"Spread out, find the intruder!" the goa'uld ordered, his loyal Jaffa instantly jumping to obey.

Anise silently shut the clasp of a metallic grey armband and waited for it to take effect. She knew she should be saving it for an important mission or as a tool of last resort, but she comforted herself with the knowledge that her current mission would improve her relationship with SG1 and prove to them her superior skills.

Their constant questioning of her reasons and motives for the risks she took with their lives was annoying. They seemed completely unaware of the fact that sometimes you simply had to take risks to advance your cause, be it political or scientific.

They risked their lives for little gain often enough that she questioned their sanity. At least when she risked them, there was a very measurable gain in scientific knowledge and it wasn't like she hadn't risked her own when necessary, there was a reason she knew where several lightly guarded sarcophagi were after all.

She felt a flush of warmth as the specifically tailored virus hit her system and she consciously suppressed her immune system to enhance its effects.

Anise waited for what felt like minutes, which she knew was actually seconds, for the goa'uld to turn away from the Stargate and present his back to her. Slipping out from the shadow of the gate, she drew a knife from its sheath and slowly pushed it through the shield of the nameless goa'uld, mentally cursing the fact that she had to move at such glacial speeds.

As the goa'uld fell to the ground, both host and parasite bisected several times, the Jaffa turned to respond, only to be met with a hail of Zat'nik'tel fire and a target that moved much too fast to even aim at with any precision.

In less than two minutes the goa'uld and over two dozen Jaffa lay dead on the arid, cracked soil of a dessert world.

Anise looted their corpses, the single minute that was used for that purpose allowing her to move her current mission to the positive side of her mental tally, allowing her to count the mission as worth the time and effort expended.

She ignored her host's ill-concealed amusement, as her opinion that they would have gone on this mission even if it were firmly in the red was completely inaccurate.

Anise was a rational scientist, she was not acting on her emotions and this was a practical mission that would advance the Tok'ra agenda!

She tenderly picked up the black bag that contained Xander's body, holding it close to her chest, despite the cold that clawed at her skin and sped towards the direction the goa'uld had arrived from.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"It's been three days," Giles pointed out.

"I know," Buffy agreed, as she paced back and forth in the kitchen.

"All his wounds are gone," Giles said solemnly.

"I know," Buffy repeated.

"The last thing he'd want is to become a vampire," Giles reminded her.

Buffy stopped pacing. "I know," she said quietly. "That… that fledge in there is not Xander. But you and I both know that not everything dies with the person. Willow is in a really fragile state right now, as is Dawn, so anything I can do to give them some time to recover, I'm going to do."

"I don't think having an evil immoral version of Xander around is going to help them recover. Just the thought of it is making me paranoid," Giles said with a shiver. "It'll know all our weaknesses."

"Spike is his sire, he can control him," Buffy assured her watcher. "Besides, you yourself have pointed out that the Aurelius line seems to retain a surprising amount of their former selves."

Giles sighed and cleaned his glasses. "Do you have the blood ready?"

"Two bags," Buffy replied.

"Alright, let's get to it," Giles said, steeling himself for the ordeal to come.

Buffy nodded and lead him down to the basement where Spike was still holding Xander in a protective embrace.

"He looks…" Buffy trailed off as she examined Xander's face, the pale white skin looking even whiter under the fluorescent lights.

"The blood demon alters the body as it turns, maximizing the physical potential and improving appearance to make it a better hunter," Giles reminded her.

"I'm reviving Spike now," Buffy said, retrieving a bag of blood from a Styrofoam cooler and cutting the corner off with a pair of scissors.

Spike awoke with a start as he scented the blood, clutching Xander's corpse to his chest, eyes darting around the basement searching for danger. Seeing nothing threatening, the tensions drained out of him, until he noticed the body in his arms. His eyes closed and he muttered, "And Jesus bloody fuckin' wept."

"It's okay," Giles said, surprising Buffy who didn't expect her watcher to try and comfort Spike. "You did everything you could. Turning him, while not something I approve of, was about the only thing you could do in the end."

"Turn 'im?" Spike asked confused, as he shakily released Xander's body and took a good look at it. "But I didn't. Did I?"

Buffy and Giles exchanged surprised glances.

"He didn't have any bite marks," Buffy recalled, as she considered something that had been niggling at the back of her mind, but had been ignored for more pressing matters.

"He was bleeding out from his wounds and Spike's blood was forced into his system, but if he didn't willingly drink any…" Giles trailed off.

"It's not possible," Spike said. "If you don't decide to swallow, you can't be turned."

"Nothing about this situation is normal," Giles said.

"You can't even do something as simple as die, without making it weird," Spike told Xander, shaking his head.

Buffy's eyes roved Xander's body, noting the shredded clothes and dried blood covering pristine unmarked flesh. "He definitely turned."

"It could be that he lacked the standard protections from being possessed because he wasn't fully here," Giles offered.

"Or any protections from possession at all," Buffy said, recalling the number of times Xander had been possessed.

"How long was I out?" Spike asked, pawing at his tattered jacket and finding his cigarettes half shredded and stained with blood. He stared at them for a moment before lighting one anyway.

"This will be the third night since you two attacked Glory," Giles replied. "After the fire, there wasn't any intact body we could point to and say that this was Glory's corpse, but she hasn't been seen since and the Knights' have started preparations to depart, so we are fairly positive she's deceased."

"She died," Spike said, after blowing out a cloud of smoke. "All the damage… Xander caused her, made her revert to some human she was anchored to and he wasn't exactly fireproof." He stared at Xander's corpse as he smoked, acutely aware of the time.

"She… couldn't possess Xander, right?" Buffy asked nervously.

"I've no idea," Giles admitted. "However, she was tied to a specific bloodline, so it's doubtful."

"But not impossible?" Buffy asked.

"With him involved?" Spike added.

"We better chain him up," Giles decided.

"And quickly," Spike added. "He's gonna wake in just a minute and he'll be hungry."

"I've got a bag for him too," Buffy said, picking up Xander's corpse and carrying it to the heavy manacles that dangled from the back wall.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"But does he really count as an official follower?" Janus considered aloud as he observed a Tok'ra place Xander in a sarcophagus and move to the doorway to stand guard through a scrying pool.

A glowing squid swam into the room and turned into a dark haired man in a flash of light. "Afternoon, Janus," he said cheerfully.

"Afternoon, Janus," the Two-Faced God replied with a matching smile on both his faces as he met with the formal mortal now ascended being who had inspired his own creation.

A second squid shot into Janus' scrying chamber and took human form in a flash of light. "It is forbidden to interfere," she reminded her fellow ascended.

"But I'm not interfering with a lower being," Janus said smugly. "I'm simply having a conversation with a higher being, which is not forbidden at all."

The Two-Faced God chuckled. "He's got you there."

"I… can find no fault with that," she admitted.

"Relax, Oma," Janus told her. "I'm not even going to suggest any course of action, I'm just going to remind him that observing priesthood rites does make one a follower, if a lapsed one."

The god grinned with both his mouths. "It's not only the devil that's in the details."

Oma Desala rubbed her temples. "Ascended beings do not get migraines," she reminded herself. "It's all in my head."

"That's true even if you did get them," Janus replied cheerfully, a smirk on his second face.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Anise checked the sarcophagus for traps before placing Xander inside, opening up a hidden panel in the side to alter the settings, as she muttered to herself, "Have to compensate for the cryo-chamber."

With a loud click, the sarcophagus closed itself. The air around it began to vibrate as light leaked through the surface of the metal.

"I might have set it a bit high," Anise said, slowly backing away.

It was a full five minutes before the sarcophagus finished its cycle and shut down, however it didn't open.

Anise's shoulders slumped. She had done her best, and it still hadn't been enough, she had failed to revive Xander. Freya tried to comfort her, but she was feeling just as bad.

With the goa'uld dead and his base compromised, there were very few reasons to leave it intact and quite a few to destroy it utterly, so Anise put aside her sadness and started planting charges, setting them for three hours, which would give her plenty of time to finish looting the place and escape.

She took one last look around the chamber when she heard a faint thump from the golden coffin. She froze in place as she heard another one a moment later.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Why am I so thirsty?" he asked as he woke up and stared blankly around himself. A straw was stuck in his mouth and he took a deep pull on it only to gag and spit its contents on the ground. "Why are you trying to feed me blood?!"

"Because you're a vampire?" Buffy half stated, half asked.

Xander's eyes shot open and he looked anxiously around himself. "Umm… Didn't I request a stake if that happened?" He took a few deep breaths and tried not to panic, his heart beating loudly in his ears.

"Tara's still a long way from recovered, and both Willow and Dawn are blaming themselves for your death," Buffy explained.

Xander sighed. "Okay, I get where keeping vampire me around, at least until Tara is better, might be worth the risk."

"I figured you would," Buffy said relieved that didn't blame her. She held the straw up to his lips again.

Xander looked at it and made a face. "I don't think drinking something salty is really going to help with my thirst. Can I get a coke or something?"

The three stared at him in shock.

"What?" He asked.

"He's still breathing," Giles noted.

"And I can hear a heartbeat," Spike added.

"Oh Dear Lord!" Giles exclaimed.

"Okay," Xander said slowly. "So me not being dead is bad?"

"You were stone-cold dead for seventy-two hours," Giles replied.

"And there was a slight chance Glory might have jumped into you," Buffy added.

"Kill me!" Xander ordered. "We can't go through that again! Do your fucking job!"

"We don't know for sure!" Buffy yelled right back at him. "And the reasons for keeping you around still stand!"

"I…" his voice trailed off and he examined the chains. "Fine, but get me more chains. Chain me up like you would Glory."

"That's a reasonable precaution," Giles agreed.

"And I want a coke," Xander said, scraping his tongue against his teeth.

"I'll see if I can come up with a way to verify if you're Glory's new host or not," Giles promised.

"You came back from the dead," Spike pointed out. "Last bloke who did that had a godly parent in the family tree. I'm not thinking there's really a question of what's happened unless you've been really close-mouthed about being adopted."

"I'll talk to Willow and see if we can find some way to cast out Glory," Giles promised agreeing with Spike's line of thought. "In the meantime… it's good to see you again, even if worse comes to worst and our time together is cut short."

Xander nodded and blinked. "Dusty in here," he said, fooling no one. "Let's be quick about those chains, okay?"

"Alright," Buffy agreed, darting forward to give Xander a hug.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Anise hammered away at the corner of the sarcophagus with a rock as the blows from inside gained in strength and frequency, actually deforming the metal.

She cursed the goa'uld ego that compelled them to use gold in nearly everything they made, a metal with an annoyingly low melting point that had sealed the lid shut.

The next blow from inside left a perfect outline of a fist, warping the metal enough to break the seal and let fresh air and light into the gilded coffin.

Hearing the breathless panting from the crack in the lid, she leaned down and yelled, "Don't stop, we only have a little over a minute to get you out before the explosives go off!"

"Explosives?!" came the high-pitched squeak from inside.

Typing By – Sitheus Maximus