Chapter 7

Not long after dawn the next morning, Xander was cooking breakfast. He had spent a large part of the previous night finalizing the first stage of his plan for the Watcher's Council. Since the council was so large, and widespread, it would not be possible for him to completely wipe it out on his own. Since federal agencies were already involved, he would use the distraction to keep the council deaf, dumb, and blind. The elimination of the council would have to be taken one piece at a time.

The first piece was North America. So far the information gathered had located watchers, potentials, mercenaries, and 'spies'. The watchers were almost always operating either alone or with a single potential, so they would be easy to deal with. The mercenaries would be more difficult, as they were well trained and equipped. Xander would need to take them by surprise with overwhelming firepower. The spies were the easiest to handle. Xander was going to let the Feds take them down one by one over the next few months.

The biggest issue was the potentials, in that he did not want to be responsible for the injury or death of even a single one. There were several options, considering most of them were either victims of kidnapping or orphans. Almost all of them were listed in the missing persons database kept by the FBI. Some of them had been missing since their families were killed, so would likely be witnesses or at least proof of the council's tactics. So far the only exception to this was the current Slayer Kennedy and her Watcher, as her parents were still alive and she had lived and been trained at home with her parents tentative approval. The parents had been too influential and rich for Kennedy to be abducted and brainwashed.

The only problem with beginning Stage Alpha, as Xander had named it, was what to do about Sunnydale before he began. Since the town was lousy with demons of all kinds, Xander wanted to clear out as many of the hostile demons as possible before he focused on the council. The most likely to work was an old military tactic, shock and awe. At least he had what he needed in the basement of the safe house.

His thoughts were interrupted by Oz exiting the basement staircase. He seemed more relaxed than normal, which Xander had thought to be near impossible. Wearing the spare clothes Xander had left out for him earlier in the morning, Oz made his way to the kitchen table after retrieving a cup of coffee.

"Hey Oz. Made breakfast if you are hungry. I wasn't sure if the snack last night would carry over." Xander spoke.

"Nah. Still full."

"Well, it is in the fridge if you want it later. I am going to head downstairs and hose out the room."

Oz shook his head. "Done"

"Oh cool. Thanks. In that case, I am going to prep for this afternoon. Are you going to be sleeping today? Or do you have plans?" Xander asked.

"Just hacking"

"Perfect. I am bringing a letter to Giles at lunch. Can you do everything on this list by say... noon?" Xander handed Oz a sheet of paper.

As Oz read the list, one corner of his mouth twitched then raised in a half smile. The last item on the list made both his eyebrows raise. Looking back to Xander, he nodded.

"Awesome. Hit the accounts first, and once that is done, then send the emails with attached files to whoever you need to. I have to get some gear ready and make a couple stops before I hit Willie's. At noon, we can take use your van we can finish all the stops then hit Willie's by six. Tonight I make a statement ad give the demons here an ultimatum. To quote one of my favorite movies, I am going to make them an offer they can't refuse." Xander smirked as he finished, then headed to the basement.


Quentin Travers was enjoying a rather expensive cigar and sherry in his study at home when his phone rang. Barely any thought had been given to the loss of the wetworks team from the Los Angeles region, other than what would be needed to quash the investigation. So far none of the council's efforts were having any progress in closing the investigation at the moment. The death's of the wetworks team had been too visible, and too many law enforcement agencies were now involved. Several of the council's employees were embedded in positions of influence in the United States, however, they were not yet high enough to have any real effect on the current issue. On the other hand, the removal of the two Slayers, both barbaric Americans and not under council control, had been a positive note on his record as Head of the Senior Council. The loss of twelve men was a small price to pay to get a Slayer trained by the council and under it's control. The new Slayer, Kennedy DeSilva, while not traditionally trained, was still a far better option than the Summer's brat and that whore Faith Lehane.

The continuing ring of the phone regained his attention, which meant it was likely important. Hopefully it was not bad news now that the council was back in control of the Slayer. Picking up the handset, he answered. "Travers"

"Mr Travers." A woman's voice replied. "This is Beatrice from Accounting. We have a problem. We were in the process of setting up the tomorrow's payments for our North American division, and all of the accounts have been emptied within the last few hours."

"WHAT?!" Travers shouted. "How could your department be this incompetent?"

"Sir. No one in the department authorized the money transfers that drained the accounts. All of the authorizations were received from outside the country. The proper codes were given before the transactions were processed, but as of now, the accounts used for all North American operations have a zero balance. The total amount lost is just over three hundred fourteen million pounds."

"Who authorized the transfers? Who's codes were used? And where did all the money go?" Travers growled angrily.

"Many of the transfers used the codes for the operations manager for North America. As for where the money was sent, we have only been able to confirm a few of the transfers. It seems several charities were the recipients of almost a third of the total amount."

"Charities?" Quentin was now a bit confused.

"Yes, sir. Several support and education charities for orphans, and also the American Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We are stil attempting to locate the rest of the transfers, however, we will not be able to recover the money through legal channels. Since they were provided the correct codes, the various banks have refused to reverse the transfers to reclaim the funds. Various national and international laws are blocking the recovery and the bank representatives are very concerned about large amounts of negative publicity if they were to take the funds back from charities of this type. It would be a public relations nightmare as well as a political one."

"Damn! I want to know who was responsible for the transfers. I had better have a list of names on my desk by morning, or it will be your head on my desk instead." Slamming the phone down, and disconnecting the call, Quentin's mood was now firmly reversed from how he had felt earlier that morning. The day had been going so well. Glancing back over to the sherry and still burning cigar, he sighed. "It could have been worse."


Giles had just finished lunch in his office at the high school, on his last day of employment, when Xander entered through the back entrance normally used by Angel. As he approached Giles, he pulled out a small electronic device and switched it on. Giles was unaware of his approach until Xander entered the office.

"Xander, is something wrong? I thought you were keeping a low profile." Giles stated.

"I am. No one saw me, but I need you to deliver a message. As soon as you do, burn it to ash. And this is for you." Xander said as he handed over the electronic device. "I call it a bug zapper. It transmits static so no electronic bugs can overhear you. Switch turns it on and off. Range is about fifty feet. Oh, don't use it for more than three minutes at a time. Gotta run. I have some things to take care of before I get started on what is in the letter."

As Xander turned to leave, Giles asked. "What is it you are going to do?"

"Read the letter. I will explain later."

As quickly as he had arrived, he vanished, leaving Giles with a plain white envelope. Opening the letter, he withdrew the single piece of paper. After reading it four times, he set the letter down.

"Dear Lord! I hope you know what you are doing, Xander."


It was later than Xander had estimated by the time he and Oz arrived a block from Willie's. Checking his equipment, Xander verified everything he needed was in place. Decked out in his full combat gear, Xander hoped it would help with putting fear into the demons inside the bar. Quickly, he got out of the van, parked just around the corner from the front entrance, and walked to the outside door of the bar.

Due to a significant percentage of the bar's patrons having an adverse reaction to sunlight, as well as most of the rest not looking remotely human, the bar had a non-standard entrance. The outside door opened to a stairwell that took a ninety degree turn before ending at a second set of doors that opened into the bar itself. From his previous visits with Buffy, he remembered the bouncer was on the right side, and was a demon that could almost pass for human. While he could not remember the species, he did know it was stronger than human, but no faster, and not much more durable than he was.

Once inside the stairwell, he pulled down his mask, and took one of the flash bang grenades from a pouch and held it in his right hand. In his left hand he drew a double barreled shotgun with cut down barrels. Knowing there were most likely at least a few vampires sitting at the usual table to his left, he had loaded dragons-breath shells into it. On his right thigh was a Springfield XD-45, an overpowered .45acp pistol with phenomenal stopping power. In the loaded magazine were special rounds he had made in the basement of the safe house. Each bullet in the pistol was a steel hollow point with a thin copper jacket, with the hollow nose filled with pressed wood shavings.

Upon reaching the doors from the stairwell to the main room of the bar, Xander held down the spoon on the grenade and used the thumb on his other hand to pull the pin. Taking a breath to settle his nerves, he then kicked the door open while tossing the grenade through the doorway. Ducking to the side, his right hand drew the pistol from it's holster. A bright flash accompanied an ear shattering boom, then Xander rushed in a second later.

Immediately upon entering, he raised the shotgun toward the table the vampires had claimed. As he pulled the trigger on the shotgun, he jerked his head away from what knew to be a brilliant light. At the same time, his right hand raised the pistol taking aim at the rightmost demon he knew to be hostile, the bouncer. Near simultaneous blasts erupted, adding to the confusion the grenade had started. Xander fired off the second barrel from the shotgun barely a second after the first had been fired. The burning magnesium flooded the left side of the bar with intense heat and blinding illumination, igniting all of the vampires at the table, as well as causing nearby demons to begin screaming as they received painful burns to exposed skin.

While the left side of the room was in short lived flames, the right side saw four of their number drop in less than three seconds, all of which were types known to be hostile to humans. The remains of the bouncer's brain, as well as a decent amount of blood, was splattered over most of the remaining demons who had been behind him. Every demon in the bar had frozen in place, as well as the bartender. Willie's face had taken on an extremely pale complexion, almost enough for one to think he was also a vampire.

Dropping the shotgun from his left hand, he then drew a second pistol that matched the one in his right. The falling shotgun, attached to a cord, never hit the floor and dangled from the tether just inside the trench coat Xander was wearing. Covering the entire bar with the two handguns, Xander waited patiently as the demons regained their sight and hearing.

"Listen up! Its time you fuckers paid attention. There are a couple of new rules in Sunnydale. The Slayer doesn't call the shots anymore, I DO!" Xander began.

"Says who?" Interrupted a demon to Xander's left.

As the demon finished speaking, a shot rang out, evidenced by a single hole in the demon's head, just above the bridge of what passed for a nose. Silence filled the bar, and even the demons burned by the magnesium were quiet. All eyes were on the still standing demon with a hole in it's head. Nearly ten seconds passed before the demon slowly fell backwards to crash into a table, upending it.

Xander broke the silence with a quiet query. "Any other stupid questions?"

No one spoke as Xander laid down the new law in town.