Buffy the Tenno

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 11 – part 2


Tara blinks, once, as the orientation video continues to play on an antiquated TV and Video player. Checking her wrist, she curses at the lack of watch on her uniformed arm. Whoever they hired to do the voice over for the safety video could make good money selling sleep aids.

She jerks as an the extended Doublemeat Burger Palace advert comes on once more. It's cheery and lively pacing a stark contrast to the videos about not putting your hand in the grinder, or always using the guard when slicing chicken, along with graphic pictures of the results. Which somehow manage to seem utterly mundane when coupled with the voice.

She jumps as the door to the training room opens, and the light switches on. She's not sure if she should be wondering if it's been two hours already, or was it really only two hours?

"Hello, I'm Manny, the manager. It's not a pun, just coincidence."
Tara spins around in her chair to see a middle-aged man with a completely unremarkable face. His voice is barely more than a monotone.
Tara puts on a smile, "Hi, I'm Tara, though you probably already knew that."
"Indeed, follow me and I'll show you around. It's a shame you can't work full time."
Tara smiles, "Well, you know. College."

Manny shows her to the break room first, where there's a guy lounging at the sole table in the room, "This is the break room, and that's Dave. He's a lifer, keep an eye on him and you'll end up like me."
Tara glances over as Manny taps his "10 year" achievement badge.
"Gary used to do nights, but he didn't show. Lucky you."
Tara grimaces, "Yeah, lucky me."

Manny leads her to the bank of lockers and opens one, "This is your locker."
Tara's eyes widen when she sees the scarves and personal effects in the locker, "Um, there's someone's stuff in there."
Manny looks at the locker with barely a hint of curiosity, "They left. Keep the stuff or bin it."

Making their way back to the entrance of the break room, Manny shows Tara the punch clock and takes a card with her name on, before putting it in the device, "Now you're clocked in. Remember to clock out."

As she watches Manny put her card in the slot for it, her eye is drawn to a single bracket with multiple cards sticking out, "Um, what's that one for?"
Manny looks up, "Absent without cause. Your card will stay there for a week before you are removed from payroll."
Tara shivers, "Why so many cards though?"
"New hires, do a shift, never come back."

What follows in an achingly slow tour of the kitchen and counter area with a description given in a tone that has Tara struggling to keep her attention on Manny and not letting her thoughts wander. Something that's made worse when she sees a spark of void energy jump from her nose to the lip of her hat. Having a quick look around, she sees nothing amiss.

"…you will be working with Robbie for the next couple of days."
Tara's attention snaps back to Manny as she realises she's just missed the explanation of the till, "Oh, uh, sure."
Manny nods slowly, "Have a good shift. I hope to see you back here tomorrow."
"I'll be here." Tara turns to Robbie, it says so on his shirt, "Hi, uh, I'm working with you this evening?"
Robbie looks at her with a dead eyed look, "You are. This is the till, it has pictures of each of the menu items on it." He looks up towards an old lady with a silver-haired wig, "This is Agnes, she's a regular. Watch me."

As Agnes approaches the counter, Robbie says, in a voice void of any enthusiasm, "Welcome to Doublemeat Burger Palace. May I take your order."
Agnes smiles at Robbie, "Can I have a doublemeat medley, a small sprite, and a cherry pie?"
With practiced motions, Robbie presses the buttons for the order, and then presses another button that causes the till to open, "See, it's simple. Just punch in the order and then press this button once it's finished. Now, fill this cup."

A couple of customers later, Robbie says, "This is the Roberts family, they're another regular. Why don't you take this one?"
Tara plants a smile on her face as they arrive, and tries to listen to the father. However one of the kids loudly shouts, "Dad, Dad, her hat's looking about. Can I have a hat like that. Please?"
Finally the father looks down, "Timmy, be quiet otherwise you won't get your nuggets." Looking back at Tara he continues, "Sorry about that. Do you know if they'll be selling hats like yours on the website?"
Tara looks alarmed as her eyes try to see past the cap, "I'm sorry, this is just a prototype, I don't think I was supposed to be given this one."
The father shrugs, "Ah well."
Tara smiles, "I'm sorry, would you be able to repeat your order. Only I've just started here, and I'm still getting used to stuff."

Once the order has been served, Tara stretches up to Robbie, "Robbie, I'm just going to powder my nose."
Robbie nods mechanically, "Don't take too long, as they take the time out of your break."
Tara nods and flees to the rest room, where she shuts the door and tries to pull the void around her quickly. Five minutes later, she's actually used the rest room for its intended purpose, dispelled the hat, and mostly drained her void reserves, for the moment.

Returning to the front, she somehow manages to make it through the rest of her first shift, as well as eat an entire Medley.

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Willow's sitting at the small desk in her dorm room trying to work on her college assignments instead of the advanced magical principles that Razial has been having her make notes on while he's been trying to analyse Buffy's void magic. Most of it is going over her head, but it is an approach to magic that is closer to her geeky origins than the form of magic she practices.

Looking back down at her work, she sees that she's started writing the formula for a magical prism in the margins of her coursework. While useful for separating out the sources of magic in an area, it has nothing to do with Object Orientated design principles, and use case diagrams.

She's about to copy the formula out into her magical notebook when the door opens behind her. Slamming her hand over the formula, she turns around in the chair to see Amy. "Amy, what are you doing here?"
Amy smiles at her, "Can't I drop in to see a friend?"
Willow narrows her eyes, "Friends don't take friends to places like Rack's."
Amy scoffs, "Oh, please. I could tell you enjoyed it. Don't tell me you've been cutting down."
"So what if I have?"
"What did they do? Spin you some sob story about how you're addicted to magic? How you shouldn't use as much as you have been?"
Willow wanted to say it's because of her apprenticeship, or the money she makes charging crystals, or any number of things. Instead, she says, "It's none of your business."

Amy smiles widely, "Sure it isn't." a muttered spell sends a green light into Willow's chest, "There, a gift from me. Now you can do magic and truthfully tell people it wasn't yours. Oh, and catch, first one's free, it will keep you going when you hit your downer."
Willow looks surprised when a quartz crystal lands in her lap, then she starts to laugh hysterically as she recognises it as one of her failures.

With a smile, Amy leaves, closing the door behind her.

Willows laugh quickly turns into pained gasps as the magic inside her starts to try to find its own way out, and coming into conflict with her contract. As she collapses to the floor, she sweeps her notebooks off the desk and on top of herself. Clutching her chest, Willow croaks out, "Stipo" before lying, gasping on the floor as the magic inside her has a small outlet while it takes her notebooks and papers and packs them neatly into her backpack. Grabbing the bag by a strap, Willow crawls over to the door and uses the handle to pull herself to her feet. A strangled spell sees her dressed for leaving her room, and gives her enough reprieve from the pain to open the door and stagger down the hallway.

When she reaches the stairs, the almost drunken high from the magic combined with the pain in her chest sees her almost stumble into the stairwell before she manages to lurch past it, and grab the rail. Leaning heavily against the wall, she inches past the stairwell to the elevator and punches the button down.

Collapsing into the lift, she mutters, "Detergeo" followed by "Purifico", leaving the elevator clean than it's been since it was first installed. With the brief cessation in pain, Willow lifts herself up enough to press the 1st​ floor button, before collapsing against the door. An interminable time later, the doors open again, and Willow collapses to the floor, looking at the back of the lift, Willow spots her backpack. Weakly, she stretches out her hand, and it levitates over to her and the pain in her chest subsides to only being overloaded with magic, rather than both overloaded and not being able to use it.

With the reduced pain, Willow drunkenly climbs the door to the elevator, and staggers drunkenly out of the dorm building to the nearby payphone. Once she gets to the phone, she leans heavily against it as she fumbles her purse out of her bag along with a couple of quarters. Blinking owlishly, she shakes her head to clear her vision enough to get the card for Mikes Machining. As she tries to read the number, she collapses against the pillar, with great pain filled sobs.

As she's laying there, a young man walks over and crouches down next to her, "Hey, are you ok?"
Willow feebly lifts up the card, "Call, help. Please."
The man smiles at her, "Sure, I'll do that."

Picking up her wallet, the man dials Mikes machining while looking at her student ID, "Oh, hey. I found a Willow Rosenburg leaning against a payphone outside Sunset Dorm. She looks like she's in lots of pain."
Willow groans out, "Amy, slipped, overload."

The man interrupts whoever's on the other end, "One mo, she just said something. Amy, slipped, overload. Oh shit, I think someone slipped her some drugs and she's OD'ing. Sure, there's a bench right next to the phone, I'll help her onto it… Um, a backpack and her wallet with like a couple of dollars worth of quarters in it."
As the man hangs up, and helps Willow onto the bench, she can't shake the feeling that there was over $100 in her wallet as it's rent day tomorrow.

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Buffy looks up as the forge turns off, and the whole workshop goes silent except for the sound of Ir'in on the gas welder. Taking off her hearing protection she looks around, and sees Vhesthine by the emergency cut off button.

As the others are taking off their own hearing protection, Vhesthine calls out, "Roselyn, Buffy, one of our own is in trouble. I need you two to pick them up."
As Roselyn turns around, Vhesthine throws her her purse, "I'll walk you both to your car."

Concerned, Buffy hurries over as Vhesthine quickly walks out the door, with Roselyn jogging to keep up, "Vhesthine, what's happened?"
"Willow's in trouble. Bad enough that a man phoned on her behalf. She said three words, Amy, slipped, and overload."
Buffy frowns as they reach Roselyn's car, "What does that mean?"
Vhesthine gives Buffy an actual kiss, "Buffy, it means that you may need to feed from her. When you do, if you feel resistance, then that's her essence. If she's suffering from magical overload, then what you're looking for will probably taste oily and disgusting."
"Vhesthine, why don't you go?"
Vhesthine looks at Buffy sadly, "Because then there'd be two people suffering overload. I don't have a way of using large amounts of magical power. Also, once I'm dead, that's it, I'm gone for good."
Roselyn calls from the drivers door, "I'll get her there, you just make sure we've got somewhere to put Willow when we get back."

For Buffy, the short five minute journey to the university dorms seems to go by in the blink of an eye, as the enormity of what she'd been asked to do weighs on her mind and thoughts. All of those thoughts go out of her mind the instant she sees Willow clutching her head and gasping for breath on the bench, sweat pouring from her face.

Pushing open the car door before Roselyn's even stopped, Buffy pays no heed to pretending to have human limits as she bounds over to Willow, and picks her up gently. She then makes her way back to the car, and opens the rear door, before shuffling in on to the bench seat back first so that Willow can lie on top of her, face to face.
When her head touches the far door, Buffy brings her feet up onto the seat and manoeuvres Willow so that she can kiss her.
"Just so you know, this doesn't mean we're dating or anything."
Willow lets out a pained laugh and Buffy closes her mouth over Willows.

She's not sure when in the journey it happens, but at some point something about the exchanges that Buffy's been doing with Vhesthine clicks, and she gets a flood of strawberry flavoured milkshake tingling through her body. It feels so much better than feeding or being fed by Vhesthine, but also less intimate, as though there's something fundamental that's missing.
It's only when Willow gives a pleasure filled moan that Buffy realises she's taking too much, and immediately feeds the strawberry milkshake essence back into Willow, along with some of her own reserves. The creak of the handbrake pulls Buffy out of her latest attempt to find something that isn't strawberry flavoured, and Roselyn opens the door by her head.

"Come on, we need to get her inside. Pass her up and I'll carry her if you can get the doors."

A couple of minutes later, Willow is laid out on the couch-chairs that have been placed side by side. Vhesthine's standing beside her with Buffy and Roselyn, "How did you get on Buffy?"
Buffy shakes her head, "She tastes like strawberry milkshake, but I couldn't find anything that tasted bad."
Vhesthine leans over and feeds very lightly on Willow before grimacing, "The pain has made her hold on her own essence too loose. Roselyn, you don't have to be here."
Roselyn shakes her head, "Look, I know she works with the boss, but I ain't going to let her go just because I'm squeamish around magic."
Vhesthine nods and takes a deep breath, "There is a spell we can use. I'll demonstrate it, but, Roselyn, you'll need to do the spell and let Buffy feed on you."
Roselyn looks at Buffy, "I didn't know you were a succubus too."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "She isn't, we'll talk about it after Willow's safe."
Roselyn nods, so Vhesthine rips open Willow's top, and places her bare hand on the skin between Willow's breath, "You must repeat exactly what I say, and how I say it. Píngzhe dàdì de lìliàng, wǒ jiāng nǐ de mófǎ jù wéi jǐ yǒu." As she speaks, green sparks pull up from Willow's chest and dance around Vhesthine's hand, before racing up her arm and settling into her skin. With great effort, Vhesthine wrenches her hand away from Willows chest, and tips back, breathing heavily.

Willow's breathing and whimpers of pain become less laboured, but not so much that she regains coherency. As Vhesthine gets her breath back, Buffy pulls her up into a hug, before leaning back to look at her pitch-black eyes.
"Vhesti, are you ok?"
Vhesthine jumps at Buffy and tries to feed off her. As Buffy pushes her back, Vhesthine lands on the floor, "So good, so good. I need. Need, need, need."
Buffy looks at Vhesthine critically, "Roselyn, I need you to get some of the quartz sand we use for moldings, and meet me outside. We need to fix whatever's happening to Vhesthine, and then she can talk you through whatever she did to Willow."
Roselyn looks at Vhesthine with a shudder, "You want me to do that to myself?"
Buffy shakes her head, "I think that the idea is that you take enough to turn your eyes black, and then I take it from you."

As she's looking at Roselyn, Razial's office door finally twigs something inside her, and she slaps her hand against her head, "We are so stupid. Give me a moment."

Walking smartly across the reception, she raps her knuckles on Razial's door. A couple of minutes later, an annoyed Razial answers the door, "I thought I said I wasn't to be disturbed."
Buffy smiles sweetly and points at Willow, "Your apprentice needs help."
Razial growls at Buffy, who continues to look unimpressed. Eventually he says, "Fine, but you need to fill a few crystals for me."
Buffy shrugs, "Sure, you'll need to teach me how though."
Razial just growls at her, before he picks up Willow and slings her over his shoulder. As Razial does so, Roselyn takes her life in her hands by asking, "Hey Boss man. Could I learn magic?"
Razial turns around slowly and looks at her critically, "No. But if you signed a contract to work for me for the next 50 years doing what you're already doing, I could turn you into a succubus."
Roselyn looks down at Vhesthine, "Um, I'd have to talk to Tazar first."
"He could be changed too, for another 25 years."
Roselyn swallows hard, "I'll talk to Tazar."
Razial just disappears in a flash of fire and Roselyn turns to Buffy, "Um, what did I just do?"
Buffy just picks Vhesthine up off the floor, and immediately has to wrestle her to keep her away from her lips, or tearing her clothes off. Ignoring the damp spot where Vhesthine was kneeling, Buffy struggles towards the door, "Roselyn, the door please."

It takes the two of them 10 minutes to get Vhesthine across the road into one of the many abandoned warehouses in the area. It then takes them 3 tries to get a quartz circle laid out around Vhesthine, as she keeps trying to grab them when they get too close.

Once the circle is complete, Buffy kneels down just close enough to touch the circle, "Roselyn, Tara's been teaching me a little magic, so while I'm sure I can do this. You should probably head back to the workshop in case I do something wrong."
Roselyn moves back to the door of the warehouse, before turning around to watch.

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Buffy leans forward and pushes void energy into the circle and starts to cycle it the way she remembers Tara doing for Willow and then Dawn. Then the green energy starts to come out of Vhesthine's mouth and Buffy's suddenly back on Praghasa watching Ballas drawing the last of the power out of the Lotus.
Helplessly she watches as the Lotus starts to scream, while behind her a void portal starts to form. Ballas' cruel laughter rings in her ears as the void starts to pull the Lotus towards it, her outer chassis falling away first when her fingers gain purchase on the ground.

Suddenly, free of her fear, she lunges forward and grabs the Lotus's hand and reaching for her warframes hand behind her. Feeling like she's missed the grab by millimeters, she braces herself against the pull of the void, and tries to pull the Lotus to her, "I'm not letting you go, not again."

One of the sentients flies into her back, obviously thrown by Ballas. Whatever the reason, it does it's job, as Buffy loses her footing and all three of them tumble through the portal into the void.

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Mrs Penshaw smiles up at Dawn, "Dawn, it's good to see you. You don't come around nearly enough anymore. Come, come, we are making burritos today. Maria has her boyfriend round, so we're going to be making much for everyone."
Dawn swallows hard at that news, and puts on a smile while she follows Mrs Penshaw into the kitchen where Janice is already chopping salad vegetables and grating cheese to go into the burritos.

Mrs Penshaw leads her over to her spice cupboard, "You can make the spice mix for the mince with me. It's the secret of the best burritos. First of all, find the spices that you want to use. Then we'll mix them together to make the mix."
Dawn nods, and carefully opens each of the jars, and takes a sniff. Trying to block out the smell of boredom from Janice, and the smell of happy patience from Mrs Penshaw, Dawn picks out only the spices that she can actually smell.

Mrs Penshaw has a massive smile when she exclaims, "Well done, tonight we will be having a fragrant meal, with some sweetness. Though I would suggest putting these two back, as they won't go together as well as you'd think from their scents."
Reaching up into the cupboard, she pulls down an empty jar, and a marker, before writing 'Dawn's burrito mix' on the side, "Now you take these spices, and you grind them in the pestle and mortar until they are a fine powder. Start with a little of each, and then add a touch more if you think it's needed."

With a worried smile, Dawn copies the method that she's shown for grinding the spices into powder, having to be careful not to put too much force into it.

It's a couple of hours later when Maria and her boyfriend come down for dinner that Dawn's self-control is really tested. Not only does she need to eat human food for the first time in almost a month, but the overpowering smell of lust and infatuation keeps distracting her.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 11 – part 3


Vhesthine groans as she wakes up on the floor of her apartment with the setting sun shining straight through her windows and onto her face. With a groan, she pushes herself onto her front, and then onto her hands and knees. Her wings spreading out automatically to stabilise her. Staggering to her feet, she lurches over to the sink and downs a glass of water to distract from the gnawing hunger she's feeling. Whatever's going on, she's been gone at least a week.

Swaying over to the land line, she picks up the phone and dials Mikes Machining, hoping that it isn't a Saturday. The phone rings a couple of times before she answers the phone with "Mikes Machining, I'm sorry, we're closed to the public now."

Desperately, Vhesthine slams the phone down, accidentally crushing the handset at the same time. What's going on? How could she have just answered the phone?

She desperately needs something to eat, and it's too early for her normal hangouts. She smiles as she takes on her human form. A simple glamour, and she should be able to get Spike going.

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Roselyn groans as she wakes up in bed, her last memory before this being dragged towards Buffy and Vhesthine when something went really wrong, and some sort of portal opened up. Those thoughts go out of the window as her partner comes into the bedroom and sniffs twice, before launching himself at her jugular. With practiced instincts, Roselyn grabs his horns to redirect him to her mouth, and also redirect his hunger to a different taste of the flesh.

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"Hello sleeping beauty." Are the first words Buffy hears as she wakes up. Opening her eyes, she finds herself in a virtually bare bed in a crypt.
"You know, if you wanted me so bad, you just had to ask. Falling asleep outside my crypt was a bloody stupid thing to do." Buffy props herself up on her elbows to look at Spike. Idly noting her own lack of clothes.
"What makes you think I did that because I wanted you?"
"Why else would you turn up without a stitch of clothing, and no signs of a fight?" Buffy stares at him, "Alright, alright, without a stitch of clothing covering your modesty. Your rags are on the dresser over there."
"So, your idea of seducing me is to, what, put me on your bed and?"
Spike shakes his head, "Well what did you expect me to do, grab you a strawberry bloody milkshake and a bag of fries?"
Buffy licks her lips at the idea of strawberry milkshake, an image of Willow's face clear in her mind, "Mmm, now that you mention it, strawberry milkshake is delicious, but maybe you'll be a good substitute."
Spike backs up in his chair as Buffy's eyes start to glow a mix of deep red and green, somehow not mixing, "Slayer, what's going on?"

Lurching out of his chair, Spike is still too slow to stop Buffy from latching onto his mouth. As she kisses him, it's like she's got a direct connection to his bits, and she leans back with a sultry smile that has no business being on that face, "Mmm, cigar smoke and whiskey. More!"

Sometime later, Spike hears someone coming down the stairs through his haze of lust and exhaustion, "Help! She's insatiable!"
To his dismay, Vhesthine walks through the door and stops, looking at Spike and Buffy, "Buffy, how could you!? Did you leave any for me?"
When Buffy turns around, Vhesthine looks at her glowing eyes with concern, however, that concern is quickly erased when she saunters over, and says, "No." Before feeding her whiskey and cigar smoke, along with a healthy dose of magic and succubus essence.

As the edge is taken off her hunger, Vhesthine looks into Buffy's eyes, "Willow?"
Buffy smiles, "Razial has her. Let's go hunting."
Vhesthine blinks, "Buffy, what happened?"
Buffy feeds Vhesthine a bit more of Spike's essence, then pouts, her words coming through a little less needy, "Can't we talk about this after hunting?"
Vhesthine shakes her head, "No Buffy, I need to know now. And you need to give Spike some of your blood, otherwise he'll die."
Spike lifts his head a little more, "While it's turning me on watching you two like that, though little Spike seems to disagree, what's this about dying?"
Buffy looks hopeful, "Can we go hunting once I've fed Spike?"
"Almost, first we go home and get you some clothes that won't get you arrested."
Buffy smiles, "Sounds good to me."

Buffy looks around for her clothes, and pulls out her dagger, before emptying out an ashtray and filling it with blood and placing it by Spikes head. With a giant smile, Buffy turns back to Vhesthine, "I've fed Spike, let's go."
Vhesthine looks at Buffy's bleeding forearm, "Buffy, your arm."
Buffy looks down at it, "It doesn't hurt, so I'll be fine. Let's go hunting, he was nice, but I want something sweeter."

Vhesthine huffs in frustration, and starts to help Buffy get dressed, and tie her clothes up to provide at least some modesty. One strip of clothing, she uses to bandage the cut on Buffy's arm, "Come on, let's get home."
"Sure. Hey, didn't you say that Vampires are great for hunting because they don't have a soul?"
Vhesthine sighs, "Yes, I did." Before tugging Buffy along with her.
"Maybe we should use Spike to teach Dawn how to hunt…"

As the voices of the two women move out of earshot, Spike turns his head and desperately tries to lap at the blood in his ashtray.

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As Buffy and Vhesthine are walking home, hand in hand, Vhesthine says, "Buffy, I need to know. What happened after you got back with Willow."
Buffy smiles, "You tried to show Roselyn how to take the magic from Willow. Took too much, so I did a cleansing ritual on you, and we got sucked into a void portal."
Vhesthine smiles encouragingly, "That's great, have you ever done a cleansing ritual before?"
Buffy shakes her head, "No, but I saw Tara do it twice. It was easy."
Vhesthine pauses to give Buffy a quick exchange, before continuing to walk, "Oh, which process did you use?"
Buffy smiles, "The one where you push energy into the circle through the quartz and then cycle it around and around."
Vhesthine's eyes widen, "When you say cycle it around and around?"
Buffy nods, "Yep, bring it back to me, and then push it back through the quartz. Of course, I don't remember much after that first cycle, as you turned into the Lotus, and I watched Ballas steal the last of your energy again."

Vhesthine stops and takes both of Buffy's hands, "Buffy, I think you are suffering from magical overload."
Buffy shakes her head, "But I feel great."
Vhesthine nods, "It does that. It's why Willow kept using magic, do you remember?"
"But I don't want to use magic, I just want to go hunting with you."
"I know you do, but that the taint from my original dimension inside you. The taint of magic from here is why you don't care about it. It leaves you feeling on top of the world."
Buffy shakes her head and pulls one hand away, before heading for the house, "I'm fine. Come on, let's get changed so that we can go hunting."

Once they're closer to the house, Vhesthine says, "Buffy, I phoned work when I woke up. But I answered."
Buffy shrugs, "Probably just a paradox. Don't worry about it, void travel does that sometimes."
"But what if we come in contact with each other?"
"Did you? I think you'd remember that, unless that was the start of the loop of course."
"What!?"
"So, Eternalism is the philosophical theory that allows time travel, and it says that once a paradox starts it's always been true. So, if we went to the office and met ourselves, that would now have always been true that we met ourselves."
"I think I follow."
Buffy smiles, "Don't worry about it, if you don't remember it happening, then you're the first person in the loop. Otherwise you're part of the paradox, congratulations the universe hasn't ended. Now, we're home now so let's get ready to go."

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Tara's eyes open in surprise when Vhesthine drags Buffy through the doors to the store at just before 9pm. Her jaw drops when she realises that Buffy has taken most of her clothes from Vhesthine's wardrobe, with a wrap around skirt showing off her leg, and the halter top becoming visible when her coat rises at the back. When Buffy starts looking around at the various men in the place, her eyebrows rise. Even more so when it's Buffy that's sat down at a table while Vhesthine walks up to the till with a note in hand.
"Doublemeat Burger Palace, how may I help you?"
Vhesthine smiles, "Hey Tara, can I have a nuggets, fries, and two large sprites please. Oh, and a cleansing ritual whenever you're free."
Tara hisses, "What?"
"You remember what Willow was like before you did her ritual? Buffy's like that, except most of her taint is from me, after she tried a cleansing ritual earlier. Also, do you know what the time is?"
"You do know this is my first shift don't you? And it's almost 9, there's a clock above the door to the toilets."
Vhesthine sighs, "Believe me, I know, and I am glad it is as apparently time travel is a thing you can do accidentally now. Spike persuaded her to let him… When I found her, she'd already drained him and wanted to go hunting with me. She has no control at the moment, so unless you want her to leave a trail of corpses, we need that cleansing ritual."
"Buffy's just spotted Robbie cleaning the floor."
Vhesthine puts the $20 on the counter, "Keep the change, could you bring our food and drinks over please?"
Tara nods, "Sure, I'll also talk to Manny about getting an extra break."
Vhesthine just gives her a thumbs up as she moves to intercept Buffy, and guide her back to the table.

Once she's taken the food and drinks to Buffy and Vhesthine, Tara dodges Buffy's questing hand, and walks over to Robbie, "Hey Robbie, um, could you look after the till for a moment, I need to ask Manny something."
Robbie nods, "Sure, I need to put this away first."
Tara smiles, "Thanks."

Once Robbie has taken over the till again, Tara makes her way around the store until she finds Manny in the interview room doing paperwork. Knocking on the door, she pokes her head in, "Um Manny? I know this is my first shift, but a couple of friends have arrived and need help. Would I be able to take a second 30 minute break if I stay late to help clean up or something?"
Tara's almost ready to leave dejectedly when Manny looks up, "At least you asked. Most just disappear. Remember to clock out when you leave."
Tara nods, "Thank you." Then grabs her coat and clocks out, before heading to Vhesthine and Buffy.

Walking up to Vhesthine, Tara smiles, "I've got half an hour. Hopefully you have the sand already."
Vhesthine nods, "I picked up a small bag on the way out."
Buffy looks up from her soda, "What do we need sand for?"
"To put you through a cleansing ritual."
Buffy shakes her head, "I told you, I'm fine. I just want to go hunting with you." She sways slightly as she walks, as though she's already had a few drinks.
Tara looks at her, "Has she been like this long?"
Vhesthine nods, "Since I found her at Spike's crypt."

Tara leads the two of them to an alleyway nearby, and uses a spell to clear the floor of dirt and debris, "Buffy, I need you to kneel here the way you've been teaching me."
Buffy whines, "I don't want to, I want to go hunting."
Vhesthine smiles at her, "It's ok, Tara wants to show you how to do a cleansing properly. That way you can help me if I eat too much."
Buffy huffs as she sinks to her knees, "Ok. Fine. But I did it earlier and it worked out fine, if you ignore the void portal and hallucinations."
Tara kneels down in front of Buffy, and nods the way you might nod to a young child that's proud of the mess they've made while Vhesthine draws the sand circle.

"Now Buffy, I'm about to push void energy into the circle. But the hard part is preventing the energy from leaving the circle once it's in there. Once there's enough energy that I can bring it down to the sand, like a big ring donut, I'll stop pushing energy in and only control the energy that's inside the circle."
Buffy looks at her, "Oh, I didn't do that, I AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!"

Buffy's sentence cuts off as Tara completes the loop and the energy starts to flow through the quartz sand. Once the magic starts flowing clear, Tara lets go of the power but the circle continues to spin, and begins to pick up sand from the edge of the circle.
"Vhesthine, that's not supposed to happen!"
Vhesthine shouts over the sound the sand is starting to make, "It does for some demons, you need to break the circle."
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"Less dangerous than leaving it, it's feeding off of Buffy's energy now, and when it runs out it will release it in an instant. The sooner you do it the less dangerous it will be!"

As Tara looks around for a stick or something, a tear starts to open in the air. Panicking, Tara lunges for the circle and pushes her hand clear through the sand. Tara and Vhesthine are both thrown clear down the alleyway in different directions, while Buffy lands on the floor. A moment later Buffy says, "Ow, void that hurt." Spotting the bandage on her arm, Buffy pulls it back slightly, "When did I do this, and why hasn't it heal… Vhesthine!"

Looking around wildly, Buffy hurries over to Vhesthine body and sighs in relief when she can see her breathing. Gently picking her up, she carries her back to the clear area of the Alleyway where she sees Tara lying against another wall, out cold. After bringing Tara to lie next to Vhesthine, Buffy kneels down in meditation and quickly seeks the structure and forms of the Vazarin way, she hurries through the process of bringing her mind into the way. As she opens her eyes, she activates Squad Regen and watches her two friends critically, not even paying attention to the wound on her arm disappearing as if it never was.

As Vhesthine's eyes flicker open, Buffy's eyes dampen and she leans over to hug her, "You're alright, I thought I'd lost you."
Vhesthine smiles up at Buffy, "Do you still want to go hunting?"
Buffy shudders, before her shoulders firm up, and she takes a deep breath, "Not really, but if you want me to join you on a day we're not picking Dawn up from her friends." Buffy takes another couple of breaths, "I will join you on one condition."
Vhesthine smiles, and Tara's voice croaks, "You don't let her get like that again."
Buffy laughs, "You put the words right in my mouth."
Tara thumps Buffy on the arm, "That's not the saying, and you know it." She then looks down at her clothes, "They're going to kill me, this was a brand new uniform."
Buffy shakes her head, "Are you or are you not a witch who struggles with finding ways to use enough void energy not to explode?"
Tara gives Buffy a dirty look before casting repair and cleaning spells on herself, "There! Happy now? I'm trying to avoid relying on this for mundane things, as I'm just as likely to become dependent on it as Willow did, even if I don't suffer from magical overload the same way."
Buffy nods, "Thank you for your help. And I'm so sorry you saw me like that."
Tara looks Buffy up and down, "I don't know, now you're yourself again, I think you look good in that."
Buffy buries her head in Vhesthine's shoulder to hide as Tara laughs and heads back to work.

Once Tara's gone, Buffy looks seriously into Vhesthine's eyes, "How hungry are you?"
Vhesthine looks at a wall, "I'll be fine."
"Vhesti, talk to me. How are you doing, considering that we need to feed Dawn later."
"How do you do that?"
Buffy sighs, "Just because I can't smell how hungry you are, doesn't mean I don't have eyes, or hands. You're cold Vhesthine, and you're never cold."
Softly Vhesthine says, "I was starving when I woke up. Like I hadn't eaten in over a week, considering that we've been feeding Dawn."
Buffy nods and grasps her face to pull her into a kiss. Then she pushes as much essence as she can into Vhesthine, until she starts feeling lightheaded.
"Buffy! You can't do that, you need that essence yourself."
Buffy shakes her head, and leans against Vhesthine, "I'll grab a couple of burgers on my way home. I'll be fine. Sides, I've got a couple of bars of chocolate in my purse at work."
"Let me at least give you some essence back."
Buffy shakes her head, "Nope, you don't generate your own, I do. So I win, just get us back to Mikes."

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Jonathan looks up from the pinball game that he's currently trying to beat Warrens high score on, "Go away Andrew."
"Jonathan, we really need your help."
"Andrew, I told you I'm not getting involved with that cerebral thingy."
"But something went wrong."
"Damn it Andrew, I almost beat Warren's score. Now I have to start again."
"Jonathan, we just need you to summon some demons to confuse Buffy."
Jonathan throws his hands in the air, "Ok, fine. But if I get any hint this is to do with that orb, I'm gone."
Andrew holds up his hand, "I swear that we just need you to summon some demons."
"Well, lead on then."

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 11 – part 4


As Buffy and Vhesthine get closer to Mikes, a pillar of light streaks up into the sky from across the road, and Buffy chuckles. "I guess we know we didn't meet each other then."
Vhesthine huffs, "I didn't realise it was so late when this happened, Willow called me sometime around seven or eight."
"Come on, I need something to eat, and all my stuff's inside."

As they enter the workshop, Andrew looks up from where they've almost got all the equipment checked and re-calibrated after the earlier emergency stop, "They're back!"

Soon enough, John and Andrew are crowding around Buffy and Vhesthine, while Aglomal and Surkos are lingering nearby to find out if anything interesting happened. True to his species, Ir'in is still plodding away on his own work.
John demands, "Well, how's Willow? Will we need to walk on eggshells around the boss for a few weeks?"
Buffy smiles, "We managed to help her a little before I got the boss to take care of her, so she'll be back when she gets back."
Everyone heaves a sigh of relief, especially the demons, Aglomal grunts, "That's good, I don't have to prepare my wives for my potential death."
Buffy looks surprised, "Wives? How do you survive on the kittens you earn?"
Vhesthine hisses, "Buffy, that's a very personal question."
Aglomal tilts his head in a way that mean's 'it's ok' for his species, "We do not eat Kittens, we use them for trade. Though sometimes they are a nice delicacy. My wives make art, and so I work to get away from the demands of housework."
Buffy nods even though she's not sure of what that means in human terms.

The two of them are about to head upstairs when John looks around, "Where's Roselyn?"
Vhesthine shifts uncomfortably, while Buffy just rips the bandage off, "She got caught up in the cleansing ritual I did on Vhesthine when it went wrong, so we don't know when she came back, or even if she's come back yet. I was apparently sleeping outside when I was found sometime after sunset, so it's probable she woke up at the same time."
Andrew asks, "What, did you time travel?"
Surkos groans, "Don't start, otherwise it will end up like talking to a Rwasundi demon until they think you're trying to insult them and try to kill you."
Buffy frowns, "Eternalism isn't that hard to understand. I mean, sure there are Archimedeans who have spent centuries discussing the finer points of it. However, we all learnt and understood the basics before I was 19."
Vhesthine gives Buffy a very quick exchange, "Buffy dear, humans don't have the ability to learn the way you did."
Andrew and John both gasp, "You're not human?"
Aglomal groans, "What? Like it wasn't obvious? Come on you two, have you ever seen any human pick up metal working as fast as Buffy has? Or, how about the way she sometimes has to think for a second before she reacts to what you say."
Buffy coughs uncomfortably, "Right, I'm going upstairs to raid my snack supply. You can ask me about my humanity another day."

Once upstairs, Vhesthine phones Roselyn while Buffy is raiding her snack supply.

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Roselyn groans as she rolls over in the bed when the phone goes, "Hello?"
There's clear relief in Vhesthine's voice as she says, "You're alive, that's great."
Roselyn groans again, "I am, though it was a close run thing. Tanzar hadn't fed, and you know what they're like."
Roselyn can hear the smile in Vhesthine's voice as she says, "Not personally, no."
"Yeah, well. Hunger, sex, and violence are so closely linked in their species that their mates need to know how to turn it away from hunger."
"I don't understand why you're still with him."
Roselyn smiles, "He's got a wonderful personality when he's fed, and, well, I'm a masochist. So, sex and violence get's very confused in my mind." Vhesthine hums in understanding, "While you're on the phone. I won't be in for a few days as I can't feel my legs yet. Though I can still wiggle my toes, so it's not too bad."
"You do remember that we don't do sick pay."
Roselyn looks up at the ceiling as she falls onto her back, "I remember, but I couldn't lift a teacup, let alone my work. Tanzar's gone hunting, so I'm not going to starve. Even if I might wish I could when he shares his kill with me."
"Look, if you can get into the workshop tomorrow, Buffy can heal you right up."
"Wow, you're being awfully kind considering I'm human."
"To use a human phrase, Buffy has been good for me. In more than one way."
"Hmm, don't go forgetting the bitch queen sex goddess thing you had going on though. As we need that for some of our customers."
"Don't worry, I haven't."

Roselyn's silent for a few seconds, and when the phone isn't hung up, she ventures, "Vhesthine, Razial said I couldn't learn magic. But he could turn me into a succubus."
Neutrally, Vhesthine says, "I see. Dawn's coming in tomorrow. Talk to her about her experiences during your break."
That's when the click brr comes, and Roselyn says, "I guess she didn't want to talk about that."

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After Buffy and Vhesthine leave work, Vhesthine drives round to the Penshaw's to pick Dawn up.

Vhesthine smiles up at Mrs Penshaw as she opens the door, "Good evening, I hope Dawn wasn't any trouble."
Mrs Penshaw smiles, "It was no trouble, though I can see why you've been feeding her before she gets here. The poor girl must be going through a growth spurt."
From inside the house comes a cry of "Vhesthine!" and Mrs Penshaw laughs.
Vhesthine smiles, "Yes, she's reached that age. Thank you for feeding her."
Mrs Penshaw waves her hand, "It was no problem, I let her choose the spices for the burrito's. She picked an odd, but fragrant combination. I think everyone agreed that it was the nicest smelling meal we've had, even if she used too much chilli, and the flavour balance was off."
Vhesthine steps back to brace herself as Dawn launches into her and hugs her, "Vhesthine, you came."
Vhesthine smiles as she deftly turns the attempted feeding into air kisses on the cheeks, "The car's unlocked, I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Aww, but I…" Dawn trails off as Vhesthine smiles up at Janice in the doorway.
"Dawn, say goodbye to your friend."
Reluctantly, Dawn lets go and gives Janice a similar hug, "Thanks for inviting me over."

Mrs Penshaw chuckles good naturedly, "Dawn seems to be so much happier since you turned up. Don't you listen to the likes of that Miss Kroeger from social services. If your relationship with Miss Summers can take a girl as lost as Dawn was, and help her blossom into this, then you must be doing something right."
Vhesthine smiles, "Thank you. I need to get trouble here home as she has an early day tomorrow."
Mrs Penshaw smiles, "Don't let me keep you, as I'd still be talking at midnight. Have a good evening yourself, what's left of it anyway."

Once she gets in the car, Dawn almost launches herself across the divider to grab her, and Vhesthine snaps, "Seat belt Dawn. You can wait a couple more minutes."
Dawn whines, "But I'm so hungry."
Vhesthine puts her own seat belt on, "I know you are Dawn. But your friend is still watching, now wave to them and take your seat."
Dawn pouts as she waves out the window and reluctantly takes her seat. Vhesthine waves too before she starts the car and the internal light switches off.

Less than a minute later, she pulls over around the corner and looks at Dawn in the darkness, "Dawn, I'm going to give you a little bit to tide you over. For more, you'll need to wait until we get home."
Dawn nods eagerly, "I understand."
As they both lean over, and Vhesthine feeds Dawn a little. Dawn squirms on the seat and moans loudly. Pulling back, Vhesthine looks at Dawn critically, "Dawn, how long has that been happening?"
Dawn looks down at the armrest and mumbles, "About a week."
"Dawn, why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I didn't want you to stop feeding me, and send me hunting."
Vhesthine starts the car and begins the drive home, "Dawn, we wouldn't do that to you. All it means is that you're becoming a juvenile succubus. It changes the way I'm going to treat you slightly, as you need to start learning restraint. Especially as your instinct to feed rather than be fed is going to start getting stronger. If we were living in a commune, I'd also be starting to bring home the occasional prey, so that you could practice feeding in a safe place. Don't forget that we are a communal species. It's why so many of us choose to serve powerful humans."
"Buffy said that I have to become human again."
"I know she did, she spoke to me first. I understand why she's doing it, as we can't protect you the way we could if this was a commune. But I believe she told you that you could work to become a succubus again."
Dawn nods morosely, "Yeah, I know. But even if tonight sucked, I think I still prefer being a succubus over being human. I can smell how much Buffy loves me, same with you and Tara. School has been a lot less confusing since I started going as a succubus. I feel more confident and attractive too. What's not to like?"
Vhesthine sighs, "Having to rely on having compatible humans around. Needing to kill humans to survive until you learn sufficient self-control. Being alone in both the demon and human worlds. Being seen purely as a creature of lust and seduction. There are many reasons why someone would choose not to be a succubus."
Dawn frowns as they pull into the driveway, "What do you mean by being alone?"
Vhesthine turns in her seat to face Dawn, "Dawn, I am superhumanly strong, but amongst other demon species, I am so weak I have to use weapons. Humans are prey to me, and so much weaker than me too. My only strength amongst demons is my above average talent for magic. Something that I only had the opportunity to learn properly after I came to the human world. I can't have a meaningful relationship with non-succubae because if I lose control once, I will either kill them, or they will kill me in retaliation."
"But what about Buffy?"
"Do you know why I fed Buffy the first time?"
Dawn shakes her head, "I think you've told me before, but I don't remember."
Dawn shrinks back from the intensity in Vhesthine's gaze and voice as she says, "She had never smelt of lust around me. Not once. At the time, she stunk of anger and fear, and I was afraid that if I didn't do something she would kill me. So I used the only ability I have to affect someone's emotions. I fed her some of my essence."
Dawn looks down at her hands to avoid Vhesthine's eyes, "But being a succubus feels so good and right."
Vhesthine deliberately relaxes back into her seat, "It is. And there's nothing wrong with feeling like that. But you need to understand that Buffy is unique, and very much not human. Oh her body is very much human if you ignore the Slayer thing. But her mind and soul? They're not human. Did you know I've accidentally drained her twice, and the only thing she said about it was to complain about how hard it is to sneak home naked?"
"Why would she need to sneak home nak…ed… Ew, I did not need to know that. No, nope, nine."
Vhesthine chuckles and strokes the back of her hand down Dawn's cheek, "Dawn, if you remain a succubus, you will learn far more about the in's and out's of sex with humans than your human upbringing would ever be comfortable with. You will be watching me seduce a victim, have sex with them, and feed lightly. Then I'll be watching you do the same thing, and giving you tips. Granted, this wouldn't be for a few years yet, and you'd be learning to start and stop feeding the same way we feed you to start with. Also remember that only a month ago you were asking to come and watch me hunt."
Dawn loses control of her human form as she brings her wings over her head in embarrassment. Vhesthine gently strokes one of the fingers of a wing, "This is another reason why we would be doing just that. You cannot lose control of your human form, ever. As an adult succubus you need to be able to sleep as a human, and feed as a human. You must learn how to appear weaker than you are, so that Demons will treat you like a human. At the same time you must learn to be as vicious as the worst of them, to use every opportunity to kill your opponent before they can bring their greater strength to bear. You also need to learn what demons to steer clear of even with all of that, because they will either enslave you, and feed you only enough to live while they slake their carnal urges on your body."
Dawn peers over her wing, "Vhesthine, you're scaring me."

Vhesthine nods, "Good, because you haven't grown up knowing these things. At the hairdressers and spa, I hear human women occasionally talking in hushed voices about the conversations they've had to have with their daughters. About places they shouldn't visit, on how to spot a predator, where to hit a man to give them time to run, the dangers of drinking too much, or leaving their drink unattended. Every single one of them sounds as hurt as I feel having to tell you this. I wish you didn't need to know this stuff, that I could let you grow up as a woman or succubus without fear that your ignorance wouldn't get you hurt or killed later in life. I think all mothers and matriarchs do. Anyway, we should get inside, and then I can feed you a bit more."
Dawn nods, "But I'm still so hungry."
"I know, but I need to hunt as something happened and it's like I've only had one moderate meal in at least a week."

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Buffy gets to the Doublemeat Burger Palace just before it closes for the night, it been a weekday.

As she walks up to the counter, she can see Tara standing there disconsolately, "Hey Tara."
Tara looks up from her thousand yard stare, "Oh, hey Buffy. What can I get you?"
"Can I have two medley meals and four medley burgers to go please?"
Tara looks behind her, "Uh, we've shut down the grills and fryer already, I can do four medley burgers, and we have one portion of fries. We still have a portion of nuggets, one classic burger, and one cheese burger."
Buffy smiles, "I'll take all of those then. Are you alright?"
Tara nods, "I'm fine, I've just been on the till for the last hour while everyone else cleans down their stations before leaving. Manny's going to close the store in a few minutes, and then I'm cleaning down the service counter and the public areas of the restaurant."
Buffy smiles, "Don't forget you can cheat, and use up some of your void energy."
Tara smiles, "Not out here I can't, security cameras."
Buffy shrugs, "Do the toilets first."

Tara hands over the paper bag with Buffy's order, "I'll think about it. Enjoy your meal, and don't forget the seating area is closed now."
Buffy nods, "Thank you, I'm going to swing round to the south cemetery first, so that I can bin my rubbish when I cross back to the north side."
Tara smiles, "I'll see you when I get home then."

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Buffy hums happily when she gets past the northeast cemetery, and into the woods. The large amount of food having restored most of the reserves she fed Vhesthine earlier.

As she's walking along the ridge of the woods, three cloaked figures appear out of nowhere and start screaming at her. Their skin showing clear ridges, while their eyes were pearlescent black.
Unimpressed, Buffy puts her hands on her hips, "Look, I'm sorry I don't speak your language. I do speak plenty of others, though the only language on this world that I know is English."
The one in front of her raises it's arms threateningly, so Buffy shakes her head, "Look, I'm here for the same reason you are. If you want a fight, I want a fight. If you want to kill me, I want to kill you."
While she's talking a young woman runs screaming in between them, before collapsing to one side. As if that's a trigger, the three demons start to attack Buffy. Only for Spike to jump on the back of the one on the left.

With her right hand, Buffy draws her dagger at the same time as she lowers her left hand, "Spike, would you just get out of here. You almost got yourself killed."
As she dodges to one side of a badly telegraphed punch, she has to throw herself backwards as Spike throws a quick jab at the place one of the demons was a second before hand.
Stabbing out, Buffy catches one of the demons in the shoulder, "Spike, I mean it!"
Confused, Spike replies, "Mean what?"
Stabbing out with her dagger, the demon she's facing moves to one side, and she hears a scream from the civilian as her dagger neatly goes through the demons cloak.

Cursing, Buffy raises her left hand, and Spike lets go of the demon he's fighting only to get hit in the back, "Right fine, I'm going."
Buffy rolls her eyes as she activates void snare, and the three demons are pulled together. Quickly dispatching each one with her dagger, she ignores Spike as he curses her for almost stabbing her.

As whatever effect they're causing ends, Spike whirls around at Buffy, "What the hell was that?"
Buffy turns back to him, "That, using words you might understand, was time fuckery as bad as any I've experienced or caused when fighting Protea, or as Protea depending. At least they weren't reversing time as well. That was annoying when I had to face that, as I had to make her suffer acausal damage."
"You lost me after time fuckery love, I want to know why you almost stabbed me."
"Spike, I didn't almost stab you, I had to abort a dodge when you tried to attack a demon that had already moved. Same as the civilian ran through the fight, probably because she didn't know it had moved there. Now, which way did she go?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because I was too busy fighting the demons and also keeping you alive. Why did you even jump in? I almost had them handled."
Spike runs after her as Buffy heads down the hill, "You're having a go at me for trying to help you?"
"Yes I'm having a go at you. Because of you, that fight lasted far longer than it had to, and a civilian may be dead."
"Why are you blaming me for that?"
Buffy crouches down beside a young woman that's lying motionless on the floor while activating Mending Soul, she then touches the young woman before briefly glowing golden, "Because, rather than help me find her, you've been confronting me. You prevented me from using my beam attack, and your involvement actively made the fight last longer. Also, this person is dead. But there's no blood, so she wasn't stabbed and bled out."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Buffy ignores him as she pulls out her cell phone and dials 911.

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Before the fight takes place, in a nearby black van, Jonathan puts down his didgeridoo tiredly, "It's done, I've sent them after Buffy."
Warren smiles, "Great, Andrew, you're up."
Jonathan frowns as Andrew transforms into a slightly familiar young woman, "Andrew, what are you doing?"
"Making Buffy think she killed her."
Jonathan jumps out of the back door of the van and looks back at the two of them aghast, "You're using me to help you cover up a murder? Nope, nadda, not happening, I'm out. You are not pitting me against her, or her fucking boss."
Andrew looks back at Warren, "What are we going to do?"
Warren looks at Andrew, "First of all, you have to catch up with them and make Buffy think she hit you. Then we can think about Jonathan once that's done and she's found the body."

A few minutes later, Andrew clambers back into the van holding her side, "She stabbed me, she fucking stabbed me!"
As Andrew releases the transformation spell, the stab wound slowly disappears, and Warren sneers, "Oh shut up you big baby."

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Closing her phone and putting it away, Buffy stands up and cleans her dagger off with a Doublemeat napkin, "What were you doing here anyway?"
Spike scoffs, "What, a guy can't hang around near his home now?"
Buffy puts her hands on her hips and stares at him, "Spike, this is you we're talking about. You've been stalking me since October."
Spike invades Buffy's space, "And it's obviously worked. I knew you wanted me, and look at what you did earlier. Didn't you say I tasted of whiskey?"
"Spike, I was high on magic, and you really believe that I wanted it?"
"Well, with the way you kept going, even after little Spike gave up on me."
Buffy laughs, "Oh, Spike, as if you could ever be more than a happy meal on legs. Especially without a soul so we don't have to be careful. A little bit of bouncy bouncy and you're ready to pop, and slurp down like a cheap drink from a liquor store."
Spike grabs her roughly and presses his mouth to her lips, before leaning back and saying, "Like you're not asking for it, dressed like that. What happened to your jeans? Too confining for you?"
Buffy pushes him away roughly, "The police will be here soon."
Spike laughs, "At night, in the woods? It will be at least 30 minutes, if they don't wait until daybreak. So, no need to be shy."
Buffy narrows her eyes angrily, "Is that so?"
Spike nods, "Plenty of time for a quicky."
Buffy give a smile that has no hint of love, lust, or desire in it, "If you're sure."
Spike leans back and undoes his fly, "What do you think love?"
Buffy's smile turns cruel, "I think you asked for this." Then she kisses him and feeds him a wisp of essence, with the accompanying moan from Spike. Taking Little Spike in her hand, she carefully alternates between trying to feed, and feeding Spike small amounts of essence until he twitches and she's able to drink long and deeply of his essence.

Once she's unable to draw anymore out of him, she gives him a satisfied smile and stands up, "You're right, there was plenty of time for a quicky."
As she walks over to her purse, Spike calls after her, "Buffy, I can't move, you have to help me out here!"
Reaching into her purse, Buffy pulls out the crumpled carboard cup that held her second sprite, that she was going to throw away at home. After putting her hand inside to open it up again, she uses her dagger to slice open her forearm, and allow half a cup of blood to pool in the bottom of the paper cup. The straw and plastic lid complete the container, and she chucks it on the floor near Spike.

Turning to walk away, she looks over her shoulder, "There you go Spike, and don't say I never give you anything. Oh, and you were delicious."
Spike shouts after her, "See, I knew you liked me!"

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Once Manny locks the doors, he turns back to Tara, and in his monotone says, "Thank you for staying. I'm going to clean up the Grinder and then do some work in the office. I'll call you once I'm finished."
Tara nods, before making her way to get the cleaning supplies, and head into the toilets. Deciding to start with the mens, Tara gags as she opens the door. A muttered spell clears the air so that she can breath without trying to choke. Walking in, she turns around to look at the back of the door, to see that the sheet that's supposed to be replaced every week is not only full, but has been for at least a month. Bracing herself, she casts cleaning spells at the floor, walls, and ceiling, to reveal white tiles under the yellow of cigarette smoke that coated every surface. As she makes her way past the single sink, that has limescale caking the plug hole, the asthmatic electric hand dryer, and the metal urinal that takes up half of the wall opposite the cubicles; she discovers the first of the two cubicles, with swollen cigarette butts floating in the water. Investigating the second cubicle reveals it to be full of paper and a brown substance she really doesn't want to concentrate on.

Deciding that, despite her misgivings, Buffy was probably right to suggest using magic. Tara moves to the centre of the room and starts to sketch out a sigil with magic while chanting a spell for purity, cleanliness, and a general purging of bad energies. As she finishes the spell, she leaves the mens and walks into the women's while the spell does its job.
In the women's the situation seems better on the surface, the place doesn't stink and the walls and floor look clean, until she realises that the yellow colour running around the top of the walls, and the ceiling, isn't a design choice, it's just as high as whoever did this job before her could reach. Checking the back of the door, she can see this toilet was last cleaned two weeks ago.
Frowning, she stares at the second sheet of paper below the cleaning sign off. Then it dawns on her that it's the name that appears on many of the sanitary bins, and they haven't been for around a month, where prior to that, they came every week. Swallowing hard, Tara decides to forgo looking in the cubicles and straight to using magic to clean and purify the toilets. With both spells doing their work, Tara begins practicing pulling the void around her.

Half an hour later, both spells have finished, and Tara is starting to get concerned that Manny hasn't come to find her. Making her way out of the toilets, she heads towards the back and is about to call out when she hears something clattering. Looking behind her, she realises that her only way out of the store is either through the locked doors, or it's through the back doors.

Having been around the scoobie gang for far too long, Tara casts around for something she could use as a weapon, until her eyes settle on the knife they use for slicing the tomatoes, lettuce, and onions. Cautiously making her way through the door between the kitchen and the back areas of the restaurant, she's surprised when something sprays her in the face.

Spinning around, she woosily leans against the doorframe. As she does, the old lady from earlier smiles at her as a snake head slithers out of the top of her skull, "Oh my, I have a double treat tonight. And you're so young and tender."
Tara slowly lifts the knife as the lady casually reaches down and takes it from her, "Don't worry, it's just the poison slowly paralysing you. Normally, I like my meals to marinade in Doublemeat Burgers for a couple of weeks, but I can't pass it up when one drops into my lap now can I."

Tara raises her hand and begins the chant for a spell to immobilise the demon, when its snakelike head darts out and rips out her throat. As Tara slowly collapses to floor, the demon wags its finger, "Uh huh, no magic. Now look what you've made me do, so much more cleaning up. I usually prefer to drink your blood first before I start to eat you."

As Tara falls to her side, her vision greying due to blood loss, she spots the knife on the floor behind the demon. Using her oldest magical skill, she pulls the blade towards her with telekinesis and slams it into the things neck, nearly completely severing it from the body. As it thrashes around in its death throes, Tara's last thought is, 'at least I took you with me!'

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Tara gasps as she wakes up in her bed at Buffy's house, her hands flying to her throat. Eyes wide with panic, she falls out of the bed and staggers through the door into the hall, where Vhesthine finds her as she walks out of Buffy's bedroom, naked.
"Tara, you're home?"
With wild eyes, Tara gasps, "Snake lady, throat, I died."
From inside the bedroom, Buffy calls, "It's ok Tara, you just died. I'm just coming."

A couple of minutes later, Tara is being held by both Buffy and Vhesthine on their bed as she chokes out the story of her last 5 minutes. As she finishes, Buffy looks up at Vhesthine, "Would giving her essence help her the way it did me?"
Vhesthine nods, "It should do, I'll do it."
Tara is barely able to understand what's happening through her distress and panic, so when the taste of something indescribable, followed by a feeling of warmth usually associated with Willow floods through her body, she's entirely unprepared for it.
Touching her lips, she looks at Vhesthine in wonder, "What was that?"
Buffy draws her attention by saying, "Worry about that later. Vhesthine, grab your cell phone and call 911, you were driving to pick Tara up from work when she ran in front of you. It's taken this long to calm her down enough to understand her, then hand over the phone to Tara. Tara, you're sure it's dead?"
Tara nods trying to come to terms with her sudden change in emotions, "I-I am."

While Vhesthine's talking on the phone, Tara can feel the brief emotional high already starting to recede, and she starts to shake from the effects of adrenaline and cortisol in her body. By the time the phone is passed to her, she doesn't need to fake the quaver in her voice, "Hello?... Yes, Tara McLay. I started at Doublemeat Burger Palace today… I-I'd just finished cleaning the toilets… I don't know what I saw, but I threw one of the knives at it and ran… I-I live with her… 1630 Revello Drive… Oh goddess, I'm going to be sick." Vhesthine calmly hands Tara a towel to vomit onto, while Buffy strokes her hair.
Vhesthine speaks into the phone, "This is Vhesthine, I've just pulled over, and Tara is leaning out of the door… Buffy and I visited earlier when she told us she was working late… Yes, her manager was supposed to be there too… I'll bring her by in the next couple of days… Thank you I'll let her know… Goodbye."

Once she hangs up, Vhesthine sags onto the bed next to Tara and Buffy, "Tara, you did well tonight. Nothing that you knew then could have allowed you to do any better than you did. And you made sure that that thing couldn't kill anymore innocents."
Buffy hugs Tara from behind, "Let's go downstairs and make you a hot chocolate while I put the towel on to wash. We won't leave you alone tonight, or tomorrow if you need us."
Tara bursts into tears and Vhesthine grabs the corners of the towel as Tara turns to hug Buffy and cry into her shoulder.

Over the next hour, either Buffy or Vhesthine are holding her while she cries and sips her hot chocolate. Then, somehow, she ends up in her bed sandwiched between both of them, and using one of Vhesthine's wings as a blanket.
[An: for reference, this is the temporal ability of Protea in game https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Temporal_Anchor and some of the in-game theories of time https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Theories_of_Time]

 

[Hexcalibur]

This is interesting.
So Tara's load point is her bed in the Summer's house, while Buffy's in her coffin.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 12


Mike looks at the emitter that Buffy has put in the company safe as it sits on the desk. Behind the desk Razial sits back and raps his fingers on the arm of the chair.
Mike looks up, "Any magic?"
Razial shakes his head, "No, I do not understand how this works."
Mike sighs, "Buffy does though. But she needed the original weapon to make this."
"And you just plug it into electricity, and it works?"
Mike nods, "I was there when she tested it with one of the transformers we use in the shop."
"Why did you need my advice?"
Mike smiles, "Because, Buffy could make us a lot of money."
Razial leans forward, "How?"
"We patent every single component that she makes herself, and then patent the finished product. All in her name. It will cost us around $3,000 to do it in the major countries around the world, and we can then cover the rest once we start selling them. If we ask nicely, and offer a modest 1% of each device we sell, I'm sure she'll let us have the exclusive licence to manufacture these devices. As it's completely mundane, we can even set up a factory somewhere like Mexico or the Philippines. Then for the next 25 years, we control the production of the device that will revolutionise manufacturing at least as much as the industrial revolution did."

Razial grunts, "Won't they just take this for themselves? Or make their own devices?"
Mike gives a predatory smile, "That's just it, they can't make this emitter without one of these emitters. I sent a letter to a professor at MIT asking if it was possible to put something inside a sapphire without drilling it. They sent back a rather rude letter back saying that it wasn't possible for this that or another reason. Scientists haven't even started to think about how this can be done. But here, we'll have actual proof that it can be done. Proof that anyone can make if they have one of Buffy's finished devices."
Razial nods, "Do it."

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Xander winces as Anya calls from the bedroom, "Xander Harris, you will undo this right now! I can't run the Magic Box like this!"
With a light snigger, he starts to get his bag together to leave for work. As he sits up, a demon appears out of midair wearing a black cloak, and a purple flower print top. His eyes are drawn up to her face, framed as it is by her curly hair, as she intones, "I have been called and vengeance shall I wreak! Cower, masculine one. Tremble as you face my wrath."
Xander leans back and calls back to the bedroom, "Anya, I'll undo it. But don't you think calling a vengeance demon is a bit much for a bit of fun?"
Anya storms into the living room, "A bit much! A bit mu…"
The demon turns to her, "I am here to rip this male into tiny pieces, how many do you wish him to be in."
Anya blinks a few times as the face looks so familiar, suddenly she exclaims, "Halfrek?"
Letting her voice drop back to more human tones, Halfrek sounds surprised, "Anyanka?"
"Halfrek! I expected you weeks ago!" Anya throws her arms in the air, and waddle dances towards her.
Halfrek embraces Anya in a hug, "Sorry, I had an urgent job at an orphanage in Russia. Now, about the male."
Anya laughs, "I didn't call you to smite him, I called you because I'm going to marry him."
"Oh, wonderful, you must tell me all about it."
Xander pushes himself off the couch, "Well, I guess that's my cue to head to work then."
Anya grabs his arm, "Oh no you don't mister. Not until you've undone what you did to my panties."

Xander mutters a couple of words before he leaves.
As the door closes, Halfrek settles down on a chair, "Really Anyanka, what do you see in him? He has those massive things on the side of his body."
Anya sits down with Halfrek with a lusty sigh, "Tentacles, definitely the tentacles. He's also funny, most of the time anyway. He runs his own company, what's not to like?"
Halfrek looks surprised, "Tentacles, really? Where does he hide them?"
Anya sighs dreamily, "That's just his human form. He's so much more now, even if his brother is a bad influence on him."
Halfrek shakes her head, "I'd never have guessed, he moves so naturally. He even reacted like a human when I arrived."
Anya smiles in remembrance, "It was amazing. There we were, in the Bronze. We've arrived just in time to see the big bad declare that Dawn didn't summon it, and then it vanishes. That's when Giles turned around and said, 'If it wasn't dawn, then it must have been one of us'. Then Xander puts his hand up and says in the corniest accent that you can imagine, "What? I didn't know it was going to be like this. I thought it was just going to be some singing and dancing, and give us a happy ending.'"
Halfrek nods, "I like his style, death and mayhem just to prove his love for you."
Anya nods enthusiastically, "Exactly, then Buffy, the Slayer, just appears on the stage with the demon, and stalks down the stairs staring daggers at Xander. Once she's finished making him feel so small, she hands him to the big bad, and tells him to take him to hell and turn him into a demon."
Halfrek nods, "Sounds like a woman after my own heart."
Anya's face falls, "Yeah, well, it's not all great, she's in love with a slut."
Halfrek's face falls, "You don't mean one of them?"
Anya nods, "Precisely, one of those 'can't keep a guy for more than 5 minutes' succubus."
"Oh, my, god. What are you going to do?"
Anya shakes her head, "Well, Spikes out. Not just for being a vampire. But there's a cute single guy on Xander's crew, and it's Buffy's birthday soon. So I was thinking I'd invite him along, and introduce them."
Halfrek shudders, "Eww, but I guess a human's better than one of those. Are you ever going to tell her about what they do?"
Anya shakes her head, "What do you think? She hurt the big bad badly, and at the moment I'm a friend. I'd really rather stay in the friendzone thank you very much. Thinking about it, as you're here now, I'll ask Willow if it would be ok to invite you round."
"Yes, yes, now what's this about a wedding?"
Anya squees, "Well, we haven't set a date yet, as Buffy pointed out that we don't exactly need to worry about human timescales here. At least not now anyway…"

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Willow looks stunned as Tara kisses her, "Tara, are you sure?"
Tara nods, "I am, and I've been talking to Buffy too. We're both worried that Amy will try something, so she's agreed that you can live at home with us. Even if we don't work out, we'll sort out the basement so that you have a comfortable bedroom."
Willow slumps back as her brain tries to process what she's just been told, her eyes darting around the park and the across the lake they're sitting beside.
"But we've barely seen each other." She eventually gets out, before covering her mouth, "I didn't mean it like that."
Tara smiles, "I know you didn't dork. I think it's because we've been busy growing up. We've all got jobs, I help to look after Dawn when I'm not working. And we've both got our own College work too."
Willow looks down, "I know, and I've been getting so caught up in magical research too. You know, the sort that works regardless of the caster. Not the sort that we practiced together. Did you know that most of those old spells are actually magical catalysts, and the real spell is imbued in the pages of the spell. That's why they seem to have such a large effect for so few words, and only a little magic from the caster."
Tara nods, "I guess that explains why Giles had a sign saying, 'Xander, don't speak Latin around the books!'"
Willow giggles, "You saw that? I thought it'd got taken down before you did."
Tara smiles, "Nope, it didn't. I miss this."
Willow frowns, "What, talking about magic?"
Tara laughs, "No silly, just being together and talking about anything that interests us. Vhesthine and Buffy have started doing it too, now Dawn's human again."
"What about Spike, I heard that Buffy was interested in him."
Tara smiles as she shakes her head, "No, it's more like one of those guys who try to chat us up at the Bronze, and won't believe that we're actually in a relationship. Especially if we made the mistake at looking at him ever."
Willow winces, "Oh, would this be a bad time to mention I told him about the birthday party?"
Tara shrugs, "They'll probably just treat him they way they normally do."
Willow looks confused, "What do you mean?"
"Happy meal on legs, doorstep deliver, takeaway, you know the sort of things that we've heard him saying about humans, ever since he got that chip in his head."

Willow smiles, "Speaking of, how's your job going?"
Tara's eyes go distant as she looks over the lake, "It's better now, despite my first night there. The new boss was very understanding when it took me a week to build up the courage to go back to work, after the police allowed them to reopen that is. The first couple of days, they sent Dawn to keep me company with $50 so that she always had a drink or something. I think Janice turned up too for a couple of hours."
Willow looks at Tara with a worried look, "What was so bad about your first shift? We've faced vampires and demons together, and they never affected you like that."
Tara looks at Willow with raw fear in her eyes, "I died Willow, I had my throat torn out, and I died. I managed to kill it, according to the police anyway. But I remember my vision going grey, and feeling so cold. I couldn't sleep alone for a week, and I'm still having nightmares about it." Slightly more abashed, she adds, "Um, and I might have developed a thing for wings…"
Willow leans in to hug Tara as she stares out over the water, "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Tara swallows, "I did, I told Buffy and Vhesthine. Dawn knows too, as she's slept with me to keep the nightmares away."
Softly, Willow says, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Tara looks at her, "And say what? 'Oh, hey Willow, you remember the resurrection that we did, and when you thought I'd been hurt by the magical ghost thing. Well, I actually made a deal with an eldritch entity from beyond any of the known planes. Since then I've been dreaming of Buffy's home, and hey, I also can't die.'"
Willow looks hurt, "Well, no, not like that. But you could have said something."
Tara kisses Willow on the cheek and takes her hands, "Willow, you were struggling with overuse of magic. Then you were starting your apprenticeship, and struggling with not being able to use magic. Then we weren't together, and it's not something you really want to talk about. Does that make sense?"
"So, why did you talk with Buffy about it?"
Tara looks down at her hands, "Because she shared first. Do you have any idea how bad she had it there? Objectively, her life here is infinitely better than it was there. But, she's the still the same Buffy she was when she died here the first time. She was defending people no matter the cost to herself. But she didn't have friends, she was so lonely that she didn't know what lonely was." She laughs, and waves her hand to conjure a parasol to protect them from the sun, "It's funny how it's worked out isn't it. I've always cautioned restraint, and only using magic for learning or deliberate things. While you wanted to explore it and use it for everything. But, now I have to use it for everything, and you can't use it for much."
"Aren't you worried about becoming dependent on it, the way I did?"
Tara shakes her head, "Would you ask the spring on a mounting if it was worried about becoming dependent on water? I can't use magic anymore. This energy inside me, it's not magic. If you get too much in one place, it forms a tear into the void to dissipate away quicker. I can't summon anything anymore, I've tried. But I've seen Buffy resurrect a rabbit that had just had it's throat slit. But that only works if you get to them in seconds."

Willow closes her mouth with a snap, "Changing the subject. Does Buffy know about her birthday party?"
Tara forces a chuckle, "Honestly, I don't think she even understands why a birthday is even important."
"Oh, right."

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Janice looks up from her homework, "Can I go to the Bronze with Dawn later?"
Her mother looks up, "No, or have you forgotten Halloween already?"
"But Mum, that…"
"Don't talk back to me like that young lady. You almost got seriously hurt because you lied to me. If it wasn't for that nice Mr Giles I don't know what we'd have done. Maybe we'd have needed to bury one of our daughters, just because she couldn't listen to her mother. Now don't you have homework to finish if you want to spend the night there on Saturday for Buffy's birthday party?"
Janice looks back at her homework, "Yes mum."

 

[Hexcalibur]

Janice, where's your self preservation instinct?
Seriously, the girl has a close encounter of the bloodsucker kind, and still wants to go out after dark?

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 12 – part 2


Vhesthine puts her hands on her hips, "Buffy, you will put that soldering iron down right now."
Buffy looks up from where she's about to start soldering a timing chip onto the board she's working on, "But, it's so close."
"Buffy, I know this is a part of home that you are bringing here. But you are neglecting your other responsibilities. Or had you forgotten that you need to pick Dawn up from school today?"
Buffy frowns, "I thought she was with Anya today."
"That was yesterday. They've both taken the day off to go to a wedding show in LA today."
"But it will only take…"
Vhesthine unplugs the soldering iron at the wall, "No, Buffy, it won't only take a few minutes. You almost missed work yesterday."
Buffy puts the soldering iron down with a sigh, "I'm sorry, it's just…"
Vhesthine gives Buffy a kiss with a brief exchange, "I know. I was the same with Dawn while she was a succubus remember."
Buffy smiles and pulls Vhesthine into her lap, "Says the sexy succubus who has started to have her own Dawn time. You're teaching her magic, aren't you."
Vhesthine nods, "I am, do you mind?"
Buffy smiles and kisses her, "Of course not. As long as you are also teaching her restraint."
Vhesthine smiles, "Of course, though, I think your own lessons are having a better effect for that."
Buffy nods, "She's doing something, with the Vazarin Way, that's for sure. But it's not void energy."
Vhesthine nods, "See. Now we both need to get going if we're not going to be late."

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As they're both walking up to Mikes, Dawn asks Buffy in Orokin, "Buffy, why can't I get the Vazarin Way to work?"
Buffy smiles, "Let me ask you a question instead. When are you trying to use it?"
"When we're having out sister time."
"When am I using it?"
"All the time, except… Oh… Right, now I feel stupid."
Buffy hugs Dawn, "Don't feel like that, as it's often the simplest lessons that evade us for the longest. That doesn't make us stupid, it just means we were overthinking something. How are your magic lessons going?"
Dawn looks down, "It's hard. Vhesthine has me learning about all the different dimensions, and not just the hell dimensions. Did you know they have prisms to split out all of the different colours that the dimensions use?"
Buffy shrugs, "I didn't, but it makes sense. It seems to me that many demonic species treat magic more like a science than humans do. Given what was happening to Willow, I'm not that surprised. It would be like playing with N dimensional phasic shifts without the proper equipment."
Dawn looks confused, "Huh? I don't understand."
"Oh, it's the scientific principles that the emitter works on. If you just wire up the emitter and pump power into it, you could disrupt maybe two meters of space, including the emitter. Shifting it 90 degrees along the 4th​ dimensional axis. At that point, everything would be irretrievable without knowing exactly which 90 degrees it shifted across."
"Um, isn't time the 4th​ dimension?"
Buffy ruffles Dawn's hair with a laugh, "No, it's an emergent property of the universe working. It just makes a lot of 3 dimensional science easier if you treat it as a dimension. But, up at around 11 dimensions, treating it that way becomes actively detrimental to investigating it properly."
"How did they even start working with those sorts of…"
Buffy laughs again, "No idea. The acid wars wiped out all of the history and records that was on the home world. That's when we started colonising the solar system. A few more wars over archaeological treasures put paid to those too. Legends say, that's when the Archimedeans came into being. Anyway, we're here, so no more ancient history lessons for you."

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As the two of them walk through the door to Mikes, with Dawn going first, a chorus of "Surprise!" has Buffy yanking Dawn back out the door at the same time Dawn spins to grab Buffy's left hand.

"Buffy, Buffy! They're celebrating your birthday."
After a few minutes of talking Buffy down, they both enter the workshop again.
A shivering Buffy looks at her co-workers, "I'm sorry about that, I don't react well to surprises without my implants."
Roselyn scoffs, "Buffy, you must be the most dense intelligent person I know. That excuse wore thin a month ago, and whatever that shit was with the portal laid it to rest. You're never going to get your implants back, that means doing what every other human, or demon that can pass as human, has to do. Get therapy!"
Buffy steps back as though slapped, "But…"
"There's nothing wrong with me? If Dawn wasn't here, how many of us would be dead now?"
Buffy looks at the floor as though it's the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. As there's a moment of silence while Buffy digests that, Buffy can hear Vhesthine controlling her language into her ultra professional tone. There seems to be a human male arguing with her.
Looking up, Buffy frowns, "What's going on upstairs?"
Ir'in shrugs, "Don't know, don't care. The boss is in, so Vhesthine has all the backup she needs."
Buffy turns away to go up the stairs, only for Dawn to tug her back, "Buffy, your girlfriend has handled herself for years before you came along. But your co-workers have something to give you."
Buffy spins back, a hysterical, and vulnerable tone in her voice, "What?"
Aglomal and Surkos both hold out a brown cardboard box each, and Andrew carefully claps her on the shoulder, "It's not exactly cake or fun stuff. But we all chipped in, and these are for you."
With a practiced motion, Buffy pulls out her dagger, opens both boxes, and sheathes it again, almost faster than the eye can see. When she takes a pamphlet out of the larger of the two boxes, she sinks to the floor with a thump as she stares at the front page.

Welcome to Dark Side of Sunnydale
Home of The Slayer and The Hellmouth

There are a few rules you need to be aware of before you go on your murderous rampage.
1) No Eating civilians
2) No Enslaving civilians
3) No Hurting civilians
4) No Kidnapping civilians
5) No Killing civilians

If you have specific dietary requirements that could be seen to contravene any of the above, check the contact details on the rear of the pamphlet.

With shaking fingers, she opens the front cover and reads the rest of the tri-folded pamphlet, where it emphasizes that being human does not exempt you from these rules. That summoning a demon, or enslaving a civilian, makes you responsible for any actions they make while they are under your command.

As her eyesight begins to blur, she wipes the water out of them, and turns to the back where there are details a magical addiction meeting, run by Willow and Tara, her own details as the Slayer, and Willy's bar.

Looking up, Buffy manages to get out "Thanks everyone." Before booted feet come down the stairs. Looking up and behind, she sees a man, dressed in black, with a large scar running over his left eye.
"Buffy." The man says in a voice that almost seems familiar.
Buffy nods, "I am. You seem familiar."
"I'm Riley, your ex?"
Buffy's eyes widen in recognition, "Oh, I thought you were shorter. Buffy Summers spent a lot of time writing about how she looked down into your eyes while she kissed you."
Riley shifts uncomfortably, "Yes, well. Look, I need your help."
"Oh? The big bad human supremacist needs help from little old me? What, not killed enough innocent succubae."
Riley hotly answers, "We didn't kill any innocent succubae, they're demons. And they were alive when we let them go."
"And doomed to starve, or kill demons to survive. Which would have got them killed. Congratulations, you are the first recipient of my pamphlets, and whatever is in the other box. Don't think being human will give you a pass. You are part of the dark side, and will abide by my rules while you're here."

Riley tucks the pamphlet into his jacket, "Look, I really need your help, otherwise people will die."
"You're not giving me any information here. I do not go on any missions without intel. That stopped when I got my memories back the first time."
Riley growls, "I don't have time for this, that thing could be killing people now."
"Then, why are you here? Or even better, why haven't you said what you're after?"
Riley hits a wall, "Fine, you want to be difficult, it's a Suvolte demon. They're killing machines, and they lay eggs."
Buffy smiles, "That wasn't so hard was it. Anyone know anything about those?"
Roselyn nods, "My partner thinks their eggs are a delicacy. He got two from the Doctor for a kitten. Ate both of them too."
Algomel shudders and seems to become bigger out of nervousness, "They're bad news. That's what they are. Bipedal, and pure instinct. Some idiots are always smuggling an egg out of their home hell. This needs to go upstairs, as it's likely to be a vacation until it's dead."

Riley reaches out to grab Buffy's shoulder, only to recoil at an angry spitting and hissing from a cat that's close to the size of a Maine coon, "What the fuck is that?"
Buffy smiles down at Emo, "He's Dawn's Emotional Support Cat, he's so cute, don't you think? And suitably protective too. I want to get a queen so that we can start breeding them once he's full grown."

Riley growls, "Look, are you going to help me with this demon?"
Buffy shakes her head, "Nope, I'm more interested in this Doctor person, so I'll be tracking him down to make sure the current eggs are destroyed or accounted for. Now, if you don't mind, I need to go and talk to my girlfriend about your conduct and what you're hunting."
Riley looks taken aback, "You're dating that thing?"
Buffy smoothly stands up and stalks towards Riley, "Riley, unless you want me to start asking pointed questions about your past exploits in this city, you will refrain from calling her a thing. While female isn't an accurate description of their species, it is what they generally prefer to be considered as by humans. If you don't leave your humanocentric views outside of town, I will kill you."

Buffy turns around and starts walking up the stairs. Halfway up, she turns back, "Oh, and it's my birthday party tomorrow night. So you're invited, presuming you survive that long."

As Buffy disappears through the door, Riley mutters, "What happened to her?"
Dawn smiles, "She got Awesome. Here, have a few more pamphlets and cards."

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Willow sits in front of Razial's desk somewhat nervously, because this isn't their usual pattern. Normally, they'd have started their discussions on magical theory and practice, before she retreated to her table to start filling crystals. She usually manages two or three mid-grade a night, and she's come close to a top grade once. She's been trying to get better at making the mid-grade crystals, but it doesn't matter what she does, by the second or third circle, her magic is too polluted to do more.

She's pulled out of her thoughts when Razial puts a necklace with a resin pendant on the desk, "Apprentice. It was most distressing when you were discommoded by excess of magic the other month. It cost me valuable days of research and trade because you were too far gone to recognise my presence and use up the magic yourself. Fortunately, my research into The Slayer's unique power has finally yielded a result I can use. My apologies that it took so long to find a solution, however my receptionist has rather too much self-control during her climax for me to gather the requisite data any faster."
Willow's eyebrows scrunch together, "Um, what do you mean by that?"


Razial cocks his head, "I believed it would be self-evident. She doesn't kill Buffy nearly often enough for my recording rituals to gather enough information over a short period of time. However, I have discovered the mechanism that The Slayers 'Oro' transports her body upon death and duplicated it in this necklace."
Willow looks at it sceptically, "Um."
Razial waves her off, "Don't worry, it's been tested thousands of times, just don't take a deadly injury to your head and you'll fine. You can also break it, and it will act as though you died. Don't do it frivolously otherwise I will ensure you learn how much work goes into making one. Oh, and never tell anyone what it does, as it won't do you any good if it's removed before you are mortally injured."
While Willow is fumbling to put the necklace on, Vhesthine knocks on the door and pokes her head in.
"I'm sorry to bother you Razial. That government idiot that refused to say why they wanted Buffy. Turns out they're hunting a Suvolte demon that has already laid eggs."
Razial looks up, "You're sure?"
Vhesthine nods, "Roselyn's partner bought a couple for a kitten."
Razial nods, "We're closing early, do the ring around. Oh, and let The Slayer know that if she can freeze a couple of eggs before they're too close to hatching, I'll pay her for them. As they are quite the delicacy."
Wisely, Vhesthine's expression doesn't change as she just nods and withdraws from the office.

As Willow finishes putting the necklace on, Razial mutters a spell, and the necklace feels like it shrinks under her fingers, "There, now I don't need to worry about you taking it off accidentally. Come, we will finish this evening in my workshop. I understand you have a celebration to attend tomorrow evening, so we will be working overnight to give you time to attend."

 

[Hexcalibur]

I got to wonder how many "vacations" those workers go to since Buffy moved to town.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

I got to wonder how many "vacations" those workers go to since Buffy moved to town.

Click to shrink...

Compared to before Buffy moved in 5 years ago, what do you think?

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 12 – part 3


Buffy sits uncomfortably in Roselyn's car as Roselyn drives them to her home, "Buffy, this is important. Tazin should have eaten already. But if he hasn't, he's likely to attack us immediately. If that happens, let me handle him, and go around to the back of the house. We have a brick curing building there, and there should be a haunch of deer hanging in there. Grab it and bring it back to me."
Buffy nods uncertainly, "Um, sure? But why would I need to do that?"
"Tazin's species has three overriding instincts, the three F's. Fight, Fuck, and Feed. If you know how, you can turn one of them to another."
"So, what will you be doing while I… Oh… So, why don't I just fight him?"
"That's my next point, if he doesn't immediately attack. Don't get too close to me, as I'm his mate, and he might see you as trying to take me away from him. If he still attacks, he probably just needs a fight and hopefully he'll be able to give you some warning. I can turn that too, but the fighting would be quicker."

Buffy groans, "Why are you with him again? Wait, you already told me. You love each other, and you're a masochist. Why is he with you?"
Roselyn smiles, "I don't try to kill and eat him when I climax."
"Wait! Like that mantis lady that Buffy Summers met a year or so ago?"
"Sort of, but not quite. His species lays eggs in the male corpse, after the female eats his guts and head. Their secondary brain in the base of the tail will keep the body breathing and moving long enough for the eggs to hatch and consume the corpse."
"Void, no wonder he's with you. What happens if the male wins?"
Roselyn looks at the road for a couple of seconds, before softly saying, "They don't. If the female is able to initiate sex, that's it. The male is dead. Remember I said that their three hungers were linked? If you satiate one of them, the other two are suppressed for a while, and they can't even summon the energy to defend themselves. He told me that it's not uncommon for a group of males to fight and leave the one who has their fill of fighting first to the female while the others run." Roselyn takes a deep breath, and the knuckles on her hands whiten as she grips the steering wheel, "You know, I've had my job at Mikes for around 5 years. It's the longest I've even been able to hold down a job with Tazin. Before that, we were on the east coast, and a female caught his scent. He was terrified, and that scares me. I bought the first plane tickets to the west coast I could, and we moved here in the hope the Hellmouth would hide his scent."
"Does he pass for human then?"
Roselyn laughs, "Not at all, but this was before 9/11 and we'd already got him an American identity. He does web design from home. A long leather coat, with a floppy hood, and gloves, and he looks like Aragorn from the animated adaption of the Hobbit. Or any number of other dark and mysterious men from Disney classics."
"Are you going to tell him about the offer at work?"
Roselyn pulls into her street, parks on the street outside her house, where she looks down, "I don't know. 75 years is a long time. And there's lots of rumors about succubae. Not that I have anything against you and Vhesthine, you understand."
Buffy sighs, "Do most of the rumors paint them as seductresses and sycophants who will attach themselves to the most powerful male in a group, sleeping their way up, and leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake?"
Roselyn grips the steering wheel again, "Yes, damn it. Yes, those sorts of rumors."
Buffy looks out into the darkness, "They're true, you know. Every single one of them. What you don't have is the full story. Most of those are courtesan succubae, the weaker sex you could say. Though Vhesthine calls them a sub-species. Succubae are already individually weaker than other demons, much like humans really. But they live in communes made of multiple families. Apart from those that were summoned, every single Succubus outside their own hell has been banished from their commune with no chance of joining another commune. There's so much about their society that most people don't know, or care to know."
"How did your relationship start?"
"Fear, misunderstanding, and acceptance. When she fed me the first time, she was afraid that I was going to go on a rampage and kill her and everyone else. I'm sure you know the rest, or you can imagine it."
Looking confused, Roselyn asks, "Why are you telling me this?"
"For the same reason I haven't told Vhesthine about your question. I want you to be able to make a fair choice. Also consider, that while Succubae aren't immortal, they do live for around 900 years. Also, while they don't have to kill to feed, it's a skill they have to practice so that they can stop eating. Anyway, we should stop sitting here, and go in."

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Riley jogs through the darkened streets of Sunnydale, the journey bringing back memories. Most of them unpleasant. Pulling out an earphone, he attaches it to his ear, "Coco, do you read me?"
"Loud and clear Patch. Status on the asset?"
"Negative on the asset. Quarry is confirmed to have spawned."
"We thought that was the case. Track and trace is still live."
"Asset has a lead on the eggs."
"Patch, lead with that next time. Did you even brief the asset properly?"
"Negative, she was in mixed company."
"God damn it Patch, they're not our enemy. The killers are our enemies, same as always."
"They're all killers Coco, do you have any idea how little it takes for them to turn?"
"Riley, that's not our job. We track the killers and make sure they can't keep killing. We have enough going on to worry about the ones that aren't killing. Now, what's the lead?"
"One of her coworkers partner bought a couple to eat."
"Well, why aren't you following that up then?"
"They kicked me out."
"God damn it Riley, if those things hatch because you burned bridges between us and the only people who know where the eggs are. Husband or not, I'm reporting your arse. I don't suppose they gave you some way to get in contact."
"Negative."
"Fine. If Walsh was still alive I'd put a bullet in her myself. Track and trace is still a go until we get confirmation the eggs have been found and destroyed. Over and out."
With a huff, Riley carries on his search. She's been on his case since Honduras, when they narrowly missed the last nest before it hatched, and this one escaped.

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"Vhesthine, are these demons really that bad?"
Vhesthine glances over at Dawn from the drivers seat of her car, "Like most things, that depends on where they are. In their home hell, no, not really. In the bosses hell, no not at all. In my home hell, very much so, same as here on Earth. They're growth cycle is driven by the availability of food, not time. So, they could grow to maturity in as little as a month, or as much as a year. However, their eggs will generally hatch in at most a week. That's it, and then you have 30 little demons eager to eat everything in sight that is weaker than them. If it's organic, they'll eat it. If left unchecked, within 3 months Sunnydale would be a wasteland and they'd be a plague of them spreading out looking for safe and secure places to nest. I don't know anymore than that, as the why's and wherefores of that sort of threat aren't important to a matriarch, just that they are a threat, and how much of one they are. Oh, there is one thing, they can't be seduced, so if you meet one run or kill it. There is no middle ground."
Dawn nods confidently, "Buffy will stop it."
Vhesthine smiles, "I have no doubt of that. I'm more worried about how many people will die between now and then. Especially as you and I are both people."
Dawn swallows, "I wish you hadn't added that last bit."
"Dawn, you are my juvenile, I will not spare you details that may save your conscience now only to kill you later."
"So, what are we doing then?"
"First, we are going home and packing bags for a few days away for us and Tara. Then we are going to Doublemeat to look out for Tara. While I'm driving, you're going to call Anya and Xander and tell them to find a motel for the night."
Dawn looks at Vhesthine, "Shouldn't we be out there looking for it?"
Vhesthine pulls over for a second, to look Dawn in the eye, "Dawn, do you think you could kill it if it found you? Could you beat a Vampire without a stake?"
Shivering, Dawn shakes her head, "But we should still be doing something."
Vhesthine nods, "And we are. We are preparing for the worst. Going to protect our friend, and after that, we'll see what happens."
"But what about Spike?"
Vhesthine frowns, "Who? Takeout?"
"Why do you both keep calling him that?"
Vhesthine starts driving again, "Because he wouldn't take no for an answer. And his response to finding Buffy unconscious outside, was to strip her naked and place her on his bed. Then imply, to the point of almost being explicit, that she owed him sex because she likes to look pretty, and must be leading him on. She now uses him to supplement my hunting so we have more time together, apparently she hasn't needed to feed him blood afterwards for nearly a month."

While Dawn struggles through that, the two of them get home and pack their bags. On the way to Doublemeat, Dawn says, "But, shouldn't Buffy be flattered by his attention? I mean, she dated Angel and Riley, and she had a boyfriend before we moved here." As Vhesthine starts to pull over again, Dawn quickly adds, "At least that's the way the older girls talk about it."
As Vhesthine speeds up again, Dawn lets out a sigh of relief, "Dawn. Do you think Tara should be flattered by the attention of a male?"
Dawn scoffs, "No, she's a lesbian. That's different… Isn't it?"
"Dawn… Nobody should ever be able to tell you how to feel about another persons attention. Ever. They can give advice, personal experience, and warnings. But it is your feelings about the person that matter, not theirs. The males I admire the most are the ones that respect other peoples opinions, especially females. The ones who may ask once, but won't push it or try to chat you up. I have taken a few males like that under my wing in my century on this Earth. With the right persuasion, they blossomed from being the awkward young men they were, into someone that genuinely enjoys the company of women for just that, company. Treating their opinions and knowledge as valuable in and of itself. Not all of them found their own female by the time we parted ways. And one of them was attracted to males."
Dawn frowns, "But isn't that the same thing you were warning me about?"
Vhesthine smiles, "Some would say it is. The difference is consent. I wasn't imposing my opinions on those young males."
Dawn stutters for a moment and covers herself by asking, "Did you. You know…"
Vhesthine laughs, "Feed? Dawn, I know you're human again for the moment. But you shouldn't be bashful about things like that. And yes, I did feed on them. Even killed a couple when they became too possessive, and wouldn't believe that they couldn't satisfy my needs. Do I regret those deaths? Not at all."
"Didn't you say that you didn't care about males, as they were just prey?"
Vhesthine laughs, "Dawn, there's a difference between caring about an individual and improving the quality of the herd. I would rather feed from those who don't look at me like a prize to be possessed. But, those who do look at the female form like that are far quicker and easier to find. Which is strange considering the number of vampires in this city. When you're older, I hope you'll never have to understand what I mean."

The rest of the drive to Doublemeat passes quietly as Dawn thinks about the conversation.

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"Slayer! You may be here to kill me, but I'll take you with me!"
That's all the warning Buffy gets as she finds herself leaping over a charging demon. Her left hand coming up to shoot it when a civilian gets in the way, "No Buffy, he just needs to fight it out. Please."

Buffy tackles the civilian out of the way as the infested charges at her again, resigning herself to a close combat fight without her warframe. A punishing rake across the ribs is met with an equally punishing kick to the thigh, though a bare moments thought activates void regen, and a second activates a guardian shell around both her and the civilian. Enough protection to keep them safe, but not enough to be firing void beams around when they could cross the line of fire.

As she slides along the floor underneath a lunging claw, she punches up with her own attack while trying to remember what her mission was. Another brief flurry of blows, and she's finally got it's measure, and fires a void snare slap bang into it's chest. As she steps back, and crouches down for a clear line of fire, the civilian runs into her line of fire shouting something about 'alive'. Stupid capture missions without the proper equipment.

A few minutes later, Buffy comes back to herself standing over a mewling demon that is bloody and bruised. Her own clothes tell of how hard the fight was for her, even if the blood stains don't translate to visible wounds.
"Um, are you ok?"
Whatever she was expecting from Roselyn's mate, it certainly wasn't an urbane New York accent, "Now that I am no longer in fear of death, I am more than ok. I haven't had a fight like that since we left New York. You must be Buffy, Roselyn's co-worker. Did you know you smell of the Doctor, or maybe the Doctor smells of you."
"Um?"
Roselyn steps into view and crouches down to stroke Tazin's horns, "Tazin Honey, I think she might be confused about your sudden switch in personality."
Tazin nods, "Understandable, would you help me up? As I can't feel my legs. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to stumble through a portal to New York at around 10 years of age. Just old enough for my personality to be coming through, but not so old that rumors of my existence was drawing… What's the polite term for them again…"
Roselyn interrupts, "Bitches. Just call them bitches like I do."
"Yes, well, I'm sure the slayer isn't interested in my story."
Buffy shakes her head, "Actually, this slayer very much is interested in your story. But she needs to know where the Suvolte demon eggs are before they hatch."
Tazin shakes his head before glancing at Buffy's crotch, "I don't know. All I can tell you is that he's a vampire, and he smells of you, and you smell of him."
Buffy mulls that over for a moment, "Wait, Takeout is the Doctor? Really?"
"Takeout?"
Buffy nods, "About so tall, British accent, short, white, waxed hair, ego the size of a planet."
Tazin nods, "You'll have to tell me about that nickname sometime."
Buffy laughs, "Come to my birthday party tomorrow, I'm sure they'll be time to just chat. I need to go and talk to a vampire about the perils of responsible pet ownership, and accountability."

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 12 – part 4


Briefly, Buffy regrets not asking Roselyn to give her a lift to Spikes cemetery. A thought that is quickly quashed as her feet eat up the distance at an economical run. She pays no mind that she's effortlessly running a 4 minute mile, and she's going to be keeping it up for nearly 15 minutes to get from the suburb that Roselyn lives in into Sunnydale proper, and the cemetery itself.

As she's running, she seriously considers whether she's badly overestimated Takeout… Spike's basic intelligence. Not even the most greedy Corpus ever kept product that might kill them. Even Alad V, and he was more Mad Scientist than Greedy. Of course, that didn't extend to necessarily paying their staff enough to ensure proper containment, or one of their competitors paying for some sabotage, or even just a random Grineer raid, rendering those precautions and safety measures inoperable. Belatedly, she remembers her phone and calls Vhesthine.
"Vhesthine. It's Takeout."
Vhesthine answers, "I'll let Dawn know. Do what you need to do, I have the car and bags at doublemeat."
In the background, Buffy can hear Dawn saying, "Takeout… Takeout… Buffy, don't. Don't kill Spike."
Buffy sighs, and slows down for a few paces, "Let Dawn know that I'm not going there to kill him. I'm going there to get him to destroy the eggs. If he dies…"
Vhesthine's soft voice says, "I'll explain it to her. Go and do what you have to do."

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"Take the shot!" Coco says just before she takes a blow to the ribs that sends her flying with a loud crack. The loud retort of an elephant rifle round being discharged at close range leaves her unable to tell whether her disorientation is from the blow or the gunshot. Drunkenly, she tries to push herself to her feet in case it's not dead.

As Riley walks over and helps her up with his good arm, she relaxes for a moment, "Are you good to go?"
Riley nods, "Yeah, just need help with the splint for my wrist. Damn last resort pistols."
Coco slaps him on the shoulder, "That's why it's a last resort. Come on, lets get that done and see why it stopped at the bottom of a dam of all places."

After a few minutes of carefully searching the monitoring station for the dam, Riley lets out a low whistle, "Well, track and trace worked. But someone got here ahead of us."
Coco joins him in a cool, dark, room inside the dam before shaking her head at the corpses of the monitoring staff. Moving forward, she winces as she starts to check them over. Meanwhile, Riley starts to canvas the room, looking for any eggs.

Coco is about to call Riley to turn one of the corpses over when a sharp whistle pierces the air. Standing up, she makes her way over to what he's looking at and gasps. Kneeling down, she carefully draws her dagger, before plunging it through the quivering egg sac. Now sure it's dead, she carefully cuts it open and looks at it critically. "It was, at the most, an hour away from hatching. Check to see if there's anymore here, and contact the asset. She needs to know what she could be walking into."

She's investigating the neck of one of the corpses when Riley calls over, "There's no answer at her house, or her registered place of work."
"Riley, I hope to god that you at least gave her your number!"
Riley spins around, "No I didn't! You know why? It's because I didn't recognise the person staring out of those eyes! She didn't recognise me either until I said my name! I dated her for nearly a year, and, we-we could have got married if… But no, instead of being happy to see me, she starts accusing me of killing innocent succubae and shoves a pamphlet at me."
Struggling to her feet, Coco makes her way over to Riley and pulls him into a gentle hug, "Riley, it's alright to feel like that. But as your SO you need to tell me before it becomes a problem, not when we're neck deep in shit and about to step off a ledge. Also Riley, as your so, as your wife, I need you to tell me about these things before I find out at the worst possible moment. Now give me the Damned pamphlet and call in backup soldier. Once we have the bagmen coming to look over the corpses, check every single room for any other eggs that were missed. I do not want to die because you couldn't do your job soldier. Do you understand!?"
Riley snaps to attention and throws a salute, "Yes Sir, Ma'am!"
He then takes the pamphlet from the pocket he placed it in and hands it over.
It doesn't take Coco long to flip the pamphlet over and spot the contact details on the back, including a place they could have sent a backup team.
Dialling the number for the Slayer, it rings for 3 rings before a woman picks it up, "Slayer, please hold I'm a tad busy."

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Buffy isn't gentle as she slams into the door to Spikes crypt, the force of her kick shattering the concealed lever with a crash. She doesn't even pause as she void slings down the stairs and kicks the inner door off the hinges, "Takeout! Spike!"

Hearing movement from the back she void slings towards the back.

Spike winces as he hears a crash from the front of the crypt. He looks back at the ladder up to the main crypt and considers if it's worth trying to run the tunnels. Deciding it's unlikely to be the loan shark, he turns back to the baskets of beautiful little kittens that are his ticket to freedom. After checking that they're all there, and the sound of Buffy calling that horrible nickname, he starts to head for the ladder.

As his head appears at the top of the ladder, Buffy's face appears in front of him.
"Hi Spike. Or should I say Doctor."
"Hey. I don't talk about your day job, so don't pry into mine."
"I won't if you can honestly tell me that you aren't trading in anything that could endanger the civilians of the city if it was improperly stored."
"I'll let you know, I always properly store all of my merchandise."
Spike backs away, as Buffy's smile turns vicious, "So you would know the correct storage method for Suvolte demon eggs then."
Spike swallows hard, "I might, if I had any. But I don't."

Buffy lifts her left hand, sparks of void energy dancing over her fingers, "And I might have to kill you if I found out you lied. But, of course, you wouldn't do that to me would you. And if I had a look around down there, I wouldn't find any Suvolte eggs or hatchlings at all."
"Now Buffy, let's not be hasty. There's a good market for them, and it's a harmless enterprise."
"Spike, tell me you at least have a solid door between them and freedom." When Spike says nothing, she shouts "Destroy them! Destroy them all now."
"Buffy, it's my way out of debt, you can't."
Buffy growls, "Spike, they are dangerous enough that work has declared a vacation day. So, either take responsibility for your actions and start destroying those eggs. Or I will just shoot you now and do it myself. Those are your only two options. I will handle any that get past you."
Spike seriously considers attacking Buffy to give him time to run, when the tell-tale flicker of her barrier appears. Most notably, only around her.

As he backs down the stairs, he desperately calls back, "Look, I really thought we had something here. I know I'm just your bit on the side. But there's some real affection there."

Buffy barks a laugh as she renews the barrier, this time around both of them, "Only in your dreams. That's why you're called Takeout. You mean as much to me as Remio's means to Dawn. That's her favourite pizza delivery, if you didn't know." Even as she leans over the hole to keep an eye on anything that might be trying to escape.

While she's cursing the fact the hole seems to descend into a small room with multiple exits, Spike's muffled expletive echoing from one of the exits has her chuckling for a brief moment before he screams. Leaping down into the room, it takes Buffy a moment to orientate to the screams. A task that's made moot when a mouse made of teeth leaps at her from the same direction as the scream.

While she's fending off the attack, her phone rings, distracting her for a second as she marvels that it has signal down here. A blast of void energy tracing a path after the creature accompanies her voice as she answers, "Slayer, please hold, I'm a tad busy."
The voice at the other end calls "We found an egg, the others will hatch in at most an hour."
"Thanks for the warning, but you're 5 minutes too late. Give me a call later and we'll catch up." Her hopes that it was just the one that Spike missed are dashed when another three swiftly follow before she's recovered enough energy to use a void snare.

Drawing her dagger, she steps into the mouth of the corridor to contain the oncoming demons. Choosing to reserve her void energy for healing and capture rather than killing to eliminate the risk they might get past her, she grabs one with her hand, and slices it in half with her dagger.

At the end of five minutes of frantic fighting, where Buffy has to repeatedly choose between corralling the increasingly deadly demonic spawn, killing them, or taking a potentially deadly hit. She passes the remains of several kitten baskets that have been torn open. As she passes into a small dug out cave, she kicks up a cloud of dust, and crouches down while she clears her eyes and nose carefully. When nothing attacks her, she surveys the room and spots some old, ragged blankets dotted haphazardly around the room, with the remains of egg sacs on them. A fallen axe lies beside one. Interspersed between them are large blocks of fishmongers ice, to keep the room cold, but not freezing.

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Buffy tiredly pulls out her phone and calls Dawn once she's finished accounting for every egg sac in the room, comparing them to the corpses outside. A task made more difficult by her used of the void blast.
"Buffy!"
Buffy sighs heavily in relief, "It's done Dawn, all of the eggs Spike had have been destroyed."
"What about Spike?"
"Dawn, can we talk about this at home?"
"I want to know about Spike!"
"I know you do Honey, I just don't want to tell you over the phone. It's something I should share in person."
"He's dead, isn't he."
"Dawn…"
"How could you… How could you?"
"Dawn… Dawn…"
"Buffy, it's Vhesthine. I'll get her home."

As the call disconnects, Buffy sinks to her knees and cries. An unknown amount of time later, a pair of comforting arms curl around her back while she recognises Dawn's feet walking around in shocked silence. Confused, she looks up to see Dawn's slack mouthed expression and, over her shoulder, Vhesthine's concerned expression.

Confused, Buffy looks around, "Why am I like this? I shouldn't be like this."
Vhesthine croons into her ear, "Shh, it's ok. It's your human side coming out."
"But, but, I'm Tenno. Tenno are…"
"Also human. Your people forgot that, but you can't afford to forget that. You no longer have the technology that set you apart from the rest of your species."

Dawn turns around with a lost and horrified expression, "Buffy… This is… What happened?"
Buffy slowly looks around the egg storage area with dead, tear filled, eyes, "Containment. This is what the result of containment looks like. I knowingly sent Spike to his death because he couldn't have handled containment. I think he was using that axe when he died. If I'd have been here instead, I'd have died too, then he would when he tried to contain them. Assuming he didn't run. It's like praxis 4 all over again. People died because of the decisions I made to act as containment because nobody else was equipped to handle that."

Dawn collapses to the floor, "But your shield. That could have saved him."
Buffy shakes her head, "It only protects from the direction you're looking at. Same as the void snare, it has a limited range, and if I missed even one, containment would have failed."
Dawn hits Buffy, "There must have been something… anything you could have done."

As Dawn devolves into grief and anger filled hitting and ranting, Buffy just kneels there and takes it until Vhesthine's had enough and forcefully feeds Dawn a little essence to help level out her emotions.

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"How's she doing?" Is that the voice from the phone?
"Physically, well she's always fine. Mentally, I've given her some essence. But this is the first time she's faced something like this since… and it's been compounded with all the other times she's had to do the same thing." That's Vhesthine, and no it's not, I just can't switch off my emotions and deal with it properly.
"It can't be worse than when she killed Angel." Anya?
"Anya, this isn't the same thing. We were all there with her when she had to do that. This time she was alone." Understanding from Xander? When did that happen?
"Yes, Lt Finn is going to face disciplinary action for failing to report potential intelligence. If he had, we'd have at least had some assets in the area to provide backup." It's that phone voice again.

Would that have changed things?

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Buffy points at a faceless operative, "You, go with Spike and help him with the eggs. Watch each other's backs and stay alive. The rest of you are on Secondary containment. I'm on primary containment."

Later, she makes her way into the room less beaten up, and with an operative for backup while the others scour the crypt for any stragglers. There she looks down at the pile of dust and the barely recognisable body of the operative she sent to assist.

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No, it wouldn't. It would just increase the number of people she got killed getting the job done.

"Can't she just get up? This is supposed to be her birthday party after all. And let's face it, we've all caused our own share of death and mayhem. Isn't that right Halfrek?" Anya again.
"Indeed, such is the plight due to all those who abuse children." That must be Halfrek, "In fact, there are many here who are calling out for help."

Buffy's eyes flick open, and she pushes herself out of bed. Staggering slightly, as her head swims a little from getting up so fast, she makes her way to her bedroom door oblivious to the fact she's naked, "Halfrek, you need to read my pamphlet. No Killing, eating, enslaving, hurting, or kidnapping of civilians. Or you face me, and I will kill you."
As everyone else gasps at her appearance, Halfrek just looks at her, "Why? I am just a Justice demon, fulfilling wishes."
Buffy stalks forward, "Who gets to decide which wishes to fulfil? Who gets to decide how they're fulfilled? I read up on Vengeance demons when I found out Anya used to be one, and the answer to both of those is you. Don't try to pretty it up in your mind, it is vengeance plain and simple."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I've been there. I've been used as a tool of vengeance, and as a tool of justice. And, you know what? Vengeance never leaves the system a better place. Sometimes justice is fast enough that it does."
Halfrek sneers, "You? A slip of a human who can't be more than 20, thinks they've seen what it means to impart justice for those who can't get justice for themselves."
"Try 700 years of lived experience bitch. I have seen things that you cannot comprehend. Cruelty on a scale that you just cannot comprehend. I have been used as a weapon, as a tool, and as a free agent. What about you? What have you experienced?"
"I was a whipping girl, my parents were servants and they allowed me to be used by the Lords daughter as her surrogate and 'playmate'. When she was bad, I was punished. When she was ill, I was examined. When she was angry, I was her target. And I got them, I got them all. And since then, I've helped countless children get their own."
"I heard you speak of three victims in that story, what of the other two. Did they get 'justice'?"
Halfrek sneers, "Who? My parents who let it happen? They died with the rest."
"You poor, deluded, ignorant little girl. I was used in an illegal experiment, had my mind wiped and was turned into a weapon with literally no choice about what was right and what was wrong. But the Lotus rescued us and tried to care for us, and taught us the best she could. And we tried to be better. We failed too many times, especially in the beginning, as she was never Human, and we didn't remember being human. But we learnt from our mistakes and tried to make the system a better place. You have the power to grant justice for those children, to pick which wish to grant, and how to grant it. Yet you leave the world a worse place than before."
Halfrek steps into Buffy's space, "You call me deluded and ignorant, and then show your own ignorance in turn. Do you really think we choose which wishes to grant? We are compelled to seek out their wish, and grant it."
"What if Dawn was the same lonely girl she was when I got here? And she wished people wouldn't leave her alone?"
Halfrek snorts, "Simple, trap you all in the house with her."
"That's not justice, that's vengeance. That just leaves dead bodies. You could have made it so that they feel her loneliness and abandonment. Then when she feels less lonely and abandoned, so do they."
"Ha, as if it's always that easy. What about a child that's starved and wishes their abusers were dead?"
Buffy shrugs, "Stop them from being able to get any nutrition from food, or drop their starved bodied outside a hospital. Not much you can do with that wish except try to make things better for the child. But you've made your point, and I will check the wording of your wishes before passing judgement. But you need to promise to think about how you can use the wish to make their lives better while you're in Sunnydale."
Halfrek steps back in surprise, "What? Just like that?"
Buffy shrugs, "Yes, just like that. I get that demons don't always get to control what they do. I'm not going to hold you any more responsible for a wish like that, than I would a demon that was summoned to kill someone. What I will do is hold you responsible for what you do that is inside your control."
Incredulously, Halfrek asks, "Really? And what about demons that need to kill on a regular basis in order to maintain their sanity?"
Buffy shrugs again, "As long as it's not too frequently, I can accommodate that. Probably roll it into the fight club I need to set up."

Halfrek looks around at the other people crowded in the hallway, "Is she for real?"
Vhesthine nods, "She is, it's why she's my girlfriend."
The phone girl doesn't even look up from the notes she's been rapidly scribbling down on a notebook she got from somewhere.
Anya and Xander look at each other and shrug, with Xander saying, "I don't know. But she punished me instead of killing Sweet. Best thing that's ever happened to me after meeting Anya."

Buffy looks over at Vhesthine, "How's Dawn?"
Vhesthine looks down, "She's in her bedroom, she hasn't come out since last night. Janice is in there with her at the moment."
Buffy pulls her into a hug, "Did anyone stay with her?"
Vhesthine nods, "Tara did."
Buffy lifts Vhesthine's chin and gives her a long exchange, "Vhesti, you did nothing wrong. I shouldn't be falling apart like this."
Phone girl shouts, "That's bullshit. I've seen the carnage down there. You held containment with only a knife, and what? Spells? I'm not surprised you fell apart. You're human, and the amount of magic you must have used would have knocked anyone senseless unless they were used to it. And you're showing none of the signs of regular magical overuse."
Buffy turns to the girl, "And you are?"
"Major Sam Finn of the UN PN task force, Riley's wife and SO… Senior Officer."
"Sam, I'm not human, and I didn't use magic. Anyway, why are you here?"
Vhesthine puts her hand on Buffy's shoulder, "Buffy, she's right. In the ways that matter right now, you are human. What you are is on top of that. Why don't you talk to Dawn and I'll explain things to Sam. Ok?"
Buffy nods sullenly, before opening the door to Dawn's room.

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Janice turns around when she sees Dawn's puffy eyes first light up, and then her expression closes down. She can't help the gasp she makes when she sees Dawn's older sister standing naked by the door as it clicks closed.
Dawn grabs a pillow and throws it at Buffy, "Go away, I don't want to talk to you."

Buffy deftly catches the pillow before walking forward and using it to cushion her knees as she kneels beside the bed, "No, I don't imagine you do. But you need to at least listen to what I have to say."
Janice blushes as she looks at Buffy, "Um, I can go if you want Mrs Summers."
Buffy turns to Janice, "Call me Buffy, and no, stay. You live in this city too." Turning back to Dawn she says gently, "Dawn. Despite what you may think, and what I probably said last night. I did not personally kill Spike. I was tempted, and I got him killed. But he died trying to do the right thing. What do you think would have happened if I went in there myself?"

"You'd have kicked ass, and destroyed them all before they could escape."
Buffy looks down, "That's what I thought. Dawn, even if I had an Igris… A Flame Thrower, I couldn't have guaranteed being able to destroy all of them before some got past me. Someone needed to handle containment, as that was the more important job compared to initial elimination."

Janice's voice quavers, "Um, Mrs Summers. What are you talking about?"
Buffy closes her eyes for a moment as she draws on her memories as Buffy Summers to find something Janice may understand, "Janice, do you know what Locust's are?"
Janice nods, "They're the insects that come in plagues and eat all the crops."
Buffy nods, "Imagine a demon like that, except it is as tall as your father, and thinks anything organic is food. Fortunately it can't fly, but it does have claws and large teeth. They also mature in as little as a couple of months, and will lay lots of eggs as soon as they can find a secure place to store them. That's what was in Sunnydale, and the eggs were in Spikes home."
"Demons?"
"Janice, you were almost killed by a vampire on Halloween, are other demons really that much of a stretch?"
Janice shakes her head, "No, the hospital said I was just lightheaded from the drugs they slipped me before…"
Janice trails off as Buffy pulls the void around her, and turns invisible, "Any other questions? I could ask Vhesthine to show you, her wings."
Slightly hysterically Janice asks, "Dawn, what happened to Mrs Summers?"
In a slightly exasperated tone, Dawn huffs, "Buffy, stop that, you're freaking my friend out."

Buffy reappears with a slight, sad, smile, "At least you're annoyed at me for a different reason. Yes Janice, demons exist. From the sociable to the animalistic. This was one of the latter. If even one had escaped, it would have kept killing until something killed it. If that took too long, it would lay eggs, and then they'd been dozens more killing until something killed them.
"Dawn, how many times have you managed to accidentally hit me during training?"
Dawn looks down at the mattress and mumbles something.
Gently Buffy says, "Dawn, I didn't hear that."
Dawn looks up again, "I thought you were clear of the target, I didn't mean to shoot you."
Buffy nods, "I know, and I should have taught you better. But I've never taught anyone like this before, so I didn't. But the point is, I can't be aware of everything around me. I'm well trained enough that it can seem like I am sometimes. But one lucky hit and, that's it, I'm dead. Do you understand?"
Dawn nods sadly, "I know, but Spike's dead."
Buffy nods sadly, "I know he is, and I'm sorry. But I was the only person there that could reasonably hold containment if something went wrong. And, to borrow an American phrase, you always hope to god that nothing is going to go wrong. Can you imagine what could have happened if Spike and I had gone in together, and one of us was killed?"
Dawn shakes her head vehemently, "I don't want to."
Buffy nods, "And I hope you never have to. I hope you're never in a position where you have to find out either. Dawn, it's ok to grieve Spike, he was your friend and he helped take care of you while I was gone. It's also ok to blame me for my decisions. Lotus knows, I do. But don't accuse me of not making the best decisions I could at the time with the information I had. I knew that if the eggs hatched, whoever was in there would almost certainly die. But Spike can't use void snare, or void beam. He can't heal himself and others, and he can't pull the void around him. So if I died, it would take me a few minutes to get back to the crypt. At which point, Spike will have either died or fled. Either way, we'd have an unknown number of demons making their way into Sunnydale. So I placed myself as containment, where I couldn't be caught by surprise as eggs hatched in my blind spot. If everything went well, he'd have killed all of them. They didn't, but I think he got five before they started hatching."
"But you could have been closer."
Buffy nods gravely, "I know. I know that now. But that was the first time I've been in that part of his home. I had no idea what it was like down there. Only the fact that there seemed to only be one way out. But again, if I had time to scout properly, Spike would have had time to kill them all. As it stands, we still got lucky that the cave his ladder went into was also the chokepoint for the whole cave system."

Dawn starts to cry, "I hate you, I hate you." While Janice looks embarrassed on her behalf.

As Buffy pulls Dawn down into a hug, Janice asks, "Was that true?"
Buffy nods, "It was, I think she needs someone her own age she can talk about shit like this with."
"Why me?"
Buffy smiles, "You're her best friend. Before Buffy Summers moved here, she didn't have anyone to talk to, and it almost drove her crazy. But Willow and Xander made friends with her, and then the others joined over time. It made it easier for her to handle everything."

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As Buffy comes downstairs a short while later, Vhesthine hands her a glass of fruit juice, "How are you doing?"
Buffy smiles, "I'm f…" before her shoulders sag slightly, "I don't know. It's not supposed to be like this."
Vhesthine kisses Buffy on the cheek, "We can talk about what you're feeling later. You should go and mingle before the uninitiated freak out."
Buffy looks confused, "Huh?"
Vhesthine smiles, and indicates the dining area, "Tara brought a couple of new friends. Anya and Xander invited a friend, presumably one that might sway you from me considering the photo's of Angel and Riley in the photo album. Willow brought a friend, though she at least seems to be a little familiar with this side of life. A demon called Clem turned up with a bottle of wine saying Spike invited him, but he can't find Spike. He seems nervous. Then there's Roselyn and her partner. Finally, you've got Riley, Sam, and Halfrek."
Buffy nods, "So, not too many people then." Under her breath she mutters, "You can do this Buffy, you've been around this many people before."

As she steps away from towards the lounge Vhesthine, Riley catches her elbow, and she decks him. The lounge goes quiet, until Tazin laughs from the couch, "That was a good punch. He should know better than to approach a demon like her unannounced."
Roselyn slaps Tazin's leg, "Buffy's not a demon."
Tazin shakes his head, "She sure fights like one though."
From the floor Riley rubs his jaw, "I guess I was asking for that. I just wanted to ask if we could debrief you."
Buffy nods as she activates squad regen, "Tomorrow. Where's Sam?"
"I think she's cornered Halfrek, Anya, and Xander somewhere. She said something about new intel on different species of demon when she took my notepad."
Buffy nods, before going to say hello to all the people she already knows. That done, she steels herself, and heads through to the kitchen where Willow and Tara are entertaining most of the other guests.

Backing out back into the study, she grabs a handful of pamphlets, and walks back in before spilling them across the table. It's her birthday party, and she'll be damned if she's going to hide herself or her friends just because there are people who are ignorant of that side of things.

 

[Hexcalibur]

Now I wonder how Sunnydale would fare against gremlins from the Gremlins movie series. Or Critters from the series of the same name. Those are the most vicious, fast breeding creatures I know.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 13 – part 1


Vhesthine groans as she comes down the stairs, woken by the incessant ringing of the doorbell. As she opens it bleary eyed, her succubus sense of smell informs her that there's a starving succubus on the other side. Wrenching the door open she stands stock still when she sees an emaciated black girl with a bright smile, holding a brown envelope out towards her.
"Hi, I'm Elaena Howard. Are you Vhesthine?" Dumbly Vhesthine nods, "I was told by a nice human that you could help me."
Absently, Vhesthine takes the envelope and opens it. As she skims the first page, the whole thing slips out of her fingers to scatter on the porch, "When did you last feed?"
Elaena shakes her head, "I don't remember. I don't remember much now as the pain drove it all away."
Cursing the fact she's been living with humans for so long, Vhesthine finds herself lifting her hands to cradle Elaena's cheeks as she leans down to cover the girls mouth, and feed her. As she does, she can feel the skin under her hands gain a little softness.

All too soon, Vhesthine is running out of essence she can spare without endangering herself, and Elaena still smells like she's starving. As she pulls away, Elaena looks at her with tears in her eyes, before pulling her into a very human hug. "Thank you, thank you. Is that how we eat? I haven't felt anything fill me since they found me."
"Elaena, you better come inside. Is anyone else with you?"
Elaena shakes her head, "No. The nice old couple who found me in Shageluk couldn't go to the hospital with me, and the grumpy man in the suit drove off as soon as I was out of the car."
Vhesthine sinks to the floor, "Elaena, do you know what you are?"
Elaena shakes her head, "Not human."

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"Major Finn, are you aware of why you are sat here today?"
Sam looks at the General that's heading the hastily convened tribunal, "No Sir."
The General picks up a thick report, "This is the report you submitted after the recent debacle in Sunnydale, California, USA."
Sam nods, "If you say so Sir. I cannot personally tell from here."
The General nods, "It is, and our analysists are still going over it." He takes two sheets of paper from the back, "It is your personal notes and recommendations section that we have convened for."
Sam sits up straighter, as her heart sinks, "I see Sir."
"Relax Major, this is not a disciplinary." Those words don't actually help, "This is about a mothballed program called Initiative, and a natural superhuman codenamed Slayer. It is our understanding that she has recently started taking a different tack to the supernatural elements in the city."
Sam nods, "That is correct sir."
"Our previous notes state that she has a very proactive approach to the undesirable parts of the supernatural community, however she has a misplaced sense of compassion for many of those denizens. What are your feelings on this?"
Sam swallows, "Sir, with all due respect, I feel like she is treating them like people Sir. People that you need a big stick in order to enforce your rules with, but people none the less."
The General nods, "Your notes also state that you had a civil conversation with a category A demon. As a reminder for the rest of the panel, category A is inimical to Humans, Kill On Sight."
"I did Sir."
"You subsequently recommend a future practice of throwing a side of beef at them, before isolating the area?"
"I did Sir, after his civilian companion told me about the three F's."
The General glances back at the two sheets of paper, "Ah yes, Fight, Fuck, Feed. This civilian, are they another demon?"
Sam shakes her head, "No Sir, so far as I could tell, they were completely human."
"And the demon has a job as well."
"Yes Sir. As a web designer. I believe I included his contact details in the supplementary details."
The General nods, "You did, I had to be briefed on what a web designer is." The General takes a sheet of paper from another folder, "Lt Finn claims that the Slayer works in a company run by demons. Is this correct?"
Sam shakes her head, "I don't know Sir. However, the civilian previously mentioned works at the same company."
"Yes, this brings us onto the next item of note. The Slayers girlfriend. Your notes state that she is a Succubus. Is this correct?"
Sam nods, "Yes Sir."
"And she has been living in Sunnydale for a significant amount of time?"
Sam nods, "Yes Sir."
"You then claim that Succubae are not inimical to human life?"
Sam nods, "Indeed Sir."
"Why?"
"The Slayers sister spent a great deal of time talking to me about her experiences as a Succubus, and what she'd learnt of their society."
The General nods, "Good. Provisionally, we are going to agree with your conclusions and subject them to analysis. To that end, we have already facilitated the transfer of a victim of the Initiative program in Alaska."
After a pause, Sam adds the expected, "I understand Sir."
"Good, because your team is going to be assigned to North America from here on out. You will be working with the FBI on their unsolved cases. As part of that, you will be assigned a researcher. They will be compiling the findings of your team into dossiers about each species. These will hopefully be published as academic studies on societies and cultures. Your job will be find out about their societies, power structures, and drives. In the process hopefully discovering ways that we can reduce the death tolls in our ranks caused by demons."
Sam nods, "I understand Sir."
The General nods, "Good, as I'd rather throw a slab of meat at a demon, and then have a peaceful conversation with them later; Than lose two or three men putting it down. The US government has agreed to allow us to use Sunnydale as a testbed for this approach, and we have requested that the Slayers personnel files be transferred to us. You will be our primary liaison with her once she's been reactivated."
Sam swallows, "Why me Sir?"
"Because Lt Finn has a pre-existing relationship with her, that you have already leveraged."
"I understand Sir."

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Buffy's sat, uncomfortably cross-legged, in a small clearing an hour's jog into the wood. In front of her is the current subject of her concentration, the green leaves of a sprouting spring flower. Under the tree cover nearby, Tara is going through the motions of the Vazarin Way. Her void energy already seeking out the patterns that are the basis of that half of the way.

"Demeter ex hoc flore novam vitam et pulchritudinem."
In front of her, the flower twists and grows. It's leaves turning a silvery colour, and flower stalk growing, from which silver bells sprout, each one leaking a silvery smoke that cascades down the stalk to the floor. Once the spell has finished, the flower towers over Buffy's seated form, and one of the leaves dips down to land in her lap.

Shuffling back slightly, Buffy looks over to Tara and calls, "Tara, your left toe needs to be a bit further in, otherwise you'll be out of position in two steps. But first, I think I did something wrong with my spell."

Tara stops and looks down before walking over, "Oh thank goodness, I've done that sequence so many times, and I thought it was just my balance. Oh my, yes. Well, you must have been close as you have a flower. What was your spell?"
Buffy unfolds the sheet of paper she used to translate what she wanted into Latin, "'Demeter ex hoc flore novam vitam et pulchritudinem'. Demeter, bring new life and beauty to this flower."

Tara nods, "I see how you got to that, but that's not what you've written means. Let's see… 'Demeter draws new life and beauty from this flower'. See, you're telling the magic to make something new based on this flower. You probably wanted something like. 'Demeter novam vitam et pulchritudinem in hunc florem adducer', instead. Which would be 'Demeter will bring new life and beauty into this flower'."
Buffy grumbles, "Why can't we just use English instead?"
Tara smiles, "We could, but once you become an accomplished witch, you'll be able to do less complex magic with just a thought." She waves her hand, and a different flower blooms into a foxglove, "Only using words when you want precision. It's why the few spells we can verify came from pre-Christian Rome, were written in Greek. And the Greeks used Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and the Egyptians invented Hieroglyphs and High Egyptian."
Buffy's expression goes slack, "Oh, I thought it was because we were just using old spells."
Tara nods, "We do use old spells, just not that old. Books weren't invented until after the establishment of Christianity as it's main religion in around 100CE. Sorry, we covered it in art history, as a lot of medieval books had magnificent artwork."
Buffy shakes her head, "No, no, it was interesting…" she trails off as her phone starts to ring.

Picking it up, she answers it, and before she can say anything Vhesthine is sobbing down the phone, "Buffy, I need you at home."
Immediately concerned, Buffy asks, "Vhesthine, what's wrong?"
Vhesthine sniffs, "We have a new daughter, and even after feeding her, she's still starving."
Buffy blinks a couple of times, "I'm sorry, I thought you said we have a new daughter."
"She's a Succubus, but she doesn't remember anything before a couple found her in Alaska. Buffy, she's Dawn's age."
Buffy drops the phone, and then fumbles to pick it up, "She's a child!"
"She is, and she's currently trying to eat a bowl of honey nut chex. I need you Buffy, I can't do this alone."
"We'll be back as soon as we can be."
"Hurry, I need to hunt, and someone needs to watch her."

As the phone hangs up, Buffy looks at it, and the fact it has 5 bars, "I have to work out how this phone is doing that."
Tara answers, "Oh, that was mine and Willow's birthday present for you. We just forgot to tell you at the party, because Spike, and everything. Is Vhesthine alright?"
Buffy shakes her head, "She needs us at home, something's come up and it's really upset her. Remember, jump three, then run for 10 seconds. I'll be right behind you."
Tara's about to whine when she sees Buffy's face, "Right, home…"

Forgotten behind them, the mist continues to fall from the bells of the flower.

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"Guys! Guys! I didn't abandon you, I just don't want to die when you cross a line. Come on Guys!"
Exhausted, frustrated, and tired, Jonathan slumps back to the arcade to work off some of his anxiety. They've been gone for months. They haven't visited any of their normal hangouts, not even Andrew's mother knows where he is.
He's tried to find them, he really has, and not just because they took his limited edition Ultraman figurine, with the hand signed base. Or his 1st​ edition comics, including the rare Wolverine vs Hulk. Or even his boxed Atari with pong. They're his friends damn it.

As he's passing Dragons Cove, the other magical shop in Sunnydale, he pops in to see if Andrew has been by for any magical supplies.
The owner's cheery voice calls across the shop, "Ah Jonathan, you haven't been by in forever."
Jonathan shakes his head, "I've just not been feeling it. Listen, have you seen Andrew, or maybe even Warren?"
"I can't say I have, but as I know you're a serious customer, I've been asked to hand these out to everyone that walks that path."

Jonathan looks blankly at the black pamphlet the man is holding out, "Um, thanks, I guess."
"Come back sometime when you have some money to spend."

Jonathan doesn't even get three steps out of the door before he stops, and stares at the pamphlet incredulously.
"Is she trying to get herself killed?"

Turning around, Jonathan starts walking towards the Slayers address.

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As they arrive at the house, Tara stumbles as she comes out of her last void jump and misses her first step. As Buffy void jumps past her and straight into the house, instead of catching her, the stumble turns into a painful fall along the sidewalk. Picking herself up, she limps into the house, wincing as her skinned knee complains. As she walks through the front door, she stops in surprise when she sees Buffy lying on the floor, her knees folded underneath her, as a young black girl is attached to her face.

As she starts to walk over, Buffy's eyes roll back in her head, and her body turns into white motes of light. As girl starts to cry, Vhesthine moves, catching Tara's eye, and pulls her into a hug.
"Vhesthine, what's going on?"
Vhesthine just points at the coffee table, where there's a spill of paperwork across the entire surface. Turning back, Tara is about to ask something else when her mouth drops open in horror. The healthy young girl's features seem to deflate and sink in on themselves. As they do, she can see every single muscle and bone outlined in her face.
"What was that?"
Vhesthine looks up with puffy red eyes, "That is wasting sickness. Eleane is a Succubus, and she's starving."
"But she looked so healthy."
Vhesthine nods, "Don't forget, our human bodies are still a magical transformation. They reflect our actual bodies, especially in one so young. I should kill her, put her out of her misery. But I can't bring myself to do so. It should be easy, but I keep seeing Dawn in the same position when I think about doing it."
Tara smiles gently, "I told you your aura was getting brighter. What can I do to help?"
"I don't know. She's asleep now, but she will need to be fed the same size meals every time she wakes up, until she sleeps for longer than a day, or she dies."
"I could feed her."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "You can't, she has a chip. It would prevent her from feeding from you, if she knows how to feed."
"Then teach me to feed her."
Vhesthine gasps, "Tara, do you understand what you're asking? Especially now that I'm mated?"
Tara winces as she kneels down beside Vhesthine, "No, I don't. I don't know what difference being mated makes either."
"Tara, feeding another Succubus is a very intimate act. Much like sex is for humans, possibly more so, as we are giving up our own essence for another. We learn how to feed ourselves and others by being fed by our family growing up. To teach you how to feed another quickly, I would need to feed you small amounts of my own essence repeatedly until you reciprocate.
Tara swallows hard, "Um, can't you just feed from me, and then feed it to her?"
Vhesthine reaches one long finger up and touches it to the bottom of Tara's chin, before bring it, and her chin, towards her mouth. When Tara tenses up, Vhesthine lowers the finger, "What do you think? I cannot feed from you unless you are euphoric, or insensate from drugs or pain. Would you sleep with me as you would your Willow?"
Tara's eyes drop to the floor, before firming up as she looks back up, "No, I wouldn't sleep with you as I would Willow. But I would sleep with you as a woman saving a life. I'm sure Xander would too, but I don't think Anya could separate the two things. I'd like to believe that Willow would do the same as I."
Vhesthine smiles, "Thank you, but alien as it feels, I value our friendship too much to test it like that. I feel that you would probably be better served looking after Dawn while Buffy and I hunt."
Slightly breathlessly, Buffy asks as she appears out of the void, "Hunt what?"
Vhesthine looks up at Buffy, "Men."

Buffy stares at her with a deer in a headlights look.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 13 – part 2


While Buffy's anxiety is ratcheting up, the bell on the front door ring, "I've got it." She calls as she void jumps backwards out of the house.
"Hello, Jonathan wasn't it?"
Jonathan jumps and spins around, "Buffy, how did you… I just heard you…"
Buffy smiles broadly at Jonathan, "Don't worry about it. Hey, do you want to save a poor little girl, and have sex with a beautiful succubus at the same time?"
Buffy catches Jonathan under the shoulder as his knees buckle, "What? Really?"
Buffy void jumps the both of them through the door, "Yes, really. Hey Vhesthine, I've solved our man problem."
Vhesthine sniffs, "He smells like a virgin. And, yes Buffy, that will help solve our man problem. It will mean I don't have to go hunting before we go to LA overnight, and probably tomorrow too."
Jonathan swallows hard, "You're a Succubus?"
Vhesthine nods, "I am, and if you're lucky I'm going to give you a very pleasant half an hour. If I'm lucky, it will be five minutes, as you're a virgin."

All three of the women watch as he faints in Buffy's grasp, and Tara says, "Uh, I knew they were sheltered, but really?"
Vhesthine nods, "He seems like someone who has never learnt the ways of humans despite living with them. I've met many like them, and some of them grow bitter and believe that they are owed much that they haven't earned. Buffy, I will not be able to save Eleane on my own. We just cannot keep feeding like that without our bodies shutting us down, like humans after eating a few large meals, even if they purge themselves afterwards. It would be easier if she returned to her birth form, but she is currently too weak to have that forced on her." Vhesthine strokes Eleane's hair, "It is remarkable that one so young is still holding onto this form while so ill."
Buffy swallows hard, "And you want me to approach men, for sex?"
Vhesthine nods, "If we had more time, I would use some contacts to arrange rooms in a brothel so that they could pick us. I know a few spells to make us more appealing. However, this little one won't wait that long. Yet she seemed so happy when I opened the door, despite her condition. I will join you to start with, as she will only need one of us feeding her at a time. But, if you want her to survive, it has to be you and me. Unless you wish for me to be intimate with Tara until she learns how to feed from, and to others."
Buffy drops Jonathan with a thud as her left hand comes up, pointing at Tara while she growls. Tara raises her hands, "I asked how I could help. I'm dating Willow remember." As Buffy lowers her hand, Tara continues, "Um, if you react like that to me, how are you going to handle Vhesthine and men?"
Buffy can't help it, she sags to the floor laugh crying while Vhesthine answers, "It's simple. I have absolutely no attraction to humans. Neither does Buffy. My relationship with her was entirely unexpected, and mirrors my own culture. I believe that you would also be safe initiating such a relationship, if you so desired. However, such a thing would be deadly for most mortals, even ignoring the threat of accidentally giving or taking too much. Which is something only an incubus can do to a Succubus, and only when they're our child."
"Why would it be dangerous for the human?"
"Magic. Feeding, from or to, is a magical act. Buffy and I can go for hours. What would that do to a mortal magic user?"
Tara's face drains of colour.
"Buffy, you need to go to the school and sign her out for the rest of the week."
Woodenly, Buffy nods, "Get Dawn, I can do that."

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Principle Stevens stands up as Buffy walks through his door, "Miss Summers, it's a pleasure to see you. Though, I didn't think you'd get here so fast."
Buffy freezes, unsure of what's going on, "Um, I know why I'm here, why do you think I'm here?"
"Dawn knocked out one of the boys in her year. We're still waiting for the ambulance to take him to hospital."
Nodding, Buffy takes a seat, "What happened?"
Stevens raises his hands, "We don't know. Only that it happened in a girls rest room. What were you here for?"
"I need to remove Dawn from school for the rest of the week, and maybe a little of next week."
Stevens eyes widen, "Why would you need to do that?"
Buffy shifts uncomfortably, "We have just been given custody of a girl Dawns age. However, she is critically ill, so we need to take her to LA."
Stevens frowns, "Can't just one of you go?"
"Believe me, if that was the case, I'd let Vhesthine go on her own in a heartbeat. But it's not the sort of problem we can take to the hospital." When Stevens still looks blank, Buffy adds, "Do you remember Dawn's dietary issues?"
"Oh, right. Yes, I understand. I'll sign her out as attending a family emergency then. It will also keep the boys parents happy, as they'll assume he wasn't the only one suspended."
Buffy looks confused, "Why should that matter?"
Stevens sighs, "It shouldn't. But it does because he's been suspended for where he was, not what he may have been doing."
"I don't understand."
Stevens looks down, "I don't suppose you do, do you. I doubt you have any idea how complicated my life has become since Emo started accompanying Dawn everywhere. Of the uncomfortable conversations I've had with the female teachers here, as they defend Emo's right to be here. I used to think I was a good man Buffy, but I've found out that instead, I've been a blind man. Enough about that, let me make a record of your withdrawal, and we can take you to Dawn."

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As both Buffy and Dawn walk away from the school, Buffy glances at Dawn, "Those aren't the clothes you were wearing when you left this morning."
Dawn looks down at the sidewalk, "Are you going to tell me off for wearing them?"
Buffy shakes her head, "No, I'm going to tell you off from hiding the fact from us. Monday and Tuesday as well?" Dawn just nods, "Where was Emo?"
"I left him with Janice, as she's been having trouble with some of the boys recently."
"So, why were you wearing the outfit Vhesthine gave you?"
Dawn plays with the strap on her backpack while Emo playfully swipes down at it from her shoulder, "I felt happier wearing it."
Buffy nods, "Understandable. And I'm still sorry that Spike died."
Dawn starts to cry, "I know, and I still hate you. Except I don't, and I don't understand."
Buffy sighs, "I… I've been waking up crying every night this week. I don't understand why, why now and not any of the other times I've dealt with rampant demons. Vhesthine tells me it's grief and survivors guilt. But, in bed, I keep thinking about the situation wondering if I could have done anything differently. Something else that doesn't make sense to me. I'm used to being able to review the memory once, objectively, and then put it to one side."
Dawn takes Buffy's hand, "I didn't think adults didn't understand themselves."
Buffy chuckles darkly, "I think I understand what you mean. And I don't think even the seemingly most together actually understand themselves. I've told you about Cephalons, yes?"
Dawn nods, "You have."
"Well, many of them literally didn't have emotions after they were adjusted. Even so, they couldn't always tell you why they reached a conclusion. But they could justify it."

They both walk together for a few minutes before Buffy says, "Dawn, something happened earlier. That's why I've pulled you out of school for a few days."
Dawn looks up, "Wait, I thought I was suspended."
Buffy shakes her head, "I don't know why you hit the boy, but until you give me reason to believe otherwise, I'm going to assume self-defence. No, Vhesthine and I have become adoptive parents to a Succubus your age."

Dawn suddenly stops for a second, before screaming, "No! No! You've already taken Spike from me! You're not taking our sister time as well!"
As Dawn starts to run, Buffy catches her around the waist, and ignores Emo's attempts to attack her as she starts to carry Dawn home, "Dawn… Dawn…" she starts, before giving up as it's clear Dawn can't hear her.

By the time she gets home, her pants are ruined, and she's been reduced to just hugging Dawn and repeating, "Dawn, it's ok, our time together isn't going away."

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As Buffy walks in the front door, a cried out Dawn tries to squirm out of her grasp, and run upstairs. Buffy catches her hand, and drags her into the lounge, where Jonathan is lying on the couch with a blissful expression on his face.
"Dawn, this… Dawn! Dawn!" Buffy grabs Dawn's face and feeds her a little essence, snapping Dawn out of her mood, "Dawn, this is your new sister."

With the temporary high given by Buffy's essence, Dawn looks down at the emaciated black girl and spots how prominent her ribs are, how thin the wrists, and finally, how sunken the face is. As she walks over and kneels down beside her to take a bony hand in her own the only question she can ask is, "How?"
Vhesthine looks up, her eyes still puffy, but now covered with a bit of makeup. Her dead voice is clear, for all it's quiet, "Did she get like this? She has a chip in her head, like Spikes, and she was found nearly two months ago in Alaska. The documents say she survived in an Institute facility for an unknown amount of time before escaping. Is she still alive? We don't know. Are we going to save her? Buffy and I are going to need to hunt in shifts so that she always has a feed available whenever she wakes up. By all rights, I should just put her out of her misery and save us all the trouble. But I can't. Every time I think about it, I remember how happy you were as a Succubus."
Dawn looks down at her, "Why would you kill her?"
Vhesthine looks up at Dawn, "Dawn, when I say I'm going hunting, what comes to mind?"
Dawn smiles, "You head out to the Bronze or one of the bars, chat up a couple of guys, and have a quicky out back."
Vhesthine nods sadly, "On my home plane, it more like a tribe in Africa hunting. Only, we're hunting the scattered tribes of humans we took with us when Demon-kind first left Earth thousands of years ago."
Dawn make an O shape for a moment, then asks, "Why not just get your boss to make her human?"
Tara speaks up from the chair she's sitting in, "She's too frail. We can't even use magic to force her back into her Succubus form, as that might kill her."
Slightly panicky, Dawn cries, "Buffy, you've got to do something. You need to fix this."

Buffy swallows hard, "Dawn. We are." She licks her lips, "We're driving to LA, where they have a larger population. Then, we're going to get a hotel room, where you are going to guard her." She swallows again, her mouth suddenly dry, "And Vhesthine is going to teach me to hunt."
Dawn's mouth drops open, "But, Buffy, you don't like men like that."
Vhesthine nods gravely, "I wouldn't be asking this of Buffy if it was at all possible. But hunting and then feeding essence to another Succubus is exhausting. I could probably do it three times before I had to sleep. And that's if I ignore my own needs. We need to keep it up until she sleeps for a full day after a feed. That's when we'll know she's stopped burning through it just to survive."

Dawn looks up defiantly, "I want to help."
Vhesthine nods, "You will be helping, you'll be guarding her while we're out. You'll also be guarding us while we sleep. You're too young to help with the feeding," Vhesthine raises her hand, "because you haven't developed to the point where you can learn how to feed. This little one has been forced to learn, and it will cause problems later."
Dawn sulks, her earlier tantrum forgotten, "But I want to help."
From behind her, Buffy says, "Get your bow, and your live arrows. I hope to whoever is listening that you don't have to kill someone. But vampires live in LA as well."

As Dawn hurry's out to the yard, Buffy looks at Vhesthine, "How are we going to afford this?"
Vhesthine looks up, "I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I have enough saved up that we could live here for a few years without worrying about the bills. We will need to be in the seedier part of the city. Even so, I think we're going to miss three or four feedings during the day, because humans work. Unless we get lucky and find one of the bars that people go to because they've got nothing else to do."

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A couple of hours later, after Elaena has woken and had another full feed, the four of them arrive in a slightly better than cheapest motel ever. This one at least has underground parking. Once parked, it doesn't take long to pay for the first two nights, and book the room for a week.
As soon as that is done, Buffy and Vhesthine both leave. Reluctantly Buffy has dressed in the clothes Vhesthine laid out for her.

Vhesthine looks a little sick as she leads them to some notorious streets, "As the clubs won't be open yet, I'm going to teach you the most reliable, yet unpleasant method of hunting first. Streetwalking. The girls that do this call it turning tricks."
This relies on being more attractive to the men driving passed than the other girls on the street. On the down side, you also need to watch for police, as they like to arrest anyone that's making money in a way the main religion disapproves of."

Over the next half an hour it gets dark, and Buffy gets a very humiliating lesson in putting herself on display. A lesson that's cut short when a tall, all American, girl, walks up to Vhesthine, anger clear on her face.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing? This is my hunting ground."
Vhesthine sneers, "You would hoard such a bountiful supply? How generous of you."
"You must be new up here if you think that. Ain't no bounty here if ya don't want to end up dead."
Buffy frowns, "Why would we end up dead?"
The girl looks at Buffy dismissively, "What? You letting the cattle talk for you now?"
Vhesthine's smile turns predatory, as she deliberately catches Buffy's lips with her own before initiating a good exchange that leaves Buffy moaning, "No, I let my mate, The Slayer, do her own talking."
The girl steps back, "Woah, I didn't know humans could do that. But, there's no way she's the Slayer, as she's holed up in Sunnydale keeping a lid on the hell hole."

Buffy smiles, "Would you like me to bench press you, and prove I'm the Slayer? Even better, have a pamphlet."
The girl takes the pamphlet and stares at it, "Really?"
Buffy nods, "Really. I wouldn't be here if we hadn't been given custody of a juvenile who's starving."
The girl waves her hand, "Kill it, it will be kinder in the long run."
Buffy shakes her head, "I don't kill civilians. Hence, you're still alive after all."
"Do you have any idea how much essence it will take to save the juvenile? You'd need most of a commune out hunting just to have a chance of getting enough essence."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "Not here we don't. There's enough here that with two of us, we should be able to feed enough to keep her fed. And as her Matriarch it's my duty to do my best for her."
The girl shakes her head, "You ain't no Matriarch, there's no way you'd be here if you were."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "I would have been a Matriarch, if the Matriarch I challenged hadn't dishonoured me. I was banished because I shamed her in front of the council."

The girl steps back again, "That was you!? Look, I don't want no trouble. I'm just trying to get along here as best I can."
Buffy sighs, "Why are you working the streets then?"
The girl looks at her as if she's an idiot, "Are you stupid or something? What else am I supposed to do? I'm a girl with no education, no ID, and living a city where the big 3 have an office."
Buffy puts her head in her hands, "Why me?" Looking up again, she looks at the girl, "I don't know who the big 3 are. But you're here now, and so am I, so don't make me regret this offer. If you make your way to Sunnydale, I can tutor you to pass your GED."
"What? For reals? Look, I appreciate the offer, but I ain't getting any closer to a hell hole than I have to. I'll give you a piece of free advice too. Watch out for Rocky, he's the vamp that's the pimp round here. Word says he works for the big three."

As the girl walks off with the pamphlet, a car pulls up with five men in it, "Hey, you girls up for a party tonight? $200."
Vhesthine smiles broadly, "Each."

As they both get into the car, to sit uncomfortably on the guys in the back, they pretend not to notice the driver vamp out momentarily.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 13 – part 3


Throughout the journey, Buffy tries to emulate Vhesthine, with a modicum of success. At least enough that the vampires don't notice. Though she does balk when Vhesthine starts using her hand down there. Not that the vampires seem to notice, as they are all joking about breaking them in. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Buffy is aware that most girls her apparent age would probably be starting to feel anxious.

After a short drive, they pull into an abandoned underground carpark. As they do, the vampire in the front passenger seat turns around, "We're here ladies."
With a vapid expression, Vhesthine smiles, "When do we get our money?"
The vampire leers, "At the end of the party luscious."
Vhesthine nudges Buffy, "See, I told you it was easy money. We just do what we love, and they pay us in cash rather than drinks. Sorry, she's a bit shy."
As the two of them are roughly pulled out of the car, Buffy growls, "I hate crowds."
The vampire holding her leans down and whispers in her ear, "Don't worry love, we'll loosen you right up once we get upstairs."

Fighting the urge to snap the vampires neck, Buffy allows herself to be led to a lift. From the lift, they're led to a small apartment with a metal bar lock on the outside, "Be good girls, the party starts in a couple of hours."

As the door slams shut, and the bar drives home, Buffy looks around at the room that has seven or eight other women in varying states of distress. Brightly, she asks the room, "So, who's for Pizza?"
From the far end of the room, a woman with bad tracks on her arms looks up sourly, "Don't bother trying to make the mood better. We all know the score, we knew it when we tried to get out. Don't bother with the window either, we're on the 9th​ floor. Only thing out there is a quick and painful death."
"And nobodies jumped yet?"
The woman shakes her head, "Look at them, they're so strung out they wouldn't feel it if you kicked them. If you want to join them, the shit's in the bedroom."
"What about you?"
"I went cold turkey when I got pregnant, babe's sleeping at home. Least I hope he is."
Vhesthine asks, "How did they get you then?"
"Girls got to eat, that takes money and there's only one thing I know now."

Buffy and Vhesthine share a glance, before Vhesthine asks, "Do you want to take the chance?"
Buffy sighs, "She has a baby."
Vhesthine grimaces, "Yeah, that does change things." Looking back at the woman who is looking at them like they're cuckoo she adds, "If we could get you out of here safely, would you be able to do two things for us?"
The woman gives a bitter laugh, "What ya going to do, batter down the door? Some o the girls tried that earlier before they started on the shit."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "Not like that. But say we could. Would we be able to use your place for the next week, and would you allow me to feed on you?"
The woman starts laughing, "Now I know you're taking the piss. But yeah, sure. If you can get me out of here safely, you can crash at my place for a week. And take a nibble at my neck."
Vhesthine smiles, "Don't worry, I'm a succubus, not a vampire. Buffy, would you do the honours?"
"Now I know you're shitting me. Ain't no way a demon would be stuck here waiting to be food. An my name's Suzy."

As Buffy opens the window and looks down and around, Vhesthine smiles, "Vhesthine. What do you think Buffy?"
"Hmm, there's a tiered building just over there, but it might be better to go for the low-rise across the street, and then use a fire escape. I'm just checking to see if this is the only place with a light on."
Suzy chuckles, "It's the only apartment without blacked out windows, worked outside it often enough. That's East 6th​ Street right there. You've got Crocker Street to the left, and San Pedro to the right."

Buffy nods before hoisting Suzy over a shoulder with a Squeal, "Vhesthine, wait till I get back so I have somewhere to target this first time."
Vhesthine nods, and moves to the window when Buffy void jumps out into thin air, to the accompanying scream from Suzy. In four consecutive jumps, she appears to run through mid-air to land on the four story building, and set Suzy down gently.
As she's recovering her void energy, Suzy collapses to the roof, "Shit, y'ain't kidding. Well, a deal's a deal, and I'll be happy to have a few more days with Denzell."
Buffy smiles at Suzy before she void slings back to the apartment, "I hope you have more than a few days with your baby."

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Dawn fidgets in the hotel room, her eyes glancing to the TV that looks like it came from the 80's in the corner. Looking at the place, it probably did. For the first hour after Buffy and Vhesthine left, Dawn dutifully knelt in front of the door, but to one side, with her bow held loosely on her knees. Since then, she's checked her phone every few minutes and had to force herself to put it down, as she knows the rules about hotels and vampires.

It's not like you can get away with not knowing them with the Slayer as your sister. Standing up she walks over to the TV and turns it on with a loud clunk, followed by the whine of the tube warming up as a couple of women kissing appears on the screen. Quickly changing the channel, Dawn quickly gets frustrated with the fact the remote only has an up and down channel change button, and that there's too many channels with naked adults.
Once she finds Cartoon Network, she settles down to watch it, until someone touches her on the shoulder. Stifling a scream, she rolls to one side and brings up her dagger in a ready stance, only to stop when she sees the girl looking at her, confused.
Elaena smiles brightly, an effect that just highlights how bad her condition is, as her bright smiling eyes contrast with their sunken nature, and her hollow cheeks, "Hi, I'm Elaena, who are you?"
Dawn lowers her dagger, "I'm Dawn, I guess I'm your new sister?"
Elaena cocks her head in a move that makes it look like it's going to fall off, "Are you a succubus too?"
Dawn shakes her head as she sheaths her dagger, "No, not at the moment. I'm human."
Elaena looks down, "Oh, my bearer told me to stay human and live until she came back."
"Did she come back?"
Elaena shakes her head, "I don't remember. I used to remember more, but the headaches stole them away when I met that nice couple. They were human, and I was very hungry. I remember them feeding me, but it didn't help. Neither did kisses, they just caused headaches that made me forget stuff. I don't know why, but kisses are important."
Tears form in Dawn's eyes, and the TV remote clatters to the floor, as she walks forward and pulls Elaena into a hug, "You poor thing, we feed through kissing. And other stuff, but I'm not old enough for that stuff yet. Buffy and Vhesthine are out getting you food now."
Elaena leans back to look at Dawn, "Is Vhesthine the nice lady who kissed me and made it better?"
"Sort of. They said you're not better yet, and they're out hunting right now. Um, sorry for not guarding you properly."
Elaena looks around Dawn as the TV lets out the sound of gunshots, "What's that?"
Dawn looks over her shoulder, "That's a Bugs Bunny cartoon with Elmer Fudd trying to catch Bugs or Daffy."
"What's a cartoon?"
"Um, it's where they draw the program rather than filming people acting it. You can do the same with a pad of paper."
Doubtfully, Elaena says, "Ok. Why did the gun just come out of the tree?"
Dawn smiles, "Because it's a cartoon, so it's not limited to the way things work in the real world. How comes you know what a gun is, but not a cartoon?"
Elaena smiles, "The nice couple had a couple of shot guns, and a rifle, they use for hunting. My mother didn't use a gun for hunting though."
Dawn nods, "Humans have to eat food, it's inconvenient. But I guess we can store it for longer than essence can be stored."
"Essence?"
"It's what Vhesthine calls the stuff succubae live off."

From there, the two of them settle in to watch cartoons, until Dawn jumps when her phone rings loudly. Scrambling across the room, she picks it up and answers it, "Hello?"
"Dawn, I'm outside with someone we rescued, open the door."
Dawn yelps, "I was on guard, honest!"
Vhesthine's voice sounds amused, "Dawn, you're awake and alert, that's all we expected from you."
Dawn sags as she goes to open the door, "Oh… Well, um, I've been watching cartoons with Elaena for a while too."
Vhesthine hangs up and kisses Dawn on the forehead, "Dawn, it's fine. You're 15, we don't expect you to behave like a seasoned PI or police officer."
Elaena looks around, "You're the nice lady that kissed me and made it better. Can I have another kiss please?"
Vhesthine steps out of the way to reveal Suzy, "This is Suzy, she lives around…"
Suzy says, "8 blocks away."
Vhesthine nods, "And she is willing to put us up for a week. Dawn, grab our bags and your bow. Elaena, come here, it's not much, but it should keep you going for a little bit. Don't wear yourself out."

It doesn't take the four of them long to drive to Suzy's home. Whey they are led up 3 flights of bare concrete stairs, littered with rubbish. The hallway to her apartment has peeling paint on the walls, with many suspiciously yellow spots, and an overwhelming smell of ammonia from those spots. Almost as soon as they enter the hallway, the sound of a baby crying fills the air, and Suzy breaks into a jog down to her door.

As the other three follow her into the apartment, they stop to take in the sight of a cheap tenement, that was obviously furbished before Suzy moved in. There's a large yellow patch on the ceiling above the kitchenette, and the doors to the cabinets are so warped by water damage where the chipboard has swollen and split the veneer. On the coffee table is a large, cheap, candle with a broken needle and syringe sticking out of the top. Next to it is an ashtray full of butts, and a pouch of tobacco and papers next to it.

Suzy comes out of the bedroom nursing a baby and looks where everyone's looking, "Yeah, the candle. I was four months pregnant when I did that a year ago. A local 'midwife' told me about foetal addiction, and how my baby could be born addicted to that shit if I didn't knock it off. It took me two weeks, and that stupid pamphlet staring at me. But one night I decided that I was going to be a better mother than mine was. That's when I did that, I poured the last of my stash in the wax too. I'm getting better with the smoking too, but it's still hard."
Suzy looks up at Vhesthine, "How are we going to do whatever you need to do?"
Vhesthine smiles gently, "Finish nursing your child, then we'll want to use your bed. I'm going to need to feed deeply, so you may feel tired afterwards. If you have the details, order a stack of pizzas before we start, and I'll pay for them. You should then eat as much of one as you can, as it will help you recover your essence."

Suzy nods and heads over to a cracked, cream coloured, handset on the wall by the door, before dialling the number by heart. When she turns back around to see Vhesthine in her succubus form, she almost screams. Only the credit card she's holding in her fingers stops that from happening.

Elaena looks at Vhesthine and whispers, "Are you my bearer?"
Vhesthine shakes her head, "No child, I am your matriarch though. Let me just finish this order and I'll make sure you can be fed. Can you return to your natural form?"
Elaena shakes her head, "I don't remember how."
Vhesthine smiles sadly as she adds some drinks and a few more pizzas to the order, before using her credit card.

While she's doing that, Suzy hands Dawn the baby and shows her how to hold him, while glancing back at Vhesthine's wings and tail. 20 minutes later, she stumbles out of her bedroom with a silly grin on her face and flops down on the couch between Dawn and Elaena, "Fuck that was some good shit. I ain't never thought I could be gay, but damn she makes it hard not to be."
Vhesthine smiles at Suzy as she comes out herself, "We don't usually go for women, because it's harder than men. Elaena, it's time for your feed."

Suzy shakes her head as Vhesthine feeds Elaena, "I wonder if that's any good?"
Dawn nods wistfully, "It's better than anything you've ever tasted. I still wish I was a succubus, the world is so different to them."
Suzy nods, "Y'all probably right. But I bet they have their own share of problems that makes eating food like us look like a decent trade off."
Dawn nods, "There are some, the biggest one is how easy it is to accidentally kill someone while feeding."

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Buffy jumps slightly as her phone starts to ring and vibrate, pulling it out of her bra, she looks at it accusingly before realising it's Vhesthine. Stabbing the answer button, she says, "Hi, how did things go? Sure, give me a sec."

A moment later, Buffy is carefully hoarding a pizza while Vhesthine tells her about her trip. The other two pizzas, well at the smell of food, all of the women who weren't comatose descended on the pizzas and demolished them within seconds of them being put down.

It's probably around 9pm when there's a clanking at the door, and then a couple of vampires with metal baseball bats walk in, "Right girls, it's time for the entertainment. Everyone that's awake, up you get, it's time for you to dance for your freedom."

Buffy tries to mimic the meek and dead-eyed look that all of the other girls, even Vhesthine, have. She really does. However, she can't help looking around at the exits and placement of the vampires as they're led up a floor, where they've knocked the adjoining walls of the apartments out to make one large room with key walls left for structural support and privacy. Or at the large trestle table that the comatose girls are being laid out on, in pleasing positions. It's not the worst situation she's ever been in, but it is probably the worst situation where she's so lightly armed.

"You, the one that's looking around." Buffy turns to look at the speaker, a heavy set white Vampire decorated in gold chains and wearing a smart black suit. He walks across the front of the girls and sits, wide legged, on a throne, "Come here, you look like fun."
Buffy looks around in case he's talking to one of the other girls before she steps forward with a deliberate sway to her gait, making her dress swish provocatively. When she's standing in front of him, the Vampire smiles, "Kneel."
With the click of a gun behind her, Buffy does as requested, and kneels, her eyes still darting around the room.
The vampire laughs, "You've got spunk girl. Girls, I am Rocky and you are here as entertainment. If you are still alive at midnight, then you get to go home, all safe and sound. All you have to do is keep us entertained after our dreary board meeting." He reaches down and caresses Buffy's cheek, "This one will show you one way you could do that. Unzip it!" Buffy looks at his pants and carefully unzips them, "Now suck it."
A shiver of revulsion runs through Buffy as she reaches out her left hand to cradle the member she's just released. That's when she looks up at Rocky and smiles while she activates the Guardian Shell, before releasing a void beam from her left hand as she stands up, causing Rocky to fall into dust, "Actually, I think you're a little too small for me. Especially now."

Spinning around, she laughs as the armed vampires empty their clips into her shield while it's still establishing itself, the kinetic energy from each shot being added to the shield until a purple flash ripples across it, and the last few bullets leave purple ripples in the air.
With the void beam raking over the heads of everyone that ducked at the sound of gunfire she addresses the room, "Now Gentlemen, would all the vampires who want to survive the week please stand by the back wall. All the girls who want to survive, stand by the tables, and take cover. Everyone else, let's dance."

As Buffy somersaults into the middle of the room, the girls scream and follow Vhesthine as she runs over to the trestle table, and starts pulling the unconscious girls off the table, before turning each segment over to hide behind.

A couple of the vampires do go and sit down by the back wall, however, most of them either attack the mad woman who is laughing and dancing in the centre of the room, her dagger twirling wildly. Or they head for the easier targets, only to be faced with Vhesthine and her dagger, and protected by the same shield as the other girls.

After several minutes of frantic fighting, where Buffy has needed to use her healing and shielding powers more than once, along with the void snare to prevent some vampires from taking the women hostage. Buffy is surrounded by piles of dust and screaming vampires.

As she methodically goes around and cuts their arms and legs off at the elbow and knee, she looks up at Vhesthine, "Do you think these will be enough?"
Vhesthine looks at them critically, "If we keep them alive, then they should be."
Buffy smiles broadly, "Oh good, I don't have to learn to socialise. Do you think you could find that other succubus?"
Vhesthine nods, "I should be able to, why?"
One of the less drugged girls looks over the table, "Um, can we go now?"
Buffy looks at the woman, "Not yet. We just need to find someone who can look out for you. Vhesthine… Tell her that she's got a new commune to look after, as she's their matriarch."
Vhesthine looks offended, "Buffy, it doesn't work like that."
Buffy looks at Vhesthine with a slightly disappointed look, "Then maybe it should. Especially here and now. If we do nothing, then another Rocky will be here inside a month, I guarantee it. If we make these women honourary succubae, then together they can control their own destiny. And you never know, they might look up someone who will help them transition, and become a real commune."
Vhesthine tries to meet Buffy's gaze, "Buffy, I… I'll go and find her."

As Vhesthine slumps down the stairs, Buffy looks at the woman who spoke up, "Hey, do you want to help me with these, as I need to make sure they can't hurt anyone while they're still alive."
The woman ducks down behind the table, "This is just a bad trip, this is just a bad trip. Everything will be normal in the morning."
"Sorry kid, but no it won't. I think that whatever drugs you took earlier are already wearing off."

Buffy is finished dismembering the vampires who didn't stand against the back wall. The ones who did, and stayed there, all two of them, stare at the professional, and methodical way the slip of a girl is removing limbs. The one on the left asks, "Um, can we move yet?"
Buffy looks over, "No, your new boss isn't here yet."
"Um, who are you if you're not the new boss?"
Buffy smiles, "I'm the Slayer, decided to take a vacation from Sunnydale."
Both vampires look at each other, before pressing themselves into the wall.

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It doesn't take long for Vhesthine to return with the succubus in tow, a succubus who looks very grumpy.
"Hey, your girl pulled me out of my hunt at knife point. What gives?"
Buffy stands up and walks over to the succubus, before kissing her and pushing some of her essence into her kiss, "There, hunt's finished."
The succubus stumbles back with a moan, "Damn you, you can't just spring that on a girl. I ain't no fledgling."
Buffy smiles, "Then stop behaving like one, and I'll stop treating you like one."
The succubus looks up at Vhesthine, "Hey, you're a matriarch, ain't you supposed to be protecting me or something?"
Vhesthine looks at Buffy, "We will be having words about cultural norms later. Either way, I'm not your matriarch, as you made that clear earlier."
Buffy shakes her head, "Congratulations, you are now the matriarch of your very own commune. The women behind you are your family. Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee over there are your heavies. Rocky's dead, and your job is to stop there being a power vacuum."
The succubus looks alarmed, "No, you can't do that. I'm not cut out for that shit, and I ain't dealing with the big three."
Buffy looks at her critically, "If not you, then who? We're only here for a week, and then we're gone. None of these girls have the power to stand alone. So who would you trust to take Rocky's position in this part of the city?"
The succubus shakes her head as she backs towards the stairs, and into Vhesthine, "No, no, no no, no. You are not doing this to me. I left because I didn't want to get into this shit."
Buffy stalks forward, "Listen to me fledgling, you think I asked for this? You think I asked to be the Slayer? You think I asked to be Tenno? You think they asked to be here? No, none of us did. But we are here, and all we can do is make the best of it. Now, fledgling, should I take your spade and show the world how young you are forever?"
Vhesthine hisses, but the other succubus launches herself at Buffy, her human disguise falling away, "I will kill you before I allow you to do that."
With a practiced move, Buffy grabs an outstretched hand, places the other hand on her pelvis and turns her over her head to land on her back.
"You couldn't come close to stopping me." Buffy grasps her tail, "So, what will it be. Are you a succubus, or are you a fledgling that runs away from all her problems?"
The succubus tries to prevent Buffy's knife hand from moving towards her tail, but eventually she shouts, "I'll do it, I'll do it. Fine, you win."
Buffy nods and stands up smoothly, "Good. I won't say 'you won't regret it' because you will. We all do, but you'll be able to be proud of yourself. Teach your girls your ways, your traditions, and your laws. You never know, some of them may want to become succubus themselves. There's magic for that, you know. If they do, vampires are great for training. As if you eat too much, a little blood and they're right as rain the next night."
The succubus looks surprised, "Wait, really?"
Buffy nods, "They don't have souls, so they only die when the demonic energy inside them runs out. It's how I learnt how not to kill people."
The succubus looks at the two vampires speculatively, "Well now, that puts a different spin on things."
Buffy nods, and points a thumb over her shoulder, "We'll be here for a week, especially now we have a decent food supply. Those are ours by the way. While we're here, you've got my number if you need any help. Otherwise, you can always call for advice. Anyway, I think my job tomorrow is going to be checking at the hospitals for out of date blood. Need to keep them alive and healthy until Elaena is better. Anyway, we both need to feed before we head off, and I get my impromptu lesson on cultural awareness."

 

[Hexcalibur]

Vampires and succubae can start a symbiotic community.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 14 – part 1


As Dawn walks into Magic Box Anya looks up with a smile, "Hey Dawn…" her face drops as Elaena walks in after her, "…and you brought the baby home wrecker with you."
Dawn stiffens, before losing her temper, "Anya! What have you got against Elaena?"
Anya looks at Dawn scornfully, "Do you have any idea how many women have been scorned because of them, and their predations? I have seen thousands of victims of their philandering ways."
"Do you realise that Succubae are monogamous?"
Anya straight out laughs, "No they're not. They hunt husbands and try to seduce them away from their wives."
"What? Like Vhesthine's done to Xander? Oh, wait, she's never even looked at Xander because you're both friends."
Anya sneers, "I've seen the way she moves around Xander. I'm just lucky that he doesn't have a wandering eye."
"Anya! She always moves like that! Come on Elaena, I can see we're not welcome here."
Elaena shakes her head, "It's ok, we can stay here."
Dawn shakes her head, and opens the door to leave, "I just wish Anya knew what it was like to be a succubus."
Elaena nods as she follows Dawn through the door, "Me too."

As the door swings closed, Anya looks at the table behind the partition shelves, "Halfrek, no, we're friends. Please don't do that to me."
From the table comes Halfrek's voice, "Wish granted."

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Jonathan looks up at the ceiling from Buffy's couch in blissful heaven, "Man am I glad I didn't get involved with that mind control orb thingy."
Buffy looks up from her paperwork, "What mind control orb thingy?"
"Hmm, oh, it was month or so ago, before you went to LA, and before the demon eggs thing. They killed someone, and then tricked me into helping them try and persuade you that you killed them."
Buffy's eyes widen, "Wait, you summoned those demons?"
Jonathan nods, "Yeah, I left as soon as I found out what they were doing."

Buffy thumps the desk, "Jonathan, that's something we should have known when you first started coming round."
Jonathan whines, "But I was going to warn you about your pamphlet, and it would have come up then I'm sure. But then you started talking about sex, and went to LA for a week. And, well…"
Buffy sighs, "You've been coming around to help feed Vhesthine for a few weeks. Thank you for that by the way."
Jonathan waves his hand weakly, "It's fine. I actually had a couple of girls start talking to me at the arcade last week."

Xander opens the front door, and closes it in a panic, "Buffy! Are Willow or Tara around?"
Buffy looks concerned, "No, they're going on a date before Willow's apprenticeship starts. What's wrong?"
Xander wipes his face with his hands, "It's Anya, she's insatiable, but she always seems so unsatisfied afterwards. I can't keep up! On top of that, she's off her food."
Buffy sighs, "How long has this been going on?"
"Since Wednesday. But Buffy, I think it's something serious as she didn't even shout at me when I left for work this morning."
"Xander, why would she shout at you?"
Xander mumbles, "I glued her favourite bullet to the inside of her panties, and charmed them to be unremovable for six hours."
Jonathan shakes his head, "Hey, not cool man. Even I know not to do that."
Xander holds his hands up, "Hey, how we spice up our sex lives is none of your business. Buffy, you need to do something, I can't even go to the Magic Box on my lunch break as she pulled me downstairs and wouldn't let me go until I was already late."
Buffy puts her head in her elbow on the desk and theatrically sobs, "Ok Xander, why don't you both come to dinner tonight? Vhesthine went out to the park with Dawn and Elaena to meet Suzy and her baby, now they've moved into Vhesthine's apartment."
Xander winces, "Um, can we do another night? When Vhesthine's not here?"
Buffy shakes her head, "No Xander, as Vhesthine's one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to magic. Razial is the most knowledgeable, but his help doesn't come cheap. I don't know what Anya has against Vhesthine, but this isn't the sort of thing that should just wait."
Xander sighs, "At least tell me you'll be there." Buffy mumbles something, "Sorry, what was that?"
Buffy looks away, "It's my turn to hunt, so I'm going to be late."
"Buffy! Are you picking up guys? What about Vhesthine?"
"Look, it's not like that. For us, sex doesn't mean anything. Neither does kissing outside being a show of affection. It's all about essence, and we need to ensure that Elaena is well fed, as she needs to forget how to feed until she's ready to learn how to do it properly."

Xander starts, "Wait, what?"
"Xander, she almost killed Clem when he popped around for some company now Spike's dead. If we don't get it under control now, then when she gets closer to adulthood she won't be able to control herself, and she'll feed on anything she can kiss."
"Not that, the whole sex doesn't mean anything."
Buffy shrugs, "What? It's like a good back massage that comes with expectations. Honestly, I'd rather just pay for the massage and forgo the expectations. It also means I don't have to be around too many people."
"Buffy, what does hunting entail?"
"Mmm? Oh, when it's my turn I usually do my patrol and then go and sit in the Bronze drinking orange juice until a guy tries to chat me up. If I get there around 6 it's usually not to busy on a Saturday, and if I'm lucky I won't even have to dance before someone uses a cheesy pickup line. The last couple of weeks I've been done by 8pm. But the first week I was there till midnight. Let me tell you that there's nothing quite so bad as being around that many people with pounding music going on, and all your brain wants to do is pretend that you're about to be slaughtered. I'm just glad that Vhesthine was there to keep me grounded."
Xander frowns, "How comes we didn't see you?"
Buffy shrugs, "Because you weren't looking for Buffy in a super short party dress with lots of sparkles. You were looking for Buffy wearing steel toecaps and an attitude to match."
"So, wait, why isn't Vhesthine going this week then?"
Buffy looks at Xander patiently, "Because it's not fair to put all of that on one person. I hate it, it makes me super uncomfortable, and Suzy will be there for emotional support. But I have to do this on my own." Mumbling she adds, "And I don't want to start therapy, and if I can't do this on my own, then I promised I would." More loudly, Buffy asks, "Jonathan, will you be around for dinner?"
Jonathan looks up from where he'd just dozed off on the couch, "Huh, what? Oh, no. A girl has a 1st​ edition VHS of Star Wars, and I'm going to help her move it to DVD. Then we plan to watch Han Solo shoot first."

Buffy smiles, "Good for you. Oh, look, these bills won't pay themselves."

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Sam looks at the array of photos on the desk as her mind tries to join it together with something she heard recently. Across from her are Agents Howes and Jones from the FBI Homicide division. Leaning against the back wall is Riley, who's looking bored.
Howes shakes his head, "Honestly, we thought this was just some crazy copycat trophy killer. But you're telling us it's a demon?"
Sam nods, "Looks like it, as there's no sign of any tool use in the removal of the head. But there are signs of claws breaking the skin here, here, and here. The head was then torn off and discarded. While a bear could do that, they wouldn't then only eat the intestines. No, if it was a bear, you'd expect to see gnawing on other fatty parts of the body. There's just something about these that makes me think it's been described to me before, or I read it somewhere."
Riley sighs, "Sam, just look at your notes. You know it will be there somewhere." Stepping away from the wall he adds, "What's worrying me more, is that 5 years ago, these became more common on the east side of the Rocky's, and were slowly moving west. Except, now they've stepped up in frequency, and seem to be making their way to the southwest of the USA."

The other three all look at the map on the wall and swear.

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Buffy pensively looks at the door to the Bronze, and the rope queue guide that the bouncers are already starting to set up. Checking her phone she grimaces as she realises that Suzy went in almost an hour ago now.
Setting her shoulders, she starts to walk towards the door, only for someone to brush past her on the way in. Someone who will never know how close they were to having their neck broken, as Buffy manages to stop herself inches away from their neck.
Shivering, she turns back to the other side of the street, trying to control her breathing. This repeats itself over the evening, until, just before closing, a vampire attacks her from inside the alleyway she's been hiding in.

When Suzy comes out with a plastic cup holding the last of her mocktail, she finds Buffy desperately kissing the vampire, who's neck is obviously broken, while trying to elicit a reaction.
Suzy stands there for a long moment as her brain slowly processes just what it's seeing, as the person beneath her isn't making any moves to get away.
Once she's digested what she's seeing she calls out, "Buffy?"
Buffy lifts her head for a moment, "Just a little bit longer, I think I'm almost there."
The vampire takes the opportunity to say, with a hint of hysteria in his voice, "Help me! She's insane."
Suzy chuckles, "Buffy, his neck's broken. I don't think he can feel what you're doing."
When Buffy sits back, a contemplative look on her face, the Vampire's eyes look to Suzy, "Hey, aren't you acting a bit blasé for this?"
Suzy shrugs, "I was a whore in LA for years, and Buffy saved me and my baby from being lunch when I tried to get out. Now the area is being run by a succubus with vampire's working as her heavies to ensure the girls aren't mistreated by the Johns. My weird shit'O'meter has been maxed out for a while now. At least I'm still clean though. What about you, I thought you'd be more distraught."
The vampire's lips quirk, "Well sorry about not being able to feel anything below my neck. I'd laugh, but I can't breath hard enough for that."

There's a loud crack as Buffy sets the vampires neck back into position. Then she sits back on her heels and watches the vampire, who says, "Look lady, I appreciate you doing that, I really do. But could you drag me behind that dumpster over there, that way I won't die before my neck heals."
Suzy laughs and grabs the vampires legs before beginning to pull, "Buffy, face it, you need to just give him a pamphlet and call it a night. Nobody's going to think any less of you because of this."
Buffy whines as she pulls a pamphlet out of her purse, "But I can do this. I don't need therapy."
The vampire rolls his eyes to look at Buffy, "Hell yes you do. You've just spent an hour trying to jerk me off with a broken neck. Jeeze, if disabled people get you off, just head to the paraplegics ward at the hospital. They may even pay you for it."
Both Buffy and Suzy look at him, "Shut up."

 

[Marsyas]

Despite the formatting being a little odd and the present tense throwing it off a little, this story is actually pretty entertaining. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The character growth is generally believable and reasonably well paced, and a lot of (but not all of) the problems are problems that were already there in the source material. The OCs are mostly well realized, and my favorite among them is probably Vhesthine, with my second favorite being the stranger from the Origin System who technically has all of Buffy's memories but stopped being Buffy a very long time ago.

I kind of want to criticize your treatment of Xander and Riley, but at the same time I kind of hate Riley and I am neutral towards Xander at best, so it's hard to muster the will to actually do so.

I award this story a final score of:
Succubus Dawn and a pile of Spike-dust / out of 10

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

I award this story a final score of:
Succubus Dawn and a pile of Spike-dust / out of 10

Click to shrink...

So you want Dawn to be a succubus again?

 

[MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot]

The Brit-speech in this is really offputting since Buffy is an American show. Mum, jumper, answer-phone, etc. all make me think this is more Harry Potter than Buffy.

The paragraphs need MASSIVE overhauling. Two or three people speaking in the same paragraph with no breaks, half-page length paragraphs, and so on just make reading more difficult than it should be.

The whole story assumes that readers have all of the events of Buffy Season 6 at the forefront of their minds, which I guess is fine in a fanfiction but since that's both a late and one of the worst seasons of a 20+ year old show it's a bit much to expect. I've watched Buffy end-to-end six or seven times, including when it first aired, and even I'm having a hard time following some of what's going on.

The overall feel of this is "nerfed to hell" across the board. Buffy is, if anything, LESS competent than she is in canon, and doesn't come across as a capable Tenno either. She gets her ass kicked whenever plot says she should, yet she's super!Buffy other times. It's inconsistent, trending toward lame.

Finally, it seems like none of the changes matter. Despite Buffy being massively different, having a completely new power set on top of her old one, the episodes all proceed ahead as per show canon rails including a lot of dialog lifted directly from the show. That's the part that I find almost unforgivable. What's the point making a huge change... and then having it not affect events at all? Yeah, some of them play out differently than in the show, but all of the show events do happen, and in the same order.

All that said, it's... weirdly interesting. I like that Buffy isn't the forgiving doormat she was in most of canon, and willingly sends both Xander and Willow to hell for the shitty things they did. I like that she takes Giles to task for being basically useless. But given all of the above, it feels more like the author complaining about certain plot or character elements than Buffy, since none of the changed events have any sequelae, and any changed events within a given episode change very little outside of that episode. Character development and change is extremely minimal, with Tara probably having the most of the whole cast.

As of this writing I'm in the middle of Ep 8, and not sure if I'll continue much further. Too much of this story is Buffy musing/talking about Warframe canon rather than having that canon make any real and lasting difference to the plot, and that takes away about 80% of my interest in the story. There's still some, but it's fading fast.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

As of this writing I'm in the middle of Ep 8, and not sure if I'll continue much further. Too much of this story is Buffy musing/talking about Warframe canon rather than having that canon make any real and lasting difference to the plot, and that takes away about 80% of my interest in the story. There's still some, but it's fading fast.

Click to shrink...

If it helps, e8 is where the split from canon becomes more obvious, as the butterfly effects are overcoming the external forcers that were occurring in the first few episodes of the season.

As for the British language stuff. I do my best, but I am British so it still comes through.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Chapter Thirty-Three: Episode 14 – part 2


Vhesthine looks up from the cooking as she hears the front door open. A moment later she stiffens as the scent of an unknow succubus wafts through the house, "Dawn, can you take over stirring the meat, I just need to see who's arrived."
Three paces through the kitchen door, she freezes as she recognises Xander standing next to a succubus that looks a lot like Anya. With an aggressive hiss in her voice she asks, "Xander, to what do we owe your pleasure? And who's your guest?"
Xander scuffs the floor with one foot, "We, um, that is Anya, needs your help."
Vhesthine follows Xander's hand to the succubus standing next to him, "You're Anya!?"
Anya nods and grabs Xanders arm, "Come on, I told you she wouldn't help."
Vhesthine narrows her eyes, "Help with what?"
Xander puts his arm around Anya's shoulders to prevent her from leaving, "Anya was turned into a succubus by Halfrek, and she won't stop jumping me. Buffy said you were our best hope for…"
Vhesthine sighs and turns back to the kitchen, "Come on through to the kitchen, and when was the last time you fed?"
Anya huffs, "I choked down a cheeseburger for lunch."
Slowly, Vhesthine turns back around, "That's human food, and not what I asked. I asked when you last fed."
Xander shrugs uncomfortably, "We had sex before we left to come here?"
Anya angrily adds, "Isn't that how you feed? Seducing men and having your way with them?"
Vhesthine stalks towards Anya, "Listen to me you little whelp, we do not seduce men away from their wives. They do that all by themselves. We feed on essence, not sex. That we includes you now. So, unless you want to slowly starve, I suggest you shelve your unwarranted dislike of myself and my family. Otherwise, you can just leave and take your chances out there. Then, when you go feral, Buffy will have to kill you."
Anya shakes her head, "I won't go feral."
Vhesthine growls, "Yes you will. You'll get so hungry that you can't stop yourself from pulling essence from people and demons. And you don't have a chip that stops you from feeding from humans like Elaena does. That means a simple kiss will be enough for you to rip all of the essence from a human, or Xander, leaving them to die. Then, drunk on the feeling of taking in essence you'll sleep for a week before waking up ravenous and looking for someone else you can take it from."
The click of Anya's heel hitting the front door makes Vhesthine realise she's been poking her in the chest with a finger, and her human disguise has dropped.
Stepping back Vhesthine shakes her head, "If you think it's easy being a succubus, you are about to find out how wrong you are. The only thing that might save your relationship is Xander isn't human. Simply speaking, it means he might be able to learn to share essence with you, not just have it taken or given. But I've already killed Buffy multiple times without meaning too. If he's a stronger type of demon than you, he may be strong enough to stop you from feeding from him. Oh, and welcome to almost the lowest rung of demon kind. Where almost everything else is stronger than you."

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Elaena grabs Dawn's arm, "Why is the Matriarch so angry?"
Dawn shakes her head as she stirs the meat with the other hand, "I don't think she is, I think it's frustration. What does your nose say?"
Elaena shakes her head, "I don't know, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Remember what Buffy says? Don't be sorry, learn to do better. I think it's frustration, because I remember Vhesthine telling me point blank about the dangers of being a succubus. That was before Rack kidnapped me."
"Maybe we should go and help."
Dawn raps the spoon on the side of the pan as she thinks for a moment, "El, do you think you could feed Anya?"
Elaena shakes her head and softly says, "I don't want to, I only want to do that with you."
Dawn nods, "I don't really want you to do it with her either, as it feels like something we should keep to ourselves. I just thought it might be a way to show just how far you've come since you became my sister."
Vhestine coughs loudly from the doorway, "When were you going to inform us, your guardians, about this?"
Dawn and Elaena both freeze and turn a deep crimson in embarrassment.
Vhesthine sighs, "Elaena, I'm proud of you. But Buffy and I will be talking to the two of you about your experimentation. In the mean time, will you go and get your file. Dawn please set the table, we have guests."
Anya and Xander both share a glance with each other, and Xander raises a hand, "Sorry to be the only non-succubus in the house, but what's going on?"
Vhesthine walks over to the stove, "Xander, Anya, take a seat. Dawn, I think this would sound better coming from you."
Dawn swallows hard, "Wouldn't it be better coming from you or Buffy?"
Vhesthine looks over her shoulder, "At this point, I think they need to hear from someone who hasn't changed."
"But Tara lives here, she could do it."
"She could, but she's never been a succubus, and she's out on a date with Willow."
Uncomfortably, Dawn puts out three small bowls, one each for Vhestine, Elaena, and Anya, along with three plates. As she grabs the silverware she flushes red again, "Um, you know how humans are able to tell good and bad food by the way it tastes, and have preferences based on the five basic tatstes?"
Xander shakes his head with disgust, "That's not quite true of me anymore. Sugar and carbs barely taste of anything anymore, not even twinkies."
Dawn nods vehemently, "Oh yes, I wasted a chocolate dipped triple chocolate donut with sprinkles on it. Oh, that was just before you two came in and smelt like raspberry ripple sunday." Dawn flushes again, "Yeah, erm, emotions smell and taste like food really. Some, like fear, can add a little spice if there's something positive to go with it, but loathing and depression, they don't go well with anything."
Vhesthine sighs, "Dawn, I think you're avoiding the subject."
Dawn quickly ducks her head down as she mumbles, "The only thing that feels better than feeding from someone is being fed voluntarily, and it's even better when you're sharing with each other. Um, part of that is because you're not putting in the work to pull essence out of someone else."
Vhesthine smiles, "You did well there Dawn, could you get some napkins from upstairs please?"
Dawn flees the kitchen as Elaena asks, "Aren't the napkins in the drawer over there?"
Vhesthine smiles as she turns off the cooker, "They are, but I was giving Dawn a chance to recover her composure. Now take your seat as I'm about to serve up."
At the table, Anya and Xander both look at each other uncomfortably as Vhesthine puts a few serving bowls of food on the table. By the time she's finished, Dawn has made it back to the table with a handfull of unironed napkins, "Here you go."
Vhesthine smiles, "Thank you Dawn. Elaena, dinner time."
Elaena looks up with a smile as Vhesthine leans down to kiss her full on the mouth. As the kiss drags on, and Elaena mewls in pleasure, it's only Dawn staring at Anya that stops her from saying anything about the scene.
As she sits back at the table, Vhesthine dabs her lips with the napkin, "Sorry about that, I needed to feed Elaena, help yourselves to food. Which is the same thing someone will need to do for you until you work out what's happening and start to draw on essence yourself. Once you've done that, then you'll be ready to learn to hunt. If we were in our home hell as your Matriarch, I'd capture a human the first few times, and prepare them for you so that you can learn to smell when their essence is breaking free. This is also when you'd learn how to feed your own essence to someone else, as that's one of the core skills needed to tip a mortal over the edge and lose control of their essence."
Anya wrinkles her nose in disgust, "Does that mean I have to have… sex… with them?"
Vhesthine sighs, "Anya, we feed on essence not sex. In fact, the sharing of essence is what constitutes sex for you now. If you get really into it you can even get pregnant. Which is why Buffy and I will be having a talk with the two young ladies here. What matters is that your victim is having some sort of euphoric high so that their essence is easy to draw on. Next time you watch a football match, keep an eye on the cheerleaders. At least one of them is likely to be a succubus. They'll be the one giving the football player a full mouth kiss when they score a touchdown, and are celebrating. Catching a mortal as they've just got a promotion, beaten an arcade game, or they've completed a hard workout are other ways to discretely feed too. It's just that sex is the easiest and most consistent method of feeding."
Xander looks up from his food with panic stricken eyes, "You know, this is really good, what did you put in it?"
Vhesthine smiles indulgently at Xander as she lifts her own small bowl to smell it, "Fragrant herbs and spices. It takes a lot of effort to make something that we can stomach and isn't overpowering to humans, but learning to do so makes it much easier to blend in. Anya, if I didn't think you'd kill her out of hand, or draw the wrong sort of attention, I'd send you to Charlyss as soon as you know how to feed, as she already has a stable of vampires you could safely learn to feed on. As it stands, I don't think I could trust you not to kill her and all the girls she protects."
Xander puts his fingers in his ears, "La La La, I'm not listening."
Vhesthine pinches her nose, "Remind me, he is supposed to be closer to 20 than 10 years old isn't he?"
Anya squirms in her seat even as she slaps Xander on the arm, "Xander, behave."
Cheeks flaming, Dawn mumbles, "Maybe you should wait until Buffy comes home with Suzy, as I bet you're going to have to feed anyway."
Vhesthine nods, "That a good idea Dawn, and I'm sure that Anya already has enough to think about as it is."

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A few days later, Buffy stand outside the local VA hospital. In one hand she has her new Army ID and in the other Vhesthine is providing a comforting hand.
"Hey, it will be ok. You let off your excess void energy already and you're going to be amongst people who are suffering the same way you are."
Buffy starts to shake, "But what if I can't."
Vhesthine strokes Buffy's arm with her spare hand, "Then you come back next week. If that still doesn't work, you'll have some one on one sessions with a psychologist."
"Will you be here with me?"
Vhesthine nods, "I'll be with you until the meeting starts, then I'll be just outside. Remember, this isn't supposed to be a therapy group, it's a support group."
Nodding to herself, Buffy sets her jaw and walks into the hospital. It takes the two of them nearly 20 minutes to find the right room, but when they do they find it's already got a few people sitting inside with their backs facing a wall.
As soon as Buffy's eyes have finished noting the people in the room, they flick around the walls and ceiling noting the crash and yoga mats, the stacked chairs in one corner, and all the egress points and possible hiding places, beyond the door they've just come in through and the fire exit.
At the far end of the room a man that's missing a foot says, "You're a bit young to be here ain't cha?"
Buffy looks the man in the eyes as she says, "It's not the age, it's the mileage."
The man snorts, "Ya got that right. Call me Dozer."
Vhesthine lets go of Buffy's arm as Buffy walks over to grab a yoga mat. While she's doing that, Vhesthine asks, "Name or Callsign?"
Dozer looks Vhesthine up and down, "I guess you're the newbie then. We tend to use callsigns here, it helps with talking about shit."
Vhesthine shakes her head and points to Buffy, "Not me, I'm just the girlfriend. BunnyGirl is the vet, I'm just here to make sure she doesn't kill anyone."
Dozer nods and looks at Buffy, "Where you with the local lot a few years ago?"
Buffy unrolls her mat and nods, "I was, though I didn't stop when they were disbanded."
Dozer winces and another man walks in to the room and looks around, "Hey Dozer, is Mercury coming?"
Dozer shakes his head, "Not this week, he's got an appointment for his hand." He looks over at Vhesthine, "Sorry Miss, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave as I'm about to start the session."
Buffy tenses up as Vhesthine nods, "Ok, I'll be right outside if you need me BunnyGirl."
As the new arrival looks at Buffy he sneers, "Are we really baby sitting now? Jeez Dozer, you'd have thought they'd have sent kids that young to kindergarten."
"Maverick!" Dozer barks, "This is your only reminder that this is a mutual support group, if you can't get that through the shit you call a brain you'll be banned from this support group."
"But Dozer…"
"But nothing, Maverick, BunnyGirl signed up voluntarily, which is more than I can say of you. Or do you really want to go to the Oregon retreat?"
Maverick slumps, "Really, you're going to pull that card?"
Dozer nods, "Damn straight I am, I'd rather have her here now than later when it's court mandated. Now grab a seat or get out." Dozer looks at Buffy, "Sorry about that BunnyGirl."
Buffy nods, "It's fine, I'm only here because I promised Vhe…"
Dozer holds up his hand, "Let me stop you there. No real names in this room. I've got your details in my office same as I've got the details of the others. Though there's more black on your records than I'm used to." Maverick stiffens in surprise as he's picking up a chair, "However, everyone in this room has the clearance to hear 'fictionalised' accounts of what you've been through. By which I mean made up names, places, and absolutely no dates what so ever. Now I know you saw one of the regular psych's yesterday, but later in the session we'll be doing a brief introduction along with why we're all here. First though we usually have a recap of how we've been doing since last week."
Buffy tenses again as Maverick carries his chair past her before sitting with a clear view of everyone else, "Um, sure, I've never done this before."
Dozer nods, "I'm not surprised. Anyway, I'll start next will be Nobody, then Minute - pronounced both ways, and finally Maverick." He indicates the two men that are between him and Buffy, before pointing at Maverick.
After each man either nods or waves when uses their call sign, Dozer continues, "I had a good week this week, I only had one flashback and that was at the beach with my kid. I also managed two nights sleep without drinking."
Nobody nods as his voice comes out in a rasping tone, as though he doesn't get much practice speaking, "I was able to sit on a park bench for an hour on Saturday. I even said hi to the old lady that sat down on the other end of the bench."
Dozer smiles, "Well done, that's great progress. Minute?"
Minute sits there for a long time before softly saying, "I went to a 7/11 with one of the nurses and bought some snacks without hurting any civilians."
Dozer nods, "How did you feel after that?"
Minute looks down, "Relieved."
"That's good. Maverick?"
Maverick crosses his arms, "You already know how my week went."
Dozer shakes his head, "No I don't, and you already know that. I know some of what happened."
Maverick throws his hands in the air, "Fine, I broke the arm of one of the security guys after he went for his gun and then I was sedated, Happy?"
Dozer looks at Maverick levelly, "Maverick, this is about what you achieved last week, not about how you failed."
Maverick slumps down, "Fine, I only broke the guys arm, I was pulling back when they sedated me."
Dozer nods, "Better, but I'd rather you focused more on the things you did well rather than where you felt like you failed."
At the brief pause, Buffy speaks up, "Does buying a burger at peak time without any of my friends around count?"
As Maverick starts to splutter, Dozer nods, "For you, yes it would. But as you didn't have any goals to work on it doesn't count this week. As we have a new member, we're going to have an introduction round. When it's your turn I want you to start with your callsign, then give a 30 second description of the operation you're most proud of, followed by the operation you're least proud of. If you feel up to it after that, you can give a brief description of why you're here. Again, I'll start."
"I'm Dozer, and my proudest moment is when I assassinated a warlord and found 20 living children in their basement. My least proud moment is where I rigged a bomb in a gang vehicle, only to find out they were using a school as their base. I'm here because I'm the group leader, and I've been in your shoes."
Nobody sighs, "I'm Nobody and my proudest moment was preventing a foreign agent from reaching a defector. My least proud moment was the same mission as I accidentally killed the defector when they tried to hug me once we reached the USA. I'm here because I'm afraid that I'll do that again."
Buffy winces as Minute speaks up, "I'm Minute, and my proudest moment was bringing a terrorist cell that targeted girls schools to justice. My least proud moment is when I failed to spot a suicide bomber before they got into a mall. I'm here because I have PTSD and I'm not safe to be amongst civilians."
Buffy looks at the floor, after a moment she decides not to change the names of Orokin system stuff as if they recognise it, it means she's not alone. Looking back up at the group she says, "I'm BunnyGirl, and I guess my proudest moment is the first time I successfully acted as both bait and containment on an infested Corpus ship. My… faction was able to save 15 people who weren't infected. I guess my least proud moment is when I infiltrated a Grineer science installation and destroyed research that could have saved billions of lives, and assassinated the lead scientist." She grimaces, "I'm here because I can't handle being around more than a few strangers at a time. I've been told I probably have PTSD."
Maverick shouts, "Bullshit, there's no way you could have done that without us knowing about it."
In a firm voice Dozer says, "Maverick, I have one word for you. Initiative."
Maverick slumps back in his chair, "Really? You had to go there?"
"It's your turn Maverick."
In a small voice, Maverick says, "I'm Maverick, and my proudest moment is when I joined the army, it's all downhill from there. My least proud moment was slaughtering a group of kids while pumped up on whatever shit the eggheads gave me. I'd rather not go into why I'm here, but I will say that it's to do with that shit."
Dozer nods, "Ok everyone, grab a crashmat as it's time to burn off some energy before we do some control training with the pads. BunnyGirl, everyone in this group has been so highly trained that the wrong sort of contact can have lethal results. So the middle half an hour of the session is all about learning how to bring your trained reactions under control. In the last half an hour we'll be talking about techniques we can use to prevent us from falling into a flashback and ways of dealing with our anxiety."
Buffy nods as she walks over to grab a crashmat. Just after she's grabbed one, someone touches her elbow from behind, and the next thing she knows there's a series of loud cracks and she's broken Maverick's wrist and four of his ribs with the follow up kick.
Quickly letting go of the wrist, she scoots to one side and activates squad healing, "Um, sorry, I can fix that."
As she says that, Dozer finishes crossing the room to the fire exit, and lifts a flap to press an button. Seconds later the half a dozen orderlies push their way into the room with padded shields and medical gear.

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Roselyn gingerly props herself up on an elbow as Tazin lies back on his pillow with a satisfied grin on his face. As she does, she thinks back to the brief conversation she had with Dawn at Buffy's birthday party.
Swallowing hard, she licks her lips before saying, "Tazin."
Tazin smiles at Roselyn, "Yes dear?"
"Um, do you remember I got home very early the other week?"
Tazin nods, "I do, I'm glad you know me so well."
"Well, just before I left work, I asked Razial if I could learn magic."
Tazin chuckles, "I bet the answer was no."
Roselyn nods, "Right. But he also offered to turn me into a succubus if I signed a contract to continue doing what I do now, for the next 50 years."
Tazin tries to look angry, "Are you saying you're breaking up with me?"
Roselyn shakes her head vehemently and pushes herself painfully to lay on his chest, "No, not at all. I love you. I asked if he could change you too, and he said he could for an additional 25 years." Putting a finger to Tazin's lips she continues, "Tazin, I asked because I love you. We both know that one of them is going to catch your scent at some point, and no matter how much we run, eventually we're going to run out of luck. I, just think that an uncertain life together is better than an uncertain death together. You've also seen Buffy and Vhesthine together, do they really look like the sort of thing everyone says they are?"
Tazin shakes his head, "Buffy's the Slayer."
Roselyn shakes her head, "I've managed to talk to Dawn a few times since then, and she says that succubi are monogamous, but only with other succubi." She swallows hard, "It would be a big change, but I'd do it for you. I… Just think about it, please."
Tazin lets his head sink into the pillow with a sigh, "Why did you take so long to tell me?"
Roselyn looks uncomfortable as she says, "Honestly, because the idea scares me. I mean, I love you, and adapting to your needs was hard. But I'm still human, but…"
Tazin pulls Roselyn in closer and kisses her on the forehead, "I have to admit that I never believed I'd ever live this long, or be able to experience love."
Roselyn nods, "I bet humanity surprised you too."
Tazin shakes his head, "Not at all, as all I knew was that humanity wasn't my own people."

 

[Hexcalibur]

Isn't Maverick supposed to be a veteran and experienced PTSD himself? Touching a vet with PTSD from behind is a big NO! You always make sure that they know your position and that you mean them no harm when you approach them.

 

[Marsyas]

Isn't Maverick supposed to be a veteran and experienced PTSD himself? Touching a vet with PTSD from behind is a big NO! You always make sure that they know your position and that you mean them no harm when you approach them.

Click to shrink...

The only justification I can think of here is that maybe he didn't believe she belonged there and figured that as a fairly small young woman she did not constitute a threat.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

The only justification I can think of here is that maybe he didn't believe she belonged there and figured that as a fairly small young woman she did not constitute a threat.

Click to shrink...

He was also part of the initiative, and partook of the Forbidden elixir, so he has anger issues on top of PTSD.

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Chapter One Episode 14 - part 3

​

"Halfrek, please turn me back."
Halfrek snorts at the pleading Anya, "Anya, you know the rules. Probably better than I do, given all the paperwork you had to fill out."
"Oh, come on, please. Do you have any idea how mortifying it is that I can only get off when Buffy or Vhesthine are feeding me?"
Halfrek's eyes sparkle with suppressed mirth, "Then maybe you should be a better student. I know I'm learning a lot about succubi from this."
Anya stamps her foot and freezes as the bell to the shop tinkles and a group of young men walk in. A moment later Anya twitches as a decadent smell starts to reach her nose, making her start to feel warm. As she looks up, she watches as the men are looking at some of the fertility statutes, and occasionally one or other of them glance over in her direction.
A few minutes later, Anya finds herself unbuttoning the top button of her blouse in an attempt to help with how hot she's feeling. It is with some alarm that Anya realises that by doing that, the absolutely delectable smell in the store has just increased in intensity, as though she's just opened the oven with a fresh baked loaf of bread, or a perfectly done chicken, in it.
Glancing at the clock, she tries to casually pick up the phone and dial Buffy's house, but succeeds in only fumbling the handset once as she dials.
When Vhesthine answers the phone, Anya almost puts the phone down there and then, only for a rush of heat to pool down below. Cupping her hand over the mouth piece, Anya softly pants, "Vhesthine… I need help. There are some men in the store and…"
Anya can hear the change in the silence on the other end shift from hostile to understanding. After a long couple of seconds Vhesthine says, "I'll be there I a few minutes. Don't go anywhere alone with any of them until I arrive."
Anya licks her lips as one of the men struts over to the counter, "Um, I'll try."
As she hangs up, the guy looks her up and down as he undresses her with his eyes. Putting one of the green jade fertility statutes on the counter he says, "Afternoon. You wouldn't happen to have one of these in blue or purple jade would you?"
Anya glances at the door to the basement before pulling her eyes down to the stock book, "Um, let me check if," as her stomach rumbles she turns to one side and leans down to pull the book out, "if we, that is they specifically came in different colours."
Across the counter the man leans on the counter to the sound of wolf whistles from his friends.
As she's standing up, the sparkle of her engagement ring catches Anya's eye and she swallows hard as her hunger wars with her preconceptions and rising hunger. Settling on a middle ground, Anya ends up making sure that her engagement ring is prominently displayed on the book as she makes a show of looking through the book for the shipment of statues.
While she's sliding her ring finger down the itemised list of deliveries, the man on the counter smiles at her, "Hey, do you fancy getting a drink after this?"
Anya shakes her head reluctantly, "No, sorry, my boyfriend is picking me up when I close up here."
The man gently runs a single finger across the back of Anya's hand, "Come on, you could close up early and we could have a little fun with plenty of time for you to get back."
Anya shakes her head and, with a herculean effort, ignores her desire to say yes or take him downstairs, "No, thank you."
As she's starting to run out of book to look through, as well as willpower, the bell to the door rings and Anya glances up to see the short Chinese woman that is Vhesthine walk in. As Vhesthine sniffs and shakes her head, Anya mutters "Thank the goddess." More loudly she calls out, "Vhesthine, sorry about this, would you mind looking after the counter while I check the store room."
Vhesthine pauses mid-step for a moment, before she nods and confidently walks over to the counter. Once she's on the same side as Anya, she pulls the younger girl into a hug and mutters, "Of course I can, take your time and I'll see what I can do to clear the air."

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As Anya runs for the door, Vhesthine smiles at the young man at the counter, "I'm sorry for the delay sir, we weren't expecting a rush today. While Anya is checking the stock is there anything else I can help you with?"
The man just looks her up and down, "Do you have any information on fertility rituals?"
Vhesthine glances at the door briefly before looking back at the man, "Hmm, you could try The Rites of Eleusis by Aleister Crowley, specifically the Venus rite."
Grabbing a pad of paper she spells out a name in block capitals, both in full and phonetically, "In act 3, if you replace the name Hathor with this name you will get everything you could possibly have asked for."
The man glances at the name for a moment, "Do you know which book I can find the rite in?"
Vhesthine smiles, "The Rites of Eleusis by Aleister Crowley, it should be on the shelves."
One of the man's friends quickly finds the book and brings it over to the counter while flicking through it. With a glance up and down Vhesthine's body, the new man pauses at the rite, "What do we do if we don't have a Venus?"
Vhesthine waves her hand, "Oh, don't worry about that. Just leave the throne empty and your Venus will arrive. That will be $123.99."
The man gasps and looks at the back of the book, "Hey! The ticket says it's only $50, what gives?"
Vhesthine gives one of her business smiles, "The rest is for the name. Unless of course you just want to recite a play for the masses." A movement almost faster than the eye can see, has the piece of paper back in her hands.
The group of men all chat together for a moment before pulling out money together. With a smile, Vhesthine rings up the total and writes out a different name on another note, "Here you go gentlemen. Remember, if you treat your Venus right, she'll treat you right…"
With plenty of back slapping, the men all leave the shop with the book and the note.
From the reading table, Halfrek smirks, "That was positively evil."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "Not at all. Evil would have been ensnaring them all and taking them down into the basement to be devoured by myself and Anya. This is giving them enough rope to hang themselves with. Now, before I go and speak with Anya, I'm going to give you a single warning. With the state that Anya's in, I'm going to have to involve Buffy in her role as the Slayer."
As Vhesthine is opening the door, Halfrek says, "I only granted a wish."
Vhesthine arches an eyebrow, "And what was the wish?"
Halfrek shrugs, "'I just wish Anya knew what it was like to be a succubus.' I didn't even have to screw with it, as it wrote itself."
Vhesthine sighs, "Just, keep an eye on the store while I look after Anya."
As Vhesthine slips through the door, Halfrek sighs and slumps around to the staff side of the counter.
As she reaches the bottom of the stairs, the sound of crying reaches Vhesthine's ears. With a sigh she allows her human form to fade away. Eventually she finds Anya sitting on a crate with a box of tissues next to her.
For several seconds Vhesthine watches the young succubus and how much she's struggling with what just happened. For a moment she pictures Dawn or Elaena facing the same group of men in a few short years time.
"Have you come to gloat?" Anya's upset voice jolts Vhesthine out of her thoughts.
Vhesthine shakes her head as she sits on the crate on the other side of the tissue box and wraps a wing around Anya, "Not at all. I was just picturing Dawn and Elaena in your position. It's not your fault you know. What happened upstairs that is. I could smell the trail of lust when I was walking to the shop. I think they came from the arcade."
Anya shakes her head, "I'm turning into a sex starved nymphomaniac."
Vhesthine sighs, "Anya, you seem to be doing your best to push me away from you while I'm trying to help. I know there's a lot of self loathing in there, but you're not a nymphomanic, or sex starved. What you are is a young succubus who doesn't even know the basics of how to feed, let alone hunt or survive. You're also not even a person that I would have ever pegged as a prospective, as you're innocent in all the wrong ways."
Anya asks with some heat in her voice, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I know you've picked Dawn up from school before, so some homework for you. What do you think of the girls that wear short skirts and tube tops? Also what do you think of prostitutes? Once you've answered that, you'll need to start thinking about why you think like that. Give it to me on two sides of letter paper. After that I'll have Suzy talk to you. Thinking about it, maybe you should give Suzy a job here as she'd have been able to deal with those men before you used most of the essence I fed you earlier."
Anya looks at Vhesthine speechlessly, so Vhesthine pulls her into a close contact hug, "Anya, they are our prey and your body already knows that. The fact I could still smell the trail of lust outside tells me that they were already looking for someone young and pretty. If you were an experienced succubus then the five of them would have been no trouble to handle, but you can't even feel your own essence yet, let alone control it. If you'd been alone in the shop, or you'd gone downstairs alone, it's likely that one of them would have followed you. You'd have fed and killed them, and then the other four would have killed you. Quite possibly after raping you, and yes we can be raped, as rape isn't about sex, it's about power. In that respect you did exactly the right thing in not giving in to your instincts."
Anya shakes her head in disbelief, "What? You're praising me for not being a slut?"
Vhesthine sighs, "I wish you wouldn't use that word for us, as we're certainly not sluts. Is a lion a slut for going after antelope? No, neither are we for going after men and the occasional woman. If you were a prospective, then I'd be grooming you in how to present yourself, some of the minor spells that succubus use, and also tainting you with the magic of our realm in the hells. Once you were far enough along, I'd start feeding you essence the way I'm feeding Dawn and you'd eventually get to the point where you can feed yourself. As part of that you'd start to get younger, though that only really applies to the older humans, as we naturally live for almost 1,000 years. Eventually, the taint from my hell would be great enough that you'd change into a succubus or die. By that point you would already know the awkward basics."
Anya weakly leans into Vhesthine's side, "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you need to know if you're going to understand what it's like to be a succubus. That's what the wording of the wish was, and you're never going to understand with the way we were going about things. That, and Buffy has been a bad influence on me."
"Bad influence how?"
Bluntly Vhesthine says, "You're still alive, same as Elaena is still alive despite being beyond what even a full tribe would have been able to easily save. We are nearly the weakest of all the sentient demons that exist. Some of the animalistic demons like the Shark demon that was after Spike, are weaker over all, but physically they're still stronger than we are. The only advantage we have is in our magic, and that's something most succubi on our home plane never have the chance to learn. If I hadn't found my life partner in Buffy, then I'd have killed both of you out of hand because you're a liability. Either because you'd draw in hunters, or worse, because you'd attract incubus."
Anya shakes her head, "Aren't incubus just male succubus?"
Vhesthine shakes her head and spits, "Incubus," before carrying on, "are a parasitic species of demon. They feed more or less the same way we do, however where we live in families and communes, they capture a single succubus and forcibly starve and drain them until they are weak enough that they can't resist being impregnated. Suffice to say that the child ends up killing the succubus. The important part is how they find a succubus, and that is by constantly letting out low levels of lust like a pheromone to us. An untrained, or weak, succubus will automatically respond to that by releasing some of our essence. We do this to make it easier to entice prey and make it easier to feed. That's what you were doing upstairs. I've had to start both Dawn and Elaena on the exercises they need in order to learn how to control their own reflexive use of essence, as we know of at least one incubus that knows we exist. You may have heard of Rack."
Anya frowns, "Isn't that the black magic dealer that Willow went to?"
Vhesthine nods, "Though it's more like she was taken to him, rather than going willingly knowing what he was." Carefully picking up a tissue, she wipes Anya's eyes, "Are you feeling better now?"
Anya gives a series of small nods, "I think so."
Vhesthine gives Anya a kiss on her forehead, "Then, if you'll accept me, I'll be your matriarch while you're a succubus. A matriarch is the head of a group of families, and a group of those is called a commune. If you accept me as your matriarch then I'll be responsible for teaching you the ins and outs of our commune and the skills you need to survive."
Anya shakes her head, "I can't do this. All I wanted to do was pull that guy down here and… I don't even know what I wanted to do to him."
"That's what I'd be here for, to teach you and explain what you're feeling. Pretty much what I've been doing already, but less grudgingly and more proactively. Essentially, you'd become part of my extended family if you accept."
Anya barks a laugh, "God, what a choice. Eventually go insane and become everything I hated, before being killed. Or embrace it, and what? I don't know if I ever told you, but I was once the vengeance demon of scorned women. Now look at me."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "Even more reason to learn how to be a succubus. We're living in the mortal world, not in my home plane. Here we can afford to be choosy about who we hunt, and once you've learnt to control your own essence, and not let it spread out unconsciously, you'll be able to pick your prey and avoid people that are in relationships. Which reminds me, before we go upstairs I can give you a little essence now, but not enough for a full feeding, or even to replace what you lost."
Anya hangs her head as her body flushes with heat at the idea of being fed. "Goddess, this is worse than becoming human was."
Vhesthine pulls Anya in tighter, "Anya, were you ever human before?"
Anya nods, "I was human before I cursed my oaf of a husband."
"Then that's why. You're no longer at all human. You're close enough for humans to adapt fairly easily. But our needs and instincts aren't human needs and instincts."
Anya blows her nose one last time, "I'm going to have to accept you as my matriarch aren't I."
Vhesthine shrugs, "You don't have to, but it would make our lives much easier."
Anya sags, "I accept then."
Vhesthine smiles and tips Anya's head up so that she can feed her some essence. Once she's finished, she smiles, "Then the first thing you should do is phone Xander and tell him you're going to be late home. If you're starting to unconsciously let out your essence around humans, then he's going to be in danger with how hungry you are."
Anya looks askance at Vhesthine, "What?"
"Anya, I can feel how hungry you are. If you kissed him then there's a chance you could just drain him of essence right there. If he's strong enough to resist you, then there's a risk that you'll kill yourself trying to make him give it up. On the other hand, you can come to the office tonight and help Dawn and Elaena with stuff before we drop them at home after work. Then we'll go and meet up with Buffy on the northern leg of her patrol. At which point she'll let a vamp drain her, and I can start teaching you how to hunt." Vhesthine raises a finger, "No sex needed at this point, I'll make sure they're ready for you to feed. Sex isn't needed in order to feed, as I believe I've mentioned before. Just that they are in a moment of euphoric release. Sex is just the most reliable method of achieving that for human men. Come on, I need to get the kids from school and you need to take over from Halfrek. Oh, and I'm going to tell Buffy the wording of the wish and who granted it."
Anya shakes her head, "No, don't. Halfrek's a friend, and she… there are rules."
"Anya, that doesn't matter. Halfrek was given a pamphlet at Buffy's birthday party, but she hasn't come to us to let us know what she did, and that has led directly to the harm you've been suffering since then."
Bitterly, Anya says, "How would knowing that have changed anything?"
Gently, Vhesthine explains, "To start with, I'd have reacted with less hostility when you both came to me for help. I'd have also started out with explaining how mortals can become succubi, along with more history on our culture and why we do some of the things we do."

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Tara wakes up from a dream of her other self with a scream. Beside her Willow pushes herself into a sitting position and looks around for any threats.
A moment later Buffy and Vhesthine have both pushed through the door as Tara starts to calm down.
Willow is the first one to ask, "Tara, what happened?"
Tara puts her hand to her chest, "I just met Buffy, and she was young. Like Elaena's age young."
Willow shakes her head, "You mean you were dreaming of Buffy?"
Buffy chuckles, "No, she means she met me. The younger me that fell into the void portal. Have I ever mentioned that Eternalism sucks?"

 

[DarkPhoenixLady]

Episode 14 - part 4

​

Buffy's sitting at a paper strewn desk she's co-opted at the back of the workshop. In front of her is a 1/4 inch thick steel toroid mounted on a hand cranked spindle. From the inside of the metal stretches a long enamelled copper wire that passes in front of the faintly glowing surface of her emitter.
Making one last fraction of a turn, Buffy carefully moves the emitter to the top edge of the toroid where the other end of the wire is sticking out. Then she move it away and touches a button on a naked circuit board, before very carefully moving the emitter to touch the toroid a couple of degrees around the toroid from where the wire is sticking out. That done she gives the toroid a sharp twist so that the wire now pokes perpendicular to the surface of the toroid of metal and copper exactly 1/4 of an inch away from the lead in wire.
With her other hand she unmounts the emitter and waves it over the point the wire is joined to the steel. Then, much more casually, she increases the intensity of the emitter and runs it over the entire surface of the toroid.
Taking some wire cutters, she trims off the copper wire to leave six inches of slack, and carefully scrapes the enamel off of both ends. Attaching an ohm meter to the exposed ends, she compares the resistance to her notes before jumping up from the desk. "Mercury's mines I've done it!"
Joe, one of the day workers, looks over from the lathe he's prepping, "What have you done lass?"
Brandishing the toroid like a crucifix, Buffy turns to face Joe, "I've finished my first focusing coil. Well, hopefully anyway. It's the first one that is returning the right resistance."
Joe shakes his head and returns to his work. With a sigh, Buffy puts the coil on the desk before going to find some UV epoxy.
Almost an hour later, and three attempts at centring the emitter inside the coil so that the crystal is not only just the right distance ahead of the coil, but also within tolerances of dead centre of the middle of the toroid.
With a smile, she wires the coil up directly to the mains side of the power supply she's using, and mounts the entire assembly onto a lighting clamp. Flicking the power sees the emitter light up with a cone of light that extends to a point nearly an inch long, rather than the defuse area it used to be.
After making a couple of adjustments to the circuit board, Buffy smiles as she takes a sheet of paper and moves it to the point of the cone until it starts to become invisible. Pulling the paper away, she pulls out a pair of precision calipers and measures the size of the hole.
"1/8th of an inch. Not bad for a hand wound coil."
After turning up the output on the emitter, and running the test with the paper once more, Buffy frowns, "Damn, 1/4 inch at two inches long. I'm going to have to make a second toroid by hand, aren't I."
From a safe distance behind her, a man's voice says, "Millie told me you've achieved something. How's it going?"
Buffy turns her chair round, "Oh, hey Mike. I've finished my first focusing coil. This one makes it safe to turn the emitter up to higher power levels."
Mike looks at the steel toroid curiously, "So, why couldn't you just use an off the shelf copper coil?"
Buffy shakes her head, "Honestly, I'm not entirely sure, but this is the way I was taught to make them. Something to do with the way the magnetic fields behave when the coil is embedded in steel compared to if there's an airgap or any air bubbles at all really. There might have also been something about the way that the copper and steel intersect because of the construction method allowing it to affect the physical effect produced by the emitter. We only studied this for a few weeks as a practical part of our history lessons. After that, well I wasn't exactly given a choice about what to do after that, and once I did have a choice most Orokin knowledge was lost to the annals of time."
Mike nods thoughtfully before saying, "I know you've still got an hour before your shift, but could you meet me in my office, and bring your stuff."

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Buffy frown deepens when she opens the door to the managers office and spots both Mike and Razial waiting for her.
At the sound of the door clicking closed behind her Mike looks up and beckons her over. "Buffy, take a seat."
Curiously, Buffy sits down and her eyes widen in surprise as she spots the gem that used to sit on top of the original phase beam generator. "Um, you wanted to see me?"
Razial indicates towards Mike with a hand, who nods, "Yes. Now you've finished making something with your emitter, Razial and I have a proposition for you. You are probably unaware of this, but there is a reward out for the return of this stone. A quite substantial reward, but nothing life changing if you were to cash it in yourself. Before we get into the idea, I'd first like to ask you a few questions about how your emitter works in it's current setup, is that ok?"
Buffy shrugs and nods, "Sure?"
Mike nods, "From what we've seen with your previous attempts at making the coil, at the end you just wave the emitter over the whole thing at the end. Why is that?"
"Oh, um, that's to set the dimensional resonance to the current dimension. It has to be done, otherwise there's a risk of the components drifting out of sync orthogonal to the current dimension and breaking down into energy, in the form of electromagnetic radiation."
Mike nods, "Ok, so if I remember your explanation correctly, the way your finished machine would work is by using multiple emitters to precisely change the, dimensional shift, by 45 degrees opposite to each other? Meaning that the two parts would become permeable to each other?"
Buffy nods, "It's what I was doing manually with just the emitter."
"Is that still true now?"
"It is, though with the first toroid finished the emitter is now safe at higher wattages. As the toroid will ensure that the effect is pointed in a cone away from the toroid. Though I'd need to do some tests to see how much power the emitter can take before it starts widening again. But at the moment, at it's activation wattage, it produces a cone that's one inch long and 1/8th of an inch in diameter at the edge of the effect, increasing the power so that it's two inches long produces a 1/4 inch diameter effect. Given that the emitter itself is 3/8ths of an inch in diameter that's not very good."
Mike shakes his head, "That's where you're wrong. If the length of the effect is constant and we attach this to a lathe or a mill, then you've just revolutionised subtractive manufacturing. Especially if you can remove the taper so that it is a parallel beam. I'm making an assumption here, as I'm assuming that you can set one depth to one orientation and another to the opposite orientation. Hell, that's just off the top of our heads for things that would save us hundreds of man hours a year. If you could make it a variable diameter beam rather than a cone, then it would do the job of a press drill. Even better, it would be safer for everyone as lumps of metal are easier to deal with than shavings."
Razial takes over, "Our proposal is quite simple. We would like to use the reward from returning this gem as your contribution to a new research company. Mike and I would contribute an equal amount to startup of the company. The first thing the company would do is patent your emitter, the coils, and then the finished single stage device. Those things would all be done in your personal name, and any licensing deals would see you paid 1% of the sale price of every device sold once you've got something that is polished. The remaining startup money would be used to rent out the empty unit next door where you'll be able to work on your own things as well as working out how to make the devices that Mike just outlined.
"Once the company gets enough money built up, we'll buy an industrial robot and have you build an attachment for it, unless someone else does that first. Our initial business plan puts us at being able to hire dedicated scientists after 3 years, and in house manufacturing in 5."
Buffy looks shocked, "Um, can I think about this, as it's sort of sudden. I mean, I just wanted to be able to make some things from home."
Mike nods, "Take your time, the offer isn't going away any time soon. I'll put your stuff in the safe."
Buffy nods and stumbles out of the office, before collapsing on one of the chairs in the reception.

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Vhestine smiles as the doorbell goes, "I'll get it."
Buffy looks up from the couch where Dawn and Elaena are both cuddled in beside her while they watch Sunday afternoon cartoons. "Are we expecting anyone?"
Vhestine just saunters towards the door, her smile widening at the increased smell of lust from Buffy as her hips sway.
As she opens the door she smiles widely at Anya and Xander, "Come in, you're a little early so I hope you don't mind watching some cartoons."
Xander shrugs, "Not like I don't watch them at home."
Anya looks uncomfortable as she asks, "Are we expecting anyone else?"
Vhestine nods as she closes the door behind them, "Suzie will be here soon."
From the couch, Buffy asks, "What's going on?"
"We're having a long overdue talk about succubus reproduction and how it differs from human reproduction."
Buffy blanches, "Right, well I'll leave you to it then."
Vhestine smiles and saunters over to the couch before sitting in Buffy's lap, "Oh no you don't. We are mated remember, and you need to know about this just in case."
Buffy gives Vhesthine a quick exchange, "Just in case?"
"We want to have children one day."
Dawn covers her ears, "I don't want to know this, la la la la la."
Anya leans up to kiss Xander, "I don't know, I think babies would be nice. Once we're both ready for them." As Xander starts to look skittish, she adds, "Xander honey, we are taking things at your pace remember."
Buffy tickles Dawn in the side with one finger as she asks, "Have you been able to get past your intimacy problems yet?"
Anya purrs, "Oh yes, my big strong Thricewise really knows how to make me work for it."
"How about you Xander, how are you dealing with the fact Anya's going to have to practice hunting soon?"
Xander loses control of his human form and possessively pulls Anya closer to him with his tentacles. "Anya is mine."
Vhesthine and Buffy share a glance, and Vhesthine asks, "Xander, is your species monogamous?"
Xander nods, "We are."
"And are you mated?" Xander nods, "Well, remember, Succubus are also monogamous. But we don't reproduce the same way you do. If you don't want her to starve if she remains a succubus once she really understands what it means to be a succubus, then you need to understand that. That's why you're here after all. To understand how we reproduce."
Once Suzy's arrived with her baby, Vhesthine turns off the TV and grabs a chair from the dining room. "I'm sure all of you are familiar with the mechanics of human pregnancy, even if only in a technical sense. In that respect, the same thing is true for Succubi, same as giving birth. How we become pregnant is very different from humans. To start with we don't have periods the way human women do. I don't know if we ovulate, as we don't exactly have the level of society to examine those things. However, where in humans it requires the male to climax. For Succubi it happens when our essence merges while we're sharing essence. It doesn't always happen, otherwise I'd be pregnant right now. But that the bare bones of it. What I want to teach you all is how to recognise the signs of merging, and how to avoid it. Like human climaxes, you won't be able to avoid it all the time, only abstaining from that level of sharing will do that. But you should be able to do it well enough that the risk of accidental pregnancy is low. Dawn, Elaena, this means you…"