Princess Buffy of Alderaan knelt passively on the ground, wishing with all of her being that she could kill the slimy Hutt that had taken her prisoner, forced her to wear such a demeaning outfit, and would very likely be forcing her to pleasure him at any moment. If she had a weapon, she’d try to take another stab at killing him. Unfortunately the last three times she’d tried that hadn’t worked out very well. All it had gotten her was a thick steel collar around her neck and an increase in the sensi-crobes they’d been injecting her with.
The stupid nanites had her body so sensitive she thought she was going to cum every time the fat toad pulled on her chain and caused the golden metal of her bikini to slide against her otherwise bare breasts. The Hutt said in another injection or two she’d be begging for him. She’d sooner die.
Sighing to herself, Buffy looked out over the crowd of aliens gathered around the Hutt’s compound. Even if she did get a weapon she’d never get close to Jabba. There were too many guards around.
“Kaboom, the doors fly open.”
KABOOM!
Just then the double doors to the room burst open with an almighty explosion. Buffy let out an embarrassing shriek and covered her head with her arms, trying to protect herself from the bits of debris flying inwards. After a moment, the dust cleared.
“Jabba says, ‘Xan Solo!’”
“Xan Solo!,” Jabba boomed, his toad-like eyes bulging more than usual. Buffy’s eyes widened as well as the good-for-nothing smuggler Xan Solo strode confidently into the room. She had never been so glad to see the idiot.
“That’s right, Jabba! I’m here for my girl!”
“Your girl?” Buffy responded before she could think.
“You rather I left you here?” Xan asked, winking at her. The Force be with her, she actually clenched her thighs at the sight of it, and had to bite her lip to keep from moaning. She wondered if it might not actually be better to be left there rather than be rescued by that smug, sexy bastard. Not trusting herself to speak for fear of a moan coming out, she simply shook her head.
“That’s what I thought,” Xan said, pulling out his twin blasters. “Hand her over, Jabba! Jabba says, ‘Never!’. No wait, Jabba says something in Hutt but we know it means never.”
Jabba roared something in Huttese. Buffy did not speak it fluently, but she could guess at its meaning. Jabba yanked her chain towards him possessively, and she stumbled towards his disgusting bulk.
“Byeeoo, Byeeoo, Byeeooo! I shoot down a bunch of guards. Byeoo! Byeoo!”
Xan’s blasters began to fire with incredible accuracy, felling Jabba’s guards before they could get upon him.
“Oh, me too, right?”
“Oh yeah. Anya shoots a bunch too.”
“Yay! Um, bang! Bang!”
“Byeoo! Byeoo!”
Xan’s companion began firing as well, firing some kind of explosive projectile at the innumerable guards. The two of them seemed untroubled by the fight. Indeed, Xan seemed almost childlike with joy at the battle.
“Bang! Bang! How long do we have to do this? Bang!”
“Bye— Huh? Oh, I guess we’re done. Um, Byeoo! I shoot the chain off.”
Xan whirled and suddenly fired his blaster at Buffy. She shrieked again and cowered as hot metal fragments exploded away.
“You idiot! You almost hit me!” she screamed. As he ran to her, grabbing her by the arm and lifting her up. “Are you trying to ki—MMMMM!”
He presssed his lips to hers, and she felt herself melt against him. The chaos of the battle faded to nothingness as his strong arm held her close. Seemingly of its own volition, Buffy’s leg curled around him, stroking up his body. She moaned as a tremor of orgasmic pleasure passed through her body, merely a prelude to the release that she craved. When his lips pulled away from her, she whined with genuine disappointment.
“Yell at me later, Princess. We’re getting out of here! Byeoo! Byeoo! Byeoo!”
One, two, three shots burst from his blaster, taking down three more guards. He put an arm around her waist and lifted her up, carrying her slight form easily in his strong embrace. Carrying her, he blasted several more guards as they made their way to the exit.
“Bang! Bang! How many are there, Xander? I must have killed a hundred by now unless I’m a really bad shot.”
“Oh, uh, I guess we beat them.”
“Good, can we have sex now?”
“Not yet! Um, okay we get away from the big fortressy thing and get back to the Millenium Falcon, only, oh! Uh I said something really cool before I killed Jabba in a totally awesome way. But then we get back to the Millenium Falcon and now we’re flying in space.”
“Solo!” Jabba roared again as they made their way to the door. His arms, so tiny in comparison to the rest of him, reached for a very expensive, very deadly looking blaster rifle. He raised it quickly and said something Buffy couldn’t understand in Huttese.
“Yeah?” Xan said. “And you’re ugly.”
Jabba roared wordlessly and fired the rifle, but at that exact moment Xan raised his pistol and fired a single shot directly at the plasma projectile issuing forth from Jabba’s rifle. The shot caused the plasma bolt to slam back into the rifle and explode, killing Jabba.
Xan did not put her down on the entire run back to the Falcon, even though she screamed at him to do so. The jostling of her body as he ran was driving her crazy, and she had another tiny tremor of an orgasm on the way back. He still had her held by the waist when they had left the planet.
“Would you put me down already!?” she screamed, kicking her legs and smacking him ineffectually.
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” He tossed her down onto a bed. She frowned in confusion.
“Why is there a bed in the cockpit?” she asked.
“Oh! Uh, we’re not in the cockpit we’re in my cabin.”
He tossed her down onto his bed. Buffy sat up almost immediately and glared at him.
“What’s the big idea carrying me around like I’m your luggage?”
“Well you’re a Princess, I figured you’d want to be chauffeured.”
“You, you nerf herder!”
“Hey, you know bout nerf herders? That’s awesome! Oh— I mean, uh, hey! Who just saved your pretty butt out there, Princess?”
She felt her face flush. He thought her butt was pretty? She shook her head to clear her thoughts. No! The sensi-crobes had her thinking all messed up.
“Don’t think I’m going to thank you. You hardly did anything at all, it was um,” she looked at Xan’s companion. “This person. Who are you, anyway?”
Xan looked from Buffy to his companion. “Oh, that’s um, Anyacca. She’s my partner. You remember her from before.”
“Don’t think I’m going to thank you. You hardly did anything at all! Anyacca did most of the shooting!”
“She’s right, you didn’t even make the right gun noises.”
“They’re not guns, they’re blasters! They don’t go bang.”
“Well mine are guns, and they do.”
Buffy felt very confused. “What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing!” Xan said quickly. “Technical stuff. It’s not important. In fact you don’t remember that.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, I did plenty, Princess! If it wasn’t for me you’d be Jabba’s shiny new toy. You might show a little bit of gratitude, you know.”
“Gratitude? Gratitude? For some slimy space pirate who’s probably getting paid for this job anyway?”
“I didn’t get a single credit for this, Princess. Just like I didn’t get a single credit rescuing this thing from getting tossed into a scrap heap when you got captured.” With that, he gestured to the corner of the room. Buffy’s jaw dropped as tears of joy came to her eyes.
“Faith!” she cried, using her nickname for her beloved companion droid. The F8TH5X5 realistic humanoid companion droid had been by her side since childhood, and had saved her life countless times. “You’re alive!”
Buffy sprang off the bed and leaped at Faith, wrapping her arms around Faith’s neck before kissing her hard on the lips. Many a lonely night had been comforted thanks to F8TH5X5’s presence, and Buffy was looking forward to having her beloved droid help her relieve the tension the sensi-crobes were inducing within her. “I thought you’d been destroyed!”
“Captain Solo saved me,” Faith said a moment later, smiling that perfectly human-seeming smile she had mastered so long ago. Buffy had never met a droid that could so easily mimic a human. Then again, F8TH5X5 had originally been designed as a subterfuge and assassination droid, but had been retrofitted before ever seeing action. Buffy was very glad she was her companion droid, and not forced to be some kind of killer. “And he’s been working very hard to save you.”
Faith’s hands cupped Buffy’s ass, pulling her closer before whispering in her ear, “I have calculated a 99.3 percent probability that he will be the best lover you’ve ever had, Princess.”
“What?” Buffy pulled her head back slightly and peered at F8TH5X5. “How could you think I’d ever be with that ruffian?”
“Your body is flooded with sensi-crobes and you’re clearly aroused by him,” Faith responded matter-of-factly. “It’s also only fair to Reward him.”
The moment F8TH5X5 said the word ‘Reward,’ Buffy knew that she was right. She was hornier than she’d ever been in her life, and she knew that not even Faith’s talents could satisfy her. But could she debase herself by giving in to that sexy space-jockey? Her mind seemed suddenly filled with the thoughts of his body, and she whimpered in desperate need as she kissed Faith once more.
But instead of returning her kiss, Faith pushed her down onto the bed before grabbing her wrists and pulling them over Buffy’s head. In an instant, Buffy’s hands were locked above her head, chained to the headboard.
“Faith? What are you doing?”
“Saving your life, Princess. If you don’t burn out those sensi-crobes soon they may cause irreparable damage to your brain. Captain Solo, Anyacca and myself are more than equipped to provide you with the necessary orgasms.”
“No, not him!” Buffy pleaded. “Anyone but him, Faith! Please! You’re my droid, you have to obey me!”
“I am obeying you, Princess. Ten years ago you ordered me to make sure the man you would love could pleasure you more than I could. Captain Solo more than fits that criteria.”
“Love him?” Buffy scoffed. “I could never love a…”
She trailed off as Xan pulled his tunic off over his head. Her mouth opened slowly at the sight of his bare chest.
“Oh good,” Anyacca said in a cheerful tone. She too pulled her tunic off, revealing an incredible pair of breasts. Buffy licked her lips without realizing it. Her eyes went from Anyacca’s breasts to Xan’s hard pectoral muscles.
“Oh my,” she whispered.
“My scans indicated that you’ve been highly attracted to Captain Solo since you first met him, and in love with him for several months now.”
“In… love?” she said breathlessly, unable to tear her eyes from Xan’s chest.
“In love,” Faith confirmed, kissing her lightly on the lips. “However, since you’re unsure, I will assist you in realizing the truth.”
“Assist me?”
Faith smiled mischievously at her and began to kiss down Buffy’s bare neck and upper shoulders. She pressed apart the latches that held her slave outfit together, revealing Buffy’s breasts to all. The points of her nipples were hard and almost quivering with Buffy’s desire. She could only groan in frustration when F8TH5X5 kissed around them without ever touching them as she trailed down to the tiny strip of cloth that covered Buffy’s pussy. Faith lifted the tiny loincloth and placed a kiss at the top of her mound. Buffy moaned loudly and almost let her eyes roll back into her head. She might have, if Xan was not standing naked at the edge of the bed with an equally nude Anyacca by his side.
Buffy was speechless as Faith’s perfectly designed tongue began to press between her folds, licking and probing in that teasing manner she always began with. Usually Buffy ordered her to get right to it, but this time she couldn’t remember how to speak. All she could do was stare at Xan and Anyacca.
They were kissing each other passionately. Xan’s hands were stroking up and down Anyacca’s bare arms, and her hands were sliding up his back. Faith’s tongue flicked across her clitoris, and her vision blurred as she whimpered and whined, trying desperately to stare at Xan and Anyacca’s embrace. The sight of them was incredible. The sexy rogue of a pirate and his beautiful and competent companion were the two hottest people Buffy had ever seen in the entire universe.
“The entire universe? Isn’t that a little overboard, Ahn?”
“No. You already get to be the sexy pirate. I don’t want to just be the sidekick. In fact—”
Now that she thought about it, Anyacca was beyond gorgeous. She was a vision of pure sexual desire, and Buffy moaned her name as Faith’s tongue wormed deeper inside of her. Her tongue was soon joined by several fingers. Soon Faith was sawing her perfectly realistic fingers in and out of Buffy’s dripping pussy while Buffy gazed in awe at Xan Solo and Anyacca the living goddess.
“Ahn, come on, don’t ruin it.”
“Fine, fine…”
And Anyacca, the sultry female space pirate that Buffy had been lusting over ever since she’d caught sight of her so many months ago. All of her dreams of Anyacca and the horribly sexy Xan Solo were coming true. She gasped and threw her head back, her body shaking with a powerful orgasm.
“She always gets to cum first. It’s not fair.”
When Buffy opened her eyes, Anyacca was no longer making out with Xan. Instead, she was making out with F8TH5X5. Faith was bent over Buffy’s nude and sweat-slicked body, her tongue dancing and massaging against Anyacca’s. Anyacca was on the bed over Buffy, her moist pussy hovering just inches over Buffy’s face. Her legs straddled Buffy’s head to either side as she lowered down onto Buffy’s face.
“You can repay me for saving your life,” Anyacca said, wiggling her pussy in Buffy’s face. Buffy moaned and pushed her face into her slit, tongue lapping at Anyacca’s snatch with wanton desire. The taste, the sensation, the pure lust of the action had her moaning with need as she sucked and licked at Anya’s cunt.
As she did that, she heard F8TH5X5 make the cutest little “Ooh!” noise that Buffy knew so well. Faith only made that noise when she was being penetrated by something big enough to activate her pleasure simulation circuits. She began to make the noise over and over again, moaning and cooing into Anyacca’s mouth. Her fingers continued to press into Buffy’s vagina, pistoning in and out of her with the kind of regularity that only the best companion droids could ever hope to maintain. So dedicated to her mistress’s pleasure was F8TH5X5 that she was able to remember to slowly work a pinkie finger into Buffy’s tight rosebud right at the moment when Buffy was about to go over the edge. The resulting orgasm had her screaming into Anyacca’s wet pussy, nearly crying with lust as her beloved droid finger fucked her pussy and ass. Her whole body flushed red with the knowledge that the scoundrel Xan Solo was witness to her behaving with such lewd desire, and yet she could not even attempt to stop them.
Especially not when Xan Solo pulled his cock out of Faith’s pussy and pressed it against Buffy’s asshole.
“Ahh! You brigand! You can’t!” Buffy groaned, but her nipples were rock hard and her pussy was boiling with lust. Faith’s fingers continued to saw in and out of her, and she was fast approaching yet another orgasm. The damned sensi-crobes were driving her mad. “I-I’ve never done it there.”
“First time for everything, Princess.”
Oh, that rogue! That horribly sexy, wonderful, despicable, big-dicked, immoral, tight-bodied, smug, magnificent scoundrel! She would get him for this. She would get him so bad. She would get him over and over again, any time she wanted. She would get him in the morning, after lunch, at night, any time she wanted. Oh she would get him so many times. Oh. Oh…
“Any pain feels even better than it normally does for you.”
It hurt, but by the Force, it hurt beautifully. She had never had anything larger than two of F8TH5X5’s fingers in her ass, and though she had always enjoyed it, she had never had it feel quite like this. The pain was delicious, the stretching sensation of fullness was beyond description for her. She groaned loudly and locked her lips onto Anyacca’s clit, sucking and moaning against it as Xan Solo’s penis pushed further and further into her. Anyacca was moaning and breathing heavily herself by then, and judging from the wetness all over Buffy’s face, she had cum several times already herself. When Buffy began running her tongue back and forth along her clit, Anyacca responded by reaching down and grabbing both of Buffy’s nipples between her fingers and then pulling on them hard.
“AAAANNNYAAAA!” Buffy screamed into her pussy, back arching and forcing at least another inch of Xan’s cock into her rectum. The incredible sensations coursing through her body had apparently overwhelmed her mind, as she could not think of Anyacca’s actual name during the crashing orgasm that had ripped through her.
And it was not yet over. Xan Solo’s cock was still pushing into her, deeper and deeper, hotter and more insistent with every second. Faith’s wonderful fingers kept working into her pussy, and Anyacca was pulling and pinching at her nipples almost nonstop. Her world was a delirium of pain and pleasure, and she knew in that moment that as roguish and unsavory a character as Xan Solo was, she would never be able to deny him anything. The sensi-crobes had done their job. She would never be able to think about him without shivering with lust. She would never be able to see him without her pussy growing moist with need. She would never be able to touch him without purring or moaning.
“Fuu—uu—uuck mmee-ee!” Princess Buffy groaned against Anyacca’s pussy. “Fuck me, you bastard! Fuck me! Fuck my ass! Ahh!”
He did as he was bid. She was a princess, after all.
She was nestled between two warm bodies. Anya was on her right, with Xander on Anya’s other side. Anya’s head was resting on Xander’s chest, and she was snoring quietly in the perfect state of innocent slumber that Anya seemed able to fall into so easily. In the week or so that Faith had slept with them in their bed — or bound at the foot of it — she had never seen Anya fall asleep without listening to someone’s heartbeat. Sometimes it was hers, sometimes it was Buffy’s, most often it was Xander’s. No matter whose it was, she dropped off almost at once, and slept so soundly that Faith could not help but be jealous.
Buffy, meanwhile, had her face nestled into the crook of Faith’s neck. Her breath was hot against Faith’s skin, and her lips would often brush teasingly against her. Faith was pretty sure Buffy wasn’t aware of doing it, but she did it a lot. Her arm was draped around Faith’s middle, and one smooth leg was entwined with Faith’s own. Buffy would moan every so often in the night, rub her leg against Faith’s, and then kiss or lick at her neck. It was so horrifyingly incredible.
They switched sleeping arrangements every night. That had been one of Anya’s ideas. It weeded out any sense of favoritism, she claimed. Each night they crammed into Xander and Anya’s bed, but each night they slept next to a different combination of partners. Sleeping next to Xander made her feel safe, loved, and protected. Sleeping next to Anya made her feel wanted, desired, and accepted.
And sleeping next to Buffy was just excruciating.
Ever since Xander had forced the two of them to never lie to each other, not to mention get hornier with every truthful utterance to one another, and ever since Buffy had become convinced that Faith’s desire to change was genuine, Buffy had been all over her. Buffy was constantly touching her, constantly kissing her, constantly holding her, fondling her, teasing her, and sometimes just staring at her with a mixture of lustful desire and heartfelt sympathy. It was so close to overwhelming that sometimes Faith started shaking when Buffy was doting on her. It could not be real.
But it was, and as Buffy moaned her name, followed by a mumbled “Xander” and “Anya,” Faith felt a delightful shiver run up and down her body. Buffy’s lips sucked gently at Faith’s neck. Her hand slid smoothly across Faith’s taut midsection. This was supposed to be Xander’s reward? It felt like her own. Only she hadn’t done anything to deserve it.
Unable to help herself, she whispered the words to Buffy, the girl she could not lie to. “I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve any of this.”
Buffy’s hot breath spoke softly into her ear. “Live up to it, then. You can. I know that now.”
Then a tongue flicked playfully against her ear. Faith moaned, “Buffy…”
“Can’t help myself,” Buffy whimpered. Her hand slid down Faith’s belly and towards her bare crotch. “You make me so… mmm…”
Faith turned over onto her side and looked at Buffy in the dark. Buffy’s blue-green eyes shimmered back at her.
“I liked when you were my robot,” Buffy whispered at her. She grinned mischievously. “I liked it when you were my lifelong friend.”
Faith groaned. One of Buffy’s fingers had slid in between her legs and was hooking into her. She closed her eyes and thought about the fantasy. It had been so real. They had been testing just how strong Xander’s control over their minds could be, and it turned out to be stronger than Faith had ever dreamed. He’d made both her and Buffy think they were in another world, that they were completely different people. It had seemed perfectly real to her. God, if she didn’t trust him the way she did…
But she did. And she was starting to understand why she did. She was starting to understand why he was so scared to have the power of them that he had. She was starting to understand why it was so damn sexy. He had total control. It was terrifying. It was thrilling.
Buffy kissed her lightly on the lips. Their tongues met, touched, and slid softly against one another. Faith felt tears stinging at her eyes. Terrifying? No. It was soothing. It was calming. It was perfect. She should have never had a chance at any of it, but she did and she knew she could never give it up. Buffy Summers was kissing her. Buffy Summers was loving her. Buffy Summers thought she could be a person. Maybe even a good person.
“Buffy,” she breathed, gasping as Buffy’s finger grew more insistent. She thought back to the fantasy, thought back to a life that had seemed so real, a life where she was Princess Buffy’s robot companion, a sex toy built for her pleasure. It had been so wonderful, knowing Buffy treasured her so deeply. Not quite better than how it felt to know Xander and Anya cared for her, but different. Almost brighter somehow because of who Buffy was and what she had always represented. If Buffy believed in her then maybe she could believe in herself as well.
She hugged Buffy to her, gripping her almost desperately as the orgasm rushed into her. She moaned it out against Buffy’s neck, squeezing her with a strength she could never use on Xander or Anya, and Buffy squeezed her back just as strongly, just as possessively. They were more than sister Slayers now. They were sister slaves. They belonged together, and they belonged to Xander and Anya.
She held Buffy. Buffy held her.
She slept.
Xander gawked. Maybe he’d be used to it someday, but today was not that day. Some part of him knew that if he ever found the sight of Buffy and Faith in tiny little mini-skirts, clear pink heels, tight pink and very tight low-cut t-shirts that revealed considerable cleavage from the both of them to be ordinary; well, that was the day he’d know he was dead.
The two of them were mincing around the Magic Shop, apparently happy to obey all of Anya’s demands as they helped customers, showcased items, and much more importantly, made the customers think more about them than they thought about the prices.
Giles had opened the shop for business earlier that day, and already he had acquiesced to Anya’s somewhat insistent offers for help. Now Anya was pretty much running the entire operation, with Faith and Buffy acting as her support staff. Items were flying off the shelves, although most of them were bought by somewhat glassy-eyed male customers who didn’t really look at what they were buying.
“I am in a moral crisis,” Giles said to him as he approached Xander. The two of them stood in the back of the shop and watched Anya haggle with a customer, somehow managing to raise the asking price by twenty-percent in less than thirty seconds. “They’re selling far more than I could have hoped for. But it does feel rather a bit…”
“Sleazy?” Xander suggested.
“A bit.”
“I didn’t tell them to do anything,” Xander said quickly. “You know that, right? This was Anya’s idea and they went along with it. She didn’t order them to. I-I mean not with, um, you know. The reward. She ordered them, but not in that way where they can’t say n—” He groaned and covered his face with his hands, wiping them down his face wearily. “This just sounds bad however I try to say it.”
“N-no, no. I understand. We won’t speak of it, but I understand.”
“Good,” Xander said, and his mind was momentarily distracted when Faith bent over at the waist to place an item on a low shelf. She wasn’t wearing any panties. That was it. It was certain. She and Buffy were actively trying to kill him. He swallowed hard.
Giles cleared his throat and looked very intently at the wall. His neck was somewhat flushed, but Xander gave him credit when he attempted to change the subject. “S-so, your um, experiments with the mental control, they were successful?”
“Huh? Oh. Oh yeah. Real successful.”
“How so?”
“Well they both believed everything I told them. I mean a hundred percent. Buffy told me afterwards that it felt as real to her as anything ever did.”
He didn’t add that she’d told him that while riding up and down on his cock and making him promise to do it again someday. Faith had admitted to enjoying herself to, but her reaction hadn’t been close to Buffy’s. He was beginning to learn that Buffy had a real desire for losing control. Now that she was no longer hung up on Faith being in their relationship, she’d been giving herself over to that more and more. He found himself a little overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. He wasn’t sure he could keep up.
“Really? That’s— That’s quite astounding. The implications are…”
“Horrifying,” Xander finished for him. Buffy might love it and Faith might’ve liked it, but Xander wasn’t sure he liked having the power to alter their minds. To control their minds. That was scary power.
Even worse, if he understood the Reward correctly, he was intended to use it. If he didn’t… well, he didn’t like to think about that. Things were borderline scary enough as it was. Borderline scary and not-so-borderline hot.
He watched as Buffy forgot herself for a moment and stared longingly at the breasts of an attractive woman walking by the shop, and couldn’t help but smile when she shook her head in surprise a moment later and a bright pink blush rose to her cheeks. She quickly went back to restocking the shelves, but he could see the hard points of her nipples through the t-shirt she wore.
“Troubling, I’ll agree,” Giles said. “But I don’t know that I would worry quite so much, Xander. I’ve been researching the other aspects of your reward after you came to me about your, um, improved physical condition.”
That was putting it lightly. He felt better than he ever had in his life. His energy levels were through the roof. He was sleeping less but waking up refreshed every morning. He was having sex several times a day with no fatigue and little downtime in between orgasms. He was getting more done at work and just feeling better while doing it. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually felt tired.
“Imagine for a moment all of the terrible luck you’ve had in your life. Every moment of ill-timing, every piece of bad news, every event that did not go your way.”
“That’s a long list,” Xander said.
“Yes. Quite a bit longer than most, I’d say. I’ve been looking over it, Xander, and just in the time that I’ve been in Sunnydale I’ve noticed that you tend to have a more, um, shall we say, pronounced influence on your life by the Hellmouth than any other person that was not in fact killed under its influences. Why, the number of demonic entities alone that have taken a peculiar interest in you is, well, unique.”
“I’m a demon magnet,” he said with a slight smile. The last demon had been Anya, however, and that made up for it as far as he was concerned.
“Yes. You’ve had various demons wishing to claim you as mate or conquest, you’ve had spells go awry, you’ve been caught up in the effects of numerous supernatural occurence, the statistical probability of which has gone so far beyond infinitesimal that I have stopped keeping track. Xander, as foolish as it may sound, you have been a tremendously unlucky individual in regards to the Hellmouth. Nearly every aspect of your life has been affected by it in some way. The forces of the Hellmouth are a constant influx of dark and demonic energy that cause terrible events to happen, cause probability to sway from one’s favor, and complicate every consequence, and you are perhaps more susceptible to those energies than any other living person in Sunnydale.”
“So I’m a sap?”
“No. Just unusually prone to the influences of the Hellmouth. But now, Xander, those forces do not affect you as they once did. The Reward has changed them. Reversed them. You are not just lucky, you are being bombarded by the most powerful force of evil on this planet, except that evil has been transformed into — I have no other word for it — good. I believe you are a living counter-force to the Hellmouth itself. The implications go far beyond the sexual ramifications of the reward, Xander. They could affect the entire world.”
“The entire world?”
Giles nodded at him quite seriously. “As strange as it sounds, Xander, your reward may be one of the most important mystical events in the last thousand years.”
“A spell that makes Buffy walk around in a mini-skirt is the most important event in a thousand years?” he said skeptically. The shop’s phone rang then, and he found himself staring in awe as Buffy strode confidently across the room, her mini-skirt just barely covering the curve of her ass as her smooth legs swished smoothly against one another. The bright smile of excitement on her face made him grin like an idiot. “Huh. Maybe you have a point.”
His eyes caught Buffy’s as she lifted the phone to her ear, and she grinned somewhat mischievously at him as she said, “Magic Box, how can I help you?”
“Just think about it, Xander. And keep an eye out for events that may have a deeper significance. The positive ramifications from the reward could manifest themselves in any way.”
“Yeah,” he said, hardly even listening to Giles any more. He was too busy gazing at Buffy, watching as her bright smile faded, her hand gripped the counter, and her clothes flashed into a simple pair of jeans and an oversized sweater. Her eyes met his as she hung up the phone. They were filled with tears. When she spoke, her voice was filled with fear.
“Mom’s in the hospital.”
Xander’s jaw clenched. He nodded and strode across the room. He took Buffy by the hand. “Let’s go then.”
She nodded, her bottom lip quivering slightly, and pressed against him as they made their way for the door. Anya frowned as they went, but said nothing. They made their way past the customers and Xander swung the door open. Then, just before they left, he turned back to Giles.
He sighed, shook his head and said to Giles, “You really should know better by now.”
| Chapter 19 | Contents | Chapter 21 |
| M. McGregor’s Chapter 20, on Live Journal | ||