Title: Gift of a Future 7/?
Author: Gileswench
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome. Praise abjectly sought.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc., etc., etc. I just let them have all the fun Joss won't. I own nothing except my twisted mind which you really don't want. Please don't sue.

Buffy looked up at the sound of the door opening.

"Giles! Finally! I was...wrong. You're not Giles. Sorry."

"Are you worried about him?" Troi asked.

Buffy returned to her stretches with a shrug.

"He can take care of himself."

"Do you mind if I stay a while?"

"You're here. It's okay, I guess."

Troi sat down on the couch.

"Why were you so sure I was Giles just now?"

"No reason. Just he's usually here by now, that's all."

"You and he are very close, aren't you?"

"Meaning...?" Buffy's voice took on a dangerous tone.

"You and he seem to care about one another very much."

"He's my Watcher. I'm his Slayer. We're friends. Except we don't really hang or anything. He helps me protect Dawn and he helps me kill nasties. That's it."

"Did I suggest anything else?"

Buffy shrugged.

"Not in so many words, but you wouldn't be the first."

"Why does that bother you?"

"Okay, you may be an intergalactic shrink, but I don't remember asking for a twelve step program here. I don't have time for all that psychology crap."

"What makes you call psychology crap?"

"Well the fact that the two people most into psychology I've ever known were also the two people most in need of padded cells I've ever known might have something to do with it. One tried to kill me so I wouldn't stop her building an army of Frankenstein demons and the other decided I didn't love him enough for his ego and thought he could get my attention back by sneaking out in the middle of the night and paying vampires to suck him off - and I'm not talking blow jobs. I'm talking 'have a bloody Mary off me'. So if you're looking to take a peek inside my psyche, save yourself the trouble. Just ask me what you want to know and don't give me any lines. I don't have time for them."

"All right. No lines. Why are you so worried about Giles?"

"What makes you think I am?"

Troi patted the seat next to her, inviting Buffy to join her. The Slayer rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I know you don't entirely trust me, Buffy, but I can help you if you let me."

"That's not an answer."

"There's something you need to know about me, Buffy. I'm not completely human."

"Bully for you. What's the not human part?"

"My mother comes from a planet called Betazoid. Her people communicate by reading one anothers' minds."

"So you can just look in my head and tell what I'm thinking?"

"Not quite. I'm only half Betazed. My father was human. But my parentage has left me with a certain...sensitivity to emotion in others."

"Well I'm insensitive. Spell it out for me."

"I'm empathic. I can't read thoughts, but I can read emotions. I can't tell exactly what you're thinking, but I know the general state you're in. I know you're very worried right now. When I walked in the room, I felt a huge wave of relief come over you, which disappeared as soon as you saw I wasn't Giles."

Buffy turned her attention to the punching bag. She took a few half hearted swings before answering.

"Okay. I'm wigged. Giles is never late. And that Captain guy doesn't seem like a real slacker type, either. Aren't you worried?"

"Let's say I'm a little surprised. But then, I imagine he's very excited about being here."

"Here? Sunnydale? Why would anyone be excited about being here?"

"Captain Picard is very interested in archeology. Exo-archeology more than Terran, but still, the past fascinates him."

"And he's out there somewhere with Retro man. Great. I'll never get my donuts."

Troi smiled to herself as Buffy flopped onto the couch. She could still feel some concern radiating off the girl, but the majority had been replaced with a much more surprising emotion: jealousy.

*****

"Tara, I can explain this, really," Willow began.

"How?" The blonde demanded. "How can you explain this? What is the Buffybot doing here?"

"I have to keep it here for a while, Tara. Just a few days."

"When did it get here?" Tara asked. Willow turned bright red and began to stammer. "Ohmigod! It was here last night...when we...Willow, how could you?"

"How could I what?"

"Not tell me that was in the closet when - and I don't think it knows how to keep quiet about stuff."

"Spike doesn't like me to be quiet. He likes me to tell him how good he is."

"Shut up!" Willow ordered the bot. "Tara, honey, look. I didn't know how to tell you I brought it home. It got hurt in the battle last night but I knew I could fix it and *poof*, double the Buffy, which is a good. Don't you see?"

"But it knows what you call my...a -and what I call your...and what we...and what she knows, Spike's gonna know and I don't want him to know."

"He won't know, Tara," Willow soothed her. "I can erase that, I'm sure."

"Erase what?" asked the bot. "I don't want to be erased."

"No, not you," Willow explained patiently, "just some of the stuff you heard last night."

"That's not good enough, Willow," Tara said. "I can't believe you let me...with someone else right there and everything!"

"I don't want to be erased. Spike won't like it, either."

"It's a robot, Tara, I can fix everything so it won't remember that at all."

"But I'll remember."

"Tara, please..."

"And why is it here, anyway? You say you fixed it after the battle. Why couldn't you do that at the Magic Box? Couldn't it have stayed there? Did Buffy tell you to take it home?"

"No, she didn't. She really didn't."

Tara stared in amazement at her girlfriend.

"Buffy didn't want you to fix it, did she?"

"She doesn't understand. It can be helpful. MultiSlayer, Tara. It'll be useful, really. I just have to convince them..."

"Them? Willow, how many people said no?"

"Just Buffy...and Giles...and Xander and, okay, Anya."

"Add my name to the list."

"I'm glad Willow fixed me," the bot chimed in cheerfully. "Can I go find Spike now?"

"No!" both witches yelled.

"Willow, I don't think you understand how upsetting this must be for Buffy. How would you feel if someone made a robot you and made it have sex with...with Anya or something?"

"But it couldn't do magic. It wouldn't be any good for anything but sex. This robot can slay stuff. And it seems to me with Glory on the loose, we can use as many Slayers as we can get our hands on."

"How about Faith? She's a Slayer. Are you going to break her out of prison?"

"She's a psycho. Faith would probably just team up with Glory. This won't. This is whatever we make it be."

"With Buffy's face on it. Honey, you can't do this to her. Not now. It's too much."

"But I'm doing it for her."

"Buffy doesn't see it that way."

*****

"What's this place called?" Wesley asked as he craned his neck and gawked frankly.

"Video arcade," Xander informed him.

"What does it do?"

"*It* doesn't do anything. *You* play games on these monitors until you run out of quarters. That way you don't break all the merchandise in the shop where my girlfriend works and you get to stay alive."

"What's with all the raised buttons? An integrated pad is much more efficient, and voice command is best."

"Except for the minor problem that we haven't invented those things yet."

"What's this?"

Wesley peered curiously at the strange object protruding from one of the games.

"It's called a joystick."

"That's a really dumb thing."

Xander rolled his eyes.

"Sorry for the backwardness of my time, Spaceboy. We have what we have."

"So what do I do now?"

"You pick a game, feed in the quarters, and blast some hostile aliens."

"What if they're not hostile?"

"These are shoot 'em up video games. The aliens are always hostile."

Neither noticed a small, robed figure in a dark corner staring with beady eyes at them. The scabby creature scurried off into the street.

*****

"How long have you known Giles?"

"Four years. Ever since I moved to Sunnydale, which was right after he moved here."

"And he trains you?"

"Yep. Life's work, destiny, blah, blah, blah. But at least he doesn't have to be the school librarian anymore."

"Librarian?"

"Oh, that was his cover when we got here, so nobody would know what I did nights."

Troi nodded sagely.

"That was a good choice. Nobody would think twice about a student going to the library."

"That sort of depends on the student," Buffy observed. "I was mainly noted by my teachers for leaving an empty chair sitting there all by itself because there was an elsewhere I was at."

"Is that why you said that earlier? About people mistaking your relationship with Giles for something it isn't?"

"Kids have crude minds. So do principals. And professional werewolf hunters. And these people just don't get how awful office romances are. Personally, I stand cured of them."

"I see. And you're right. Dating someone you work with is somewhat problematical."

"And there speaks the voice of experience. I guess that's why you and Will aren't dating?"

"That's a lot of it. Of course, we're still very good friends, but we see people and we've gotten over each other."

"Still," Buffy said, "he is seriously of the studly."

"But he's an officer on the ship I serve on."

"And office romances suck."

The two heaved a pair of heartfelt sighs.

*****

"Please don't make me do this, Tara."

"You have to, Willow. Think of Buffy's feelings."

"I'm thinking of her lifespan here. Am I the only one who gets that?"

"I get it, honey. Yes, this might help Buffy live longer, but she doesn't want it like that, and I don't blame her one bit. The only answer is to deactivate it."

"But I don't want to be deactivated," the bot pouted. "I want Spike to make the tension go away."

"See?" Tara said. "I wouldn't want something like that wandering around with my face. Please, Willow, I know you meant well, but this has to stop. Deactivate the robot."

Willow looked from her girlfriend to the robot and back again. At last she nodded her head miserably.

"Okay. I guess I sorta have to. But it was still a good idea."

"It would have been, if Buffy had wanted it."

"I better get my tools. One deactivated bot coming right up."

The bot looked at the two witches incredulously.

"But I don't want to be deactivated. Willow, you're my best friend. And Tara, you're my friend, too. Don't you want me to live?"

"Sorry, Buffybot," Willow said sadly. "But Buffy not-bot doesn't want you around. I guess you, me and Spike are the only ones who don't agree...and did I just agree with Spike? Okay, that makes this a whole lot easier for me."

The redhead opened up her toolkit and pulled out a screwdriver.

"Sorry, Buffybot. This won't hurt a bit."

Before Willow could open up the bot's control panel, Buffybot flung out an arm and knocked the tool from Willow's hand. The girl fell to the ground, hard. Tara ran to her girlfriend.

"Willow!"

In the confusion, the bot ran out the door of Willow's dormroom and down the hall, knocking students out of the way left and right as she went.

Willow began to stir.

"Ouch," she complained. "Now that hurt. What happened?"

"The Buffybot got away," Tara told her. "We have to find it and stop it. Preferably before it gets to Spike."

The pair hurried to the door. At the last moment they came to a halt and looked at their pajamas and robes.

"Clothes," Willow decided, "might be a good idea now."

NEXT