"So how'd it go?" Buffy asked as she looked over the Titans and saw they were all present with no obvious wounds.

"Not great, but not bad," Cyborg offered with a casual shrug.

"Lousy," Robin said with a pained groan, "I read the situation wrong and leapt to conclusions that even a moment of calm rational thought would have shown were flawed."

"Well, that's two totally different responses," Buffy noted with amusement. "What happened?"

"We followed the empathic cries to a museum," Raven explained.

"And there was a convertible with the top down on the sidewalk in front of the shattered glass doors, a couple of magic books in the front seat, one of which was titled 'My Evil Plan'," Beastboy continued.

"A young woman screamed in panic from inside," Starfire said. "It was the most horrible sound."

"So we sent Starfire to go through the skylight while we entered through the front," Cyborg said.

"Good tactic and time was ticking," Buffy agreed.

"I shattered the glass and found a man snake trying to eat a young woman and lots of men in black robes," Starfire said. "He was very resistant to my starbolts."

"It was the demon Machida," Raven offered. "One of the books was open to the page describing him."

"Oh, Matilda," Buffy said brightly, purposefully misnaming him as human eating demons deserved as little respect as she could give them in her opinion. "I killed him a couple of years ago."

"We rushed in and saw a dark haired man with a Norse buckler on his arm attacking the cultists," Robin said. "It was obvious he had taken it from one of the displays in the hall."

"And since he knew of the demon and had a book titled 'My Evil Plan'..." Raven's voice trailed off.

"He was hunting down the evil mastermind behind the cult who was egotistical enough to write and publish a book on it?" Buffy guessed.

All the Titans except Starfire groaned or winced as if in pain.

"Yeah, that's what we should have guessed," Cyborg agreed.

"Cyborg and Beastboy went to take out the cultists while Raven and I went after the 'evil mage'," Robin said with a sigh.

"Ouch," Buffy said. "And how did that go?"

"Not great," Raven said dryly. "He was putting the cultists down hard, stopping just short of lethal."

"It was brutal," Robin agreed. "I attacked from behind with my staff, nailing him in the temple, but he somehow sensed it and rolled with the blow."

"I tried to capture him with my shadow, but he had a dagger on him that he'd enchanted with Enochian runes," Raven said. "I was flung into the wall by the conflicting energies."

"And I lost my temper," Robin admitted. "I attacked with everything I had and he just waded through it like it was nothing."

"He was dazed and acting on instinct," Raven added.

"Which was even more brutal," Robin said. "He stabbed me in the chest with his dagger hard enough to crack my armor and knock me on my ass."

"The blonde girl who was supposed to be eaten called out for a steak," Starfire said. "I don't know that food would have distracted Matilda though."

"The mage turned and threw her a wooden stake, which she slammed into the demon's chest," Robin said, causing Starfire to make an 'Oh' sound as she realized what she'd missed. "Turns out he knew her and had trained her."

"Was he British?" Buffy asked intently.

"No, he was definitely Californian," Beastboy said. "I could see him on a surfboard easy."

"What did he look like?" Buffy asked with a thoughtful frown.

"He was of the tall, dark, and handsome variety," Starfire said brightly, turning to Raven with a grin. "I believe friend Raven has more to say on the matter."

Raven blushed and pulled her hood forward. "I may have commented on his rear, but that would have been a side effect from coming in contact with the dagger. There is a certain lingering attraction caused by the rune he used."

"The dagger?" Robin asked, rubbing his chest where he'd been hit. "I certainly don't feel attracted to him."

"He used the rune for attraction on it but it was unfocused so the effects are weaker but broader in scope," Raven explained. "He probably uses it to call it to his hand, but I'm more affected by the emotional aspect because of my empathic nature."

"The police arrived to take everyone into custody and said he'd called them before going in. Apparently he was working with the police on the case because he knew the one girl he trained and she'd gone missing," Cyborg said.

"He was friendly with the police and very much not with us and neither was the girl," Beastboy said, rubbing his arm.

"She was very much not impressed with us for attacking him," Starfire said, "and being called for making stupid decisions by one with air in their head does not feel of the good."

"One of the cultists turned out to be a vampire, but the 'evil mage' used the buckler with the symbol of Thor on it to hold him off and Star's Starbolt turned him to ash," Cyborg finished.

"Really?" Buffy asked, surprised.

"His name is Alex," Starfire remembered. "The police addressed him as such and he assured me I did not kill a living person but simply vaporized a corpse because they are weak to sunlight and my powers are fueled by such. I was very relieved."

"I don't suppose you can teach me to throw starbolts?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"No, my powers were gained by experimentation," Starfire said.

"Too bad," Buffy said, "being able to throw around sunlight would make my job so much easier."

"Yeah, so you can see why we're bummed," Beastboy said, still massaging his arm.

"What happened to your arm?" Buffy asked.

"I turned into an octopus and wrapped up everyone in my tentacles-" Beastboy started.

"Isn't one of them your penis?" Buffy interrupted.

Beastboy groaned while Cyborg started laughing. "That's what the blonde who bit me said! Seriously, the biology is completely different, it's not the same thing at all."

"So her response was to bite your penis?" Buffy asked, trying not to giggle.

"Arm! It was my arm!" Beastboy defended himself, holding up his injured limb.

Buffy burst out laughing and Cyborg high fived her.

"And that was our night," Robin said, "we rushed in and made rookie mistakes in target identification."

"Well let me tell you what my best friend Xander told me," Buffy said, "better a bad plan now than a good plan too late."

"What?" Robin asked, confused.

"You don't always have all the information you need or the time to figure out what you need to do, but a bad plan can be adjusted on the fly while a good plan after everything's over is completely worthless," Buffy explained. "It's like when you figure out the perfect comeback to someone's insult when you're in the shower, too late to be useful."

"I hadn't thought of it like that," Robin admitted.

"This Xander sounds very wise," Starfire said.

"He has his moments," Buffy said with a smile. "He wasn't much of a fighter but whenever I was down or doubting myself he was there with a shoulder to cry on, two arms to hug me, and some words to cheer me up. He was a great big teddy bear who only spent a third of the time making inappropriate comments... Which also cheered me up if I'm being honest."

"Like friend Beastboy," Starfire said.

"I don't make that many comments," Beastboy defended himself.

"You do, but only about... an eighth of the time," Raven said thoughtfully.

"It's rarely when on duty," Robin offered. "On duty it's just used as tension breakers."

"Huh, hadn't realized I was doing that," Beastboy admitted.

"Somebody's gotta do it," Cyborg said, "or we all get stuck on how bad a problem is and stop thinking about how to fix it."

"So every team really does need a joker," Robin said thoughtfully, the brief image of a certain clown working with Batman quickly shook off.

"It was a shock to me too," Buffy said, "but the times when Xander wasn't around... Even if we won we had to talk it up more because it felt like less of a win, if that makes any sense."

"Morale is to the physical as ten is to one," Cyborg quoted.

"Yeah, the team joker is the team psychologist," Buffy said, "even if we don't put it like that."

"Eh, I just try to keep everyone in a good mood," Beastboy offered lamely.

"And when you have a group of people with strong personalities who can sometimes be a little self absorbed because they are focused on their own things, having someone who looks around and does an emotional wellness check is vital," Buffy said.

"Well if you'll excuse me," Beastboy said, looking a little flustered as his friends were all giving him approving looks, "I need to heal and the best way to do that is to turn into a starfish and sleep in my tank. Another difference in marine biology is it has it all over land based creatures in healing speed."

"And what about when they need help?" Raven asked after Beastboy had left.

"You'll generally notice," Buffy said. "When someone is helping support you and they suddenly stop, the absence is noticeable. It may take you a little while to pull your head out of your ass and notice what's wrong, but you will."

"Then what do you do?" Robin asked.

"Take stock, figure out what they need, and then have them help you work out in very skimpy clothes to distract them," Buffy said with a smirk. "I can't do subtle, but I can do distracting to get someone relaxed and talking."

"I think Catwoman's done that to me," Robin said with a frown, "and possibly some of the other female villains."

"Has there been any female villains Batman hasn't hooked up with?" Cyborg teased.

"A few," Robin grumbled.

Cyborg laughed. "That you know of," he added. "Well it's past my bedtime, night all."

"Night," everyone called out.

"That sounds like a good idea," Robin said. "We can debrief tomorrow after we get some sleep. Night."

"Night."

"I too am tired," Starfire said. "Pleasant dreams and don't let the grabthars bite."

"Night, Star," Raven said, waiting until she was out of earshot before asking, "Your emotions... When you talked about the one you relied on no longer supporting you... Do you want to talk about it?"

Buffy winced. "Do I want to talk about what you do when the person you rely on most to keep you emotionally stable and your spirits up, making your whole sucky duty less of a chore and maybe a little fun, is broken and you have to face the fact that you did something to cause that?"

"No?" Raven guessed.

"You pull up your big girl panties and you make it right, because the one who did their best to pick you up and put you back together when you were broken deserves nothing less," Buffy told her.

"That's half the answer," Raven said with a frown.

Buffy sighed. "Empathy is almost as nosy as telepathy, which is a huge pain. Let me just say, that if someone knows you well enough to put you back together, than they also know enough to take you apart."

"Oh," Raven said, eyes widening and clutching her cloak around herself tightly.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "Everyone has their limits and even if they are like a dozen times yours, they still exist."

"I thought the flash of fear meant something else," Raven admitted. "That's actually far scarier than what I was thinking."

"Oh it's worse than that," Buffy said, shaking her head, "because you also have to look at yourself and realize how far you've fallen to fuck up that badly and hurt someone that care about you that much."

Raven winced. "Yeah..."

"Thankfully it's really hard to get your own head that far up your ass. It takes some real effort," Buffy said, "and the signs are easy to see, you stop listening to your friends and seeing their point of view. Suddenly your shit doesn't stink which lets you know you're nose deep up it."

Raven giggled and then cleared her throat, pretending she hadn't.

Buffy grinned. "Night, Raven."

"Good night," Raven said, her shadow covering her before she sank through the floor.

"Wiggsome or not that still looks really cool," Buffy said, before turning back to play some more Mario Kart.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

*beep*beep*beep*

Xander woke with a start when he noticed he was half underwater, panicking for a moment before realizing he was in the tub. "For once I'm glad hotels have such small bathtubs," he said as he got up, finding all his aches and pains had gone away. "Man, I must have really been tired. Surprised I'm not all pruney."

He quickly dried off and left the bathroom, hitting the button to shut off the alarm and checking the two pizza boxes only to find them empty. His stomach growled loudly. "Looks like I'm going out to eat, fortunately I know a good burger joint and I can let Louise know that Thor's symbol does work against vampires."

Typing By: Abyssal Angel

Beta By: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows