Real Estate
(or, "A Unique Fixer Upper")
by Cynamin and NutMeg

U.C.Sunnydale
Institution of Higher Learning and Way-lower Government Work
The men in Camoflage are just a figment of the school food

NutMeg was about ready to strangle Riley by the time they got to the University campus. She had gotten him talking about home in Iowa, and he just went ON and ON....

Cynamin would have been thinking the same thing, but she was too busy coming up with a plan for when they got to the dorm and Riley found out that neither Willow nor Buffy knew them.

Sighing, NutMeg -Nalisha?- glanced back at Cynamin, and came to the same realization her sibling had. She grinned back at her sister, and with a quick thought and a bit of goddess-powered magic, put her plan into action.

Stevenson Hall,
Home to cheerleaders, basketball stars, and Slayers
We love new students!

Willow sat crosslegged on her bed intently reading a passage out of an old book she had found on Giles' bookshelves. It was an ancient text about goddess-magic and helping spells. An odd combination, or so the red-head thought. She took a sip of the strawberry-banana snapple on the bedside table and flipped the page.

There was something completely different on the other side. It appeared to be a prophesy.....but addressed to someone specific. It read: *When appears two, one gold, one red, accompanied by green, remember friends from long ago, whom you have never seen. Worry not, oh budding witch, for help we hope to give. Just a chance is all we ask, and one who's dead might live.*

Willow was thoroughly confused. Gold and Red and Green? One who's dead might live? Well, SHE was a "budding witch." Did it mean ANY new witch? Or one specifically? One who's dead. Demons were dead...sort of. Vampires were dead. Angel? Could these two whatevers make Angel alive again?! "Nah, it'll never happen," she sighed. No use getting hopes up over an obscure looking prophesy. Of course, it LOOKED new, the words were less faded than the rest, and in a more modern script. *Remember friends from long ago, whom you have never seen?* What did it mean by THAT cryptic remark?

The door opened and Willow jumped, jolted out of her thoughts. she relaxed again though, when she saw that it was Buffy in the doorway. She'd almost been expecting...she didn't know who she was expecting. Gold, red, and green perhaps? *I'm letting this book get to me.* "Hey, Buffy. How was patrol?"

Buffy muttered something unintelligible and flopped down on her bed.

"Are you okay?"

Buffy looked at her roommate, her brow creased with pain. "I just have a headache, Will," she said. The phone rang then, and Buffy winced.

Willow smiled apologetically and answered the phone before it could ring again. "Hello?"

"Hey, Willow. It's Riley."

"Oh, Riley!" Buffy began frantically mouthing no. "Buffy's not feeling well," she began to explain.

"Actually, I'm not here to visit. I was just walking some friends of yours who just got into town. Care to come let them into the dorm?"

Willow glanced at Buffy, who was lying face down in her pillow. What friends? She had the strangest feeling something WEIRD was going on. "Who are they?" she asked, out of curiosity if nothing else. "I wasn't expecting anyone."

"Nalisha Winters and Sylvana..." Riley's said, sounding a little confused. "From summer camp."

*Summer camp? I was five the last time I went to a camp!* The witch thought. But there was that NAGGING feeling that she should do something. So she made her voice sound sincere as she said "Oh! Great! It's been forever! I'll be right down."

Outside Cynamin and NutMeg could barely hear Willow's voice through the outside phone. They looked at each other. She thought she knew them?

NutMeg grinned. *She must have read the prophesy I planted.*

Upstairs Willow pulled on shoes and headed for the door "Buffy, we're gonna have company."

"Unnnggh? What?" The Slayer looked up through a mask of golden ringlets. "Guests? Who?"

"Umm...an old friend of mine," Willow hated lying, but she had the feeling these people were safe. "And her friend."

"Oh, okay," Buffy nodded and dropped her head back on the pillow.

Willow quickly headed downstairs, around the corner, and down the hall to the doors. She nearly froze when she saw who was standing there. *Ohmygosh! Gold, Red, and Green.*

Willow's eyes went very wide. "It's great to see you!" she said, entirely for Riley's benifit. "Thanks, Riley, for getting them here. You know...Sunnydale, night...."

Riley nodded. "They had some trouble."

"Oh?" Willow put the sound of slight worry in her voice.

"A rather blood-thirsty gang on the edge of town," Riley replied.

"Ah, Thanks," she replied. She turned to the two...women. She could practically TOUCH the magic coming from them. "Come on in." Riley started to follow. "Ummm...Riley. Now's not a good time. Buffy's got a headache and..."

The blonde male frowned worried. "Is she alright?"

"She'll be fine," Willow assured him. *He can NOT be here for...whatever's about to happen!* "I'll have her call you when she feels better."

"Oh...okay. Ladies," he nodded at the two beautiful women he had just met, and headed back to the house.

Left alone with the two women, Willow led them upstairs. As they entered she glanced at Buffy's bed. The slayer was asleep. Turning to her *old friends whom you have never seen* she said quietly. "Can I get you anything?"

Cynamin shook her head, but NutMeg smiled. "Sure, do you have any iced tea?"

"Um, I don't think..." Willow was speechless when she opened the fridge. Starting back at her was never-before-seen bottle of AriZona Iced Tea. She closed the fridge, handed Nalisha the tea and said. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

NutMeg and Cynamin looked back and forth at each other for a moment, debating what to tell her. How mush breaking of the rules would be too much? Still, they'd already gotten Willow's attention as being...unusual and unexpected. Perhaps if they got her to trust them, working with everyone else would be easier.

"Do you believe in parallel realities?" Cynamin asked just as softly.

Willow nodded, remembering her own vampire evil twin. "Yes, I do."

"Don't you remember?" NutMeg asked Cynamin with enthusiasm. "That was one of my favorite...." Willow and Cynamin were staring at her, Willow in confusion, Cynamin in warning. "Yeah, right. Uh...we're from a parallel reality....sort of?"

Cynamin sighed. It was going to be a LONG night.

Angel Investigations
Los Angeles, California
Doesn't every business come with an entrance to the sewers?

Angel sat in silence in the darkness of his apartment long after the strange goddess had disappeared. Not left, *disappeared.* One moment she was there, and the next she wasn't, as if she had never been there at all. Angel knew she'd been there though, and her parting warning echoed in his mind.

Staying away from Sunnydale was not really a problem. He hadn't been planning on returning anytime soon. Not after the *last* time. But Kirshana's warning about her sisters made him think not of his own danger, but danger to...others.

He dialed the phone almost without thinking about it.

"Giles? It's Angel...."

Stevenson Hall
For the truly unique dormitory experience
Just try not to interrupt the spells being cast in the bathroom

"So you must understand," Cynamin said at length, "that you can not tell Buffy about any of this. Or about who we are. Not until we know what it is we are going to do."

Willow looked back and forth between the two sisters. "This has something to do with Angel, doesn't it?"

Cynamin started in surprise. "Why do you think that?"

"It's...this prophecy I found. It...seemed to pretty clearly be talking about your arrival. And there was this line, 'one who's dead might live.' That does refer to Angel, doesn't it?"

Cynamin's eyes went very wide, then she turned to look at her sister. NutMeg just grinned slightly with a shrug.

Cynamin sighed. "I really can't say anymore right now. We must go. We shall speak to you again tomorrow?"

"Of course," Willow agreed. She stood then and, slightly dazed from everything she had learned, opened the door for the two helpful goddesses.

Just when she was out the door, NutMeg turned around again. "Hey," she said to Willow. "Give this to Buffy. It just might make her feel better." With that she presented the witch with a container of cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip ice cream and hurried down the hall to catch up with her sister.

Giles' apartment
Fully furnished with library
hope you read Demon!

"So what did this...being...tell him?" Buffy asked Giles. The Scooby Gang was once again gathered in the former Watcher's house for one of their regular emergency meetings. Xander and Anya were cuddled on the couch, Giles stood leaning against the doorjamb between the living room and the kitchen, and Willow was on her way.

"This *goddess* warned him to stay away from Sunnydale and to avoid her sisters," the Brit replied.

"And he believed she was a goddess?"

"Apparently," Giles responded. "He could sense her power."

"Oh," the Slayer began pacing. "So these Sisters could hurt Angel? Are they coming to Sunnydale? Can we stop them? HOW do we stop them!"

"Now, Calm down, Buffy," Giles cut her off. "I'm sure we'll come up with something."

"Yeah, Relax, Buff," Xander grinned. "The Scooby Gang is on the case. We defeated the mayor, SURE we can stop two little goddesses."

Buffy smiled at his sort-of-comforting words. The door slammed and she turned to look as Willow entered the house, followed by two unfamiliar women. Her smile faded. "Hey, Will."

"Hi, everybody," Willow smiled, suddenly nervous at the stunned glares she was receiving. "What's wrong? Oh, this is Nalisha and Sylvana. Two...umm...old friends of mine."

Buffy's Slayer senses were screaming something else. Those were NOT two ordinary girls. "Will, can we talk...ALONE?" She grabbed her friend by the hand and dragged her past Giles and halfway up the stairs where no one could see or hear. "Do you have any idea who those two girls are?!"

Willow looked confused. "Of course I do, I just TOLD you..."

"They're goddesses, Will. Or something. Angel was visited by one of them...a different one. And she warned him to stay away from her sisters." Buffy whispered frantically.

"No, they're here to HELP Angel," Willow replied. She should have known things wouldn't be so easy. "They said--"

"They said...and you believe them?" Buffy was incredulous. "How can you be sure? They could be planning something awful."

"And how do you know the one that visited Angel was right?" The red-head shot back. "She could have been some evil-goddess or something like that who wants him to be suspicious!" She nodded her head. "That's it. Maybe SHE'S the bad one."

"And you don't think Angel can tell the difference?" Buffy nearly shouted.

"And *I* can't?" Willow glared at her, obviously hurt. "I can feel their magic...though it's different from the kind of spells I can do. Besides, they KNOW things."

"Like what?" Buffy asked, still not believing that her friend couldn't tell what was going on.

"Well, there was the prophesy in the book I was reading. I can show it to you. And the ice cream...they knew your favorite. And they knew about you and Angel, and about me and Oz, and the fight with the mayor, and..."

"Enough," Buffy cut her off with a sigh. "We have to find out what's really going on. Let's go meet these "friends" of yours."

Willow nodded and they both headed back downstairs. They were stopped short by the sight before them of the two goddess-magic-beings-whatever-they-were chatting with Giles, Xander, and Anya.

Anya glanced up as they entered. "Hey! You didn't tell me you had such great friends! I've known these two since I was a beginner revenge demon!"

Buffy and Willow glanced at each other. Buffy shrugged. "Who knew?"

Of the two odd 'friends' of Willow's, the red haired woman paled at this comment and sighed in dismay. The blond one on the other hand grinned broadly and chuckled. "So much for disguises, huh?"

Anya looked at her oddly. "You're supposed to be in disguise?"

"Apparently not very good ones," Xander muttered.

Buffy looked at the two girls seriously. They appeared normal enough, but the sense she got coming from them was one of enormous power. She didn't get any sense of ill will from them, but you could never tell.... "I assume you are the sisters Angel was speaking of?"

NutMeg glanced at Cynamin. There was nothing really left to hide as to who they were, was there? When her older sibling nodded she smiled at Buffy. "That would be us. The "dark-goddess" he's referring to is actually our sister, Kirshana. Well, actually Ginger, but she hates it so she goes by Kirshana..."

"And she's a bit of a troublemaker," Cynamin cut off her rambling sister. "This isn't the first time she's caused us problems."

"And the other times WERE?" Xander asked.

Cynamin thought mentioning the other-worlds they'd been to -and times- would not be the best idea. "Other times when we've tried to help people."

"But whose side were you ON?" the non-college boy wanted to know.

"The forces of good and truth of course!" NutMeg piped up. "There's nothing more fun than kicking baddy-butt!"

*Baddy-butt?!* Cynamin sighed inside her head. But the enthusiasm seemed to do the trick. The group began to loose their tense feeling.

Buffy seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "Right then. Let's get to work on a plan."

Frat Row
Land of Greeks who think Homer is one of the Simpsons
After Dark: Wild Parties and Weird Happenings

Riley was just crawling into bed when there was a knock on his door. *What's Buffy doing here so late?* he wondered...then grinned. "Come on in."

The beautiful woman who entered...wasn't Buffy. She was a little taller than Buffy, darker skin, soft black hair, deep dark eyes, and dressed in black denim pants, black, heeled boots, and an amazingly complex cut blouse that was really an extremely dark purple.

"Who--"

The woman raised her hand, and suddenly his tongue stuck in his mouth. "I don't have time to chat," she smirked. "I'm here to tell you that Buffy's in danger."

Riley's eyes widened. *From what?*

"My two evil sisters are here to destroy her," the woman continued, as if hearing his thoughts. "They are here already. And YOU'RE the one who led them to her.

He nearly chocked. *Those two innocent girls?*

The dark-enchantress laughed. "Innocent! That's a laugh. They're dangerous. How could you not realize that they're HOSTILES?!"

Riley felt faint. He was in serious trouble now. He HAD to get to Buffy.

The woman leaned down in front of him and held his eyes with a glare. "You WILL protect Buffy from the evil-goddesses at all costs." It was a statement. A command. Riley felt his brain go fuzzy.

*I will protect Buffy from the evil-goddesses at all costs.*

"Good," the beautiful creature smiled devilishly. "Now go to bed, and in the morning all you will remember is my command. You will forget I came here, and that I even exist."

Riley nodded, rolled over, and fell asleep.

As Kirshana walked out of the frat house she smiled at Forrest and the other boys, whose eyes followed her jealously. Wishing she had come to visit them and not Riley. Tomorrow, they would remember nothing. Only a dream of a beautiful woman. And each would look different.

Outside she chuckled to herself. *This is turning out to be more fun than I thought.*

Part Four

Feedback

Go here for more of Cynamin's stories.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page