Part 3

*Ring! Ring!*

Xander reached over to the night stand and grabbed his ringing cell phone and opened it, only to be met with the smiling face of Gibbons.

"What?" Xander mumbled, still half asleep.

"Good morning to you too, Triple X," Gibbons laughed.

"Tone it down, I just got to sleep," X growled.

"I have and assignment for you," Gibbons told XXX.

"I'm already on assignment, in case you forgot."

"Yes, but you already found Jason Bourne," Gibbons informed him. Xander sat up and slip up the bed until he was leaning back against the headboard.

"You know that how?" Xander tried to remain calm, but with Gibbons it was very hard to do.

"The same way I know that the two of you were attacked last night and then rescued by two beautiful women, whose names happen to be Willow Rosenberg and Faith, who's only last name is known to be Wilkins, but we know that's just an alias."

Xander was stunned. "How?" Xander demanded.

"Easy. I was watching on satellite magnification." Gibbons sounded much too smug for Xander's liking.

"Fine, so what's this new assignment you have for me?" Xander gave in, knowing that he would do it if it meant keeping his new friends safe. Over dinner the night before he had realized that he had finally found some people with whom he could be truly himself, because they could relate. He'd never had anyone that really understood him before, not the way that these three did.

"Oh, it's not just for you, it's for all four of you."

"They don't work for you, leave them out of it."

Gibbons just smirked. Xander hated when Gibbons got that smirk on his face, it always meant that he had an ace up his sleeve that no one but him was going to like.

"If they don't do this assignment, I'll let the government know where Bourne is, I'll have the Slayer Faith sent back to prison, and I'll make sure that Willow gets prosecuted for the murder and mayhem when she was using her dark magic."

Xander looked around the room, unsure of how to proceed. Faith touched Xander's arm and nodded her head in understanding and resignation. They would do it.

"You win, Gibbons. What's this new assignment?" Xander asked, the displeasure evident in his voice.

"There's a crime lord in Spain that needs to be stopped."

"You're pulling all our strings to take down a crime lord in Spain? That seems a little extreme even for you."

"I didn't say take down, I said stop."

"What's he doing that he needs to be stopped?" Faith asked, speaking for the first time, as she sat next to X to look into the phone.

"Rumor has it that he's aiming for world domination."

"Like that's anything new?" Xander scoffed. "So, why do you need the others?"

"I need the women especially, because the way he wants to take it over isn't new to them. But it is new to you two men."

"He's not going to try to bring about the end of the world is he?" Faith asked hoping that she was wrong.

"Not exactly." Gibbons smiled when he saw Faith breath a sigh of relief. "He's going to try to raise a demon that wields enough power to bring the world populace under submission."

"Oh, goody! Another apocalypse. So much for my vacation," Faith retorted. "So, G-man, what's the plan?"

"I want you four to fly to Madrid, I'll meet you there with Agent Shavers and we'll fill you in on what we know. He's a pretty hard core kind of guy, so you might want to dress the part. Your flight leaves in two hours. There are passports at the fron desk for you and Willow, Faith. See you all tomorrow." Gibbons disconnected. Xander looked around the room to all four occupants.

"You don't have to do this," he told them.

"Actually, we do," Willow informed him. "If there's another apocalypse coming, it's sort of our duty to try to stop it."

"Besides," Jason pointed out. "If we don't help, we're all as good as dead anyway."

"Fine, but I don't have to like it," Xander stated.

"So, what do you think Gibbons meant by hardcore?" Jason queried.

Faith and Willow looked at each other for a minute then broke out into huge smiles.

"What?" Both men asked at the same time, suddenly very nervous.

"I think we need to go shopping," Willow said as she and Faith pulled the guys behind them as they headed for the door.

Xander looked at Jason with confusion and something akin to fear in his eyes. "Why am I suddenly scared?"

Jason's answer didn't help relieve any tension; in fact it only made it worse. "Probably because you should be."