14Nothing happens without context, not even the little things. Let's take a step back to three hours earlier. Buffy's asleep, of course, because slightly-late mornings are blessing for a Slayer, and for once she's not dreaming anything prophetic. She's dreaming of summertime and sand, and in the dream she dives deep into salty blue water and is relieved that it's exactly like water is supposed to be. Little fish dart about below her, shimmery and bright, and she's not afraid of drowning.
(It's not in any way her fault that she's unaware of what's going on across town. She's just a person, just a girl, and it would be a cruel fate indeed that would rob her of dreams just to make her solve other people's problems. Nevertheless, across town another girl her age is listening to a voicemail left at an ungodly hour of the morning, feeling to numb to even shake.
"Hey Marcie, it's Jesse," says the voice on the line. "I just...wanted to say that…you know you're awesome right? Like the best girlfriend ever. Totally awesome and...really pretty. Like the prettiest girl in school. And really really really smart. And so much fun. But...I mean we're graduating soon so…. I think we should break up. But you're still really awesome and totally smart and funny and...I mean high school stuff never lasts right? You're gonna go somewhere else, I'm gonna go somewhere else...and that somewhere else is the army. I'm going to the army. Like the minute we graduate I'm headed to basic." He pauses again. "I haven't told anyone else that, you know. It's sort of funny. Listen, I don't mean to… I really do think you're great, Marcie, but you get it, right? I know you get it. We're just going different places now. Yeah. Okay. I'll… I guess I'll see you."
And there's no one there to see her, of course, because when she isn't Jesse's girl she isn't anyone, she may as well not be there at all, and it's February 12th and she thinks she may die. No, that's not right, not die. Her hands ball into fists on her lap and she takes a shaky breath and thinks of blood and vengeance.)
So Buffy's running late to school that day, and she doesn't see anything weird happening. She's mostly focused on running while eating a breakfast burrito and thinking about how the heck she could possibly fight an entire politician who wants to turn into an entire Old One and why would anyone even do that, you know? And Willow thinks that and Old One would have cool powers but that's just a Willow thing to think and if the pictures Buffy's seen in Giles's books and the Binders of Ascension are anything to go by any cool powers would be mitigated by the abominable monster form thing. Like, none of them have hands!
("I don't want luck, you know. I just… I just really wish—" Marcie begins, then pauses. The girl she's talking to gestures for her to go ahead.
"Get it out of your system, you'll feel better," she says. "I promise."
"It's not even just him," Marcie says. "It's Jesse but it's all his stupid friends too. I wish—I wish they knew what real loneliness felt like!" The other girl smiles, and her smile is too wide and her face goes all strange but Marcie is too upset to pay it any real attention.
"Wish granted.")
It seems completely normal, for a little while—Buffy's just glad when she manages to duck around Principal Wood and avoid a lecture about Not Ignoring Your Academic Responsibilities Buffy, You Have A Unique Opportunity and then she's glad again when no one stares at her for vaulting a desk to get to her desk in English class, and then she's glad a third time because ha, looks like Xander's even later than she is—
And then she's marked absent even though she pretty much yells and waves her hands in the air. So that's weird.
"Maybe she's skipping school again," Nancy mutters darkly. "She's that type."
"Oh, shut up," Buffy tells her, but it's really obvious no one hears her. So she yells in Nancy's ear, just to confirm it, and marks the whole thing down as Hellmouthy-weirdness. Whatever's behind it, she has to talk to Willow. And Giles. And probably find Xander, who's still not in class? At least no one's going to notice if she just like, leaves, so she does.
Over the next two hours she makes several discoveries. First: Xander, Willow, and even Jesse are nowhere to be found. Second: She still has to open doors to go into rooms, and absolutely no one finds random doors opening to be weird. Third: She's really good at aiming erasers at people's heads, and she's probably way too immature for this whole almost-graduated thing. Fourth: It is entirely possible to make Faith punch through a fire extinguisher while invisible and un-hear-able, oops. Fifth: Giles sort of doesn't notice she's gone at all. That last one she figures out once she's invisible'd her way to the library, only to hear him deep in conversation with Ms. Calendar.
"He's getting to you. Wesley." That's definitely Ms. Calendar, Buffy thinks, as she lurks invisibly by the office door. She and Giles must be in his office. And since there's talking there probably isn't smoochies. Good, today is weird enough without any of...that.
"Is it that obvious?" Giles answers. Buffy peeks in the door to see Giles sitting at his desk chair with his glasses off. He's rubbing his temples. He looks rumpled, and tired. Rumpled and tired is something Buffy has never seen on Giles. Ms. Calendar is leaning against the wall, hands clasping a cup of coffee. Buffy wonders how much of the older woman's blood is made up of caffeine. She hangs in the door and waits for them to notice her.
"I'm not overly fond of the way he's treating you either." Giles is sitting up with his glasses back on. Yeah they're definitely talking about Wesley. The little worm is the only person Buffy knows who can be pompous and snippy in the same breath. And then accuse other people of being that.
"Meh, I can take him. Besides Faith is about ready to tie weights to his feet and dump him off the docks." Ms. Calendar smirks, taking a sip of coffee. That's definitely true. Faith hates the new Watcher way, way more than even Buffy does. It's like she's got a personal bone to pick, and like, maybe she does, who knows what goes on in Faith's head besides not-strategy and kinda weird fashion choices. But since they both listen to Giles they both have to do what Wesley says. Giles sits on the little couch, takes his glasses back off and begins rubbing his forehead again. He looks so...old. It's weird and uncomfortable and Buffy almost wonders if she should even be here for this but whatever, she's already lurking so may as well stay. Ms. Calendar puts down her cup of coffee and walks over to Giles.
"What can I do to make this at least a little ok?" she asks gently, sitting down next to him and taking his hand. Yeah, nope, lurking may not be a good idea, Buffy thinks, because it looks like Giles might cry. Or kiss Ms. Calendar. Either way, not something she wants to see. Buffy clears her throat in the way she's seen a lot of adults do. Nobody hears her, of course, but it was worth the try. Giles just shrugs, and Ms. Calendar tries again. "Look, if it'll make things a little easier...maybe Faith could...have the apartment to herself?" Ms. Calendar chews on her lip and looks like she'd rather be somewhere else. Buffy can so relate.
"Then where would you go?" Giles asks, alarmed. Buffy… well, she wouldn't say she perks up, exactly, but she leans awkwardly through the door to hear better. Is Ms. Calendar leaving? Is her family sending her after Angel again? Would that mean Angel would come back or…? But no, Ms. Calendar apparently has something else in mind.
"I was maybe thinking I could...move in with you?" Oh wow… Yep, this is so very much not a conversation Buffy should be there for, invisible or not. She tries the throat-clearing again and leans on the door really hard but they're still ignoring her.
"Oh," says Giles. For a guy who talks so so so much Giles goes really really silent. But at least he looks less old now. Now… flabbergasted is sort of the word. Ms. Calendar fidgets.
"It's just a thought. I mean I'm spending more and more nights a week there than at my place—" Say what now? "—and half my stuff is already there. Plus maybe it could get the Council off your back a little." Big talk for the woman who broke Giles's heart like, last year. Buffy kicks at the open door, to exactly no response even though it bounces off the wall and makes noise. Giles is still being really quiet.
"I see," he says quietly. Ms. Calendar seems to maybe catch on to the seriously-what-the-hell of the situation because she starts to backpedal really bad.
"Look if you don't want to, we can find another solution, maybe we could ask the council for a stipend so Faith can get her own place, or she could just stay with me, messing with Wesley is always fun." Honestly that may have just set the new record in rambling, but she stops when Giles sort of quiet-laughs. It's not an upset quiet-laugh either.
"I just never thought...this step forward would be prompted by the Council," he says, rubbing the bridge of his nose—but the glasses are still on. That probably means something, right? It's Ms. Calendar's turn to go all quiet and sorta starry-eyed.
"You mean you were planning on asking me eventually?" Okay this is heading into smoochie territory, and Buffy seriously can't handle more of that. Time for desperate measures. Picking up a small axe that Giles has just sitting on a pile of papers (and he gets on her case about weapons maintenance? Come on, Giles!) she chucks it at the wall over their head. Bullseye. They both jump and stare at the wall. Finally! Attention!
"Rupert, I think you have a ghost." Ms. Calendar finally says with a smile. "Maybe your predecessor?" Argh!
"My immediate predecessor retired to Florida," says Giles mildly, and Ms. Calendar says something about Florida that Buffy really doesn't care about, and then throwing things has exactly no effect so she tries to steal Giles's stupid crystal ball paperweight and he just like snatches it out of her hands and says "no" like he's talking to a little kid or a dog or something and honestly she's just done.
She'll figure this invisible thing out on her own.
Only when she invisible-angry-marches out of the stupid library (Giles is saying something about keeping his head while Ms. Calendar sarcasms at him) she collides head-on with something else invisible and they both(?) go down like a sack of bricks, which is to say heavily and really clumsily.
"Ow!" Buffy whines. "Who's that?" Okay, totally pointless. But! More importantly, at least one other invisible person, which would suggest that she's not being like, personally targeted by some kind of invisibleifying demon-thing. She cautiously puts out a hand until she hits something invisible but physically there. It feels like old leather and something weirdly electric, but before she can really process that a hand grabs her wrist drags her into first one classroom (class going on, no one looks up) then another (study hall for freshmen, loud) and finally a third which is empty (Ms. Calendar's natch, because she's planning a lovey-dovey future with Giles in the library, ugh).
"Okay, what do you want?" Buffy asks. The other invisible person tugs at her, pulling her toward the row of computers and taps at one until it turns on. "Wait," says Buffy, who is really not good at the no-one-can-hear-her thing. "Willow?" There's only rapid typing in reply.
I'm sorry to do this!, says the text running across the screen. I don't think we can communicate out loud right now? But but we're both invisible and I'm Willow Rosenberg I'm a senior who're you? Oh. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
Will, it's me, she types back, albeit a lot more slowly because computers? Not really her thing. It's Buffy
So invisi-Willow tacklehugs her and they take down like three chairs and one of Ms. Calendar's crystally doodads but whatever.
Over the next five minutes they manage to compare stories: Willow was just fine getting to school, and she'd been talking to Xander about how Jesse was being super weird and then she'd turned around and Xander'd been gone.
Invisibled too? Buffy wrote. There was a moment of silence where she guessed Willow was nodding intensely.
Sorry must have. And I couldn't find you I was looking for you and if Xander and Jesse are magicked too ? what happened? ? ?
Hellmouth, Buffy writes back. Something Hellmouthy. We need to find/slay/fix.
Monster? Spell? Willow types. Research time? But they wouldn't know where to start. Whatever it is…
Something triggered it. Summoned it? We need to see who it affected. And look at that, she can Giles with the best of them. Willow bounces in place and and the computer mouse bounces with her.
Ms. Calendar is so wrong. Researching on the computer is just as long and slow as using the books. They have tons of demons that can turn themselves invisible, and spells that can turn the caster invisible but nothing about turning someone else invisible! Or multiple someone elses. Someones else? Anyway, the internet is a bust on invisibilification. What it's not a bust on is school attendance records, apparently, if you're Willow and have no qualms about technically internet crime.
Xander and Jesse are both out! Willow types. Everyone else called in but they're and we're unaccounted for
So fine. Something we've got in common, Buffy writes back.
Buffy totally forgot it was a Wicca Club day. But as soon as the last bell rings people start filing into Ms. Calendar's classroom and start moving desks around. Buffy recognizes most of them, Amy, Michael, that short kid, Tucker's brother who tried summoning those demons at the public pool, and some other kids who Buffy knows by face but not by name.
They start pulling homework-looking papers and crystals and things (that's a flute, Wells Jr. has a flute, that's just weird) out of their bags, chatting about random stuff. It's not the sort of conversation she'd pay attention to normally, so it sort of washes over her now too. Faith's not showing up, according to Amy, because she's got "detectiving" to do, and seriously even though she's probably barking up all kinds of the wrong tree Buffy's really happy to hear that. Faith doing Faith things. Or Slayer things. (And like, there's plenty of overlap there.)
So they sit and they wait and they watch and they listen but no one's saying anything about invisible-making spells. It seems like the topic of choice is luck charms, actually, and the making and blessing thereof. It all goes sort of over Buffy's head, but she does grasp that it's actually sort of tough.
"It's a matter of the correct invocation for the process," says Amy firmly. "For what you want the luck for. Lucky in love, lucky on a test, that sort of thing."
"But there's gotta be a, a, a general version, right?" says the short kid, who's named something like James or John and ugh he's in like four of Buffy's classes, she kinda feels bad not knowing but priorities, you know?
"Like a 'make your life suck less' spell?" a freshman girl asks, and the short kid nods. Wells Jr. (Anthony? Dang it, Ms. Calendar knows his name…) looks thoughtful.
"It'd be big, though, right?" he says slowly. Amy nods.
"Way too big for any of you," she says in kind of a snobby voice. "The sort of power you'd have to call on to change who you are on that level would—"
"Dabbling in power well beyond the mortal ken to break through the limitations set by a cruel and arbitrary world—" Wells Jr. intones. Literally everyone rolls their eyes, definitely including Buffy and probably including Willow, who lobs a pencil at Wells Jr.'s head (and misses).
So that's a good moment for Ms. Calendar to turn up, followed shortly by Marcie and some girl Buffy doesn't know.
"Sorry. Sorry I'm late." Ms. Calendar says stepping around various students and heading to the board. She's erasing various bits of computer code and tech lingo and drawing various crystals and things. They aren't very good drawings so she starts labeling stuff. Buffy catches names like rose quartz and silver and tin. But also things like acorns and brooms and salt. As she starts working on the acorn (that is the biggest thing on the board) she starts talking about charms and how putting all stuff in a bag, with the right chants and willpower, gave the person holding the bag power. Buffy wonders if it would help her on patrol.
Marcie's new friend says her name is Anya and she's a transfer student. She's pretty, in a sorta pointy-looking way and seems a bit less than pleased at having Marcie glommed onto her. She can, though, follow the Wicca Club's rambling conversation without much trouble (it's clear from her occasional interruptions) and really? Slayer instincts have something to say about mysterious strangers Buffy's never seen before appearing randomly and having clear knowledge of magic directly after something weird-magic-y's happened, and they're saying stabby.
"I'm just glad I don't have to see them," says Marcie quietly while Ms. Calendar is trying to convince a group of the younger kids that luck spells probably won't help them on a multiple choice test as much as studying would. New girl, Anya, smiles, but her smile's a bit off. Just a bit, just a little, a similar way to when she sees a crowded room and knows there's a vampire in there somewhere, like whens she knows something's just around a corner. New girl's not a witch, she thinks, it's not the something-wrong that was with Willow, it's a monster-wrongness. (And she's sitting in Ms. Calendar's classroom smiling and Buffy can't even tell anyone.)
"Of course," says Anya. "It's better that way. You won't have to see them at all." Marcie sniffles and leans against the girl's shoulder.
"Won't I? I can't hide forever, can I?"
"You don't have to," says Anya with a tone like she's doing math. "That's the thing about wishes. When they come true, they come true."
"You two okay back there?" Ms. Calendar asks, looking over at them. Anya's face doesn't lose its bland smile.
"Yes," she says. "Everything's fine."
"Sorry," says Marcie, fiddling with the green crystal necklace she's wearing. Anya's expression flickers.
"Why?" she asks. "It's all his fault, not yours."
"Bad breakup?" Ms. Calendar looks sympathetic. Marcie clenches her fists on her knees.
"It's all over now," she says, then looks over at Anya for confirmation.
"Oh yeah," says Anya, and there's an expression about smiling like a cat that drank cream? Or maybe ate a bird? That's the face she's making. "All over."
Ms. Calendar grabs a chair and looks like she's going to settle in for a long gabfest but then Wells Jr. starts talking really loudly again. Somebody's touching his magic flute.
"Hey, give that back! Give it!" Wells Jr. wails. One of the guys (she thinks he's one of the ones that hang around Ms. Calendar's computer classes, maybe he had a thing for magic?) had grabbed the flute-thing and was examining it. "It's not a toy! It's how I connect to the great ethers of the beyond! Transcending the bonds of—give it!" By now this has gotten the entire club staring at him as he snatches the instrument back and cradles it like it's a small animal and not, you know, a lame flute-thing of etherness.
"Ms. Calendar! They keep touching my flute!" he whines. Oh god, is Wells Jr. an actual child? "They aren't respecting my personal property or space!" He's really getting worked up, which comes with a side of wow that's high-pitched. "An-and I know more magic than any of these guys! So punish him? Please?"
Ms. Calendar has forgotten the chair in front of Marcie and Anya, and is now looking at Wells Jr. with that same look that Giles sometimes gives Xander when he brings the snacks that leave stains to the all night research sessions.
"Fitz, I can't believe I'm saying this but don't take stuff without asking. You know Andrew—" That was his name! "—no one is forcing you to be here. If you don't feel you're getting anything useful from this, you can leave." Buffy thinks Ms. Calendar looks like she's trying not to hope he would do just that. Instead Andrew gives her a wide-eyed look.
"Why would I leave?"
The internet fails them on the invisibility-inducing breakup-beasties that look like teenage girls front, shockingly enough, so Willow leaves a typed note on Ms. Calendar's computer explaining what they think happened and not to trust Anya with her monster-cat smile and make for the library again. (Giles can't see them, but it doesn't matter—Buffy's done plans on her own before, and sometimes they even work.)
It's pitch dark out before they find anything, but score one for the musty old books and score zero for Ms. Calendar's computer lab, because a book that's literally bigger than most backpacks contains an entire chapter on vengeance demons. The information's spotty, as if it's been put together from a lot of different sources, but it's all "powers of the wish" this and "wreaking vengeance upon mortals" that and there's an interesting picture of a monster-looking woman with a really familiar pendant around neck.
"Will! Look!" Okay, she's just yelling to fill the silence right now. More effectively, she grabs Willow by the arm and yanks her toward the book (and away from her weird Latin-y stuff, which Buffy thinks is more luck spells than invisibility-problem-solving, come on, Willow, priorities). Willow is presumably just as hyped as she is, because Buff gets headbutted in the face in all the excitement.
The demon is named Anyanka, which sounds a lot like Anya, and the book calls her the patron of scorned women. It also has a lot to say about Anyanka's pretty necklace, which sure looks like the one Marcie's wearing—more and more like it the more Buffy stares at the book.
That's her power center. Like her chakra, Willow scribbles in a notebook. Buffy plucks the notebook and Willow's stupid distinctive gel pen from the air to write back.
But the other question on Buffy's mind is, why is Anyanka hanging around Marcie? Marcie is… Buffy doesn't actually know what's going on with Marcie. She knows that she's in the band and...was dating Jesse. But probably not so much anymore, if the bit about the bad breakup is to be believed... Does that make her scorned enough? Because, like, it's Jesse of all people. He's sort of lame and has all the wrong opinions on comic books and just because Willow says he's growing into his ears doesn't mean he doesn't look sort of like an angry ferret. Could anyone really be scorned over that?
But nobody but her really likes Angel and Buffy still misses him. Still rereads his letters, still dreams about him. That's what love's like, maybe. It makes your brain do the wacky. She thinks about that as she's slamming Marcie up against a locker while Willow holds up a sign with HOW DO WE STOP THE SPELL?
"I don't know what the spell is!" Marcie wails. "I don't—I don't know!" Willow boffs her with the sign, to no great effect. "I swear! I don't even know who you people are!"
Oh. So that's kinda a problem. And making too much noise of the slamming into lockers variety could bring the kind of attention Buffy doesn't want. Like the demon Anyanka. She needs an idea, only she can't talk and she's all out of smart ideas—
"Marcie?" And that's one problem that could probably not be there. Anya (no, not Anya, Anyanka—Anyanka the patron demon of scorned women, and how did Buffy not see that one coming?) is marching purposefully down the hall, and oh yeah, all she can see is Marcie hovering a foot off the ground getting whacked on the head with a rolled up poster board.
"Anya, please!" Marcie gasps as she appears to be wriggling in thin air. It's sort of kind of almost funny, except for he context which really isn't. "Help!"
And Anyanka's face changes. It becomes pointier and veinier, now she looks like the picture from the book. What did all the supernatural evil beasties have changing faces? At least this one still has the proportions of a high schooler.
"Anya…?" Marcie's gone from pleading to squeak, because understandably, terror.
"Anyanka," Buffy corrects pointlessly. "Of the demony vengeance. Good job."
"Oh please," says Anyanka, stalking toward them like an angry veiny predatory thing. "Can't you do anything right at all? I really should have-" But she collides with something invisible, stumbles, and knocks into the wall herself. (And the poster board is waving on its own, because when Buffy goes to elbow Willow she elbows empty air. Right. Magic. Duh.) There's a moment of everything being really still, like the whole situation's on pause, and then Anyanka lunges for Marcie, Buffy drops Marcie and goes attack-mode because demon, Marcie flails into a fire extinguisher and (huh, props for panic response) points it at Anyanka, and wow wouldn't this be easier if Willow wasn't invisible too.
One ungainly super-strength grapple later, Buffy realizes a key point: Marcie's still got the necklace on. The one that's Anyanka's chakra thing. That Anyanka's clearly going for herself, which would double-imply that she needs it back.
"Right," says Buffy. "How about no." And she hits Anyanka in the veiny face, vaults backwards like she's landing on the top of a cheer pyramid, and yanks the stupid necklace over Marcie's head and off.
"Don't you dare—" Anyanka snarls.
"Oh, I dare. It's what I do," says Buffy, even though no one can appreciate her quips at the moment. Then there's a little bit of frantic running around the school, because even though she's got the necklace Buffy doesn't really know what to do with it (put it on and wish herself visible? use some sort of spell?), but what ends up happening is they tear past the library just as Giles is apparently locking up for the day, Anyanka sees opportunity and grabs him ("—Give me it, or I snap his neck!"), and Buffy stops thinking about the correct course of action and slams the necklace into the wall full force—
—and there's a green glow that filters through the whole school—
—and Anyanka screams—
—and there's a sense of something snapping back, like a rubber band that someone pulled and then abruptly let go—
—and Buffy sees Willow skid to a stop next to Giles, who has Anyanka's wrists pinned but looks otherwise baffled.
"She's a demon!" Willow yells. Giles looks from her, to Buffy, to Anyanka (Anya? She looks like Anya now.) and sighs.
"There's really no need to shout about it. I can hear you just fine." He pauses and shoots Anya a curious look. "Though, er, I'm not certain—she, er, she seems rather… human, to me. And where have you two been?"
Ugh. Buffy hates being explanations girl.
Oh! And we have a poll! Since this is technically the Valentine's Day episode, (and we're nearing college time, there's like three episodes left of Season 3) it seems like a good time to put up the shipping poll. Got a ship you want to see—as a one off, a long-term thing, whatever? Let us know! We'll try to work it in! And since no one dies... Anyway, the link is here: forms/d/1jWg7AmNpp4YQpJR9eZjCeDhIf9T1dvsDnS47I27ZyhY