Disclaimer: Joss made them. I’m playing, just playing.

Author’s note: Once again, massive huggles and thanks to BTL for the wonderful betaing.
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Chapter 24: Giggles

Buffy flounced down to the kitchen to find Anya snacking on Doritos and reading Cosmo. A few of the minions were in there bustling around too, getting blood out of the fridge, one was doing dishes. Harmony was looking a little bruised but was cleaning the oven with only the occasional complaint coming from her lips.

With a glare Buffy sent the minions scurrying, the one washing the dishes had to pull Harmony from the room when the blond didn’t respond.

Buffy turned to her ex-demon friend and smiled. “So I’ve been thinking about how to get your pendant back. That spell you did with Willow? Messed up. I think we should try again.”

Anya looked up from her copy of Cosmo hopefully, then shook her head. “No, Willow won’t go near me now. I’ve traumatized her. Have you got another witch to help?”

Buffy nodded eagerly. “Amy.”

“Amy who was almost turned into a rat? Yeah, that will end well,” noted Anya turning back to her Cosmo.

“Do you want your pendant back or not?” asked Buffy annoyed.
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In Buffy’s mind, helping Anya get her pendant back was a good deed. Something to help a friend out. Did it matter that yes, Anya was going to be a demon again and was going to start cursing people and potentially kill those people? It was a moral question that Bufy kept pushing to the back of her mind. Kinda like that whole thing where she knew that Spike and the minions occasionally ate out (meaning they ate people) but as long as she didn’t see it, wasn’t tempted by it, then she really didn’t have a problem with it. So should she have a problem with Anya’s demon killing?

Her underlying conscience said a big fat yes. However, Buffy was easily distracted from listening to her conscience because her demon was dancing around and saying ‘look at me.’” She was messed up.

As messed up as she thought she was, Buffy still wanted to help out her friend. Picking up the phone then and there, she called her other witch friend and explained what was going to go down. And luckily enough, Amy was free tonight.

A half hour later, in the seclusion of the minion free living room, Amy, seated on the floor, looked nervously from Buffy to Anya and began the spell. The living room of the Crawford Street mansion was decked out for the spell. Nothing was going to go wrong this time. Buffy wanted to do this once. Just once. Amy’s nervousness was the only thing Buffy couldn’t control.

The witch might want Buffy to stick around in Sunnydale, she was a friend and all, but she didn’t want to become Buffy’s lunch. Amy had never been to Buffy‘s house and for good reason. The rumours about Buffy‘s home life were wild and gory. Someone had once told her that Buffy kept her dinner chained up the living room. Clearly there were no bodies in the living room, but that didn’t stop Amy from giving furtive glances at the doorway to the kitchen and up the stairs.

And then there was Anya. She had no clue about Xander Harris’ girlfriend. Cordelia had said she was ‘one of those.’ That really shouldn’t matter though, ‘cause Amy was ‘one of those’ too.

So Amy really wasn’t paying attention to the whole spell thing. Apparently she went through the motions pretty well though, ‘cause when she absent mindedly wished that Cordelia Chase was ‘one of those’ too, she was surprised by Anya saying ‘wish granted.’

Amy looked up at Anya, now in a veiny demon visage and smiling.

“It worked!” shouted Anya happily. “I could kiss you!”

“Please don’t,” mentioned Amy, getting up from her seated position on the floor. “What happened?”

“You wish it, I dish it, don’t you dare take it back. I won’t be taking it back,” said Anya happily.

“What did you do to Cordelia?” asked Buffy, not angry, just curious.

“She’s a demon now. Oh not hideously disfigured or anything. Just some highly inconvenient visions, tales of doom. She’ll have nightmares for the rest of her life. Fitting vengeance if you ask me,” explained Anya matter of factly.

Amy had a look of horror on her face. Anya ignored it sufficiently and stood up herself.

“Fair enough,” muttered Buffy.

“But, it’s Cordelia!” exclaimed Amy. “She’ll find out what you’ve, what I’ve done! My life will be hell!”

Anya turned towards the witch and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Didn’t you hear? Cordelia’s moving to LA. She won’t bother you ever again. And she won’t put two and two together for a good long time. I think you are safe.”

Amy sat still for a moment before a smirk curled her lips.

“Are you going to tell Xander?” Buffy asked Anya referring to her new demon status.

Anya sighed. “Someday, right after we’ve had many orgasms together and he’s too tired to protest.”

“Good plan,” pointed out Buffy.
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As the school year approached, Spike’s efforts to find the ’blasted gem’ redoubled. Buffy was certain with all the holes he was digging in Sunnydale’s landscape that surely someone would have noticed by now. But, once again, Buffy was amazed by the laissez faire attitude that Sunnydale residents had about life in general. Her mom even commented about the strange mounds of dirt that seemed to be appearing over night on the sides of the road. There was even one in front of her gallery.

Buffy loved her mom, but she was just so clueless sometimes. Buffy still had dinner at her mom’s once a week. As the summer progressed, Joyce Summers finally resigned herself to the fact that her daughter was more or less happy with the life choices she’d made. There was nothing that Joyce could say or do that would make Buffy leave Spike to come back home and live with her.

But Buffy had a more pressing matter to attend to than her mother‘s disappointment in her life. Minions were going missing, and it wasn’t Faith that was getting overly stake happy. Faith had been preoccupied with summer school. Willow had been tutoring. Buffy had been avoiding, like she always did with Faith. It was a good arrangement that worked out swimmingly for them.

Buffy had been picking up the slack for Faith, with the demon slaying. Buffy really thought of it as thinning the herd, helping Darwin out. Demons too dumb to get in her way were just asking for it. Her minions didn’t count though. They knew the rules and if they stuck to them, they didn’t get dusted. Well most of them knew the rules. Harmony on the other hand....she was destined for dusting.

As Buffy walked through one of the many cemeteries, she started to think about the disappearing minions. What was making them either take off, or be dusted? Typically minions didn’t suddenly desert their Master and in the grand scheme of things, Spike was a pretty good master.

Unless they left them for another Master. Except that Spike was the only master in town.

Or so she thought. Until just now, the thought hadn’t occurred to her that there was another master in town, dusting or taking their minions. This was something that she really had to talk to Spike about, you know, when he got out of the hole.

She was about to move on, the cemetery was dead, in the no demons to kill sense, when something perked up her senses. Or maybe it was the five or six guys in black gear and guns that got her attention. Yep, completely out of the ordinary, even for Sunnydale.

She ducked behind a mausoleum and watched the group as they tracked a girl and her boyfriend who were walking through the cemetery. Ok, so the boy wasn’t really human, but he wasn’t a vamp either. Buffy had senses enough to know that much. It was then that Buffy noticed the big black van and the extra men that were hidden in various places around the cemetery.

I am so getting out of here, she thought.

As casually as she could, she backed out of the cemetery and ran home.

Army guys stalking demons in her cemetery? In her town? Not of the good.
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She found Mister Gordo on her bed and cuddled with him until Spike came back from the hole for the day. He was probably surprised when his mate leapt up into his arms like a scared kitten as he arrived in their room. Usually she waited for him to get out of his dirty clothes before attacking him.

“It’s terrible. The minions have been talking about it since I got back. I’ve seen it for myself. The army guys. They’re hunting demons, and not just killing them. Arius and Martine are gone, captured by the guys in the black masks,” she babbled. “The guys who hang out at Willy’s are all scared too. They say that the government is doing experiments on demons. Clem’s brother is missing too. Oh, Spike!” Buffy wailed.

Spike just clutched her tighter to his chest. He’d been in the hole all night. He didn’t know what was going on.

“Got something to make you feel safer though, luv,” he purred into her hair, placing soft kisses on her blond tresses.

“What?” she asked, sniffling.

Spike reached around and took something out of his jeans pocket. Holding up the bauble, her smiled. The ring was tacky as all hell but it was the real thing.

“You found it?” she asked, her eyes wide. “I thought I had lost you to the hole forever.”

He took her hand and slipped it on her finger, the green gem sparkling in the artificial light of their bedroom.

“And it’s yours, Goldilocks. So you can go to those damn classes you think are so important. So you can meet your friends for coffee in the sunlight.”

“Really? But you worked so hard for it. You should enjoy it. All that digging...” she explained.

“It was all for you, sweets,” he explained with a smile. He pressed a kiss to her head.

Buffy moved around the room admiring her new bauble. With happy eyes, Spike watched her as she floated effortlessly around the room, having forgotten what had been worrying her.

He’d been in the hole for such a long time. All his energies had been focused on the gem that he’d left the running of the clan to his mate. She’d done a good job, that was certain. Now she was worried about the minions who’d been disappearing. To be truthful he had noticed the number of minions dwindling in the hole too. Now that he was out of the hole, the gem found and a store of treasures found, he had to get back to managing his clan.

And finding out what the bloody hell had got Buffy so worried.
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With the new fun ring on her finger, Buffy stepped onto the street and went in search of Willow. She was eager to shock the hell out of her friend. Then there would be the funness of shocking Giles and Xander and then her mom. Maybe she’d even bump into Faith. The day just had so much potential.

She was going to have a fun fun day. Plus she had to tell Giles about these army guys that were running around town kidnapping demons.

It was the first time she’d been in the sun since she’d been turned and she wasn’t going to waste it. Sunglasses in place, a bikini on under her shorts and t-shirt, she was ready for a day at the beach. The warm breeze and the golden sun warmed her usually tepid body to a pleasant temperature. Oh yes, she was going to enjoy her new ring.

Buffy snuck up to Willow’s house and looked into her bedroom window. Standing, back to the window, Willow was packing to move into the dorms in the next week. The witch had been so excited to finally get out of her parents’ house, where there was the neglect and the analysing, that she had pretty much packed everything she ever owned and hoped that the dorms would let her in early. The only dim feature on the horizon was that she and Buffy wouldn’t be able to be roomies at college.

No offence to Willow, but Buffy had a much hotter roommate. Plus Willow had had enough of the vampire lifestyle. Her second choice had been Amy. Buffy just hoped that the two witches actually got along and didn’t end up turning each other into frogs or rats or something equally gross.

Buffy crept through the shrubbery and knocked on her friend’s window. Willow’s head turned around and she gasped at the sight of her vampire friend standing in the full sunlight of the Californian summer.

“Buffy?” she questioned, moving towards the window. “Are you still a vampire?”

Buffy slid in through the window and stepped into Willow’s sparsely decorated room.

“Spike found the ring,” Buffy explained holding up her hand to be examined.

Willow stepped forward, took Buffy‘s hand, and inspected the ring. “It’s ugly,” noted Willow going back to her packing.

“Yep, but I’m not on fire, so the ugly loses points. You wanna go scare Xander?” asked Buffy with glee in her voice.

“’Kay,” beamed Willow setting another towel into the box she had before her.
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Xander Harris had gotten himself a cushy job as the guy who drove the ice cream truck around town during the summer. So, maybe it wasn’t cushy but his plan of visiting all 50 states by car hadn’t worked out so well for him, in that he couldn’t afford to pay for gas, much less lodging.

The girls stalked the ice cream truck through the residential streets of Sunnydale, as if it was a big game. Their target in sight, they relied on the fact that about twenty children were yelling and screaming for ice cream when the truck pulled to a stop. Buffy pulled the passenger door to the truck open and slipped in, Willow following closely behind. Giggling silently they waited for Xander to be done with his customers.

Sure enough, when Xander headed back to the driver’s seat, he screamed like a girl.

He protested that he was too young to die from a heart attack and that caring friends didn’t give friends heart attacks. Then he realised that Buffy was sitting in the passenger seat of his ice cream truck in the hot sun of midday.

“Buffy!” he shouted, his arms flailing around him indicating his shock. “You’re in the sun! You aren’t flamey!”

“Isn’t it awesome? I can actually get my tan back!” giggled the vampire, waving her ring around for Xander to see.

Xander stepped forward to inspect the ring. He took her hand gently and gave a critical glance at the jewel. “It’s actually kinda ugly.”
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The out of work Watcher was sitting in his house reading a book. Peering through the window, the two girls giggled as they contemplated just how to surprise Giles. Generally surprising Giles ended with someone almost getting clubbed with something book like. And that was the kind of thing Buffy wanted to avoid, not that she would be getting hurt or anything, but Willow had a date with Oz later and the last thing Willow needed was a bruise to explain to her boyfriend.

So they settled for ringing the doorbell.

Trying to keep straight faces, the two girls tried to wait patiently.

Eventually Giles came to the door, his nose still in the tome he was reading. Buffy actually had to clear her throat to get him to look up.

“Oh, hello Buffy,” he greeted turning away from the door and going back to his spot on the couch. He hadn’t even looked at her. Really. “Why didn’t you just walk in? You know the door is often unlocked.”

“Uh, Giles?” asked Buffy still standing in the doorway.

“You’ve been invited once, you don’t need an invite again,” he stated, his nose still in the book. “Come in and tell me about your patrol last night.”

With a roll of her eyes, Buffy entered the Watcher’s apartment, and sat down on the couch in a patch of sunlight, and started in on her tale of the army guys.

“They are invading and taking demons. Experimenting on them!” she growled passionately. “We have to do something. Find them, make them stop.”

Giles raised an eyebrow and actually looked up from his book. “Buffy, perhaps it’s a good thing that the government has taken an interest in the demon realm. Perhaps they have actually decided that demons are a threat to the general populace.”

“Okay, who are you and what have you done with my Giles?” asked Buffy. “How can this be good? The average person can’t handle knowing about demons. It disrupts their lives. It makes with the crazy. And…what if the government suddenly decides that witches, slayers, and other good things are evil and must die? Huh? Salem witch trials part two maybe? Think of that?”

Giles nodded. “Perhaps you are right.”

Willow tapped Buffy on the arm jovially. “You are right,” she giggled.

“It doesn’t often happen,” interjected Buffy. “Right then,” she continued., “I’m off to the beach, I think I’ll work on my tan before school starts.”

“Beg your pardon?” asked Giles finally looking up from his book and really looking at Buffy really for the first time, his book falling to the ground with a thud.
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The confused look on Giles’ face as they left his apartment was nothing compared to the look that Faith was sporting as she walked towards Giles’ apartment with a tall, sandy haired man.

“Buffy?” asked Faith looking the vampire up and down, her focus now on Buffy and not the man she had arrived with.

“Faith!” greeted Buffy happily. “I hadn’t expected to see you today. Going to Giles’?” Buffy looked the man Faith had brought up and down. He smelled familiar, and he wasn’t bad looking to boot.

“Yeah, uh I thought you had....uh,” Faith stammered looking between Buffy, Willow, and the man she was standing with. “A condition.”

Buffy enjoyed the flabbergasted look that Faith had on her face. It was almost worth being delayed for beach goodness.

“Oh ya, that cleared right up. I can be all sun baby now. I’m thinking beach. Or at least gardening. I haven’t been in the garden of my house in ages. Well, in the sun anyway,” explained Buffy.

“How?” asked the perplexed slayer.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your walking companion?” asked Buffy changing the subject.

“Uh, ya. Riley Finn,. Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg,” introduced Faith.

Willow stuck out her hand to Riley and he shook it gingerly.

“How do you know Faith?” the red head asked, her voice a hint of what she was really thinking. This was one of Faith‘s ‘boys‘.

“I met her on campus, at a party,” Riley explained with a fond smile to Faith.

“Attending college parties again, Faithy?” questioned Buffy like a good mother hen. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your senior year at high school?”

The death glare that Faith sent her was priceless. Clearly that was one thing she’d not told her college boyfriend.
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tbc...