Thanks to: YoraththeWolf, Stcobb, Duo, Bigstu, Anime-Ronin, Hazard 13, SgtGronard, JEAP, Suzuka Blade (and Draconomaru?), StrawberryChild, Terris1, and SailorLady.

And thanks to my Beta Readers too. Now, for the questions:

Bigstu: Well, the Covenant isn't exactly what you would call reasonable. I'd say they'd blast him just like anyone else.

Suzuka Blade: One of the things that makes the Halo franchise good, in my opinion, is the willingness to kill off well liked and even important characters. Sorry, but such is war.

StrawberryChild: I have mentioned Red vs Blue a couple of times, and I might just have plans to make a chapter too…

Terris1: Well, his options were rather limited. I may not have made it clear enough, but Whistler was supposed to make it clear that the choices were play ball or die.

SailorLady: Hmm, crush on the Arbiter. That's a new one. The only thing he brings to mind for me is Requiem For A Dream; the voice of the Arbiter played Angel (ironic isn't it?). As for your questions, well, you'll just have to wait and see :)

They say quality over quantity, so there's my justification for this rather short chapter. Anyways on with the story!

Chapter 9

Xander looked down at the two bodies that sat on parallel tables, covered by sheets. There was a cold look on his face, one mirrored by Johnson and Monetti. It was the look of someone who was ready to kill. It was a look that Buffy had only seen once before, the look he gave her when Giles, Willow and Cordelia had been captured and Xander warned Buffy he would kill her if Willow was hurt. It scared her a little.

After a moment's silence looking over the bodies, Xander spun around. "It's time to stop whoever's doing this."

"How do we find them?" Buffy asked.

"Easy," Xander replied. He turned to face the heavily damaged robot that lay tied down to another table. "He's going to tell us."

"You can't interrogate a robot, Xander," Willow said.

"You're right, I can't," Xander replied. "Fortunately, we have someone who can. Cortana, can we rig up an interface?"

"Already on it," Cortana said, appearing beside him. "Shouldn't be too hard, I'll have it ready within the hour. I should warn you though, this robot is probably sentient, or at least close. It might not be as easy as just copying the information we need."

"Do whatever you have to do, Cortana." Xander replied. "I don't care if you have to tear his code apart line by line, you find out who sent him."


"You ready, Cortana?" Johnson asked.

Cortana nodded. "Jack me in."

Johnson plugged the Elite-bot into the interface they had created, and Cortana felt a new pathway open up to her. She was quite surprised to find that it was larger than she had expected. She piggybacked herself onto another signal and flew deep into the center of the robot's "brain."

Cortana was shocked by what she found. The surprisingly complex and partially aware program that controlled the robot was still, essentially, a slave system. "It's a hive mind," she remarked to no one in particular, "fascinating."

Unfortunately, that made her job even harder. She had to get the information without being detected by the other five programs, which would be difficult, because since it was a hive system all minds would share all information. Cortana marveled at the simple brilliance of the system. Whatever one of the robots learned, they all learned. It was a very efficient way to enhance the learning curve of the soldiers.

Cortana puzzled over the idea of how to access the information undetected for a few milliseconds, then came up with a simple solution. Jamming all outgoing communications from the captured Elite for a nanosecond, Cortana quickly erased a portion of its core programming and "dropped into the driver's seat," as it were.

"Just like putting on camouflage, damn I'm good." Cortana said to herself. Quickly she absorbed all the information that was relevant, and was taken aback by surprising depth of the programming. In fact, they rivaled some of the so called, "dumb AI's" that preceded Cortana. Though dumb AI's were far from dumb, their intelligence and capacity to grow was limited to specific fields, in this case, combat. The depth of the programming also surprised her. In fact the Elite, though partially dissected, was still trying to reestablish control and warn the others.

"Sorry buddy, not going to happen," Cortana murmured. She ripped apart the Elite's brain in a fraction of a second, fast enough that to the others it would simply appear that he went offline. Cortana then carried herself and her precious cargo of information out of the system and back into the safety of her own mainframe. She materialized in the warehouse again and smiled. "Got it. Name is Warren Meers, I have his address and picture. Should we go take care of him?"

Xander looked to Johnson, who nodded gravely. "First things first, we have a funeral to arrange."


Near the cave where the Pelican lay in hiding, Sergeant Johnson, Corporal Monetti, Petty Officer Mendez and Xander Harris stood at attention over two caskets. The Marines and Mendez wore their dress military uniforms, which they had because they had come straight from the medal ceremony aboard the Super-MAC platform, while Xander stood in his newly polished MJOLNIR armour. Beside them, Buffy, Giles, Willow, Oz and Cordelia sat in chairs with solemn expressions on their faces. Despite the lack of a trumpet, the Navy and Marine soldiers had The Last Post playing in their heads. At the sound of jet engines, the four soldiers looked skyward to see four model jets flying over in formation, controlled by Cortana. As they passed over the casket, one plane pulled skyward, heading for the heavens.

As the missing man formation passed, Xander and Johnson tri-folded the flag from Winter's casket. Johnson solemnly handed it to Mendez, then returned to Danton's casket and helped Xander fold that flag. This time Xander took it, then walked to Willow. She looked at him in surprise.

"It seems only fitting," Xander said quietly.

Willow nodded, then took the flag slowly, fingering the edges of the blue material and looking at the partially visible UNSC crest.

Xander moved in front of the caskets. "This is a sad day, but one that I hope will bring us closer together. Petty Officer Winters and Corpsman Danton died protecting all of us, not just Marines, not just Scoobies. Though they will be missed, I hope their deaths will bring us together as one group united to fighting not just the Covenant or demons, but all forms of evil."

Buffy and Johnson looked at each other and nodded.

"Semper fi soldiers, may you rest in peace." Monetti said.

Johnson and Xander lowered Danton's casket into the Earth, while Monetti and Mendez did the same for Winter's.

"Now," Xander said, "let's make sure Warren never does this to anyone again."


"My guess is he has surveillance over the area around the house." Cortana said, looking at the holographic image of the house she had.

"How?" Xander asked. "Isn't this his parent's house?"

"His parents have been missing since Halloween," Cortana replied. "Either something happened to them that night or he killed them himself."

"So he has surveillance, big deal," Johnson snorted. "We just have to go in guns blazing."

"No, it might give him the chance to get away," Xander said thoughtfully. "What do you think are the odds that he has surveillance above his house?"

"Unlikely, cameras would be visible on the roof," Cortana said. "Why?"

"I just got a crazy idea." Xander smiled.


The Pelican hovered silently in the night, concealed by clouds. Xander was in the back in his armour, along with Johnson and Buffy.

"You sure you got the math right on this Cortana?" Xander asked.

"WHAT!" Cortana asked, appalled. "Did you just question my calculations?"

"Okay, sorry. Jeez," Xander said.

"Run through this one more time," Buffy said.

"Mendez will descend to ninety seven feet, then I'm going to jump out of the back of the Pelican," Xander explained. "Accounting for the weight of the armour, the acceleration will be enough to punch me through the roof and both floors of the house to the basement, which is most likely where Warren is."

"Xander, this is a stupid plan," Buffy said. "You're going in blind, and the fall could hurt you."

"That's why you and Johnson are going to come in through the front door right after. Surveillance won't matter at that point, Warren will be busy with me." Xander stood and moved to the back of the Pelican. He pushed a button and the ramp at the back of the ship began to lower. "Let's do this!" Xander shouted to Mendez.

Immediately the whine of the engines became quieter and the ship began to drop out of the sky.


Down the street, Angelus watched in surprise as the ship dropped and leveled over a house. He was even more surprised when Xander jumped from the back of it and punched through the roof. "This I have to see," Angelus said with a wicked smile.
The ship came to a hover and Xander took a breath and stepped off the back ramp, curling himself into a cannonball. His shields flared as he punched through the roof of the house, which barely slowed him. He observed a bedroom quickly before hitting the floor and punching through it as well. Lastly he fell into a TV room that looked as though it hadn't been used in a while. He hit the ground and stopped, but then heard a creak and the floor gave way, dumping him unceremoniously into the basement.

Xander quickly got to his feet and drew his pistols. Across the cluttered room, Warren stared up from his computer in surprise. Quickly he turned to another computer and began to furiously type instructions. Xander raised his weapons and fired, destroying the computer with a couple of well placed hits. Silently he advanced on Warren, who was sneering at him.

"Die, abomination!" He shouted, raising a plasma weapon from his desk. He fired, draining Xander's shields a little but doing no damage. Xander holstered his pistols, advanced forward and grabbed the weapon out of Warren's hand, throwing it violently across the room. He backhanded Warren, knocking him into the wall behind him. "That was for Winters," He said simply.

Xander grabbed Warren and lifted him off the ground like a toy. He drew back and punched him in the chest, breaking ribs and causing Warren to roar in pain. "That was for Danton," He said. Then Xander tossed Warren to the floor. He turned, grabbed the energy sword he had brought and ignited it, staring at the remaining five Elite-bots that stood at attention along the wall in charging berths. With a few quick motions he cut them apart, making sure to destroy the heads. Xander put away the sword and swung around to find Warren scrambling out of a basement window. Xander bounded up the stairs of the basement, drawing his pistols as he went. A surprised Buffy and Sergeant Johnson jumped out of the way as he passed them, running for the back door.

Xander didn't even slow down, he smashed through the plate glass sliding door and spun on his heel, turned ninety degrees to face Warren with his pistol drawn. Warren was running for the fence that separated his yard from his neighbors. Xander took aim, hesitated for a full second, and fired. The bullet flew forward, hitting Warren in the back. The impact threw Warren off his feet, sending him tumbling to the ground. He lay there unmoving, but Xander could still hear him breathing. His breathing however, was getting shorter and shorter.

"Xander, no!" Buffy shouted as she emerged from the smashed door and saw the scene in front of her. Johnson looked at Warren's prone form and nodded.

Xander ignored Buffy. He turned and walked back towards the opening he had made in the house.

Buffy shoved him when he tried to walk past. "Xander, what the hell! You just killed him, he was a human!"

"He was a threat," Xander replied. "He killed Winters and Danton."

"You shot him in the back!" Buffy shouted, pointing. "You murdered him!"

"It wasn't murder," Xander said quietly, pushing past. "I was just taking out the trash."


Warren lay on his lawn, panting. He could feel his body shutting down, but he knew that he was still a ways off from death. He could also feel the presence of a figure standing over him. "Leave me be, human scum," Warren said without looking up, "I will die a noble death."

"Die?" Angelus asked, laughing. "Oh no, you piss tin man off way too much for me to just let you die." With that, Angelus knelt down and bit into Warren's neck.


Xander had been aware of Buffy's harsh glare for the duration of the walk home. Once he had finally gotten into the warehouse, he led her into his room and closed the door, then turned to face her. "It had to be done, Buffy," he said in a determined voice.

"Xander, you killed a human being, you shot him in the back!" Buffy replied, letting a little anger into her voice.

"He killed Winters and Danton, not to mention all the soldiers and sailors on the Patrick Henry and that Army base!" Xander shouted back. Buffy took a step back. Xander had neglected to remove his armour, and made for an imposing figure when he wanted to. "Would you even think for one second about staking a vampire in the back? No, he is a threat so you take him out. Just because Warren was human doesn't make him any less evil. Do you think I like the idea of killing another human? That I was looking forward to it?"

"YES!" Buffy yelled at him. "You killed him for revenge and you know it!"

"What?" Xander asked.

"You could have shot him in the leg, or just caught him and knocked him down," Buffy accused. "We could have taken him to the police, they would have put him away."

Xander was about to reply, but stopped and thought about it. He removed his helmet and looked Buffy in the eye. The pain in his eyes surprised her. "You're right Buffy, I could have shot him in the leg, taken him to the police. But here's the question, would you disable a vampire or a demon, then take it to the police? This is a different war, and like it or not I am the law in this war. I have to make the tough decisions because the Earth isn't ready to see this kind of thing." Xander stepped towards Buffy and looked her right in the eye. "But let me make one thing clear, I do NOT enjoy killing people. You think I wanted this? You think I asked for this? I just wanted a cool Halloween costume."

Buffy softened as she listened to him.

"I thought you'd understand," he said, nodding at her expression. "Same as you I do this because it has to be done. I killed Warren because it had to be done, not for revenge or any other reason." Xander sat down on a sturdy chair and set his helmet down beside him. "I keep replaying it in my mind, watching him fly forward and hit the ground. It's easier when they're aliens. They look like monsters so it's easier to make your mind think they need to be killed. With Warren, I almost didn't do it. It was so hard to pull the trigger for a second I though my suit had broken. But… it had to be done."

Xander and Buffy sat quietly for a while after that, neither saying a thing but both of them understanding each other much more than before.


Angelus walked into the crypt and was met by a wailing Drusilla. Spike looked on from his wheelchair. "She's been like this for an hour or so now," he said, rolling his eyes.

Drusilla stopped wailing and looked at Angelus vehemently. "Angel made a new friend. I don't like his new friend."

"But you haven't met me," Warren said, stepping into the room grinning evilly.

"Oh bloody hell Angelus did you go get a stray?" Spike asked. He looked Warren over and snorted. "If you wanted a new lackey you could certainly have done better than this wanker."

"He makes Kitten very angry," Drusilla stated. Her eyes rolled back. "He is machine and nerve and has his mind concluded, but this one is but flesh and faith and is the more deluded…" she said in a singsong voice.

"Speaking of deluded," Spike muttered.

"Let's just say he pisses Harris off, and that's enough reason for me to like him," Angel said.

Warren drew a slug from his pocket. It was still red with his blood. He examined it and grinned, then closed his fist around it. "Harris will pay for what he tried to do to me," he stated, finishing inwardly, 'and then I will burn these infidels for the glory of the Covenant.'

Drusilla gave him an angry look. "I don't like our new friend." She said, pouting.

End chap 9

Well, short chapter but fear not, hopefully I will have another one out before Monday or early in the week. Anyways thanks for reading and please leave a review!