Fortress of Air

Disclaimer: Don't own nothin'.

Timeline: after 'A New Man.'

The Dove, the Serpent, and the Dagger

"…So, you've been fighting with the Scoobies for four years…all for money," Faith asked, not truly believing him.

"Ah, don't make it sound so bad," Xander said over the link, "I fought vamps and demons and the worst human filth ever long before that, and yes, for money. The only reason why I took the job to keep Buffy alive for a min of four years was because it was the one thing that no member of the Sect had ever done."

"What," Faith asked, perplexed.

"Ordinarily, a Sect member is challenged by an undisclosed member to keep the Vampire Slayer alive for at least three years. Over the centuries, it progressed in both sum and time because no one had ever done it before. I was the best in the business before she came to town, literally the best, so I decided to give it a shot."

"That's why you stayed with B and Red through all the shit," she asked, "Money? They couldn't have paid me enough."

"That's one of the things about becoming a hunter like myself, Faith," Xander said with a sigh, "You learn to deal with the assignment you've been given. I dealt with it, by ranting at whoever it was holding the leash, but, I dealt with it. But, enough of that. We need to talk about something else."

"…What," Faith wondered, not sure if she liked where he was going with this.

"Faith, I'm going to be one hundred percent honest with you," Xander took a breath to steady himself and said, "I tried very hard to find a way to reach you, to talk to you. I knew that you couldn't stand them, I knew that you were the better Slayer, I saw it…but, I couldn't find a way. You have to understand that I couldn't break character."

"I wasn't important enough," Faith said, somewhat downtrodden.

"It's not that, Faith," he said to her, "It's because of the price that comes with failing that particular job. You get excommunicated from the Sect and the Sect contracts independents to hunt you down. When you take the Slayer contract, you know the risk…get found out, you're dead."

"Why would anyone take that job," Faith wondered.

"For the prestige," Xander admitted with a grin, "No one has ever survived the Slayer contract…least, till me. That's because none of the members ever had a chance to gain an in…but, I did, so, I took it.

"Faith, I want you to know that…even though I'm a bounty hunter, even though I lie, cheat, and steel when I need to, I still am a good guy. I have morals and ethics, always have, always will. I only do jobs that involve criminals and demons…I can't speak for Tara here, but-"

"Wait, wait," Faith held her hands up in confusion, "Tara? Who is that?"

Xander smiled at her and went aside, allowing a beautiful girl with dirty blonde hair to look into the screen.

"Hey, Faith," the girl said in a sultry voice, "My name's Tara. It's good to see you're…up and about," she said, her voice dripping in enough sexual energy that it literally made her pant with desire.

"OK, that's enough," Xander said, pushing her aside so that he could see her, "Sorry about her. She's abnormally flirtatious with babes."

Faith nodded. She'd noticed.

"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat and getting back on the subject, "Faith, I woke you up to extend a…business proposition to you, of sorts."

"Proposition," she asked, her interests slightly piqued, "Such as…?"

The Dove, the Serpent, and the Dagger

"Buffy," Angel, the newest Champion for the Powers That Be, smiled as he answered the phone, "How are you?"

"Not good," the voice of his ex echoed across the lines, "This is a business call, Angel. I need to know everything you know about something called the Blitzkrieg."

"Sure, I know plenty about that," he had been around to see it, of course, had actually be there for the battle for Paris briefly, "It was a method of war designed by the war departments of Nazi Germany-"

"Not the World War II one," she told him, "I'm talking about a Blitzkrieg involving a bounty hunter."

Angel, a vampire, paled to the point that if anyone didn't know he was already dead would have believed him to be dead already.

"…What do you know," he asked her.

"It's got something to do with a hunter from a sect called the Dove, Serpent, and Dagger. That hunter goes by the same name as Xander…and, actually, is Xander."

"What," Angel asked, he'd always believed that it was a coincidence, "How? Why? When?"

"Four very good questions," Buffy told him, "Questions that I need answered. I want him, Angel. I want him to pay for what he did."

"What did he do," he asked, fearing for his beloved and her friends. He listened intently as she went over the events that occurred recently, starting with a strange man named Matthew, and ending with her excursion at Willy's. Quite frankly, to him, it seemed as though Xander had simply gotten some vengeance for what Buffy, Willow, and Giles had done to him over the years…if the situation were reversed and he had been the human while Xander was the ensouled vamp, he was certain that he would feel jilted himself.

And, if most of the Xander Harris stories were true, he was thankful to any gods that would listen to his prayer that she was still alive.

"…Buffy," he began, "Xander was getting vengeance for what he feels are wrongs you've all done to him-"

"WE DID NOTHING," she interrupted vehemently, "HE BETRAYED US!"

"Yes, he did," Angel told her, "But, to him, you betrayed him first. I'm not siding with him, I'm just explaining my interpretation to his motives."

He could hear her sigh in anger, but, she, thankfully, did not explode on him.

"Xander Harris," he continued, "The one known as a bounty hunter, is one of the most known figures in the underworld. He takes out the worst of the worst, he even took out one of the last True Demons before disappearing for a while, coming out to take a few independent contracts a year, tops. The Blitzkrieg refers to his weaponry…twin pistols, one named Blitz for its ability to cause explosions, the other named Krieg for its warlike force. Blitz is capable of causing near napalm level explosions on its lowest setting, and Krieg is able to punch a hole through a twenty meter thick concrete wall, or so I'm told."

"…And what is this hunter like?" He could hear the tightness in her voice.

"A deadly combatant, and an excellent spy," he admitted, "But, a moral person. He goes after the worst bad guys, not like others in the business. He never targets civilians, has the lowest count of friendly fire casualties…that means that he has killed almost no civilian while fighting."

"Oh," he could hear the light in her head.

"…Buffy, if you want my opinion," he sighed once before finishing, "You should let it go. Whatever you dish out at him, he will send back with a lot more firepower. And, if you do manage to kill him, the Sect will send someone, many volunteered someones, to kill you."

"I can handle them."

"These are not like the Tarakans," Angel told her angrily, "They won't stop if the money isn't there. They will want vengeance, and they will have it! I tangled with one of the hunters back in my prime…it was a normal human female…and I nearly died. The only reason why I didn't was because of the troop of soldiers coming nearby.

"Buffy, for your own good, try and move on."

With that, he hung up. He grasped the phone tightly, shutting his eyes as he did so, hating himself for being unable to do anything. But, this was a DSD hunter…no one, not even an army of vamps, perhaps, could handle an average member of them. To take on the main man for them with only a Slayer, an amateur Wicca, and a retired Watcher…

…it was nothing short of suicide.

The Dove, the Serpent, and the Dagger

"Angel told me that Blitzkrieg refers to his weapons," Buffy explained to the group, "He's also too chicken to do anything about it, so…it's up to us."

"'Chicken,'" Willow asked meekly, "Angel? That doesn't sound right."

"He's scared of them, for some ungodly reason," Buffy whined, "So, we have to handle this on our own. Start by digging up information. I'll go by the Initiative, see if they have anything on this sect. You check with Spike."

"No problem," Willow said, she liked Spike.

The Dove, the Serpent, and the Dagger

"…That's all," Faith asked in shock as Xander finished talking to her, "Well, do you want me to run around the whole, damn planet in three days for you? Do you want me to jump so high I can go through the fucking atmosphere? Do you want me to take on Arnie and NOT land a movie role!"

"Actually," she turned her attention to her left on the screen as Tara came back into view, "I think you'd look good in a movie…so long as you replace Arnie with Kate Beckinsale."

"That's a script I can get behind," Xander said, his eyes going out of focus as he thought…with Tara not too far behind.

"HEY, GUYS," she shouted, causing both them and the Special Forces members of the Sect to stare at her, "QUIT THINKING IN THE GUTTER! I NEED MY SPACE, FOR GOD'S SAKES!"

"…Ok," Xander said, "Look, it comes down to this…you help us, we get you a presidential pardon. You can walk right into the LAPD HQ and spit in the Commissioner's coffee and not be locked up for the murder charges. Otherwise, they might lock you up for assaulting a police officer. Hard to tell."

"…" She'd be lying if she said that she wasn't tempted…to be free of her crimes…even though she still hated Buffy, she had always understood what was right and what was wrong. To her, Buffy was a monster that needed to be brought down…and the Mayor had been, like, the protagonist to her play. Even though she had known he was a bad guy, she hadn't actually known it. Not in the literal sense.

Besides, from what he was talking about, the stakes were way too high to ignore.

"I'm in."

The Dove, the Serpent, and the Dagger

"Spike," Willow called as she entered the neutered vampire's crypt, "Spiky? Yoo-Hoo!"

She closed the door behind her and pulled out her bag of blood that she had gotten for him on the way by.

"Spike," she called out, "I brought some blood. Come and get it while it's still…" she came to a halt as she found herself stepping in a pile of abnormally thick dust. She bent down and carefully inspected the pile, fearing the worst…fears which were confirmed when she found a cigarette in the pile.

"No," she whispered in disbelief, "No…it can't be."

Slowly, she looked up at the wall…there, written in bright, red letters, was a phrase…

'THE YELLOW CRAYON MEANS NOTHING TO ME NOW!

SINCERELY YOURS,

ALEXANDER HARRIS '