Unknown Factors (Book One)

Ch.11: Hot temptation

  "Hey, Buffy." I smiled while seeing the short blonde leaving Pops's place as I was arriving. "I'd wave, but as you can see, my hands are full of snacks." Shrugging as I held onto the plastic bags, she just looked at me like she didn't know who I was.

  "Oh hey....you!" She pointed while grinning. "How's it been?" 'What the Hell's going on?' I thought, finding her reaction rather....strange.

  "So, out on patrol?" I asked.

  "Yeah." She awkwardly shifted on her feet while putting her hands on her hips.

  "Oh, give me a sec, and I'll join you. Unless you wanna go alone...." Watching her, I took note of her posture and body language, even how she spoke and her tone.

  "Nah, I'm good. You just go on and....do whatever it is you were doing."

  "You sure? Pops wouldn't mind me going." My brows furrowed as I noticed something wrong with Buffy. She even smelled wrong.

  "Pops?" She looked utterly confused.

  "You know?" I shifted on my feet. "Giles? Your Watcher, my dad, the man who lives in the house you just came from?"

  "Your dad." She sounded surprised. 'This isn't Buffy.' I shifted on my feet again. 'Okay, just act like you don't notice, then find Willow. This might be something magick-related like last time.' "Of course, sorry. I'm just a little out of it at the moment, you know, fighting Faith and everything."

  "Okay, well, good luck on your patrol." I quickly gave a smile and went inside to put down the bags. Immediately afterward, I headed out to find Willow by following the scent trail she had left behind. I wandered onto Willow and Buffy's college campus, then into a dorm. Going down halls and past rooms, I followed my nose to a certain door. Taking in a deep breath, I knocked.

  "Yes? Oh, Aud. What are you doing here?" Willow answered the door. In the background, I saw another woman in front of a desk with a book opened up. Looking at Willow, I cringed.

  "Please don't think I'm crazy, but I just ran into Buffy a bit ago and it wasn't really Buffy, it just looked like her, but it didn't act like her, or even sound like her." I watched her, waiting for a reaction. She smiled and invited me in.

  "Yeah, we know. We were just about to do a ritual to find out where the real Buffy is." Willow led me into the dim room with white Christmas lights on the walls.

  "Wow....nice room...." I mumbled while looking around.

  "Thanks." The other woman gave a shy smile.

  "Oh, right." Willow pointed at the woman. "This is Tara. Tara, this is Aud."

  "Is-Is your name Odd, or is something odd?" She asked. That was the first time someone had asked me that.

  "The name's Aud- like A-U-D." I smiled before holding out my hand. "Nice to meet you."

  "N-Nice to m-m-meet you, too." The woman was extremely shy and reminded me of a baby deer. She shook my hand and gasped. "You're-"

  "A half-demon." I nodded. "Only half, though. You must be a powerful witch or something to pick that up so easily." I grinned while putting my hands into my pockets.

  "Oh, I'm not....I'm just a normal witch."

  "Uh-huh." I glanced at Willow. "So, how can I help?"

  "Um....Tara?" Willow looked to the other woman.

  "This is good, actually. Sh-She can act as a p-power source." Tara looked at me. "You h-have a lot of energy. It could really help in making this spell more l-likely to succeed." She looked down while fumbling with her sleeves.

  "For now, my strength is at your disposal." I gave a smile while nodding. Tara and Willow began to set up the ritual, even going to the extent of anointing Willow before we got started.

~

  "Giles!" Willow, Tara, and I burst through the front door.

  "Will." There was a woman with long, wavy, brown hair standing there. I didn't recognize her face, but I did her scent.

  "Oh, my God."

  "Willow, wait. You don't understand."

  "You're Buffy. You and Faith switched bodies, probably through a Draconian Katra spell." Willow said.

  "So, this is what Faith looks like?" I asked, and Willow nodded.

  "She understands it better than I do." Pops said.

  "How did you-"

  "Tara. Tara, this is Buffy, only really this time." They smiled during introductions.

  "Hi." Tara waved.

  "Tara's a really powerful witch."

  "Not really." Tara said while looking down.

  "No, really. She knew right away that you weren't you."

  "And that I was part demon when we shook hands!" I added.

  "So we connected to the Nether Realms to-to find out what happened and we conjured this." The redhead opened a small wooden box with a green orb of light inside it.

  "What is-" Buffy asked.

  "It's a Katra." Willow answered. Pops walked over to take a closer look. "Or the home-conjured version. It should switch you back if you get a hold of Faith."

  "Oh, thank God." Buffy gave a relieved sigh. After that, Buffy went to go free church hostages from their vampire captives. By the end of it all, Buffy and Faith were back in their original bodies, but Faith had run off.