I'll Have an Apocalypse and a 2X Armageddon To Go

by tohonomike

Xander Harris gets a job at the end of season 2, with the soldier he'd dressed as, and the Deep Impact will be felt by the XanderSafe Universe

I'll have an Apocalypse and A Double Armageddon to Go

Book One: Rise of X Series

Author: tohonomike

Email: by: Theo (Junior Editor/Muse Wrangler...Many Thanks)

Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved.

Summary: The destiny of Xander Harris starts going off in a new direction, at the end of his junior year.

Episode I

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California. May, 1998

It was the Monday after the so-called Acathla incident, and Xander Harris had been called to the school principal's office. 'Great, maybe the end of the world would have been preferable after all...' the young man thought to himself.

But Snyder wasn't the only balding man there, when he reached the little troll's den; another man who Xander remembered from his fun little Halloween experience last year, and from his correspondence about a summer job, was also present.

Flashback: October 31st, 1997

"It's me, Willow!"

"I don't know any Willow."

"Xander, quit messing around. This is no time for jokes!"

"What the hell's going on here?"

"You don't know me? Who are you, then?"

"I'm Lt. Harry S—" he began, but a scream interrupted him.

"Okay, Lt. Harris, that's Buffy—we need to help her…"

End Flashback

Xander smiled, the moment he walked in through the door.

"Harris!" Snyder snapped. "It's about time. Mr. Stamper here asked me if we could let you off early for the summer, with regards to this job offer you've gotten. And believe you me, I wasn't going to—until I learned just how much heavy labor you'd be doing, those extra first weeks!"

"What about my final tests, Principal Snyder sir?" Xander asked, bracing for bad news— in spite of managing a straight B- since Halloween.

"Well, your teachers seem to think you won't deviate from your improved grades, so seeing as Mr. Stamper has asked both the Mayor's office and school superintendent's office about this—you have a waiver," the principal grimaced. Then Snyder sneered, "Which means that with both you and that troublemaker Summers gone, the rest of my year should be fairly quiet! Thank God for the little things. Now, clear out your locker—and get out of my sight!"

Stamper looked at Snyder in surprise. Then the older man shook Xander's hand, as soon as they left the office.

"So we finally meet in person, huh?" Harry Stamper asked the young man walking next to him. "Uh...you remember our first encounter?"

"Oh, yeah. You remember Halloween, too?"

"Yep. I wasn't sure at first because for me it was over twenty years ago, back in the service. But when I woke up November 1st to hear how I'd saved my little girl from three ugly guys with pointy teeth, yellow eyes and that I'd picked up a stick instead of using my gun? Yeah, I remembered a weird dream and a redhead named Willow from California. Then a few weeks later, you wrote asking for summer work…"

"That why I got the job?" Xander asked, as he dumped the contents of his locker into his bag.

"That, and from your letters you seemed pretty willing and eager to work. Besides, we're based out of Oxnard, so it's easy enough to switch you over to repairs and rebuilds next fall—if you have the skill for it. It's hard to find drillers that don't drink too much, or chase the ladies too often."

Xander smirked. "Figure if you get me young enough, you'll squeeze a few years outta me before I become one of the guys?"

"Something like that. You got everything?"

"Yeah, but I need to head over to the library and say my good-byes all at once. Before I head home and clear out my stuff, and before my folks arrive back there..."

They entered the doors to the library, Xander smiling as they entered and as conversation quieted. Cordelia got up and walked over to her boyfriend, as Xander smirked and spoke.

"No need to shut up, guys, Mr. Stamper knows the score," Xander said simply. "And besides, Will and Cordy met him last Halloween for a couple hours."

The Scoobies looked confused for a moment, but Cordelia caught on first. "Oh, he's that Soldier Guy?" she said, cocking her head questioningly and receiving a smile and nod. She shook hands, "Thanks for saving me from Jojo the dog face boy, by the way!"

"Don't mention it, Miss Chase, I'm glad to have returned the favor," Harry smiled and then explained how Xander had saved his daughter.

"G-good Lord," Giles mused, wiping his glasses. "Trans-possession, and across time? Fascinating..."

"Anyway, everybody," Xander interrupted before a research party could be called, "My new boss here is whisking me away outta town a bit early, so I'm here to say good-bye." His friends showed surprise, especially Cordelia.

"What! Now?" the brunette girl asked, holding him close in front of the others.

Xander smiled and looked into his girlfriend's eyes. "Well, the first few weeks involve moving lots of heavy objects, so that'll get me in better shape than I was in for the swim team thing…" he smiled, causing Cordelia to blush. "And any chance to bug out on my parents is a must, especially since in the stack of papers I got them to sign I included my emancipation papers. I want to be gone, before they realize it."

"Oh!" Cordelia beamed, "Well, congratulations. I mean, you know how I was going to go to Mexico with the parents, but…e-mail me?"

Xander looked to Harry, who nodded. "Sure, guys," he said, giving them the free email account name he'd been using from an advertising-supported service. "Just remember to email me first, so I have all of your addresses."

Xander's summer proved to the best time in his life, bar none. The more time he put in, the more of Harry's memories raced back, and the skills and instincts behind them. The smattering of languages, the drilling equipment, the fighting ability, and more.

The crew were quite impressed that within a month of long 18-hour days, he'd become almost everybody's second, the jack of all trades. Whether it was night security, diver, driller, repairman or the designated fetcher when they went ashore; Xander seemed to have Harry's knack for languages, and an almost brotherly protectiveness when it came to Harry's daughter.

'Harry Junior', as they called him in good fun, soon was nursing the equipment along far beyond expectations. From the sound and feel he could tell when to ease off a bit and let it slowly drill with less torque, than when to speed up without overheating.

The roughnecks knew he'd probably saved them two weeks of down time, which meant that they were that far ahead when the summer was drawing to a close, and they hit oil. Xander immediately banked the sizable bonus with the rest of his pay, planning on buying the tax liens on a condo near the university.

And in the end Harris smiled as he got off the plane with Harry at LAX, who was going to meet with creditors and pay them off for the first time…ever.

"Hey, Lex, how 'bout we find a diner and get a bite to eat before you head on home? There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about, before I pay off the human bloodsuckers."

"Sure, boss, anything in particular?"

"Yeah, continued employment."

"Got my attention, money's always a good topic of conversation!"

"Okay. I need you to take one of the cars with you, so I don't have to pick it up later, alright?"

The place they pulled into was in a rather scuzzy part of town, but was near the parting point for the two. They walked in and sat in the front booth near the door of the diner, Xander facing it, and Harry facing the rest of the place.

Harry then gave Xander something of a sales pitch, wanting to hire him part-time as long as he was able to keep his grades up. The job was as Harry's lead equipment diagnostician and repair specialist, which meant that he'd be one of three guys working stateside with equipment, and he'd report to a full-timer that fronted the operation and handled the people side of things.

"It means I can spend most of my time in the field making enough money to really get the engineering side going, and you will keep us going on that side until you graduate— and then we can really put your skills to good use."

"Now, hang on. I know I've picked up things pretty well, Harry—" Xander began, only to have Stamper interrupt him.

"No buts, Lex. You and I, and heck the whole crew know you're pretty damned near as dead-on as I am at this. No one else really has the…empathy for this that we do. Come this time next year, and if everything works according to plan, I'll have to cut you in for a good-sized percentage of the business. And hell—if I get hurt or killed, I need someone as good as I am to keep this going, ya know?"

Xander nodded, knowing he'd become as close to being a Stamper clone as possible, the difference being purely the physical ones of youth; and that Harry falsely considered himself prettier.

"Alright, count me in," Xander said, shaking his future partner's hand as he heard a waitress finally come up from behind him after taking a pie order from a couple of teens down on their luck.

"Sorry for the wait," the blonde girl said, writing on her pad, "Can I take your order?"

"Sure...Buffy," Xander replied in astonishment.

"Xander?" Buffy the vampire Slayer looked at him shocked, horrified, call it what you will.

"That's me. We'll have two Helen's Specials, extra cheese, and the same for the two kids behind me?"

Buffy looked back in cornered disbelief, but wrote down the order anyway as the male teen from the booth behind them turned around. "Thanks, man! Really 'preciate it," Rickie T said with a smile.

Xander smiled back. "No problem, dude; been there myself too often, but luckily someone was there for me," he replied, before turning around. "So, uh, 'Anne' has a break or gets off shift at what time?"

"In half an hour, actually," she says, still unsure of the situation. And Stamper was right there with her, in all the confusion that was this conversation. "And I'll have your orders here right away."

"Friend of yours?" Harry asked, as soon as Buffy left. "Poor kid seems a bit lost..."

"First love, actually," Xander sighed. "But that was a complete waste of time, given how she chose the 'good vampire' instead of me! Still, you're right, she ran away the weekend before you rescued me from Sunnydale, and the few emails I've gotten from the gang said she'd completely disappeared. Maybe I can help her home..."

"Hey, if you can handle those 'native suppliers'..." Harry smiled, using the term he'd used within his daughter's hearing, "...you can talk her into going home. Besides, you have the company car now, so it'll be easier than taking the bus..."

The two men subsequently made it through their meals, making sure to keep their eyes out for any possible escape by Buffy, but she didn't make any such move. And as she was clocking out, Harry got up to leave and left a large tip.

"Lex, I'll hear from you in a few days. And just wanna say again, glad to have you onboard, son."

"Thanks, Harry," Xander replied, handing the cash over to Buffy at the register and waving the change back at her. "Talk to you soon." Buffy just looked at her white knight a bit uncertainly.

"Your manager here, Anne?" Harris asked loudly, attracting attention and the manager from the back. Xander, wearing a suit and tie, albeit loosened, just stared at the man; making the shop owner a bit nervous.

"Problem here?"

"You could say that," Xander coldly told the guy. "Thing is, I've been retained by this underage girl's mother to return her home—town called Sunnydale, up north. And I'm willing to bet that you don't have even a fraction of the proper paperwork on her; no W-2 form or anything. So, here's what's going to happen. You pay her out…completely…on everything what she's owed. Right now. No excuses!"

The man made as if to complain, before Xander said, "Or I'll get the police, and then the labor board in here, and that'll cost you a whole bunch more money! What's it gonna be?"

"This is frickin' unbelievable! I'm already down a busboy, now I'm out a waitress too? Just great," the manager complained as loudly as he dared, glancing at the patrons of the diner as he gave up and counted out the appropriate amount of money to Buffy.

Xander turned around after removing Buffy's nametag. "Hey, you guys," he called out to the former Sunnydalers finishing up the meal he'd bought them, tossing the 'Anne' nametag to Chanterelle. "Guess what? You two now have jobs, if you want 'em. You start tomorrow, have a nice day..."

Harris then grabbed Buffy by the hand and pulled her out of the restaurant, as the manager gleefully decided to conscript his two new workers.

"Hey! What was all that supposed to be?" Buffy finally complained, but not too abruptly. "You just lost me my job! For God's sake, Xander—what am I going to do now?"

"Just in case it wasn't clear before, we're going wherever you're staying and you'll grab your stuff. Then I'm taking you home, Buff. I thought you realized that."

Buffy Summers suddenly looked angry. "And just why would I want to go back to Sunnydale?"

Xander shrugged. "Because that's where you belong, and where all the people who love you live. Although I'm so gonna claim your father's reward for your return."

Ms. Summers was momentarily stunned. "Reward? Dad?"

"Hey, you two might be way of the separate lives these days, but at least he compensates with money. Twenty grand, in this case..."

Buffy instantly stopped and yanked him back. "Twenty grand?" she gasped in confusion and disbelief, "For me?"

"Yeah, for you," Xander said, opening the door of the sedan for her. "So let's get you out of your situation, then see if he's in town to claim it."

Four blocks and an uncomfortable silence later from the diner, and Buffy cried out.

"Pull over! Something's going on over there..." Buffy told her companion, as she pointed to where two men seemed to be forcing a teen into a homeless shelter. She leapt out of the car as he stopped.

The Slayer kicked down the door and watched as the young male struggled with the undercover slaver demon called Ken, scraping off a section of skin to reveal the soulless monster underneath. Seeing that, the female champion raced in and made contact with a flying crescent kick to the head.

Ken went down, and the boy made it to the door as the second 'man' made a grab for him. Xander then burst in with a tire iron, smacking the man once, the boy dashing out and into the night.

But the 'man', who shouldn't have been able to move, started to get up. So Xander kicked him hard in the face, then used the crowbar to really carry out cosmetic surgery, three times, each harder until the demon died and fell into the pool of black slime. Xander watched as Buffy punched her demon into the slime and then dove in after him, disappearing.

"Buffy! Wait-!" But it was too late, as she was already gone.

"Great," Xander said with a grimace, shedding his jacket, tie and shoes. "My dry cleaning bill is gonna suck this month..."

He jumped in after her, only to find the blonde Slayer killing her demon and taking on four more surprised demons grabbing human teenagers on the other side. The unexpected visitors landing atop of them had bought them a moment; but nothing more.

Xander struck hard and fast, going for any face not human. Three sickening squishes were heard, as Harris saw his favorite vampire Slayer fight and destroy two more guards with clubs coming through the doors.

Luckily, Buffy was in the zone even after a summer of letting her Slayage skills slide, and Xander was ready to finish off anything she put down and not out. Soon, ten demons lay dead on the floor of the portal room and hallway; and by a miracle, Xander admitted ruefully to himself, neither he or Buffy were hurt.

"Well, that was a workout," Buffy smiled tiredly, as the teen horde just stared around like sheep or airheaded Cordettes. "What is this place?"

"I dunno, Buff, so I'm thinkin' let's do a quick recon and if I see any equipment I can damage—we will," Xander suggested.

An hour later and with 200 refugees of different ages, and twenty dead guards killed as they were discovered, Xander smiled as they started leaping upwards for home.

"What's with the smile?" Buffy wanted to know, blood dripping from a gash on her head.

"That boiler back there?" Xander gestured.

"Yeah?"

"When it goes up, the factory should go up with it. Y'know, since all of the fuel is right there next to it!"

"Cool, let's just hope that damn portal goes with it. Last thing we need is a lot of angry demon mommas come looking for us, about what we did to their spawn..." Buffy muttered, before using her Slayer strength to hoist Xander out of that hell dimension; and then leaping up and out herself.

Episode II

From An Hour after Getting Out Of Hell, To Their Arrival In Sunnydale

The trip back wasn't made in silence, but became a bittersweet trip down memory lane when the devastated girl who happened to be a Slayer asked a simple question and instead of merely joking, Xander answered.

"How did we get here, Xander?" she asked, tired but with their foray into Hell now able to take a look around and see nothing but an emotional moonscape.

"For you, it was a guy tossing a knife at you, for me it was seeing a beautiful girl just before I slammed into a railing on my skateboard."

Buffy laughed, remembering that first day at Sunnydale High. Meeting everyone, hoping for friends and normalcy, only to find her mom had moved them to the Mouth of Hell. They talked the entire trip, not revealing everything, but exchanging viewpoints. Xander went easy on the vampire thing, pointedly pausing and skipping to the next subject rather than hurt her more. Buffy noticed this, and eased up on the Angel worship in their recall of events.

They stopped for a couple of sodas and a quart of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Oxnard, and even drove by the workplace address Harry had handed to Xander. They'd talked the entire time. Xander had called Joyce to let her know they'd be a little later than expected, but all was well.

Xander admitted to Buffy he'd had strong feelings for her until just after she'd gotten back from her summer with her father. How his relationship with Cordelia had evolved, Buffy laughing and crying at times, and comparing her previous Hemery days. Xander suggested to Buffy that she'd always been the same person as now, but also 'Spordelia,' and that Cordelia without the life-shattering consequences of being called as a Slayer, was only now letting some of the person underneath show.

"Really?" Buffy considered, remembering a few glimpses but not many.

"How much did you share with him that you didn't share with me?" Xander asked her, not referring to Angel by name. "Since you only saw me as 'one of the girls'." He couldn't quite keep the annoyance hidden at that phrase

"I guess I see your point," Buffy said, and remembered how guys really hated being 'one of the girls' and let out a tiny sigh. "Though I always wanted the two of you to become friends-"

"Let's move on from that subject for many reasons, Buff, on account of our friendship is too important to ruin over something that we can never, ever agree on."

The uncomfortable silence went on for a few minutes.

"What about us, Xander?" she asked quietly, "Are we still friends after all this?"

"Friends? Always, Buff," he smiled as he drove, not looking over at her. "No matter what should have been done, or needed to be done at different times…by either of us, I'll always be your friend."

"Thank you, it means a lot," Buffy said truthfully as she looked out the window, noting the Welcome to Sunnydale sign as they passed it.

Xander only hoped that as they'd only reached the point of Kendra's death, that she remembered those words when he told her that he'd lied about Willow's message.

Buffy, in spite of her general exhausted numbness, felt better than she had in a very long time, and a bit guilty about quite a few things.

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California. September, 1998; Ten Minutes Later

Xander Harris smiled, as the car pulled up at the Summers house precisely at midnight.

Buffy sat in the car reticently, as Xander came around in his clean pants, shirt and suit jacket to open the door for her. Finally she gave up the bit of the childishness she'd started to exhibit as they'd turned onto her street, and stepped out, the porch light coming on as he grabbed her duffel bag.

"She knows I'm coming, right?"

Xander sighed, thinking about Joyce. "Yeah, and I'll be there for the first few minutes—just to make sure you both play nice," he smiled sweetly at his old crush. "And it didn't turn out so bad with your Dad, so it should be good here too, I'm thinking."

"Buffy? Buffy—honey, is that you?" Joyce called out, as she opened the door hopefully.

The middle-aged woman saw Buffy and raced out of the house, tightly embracing her daughter. Xander smiled and waited, as the two cried and sobbed and apologized. As they drew apart, Xander smiled again, shaking his head.

"Well, I'd say my job here is done, so I guess I'll be heading out," the work-hardened and sun-bronzed young man told them. "Just one thing; you two just remember this huggy moment, when you start to scream and shout and have hissy fits about everything—okay? That way, you'll both get through it all relatively intact."

"Do you have to go?" Buffy asked, tightly grabbing his hand. "You've brought me this far…"

"Yes, Xander, please—stay for a quick bite. I made enough food in case you stayed," Joyce told him, thankful he'd brought her little girl home.

"Okay, but just for a while. I need to find a hotel room, or pound on Willow's door."

"Don't be silly," Joyce told him at once, "You can have the couch for the night."

"Thanks, that's very kind," Xander smiled slightly, but then looked seriously at Buffy. "Thing is though, I need to tell Buffy something first. And she'll then have to decide if I have to leave."

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'll—"

"No, hear me out first Slay-gal," Harris said, as Joyce decided to make herself scarce; sensing something was burning in the kitchen. Xander paused; this almost certainly wasn't going to end well for him...

"Buff, I was very surprised that night when I heard from both Oz and Cordelia that Willow had been possessed by a gypsy spirit, when she tried to do the soul curse for the second time. I'm guessing that it worked, but since you left, I'm guessing that Angelus' ritual sorta did too?"

Xander watched silently for a moment, as Buffy teared up in recollection. Then he went on, "Willow told me she'd try again, but since she'd already failed once before...I, I didn't think it would work. So I didn't tell you, because I was afraid that you'd hold back—and I knew we'd all end up in Hell, if you held back even in the slightest..."

Buffy gaped in disbelief as Xander finished up, "The fact that both things seemed to happen means that it was a close thing, and you did it anyway. Even though it means I was right, please forgive me for not telling you. I really didn't think a gypsy spirit would possess Willow then—"

"You knew? You lied to me?" Buffy demanded in no uncertain terms.

Xander nodded. "After the beating she took already, ain't no way Willow was going to succeed, Buff."

"But she did!" Then the blonde Slayer seemed about to lose control for a moment, and stepped toward the young man, fists clenched.

"What were the chances, Buffy?" he said, backpedaling. "And just keep in mind my name isn't Ted..."

Now that was enough to calm the Chosen One down, the stress of being on the razor's edge of decision clear as she shook slightly, as the memories of what she'd done to that homicidal robot came flooding back and at what she might have done if he hadn't reminded her.

"And as for Willow, did she know?" Harris spoke softly but with clarity. "There's only one gypsy we know of who would ever have been willing to bring back Angel's soul, and put it into Angelus' body again. And she didn't exactly let us know she'd come back from the dead through Willow as the world was about to end, right after Giles had been tortured at Angelus' hands!"

Xander paused again, as Buffy seemed to just numbly consider his words. "I'll leave my address and phone number with Giles in case you still want to see me sometime, but it's your call."

Suddenly, Buffy's head shot up. "And if you'd known beforehand the soul curse would have worked?"

Xander never hesitated. "I'd have done the exact same thing," he admitted sadly. "On account of I prefer you and the rest of the world alive asking 'what if' questions, than rely on iffy magic and spirit possessions. Hell, you of all people should know my luck with both!"

A momentary pause. "My only regret is not coming back for you, when I got Giles into the car. After all, Supergirl, five hours ago I not only faced Hell with you—I jumped into it, feet-first, to bring you home to your mom. Just shoulda done it then, too."

Xander's last remarks sank in deep, tipping Buffy's precarious emotions back to just being thankful she was home and with her mom again. Even though the anger and sense of betrayal was still there, it was so entangled with their sharing of the last few hours she just didn't know what to think or do, and she didn't want to think about that night anymore either.

Hell, she didn't want to think about any of it anymore. Because as far as Buffy Anne Summers was concerned, that part of the past was just better left forgotten.

"Okay," Buffy finally said, nodding as Xander started to write down his information, then reached out to stop him. He looked at her in confusion, "I mean, it's okay. I, I'll probably get mad again later, but come in and don't let all of Mom's food go to waste. Because we're okay...for now."

She hesitated, then hugged him tight. Xander opened his eyes a minute later, to see Buffy letting go and Joyce smiling from where she'd watched most of the exchange.

"Come on, you two both need to eat something."

Episode III

The next three weeks were a bit of a blur for Xander, as he found there was a lot of backlog at work, and the overtime pay and bonuses to go with early completion.

By the end of the first week of school, he'd put in three evenings and he wasn't even due to start until the following Monday! He'd been lucky in finding a condo halfway between the high school and college, with easy highway access so his commute would only be 45 minutes each way.

The thing was though that Oz had run into a few conflicts with his roommate, the first week of his freshman year of UC Sunnydale, even if he was with Willow after school most of the time. So Xander threw a set of keys at him, and gave him the three rules of the house. 'No loud music after ten 'cause I have to work in the morning, no endless stream of loud sex partners for the same reason, and no big parties without two weeks notice, and then only on Friday and Saturday nights.'

"Cool, rent?"

"Half the utilities and groceries, you keep the more public bathroom clean, and you convince Willow to do our shopping—so that it stays cheap."

The redhead had just rolled her eyes and nodded when she heard, and Xander had found a relatively quiet roommate to watch the place when he wasn't around, and who'd keep him informed on important slaying info and gossip.

Discussing education options with Giles, he'd decided by the end of the second week on an emergency crash course to get his diploma. Xander crammed for and passed his GED exams and presented them to the school board, asking that he be allowed to be considered an SHS student and graduate with the rest of his class—even though he'd completed the degree.

And with recommendations from Giles, and the acquiescence of Snyder—who really wanted to be free of Xander's presence—it was an easy sell. With the proviso he take the SATs, and deal with Career Week, and other non-classroom testing as required by the school system.

So the young man dove into his full-time work schedule with near-obsessive abandon, enjoying the hands-on labor. He took upon himself series of four 12-hour workdays per week, leaving at six in the morning, and pulling up to pick up Cordelia at her house around eight.

But...things in that direction weren't looking so hot, nowadays.

As soon as they'd found out what he was up to, Cordy's parents started putting seriously horrendous pressure on her to dump him, and find someone to date within her own social circle.

She'd held out so far, but Xander suspected she couldn't do so forever. His property ownership and take-home pay of $600 a week at his age didn't seem to make a favorable impact; instead, it seemed that the more serious their relationship might be, the harder the Chases fought it. Heck, even having twenty grand in the bank didn't endear them to him.

Finally, as they were dancing at the Bronze to a hauntingly beautiful slow dance, smiling and enjoying the moment—Xander knew that they'd reached a point where they needed to make a decision. So, he broke the silence first.

"Well, Cor, I guess we finally have to face up to the situation," Xander spoke softly in her ear, dipping her a little as they danced closely for real and didn't just hang on each other. "We have to decide what we're gonna do, with all the grief you're getting from your folks."

"What do I do?" the cheerleader half-whispered back. "I don't want to lose you. But Daddy's threatening to lock me up at nights, and get a restraining order taken out against your ass! Not to mention cutting off my credit cards and allowance! Xander...I know it's pretty shallow of me, but I don't think I can live poor like that..."

"I know. And heck, you know my schedule's going to be a lot like this until next summer, then it might be a couple of years working between Sunnydale and some pretty remote drilling sites," Xander reminded her. "And that's kinda tough on a relationship."

They continued to dance, neither saying anything as they waited for the other. Xander again broke the silence, finally.

"So, Cor, I guess what you have to ask yourself is—if you could actually see yourself married to a guy who's likely to be half-repairman, half-wildcat petroleum driller for the next ten, twenty or thirty years. Or if you're willing to just be very good friends with me, from now on."

"Married!" Cordy choked, staring at her boyfriend in shock. "I...I guess I hadn't really thought it out that far, Xander—"

"It's Lex now, please," he chided her. "Lex is the go-to guy in this business, hon. Someone that never met Tony Harris."

"Sometimes I miss Xander, though," she sighed, holding him tightly.

"I know, but he grew up over the summer. He could actually be the man you deserve."

Cordelia hesitated. "I'm so sorry, Xander. But if we're gonna be honest, I-I'm not ready for that kind of commitment. Maybe after high school's over, but not now. So I guess—we're officially over?"

The song wound down at last, and keeping his arm around her, Xander drew her in, placed his other hand on her cheek and gave her the softest, longest and tenderest kiss he could. "I guess so..."

They provided an amazing sight for the entire Bronze, as Cordelia's use of his money to purchase a quality well-fitted wardrobe for him—meant the two of them were dark, well-dressed, very attractive and clearly in love.

Cordelia seemed to come to a decision then. "You know that I still love you, right?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah."

"Good. That's why I want you—to be my first."

Xander choked, overcome by memories of the previous Valentine's Day. "As in, baseman?"

Cordy slapped his head in annoyance. "No, you big goof! Believe it or not, I'm gonna miss the hell out of you. You changed me from the spoilt brat I once was, into someone that's probably way too choosy for her own good. You think I'll be able to find anyone on the football team, that'll be able to measure up to you in the hero department? Like, I don't think so!"

A bemused Xander just stood there as Cordy went on, "So, that's why I want this. And it's not like you're gonna go running around telling guys in the locker room that you scored with the rich bitch, even if you were still attending Sunnydale High! Plus, we both know Oz is in Monterrey with the Dingoes tonight. So please, Xander. Can I at least have that much happiness, if it means that we're through from now on?"

Xander didn't know what to say at first, "Monterrey? It's pretty up there, I hear. Would you like to take a trip up there this weekend before we become best friends?"

The next week, the Tuesday after a weekend in which he really finished becoming a man, Xander was at the Bronze again. This time though, he was a free and single man. He saw Cordelia surrounded by her Cordettes, who were congratulating her on coming to her senses—and dumping 'the blue-collar geek,' no matter how hot he now looked.

All of a sudden, Xander saw a sexy brunette girl dancing with a guy whose clothes just screamed out 'vampire'. Watching them leave via the back entrance, Harris hurriedly headed for the exit to the club himself.

Noticing him leave, Cordelia wiped her eyes and made for the restroom, her lost look drawing Willow to follow—as Buffy decided, after a moment's hesitation, to head out to follow the Xander-shaped enigma.

Xander, wearing a leather jacket, exited through the back door without setting off the alarm—as it had been disabled long ago. He stepped out, intending to find his targets; but there was no one to be found.

Shrugging to himself, Xander decided to get some air and walked a little, hands on a pair of knives he's lathed at the shop out of ironwood...when Harris heard and saw two guys attack a young girl of about 16 or 17, pressing her against some chain link fencing.

Sighing and charging in, the White Knight pulled both knives out but decided against his usual manly shout—as he went to the rescue.

One of the boys immediately vamped out, and moved in to bite his Happy Meal as the other started laughing. But the girl grabbed him by the neck, pushed him away, and then sucker-punched him in the nose.

The other vamp moved low and away, Xander knifing the vampire in the juncture of spine and neck, flooring him in paralysis rather than dusting him. Xander then paused briefly to take in the situation.

The girl jumped onto a crate, and managed to do a jumping roundhouse kick to the vamp's face, knocking him to the pavement as Buffy and Oz arrived. The brunette girl kicked the vampire, and then noticed Buffy. Leaving the vampire moaning on the ground and watching as Xander kicked him in his privates, she approached Oz and Buffy, smiling.

"It's okay," the brunette shouted to Xander, "I got it!" Then she said to the blonde, "You're, uh, Buffy, right?"

Xander kicked the vampire again, then reached into the vamp's jacket before jumping back. The bloodsucker quickly rolled away, toward the girl.

"You sure?" Xander called out, but then watched as the female teen grabbed onto the vamp's arm.

"Yeah!" Then she continued talking to Buffy. "Hey. I'm Faith," she smiled, as the Chosen One punched the vamp again in the face.

Xander tossed his knife over the vamp, and she rolled into the grab, the vampire instantly crumbling into ashes as Faith let momentum carry the bloodsucker onto the wooden weapon. "Wicked cool!"

Buffy just stared in confused amazement, as Xander finished off the crippled vampire. Faith faced the blonde Slayer as Xander walked up to her, counting money. She then handed him back the wooden knife, with an upraised eyebrow.

"Hey. I'm Lex," he said, as the male teenager handed her half the money, which came to about two hundred dollars.

"Thanks, Lex, nice knife. You do this often?"

"You mean rob vamps? Nah, this is the first time. Can't say I'm too broken up about it, though, seein' as you had 'em right where I wanted them…"

Faith snorted. "You know where I could get me a coupla those knives?"

"Ya buy a round a sodas for me and my friends, and I'll tell ya," Xander bantered back.

"Copacetic," the brunette Slayer replied, and led the way back in—Xander turning to Buffy, and shaking his head with a smile.

A few minutes later, and the waitress brought over the promised drinks.

Cordelia came over to meet the new Slayer, having collected herself from before. She didn't seem to like the way Faith was eyeing her ex, but then—that was hardly unexpected. In any case, she'd arranged for a ride home and quickly left, refusing Xander's offer to take her.

The rest of the Scoobies just listened, as Faith went on about fighting vampires and alligators, gesturing wildly for emphasis.

"So, there's this Big Daddy vampire out of Missouri who used to keep them as pets. So he's got me wrestling one of 'em, okay? The thing must have been twelve feet long, and I'm..." she stopped and took a sip of her soda.

"Naked, like in Boston?" Xander asked, his timing causing her to choke on the soda with laughter.

"Well, the alligator was," Faith continued to laugh. "But that 'gator was a heck of a lot meaner than the vamp, even if he caused me just as much trouble."

"I know what you mean," Xander chuckled, his eyes glazing a bit. "Nothing but muscle, mean and teeth the size of daggers…"

"And how many have you wrestled, Lex?" Faith kidded, "Naked or with clothes?"

"No clothed 'gators in my life, Faithy, but over in the Philippine Sea back in June, I had a bit of a disagreement with a saltwater croc. He was 'bout twice the size you're talking about, and I didn't notice at the time if he had clothes on. Scared me into the next month, before he became leather..."

The group was silent with disbelieving looks. Xander looked back in mild disgust, "Hey, didn't any of you read my emails this summer? My stitches, the new pair of boots?"

"Oh, boots! Yeah, I remember that," Willow said at once. "But I-I-I thought it said you had a pair of boots made? See, we all kinda just skimmed the work stuff and just checked if you were okay. Sorry I missed the stitches. How many did you need?"

"Yeah, and where did he get you?" Faith asked, checking him out and not disliking what she saw. "You seem to be in one piece to me..."

Xander stepped away from the table, pulled up his pant legs, to show the black-dyed knee-highs under his dressy-casual slacks, moving them so they could see the pattern.

"We used the less-usable parts for these, so I had them dyed for nightwear patrolling, and when I was on security watch on the rig," he told them, then started pulling out his shirt.

"Xander!" Willow objected, "What are you doing! Eep, keep your clothes on!"

Xander just smiled but kept going. "Well, after I got out of the hospital and healed up, I got drunk with a bunch of the crew. And what I didn't know was that other than us four guys, the bar we were at was ladies-only as it was set up as a strip club for these Navy gals having a big send-off for a friend."

He smirked at the memory, "Well, one thing led to another, and…no power on this earth will ever make me tell you about the next couple of hours, or how I made several hundred bucks in one-dollar bills..."

"Anyway," Xander continued, the shirt out and ignoring the wide eyes of Buffy and Willow. "I ended up showing them these." Around his waist, about the beltline, were a couple dozen tooth marks, barely noticeable unless you looked carefully.

"Whoa!" Faith exclaimed, as the other girls looked pale. "How'd ya get away, Dundee!"

"Well, I had a piece of bracing pipe almost as wide as I was with me at the time, and that kept it from biting me in half," Harris chuckled ruefully. "And when I realized I wasn't dead yet, I used the flare gun I had in my hand…cooked his insides, and burnt out the back. That's why I dyed the boots, 'cause of the discoloration."

"How'd ya keep from burning your feet?" Buffy and Faith both asked.

"He didn't eat me legs first, my arm was above my head when Ol' Snappy did his best. The pipe in my other hand keeping the teeth out—mostly."

"H-h-h-he bit you from the top down!" Willow gasped, leaning incredulously into Oz as Xander asked the stunned waitress standing there for another round, then tucked his clothes back in.

"F--k!" Faith exclaimed, "That's so cool! So B, what's it like to go out with a guy whose stones are the size of frickin' bowling balls!"

Xander just smiled as Buffy choked, realizing that it did look like they'd double-dated; Cordelia having just left. "Um, actually, we're not together…" the blonde Slayer spluttered out, forgetting about Xander's part in Angel's demise for the moment.

"Really!" Faith exclaimed in disbelief, then turning to Xander, "So, seeing anyone?"

"Just broke up from a serious relationship," he demurred, gesturing the matter aside.

Faith shrugged and accepted that. "Oh, hey, by the way, those knives?"

"Made them."

The Slayer nodded. "How much for a pair of 'em?"

"Nothing. I was just gonna field-test 'em, and I guess they worked out fine tonight. So give me a couple of days, and I'll get a few sets for the entire group. I'm thinking of inlaying some crosses in the handles too, so a vamp can't turn it on the user."

"Cool. Can I get a pair by the weekend?"

"Sure," he told the brunette Chosen One.

"So, Faith," Oz spoke up. "What's your view on werewolves?"

"You eat anybody?"

"Nah. I lock myself up those nights."

"Then we're five-by-five, Jack."

"Jack?" Willow asked, causing Oz to smile.

"As in Wolfman," he told her.

"Cool," Xander said, yawning, then he pushed back from the table. "Anyway, everybody, I have to get up early tomorrow, so I'm heading home. Oh, uh, Faith, you need a couch to crash on until you get settled? Or is your Watcher here in town with you?"

"Watcher-free, she's at some kind of retreat or something," the girl responded. "So—how much for the couch?"

"Five hundred if you wanna buy it, but free if you just plan on sleeping on it a few nights," Xander joked, but not liking the implications behind Faith's offer. "Though, you know what? We'll just send a bill for fifty bucks a night to the Council, for room and board. I've noticed what a dent you Slayers put in the groceries. That alright with you, Oz?"

"Sure, especially since you eat more than I do. Evens up the expenses, I'd say."

Later that evening, Faith was a bit surprised when that Lex guy actually made sure the extra room was free of extra boxes and stuff, and the room itself was free of bugs and such. He handed her a few towels and washcloths and extra pillows and linens, joking that 'now there won't be any of those "showered but forgot the towel" moments.'

Harris also showed her how he had most things set up for early rising, but understood that as a Slayer her hours might be a bit different. He gave her essentially the same simple rules as he had Oz, then joked how with a Slayer appetite in the house he might just have to do most of his grocery shopping at a warehouse.

'Sure hope these guys are for real,' Faith mentally sighed, briefing looking back over the last two years on the streets. 'It'd be nice, but if not—at least Lex is pretty easy on a girl's eyes...'

Episode IV

Sunnydale, California. Two nights later after the end of the previous part

Giles and Oz were helping Xander clear out the third bedroom of the condo, it now being confirmed that Faith would be staying there at Council expense.

Giles had explained to the two male teens the apparent circumstances surrounding the demise of Faith's Watcher; and since he had Xander's billing in front of him, had broached the subject and received approval of seventy dollars a day, paid weekly in advance.

"What's the extra twenty for?" Oz asked Giles, as they finished moving all of the non-bedroom items from the room to where Xander was setting them up at one end of the living room.

"Well, I-I thought Xander could kick back the money as sort of an allowance for Faith while she's here," Giles confessed, receiving from both younger men acceptant nods.

"Should I draw up something formal and present it to you for approval?" Xander asked. "Cover things like damages from evil-fighting at my cost, plus ten percent?"

"Th-that would be an excellent idea, Xander," Giles said, sitting down and accepting a Thai blend of tea Harry Stamper's daughter had introduced to Xander over the summer. "Mm, and I dare say I'm quite enjoying this tea. The next time you speak to the young lady, I'd be happy to recompense her for say, a half-kilo?"

"Alright, Giles, no problem," Xander said with a smirk, as he sat on the couch with his box of keepsakes from his trip; the other males looking ready for a story or two.

Faith's thoughts over the last two days had kept replaying the time with her Watcher in Boston, and how well things had gone before that vamp crime lord had struck back fast, hard and smart—not things she'd come to expect from the vamps.

She'd had a comfortably enough setup with the woman, but the suddenness with which it was ripped away still left her unsteady at times, and only when she completely let herself open fully on a group of bloodsuckers did Faith forget and revel in what she'd become; but most of the time all she felt was a dull ache of loneliness.

The blonde, older Slayer, Buffy, seemed to take for granted her friends and support, and Faith found herself a bit envious—not jealous, since she didn't want B to lose anything, but it would be nice to have some of the same stability and acceptance again in her own life.

Red was one big insecurity, that was for sure. But after Faith began to feel a little hope, she tuned down the 'sex on the street' lingo and tried to just be nice and cool with everything, 'cause it wouldn't hurt to have a brain as a friend. And gals were less threatening, even though Red's eyes occasionally wandered.

The Watcher guy seemed alright, a bit flustered about having responsibility for another teenage girl—but G didn't give her the creeps, and seemed to try voicing himself softly enough to not be an ass, a pervert or anything else. Kinda reminded her of the good father from Boston she'd known a year past. The averages figured a decent guy had to exist every so often.

Just down the street, Faith was on her way back from scouting out the area—when Buffy came up to her, an unreadable look on her face.

"Hey, B, looks like we're both late. Where's Red?"

"What do you know about a one-eyed vamp?" the other Slayer asked, directly and without greeting. "Goes by the name Kisses Toast—uh, I mean, Ka-ki-stos."

"What the hell do you know about him?" the Boston girl asked, somewhat taken aback as she increased her pace.

"That he's here in Sunnydale, Faith," Buffy dropped conversationally, and noticed Faith's concern. "We're not happy to see old friends, are we? What'd he do to you?"

"It's what I did to him, all right?" the brunette sighed, as they approached the condo and a couple of cars passed them.

"And what was that? Faith, you came here for a reason," Buffy told the other Slayer. "Maybe I can help."

"You don't know what I've been through, B. I'll take care of this, all right?"

They reached the sidewalk in front of the condo. Buffy would've continued pressing, except for two bikers and three others getting out of their cars quickly to head the girls off.

Faith glanced back as a limo pulled up quickly and the window came down, Kakistos smiling at her.

"Faith," the ancient vampire sneered, as he started to get out from the car.

"Get inside quick, B!" Faith shouted as loud as she could. "Run!"

Inside, Xander had shown Oz and Giles various items, and even the disturbing leather armor he'd had made out of the crocodile; it was very firm and slick. In case he ever actually took up regular patrolling again, Harris figured it might keep him less damaged.

"Good heavens, Xander, you do seem to have had quite the adventure—as well as the work, I'd say."

"Yeah, I learned a lot about myself, and surprisingly a lot of last year's costume helped me get there."

"What do you mean?" Oz asked, having only heard bits and pieces of all that; as it had been before his time as a Slayerette.

"My Soldier Guy costume was that of Harry Stamper, if you recall, who happens to be my boss…" Xander began, Giles getting it immediately.

"So...a, a summer of being near him and accomplishing the same things, allowed you to recover skills, as it were, rather than learn it all from scratch?"

"Yeah, and I like it," Xander responded, picking up his flare gun from the box along with the two remaining flares. "I really need a safe place for this…"

"Fireplace, not my first thought," Oz smiled.

"I guess maybe in two different drawers of my desk over there," Xander responded, gesturing across the room. "That way, we'll have it in case we need it."

"You hear that?" Oz asked, something on the edge of his werewolf-boosted hearing getting his attention.

"What is it? Trouble?" Xander asked. "Giles, move the tray off the coffee table please."

"Faith and Buffy are out front," Oz said as Xander kicked up and open the top of his coffee table—to reveal his weapons chest.

Werewolf and Watcher grabbed wooden swords and headed for the door, as Xander loaded the flare gun. Oz yanked the door open, allowing Buffy and Faith to rush in; two large biker types behind them.

Giles quickly swung with the flat of his sword at the possibly-human attacker, winding the man as he passed the threshold; but the second man tackled Giles and rolled them into the residence. Buffy and Faith each moved to the sides, Buffy to help Giles, Oz hitting the first entrant in the head to take him out of the fight.

"Down!" Lex Harris shouted with military overtones, and fired a flare through the door, watching it soar into the midst of the approaching vampires, "Faith, Buffy! Grab Oz and Giles' swords, and get 'em!"

Oz tossed the sword to Faith, who in the heat of the battle had turned from flight back into the fight, dashing out the door. Buffy following after her, after slamming the biker head-first into the floor.

Xander hurried over to the trunk, grabbed another ironwood sword out of it and headed after them, yelling to Oz and Giles to tie up the bikers and clear the doorway.

Faith charged a scorched and burning Kakistos, using her sword as a club, pounding on his head, arms and face as Buffy threw herself at three burning minions, hacking and stabbing.

Another extremely old vampire followed Faith's enemy toward the building, carefully staying toward the rear and side, assessing the situation rather than moving in. Xander noticed him, and how another vampire, fire put out, moved toward the street and a limo with its door open.

Buffy dusted one of her opponents, as Xander decided to take an insane chance.

"Clear the deck!" he shouted, the girls whirling to the sides as he fired his last flare, which flew off to the left. It hit the frame of the gate to the place, then returned on course and into the car just ahead of the vamp. A bright flash of flame and light toasted the interior and much of the vampire, who dropped and rolled as he hadn't quite made it into the car yet.

Faith whirled in a 360-degree circle, sword edge at the height of her face, as Kakistos put out much of the fire and turned to face her. Sneering and about to say something, the blade actually managed with Slayer force behind it to break through the hardened exterior of the aged vampire's neck, but not quite enough to finish him off.

Unfortunately for the good guys an unspotted minion charged in, catching Faith's attention for only an instant by becoming the next dusted vamp, but it was enough for Kakistos to disappear with the use of his undead speed.

Faith charged the second older, singed and roaring vampire, one she vaguely remembered from her Watcher when Linda had explained that Kakistos was not only an ancient vampire, but an established crime lord throughout the Louisiana bayous and major Rustbelt cities.

This minion, known as Aristos—was apparently only just under 600 years old, turned by Kakistos during the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.

Faith charged the vampire, no sound coming from her as she leapt high, trying a crescent kick toward Aristos' head. He countered it, but wasn't ready as she hurled her ironwood sword, point flame-hardened, into the old vampire's chest—cracking the forming plate and knocking the vampire down.

Aristos' surprise at the painful thrust into his chest caused him to let go of the Slayer, who landed like a cat, lunging at her enemy whose back was on the ground. As he began to slowly pull the sword out, Faith threw her entire weight on top of the grip of the sword, enough to force it into the unbeating heart.

Dust with a remnant skeleton ensued, as Ms. LeHane let herself watch Buffy finish the last of the minions.

Ms. Summers stabbed out, whirled in a 180-degree arc, stabbed to the left, then to the right, managing to dust one of the vampires hit and causing the other to wail in pain. The blonde Slayer and her dark-haired sister in Slayage swung at the same time, as they removed the minion's head, ending the noise as the fight itself came to a close.

"You guys don't think this'll have any affect on my homeowner's insurance premiums, do you?" Xander asked, garnering the expected looks free of sympathy. He turned to Oz, "Can you take the lid off the big urn next to the door, man?"

"Sure," Oz responded, cocking an eyebrow as Xander walked over to a chiminea (outdoor ceramic stove) and took out the tongs as he approached Faith.

"Here ya go, Faith," the man said, handing her the tool and gesturing from Aristos' skeleton to the urn. "Drop him in there, and it'll really be over."

"O-o-kay," the brunette replied uncertainly, Buffy and Giles curious as they watched her pick up the skeleton first and dropping it in. As soon as the bones entered the urn, the snapping and popping of acid startled the group, Faith pulling back.

"Holy water," Oz deadpanned. "Disintegrates every last bit of him, I guess."

"Can't resurrect what doesn't exist anymore," Xander smiled. "Though I'm billing the Council for Father Murphy's extra trip over, to bless the replacement water."

"Do remember to get a receipt," Giles told him archly.

Buffy had flashbacks to her own experiences, ever since she was 15 years old; pursued by Lothos, the loss of Merrick, mutual death with the Master, and sledging the skeleton of the Heinrich Nest vampire. And then she simply walked over to her sister Slayer as the last part, the skull, dropped in and disintegrated.

As Oz took the tongs, Buffy hugged Faith, surprising both girls, as the tension of the last few moments led to Faith and Buffy to cry on each other's shoulders. Sirens then sounded in the distance, as Xander and Oz dragged the two bikers out to the street, Xander taking their wallets.

"You guys want to run and have a chance of the police not getting to you, before that last vamp does?" Xander asked the bikers. "Or you wanna explain to the cops why you stole and burned this vehicle, then attacked us?"

'We're outta here!" the first one said, bleeding from untended wounds as Oz and Giles untied them.

They ran to the other cars and fled, the police arriving a minute later; as did Cordelia, Willow and Joyce with housewarming gifts. Giles went out and explained the odd crash and running off to the police, as the others entered the house.

"So Oz, what happened?" Willow asked her boyfriend. "And why were Buffy and Faith crying?"

"Old vampire followed Faith, she just put his bones in holy water, Buffy's comforting her."

"Another Master? Ewww!" Cordelia grimaced. "Hey, is this going to happen once a year now? Oh! I brought a housewarming gift." She handed it over to Oz, and sat down on the couch next to Joyce. Xander then walked over as the others hovered a moment, until Giles returned.

"Thanks for coming, Cor," the young man told his ex-girlfriend. "It means a lot to me."

Ms. Chase teared for a moment, then smiled. "Hey, couldn't let my favorite doofus down, now, could I? Huh?" she kidded, putting her hand on his for a moment, "Look—it'll hurt for a while, I know. But we are still friends, right?" She looked worried, and Xander noticed Willow observing the real Cordelia from nearby.

"You're my favorite ex-girlfriend, and you'll always be a best friend, Cor," Xander smiled sadly, leaning over, and whispered, "Almost 'Willow-since-kindergarten' best friend here..."

Anyone else would have thought that was bordering on insensitive, but Cordelia was one of the tiny number who knew just how important that made her in her former boyfriend's life and heart. And while teary, Cordy beamed him her classic megawatt smile, which quickly brought them back toward happy normality.

"So Giles," Buffy asked, "What did Sunnydale's finest have to say?"

"They said that they'd have the vehicle towed tomorrow morning, they just put the fire out. And being Sunnydale's finest here after dark, as you put it, that was quite simply that."

"Oh good," Joyce said, nodding. "The last thing we need is more dealings with the police! So, all this aside—happy housewarming, Xander, Oz and Faith."

Faith was a bit surprised at how the Sunnydale crowd seemed to take the whole 'not telling them about Kakistos' thing in stride; talking with Buffy, Xander and the Watcher dude, Giles, at different times that evening and since had put it into perspective a little, but that rich girl, Cordelia, seemed to really tweak the others but wasn't refuted when commenting that Buffy had done far worse in the ways of endangering the group when she wouldn't dust 'the boyfriend' last spring. But that as soon as the vamp showed up here, Faith had seriously tried to do the job.

Lex, or Xander as a few of them still called him, had stepped in to say that everything was fine now, and that with a vampire capo running around, they needed to stick together. Though for the record, he emphasized, Cordelia was only trying to reassure Faith that things were okay.

"Right, guys?" Lex pressed lightly as Faith looked at Buffy and Willow hopefully. The girls noticed the look and gave Faith a reassuring hug.

"Right…"

Chicago, Illinois. Two nights later

"Trick, you vile coward," Kakistos muttered aloud venomously, as his lieutenants all avoided him. "I'll stomp your skull underneath my feet, when I return to the Hellmouth..."

Episode V

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California. Late October, 1998

"Hey, Giles," Xander Harris greeted his mentor upon entering the library. "I was wondering if you could spare me a moment of your time?"

"Certainly, Xander, though I must tell you—I've already purchased enough of that blasted candy, from Buffy and Willow..."

"Not what I'm here for," Xander chuckled and sat down, accepting the tea as it was that time of day. "Fact is, I just coughed up the money and plan to put the box in my freezer when I get home, instead of selling it. Maybe I'll send it to Harry and the gang. No, I'm actually here because I'm looking for either a partner, or a lender for a property investment."

"Excuse me, but didn't you just buy your condo?" Giles asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't realize how good an income I was going to have, and now I'm looking at some prime tax repossession opportunities—one you might get some satisfaction from co-owning."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I sorta looked at the unpaid taxes on Angelus' mansion, which he never actually paid for, silly him. And apparently since it was last assessed back in the late 1960s, the total tax bill on the place would only be twenty grand, though I'm sure it could sell for anywhere from one to three million—once the place gets fixed up. And we'd have a year before the new assessments would kick in, which would probably cost us two or three thousand a month if we don't sell it."

"What made you think of this?"

Xander smirked. "Before going to work the other day, I watched one of those real estate infomercials—and I realized we're probably the only place where such ideas would actually work."

"Angelus' home, eh?" the British man smiled with a Ripper-ish grin. "And how much do you intend to put up?"

"Well—I have an idea that with my savings and a month of Council rent, say one month in advance, I can put up maybe nine thousand dollars of it without really dipping too far into my reserves. I'd like you to put up another nine, and have you loan Oz a thousand bucks. I'm thinking maybe you could also loan Faith a thousand, too? That way, since I was going to press-gang them into part-time work anyway, they could increase their shares with sweat-equity."

"What makes you think they'd go along with this?" the Watcher asked.

Xander's eyes narrowed. "Well, since I suspect that Faith's background is even worse than mine, I think it'd give her something to work toward. Hope for the future, kind of thing. It would also be a sign of us considering her as a separate person from Buffy."

"And Oz?"

"He's a good worker, my roommate, peripheral to the actual slaying like you and I really are, and if we ever have to move into the place at some point to lease out my condo to college students or whatever—it would be his move as well."

"Sound reasons, would you happen to have any of the—" he began, only to have Xander pull out a briefcase and present the paperwork to him. Giles smiled, and continued, "I must say, Xander, that this more mature you is a true pleasure to deal with…and I'm proud of you, even if this deal doesn't work out. Let's have a look, shall we?"

Two nights later…

"So, lemme get this straight," Faith responded to their investment proposal. "In exchange for some Slayer sweat I'll get a percentage when you sell the place, and if you can't—it'll end up being my home?"

"Y-yes, essentially that's it."

"Why us?" Oz asked, and Xander gave him basically the same reasons he gave Giles, including the fact that Buffy would have issues and Willow would support her. Even though neither Angel nor Angelus had legally acquired the property.

"Okay, I'm in, and even if we end up living there this time next year, my share's only going to be a couple hundred a month," Oz said with his trademark equanimity.

"Yeah," Faith considered, "Shit—I could manage that from the money I'm getting every month, huh? I'm in too! When does it happen?"

"W-well, as you are still a minor, Faith, I've had papers drawn up, and if you're willing to accept me as your guardian—I'll then sign the documents of equity on your behalf."

Faith got a funny look on her face. "So, you'd be like my dad or something?"

"Or something, it just means I'm responsible for your well-being. Much the same way as your previous Watcher had had similar papers filed."

"So, what's the catch?" the Bostonian asked, suspicious as Xander smiled.

"W-well, you would have to take placement tests, then attend school, which will also have the benefit of the two of us being able to maintain daytime protection of the Hellmouth after Buffy graduates. What with Principal Snyder's feelings toward her, I don't believe that she'll have much regular access to the grounds—and we trust you will be able to handle whatever comes up."

"Really?" Faith asked warily, but with a little hope showing through.

"Of course, Faith," Giles told her sincerely, the events of the last month showing him how much guidance and help Faith needed.

After most of the others had gone, Giles had remained talking to Lex out on the curb, for some reason the two males had been in a mood to actually converse and not just remark. Giles had wondered aloud how it was Xander had so readily picked up on Faith's need for a place to live and not just stay...

After a pause and a deep sigh, Xander explained that between his own memories of a lousy life at home, and Harry Stamper having seen a lot of bad homes in his time, it wasn't too hard to spot if you knew what to look for. And the way Faith kept stressing the street rather than anything to do with growing up…

Giles nodded, his memory calling up the look some of his mates had had back when he was becoming 'Ripper' in his younger days, and the rubbish even some of the girls had had to deal with, and he'd asked Xander—Lex—to help him keep a personal eye out for Faith, to help include her in things of a non-Slaying nature.

The girl seemed a nice person, but maybe a little lonely once she thought you weren't looking. And when Lex had suggested the property arrangement, and how to make Faith feel a real welcome to the partnership, they knew that guardianship should be stressed not only legally, but in a light way as a personal preference as well.

Later, Faith had a question. "Okay, that's fine about the guardian thing, you're already my Watcher. But I get to stay where I am—right?"

"Of course, Faith," Giles told her. "I know you value your independence, though I will be assisting you in your educational endeavors."

"What?"

"That's Watcher-speak for he'll tutor you and make sure you're doing your homework, which is of the good," Xander smiled. "Though also of the boring."

"Excellent, let's get the papers out and sign them. I believe Xander's neighbor is a notary?"

Faith felt a part of something, and that Giles and the others liked her for who she was, not as the bonus Slayer as she'd feared might become the case. Rupert Giles seemed a good man, and didn't look at her like some did—sure he was a guy, but his eyes seemed to barely register anything beyond fondness, and that was cool.

Lex? She knew he found her attractive, but still seemed to be bittersweet about Queen C, who was quite the card when you got to know her—the honesty thing was refreshing. He also seemed determined to really do the best he could, having found something he could do outside of slaying, but when he could still patrolled with her on busier nights while Red and Wolfy went with B.

Surprisingly, C showed up when she didn't feel like going out with the sheep, and that was cool too. She gave Faith her own point of view of everything, since Buffy had come to town.

Homecoming had then been kind of amusing; Faith had made the rounds of the school and gotten the slackers, the few Goths still human in Sunnydale High, and most of the social rejects to turn out and give Cordelia a landslide.

Other than the occasional threat on behalf of her new friend, Faith hinted at it as a partial 'thank you' to the group that kept them from being vampire chow…and to pressure their friends to vote. Cordelia had beamed brighter than the sun when her landslide vote by itself totaled the record total of votes previously cast in such an election, and the cheers from the less reputable voters had cinched her appreciation for the new girl.

Sunnydale, California, November 13th, 1998

The Friday night 'band candy' situation continued long into the night after Buffy, Faith, Oz and Willow had been able to save a bunch of babies and putting the hurt on Ethan Rayne, the British man who they now hunted who was an elusive mage escaping from that damned factory he'd been located at.

Xander had driven to LA earlier in the day on work-related business, and arriving back late, he'd gotten much of the story by cell phone. But upon nearing the Sunnydale Motor Lodge, Xander had noticed the limping form of Ethan Rayne.

Harris pulled his vehicle over quietly and watched as the vampire, the so-called Mr. Trick, seemed to hand him something—perhaps money—then leave. Xander waited a few minutes, then headed over to the door of Ethan's room; he looked to see no one around, and then casually kicked it in.

Jumping on the mage, Xander prevented any attempt at defense, and sat the man on the bed as he closed the somewhat damaged door. "Ethan Rayne again, huh?" Harris said, shaking his head. "Guess third time's the charm, Ethan."

"Do I know you?"

"Halloween last year, then I hit you during your Eighon appearance?"

"Ah, yes, one of Ripper's protégé's, I presume. Especially from the violence. So, what now?"

"Excellent question, actually. And I'm asking myself, what would Ethan Rayne be able to offer me so that not only do I not painfully kill him...but actually might help him get safely out of town, now that both Slayers and 'Ripper' just called and asked me to help hunt you down and turn you over to a Council team they're calling in?"

Ethan had a funny look on his face. "I, I could cast the Janus spell again? I have some costumes in a storage locker. Not many, granted, but you could keep whoever you become when it's over. The memories and skills, a Watcher or a-a hunter like Van Helsing, or-or a gladiator, you have a wooden gladius in your hand already, the symbol of a freed warrior of the arena. With those skills and languages, you'd be able to help your Slayer friends even more than you do now?"

Xander considered his options, including just letting the bastard go to be free of the headache; and, he inadvertently remembered some of the rumors he'd heard in LA of a movie being made, involving a Roman gladiator or general or something.

Ethan could see it in the boy's eyes, he'd let Ethan go at some point if the temptation was right; and right now Rayne would be willing to play it straight, just to make sure he didn't run into two Slayers again.

"Nope, sorry, can't risk it. Besides, I don't need any more memories or spirits in me. Ethan, I'm going to make sure you don't have anything else around here that'll get people hurt or killed, then escort you back to Giles—"

Having worked or traveled all week, Xander was tired, and hadn't noticed Ethan shake something down into his farther hand. He glanced for less than a second around the room, but it was enough for the mage to throw a powder in Xander's face and shout an activation word.

But oddly enough, Xander didn't drop, didn't move, he just remained immobilized. Then Ethan got off the bed.

"You don't need any more memories or spirits in you, you say?" the mage considered his companion's reply. "Well, now. Let's see what you have then, shall we?" He chanted in a low tone of voice, and gazed deeply at the young man—in spite of the pain from injuries suffered this night.

"A Primal…Hyena? Fascinating," Rayne mused. "Bugger it, I'm not surprised ol' Ripper wasn't able to cleanse it entirely, now that he's another one of those tweed-wearing pansies..." He continued, nodding, "And somehow, you seemed to have absorbed my own magic into your being. And I've never seen that before, old boy, I must admit! But I think to make this very interesting, to Janus as well as myself, I'm going to honor the offer I made to you just now..."

The chaos mage retrieved his belongings, and checked the door to find no one outside. He pointed at the baggage, then Xander.

"Carry my belongings to your vehicle," he told him, and watched as Xander mechanically followed his instructions, moving through the open door and into the parking lot. "Now, unlock the vehicle and get in the passenger side, please. Buckle up and then remain immobile."

Xander did so, his free will gone in this zombie-like state he found himself in. Ethan then quickly drove them to storage locker where he'd put his Halloween assets, and had Xander accompany him inside.

"Now, you didn't want any more memories or spirits, but you have the magic inside you," Rayne mused. "So, what shall it be? How about that soldier from Arrete? No, even I'm not enough of a sadistic bastard to eliminate every memory you have every time you fall sleep, and you wouldn't be of any use to me that way anyhow. And I daren't bring my old chum Ripper back; with chaos I might end up with the Watcher instead, and have my arse kicked by the both of you."

Ethan paused in thought. "You know, a year ago, I overheard a young man and his paramour in one of those small Dutch or Danish towns—whichever it is isn't important. And with a little magic, I learned how your CIA had been dealing with all sorts of fascinating ways of cramming training memories into a few of its agents..."

A smirk. "But in his case it proved precarious and he didn't know who he was, and he was a key assassin. Hmm, give you all the abilities and memories but take away any awareness of who you are? No, that's only good for when I leave, not getting out of a situation like this..."

Ethan then shrugged. "I guess it'll have to be the gladiator, especially as few people in this town except Rupert and myself will be able to talk to you in any of the languages you know. And I imagine without using magic, I'll have the greater fluency. Very well, so be it. That box there, my boy, has most of what we need in it, so open it up and dress yourself in what you find. I'll go get the mask I recently lifted from the set of the movie that I start work at as a costumer, this coming year."

Sunnydale, California. November 13th, 1998

"This bloody town is unbelievable," William the Bloody almost choked in disgust, as he drove past the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign. "There's always something weird going on..."

The vampire looked around, and threw his now-empty liquor bottle out the passenger-side window of the car. Even though because he was drunk—it went through the window, breaking it.

"Bloody hell, can't I get a break here?" Spike complained to the car full of emptied liquor bottles, beer cans, and store clerks, none of which could answer him. "Other than catching the faster freighter back?"

Spike drove through town, weaving around happy stupid people eating chocolate bars.

"Too bad I already ate, looks like the pickings ain't half-bad tonight," he considered through his alcohol-filled haze. "They're just runnin' 'round for the takin', I'd say..."

Spike then shrugged and continued on to his old warehouse and parked his car, but the large number of people roaming around, drew him toward what might be the center of activity. "Right then, first we'll find out what the hullabaloo's about; then we'll find me a witch, so I can get Dru back..."

Passing the Milkbar factory as it continued to hand out chocolate despite the late (for Sunnydale) hour, Spike grabbed a half-dozen football-player types to turn them, as well as a policeman on the ground near his car.

"This is just too bloody easy," William grumbled, the alcohol starting to clear as he ate another candy bar taken from one of his victims. "Dru should be here, damn it, the bloody bitch! Or even Cecily. Gods, I miss 'em both..."

Spike eventually noticed something happening near a storage locker, but couldn't quite make it out; so he quietly made his way closer, until he overheard a mage ordering someone around. He listened as the man went on and on.

'He's almost as bad as sodding Angelus, won't the bloody git ever shut up?' the platinum-haired vampire groused. But still, he learned what was going on, and just before the spell was cast cleared his throat.

"Keep the mojo to yourself, mage, I'm not lookin' to tangle with you. Just take advantage of the situation, here," Spike told him, gesturing at Xander and the costume. "Now, I'm thinking it might be a bit more interestin' if we were to give away a bunch o' these at that chocolate give-away, what do ya say?"

Ethan Rayne knew of the reputation of this particular vampire, though he also noted that the vampire has a wee bit drunk and eating the candy.

"Alright, Spike, fill the truck while the boy finishes getting ready, and I'll give you half an hour or so?" Ethan suggested, wanting to get rid of this unexpected factor, but nonetheless enjoying the extra chaos and distraction. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, order your boy there to give me the names of witches who could cast love spells for me," Spike told him. "Not like his one last Valentine's Day, though, this is to get me Dru back!"

Ethan smiled, remembering the laugh he'd had hearing of that miscast spell, and told Xander to say the full names aloud.

"Amy Madison, Willow Rosenberg," the boy complied, though it seemed he was starting to fight the magic; so Ethan added a bit more powder on his mark.

"Right then, let's be 'bout this," Spike smiled nastily and started moving costumes into the large sedan.

Almost an hour later, just to give the vampire greater opportunity, Ethan began the spell of a year ago, and wondered what else the night would bring.

The Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius suddenly found himself resting on the cold floor of an unfamiliar chamber, a man surrounded by candles looking at him intensely. There was an idol in the form of the god Janus next to the human, the eyes of which were glowing green.

Only moments before, the man who did not technically exist had led his fellows in the Roman arena in a mock battle...

(Greetings, gladiator, how do you feel?) the mage asked in fluent yet strangely accented Latin. (I trust you are well?)

(My name is General Maximus Decimus Meridius. Who are you? And to answer your question, I seem to be—but where am I, and why am I here?)

(I am Ethan Rayne, General. You are here on the Hellmouth because I have need of protection this night, and you have been brought here from the great beyond—as believe it or not, it has been nearly 2,000 summers since you and your people walked the earth. You suffered some type of untimely death, I gather, and Janus has granted me your service this night before you pass back again into the next world.)

Maximus sighed, knowing that with his failure to gain revenge on the so-called Roman emperor called Commodus—the man before him was his only hope to find some sort of peace. And the gladiator wondered what needed to be done, before he could join his wife and son. (Tell me, then, what is involved in this service?)

(It's very simple; I wish to make my way through this strange town of odd devices and inhabitants, and the all-too-real likelihood of demonic attack, to a place where I can book passage to another city. At that point, you will be free until dawn to do as you wish; and at which time, you will be allowed to pass on. Fair enough?)

(It seems agreeable, for the moment,) Maximus shrugged.

(Good, then I just need to gather a few things…) Ethan considered, then remembered his luggage was in the car Spike had taken, and weighed whether anything there was irreplaceable.

He grabbed his component suitcase, and gestured at the door, the gladiator preceding him. Another gesture and the lights went out, except for the bust of Janus—as Ethan locked up.

A short time earlier...

Spike had dropped a lot of the more boring costumes off at the Bronze, before circling around to the chocolate factory. At the club, he'd left mostly the costumes one would expect at adult parties; a bunch of hookers from all time periods, the Cleopatra types, legionaries, Vikings, and the borderline sex costumes like nurse, meter maid, naughty witch and so on.

And with the number of fake guns and knives, the soldier costumes thrown in and a couple of succubae as well...Spike figured that with the tendency toward fighting that already seemed to be breaking out, he might just pay the club another visit after he finished. As it might be fun to do so.

"Hell, this is bloody marvelous! Actually causing the nummy treats to do it to themselves," the undead William laughed, as he had the chocolate workers hand out costumes as they cleared the last of the cursed chocolate out.

The costumes left to be handed out were of the biker and biker chick, Elvira, saloon girl, Old West villain, the occasional succubus and a few geek costumes, plus the stray knight, princess, pirate or soldier.

He ducked back once as he noticed the Slayer's mum and that Watcher idiot eating away and gettin' a bit frisky and all, and laughed as when the twit wasn't looking, the bint grabbed what looked to be a harem girl outfit and maybe a Sinbad one.

"Looks like one Arabian Knight is gonna get some tonight," Spike smirked at his pun, then sighed as he couldn't find the muse for a poem yet, eating yet another bar of chocolate. 'Hmm, a phone book's what I need…'

Throughout Sunnydale the wave of chaos magic was felt again by the demonic, the in-tune and the costumed. And this time, in spite of the word put out to stay in tonight, many of the independents weren't going to let the opportunity pass.

Already they watched as food or at least easy-muggings shouted and wandered the streets, but this was too much. Slowly, as more and more of the less experienced and less-controlled moved onto the streets, even the relatively harmless nonviolent demons decided it was a one-time chance at their own personal Mardi Gras; pretending to be in costume, without the bad taste of Halloween silliness.

And even the Slayers felt something as they, Oz, and Willow stood in the library, comparing notes after returning the babies to where they belonged.

"Hey, B? You feel that?"

"Yeah, it felt like...something just washed over me," Buffy said, "Kinda familiar, though. Any word from Giles or Xander? It's been like an hour, already."

"Nah. And now that ya mention it, B, would 'Ripper' actually keep after that Ethan guy, or do you think he and your ma would—"

"Please don't finish that sentence, Faith!" Buffy grimaced, and looked at Willow; who tried reaching them on their cell phones, but got nothing.

"What do you want to do?" Willow asked the two Slayers, while leaning against Oz.

"We should probably pile into Oz's van and do a quick drive-by around town, to see what might be happening," Buffy suggested. "Then if we run into trouble, Faith and I can handle it and you guys can keep searching."

"Sounds like a plan," Faith added, "Girl needs more than them sewer vamps to call it a night around here."

Twenty minutes passed, the gladiator taking in the cars, streetlights and other things quietly; twice using his twin wooden blades, to scare off attackers.

Maximus managed to keep his charge free of injury, as they approached what appeared to be a warehouse of some type. He watched as the mage walked up to a 'truck' and removed a large piece of luggage. Around them a few people were acting drunken and lewd, dressed oddly even by this standards of this place.

(Good, now listen carefully. We only have another ten minute walk, and I believe then I will be safely away…) Ethan began to say in the dead language, then he looked up to see twelve vampires—not of his costumed type—approaching in demonic visage.

(Damn. Vampires,) he told the gladiator, who'd already drawn both of his wooden gladii. (They are demons, that can be killed by decapitation or wood to the heart. Otherwise they regenerate quickly, and beware—they are faster than humans, and much stronger...)

The Roman general stepped forward confidently, figuring as he was already dead, a second time wouldn't matter. He noticed Ethan start to run off, complaining about slayers...

The Scooby gang had driven around in disbelief; they realized as they passed the Bronze and circled around toward the Milkbar factory, that it was like Halloween last year all over again. Albeit on a much smaller scale.

Buffy was determined to return to the factory, hoping to find Ethan Rayne or a bust of Janus to beat up on. But as they pulled in and noticed the mage, they saw a tall man in a metal mask and helm dressed as a Roman gladiator step forward with two swords to face twelve vampires alone.

Buffy started to open the door of the van…

Oz started to stop the van…

Faith started to open the side door of the van…

Two vampires, one on each side of the warrior, rushed close by in an attempt to grab Ethan…

Maximus just lunged to the left and stabbed that one a bit ahead of the other, piercing the heart—as he pulled back in a hard jump to 'merely' stab the other in the temple, causing it to stumble and fall.

Buffy and Faith opened their doors as Oz nearly stopped the vehicle…and began to exit…

Willow began reaching for the loaded crossbow next to her…

The gladiator, swords perpendicular to his sides, turned to show his left side to the vampires, left sword out, and right sword 45 degrees outward and forward…

The Slayers put feet to the pavement, clearing the van as they began to grab for the wooden knives made for them by Xander…

Maximus skewered one still-charging minion with the left gladius, and started to pull it free as he brought his right side forward, weapon full ahead. Then he whirled the left one around 315 degrees to stab another in the throat, taking the fight out of it, but not killing it…

The other vampire finished dusting, as Roman warrior continued his counter-clockwise spinning, dodging all of the remaining vampires—except a rather small female one he managed to catch under the right armpit and through to the heart, but stopping his momentum.

Three vampires dust and two wounded and down for the moment, Maximus let himself fall back, knees bending as another charger hurled itself forward in the hope of catching him stalled…

The Slayers both rushed into battle, two blurs that were, however, instantly noticed by the vampire leader, who ordered his minions to bug out…

Maximus landed harder than expected, feet to the gut of the vampire, sword point against the chest, pushing in as he pushed the minion away.

The Slayers leaped atop two vampires, causing great hurt, as Oz stopped the van. And as the gladiator realized that with the tide of battle turned, his first duty had returned to the vanished mage. Pondering what was truly going on around here, Maximus followed on the intended course, finishing off the two wounded as he disappeared.

The Roman general caught up with the mage only three minutes later, careful to note no further attackers in the immediate vicinity. They walked until they reached the 'bus station', just in time for a departure on one of the horseless chariots.

(Thank you for the help, General,) the mage said, in honest gratitude. (You are free of your service to me, and of all service at dawn.)

Maximus Decimus Meridius, husband of a dead wife and father of a murdered child, just nodded; looking around, and hoping to be united with his loved ones again soon.

"Where'd he go?" Buffy asked, after she'd run down two vamps and Faith two more. "And why was he protecting that Ethan creep?"

Faith didn't have a clue. "Maybe he didn't know the score?"

Buffy frowned. "There's more to it than that, I think…"

An hour later, having settled for disarming the costumed crooks and letting them wander, and encountering three more gangs of demons, Oz's Mystery Machine finally reached the Bronze again, the suspected second hotspot of Ethan's magic for the night.

Inside they found the Roman warrior in the middle of the place, surrounded by six real vampires; while four Fyarl demons stood nearby, as if waiting for the right moment.

Four dust piles and two piles of ooze were on the floor, and where the Scooby gang stood at the entrance—they noticed the equivalent of ten more piles of dust, and four puddles of ooze. Three wounded legionaries, and a dozen females of different reputes and species stood behind the warrior; and from behind them, the gang heard the cocking of a dozen firearms.

"No interference, ye lubbers," a pirate told them. "'Tis the business of those fighting, this is."

(On my word, attack the horned beasts with stabbing motions!) Maximus ordered his men. (I'll handle the others!)

The demons edged closer…

(Now!) the Roman general shouted, lunging at the faces of two vampires, pausing, then stabbing downward into their hearts.

The legionaries surprised and held off the Fyarls, managing a couple of wounds, and the other two vampires charged. Unfortunately, one was young enough so that he went for the women as a meal instead of fighting the men as expected.

The gladiator side-stabbed him in the armpit and heart, though the frontal opponent tackled the time-displaced warrior to the ground. Maximus landed hard, but bit the vamp in the nose and spat it back, causing unexpected pain and temporary blinding from blood in the eyes.

The general then rolled with the momentum, and managed to keep the vampire moving, pulling up his undropped sword, and stabbing at the beast's groin. The vampire screamed, but Maximus­—as he got up—pushed hard under the ribs to end the bloodsucker, and regained his sandaled feet.

Another legionary was knocked unconscious, and another batted aside. With a fierce war cry that had even made the barbarians of Germany shiver, the gladiator took the opportunity to stab a Fyarl hard in the face, and kicking it between the legs.

Already, his last legionary was slipping, but had managed to get in another painful blow to the demon, allowing Maximus to stab hard under the jaw and into the brain, reducing the remaining opposition to two Fyarls.

Buffy watched in disbelief as the humans held off the demons with skill, but yet seemed doomed. Maximus kicked down and stabbed downward, rendering the Fyarl's leg unusable and stepped back.

The sudden change in fortunes distracted the gunmen, though not the large number of people engaged in illicit activity around the place. Faith's eyes met Buffy's; they nodded, and sprung into action, a whirlwind of fists and kicks, spinning, striking, ducking and quickly rendering unconscious nearly a dozen men and making sure the weapons generally were kicked back toward Willow and Oz, both of whom held guns on others.

Two shots fired, one from a gun kicked across the floor, shattering a table leg, and another by a woman near the legionaries, striking the Fyarl demon in the face.

Maximus took advantage of the situation, twisting his sword in his enemy's side and tripping the demon to the floor. Ducking a biker being thrown across the room, the gladiator then stabbed three times in twice as many seconds, ending the Fyarl once and for all.

Unsure of the two young women of great strength, the general chose to keep back and survey the rest of the room, rather than continue overtaxing himself.

The place was a wreck; still a scene of debauchery, though much of it interrupted as the majority chose to flee the building rather than involve themselves in the conflict. No bodies littered the ground, the 'Elviras' apparently having too good a time 'nibbling' and having other forms of fun in mind—until the Slayers showed up; and then they were amongst the first to flee.

The gladiator just saw to the tending of the wounded, wrapping his lower leg, and Maximus cursed the gods for having delivered him into this unholy place.

"Mr. Mayor, it seems William the Bloody's decided to return to the Hellmouth in his own sweet manner," Mr. Trick informed his new employer. "And he seems to be reenacting Mr. Rayne's Halloween episode at the chocolate plant, and that teenager nightclub hangout."

"Well, gosh," Richard Wilkins said. "That's just plain disgraceful! And the man you hired?" the guy then asked without expression. "What happened to this Ethan Rayne?"

"He seems to have made his way from his motel to the bus station," Trick told him, "Though no one knows what may have happened in between. Still, you'd think a costume caper like that would take more than a few minutes to put together."

"Call these numbers," the Mayor told him, with an expression and tone that suddenly chilled the vampire more than Kakistos had ever managed. "Twenty thousand on each of them, Mr. Trick."

Trick called the three nests directly employed by the Mayor, maybe 40 vampires in all, which were used to maintain the Mayor's position and carry out errands along this section of coast as needed. The final number on the list was Willy's Alibi Room, which Trick knew would lead to a free for all blood-hunt and the general word spreading quickly.

He then called ten of his own recruits from the projects in Los Angeles, just to show his commitment to the real power here in the 'dale. After all, this town may not exactly have been a haven for the bruthas; but Trick knew that every little bit of his own persuasion helped.

Sunnydale, California. November 13th, 1998

Spike easily found the Madison house, noting through the window that there seemed to be only a teenage girl and a Goth-looking boy in there with her.

Moving closely and peering further, the British vampire noticed the two seemed to be studying magic, perhaps about to cast a spell. He then knocked on the front door, deciding a simple bribe might be the quickest and easiest way to get the job done for him.

"Can I help you?" Amy Madison asked, standing carefully away from the door as she opened it.

"Yeah, ya just might, if'n you're willing to cast a spell or two for me?" Spike replied. "I got your name from Harris."

Amy looked at him a minute, something bothering her. "What do you need done?" she asked, as Michael came up next to her. "And how much are you offering?"

"Look, luv, I need a love spell or some such thing. My girl and me, we 'ad a bit of a disagreement and she ran off with a c—" Spike shut himself up about that. "Never mind. I just want her back, is all."

Amy nodded and stepped back from the door, clearly allowing passage. When the man in front of her grimaced but made no move forward, Ms. Madison voiced a speculation. "Is she a vampire, too?" the young witch inquired, Michael looking at her funny. "Or human?"

"Vampire," Spike admitted, getting the look from Michael again. "Does that make any difference?"

"Not really, it's just the closer the two are—the more likely it is to take, the first time around," Amy conceded, then cocked her head to the side. "So, how much is it worth to you?"

The British vampire held out a small box and opened it, showing much of the jewelry he'd 'acquired' for Drusilla while in Sunnydale.

"Okay," Amy said, a greedy look on her face. "Do you have anything of hers that's not being offered as payment?"

Spike nodded, threw her the jewelry box and brought out a couple of dolls. He then tossed them to the witch as well.

"Two? Great. Um...what I'll do is cast the spell, but I'll also cast a spell that the next person to touch the doll will instantly fall for the next person they see. I'll put it in the chest first. Fair enough?"

"More 'n fair, I'd say," Spike agreed. "Kinda like gettin' two for the price of one! By the way, you responsible for that spell last Valentine's Day?"

The Madison girl grimaced. "Only sorta, the person wanting it gave me an item that wasn't the target's long enough to count. So the spell went completely south," Amy told the vampire. "That won't happen this time. Because these are hers, right?"

"Yeah, 'course they are."

"Okay then, please wait outside. And don't eat anyone who comes visiting," Amy told him, as Michael shook his head—unable to believe the conversation he was witnessing. "And we should be done sometime within the hour, depending on ingredients and all."

"Sounds good to me, luv. I'll be back in a while."

Spike headed back toward the warehouse near the docks, figuring he had enough time to not only retrieve his car and return by the time the spell was done; but maybe find a freighter in LA heading for Brazil again, before morning.

"Well. Well. If it isn't the troublesome William the Bloody," Mr. Trick said before Spike could reach his car. "Gotta tell you, Billy boy; you've pissed off the wrong people this time..."

Spike watched as ten minions emerged from the shadows, sneering at the idea of cashing in on their share of the bounty.

"I was just makin' to leave town, mate…" Spike replied, trying to calculate his chances of getting to the car before getting dusted.

"Not this time. Your interference, along with that of your friend Ethan Rayne, was a little too much to the local establishment," Trick faux-apologized, sighing dramatically. He turned to the minions, "Kill him!"

Spike spun around and ran with all the speed his older and stronger self could muster, barley staying ahead of the minions, twice plowing through smaller packs of vampires and pulling ahead—only to find he'd become far too popular. Hoping against hope, he headed into the Bronze as people were making their way outside.

The gladiator managed to get his ad hoc squad patched up and set to the side, the two strong women and their two companions likewise helping any wounded. Many of the crowd simply moved back into the Bronze, and renewed their general activity.

Despite himself, the Roman general was taken with the beauty of the brunette woman—who reminded him of Lucilla, the Emperor's daughter he refused to admit he still held feelings for. Ten minutes passed, then Maximus checked himself over again and with weapons properly cared for, made as to leave the establishment.

"Wait up!" Faith called out, not demanding but just trying to catch the man's attention. He turned and looked at her through his mask, eyes somehow familiar to her. "It might not be safe out there, y'know?"

(My apologies. But I do not understand your language, young one,) the gladiator responded in his native tongue, catching the attention of the redhead.

"Um..." (The girl said to you, safe outside not is,) Willow attempted to say, more comfortable reading than trying to converse in Latin. Well, actually she sucked at it—as her future self might one day admit, over that business with the Shadow Man portal.

(Little one, know that I was brought here to defend a magus for the night. But my duty there has been discharged,) Maximus responded, glad of the presence of a translator. (Until dawn comes, I am free of obligation. And so I choose to help those I can.)

Willow translated for the others, who came nearer. (Brought here how?) she then asked the general. (And what happens at dawn?)

(At dawn my spirit returns to my loved ones. And I am here at the charge of the god, Janus.)

(Janus!) Willow responded, and remembered that Ethan Rayne was in town and so described him, the gladiator nodding along, "Buffy, it was definitely Ethan Rayne, but-but this guy knows it was Janus that brought him here!"

"What! How?" the blonde Slayer asked, Willow translating for Maximus.

(The statue of Janus was with the magus that raised me within this body,) the well-toned man informed them. (And he was dealing with the man running into the building.)

The gladiator pointed at Spike, who saw the Slayer looking at him. As he began cursing and sprinting for the rear exit, both Slayers' senses went off the scale as the large number of vampires poured into the Bronze after him, shouting and snarling in game face about getting Spike's guts for garters.

Both of the Chosen Two were then surprised, when they noticed Maximus was halfway to the vampires as they lunged forward.

Three whirling swordsmen forcing the vampires into a bottleneck at the entrance kept it an even match for nearly ten minutes, with usually no more than five vampires at a time. Twelve dusted due to a combination of effort and skill, before the others outside heard someone shout "Get him!" and apparently ran after the escaping William the Bloody.

Tired, the gladiator leaned in the doorway to catch his breath. (You're excellent fighters, with real training you could be even better,) Maximus noted with tired respect.

Willow translated. Buffy decided to follow up the earlier conversation, "These people here, they were also changed by the spell that brought you here," she said through a slowly translating Willow. "Some of 'em are now demons, so we really need to find the statue that caused this—so we can end it before too many people get killed because of it."

(I understand,) the fighter replied, when he heard a...mangled version of Buffy's words. (I, General Maximus Decimus Meridius, offer you my assistance in this task. And the sooner I return to my family, the better; and since my service is completed, I can foresee no ill repercussions. Let us go.)

William the Bloody had managed to swing by the Madison house before trying to circle back to get his car, but noticed from afar that it was well guarded by five minions, all large and waiting.

"Bugger this, I'll just take the next one I come across," muttered Spike, annoyed at the loss of his vehicle. "Wait up—I still have the keys to that bloody truck!"

The gladiator sat somewhat stiffly in the front of the 'Mystery Machine' as he retraced his steps that night, and they all took note at the 'demon Mardi Gras' on the streets but with little indiscriminate killing.

"B, it looks like they're just wandering around and enjoying bein' out—with no one staring at 'em," Faith noted. "So, I guess we don't have to stop and kill 'em all?"

"Um, no, I guess not," Buffy responded, unsettled by non-violent demons walking around and just laughing at the costumed humans acting out their possessions.

(By the Emperor's balls!) Maximus swore, as Oz veered to avoid someone in the street—that turned out to be a surprised Spike. Willow blushed deep, and refused to translate as the vampire vanished; so the Scoobs just kept on going.

Finally they reached a storage facility and made their way toward the back, where Faith ripped the door off the hinges. They looked in, and the gladiator gestured at the statue with glowing eyes.

(Thank you for the help,) Willow told him on behalf of the others. But then Maximus heard a woman being attacked, and ran back toward the street.

(Give me a moment more!) he called over his shoulder. (Honor demands that I take care of this first!)

A minute later, the weird demon had been chased off, and the girl safely escorted to her car. The gladiator waved back at the group, then wandered just out of sight to sit on a bench. A moment later, and he was gone.

"Well B, I gotta say I like this easier version of the Slayer life you got goin' here," Faith mused, as the gladiator hurried off for one last save.

"I don't know if I'd call it easy," Buffy replied, then frowned in consideration. "But it sure beats going it alone."

"Hell yeah, did that even before this Slay gig, the street sucks," Faith assured her in an easy manner. "The whole friends, not scamming food or a bunk, three squares a day…"

"Yeah, know what you mean, when I was…gone…this summer, I barely held down a waitress job in a nasty diner. It only just kept me in a crappy room with roaches, and getting through to the next day. I don't want to think about what would have happened without the job."

"Makes ya appreciate what ya have more, don't it?" Faith considered, heading over to drop the bust of Janus. "How'd ya dig yourself outta the hole?"

"Xander, or Lex as he goes by now, came in after working the rigs, lost me the job, made the slimeball running the place pay up, and brought me back here."

Faith dropped the bust, a glowing piece lingering on her shoe before she shook it loose without looking. "Cool, so the guy shows up and saves the day or something?"

"Well, the trip back was Hell, let me tell you…" Buffy smiled wanly, and finally told her friends that part of Xander's bringing her back to Sunnydale.

'Oh, for the love...crap!' Alexander Harris thought chaotically, as he regained control of himself. 'Wait...things are still kinda foggy. I better go check on Amy, and call Wills to make sure Spike didn't mess with them...'

Harris then began walking down the street; a few minutes later he turned the corner, swords still in hands, to find Spike next to Xander's work truck, fighting four vampires and barely holding out. They all paused, rumors of the skill of the Roman gladiator tonight having spread quickly.

"We only want the vampire…" the lead bloodsucker told him. "We have no problem with you!"

"Fine. I just want the keys to my truck," Xander rasped out, tired but not caring as he reached the front of the vehicle, the vampires near the back.

"Bloody sodding hell!" Spike complained, throwing the keys at Harris and leaping over him to run away. "I hate this bloody town…"

The other vampires paused a second, starting around the opposite side of the truck. Xander knew that they were soulless killers, but right now...he was just too damn tired, and would only get himself killed in the attempt.

"Will ya just dust him already?" Xander told them with a sigh, then drove home for a shower, and sleep; once there getting confirmation that his girls were safe, and wouldn't let Spike in anytime soon.

Episode VI

Sunnydale, California. Early November 14th, 1998

Xander was glad the next morning was a Saturday, and even getting up around eight, he was the first one up.

The young man cleaned up again, tidied the place, and left the costume on the bed after giving it a quick clean and a wipe with some of the leather treatments he used on belts, boots and other items to keep them well-conditioned; for the 'costume' had remained real.

Harris got dressed in a black basketball shirt, and started making breakfast around nine when there was a knock on his door—with Buffy trying to outpace Giles and Joyce in very interesting 'Aladdin' attire, and Willow entering at a slower pace.

"I just don't want to know, Mom!" Buffy said. "Walking in on the two of you last night was bad enough, but God—this morning too…" Xander took note of numbers, and increased the amount of food he was preparing.

"Fine, but what happened to you after we went looking for Ethan Rayne?" Joyce asked, also trying to move on to a different topic. Xander smiled and started the actual cooking, as Oz and Faith stumbled out to meet the guests.

"So B, anything new on that guy from last night?"

"Nah, so I guess whoever it was made it home alright," Buffy replied.

Xander quickly noted Joyce was a bit cold in her lack of outfit. "Hey, Mrs. S, there's a coat or heavy robe in my closet if you want it," Xander offered, gesturing to his room.

The grateful woman smiled and got up. Xander just kept cooking. The gang then reviewed for Giles what had happened; and as soon as breakfast was ready, Joyce returned from her use of the bathroom and wrapped a robe around herself.

"Xander?" Joyce asked. "What's that on your bed?"

"What do you mean? Clothes, I guess," he said simply, assembling plates of food.

"No, I mean the leather thing," Buffy's mother smiled, laughing as Faith got up and raced into the other room. Xander finished handing out plates.

"Damn, Lex, that was you last night!" Faith asked, as she came out of the bedroom. "'Cause those were some kick-ass moves you had there, Dundee!"

Xander just shook his head in amusement, as he accomplished a quick shutdown of the kitchen. "Yeah," he responded noncommittally, "I guess so."

"Who, Faith?" Buffy asked, chowing down and not looking up until Willow 'eeped'. She then looked up to see the gladiator attire set up on hangers that Faith had brought out, sandals and all.

"The gladiator," Oz responded. "I thought there was something familiar last night. Your scent was off, but still familiar. And it explains the deep five o'clock shadow he has today..."

The others looked up from eating and did notice the new hair on Xander's face, then the large densely-toned muscles underneath that were even greater than when he'd returned from working the summer. The young man looked at them, shrugged again and quickly went back to his breakfast.

"Xander? Would you so kind as to let us know how your night went?" Joyce asked with concern in her voice, and so he had to give them his story in great detail, getting up and providing second helpings to those who wanted them.

"So, how much do you remember of this gladiator?"

"Everything, Giles," the young man quietly confirmed. "Pretty much his entire life."

"Who was he?" Giles asked.

"Husband of a dead wife, and father of a murdered son," Xander quietly told them, leaving out what they'd done to his—Maximus'—wife, as he started to clear dishes and put them in the dishwasher. "Maximus Decimus Meridius, General of the Legions of the Rhine, friend and protégé to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius."

"Good Lord."

"I've been called worse..."

"Xander!"

"Sorry Joyce, no blasphemy, just a play on words considering a certain British 'beau' is always so free with the 'Good Lords' around here."

"Beau?" Buffy asked, as Joyce blushed slightly with a small smile. "What, is that like boy in French?"

"Um, it sorta means boyfriend in the land of bangers and mash, Buff," the former gladiator kidded, getting a wince from the blonde and her mentor.

"So, you're okay, Lex?" Faith asked, a little concern showing through for her friend.

"If it's anything like the last time, the dreams and nightmares ought to kick in sometime in the next few days," Xander shrugged. He seemed to be doing that a lot today. "Then in a couple of months, settle down."

"Y-you seem to be taking it all in stride, I must say," Giles told him, looking at his young friend for signs otherwise.

"Well, this time is a little different," Xander admitted. "I guess since Ethan was originally just looking for a willing and able bodyguard to get him out of town, he put more magic into the costume. And I think he said the mask was from a movie he'll be working on as a costumer...so I already have the memories, and I have my other memories, too, he somehow fixed it so they're like my own, but clearer."

He continued in Latin, (And he got rid of the last of the Hyena he said you didn't clear all the way out of me, so I have the harder muscles I've been working towards. And the scars aren't too bad, because it's me, I guess I only got what he'd gotten by my age, during his first campaign.)

(Are you impaired from it?) Giles asked, concerned.

Xander snickered. (That use of 'impair' refers to my ability to produce children, Arab prince,) Xander snickered again. (And I'll have you know that it's working fine, thank you.)

"I-I..." Giles began, embarrassed by his poor choice of words, and Xander's turning it back on him in Latin.

"What are you guys saying? It's rude to talk like that in another language when non-speak-y people are present, ya know!" Buffy seemed to pout.

"Terribly sorry," Rupert said to his charge. "And it's good to know you're still well, Xander, scars and all." Giles smiled that he was getting back at him.

"Scars?" Willow asked, as the others looked her way. "Are you okay, Xander?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he replied shaking his head at his mentor, "Giles is just getting back at me for making a little jibe at his expense."

The weekend proved relatively quiet, the general embarrassment of those involved in various forms of mischief and debauchery reinforcing the Sunnydalian tendency to repress; though many a bruise or black eye was sported.

Faith asked for and got from Xander the promise of sword lessons, after they took possession of the house. Xander also remembered the location of Spike's car and Ethan's locker, and was very surprised to find the car still there. He grabbed his gun and a stake as he used his foot to open the door of the locker...

A form lunged at him, but Xander managed to get a shot into the face of his opponent before falling back against a wall. The vampire seemed to be the only one around, and Xander managed a quick staking before venturing in again. And found absolutely nothing inside. 'Either the Brit came back, or someone mad at him decided to clear him out. Well, good thing Spike's keys were tangled in with mine, at least I can grab the car.'

Looking into the automobile, he found nothing but empty bottles of liquor and a few beer cans. Checking under the car and releasing the hood carefully like he'd seen in the movies, it looked like the car might have been bait, but not rigged to explode. 'A couple months as a side project cleaning and restoring this baby…and it'll be ready for the road again.'

Sunday night at the Bronze proved a bit slow, Xander showing up after compulsively putting in a long day at work to compensate for time off he was taking the next day.

"So, tomorrow's the big day?" Faith asked Oz and Xander, Willow and Buffy getting drinks for the group.

"Yeah, we pick up the keys at eight from the clerk's office; and after everyone's classes, we'll meet and take Giles over there to the mansion for the vamp un-invitation ceremony."

"Where are you going to do that?" Buffy asked, coming up quietly as the music had started. Willow just watched with curiosity.

Xander sighed and the other two nodded to him. "The new owners of the mansion on Crawford Street are taking possession of the place tomorrow," Harris told her the truth selectively. "So to make sure the vamps stay out, we're performing that ol' fangs-are-not-welcome-here ritual."

"Why wasn't I invited to help cast it?" Willow asked, almost hurt.

"We kinda didn't want Buffy to know about it, what with all the bad memories and all," Xander told her. "And what you don't know, she couldn't wheedle out of you later."

"Hey! I can keep a secret!" Willow stated, hurt.

Xander cocked an eyebrow. "Really, Will? Have you heard yourself babble, trying to stumble your way through a bunch of unconvincing lies?"

"So, uh, who're the new owners?" the rosy-cheeked redhead hurriedly changed the subject and asked the one question the investors had avoided. "And, and are they aware of what's going on?"

"Yeah, they seem to know a bit more than most, hence the spell," Xander prevaricated. "So, Wills, make any college decisions yet?"

"Not really, I mean we haven't even gotten our SAT scores back yet," she said, giving him a look that let him know she knew he was side-tracking the conversation. "And hey, what was all that talk Snyder said about you and testing a week or so ago?"

"Oh, Harry sent Snyder a letter asking him to make sure I take all possible career exams. So I had to dance to the gleeful little troll's tune and take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Funny thing is I did so well I got to go to the Sunnydale Armory, and take a whole bunch of tests. Tomorrow, I go and take the rest of them, so that'll be over."

"But I thought you were already set with your boss, Lex?" Faith asked, leaning back.

"I am, but he wants me to be sure I've checked out all my options. Then join up with him," Xander replied, "That way I don't feel trapped in the job when I'm off on a rig somewhere in the future, and not wanting to be there in particular."

A quiet moment paused over the group.

"So? Everybody lovin' Career Week again?" Xander joked, referring to the annual pain, not that it was a big thing since Snyder was still recovering in the hospital from starting a fight.

"Oh yeah, and this year I just hope the police recruiter isn't an evil assassin," Buffy responded, rolling her eyes. "And the fact we're seniors now, means we're just going through the motions..."

A few minutes later, the blonde champion declared she was heading for home. And she just ignored Faith's merry warning not to do anyone she wouldn't, on the way there.

Sunnydale, California. November 17th, 1998

Tuesday evening saw Xander driving up to one of the twelve cemeteries in town to give Giles a ride back, as the Slayers did a sweeping patrol of the grounds.

Harris noted as he did so that a slightly formally dressed woman seemed to be making her way slowly into the boneyard, heading for his people. So he quietly grabbed his gladii and angled to intercept her, though he didn't believe her to be a vampire. He then heard her talking to his friends.

"…who the hell are you?" Faith asked the woman.

"Gwendolyn Post, Mrs. Your new Watcher."

(Really,) Xander whispered almost into her ear as he came up from behind, causing Gwen to start a bit and lose her seeming control of the situation. (Can we see your papers, before we call the Council regarding your claim?)

(Certainly, but only Mr. Giles shall do so,) the woman responded in the same language, gaining a small smile of approval from Xander. (He is the only member of the Council of your group, after all.)

"Fair enough, Mrs. Post," Xander told her, switching to English as he noted Buffy's annoyance at the language thing again. "Let's head back to G-man's main base at the library, and we'll go from there. Giles, please ride behind her, you'll find a Beretta under the rear passenger-side seat. Let's be safe until verified."

"Right then; Faith, Buffy, one quick sweep and back to the library, please?" Giles responded, and the girls nodded. "Thank you."

"So, B? What do you think about the new Watcher? X-Man brought her up short, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I guess he did," Buffy smiled, considering it partial payback for all the Watcher rules and British-isms she'd experienced. Then she decided to broach a subject of curiosity, especially since her own human dating wasn't working out, "So, are you interested in Xander?"

"Lex? Maybe soon," Faith admitted as they continued their patrol, "He's a great bud, haven't had one of those in a long time…and his bein' a guy and not wantin' it and all, that counts for a lot."

"He might be getting interested, and he's a guy, Faith," Buffy kidded. "But you might want to talk to Willow if you make a move toward boyfriend-girlfriend, she might be able to give you pointers?"

"Red? Willow?" I thought she was with Wolfy?"

"Yeah, now, but she's known Xander for, like, ever, and once had the hugest crush, so if anyone might know of a method not involving brute force, it's probably her—or Cordelia, but…"

"Yeah, that'd be fun talk…but for now, friends is cool by me."

Back at the library, Giles headed into his office as Mrs. Post was seated at the main table. Oz and Willow, who'd reshelved the various books and were about to leave, were asked to keep her company as Xander excused himself to check something elsewhere.

Three minutes later, Giles exited first his office then the main doors, to find his former charge leaning against a wall, an unconscious Mrs. Post at his feet as the Slayers ran up.

"Um, Xander…" Giles began, then noticed the two tranquilizer darts in the woman, "Where's the rifle?"

"In the lockup, Giles, where it belongs," the younger man responded, reaching into his jacket. "I just used my human-strength darts as she tried to sneak out. So, what did you find?"

"Well, uh, you were quite right to be suspicious. She, she used to be a Watcher, but was ejected from service a couple of years ago. The Council seems sure there was a memo sent out about it," the librarian told them. "They're sending a team to retrieve her, anyway, which should be here by morning."

"You wanna move her to your place for the night?" Xander asked. "On account of I don't want them to know where Faith and I live, just in case another Mrs. Post comes along. That way, there'll be a safehouse for the gang to hole up in if necessary. Right, Faith?"

"Good thinking, Xander," Giles commended, Faith nodding gratefully at being included in decisions affecting her. "Um, Faith? Buffy? If you would ride with her in the back of Xander's truck? That'd be excellent."

"Ah...not wanting to be tooting my own horn here, because I may have jumped the gun slightly, Giles," Xander conceded as the girls left even Slayer earshot. "I get the feeling she was here for a reason, and wanted at least one Slayer to do something for her..."

"Such as?"

"Slayers kill vampires and other demons, and so…"

"…maybe one of them had something she wanted?"

"Oooookay. Know any good truth spells we can use on her, before the retrieval team gets here? She should be regaining consciousness about five in the morning, maybe five-thirty."

"Hmm, yes. I might have something…"

Xander nodded. "Good, so after we secure her at your place, I'll plan on swinging by with Faith first thing on my way to work. So please be prepared to feed the grumbly, hungry Slayer when I leave?"

"Excellent thinking; good plan. If only for my own personal survival." The two men smiled, thinking about their girls.

Episode VII

Sunnydale, California. November 18th, 1998

Wednesday night saw the Scooby Gang out checking crypts and mausoleums, both for a Glove and a demon with the same name as the city in Nigeria.

Faith, Xander and Oz had managed to ambush and with a bit of effort cut to pieces the demon Lagos; and by a bit of good luck, by three in the morning, Buffy, Willow and Giles had not only found but destroyed the dark artifact. Using the British man's knowledge of the Living Flame ritual, of course.

They did, however, learn that a small group of really sad vampires matching the description of the Fondren High football varsity line, reported missing, seemed to have made their way to LA in a series of gruesome attacks.

Sunnydale, California. November 19th 1998

That Thursday evening found Xander pulling into town, after a long day at work. Luckily, his enthusiasm for the hands-on part of the job meant that until he reached Sunnydale he was still pumped from a day at work; but he was happy to enter his house at ten, and pleasantly surprised to find Giles and the others there sipping tea and coffee.

"Hiya all, anything happening in the land of the Hellmouth?" Harris asked, flopping down in one of the recliners.

"Yes, there were a number of recruiters present, looking for you today," Giles replied, handing him envelopes. "Each military service, and the psychology program at the local university have shown interest in your future, i-it appears."

"Wow, cool. This time a year ago, who'd a-thought it, huh?" Xander mused. "Thanks for delivering them."

"Well, we also couldn't turn down the opportunity to raid your tea cupboard," Giles smiled, sipping the mentioned beverage.

"Right. Okay then, I'm off tomorrow, so I guess I'll see these guys then if they're still around," Xander considered. "Though I can't see any of those things being as right for me as working with Harry."

"Ya enjoy workin' with your hands, huh, Dundee?" Faith mused.

"Only on long-term projects, Faith," he flirted with the Chosen One with a bit of seriousness showing through. "Not really a quick-fix kind of a guy."

"Sorry ta hear that," she smiled back. "So…when we gonna get started on the sword training?"

"Probably tomorrow night, if you have time, then on Sunday. I might put in some time at the shop on Saturday, if the parts come in tomorrow."

"Cool!"

"What's with the sword training?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, uh, Faith wanted to trade my training her in swordplay for her giving me a fast and strong sparring partner for retaining the gladiatorial skills."

"Wow, can I get in on that?"

"A threesome, Buff?" Xander smiled, "How decadently Roman of you! And I should know."

"Xander…"

He held up his hands in surrender. "Give us a couple of weeks to get her started, then after I show you a few steps, you can practice with her," Xander considered. "That way, we'll keep Faith a little ahead at first, and by around the time of your birthday, you should both be about the same level. How's that?"

Buffy smiled. "That'd be great."

"But I'm still trying to figure out a way to make you work hard to really appreciate the changes, and understand the possibilities. Hey Giles, you're good with a rapier right? I'd majorly appreciate your help on this. See, as I recall I've only trained those who've already survived hardship and had some use of a blade. So...can Slayers actually build muscle or strength, after being called? Do we have to go beyond whatever the Slayer limit is, before that happens?"

Giles fought down knowledge of the Cruciamentum ritual. "I understand what you're saying, but, uh, I'd have to research it," the Watcher told him, the Slayers actually interested as this was about their power at a personal level. "Other than the obvious training mechanisms, is there anything in particular you have in mind?"

"Well, without powers, Faith and Buffy would obviously have different strength, speed and stamina levels," the dark-haired drilling engineer considered aloud, not noticing Giles' expression. "Does the calling multiply what they have, y'know increase it to a certain level, or does it add to what they have? Because—if it's a multiplicity thing, then if we can ante up that basic human capability, Buffy and Faith will have their Slayer capabilities increase. Right?"

"Wow, Dundee, I hadn't thought of that," Faith told him, her eyebrows furrowing in thought, "Whaddaya think, B?"

"Hey, if we can do it, I'm game," she replied. "And if the books are in English, we can even research!"

"Actually, I was considering teaching Faith Latin—so now I better include you too," Xander admitted half-musingly. "Much of my combat knowledge is based on my, uh, little Roman experience, ya see. And the more you understand the language, the more you'll get from the training."

"Studying?" Buffy said, looking shocked, "But French is hard enough!"

"That'll be next. And it's probably just me, but I'm thinkin' it'll be easier than you still trying to tell the difference between 'la' and 'el'— even after two years of Spanish!" Xander smiled, winking at Giles and ignoring Buffy's outraged yet rueful expression.

"And as Giles can tell you, much of the Western training in swordsmanship involves the French, and their romance language. So trust me, Buff, you'll master the weaponry, and in fights you'll have a tactical advantage—because most of your enemies won't even be able to understand you."

"I agree, Xander," Giles added with clear pride in the young man. "And I have to say for the record—God knows I can't understand what you lot keep saying half the time, and you're supposedly speaking English! And after that…" he added in a Ripper-ish tone, staring at Harris, "We'll teach them how to cheat, and to use every trick in the book, eh?"

"Got that right. Then I'll run them through some particularly nasty weapons we used to use in the arena."

"Xander?" Willow interrupted, looking worried, "Why do you refer to yourself like you're still Maximus? That's kinda wigsome—"

"Because these memories are staying," he said quietly, but firmly. "So I'm treating them as a past life, almost. Will, sad as it is, but Maximus didn't last much longer after his time here. And most of Harry's memories up to last year, I'm treating the same way. That way I'm the reincarnation, the 18-year-old that can remember everything, the good times and the bad."

"Why Harry Stamper's memories?" Giles asked. "I've been meaning to ask you…I thought you were a generic soldier?"

"Yeah, but when the soldier introduced himself as Harry S—Willow interrupted and he just went along with her, not that anyone called him Harris. Everyone just assumed, and it never came up in conversation, that is until I met Harry in person. Then we talked a lot, but it was his life, so of course we talked about it."

"Wow again, Lex," Faith said, slowly getting up to get a soda. "Cool way to look at it, 'specially since it's okay with your boss, huh?"

"Got it in one, Faithy. And since I fit with my job like I was made to do it, all the memories came flooding back this summer, fresh and I believe permanently. Gave me a real boost and let me help Harry and his company like few people could, so hey—it turned out well for all concerned."

"Sure you're okay?" Willow asked, giving him the puppy dog eyes. Xander exchanged an amused smile and eye-roll with Oz, who had remained characteristically silent so far as usual.

"Better than okay, Wills. Look around you, and tell me I'm not better off here than at la casa del Harris," he responded with a small smile. "How many other 18-year-olds can offer lodging to his friends, invest money with 'em and his mentor in a property that might help with financial security if not eventual independence from having to worry about money? No bad here, I haven't even had a soldier-nightmare in several months."

"Eighteen?" Buffy interrupted at the pause in conversation, "When did you turn 18?"

"The ninth, just like every year," Xander shrugged, accepting a soda from Faith as she sat on the arm of his chair.

"Oh my God! We forgot your birthday!" Willow whined, then gasped, "And last year, too!"

"It's fine, Wills," he told her earnestly. "Last year, there was the whole dead friend Ford thing, and this year I think I was working? Maybe working on the mansion purchase? Anyway, I'm good."

"No, it's not okay," Buffy insisted, luckily with most of the uninformed missing the mansion reference, "I-I can't believe this, we're at least going to take you out to dinner sometime this week. No argument."

"Okay, but it's still not getting you out of language lessons," Xander smiled at her, then looked at Willow. "You know, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing for Willow to learn, too. What do you think, G-Giles?"

"What!" Willow responded, "But I'm a spaz, forget it. I'll stick to magic."

"Actually, Willow, I think this would be an excellent opportunity to really discipline yourself," Giles told her, realizing just as he could easily have failed Faith, he also shouldn't forget Willow's magical curiosity also needed the proper framework if she were to avoid the pitfalls he'd experienced.

He went on, "It, it would increase your focus, and many higher spells require the physical stamina. And the combination of the physical and mental training will do wonders for your magic." Giles looked at Xander and they shared a wry smile.

"Mm, okay," the redhead conceded, bribed as well as pressured, "Oz? You gonna learn?"

"Sure. Devon hasn't really lined up much in the next couple of weeks, so I'll give it a shot."

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California. Friday, November 20th, 1998

Xander had talked to the Army, Navy and Coast Guard guys. In particular, he'd thought the latter were probably the coolest setup; the training on a sailing ship and maybe getting in with Search and Rescue held some appeal.

He walked around looking for the UC Sunnydale folks, but they found him instead, and guided him to an empty classroom. A middle-age woman and an early twenty-something male of military bearing, Xander went on alert at once as they got him alone.

"Mr. Harris, I'm Dr. Maggie Walsh. And this is Riley Finn. We're here to discuss you joining us at the university next year, and I for one believe you'd fit right in."

"Oh, why's that?"

"Well, your grades have improved in the last twelve months, you are a hands-on individual, and seem able to hold down a full-time job while surviving the apparent nightlife in Sunnydale."

Harris instantly put his guard up even higher. "The gang problem does seem a bit rough at times, but if you know how to 'get along'—you can avoid...situations."

"From the background check, we were impressed at the few times you've had to go to the hospital for yourself in the last couple of years," she said, noting the man's tension. "But we consider that a matter of good instincts, which with training could really help your community."

"Did you really win a fight against an ocean crocodile?" Riley Finn suddenly asked with a smile.

Xander pulled up his pant legs a bit to show the boots, inadvertently revealing the tip of a back up stake. Riley pointed to it and met his eyes.

"That's what we're recruiting for," Finn told him, causing Xander to ease up a little, which was something upon which Walsh seized.

"We won't really be ready until the end of next summer, Mr. Harris, but we need a 'native guide' with field knowledge of the HSTs—"

"H, S, whatsis?"

"Hostile Sub-Terrestrials," Walsh supplied. "And while you'd need to give up your winter and spring breaks for training, we wouldn't want to take you from your voiced intentions to continue working for the drilling company. At least, not until you'd be ready to join us for the fall semester."

"Join you as what?"

The psych professor gestured, "Possibly as a ROTC student who's taking the geological engineering courses, for joining Mr. Stamper in the future. To have you join us fully before then, would negate your cover."

"I have to say I'm tempted," Xander considered, though the Vietnam soldier and Roman general memories cringed at her arrogant or simply foolish breach of security. "And at the very least, I'm tempted to make sure you get off to a good start. So even if I decide not to sign on from next September onward, I might be interested in helping until then. So, maybe the training in exchange for information? I'll at least think about it."

"Excellent, Mr. Harris," Dr. Walsh replied, pushing forward a couple of papers, making up slightly for her verbal faux pas with the necessary paperwork. "If you could sign this agreement not to disclose…"

The Air Force guys were far more interesting, but no less mysterious. A fact drawn easily from the mix of the four team members.

They were a large soldier in fatigues and a beanie, a blonde woman in the blue uniform with incredibly beautiful eyes, a civilian in shirt and tie, and a full-bird colonel. All in Sunnydale to talk to him, the regular recruiters directing him elsewhere to them.

"Okay, what's the name of the program you want me to try out for?" Xander asked them after introductions were out of the way. "And where would I be based out of?"

"Oh, Deep Space Telemetry," Captain Samantha Carter informed him. "And we're based out of Colorado."

"And what exactly do I have that you want, Captain?"

"Well, you have basic mechanical skills, and your tests scores were remarkably high in most areas," she told him. "Languages, cultural awareness, point-plotting in three dimensions as shown in your recent math batteries."

(And what do you think, Doctor Jackson?)

(I think you speak excellent Latin for a high school student,) Daniel replied in kind, then switched on a hunch to Egyptian. But when I learned that Rupert Giles of the British Museum was your school librarian, it made a lot more sense to me.

Figures, with my luck, Xander replied in that language, deliberately slowly after by accident letting on that he was understanding Daniel. I'm probably what, one of five people that can speak this language? How do you know Giles? And why the hell is a linguist like you with some Deep Space Telemetry program?

Something like that, and he was on your recommendation list, so I read up on him as I'd done some studying and work in England before, Daniel smiled, switching to classical Greek. And I'm with them because they pay well to have a linguist that can talk to the natives, when they set up a presence somewhere. Technically, that was true.

"Okay, sounds good, but you have to have some people in-house that more than make up for my skills."

"Normally, yeah," Colonel Jack O'Neill finally contributed to the conversation. "But sooner or later they leave for either private industry, academia, intelligence jobs in DC and so on. So we're hoping to talk to people and recruit them for a number of years, before they run off."

"Ah. So if I sign up, what's the deal? I become a grunt and lug equipment around the world, for what little an airman makes? Or do you have something to sweeten the deal a bit?"

"Possibly OCS, depending on how well you do in basic, so you'd at least be an officer lugging equipment around the world, with decent education benefits."

"Well, I don't know," Xander told them slowly, feeling something was...off about all this. "At least with Harry's team on the rigs, I'll make more money…is there any way that I can maybe visit your facility, and maybe check out one of your remote setups? I have some money, and if the base looks promising, I'd pay my expenses to check it all out."

The offer took SG-1 by surprise, as they'd really only been in town to make sure he wasn't a Goa'uld running around—instead of going on that mission to Madrona. The boy's scores being that far from the norm for his age had been disconcerting. Still, Harris did have an interesting enough skill set it wouldn't hurt to seriously consider him. Carter looked to Colonel O'Neill for direction.

"It's a possibility. I believe you just turned 18?"

"Yes sir, and I've been emancipated since May, if that helps. And I'm in guess what you'd call fair physical shape."

The SG team noted this, particularly Teal'c and O'Neill, who also noted the experienced nonchalant stances Harris used and a few scars that occasionally peaked out from under his shirt.

"Well, I'll see what I can do, Harris, we usually don't get candidates as enthusiastic as this. But I'll check."

"Cool."

(Anything else we can discuss with you?) Daniel asked in Sumerian, (We'll be in town until tomorrow evening.)

"I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson," Xander smiled gracefully in defeat. "The sounds are vaguely familiar, but I don't know that language. But I know a bit of Aramaic as counterparts to the Latin and Greek, does that help?"

"You never know…" Daniel said, handing Xander a card with their hotel number on it.

After the teenager left, the team started discussing the situation.

"Sir, I just saw Maybourne with the people talking to Harris before we did," Carter informed him. "But I don't think we were spotted, he just seemed to arrive."

"That's interesting—in a bad way, Carter," O'Neill considered. "Any reason to believe Harris is one of theirs?"

"Not likely, sir, but they might be here trying to recruit him, much like we might want to do," she replied. "All things considered, he would make an excellent recruit."

"I believe that AlexanderHarris would make an excellent junior officer at the SGC, O'Neill, and one containing far more honor than the NID should be allowed to corrupt."

"Ya might be right there, T," the colonel considered his counsel carefully. "Hmmm. I wonder if we should ask Hammond to give Harris the tour, including a quick trip to a quiet 'site' as a recruitment incentive. Wonder what type of a fighter he is—"

"He is a swordsman, O'Neill, and a competent one," Teal'c insisted calmly. "You no doubt noted his scars and how he carried himself."

"Yeah, yeah, saw that, but I gotta ask; where does a kid in this day and age, pick up that kind of experience? Unless of course this Giles character is one really sadistic bastard..."

"There's nothing in his background to indicate that, Jack," Daniel defended the Englishman. "Granted though, he did have a fair number of minor run-ins with the London police twenty years ago..."

"Okay, whatever. Carter, I want you to dig deeper on Harris' associates, this Rupert Giles, and…" he looked in the file, "this Harry Stamper person. See if we find anything. I'm thinkin' Daniel should head over and talk to Mr. Giles, and 'Murray' here will come with me."

Jack O'Neill smirked, having no idea what he and the Jaffa were actually getting themselves into. "Yeah, we'll just take a walk through this town, see what kind of place Mr. Harris grew up in..."

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California. Friday, November 20th, 1998

"So, like I was saying," Xander told Giles, the two of them alone in the librarian's office. "While I can't disclose anything we discussed, they were quite happy when they saw this..." He pulled up his pants leg to show the tip of the stake.

"Oh, dear. Xander...do you foresee a problem?"

"Nah, I'm the only one on their radar, and we'll keep it that way. But the other interesting thing was—"

"Hello?" a voice called from the main area of the library. "Dr. Rupert Giles?"

"Yes? Can I help you?" Giles asked, Xander coming up behind him.

"Giles, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson, who works as a linguist for the Air Force." They exchanged handshakes.

"Hello, Alexander," Daniel smiled in greeting, "Dr. Giles, I was just talking to Alexander about his linguistic abilities, and as you're his mentor—I wanted to maybe talk about that a little. But mainly, I had questions about how the British Museum handled its Egyptian collection…"

"Oh! Uh, you're that Doctor Jackson?" Giles looked astonished. "I've read your work, and-and I found it fascinating. Even though of course you hadn't been able to obtain any concrete, or should I say, limestone proof of your theories?"

Xander got out while the getting was good, though he retained Roman memories of the relatively intact pyramids enough to appreciate the joke.

Colonel Harry Maybourne's eyebrows rose, as his car passed O'Neill and the Jaffa on his way to inspect the construction site opening over at the university. 'Should have expected them to show up, guess they can't save the world every week...'

The Air Force colonel considered the Harris recruitment effort, and decided to step it up a notch. Maybe use it to eventually leverage the grunt into the SGC as an NID observer. 'From all accounts the kid seems too clean to actually do anything against a bunch of do-gooders like Hammond's crowd, but simple duty like observing and reporting? Hmm…maybe.' He picked up his sterile phone and dialed.

"Maybourne here, I just spotted SG-1 in Sunnydale…I think the Harris kid showed up on their radar too…yeah. I'm thinking we get the Initiative to recruit and train him, then get him in as a simple observer in the SGC next year…as their recruit."

The sun was up over Sunnydale, a quiet town from what O'Neill and Teal'c could see, but the Jaffa was filled with unease, as it had been since they'd arrived.

"Something bothering you, T?" the colonel asked, "You seem…edgy."

Teal'c considered his friend's words, as he realized his usual tight control was slipping to one who knew him well. "My symbiote does not like this place at all, O'Neill. And I must admit, even without 'junior' as you insist on calling it, I believe there is something evil that permeates this town."

"Really? It seems quiet, and from all the signs it seems they pretty much roll the streets up at sunset," O'Neill observed, his eyes searching for something that might be causing discomfort. "Anything in particular?"

"It was strongest at the school, O'Neill, but is still ever-present in everything around us. I have never felt such as this before."

"So, the high school is the center of this…evil you feel?" Jack asked before realizing what he'd said, then chuckled. Teal'c looked at him with a raised questioningly eyebrow, "Sorry, it's just that many students would declare school as the source of all evil."

They walked a fair portion of the town in the next few hours, observing the people and trying to get a real handle on the reason for the Jaffa's unease, to no avail. They noted and mentioned that the people seemed to have the edge of general weariness seen in people either recovering from war, or living under the threat of same. But none of them interacted with each other as groups, as one would expect. Almost as if each individual was fighting a personal war separate from the others.

"Carter, when we get back, I want you dig up what you can on this entire town," Jack told her, explaining their last few hours. "Something just isn't right here."

"About Harris, sir?"

"About the whole town, Sam, the whole town has an 'off' feeling to it. Harris might know what's going on, I just need some answers."

The next ten days went by quietly on the slaying front for young Mr. Harris, but in between training Faith, working full-time and fending off the regular recruiters, he'd met a couple of times with Riley Finn, and had even gotten a 'maybe' from the Air Force guys.

But at the second meeting with Finn, things started to become a little more real, and a little more interesting.

"I've been authorized to offer you what is, admittedly, a rather odd deal, Lex," Riley told him. "Six months, including OCS, and as a second lieutenant you'll be allowed to resign your commission at any time in the month of June; when you expected to head off to work with Stamper's company, anyway. This weekend, we'll head down to Coronado and you'll be tested physically, to see how far along you are. And if we can insert you in any current basic training programs."

"Excuse me, Riley, but isn't Coronado Navy territory? I thought you guys were regular army."

"We're about 60 percent Rangers or at least Ranger-trained, with about 30 percent or so Marines. That's why we can access the facilities."

"Alright, I guess that makes sense, and my service assignment is Sunnydale?" Xander asked, and received a nod. "What would I be doing here?"

"You'd probably be expected to put in about 30 hours a week that would schedule around your current activities, which we consider an important cover. Mainly, you'd be undergoing one long debriefing, identifying different types of demons. Attributes, how to kill them…we basically want to know everything you can tell us. If you decide to stay on, then after your return from work in the summer, you'd probably lead a team for capture or elimination of the hostiles."

"Capture?"

"To verify there isn't an easier way to kill them. For instance, you tell me that the last one was killed with a small silver teaspoon, and we might want to see if really big bullet, silver-coated, will do the job a little farther away." The two shared a smile.

"Gotcha," Xander conceded. "And you never know, I might stay in...but to be honest, right now I'm only looking at just the six months."

"Well, if you do stay on," Riley backed off, looking at his papers. "By then I expect you'll be a team leader as a first lieutenant, if the training and demon experience pan out. And you'd collect pay the time you're out on those rigs."

"Well, I told Harry I might want to take off for four or five weeks after the last time we talked. Is there any chance of me being able to put in one full day a week for him regularly? That'll at least keep him from falling behind."

"It's your cover, and we might not need to send you away during spring break if you can manage the initial training in one go."

Xander stuck out his hand. "Okay then, for six months, you got me."

Riley shook it. "Welcome to the Initiative, Lex."

Not one to fall back from obligation, Xander had run Faith through nearly 20 hours of actual sword training, and had also started her Latin classes. Giles was there too, to take up the slack in Xander's absence.

What had surprised everyone was the series of 15 language and practice session lesson plans he'd left behind. Xander could have sworn Faith was glowing from the extra attention. 'Like I used to. Heck, I'm still that way deep down, so Giles and I can't let her down.'

Giles had asked about the nightmares and other dreams caused from the possessions, and at this point it at least wasn't substituting vampires for barbarians, demons for the human gladiators as his mind had done the first week.

Now it was a matter of dealing with the memories for harsh combat, much of which Harris was able to allay by practicing the moves the next day with weapons Giles was able to purchase or otherwise acquire for him.

It was that next weekend that Riley and three of his lieutenants accompanied Xander to Coronado, curious as to the young man's experience. They'd taken Xander and placed him in the hands of a Master Chief, one detailed on his down time during the first week of running SeAL wannabes through the pain of training.

Eighteen hours later, an exhausted Alexander Harris crashed with his assigned pack and sleeping bag on the beach, ordered to be ready the next morning at first light for more.

Six hours later, and the Master Chief with his staff, Riley's group and an interested Harry Maybourne in civilian attire made their way up the beach to his location, to find Xander and his belongings elsewhere—no sign of him anywhere.

"Lex Harris reporting as ordered, Master Chief," the aching yet ready male teen spoke conversationally right behind them, having moved aside the flotsam that blocked the view into a large washed-up pile of wood and other debris.

The Master Chief and his staff liked this, and the fact was they were the only ones not to start at the young man's appearance.

"Did you get enough sleep, Mr. Harris?" the Master Chief asked.

"Only if the Master Chief says I did, Master Chief," came his response.

"Finally! An intelligent response," the man deadpanned, though his staff had to suppress smiles. "Harris, yesterday we put you through physical testing. Today, you will be assessed in armaments and in unarmed combat. What do you have to say to that?"

"Thank you, Master Chief."

"Mr. Harris, please jog back to your assigned locker and await further instructions!"

"Yes, Master Chief."

They watched as he left, the Master Chief commenting after sending his staff to follow Harris, Riley's group also jogging away.

"If every raw recruit came in like that, I'd be a happy man," he deadpanned again. "I don't know where the hell you got him, but he's had quite a bit of experience, Colonel, and the scars to prove it. I haven't seen most of the men I've turned out over the years survive that many blade wounds in their times of service; even on Riverine duty. And not a gang tattoo on him, or anything..."

Maybourne could tell that the Master Chief wanted to know, but wouldn't push it. "You ever run into ugly-looking guys at night wearing yellow contacts?" Harry asked his old contact and one of his few friends.

The Master Chief stopped as if struck. He turned and looked at Harry, who continued, "He won't talk about it, and is under orders not to talk about it, but that kid's been dealing with them for almost two years straight, and is still alive to tell the tale."

"Then I want him to join my training regime that's underway right now, no matter how he does today," the Master Chief told him. "On the books, if possible; you can always transfer him back when I'm done with him."

"He needs a full day each week to support his cover story, other than that you can have him through to the tenth of January. Fair enough?"

"Damn straight. We finish on the eighth, and he'll get the full enchilada..."

Xander Harris managed to get through the weeks of intense training, and the Initiative actually surprised him by arranging for him to be flown back and forth from Sunnydale each week.

Between 13 hours at work and four hours of training with Faith, Xander was usually happy to get back to the simple routine of doing whatever the hell the Master Chief told him to do. And everyone had been pleasantly surprised that he'd managed to pull down a 1235 combined SAT score---especially the Initiative recruiters that wanted him in the first place.

But—his Christmas visit was far less than he'd hoped for, the day being ruined with Buffy's revelation that Angel had been back for almost three months.

And she'd stressed it was Angel, and not Angelus they were talking about here.

Regardless, Xander had instantly headed out to dust the vampire, to make sure his friends would be safe. When he reached Angel's current lodgings, Xander saw and listened to the First tormenting the undead guy—even when it was trying to remain invisible to him.

Xander didn't get it, but then he didn't have to. He was just convinced that the bloodsucker wasn't Angelus trying to pretend he was a soul.

"Will you just shut up, already!" Xander told the non-corporeal entity. "For God's sake, they should call you the First Annoyance, or First Pain-in-the-ass, or even the First Boredom! Or just, y'know, the Farce instead of the First, what with the way you go on and on..."

It took the form of his old friend Jesse, but as it started to say something, Xander took his spray bottle of holy water, squirted the area the First occupied, and activated the prototype taser issued him by the Initiative to test.

Faith had followed Buffy's 'jog' across town as much because Giles had asked, as from curiosity at how well a kick-ass normal would do against the legendary leader of the Scourge of Europe.

"So, B? What's the plan when we get there?"

"We keep Xander from trying to dust Angel."

"That afraid for the vampire get his ass dusted?" Faith replied as they continued running, "I thought the Dead Boy guy was supposed to be kick ass and all."

"Huh? Angel's one of the good guys again. I won't lose him now that I just got him back!"

"You did kinda wait three months, B, you gotta expect your buds to be pissed at ya after what Cold Hand Liam did to 'em last year…"

"That was Angelus! And what does Cool Hand Liam mean?"

"Vampire has cold hands, B. Cool Hand Luke…older movies with real men in them… Liam is Angelus's human name?"

"It is!"

"Yeah, Lex showed me it when I first hit town, to help explain what's gone down since you got here. Didn't you know his name?"

"I thought it was Angel," she said as they crashed into a bunch of the First's minions, the Bringers.

"Anyway B," Faith said as she kicked one foe in the face before crushing the shin of another, "Just don't be thinking of using force on Lex…humans come before vamps."

Buffy finished two Bringers as Faith killed another and terminated the two she'd wounded. "I'm just going to keep 'em apart, you alright with that?"

"Just that. 'Cause if Lex looks like he's goin' down, then I'm dusting the vamp to make things right."

The First vanished in a burst of light, as elsewhere Buffy and Faith had killed off its Bringers and its time was past. Then the two teenage Champions showed up at the door, behind him, as Xander issued his warnings—first to the First Evil, then to the vampire.

The First Evil was not amused, when the electrified holy water managed to disrupt its projected image and voice imitation just enough to be unsuccessful. In between the very long recharging of the taser, it glared at him.

Xander said simply, "Look, just go away. Nobody here is interested in listening to you anymore! I'm here to annoy Dead Boy; you failed, admit it and move on. Don't make me go get a better model shock thingy, and a mister system!"

He turned to Mr. Soul Man. "Look, Dead Boy, soul or not—I don't trust you, never have, and sad fact is after all the shit Angelus pulled this year...only Buffy trusts you, nowadays. That's why I'm expecting you to leave town. Head for LA, see if Buffy and I closed off the portal to that other hell dimension permanently or whatever," Xander told him point-blank, then tiredly sighed, gesturing hand upward.

"You want to get the trust back? We're talking returning to the Hellmouth only on supervised weekends, and when we call you specifically for a real apocalypse. You got 'til February 1st to get gone. And now we know the First is just another bastard on your road to redemption, ignore the ghosts and deal with the nightmares."

"Why should I leave? Just because you say so?" Angel asked, starting to regain himself—but listening to the young man in front of him who was no longer threatening, but wasn't giving much.

"No. Still...you don't want all the people that Angelus tormented to hunt you down like a mad dog, do you? I'm the only one who can tell you and that idiot whack job Angelus apart. You need to earn the trust, and that ain't gonna be easy. You want to make up for past wrongs like the ones the Farce used against you? Go help people who don't know you, and won't remember you a week later. Go figure out who you are, then maybe come back when we really know who you are."

"Angel doesn't have to go anywhere, Xander," Buffy told him angrily.

"Really? Don't you?" Xander ignored her and asked Angel, who after a moment nodded.

"I'll…think about it, but what you're saying—it makes sense."

Buffy looked hurt and betrayed. "Angel?"

The vampire tried to comfort his beloved, "I'd still be back once a week, Buffy. I mean, you know it'll take Giles a while to get over what I—"

"What Angelus…did," Xander interrupted. "And you need to finally show us that, madness aside, you are different from that soulless bastard."

"I see that," Angel nodded, but Buffy didn't, so he continued, "Buffy, he has a point. You couldn't kill…Angelus…because you saw me in him—even when I wasn't there. But the others saw an evil me. Xander's pointing out that I need to see me as different from my demon. And from what you told me about his memories, he's put his into perspective."

"That's right Buffy, and…" Harris paused, shook his head in disgust, and squirted and tasered thin air again, causing a cry of outrage from the now-really-leaving-First.

"And when Angel is…a man trapped inside a vampire's body, and not a soul that keeps the whack-job at bay, all of us will be a lot more comfortable with the situation. And might forgive and forget that you believed we weren't worth telling of the potential threat to our lives, here. Consider us even for the lie."

Xander moved to leave, noted the time and sighed, "Faith, drive me to the airport, please? I have a plane to fly back to the base."

"Fly? You?" Buffy couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, after three round trips of listening to me ask questions all the time, the pilot said he'll train me in the in-flight stuff if I just keep quiet for once," Xander blushed. Of the three, Angel actually laughed. 'Maybe there's really hope for him…well, guess we'll see.'

Recovering, Xander reached into his pocket and pulled out a commercial taser, not nearly as powerful as his Initiative model but good enough for Angel's purposes.

"Here, Dead Boy," he called as he tossed the holy water squirt bottle and taser, "Merry Christmas. And don't shoot your eye out, kid."

Angel caught the reference to a movie that showed continuously on Christmas, "I thought you're the one running around with a bb gun."

The two alleged soul mates then waited wordlessly, until they were alone. "Buffy, you know he's right," Angel sighed as Lex and Faith left for the airport, "It doesn't matter if Xander and I don't like each other, he's at least right about figuring all of this out."

"What about us, Angel? I thought we could try finding some way to be together…"

Angel pseudo-sighed and ran his hand through his hair, trying to think. "Maybe if I leave for a little while, I might find a way to get around the curse; but the only way to make sure of that puts lives in danger…puts your life in danger." He hugged the girl, her head against his cool chest, him feeling her heart beat against his lifeless form.

"But Angel, Xander doesn't have the right to send you away…" she tried without much energy, pulling away slightly to look up at him. "He just…"

"I know, Buffy, but what he says makes sense, and my reasons for keeping things the way they are puts you and the others in danger until I can figure myself out," he told her, letting her go and turning to pick up a mug of room temperature coffee. "And you need to finish up school here, before even considering leaving."

"You want me to follow you after graduation? Leave Sunnydale?" the Slayer asked.

"Want and what's right are two different things, Buffy," he replied, heating the mug in the microwave. "Your life is here, with your family and friends…things I can't give you right now."

"So is that a no? I kinda need to understand this, Angel."

"What I'm saying is, I'll be around this month, and come back on weekends," he removed the cup and sipped the contents. "And it'll let us…let you…be able to think things out too. After graduation, we'll look at things again."

"This isn't a brush-off?" she asked, tearing up. Angel set the cup down and moved to her, hugging her for a minute and cooing reassurances that it wasn't; it was the mature way to deal with a weird situation.

Episode VIII

Unknown location. January, 1999

A little over two weeks and eight 'Maximus' arena and battlefield nightmares later, 'Ensign' Harris left the Master Chief as a U.S. Navy SeAL.

And as he stepped into the plane, Xander was handed the paperwork that again made him a member of the United States Air Force, now second lieutenant, and was asked to change into the civilian clothes provided him before they left.

A few minutes later, the plane began to taxi, and two officers came back and sat with him. He recognized Colonel Maybourne, but not the other man, who remained silent but attentive.

"Harris, you're on your way to Colorado Springs," Harry stated what was already known. "And you're under orders not to reveal that you're already part of the military, or that you know myself or anyone from the Initiative, unless they specifically ask about recruitment day. In which case, leave out the HST stuff, okay?"

"Yes sir, but may I ask why?"

"We believe the Deep Space Telemetry program does an excellent job at what it does, but would like you, even though you're not specifically trained, to note possible security and protocol issues while with them. We need to make sure that an operation based in the same complex as NORAD, can't somehow become a security risk. And if you can press to go on a 'field trip', do it. The fact is that I'm aware of exactly what goes on in that program, and you will be bound by any nondisclosure agreements they have you sign."

"Yes, sir."

"Now, we've already gotten back your preliminary examination results for OCS, and you scored just enough to where we've made it official so you won't have to attend formal courses. But when you get back to Sunnydale, Finn will acclimate you in application of what you know. Fair enough, Airman?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," Xander responded, in spite of his extra memories he was still not particularly fond of modern classroom learning. "Permission to ask a question, Colonel?"

"Granted."

"Why am I changing services paperwork, sir? I thought I was only honorary in the Navy."

"The Navy was for security purposes, kind of disguising you out in the open, so you really were an ensign and a SeAL. And we're not going to be showing a transfer set of papers in the Navy file, and it should mislead others into believing you're assigned watch duty in Coronado. You'll actually be in the Air Force all the time from now on, but on loan to the army elements of the Initiative. The DIA program overseeing the Initiative is actually Air Force—but only you, Walsh and Finn will know this, understood?"

"Understood, sir. And thank you."

Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado. Sunday, January 10th, 1999

"We don't usually get many visitors on weekends," O'Neill explained, as they went down in the elevator after signing all the pesky forms. "So, I can't guarantee the quality of the Jell-O in the cafeteria."

"Then why'd I bother coming, if not for the world-famous-yet-classified gelatin product?" Xander replied equally deadpan, Daniel in the back of the elevator rolling his eyes.

"Oh God, not two of them…"

"You say something, Daniel?" O'Neill asked, pretending not to have noticed.

"No, Jack, nothing."

"Ah."

Xander seemed thoughtful. "Colonel, I have to say your 'ah' was an excellent choice for the occasion. Even if I'd have gone with a 'hmm', or maybe a 'hmph' instead."

"Well, son, when you've been in this man's Air Force for as long as I have, you learn your responses. Like when and where to eat. To drink. To survive. And of course, how to pass doing paperwork onto others."

"Sounds awesomely cool."

O'Neill nodded sagely. "Very."

Daniel tried to ignore the worsening headache. "Oh God, not two of them…"

"Thank you for having me here, sir. And please, call me anything but 'Harris' until I'm in the service. If your background check is worth anything, you'll understand why," Xander responded to General Hammond's welcome.

He then went on, "And please don't take offense, but even with my signing the forms, why are you letting me into Cheyenne Mountain? Not that I mind, your team here were great to me in Sunnydale. In fact, Giles is apparently is a big fan of Dr. Jackson here," Xander rolled his eyes, gaining a chuckle from O'Neill and a blush from Daniel.

"Colonel O'Neill's team believes, given personal appraisal and your test scores, that you represent a rare recruitment possibility...Alexander. Though many questions remain, such as how much training you'd need before being brought on board," Hammond said in his unique Texan accent.

"Um, General," Daniel asked, "Would that be more training than the course I took?"

"Most definitely, Dr. Jackson. If Alexander Harris here is to be assigned a field position instead of research, it is SOP. Your own unique position is just that; unique."

"Alright, sir," Xander smiled, "Let me have it."

Hammond placed his hands together. "Son, what I'm about to reveal to you is one of the most closely guarded secrets this government has. And the fact is I'm not sure just how you got clearance for this, but someone somewhere must really like you. In any case, during an excavation in Giza in 1928..."

Thirty minutes later, and watching the Stargate activate, Xander was smiling like an idiot.

"Do I get to go through that? I mean, just a quick trip to a safe little world, 'cause that would be way cool—and I'm thinking if Harry doesn't make me his partner after this summer, I'm wanting into this outfit."

"Harry?" O'Neill asked, as always expecting his old 'friend' Maybourne to show up somehow.

"Harry Stamper, sir," Xander smiled. "My boss…oil drilling…"

"Well, as I said before," General Hammond began, only to have Xander raise a hand.

"Sir, I'm just asking for a peek. Not a mission, I don't know what you really have going on here, but…" he gestured at the stone ring. "Just a peek, then you can have 'Murray'— and jeez, but you guys so need to come up with something better than that—test me." He melodramatically attempted the puppy dog eyes at the General, causing O'Neill to smirk.

"I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that, fella," O'Neill told him, "First the entrance exam, then you can put in your request for off-world travel."

"Alright, alright," Xander smiled, then he got serious. "Okay. I've been taking martial arts on the side for a while now, and I don't know how much you know about my summer working for Harry Stamper; but he and his guys put me through several hundred hours of training—in case we ran into trouble."

"Yeah, we didn't get too much on that," O'Neill admitted. "But I heard Stamper looks after his people pretty well." Approval was as much in his voice, as was a bit of annoyance information wasn't forthcoming.

Xander shrugged. "Well, when you've had to pick up pipes, guns or machetes to drive off tribal raids in some areas, the guys thought it would be fun to train me so they could sleep soundly for a change—while the newbie gets to play night watchman!"

Being a Sunday meant the gymnasium frequented by SG-1 was nearly empty as they entered, O'Neill and Teal'c both attired as they normally were for boxing or sparring.

Xander had been offered a pair of shorts, and he'd decided to wear his seam-threadbare T-shirt like one he'd used to surprise the Master Chief during his preliminary unarmed combat evaluation.

He saw the eyes of SG-1 widen slightly at his scars, and a moment later Carter was talking to someone over the intercom. He stretched a bit, loosened up and walked over.

"Okay, where do we start?" Xander asked Colonel O'Neill.

"Well, how about you and Teal'c slowly start with the unarmed, and we'll see where that takes us?"

"Alright, but does that mean we're gonna do a Star Trek impersonation and grab weapons at some point without stopping, or what?"

"Well, if you actually get knocked back that far," O'Neill responded, pointing at the two weapons cabinets Daniel was unlocking, that had practice staves, kendo swords and such. "Or if you're doing so well I want to check response times, and kinda just throw things at you…"

Xander couldn't tell if he was serious. "Okay."

Teal'c and Xander faced off six feet from each other, and bowed. Immediately, Teal'c struck forward, Xander having leapt back and lifting his leg to place his foot at knee height.

The Jaffa side-stepped, avoiding the injury, then spun around to find Xander to the left and further away than expected. The Jaffa slowed his moves, surprised that the younger, scarred man wasn't pressing the attack as soon as would usually be expected.

Xander, meanwhile, had noticed an odd bulge in the middle of Teal'c's abdomen, and wondered what surprise was under the shirt. Deciding to test his theory that Murray was a case of intensive steroid enhancement and training, making him much stronger than normal even for his size, Xander noted not only the mass hitting with the steps on the floor, but the precision.

He might be in trouble, which meant that he could afford to let go a bit so as not to be taken down too quickly; after all, the male teen really wanted to go through the Gate.

Xander continued to back-pedal, slide and feint, dodge and foot-feint, avoiding the Jaffa's attacks for the most part, forearms deflecting many of the blows as the attacks came inexorably and faster each time. 'Okay, time for something different...'

Using many of Harry's basic military unarmed combat moves, and mixing in some of the forms used in the Roman arena, Xander managed to increasingly achieve small but definite hits, though only one for every three that Teal'c managed.

That was when a lucky hit felt something soft and…wrong, when Xander managed a glancing blow to the center of the abs, and reacted instinctually. Harris dropped to the floor, grabbed his opponent's shirt to force him forward and toward the floor, and punched the side of Teal'c's right knee, hard.

(Daemon!) Xander hissed in Latin, surprising Teal'c further; first, his use of the language that greatly resembled the one of the Ancients. Then there was the hit to his uncharacteristically-moving symbiote. Then Xander's exclamation that carried with it connotations of stories told to him as a child, of evil things that preyed on Jaffa and humans alike.

Xander rolled away as O'Neill and SG-1 began to very slowly (or so it seemed) approach from the far side of the gym, where a small crowd—including the just-returned SGs-2 and -3, plus Hammond—was present.

O'Neill grabbed a pair of staves in case he'd need them, but even from this far away the look on the young man's face had changed when he'd hit Teal'c's stomach. 'Crap, we didn't tell him about the snakes or T yet. I'm thinkin', big mistake!'

Very close to the weapons, Xander's roll allowed him to grab two wooden swords, as he dumped the cabinet over and spilled it in the process. The no-longer-surprised Teal'c noted the hardening in Xander's eyes after his comment, and managed to grab a practice staff of the Jaffa variety before Xander could resume the attack.

Xander darted directly at Teal'c, left practice sword dipped slightly below the horizontal, the other at the angle Maximus had held it when he'd charged the vampires attacking Ethan.

O'Neill knew he wouldn't be able to bridge the gap for six seconds, even picking up the pace to the maximum…

(Die, daemon!) Xander spat again, as he skip-stabbed off with his forward sword toward Teal'c's liver…swinging the right to a forward position…

Teal'c—who had positioned the staff point up and right of center, the other point down and to his left side—moved forward and downward with a swat. He shifted to his left as he brought the left end of his staff upward, to spin Xander's right-sword toward Xander's upper left to open for a shot.

But Xander rolled to his left and slipped his right-sword to roll along and under Teal'c's staff, as he let his blade be turned down and back. Just enough, to provide a brief cross of the weapons. Then Xander pushed against the enemy as he rolled the blade and himself into Teal'c's right flank, just as O'Neill was shifting into the Jaffa's rear-left, but was forced to spin around and regain his position.

Teal'c, surprised by the willingness of the young human to take on one he clearly believed to be 'daemon' and amazed as the sudden increase in capability, spun and directly faced Xander, O'Neill trying to slow himself as the two warriors faced off.

Xander began a simple routine, trying with a flurry of short more-than-probing moves to strike at the Jaffa's hands on the staff, but managed only to keep his opponent from gaining assistance from O'Neill. 'Crap! Okay, let's try this again...'

The speed and strength of the blows amazed the Jaffa and the bystanders, the skill and instincts of the gladiator nearly matching the now-recovering Jaffa that did not wish to permanently injure the boy.

O'Neill leapt in on the side, Xander dropping and rolling, smacking the man's left kneecap with the flat, bringing him down in front of Teal'c to allow himself a chance to right and ready.

But Colonel Makepeace and Major Ferretti closed the gap. So Xander suddenly turned and leaped up and away from Teal'c to crescent-kick Lou in the side, using the other sword to painfully strike Makepeace's pugil stick out of his hands and to the floor, before spinning around to repeat the attack on Ferretti as well.

"XanderHarris, I am not a daemon. I am Jaffa," Teal'c told him, dodging two blows, and managing to remove the boxer's headgear that hid his gold tattoo.

Deep in the zone, Xander could see no guile in his opponent's eyes as they maneuvered a little more. Xander mule-kicking Ferretti in the stomach and taking him out of the fight, as Makepeace dodged back.

"Then what the hell is that thing inside you?" Harris asked, side-skipping to keep the 'Jaffa' between him and the coordinating SGC soldiery.

"It is a symbiote, a larval Goa'uld," was the reply, as their blows slowed and became more calculating. "Implanted within me by a race of serpent-like beings, that posed as the false gods of your Egyptian pantheon."

"And you let them do that!"

"It is unavoidable. Ever since the first prim'ta ritual on the planet Dakara millennia ago, all Jaffa must be so implanted on the onset of puberty—or die."

The former First Prime of Apophis then said, "I am Teal'c, and I was among the first to rebel and join your people the Tau'ri—to fight the Goa'uld," the Jaffa told him. Choosing at that moment to simply drop his staff, open his arms and bow his head in acceptance.

Xander paused as the SGC personnel slowed and halted, barely out of reach, as the young warrior stopped in a defensive stance and considered what he'd heard. Jack approached Teal'c's side and watched, as the boy looked down and began to shake.

No one knew what would happen next. Xander just seemed to shake uncontrollably. He looked at O'Neill with rage, surprising the old combat veteran.

"You. Left. It. Inside. Him."

No one answered immediately, and Xander suddenly wasn't sure if he would make it out of here anymore, and Maximus' experiences as a captive slave did not suddenly endear him to the SGC at the moment. A lack of a response usually meant bad things.

So Xander, on a thin boost of adrenaline, and sure that he'd lost control enough to become a security risk, spoke low and in ancient Egyptian to Teal'c. Which was close enough to his native tongue that the Jaffa got the general idea.

Teal'c, we might not make it out of here alive. If they're keeping you here as a slave, then I know I won't be allowed to leave here alive! So let's at least show them that their chains mean nothing, and teach them how free men die. When you're ready…grab the general, and I'll get the out-of-shape O'Neill—using them as shields, we might stand a small chance… He would have continued, but the Jaffa bowed deeply then shook his head.

"Have them stand down, O'Neill. XanderHarris has the soul of a true Jaffa," Teal'c said to his commanding officer, placing his arms and hands out to keep the SGC people back. And then he stepped forward as O'Neill nodded to the others, Hammond coming up to join them.

"Mind telling me what that little babble-fest was about?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He accepted the truth of my situation and offered to die fighting at my side, O'Neill. So that I could die free and not exist simply as a slave forcibly conscripted into Tau'ri service, instead of that of the false gods."

O'Neill and the others looked at the near-weeping adrenaline-crashing Xander Harris as the boy stood down, but didn't relinquish his weapons. "You think we would do that!" Jack asked, stunned.

Daniel seemed in awe of the young man's fluidity in the language used even if some of his pronunciations were off, much as his own had been when first stepping onto Abydos' soil.

"You didn't answer me before…" Xander near whispered.

"When?"

"Why you left that thing in him."

"Oh. That."

"Yeah, that. Oh, don't come too close yet, Colonel, I'm still a little jumpy here," Xander responded again. "I didn't expect to go beyond sparring, let alone against a stronger-than-expected opponent. Teal'c, give me a moment, then please remove the swords from my hands…"

"It will be as you say, XanderHarris." The Jaffa turned and gave everyone not O'Neill or Hammond the patented 'don't make me hurt you' glare with cocked eyebrow.

"Everyone except Dr. Fraiser and SG-1, please clear the room," Hammond ordered. "SFs remain outside for now." A moment later it was so, and he watched as Teal'c stepped over and gently removed the weapons from Harris's hands and bowed to the young man.

"I would be honored if you would spar with me in the future, XanderHarris of California."

"Really?"

"Indeed."

"Somehow," Xander replied quietly, raising his eyes to look at General Hammond, then the Jaffa, "I'm not expecting to be invited back here anytime soon, my friend who fights false gods. But if they really do let you out, visit me on the rigs next summer and I'll take you crocodile fighting."

"Indeed? What do you use to hunt crocodiles? I have learned that while strong, they seem slow on land."

"Land? I meant ocean-swimming crocodiles, four times your height in length, and I use a knife like the colonel carries on his missions. And a flare gun."

"Flare gun!" O'Neill interrupted, breaking the moment as they waited for something.

"You really didn't read my file too closely, did you, Colonel?" Xander smiled, shaking his head as he ripped off his shirt for fun. He pointed at the tooth marks, "Two dozen feet long, big teeth, swims between Pacific islands, a little on the ornery side. When one gets his teeth over your head, you fire the flare gun down his throat to at least take the bastard with you."

Jack began to do a very good fish impression. 'Nuts, I really dropped the ball on this one...'

"You wondering now why a reptile suddenly coming out of a man's stomach without warning, gets me a bit on edge?" Xander's eyes were filled with water from the stress. "General Hammond, my apologies, sir. I very much understand that you'd like me to leave immediately."

The Jaffa instantly spoke up. "GeneralHammond, as XanderHarris fought to protect this facility from what he thought was an enemy infiltration, I ask you to consider that I hold no grievance for his actions; and I would be honored to serve with and train XanderHarris, should he be permitted to join the SGC."

The Americans gaped for a moment, not only because the one who'd been attacked was firmly supporting his attacker; but that it was Teal'c, and he had made what was probably the longest 'speech' they could remember in some time. And his declaration itself was important.

"I'll definitely take that into consideration, Teal'c, even though I'd like to know just where those scars came from," Hammond pointed at Xander. "And where someone learns enough to take out three of my team leaders, and fend off a former First Prime!"

"The scars…are a private matter, General. They involve no illegality on my part, and can't in any way affect this command. So let me just say a desperate man is capable of quite a lot, if it's his ass on the line. And don't go around Mindanao or other areas now of the Moslem world without firepower, unless you can use a blade really well."

A literal truth, as Maximus' first campaign had involved duty on the Persian frontier, which was now of the Islamic persuasion. And he had indeed gotten into a fight over a girl in Mindanao...

Jack O'Neill pondered the riddle of Alexander Harris; during the session he'd noticed quite a bit of SeAL style training mixed with whatever the hell style of sword-based skills employed to essentially take out of the fight three experienced black ops colonels and a Jaffa—given, they didn't want to kill or seriously damage him, but in spite of his rather debilitating strikes none had been going for a mortal or permanent blow.

Hell, Makepeace and his team were discussing the kid's technique as they'd headed toward the infirmary! Marines! Go figure! And Lou mumbling something about the kid's eyes, looking like Charlie Kawalsky's did as he was in the zone of a firefight—but somehow colder.

And then Teal'c's immediately standing with the kid when it was over—the pride and protectiveness like a lion as the young man calmed down from a serious adrenaline boost; there'd been no flight in his response when he'd made his offer to Teal'c to take on the SGC, just the two of 'em—hell, just thinking about it, he was almost afraid to think what the kid would be like with Jaffa training.

Episode IX

Sunnydale, California. Monday, January 12th, 1999

Xander looked at the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign, as his taxi drove him home from the airport. His report to Maybourne had pointed out a couple of tiny things, but he could not in all fairness find any real fault other than his own age without known military service and training as being a factor for a review of procedure at the SGC.

As to that Command, Xander had been glad he'd been allowed to leave, and that he had not been excluded from possible future service. Plus, SG-1 had even taken him out for dinner at a place called O'Malley's, to assure him they bore him no ill.

Flashback

"So, really, what're my chances, Colonel?" Xander asked after dinner, sighing. "I did kinda lose it there."

"Yeah, but it did involve junior," O'Neill told him. Then he smirked, "And your particular response was much more impressive than most of those who find out."

"Oh?"

"Indeed, XanderHarris," Teal'c intoned. "I believe O'Neill once accused a new team of shrieking like little girls."

"So, back on subject?" Xander asked after the laughter was over.

"Give us a couple of months, keep your nose clean, and we'll see. Alright?"

"Thanks, Colonel."

"I have a question for you, though, Harris, what is it about your entire town that would cause 'Murray' and junior to react badly to it? Especially your school."

"Well other than the fact that school sits on the Mouth of Hell, I'd say that Murray is an extremely sensitive and caring individual that has great empathy for the students."

After three laughs and a tolerant Jaffa smile, Jack asked again, "Really."

"I think the town sits on a bunch of ley lines? Earthquake mini-plates or something? Maybe he's picking up on the geological stresses."

"Why would they be more there than other places?" Carter asked, intrigued as she had felt a little off, but had thought it was the Happy Burger meal the colonel had bought while they stayed in that night.

"Well, we have a large cave system from about the school down to the sea, maybe it moves…air around underneath…and it's the extra vibrations?" Xander responded, not really thinking the Jaffa was a Hellmouth-detection-device, "Let me think about it, and if I get a chance I'll email Harry and see if anything springs to mind. Don't worry, I won't mention anything."

End Flashback

The cab dropped him off at his house at around six, the young man happy to be at home for at least a few days, not having to officially check in with Finn until tomorrow. He let himself into the home, finding Giles, Faith and Buffy inside.

"Hey all," the well-developed young man greeted his loved ones. "Uh, why the serious looks?"

"Well, it seems the Council has had reports of Kakistos gathering his nastiest vampires to make a trip to Sunnydale sometime within the next month," the Watcher revealed. "And, and we were discussing possible ways of dealing with the situation, especially as some of the lieutenants in question were known to favor firearms before being turned."

Xander considered things for a moment, noticing how Faith was hiding her tension. He considered Riley, and even Teal'c, but he knew that keeping his friends' identities safe would be next to impossible under such circumstances.

"Okay. Here's a possible plan," Xander said, shifting into seriousness mode. "Buffy, I need you to find a serious dye solution for Hope here, who happens to be an odd all-white or platinum in hair color. Giles, I need you to front a few thousand dollars, and arrange to have one of your contacts to provide us with a specific list of items when we get to Boston."

Harris paused. "If they ask questions, tell them one of Faith's fellow triplets, Hope—who's not a Slayer—will be traveling with one Lavelle Kalderash, namely me. You've hired us to conduct armed recon in the area. The Council will pay them. Hope and I will just show up, hit a few of Kakistos' haunts, and maybe do a Pearl Harbor on their asses."

"Dye my hair?" Faith asked. "And Boston?"

"Yeah, Hope, Boston. You're the native guide, and we'll move around a lot. We find, we arson or shoot, we move on," he assured her. "We're not there to go after the old guy, alright?"

"What about school, Xander?" Giles asked, remembering that since last autumn they'd gotten his charge enrolled into the school system. "She really shouldn't miss too many days."

"How about I head out and do recon, and she shows up late Friday night—then we fly back here Sunday night?" the young man offered, "Otherwise, say we're going to pick up her remaining things and we fly out tomorrow night."

"I dare say, the sooner the better," Giles conceded, and Xander gestured at the phone on the side table. The young man turned back toward the two Slayers.

"Okay. Next thing I'd like to do, Hope, is call in a few guys I know that are in the military, have you not play Slayer, keep it toned down to just under my levels of speed if you can. Concentrate on instincts and practice with the sword, not the fist. That way you can keep your cover intact, but we can field some extra help."

"Who are these guys…" Faith began, then remembered his cover name, and how another couple she knew practiced stuff like this when she was younger, "Lavelle, and what's the deal with 'em?"

"Can't tell you, just that they've got the right kinda training and started out as a group of independents. We'll tell them you're Hope, and you know my name but call me 'Gypsy' and I call you 'Hopeless', alright?"

She nodded silently.

"And we'll say we've been hunting off and on for a few months, and that you have a sister in Sunnydale, and another one roaming around somewhere in Arizona, but haven't seen 'Charity' in a year or so…and she's auburn in hair color. Hope wears leather, Faith tends toward blue jeans, and Charity was into the cowboy scene, no comment. Good so far?"

"You've thought this out, huh Xander?" Buffy asked.

"Nah, line of thought right now, Buff, and please pass this info on to Willow as real, and maybe Cordelia, so there isn't a problem if someone checks. Even though Hope and Charity haven't been to Sunnydale before, got it?"

"I don't know about these new guys, Xander," Buffy said thoughtfully, as Giles stepped back over and sat down. "Can they be trusted?"

"Hey, a bit of backup might be nice, I'm thinkin'," Faith responded though, liking the idea of firepower on her side. "And it's not like the Council has guys they're gonna send to help, right?"

"I'm afraid not," Giles conceded. "The human wetwork teams the Council does have are used elsewhere, because the Slayer cannot be in more than one place at a time. Though they are faxing the Kakistos file to your machine now."

"Riley, guys," Xander greeted as he met and shook hands with the three other young Initiative officers that entered the Happy Burger and sat down. "How would you feel about an unofficial recon mission to Boston, against a really nasty vampire that controls organized crime there?"

"You're kidding, right?" the man called Graham Miller asked. "How's a HST take over anything?"

"Don't forget, vampires are corpses inhabited by a demon. So, they have all of the memories of the host. So that means if the dearly departed was a mobster, it is the mobster as far as the vamp's concerned, only nastier and with a set of fangs to match."

"Okay, but why don't we go in officially?" Riley asked.

"One, you guys need experience, and we'll be dealing with independents who won't trust the military, or even most outsiders. And we'll be taking a few pot shots out in the open, burning down a few buildings, that sort of thing. Rumor has it he's thinking of expanding to southern California, and will be trying a few smaller towns and cities before LA itself."

"Lex," Riley asked, "Just how well positioned is this HST?"

"Apparently, he controls about 20 percent of Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Boston, crime-wise. Started out of Louisiana, and never looked back. After that, the mob organized itself and has managed to hold the line for a while."

"How long's a while?" Forest asked, "I haven't read about any gang warfare lately."

"There were 30 dust piles next to the bodies during the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre," Xander told him, getting a surprised reaction from the Initiative people. "Not that long ago, though, when you figure the vamp's been a lot longer than that."

"We should tell Walsh…" Riley began.

"And that would just guarantee we'd be without intel, in Boston. Look, if you guys could just arrange a flight there, I have some extra ordnance and the independent who contacted me, ready to head out tomorrow morning. Just tell Dr. Walsh that as I have business for Stamper there, I'm showing you the ropes there instead of blowing our cover here."

Finn nodded. "Okay, guess that'll work. And if we bring her back anything at all, she'll be too happy this early into the project to ask awkward questions."

The night passed relatively quietly, preparations made, the Council authorizing payment for five independents for two weeks.

In his left hand, Xander carried a tube with maps and notes on Kakistos' known operations in the Greater Boston area, and an enthusiastic researcher had managed to include a few basics on the Baltimore and Chicago parts of the vampire's empire.

In the other, a laptop that not only held his business files, but much of the information on the damned ugly vamp in question. He waved over Riley and the others to help move things to the plane.

"What do you have in here, Lex?" the young Initiative field commander asked. "An armory?"

"Funny you should say that…" Xander smiled. "Other than the normal stuff, you guys are carrying two AT-4s and an M-60 I picked up a while ago."

"Wait a minute…" Graham began. "Do you know how many laws you're breaking?"

"None. You don't see me handling 'em, do ya?" Lex smiled, "And besides, you can now put into your report that you found them. And if we use them, and get Walsh her samples, all is well, right?"

"We're going to have to have a long talk after this, Lex," Riley sighed. "I at least don't want to be surprised."

"Fair enough, but I won't give up the identities of folks that've been keeping people safe around here while the military and government sat on their asses, alright?" They reached the plane and paused.

Riley nodded. "That's fair."

"Cool."

"Where's your contact?'

"Already on board, while you were helping me."

"What!" the three soldiers exclaimed, and hurried aboard, Xander chuckling as he followed.

The men found 'Hope' in skin-tight but durable leather pants covering the minimum, knee-high boots with a three-inch heel, black tank-top under a leather vest, leather gloves with crosses covering the outside. She'd found and poured herself a whiskey, and was nibbling a large length of black licorice.

"What took ya so long…Gambit," she smirked at Xander and ignored the soldier-boys. She played her street and Slayer persona to the extreme, something that 'Faith' hadn't done since finding a home. "Keeping me waitin' 'snot the way to get to a girl's heart, now is it?"

"Well, cher, Gambit iz as Gambit wants, no?" Xander shrugged, dressed in the long black coat, mostly leather over-clothes. And privately, he admitted to himself that he did vaguely dress like one of the X-Men.

Playing it the way she'd steered it, Harris continued in a more normal voice, but let a little of the Roman accent into his speech, as his military comrades watched it play out, closing the door and signaling a take-off. "So, did you see your sister?"

He moved up, set his belongings into the chair behind her, and took the drink from her hand, finishing it off. 'I bet she's loving every minute of driving me crazy.'

"No time, she was at…away," Hope replied with visual distaste. "So I capped a few vamps with that wicked new piece ya got me, kinda hopin' you'd show up?"

"Sorry, cher," Xander responded without apparent remorse, and waved a finger to touched her nose, but Faith playfully caught it in her teeth. "But I had to arrange things for your little to-do, no?"

He wriggled the finger free and caressed her cheek. The white-haired girl lightly made a brief noise of appreciation, and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. 'Does he have any clue what that's doing to me?'

"I never took you for a black licorice girl, Hope."

"It's the only whip you'll let near you, Gypsy," she replied, moving back to the agreed script with the use of his cover name, "Unless you want me to change that?"

"Maybe we'll have fun after this is over, Hopeless."

"I'm holding you to that, lover."

"We're ready for take-off," Riley pointed out, somewhat off-balance with the show. "So buckle in, and we'll be in Boston in a few hours."

"Wanna do the honors, Gypsy?" the girl asked Xander, "I know I'd like to feel 'safe' with you."

Xander simply reached over, chuckled, and buckled her in. Then he repeated the procedure for himself.

Boston, Massachusetts. Later that day

The group landed in the city without incident, having gone over the provided material; 'Hope' inserting her own (Slayer-based and) street-based points of concern, avenues of approach, background of the areas as she remembered them.

The military boys took this, applied their training as to improve pre- and post-contact readiness, allow for law enforcement and introduction of gunplay. Xander with his Halloween experiences and time as a Scooby, did his best to blend the two viewpoints into a general plan everybody could work with. Then they'd napped.

First order of business was to have Riley meet his Initiative contact at the tarmac, get the two nondescript 10-year-old cars with Massachusetts plates and get going. Hope, of course, rode with Riley and Xander, claiming the back seat - where she could see out but probably not be recognized despite her partial disguise. Graham and Forrest followed in the second car. They drove ten minutes, before anyone spoke.

"So, where the hell am I driving?" Riley asked.

Xander gave him general directions, then told him to pull over at the next pay phone so he could make a call. They waited in the car.

"So, I never found out how the two of you met?" Riley broached the subject.

"Oh, that. Well, he'd gotten back from somewhere I can't even pronounce, walked up, ignored the two guys I'd just hooked up with, looked at my palm and offered to tell me my future," she smiled at the story they'd adjusted. And then remembered another time when a couple used to do the same in front of mirrors at home.

"He told me that I'd be buyin' him a drink in less than half an hour. I asked 'why'? He says 'cause after I leave with these two guys that'd been cozyin' up to me, it would be kismet. So I look at him like he's an idiot, he wanders off. Half hour later, I buy him the drink."

"Okay…why?"

"'Cause those two guys were vampires, they tried to get all bite-y in the alley. So this guy leaps out and dusts one, while I kick the other in his fuel sacks, get me? And Gypsy comes up and kicks the feet out from the guy and hands me a piece a wood, tells me to dust the bastard. I saw what happened to the other vamp, so I did. Gypsy smiles at me and says…"

"Ready to buy me that drink, now?" Xander finished for her as he got back in the car. "Telling tales, Hope?"

"Nah, the guy wanted to know how we met. So to keep from other, more interestin' questions, I told him."

"Alright. Anyhow, I made contact, and we're to proceed to this address," Xander told them, handing a note with directions on it to Riley. "Then we'll pick up my 'special order' from them and head to a small empty house that they own, so that no vamps'll get in."

They pulled up to the house, nondescript in the middle of an invisble neighborhood. They moved their stuff inside; and while Forrest and Graham checked out and secured the place, the other three went over some of the 'extras' Xander had procured.

"Listening devices, parabolic microphones, four pounds of C-4, two dozen timing devices, remote detonators…" Riley recited as he identified the inventory, his chest tightening, "Lex…"

"Don't worry, I didn't steal this," the young man told him. "But if we find Kakistos really does have a really large group with him at some point, I plan on them all being 'gone' and us safely away from Boston shortly afterwards."

"Fair enough, for now. But we're very much having that talk, once we get back home."

"Sure thing, just remember you're joining in on a war that's been invisibly fought for a VERY long time."

The gang ate and rested, planning to simply drive by all of the places early that evening to get a personal visual of what they'd learnt so far.

They'd been surprised when casual use of the infrareds and parabolic mics as they passed seemed to indicate from voices alone that there must be at least 40 or 50 vamps, and maybe ten human accomplices at each of the seven locations. But no direct sign of Kakistos, though his name had been mentioned several times.

"What do you want to do?" Riley asked, as they drove in the general direction of their lodgings. "There're people in there."

"Yeah, but they work for the other side, Riley," Lex replied. "And they do it willingly. You heard what they do, every major crime and they find orphans to feed the goddamn vamps. I'm not sayin' we specifically aim for the bastards, but if they die while we're dusting 40 or 50 bloodsuckers at a whack? I can handle it without losing any sleep."

"When do you think the humans'd be less likely to be there?" Forrest asked. "We have to do something, I don't want them feeding any more kids to these things."

"Hope, what do you think? Just before dawn?"

"Yeah, Gypsy Man, makes sense. And any of 'em still 'round sleepin' with vamps, aren't much of a loss," the Slay-gal replied, her insides churning at the thought of killing people as she held her exterior cool. "Maybe an hour or so before, just to play it safe."

"Okay, how about this," 'Gypsy' offered as a plan. "We find the gas lines and water lines going into the buildings with the least vampires, maybe sneak up to the main supports we notice from outside, and place charges so that they detonate around four in the morning and basically torch the places. Then do the same for the largest targets, but add the rockets into the mix."

"Do you even know how many laws we're breaking?" Riley asked.

"None, actually. Because we're not here having this conversation, are we?"

"How do we keep this from biting us in the ass, if we get caught by law enforcement?"

"Call a certain guy and have it leaked to the cops that William Ragsdale a.k.a. Spike is in town - making a move on some guy called the Greek Freak. Ragsdale is suspected of numerous armory thefts, explosives smuggling, causing numerous disappearances out in California, but there's no hard evidence on him."

"Does this guy really exist?"

"Yup, but he's a vamp over 100 years old, and got the name Spike because he enjoyed using railroad spikes to torture his victims first."

"That's sick," Graham said, shaking his head. "And I thought the HSTs were just smart animals…"

"Some species of demon, HST, whatever, they are non-violent. Though you don't find too many of them in Sunnydale. But very few are 'just' animals, dude. Keep it in mind, and make sure you don't ever confuse ability with appearance."

"So which ones are just animals then, werewolves?" Riley asked.

"No!" Xander emphasized strongly. "Werewolves are usually just some poor bastard that got bit, humans with a three nights-a-month hairiness situation. If they lock themselves up, no problem. The only ones that need taking down are the ones who like it, and roam free to enjoy a kill. Hell, you don't off a kid with AIDS, do you? After all, he could bite you and give it to you."

"Relax, Lex," Riley replied, "Don't forget, you're here to help us learn all this stuff."

"So what about our sample?" Forrest asked. "Any chance with so many hostiles?"

"Maybe we'll come across a Fyarl or something near one of the Freak's warehouses," Xander replied, once again in control of himself, "Though it's best to knock them unconscious, since so many of them seem to just turn into goo when killed."

"What about this capo vamp?" Graham asked. "What will his response be?"

"He'll probably show up in Sunnydale with another hundred vampires, and we can collect a few vampires there?" Lex grimaced. "Though I'm hoping by hitting him hard here and now, we can just postpone his plans rather than enrage him. But at least that would mean he wouldn't have a really good plan of his own."

"Um, that would still give them the initiative, so to speak," Riley unhappily pointed out. "Is there any way we could improve the odds at all?"

"I have information on his Baltimore and Chicago stuff," Harris nodded. "It's a bit sketchy, but I'm out of explosives and rockets at that point. But if we made a few hits, it might buy us some time."

"Well, I don't think we'll need to use quite as much explosive as you think," Forrest considering, making some calculations. "Maybe we could stretch it to three or four more targets of the same size."

"Afterwards, we could leave word at a demon bar, or a place I know the 4-1-1 will get back to Kakistos," 'Hope' contributed. "Piss him off by letting it slip that we'll be in Baltimore or Chicago the next few days. Might make him mad enough to show up, but I wouldn't want to take on a warehouse without blowing the place up first."

"That's for sure," Forrest agreed, "But I think it would at least give us a chance at the HST, and that'll make the boss forgive what we needed to do to get it, I'd bet."

"Okay, it's a plan," Riley, Lex and Hope all agreed at the same time.

O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. Very early that Sunday morning

"That was a heck of a trip, boys," Hope sighed as she headed for the commercial terminal and international flights. "But I think I'll take some time off, and enjoy Cancun while I can. Sorry we couldn't get you an old vamp, hope that Fyarl does the trick for ya."

She gave each of them a short hug, Xander a grab on the ass and then the girl sashayed away until out of view. Then she quickly headed for the domestic side of things, and took out her ticket to LAX.

"I wonder how long I'll have to wait for Lex to pick me up at the hotel?" Faith mused. "And how much I can spend on food and massages, until he shows?"

Los Angeles, California. A few hours later

Alexander Harris stepped into the LAX Hilton, where the crème décor offered a comforting contrast to the noisy exterior of automobile and aircraft traffic. He had the desk call up, and let Ms. LeHane know of his arrival.

A few minutes later, and checking her bag at the desk for the moment, she signed out and thanked the clerk for an enjoyable stay. She walked over to him in regular black jeans, white blouse, and hi-top sneakers, looking comfortable and the complete anti-thesis of 'Hope'.

Xander watched in awe as the super-powered yet normal-looking girl walked with quiet confidence toward him. "Hmmmm..."

"So, ready to take a girl out on a date?" she joked. "After all, Faith hasn't seen you in days." She flipped her hair to one side, which had been dyed back to her own shades and style.

"Well—all right, Faith, how about breakfast here at the hotel, then we spend six hours at Disneyland?" he replied with a smile. "Is that an adequate first date?"

"Not my usual, Dundee, but I think you've persuaded me."

"Just so you know it's a date, and not just us going out, we'll have to head left once we get in through the gate."

"Why's that?" she asked as they entered the restaurant, Faith casting an appreciative look at his plain bomber jacket, black work pants, blue dress shirt and croc boots. They were seated immediately.

"Because left is where the hokey stuff is. Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted House, the Country Bears and such."

She actually giggled and rolled her eyes. "What's the other way?"

"The 'cool' stuff that would mean we were trying to impress each other and make us look sophisticated, instead of enjoying ourselves completely relaxed, eating lots of junk food and buying you silly trinkets."

They ordered hefty breakfasts despite the hotel prices, having pocketed all of the Council's payments so as not to tip off the Initiative. "Silly trinkets?" Faith then reminded him.

"At the very least, you'll be the Slayer wearing a pair of mouse ears."

"Can we get Giles a wizard's hat?"

"If they have them, yeah, otherwise just the Mickey Mouse Wizard stuffed animal."

"A 'Pluto' for Oz?"

"Anything up to 30 pounds, after that Slayer strength will be required in the lifting of all objects thereafter."

"Aren't you supposed to impress me with your manliness on the first date?" Faith asked.

"In Disneyland? That would just get me arrested, and you wouldn't have me around to carry that first 30 pounds of loot. Besides, I told you we were going left and not right inside the park?" Xander retorted.

"Not going to finish it in a day?"

"Nope. Besides, if you like it, we'll come back in a couple months and there'll be something new on a future date."

"Future date? Confident, aren't ya?" she asked with raised eyebrow.

"I figure the siren call of Space Mountain pretty much means I get the next date bonus, if I don't do too badly the first time. Especially if I keep you well fed."

"You just keep telling yourself that…"

"Nah, I have something else I'd say instead."

"What's that?"

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me…"

"You're so weird…"

"And?"

"I like it…a lot."

Episode X

Sunnydale, California, January 17th, 1999 10:00 PM

Having stopped off and actually picking up the paper backlog and the laptop he'd left that morning for automated updates and downloads, the two young people pulled in having had a very long and fulfilling day. Giles, alerted by Xander as to his probable arrival time, was himself pulling up in his 'vintage' automobile.

The Watcher squatted down next to the rolled down driver's side window, smiling as he looked over to the still-sleeping Faith, a smile on her face.

"It looks like you've just managed to get my daughter home by her curfew, young man," Giles joked quietly, causing a slightly tired Xander to smile broadly. "It looks like she's had quite a good day, she seems so relaxed. And it also seems to have done you some good as well."

"Yeah, we did have a great time, Giles," the young man nodded. "It was good to do something normal for a change. I think maybe the entire group needs to take a weekend off from the Hellmouth, maybe get Angel to hold down the fort while we skulk out of town, that way no one will know we've gone before we've come back."

"Indeed, that's a very good idea," the Watcher considered, patting the boy on the back and dropping a note, shaking his head once, abruptly, to prevent Xander from reaching for it. "Even during the winter break, there really wasn't any letup from usual. Well, you look tired. When you get a chance, please call, and I'll come over to hear of your weekend."

Xander nodded and played along, managing to palm the note and with his keys placed both in his pocket.

"Thanks for coming over to check on us, G-Man," Xander smiled. "I thought we'd be back sooner." He'd deliberately fed back an untruth to show he understood something wasn't right. Giles just nodded.

Xander Harris had put in a long morning of catching up, prioritizing his next few weeks of work, answering most of the emails, and letting the other guys in Oxnard know what he'd be up to. He parked in a visitor spot at the school, and made his to the library, expecting to find Giles, but instead found a note on the door saying that Giles himself could be found in the principal's office.

Peeking his head into the land of books, he found Willow behind the counter, tidying up. "Hey Wills, what's the what?"

"I'm filling in for Giles at lunch while he's in the office," she said, putting food pellets into a cage feeder for two rats. "And some of the others are filling in different periods."

"Why's our favorite librarian out of the library?" he asked. "And are the rodents a school project?"

"Oh, Giles didn't tell you last night?"

"Tell me what? We got in kinda late."

She proceeded to fill him in on the Hansel and Gretel demon, MOO, the whole witch-burning attempt, how Giles had tried to push several people—including the Mayor—out of the way of Amy's spell. Thus Snyder and the Deputy Mayor had taken the brunt of it, then Oz had used the confusion to free Buffy.

"So why are they still in rat bodies?" Xander asked, feeding the snarling one, Snyder, a pellet. "That was three days ago."

"Well, I tried, but I couldn't do it," she responded with chagrin. "A-and Amy was hit .n the head when someone threw a chair, so she's in like a light coma."

"Wow, so why's Giles in the office?"

"Oh, the Mayor was so happy that whatever happened to Mr. Finch and Principal Snyder hadn't happened to him because of Giles, he got him appointed Acting Principal until they can find a new one."

"Heck, G-Man's now Principal G," Xander mused. "That's cool and unexpected."

"Yeah, he'll come in after school to make sure everything's in order and keep up with the Watcher-y stuff."

"Wow, do you think he'd mind my stopping by?"

"You can try, it's just a matter of if he's busy."

Giles had been out in a meeting, but Xander ran into Faith and Cordelia making small talk.

Cordelia turned to him, arching an eyebrow. "You never took me to Disneyland when we were dating," she mock-complained, causing him to smile and know things were still generally okay.

"Ah, but we'll always have…Monterrey," he smiled back. Changing gears as he saw Faith start to ask, he continued, "So, Faith, I ran into your sister Hope last week, she was quite a lot of energy."

"She better not have…" Faith responded, then stopped, having almost forgotten that she was Hope. Her pause caused Cordelia to look at her seriously.

"You do like the doofus!" Cordy smiled, and having not really run into Faith in her initial 'street mode' after the first couple of nights, had gotten used to the girl as being the 'Slayer that isn't obsessed with herself'.

"Cor…" Xander started gently, only to be interrupted.

"No! It's okay, I was hoping you'd find somebody, and was afraid Disneyland was just a friends thing," she smiled, bittersweet though. "You work so hard and then help with the, uh, you know, I just hoped you'd find somebody."

"Thanks, Cor," Xander smiled and gave her a quick hug when he noticed no one was looking, then drew Faith in as well. "I really want the two of you to be friends."

Both girls when released rolled their eyes and nodded. Cordelia excused herself and headed off to jibe Harmony about something.

"So, Lex, what's the deal with you and Queen C?" Faith asked as they walked out to the quad for the last half of lunch period. "Was she the breakup you mentioned when I first got into town?"

"Hmm, yeah, she was," Lex replied, filling her in on general terms why they'd split up, and how they'd done it and managed to remain close friends.

"No chance of getting back together?"

"None," he said, taking her hand in his as they sat at a bench. "I'll never regret being with her, but I'm seeing someone now I care very much for as a friend, and we'll see if we can make it work." He kissed her hand, something he remembered from one of the chick flicks he'd sat through with Buffy and Willow on a movie night. Faith blushed.

"Now that you know I like you, I want to talk to you about Giles."

"Which one of us?" she smirked back.

"The British one," he smiled, and explained the encounter with Giles and the note.

"What's it say?" she asked, wondering what could make the Watcher go 'cloak and dagger' on them.

"Well—it said, 'I'm sworn not to say anything about what will happen in a few days, as much as I need to, so I'm relying on you two to patrol extra hard and not say anything to anyone, especially Buffy when you're with her the entire time.'"

"Strange, Lex, it sounds like we're to stick to the B like wax, and kill everything we come across."

"Yeah, without technically saying it," he agreed, "Do you think it has anything to do with the stuff that happened while we were gone, or Kakistos?"

"Who would he 'swear to' though?" she asked, the warning bell ringing. "I think if you have that, you have the answer."

"I'm thinking it would be people who shop at the same stores he does," Xander said quietly. "And the only thing coming up in the next few days is Buffy's birthday."

"Think they'll try something?"

"Why? It's just her birthday?" he considered. "The Council, and a Slayer's birthday, we'll have to see if we can look it up at the house without the others knowing. I'm going to have a look at the Watcher's Diary Giles probably keeps locked in his desk. Then I'll meet you at the house later, 'kay?" The bell rang.

"Oh, gotta run before the new principal has to send his kid to detention," she joked, really liking the normality in her recent life, and gave him a very quick kiss. "See ya."

Willow was just about to lock up when Xander showed up.

"Hey Wills, I just need to get a few things, and I'll relock the doors when I go," he told his friend. "Better run before you're late for teaching your class."

Having more time than he'd intended, he first made it to Giles office, and after breaking the lock on the desk, simply read the last few days, made a few copies and left not knowing how to feel.

Xander worked the next few hours, and let his subconscious work over what little Giles had written, and the fact that it was the Watcher that had very pointedly put him on the trail without telling him anything.

'Splitting hairs,' Xander thought, 'But it means he keeps his word, and gets us to keep Buffy safe. And they want to do this with Kakistos running around?'

Faith came home around four, school and homework finished. She hopped onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar and bit into a pear while she watched Xander put aside his work and start prepping dinner.

"So, what's the sitch, Lex?" she said between bites. "You find out what's happening?"

"Yeah, I did," Harris said as he took out some pre-cut ingredients and began to make a stir fry. "Remember how we were researching Slayer strength before I went away in December? Apparently when a Slayer reaches 18 years old, the Council strips her of her powers and makes her fight a vampire on her own."

Faith's eyes went wide at the perceived betrayal. "No shit, and G is going along with this?"

"Not willingly. I skimmed his Watcher's Diary and made some copies; apparently he's doing this unwillingly, on Council orders, and writes, 'I wonder if they'll send a 'team'' to make sure Buffy has to go through with it."

Faith uncharacteristically remained silent, allowing him to continue.

"So he's getting around it through us," he smiled as he sloshed the food around the wok. "And if we unknowingly meet up with Buffy and make sure this vamp doesn't take her out, he's done his job, and we'll make sure Buffy comes through with flying colors. Please take the rice out of the steamer and put it on four plates, usual proportions."

"Why play along at all?" the Chosen One asked.

"If there's a 'team' with guns around, we might have no other choice," Xander grimaced. "So if we simply charge into the place, we should be good to go. I'm more worried about the Freak showing up during all this."

"Yeah, him," she replied quietly, but not as bad as she would have in October. "What's the plan for that?"

"Well, I'm thinking we use the equipment I brought back and a couple times a day drive around the usual areas listening for possible nests, and just before dawn, try the IR stuff for better body counts."

"When would we hit 'em?"

"Just before dusk," he considered, "Maybe an M-60 drive-by from Oz's van, and then head in with the weapons in the crate in the garage."

"Oh?" Faith responded as she continued to eat, a hopeful Slayer-at-Christmas look on her face. "Anything for me?"

"Yeah, a friend of Harry's we brought on to help fill in while I was running around managed to come up with these and start making them," Xander responded, handing one to Faith. "Don't break it open."

"It looks like one of those bigger paintball gel beads you shoot…" she considered, then held it to the light, as Oz and Willow came in. "Why's it look like there're two bubbles inside instead of one? And what's the liquid just under the skin?"

"Well, the insides break on impact, and I don't remember exactly what the two substances are, but when they hit, it blows up like a mini-napalm strike."

Willow and Oz looked at it closely and carefully.

"And the liquid is holy water, giving us just the tiniest part of a second before the fire," Xander said, "Normally we'd put water in, just to balance things, but figured the blessing could only help, especially against an old vamp like Kakistos, maybe we get a brief weakening in the hit spot before the fire does its damage."

"A-aren't these dangerous for us, too?" Willow asked, gently handing the ammo back as Faith passed her and Oz still-hot food.

"Yeah, but you get many hits instead of one with a crossbow," Oz said with clear approval. "Which means you're safe longer."

Willow smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, and it's probably a break down the door, lay down some fire, pardon the pun, then get into any hand-to-hand, ala Slayers. But we can take out nests before they can go out and feed on people."

"How about tiny crosses as shotgun pellets," Oz suggested. "If done right, it would be like rock salt or something non-lethal…"

"…and would put serious hurt on the vamps," Faith said with a smile, eating more.

"Hmm, maybe," Xander considered it. "I'll pass the ideas along, and see what the guy comes up with."

"Who's the guy?" Oz asked.

"Some kid named David, used to live in Santa Clara, seems to know about vampires and was quite happy to help out."

"So, Lex, can we, uh, try these out tonight? It's almost dark," Faith pleaded. "And I'm sure on a Monday night we can get everybody to go along."

"Hmm. Nah, let's do recon first, like I did in Boston," he said as Giles knocked and entered, Buffy right behind.

"Perfect timing, you guys hungry?" Xander asked, but both waved it off though Giles tried the Oolong being served with the meal. He then told them all the story of his trip, how they'd managed to use 'procured materials' to take out about 200 vampires (leaving out the human toll) in Boston, then maybe 150 in total in the two other cities.

"Wow…" the teens including Faith replied, with a subdued 'Good Lord' from Giles.

"So anyway, Faith, your sis said 'hi' and she'll try to swing by when she gets back from Mexico," he smiled, thinking of her attire, earning him a smack from the dark-haired Slayer.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For thinking of my sister like that, perv, you're mine now."

"Alright, alright, but I don't think I've ever been around a gal wearing that little leather…" Smack! "Ow!"

He explained the ammo and brought out some pistols that held a dozen rounds each, and with a smile, gave a short lesson without actually firing.

"I never thought guns would ever be useful against vamps," Buffy considered. "Usually, they just make them mad."

"Well, if I used my bigger stuff, I'm sure I could tear 'em apart just from the trauma of the wound," Xander replied. "It's just hard to explain why you're using it to the police. I mean, what happens if you hit a vampire in the chest with a bullet and what little's left of the heart is scattered out the back, Giles?"

"Hmm, a complete lack of heart might indeed dust the creature," Giles conceded. "But the noise would draw serious attention, and in close quarters you might also kill a human standing behind. These at least minimize the risks, since usually only a few seconds of real fire is enough to eliminate the newest minions, and will cause grave distraction to older ones. A group our size, with a little gun practice, and some more sword practice, I daresay could eliminate nests without too much effort."

"Cool, G," Faith replied, pointedly meeting his eyes and purposefully nodding that she was 'in the know'.

"If you give me your measurements, I can get flameproof as well as waterproof skin suits like scuba divers wear," Xander followed up. "And if you wear pants and long sleeves, it'd be hard for anyone to notice. Add the gloves, headpiece and facemask before going in, and we could minimize being recognized and at the same time keep the flammable stuff off us."

"It won't restrict us in a fight, will it?" Buffy asked.

"Not if you give me your real measurements to pass on," he told her. "Since we're not planning to dive in them, we'll customize them a tiny bit looser in the armpits, elbows and knees. I'm also trying to get them reinforced with mesh, maybe make 'em a little bit 'claw-proof'."

"Even better, B," Faith grinned at the more fashion-focused Slayer. "Just take off your clothes covered with demon goo, maybe rinse off in the shower, and you're ready to go out or patrol some more without demon smell in the hair."

"Okay, I'm in. But if you say anything about my measurements, Xander, you'll be demon goo," Buffy mock-threatened. "Right, Faith?"

"Right there with ya on that."

HOG (Harris-Osbourne-Giles) house, Sunnydale. January 19th, 1999

Xander pulled into his garage just before eight that Tuesday night, noting that Rupert's car was already there.

'I guess he's done with whatever he needed to do with Buffy,' the young man considered, and smiled at the 'Have you hugged your Principal' bumper sticker on the G-Man's car.

Inside, he found the entire group preparing for their first raid; the reconnaissance that morning, though brief, had revealed two nests of ten only a block or so of the Bronze. They would try two different tactical arrangements, one at each end.

"So Principal G, how was the land of teens today?" he asked the older man.

"M-much easier than expected, actually, with everyone so happy to be at least temporarily free of that homunculus Snyder. The few new rules and guidelines I've presented to the staff have been well accepted, as they know I'm unlikely to make their lives hell as long as they do their job."

"Not a bad start, though with the Principal and Vice Principal positions open, two teaching positions open, and school counselor still unfilled, maybe they'll recruit you into it?" Xander considered. "And remember, this is the time to contract out to have the fire-suppression tanks blessed so the sprinklers can output holy water if needed, maybe even the irrigation system."

"And why wouldn't I just ask Father Murphy?" Giles smiled.

"Because while I'm not an expert, wouldn't you want someone you know that isn't corrupt checking the obvious pipe systems to make sure everything will actually work, and the workman won't just be eaten if left alone?"

"There is that," Giles admitted ruefully. "And I'm guessing this is a Council-funded matter?"

"Do you see the school board openly admitting to a problem, let alone shelling out the bucks for it?" Xander smiled back, and looked around as he finished getting ready. "We all set?"

"Yeah, though I think I might be coming down with something," Buffy said, "I feel a bit off." Xander and Faith looked at each other, then caught the non-look Giles showed them and not the others.

"Okay then, as much as I hate saying this, Buffy, call Dead Boy and have him meet us at the donut shop," Xander told her. "His only job will be to back you up if the cold starts getting to you. The two raids are to see where we need to work in our swordsmanship, and handling the fireball guns."

"He'll be there," Buffy said after a moment on the phone. "So what's the plan?"

"We'll split into two teams, the first in the back of my truck will head in first, with the heavier hitters, Faith, you, Giles, and myself, with Angel following in the gap right behind—as for tactical purposes, he's not really there. We'll go in, Slayers to each side and firing at your best targets from the flanks and working toward the middle. Giles toward the left and myself from the right, and we'll try to take out the ones in the center."

He went on, "Now, that's 40 shots of fire pellets, and if we're really lucky, there'll only be one or two left at that point. Oz and Willow will be right behind us, making sure nothing sneaks up on us. They'll enter the building about the time we're done firing."

Xander smiled, "If we have a bunch of vamps still up and charging, Giles and I will part like the Red Sea toward the Slayer we're next to, and Oz and Willow can take shots right up the middle. While Buffy and Giles use swords to the left, as Faith and I will on the right. Angel will stay where he is in case, we need his muscle to cover Willow and Oz."

A sigh. "I know this is simplistic, but basically I'm just getting us in. Treat it like a firing range, and spread out, it'll be just like the paired sparring we did a week or so ago, only against vampires. Questions?"

"Why doesn't Angel get a gun?" Buffy asked.

"If it goes off on one of us humans, we might get a nasty burn, Buff," Xander smiled. "But that guy would be dust in seconds. That's why he's on backup duty and Buffy assistance duty. Do you really want to tempt me, by putting him in front?"

"No, I guess it makes sense," she nodded. "And hey, not funny!"

"Moi?" Xander said with faux innocence as he ushered them out the door, and the others at least smiled at either the interplay or the thought of a dusted Angel.

The first raid almost scared Xander, as it turned out to have exactly the number of vampires calculated, and their elimination proceeded as planned. What wasn't expected was the large heap of cocaine and heroin piled up, and now profusely burning at the back of the warehouse.

"What now?" Giles asked. "Dare we move on to the second target? It's only two blocks on..."

"Yeah, if we can get it and out in ten minutes, we should still be able to avoid the police," Xander sighed. "Let's go, guys!"

The second raid was more of a pushover, as apparently the denizens had gone out already, so the two left behind met quick nasty deaths. And they found more drugs in the back office. Xander picked up the big pile of cash with this stash, put it in a trash bag, and set on fire the contents of the office.

"Okay, guys, this isn't good, let's get out of here," Harris grimaced as he picked up a Thomson and an extra pair of drums, and quietly mentioned as an aside to Angel and Giles, "I have a Bostonian feeling about this..."

After a quick sweep through the Bronze, the group mostly called it a night, with Oz dropping off Angel, Buffy and Willow before meeting up with his real estate partners at the condo.

"So?" Oz said, as he entered the door.

"We need to work on a few basic firearms lessons, but the sword work is about where we expected it," Xander began, then led them to where he'd left the trash bag of money in the garage. "In there I'm guessin' is about twenty grand in cash. I don't know if it's covered in anything, but I'm thinking we use it for dealings with Willy and other types. If nothing comes of tonight's raids, maybe we can start using the smaller bills in a couple months."

"Paranoid, Lex?" Faith said with a smile. "We could probably find a few things in your shop at work that might let us check it, and there's always Red as a last resort with the science angle."

"That's a good idea, but only as a last resort. And remember that Buffy and Willow don't really get the gray in life, so let's not tell them yet. Also, I might use some of the money to pay for the skin suits we were talking about earlier."

"I-I don't see a real problem, I suppose," Giles responded. "Oh, and thank you for the extra backup for Buffy. If she does have a cold, it wouldn't hurt to remain vigilant. These things tend to get worse, before they get better." Giles looked at Xander and Faith directly to emphasize this latter sentiment, then noticed the other car halfway through restoration.

"Used to belong to William the Bloody," Xander smiled. "I went back after the spell when I noticed the keys mixed in with mine that must have tangled up. I traced the papers on it, put in a claim, filed the paperwork, and it's legally mine as of last week."

"Do you intend collecting something from every major evil we encounter?" Giles asked with tired amusement. "It doesn't strike me as particularly safe."

"Hey, I'm safer than I've ever been," he said, yawning. "But tired, I guess."

"And I guess I should perhaps get some rest myself, good night then."

Baltimore, Maryland. Two hours later

The dust settled onto the floor of Kakistos' base, the messenger of the news of two lost bases and the commodities used to fund them an example of the old vampire's foul temper. Turning to two of his lieutenants, promoted after their predecessors' demise, he gave his orders.

"Tell my pet ghoul and his zombies to expect company, the two of you will take your 50 best vampires to the Hellmouth - and kill those Slayers!"

Sunnydale, California. The same time

"Well, golly, Mr. Trick, it sure appears like your old sire is moving around and very unhappy with our little town," the Mayor observed with a smile. "Though I suppose I'm glad the Slayers and their little gang nipped those buds, for now. What do you think good old Mr. Kakistos will do next?"

"Mr. Mayor, I'm guessin' since he's not very happy, he'll probably send a few dozen vampires after the Slayers. And me, if he knows I'm around."

"Oh, well, I have no doubts if they managed set up in two warehouses without our knowing it, they know you're here," the Mayor considered. "So, I'm sending you to recruit yourself twenty promising young men over the next week. LA is your best opportunity, and it'll split any effort here."

"I see, so when do you want me back?"

"One week should suffice, I think, don't you?"

"Yeah, by then maybe Kakistos' boys and the Scooby Gang will both take the other out of the game."

Thursday Evening

A Boeing 727 landed at Sunnydale Airport at exactly 6:45 PM, taxiing to a stop within the shadow of the terminal itself. Then 52 men with duffel bags alighted, and made their way toward several vehicles expecting them.

Graham Miller noted the East Coast take-off point for the plane, and the fact that the IR hadn't picked up anything beyond ambient temperature as they went by him.

"Riley? It's Graham, you might want to mobilize the guys right away. We have about 50 guests from Baltimore. That's right, not the hottest group around, and they took off in about eight really big black sedans and SUVs. Okay, I'm on my way..."

"Yeah, got it, thanks Riley, appreciate the heads-up, I'll call if we need you. Yeah, fifty, I heard you, but we have a few surprises to bring the numbers down. The long talk? Yeah, if I live I'll get together with you tomorrow, okay? Thanks, man."

Xander shook his head, glad he'd left work an hour early, but still twenty minutes away. He dialed Giles first.

"G-dawg, we have about 50 fang-boys from back East at the airport...and they're carrying heavy duffel bags. How do I know? I have a source at the airport. Yes, I have sources nowadays. Call Joyce and have her head over to the safehouse. I'll call Dead Boy and Buffy, oh—she's with you? Then have her call everybody and rendezvous at the safehouse. Yeah, I think this is serious, and we better be prepared to switch to heavier ammo. I know, bye."

The young man sighed and considered things, then called Riley back.

"Hey, Riley? Can Graham follow the HSTs and see if they're heading for motels, warehouses or residential areas? Yeah, not too close, I don't want them to see him or kill him. Yeah, thanks."

Xander pulled up to his condo and quickly made his way inside to find only Oz, Willow, Faith, Joyce and, surprisingly, Cordelia getting ready.

"Hey, Cor, you sure you want to join us tonight?" he asked quietly. "This might be mighty ugly..."

"I had a bad feeling something was up, then Faith drove over and she told me what was going on. I figure I can drive the getaway vehicle, while all of you kill things or whatever."

"I want to help too, Xander," Joyce insisted. "This is my daughter's life, after all. And that way, we can help but not get in the way."

"Cool, never know when we'll need to save our sorry butts by speeding away," Harris admitted. "Especially tonight. Anyone know where the others are?"

"No, and I'm beginning to worry," Joyce responded. "Buffy's not seemed to be doing very well the last couple of nights." Faith looked at Lex, wanting to let the others in on the secret.

He sighed and nodded. "Okay, two things are happening. One because an old vampire named Kakistos has sent the 50 vamps that might have guns, to come after us. Now this is our immediate concern and I have a couple of people scoping out places to see if we're lucky enough to get them together in one place."

"The second, Xander?" Joyce pressed, "I noticed you and Faith exchange a look."

"The second thing was something Giles let us know, by making sure we noticed the gaps in his words," Xander admitted. "Though we don't know the specifics, he's had Faith and myself stick near Buffy this week. There's something that connects Giles, the Council and Buffy's...weakness. We think they're having Giles do whatever it is he's being prevented from telling us or Buffy about."

"That's horrible! Why would he agree to it?" Joyce demanded.

"Probably because one of the Council wetworks teams would probably just take him out of the picture, if he refused. In which case we couldn't help Buffy, Joyce. He's playing a dangerous game, by letting us learn as much as we have."

Xander turned to everyone, as they were now ready, and went to his room and brought out combat vests for Faith, himself, Willow and Oz.

"Willow, Oz, these might keep some bullets from getting you; and since they were made for much bigger people, they'll cover more. Remember our raids the other night? You two do the same thing, Faith and I are covering the Slayer and center roles. Oz, you and Willow ride with Cordelia this time. Faith, we'll take the van and…"

The telephone rang again. "Harris. Yeah, yeah, I have a team from LA with me, kinda raw but good. I really need to blow up the motel or something. Can you get me the chaplain and four fire trucks carrying their own water, in half an hour?"

A pause. "No? Then, what do you want to do about 50 automatic-carrying vampires in a public situation? Uh-huh? Yeah, I can send them against another target. I'll meet you there, then catch up with my second team right after. Gotcha. And you'll probably need six rockets. Thanks. Bye."

"What's goin' down, Lex?" Faith asked, hand on the door and ready to go.

"Change of plan, guys," he considered, "I'll be heading out with your sister Hope's friends from Boston, if I see her I'll say 'hi' for ya, while you guys sweep the area near the deli. Prescott Lane and Elm Street, Graham thought he saw a bunch of commandos there, so casually check it out to see if it's Council guys or Kakistos' guys."

Xander finished up, "I'll catch up with you, we'll keep in touch by leaving one cell phone open to another, and the others left ready for incoming calls." He pulled on a weighed-down black trench coat, and Faith noticed the Tommy gun and two extras underneath.

"Carry some actual firepower, Lex? Please be careful. I like you in one piece."

"Always Faith, and you take care of 'em, right?"

"Gotcha."

Xander pulled up near the three black Humvees across from the motel, parking behind Riley's vehicle and sidling up. "What do you have, boss?" he smiled. "Any humans to worry about?"

"No, it's odd. The HSTs are in the last ten rooms, but not coming out?"

"You have the rear widows covered in the alley?"

"Yeah, two more cadet squads, with orders to inform and pull away."

"Why do you guys go with cadets and not regulars?"

"Beats me. Maybe we'll discuss it in our long talk tomorrow?"

"Sure thing Mr. Finn, sir," Xander smiled. "How are we handling this one?"

"You're letting me decide?"

He shrugged. "It's your op, your manpower, and you now have an idea of what you're really up against. Plus the targets are armed, which you and your men presumably having training in," Xander told him seriously. "I'm here to advise, then get over to my current group of independents."

"Understood," Riley acknowledged, then nodded to Forrest and two others as the coast was clear and activity was reported inside. "Looks like the HSTs are ready to hit the town."

Forrest indicated readiness, Riley nodded, and three missiles launched at rooms three, five and six of the one-level establishment, striking for maximum initial destruction. Riley's men poured in from the flanks fifteen on this side, while the two other two-man teams in the rear maintained distance.

Some human guests tried to leave their rooms, but the black-clad commandos ordered them back in to pack ASAP. Riley and Xander moved in and within a minute ten or twelve vampires burst out of the windows and doors, guns blazing.

Two young soldiers went down with wounds, the others attempted regulation fire that slowed the bloodsuckers and caused pain, but the M-16 rounds didn't have the trauma-infliction that Xander's Tommy gun had as he stepped in front of five escaping well-armed vamps and opened up with his heavy caliber weapon.

The archaic-looking weapon surprised and shredded two huge vampires carrying similar loads. Forty shots later and only one vampire without arms or legs was left, and the carry-through had mauled three other vampires that hadn't really gotten free of the inexperienced soldiers.

Riley charged forward with twin ACPs and at great risk followed Xander's example, as he went for head and neck shots over the cars and scattering civilians to dust three more.

"Riley!" Forrest called out. "Team Four out back is being overrun by eight heavily armed HSTS!"

"Shit!" the Iowan spat. "Tell 'em to pull out, all teams pursue the HSTs for five minutes then return to base, got it? We can't risk further exposure. Grab the quad for Walsh and let's go."

Xander grimaced, picked up two dropped Tommy guns and two more drums before jumping into his vehicle.

"Permission to move on to the independents, sir?" Harris asked the stressed but coping young commander of the Initiative's first real engagement.

"Yeah, just check in with me at Lowell House at 0600 before you head for work, got it?"

"Yes sir," Xander responded with a salute as he raced for his car and left, sirens being detectable in the background.

Lex pondered the Initiative op, and worried about those vampires that had escaped. 'No surprise next time unless it's on their side,' he thought as the man slowed and resumed a normal pace toward his friends, picking up the phone after a moment.

"You guys still there?" he asked.

"Yeah—what was all that noise, Xander?" his oldest friend asked with worry.

"Most of the 'gang members' just disappeared, Wills. Let's not talk over an open line," he replied. "What's your status?"

"Um, we just saw Giles' car near a couple of boarding houses and bed and breakfasts, and Faith's trying to use your equipment to figure which one. Oh! There's Buffy! Why's she running into that building so fast!"

"I'm three minutes away," Xander told Willow. "You guys head in now! If it attacks Buffy, take it out, understood?"

"We're going in, Xander, please hurry!"

Inside the boarding house, all was blood and bedlam: Kralik and his two rapidly and strongly turned minions had retrieved Joyce Summers and brought her back as bait for a Slayer or two.

Giles had found himself holding out surprisingly well, having managed to stake one of the vampires in the joint where the neck meets the skull; the creature was still alive with a stake paralyzing it, but only as Buffy crashed through the front door to find Giles now standing in front of Joyce, his clothes a bit worn and his cross and holy water outstretched and splashing, as the woman at his order ran out of the house with help from a badly wounded Watcher, "Get her to the bloody van!"

The Slayer flew feet-first into the second turned Watcher, kicking it soundly through a wall in time to prevent Giles' death. Kralik smiled through the hole in the wall as he lunged passed his minion and sought to tackle Buffy. She dodged back to avoid him, as well as the returning minion.

The blonde kicked the weaker vampire's feet out, and repeated the move against Kralik, not too difficult a task as the vampire did not yet have room to maneuver, whereas she brought to full force her fashion knowledge to bear—literally—by stomping into the back of the minion vampire with the wooden 3" heel of her right boot, dusting the smug bloodsucker to the shock of the sire, Kralik.

Oz entered the room just ahead of Faith, and tossed his new pyro gun to the older Slayer, who instead of using the typical Council brute force methods, opted for her newer skillset…firing through the whole and striking the leg , then ass, of two approaching, then retreating vamps—within five more seconds its dust wafting out the back door.

Faith tossed Buffy's gladius to her, and smirked to see that the skull hit on the other vamp wasn't as completely debilitating as hoped, the stake falling loose and the creature having the misfortune to run right into her.

Kralik scooted out of the way of the blonde slayer's weapon, but ripped and fell into the hands of the dark-haired Slayer.

"Hey, B! Happy Birthday!" Faith shouted as she tossed the vampire in Buffy's direction, who smirked, and as the vamp flew by into the wall, followed quickly with the butt of the hilt to the face, then spinning to remove the head of the crazy bloodsucker in a single blow. "Not bad B, five for five, and the girl's got game!"

Xander sped back up, only to be cut off by a Humvee driven by gun-toting vampires heading in the same direction. He eased up and followed in chagrin, as the bloodsuckers seemed to be heading along his best course to assist his friends.

The vampires turned down Prescott Lane, and Xander knew he had to think fast when two black sedans with windows down started to pass him. Looking over, he noticed one of the occupants in 'game face' and slammed on the brakes, causing the vampires to swerve, and race by, Xander switching to the accelerator, lowering all his car windows, and readying the Tommy.

His 1994 Ford Escort managed to scoot up on the rear car, surprising the occupants, especially when they saw him fire into the driver. The Tommy, fired one-handed, of course didn't remain carefully aimed, but luckily Xander was able to stop firing and concentrate on slowing down again as the sedan slammed into a parked car.

Xander U-turned and came up and parked across from the wreck, got out of his car as he could tell the Hummer and the first sedan were beginning to slowly come around. Xander fired two short bursts into the front seat area, two into the back, and two where he believed the fuel tank to be.

Vampire parts splattered the interiors, suppressing attempts at resistance, and to his great surprise, the shots into the fuel tank actually managed to cause an explosion and fire that engulfed the interior of the car.

Five men in black seemed to come out of the shrubs and trees of the area, converging on Xander as they watched one vampire leap out of the car, but as he was on fire turned to dust in mid-air. The sedan and Humvee moved closer, and he ducked behind his car and kept rolling behind the van.

"Take cover!" he shouted to men that he hoped were Council soldiers and not demonic trouble. Xander then reached into the van and pulled Joyce out and down into a low spot behind a mailbox, where Cordelia had already secreted herself.

"You call this fun?" Queen C said irritably.

"Stay down, Joyce," he told her, ignoring his ex. "These vamps have guns..." Harris then noted that a badly dressed Englishman was already in the ditch.

"And you are?" he asked the man, Tommy gun barrel under the man's chin.

"The name's Quentin Travers," he responded and recognized Joyce from Buffy's file. "I'm...an associate of her daughter's."

"You Council?"

"Yes," the man asked warily.

"I'm Lavelle Kalderash. Rupert Giles hired me to take care of some vampires in Boston," Xander told him as the vampires moved up. "Do your men carry grenades, Travers?" The Englishman nodded.

"Grenades as they pass!" Xander called out, and two of the Watchers actually responded, missing the sedan but a grenade going off on the hood caused the driver to crash into the burning car, careen back into the street and stall. "Open fire!"

Xander repeated his earlier performance and fired from around the van, and was soon joined by two of the five as they fired repeatedly until nothing inside the burning car was left moving.

Meanwhile the enemy had spotted the other three Council soldiers and both veered their car and fired automatic weapons, then turned, and fired again. Striking one of the soldiers next to Xander in the side, calf and buttock, hurling him into the young man and grounding him before they drove off into the night.

Taking in the man's condition, Harris grabbed his cell, reported the situation to Riley and asked him to send at least three EMS vehicles to help. He turned to the last man standing, the leader by the way he was acting.

"Help's on the way, I'll go strip them of weapons and there shouldn't be too many questions," Xander told him. "The authorities around here won't want to deal with anything regarding HSTs. Just tell them you were playing paintball or something when these really nasty 'gang members on PCP' came out of nowhere and started shooting. Got it?"

"Got it…thanks, mate."

Five minutes later, as Xander filled his vehicle with military materiel a stressed Scooby gang came out, bruised but intact. They looked at the situation outside, and shook their heads.

"Rupert, it's been a while since we met in person. I'm Lavelle Kalderash, if you don't remember me," Xander told him loudly enough for the group to hear. "I suggest your group and Mr. Travers go immediately to your library base and we'll discuss this, then Mr. Travers can see to his injured as a concerned non-participant, alright?"

He turned to Faith, "Ah, Miss Giles, your luscious sister sends her best. Ride with me, and I'll catch you up on what she's been up to."

Ten minutes later, and the group was meeting as planned, with Xander picking up Angel, briefing him on 'Lavelle Kalderash' and that Angel now worked for the Romany. He didn't tell Angel he really wasn't a Kalderash, dark hair, slight Roman accent giving enough doubt that Angel decided it was easier to comply if it helped keep Buffy safe.

Faith pushed open the doors and Xander and Angel strode in like they owned the place. The effect of the two of them together in such a manner giving enough pause to the Scooby Gang that it lent credence to Lavelle and Xander being separate people - should Travers ever consider the matter.

"So, Mr. Travers, did the Slayer and her Watcher pass your test?" he asked, then turned to Angel. "What is it called again, my friend?"

"The Cruciamentum," the vampire replied with the disdain he really felt.

"Thank you," Harris replied and looked to the head Watcher.

"Hmm, I must say there were many irregularities," the British man began, only to hear many gasps of disbelief. "And Mr. Giles seems to hold a father's love for his Slayers, which can blind him to what needs to be done. So while I'm declaring a pass for both of them, I'll be assigning at least one assistant from the Council to come here from England."

"Ah, any chance of that being the excellent researcher that provided me with the Kakistos material last week?" Lavelle Kalderash asked. "I prefer to contract out to the competent, when I'm not exterminating the vermin on my own agenda."

"Indeed, I have that very same young man in mind," Travers nodded. "And if Rupert manages to become permanent Headmaster here, we'll be hoping to move him into the new librarian spot." He paused and looked at Angel. "You're that vampire, aren't you…Angelus."

"Yes he is," Lavelle broke in, before the vampire could reply. "And that, as you know, is an internal matter of the Kalderash tribe, Mr. Travers. For now, this one is under our orders and if need be under our protection. It was decided to inflict a better form of vengeance, than our previous one. As long as he's a vampire, he will hunt and destroy the demonic predators. Fair enough?"

"So long as you have him leashed, it isn't my problem," Travers sighed, making to leave. "And now, I'm off. Rupert, expect your assistant within the next three or four weeks. Rupert, Miss Summers, congratulations."

Xander waited until the Watcher passed beyond the doors. "Humans, my place right now. They don't have surveillance there," he then told them all. "Angel, we need you to recon all the usual spots; a contact told me there might be as many as six other 'well-armed gang members' with ties to Kakistos or another group have been spotted. So hit the Bronze, Willy's, the nastier bars, and any place that seems 'off' to you."

Angel nodded silently and headed out.

"Did you do that just because you didn't want him in your house?" Buffy asked without any rancor as the group began to migrate, "Or what, exactly?"

"Both, Buff," Xander said. "Soul or not, there will never be a vampire allowed into any property I own or have an interest in. And these things need to be done and since he isn't tired, he's the best one to do the recon."

"Oh."

"Let's go, huh?" Xander replied, holding the door of Oz's miraculously undamaged van.

Angel nodded silently and headed out, a little busy at first to realize that he'd missed the fight to help Buffy at her weakest, but as he neared the Bronze and noticed a couple of minions putting the moves on some girls, it hit hard.

Two of the young women were small blondes that reminded him of Buffy, and he surged forward and dusted both vampires before anyone realized Angel had leapt up and climbed over the roof of the Bronze in pursuit of another he'd seen on a fire escape.

Angel pursued the vampire, nearly four blocks and it ended quickly, the confusion of the younger demon at being hunted by one of his kind making it all too surreal. Angel felt the anger and frustration, the grief and the pain since coming back from Hell, and allowed it to fuel his need for bloody and dusty release.

After managing to come across a small group of vampires clearly from LA, Angel tore through them, pursuing them in a running fight that ended just inside Willy's door. Angel then dropped one of his stakes to pull out a sword, and with the stake in his other hand proceeded to wordlessly wipe out two Fyarls and four minions before reaching the door to the back room.

Willy was too shocked to do anything, but grab his weapons under the counter and watch the black duster disappear into the back as fast as his clientele out the front…one of the fastest wondering who it was that could cut through 'em like that.

Willy smirked, thinking about the news he'd heard from back east, and his dislike for 'Old Poofy Hair' and called out, "That's Lavelle Kalderash of the Clan Kalderash!"

'Why give credit to Angel?' the bar owner smirked again as he heard the unpleasant noises from the rear of his establishment, "I'm the one who has to pay Clem to clean up the bar and back room…"

In that back room, three demons, one a shark head, another a dark magic pusher and the third looking like a badly-shaved cat, all met quick and nasty demises as a fourth escaped out the back door.

At the condo, Faith had asked Cordelia help her play hostess, handling the food and drink needs of the group as Xander and Oz processed weapons, ammo, and accessories. When they all sat down, Xander spoke up before the scene could start on an ugly basis.

"Okay, now that it's over, let's start this with Giles, the older one," Xander joked. "He'll explain his side of things, then Faith and I will have our turn. At that point, Joyce gets to ask her questions, then after that anyone else, and finally Buffy."

"Why in that order, dear?" Joyce asked.

"Well, that way Buffy has all the facts, most of the questions answered already, and can decide what her response is from there, Mrs. Summers," Xander replied. "And because if we start tearing into one another and it becomes a free-for-all, that would not be of the good. Fair enough, ma'am?"

"Yes, and I agree with you, Xander," Joyce nodded. "Alright, Buffy?"

"Um, okay," the weakened Slayer agreed, feeling the exhaustion of the night's events but needing emotional closure over what had seemed Giles' betrayal.

Rupert proceeded to explain the Cruciamentum, the Council situation, his oath, his real and conflicting responsibility to his charge and his employers, and the outline of events, including how he'd perceived his non-communication with Xander and Faith.

Xander and Faith explained things from their side, and Xander gave a brief outline of the trip back East in hopes of not letting a much bigger force and Kakistos from showing up, the size and activity of the vampire force at the motel and on the street.

Faith added a few points of how Oz, Willow, Cordelia, and herself had shown up and took out a few passing vamps and helped Joyce get out while staying to help Buffy, and how they saw Buffy use her gladius on Kralik.

A few questions were asked, but not many as the three had tried to provide as much information as possible beforehand. Mostly clarifications, and disbelief regarding the use of explosives and modern weapons in Boston and Baltimore. And tonight, to eliminate several hundred vampires that used modern weaponry.

"What am I to you?" Buffy quietly asked Giles in the end, needing to know if Travers' words were true. She glanced up with glistening eyes, not quite keeping hope out from them.

Giles was quiet for a moment. "You're like a daughter, I-I suppose," he replied quietly and with a little hesitation. "My eldest of a group that I consider my children, if not by blood then certainly by the shared insanity of our lives." This drew a few happy and rueful chuckles.

"And of them all, without playing favorites," he said after a moment, "I guess that I'd think of you as the eldest of my offspring, Buffy, and I care deeply for and about you. That's why I couldn't just let that barbaric abomination occur, and do nothing..."

Buffy was about to interrupt, but he kept going. "That's why Xander and Faith ended up being your protectors for the last few days. To make sure that even though this did happen, the Council wouldn't use those men of theirs to enforce it, or worse. I'm so terribly sorry for not being able to do more."

Buffy moved over for a hug from Giles, which instead of stiff and proper held genuine paternal affection. Recovering after a moment, she reached out a grabbed Faith in to it, and in a moment it became a big family hug—including Joyce.

"Rupert, I need to have a few words with you," Joyce quietly asked, "Alone if possible."

"Use my room, Joyce," Xander offered. "Don't worry; no leather surprises in there this time."

"Xander!" Buffy choked out an appalled laugh, "That's so not funny!"

"Actually, from your reaction just now—the exact opposite is true, little Slayer," he joked, causing another, heartier response as Xander tossed her a nonfat yogurt and a spoon. "And I know you're temporarily out of service, but here's a little something until you get your powers back."

"Xander!" she laughed, then charged him, causing him to fall back onto the couch between Faith and Willow.

"Help!" Harris cried as Buffy leapt in to tickle him. The redhead and the brunette smiled, then began tickling him as well. "No-o-o-o-o-o, what are you guys doing?"

"Helping Buffy, Xan," Willow laughed. "What do you think?"

The happy laughter continued another minute or so until Rupert and Joyce came out of Xander's room. Giles had a dumb grin on his face, confusion and happiness alternating.

"Can we have your attention?" Joyce asked, loud enough to be heard. The group settled down, noting hand-holding on the part of the two adults.

"We were at first only going to tell Faith and Buffy about this, then maybe the rest of you—but, uh, we already seem to be a family of sorts," Giles said, then turned to Buffy's mother. "Joyce?"

"Thank you, Rupert," she smiled, then gathered herself. "Because of that so-called Band Candy incident a while back...Buffy and Faith are going to have a new brother or sister in early August. And, uh, Rupert and I will be...dating...and getting to know each other better."

Xander barely restrained himself from making several possible comments, though Faith and Willow both covered his mouth just in case. Then Cordelia got it, and raced forward to Joyce as Buffy sat in shock - and Faith realized that she would have a sibling, since Giles was now her 'dad'.

"Oh hey, that's wonderful!" Cordelia enthused. "We'll have Willow go online and get the baby a little tweed jacket, but classy! And stuffed animals that look like Pumba from the Lion King, and the Count from Sesame Street!"

Joyce laughed at the reaction, especially when Faith hugged her and Buffy came out of the shock and did the same. Oz and Xander congratulated Giles, Xander handing him an envelope that Giles looked into. Oz said something the girls couldn't hear. As things calmed down, the Watcher cleared his throat.

"Now, as Oz and Xander have reminded us, there are some traditions in families that others must embrace because they mean something, as well as expanding those as families grow. So, um, there are four tickets to a certain ice show in this envelope instead of two, and I've been threatened with grave bodily harm if Joyce, Faith and myself do not take Buffy to this show, with a birthday dinner and hotel accommodations afterwards."

"That's a lot of ticket in one envelope, G," Faith smiled as Buffy's hopes for birthday normalcy rose.

The Watcher chuckled, "There's also $500 for Buffy to shop with, and a hundred dollars each for Faith and Joyce to make sure I-I don't 'break and run', so to speak."

Laughter broke out all around. "Happy Birthday, Buffy," Giles smiled as another big ol' Scooby hug ensued.