The door swung open before her as it felt her presence, and the secretary at the desk looked up from his work and smiled at her.

"Sophia will see you in a moment, Investigator," he said jovially.

"Thank you, Thomas," she replied. Thomas gave her a grin and turned back to his Graphic Compalmulator. She cocked her head and considered him for a moment. "What has you so cheerful?"

"Two things," Thomas replied without delay. "One, Sophia’s updated my Comp’s server to 37.4, and two, you’re leaving."

That was harsh. "What?"

"Sophia will tell you when you go in." The cellcomm beeped and Thomas nodded his head towards Sophia’s door. "Go ahead."

* * *

"What’s this about me leaving?" she demanded the moment the automatic door had closed behind her.

The Emperor raised an eyebrow at her. "Calm down, Investigator. Sit. Have a drink." She gestured to the bar that had risen out of the desk at the far side of her office when she’d spoken. "There are suitable refreshments."

The Investigator ill naturedly stomped over to the bar and poured herself a glass of steaming, translucent blue something-or-other. "Now, about my departure?"

Sophia sighed. "Look, darling, the world may be blown up in a few days, and the Cabinet has decided you’re the best one for the job."

The Investigator blinked. "Pardon?"

"Some descendant of Hitler has decided that the world has to be purged of evil, and New Year’s in a few days."

"Lovely."

"I know. But due to your—talents—"

"You mean the tendency I have to not get killed?"

"Whatever. It would be safest not to risk the life of someone whose life would be in danger."

"Well, excu—use me."

"Watch your mouth."

The Investigator raised an eyebrow. "What d’you want me to do?"

"Go to Iregeria. See what you can find."

"Who’s this person I’m trying to—do away with, anyway?"

"Her name is Elizabeth Aestati, and she’s endowed with some of your… talents."

"Ah. And why, exactly, is she in the most unstable continent in the whole world?"

"I have no clue. Look, just check her out, okay? C-mail me what you find. Don’t go doing anything stupid like you usually do."

"The ‘stupid’ things I do usually work, Sir."

Sophia nodded grudgingly. "I suppose. And don’t call me sir—you know I hate formalities."

"Of course, Sirrah." The Investigator saluted and strode out of the office.

Her GCPU beeped and she pulled it from its pocket in her belt and opened it. "What?"

"I hate disguised insults even more," Sophia’s sulky hologram informed her.

"It wasn’t disguised," The Investigator smirked. Sophia rolled her eyes and the hologram shrank and then the GCPU closed.

Thomas was watching with interest. The Investigator flicked him off and, relishing his shocked expression, strode off down the corridor.

The Investigator rolled her eyes. "Nothing concerning you, Iggy," she replied. "I just have some peeping to do."

"Yeah, right," Lympha said, linking her arm with her friends’. "You wouldn’t be so relaxed otherwise."

"You do realize how backwards that sounds, don’t you?" the Investigator asked.

"C’mon, Salix," Terra said. "What’s up? Spill."

"The usual, Fides," the Investigator snapped. "Don’t call me Salix, okay? Bad memories."

Terra flinched. "Fuck, Anima," she said. "Sorry, I didn’t know you were still taking it so badly."

"Well, now you know," Anima snapped, grabbing a loaded tray with her name on it from the lunch line. She stomped off into a far corner of the cafeteria.

Terra looked back at her friends and shrugged. "I’ll take care of it," she said softly, leaving Ignis, Lympha, and the still silent Aura behind.

* * *

"Are the memories really that bad?" a voice behind her asked. Anima sighed and moved to make room for her closest friend.

"No," she said. "Not all of them." A tear slid down her cheek and she sighed. Terra sat beside her and hugged her.

"Still miss him, huh?" she asked gently.

Anima nodded and began to cry in earnest. Terra held her until she stopped, and then she wiped the tears from her eyes with a plastic disposable that she kept in her pack.

Anima took out a compact mirror from her own pack and checked her salt-proof makeup. "Do I look like a train?"

"Nah."

They both smiled shakily and then giggled. Anima looked at the glop on her tray and pushed it away. "Hey, watch it," Terra protested, pulling it back. "I think it tastes good."

"Well, that’s ‘cause you had your taste buds removed last week."

The other girl fumed. "I did not! Just temporarily numbed so I could prove to the Fatui that I could stomach some of that—"

"Whatever the hell it was," Anima finished, and then they laughed, and the laughter was real.

Anima watched her friend shovel the white, unidentifiable substance into her mouth until the edible plate was clean. "You gonna eat that?"

"Nah. I’m still stuck in the twenty-second century when we washed and reused our kitchen utensils."

"Gimme, then." Terra handed the plate to Anima, who broke it into smaller pieces and then ate them as if they were crackers.

"Look," Anima said, after chewing and swallowing a couple of times. "I’m sorry about blowing up back there, but I’m still touchy on the subject of my old name, no matter what language it’s in."

"I know. Sorry."

"Anyhow. I just don’t want the others to start calling me Salix and then translating it, okay? So you can call me Salix, or whatever you want, but just not when they’re around."

"I guess it’s the same for me."

"So with them it’s just Terra?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

They returned the lunch tray together.

* * *

Later that night, in the bedroom they shared in the Dodecagon, Terra asked her again.

"So what is it, exactly, that you have to do?"

"I’m not sure," Anima’s voice drifted from the bathroom. "Supposedly there’s another child-of-Hitler rising up in Iregeria, and she’s bent on purging the world of non-whatever-the-fuck-she-is, and she wants to do it by nuking the planet."

"How’d Sophia hear about this one?" Terra asked.

"Who knows? She’s got eyes and ears everywhere—we’re the contacts and the hearing aids."

"Cheesy, Salix."

"I know."

They were both quiet for a little while, and then Salix exited the bathroom, holding out a brush to her friend. "Please?"

"Sit." Terra gestured to the bed. Salix sat, and Terra began running the brush through the other girl’s raven hair. "I miss your old hair," she commented.

"I miss yours, Fides," Salix murmured, turning around to stroke Fides’ auburn locks. "It was lovely and brown like chocolate…"

"Mmm…" Fides bent a little from where she was kneeling on the mattress and kissed her.

Her lips were full and soft, and soon Salix opened her mouth and allowed their tongues to dance.

They kissed for what seemed like years, and then Salix sighed and leaned her forehead against Fides’, who was now sitting next to her. "I missed that."

"I know," Fides said. "So did I."

"We wouldn’t have to if he were still here," Salix whispered, and Fides nodded and they both cried.

* * *

The Emperor of Ameurasia frowned and opened her GCPU, quickly pressing the ID button. She sighed at the name of the person who was trying to contact her but pressed TALK anyway. "Investigator, what the hell d’you want?"

"I request permission to bring backup to Iregeria, Sir."

"Wha—NO! This is purely investigative only! You can only bring in backup if you find evidence and DIRE evidence that you can’t take care if yourself—we’ll get them to you."

"I have a suspicion as to who this ‘Elizabeth’ might be—it’s obvious. I knew her. I’ll need back up, Sir."

Sophia sighed. "Name your people."

"Agents Fides Terra, Alexis Ignis, Dorothy Aura and Gabrielle Lympha."

"Your little clique?"

"We work well together, Sir."

"You will be leading this stupid operation?"

"Yes, Sir, and I suspect that backup will be necessary due to the strength of the—"

"Whatever. Fine. Just leave me alone, okay? And no more backup than those you requested."

"Of course not, Sir. You’ll notice the nature of those I chose--?"

"Pardon?"

"They all have my—assets."

There was a pause. "Really? I wasn’t informed of this."

"It’s probably not in the files for safety measures, Sir. Someone could hack in."

"I assume so. Good luck, Investigator, and I must warn you—if you ever call me this early again, I will have you decapitated."

Anima laughed. "Of course, Sir. Have a good sleep."

* * *

"You really think it’s her?" Ignis asked.

"Well, her name is a nickname for Elizabeth, and Aestati?"

"Plural for—of course."

"Tell Aura and Lympha for me, Iggy? And don’t let them in on our… personal… past. They don’t need to get mixed up in that."

"I’d always thought she was dead..." Ignis said. "

"I know," Terra replied. "And dye your hair orange or something, so she won’t recognize you."

Ignis ran a hesitant hand through his hair. "Again? You told me the thing in Palestine was gonna be the last—"

"It’s never the last," Anima said. "It doesn’t have to be orange, Iggy. Just not—brown. She’ll know it’s you. And get some contacts."

"I wish she was human," Iggy muttered as he stomped back to the Dodecagon.

Iregeria was considered a continent, although it was actually two countries united against the rest of the world. Iregeria was, obviously enough, Ireland and Nigeria, which was a difficult situation as Ireland was on the opposite side of the world from its ally. Iregeria was a stubborn continent; it would have done better to split again and ally itself with Afrindia or Ameurasia, but it obstinately stayed the way it was and suffered civil wars almost annually. It was a chaotic country, and a perfect place for a would-be world-destroyer to hide.

Under the mask of what was now known as ‘Hitlerism,’ the vampire that had once been Buffy Summers resided casually in a lair hidden deep under a hill in Dublin, surrounded by loyal but airheaded minions, waiting for an old friend to arrive.

"So..." Aura let the half-started sentence hang in the air like old laundry. Anima, who was driving the Aerocopter, and Terra, who was sitting next to her, smiled at her shy attempt to begin a conversation. "Uh, this new Hitler... what do we know about her?"

"Um..." Iggy stalled as he tried to ask Anima if his answer was okay. She simply stared at him by way of the rearview mirror, conveying no emotion whatsoever. Ignis decided the chance must be taken. "We know what she looks like. Or, at least, what she looked like about a thousand years ago."

"Oh," Aura said. She waited for a little while, and then said, "So what does she look like, then?"

"She was short, blonde. With dark brown roots and big, pouty lips," Ignis said.

Anima rolled her eyes. "She’s probably still short, and her lips weren’t big. Just pouty," she said.

"She had light green eyes," Terra said.

"She could have dyed her hair and put in contacts, however," Anima said, "so we’ll have to bring up the holograph. Ignis?"

He nodded and turned so neither Lympha nor Aura could see the controls he was working with, and then he connected the holograph to memory.

A shimmering white screen sprang up in front of his eager friends, and he concentrated on a scene.

A large room, definitely old fashioned, as the walls were probably genuine wood-and-plaster. Lots of decorations. The scene moved, as though they were looking out of someone’s eyes. A girl, tall, moved into the line of the seer’s vision. She had long brown hair, and her makeup was expertly done. She turned, saw whoever saw her, opened her mouth to speak. The scene quickly fast-forwarded past her and then the seer turned to the door. A girl, with red hair tied up into an adorably untidy bun, with a low dress on. Holding her hand was a boy, shorter, with spiked blond hair. His nails were black—they matched his dress suit. Before the scene could focus on the girl’s face, the seer looked past them. A short girl, the same height as the blond boy. She was in a lovely pink strapless dress. Her hair, long and blonde, with brown roots, hung past her shoulders. She was sad, her eyes remorseful.

Ignis pressed pause and then closed in on her face, giving them a clear view. "This is Elizabeth Aestati in the year 1999, when she was Buffy Summers."

"Who are the others?" Lympha asked. "And whose record is this? It’s in surprisingly good condition...."

"Recorded by: Anonymous," Ignis read off the empty disk. "But we do know who those people are..."

"The first girl is Cordelia Chase," Anima said, a tinge of regret to her voice. "The girl with the red hair is Willow Rosenberg."

"The boy on her arm is Daniel Osbourne," Terra said.

"Where are they?" Aura asked. "Do you know?"

"Their Prom," Ignis said. His voice sounded distant.

* * 8

Elizabeth the Great, as she now called herself, paced her throne room. She was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored... Maybe Harmony would amuse her.

"Blondie-bitch, get in here!" she yelled in her cellcomm.

"Buffy!" Her voice was petulant, dripping with sulkiness. "I was having fun."

"Leave them alone and get in here!" Elizabeth yelled. "And don’t call me Buffy."

Harmony huffed but Elizabeth could hear her placing the mace, whip and silver dagger back in their proper places.

A couple of minutes Harmony stomped into the throne room, clad in what Buffy liked to call her minions’ uniform: dark blue skintight plastic catsuit and boots.

"What d’you want?" Harmony demanded. "I was torturing them, and now I’m bored!"

Bored now... The eerily casual words echoed in Elizabeth’s mind and she angrily pushed them away. "Well, I’m bored too, Harmony. You’re such a selfish bitch."

Harmony looked shocked. "That was mean!" She pouted. "I thought we were friends."

"We are," Elizabeth said soothingly. "But it’s not fair to let friends be bored all alone, is it?"

* * *

The Aerocopter set down silently a few miles outside Dublin. While still in the vehicle, the team changed into their special ‘spying’ outfits: Black leggings and long-sleeved skintight black shirts, with custom-made, tight thigh-high black boots with specialized slipper-like soles so that they made no noise. Over this they each donned a translucent polyester tunic which twisted the light to make them look like shadows. The tunic covered their arms and came down to their knees, and if they curled up, it covered their whole bodies.

Then they slipped out of the Aerocopter and Ignis pressed a small button on the side, which rendered it invisible.

"I wish they’d learn how to do that for us," Terra whispered, irritated.

"Tell me about it," Aura said, and then Anima shushed them.

"This may very well be their hunting ground," she said. "Elizabeth Aestati is a vampire, children, and she can smell us, hear our heartbeats, feel the air that moves when we do. So we have to be really synchronized. She’s a thousand years old, though I doubt she’s got cloven feet, and even though she may be air-headed, she’s probably honed her skills very well."

"Shit," Ignis said. "I wish she did have cloven feet like Kakistos, ‘cause then we could hear her coming..."

They started down the hill, expertly stepping just above the blades of grass thanks to a handy spell Anima had dug up.

"Oh, and by the way, Iggy," Anima said, once they’d reached the bottom, "Nice hair."

It was blue.

* * *

Harmony was sore, tired and all-around achy after having… entertained Buffy for several hours, so to relieve her stress she did what she always did.

She went to the dungeon.

The dungeon was dark, dank, cold and filthy, just as dungeons always were. It was also very large. Deep underground, it probably went a mile wide and half that long--or was it the other way around? It didn't matter. All that mattered were the poor victims chained to the wall of the cell in front of her. Gently lifting the slender dagger from its sheath on the side of the cell, Harmony stalked up to the first prisoner.

"Hi!" she said brightly, gazing right into his beautiful brown eyes, then quickly averting her stare. His eyes, that had once held not love or friendship even, but amiability and amusement, bored into hers, full of hate. "Uh…" Harmony struggled to maintain her focus. "You can smell her on me, can't you?"

His eyes still focused on her, never turning away. They held no emotion, but seemed to delve into the soul that was no longer there. Harmony shrugged nonchalantly. "She's a good fuck. I can see why she had the effect on you that she did."

He raised his eyebrows, silently asking why he should care. Angrily, Harmony slashed at his face with the dagger, leaving a long, thin line of dark blood from his right temple to his ear. "Take that!" she howled, but he remained silent, enduring the pain that they both knew would heal.

Unnerved, Harmony scoffed at him, turning away from him to the woman chained near him. "Why, hello, loony," Harmony began in the same manner she had her first victim. "How ya feeling?"

Drusilla tiredly lifted her head from where it lolled on her shoulder and ignored Harmony, instead turning her head to the smell of blood coming from her right. "Oh, my beautiful Angel," she moaned, "What have they done to you?"

* * *

Anima, Terra and Iggy crept along the outside of the fortress together, having left Aura and Lympha behind to guard the Aerocopter. It seemed the invisibility shields were failing, and they could not allow the 'Copter to get captured.

The dry grass did not crunch underfoot as their booted feet padded along; the only thing the guards heard was the slight wispy sound as the blow-pipes were drawn from armed belts and the even slighter whish as the toothpick-thin slivers of wood flew through the air and into their chests.

The dust was silent as it settled to the concrete.

* * *

Elizabeth the Great flopped onto her throne, throwing one slender leg over one of the arms, bored as all hell.

Her sources had told her they were coming, but as yet there had been no sign of disturbances. None of her guards--and they were all faithful as they could get--had 'phoned up, and she'd already screwed Harmony into oblivion.

Maybe she'd go see exactly what was so amusing about their prisoners in the basement. If they screamed loudly, they'd distract her for what could last for hours.

* * *

Salix held out a hand to stop Iggy and Fides behind her as her radar screen began to vibrate. "I've got movement about 20 feet in front of us--after that turn in the corridor."

Fides nodded. "Gotcha. Human or vampire or other?"

Salix squinted at the tiny readings in the corner of the screen. "Vampire--wait. Several vampires--one, two… six. And all of them are at least as old as we are."

Iggy grabbed the screen from her hand. "You're joking." He scanned the screen worriedly.

Fides, in turn, snatched the screen from him. "No. She's not."

* * *

Just as Elizabeth had been about to go down to the dungeon to join Harmony, said vampire had rushed into the room, taking extremely aggravating unnecessary breaths. "Buffy--" She stopped at her superior's chastising look. "Elizabeth?" At her nod, Harmony continued. "Uh, I just checked the monitors, and they're here! The guards are dust! Literally."

"What?" Elizabeth the Great howled. "Where are they, then?"

"They've only just got inside," Harmony assured her. "Maybe we should evacuate."

Elizabeth scoffed at her. "Ha! No. What we'll do is we'll give them an offer they'll find very difficult to refuse…"