Chapter 2.

Xander had just returned home to his converted warehouse. Inside he found dozens of machines that hadn't been there when he left. One of those machines towered above the rest at nearly twelve feet tall by ten feet wide. It would seem that Cortana had been extremely busy since he had left. A few of the other machines looked as if they would be at home inside a car manufacturing plant, a futuristic one, and were busy making a few pieces that he recognized as MJOLNIR armor.

"Hey honey, I'm home." Xander yelled into the interior of the warehouse as he slowly made his way towards the apartment area of his new home.

"Don't yell. I can hear you just fine." Came Cortana's disembodied voice.

"Um, just what are you doing anyway?"

"I just finished getting a small MJOLNIR armor plant online. It should be able to provide us with replacement parts for your armor as long as you don't bust it up to much."

"Sweet. What about weapons?"

"That's going to take a little longer. Since they're no Covenant warriors around to fight, I don't think you'll need some of the weapons, but you might have a few problems. From what you sent back via that comp core vampires seem to have a lot of natural weaknesses, and bullets aren't one of them. You could always try tracer rounds that should be enough to ignite them. I'll start working on trying to get a flamethrower built, but again that's going to take time."

"Damn, well do the best that you can. I'll just continue to hunt vamps without any special gear. Since your only just getting the armor plant online I'll forgo wearing the MJOLNIR suit tonight."

"Take a comlink with you just in case."

"Yes mother." Xander replied sarcastically as he began changing into some surplus military clothing. Once he had changed he grabbed some stakes and a few bottles of holy water from what would eventually become his armory, which was at the moment quite empty.

After leaving the warehouse Xander decided that instead of patrolling the cemeteries, which had a high chance of him running into Buffy, he would instead take a little jog through the tunnels under the town. It took him a few moments to find a manhole that lead down into the dank tunnels that crisscrossed underneath the town. He had forgotten how bad the stench was since he had been there last. He methodically hunted through the tunnels, sneaking up on the vamps that he found, creating a mental map as he went. Every demon that he came across that he knew the weak point of he slaughtered, most that he found were vampires, but he did come across a few others. Almost all demons that he knew about could die from the loss of their heads and with his newfound Spartan level strength it was not hard to rip said heads from their shoulders.

After each and every kill that he made, he quickly scoured the area attempting to find any artifacts, books, talismans, and cash that the demon might have had. If he was going to risk his life for mankind he might as well get paid for it. Also some of the artifacts that the demons had were just too dangerous to be left lying around for some other poor sucker to come across. Didn't want some idiot that had a death wish to take mankind with him cause he got teased a lot in school now would you? After nearly three hours down in the tunnels, and now smelling something truly awful, Xander left the tunnels and made his way towards the Bronze. Thinking maybe he could see this band that Buffy had been so hopped up on seeing. But thanks to being in the sewers for so long, the bouncer told him no way in hell was he getting into the club smelling like that.

Xander headed home after that. After getting nearly to his old house before remembering that he now had a new home he switched directions leading back towards the industrial parks of Sunnydale. It took nearly a half hour to get there. Once there he quickly jumped into the shower, the bouncer had been right, he did smell something quite awful.

After finishing up in the shower Xander quickly dressed and then took the time to look around his new apartment. Not really having had a chance to see it all as the workers built it. He was now the proud owner of a 3 story internal apartment. The top floor was laid out as a massive master bedroom with a king sized bed taking up one corner of the room. The room itself was close to thirty feet by thirty feet. Off to one side was a door leading into the master bath, which contained both a shower and a two-person tub, along with all the other amenities found in a normal bathroom. Coming down to the second level, which was a little larger, there were two extra bedrooms a huge living room with a truly massive plasma flat screen TV. The second floor also contained the kitchen with a well-stocked pantry. Beside the kitchen was the laundry room with three large washing machines and three dryers. He didn't know why he needed so many laundry machines but he was just happy that they were there. Xander didn't feel up to having to walk to the closest Laundromat every time he wanted some clean clothes. Also it would be a little hard to explain why all his clothes would be covered in blood and not human blood at that.

Xander made his way back down to the main part of the warehouse to see what Cortana was up to now. She was still interfaced with the warehouses main computer.

"So how you liking Earth Cortana?"

"I was created on Earth, you do know that right?" She replied.

"Ya, I know. But this Earth is different from yours. I was just wondering how you liked it."

"This Earth is a little weird. I was just taking another jaunt through the net to see what was going on when I came across this news bulletin. It seems some company was experimenting with genetic engineering and managed to recreate about two hundred breeds of dinosaurs on an isolated Atlantic island a few hundred miles off the coast of Costa Rica."

"Did you just say dinosaurs?" Xander asked.

"Yes, dinosaurs. There seems to be a lot of confusion over what they should do with them. A lot of the animal rights groups are up in arms demanding that the islands be declared endangered species protected habitats and at the moment they seem to be winning. The five islands in question contain only a few thousand dinosaurs and there are no humans living within 300 miles."

Xander said. "You know it's really depressing that that's not the most amazing thing I've ever heard."

"Yup, you lead an eventful life don't you? Now go get some sleep, we got another round of deliveries tomorrow and they show up early." Cortana ordered.

"What more could you possibly have ordered?" Xander sputtered.

"Well raw materials for one thing, also more circuits, microchips, processors and a few other things that should come in handy. If you're going to really take on the demon underworld, as you call it, then your going to need a lot of equipment. Also some of the things that I ordered would be the first step in my getting a fully functioning medical lab online incase you manage to get yourself seriously injured, which we both know will happen sooner or later. Now go get some sleep."

Xander did as he was ordered but grumbled under his breath about bossy women and why did he like them so much.

The next morning as promised another round of deliveries occurred. This time instead of 5 trucks there was only 4. Each truck was full of equipment and raw materials that Cortana had ordered. After signing for each and every single thing on the trucks, Xander was nice enough to help the drivers unload all the stuff into the warehouse. Most of the items were just left in a pile, since Cortana now controlled enough little robotic arms to move things around, and besides he didn't know where to put the stuff anyway.

Xander looked around at the massive mess and sighed. "I'll help you clean all this stuff up later, I gotta get going or I'm going to be late for school."

Cortana took a look at an internal clock and noticed the time before speaking. "Ok, have a good day at school, and don't get killed!"

"I will and I won't!" Xander yelled in reply as he walked out the door.

After arriving at school, the true mouth of hell in his mind, Xander quickly went to his first class and his favorite now. Computer science, he hated the subject but love the teacher. Miss Jennifer Calendar had to be among the most stunning women that he had ever met in his life. She flowed into the room life a dancer, her long legs incased within stockings that disappeared into a knee length skirt.

Miss Calendar quickly began giving the class instructions on what they would be doing today; it was a simple typing exercise to increase your typing speed. Now Xander had never been the best student, mostly because he was lazy as hell, but today he tried his hardest hoping to impress Miss Calendar. Unfortunately that was doomed to failure for though he tried his hardest, his mind as always began to take frequent though brief jaunts into the realm of fantasy, which was the cause of him nearly not finishing the full assignment. Though he was hardly the only male in the class to fantasize about Miss Calendar and for that matter a few of the girls did too.

When the bell finally did ring Xander made no move to leave, seeing as how he had a free period next. He decided to stay in the computer classroom and at least attempt to broaden his knowledge of magic and demons through the internet. Some of the most comprehensive databases on demonkind were only available online, which Giles still refused to use.

Jenny having noticed that Xander stayed behind after class sauntered over to where he was sitting to see why.

"So any reason why you're not running out the door as you usually do?" She asked in a teasing voice.

"Um, just wanted to get some extra time in on the comps." He said as he frantically tried to close the window browser.

"Oh, what are you looking at that you don't want me to see." With that statement she walked behind him to glance at the monitor. On the screen was the image of a Wiccan ritual that was performed nude. She just chuckled, watching his face go bright red.

"Interested in pagan rites are we?"

"Um, yes?"

"Well if you're truly interested in magic, I know a few sites that you could read to get a better understanding behind it. Though I do have to tell you Xander you probably wouldn't be able to do very many, if any at all."

"Why couldn't I do any spells? Not that I'm going to be doing any anyway."

Jenny replied in a soft tone. "To be a mage or witch you have to be born with the power. It's not something that you can learn. The potential has to be within you to begin with and you don't have any mystical power of your own. So that's why you can't do spells."

"Damn, oh well. Its not like I planned on doing any spells to begin with."

"Can I ask why you're looking through Wiccan spell sites then?" She asked now a little bit curious.

"Oh, just doing a little research. I was wanting to put a few wards or something like that up around my house so Deadboy couldn't get in."

Jenny got a slightly evil grin on her face at the hated nickname of Angel. "Well I could help with that. I do know enough magic to put up a few low power wards, might not keep him out but should slow him down a bit."

"Sweet. Umm one problem." Xander looked a little nervous as he glanced around to make sure they were truly alone. Jenny also looked around, wondering to herself why she was doing this but decided to just humor him.

"Ok, please don't tell anyone this though ok?" Xander waited patiently till Jenny nodded her agreement before continuing. "You remember Halloween, where we all became what we dressed up as?"

Jenny blushed at that, for on Halloween she had dressed up as an Arabian belly dancer to go to a costume party, but still managed to nod.

Xander continued, though filing away in his mind that blush and making a note to ask about it later, with his story of how he became a Spartan for the night and how after the spell was broken he still remained with all of a Spartan's abilities.

Jenny was stunned. "You mean to tell me that you have a true AI, and a suit of MJOLNIR armor?"

Xander had a tiny smirk on his face as he nodded. "Yup, I got both back at my new place. You want to meet Cortana?"

"Yes, definitely!"

"Ok, meet me here after school and I'll take you back to meet her."

Jenny quickly agreed. For the rest of the day all she could think about was that she was going to be meeting a true AI. Though also in the back of her mind was the knowledge that she would have to continue her research into the curse upon Angelus. If he ever managed to break free then the death toll would be unimaginable. When school finally did let out for the day, she was close to agreeing with her students that school was the root of all evil, she rapidly packed all of her work into her briefcase. As soon as Xander came into the classroom she was already ready to burst with excitement to get going.

"You already to get going?" He asked.

"Yup, I'm ready to go."

"Cool, um did you drive to school today cause I didn't. It would have raised too many questions if I drove my new hummer to the school." He continued his explanation at her raised eyebrow when he mentioned a car.

"Yes, I brought my car to school today. It's the black oldsmobile out in the parking lot." She pointed it out to him as they passed a window on their way towards the schools doors. After getting into the car Xander began giving directions back to the warehouse that was now his home.

Once there Xander hopped out to open the garage doors, he hadn't gotten an automatic door opener installed yet, and directed her to drive inside. After taking one last look around the empty street Xander pulled the door down after him. Jenny shut the car off and nearly fell over when the platform the car was on began to rotate the car around to face the doors. When Xander took her into the main room she was amazed at the vast amounts of machinery most of it looking very advanced beyond anything that she had ever seen before. Walking behind him she followed him over to what appeared to be a massive collection of computer consoles. On the main screen was Cortana herself, she had assumed her avatar a younger, purple, version of her creator.

"Hi Cortana, I'm back and I even brought a friend!" Xander said.

"Xander! Are you insane? I thought we had discussed bringing outsiders back to Alpha base." Cortana nearly yelled through the speakers attached to the console she was interfaced with.

Jenny seeing that Xander didn't know what to say spoke up herself. "Um Hi I'm Jenny Calendar and I just wanted to say that I'm a big fan of yours, uh I mean ever since I played the game with you in it. Halo is one of my favorite games!"

Cortana was busy looking through Jenny's files through the internet and tracking down all available information on her as she responded. "Really, well as long as you don't comprise the integrity of this installation I don't really see any harm in your being here."

"That's good, cause Miss Calendar has agreed to place a few warding spells around the warehouse to keep demons and vamps out of here."

"Spells, what kind of spells. If you'll forgive me for saying so I'm a little nervous around magic considering that it was magic that brought me here to begin with."

Jenny looked more in her element as she began to describe various alarm spells designed to detect certain demon species and other barrier spells that could be placed on the building that would keep any and all demons out unless they were invited inside by the owner of the building in question. While Cortana talked to Jenny another part of her was still busy searching far and wide across the world unraveling the life of Jenny Calendar and she was starting to come up with some puzzling results, which prompted her to ask her next question.

"Miss Calendar, why is it that I find next to no record of you anywhere on Earth, but yet I find many documents of a woman who matches your physical description. One Janna Kalderash to be exact.

The look on Jenny's face was priceless as the carefully constructed web of lies and false truths that she had built for herself came crashing down around her. She should have known that an AI of Cortana's power would have done a background check on her as soon as she met her. Now Xander was looking at her strangely as he backed away from her towards the weapons sitting on a nearby table.

"Well since you obviously already know, yes I am Janna Kalderash of the Romany. I was sent here by the clan to make sure that Angelus would continue to suffer and the curse not be broken."

Xander looked a little more trusting but he still picked up a pistol and loaded it. "If that's true then why didn't you just come forward with this information in the beginning?"

"The clan elders didn't think it would be wise for me to involve myself directly with your group. Angelus is meant to suffer and at this point the curse appears to be slowly lifting. If I can't figure out a way to prevent this soon then Angelus will return and be a hundred years stronger than before."

"I don't understand. How could he be stronger than before?"

"Vampires grow in strength the older they get. Angel is nearly 250 years old that brings with it a lot of power. If Angelus were to return and begin feeding off real human blood then he would be an insanely powerful Master Vampire."

"Well we'll just have to insure that that doesn't happen then won't we?" Xander said with a deadly gleam in his eye.

"All available records that I've managed to find on you concur with your story Miss Kalderash. Also biometric scans of your body indicate that you were indeed telling the truth. Though in the future do not attempt to lie to us, we have many means at our disposal to ascertain if you are telling the truth."

"I'll remember that. Thank you for believing me. Do you have any objections to my casting those barrier spells?" Janna asked, despite herself she felt worried that their answer would be no. So far Xander and Cortana seemed to be the two nicest people that she had met in Sunnydale. Giles was a nice guy in all but he was way too uptight and he doted on Buffy far too much for her tastes, he was just too spineless.

Xander exchanged a pointed look with Cortana discussing the idea through their neural link before replying. "Nah, you can do the spells for the base. Though I was wondering if you could help us with another problem?"

"What's that?" Jenny asked.

"Well since you seem to know a lot about magic and demons, we were wondering if you could help us build a database on demons, magic, and magical items that we might come across."

"I can certainly do that. I have enough reference material of my own and that of the clans that could be of immense use to you two. Though I only ask one thing in return."

Xander and Cortana once again exchanged thoughts through their neural link attempting to determine just what she would ask of them and coming to a list of things that they would allow and wouldn't allow. "Ok lets here it."

"Let me move in here. You certainly have the space and it would make life a lot easier on you to have me available to power the wards and barriers." Janna looked hopeful as she said this. She had another motive in mind when she asked this but it was the lesser of the two. Her apartment manager was an asshole and her place was also infested with rats.

Xander pretended to think about it for a few minutes but in reality he and Cortana had assumed that this might be the case. Housing in Sunnydale had many problems associated with it, demons usually being one of the larger issues as many homes were inspelled to remove the normal barriers preventing them access, as well as other mundane problems. "You can stay. Tomorrow is Friday so we can move your stuff in after school and over the weekend. And I guess you can help me pick out some furniture for the rooms in the apartment."

"Thank you! You won't regret this." Jenny said. After they had finished discussing the plans to move her in she went to begin the rituals to erect the barriers and wards. Most were extremely low level spells but would get more powerful the longer they were in place and charged until they were next to impenetrable.

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Across the county a young girl was running through a run down section of town attempting to get away from the things chasing her. She called them things cause they didn't appear to be human with their weird faces and fangs. She couldn't forget the fangs, the last time she had seen something like that was when her mom died. She had brought one of her johns home, almost before they had even got in the door the 'things' face had changed into something evil and then he bit her in the neck. It took next to a few seconds before her mother had died. She had been lucky that it hadn't come after her but since she had been hiding in the next room he hadn't seen her. When the cops finally came after her frantic call to 911 they had assumed that she had done it, they never believed her story of the creature. She had been declared mentally unfit to stand trial so they had attempted to lock her up in the nuthouse but she had managed to escape and ever since then she had been living on the street. And now these things were chasing her.

She ducked in and out of alleys attempting to lose them as she took every shortcut that she knew and after living on the streets for nearly two years she knew a lot of them.

As she flew around a corner she ran right into a garbage can that was in the alley, she fell to the ground still scrabbling for purchase to get back to her feet and run but she wasn't quick enough.

"Well what we got here, a little tasty mortal for us to enjoy!" said the first one as he grabbed her and held her arms tight.

"This won't hurt a bit darling, maybe you'll even come to like it." The second spoke as he came in closer about to bite her neck when his eyes opened wide in surprise before his body vanished in a cloud of dust. The first one saw this and turned to run but he too vanished in a cloud of dust before her eyes. She turned to the end of the alley to see a middle aged woman coming towards her carrying a crossbow. The woman looked regal but she carried herself with an air of danger surrounding her.

"I am Lady Linda Pryce." She said. "I have come to help you with your destiny. Now what is your name?"

The young girl just starred at her in awe before shaking herself and answering. "My names Faith."