Ch 2 BTVS

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BTVS2

The next evening the Scooby Gang found out about the Harvest that the big vampire Luke was holding at The Bronze. Luke was planning on draining lots of the teens partying there so he could use some kind of sympathetic magic link to feed The Master, giving him enough power to break out of his containment.

"Who is the real master, this vampire, or the one in Doctor Who?" Carl joked. No one got the reference. 'Looks like I should lay off the jokes. I didn't take the pop culture ability so I'm always going to be behind and slightly off with the references.' Carl grumbled to himself.

Carl drove the gang from the library to The Bronze, where they found the doors chained up to keep the victims inside. Carl pulled out bolt cutters from his trunk, and opened the way for them to get the bystanders out. Carl saw that Cordelia was there, and he got really mad at the vampires for threatening his sister. If they didn't come in time, she might have been drained along with everyone else.

"Buffy, I've got the small fry. You take the big dude out." Carl snapped as he formed some hot fireballs, and started flinging them at vampires. His anger must have helped his casting, cause each fire ball were golf ball sized and super hot. His fireballs burned right through the vampire's chests, and out their back, dusting them.

Buffy stared for a moment, before coming out of her daze at watching him kill 5 vampires in as many seconds. "Right, I got the big guy." She said, as she firmed up her determination while glaring at Luke.

Meanwhile, Giles, Xander, and Willow were herding the civilians out and running interference with the vampires by using their crosses, holy water, and crossbows.

Carl kept one eye on Buffy's fight. She was poetry in motion in a fight, never standing still, and hitting way above her weight class. Carl vaguely remembered from the show that she had to trick Luke at some point in order to win. But here, with no minions to fight to wear her down, she took the big vampire down legitimately. Good on her.

"Hey, Cordelia, Harmony, how are you two?" Carl asked when the vampires were all gone and the place finally quieted down. He spotted the two hanging around the door, making sure that he was all right.

"Carl, what, who, why?" Harmony cried out, before throwing herself in his arms, crying from the fear of the monsters almost killing her.

Carl wryly looked at Cordelia, who looked sardonically amused at his plight. She had long known about Harmony's crush on him. Apparently she wasn't too bothered by the idea of him and Harmony hooking up.

"There, there. You're safe now." Carl spoke to Harmony, rubbing her back in comfort, while looking at his sister to convey the same message to her. She just snorted at his attempt to comfort her by proxy and rolled her eyes. His sister was a hard ass at times, and she just couldn't admit to any weakness in public. It would be detrimental to her image and popularity.

Carl just shrugged and smiled. Each person had different priorities in life, and she had her goals and firmly pursued them. Popularity wasn't an end for her, but a means to get where she wanted to go. Since Carl understood that, he wouldn't try too hard to change her attitude. If her goals in life changed, she would naturally change the means of attaining the goals. And he was her brother, not her parole officer. It really wasn't his place to harp on her for her behavior.

"Anyone want to relax with a mug of Root Beer? I've got a cold keg at home. It's just waiting to be drunk." Carl offered everyone. That was his second invention that his dairy told him he was proud of. An ever-full Root Beer Keg. At least according to his diary Carl made it. He knew he really got it from his jump chain purchase, but whatever.

For some reason, no one wanted to enjoy his root beer with him. Philistines. Just as everyone was going to break up for the night, Carl saw Angel hiding in the alley shadows, watching them.

"Liam!" Carl cried out, startling everyone. They turned to look at who Carl was talking to. "Or is it Angelus? Angel? Bob? What are you calling yourself these days, old man?" Carl continued on. Everyone had spotted him at this point.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, Carl could tell that Buffy and Angel had already met. The awkward silence lasted for a few moments before Angel came out of the alley.

"I go by Angel these days." He quietly stated while giving soulful eyes at Buffy.

"Ah, Angel, the vampire with a soul. These are Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, who I'm sure you've met, Cordelia, Harmony, and I am Carl." He introduced the group to each other.

Carl just let the chaotic sounds of everyone talking and asking questions at the same time wash over him. Smiling like he didn't have a care in the world, he waited for everyone to get it out of their system.

When everyone settled down, and the consensus seemed to be for someone to explain, specifically him, Carl began the tale of Angelus who raped and ate a gypsy he shouldn't have, and how he was cursed with a soul until he had a moment of "perfect happiness".

"Read it in a book. It was very descriptive of your curse and how it has a clause that would get rid of your soul. I don't know exactly how they scale that 'perfect happiness' though. I mean, some people might get a moment of perfect happiness on a beautiful quiet morning while drinking a perfect cup of coffee. Others might get their perfect moment of happiness by having sex with a 17 year old underage girl." He suggestively said. "Just saying!" Carl exclaimed, backing up, when the girls of the group glared at him.

Hopefully he'd done enough to derail the crazy train that was the Buffy x Angel relationship.

The group eventually decided everything was over, and to head home. Carl drove Cordelia, Harmony, Willow, and Xander home, while Giles, Buffy, and Angel went their own ways.

The shock must have been great for Harmony, because she even forgot to be mean to Willow and Xander. He thought she was making great progress at being a decent person though.

With that explosive start to his days in Sunnydale, Carl soon settled into a routine. First thing in the morning he would run a few miles, and lift weights to improve his strength, then practice his martial arts skills.

He wasn't under the foolish notion that he could mold himself into a melee demon fighter, but every little bit of advantage would be needed to keep himself alive. If he was ambushed, being fit and able to dodge would keep him alive long enough to use his magic to end the threat.

And after a few months he got into the habit of using his magic to lift weights at the same time he physically lifted. It took a lot out of him at first, but it greatly improved his multitasking, concentration, and metaphysical muscles while he maintained his fitness.

He would then go to school while making sure he got good grades. Carl figured if he didn't get good grades on his second run through high school, he would be a hopeless case. It wasn't even all that hard.

More often than not, he would spend his lunches with Cordelia and Harmony. For some reason his mere presence allowed the two girls the leeway to temporarily pause their popularity driven behavior, and just act like themselves. He wasn't sure how that worked, but he saw it in action, so he knew it was so.

He would be listening to their talk as he approached their table, and the moment they saw him, they would pause, shift mental gears, and suddenly start talking about completely different, non-bitchy things. Carl resolved that he would spend plenty of time with them, to give them that precious leeway, if that's what they needed.

More than a few times while spending time with the girls, his Just Plain Snarky ability kicked in and caused him to make some sexual innuendos that left the girls red faced. He decided to just enjoy the craziness. He couldn't escape it, so why not have fun with it?

After school Carl would spend his time in a few different ways, depending on his schedule and time. He would either be working with a privately hired lawyer and Cordelia to make a financial safety net for themselves that wouldn't be confiscated by the government, studying Giles' books and going on patrol with the gang, or studying and practicing magic.

He didn't feel like he was fully one of the Scooby Gang. He was determined not to turn into some kind of foot soldier for Buffy or the Watchers Council, but he made himself available to help them. Helping them would help him keep himself and his girls safe.

Now if he could just convince Jesse to stop drooling over his sister without having to resort to breaking his teeth, Carl would be relatively happy.

A week or so after Buffy's big intro to Sunnydale, Carl heard that one of the cheerleaders had spontaneously combusted. He'd forgotten about that issue until he heard the news. He remembered that Amy Madison's mom had switched bodies with her to relive her "glory days" of high school.

Carl started working on figuring out just where the Madisons lived. Before he could make it there, he heard that Cordelia had suddenly gone blind. He switched destinations when he heard the news, and went to reassure Cordelia that he would take care of it. Just wait an hour or so.

He drove to the address he'd gotten from the administration office for the Madisons. Busting in, he found Amy in her Mother's body. He froze her where she stood. He loved magic.

"Now, I've come into information that I would like confirmation of before I do anything. Are you Amy, or Catherine?" Carl asked the frozen woman. He could see the desperate hope bloom in her face that someone knew what was happening to her, and might be able to help.

"Amy! I'm Amy. My mother did something to me. I don't know-" She sobbed for a moment. "I'm so afraid! Why would she do this to me? To her own daughter?"

Sighing, Carl unfroze her, and hugged her to comfort her. "I can help you get back to your body, if you help me." Carl offered. At her nod, Carl had her direct him to where her mother's spell casting circle was set up. After looking at the situation, Carl had a plan.

"First, I'm going to need to tie you up." At her frantic look, Carl explained further. "I'm going to reverse the spell. You'll go back to your body. But your mother will return to her body, here. And she's dangerous. I don't want her free to attack me when that happens, so I'll need to tie you up in a chair for now, okay?"

At her agreement, Carl tied her up. He then worked his mojo on Catherine's magic spells, reversing them. Hearing the loud curses from the tied up woman in the next room, Carl realized he'd succeeded.

Moving to the next room, Carl was subject to the curses, hisses, and spitting of the furious woman. Getting tired of listening to her diatribe, Carl started casting a spell that he'd decided was particularly appropriate to use on her. He turned her into a rat. She would be limited in intelligence, and unable to use magic in this form. Carl scooped her up and put her into a box for transport.

After packing up all of Catherine's magic books and supplies, he exited the house, where he saw Amy standing there in a cheerleading uniform, nervously debating if she wanted to enter or not. She was afraid her mother was still free and would do something to her. Seeing him exit, Amy seemed to feel a rush of hope.

"Is…Is it safe?" The cute teenager asked.

"She's no longer a threat to anyone." Carl reassured her.

"Did you kill her? I mean, if you had to I understand." Amy babbled in nervousness. "She was dangerous and crazy. She was still my mom, but she was scary." She finally trailed off awkwardly.

"No, I just turned her into a form that won't be a threat anymore." Carl showed her the rat in the box. "I'm going to put her in a cage and put protections on it to keep her safe, and let her live out her life like this, so she can't hurt anyone else."

"Oh, that's…good." Amy quietly stated. "I mean, I wanted her stopped, but she was still my mom. So I didn't really want her dead. But, like this, this is good too." Amy babbled.

Reaching over, Carl hugged her with one arm. "It's okay now Amy. It's okay to feel relief. It's okay to feel safe again. She won't hurt you anymore." He reassured her. After a few moments, when he felt her pull back, he let go. "If, in the future, you want to learn magic so you can protect yourself from anything like this happening again, let me know. I'm pretty decent at it, and it would be nice to have more people to practice with."

"I'll think about it. Maybe later. Just not right now." Amy quietly stated.

Carl nodded and smiled comfortingly. "Okay. I've got to get going and check up on my sister now. Make sure she's okay."

"Okay. Thanks again, Carl."

"Anytime, Amy. See you around." Carl casually waved as he got in his car.

Carl soon arrived at school and tracked down Cordelia. He was relieved that the reversal spell worked so well, and her sight was restored. He explained what happened, and what he did, showing her the Catherine rat. She felt vindictively gleeful at the fate of the witch who cursed her. Carl couldn't blame her. He felt the same way.

A few days later Amy came to Carl and asked if he would teach her magic so she could defend herself and feel safe again. Carl naturally agreed. After talking to a couple more people, Carl's afternoons were filled with magic study sessions with Amy, Willow, and Jenny Calendar.

Jenny Calendar was the alias of the gypsy techno pagan witch Jana of the Kalderash gypsies. Her clan had some strange convoluted plans and revenge schemes. For some reason they had sent her to watch over and monitor the curse they had placed on the vampire Angelus. Stupidly, they never explained to her just what could break the curse, or provide her protection in the case the curse was broken and she was left vulnerable to the predations of Angelus. Whatever, not his problem.

But with her help, he started tutoring Amy and Willow in magic. They made sure to stress the dangers of moving too fast, channeling too much magic, magic addiction, and the dangers of playing with the dark stuff.

That's not to say they couldn't study topics at their own pace, or research what interested them. But the casting practices were strict and held daily to start working their metaphysical muscles and prepare them to be able to lift "heavier" loads. So in the future when they cast the big magic, it wouldn't warp them into a hopeless magic addict.

After the sophomore class went on a trip to the zoo, Carl noticed the change in behavior of Xander and a few students.

Carl wondered just why sophomores were going on a zoo trip in the first place. Wasn't that elementary school stuff? Was that from the influence of the Mayor, who wanted innocent students to wander into just such a situation? Maybe part of the ritual the mayor was planning needed a certain aura of fear around town, or a certain number of yearly sacrifices for him to check all the items on his 'Turn into a Demon' list?

Either way, Carl moved into action. From his studies he'd found a particular method to take care of this issue. Since he was prepared, Carl soon captured the Hyena possessed teens using his magic before they could eat the school mascot, let alone the principal. No sense in letting Snyder the troll be in charge of the school. Now that would be truly irritating.

That evening Carl brought the tied up students back to the zoo. He quickly subdued the witch doctor dude that started the whole thing, and set up his own ritual. Channeling magic, his ritual soon sucked out the primal spirit from everyone there, and channeled it into a necklace totem that he'd prepared.

He made the hard decision to toss the zoo keeper witch doctor into the hyena pit to end his life as Hyena chow. He didn't want to put up with the crazy man hanging around and trying to get revenge. Chances are he would hurt someone Carl cared for. Then Carl would regret not ending him as a threat. Better safe than sorry.

He then let the other kids go when they all woke up, but kept Xander tied up for the moment.

"Xander, are you an idiot?" Carl bluntly asked.

"What?" Xander was confused. Why didn't Carl release him already? Why was he calling him an idiot?

"I asked if you were an idiot, or a monumental idiot?"

"Sometimes." Xander warily said, unsure of just where Carl was going with this. "Why don't you explain to me what you mean and I'll tell you if I've been an idiot?" Xander asked reasonably.

"Okay. Here's the thing. You've been mooning all over Buffy ever since she got here. But there is someone who has feelings for you, and you have been stomping all over her heart. Every time you complain to her about Buffy not being interested in you, it hurts her a little more that you don't even see her as a girl, let alone that she has feelings for you. Now you tell me, are you an idiot, or a monumental idiot?" Carl sarcastically finished.

"Willow? But…She never said. She's been my best bud since forever. Really? Are you sure?" Xander asked.

"She's been good at hiding it from you, but everyone else can see it. Everyone else is an idiot too for not straight up telling you these facts of life. But you're an idiot for not seeing just how beautiful and desirable that girl is and will become."

Carl paused a moment to let his words sink into Xander's head.

"Now, I'm not telling you this to try to strong arm you into dating Willow giving up on Buffy or whatever. It's not for me to make that decision, that's all on you. But I am telling you this so that you can get your head out of your ass. Stomping on Willow's heart every time you complain about Buffy, or act like a lovesick fool in front of her, has been painful to watch. I'm just sorry I didn't say anything earlier."

And with that, Carl released Xander and drove him home. The talkative, jokester teen was unusually quiet as he thought about what he'd learned that night.

Shortly after Carl started spending so much time in the afternoon with Jenny, Amy, and Willow studying magic, he also got some additions to his morning exercise time. Harmony started joining him on his morning runs. A couple days later, Cordelia also joined them.

When he asked why they joined him, they simply said they had to stay in shape for cheerleading. Carl suspected Harmony, at least, was jealous of the time he spent in the afternoon with the magic girls, and wanted to stake out her own time to be with him. He guessed Cordelia was chaperoning them?

Who knows, Carl certainly didn't.

Because of the afternoon magic class, Carl, Jenny, and Amy were present when Willow got the bright idea to start scanning the magic books into the computer. They were able to put a halt to that until they checked them for curses, magic, and possessions.

Willow went very red faced in embarrassment when she learned just how close she came to uploading a demon to the internet. Carl suggests that if they want a database of all the books they follow a couple rules. First, the computer can't be hooked up to the internet. No one can hack it if it's not connected.

Second, they make several backups to their database. He would get one that he would put in a secure storage, in case anything happened to their computer.

Third, they check for curses before even reading the books, let alone scanning them.

Carl also suggests that there are a couple guys that they could hire to help with the project, since their time is more valuable and better spent either in studying, researching, or practicing magic.

So they hire as helpers and research assistants Jonathon Levinson and Andrew Wells. Carl hoped that by getting to the two young men early he can keep them from falling under the sway of Warren Mears.

To impress on the two young men the importance of respecting the supernatural knowledge, keeping it safe, and not abusing it, he and Buffy brought them along with them on patrol so they could see how dangerous the hidden supernatural world is.

A secondary message was that they, Carl and Buffy, are infinitely more scary. "Don't cross us" was the basic message Carl wanted them to understand.

They seemed to get the message.

Several weeks later everyone around town was suffering from crazy nightmares. Recognizing it as a psychic attack, Carl tracked the source to a 10 year old boy in the hospital in a coma. His name was Billie, and he was in the coma because someone beat him severely enough to leave him comatose.

Carl entered the boy's nightmare ridden mind, and worked hard to soothe him. He finally got the boy to calm down, and figured out what happened. The boy's little league coach had cornered him after their game. Billie had made a mistake that lost the team the game, and the coach had beaten Billie almost until death.

Carl helped Billie heal a bit, and wake up. He called the cops and got them to arrest the coach.

Carl then decided he would keep in contact with the young 10 year old. If the boy at 10 was projecting psychic nightmares to such a large area, he had to have potential in the mystic arts. It would be better for him if Carl helped train him to at least have enough skill to control his abilities. Who knew when his psychic ability would attract the wrong attention from some supernatural predator?

From then on, on the weekends, Carl spent several hours with Carl teaching him how to gain control as well as working on his ethics so he wouldn't abuse his gifts.

Carl didn't find out about the invisible girl running around school until she tried to kidnap Cordelia. The protection amulet he had made knocked Marcie right out, and tagged her with a tracking charm.

After Cordelia found him, and Carl finally parsed just what she was saying, he followed the tracking charm to where Marcie was still laying unconscious. Hefting her body to his shoulder, with Cordelia following him, he made his way to their pool house for a private area to cast some spells.

Setting the girl down on the bed, Carl consulted his Book of Keslor. He soon found some charms to reverse a wide range of invisibility methods. Casting the spell, he soon had a naked visible girl on his bed.

Carl whistled. "You don't see that everyday." Carl commented cheekily at the sight of the attractive nude teenaged girl.

Snorting at his piggishness, Cordelia flipped the blanket over the girl's body.

Marcie soon woke up, and found that she was visible again. Carl explained about the Hellmouth, and how the mystical energies had interacted with her feelings of invisibility to make it happen. He offered her a simple totem to make sure it didn't happen again, if she didn't want it to. As well as training in how to control her ability.

Carl soon had a visible naked girl hugging him tightly, with his sister sardonically looking at him with one eyebrow raised.

Carl just shrugged and comforted the distraught girl in his arms, refusing to be embarrassed. Until she realized she was naked and in his arms, got embarrassed, and dove for the covers again.

"Well, shall I leave this to you to help the attractive naked Marcie, sister dear? I think I'd better make myself scarce." Carl commented as he moved towards the door. "Oh, and Marcie?" She peeked out of the covers with one eye. "It's good to see you doing better." Carl said with a smile

Marcie squeaked again and buried herself in the covers once more.

Less than a week later, Marcie was back in school. She started joining them in their extracurricular mystical studies. She finally found some people that would give her attention, and Carl figured if she could subconsciously turn herself invisible, she probably had some potential in magic, so she joined the group of budding witches.

Around this time Xander finally made up his mind, and asked Willow if she'd like to go on a date. She squeaked and couldn't hardly talk, only furiously nodding yes while blushing deep red. Carl hoped it worked out for them.

Carl was officially pissed off.

Over the past weeks, Angel had been assisting them in their patrols, making the streets safer. He didn't have a problem with that. He was happy Liam was taking his whole redemption thing seriously and was making the effort.

No, the thing that pissed him off was that one night while Angel and Giles were talking about some prophecy they read about Buffy dying at the Master's hand, Buffy overheard them. The little blonde idiot had somehow gotten it into her head that she had to go alone into the master's lair to prove herself. Or that she had no choice in the matter of prophecy and fighting vampires because she was the chosen one?

Carl really had no idea what she was thinking.

Carl was furious that she would just charge ahead solo, after all the time the group had spent helping her, letting her know she wasn't alone in the fight. He was also going to have to have words with Giles and get him to lay off on the "Sacred Duty" spiel and focus on the fact that they are a team.

Currently Carl, Xander, and Angel were racing to the Master's lair.

They found the blonde Slayer, slightly bleeding from the neck, lying in a pool of water. Not breathing and no pulse.

Carl and Xander immediately pulled Buffy out of the water and started CPR, alternating breathing and heart palpitations.

Their efforts were shortly rewarded by Buffy gasping awake.

Before Buffy could even get up, Carl forced a blood replenishing potion down her throat. He'd found the recipe in his Book of Kelsor. Bloody useful thing, he was glad he'd bought that book.

Then he gave her a monster and a bag of donuts for energy.

"Have we learned our lesson on not going solo to dangerous master's lairs, Buffy?" Carl asked acidly when it looked like she was tracking. "People care about you Buffy. You can't just run off into danger alone like that."

Xander nodded solemnly in agreement. "We're in this fight with you Buffy. We may not be as strong as you and Captain Forehead over there, but we can help you if you let us."

"Thank you." Buffy quietly said, feeling a little uncertain. Her solo charge and failure had seriously dented her confidence.

"Good. Now let's go get this bastard. We'll hold off the minions so they don't wear you down, and you can get your groove back by taking this jerk down." Carl said, handing Buffy a sword that he'd brought along.

Seeing her smile, and regain confidence as she gripped the sword and got to her feet, Carl couldn't help but smile along with her. It was always better to see the girls being strong and confident, rather than scared and timid.

What followed was the biggest fight Carl had been in yet. There were vampires everywhere around the school library, since the Hellmouth was directly under it. The master was standing on top of the school building, channeling energies to open the Hellmouth.

When they arrived, Carl saw Giles, Jenny, Willow, Amy, Jesse, Marcie, Jonathan, Andrew, Cordelia, and Harmony fighting the vampires as a group. They were using the tactics that Carl had thought up for them. Some of them were sitting in the back row, supersoakers with holy water spraying the eyes of the vampires. The front row had short spears or stakes to stab the vampires in the heart when they were blinded by the holy water.

"Get the Master, we'll finish off the small fry." Carl yelled as he summoned fireballs to clear the way for her.

Buffy threw herself forward, running at a speed normal humans couldn't match, through the dust of the vampires Carl had killed. She was so swift in parkour running up the wall to the roof, it almost looked liked she flew up.

This second fight with the master, where she had a proper weapon, wasn't mobbed by cannon fodder, and was confident she would win, went vastly different from the previous one.

Within a minute, she had slashed up the Master, tore him apart, and cast him down from the roof onto a large wooden pillar on the ground that acted as a stake, dusting him. He was such an old vampire though, that his skeleton remained behind.

The Master was dusted at around the same time everyone else finished off the final minion. Everyone's relief at being alive and winning was palpable.

"Okay, who is up for a little pizza party to celebrate?" Carl asked to cheers from his fellow teens. "I'll go pick some up, if you guys and gals want to go get cleaned up and meet back up in like, an hour or so?"

After everyone else dispersed, Carl quickly gathered the master's bones. He would grind them up and mix them with holy water before dumping them in the ocean in a couple days. No way was he leaving the bones behind for some kind of necromancy.

The relaxed atmosphere of the party later that night was enjoyable. Although Carl couldn't quite decide what to do about the underlying tension between Amy, Marcie, and Harmony. How does a guy handle three women competing for his attention without hurting any of the girl's feelings? Especially how does a guy handle his sister's snide comments?

This guy sure didn't know.

So Carl just paid them equal attention for now, wondering if his actions would come back to haunt him later. He knew the détente could only last so long, but he wasn't sure how to make sure nobody was hurt in the aftermath.

The next couple of days Carl accomplished his self appointed tasks. The Master's skeleton was ground up, purified, and spread in the ocean. He'd never be coming back.

Carl also tracked down the little Anointed One. The little shit was a whiney bitch, but he dusted just like any other vampire. It turned out he had quite the large cache of gold and money that he got from the Master. Maybe Carl should start taking out nests more often, if he could get big paydays like that? It would help build up the principle that he and Cordelia had to keep them from being broke.

The school year ended without any more big apocalypse fights. The summer came on, and everyone kept doing their thing. Carl kept up his exercise and magic studies with his groups. It wouldn't do to get complacent.

Carl saw that Xander was good and stable in his relationship with Willow. He hadn't wanted to gift him the primal totem he'd made from the primal spirit before, because Carl had been afraid Xander would try to use it to impress Buffy. But now he felt that the young man could handle it. That he wouldn't try to abuse his gift for the wrong reason.

After Carl cleansed the energies and spirit in the Hyena Totem that he created, the effect was quite good. It would greatly enhance the speed, strength, toughness, and senses of the person wearing it. So he gifted it to Xander, since he was throwing himself with wild abandon into the fights anyway. At least this way Xander would not get hurt so easily, and would be more useful.

Carl definitely didn't think Jesse deserved it, the freaking perv, after he kept slobbering over Cordelia. One of these days…

Cordelia, Carl, and their parents spent two weeks in Europe on vacation. It was quite enjoyable. He'd never been to Europe before. It reminded him that he had to start studying more languages. He already had Ancient Greek and Latin. Next he would start working on Sumerian. That seemed like an important one when dealing with the supernatural.

Eventually the summer ended, and Carl's Senior Year began. Only a few weeks into the new school year, and the school had Parent Teacher night.

Vice Principal Snyder was in charge, lovely fellow. For a surly little troll, he was a lovely fellow, anyway.

The conference got interrupted by Spike, of all vampires, party crashing. Carl got a quick tracking spell onto him which he followed the next morning before school.

Carl, Buffy, and Xander with the Hyena Totem made their way to the location the tracker pointed at, and broke in. While the other two were fighting the minions as a distraction, Carl sneakily sent two small fireballs around and got Drusilla and Spike in the back.

Carl was honestly surprised that worked. He expected the two to be harder to kill.

It certainly wasn't playing fair by any means, but that was fine with him. Blood demons didn't have honor, so why would he be upright with them? Especially the Spike & Drusilla duo were tricky. Carl was just relieved they were gone.

He knew that in another timeline all kinds of convoluted things would have happened that led to the redemption of Spike. But this is a different world, and Carl was already here with the butterfly wings of change. So letting Spike live to maybe, possibly, kinda, sorta, have a chance at redemption, while ignoring all the people Spike would kill in the mean time didn't sit well with him.

Besides, as dangerous as the two vampires were, Carl wasn't too keen of the idea of Spike ambushing him one night. Or Spike hiring the Taraka order to send assassins. Or letting Spike work for the mayor. Or any other number of horrifying things that could happen if they were floating around.

So, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes, and all that.