Slayers

ARRIVAL:

The bald man in the wheelchair had been very nice and her parents were getting divorced anyway, so Buffy had agreed to come and give his private school a shot. Besides, her cousins, Scott and Chris were already attending there, so it couldn't be too bad. It wasn't like she could have gone back to her old school, anyway; not after the incident that burnt down the gymnasium. It wasn't her fault vampires crashed the Freshman Dance. The Principal didn't believe in vampires, of course, and too many people had seen Buffy mixing with them (fighting them, really, but as usual, that wasn't how anyone remembered it).

Her mom, Joyce, was all cheerful and smiles as she drove Buffy to the school built on a mountain shelf overlooking the town of Sunnydale and the Pacific Ocean beyond it. "I know you're going to like it here, Buffy. It's a fresh start for you; a new beginning. Professor Xavier's academy is very small, but extremely prestigious. Students don't apply to go there, they're invited. You're very lucky and I know you're going to make the most of it . . . . You are going to make the most of it, aren't you?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Mom. I'm going to be okay. Scotty and Chris are attending there. They'll keep me grounded. Best behavior, I promise; Girl Scouts honor."

Joyce was still worried, but did her best to hide it. "Your father and I may no longer be together, but we're still both just a phone call away if you need anything. We both love you very much."

Buffy knew her father, who was staying in LA, loved her, but he'd always been married to his job first. That had been one of the major causes of the divorce. They'd never said, but Buffy was certain that she had been the other major cause. Now her mother was opening a new art gallery in San Jose, so she'd be insanely busy as well. Buffy knew that as soon as Joyce dropped her off, she was on her own. They had their own lives and didn't deserve to be dragged into the madness that was hers . . . whether she wanted it or not.

The road leading up to the estate housing the school was long, steep and winding, but not so much as to make the town below difficult to reach. The brochure Buffy had been given said the structure had originally been built in upstate New York, then moved out to California brick by brick in the fifties. It certainly looked beautiful as they passed through the main gate and drove up the long drive to the loop in front of the main entrance. Scott and the Professor were all waiting on the front porch as Joyce pulled the car to a stop.

Buffy almost leaped out of the car and bounded up the steps to wrap Scott in a bear hug. "Scotty!"

Scott received the enthusiastic hug with great aplomb. "Good to see you, small fry."

Scott had been blind since the plane crash that claimed the lives of his and Chris' parents, but he often said he could see things others missed.

"I'm not that small," Buffy insisted. "I had a growth spurt since your last visit."

He cleared his throat. "I noticed. You're definitely not the scrawny little tom boy with skinned up knees who kept getting under foot."

"It's good to see you, Scott." Joyce slipped in with a hug of her own. "My, how you have grown. How's Chris?"

"Always a pleasure, Aunt Joyce," Scott responded affectionately. "Chris is fine. He'd have been here, but he's a little under the weather. He wanted me to give you a hug and his love. We were very sorry to hear about you and Uncle Hank. How are you doing?"

She smiled. "As well as can be expected, I suppose. Things happen and marriages end. I'll always love Hank, but it was time for both of us to move on."

Buffy's parents had taken Scott and Chris in after the crash and cared for them for three years, until Professor Xavier entered their lives and brought them to the school. Now Buffy was joining them. It was definitely going to be interesting.

Joyce turned to Xavier. "I want to thank you again, Professor, for inviting Buffy to attend your school."

"The thanks, Mrs. Summers, are mine," Charles insisted, "for you and your husband permitting her to accept my invitation. I believe you'll be very happy here, Buffy. Would you both like to have a tour of our facilities?"

"I'm afraid I can't," Joyce told him. "As much as I hate it, I have just enough time to drop Buffy off and get back on the road. I just found out this morning that I have to be in San Jose to sign the final papers for my new store before this evening. I'd hoped to have at least a couple of days to help Buffy settle in."

"It's okay, Mom," Buffy tried not to sound desperate as she assured her mother and took Scott by the arm. "Go take care of it. I'll be fine. See, this is me fitting in. Scotty and Chris will take good care of me."

ORIENTATION:

As soon as Buffy's belongings were unloaded and Joyce drove off, Xavier seemed to relax perceptibly. "Scott, I asked Peter to take Buffy's things up to her room. Would you assist him when he gets here? As soon as you're finished, everyone is gathering in the dining hall for introductions. Buffy, if you would come with me, we can get your orientation taken care of. I must say we've been waiting for your arrival for some time."

With only a hint of trepidation, Buffy followed the Professor. "So, this is where you tell me all the rules and give me the school pep talk?"

Xavier smiled. "I believe you'll find Xavier's to be a different experience than any other school you've ever attended. I must say, by the way, that I'm quite impressed with the way you dealt with those vampires last May; a little more public than would be hoped, but an impressive first outing."

Buffy came up short, for once in her life shocked almost to silence. "Wait? You know about that? What's going on here?"

Be at ease, Buffy, you're among friends. The way Xavier's voice just appeared in her head, should have thrown her off, but she'd experienced telepathy before.

"You're a Watcher?" Now she was actually starting to get a little angry.

"Your previous Watcher, Mr. Pryce, was one of my more gifted pupils." The Professor remained calm and attempted to be reassuring. "May he rest in peace."

Memories of May flooded Buffy's memories unwanted. Wesley had a major stick up his butt, but he hadn't deserved to die like that. Shaking her head and taking a step away from Xavier, Buffy fought back a tear that had been forming.

"That's not me anymore," she insisted, knowing it was futile. "I did my duty. I did my Slayer thing. Now I just want to live a normal life. I never asked for any of this."

"'Into every generation . . .'" Xavier intoned.

". . . Slayers are born.'" Buffy interrupted him angrily. "'Children with the power to fight back the darkness.' I know the story. Find someone else. I'm not your girl. I want nothing to do with any of this."

"I'm afraid," Xavier told her calmly, "you'll find people like us seldom get the choice. Like it or not, you were chosen. So were your cousins and everyone at this school. I founded this Academy to help Slayers train and band together for mutual support. It won't help to deny your responsibilities. Slayers are drawn to extra-dimensional conflict and it's drawn to them. Dr. McCoy and I have even theorized that it's written in our very DNA."

Buffy stopped short; she didn't want to think about the last comment, so she focused on the one before it. "Wait a minute. I thought this Slayer rap was supposed to be all Lone Rangery. Wesley told me it was a one Slayer and one Watcher together against the world kind of thing."

"That's how it's been down through the ages, Buffy." Xavier's displeasure with the policy was evident. "Look what it's got us. Wesley died protecting you. When I wasn't much older than you are, my spine was shattered in a battle with a demon. I understand that Slayers in each generation are few, but there has to be a better way."

He paused as they reached a pair of massive and ornate wooden doors. "A Slayer's average life expectancy is twenty one. Did you know that? I wouldn't think so. It's not something they like to announce. I'm determined to change that statistic."

He turned to her, his passion obvious. "Each of us has the strength, agility, reflexes, stamina, recuperative powers, sensory abilities and genetic memory to go toe to toe with vampires and most common demons. In addition, we each have special gifts that make us unique. Although blind, Scott can perceive auras. He also has a kind of tactile spatial awareness and an instinctive understanding of trajectories and spatial geometry that make him a truly deadly archer. Chris can run and move incredibly fast and has even broken the sound barrier more than once. As a matter of fact, over the generations, the Summers family, like my own, has produced a surprising number of Slayers. Both their father and your grandfather were Slayers, as a matter of fact."

The Professor's expression saddened. "That's another problem with the lone Slayer mentality. Demons aren't always rampaging monsters. Many of them are highly intelligent and well organized. The Summers and Xavier clans have long been suspected of producing Slayers. When a certain group was able to prove the connection between my family and Slayers, they hunted down and killed every one of my relatives. I'm the last surviving member of my entire clan. Should this same group, or any of a number of other similar groups, ever confirm that yours is one of what scholars call the Twelve Families, they'll do the same to everyone you love. Only the fact that such a culling is all but impossible to cover up prevents them from doing so based on suspicion alone. I created this school, in part, to help prevent that from ever happening again."

Now he had Buffy's attention. "So, all Slayers come from one of these twelve families?"

He smiled. "Hardly, but each of the Twelve Families has a long tradition of slaying and the War of Shadows. At one time or another, each has been all but exterminated, only to be rediscovered generations later living under new names. In other situations, a Slayer's identity has been discovered and their entire family wiped out on the false belief that they were one of the Twelve."

Buffy slumped against the wall of the hallway. "Wow; you're all kinds of cheerful, aren't ya? Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse. You said you had an idea to change all of this. What's that all about?"

"Glad you asked," Xavier responded as the doors before them swung automatically open, revealing a massive library beyond. "This is the Library, Buffy. Here we've gathered copies of virtually every tome ever written regarding the Shadow War. If knowledge is power, this chamber poses an even greater danger to our enemies than we do."

"I doubt that, Professor." An average man with glasses and a raspy English accent stepped out from between rows of shelves. He was carrying a massive tome and his throat was heavily scarred. "It's merely a tool. Without the Slayers, it's just a big room filled with lots of dusty old books."

Xavier let the old debate die. "Buffy, this is Rupert Giles; Librarian, Chief Researcher and History Teacher. Mr. Giles was once a Slayer with formidable sonic powers, until his throat was nearly ripped out in a battle. He recovered his voice, but not his powers, I'm afraid. Now we've both found new ways to serve, as teachers and guides of the next generation; jointly this time, instead of individually."

"Whether the Council likes it or not," Giles added with a wry almost grin.

Xavier quickly, but smoothly changed the subject. "You'll meet the third member of our faculty, Dr. McCoy, later. He's our chief scientist and weapons designer, as well as being the school's physician. He's scheduled to give you a full physical this afternoon."

"I need a physical?" Buffy was appropriately distracted. "I thought . . . I mean the whole Slayer stamina and recuperation thingy . . . ."

"Physicals are required after every major mission like your battle last May. Vampires and demons carry diseases that can remain dormant for months, even years. Many are fatal, but nearly all are treatable if diagnosed soon enough. Since you only fought vampires, it wasn't a high priority, but it's a safe precaution. We need to establish your baseline, anyway. Not to worry. We've yet to encounter anything Dr. McCoy can't treat."

Buffy wasn't sure how to take that, but Xavier went on seemingly oblivious. "That's for later, however. Mr. Giles, give Buffy an overview of what we're facing?"

"Quite right." Giles fiddled with cleaning his glasses and launched into a story he'd obviously told numerous times. "Certain areas of the Earth have weaknesses in the walls that separate our reality with the myriad others out there. Such places are called Hellmouths. Sunnydale sits on the largest; most active Hellmouth in over a century."

Buffy nodded and turned to Xavier. "So, it's a major source of bad juju, which is probably why you moved your mansion here. Kind of wondered what a town of just over five thousand needed with nine cemeteries."

"I'm glad to see you read the brochures I gave you." Xavier smiled.

Buffy laughed sardonically. "It was a long drive and Mom and I accidentally packed my mp3 player in one of my boxes. I had to do something to keep my sanity."

"I'm certain," Giles said with typical British aplomb. "In addition to a large vampire infestation, Sunnydale is plagued by threats from every dimension the Hellmouth intersects. If something vile and inexplicable is going to happen, it's a high probability it will be here."

Buffy nodded. "In otherwise the perfect place to raise a family . . . or build a private school. Got it."

"Quite." Giles was unimpressed with her grasp of the gravity of the situation, but let it pass for now.

With a nod from Giles, Xavier took over Buffy's orientation again. "Now, if you'll follow me, it's time to get your course of study set up and familiarize you with the mansion's computer system."

"Joy," Buffy responded with all the excitement of one being told they were going to spend the summer with their boring grandparents.

It only took fifteen minutes to set Buffy's computer access and get her class schedule completed, but the Professor lost her about half way through. "You'll be taking three courses, plus training, which will appear on your public transcript as PE, here at the school. Classes actually only meet once a week, with the rest of the work being done independently. Dr. McCoy, Mr. Giles and I are available anytime; however, if you need assistance between classes and you're encouraged to work with other students. The fourth member of our faculty, Dr. MacTaggart, splits her time between here and the Muir Island Research Facility off the coast of Scotland. She's been there all summer, but will be returning early next week."

He paused just long enough to make sure she was getting it all. Late assignments are accepted only in the case of mission interference, and not even that is permitted as a regular excuse. Since this is your sophomore year, Slayer History I and Basic Genetics are required courses. You'll also take 10th Grade English, Algebra, Life Science and World History at Sunnydale High School. These have a normal schedule from ten am to three pm. Classes here start first thing in the morning tomorrow. Classes at Sunnydale High School start next week."

He handed her a sheet of paper. "Your final class taken here is an elective chosen from this list. If you don't see something you like, let me know and we'll see if we can accommodate you. Bear in mind, of course, that there is no class in underwater basket weaving at this institution."

Buffy smiled nervously. "Darn, and here I was hoping."

As she looked over her list of options, Buffy quickly realized that whatever else Xavier might be running; he was deadly serious about education. There were no skate courses in the curriculum. Everything looked like a challenge.

"I'm just a tiny bit overwhelmed," she admitted.

Xavier smiled pleasantly. "Although all three of us try to make learning as hands on and enjoyable as possible, several students have expressed particular interest in Dr. McCoy's Computer Programming class. The class projects he's come up with have never failed to be . . . fascinating."

He paused long enough to realize she didn't have a clue. "Tell you what. There's no need to make your decision immediately. Why don't we go introduce you to the other students? They might have some suggestions that you'll find helpful. You can tell me your decision in the morning."

STUDENT BODY:

Seeing Buffy's relieved expression, Xavier took her to the dining hall where the other students were waiting to meet her. Normally very self-assured, Buffy suddenly began feeling self-conscious instead.

"About time," an attractive brunette with a sour expression said caustically. "I have better things to do than sit around waiting for the new kid to show up."

That was all it took to break Buffy from her discomfort, but Scott spoke up before she could. "That will be all, Destiny. Welcome to Xavier's, Buffy. You'll have to forgive Cordelia; she woke up on the wrong side of the bed, this eon."

"Well, I never . . . ." the brunette cast a look at Scott that would have peeled paint.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of, dear," Buffy came back acidly.

Cordelia was livid, but speechless. Professor Xavier just closed his eyes and pinched his nose. Several people around the room looked shocked. A couple even giggled nervously. A red head actually walked up and gave Buffy a hug.

"Jean Grey," she said. "The brunette with the smoke coming out of her ears is Cordelia Chase. Scott's told us all about you. Until now, I thought he was exaggerating. I think you're going to fit right in around here. Anyone who can make Cordelia speechless can handle about anything."

A cute, but mousy girl in pink overalls with a cartoon cat on the bib came up next. "Hi. I'm Willow; Willow Pryde. So nice to finally meet you."

A somewhat geeky young man accompanying her took Buffy's hand and shook it a little too enthusiastically. "Xander Drake, at your service. If you need any help with school stuff, Willow's your girl. She's the smartest girl in the school."

Willow blushed adorably. "Xander, you're embarrassing me."

"If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'," he insisted.

"So nice to meet both of you." Buffy laughed lightly as Willow seemed extremely interested in her own shoes and Xander seemed to have forgotten to let go of her hand. "Can I have that back, now? I'm kind of used to having two of them."

"Oh, sure, of course, I mean . . . ." Xander stammered, suddenly trying to find a place to put his hands.

"Cool it down, lover boy, she's so far out of your league, it's not even funny." Chris had risen painfully from his seat and limped over to greet his cousin. "Good to see you again, Buff. Sorry I couldn't say hi to Aunt Joyce, but I'd have had a little trouble explaining my injuries without a lot more questions than we like to have around here."

"What happened?" She asked; immediately concerned.

"We took out a vamp hive last night," Scott told her. "Someone let himself get distracted, and half a dozen vampires took advantage of the opportunity. The kid who can break the sound barrier let himself be caught flat footed. If Kendra hadn't been on the spot, he could have really been hurt. As it is, he's got some cuts and scrapes, some bruised ribs and torn muscles, a sprained ego and is on the injured reserve list for a few days."

"Kendra?"

"That would be me." The black woman stood easily six feet tall and moved with consummate grace. It was her bright blue eyes and luxurious platinum blonde hair, however, that stood out most. "Kendra Monroe."

"Well, Kendra Monroe," Buffy accepted the offered hand shake. "Thanks for saving my idiot cousin's bacon."

As unnoticed, Professor Xavier slipped out of the room to let the students get to know each other; two more young men remained to be introduced. One was a small built man with spiked red hair who looked and dressed every inch a rocker. The other was a giant, with sandy hair and a shy smile, who, at 6' 4", dwarfed everyone else in the room.

"Peter Riley Finn." The giant's hand dwarfed hers as he gently shook it. "Most people call me Riley."

"Oz Wagner," the rocker swaggered forward before Buffy could find her voice to respond to Riley's greeting. "My band's playing the Bronze tonight. Since we actually have a night off for a change, everyone was going to head down there after dinner. You'd be welcome to join us."

"Oh," Cordelia said spitefully, regaining her bearings, "a big city girl like her wouldn't be interested in our little Bronze. I'd guess a biker bar would be more her style."

"What's the Bronze?" If Buffy's interest hadn't been piqued already, Cordelia's comments would have pushed her into it.

"Only the coolest place in all of Sunnydale," Willow responded exuberantly. "It's also the only teen club in town."

"Sounds great," Buffy responded with a little exuberance of her own. "I'm always up for a party. It's a date."

Chris directed her to a large table they were all sitting around. It was laden with all the makings of cold sandwiches. "So, other than the standard stuff we all have, what's your special ability. Scott and I manifested early. We were wondering if you were ever going to."

"It's not all that useful, really." Realizing how hungry she was, she started assembling a large sandwich. "I can generate a big flash of light that causes vamps to go poof. It's real . . . flashy, but I can only do it once without resting and it pretty much exhausts me. It's useful if I can get everything with one shot, but if anything survives, I'm pretty much screwed."

"Is that how you got your Watcher killed?" Ophelia was sitting at the far end of the table, but still within easy earshot of the conversation.

Seeing the rage rise in Buffy, Scott quickly interjected. "You'll have to forgive Cordelia, Buffy. She's a limited precog, but she also seems to have developed the uncanny ability say the worst possible thing at the worst possible moment."

"It's okay, Scott," Buffy assured him as she quickly got control of her temper. "One of the vamps that attacked the dance had a flame thrower, of all things, and really liked using it. After he set the gym on fire, Wesley - - that was my Watcher's name, by the way - - was using his telepathic powers to keep everyone calm and direct the evacuation. He succeeded. Unfortunately, he waited so long to make sure everyone made it out, that he didn't."

Realizing how much the memory still hurt, Scott wrapped an arm around Buffy and hugged her. Following his brother's lead, Chris reached out and squeezed her hand. Silence reined around the table; even Cordelia.

Shaking it off, Buffy tried to reassure her cousins. "I'm good. The memory's just a little raw, still. Wes was a pain in the neck and way to stiff, but he was a good guy when it came right down to it."

Silently, Cordelia got up, left her food and walked stiffly out of the room. Scott shot a glance to Jean, who nodded, then immediately got up and followed the girl.

"Cordelia just discovered her powers in the last few weeks," Scott told Buffy by way of explanation. "She's having a harder time dealing with it than the rest of us. Her family's rich. Down at Sunnydale High, she's the big girl on campus; head cheerleader; most popular and all that. She's feeling like her life has been turned inside out. For a control freak, that's a tough thing to take. As a result, she's miserable and seems determined to make everyone else here miserable. Jean's usually pretty good at calming her down when something like this happens."

"That's no excuse," Chris said with surprising venom. "She needs to deal. We've all had our lives ripped apart. None of us is taking it out on everyone else."

"You did," Buffy reminded him. "When you guys arrived at my house after the plane crash, Chris, you were a major brat who didn't want to talk to anyone and just sat sulking in your room. It took my mom nearly a month to get through to you. Even then, you weren't much fun for quite a while."

"Point," Scott said, obviously unhappy.

"So," Willow brought up in a somewhat lame attempt to lighten the mood. "What elective did you decide to take?"

"I was hoping you guys could help me with that," Buffy responded, grasping the attempt and running with it. "I was a little overwhelmed when Professor Xavier told me the required courses: Slayer History and Genetics of all things, in addition to four classes at Sunnydale High. I was kind of hoping for something easy."

"You came to the wrong school, then." Oz responded with a laugh.

"I figured that out," Buffy frowned.

"Take Dr. McCoy's Computer Programming class," Willow suggested. "Last year we made a really cool computer game. This year, we're going to build and program a robot. He's a great teacher; so funny and so smart and . . . ."

"Easy, Willow," Xander said with a laugh. "Sometimes she gets so excited she forgets to breathe."

"Do not!" She blushed again. "Okay. Maybe sometimes."

Buffy shrugged. "Could do worse, I guess. Okay, Computer Programming, it is."

A few minutes later, something said earlier suddenly came to mind. "Say, Scott, earlier, you called Cordelia by another name; Destiny, or something. What is that, a nick name, a stage name, or what?"

"It's a call sign." Scott wiped his mouth after finishing his second sandwich. "We all have them, even you. Professor insists we use them in the field. True, most of the things we fight don't survive to talk about it, but that's no reason to be lazy. I'm Hawkeye, by the way. A little ironic, but it works. Cordelia is Destiny because of her precognitive powers. Jean's a telekinetic and telepath. She's called Phoenix for reasons you'll have to ask her."

"Havok." Chris waves. "Because that's what I usually leave in my path."

"Gambit," Xander told her. "I charge things that blow up on impact when I throw them."

"Shadowcat," Willow squeaked when Xander elbowed her lightly. "I walk through things and short them out. Dr. McCoy calls it phasing."

"Storm." Kendra smiled. "I control the weather. Vampires like lightning bolts almost as little as stakes."

"Colossus." Riley transformed, becoming about ten feet tall and gaining metallic scales for skin. "I'm pretty strong; even more so in this form."

"I'm called Nightcrawler." Oz said last and a little reluctantly. "You see, I never met my father. About a year ago, I discovered he wasn't from this universe when I changed for the first time."

With that, Oz transformed into a blue furred demon like humanoid with three fingers on each hand, and two toes and a heel spur on each foot. He also had a tail with a spade shaped tip, pointed ears, yellow eyes and very sharp teeth.

"In this form," he continued, "I can teleport, meld with shadows, walk on walls and I'm inhumanly agile. I can also manipulate my tail, great for cheating at poker."

Buffy smiled to show she wasn't bothered by his appearance, even though she was just a little. "Did your mother ever tell you anything about your father? I know I'd have been asking from minute one."

He shrugged. "She abandoned me when I was a baby."

She slapped the palm of her hand to her forehead. "Sorry. I seem to be gaining a taste for shoe leather sandwiches today."

He laughed. "Don't worry about it. I was taken in and raised by some really cool folks. They're my real parents. Besides, you're taking my appearance a lot better than most people do."

Buffy suddenly turns to Scott. "You said Professor Xavier gave me a call sign already. What is it? Not something lame, I hope."

"Your call sign will be Dawnstar," he told her calmly. "He was going to call you something I'm not even going to say here, but I talked him out of it."

"Thanks, cuz." She hugged him. "That would have been really lame. Dawnstar is okay, I guess. Could definitely do a lot worse."

"Got your back, kid." Scott smiled and even chuckled.

"Always have," she said, giving him another hug.

MEETING DR. MCCOY:

That afternoon, Scott took Buffy on her first trip into the mansions labyrinthine sub-levels. "This place is right out of Star Trek or something. I half expect that hunk Jeremy Sisko to be standing around the next corner."

He shook his head at that. "The Professor said that a friendly terrakinetic from another dimension did most of the work."

She looked at him curiously. "A terra-whatsit?"

"Terrakinetic." He laughed. "Someone who manipulates earth and rocks. They're pretty rare, but they exist."

"I thought all demons are evil?" She was confused.

"That's the rule," he informed her, "but there are exceptions. "If you operate under that assumption, it won't steer you too far wrong. There are exceptions, however. Take Oz, for example. He's half demon and looks pretty scary, but once you get past what he considers wit, you won't find a better friend. I'd trust him with my life; so can you."

"By the way," he continued. "Just to prepare you. Tonight, you're going to meet the one exception to the whole vampires being evil thing."

"Say what!?" Buffy stopped dead in her tracks.

Scott shrugged. "It's a long story and I only know parts of it, but here goes. Back during the reign of Elizabeth I, a guy, Warren Worthington III, was heir to his family's fortune. He was a rake who loved women and ale far more than responsibility. One night, at a party, he met a vampire who took a fancy to him. She turned him and Angelus was born; the demon with the face of an angel."

Scott shook his head. "After nearly three centuries of committing atrocity upon atrocity, he made the mistake of turning his attention to a gypsy girl. He toyed with her for months, killing everyone she cared for one by one, until she committed suicide. The gypsies performed a ritual and laid a curse on him. Dr. McCoy thinks they used some kind of extra-dimensional technology, but he doesn't believe in magic. However they did it, they returned his soul to his body. Now, instead of being a remorseless, amoral monster, he was a cursed man with a human conscience who fully and painfully remembered every vile act he'd committed since being turned."

"That's gotta suck . . . even for a vampire."

"He's still around today." Scott ignored the pun; hoping it was unintentional, but not certain. "He calls himself Angel and he owns the Bronze. It's a no vamp, no demon zone. He has some kind of wards up to keep them out. Even Oz can't change to his demon form while he's inside the club. It's the only safe place in Sunnydale for kids to gather without fear of vampires. He's also helped us with information more than once. I don't fully trust him, but he does seem determined to carry out that redemption thing of his."

As they reached the infirmary, Scott suddenly pulled up short. "Wait a minute. You haven't met Dr. McCoy before, have you? Well, you're in for a treat, but I'd better prepare you first. The Doc is as brilliant as he thinks he's funny. If there's something about the science of being a Slayer he doesn't know, no one else knows either. A few years back, he was hunting a werewolf and got bit. He says the lycanthropic enzymes mixed with his Slayer biology and created an interesting effect. His call sign even before the attack was Beast. Now, it's even more appropriate."

With that, Scott opened the door, revealing a massive creature wearing a lab coat and spectacles. He was covered in shaggy blue-black fur; his hands and feet more closely resembled paws and his head . . . . It didn't look wolfish exactly; more leonine.

"You must be Buffy." His voice was cultured and gregarious. "So nice to meet you. Not to worry, this won't hurt at all and won't take long. Thank you for bringing her here, Scott. You may leave now. Not to worry, Buffy. I don't bite."

As Scott kissed her on the forehead and left, Buffy stared at Dr. McCoy in disbelief; trying to sort through all the conflicting data she was getting.

Realizing what she was going through Dr. McCoy waited for a moment before breaking her reverie. "We can get started as soon as Ms. Grey arrives. She helps me with the exams of the female students. She just sent me a telepathic message that she's on her way. Something about having to talk Cordelia down off a ledge. I assume she's joking. Is there something you want to ask me? I can assure you it won't hurt my feelings."

The random thought running through her mind at that moment became the first thing she had to say. "Can I touch it? Your fur, I mean."

"Of course you can." Even his jovial laugh helped put her at ease as he reached an arm out to her. "Just don't scratch my ears . . . it makes my leg tremble something fierce when people scratch my ears. It's enjoyable, but hardly dignified."

She reached out and touched the back of his hand. "Wow. It's so soft."

He smiled. "You don't even want to know what I spend each month on conditioner and shampoo."

At that moment, Buffy realized she was home. She hadn't let her mother know, but she'd been worried she wouldn't fit in. So far, however, everyone had treated her so well . . . everyone but Cordelia, that is. It was nearly impossible not to feel optimistic. She just hoped that wasn't a sign of an axe about to fall.