Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters contained within.

That would be Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Marvel Comics

Old Places and New Faces

&

"Do you guys know that place pretty well?" Cyclops asked.

"Yea, we've spent some time in and out of there over the years." Xander replied. "It's an old mansion that sits off by itself. It's big and was vacant until your buddy set up house. There are lots of areas where an ambush could be set up and it's far enough off the beaten track that almost anything that goes on there would never get noticed."

Jubilee spat out, "He is NOT our buddy".

"Old mansion, huh," Cyclops asked. "Mostly made of stone and hardwood?"

"Yup, and lots and lots of wrought iron fixtures." Faith put in.

Cyclops said, "Okay, I'll call the Professor back; the rest of our team can be here in a little over an hour using the Blackbird."

"A little over an hour, but California is over 2,000 miles from New York." Xander said his inner soldier perking up.

Cyclops smiled, "Yea, the Blackbird can do Mach 3, just over 2,200 miles an hour." "What do you have in the way of non-metal weapons?" He continued, going into strategist mode.

"The usual," Faith said in a bored voice, "stake, staff, crossbow. Oh yea, also a couple of kickass Slayers."

Willow spoke up, "The smart money is on the last."

"Alright, gather what you have and we'll separate out the stuff Magneto could use against us." Cyclops ordered.

"You know, guests are usually a little more polite, like using manners and stuff." Buffy said. "You keep throwing orders around and you might be spending the rest of the night in a hospital bed with the nurses trying to figure out how to put you back together."

Cyclops sighed, "Please?"

Faith shrugged her shoulder, "Well, as long as you said please."

As Cyclops moved off to make his call, the Slayers, Xander, Oz and Jubilee started pulling weapons from the armory. They sorted them according to lethality and materials of construction. Meanwhile Giles and Willow were looking for a spell that would help to contain or minimize Magneto's power.

When the weapons were laid out on the table where the map had been, Xander took Buffy to the side. "You gonna be alright Buff?"

She looked up at him, "Yea, I shoulda known he would be at the mansion. I think that place is cursed for me. Every time I go there someone dies. It seems like all I have are bad memories of that place, between that Post bitch dying there and Angel, twice."

Xander gave her a one arm hug and said, "Well, just remember, I'm here to give you good memories anywhere you want, any time you want." Then he waggled his eyebrows at her surprising Buffy into a laugh.

She pushed him away saying, "Sounds like a fresh round of nightmares to me."

Faith, who had picked up the conversation with her enhanced hearing, called over, "Hey B, it might do you some good to give Soldier-boy a bounce. You know, use him then lose him?" She then gave the blonde slayer one of her blinding smiles.

Xander stood there with his mouth opening and closing not sure what to say. Finally he settled on, "Hey, we're trying to have a private moment here, ya mind?"

Buffy laughed again, "You should see the look on your face Xan, priceless."

They went to join the others with the somber mood broken for now.

Cyclops came back over and began to relay his conversation with Professor X.

"The Professor had the team gathered and standing by the Blackbird. I sent him the coordinates for the mansion and they will meet us there." Cyclops then turned to Giles, "Professor Xavier would prefer if you could keep the X-men's involvement in this out of the Watchers Council's report, if you can that is. He feels that if the Council knows we've been working with the slayers, they would try harder to recruit mutants for their own use."

"Yes, I can certainly see his point", Giles said. "If at all possible we will keep your involvement just amongst ourselves. Agreed?", He asked looking around at the Scoobies.

After getting nods and murmurs of assent from all present he moved over to where Willow was working while asking, "You said the rest of your team is on the way?"

"Who's coming?", Jubilee asked.

"Jean, Logan, and Ororo." Cyclops replied nodding.

Faith asked, "Who are they?"

Jubilee answered, "They are some of the senior members of the X-men. They've been through a lot of fights with Magneto and will be able to help."

"More importantly, what can they do?", Buffy asked.

Cyclops answered this question, "Jean Grey is a powerful telekinetic that has been with Professor Xavier and the X-men almost since the beginning."

"Ororo Munroe, otherwise known as Storm, has the power to control the weather. She can also open almost any lock you're likely to come across."

"Logan is, well Logan. We don't know his last name, but he's known as Wolverine. He has an incredibly fast healing power and he's been trained in several martial arts disciplines. He can also extend bone knives from his fists."

"Wicked cool", Faith said. "It'd be great to have built in weapons like that."

Giles called, "Can you come over here for a minute? I think Willow may have found something we can use."

When they had all gathered around the table, Giles started to explain what they had found. "We were cross referencing some ancient spells that are used to contain mystical forces during a summoning, and found that they work by containing the electromagnetic field generated by a being's aura. Thereby preventing the entity within the casting area from moving beyond the specified boundary."

Willow picked up the explanation, "I then went online to find any man made machines that may be able to neutralize or inhibit electromagnetic fields and their principles of operation. When we combined the two theories we came up with this." She showed the group a diagram on the computer screen along with a few verses in Latin that only Willow and Giles could read.

Xander said, "Way to make with the big brain Wills."

Oz whispered to Willow, "I love your big brain.", which made Willow blush.

Giles continued, "We will need to make a fairly small casting as the larger the area, the weaker the containment field will be. Perhaps we could set it up in the rear courtyard and draw him into it somehow?"

"Or force him into it", Buffy said with vengeance in her eyes.

Cyclops said, "I don't know how easy it will be to force him into anything. Others have tried and Magneto always seems to come out on top."

"First things first", Buffy said ignoring Cyclops' comment. "Giles, how long do you need to set up this spell?"

Giles took his glasses off to start polishing them as he responded, "The actual casting of the spell shouldn't take very long. Willow and I need to cast the spell from fairly close to the circles location. However setting up the containment circles could be fairly difficult without being seen."

"How about if we cast the spell here and direct it into crystals?" Willow mused, "Then Faith and Buffy could just place the crystals around Magneto and presto, instant containment field." Willow finished with excitement in her voice.

"Yes that could work." Giles said to Buffy, "If you and Faith could set them up in the courtyard, perhaps our new friends could keep Magneto occupied while you work and then help draw him into it?"

"We can be very distracting when we put our minds to it" Jubilee said.

"Plus we'll have reinforcements there." Cyclops added. "If Magneto thinks it's just the X-men coming after him, Faith and Buffy may take him by surprise."

Buffy said, "Great, you two get started. Cyclops, can you and Jubilee give Giles and Willow a hand? Xander, Oz, after we leave I want you guys to stay here with Giles and Willow where it's safe, no arguments. The last thing we need is to give that nut job an opportunity to take hostages."

"You just wanna keep us outta the action", Xander grumbled.

"Damn straight", Buffy said.

"Alright we'll hang here until you get back", Oz said.

"As soon as Red and G-man finish powering up those crystals, we can move out", Faith said to Cyclops and Jubilee. "Why don't you get an ETA on your friends? Buffy and I will finish getting packed, and then we'll all head out to visit old places and new faces."

&

Shortly thereafter the X-men and Slayers were headed through the streets of Sunnydale towards the mansion and Magneto. They would meet the rest of the X-men in the field about a mile behind the mansion were the Blackbird could land.

The Slayers were carrying the five crystals that Giles and Willow imbued with the containment spell. They could feel a slight vibration coming from each of them. Setting them up would be fairly simple. One crystal at each of the cardinal compass points, then when Magneto was inside the perimeter, the fifth one gets thrown into the middle with him to activate the spell. The containment field would hold until the deactivation spell was recited.

The team of X-men would distract Magneto while the Slayers set the four crystals out, then all of them would work to maneuver him inside them. A very simple well thought out plan.

What could go wrong, right?