance floor held each other close. Mr. MacLeod and his russet-haired companion began to waltz around the floor. You could almost see her in an elegant evening gown, and him in black tie and tails at a lovely party. The pair disappeared behind the crowd as the music died. "Wow," a moment later the group turned to look at Charlie. "They're in love. But her dancing sucks." "It looked great to me," Riley said. "And when did you get back?" He asked suspiciously. "While you were watching them," she gestured towards the dance floor. "And he can dance, which makes her look good." "She didn't look that bad," Angel said. "Yeah, well," Charlie shrugged. "They were waltzing. Anyone can waltz. Well, anyone that can count to three." "She's gone now," Willow said to no one in particular. "Who?" Angel asked. "The redhead," Willow pointed to the bar, where the proffessor was sitting down next to Mr. Adams. His dancing partner had indeed deserted him, but he seemed to have enjoyed himself. As he sat down, the bartender set an empty highball glass down in front of him, quickly followed by a bottle of something expensive looking with a note taped to it. "Wow, I wish I knew what that said," Buffy snickered. "A little something to keep you warm until I see you again," Riley said in the singsong of someone quoting something. "You can read that from here?" Xander asked incredulously. "No, I can read lips," Riley said matter-of-factly. They all turned back to watch the scene playing out at the bar, only to discover the two professers watching them. After a moment, Charlie and Angel broke the tension by sticking their tongues out. Everyone saw Mr. Adams' lips move, and immediately turned to Riley for a translation. "He said 'That was about as subtle as being hit by lightening'." Angel started to chuckle softly, and Charlie's head made a hollow sound as it banged to the table. Willow and Buffy were afraid that she'd hurt herself, until they noticed her sides heaving with laughter. At that moment, Riley could not imagine that Charlie was anything other than what she seemed to be. He knew he still had to check out the possibility however. If she turned out to be some kind of demon, hell bent on destroying the world, he'd never forgive himself. The initiative commandos waited outside the dorms. Once he knew Buffy had gone on partrol, the group moved in closer with their thermal imagers. Riley adjusted the scanner, and focused it on the window of Buffy and Charlie's room. "Got her," he exclaimed. "I have two heat signatures, both below 98.6*F." "Two? I thought there was only going to be one?" Riley turned to the speaker, one of the new soldiers Commander Carter had brought when she took command. These were the best and the brightest, the soldiers the brass thought could handle the knowledge that the things that go bump in the night were all the things they had feared as a child. "It's Marshall isn't it?" "Yes sir." "Lt. Marshall, you can do this. If you hadn't completed your training you wouldn't be here. You spent time in the pit. This is a simple extraction." "Yes sir." Lt. Marshall took a deep breath. As dressing downs went, this had been pretty mild. Most officers would have been cruel, not brusk. Once he was sure everyone had enough time to settle themselves, Riley ordered them to move out. Outside the door to Buffy's room, the group took the time to put on their masks. Riley had made sure that Buffy would have a room with a door that was out of the way and hidden from the rest of the hall, just in case there was any need to sneak anything in or out of her room. Now he was glad of it. Riley heard soft giggling from the other side of the door, and gestured to the others as he opened the door. The pair just sat there, stunned by the sudden arrival of the commandos. Riley gave the signal, and someone turned on a low watt UV lamp. It was close enough to sunlight to stun, but not enough to burn. Fifteen minutes later, the pair were locked in the vaults, and the team was in the Commander's office giving her their report. "The operation went off without a hitch sir," Riley Finn said. "We captured the HST's with a minimum of injury." "I assume it was Corp. Gildea that was injured?" Commander Carter gestured to an empty seat at the other end of the conference table. "Yes, sir." "How was he injured Captain?" "All of his fingers, and his nose were broken sir." "And how did he manage that, when none of you were hurt?" "He attempted to take advantage of one of the HST's sir. She broke all of the fingers on the hand he touched her with, then he was unlucky enough to get his other hand in the way when she punched him in the face. "Sir?" "Yes?" Carter turned to the man who had spoken. "I've seen one of the ...HST's before." "You have? Where?" "Umm..." he looked arounf the table. "At my last post sir." "Last post?" She looked at him for a moment. "Oh, you were transferred here from General Hammond's command weren't you?" "Yes sir." "And you saw one of the, what did you call them? HST's there?" "Yes sir, she looked a little different, but it was the same woman. She was going on a mission with Colonel O'Neill. "Finn." "Yes sir? "Set this thing," she pointed at the sophisticated video equipment in one corner of the room, "to monitor the cell they're in." "Yes sir," Riley took a few moments to adjust the settings on the monitor. When he turned it on, the team looked into an empty cell, liberally decorated in what looked like crayon. "What is that pattern?" Gildea asked, shocked. The team was about to sound the alarm, when the Commander held up her hand. "Captain Finn, please go down to the vaults and call me from there." "Sir?" "Go." "Yes, sir." A few moments later they saw Riley appear on the monitor at the plexiglass door of the vault. Just then the phone on the Commander's desk rang. Carter put Finn on speakerphone. "Well?" She asked pointedly. "They're here," he looked up into the monitor. "Can you see them? Please, tell me you can see them." "I don't need to see them," the team heard snickering in the background. "Please bring them to my office Capt. Finn. "Yes, sir." Riley turned back to the cell, now decorated in 64 shades of paisley. He gestured to two burly Initiative veterans to grab the prisoners, once he had unlocked the door. The three humans thought for a moment that they heard laughter coming from behind them. Riley turned around and looked at the cell across the hall. One of the more vicsious vampires they had picked up this week was cowering in the corner of it's cell, whimpering. As he watched, the electric barrier malfunctioned and hundreds of little bolts of lightening shot out of the walls ultimately dusting the vamp. The laughter stopped abruptly, and Riley turned to discover that the prisoners had managed to circumvent the security system in their cell, and had extended their artwork onto the electrically charged door. He glared at Charlie for a moment, as though daring her to try something. He knew she wasn't human, and despite the incident with Oz, he was still distrustful. The prisoners didn't put up any resistance as they were dragged to the Commander's office. Riley opened the door and stepped inside, followed closely by the HST's. Riley watched without understanding as the pair stopped dead a few feet from the desk. Dragging their jailers with them, they fell to their knees and began to bow, arms outstretched. "We beg your forgiveness," they chanted in unison. "We would not have toyed with them if we'd known they were yours." "Commander," Riley looked at his boss. "What's going on?" "Oh wise oracle and voice of the great Rodney, tell us, have we offended him?" Commander Carter spoke for the first time durning the exchange. "I don't know. I'll ask," she picked up the small yellow duck that sat on her desk, and held it up to her ear for a moment. "He says, 'as if.'" Riley made a small strangled sound, and the three girls turned to look at him. One look at the expression on his face, and all three fell into convulsions of laughter. "Finn," the Commander managed between gasps. "These are the good guys." "Yes sir," he said sulkily. "You three will not mention this to anyone. They're here for a reason, and they don't need you outing them. Dismissed." "Yes sir," Riley and the others were about to turn and go, when she stopped Riley one last time. "And get someone to take the 'Kick Me' sign off your back please," she turned to Charlie. "Robyn, how childish," she waved Riley out the door. "I know," he heard as he left, trying futily to see the small of his own back. "Isn't it fun?" As he closed the door, Riley listened to his new Commander, and the two non-humans singing the Toys R Us theme. Later that night... Buffy stalked the vampire, even as it stalked its prey. Both moved silently through the tombstones, keeping to the shadows cast by the full moon. Slowly Buffy gained ground, until she stood directly behind the vampire, and still it was unaware of her presence. The creature was so intent on its prey it never noticed as she moved wraithlike through the silver plated graveyard. All was still in silence as the sharpened dowel found the vampire's heart. Its remains drifted gently down, coming to rest on the marker inscribed: "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust." The girl the vampire had been stalking made a strangled sound, and Buffy rushed around the final monument to see what was wrong. "You might want to run now pet," Buffy heard a familiar Cockney accent warn the girl. She heard a twig snap under Buffy's foot and shrank closer to Spike. She relaxed when she saw Buffy. Just a girl. "You shouldn't be out. It's dangerous," Buffy said. The girl moved closer to Spike, until she stood with her back against his chest. "I'm sure I'll be just fine now," the girl said, a little smugly as Spike wrapped his arms around her. "Are you?" Buffy asked. "Yes, are you?" Spike echoed. She turned and looked at her 'protector,' only to discover a monster in his place. "Boo." The girl ran, too frightened even to scream. Buffy and Spike watched dispassionately until she was out of sight. "What are you doing here?" Buffy demanded. "What's it to you Slayer?" Spike lit a cigarette, making sure Buffy was watching as he struck a match on the derriere of an angel monument placed at the side of the pathway. "Go back to your little hole Spike and leave me alone." "What are you afraid of Buffy? Worried about the Big Bad?" "You're not the Big Bad anymore Spike. You've been fixed." "Just wait. Some day you won't be able to ignore ol' Spike anymore. Then we can finish what we started." Looking past Spike into the tangle of trees, Buffy saw a flash of light reflecting off of something. "Hey, don't ignore me," Spike was incensed. "Shut up Spike." A moment later, a familiar cat stepped daintily onto the path. It stood for a moment, staring at Buffy as only a cat can, then it turned and walked down the path and out of sight. "Was that thing wearing jewellery?" Spike asked, through a cloud of smoke. "Yes," Buffy said as she turned to follow it. "What the Smeg is it?" He stubbed out his cigarette in the angel's eye and fell in step behind Buffy. As they rounded the corner, they saw the cat sitting at the next corner, its tail wrapped around its toes. "It looks like a cat," it yawned its curling pink tongue the only colour against the black fur. "It acts like a cat," it sneezed, then continued down the pathway, looked back over its shoulder once, and disappeared around the next bend. "Mostly." They approached the turn cautiously, not sure what lay ahead. "I feel like I'm in an episode of Lassie," Buffy said in a hushed voice. The cat hissed as they rounded the corner, almost like someone hushing them. It crouched down and snaked through the grass, and Buffy, more intregued than ever, followed. They reached the edge of the woods that adjoined the cemetary, and Buffy saw a black van parked just within the concealment of the trees. Someone was hearding teens into the back, and they were scared out of their minds. Four thugs, unarmed and probably vampires, were keeping the kids from making a break for it. 'We need a distraction,' Buffy thought to herself. The cat jumped up into the lowest branches of a nearby tree and stared past the the group of thugs into the night. A moment later there was a loud crash from the other side of the clearing, and all of the vampires turned to discover its source. Buffy took the oportunity this had given her and leapt from the bushes, running low across the open ground between her and the nearest guard. Spike followed not far behind, and they each dispatched one guard while the others backs were turned. Buffy yelled for the stunned teens to get away as she leapt for the next vampire. They tumbled to the grass and struggled for a moment with him on the bottom learing. She punched him in the face twice on principle, then rolled away as he went for her throat. His lunge left his side wide open, and Buffy took the opening and sank the wooden sliver between his ribs. Buffy stood as the dust rained down around her, and noticed another, larger, group of vampire thugs headed her way. There were too many of them for her to protect all of the teens, even with Spike's dubious assistance. She looked around to find their leader, that would be the simplest way to scatter them. Glancing at the van in the center of the clearing, she noticed a strange hunched figure crouching on the van roof. This, Buffy knew, was the one she had to stop here. But first she had to get to it. A flash of light gave Buffy a better look at her opponenet. It looked vaguely like a gargoyle, or maybe like a Gremlin. It's glowing amber eyes regarded her with annoyance over the heads of the vampires that crowded between them. She knew that there were still a few teens trapped in the vehicle, but with all of the vamps in the way, the odds weren't very good of them surviving the night. A rumbling growl broke Buffy's concentration, and she turned to see where it had come from. All she saw was a flash of gold before the horde of goons was on her. She heard Spike's accused quips, and knew he was reveling in the deaths. The growls continued, and at one point in th ebattle, Buffy saw two jaguars tearing vampires to dusty shreds. One of them leapt into the back of the van. For a moment Buffy was afraid that the teens were just on a different menu. The van began to move, with Buffy still trying to make her way through the mob. A body dropped out of the van, and Buffy fought harder hoping to arrive in time to save the rest. Another body fell, but Buffy noticed it was still moving. In fact, the first one was crawling unobtrusivly away. Soon, almost all of the trapped youngsters were playing dead in the van's wake. The van was now going too fast for anyone to jump out safely, and Buffy was still wading through the tide of vampires. The second jaguar and Spike had dispatched quite a few of them, but they had to finish this before the ones that were left realized that their dinner was escaping. The first jaguar leaped out of the speeding van, carrying the two remaining teens on its back, in a saddle she hadn't seen when it jumped in. Buffy turned her attention to the last two vampires Last Updated: Story: 20002/10/20 Page format: 2000/11/17 This is funny, isn't it?