Michael and Alex were on speaker. Birkhoff and Sonya had found little to go on about either The Unbroken Academy or SWI that wasn't rumor, conjecture, or – oddly – fanfiction. They were a covert school for all-girl spies. They were an American Hogwarts. They were Xena reincarnated and beat down vampires and demons on a regular basis. And those were just the comparatively rational ones. Once Sonya found the "SWI is controlled by the lizard aliens" website, they officially gave up.

The one thing the rumors (except for the one where they were all lizards) had in common was that the people of The Unbroken Academy were the good guys.

They were also, in great big capital letters, not to be messed with – there were stories about them taking out everything from master vampires to serial killers to the Russian mob.

There were variant stories on everything. SWI either stood for Slayer-Watcher Incorporated, or Scarlet Witch International. Didn't seem to have any connection to Marvel comics, though.

Sonya had wondered at first if this was all part of some elaborate game – like the promoters of AI had done way back when, setting up fake websites and journals to make it seem more realistic. (The website for The Rational Hatter was still out there.) So she checked to see who owned the websites, and who was behind the owners, and so on, and found that, while the majority of the websites were set up by people in California, the Baltimore/DC area, or England, they otherwise had nothing in common – if this was all part of some game or conspiracy, it was so well hidden that she couldn't find any trace of it.

He hated not to be able to give Michael and Alex much concrete information, but the only place where that seemed to exist was on the SWI website, and there was no way he was going beyond the superficial on that website, not if the Scarlet Witch was responsible for their security.

They told Michael and Alex as much as they had, and Alex asked, "When would Nikita have met these people?"

"Probably back after she left Division," Michael said. "There were weeks in there we lost track of her."

"Really, though? Vampires?" Alex said. "I mean, I'm willing to believe that they were some kind of counterpart to Division, but that we've got a covert group of vampire-hunters based in a nursing home in Baltimore - that doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Birkhoff had heard rumors even before he and Sonya had started looking that Division agents were actually taught what to do if they ran across a demon. He'd always assumed it was a hypothetical disaster scenario, like "What would you do during the zombie apocalypse" to test recruits' inventiveness and ability to think on their feet.

Michael's next words made him wonder otherwise for a few seconds. "More sense than –" He broke off and said, "Do you hear that?" Alex could be heard swearing.

Ryan said, "Hear what?"

"Shots," Alex said. "Sounds like rifle fire. Distant. Not at us."

"Let's go," Michael said.

The car doors opened, and then came the shots that even the three of them back at "mission control" could hear.

"Michael, Alex, report!" Ryan said.

A few nerve-wracking seconds later, Alex's voice came through. "We're here," she said. "I didn't see anything." More gunfire.

Michael said, "Me neither." A second later, another shot and, "The shots are coming from the edge of the property – they've got trees for cover. We're behind a couple of bushes and the car, but at the moment we're pinned."

"Any way you can get out of there?" Ryan asked.

"Not right now. There's no solid cover close enough – huh."

"What?"

"We have to go. We've got – cover, of a sort, now, and we're making a break for the building."

Alex said, "Michael –" and then they lost the connection.

"They're still moving," Birkhoff said. "Near as I can tell they're walking openly up the middle of the driveway."

"Walking?" Ryan asked. Birkhoff confirmed it. "Slow break."

"Yeah. Sonya? Any chance of getting a satellite view?"

"Already on it," she said. "I'll let you know."

"So now what do we do?" Birkhoff asked.

FLASHBACK

Maybe fifteen minutes – having seen stories on a hurricane, a baseball brawl, and a dog that sounded like it talked - Steph staggered back and said, "I'm done," with a disgusted look on her face.

Flipping off the TV, Xander said, "What did you get?"

"A strong desire to vomit," Steph said. "He's done some evil things."

"Psychopaths are like that," Nikita said.

But Steph was shaking her head. "He's not a psychopath. He's got a conscience. He loves his parents, his wife, and his children. He's just got it buried extremely deep." She took a deep breath and said, "That's good, actually. This wouldn't work if he were a psychopath. Anyway, the big boss's name is Julian Mirsky and they do business out of "Big Julie's Crab House," a seafood restaurant near the city-county line. I got everyone else's names, too, but I'm not going to bore you with them now."

"And is he afraid?" Xander asked.

"Scared out of his mind."

"Afraid?" Nikita asked.

Xander said, "Yeah. We didn't bring him here just to get information from him, though that was a major reason. We also wanted to test out our theory on how to keep these bastards from coming after us, short of killing them."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with me killing the two hitters on the golf course," Nikita said.

"That's different," Xander said. "That was self-defense. Well, technically, other-defense. We don't kill human beings that aren't trying to kill us. So if we've got to deal with a human problem like this one, we do our best to make sure no one dies." He paused. "That doesn't mean we don't want to teach them why it's a really bad idea to piss us off."

"He's waking up," Steph said.

Vasily rolled over and fell off the bed. Looking up, he saw Xander and Nikita standing a couple of feet away. His face grew angry, then quickly became terrified, as if he'd just seen the most frightening thing he'd ever seen in his life. "Wh—wh- what did you do?" he stammered out, trying to back away.

"You're scared of us," Xander said.

"No! I -" Xander leaned forward. "Yes! Get away!" And if the man wasn't honestly terrified, he was a better actor than any Nikita had ever seen.

"Untie him," Xander said. At Nikita's questioning look, he said, "I'm sure."

Nikita leaned down and took the ropes off of Vasily's feet, then his hands. "Stand up," Xander said. Vasily scrambled to his feet. "Here," Xander said, handing him a knife. "Come at me." He turned around and mouthed, "Be ready" to Nikita, presumably in case he somehow managed to overcome being scared out of his mind.

They had nothing to worry about. Vasily took a step forward – holding the knife underhanded, so Nikita knew he actually had some knowledge of how to use one – and then stopped, dropped the knife, and stepped back. "I can't," he said.

"You can't even think about hurting us without getting afraid, can you?"

"No," Vasily spat out in a mix of anger and terror.

"Good." Xander said. "You're lucky we let you keep being able to defend yourself, but we don't like to get people killed, even ones that barely qualify, like you."

"So," Vasily said scornfully. "You are just going to let me go now?"

Nikita said, interrupting Xander, "No. Not yet. You might not be able to hurt us, but we still don't want you warning your friends." Then she picked up the knife and handed it back to Xander.

And then Vasily gave an evil grin. "Go ahead," he said. "Try to knock me out. As soon as you attack me, I can fight back. I need no knife to take you."

"He don't know you vewy well, do he?" Xander said.

"No, he does not," Nikita said, smiling.

END FLASHBACK

The room was a small office, clearly unused, and unfurnished except for a couple of chairs. Alex said, "Michael, no!" as soon as she saw Nikita. Stepping inside and shutting the door behind her, she saw Michael, behind the door, putting down a third chair. He immediately hugged her. She hugged him back. Alex stayed seated; she looked equal parts confused, hurt, and angry.

"I guess I should have known better than to think I could get away from you guys," she said.

"You think this is funny?" Alex asked.

"No," Nikita said. "I don't."

Michael pulled away from the hug as Alex said, "Why didn't you stay?"

"While I'm with you, you're targets." The sound of a gunshot from outside. "See what I mean?"

Softly, Michael said, "You don't have to sacrifice yourself. We're here."

Nikita pulled gently out of the hug and said, "You're wrong. I do. Amanda's focus is on me. She framed me. And as long as you're around, you're on her radar, because you matter to me." Another gunshot. "Anyway, this isn't time for a heart-to-heart. We're under attack."

"We noticed," Alex said. "I also saw that rifle shell you were looking at, Michael – I've seen turtles move faster. What the hell kind of tech are they working on here?"

Nikita and Michael looked at each other. "Should we tell her?" Nikita asked.

"Should you tell me what?" Alex said.

"Do you trust us? I mean, implicitly?" Michael said. "Because we don't have time for long explanations or proof."

"Of course," Alex said.

Michael said, "Magic."

Alex looked back and forth between them and said, "You're joking."

Nikita said, "No. They used to teach Division recruits about it - and vampires, and demons, and werewolves. They stopped telling them about it maybe a year after I got there. Why, I don't know. Michael?"

"I don't know all the details," he said. "I know it was Amanda's idea. She said she'd recently had a bad experience with it and didn't want to expose the recruits to the temptation. Of course, we know how trustworthy she is."

Disbelief still obvious on her face, Alex said, "Vampires? Werewolves? Really?"

"Really," Nikita said. "Do you really think we'd pick now to play some kind of joke on you?"

"No," she said. "I'm actually wondering if this is one of Amanda's head games."

"It's not," Michael said. "But still, Nikita, why did you come here?"

"I helped them out with a problem they had with the Russian mob about four years back," she said. "They said they owed me, and I came to collect."

"And before you could collect, someone out there started shooting at you," Alex said.

"Before I could finish collecting," Nikita said. "Their computer person was working on tracking down Amanda for me."

"If Birkhoff and Sonya couldn't do it," Michael said. "Why could he?"

Usually Michael knew better. "He's a she," Nikita said, and Michael winced. "Her name's Willow, and around here she's considered better than Birkhoff and Sonya put together, and that's not an insult to either of them. She was able to confirm that Amanda's real name is Helen Collins, for instance." She shook her head. "Anyway, that isn't important at the moment. Right now, we're under siege. Since they're able to show down the rifle shots, whoever's shooting – you didn't get a look, did you?" They both told her they hadn't. "Whoever's shooting, if they actually want me dead, is going to have to try to take the building by force."

"And then . . ." Alex said.

"And then the attackers get their asses kicked."

Michael said, "Well, then, we'd better get out there."

"I didn't come here because of Willow's computer expertise," she said. "That was a nice coincidence, but I came here because the young women here are the best fighters I've ever seen."

"That good?"

"Half of them could beat Roan. The only way I could beat any of them is because I've been doing it longer. And against Faith? The three of us together would be lucky to hit her once."

Michael and Alex looked at her carefully. Finally, Alex said, "You're not kidding."

"Not about any of it," Nikita said. "I wish you weren't here – and you know why – but since you are, you may as well help. But once this is over, I'm still going off by myself. I want the five of you to get good and lost. Drop off the radar."

"Not going to happen," Michael said.

"We already said that," Alex said. "We're your family. Family sticks by each other."

Another shot rang out. "We'll get to that afterward," she said, opening the door.

"Better had," Amanda said.

Gigi and Willow were there. Willow was on the phone. Gigi smiled faintly and said, "Faith told me to give you these back." She handed Michael and Alex their pistols.

"You trust us?" Alex asked.

"We trust Nikita," Gigi said.

"I'm a little busy right now," Willow said to the person on the other end of the phone as she got closer. "I'll be careful. Goodbye." Then, to everyone, "Sorry about that. My mother would choose the middle of a siege to call and check up on me, wouldn't she?"

X

Author's Note: Yes.