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Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, I just play.

Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from ‘Get it Done.’ Once again beta’d by the great BTL.
Chapter 26: Bag of Slayery Goodness

Buffy sat through the explanations Giles and Nate gave about the bag of slayery goodness trying to not look bored. She didn’t need the whys and wherefores, she’d lived the bag before. But it seemed important for the watchers do that watcher thing. They liked to feel useful.

“This is a slayer thing?” Dawn huffed, annoyed. “Mmm Cookies would have been much more fun, at least I could help out then.”

“I don’t get it,” Molly said, confusion covering her features. “You had a whole what, 13 hours, and you don’t know what will happen when you send me, or Buffy, in whatever portal it opens?”

“This is a sacred slayer ritual, passed down from generation to generation. The satchel has been missing for years. It is a miracle that it was returned to us at all,” Nate explained.

“No watcher has ever been inside the portal. Like Mr. Bradford explained, this is a sacred slayer ritual. Only a slayer knows what’s in side, what secrets will be revealed,” noted Giles.

“There could be something squishy in there,” Molly muttered, earning a laugh from Buffy.

“Perhaps,” Nate agreed, distain evident for his slayer’s unfortunate distaste of creatures that oozed. “The point is, that no one knows what’s in there. But it is your task to find out and gain knowledge and power from within it. No one living knows what lies inside.”

As a silence resounded throughout the living room, everyone taking in the gravity of the situation in question, Buffy raised her hand tentatively.

“I’m sorry to correct you, Nate,” Buffy started, “but I am the only living person to know what’s in there.”

“This is one of those, ‘I’m from the future things,’ right?” yawned the vengeance demon, sitting on the arm of the comfy chair. “You aren’t going to start pulling at your teeth again are you? That was last year’s obsession.”

Giles sat down in his chair with a thump, and Nate stared at the Master Slayer with his mouth agape.

“And we were working so hard to keep that little secret a secret,” Xander muttered.

“Since when are you from the future?” Molly asked Buffy. “Did you know she was from the future?” she asked Amy.

The former rat shook her head. “Why would they tell me?”

“Ignoring for a second that you are apparently from the future,” Nate said sighing, “Where does the portal take you?”

Buffy gave him a look, from her place on the couch beside Spike. “If slayers never told their watchers for a millennia, then what makes you think that I’m going to tell you now?” Then she turned to Spike. “Do I really make that big a deal about my teeth?”

“Yes, love, you do,” the vampire responded.

Buffy pouted.

“It was amusing at first, but now it’s old. Like you!” Anya said trying to cheer her friend up.
____________________________
Buffy pulled Molly aside, while the debate raged in the living room, the debate over what they all wanted for dinner. Standing in the hallway away from eavesdropping Scoobies, Buffy tried to keep her face serious and not smile as Spike, in the other room, tried to convince everyone that steak and kidney pie was truly underrated, and was appealing to the watchers for backup. Even if Spike was going to make it, there was no way that she was going to eat anything with kidneys in it.

“I think you should do it,” Buffy started.

Molly looked wide eyed at the Master Slayer for a moment. “You think that I should make the steak and kidney pie? I’m veggie!”

“No,” Buffy half laughed, “I think you should do the Slayer ritual thing in the bag. I think it’s important that you at least have the choice they give you, and for you to find out where the power comes from.”

“Is that what’s in there?” Molly asked.

“It won’t be something you are expecting, and it kind of smells. But I think it’s important.”

Molly nodded. “What do I have to do?”

“You’ll know.”
_______________________________
Buffy had never seen the ritual from the other side. She knew that the last time she’d done this, Spike told her that there was a demon, and that was why there was a hole in the living room ceiling. This time, she wanted to make certain that there was no hole in the ceiling, or really any extensive damage to the house.

This time she wanted to avoid badness. This time she was prepared. Also it helped that she wasn’t the one going through to the other side. As the watchers prepared, and Molly paced nervously, Anya munched on a bowl of popcorn, Spike lounged on the couch.

“I wanna see what happens!” Dawn shouted from upstairs. “You can’t keep me up here!”

“Do you see the ropes around your small body?” Anya answered for Buffy. “That’s what keeping you up there.”

“The Bit’s not going to be happy with you for a good long time,” Spike cautioned his fiancée.

“So?” Buffy answered. “I know what’s going to happen and I don’t want her in the way of the badness. She’s safer if she’s not immediately in the room. I’d send her somewhere else, but I have my doubts about her safety anywhere. It’s the mama bear syndrome I swear.”

Spike gave her a look.

“I’m so taking her on a shopping spree tomorrow.”

“Please don’t leave me with the kissing Wiccans!” Dawn moaned from upstairs.

“I second that!” came Amy’s voice.

“I really don’t mind it!” noted Xander, his voice chiming in from the upper level of the house as well.

Spike got up off the couch and walked towards the stairs. Placing his hands on the handrails, he barked up at the occupants of the second floor. “Oy! Enough complaining. Anyone else that makes a peep of noise is going to be my next dinner!”

“Empty threat, Spike,” Buffy noted with a smile, and kissed him on the cheek before she was interrupted by the front door bell.

The watchers stopped their actions for a moment and stared at the door, their hands clutching the pieces of the shadow caster. Molly stopped her pacing to face the door, ready for anything.

“Relax!” Buffy ordered, her hand on the doorknob. She opened the door to reveal Robin Wood standing on the porch.

“Hey Principal Wood!” Molly said cheerily, waving to the man on the porch. “What are you doing here? Please don’t say I have more homework, I’m not done with the stuff Buffy brought home yet.”

The principal laughed as Buffy let him into the house. “No. Buffy invited me, apparently you’re using the stuff in the bag I dropped off.”

“You couldn’t leave a note on it? ‘Slayer things enclosed inside.’ That would have been helpful,” noted Anya.

“We thought you'd want to be here,” Buffy said, smiling, clearly ignoring Anya.

“Yeah, you thought right,” the principal responded.

“Hi Principal Wood!” shouted Dawn from upstairs. “I’d come say ‘hi!’ but I’m tied to a chair.”

A look of shock passed over the principal’s face and he looked at Buffy for an explanation.

“It was the really best solution. We should get started,” the Slayer noted walking into the living room leaving Spike and Robin in the hallway.

The two stared each other down for a moment, before Spike followed Buffy into the living room. Clearly, Robin wasn’t just going to forget what Spike did to his mother. Not that the Slayer expected him to just forget it.

“You’re just in time!” Molly said nervously.

“Yes, welcome,” Giles greeted. “Are we ready to start?”

Buffy nodded then looked to Molly. She was nervous, but the Junior Slayer nodded too.

“Then I suggest we extinguish the lights,” noted Nate. “It would enable us to see the shadows better.”

Buffy and Spike turned off the lamps, leaving the room in darkness, the sun having long since set. Suddenly the room lit up, as Giles struck a match and lit the candle at the middle of the shadow caster.

“First, there was the Earth,” read Nate, as Giles placed the first metal piece on the caster.

A drum beat started drumming somewhere. “What’s the sound?” Molly asked.

“Definitely creepy,” noted Anya, between mouthfuls of popcorn.

“Anya, love, do you really think now is a good time to eat a snack?” Giles asked.

“I’m hungry now, and Buffy said that we wouldn’t have dinner until after,” Anya explained.

“Then, there came the demons,” Nate continued, and Giles placed the next piece.

Growling sounds filled the room, adding to Molly’s worry.

“After demons, there came men,” Nate read. Giles placed the piece that corresponded to the men on the caster, as sounds of chanting filled the room, joining the other sounds.

Even Buffy shivered as the sounds became louder.

“Men found a girl,” Nate continued, as Giles placed the metal form of a girl on the caster.

A girl’s scream pierced the air.

“I don’t like this,” Molly hissed.

“And the men took the girl to fight all demons. They chained her to the Earth,” read Nate. Giles placed the next piece.

“I like it,” Anya commented. “Promises to be a good story.”

The shadow caster started spinning of its own accord.

“And look, it’s like an ancient movie,” the demon continued.

“And the darkness became part of the girl. You cannot be shown. You cannot just watch, but you must see. See for yourself, but only if you’re willing to make the exchange,” Nate read on ignoring Anya’s commentary.

Suddenly, a bright blue light appeared on the caster, and grew, until it was the size of a door.

“What does it mean?” Robin asked.

“It means a slayer has to go in there,” responded Buffy.

“You don’t even know what you’re exchanging. You don’t’ know if you’re ready yet,” Robin continued.

Buffy turned to face him. “But I do. And I’m not the one going in there.”

Molly stepped towards the portal and gulped. “How will I get back?”

“That’s why we have three witches upstairs,” Buffy answered.

“And what gets exchanged?” Spike asked.

“It’s big and ugly and demony,” was the response.

“Good,” the vampire smiled.

“I thought you’d like that.” Buffy turned to Molly and placed her hand on her shoulder. “You can say no, if you want to. You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do,” Molly answered, her back straight. With a quick intake of air, Molly jumped through the portal.

The living room was left in darkness as the portal closed behind the Slayer.

“Can I come down yet?” Dawn asked from upstairs.

“No!” shouted Spike, Buffy and the two watchers in unison.

“I think I’m going to retreat to the kitchen with my popcorn,” Anya noted getting up off her comfy chair.

“That’s probably wise,” Giles noted as a flash of light illuminated the room and a large growling demon appeared in the middle of the room.

“This must be the exchange student,” noted the principal, stepping backwards to avoid its arms.

Buffy launched herself at the demon, kicking and punching in an effort to subdue it. Spike hopped over furniture turning the violent demon away from the hallway and keeping it in the room.

“Right helpful you watchers are,” Spike commented as he fought. “You two going to just watch?”

“As you are so fond of saying, that is our job, Spike,” Giles noted.

Nate crouched down on the ground and picked up a sword, standing in a defensive posture for a moment before Buffy grabbed the sword out of his hand.

“Thanks!”

A few moments later, the demon was incapacitated on the floor.

“Anya!” Buffy called into the kitchen.

“What?” Anya said, poking her head into the living room.

“Look, you have one job, that’s why I let you stay downstairs. Chains. Now,” Buffy ordered.

Anya left her popcorn in the kitchen and walked into the living room, grabbing the chains she had had stowed on the floor beside her comfy chair. She began chaining up the demon while whistling.

“Can we come down now?” Willow asked from upstairs.

“Yes, now you can come down,” Buffy answered.
______________________________________
Tbc…





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