Karma: Wiccan Spotting
by Spellbound
Unsure of where to start, Buffy headed towards town hoping that she may find him, or the girl he was with in a restaurant somewhere. All her senses were alert, sharper than usual and she knew that she was being followed by a vampire. Ducking into a side alley, Buffy waited, listening closely for signs of her pursuer. The rattling of a bin lid shattered the silence and made her jump. "Very stealthy" she muttered sarcastically as the vampire appeared in her line of vision. "Hey" she greeted him brightly, "Any reason you're following me?" she asked, her face contorting into its vampiric style before she had finished the question. The vampire looked embarrassed and sheepishly looked down. "Erm, well no, not now." he said apologetically. Buffy laughed at him and pushed past him into the bright streetlight.

She laughed at the stupidity of the vampire population and a twang of guilt hit her. She knew for certain that somewhere, somehow, she was the Slayer and yet this knowledge couldn't help her in staking her vampire follower. The streets were busy and she lost herself in the hustle and bustle of the nightlife, the only pizza place in town was approaching and she always enjoyed having a look at the patrons stuffing themselves silly. A family were sat in the window, a boy greedily stuffing pizza into his cheese coated mouth, from the look of him this wasn't his first trip to a pizza place and his ever expanding waistline was testament to his family’s seriously unhealthy eating habits.
Buffy shook her head in disapproval of this and was just about to look away when she saw a flair of red that stopped her dead in her tracks. Buffy scanned the table that the redhead was sitting at and found that the man she was looking for, Giles, was sat with the owner of the hair that had caught her attention. She pushed open the door and walked in, the smell of pizza and sweat filled her lungs and she was eternally grateful that she didn't actually need to breath. She crossed the floor, avoiding the ever cheerful staff to Giles’ table.
On arrival there she cleared her throat and waited for some sort of acknowledgement, the woman sat on her left looked up at her and Buffy recognised her immediately. The Slayer! But she looked different, softer somehow, less threatening. Giles shifted in his seat and regarded Buffy slowly before offering her a seat next to him. "I'm guessing you know." he said, less of a question and more of a fact. Buffy made no movement but looked at the others around the table, "I know something's not right." she said after a long pause. "And I know I know you. But the details I don't know." she finished slowly. The others gave her a look of sympathetic understanding. "Well, let’s start with what you know." Giles began, "Tara, Willow and Xander." He introduced each one in turn and they each offered her a friendly gesture. "The abridged version is this: Merlin changed us all and sent us here to find one another again. These are your friends and you are the slayer. We now only have one more person to find and the Scooby core is, once again complete." Buffy laughed and took the slice of pizza offered to her by Willow.

The pizza and beer flowed freely for the rest of the evening, and the Scoobies found themselves relaxing into their usual banter. To the casual observer, the party looked like any other group of friends enjoying a night out. The reality was a Slayer that was also a vampire, a witch who was currently a Slayer, a high flying businessman who was also a manual labour geek and an anti-magic campaigner who is also one of the most powerful witches the world has ever seen, oh and Giles, a bookish, middle aged man who was also a Watcher.
Rather than dwell on the obscurity of their situation, they all embraced their weirdness and enjoyed their evening before, tipsily heading back to Giles' tiny apartment for the night.

In a cloud of hiccups and giggles, the group arrived back at Giles’ and all took a seat, Willow and Tara on the sofa and Xander in a messy heap on the floor. Buffy slumped into the Giles' chair whilst Giles busied himself making tea and coffee. "How do we propose finding Anya?" he called in from the tiny kitchen. The others looked around the room, looking for answers in the faces of their friends. "Well, now that Willow and Tara are here, they can just do a locator spell and find her that way." he laughed when no other answers materialised. Giggles erupted in the quiet room and were stopped just as suddenly when it dawned on them all that now that Willow was actually Willow again, this was quite possible. "Well," Giles said as he returned with a tray containing cups and a large teapot. "That isn't such a bad suggestion." He turned and looked at Willow and Tara who were contemplating this idea. "I guess it's worth a try." Tara said, "B-but we'll need to do some research into the spells and ingredients needed." Everyone nodded as Giles poured tea for everyone, handing the delicate cups to each Scooby in turn. "We'll start work first thing in the morning." Giles declared and the Scoobies nodded in agreement, sipping their tea thoughtfully.



This story archived at: The Slayer\'s Fanfic Archive
The Slayer\\\\\\\\'s FanFic Archive - http://www.slayerfanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=12631