The weekly meeting of the UC Sunnydale Heterosexual Pride Group was being held in its usual place, the dorm room of Penelope Jameson, founder of the group. It had the usual drinks and snacks, as well as pictures of various attractive men from band, male strip club posters, and just guys members had photographed in various stages of undress as 'see there are straight girls in Sunnydale' exercises assigned by the group.
What was unusual was the presence of the serious members of the Wicca group. They were here to take action on something of huge importance. It might mean the end of the group, but that would only be because it was unnecessary. They were taking back Sunnydale. That was more important than the group. Mission first, that was the way it had to be.
"Mother Venus, hear us your daughters…"
Xander and Faith's place, breakfast Friday
"Xander, why have I had sex with all your female friends?"
"Ah, Faith, you arranged that, not me." He said, suddenly confused at the change of heart. Was she leading up to something, like a divorce?
"Not sayin ya set me up or anything boytoy, just it's wicked strange that I was straight as an arrow until a few years ago." She genuinely seemed puzzled at her behaviour over the last few years. "A lot of guys ASKED me for a threesome but I never considered actually doing it."
Harris the younger sat in fear, his insecurities coming back and hitting hard. If she was deciding the last few years were an incomprehensible mistake than where did that leave him?
"So, you regret the last few years?"
"Nah, not regret, it was amazing fun, but, why the girls?" The Boston slayer asked in her puzzled tone. She clearly remembered wanting to, and doing, and enjoying the hell out of it, but she couldn't imagine doing any of those things now, or wanting to. Noticing the look on her husband's face she quickly added. "Hey, being with you is the best thing that ever happened to me, you're not digging me out without artillery."
Mrs Faith Harris smiled at her husband, forcing the questions aside for the moment. Xander had provided love, guidance, and really great sex, but far more important to her he was a friend. Her first ever real friend, the first person she could tell her problems to, show weakness to without knowing she would regret if bitterly later.
"Faith, its just that I don't know what I'd do without you, I love you so much and I really don't tell you often enough" He was holding her hands tightly as he looked intently into her eyes.
"Well you can prove it to me."
"How?"
"You know how I like to suck on chocolate rather than just bite it?"
"You first showed me when I demonstrated my patented Twinkie eating technique."
"Well there's this liquid chocolate, liquid at room temp, not heated or anything, and I got some yesterday. I really want to suck on 9 inches of chocolate covered goodness."
"Ah." Was all he could get out.
"So pull down your pants, lie on the floor, and let me have desert."
It had been a rough few months for the Scooby gang, and a time of change for Sunnydale. Joyce and Margaret were together and happy, they had changed the least. Willow and Tara were trying to re-start their relationship, after the mess when Buffy left and Willow began her intense questioning of who she was. But the elder Summers daughter was here, on day release but here, and the rest were more or less happy.
"And then the shrink said 'don't think of it as being committed, think of it as intensive sanity training.' I mean I volunteered and it's just the hospital the Initiative uses for its casualties anyway so I don't see what the big drama is." The blonde was complaining.
She had woken up that morning months ago wondering what on Earth had possessed her to go along with the slave/mistress thing. Ok, the lesbian care bears meant well, and it had been kinda fun, but she wasn't gay, or even bi. The fact that the red head sleeping beside her began the same questioning the same day just made the emotional display worse. Still, she was over her attraction to vampires now, thanks to her time away.
"So, bufficus maximus, buffy of buffonia, bufus the great, I hear you have a job lined up at the new high school. Is that fate or what?" Xander asked, he was worried about rebuilding on the same site as the old school. The school board still owned the land however and it would mean not having to ship the kids all the way to their current schools so they went with it.
"Yes, well, I managed to convince the senior officers of the Initiative that since Buffy IS now a qualified psychologist in need of a job, and since the school needs a councillor it was the obvious thing to do." Giles stepped in with this, and he was proud of it. He hadn't felt really needed for a while, then the whole 'all of you have Shell Shock' revelation didn't help his ego either. "She will retain her army reserve commission as Lieutenant also, since her, ah, problems are being listed as combat related injuries."
Normally someone with these kind of problems would be sent somewhere out of the firing line for longer or given a 'section 8,' a psychiatric discharge. But neither of the slayers could retire; the elder slayers futile attempts to escape her destiny had proved it. Going into action with modern weapons and trained soldiers reduced the risks but did not eliminate them. There was a knock on the door and Dawn answered it.
"Amy, come in, glad to see you." One of the few positive results of the tear filled emotional drama of the WillowTaraBuffy break-up was the once rat now being back in human form. She had started college and was rebuilding her life, like many people lately. But now she looked nervous, or perhaps scared would be a better term for it.
"Amy, how are you this fine Christmas morning and what's that you're holding in your trembling forepaw?" Xander had noticed that in certain situations the former rodent was still inclined to the habits of her smaller form. Right now she looked like she was expecting a cat to pounce at any moment.
"This, this, this is a spell the Wicca group did two months ago." She said, referring to a piece of paper in her hand.
"They finally stopped doing bake sales long enough to cast a spell? I didn't think that was even possible." Willow joked, and then noted the haunted look that resulted from the casual joke.
"Oh, they cast alright, they cast for the Het Pride girls. Two months and three days ago to be precise." They didn't all make the connection, but Tara stood jumped up from the couch and grabbed the paper from the others hand. She read for a while and sat down hard.
"Two months and three days ago, what happened two months…" Then Margaret Walsh got it. She and her beloved had not been directly affected, after all.
"They cast a mind control spell!" Willow shouted. "They broke us all up with a spell? Xander do you have a flamethrower handy, I feel an urge to visit those bitches and HANDLE THEIR PROBLEM.
"Willow, calm down, killing is not the answer." Xander responded.
"Yeah breaking bones is the answer." Faith commented. She didn't particularly miss sleeping with women but the idea of people going into her mind to control her made her blood boil.
"This isn't a mind control spell." Willow's girlfriend said quietly. Quietly but still loud enough to get everyone's attention.
"They cast a spell and suddenly everyone's sexual preference changes, how could it not be a mind control spell?" Willow demanded. That not every woman's tastes had altered was obvious with thought, but she was far too angry for that right now.
"It's a protection spell."
"WHAT."
"Protection from what, pray tell." Giles said. He was fighting the rise of Ripper, there was plenty of 'kill them all and let god sort it out' going around as it was. He needed to be the voice of calm maturity right now.
"A mind control spell."
Giles, who had after all formal training in magic as a weapon was the first to see it. The Watchers Council did not turn Watchers into magic users in the normal sense. Battle magic was covered, not the more generalised religious oriented material the Wicca's used.
"Why would that cause everyone to change, we weren't under a spell or…" Buffy faltered as it sank in.
The office above Sin Sity Swingers, the same time.
The Christmas party was in full swing downstairs as Anya pondered her changes in fate. The crowd was not as big as she had originally expected, but nowhere near as small as she had feared a couple of months ago either. Still she was down on cash flow and she hated it.
"I was so careful, I even had it backdated so no-one would associate the change with our opening date and this happens." It was the female participants that made an orgy a success or failure after all, she had attended enough in her vengeance days to know that. If they enjoyed each other as well the guys would pay more to attend. So the key was plenty of horny, sexually adventurous women, that was the key to her profit margin.
"Oh well, at least we got the up front costs paid for before the slowdown." The mage had been far too expensive to hire for a redo, the original had been almost as expensive as the premises and now a spell to break the protection spell would be needed as well. The former demon dropped the papers on her desk and started undressing. "Ah well, time for the hostess to join the party."