Xander walked into Principal Flutie's office, Buffy trailing hesitantly behind him, looking unsure of herself.

"What can I do for you, Xander?" Flutie asked as he sat behind his desk, watching the two teens. When the door closed behind them he continued. "Is this about the situation that required time off for you, Faith, Ms. Rosenberg, Ms. Summers and Mr. McNally?"

"Yeah." Xander said as he sat down in one of the seats in front of the desk, looking relaxed as could be, which weirded Buffy out slightly. She couldn't imagine being so casual when speaking about supernatural matters to someone who was supposed to be uninvolved. "I'm here to ask for the same deal for them that you give me and Faith."

Flutie's eyebrows went up even as a frown appeared on his face. "You're getting them involved in your hunting? I thought you'd keep them out of it as much as possible, Xander. This is a surprise, and not one I'm happy about."

Xander shrugged. "Well, Willow and Jesse would get involved somehow anyway. Besides, they've got useful skills. Willow can hack anything, and her smarts would make her a formidable researcher. Jesse can be another set of hands for heavy lifting, and he may be a slacker but he can get the job done if he gets his head in the game."

"And Ms. Summers?" Flutie asked, nodding his head at the girl who sat and let Xander talk, fidgeting slightly.

"Oh, she's been involved for a while now. The gym she burned down was full of vampires." Xander said lightly.

Flutie blinked before turning to her. "What?"

"Funny thing…" Buffy said with a nervous laugh. "There was this annoying master vamp called Lothos, and he decided I would be tasty, so he filled the gym with his minions to get me, and… yeah…" She finished lamely as she saw Flutie look more and more incredulous.

"She's the current Slayer." Xander filled in. "I told you about that, didn't I?"

Flutie blinked before peering at Buffy through his glasses, as though he was trying to see something that would definitively mark her as a supernatural warrior. "Oh."

Buffy suddenly felt a bit offended and crossed her arms, displeased. "You don't have to sound so disbelieving…"

"Ah, sorry." Flutie said somewhat sheepishly. "I just wasn't expecting to hear that." He turned back to Xander. "May I ask how Mr. Giles is involved?"

"He's Buffy's Watcher." Xander explained. "It's his job to guide and teach Buffy about the supernatural, as well as train her in combat. It's why he took the job here."

Flutie took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I knew a man with his qualifications taking the post of school librarian was odd, but I dismissed it." He groaned. "Damned Sunnydale Syndrome…"

"Sunnydale Syndrome?" Buffy asked.

"People don't seem to notice the weird shit that goes on in this town, even when it affects them." Xander said bluntly. "You already heard the crazy explanations for what happened during the Harvest that are floating around, despite the witnesses. My theory is that there is some sort of spell or effect that makes you rationalize everything away unless your nose is practically rubbed into the situation. And even then it sometimes doesn't take."

"It can be a blessing." Flutie said with a sigh. "The last thing I need is students trying to perform magic or look for monsters themselves. Xander and Faith give me enough grey hairs as it is." Then he looked back at Buffy, his face serious. "Alright, you get the same deal Xander and Faith have. As long as you keep your grades up, I will excuse the occasional absence and let you leave campus during school hours if absolutely necessary." He did his best to look intimidating, which unfortunately for him wasn't that effective. "Don't make me regret this. Understood?"

Buffy nodded quickly. "I won't, sir. Thank you."

The principal nodded, satisfied. "Alright. In that case, go ahead and get going. Class should be starting soon."

Xander stood up. "Alright. I'll keep you appraised of anything I think you need to know, as usual." With a casual salute to the administrator he made his way out of the office, Buffy following behind him feeling relieved that it had gone well.

Giles hung up the phone in the school library as he finished his call to report the events of the Harvest to the council, a slight frown on his face which was brought on by one of the topics of the discussion. Alexander Lavelle Harris.

Honestly, Ruptert didn't know what to make of the young man. He'd never heard of a hunter like him before. He was skilled, as shown by the simple fact that he was still alive after hunting for as long as he had, yes, but what baffled the Watcher was the fact that he did not follow any of the conventions that were shared by those who knew of the darkness of the world.

He was very well connected, if what he said about having a seer on speed dial was true. Such support made him a fairly dangerous individual, as knowledge was power, as the old axiom said. The fact that he'd actually revealed the supernatural to the principal of his school simply to make his life easier threw Giles for a loop even more than the seer though, in some respects.

Hunters that weren't members of some sort of organization tended to be independent and secretive. They didn't usually go to the authorities with issues, knowing that groups such as the police were either woefully unprepared or were somehow too undermined by the forces of the enemy to be of any help.

While Xander's more open approach did have a few advantages, the Brit couldn't help but wonder what the downsides were.

Then, of course, there were the concerns about Xander himself. He seemed pleasant enough, if a bit too… American… but Giles was still wary. Someone of his abilities with access to a seer could have planned out the best way to approach the current Slayer in order to take advantage of her. Hell, there was no guarantee he hadn't done exactly that, even if his intentions were benign. There was no telling the damage he could do if he managed to turn Buffy against the Council. A rogue Slayer was a terrifying thought.

He shelved his thoughts with the intention to keep an eye on things as Faith walked into the library, looking amused. Behind her walked Jesse and Willow, who looked confused. "Is there anything I can help you with?" Giles asked, not liking how Faith looked even more entertained when he asked.

"I'm just here to enjoy the show." Faith said with a smile, walking over to one of the tables and taking a seat, the other two following along.

A feeling of dread pooling in the Watcher's gut, he turned to the library entrance as Xander walked in next, the young hunter quickly making his way to his friends. Giles was about to ask what was going on when Buffy came in, and his brain seized up with a small scream of protest. "Wh… what is this?" He asked.

Buffy posed in a cheerleader uniform, much to the obvious approval of Jesse, Xander and Faith. "I'm trying out for the cheerleading squad!"

Giles' mouth opened and closed several times as he tried to come up with the words he wanted to say. "I… It… This is madness!" He suddenly burst out, unable to contain his disapproval. "What can you have been thinking? You are the Slayer! Lives depend upon you!" He began to pace agitatedly as he continued his small rant. "I make allowances for your youth, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility, and instead of which you enslave yourself to this, this…" He stopped pacing, turning to glare at his charge. "…Cult?"

Buffy looked down at the uniform, taking in the yellow and red of the shirt and skirt. "You don't like the color?" She asked, drawing a snicker from Faith, who was grinning from her seat.

Giles twitched, whether due to Faith's snicker or Buffy's response was anyone's guess. "I d…" He turned, exasperated, putting some books on a cart. "Do you ignore everything I say as a, as a rule?"

"No, I believe that's your trick." Buffy riposted, skipping in front of him and posing again as he pushed the cart to the counter.

"You have a sacred birthright, Buffy. You were chosen to destroy vampires, not to... wave pompoms at people. And as the Watcher I forbid it." Giles said in what he fondly thought was a firm voice as he walked back to the table full of books, the other teens in the room watching with amusement.

"And you'll be stopping me how?" She asked with exaggerated interest.

"Well, I…" Giles paused, momentarily stumped, and sat on the edge of the table as he crossed his arms. "By appealing to your common sense, if such a creature exists."

Xander let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, which made both Giles and Buffy give him a look. Finally Buffy turned back to her Watcher. "Look, I'll still have time to fight the forces of evil, okay? I just wanna have a life, I wanna do something normal. Something safe."

This time both Xander and Faith burst out into roucous, unrestrained laughter.

A short time later the group of teens were walking into the gym, where the cheerleader tryouts were going to be held. The building was full of girls in similar uniforms to Buffy's stretching and practicing, their friends and/or admirers sitting on the stands, watching it all.

"Seriously, why is he so uptight all the time?" Buffy complained as Willow and Faith walked beside her, Xander and Jesse bringing up the rear. "We haven't seen a vampire in over a week. I'd say he should get a girlfriend if he wasn't so old."

"Well, we're behind you." Willow said with a smile.

"Yeah, B." Faith said, popping a bubble of gum as she walked, hands in her jean pockets. "You need to have something normal to fall back on with lives like ours. Otherwise you'll just burn out or go crazy. Why do you think we have so many comics and games at home?"

"Does that happen often?" Jesse asked Xander, doing his best not to stare at a girl doing splits on a couple of chairs and failing in the most spectacular manner conceivable. "Hunters burning out or going nuts?"

"That old saying about staring into the abyss isn't wrong." Xander said, pitching his voice to make sure all of his friends could hear him, Buffy especially. Said blonde turned her head slightly to listen to him. "Hunting takes a toll on you, because you see some of the worst of the world. The more you do it, the more desperate you get facing big enemies, the farther you're willing to go to win in the name of the greater good. So you need something to ground you in reality and remind you of why you do what you do." He shrugged. "It's different for everybody. Music, sports, whatever. Just as long as it makes you happy."

The teens were silent for a few moments before Willow waved at one of the cheerleader hopefuls. "Amy! Hi!"

"Hi!" Amy, a cute girl with dark hair, walked over, looking nervous.

"I didn't know you wanted to be a cheerleader." Willow said with a smile. "You lost a lot of weight."

"Had to." Amy said with a shrug.

"Have you met Buffy?" Willow asked next, pleased as the girls greeted each other. Before anything else could be said the cheerleading squad leader, Joy, stepped up to call forward the first hopeful and tell those not trying out to get out of the way.

Buffy turned to her friends with a smile as Amber Grove made her way forward. "Well, let's see if this is the thing for me."

"Good luck, B." Faith said with a smile.

"I'm sure you'll do great." Willow said with an encouraging smile on her face.

"Kick ass." Jesse said once he was able to tear his eyes away from a girl that was bending almost a hundred and eighty degrees forward.

Xander was opening his mouth to give his own encouragement when Coach Foster, the PE teacher of the school, walked into the gym and blew her whistle before Amber could begin her routine. "Attention! Tryouts are cancelled!" She announced loudly, causing a chorus of protests from the girls in attendance. "They will be rescheduled for next week, but the administration has cancelled them for now due to a few issues that need to be ironed out. You'll get your chance, girls." With that, she made an about face and marched off without paying any attention to the angry words of the many girls there.

As the crowd of hopefuls began to complain to each other Willow turned to the others, curious and not seeming to notice how Amy had seemingly frozen in place from shock. "What was that about?"

Faith was the only one to notice the small smile on Xander's face, which she quickly returned.

Joyce Summers was humming to herself in the kitchen of her home as she unpacked crates full of art. Setting aside a clay pot she picked up a crowbar and started trying to pry a crate open as Buffy walked in. "Hey mom."

"Hi." Joyce grunted as she put some force into the crowbar, failing to open it. "How was school?"

"Mm, a reverent joy." Buffy said with a slight roll of her eyes. "What's all this?"

"It's for the tribal art display." Joyce said as she once again tried and failed to pry the crate open.

"Cool!" Buffy said, picking up a piece and examining it. "Tryouts got cancelled today."

"Oh no." Joyce said. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll get another chance, though."

"Yeah, next week. Still, I really wanted to get it."

"Well, I know you'll do fine. Keep on pluggin', just have to get back on the horse."

Buffy hummed and set the piece she was studying down before turning to her mother. "Mom?"

"Yeah?" Joyce asked distractedly as she heaved again.

"What was I going to try out for?"

"Oh, uh…" The older woman stopped her futile attempts to turn to Buffy. "Some activity? I have no idea, I'm sorry." She looked guilty at that.

"That's okay. Your platitudes are good for all occasions." Buffy said with a small smile.

Joyce let out a breath. "I'm distracted." She tried again to pry the crate open. "Go a lot of inventory to go through here. This is my gallery's first major show." She let out a loud exhale before giving up and setting the crowbar down. "You know, it might not physically kill you to give me a hand here." She moved over to her clipboard, her back to Buffy and thus not noticing said girl grab the lid of the crate and effortlessly tear it off with her bare hands.

"It was cheerleading." Buffy said once she set the lid aside.

"Oh good!" Joyce said happily. "I'm glad you're taking that up again. It'll keep you out of trouble."

"I'm not in trouble." Buffy said, offended.

"No, not yet." Joyce said as she turned back around. Buffy couldn't hide the hurt she felt at that matter of fact statement from her mother. When Joyce looked up from her clipboard and saw the look on Buffy's face she quickly elaborated. "I mean, you stopped cheerleading just before the trouble, so it's good you're going back." She looked into the crate Buffy had opened. "Oh dear."

"What?" Buffy asked.

"The fertility statue. You don't need to see it." She placed the lid back on the crate and was going back to the clipboard when the doorbell rang. "Who could that be…?" Joyce wondered aloud as she headed out to answer.

Buffy lifted the lid on the crate once her mother left and peered in. "Jeepers!"

Joyce opened the door and was surprised to find a group of teens standing on the doorstep. "Hello?"

The boy in the lead of the group smiled at her. "Hi. You must be Buffy's mother. We're friends of hers from school. I'm Xander, this is Faith, Willow and Jesse." He said, indicating to each of the teens in turn, each of them giving their own greetings.

"Oh! Hello." Joyce smiled, taking them all in, pleased that they seemed like nice enough kids that wouldn't get her daughter in trouble. "I'm Joyce Summers. Buffy is in the kitchen. Feel free to come in." She stepped back and made her way back to the kitchen, where Buffy was sipping some juice. "Buffy, your friends are here."

Buffy blinked but perked up as the others walked into the room, glancing around. "Oh, hey guys. Did you need something?"

Xander smiled at the blonde as Faith and Jesse studied the various pieces of art while Willow made sure they didn't break anything. "Hey Buff. Just thought I'd see if you wanted to come over to my place and hang out." He gave her a look that told her there was more to it but that he didn't want to say anything with her mother there.

"Oh, sure!" Buffy said quickly, looking at Joyce. "That's alright, right mom?"

Joyce considered it. "I don't see why not. Just make sure you're back in time for dinner."

"Great." Buffy chirped, grabbing her coat and giving her mother a kiss on the cheek. "See you later." She led the way out as the other teens said their farewells.

Once they were outside Buffy looked at Xander. "So, what's the sitch?"

"Let's wait till we're at my place." He told her as they walked. "I already told Giles to meet us there."

"You know, it would be nice if you'd actually invited me over to hang out instead of work." Buffy said with a bit of a grumble.

"You can come over tomorrow, B. No reason we can't unwind after this little crisis is over." Faith answered with a smile, making Buffy perk up.

Giles looked up from the tea Nuble had served him when the door opened, letting the five teens into the house. Once they were all seated in the living room and the maid had served drinks he looked at Xander and Faith. "Alright, may I ask why you've called us here? Has something happened?"

Xander sipped his coffee before speaking, Faith scratching Hope behind the ears and letting him be the one to speak. "I had the cheerleader try outs cancelled earlier today." He said, his gaze shifting to Buffy to see her reaction.

Said girl frowned at him but didn't give any other reaction. "Why?"

Xander smiled, pleased by her restraint. "I got a little tip that one of the hopefuls wasn't what she appeared to be, though I didn't get details. So I let it go on to get all the suspects together, then had Flutie postpone it to next week once I'd determined who it was."

Giles couldn't help but let his eyebrows rise with surprise at the well thought out plan. "Indeed? Who is the impostor, then?"

Xander turned to Willow. "Who can you think of that had a sudden change recently, Wills?"

Willow blinked before paling slightly. "You don't mean Amy, do you?"

Faith sat back. "She lost a lot of weight, Red. Plus, she didn't used to care about cheerleading, now she's suddenly gung ho about it. You heard her complaining about try outs being canceled."

Willow frowned, trying to refute the points but not able to. Jesse was the one to speak next. "So you guys think she's a pod person?"

"Something like that. Not entirely sure what her deal is, but we should be able to find out once we go to her house. We just need to make sure we do it while she's out." Xander explained. "I've gotten Flutie to give us a pass for tomorrow to investigate while Amy is at school. I want Buffy and Giles to come with me to do it. We might need Buffy to kick something's ass, and Giles should know what we're looking at and how to fix it. You guys will stay at school and keep an eye on Amy. Try to stall her if it looks like she's going to leave school, cause if she does that means she'll have noticed our snooping."

The other occupants of the Harris-Lehane living room glanced at each other, trying to come up with any flaws in the plan, before conceding that there were none. Faith smiled, satisfied. "Great. Now, who wants to play Tekken 3?"

Giles just looked confused. "What?"

The next morning Giles, Buffy and Xander arrived at the Madison residence in Giles' car. Once the old, grey vehicle stopped Xander leapt out, followed more sedately by Buffy. "Holy crap, G-Man! I'm never riding with you again!"

Giles stepped out of the car, looking offended. "I am an excellent driver, young man."

"But that car is a piece of crap. I could have walked here faster. The impatience was killing me!" Xander retorted.

Giles drew himself up to fire back at the young hunter when Buffy let out a whistle. "Guys, we've got a job to do, remember?"

Xander took a breath as Giles closed his eyes briefly. "Alright." The younger man began. "Giles, you take point. Amy's mother is more likely to pay attention to you. Me and Buffy will keep an eye out for any funny business."

Giles straightened his coat and nodded, making his way to the house, the teens following behind.

As they walked Buffy went over what she'd learned about Amy and her mother the previous afternoon. She'd asked Willow what she knew of her former friend, in case it became useful, something both Xander and Giles had approved of.

Amy's mother was once the head cheerleader of the Sunnydale High squad, leading them to become tri-county champions. Homecoming queen, got married right after graduation to a man that ran off with another woman not long after.

She was also rather obsessive. If either of them gained a single pound, she'd put both herself and Amy on a broth diet and padlock the fridge. Willow had a fond smile on her face when she said that Amy used to come over to her house at those times and pig out on brownies with her.

In essence, Amy's mother was a bitter woman obsessed with her past glories, completely unable to let them go. Faith said that whatever had happened to Amy was likely her mother's influence, and Giles agreed after taking in everything that had been said.

Giles knocked on the door of the Madison house, the three of them waiting slightly anxiously for an answer. Eventually the door opened, revealing an attractive middle-aged woman who held the door close, looking out nervously. "Wh-who are you? Wha, um, is there something wrong?"

"Mrs. Madison? We're here to talk about your daughter, Amy." Giles said, prompting a panicked look to appear on the woman's face, which both Buffy and Xander caught.

"I'm not allow- I mean, you'll have to come back later." Mrs. Madison said nervously, beginning to close the door, only to be stopped by Xander placing his hand on the door, holding it open. "Wh-what…?"

"Mrs. Madison, we think you're daughter is in trouble. Please, if you know something, you need to tell us." Xander said calmly yet insistently.

"I don't know what she's doing!" Mrs. Madison said in a panic, trying to close the door again, but this time Buffy added her strength to Xander's, which meant the older woman didn't have a chance. She quickly let go of the door and rushed to the living room, holding herself defensively as the three walked into the house. "Please, you have to go soon. If she comes home while you're here…"

"You're afraid of her." Giles said in realization. "You're afraid of your daughter. What has she done, Mrs. Madison? We know something is going on, but not what. Has she made a deal with some otherworldly being? Did your, your obsession with cheerleading lead her to do something unfortunate?"

"I don't care about cheerleading!" Mrs. Madison snapped as she stepped back, kicking a plate of brownies that was sitting on the floor by the couch.

Buffy's eyes were drawn to the plate and her eyes widened in shock as the pieces began to fall into place. She glanced at Xander, who met her eyes and raised an eyebrow in question. She quickly turned back to the older woman, who was looking at Giles with fearful anger, and spoke hesitantly. "Amy?"

The three other people in the room turned to Buffy, but she remained focused. "You're Amy, aren't you?"

Giles blinked. "Wh-what?"

"She switched your bodies somehow, didn't she?" Xander said, twigging to what Buffy meant.

Giles' eyes widened. "Good lord."

Amy's shoulders slumped, looking down in defeat. "She said I was wasting my youth. So she took it."

A short while later they were all seated in the Madison living room. Xander was serving Amy some tea, which she took with shaking hands before she began to speak, unprompted. "I didn't know anything about her powers." She said, distraught. "I mean, when dad was here they would fight and yell and he would… call her a witch and… I mean, I would, I just thought he meant…" He shoulders began to shake. "Oh, God, when he left I wanted to go with him. But she wouldn't even let me call. She went crazy, I mean, she'd lock herself upstairs for days, and she was always coming down on me, telling me I didn't deserve to have it so easy, and that I didn't know… how hard it was to be her, and…" She let out a small sob. "I guess she showed me, huh?"

Buffy took the hand of the girl in a woman's body. "Amy, it's going to be okay."

Amy shook her head, looking close to hyperventilating. "A few months ago, I woke up in her… her bed! I didn't know where I was, and… then I looked in the mirror…"

Giles glanced at Xander who looked back at him. "If your mother is a witch, then she must have some place where she can perform her rituals and where she keeps her spellbook. You said she locked herself upstairs?" Giles asked as delicately as he could.

At Amy's nod Xander stood up and made his way to the staircase. "Buffy, stay here with Amy, keep her company. Me and Giles will search." Giles quickly stood up and made his way after the teen as Buffy nodded.

"Wait!" Amy said, standing up in a panic and racing after them. "You can't! If she finds out I've been in there she'll kill me!"

Her words were for naught as Xander broke down the door to the attic, looking around warily with a hand in his coat, Giles entering behind him, followed by Amy and Buffy.

"Geeze, this place is practically a freaking stereotype. I know real witches that would be ashamed of having a place like this associated with them." Xander said caustically as he took everything in.

The attic was dark, with a cauldron in the middle of the room, books and reagents scattered around and hanging from the ceiling, and a rack full of hanging dolls.

Giles moved towards the dolls, seeing two of them bound together, taking them in his hand. "My God!" He said softly before breathing in deeply and turning to Amy. "I believe we can reverse your mother's spell, along with any others she may have cast." He told her.

Amy's eyes widened, her voice shaking with hope. "You could? Really?"

"Yes. We need to find her books. She'd need a specific volume for this kind of spell." Giles said, looking around.

While Giles was speaking Xander had knocked the things sitting on a trunk to the floor and began to open it, only to jump back when a black cat jumped out at him, startling him before running out of the room. "A black cat? Really? How cliche can you get?" He said, irritated. Once he caught his breath, acting as though he couldn't see Buffy's playful smirk at his expense, he reached into the trunk, pulling out a heavy, leather bound book. "Yo G-Man, think this is it?"

Giles moved over to Xander. "Yes, yes this seems to be what we need." He took the book and thumbed through it.

"Great! What's the next step?" Buffy asked.

Giles was distracted by the book, but looked up at Buffy's question. "We, ah, we need to make a potion required for this ritual I have here. I believe the high school chemistry lab should have the reagents we need."

Xander blinked, surprised, before giving the attic a long look, focusing on the many herbs, animal parts and chemicals scattered about. "Is there any reason we can't do it here? I mean, she should have all the things you need, and I don't feel like going to school where she'd be nearby to stop us." He shrugged lightly. "Besides, they're in the middle of class. The lab probably isn't available."

Giles stared at the boy, nonplussed, before blinking and looking slightly sheepish. "W-well, I did not exactly feel comfortable performing such a procedure in the witch's stronghold, but you do have a point…" He glanced around the room. "Very well, help me gather the ingredients."

A short while later several candles were lit as Giles stirred a potion, reciting as he did so. "The center is dark. Centrum est obscurus. The darkness breathes. Tenebrae respiratis. The listener hears. Hear me!"

Amy looked down at her hands, staggering slightly. "Oh, it's… it's working!"

"Buffy!" Xander snapped, making the girl turn from watching Giles. "Get ready to subdue her. Once this works we'll have a pissed off witch to deal with instead of Amy." He reached back into his coat and pulled out a silvery dagger engraved with runes and symbols on the blade.

Buffy nodded as Giles continued to chant, moving behind Amy and wrapping her arms around her.

"Unlock the gate. Let the darkness shine. Cover us with holy fear." Giles chanted, focused completely on what he was doing. "Show me…" The candles abruptly winked out, the attic going dark. "Corsheth and Gilail! The gate is closed! Receive the dark! Release the unworthy! Take of mine energy and be sated!" He plunged his hands into the potion, gritting his teeth. "Be sated! Release the unworthy!"

Buffy tightened her hold on Amy as she felt her begin to shake and stagger, knowing that things were about to shift. Xander's eyes were locked on amy, blade ready to stab forward if necessary.

"Release!" Giles called, hands still in the boiling mixture. "Release!" He called again. "RELEASE!" There was a flash of light, and the body of Catherine Madison slumped briefly.

At Sunnydale High, Faith, Willow and Jesse had been following the girl they thought was Amy around during the lunch break as she quickly made her way to the school gates when she suddenly stopped, her hand against the wall to steady herself. Then they watched as she began touching her body and face as though in disbelief before bursting into tears. Faith immediately rushed over to check on her, the other two following behind.

Back at the Madison residence, Buffy spoke hesitantly. "Amy?" She was then abruptly sent flying, her grip broken by an otherwordly force as Catherine glared angrily at them all.

Xander lunged, his blade ready to stab into her, but she made a choking motion and he stopped, clutching at his throat, before she threw him back, making him slam into a bookcase, dropping the heavy tomes on top of him. He pushed himself up weakly, coughing as he caught his breath. "Did… did she just fucking force choke me?" He asked with incredulity before beginning to force himself to his feet.

Giles had hidden himself as best he could from Catherine's rampage, grabbing a heavy book and tossing it at the witch's head. She batted it aside with a wave of her hand, but the distraction was enough for Buffy to punch her in the back of the head. Such a blow would have knocked any normal person unconscious with one hell of a concussion, but Catherine was using her magic to protect herself, so instead she was staggered before turning to Buffy with a snarl on her face. "Damn you all!" She screeched as she launched a surprised Buffy away again. "That body was mine! That girl doesn't deserve to waste it when I could put it to better use!"

"Oh, grow the hell up, lady!" Buffy snapped back as she stood back up, clutching a broken chair leg.

Catherine growled again and held a hand out at Buffy, light beginning to pool in her palm as she began casting a spell. "I shall look upon my enemy!" She snarled as Buffy tensed, getting ready to dodge. "I shall look upon her and the dark place will have her soul!" The light in her hand got brighter. "Corseth, ta-" She cut off, the light in her hand dissipating as she let out a slow cough. She turned her head to see Xander behind her, dagger in hand and buried in her back.

"I don't think so, lady." He said coldly as he removed the bloody dagger from the witch's back as Buffy and Giles watched, wide eyed. Catherine coughed again, specks of blood flying out to land on her chest, before she fell bonelessly to the ground and let out one last, rattling gasp before going still.

Giles slowly approached, followed by Buffy. "Are you alright?" He asked them both.

Buffy nodded slowly before looking worriedly at Xander, who let out a slow, shuddering breath, his eyes closed. "I'll manage, G-Man." He said slowly. "Not the first time I've been forced to kill someone other than a vamp. I'll be discussing it with my therapist later."

Both Buffy and Giles blinked at that, thrown by what he said. "You have a therapist you tell these things to?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah." Xander said. "She's a member of the supernatural community. I'll introduce you later. It's always good to have someone you can talk to."

Buffy nodded before turning her gaze back to Catherine's body. "What do we do about her? I doubt seeing this would be good for Amy."

"I'll handle it." Xander said. "I have contacts I use for cleanup after hunts."

"Indeed?" Giles asked, once again surprised by Xander's connections and resources.

"Well, leaving a huge, ugly, bloody monster in the middle of a kindergarten isn't exactly a good idea."

Giles nodded in agreement, though his suspicions once again grew, but he set them aside for now.

"We should go." Xander said, stepping over Catherine's body and heading for the door. "Sunnydale PD is the most inccompetent police force in all of creation, but standing over a body with the murder weapon still wouldn't be good."

"Right." Buffy said with a nod, following him out but keeping a bit of distance, seemingly without realizing it.

A few days later Buffy was getting out of bed, scooping the alarm clock she smashed to pieces into her wastebasket as her mom walked in. "I don't get it." Joyce declared, making her daughter look at her oddly.

"What?" Buffy asked, confused.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking about... where you're coming from, how to relate to you... and I've come to a very simple conclusion: I don't get it." Joyce said as she watched Buffy.

"I'm inscrutable, huh?" Buffy asked slightly sarcastically.

"You're sixteen." Joyce clarified. "I think there's a, a biological imperative whereby I can't understand you because I'm not sixteen."

"Do you ever wish you could be sixteen again?" Buffy asked with interest.

"Oh, that's a frightful notion." The older woman said with a long exhale. "Go through all that again? Not even if it helped me understand you." She smiled at Buffy, who smiled back happily before jumping out of bed and giving her surprised mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you, mom." She said brightly before rushing from the room.

Joyce stayed standing still for a moment before letting out an explosive sigh. "I don't get it!"

A few hours later, at school, Buffy was walking with Amy through the halls, wanting to check on the girl.

"My dad is so impossible!" Amy was saying. "He doesn't ever want me going anywhere! He wants to spend total quantity time together. And I'm, like, 'Dad, I can go out, it's perfectly safe!' But he's got all this guilt about leaving me with my mom. And he's being a total pain."

"You're loving it." Buffy said with a smile.

"Every single minute." Amy said with a small, guilty smile of her own as Cordelia brushed by them. "This Saturday night he wants to stay in and make brownies. Well, the brownies were my idea." They stopped at the trophy case, looking at Catherine's trophy. "Catherine the Great…" Amy said slowly.

"So… What's the official story?" Buffy asked carefully.

Amy let out a long, low breath. "The police found mom's body near some cosmetology shops she liked. They said it was a mugging."

"I see…" Buffy said with a grimace, her mind stuck on what Xander did.

"You did the right thing." Amy surprised Buffy by saying.

"What?" The blonde said, shocked.

"She… she wasn't really a mother, Buffy. Never had been. She would have hurt a lot of people just to be a cheerleader again. She tried to kill you." Amy rubbed her armed hesitantly. "She would have caused a lot of grief if you hadn't stopped her, and she wouldn't have stopped coming after us. It was the best option."

"She was human." Buffy said, coming out with her biggest problem regarding the situation.

"Human's can be just as monstrous as whatever it is you face, Buffy." Amy said softly. "I'm just relieved she's gone."

The two girls were silent for a few minutes before Amy shook herself and spoke in a more upbeat tone. "So, are you still going to try out?"

"Oh, no." Buffy said as they began walking again. "I think I'll find something more sedate to occupy my time. It's gotten a bit too hairy."

"Sounds good to me. I'm not planning on doing anything now that I've got my body back." Amy said with a smile. "I'm thinking of getting fat."

"Y'know, I hear that look's in for spring." Buffy said, smiling back as they walked away from Catherine's trophy, not paying it any more mind.

"So… how long does this usually take?" Jesse asked as he sat on a gravestone, a flask of holy water in one hand and a large crucifix in another. Willow stood beside him, shifting anxiously from foot to foot, a water pistol in her own hand.

Faith finished spraying holy water on top of a grave using a sprayer and tank usually used for weed killer. "Depends. Could end up waiting a couple of hours. I'd bring a Gameboy or something, but there isn't much light in a graveyard." She said as she set the bottle down and leaned against another headstone, fingering one of her knives.

"So… This is how you and Xander usually hunt?" Buffy said as she checked her nails, a stake in one hand.

"When we know a fledgeling is going to rise, we soak the ground in holy water to weaken it as it comes out before staking it while it's vulnerable." Faith said. "It's become kinda routine, but it's still dangerous. It'll be easier with you here though, and we figured you all should see how we do things."

"Where is Xander, anyway?" Willow asked.

"He said he had a last minute thing to take care of." Faith said with a shrug.

Before anybody could say anything else the dirt on the new grave began to move, bulging lightly. Jesse got off the headstone, holding his crucifix up nervously as Willow aimed the water pistol.

They could hear what sounded like muffled screaming as the vampire pulled itself out of the ground, the hands poking out of the ground smoking slightly from contact with the holy water. Then he managed to get his head out, making the screaming more obvious as he scrambled to get out of the ground and away from the soaked dirt. The teens simply stared as the vamp made his way out, flopping onto the ground a few feet from the soaked portion of earth.

"So… who wants to do the honors?" Faith asked. Buffy sighed when nobody else moved and made her way to the vampire, who glared up at her.

"You… bastards…" He said between pained wheezing.

Buffy rolled her eyes before kneeling beside her quarry and wordlessly staking him, making him turn to dust. Then she and the others whirled around when a gasp came from some nearby bushes, bringing their various weapons up defensively, though Buffy noticed that Faith simply stepped back with a small smirk on her face. Of course, all thoughts left the blonde's head at the person that came out of the bushes. "Mom!?" She cried.

Joyce Summers stumbled out of the greenery, her astonished eyes flicking from the stake in her daughter's hand, to the overturned earth of the freshly broken out of grave, to the pile of ashes that was once a vampire.

As Xander stepped up from behind Joyce said woman locked eyes with her daughter. "What... What is going on!?"

Yay, I finally updated!

I meant to have this out weeks ago, but unfortunately I came down with health complications that kept me from being able to write most of the time, and killed my motivation otherwise. I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

The main part of this chapter, which is the third episode, The Witch, is not really to my liking. I did my best to make it fit with this au, but it was really hackneed and I don't like it.

Still, the entire purpose of this chapter was basically to help set up that cliffie at the end. It's something that I've been planning on for a while. Having Joyce aware of her daughter's lifestyle this early is going to have consequences. I look forward to exploring them.

I think that's everything there is to discuss at the moment. Hope all my American readers had a good Fourth of July and my Canadian readers a good Canada Day.

Don't forget I have a Pat A Ron at dotcom /athanmortis. Every dollar gives you a vote for what I update. Since I've reached a year on Pat A Ron I am doing something special and providing two polls when I put the next one up: One for which current story to update, and one for which new story to start. Hope to see you all on there.

Thanks for reading all. Till next time.