The Nature of the Beast
by Cherry
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: S6 'Wrecked'.
Feedback: Yes, please.
The sun set and she appeared. Her moves were efficient, nearly brutal in intensity, plunging the stake into the heart, then ripping it out and moving on to the next without pause.
The news had been shocking, and untimely. A law firm that once worked for the mayor had done a review of his file, and discovered post-humous instructions to act as the defense for a favored employee. Despite protests from the accused, the charges were overturned by the zealous young lawyer assigned the case.
All of which meant exactly one thing. Faith had been released.
Dawn still refused to speak to Willow, threatening to go out if Buffy left her alone that night. It hadn't taken much convincing to get Xander to turn it into a movie night. He'd even talked Tara into showing up, playing on her natural sympathies for Dawn. Yes, he felt a little guilty for that, especially given that Willow was alone upstairs, completely aware of the happy movie crowd downstairs.
Perhaps it was his fiancée rubbing off on him, but there was a little bit of him that hoped Willow felt excluded. How Buffy could forgive her so easily was beyond him.
It was in the third cemetery that she felt the presence. Something not vampiric, not demonic. No longer familiar, exactly, but it once was. She paused, back turned, and waited. The silence stretched out painfully long.
"You might as well come out." Her voice was soft, not angry like she had convinced herself it should be.
Behind and to her left, there was the soft rustle of someone pushing through the bushes. She turned her head in that direction, not quite far enough to look yet. "It's been a long time. How are you?"
The response was slow, as if it had to be carefully considered. When it came, it lacked the once typical sarcastic edge. Rather, it sounded faintly amused. "Five by five, B."
She was growing more desperate by the hour. The magic called to her, her blood singing in response to the ebb and flow. She couldn't wait another night, it had to be tonight. Whatever the cost, she needed a fix, one that only he could provide. She'd find what he wanted, and bring it to him. Friendship didn't matter compared to the need.
So what if without her she'd still be a rat? He wanted Willow, and she wanted his spells. It seemed a fair trade when he offered it.
She spoke with a hesitant tone, as if fearful of offending. Given the history of the pair, it wasn't without reason. "I heard you were dead."
Buffy finished turning around to look at her. Faith. Her angry resolved once more failed to appear, even staring at the woman she'd sworn she hated. "I got better." She tried to fight it, but the faintest of grins slid onto her face. Words slipped out through the grin, ones she hadn't even been aware of thinking. "I missed you."
Faith's face registered surprise as she took a few steps closer. It tighted a moment later, her jaw clenched. "I haven't forgotten what you said, but I can't not. I'm sorry, Buffy." Her eyes screwed shut as she tensed, expecting hard fists. What she didn't expect was a soft touch on her hand, pulling it up to be gently clasped. After a moment, she pried one eye open to look.
Buffy's face was serious, but not harsh. "I'm sorry too, Faith. And what's more, I forgive you."
The response was barely audible, and resembled a question more than anything else. "I forgive you...?"
He knew the risk of getting caught. It was much too early to go to her. But patience was never his strong suit, so he would watch for her. Not the stalking of before, following her on patrol obsessively. He knew her patrol patterns, and would hide just to watch her walk by. He promised himself that until she turned in the direction of his crypt, that's all he would do. Tonight she hadn't even glanced up in his direction, intent on something. He waited to be sure, then came out and lit a bent but still smokable cigarette.
A compromise, he'd go visit Dawn. She was probably feeling low right now, and good old Spike would be just the right one to cheer her up. Buffy might get upset if she found out, though.
He smoked the rest of the pack while talking himself into going, leaving a new assortment of butts with the ones from last night, and the night before. The minutes he spent kicking them under a nearby bush made him miss seeing the blonde individual of his thoughts passing back through the grounds hours before he would expected. By the time he was on his way, she was long out of sight. As was her companion.
Buffy led Faith back along her usual route, cutting through the cemetery that Spike lived in without even noticing. When making her impulsive offer to let Faith stay at her house, she had surprised herself nearly as much as Faith. She had hidden it well, though, and grabbed Faith's hand, pulling her along behind as she walked.
"B, it's okay, you don't need to. I'll stay at the motel.."
Buffy cut her off before she could finish. "Nope, you won't. I shouldn't have let you stay there last time, but I was self-centered and oblivious." She glanced at Faith with a small grin. "This is where you protest and deny."
"Oh, you were never oblivious," Faith responded, stressing the last word lightly. She grimaced slightly, already wanting to take back her teasing statement. It wasn't quite time to try sliding into the comfortable friendship again.
Buffy giggled. "Thanks." She squeezed her hand slightly and continued, "I'll work on the self-centered."
Faith fixed her stare straight ahead. This new Buffy was nothing like the one from high school. Not much like the one from when she woke up, either. Maybe it was having a boyfriend that screwed her up. That was the first priority then, find out if she's single again. Too bad most guys aren't stakeable, she'd never make the mistake of dating a vamp again.
Coming up to the house, Buffy frowned as she heard what sounded like shouting coming from inside. "That better be a movie..." She trailed off and ran up to the door, throwing it open and dashing inside, Faith close on her heels.
Getting in the back door was easy, just a quick spell and tumblers tumbled, the knob twisted, and she was in. Getting upstairs was much harder, but with the movie playing, there was just enough background noise to cover her. Good thing Xander liked action movies with high volume soundtracks. The key was to keep moving, not to leave any time for someone to discover her, and to get out fast. So when she got to Willow's room, she simply knocked once and entered.
Willow looked up with red eyes, and immediately ducked away to rub them. "Amy, hey! I didn't expect to see you tonight." Her books were scattered around her on the bed, papers and notebooks stacked wildly with loose pages everywhere. It was a very un-Willowy disorganized mess.
Amy sat down on the bed, and glanced at Willow's schoolwork. Admittedly, she was a few years behind, but it didn't look like she was making much progress on it. "Hey. You look like you could use a break. And a friend. We could go get a cup of coffee or something."
Willow dragged herself from the bed, books and papers dropping to the floor unnoticed. "Yeah, okay. I could use some fresh air."
Amy followed her out of the room, taking deep breaths. That had been the easy part. Getting her to Rack's was the hard part, but she'd at least try to get Willow to go on her own first. Coming down the stairs, she noticed the credits start to roll on the movie.
Willow came up behind the sofa. "Hey, guys, I'm going out for coffee..."
Xander spoke as he turned around, "Sure, I'll let Buf... What the hell is she doing here?!"
Willow looked behind her in confusion. "Amy? She's just being a friend." She continued in a louder and somewhat angrier voice. "Something I don't seem to have very many of right now!"
Dawn turned around and stood up, glaring as she blatantly shifted her arm wrapped in a purple cast, crossing it over her other arm. "Probably because you don't deserve them!"
"I thought you were quitting magic!"
"I am!"
"Doesn't look like it to me!"
"What am I supposed to do, lock myself in my room and never come out again?!"
Amy nervously watched as Xander and Dawn verbally attacked Willow. Things weren't going well right now. She started running through spells in her mind, looking for a good one to get out of there and try again later. At that point, the door burst open behind her, and things went from bad to worse.
Buffy stuttered to a stop as the argument cut off with her entrance. Xander and Willow were standing toe to toe, and had been yelling at the top of their lungs. Dawn was right there too, Anya and Tara having backed off. There was a dead silence as she looked around the room, just about to ask what was going on when there was a yelp of pain from behind her. She spun around to see Faith twisting Amy's arm up behind her, the other had some kind of dried flower in it.
"Hey B, I think this one was trying to cast a magic spell."
Xander was the first to react, unconciously echoing his earlier query, "What the hell is she doing here?!"
Before anyone could respond, Amy grabbed at the dried herbs with her free hand and chanted a few words in Latin. Faith pulled tighter on her arm, causing her to mangle the pronounciation of the last few. A flash of light covered the entire room as the spell went off. Amy barely had time to gasp out, "Oh c-!" before the spell cut her off.
Coming up to the house, Spike halted with a jolt as he noticed the half open front door. He still had an invitation, at least as far as he knew, but other demons didn't need invitations. Lights were on, and the house seemed fairly quiet. He glanced up at Buffy's room. No lights there, so she was probably out on patrol. That was what he wanted, really. He was just there to see Dawn, and cheer her up. No ulterior motives at all.
Still, just to be safe, he checked his duster for weapons before pushing the door open the rest of the way, and making his way in as silently as vampirically possible. He only made it two steps into the house before a low animal growl startled him, pulling his gaze to the left.
The hellmouth did tend towards the unusual, but this was a bit much. Stalking towards him were a pair of great cats, one that he recognized as a lioness, the second as a panther. Barely registering on his senses were other animals behind them, the only one worthy of his notice was a brown bear larger than both cats together. It, however, was sitting placidly on the floor, so was quickly disregarded as a threat.
He stared down at both of them as they halted only a body-length, almost certainly within a distance to pounce. The eyes on the lioness caught him, drawing him in. They were familiar in an unusual way, some element about them seemed almost like... The feeling came together with a sudden rush.
"Buffy?"
Spike held up his hands, and took a slow step back. "That is you, isn't it?" If he had one to hold, his breath would have been during the pause before the lioness nodded her head once. She seemed content to stand there for the moment, and not rip his throat out, so he checked out the rest of the room.
The black panther next to Buffy stood nearly motionless, just the tip of her tail twitching. Had Spike been more of an expert on animal body language, he might have panicked at that point. The brown bear was still sitting there, and as their gazes met, it waved hello with one paw. Perched on the bear's head was a small weasel-like creature, possibly a ferret. On the couch was a small monkey, who was gently petting a trembling rabbit. And lastly, there was a red fox crouched down on the floor next to a rat. Spike mentally counted the Scoobies, coming up with two extra.
There was clothing everywhere, most of it looking rather feminine, and some of it ripped, like it had burst open from within. Which it likely had, come to think of it. One worrisome pile had a blue sling on top, which could only have been Dawn's. There did seem to be enough piles to account for all eight, if he assumed the sleeve barely visible under the bear indicated a full set of clothing.
"Right. Spell went wrong, I'm guessing? Which one of you is Red?" A tickle of memory struck him, and he looked down at the fox, which was emphatically shaking her head. "Alright, I'm not accusing. So if you didn't do it, who did?" Spike had to hold back a laugh as most of the gang pointed a paw at the rat.
Hold on, a rat. Didn't Red have a pet rat that she said was a witch? What the hell was her name... "That the witch you've been taking care of, the one who turned herself into a rat a few years back?" Willow nodded. "And now she's gone and done it the rest of you." Willow nodded again.
Spike grinned. "I suppose it's up to me to get you all restored to normal, then. But before I do, at least tell me who's who. Which one of you is Dawn?" The ferret on top of the bear's head started chittering, standing up on her hind legs before unbalancing and rolling down the bear's back. He laughed. "Very cute, pet. Tara?" The bear waved just as it had before. "I should have known. Anya?" The monkey made a soft 'eek', and pointed a finger at the rabbit. Spike grimaced, "My sympathies. That would make Xander the monkey, yes?" Xander proceeded to howl at him while Spike snickered.
Which still left one question. "So, who's the other cat?"
Xander looked down at the rabbit in his lap. Anya had finally calmed down and fallen asleep. Or possibly just passed out. Regardless, he gently moved her to the couch and hopped onto the floor, making his way over to the phone. He ignored the ridiculous game of sign language and twenty questions the others were playing with Spike, and climbed up onto the desk. Having somewhat normal hands was quite useful, even if it was a little strange to have feet that worked like hands also.
He hesitated before picking up the phone. The only real choices were Giles and Angel, and he wasn't sure he could remember the new number for Giles. Asking Buffy would be a little bit tricky right now. That left Angel, and it would have to be Spike to talk to him. Worst case, Angel thinks Spike is up to something and comes to Sunnydale. Wait, worst case is Angel tells him to go away and refuses to help. He pondered for a moment more, then dialed.
//"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless."//
"Oook!" There was a long pause.
//"Xander, is that you?"//
Xander stared at the phone and then howled at Cordelia. He swore he could hear laughter a moment later.
Cordelia managed to contain herself a moment later. "Put Spike on the phone, okay? We already know what happened." There was a muffled British sounding exclamation, and then there was a new voice on the other side.
//"Hallo? Who's this? Xander you twit, who did you call?"//
"Hi Spike, it's Cordelia. Wesley is already on his way to help." She gave him a minute to absorb this.
//"Just the watcher? No brooding poof? And how the bloody hell did you know, anyhow?"//
"It's a vision thing. No Angel, just Wesley. He suggested meeting at the magic shop, so that's where he's headed."
//"Right. This vision, did it tell you who the big black cat is?"//
Cordelia paused to carefully search her memory of the vision, unaware that she was floating an inch above her seat. "I don't recall seeing one at all."
Spike glared down at the subject of the conversation. She was grinning up at him, her tail idly swishing back and forth as her foreclaws slowly tapped on the floor. "She doesn't seem to like me very much."
//"Which makes her stand out how?"//
Spike growled out, "I'll meet the pansy at the shop," then banged the phone down. "All of you listen up. We're going to the magic shop to meet the weasel-" He was cut off by a loud protest from Dawn. "Sorry, little bit. Wesley, that is. He'll get you all back to normal."
Herding cats would have been easier. Herding a feline slayer was impossible, and the other one was just as much a problem. He'd gotten all the rest of them into Xander's car, the little ones and Tara, that is. But when he tried to get Buffy to jump in, she refused. The big black one was just as reluctant, made worse when the little vixen started snarling at her. After the strangest argument he'd ever had, he got the two to promise to wait here so he could make a second trip.
Naturally, after getting the first bunch settled in, he returned to find them both gone.
Spike let himself into the shop, glaring into the corners for them. He saw the watcher sitting at the table surrounded by books and animals, all of them staring at him. "They here yet?"
"Buffy? No, she hasn't showed up. Did you lose her?"
"Bint ran off with the other one. Left before I got back. Been looking around town for them for at least an hour."
Wesley looked thoughtful at that. "I suppose we'll simply have to trust that she can take care of herself. In the meantime, have a seat and a book. This will go faster the more of us working on it. Most of them can't turn the pages."
Spike flopped into a seat, the way only a grumpy vampire can. He pulled the next book from the stack, and started reading about transformation spells involving animals, possession spells involving animals, and much more than he wanted to know about spells to invoke animal spirits. "Hang on, why didn't the rest of your crew show up to help?"
Wesley was slow in responding. "Because the vision only showed me, plus you, sitting in the shop surrounded by various animals. No one else. And also that it was important to arrive as quickly as possible."
Spike grumbled to himself. Once a stuffy watcher, always a stuffy watcher. Too bad Giles wasn't here.
Faith had been careful to keep her distance from the others, standing on the far side of Buffy. When the vampire had finally driven off with the rest of the gang, she'd laid down to watch Buffy pace back and forth in the living room. In all honesty, she didn't mind being a cat very much. Why not enjoy it while she could?
It was this thought that led her to hop up, and rumble for Buffy's attention. She gestured at the door with her head. Buffy tilted her head, then shook it. Probably wanted to wait for the vampire. What was it with her and the undead, anyhow? Faith paced over, then traced out a heart on the floor, stabbing at it when she was finished. She looked up at Buffy. The lioness was still staring at the floor. When she finally looked up to meet Faith's look, Buffy simply nodded once, agreeing to go patrol.
"Oh dear."
Spike looked up, waiting for the ex-watcher to continue. A minute passed. Spike cleared his throat noisily. No response. "Did you find something or not?"
"What? Oh, er... yes, but it's not good. If, as Tara has indicated, the witch was trying to cast a spell to turn herself into a rat, the most likely result of the spell expanding should have been to make eight rats. Since it did not, each of them affected the spell's result."
"Which means what?"
"In some manner, the animals they have become may reflect their inner nature. Or what they fear about their nature in Anya's case. Regardless, reversing the spell will be problematic. It's not simply an externally forced shape, it's one they chose on subconscious level."
"Bugger."
Among lions, it was well known that the female of the species did the hunting. Had Buffy been asked, she would have agreed that a lioness typified her feelings about herself, a female pressed into hunting for the good of her tribe.
The five younglings were three before they even realized anything was wrong. The only warning was the sound of bodies exploding into dust. One of the remaining three turned in time to catch a glimpse of fangs and green eyes before his throat was ripped out. The other saw his friend go down even as something closed around his throat. He was able to make a pathetic sound of protest before he too was simply ashes. Which left just one.
She was the eldest, a vampire made nearly five years ago in a city far from here. The hellmouth had called her here, and just this night, her four newest minions had risen. Her only four minions. The slayer, damn her, was destroying them as fast as she could make new ones. And now cats? That was the last thought she had time for.
Buffy stumbled as she sneezed out the remains of the last vampire, mewling in irritation as she swiped at the dust on her face. A gentle touch on her face brought her eyes open again, and she stood perfectly still as her sister slayer licked her face clean. After a moment, she responded in kind, cleaning the dark fur. There was a tiny voice that was asking her exactly what she was doing, but the much louder one shouted it down, claiming it was a perfectly natural thing to do, and wasn't it nice to have a clean face?
When they had finished the ritual cleaning, Buffy rubbed her face against Faith, then turned and headed for the next part of her hunt, trusting the dark cat to follow along behind.
Wesley put the book down at last. "I have good news as well as bad news. The good news is that unlike the spell she was trying to cast, this one can be reversed somewhat easily."
"And the bad?"
He paused to polish his glasses, delaying out of a hope that something would occur to him that could make it all alright. He replaced them on his face, and sighed. "Since the new forms were chosen by them, they will each have to choose to return to being human."
Spike frowned. "I don't see how that's bad."
"Perhaps Buffy chose to go out because she has no desire to return to being human."
Note 1: I like to be precise. In the process of writing this, I recalled that the panther wasn't a true species. So I spent some time on the web and looked it up, from which Wesley's little rant originated. However, after that I decided to go ahead and specify the exact species for everyone.
Buffy North African lion (Panthera leo leo) Faith Amazon Rain Forest 'Black' Jaguar (Panthera onca onca) Dawn Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes) Amy Black Rat (Rattus rattus) Willow Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) Tara Grizzly Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) Xander Black-capped Capuchin (Cebidae cebus apella) Anya White-tailed Jack Rabbit (Lepus californicus)
Note 2: Aquitanian is a real language. The Romans found a people in the southwestern portion of Gaul, and called them Aquitani. Aquitanian became the language now known as Basque. What's curious about Basque is that it appears to be unrelated to any other spoken language to any extent beyond coincidence. I chose it because this would have made it ideal for hiding spells from the Inquisition. Wesley called it Aquitanian because he's showing off.
"And the black panther?"
Wesley gave him a slightly superior look. "A misnomer. The so-called black panther is most commonly either a black jaguar, or a black leopard, although other species of large cats can possess melanistic coloration. The jaguar and leopard are a part of the Panthera family of great cats, a family which includes the more well known lion and tiger, which may explain the source of the name. Incidentally, why do you bring them up?"
Spike narrowed his eyes. "Because one of the animals I found in her house was a black panther. She and Buffy are missing. Weren't you paying attention when I asked if they'd arrived here? And that I'd been looking for them?"
"Ah. Now that you mention it... no, I don't recall that at all. In any event, I'll need to use the back room to prepare a circle for the de-transformation ritual." Wesley scooped up the book, continuing in a lighter tone, "Oh, there is one more minor detail. The ritual can only be performed at dawn, and takes about five minutes. Also, they'll have to be done individually, one at a time." He made it to the door of the workout room before Spike realized what he meant.
"Bloody hell! You mean we can only do one per day!" Wesley mumbled a response that could have been 'Quite so,' as he closed the door behind himself.
Buffy roused slowly, feeling warmer and happier than she had since she'd first gotten back. She nuzzled her chin into the warm body next to her, and stretched out her arms and legs, flexing her fingers and toes and extending her claws... Her eyes popped open as she remembered the night before. Faith was the warm body, and she was nudging Buffy to wake her up. Buffy nudged back, adding a good morning lick as she got up. Waking up next to a warm slayer was so much better than waking up next to a corpse. Buffy looked around, marveling again at the night vision that cats were blessed with. It almost seemed as bright as... Oh, wait. That bright spot must be the sun.
It was fun while it lasted, but they've probably got the counter-spell figured out by now. After all, Willow was able to undo Amy's first rat spell, and it only took her three years. Of course, Willow wouldn't exactly be available to undo this one. It might take even longer than three years.
Faith was never big on sharing her feelings, but it was so obvious that Buffy was in a good mood, she couldn't help but echo it. She waited until Buffy had decided which way to go, then nipped her ear and dashed ahead. Taking the forest route to the magic shop wasn't a long walk normally, but with two cats playing a feline version of tag the whole way, it was well into morning by the time they arrived.
Wesley blushed again. "I'm very sorry Anya, I completely forgot about clothing." He sat on the corner of the bed in what Anya said was Willow's room as she picked out yet another set of clothing.
Anya didn't seem to be listening very closely as she dug through the closet. "I wonder if she'd let me borrow this..." She placed the article back, and added a plain outfit to the stack on the bed. "That's all of them. Now let's go back to the shop and open it so I can start selling things and making money."
Wesley picked up the clothing, following Anya back downstairs. He yawned widely, reminding himself to call Cordelia to let her know it might be a few more days before he could return. Also, he needed to get a hotel room so he could sleep. Anya was rather wearying, and he needed to be up before dawn to reverse the spell on the next ad interim animal.
"How am I supposed to explain that my fiancé is a monkey? And he has to be able to go to work, or how can he earn money, contribute to society, and buy me pretty things?"
"It's only for one extra day, Anya. I'm sure Dawn has homework she needs to do..." He eyed the ferret playing with the vixen and the rat. She wasn't paying attention, or else chose to ignore what he saying. "Xander will be back to normal Monday morning. I believe a more important concern is food. It will be quite some time-" Wesley cut off as there was a loud yell from the back, sounding like someone in agony. He rushed into the back room, scooping up a wicked looking axe along the way.
Laying stretched out on the floor was Spike, with two large cats pacing around and over him, circling and growling. One was a buff colored lioness, quite petite for a lioness, actually. The other was a black jaguar, with the large head common to the species. She was fully the size of the lioness, making her a giant of her kind. Wesley tried to control his panic. If Buffy still had her Slayer related strength, and had succumbed to her animal instincts...
Spike groaned, and rolled over, sitting up. Both cats stopped circling and sat down, one on either side of his legs. Wesley dropped the axe when Spike started laughing, almost taking off a few toes. "Had a fun night then, Slayer, and couldn't wait to jump my bones?" Both cats nodded, glanced at each other, then the black one ducked her head as if embarrassed.
Spike's confusion was evident. "What is it now? You know, as much fun as it is to not have to listen to you insulting me, I feel like I'm missing out on half the conversation anymore."
"Faith."
All heads turned towards Wesley, one of the furry ones looking guilty. He lifted a hand gesturing vaguely at her. "That's Faith."
Spike slowly turned to stare at her, feeling and looking vaguely alarmed. "Nice kitty."
Wesley made a list and checked it twice. Large quantities of raw meat, some fresh produce, gallons of spring water, and number of large bowls. "It's somewhat convenient that so many of you are carnivores, at least the shopping list is easy. Expensive, though." He handed the list over to Anya, congratulating himself on his cleverness. As soon as she'd seen the wisdom in feeding the large animals before they starting looking for alternate sources of food, the tight purse strings had opened. Then he'd casually mentioned that he wasn't so good at bargain shopping, and Anya had decided she'd take care of the shopping if he kept the store open.
Anya simply tucked the list away, and scooped Xander off the table. "Come along honey, you can help too." She carried the weakly protesting monkey out the door, the bell chiming softly.
Wesley decided this was as good a time as any to call Cordelia and update her. He dialed, and waited through the ringing and one of Cordelia's always inventive greeting. "Yes, it's me. The good news is I've figured out how to fix the current Sunnydale dilemma."
//"So there's bad news, then. Don't keep me in suspense, Mr. Cheerful."//
"I'm afraid it will take another week to completely resolve. Due to the particular spell used, it will have to be undone one person at a time, and the ritual can only be performed at daybreak."
//"No problem, I'll let the others know. Not that I care, but why can't you fix one of the witches and let them do it?"//
"None of them speak Aquitanian." He spotted Faith curled up next to Buffy, the two cats napping on the floor and was reminded of her presence. "Cordelia, you said you saw seven animals in the vision. We seem to have an extra one, Faith was here as well."
//"Oh, duh. I should have figured it out when Spike mentioned the panther."//
"Jaguar."
//"Whatever. As long as she's not psycho-girl anymore."//
Wesley tried to suppress his memories of being tortured by Faith. He found it substantially easier than expected, mostly because of her current form, and thus subconsciously placed the two Slayers at the end of the mental schedule he'd been arranging. "Quite. I'll call again if I run into any problems."
//"You're the boss. Enjoy the vacation."//
After lunch, which for the most part consisted of the carnivores gorging themselves on fresh meat, Wesley headed off to find a hotel, while the animals curled up to sleep and digest. Anya didn't pay much attention to this, beyond noticing how cute it was when the gold and back tails wrapped around each other in sleep. The fact that Buffy and Faith had chosen to lay down in the store area was not noticed.
The little blonde haired girl holding her mother's hand couldn't have been more than five. To her, the big fluffy cats looked like the stuffed toys she saw in the toy store that mommy wouldn't buy. So naturally, she started tugging on her mother's hand.
"Mommy, look. Look, mommy... kitties. Can I pet them? Please mommy?"
Anya, who tended to treat children as short people rather than talking down to them, simply said, "They're sleeping now, so you have to be very gentle." Her mother, thinking Anya was making a joke, told her to go ahead.
Faith's ear twitched when she felt the first tentative touch on her head. Thinking it was Buffy being affectionate, she relaxed into the touch, rumbling quietly in contentment. A moment later she heard a giggle, followed by a child's voice, "She's purring!" She lazily opened one eye to see a cute little girl in a pink dress squatting next to her, petting her. She could feel Buffy stirring beside her, and glanced that way to see a look of amusement as the girl suddenly decided that since they were awake now, it was perfectly alright to start hugging Faith.
A few minutes later, the mother had made her purchases, and came over to retrieve her daughter, who was squealing with laughter as she hugged the big black cat, while the yellow one licked her face.
By mid-afternoon, the shop was a zoo. A petting zoo, actually. It was noisy enough to rouse Tara in the back room, who lumbered out into the main shop, surprising the small army of children climbing on the two cats.
"Oh, Tara! I'm so glad you're awake." Anya pointed to the woman next to her. "This customer is looking for books on protection rituals. Could you help her?" Tara yawned and padded over to a shelf, thumping down on the floor. She heard a comment over her shoulder, "Tara's a wonderful witch, she'll know the right one to help you." She scanned the shelf, and pointed out a particular book she liked to use, twisting her head to gaze at the gape-jawed woman following her. It then occurred to Tara that she was still naked. Her after nap fuzzy thinking cleared up with that, and she realized it wasn't that she was bare, it was that she was a bear.
The customer had recovered enough to pull out the book and glance through it. Looking at Tara again, she hesitantly asked, "I don't suppose you know where to find the ingredients too?" Tara grinned, and rolled onto her paws. If Sunnydale could ignore vampires and demons, why not a wiccan bear?
Buffy and Faith slipped away when the sun set. The parents had left already, some kind of instinctive trait that urged them to get small children home before dark. Anya was much too busy celebrating her best sales day since Halloween to care, but she did elicit a vague promise from both of them to help in the shop to make up for the food.
The two slipped out silently into the forest, headed for a large nest they had scented last night. Part of the way there, Faith spotted a doe drinking from a stream. A moments glance to agree on a plan, and Buffy hunkered down to wait for Faith to circle around and chase the deer to her. The deer never had a chance against the two cats, who feasted, cleaned each other, and headed to the next hunt.
Dawn dashed up the few steps to the door, digging in her pocket for the key. Trust Anya to have had a spare made and a copy kept at the magic shop. She paused, noticing and then staring at the two large cats on her porch. It was a bit disorienting seeing them from a normal perspective again. It was a bit disturbing to realize that it hadn't just been the size difference that made them seem so large, they really were quite big.
She didn't have very many memories of Faith, mostly just from the Christmas that Buffy had run off to save Angel. She couldn't recall where she was when Faith had broken into the house to swap bodies with Buffy. It was painful to realize over and over that you hadn't been real.
Which meant it was the perfect time to make new memories.
Faith had woken up with the first tap of feet on the steps, but hadn't bothered to rouse herself. It was early, her belly was full, and it was simply too comfortable laying half against Buffy's warm flank. She simply flicked open one eye, checked that it was Dawn, and then went back to napping.
It couldn't have been more than two minutes later that the door opened again. After a short pause, she heard a soft click that sounded familiar. Some footsteps, then another click. More footsteps getting closer, then her head snapped up just in time to look right into the camera as Dawn took another picture.
Momentarily blinded, she yelped, startling Buffy who leaped up and collided with Dawn, knocking both of them down, and dropped Faith's head to thud into the porch in the process. Trying to rub her head with a paw, she was surprised when Dawn suddenly started laughing, probably at the three of them tangled up together. Buffy seemed rather confused by it all, and started cleaning herself; ignoring Dawn, who was already making fun of her clumsy awakening.
"Buffy, come on. Get out of the way. Look, my arm is fine again." After playfully chasing Dawn back into the house, Buffy had blocked her from leaving again. Faith stretched out on the floor and sighed again. Dawn had been arguing with the stony faced cat for ten minutes, and neither seemed ready to give in yet. She'd already started to repeat herself.
"It's sunny out, no vamps around." Dawn paused to try a new angle. "Besides, it's not like you could go with me." There was a silent pause, during which Buffy simply got to her feet, and walked to the door, waiting for Dawn to join her. "You can't be serious." Dawn looked to Faith for support, but her only response was a shrug. Buffy turned her head to look at Dawn, saying as clearly her expression could, and despite her new look, her expression was as easy to read as ever, that the only way Dawn was leaving was if Buffy came along too.
Faith slipped over to the table, and caught the strap of the camera in her mouth, carrying it back to Dawn. Whatever it was that made B so friendly was unlikely to last once she was changed back, so pictures might be the only thing she'd have to remember this week. Dawn had a decidedly evil smirk on her face when she accepted the camera though... It was only the fact that it was directed at Buffy that kept her from turning tail.
The walk down Sunnydale's main street had been amusing, and Faith was beginning to suspect that Buffy's motivation was simply to have fun. Which she could whole-heartedly support. But Dawn's destination wasn't the Magic Box, which surprised Faith slightly. Instead, she found herself following the distracting gold tail into a store that stunk of animals cramped in too closely together.
"You guys stay here, I'll be right back." Dawn tried to casually walk away from the immediately suspicious felines, who shared a quick glance at one another, then moved to follow silently. Staying one corner behind, they heard Dawn find an employee. "Hi! Where can I find collars?"
The response from the as yet unseen male clerk was a bit insulting. "Flea collars, choke collars, or plain?" Lucky for Dawn, her quick response was to ask for the regular kind. This produced one more shared glance.
The selection was fairly simple. She picked up two of the largest available, two other items, and headed up to pay for them. A quick visual check to make sure the catty slayers hadn't sneaked off, and then Dawn did her part to contribute to the capitalist economy.
"Oh, no bag. I'll use them right now." Dawn ignored the leering look that got her, and scooped up the leather items from the counter. She continued to ignore him when he spluttered and made panicked protests about animals in the store, having noticed Buffy and Faith for the first time. "See, I even got leather, since I know you both like it."
Buffy accepted the collar stoically, but began to growl when Dawn brandished the matching leash. Faith noticed the poor kid behind the counter was turning white as the sisters glared at other. His eyes bugged out when Buffy cut off her snarling suddenly. Faith looked back just in time to see Buffy looking to the side, giving in to the leash. While she certainly couldn't say that being on a leash sat well with her either, Faith made no protest when it was her turn.
Having him take pictures of the three of them was really going too far, but it was quite satisfying to see his face when Dawn asked them to smile for the camera, nearly making up being in the picture.
The small shop bell chimed as it swung open. Not unexpectedly, Anya and her monkey were the only occupants. Xander, who had perched on her shoulder took one look at the cats on leashes, and fell backwards as he laughed, grabbing onto Anya's blouse to keep from landing on the floor. He poked his chin under her arm, still laughing as he clung on.
Buffy and Faith looked quite ready to have a monkey appetizer until Dawn stepped in as an equalizer. "Anya... you've got a monkey on your back." She unclipped the leashes, adding, "I'm sure my little kitties would be happy to take care of that for you." She dropped the leashes and her bookbag on the research table, and casually picked up the nearest book, flipping it open. Luckily, no one was close enough to see that it was upside-down.
"What an excellent idea!" Anya completely failed to notice the four shocked looks. "Now they look like pets instead of wild animals. Which is good, because there's a zoo really close by." She looked around, finding confused faces. "The collars."
"Oh! That, and it was really fun. Where's everyone else?"
"Tara got this strange idea about practicing magic. Something about being skyclad, but I think Wesley's sign language is rusty. Anyhow, Amy & Willow are with her in the back room."
Dawn rubbed her healed arm unconsciously. "I thought Willow gave up magic. Wasn't that the whole point of Tara moving out? Or did they make up? 'Cause you know, it was kinda weird when I was a ferret. Like human stuff wasn't as important."
Anya shuddered as she repressed her brief experience, and focused her attention on the cats instead, cleverly changing the subject. "Wesley bought fresh meat for the two of you. It was very expensive, so I won't mind if you're not hungry yet. No eating Xander, though."
The only response her offer got was an ear flick from the curled up pair. Fresh was a relative thing, and food always tasted better when you made it yourself. Or better yet, hunted it yourself.
Homework just wasn't as much fun by yourself, so after a quick negotiation with Anya, Dawn got permission to call her friends to study at the shop. Pointing that the table was used for research all the time didn't fly, but pointing out that if it became a cool teen hangout there might be more sales because teens follow trends was enough to convince Anya.
It was the discussion on dissecting a cat that really caught Buffy's attention.
She rolled to her feet, and poked her head around the corner into the table alcove. Dawn was sitting just to her left, and so was the only one who didn't notice her at first. She didn't even notice when the entire table went dead silent.
"I'm so glad I'm not in that class. The frog is bad enough. Was it like a cat from a shelter that was put to sleep?" Dawn looked up from her book. "Sharon?" She looked at the others at the table, and then followed the fixed gazes to her right, where Buffy was standing. "Oh, hey you." Dawn reached out and scratched behind Buffy's ear without really thinking about it. "Bored?"
Buffy's eyes closed as her head dropped into Dawn's lap, rumbling in an extra-large sized version of a purring sound. This lasted for all of a minute before there was a high-pitched shriek from one of the girls as Faith appeared, investigating her suddenly missing partner.
Sharon, who was sitting on the far side of the table, liked cats. She'd found out about the honors biology class dissection project, and had shared her discovery out of a sense of outrage that anyone would do that to a cat. It was an interesting coincidence that when the slightly jealous jaguar suddenly decided she wanted attention too, it was her lap that the black furred feline went to. She was thus the first to make the connection between the leash ends hanging out of Dawn's bag and the matching collar that her hand bumped into.
"You have a panther as a pet??"
Faith was lastingly grateful that none of the girls had had pink ribbons to tie on her collar. She liked Dawn, really. And helping to improve her popularity was well and good, but no cutesy ribbons. Dawn still had the damn camera, after all. Her own fault, really. She'd thought that Dawn would have fun taking pictures of Buffy, and hadn't realized she'd be in them all too.
Wesley had showed up close to sundown, making sure that Anya would be there the next morning with Xander. He'd actually smiled at the feline pair, commenting that the council had always wanted them on a tight leash, and would be fascinated to learn that all they'd needed was the right key.
Somehow, they were able to forbear the humor to go on patrol. More accurately, it was a quickly plotted escape.
They roamed through the usual in-city haunts, sniffing at the openings to abandoned buildings, of which Sunnydale had more than was usual for its size. Only one was inhabited, which was quickly corrected. Faith took great pride in taking out more than Buffy did. The usual next stop would have been the Bronze, but after prowling the alleys around it for a time, they gave up and headed to the first of many cemeteries.
Buffy took the lead, heading directly to, and without pausing, into a crypt. Faith slipped past the heavy stone door that was bouncing back to slam closed just in time to hear a voice with a British accent react to the intrusion.
"I can see the new shape hasn't changed your manners, pet." Spike grounded his cigarette out on the arm of the chair he was sitting in. "It'll make it harder to punch me in the nose, at least." Buffy simply stared at him and waited.
Spike nonchalantly looked back at her, and took his time getting up and picking up his duster from the floor. "I imagine you're wanting me to attend your royal highness, and go somewhere." He lit up again when she nodded. "I don't suppose there'll be any demons to kill?" A second nod, and a smirk crossed his face. "Right, off we go then."
The unusual trio were unusually effective fighting together. Spike was somewhat disappointed when the competition ran out of targets early in the night. Still, he followed along behind when Buffy led them into the woods. He shared in the feasting when they found dinner; cold pig's blood was the poof's thing.
It was when the slayers followed Spike back to his crypt and curled up on the floor next to his bed that he remembered this was the same Buffy who had wrecked the house with him. He mumbled to himself as he fell asleep, "Like the new you, luv. Hope you keep that attitude when you change back."
Monday's detransformation went off without a noticeable hitch. Anya had then dragged Xander home for a naked inspection. Xander wisely pulled her away before she could finish explaining what she meant. He was rather late for work, however.
Dawn became the hot gossip topic before lunch, with seemingly the entire school asking if it was really true that she had a lioness and a black panther as pets. She was quick enough to realize that even with pictures, it wouldn't be a good idea to claim it was a permanent thing, so she added that her sister would probably find a new home for them by the end of the week. It was almost the truth, too.
The three witches had discovered that a bear's hands were capable of making a small portion of the gestures required for the casting of illusions. It took Anya more than two hours to figure out why she kept seeing dollar bills out of the corner of her eye; dollar bills that vanished as soon as she turned to look. Tara enjoyed the prank more than she had expected.
The two 'pets' slept in that morning, not awakening until they heard the softly muted sounds of a television being turned on. Buffy had never quite understood his obsession with the show, so simply closed her eyes again, and tried to nuzzle into the cool sarcophagus laying next to her. Her head popped back up, staring over at her recent bedmate to see Faith watching Passions as avidly as Spike was. She groaned, and dropped back down again.
It was a fair bit later, after the show had ended and Spike was deconstructing it to a half-willing audience; Faith being the willing half, Buffy being the half that was holding her ears closed, that Dawn burst into the crypt in standard Summers' fashion.
"Spike! Buffy and Faith never..." She trailed off, spotting the missing two looking up at her with curious expressions. "...came home, and I was started to get really worried. Couldn't you have left me a note or something?" she added with a acid tone.
There were a few confused glances exchanged by the threesome. "Uh, nibblet? They've got a slight writing deficiency. Not to mention a mild case of lacking opposable thumbs."
Dawn flopped down on the arm of the chair. "Whatever."
"Cats." The demon-faced creature lifted a single eyebrow, and let the word echo in the silence. For a souled creature, the need to fill that silence would be caused by guilt. For her followers, fear was the driving factor. It was remarkable how much psychology from her former life could still be useful.
As she'd expected, the nervous minion tried to explain again. "Two of them. One was black, and the other was gold. I saw the black one land on Brad's back, and before they even hit the ground, it ripped his head off." He glanced around, feeling as alone as he looked. "The gold one used its claws, tore out Johnboy's throat like he was just in the way of getting to Big Jim." It was hard to put away all the reflexes from being human, which was why Little Jimmy found himself swallowing hard to push down a renewed fear. "They were worse than the Slayer. They were-"
"Buzzsaws cutting through trees, leaving clouds of sawdust in the air. I think I preferred your first story better. Lovely imagery, that was. So now, instead of a team of eleven, I just have... you." She lifted a single finger and watched dispassionately as Little Jimmy exploded into a neat pile of dust. She considered for a moment before deciding how to handle the newest threat to her bid for dominion over the Hellmouth. "Boys. Go find out who it is that likes to play with cats." Six as-yet unstaked minions departed in pairs, some less eagerly than others.
"You didn't have to walk me home, you know."
"'Course I didn't."
"I'm not a child anymore. Besides, it's hardly even dark out yet."
That got a significant look. "Dark enough."
Dawn glared at her companion. "You're just following-"
"Spike!" Dawn stopped short, looking confused. She and Spike both turned to look behind them to see Wesley crossing the street, headed towards them. "Ah, Dawn. Good. Have either of you seen Buffy or Faith? We have a new problem."
"Oh god... Is the world ending?"
"C'mon, it's not like it's the end of the world."
"It is if those cats kill us. That is, if there even are cats." The two vampires holding the quiet conversation looked up as a panel truck indentifying itself as belonging to the Sunnydale Zoo rolled by, then looked at each other.
"I have a thought. Let's check out Willy's."
"I doubt we'll find any cats there."
"That was going to be my point."
Most of the Scooby gang sat around, on, or near the usual table in the shop, listening to Wesley explain. "My point is this. Amy and Willow are small enough to hide. Tara is not, nor are the Slayers. But I can't undo this spell unless they're actually here. Willingly, mind you." He paused, noticing that half of the group seemed to be looking into Dawn's lap. "At which point the oceans will boil away, the sky will turn red, and I expect hell will freeze over as well."
As it turned out, his estimate was far too low. Anya was the only one paying attention, which got him nothing more than a complaint, "The world can't end, I haven't gotten married yet!"
"Dawn, please put the pictures away. If we don't help your sister soon, she may be stuck that way. I believe the spell is still acting on her, altering her thoughts to that of an animal. Further, should animal control catch her..." He trailed off, letting the imagination fill in the blanks.
"The Zoo might have a Slayer exhibit soon?"
"Spike, come to the Magic Box and listen to me yammer. Spike, walk Dawn home. Spike, find Buffy. Would the word 'please' kill them?" Spike pulled out a cigarette and lit up, grumbling to himself as he followed one of Buffy's typical patrol routes. "Stupid damn cats."
A black shape hurtled out of the darkness behind him, knocking him to the ground, and pinning him down. A soft growl sounded in his ear when he tried to move to get up. He sighed, breathing out a cloud of smoke. "Sneaky damn cats, I mean."
...to be continued...