A Certain Tale of the Beasts

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Naruto Universe/Toaru Majutsu no Index) Years have gone by since the destruction of Sunnydale and the Scoobies have managed good lives for themselves. Anyone wanna guess how long that'll last?

1. Spellcrafting for Dummies! Scared yet?

"A Certain Tale of the Beasts" by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Naruto/Toaru Majutsu no Index)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their individual creators and associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write fanfic because it's fun and because there are those who like reading my works. Therefore I would appreciate it if the same creators and companies refrained from filing any lawsuits against me for using their property in this work of fan fiction. I can guarantee you that whatever you get from me won't cover even a fifth of your legal fees.

Note 1: As usual I will do my best to adhere to canon for all the involved shows but if canon gets in the way of me telling the story I want to tell I WILL deviate from canon. Therefore if you don't like fanfics that deviate from canon then I suggest you turn around and find another fic to read.

Note 2: I haven't finalized some pairings in my mind yet so if you the readers have any suggestions I'd be willing to listen. I cannot guarantee that I'll use them but I will at least consider them.

A Certain Tale of the Beasts

S.W.C. HQ

A Remote Castle in Scotland

May 19th, 2016

Xander's POV

Definitely starting to feel the years, he thought with a groan, stretching to get all the kinks out of his body. I guess it's a good thing that they'll be taking me off the field operative list in another couple of months.

As much as he didn't think that he'd like being regulated office work, he had to admit that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the younger field operatives for much longer. All the injuries he'd picked up over the years, plus his missing eye, were slowing him down even if they didn't prevent him from doing normal everyday civilian things. While some guys would stay in the field as long as possible, he knew that if he overstayed his welcome he'd be putting whatever team he was on at risk of serious injury or death.

He wouldn't allow that to happen.

Unlike those old bastards that came before he'd promised himself from the very beginning to do everything he could to make sure everyone came back alive. He knew it was unrealistic and he'd been told many times by the others that it was impossible but that hadn't stopped him from trying using every resource at his disposal. From their equipment to their intel to their training, he made sure the Slayers and the other members of their teams had the best of everything. Sure, he left the magical side of things to either Willow or Giles but he'd made some progress over the years in improving his knowledge of the enemy as well as his grasp of strategy. He'd gotten so good that, with the exception of a few of the more obscure facts and sources of knowledge written in languages he couldn't read, he rarely needed to ask others for help. Giles still beat him three out of five times when they had their chess games but even his surrogate father figure had said that he was getting better. It'd probably be another five or so years though before he'd honestly be able to say he was better at chess than Giles but he was in no hurry and G-Man was in good health for a man of his advanced years.

Putting on his black turtleneck shirt, flak jacket, camouflage pants and combat boots, he left his room and began making his way towards the meeting room for the senior staff of the S.W.C. It was time for their bi-weekly meeting to discuss any internal or external issues that needed to be addressed, as well as a discussion period where anyone could toss an idea out for consideration. To his knowledge there was nothing especially dangerous going on in the world since all branches reported that they'd managed to resolve the end of the year apocalypses without serious injury or deaths. Thus, like all the years that came before, the world would enjoy a summer lull period before next season of unnatural hijinks began. If any of the people he'd trained over the years had paid attention to their lessons, though, they'd keep their guards up just in case a handful of demons didn't have calendars.

It was dangerous to let routines cause you to slip into complacency.

"Hey Xan!" came a familiar voice from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey, Dawnie!" he said, recognizing who it was immediately. "Ready for another exciting bi-weekly meeting?"

"You're never going to stop calling me 'Dawnie' are you?" she asked with a smile born of amusement from repetition. "I'm thirty years old now and married."

"No matter how old you get or what your marital status, you'll always be Dawnie or Dawn-patrol to me," he said with his usual lopsided smile.

Dawn chuckled at this as the two of them fell into step with one another, heading for the senior staff meeting room.

"So do you think there'll be anything interesting on the agenda today?" she asked even as they navigated around the other castle residents almost without thinking about it.

"Nah. The end of the year apocalypses are all wrapped up so, aside from a few mop up operations, we should be fine," he replied, not believing that they'd have anything serious to talk about.

"Bet you your services as my butler for a month that something big will come up," she said with a smile on her face that implied confidence in victory.

"And if you lose you dress up in that French Maid outfit Faith wore for Halloween last year," he said, laying out the penalty for her if she lost.

"I don't think Dan would appreciate that, Xan," she said, pointing out her husband's likely reaction if she lost the bet. "You know how protective he is towards me."

"I'll make it so that you have to wait on him, too," he said as though that'd solve everything. "I'm sure he won't mind then."

"Probably not," she said, figuring that Dan would like seeing her in Faith's maid costume.

They spent the next few minutes discussing random things until they finally reached the double doors of their destination and together they entered. Most of the rest of the senior staff were already sitting in their usual chairs, either waiting patiently or leafing through some file folders that sat on the table in front of them. The only people missing were Giles and Andrew but neither of them were ever overly late so he didn't see the point of getting overly stressed about them not being there. Dawn and he split up as they went to their seats, with him taking his place next to Faith as usual since their two departments often worked together.

"How's it hanging, X?" Faith asked, not having changed all that much since she'd made her return to help with the First and Caleb. "Heard you were in a bit of a pinch with your last mission."

"Just some Fyarl demons who'd rubbed enough brain cells together to wear armor," he said, shrugging off the encounter as nothing. "Fortunately I'd brought some armor piercing rounds with me that took care them easily enough."

"You sure it was the horn heads that clued into the advantages of wearing armor?" Faith asked, looking like she didn't quite believe it.

"Pretty sure. Didn't hear or see anything that made me think the other demons decided to give their bullheaded pals an edge," he replied, not recalling anything suspicious about that mission. "Then again the baddie in charge wasn't much smarter than a Fyarl anyway, so that was probably the best he could've come up anyway."

Minutes passed as those present shot the breeze while waiting for Giles and Andrew to show up so that they could begin. When minutes turned into half an hour everyone started to get a little concerned but, before any of them could volunteer to go see what was going on with the missing duo, they walked in the door. However, instead of being relieved that the two had arrived, everyone became worried as Andrew and Giles were moving in quite the hurry, with the former carrying an armful of material. Normally the only time any of them moved like that was if trouble was on the horizon and time was a critical factor in countering the threat. He knew he hadn't heard of anything that pinged his danger meter and nothing showed up in the reports that'd crossed his desk, so it made his brain itch at the possibility that he'd missed something. With all the experience he'd racked up since first joining Buffy's Calling, he'd gotten pretty good at picking up on the small details and more than one person had called him 'Sherlock' after he spotted something others had missed.

"I apologize for being tardy but Andrew brought something to my attention that warranted thorough confirmation," Giles said as he went to his seat and used the controls in the part of the table in front of it to bring out the big screen. "Between the two of us we've managed to confirm enough that I've ordered all of our intelligence sources to begin searching their jurisdictions for specific signs. With luck we've caught this early enough to prevent a catastrophe."

"What's up, Giles?" Buffy asked, sounding as concerned as the rest of them did. "You're starting to wig me out a bit."

"If the worst case scenario comes to pass, Buffy, we will all have reason to 'wig out'," Giles replied, taking his glasses out of his pocket and cleaning them.

The elderly man had long ago switched to contact lenses but he still kept his glasses close at hand for situations like this when he needed to employ his coping mechanism.

This could NOT be good.

Faith's POV

This could NOT be good.

When G started using their lingo it never led to anything good.

"Over the last year we have received odd reports indicating that numerous sources of arcane and demonic energy have suddenly vanished without a trace. The locations themselves remain the same as always but every drop of energy that once encompassed them was gone leaving them completely normal." A world map came up on the big screen with various red dots scatter across it. "At the time both I and our intelligence division did not rate this as a very high concern since these were minor locations that by themselves did not represent a significant threat to human life. However Andrew has uncovered information that suggests that, rather than being done by several random persons, it has instead been the work of a single group."

This raised eyebrows since it was a little roundabout to go to that much trouble at so many places when it would've been easier to just go to a smaller number of larger sources.

"While some of you may believe that it would have been more efficient to tap larger sources, doing so would have attracted the attention of many powerful and dangerous people. We believe this single group knew this and that is why they chose smaller targets," Giles said, proving how well he knew them all. "Doing so was less likely to attract attention and would still get them the same quantity of energy, even if it took longer to acquire. Andrew will explain the rest as it was he who discovered the linchpin that connected everything."

Looking to the blonde man, she couldn't help but respect the guy given how far he'd come since the days of being an annoying geek that no one could stand to be around. Over the years, though, the nerd matured and, while there was still the odd geekgasm, he was no longer a burden to be endured but a comrade with a knack for facts, from the most important pieces of information all the way down to obscure tidbits that only the truly anal bothered to remember. It was one of the reasons he was in charge of the Scotland branch's intel division.

"When we first started to notice the draining of energy from the various locations, I'd made it a side project of mine to find out the names of all the people involved and possible uses for the energy," Andrew said before he pressed a button that changed the screen from a map to a list and picture combo. "In the beginning I didn't make much progress due to the sheer amount of information and the numerous uses for the energy. However it was when I was about halfway through the list of names when I noticed something that made me realize that the problem was greater than I'd originally thought."

Another button was pressed and the long list of names and pictures vanished to be replaced with four pictures and corresponding stats.

"Uzumaki Mito, Gyuki Fukai, Saiken Utakata and Nii Yugito," Andrew said, pointing to each picture in turn. "It was these four names that struck me as odd."

"They're weird names and all but not demony," B said, now sounding confused.

"They aren't demony. They're taken in part or in whole from a Japanese anime series named 'Naruto' that ended a couple of months ago. I remember because it's one of my favorites to watch when I'm not working," Andrew explained as he brought up four cartoon headshots. "Roger thought that it was just chance or the result of a large number of anime otaku starting up businesses but, the more I compared names, the more connections I found with the show. I don't think I need to tell you guys the odds of having over fifty C.E.O.s with names identical or derived from an anime show."

While she wasn't much for cartoons, she had to admit that the odds of fifty people having fictional names were pretty bad.

"With the show as a starting point I ran a search for more businesses with similar names at the top and what they've been doing for the last few years. The connection to the show was only further proven when I found ten more ventures to locations with a history of either arcane or demonic activity. Giles sent agents to those locations and the reason we were late was because we were waiting for confirmation that the energy in those locations had also disappeared." Andrew put both hands on the table and closing his eyes, "While we waited I tried to think of what a group could want with the energy as it related to the anime series. The obvious answer was that they want to try to use the energy to replicate some of the abilities or techniques featured in the anime but there's one problem with that. While the show does give some information as to how the characters can do what they can do, it wouldn't be enough to replicate it in our world."

"So that's it then," B said, sounding like that was all she wrote. "They can't do it so they're just wasting their time."

"If it was merely a case of amateurs wasting their time, Buffy, I would not be so concerned right now. While it is true that most fictional abilities are impossible to replicate in reality, that is often not enough to keep certain people from trying just the same," G said, not losing the seriousness of his tone. "Many a spellcasting disaster has been caused by people refusing to acknowledge the impossible and taking reckless chances to make their dream come true."

"Working under the premise that the people collecting the energy intend to experiment in order to achieve their desired results, I began to calculate just how much energy they'd managed to collect thus far. Using the conversion method developed by Willow, I determined that the total energy collected that we know of… is equal to the energy released by the detonation of fifty nuclear bombs," Andrew explained, sounding like he'd very much prefer that he was wrong.

She couldn't bring herself to disagree with him because, after seeing enough nukes go off in the movies, she knew that fifty of them going off would be end of the world material.

"How the hell did they get that much energy!?" Little D exclaimed, clearly floored by the news.

"As I said they took the energy from locations most organizations, our own included, pay almost no attention to because there is so little there. There are literally hundreds of these small pockets of demonic or arcane energy spread out across the entire globe," G said, showing that he'd probably had a similar reaction when he first heard the news. "Some sources are so weak that they usually dissipate on their own while others are located at places that are considered sacred to the locals who are quite willing to go to war to protect them. In short, no one thinks that a being could be desperate enough or stupid enough to steal the energy from those locations."

"The fact that the energy has been stolen means whoever's behind all this is desperate, stupid and reckless if they're trying to turn make believe into reality," Robin said, sounding less than thrilled about where things were going. "Not the sort of people you want holding fifty nukes worth of energy much less messing with it."

"I should say not," G said with his famous British wit. "One nuclear blast is sufficient to devastate a city, killing or irreparably maiming everyone in range. Fifty in one location, under the wrong conditions, could be enough to destroy a small country."

There was just no way anyone could hear something like that and not be shaken by what could happen if they didn't take action.

"So what're we doing to find these guys?" X asked, sounding like he'd be taking direct action in the matter.

"I've put our arcane division to work checking with every supplier and manufacturer of storage methods that could be used to contain such vast amounts of energy. They'll let us know if there's any one location where large quantities of containment methods have been delivered to as well as if anyone's bought them in large quantities," Giles replied, putting his glasses back into his pocket. "I also plan on contacting several spellcrafters whose profession is creating new spells. I will ask them if anyone has contacted them for consult work involving the combination of arcane and demonic energy to form a new spell."

"I plan to work with some of the better people in our I.T. department to go online to all the 'Naruto' websites, blogs and discussion forums. If this group really is trying to replicate ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques with the energy they've acquired there's a chance they might've left clues we could use online," Andrew said, showing he was ready to put his nerdiness to good use. "They might've left comments, held discussions or even recruited help through these websites. Depending on how cautious they were about the truth getting out to the wrong people, we could learn everything we need to know or just enough to narrow down where to look for them."

"I'll hit the local demon hang outs to see if they've heard anything," B said, finding something to keep herself busy.

"I'll grab a few of my more talented witches to try scrying for the energy and I'll get in touch with the precogs we're on good terms with to see if they can give us a heads up on anything," Red said, sounding like she was both worried and excited about a new project to work on.

"I'll get five Slayer squads ready for action," Xander said, his game face on. "I'll also contact the airport and tell them to get Big Betty ready to fly. By the time all that's ready, we should have a place to go."

"Count me in," she said with her usual 'devil may care' smile. "Sounds like it'll be a helluva party and I'm always up for that."

One after another the people she'd lived with, fought with and had good times with took up tasks to help with the resolving of this unexpected crisis.

She just hoped the jackasses with all that power didn't do something stupid before they got there to kick their asses.

S.W.C HQ

Armory, Hours Later

Xander's POV

There. All ready, he thought as he slid the custom clip into his SIG-Sauer P229. Locked and loaded.

Some might think he was giving himself more work than was strictly speaking necessary but long ago it had become a part of his arming up routine to disassemble, clean and then reassemble every firearm he was taking into battle. Ever since Willow and the people down in weapons R&D managed to make modern guns effective against both demons and magic users they'd been added to the armory along with all the fifteenth century weapons. They'd even managed to get a few former British Special Forces from SAS and Royal Marines to come in to train the Slayers in the use of each firearm and he'd used the opportunity to update knowledge. It'd been harder on him than on the others thanks to his missing eye but he hadn't let that get in the way of trying his best to keep up with the others. Fortunately some of them had come across people like him before and had taught him a few tricks to minimize the weakness of his missing eye while maximizing his skill.

He was fortunate that with guns depth perception wasn't really needed; you just line up the shot and pull the trigger. That didn't mean that he didn't have stakes and blades on him, though. It just meant that he'd have to be damn sure he was close enough before he used them.

Turning around he saw eleven Slayers of the group of twenty-five still finishing up their arming up but that was no surprise considering that he'd trained most of them himself. Like him they made sure that every weapon they strapped to their bodies or put into their backpacks was in perfect working order. On their mission they couldn't have anything breaking or malfunctioning at the wrong time, even if it turned out that the group gathering the energy turned out to have crap security. Ever since they finished founding the S.W.C. they'd made it a part of every newbie Slayer's training to knock the arrogance and complacency out of them right from the start. Every Slayer they located came in with an attitude, that 'I am better than you' attitude that'd pissed him off early on after he'd first met Buffy, but the Scoobies knew that this couldn't be allowed to grow. Sometimes it was resolved by having the newbies spar with either Buffy or Faith, who'd then proceed to mop the floor with the arrogant girl to the point where a first aid kit was needed. Other times they were sent on 'milk run' missions only to find themselves dealing with a large number of vamps or a few members belonging to one of the stronger demon breeds. Of course a team of more experienced Slayers would be close by ready to move in to save the cocky bitch before things got too far out of hand.

Giles, of course, preferred simply tearing apart their arrogance with a few excellently chosen words and, if necessary, provoke them into action whereby he could block or evade them just by repositioning himself.

Nothing deflated a girl's ego more than being schooled by an old man.

Trotting out of the armory he made his way to the underground garage where they'd depart for the airfield, where their air transport awaited them. He'd been told a couple of minutes ago that Big Betty was ready to fly and had a full tank of gas in her so they'd have little trouble getting to where they needed to go. No destination had been relayed to him yet but he trusted that one would be by the time they were all loaded onto the plane. With so many of his friends covering the operation from all angles it was only a matter of time.

Unlike some of his past missions, though, the entire senior body of the S.W.C. would be coming along since the consequences of failure were just too high. It wasn't that they didn't trust the force that they'd raised since the fall of Sunnydale but more that the stakes were so high that they needed their best on the job. That meant the most knowledgeable, the most experienced and the best fighters currently on the payroll, leaving no doubt that the Scoobies were the people for the job. Each had been fighting the good fight for almost two decades and that counted for a lot when you took into account what they'd accomplished both individually as well as in a group. The five Slayer teams that'd be coming along were comprised of the twenty-five most experienced Called in the castle, with the top five young ladies being made team leaders of each team.

All in all it'd be the most powerful fighting force they could put together on such short notice.

Entering the underground garage, he entered the second vehicle from the front and found out that it'd be Satsu driving him to the airfield along with the rest of her team.

"So, Satsu… see any Bishōjo Senshi hopping rooftops back in Tokyo?" he asked with his usual lopsided smile.

He couldn't help but chuckle as the leader of the Tokyo branch rolled her eyes at his question, like he asked the same question every time the two of them met.

He did, of course, but it wasn't because he kept forgetting her reply but rather because he'd chosen to make it his way of greeting her. It was just another variation of how he usually greeted Giles with the 'G-Man' nickname and he knew that Satsu realized this, so her annoyance level was rather low.

"No. Just us old hags, Xander," Satsu replied with a small grin of amused nostalgia. "How about you? Has Captain Jack or Long John called about sitting down with you and enjoying a bottle of rum?"

"Nope. Sadly the former is still trying to get the Black Pearl back and the latter is enjoying retirement on Treasure Island," he said as the vehicles started up after the last of the people assigned to the operation got into them. "Besides, I've never been much of a rum guy myself. Living out of this castle for so long I've gotten a taste for good scotch instead. You should try some!"

"Maybe when we get back from this mission," she said, finishing off their normal exchange as the vehicles entered daylight.

From that point onward, though, Satsu was all business as they drove towards the airfield.

As he watched the mini-screen built into the dashboard turn on to reveal four separate faces, he concluded that the time had come for the official briefing. None of the Slayers on the various teams had been in the senior staff meeting room so they'd probably only heard bits and pieces via the various orders that'd been sent out after the meeting had broken up. Hopefully he wouldn't have to listen through everything he already knew, otherwise he'd tune it out until something new was said and that could lead to him missing something.

"Alright, we're going to keep this brief, people," Willow said, taking the lead in the briefing. "For the last three years a group of people have been draining and containing sources of energy across the planet. They specifically targeted locations possessing arcane and demonic energy in small amounts so that they wouldn't be noticed. Well, we noticed them and now we're going to do something about it.

"Our current theory is that the perpetrators intend to use this energy in order to reproduce the fictional abilities featured in the anime 'Naruto' using the energy they've stolen. This is a bad thing because, according to our sources, none of the big names in the magic business show any sign of being connected to this project," Willow explained with her usual efficiency. "That means that these guys are either amateurs or they haven't done anything to earn themselves a reputation among magic users. This is bad. Whether they're amateurs or just average spell casters, attempting to create new and powerful spells is dangerous. It'd be like walking through a minefield blindfolded with only your other senses to tell you if you were getting warmer or colder.

"In most cases the damage caused by this experimentation is limited to immediate area around the lab or the building the lab is in. However the amount of demonic and arcane energy this group has collected is equal to fifty nuclear weapons and that's assuming we've accounted for all the locations they've visited," Willow explained with her concern lacing her words. "With this much energy in play, the slightest mistake could have consequences ranging from the detonation of all that energy at once to unleashing a permanent spell effect on an area equivalent to a small country. The likelihood that anything animal, human, or demon surviving such consequences is about the same as every guy on the planet suddenly becoming hot babes worthy of MAXIM magazine."

For a moment he was tempted to make a quip about how he'd take those odds but, with things as serious as they were, he knew it wasn't time appropriate.

"For the last few hours we've been looking for where they're storing all this energy and as of twenty minutes ago we found it. I'll let Andrew take it from here," Willow said before Andrew's face popped up on the mini-screen.

"It took some doing to filter through all the Naruto sources online to get what we wanted but thankfully one member of this group slipped up early on in their efforts," Andrew said as a relatively unremarkable twenty-something man's face appeared in the upper right corner frame. "Oscar Morgan, or as he calls himself in the discussion groups 'KazeKage3', started talking three years ago about the plausibility of making the various techniques from the anime real. He cites several sources that, while meaningless to your average fan of the show, are easily recognizable by those 'in the know' about magic. They're all the names of basic to moderate magic theory books written by spellcaster's known for creating new spells.

"About five months after the first post about making jutsu real, though, he suddenly clams up and for the most part writes just like any other Naruto fan. We still managed to find a few posts where he slips up and implies things or claims that the other fans are wannabe's compared to him and his friends. Once we confirmed he was one of the ones we were looking for we began to search for who he most commonly chatted with and who his apparent friends were." The face of 'KazeKage3' changed to a list of ten people. "This is the list we came up with. None of them match our lists of known magic users and we're still looking to see if any of them are students of professional mages or witches. Once we had their names, though, we tapped into every accessible transportation record available to see where they'd been and where they are now.

"Sources confirmed that at many of the locations where the two forms of energy had been stolen one of these people had arrived in the area shortly before. As for where they are right at this moment we found this," Andrew said before his image was replaced by a naval map. "They're all on Easter Island just off the coast of Chile. We believe they intend to tap into the power of the Hellmouth there to further boost their energy resources by an additional thirty percent or more. As you all can imagine detonating fifty nukes worth of energy is bad enough but possibly opening the Hellmouth there as well would make things even worse."

No shit.

The nuclear style blast would probably obliterate Easter Island and the tsunami would finish off Chile. As a result of that any demons that came pouring out of the Hellmouth would have a nice little beachhead on a major continent from which to spread across the rest of the globe. The S.W.C. had plans and protocols for the opening of a Hellmouth but even the most optimistic ones had civilian casualties in the triple digits. No one considered that an acceptable outcome so they'd be putting everything they had into ending the experiments of those idiots before they could even begin.

"An insertion by sea isn't feasible since satellite imaging from our friends at the Pentagon show that the waters all around the island have been filled with mines. The type is old but they're still effective," Giles said, adding his own information to the briefing. "Therefore we'll be dropping in by air on the second pass. On the first pass we'll be deploying the standard payloads 'Big Betty' is equipped with to first destroy and disorganize any anti-air defenses they might have."

The standard payloads of the aircraft were two bombs but each one served a specific purpose. The first bomb unleashed an EMP strong enough to pierce even the most heavily protected electronics available on the market, which would eliminate both communications as well as any electronic security that might've been put into place by their targets and would force the enemy to convey any messages or alerts verbally either by yelling or by running from place to place, making it easier for their force to raise hell while making it impossible to organize.

The second bomb was one of Willow's own design and it was meant to dispel any arcane defenses that might have been laid out on the island. From barriers to landmine-like spells, all the way up to magical constructs like golems, they'd all be dispelled, clearing the way for them to challenge the perpetrators themselves. It'd taken Willow almost a full year of dedicated research and testing before she'd managed to find the right combination of potions, symbols and energies to make everything work. Though she'd told everyone that there was a chance that someone could come up with a means of countering her creation, it'd been more than five years since then and it hadn't happened once.

"Once the defenses have been dealt with and we are on the ground, Slayer teams one through four will secure the four corners of the island. As always humans are to be taken alive if possible and only killed if it is the only way to protect your teammates," Giles said, ignoring the wince that occurred on Buffy and Willow's faces. "Satsu and her team will follow the rest of us in to the center of the enemy's base of operations to deal with the leaders and secure the energy containers. Once that is done we will begin work to safely dispose of the collected energy.

"If it turns out that they've already begun their experiments, Willow and I will focus our efforts on ending them safely. If it is not possible to end them safely Willow has brought four warding stones that can erect a barrier around the enemy's headquarters that hopefully will contain any harmful effects," Giles said, sounding quite serious indeed. "With a little luck they will not have attempted anything too ambitious up until now, thus making it easier for us to neutralize their efforts."

It was a solid plan and with the people involved he had little doubt that it'd succeed.

All that was left was to do it.

Hours Later

The Skies Approaching Easter Island

Dawn's POV

"We're coming up on the target, Mister Giles," came the voice of the pilot over the plane's intercom. "T-minus sixty seconds."

"When you're in position begin your bombing run," Giles said after pressing a button on the intercom. "Then circle around so troop deployment can begin."

"Roger that," the pilot said as the countdown began inside her mind.

"Everyone check your parachutes and make sure they are in order," Giles said as he moved towards Xander's position. "It is a very long way down and I doubt any of us would enjoy landing without a fully functional one strapped to our backs."

No duh! she thought imitating her younger self but managing to keep from rolling her eyes.

Still, she did as ordered and went through the usual checklist for ensuring that her assigned parachute didn't have any damage or malfunctions in the making. She didn't really expect there to be any since the crew in charge of the plane, as well as its contents, were paid well to make sure everything was in perfect working order. However they were only human with their own issues and lives, so there was always the chance that they'd make a mistake for one reason or another. If they hadn't been on such a time limit she'd have pulled out the parachute itself and gone over it carefully, looking for tears in the fabric or fraying in the ropes but she'd do what she could just the same.

It doesn't look or feel like anything's going to fail on me, she thought once her inspection was done. Still, at least I'll have an easier time of it than Giles will.

At a little over sixty years of age and suffering from a few nasty hits he'd taken during his career as a Watcher, the man would be sharing a chute with Xander. No one wanted the man to accidentally break a leg, literally, upon landing on Easter Island, especially since next to Willow he was the most knowledgeable about magic. Of course the Brit had protested this action since he'd claimed that he was still in good enough shape to parachute down himself, but he'd been overruled by the senior staff of the S.W.C. She just knew that at some point in the future the man who had done so much for her family was going to find a way to get even with them but she had a plan for that. Due to his advancing years Buffy had taken upon herself the task of making sure that he was eating right and had enlisted some of her more loyal subordinates so that Giles didn't eat the wrong things. As a result she could think of at least five things that she could sneak to the Brit that would earn her either a lesser punishment for this mission or an outright pardon.

As she felt the plane begin to dive she grabbed onto a nearby handhold even as the sound of the engines began to get louder, signifying that more power was being drawn out of them. Before too much longer she heard two loud clanking noises that she took to be the releasing of the bombs before the aircraft abruptly began to go from descending to ascending. It unbalanced a few who weren't prepared for the shift in the plane's orientation but they recovered quickly enough. It was just under ten seconds later that she heard the muffled sound of a large bomb going off and she expected this meant that the prologue of their invasion was now complete. All electronics and the majority of any magical defenses should now be destroyed or severely damaged, providing them with a window to parachute through.

All at the same time the assembled forces moved towards the rear of the plane in the order they would jump and then waited for the pilot to flick on the light that'd let them know they were over the drop zone. It took about a minute to get to that point but the Slayer closest to the button slapped a button, causing the rear hatch to open up to reveal the night sky. Then, one by one, they all took a running start before leaping out of the plane and began their descent to the island below. Thankfully Willow had long since developed goggles that were pretty much the same as Vin Diesel wore in those Riddick movies but had a number of options. Night vision, infrared vision, H.U.D. and, thanks to the communications earpiece incorporated into it, there'd be no trouble staying in touch with each other.

Deciding to make a race of things she pressed her arms to her sides, her legs together and aimed her head at the island below. By doing this she'd made herself as streamlined as possible, allowing her to accelerate while the others were taking the safer route by spreading their limbs as far as impossible to get as much drag as possible. Strictly speaking this was the safer way to go but it wasn't the most fun, plus she just couldn't resist the chance to tell them 'what took you so long' when they landed. However, just as she passed the halfway point, she had another more important reason to want to descend quickly since out of nowhere bright yellow bits of light began to fill the air around her.

Anti-aircraft fire! she thought with surprise as her lessons from the ex-SAS officers kicked in. How the hell are those things working!?

Over the last few years electronics had found their way into a great many of the weapons used by modern militaries in order to increase their effectiveness. This included anti-aircraft weaponry in terms of aiming the potent weapons, whether it was to raise the barrels into the correct position, apply night vision or help in loading the ammunition. With that being the case the anti-aircraft weaponry should be unable to move, get more than a few shots off or even allow the enemy to see them with it being dark out. The only possibilities she could think of would be either the weapons had shielding the world did not know about or they were using antiques that had few if any electronics in them. Judging from the way the fire was being waved back and forth rather than staying in one spot, the enemy could likely only barely make out that something falling towards their location.

I'll have to wait until the last second to open my chute, she thought as she did her best to avoid the incoming fire. If I open it too soon I'll give them a bigger target and increase the chances of being hit.

She hadn't heard anything to suggest that anyone had gotten hit by the incoming fire but she doubted that anyone would even have time to scream even if they had. Given the size of the bullets being sent at them, it would've been like a lead pipe going through you. If one of your limbs got hit you'd definitely lose it and if you got hit in the body or the head… one way or another you'd be dead by the time your feet hit ground.

Probably should suggest adding a bomb to the plane that magnetizes every bit of metal it hit, she thought even as she watched her altitude reach the minimum safe point. It'd muck up the antiques enough to keep them from firing.

Regardless she breathed a lot easier once she deployed her parachute and soon after felt her feet touch solid ground without a single injury to show for it. Taking out her P-90, she immediately brought it to her shoulder and checked the immediate area for the enemy, only relaxing SLIGHTLY when she saw nothing threatening. Looking at the H.U.D., she looked for designated gathering point for the core Scoobies before setting off at a quick yet cautious rate of speed. The anti-aircraft fire ended a short while later, the enemy no doubt realizing that the intruders were no longer in the sky, but that only meant that their ground defenses would be brought into play. While both bombs had likely taken care of the most obstacles, the anti-aircraft fire had proven that the enemy still had teeth and were willing to use them.

It was just before she got to the meeting point that she encountered her first hostile in the form of a hellhound, like the ones her sister had dealt with in in order to keeping the senior Prom from being ruined. Reflexes bringing her weapon to bear on it, she let out a quick burst focused on its head and upper torso, killing it efficiently before she continued on her way. Hellhounds might scare newbies but, once you got some experience under your proverbial belt, they weren't all that special. They were essentially cannon fodder due to their lack of sentience and dependence on close quarter combat, so as long as you had a trustworthy method of keeping them at mid to long range you were fine. Add to that the fact that hellhounds didn't have an especially potent regenerative ability and massive physical trauma was usually enough to put them down.

When she finally arrived at the meeting point she saw that most of the others had gotten there without incident.

"Well, that was something we could've done without," Willow said, obviously meaning the mid-air welcome they'd just received. "You think they knew what we'd be dropping or just couldn't afford the more current model?"

"It's unlikely that they knew what we would use against them," Giles said, looking a little shaky after his fall from the plane. "Xander and I both did thorough background checks on all S.W.C. employees from the very beginning and found nothing that would imply future treachery. Add to that the security we've placed at every major facility and I doubt they could've gotten sufficient information to neutralize both bombs."

"Then they're just lucky," Robin said, dealing with another hellhound before continuing. "Hopefully not too lucky, though. How many Slayers did we lose on the way down?"

"Only two. Sadie and Lois," Willow said sadly after a moment of reaching out with her arcane senses. "But that's two too many."

"Damn straight!" Faith declared, sounding like she'd be getting payback one way or another. "Time to show these assholes what it means to piss off the S.W.C."

BBOOOMM!

A sizeable explosion interrupted the conversation, causing all to turn only to find a cloud of flame already on its way to dissipating. For a moment they all wondered what could've caused it but they got their answer in a way that made them smile. Trotting casually towards them with what looked to be the pin of a grenade twirling around one finger was Xander with Buffy by his side, with a bit of demon blood spatter on them.

"They really should've made their ammo stash safer," Xander said with mock disappointment. "Right, Buff?"

"Well, to be fair they had all those big and loud guns firing up at us, so they probably figured that no one would make it down to solid ground," Buffy replied with mock understanding. "They'll be more careful next time. Assuming there is a next time for them."

Figures those two would make a dramatic entrance, she thought with a roll of her eyes. Xander might know how to be stealthy but Buffy doesn't have the patience for it.

Still, she supposed that the duo probably thought that stealth was pointless in the current situation and therefore decided that a little shock and awe was the way to go.

Seeing the familiar smiles on all their faces on everyone's faces, she knew that the people behind this were going to find out the hard way where they ranked in the global pecking order.

It'd be fun seeing the looks on their faces when they realized their plan had been turned to ash in such a short period of time.

Inside the Central Building on Easter Island

"They're here!" one of those present exclaimed in agitation. "This is the WORST time for it! The Composer is almost finished with the patterns! We're SO close!"

"Calm yourself. We knew someone would catch onto our actions sooner or later," another person present said, sounding quite calm about the situation. "We prepared for just such an assault so please calm yourself, comrade."

"Did you also anticipate their bombs wiping out over HALF of our defenses?" the agitated one asked, sounding like it'd take more than smooth words to calm him.

"As a matter of fact I did anticipate something like this happening," the calm one replied, not losing his composure in the slightest. "Miss Rosenberg has quite the reputation for sorcery since her days in Sunnydale, so developing a bomb to wipe out arcane defenses is to be expected of her. As for the EMP damaging our electronics, I believe that is likely Mister Harris' contribution since he's the more military minded of the S.W.C. leadership. That is why I insisted that all of the key components of our grand venture be placed so far underground. They are all untouched, correct?"

"Well… yes, but-" the agitated one replied, unable to counter the truth.

"Then we need only keep the forces at bay long enough for us to complete our efforts," the calm one said with a confident smile. "Wait until the last of the hellhounds has been killed and then release THEM onto the battlefield. They should prove more than enough to keep the invading forces occupied for the time required."

"Are you certain that's wise?" the agitated one asked, looking a little haunted by the thought of THEM. "They could just as easily turn around and attack us, especially if they sense the energy we've gathered."

"Not to worry. Rosenberg's bomb has saturated the atmosphere outside with elements that should obscure our acquisitions from their senses and, by the time the air has cleared, we'll be able to deal with the S.W.C. forces ourselves."

Once everything was said and done, the power structure of the world would be irrevocably altered and no force on the planet would be able to oppose them.

It would be GLORIOUS!

Xander's POV

With another shot from his shotgun a hellhound dropped dead, allowing him to move onto his next target.

There sure are a lot of hellhounds but if this is all those otaku have to throw at us, the Slayer teams will have no trouble securing the outside while we infiltrate the central building.

Even though it'd been a while since they'd all been on the same battlefield with one another, it'd taken them no time at all to fall back into synch with one another. Even if Buffy was still going strong with her refusal to embrace modern weaponry, her years of experience had only made her that much more deadly with the more traditional tools of slayage. 'Little Dawnie' was proving to be just as formidable, even if she was willing to use modern weaponry in order to make up for the fact that she didn't have Slayer powers. Indeed, she'd taken to the training of the ex-SAS members almost as well as he had and, considering she'd devoted the rest of her free time to perfecting her research skills, it made some people think she might've acquired a bit of Slayer stamina somehow.

As it was everyone in the S.W.C. knew better than to provoke someone who could either shoot them between the eyes or find some obscure way of getting revenge upon them.

The others were doing just as well, though Giles proved to be struggling to keep up but this was covered by the formation they'd taken up around him to keep him out of close range combat. As a result of their skills and smooth teamwork any hellhound that dared come too close to them lasted just long enough for its brain to sense the danger it was in before dying. It was because of this that they were making good time in getting to the main building where they expected the leaders of the enemy to be, along with the containers of energy. The only thing that really slowed them down was the terrain and vegetation but they managed to navigate around any obstacles that represented an unreasonable delay. All of them knew that, with their base under attack, the amateurs would likely attempt to hurry their efforts in order to finish their experiments before they could be stopped. This would only increase the odds that something would go wrong because, if an experienced person could make a mistake if rushed, then the odds increased at least tenfold if an amateur did the same.

He did NOT want to be at ground zero of a mojo nuclear blast.

It was as they fell into a noticeable lull in their onslaught of hellhounds that he began to wonder if it'd finally be smooth sailing. It was then that hidden doors began to open, displacing the dirt that had been spread on top of them to conceal their presence, that he remembered how ill-advised it was to be optimistic on a Hellmouth. This was even more supported when cages were raised into view containing a strong case of copyright infringement from his point of view. Inside the cages were creatures as black as night, almost looking as though they were made of oil-like metal, but their form was almost identical to the deadly creatures that were central to the plot of Ridley Scott's Aliens movies. There were differences such as the fact that, instead of the tube-like protrusions that usually came out of the movie monster's back, there were instead crystal-like spikes. The other difference was that instead of just one head on their shoulders, each caged creature had two, with both looking quite intimidating.

"Those bloody fools! X'rellen demons!" Giles cursed as the cages finished rising.

He wasn't quite sure what was so important about the species but, given the expressions on the faces of Giles, Willow and Dawn, he felt safe in assuming that things had taken a turn for the worse.

"For those of us who don't spend our time reading through dusty books?" Faith asked even as she prepared herself for a difficult fight.

"X'rellen demons are among the most lethal and multiplying demon breeds known to have ever walked the Earth. Just as you likely think they were the inspiration for the movie monsters from the 'Alien' series and do possess many of their attributes," Giles replied as one by one the cages fell apart, releasing the creatures within. "However there are two important exceptions: when they die they explode, spreading their corrosive blood over a ten foot radius and they're BORN pregnant. Our only saving grace is the fact that these ones appear to be adolescents and X'rellen demons only lay their eggs once they're in the human equivalent of their late thirties."

"And by eggs he means a dozen EACH," Willow said as magic crackled around her hands. "In short, keep your distance and kill every last one of them!"

After that there was no time for words as the creatures immediately homed in on them and charged, teeth bared and tails whipping dangerously as they moved. With speed born of doing something countless times before he shoved his shotgun back into its waist holster, bringing his P-90 to bear and opening up on the rapidly approaching threat. With every member of the team having a long range weapon and more than half of those being guns, it should've been relatively easy to saturate their foes with bullets. However the difficulty in hitting them proved to be significant since the creatures proved capable of moving at speeds that even forced Slayers to work hard to keep track of them. This didn't mean that the non-Slayers like him were helpless, though, since all of them had experience fighting things faster than them and it would be what'd allow them to prevail.

The sound of automatic weaponry, the twang of bolts loosed from their crossbows and the sizzle of potent magic soon blanketed the area as though the tools they wielded were actually musical instruments, ones that they were playing to some unknown sheet music even as they fought for their lives against the monsters who seemed determined to take their lives. While not so desperate that he would be forced to fight on instinct and reflexes alone, he was definitely not given a great deal of time to think or strategize. In most cases it was considered a luxury to have even five seconds of thinking time before the demons forced him to open fire. For the most part he focused on being support or defense for one of the others as they fought, making sure that the monsters couldn't take advantage of any openings that temporarily appeared. Sometimes this merely meant firing at the ground in front of them to cause them to hop back the way they'd come while other times he actually managed to anticipate the direction they'd evade in to score a solid shot.

Definitely don't want to be near one of them when THAT happens! he thought as he watched one of the demons explode, spreading their blood around and causing the ground to melt.

It wasn't the same color as the blood of the Xenomorphs in the movies but, seeing every drop sink deeper and deeper into the dirt, he couldn't argue that the effects were identical. As a group everyone did their best to keep the monsters at LEAST fifteen feet away at all times while working to ensure that one or more smart ones didn't go off in search of easier prey. The gap between fiction and reality was great but, if the potential reproduction rate of these things was as bad as Giles stated, this could easily lend to a world ending event if even ONE got away from them. Thus he did the best he could to make every shot count and damn sure that each creature he hit had exploded in response to a fatal wound before moving onto the next target.

Bullets were having the most effect since only when a bolt hit a likely weak spot in the demon's natural exoskeleton did they penetrate deep enough to cause fatal damage. Needless to say this was frustrating Buffy to no end since it meant that her weapon was nowhere near as effective as she wanted it to be. However the veteran Slayer could adapt with the best of them and so she made sure to line up every shot she took perfectly before pulling the trigger on her crossbow.

Still going to have to try one more time after this is done to add at least ONE gun to her usual loadout, he thought as he popped the empty magazine of his P-90 out before slapping a new one into place. Her not liking guns is not a good enough reason to risk her getting killed because she ran into something that wasn't impressed in the least with arrows or crossbow bolts.

He didn't know how much time had passed, that was how intense it'd been fighting the X'rellen demons, but when there were none within eyesight he presumed that they were done fighting for now. Still, he had to at least take some precautions just in case one managed to slip away.

"This is Harris!" he said, pressing the transmit button on his com-gear. "We have a Class-Four demon presence confirmed. Name: X'rellen. Demon is born pregnant and has a large litter. VERY dangerous. Team Scooby has eliminated all in our area but keep an eye out for any that strayed from the pack. Terminate on sight. Demon resembles the Xenomorphs from the Alien movie franchise. All teams confirm receiving alert!"

"Team One confirming." Satsu said through his earpiece. "We'll keep an eye out for any strays."

After that the remaining four teams also confirmed receiving his alert and told him that they'd watch for any X'rellens that might be coming their way. While he could do more and order the pilot of their plane to contact the Chilean government and have them place their own anti-demon troops along their coastline, he chose rather to have faith in the Slayer teams. They had all four corners of the island covered with goggles that'd been enhanced using a combination of science and sorcery to allow them a broad range of perception. He remembered how after Willow had finished the prototypes that he'd suggested that they outfit a Slayer team with them and then see if it was possible to sneak past using another team that had skill in stealthy sneaking. While one member of the sneaking team had managed to get by the ones using the prototypes, the other four had successfully been detected before they'd been able to do the same. After Willow had made some adjustments, though, no one had been able to get past the goggle wearers, be they newbie Slayers or Buffy. He didn't think it was foolproof but it would require a cunning strategy or outside the box thinking for the X'rellen demons to sneak off the island.

"Let's get in there and end this before they throw something even worse at us," he said to the others once they were done confirming they were safe for the time being.

A nod was all he needed to see before they moved as one into the building to stop the group of fools from doing something stupid.

Willow's POV

"We're clear," she said once she finished using her mage sight to give the next stretch of hallway a once over.

She knew that both Faith and Buffy were getting impatient but she didn't want to blunder into a trap of some kind due to impatience. They needed to be fast but they also needed to be smart if they were to get to where the arcane and demonic energy was in time to put a stop to any experiments that were being conducted. She knew better than most just how dangerous it was to experiment with magic, especially large amounts of it, and her early days of dabbling reminded her of how badly amateurs could screw up. Put power and inexperience together and you're just begging for something to go 'BOOM' in your face. The problem though was that too often the amateurs refused to acknowledge that they couldn't pull off the big stuff until they had a close call proving that they weren't ready. Normally this only affected a couple of blocks but in this case the potential for destruction was decidedly more and had to be prevented at all cost.

As they came upon a door to a room, she nodded to Faith and Buffy before taking the lead by knocking the door off its hinges. Erecting a magical barrier, the three of them dashed in, prepared for trouble, but only found some kind of employee lounging area. No one was there but there were signs of it having been used recently since there were plastic wrappers and empty plastic cups everywhere. Her inner environmentalist wanted to tell off the wannabe ninjas about their non-biodegradable buying habits but she shoved such impulses aside since they weren't important at the moment.

Once the idiots were all tied up and in a mage prison back at the castle, she could tell them off to her heart's content.

Leaving the room, she saw Xander, Robin and Dawn clear another room their way but, when she didn't hear anything, she presumed it meant that they'd found nothing and no one. They kept this up until they found stairs leading up and it was then that they hit a spot of good luck since the second floor was just a giant single room with everything you'd need to run a global operation; computers, maps, communications equipment, enough paperwork to make up a good number of trees and a few blackboards that looked as though they'd been hastily wiped clean. As one they spread out and began to look for clues as to where their targets were as well as what they might be currently experimenting with. She took a few of the papers to see if there was anything useful but most of it was corporate stuff involving the shell companies and fake fronts the targets used to acquire the energy they now had. Dismissing this as something important, she decided to try something a little more interesting.

Moving over to the blackboards she mustered some of her magic then cast a spell that she hoped would restore some, if not all, the information. This attracted the attention of the others but she stayed focused on the blackboard in front of her just in case something bad happened. Her bomb likely dispelled anything tricky involving magic but even she had to admit that there was a chance, albeit a small one, that something had survived. Fortunately nothing happened but all thoughts of possible booby traps fled her mind when the restored information finished reappearing on the blackboard. There were no details but rather a broad stroke explanation of a spell's framework as well what looked to be references to computer files.

"What didja find, Red?" Faith asked, voicing the question the others no doubt wanted an answer to.

"It looks like the amateurs we're here to stop might not be as inexperienced as we thought," she replied even as she used her own arcane knowledge to understand what she was seeing. "This is a basic framework for a spell and I can only find minor errors in the configuration they came up with. There are some file names jotted down in the corner that could tell us more but I'm guessing that's not an option."

"Yeah. I checked the computers and the communications gear," Xander said, reminding her of his skills in the areas of construction and basic electronics. "The EMP bomb did its job. Every piece of electronics in this room is completely fried."

"Maybe the other blackboards will fill in a few more of the blanks," she said as she recast the spell on the three remaining black surfaces before waiting for the chalk to revert back.

It only took a few minutes but she actually found herself with more questions than answers. She did indeed find more information on the spell the targets were trying to put together but what she was seeing didn't match what she knew about personal attack or defense spells. The numbers involved were simply too big for even the most experienced practitioner to attempt because their body would burn out from the energy build up long before they could gain anything. Even with all her experience and power, she wouldn't try harnessing this degree of energy without at least five other witches on hand to help her handle it all. When she got to the final blackboard, though, she found that Andrew had beaten her to it and, if the way he was pacing back and forth was any hint, what he saw disturbed him.

"This this isn't for making jutsus," Andrew said, sounding as agitated as his movements implied. "There are elements of transitions between energy and matter that look way too complex. I've seen the composition of various attack and defense spells without coming across anything this intricate."

"This looks more like…" she said before her mind rebelled at the idea. "No. Even the most delusional of idiots wouldn't try something that high level right off the bat."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked as he moved closer to the blackboard she stood in front of in an effort to interpret it.

"During some research sessions over the years we've come across references in several books where sorcerers, witches and other practitioners attempted to do the one thing only deities have been able to accomplish. They tried to create life where before there was none," she replied even as she became disturbed by the implications. "They covered all possible combinations of elements, all known magicks, but while some managed something close to that goal, none could completely accomplish it. There was always something missing, some piece of the puzzle that their creations lacked, and from the looks of these blackboards it looks like these guys are trying the same thing."

"But what kind of life are they trying to make that'd require so much energy?" Dawn asked as the dirty blonde looked at the written information.

"If they're trying to create life they'd have enough energy now to make an entire village filled with Naruto ninja," Andrew said, mentally thinking his way through this new possibility. "So are they trying to create an army? Take over a country or two?"

"No. Even if they made troops that could move on their own and wield basic weaponry, their forces wouldn't be able to think for themselves. Some autonomy maybe but for the most part their 'creators' would have to remote control all of them on their own," she said, shaking her head. "No one can effectively move around that many bodies. Conventional forces would be able to outmaneuver and overpower them."

No one knew what to say after that and no one could suggest other possibilities that'd mesh with what was written on the blackboards.

"Guess we won't find out what they're planning until we find them," Faith said, sounding like she didn't want to waste any more time. "Let's keep checking the place out."

"No. This place is big and the more time we waste randomly checking every room the more time we give them to do something stupid," Xander said, shaking his head in the negative. "Fortunately for us I think I've got a pretty good idea where they are."

"Really?" she asked, turning to face him along with everyone else.

"Check out the top left corner of the second blackboard," he replied with a half grin on his face. "SL-5. I bet you anything it means sub-level five. I saw an elevator while we were checking out rooms on the ground floor and the fact that the X'rellen demons were raised up from underground proves lower levels exist. Plus, generally speaking, when you want to protect something important it's a good idea to put as much rock and dirt between it and the surface as possible. It's why they build bunkers inside of mountains or deep underground."

"It's not much but it's better than nothing," she said, finding no fault in his logic after looking at the blackboard itself. "Let's get going."

As one the group left for the elevator, doubting that it'd work but confident that they could climb down it one way or another.

She just hoped that they weren't too late.

The Hallways of Sub-Level Five

"Damn Rosenberg and Harris!" the agitated one cursed as he walked alongside his calmer comrade. "It's only a matter of minutes before they get down here! We need more time!"

"Indeed, but fortunately while the rest of you were working diligently to make our dream into a reality, I was securing some bargaining chips to use against those who'd oppose us. While only one of them has ties to the S.W.C., all of them would be considered 'innocents' by the White Hat community," the calm one said, only glancing at his comrade. "While you were releasing the X'rellen demons, I was having them moved in front of the elevator shaft with a few surprises wrapped around their necks. A well placed threat should make the S.W.C. forces immobile long enough for the others to finish their work. Then all we have to do is join them."

"Assuming that Rosenberg doesn't teleport the 'surprises' off their necks somehow," the agitated one said, pointing out a potential flaw in the countermeasure.

"I am disappointed that you don't trust my abilities, old friend," the calm one said with a smile. "The surprises are made of materials that inhibit or react poorly to magic. If she tries anything untoward to free them, they'll become a full head shorter in the blink of an eye. A truth I'll make sure to point out to them."

"That… should do," the agitated one said, accepting the logic of the plan.

"Indeed. Now let's hurry," the calm one said, turning his gaze ahead. "I want to be there when they arrive."

Buffy's POV

"You okay back there, Giles?" she asked as she climbed down the rope that they'd thrown down the elevator shaft.

"I am quite fine, Buffy," Giles replied, though she could sense a bit of unease in his voice as he hung from her back. "Though I think I shall refrain from any more field missions even if my skills are needed. Especially ones involving descending from great heights."

"I'm not crazy about them either," she said with a smile without slowing her descent. "I like the nice, stable, safe ground. Still, what's life without a little excitement?"

"Safe and long lived, I would wager," Giles replied with his usual dry British wit.

She chuckled a bit at that even as she saw them get closer to sub-level five with her doing her best to get there fast without endangering her mentor any. As much as she'd miss having him fight by her side, she agreed fully that he should stay in the office for the remainder of his career as a Watcher. He was only getting older and it was pretty much a rule of the world that old people were more fragile and tired more easily than younger people. Such qualities put you at a serious disadvantage in a fight and there were better ways for her surrogate father figure to contribute to the fight other than combat. The man was unmatched in the area of research and that was assuming that he couldn't pull the answer right out of his own head the second he had enough facts.

Better for him to leave the fighting to those with the bodies capable of handling it and focus on providing them with the facts they needed to win.

The moment all of them got to a point just above the doors to the fifth sub-level they stopped since there was a high chance that there'd be a welcoming committee waiting for them on the other side. With that in mind Willow would use her magic to force the doors open, then Xander would toss a flashbang through the opening to disrupt any forces waiting for them. It would be at that point that she and Faith would dive in and start establishing a foothold so that the others could safely enter the sub-level. From there they'd clear the immediate area before beginning their search for either the wannabe master mages or the containers with the energy in them. Securing one would pretty much mean victory for them since only the two together represented a problem for the world but it also meant that both would likely be under heavy guard.

Not that it'll matter much against a dream team like this, she thought as she watched Willow extend a hand towards the elevator doors.

Helping Giles get off her back and making sure he had a strong enough grip on the sides of the shaft, she then moved to Faith's side so she'd be ready to do her part. With her right hand on her short sword she was ready to take on whatever was on the other side of the elevator doors, demons or humans. If it turned out to be the latter, though, she'd have to remember to treat them with kid gloves because not only was she opposed to killing humans but also there was a chance they'd have useful information. It'd be a bit of a problem if they had guns but that was why Xander would be tossing a flashbang in first since a person couldn't shoot what they couldn't see.

The metal protested loudly as Willow forced the doors open but, the moment they were far enough apart, Xander pulled the pin of the grenade in his hand before tossing it through the gap. The second she heard it go off she dove off her perch, going into a roll once she hit ground and getting back onto her feet ready to kick ass. However what she found had her freezing because it'd been the last thing she had expected and she didn't quite know how to deal with it.

The elevator let out into a rather large open area about half the size of a football field but it was what she saw about forty yards ahead of her that gave her pause. Ten chairs were arrayed out one after another in a perfect line and in each chair was a person with chains being employed to make sure that they couldn't get out of their chair. There were sacks over each of the captives' heads preventing her from seeing who they were but the weird looking collars around each of their necks looked suspicious enough to make her pause. It was with the sound of footsteps that she looked towards the hallway on the left and a minutes later two people came into view. One was the very image of a frazzled scientist with rumpled clothes and hair that was a complete mess along with signs that he hadn't shaved in a few days. The other one looked more like a businessman with his suit but he couldn't quite be called attractive since there was a bit of oiliness to his looks.

"A very dramatic entrance, Slayer Summers," C.E. Oily said, sounding like he was walking into a business meeting. "I'm sure if I'd had a force of guards or mercenaries stationed here they'd have been knocked quite off their guard by Mister Harris' grenade. However I have a more effective method of stopping your advance. Spread out before you are ten people, ten innocent people that I acquired just in case someone tried to stop what my co-workers and I are trying to accomplish. As an experienced Slayer I'm sure you know where this is going: surrender or be responsible for their deaths."

"Not bad. Playing the evil guy handbook page for page," she said sarcastically without sheathing her short sword. "Still I gotta tell you it's not as good a plan as you might think. I mean, you do nothing to them and maybe all I do is put the plastic zip ties on your wrists a little too tight. If you kill them, Faith and I might just use you and your pal there as training dummies for a few… hours. So unless you're both masochists I really advise you to take option one."

"Nice try, Slayer Summers, but we both know that you White Hats would never risk the death of an innocent civilian if there was something you could do to safeguard them. Still, if extra incentive is needed to make you give up, I have just the thing," C.E Oily said as he walked to a man chained to the center chair.

With a quick movement the sack was pulled off, revealing a face she had only seen sporadically over the last ten or so years.

"Angel…" she gasped in shock at the bruised and bloodied face of her ex-boyfriend.

The man she'd loved and would probably always love to some degree or another had been like a one person flying Dutchmen, appearing then disappearing at random spots the world over. He'd been like that ever since his final plan to shake the power of the Senior Partners down to the foundation had cost the lives of every member of the 'Fang Gang' in Los Angeles. It'd only been due to her arrival with a couple of Slayer teams that the vampire had survived the battle but even then it'd been a close call. After her undead ex-lover had recovered, though, it'd been clear to everyone that he'd taken the deaths of Gunn and the others hard since it'd been his plan and he'd talked them into it. It'd been so bad that even Xander, who usually took every chance he could to needle the vampire, had kept his mouth shut the entire time Angel had been in recovery. Once the souled corpse was well enough to be discharged he'd left without saying a single word to her and, while he'd popped up on the S.W.C.s radar every once in a while, she'd never actually run into him herself.

"Yep. He was a hard man to find and even harder to capture without doing him significant bodily harm. Still, the people I paid to do the job proved that they were worth every penny," C.E. Oily said, patting Angel on the head like he was just a kid. "He's been here a few weeks and has actually managed four escape attempts that almost succeeded. Naturally we couldn't let him succeed so we took a rather special step to reduce his threat level. Here's a hint."

It was then that the slick man took a large silver cross out of his coat and immediately pressed it against the side of Angel's face.

"STOP, you… bas…" she exclaimed but the words quickly died on her lips as she realized that Angel wasn't crying out in pain and there was no smoke rising from the point of contact.

How was this possible? She'd seen what crosses did to vampires when it came into contact with their skin and never once had it failed to happen. Somehow it was happening this time and she was at a loss to explain it. Hearing feet hitting the floor behind her, she turned halfway around to see the rest of the gang exiting the elevator shaft, obviously having come to the conclusion that surprise was no longer on their side. Turning back to Angel, though, she tried to figure out what the enemy had done but she was drawing a complete blank.

"Well, since you OBVIOUSLY don't have the information to figure it out, I'll tell you what we did. Are you familiar with a breed of demon called Mohra? They're a breed of demon warrior who have made it their calling to hunt down and kill every champion of the infamous Powers That Be that walks the Earth," Oily explained, looking like he was enjoying every minute of his storytelling. "They have superhuman strength and stamina, require vast amounts of salt to live but more important than all that their blood is often referred to as 'Blood of Eternity'. This blood has incredible regenerative properties, making Mohra demons virtually immortal. You can try to kill them any way you like and they'll just regenerate and get right back up. The only way to kill one for good is to shatter the red jewel embedded in their foreheads. However what'd interest you the most would be what happens when the blood gets into the veins of a vampire: it makes them human again."

This was enough to cause her jaw to drop as far down as it could because to her making a vampire human again was along the same lines as making a Slayer a normal girl.

"As a matter of fact, if a certain demon I spoke with was telling me the truth, then during your one visit to Angel Investigations back in November of nineteen ninety-nine had it happen to him. For a time he was one hundred percent human and you two had a lovely time enjoying his new status," Oily said with a cruel smile on his face. "Then he found out how hard it is for normal humans to fight demons and couldn't stand the idea of not being strong enough to make a difference, to protect YOU, so he contacted beings known as the Oracles. They're a means of speaking with the Powers That Be and he asked them to turn back time to the day you first walked in the door so he could kill the Mohra demon and remain the 'vampire with a soul'. He probably thought that only he would retain a memory of that day but there are demon breeds who are immune to alterations made to the time stream. So basically all I did was acquire some Mohra blood, injected it into him and he's human again."

She didn't know what shocked her more: that Angel rewritten time without consulting her first or that he was human once more and therefore at greater risk than she'd thought of dying.

"As a human he was much easier to keep locked up and as long as we kept him from dying of thirst or hunger, he wasn't going anywhere," Oily said, sounding like he believed he had the upper hand. "So… if innocent people aren't enough to make you stand down, then how about the life of your ex-lover? Does that change things?"

She could see that Angel was just barely conscious but even with so little strength he managed to look at her and she could tell he was thinking at her 'forget me. Stop this asshole'. However she couldn't do that. Not only did she still care about him but there were nine other innocent people to consider. Looking at Willow out of the corner of her eye, she hoped that the redhead had some kind of ace up her sleeve.

"If you're hoping that the Red Witch will be able to somehow magic my hostages to safety, I'd advise against it. Each of the collars is composed of a material that reacts rather poorly when in proximity to arcane energy." His smugness only grew. "Have you heard of the special metals Volcanite and Abyssite? I'm told that a single fireball spell cast by a first timer is enough to set off a chain reaction in them, leading to an explosion that'd be more than enough to decapitate someone and that's with a piece the size of a fingernail. Care to guess how big a blast we'll get if the collars blow up?"

They'd get a blast big enough to not only decapitate the hostages but maybe even destroy the chest area as well.

"So let's see where this puts us: I hold the detonator for the collars, I hold your ex-lover and your one means of turning the tables on me will result in the deaths of the very people you wish to save," Oily said counting off the facts with his fingers. "So I'll say it one more time: surrender. NOW."

What could they do!?

How could they win without making any sacrifices?!

She was open to ideas because to be perfectly honest she was all out of them.