A/N: There you go, hope you enjoyed. Thank you once more to my wonderful has once again aided me in my endeavor

A/N: This chapter skips 'The Dark Age' but there is mention of those events. My wonderful awesome beta reader Starway Man has once again aided me in my endeavors; big thanks!

Chapter 21 – Diplomacy

Sunset Club AKA Xander and Cordelia's Home – 8:30am, Friday

The loud banging on the front door was clearly heard by the vampiric duo in the basement. The new tenants of the Sunset Club looked at each other, wondering what Oz was doing at their front door at this hour.

Bypassing the inner door, which Xander had repaired from a few nights back, the male vampire walked to their front door. Opening up, he saw the werewolf calmly waiting for him.

"Hi," Oz said simply.

"Morning," Xander replied, closing the door behind his guest.

"How's things?" Oz asked laconically.

"Been kinda busy," Xander shrugged.

"Heard you guys had some squatters try to move in, last week," Oz mentioned conversationally, as they walked down the corridor.

"Yeah. Pissed Cordy right off, so much so she refused to dust them; she just threw those bloodsuckers out into the daylight, roughly around high noon," Xander sniggered.

"Yeah, but so what? No one takes what's mine, dweeb boy. I had to disinfect everything and wear gloves, which was just GROSS and SOOOO not fashionable," Cordelia moaned when the boys reached the basement stairs.

"She did, too, it was kinda hilarious," Xander said, laughing heartily at the memory and Cordelia's response. "I mean, Queen C doing housecleaning? Less than a month ago, it woulda been a sure sign of the apocalypse..."

Cordelia just glared at him and went back to the catalogs that she had grabbed from LA a few days ago, after she had started to go stir-crazy in Sunnydale and briefly visited the big city. 'Stupid dork making jokes about me, I ought to do something to get my revenge for that. Oooh, I know! I should parade around the house in nothing but my underwear, that ought to drive him nuts...'

Deliberately ignoring her, Xander invited Oz to sit on the old moth-eaten sofa that they had yet to replace. "So, Oz man, what's up?" Harris queried.

"Well, I wanted to wait awhile to discuss it, but I figure now's a good a time as any. Do you guys remember anything about the treaty?" Oz asked, not one for beating around the bush.

Stiffening, Cordelia glanced at Xander – who took an unneeded deep breath and counted to ten, before replying. "Yeah," he said stiffly.

"Relax, it's not what you think," Oz said calmly.

Looking at her roommate, Cordy put the catalogs down and sat next to Xander on the couch, holding his hand tight. 'Xander, what are we going to do if the pack says we can't stay in Sunnydale anymore? I've lived here all my life, and I don't want to live anywhere else,' she thought, looking upset.

'Not gonna happen, Cordy. I won't let that happen,' Xander vowed.

Unaware of the mental discussion Oz began to outline the plan he and his pack had come up with. "The guys and I were talking, and we thought that since you two don't seem likely to become human again anytime soon, a formal treaty might be worthwhile."

"Go on," Cordelia snapped, visibly upset.

Squeezing her hand, Xander motioned for Oz to continue. Not wanting to upset her any more, Oz directed his next sentence at Cordelia. "We don't want what the Cullens and the La Push pack had. We want something that works for us and you," he reassured her.

Nodding, Cordelia realized she wouldn't be forced out of her home town. With a small smile she apologized for snapping at Oz and explained to him why. Oz just shrugged and nodded, accepting that.

"So, what kind of treaty will it be?" Xander asked.

"Well, the townspeople need protection. We both know that. Figured we could patrol together whenever we needed to, you know, kinda back each other up."

"That sounds okay to me," Xander said cautiously, getting a nervous look from Cordy.

"Also wanted you to know that we know you're not a threat to the town, or us," Oz reassured him, hearing the edginess in Xander's voice.

"Good, it's not like we've fed on ANYBODY in the last two weeks," Cordelia replied, looking annoyed.

"I know that, and so does the pack. Kinda obvious," Oz said, looking at both vampires.

"What do you mean?" Cordelia asked curiously.

Oz explained how the pack could smell that Cordelia and Xander were the only vampires in Sunnydale who never drank human blood. How they could smell the monster inside Angel and the other vampires, but not within the two creatures that looked like Emmett and Rosalie Cullen. Relieved, Cordelia and Xander sighed in gratitude: the soul thing had been quite the elephant in the room that neither had wanted to bring up.

"So, Oz, you want us to be part of a team, right?" Xander asked, sending soothing thoughts to Cordelia.

"We thought you guys might wanna join us at a Pack meeting tonight, or tomorrow night if that suits," Oz said diplomatically.

Cordelia shrugged, thinking at Xander, 'I think we ought to consider it.'

"Listen, give us a while to discuss it. I mean, we have nearly ten hours before sunset," Xander replied, looking at Cordelia who nodded in agreement.

"Sure. We'll be at Miller's Woods at six for an hour if you want to come. But like I said, no pressure."

"Yeah, that's cool. But like I said, man, we need to discuss it," Xander replied.

Understanding completely, Oz took his leave of them with Xander closing the door behind him. Returning to the basement, Harris saw Cordelia pacing with arms wrapped around her. "Cordy?" Xander said softly.

Turning to face him Cordy spoke so low even he could just barely hear her. "I'm don't like this, Xander. I mean, Oz wants to have a treaty and meet with the rest of his pack; what if they demand conditions that I can't meet?" she said, looking off somewhere in the distance.

Steeping in front of her, Xander put his hands gently on her upper arms and said firmly, "Cordy, relax. Okay? They're not gonna set impossible conditions for us to live by! Because we're going to put a few of our own on the table," he reassured her.

"Good," Cordelia replied, finally looking at Xander. "Yeah, you're right, we've got to do something like that; negotiate from a position of strength. Damn it, why didn't I think of that before? This is no different from trying to maintain my spot on top of the social pyramid, at school..."

"Something you're very good at," Xander said, smirking.

"Well, of course!" Sniffing, Cordelia wrinkled her nose. "Ewww! I need to disinfect the place again, it smell like wet dog..."

Laughing, Xander left her to it and had a quick look at the catalogs for his own ideas. Later as he walked round the basement, he decided to try his hand at carpentry and design two bedrooms. 'Sure, the no sleeping thing means that's technically sorta pointless, but I figure it couldn't hurt to have our own personal rooms. Especially after we have a fight, Cordy and I kinda need our space to retreat to...'

After a while, Cordelia had finished disinfecting her house – including the hallway to the front door. Satisfied, the blonde plopped down on the couch and watched Xander walk around the room. "What are you doing?"

"What do you think of setting up two bedrooms and a sitting room down here?" he asked her.

"Huh? What's wrong with the rooms upstairs?" Cordy asked back.

"I just figured there's more room down here, what with how this place used to be a bomb shelter. And not that we need sleep anymore, but if this is going to be our home, we need to have our own rooms."

"Yeah, you're right. Say, can you make a walk-in wardrobe for me?" Cordelia asked with a sudden gleam in her eyes, thinking she could more or less be herself again if she could store her own clothes here.

"Yeah, Cor, I guess. Although I shudder to think how much room you'll need for all your Gunuchi, Vercase and Parada," Xander replied with a smirk.

"That's Gucci, Versace and Prada, Geekboy! God, don't you know anything about fashion other than Dork and Doofus?" Cordelia snarked back with a smirk of her own.

Grinning over how Cordelia had found a subject that was a balm to her soul, Xander got out a measuring tape and started to make plans and drawings. Feeling happy, Cordelia smiled and gave him orders on what needed to go where. They spent most of the day discussing how they were going to set up their home for long-term habitation, and by lunchtime Cordelia had realized that she was feeling more and more at ease with her former nemesis as the days passed.

'Weird as, but I don't know what I'd do without Xander anymore,' Cordelia thought, enjoying the view as her roommate started lugging stuff around the basement. 'Sure, he's still a dork – but he's not all bad. And it's not like there's any other guy like him, anywhere else in this world...'

Soon after, Xander decided to take a break as they sat and discussed the werewolf pack's offer. Guzzling down their blood, and discussing pros and cons, and after hours of debate – the two vamps decided to accept the pack's offer...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX

Not far from Miller's Woods, Sunnydale – 6:00 pm, Friday

Cordelia Chase was pissed! 'Two weeks, TWO lousy weeks – and Devon's already found another girlfriend?!'

"Just calm down, Cor," Xander said placatingly, seeing the blonde woman's golden eyes briefly turn red from the fury. "You were going to dump him anyway, remember?"

"Sure! But that doesn't give that guy the right to make out with Harmony in Lover's Lane, Xander!" Cordelia ranted, feeling betrayed and bloodthirsty.

"Well, I figure they won't last long, myself. That girl, she's way too flaky for a serious relationship," Harris tried to comfort her.

"Are you kidding? You heard what she said – Harmony's become the new queen of Sunnydale High! And to think, Buffy and Willow call all my friends the Harmonettes now!" Cordelia ranted furiously. "Plus I'm still listed as missing presumed kidnapped, but it sounds like nobody's actually looking for me anymore!"

"This is Sunnydale, Cordelia. What did you expect? I mean, how many of our classmates have just disappeared ever since kindergarten, and everyone simply forgot about them almost straightaway?" Xander pointed out.

"Yeah, but – God damn it, Xander, how can you be so calm about this?!" Cordy demanded, glaring at her roommate. "Because I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up as just another Sunnydale statistic! I want my life back! I want to be ME again!"

"I know, I know," Xander sighed, giving her a hug. "But life doesn't always turn out the way we want it to, sweetheart. Hell, look at me; everyone apart from our little circle of friends has already forgotten I ever existed, I'll betcha. Of course, as far as my parents are concerned, that's more of a blessing than a curse..."

"I'm STILL not happy about this," Cordelia fumed, hugging Xander tighter without even thinking about it.

"I know. Guess you're just gonna have to make lemonade out of the current situation," Xander joked, trying to cheer up the (possibly former) cheerleader.

Cordelia abruptly pushed him away. "I will. You know what? NO ONE will say that Cordelia Chase is a whiny loser! Now come on, we've got a meeting to attend..."

She blurred and vanished, as Xander quickly did likewise. Hearing a whoosh, the Alpha of the pack turned to face the vampires, who stepped cautiously forward. The rest of the pack, Jonathan, Willow and Andrew, sat around a burning fire.

"Hi guys, glad you came," Oz said to the vamps.

"Thanks for having us. And for, y'know, not being all wolf-y," Xander replied, smiling at the older boy.

"No problem," Oz replied calmly.

Cordelia glanced around her, hiding how fearful she suddenly was. After all, she was Cordelia Chase; if she could her true self for all these years from her former friends, then she could hide emotions from the human mutts.

'Hard to feel confident when you're possibly going to be surrounded by horse-size wolves?' Xander thought to Cordy.

'NOT making me feel any better, dweeb!' Cordelia snapped.

'Sorry, just trying to empathize,' Xander thought softly. 'Cheer you up a little.'

Looking at him and nodding, Cordelia turned her attention back to the wolves. "So what's the deal here?"

"It's been two weeks since we all changed, but what with everything that's happened lately..." spoke Oz.

Snorting, Warren stood up and said, "That librarian guy, he could have put everyone in danger!"

"SIT, Warren!" Oz commanded, and his packmate immediately sat back down.

"I agree, actually," Cordelia nodded, surprising Warren.

"Uh, thanks," he stammered, slightly astonished.

"Yeah, myself I'm still stunned over how the G-man had such a hidden bad boy past. Willow said that if Deadboy hadn't let Eyghon in, it would have been really bad; Ms. Calendar woulda died," Xander shook his head.

"Right. I mean, we all knew Giles suddenly smelled bad for some reason, but when we asked that morning, he said it was just a spell gone bad," Jonathan replied.

"Too bad we didn't realize his mage friend had come back. If we had, we would have had one of us sticking to Giles 24/7," Andrew added angrily.

"Yeah, well, damn shame we missed out on meeting that Ethan guy too. I'd have liked to have shown him his handiwork in detail," Xander growled, followed by a violent growl from an angry Cordelia.

"I figure we're with you all the way there," Oz said diplomatically. "Another time."

The pack all nodded in response, all three annoyed that they had not had the chance to target the person who'd changed their lives completely.

"Not sure if you know, but we stayed away from Giles for a few days when we found out what happened from Wills the day after. Cordy wrecked my uncle's scrap yard again," Xander shrugged.

"Well, it was either that or go postal over how I missed out on the chance to possibly become myself again," Cordelia snapped. "I swear, first that and then finding out Harmony's taken over my life, I just want to..."

"Calm down," Xander said forcefully, as the Pack suddenly all got up and stared at her in concern. Thanks to their Halloween memories, all five of them knew the signs of a Twilight vampire about to lose control and go on a berserker rage. "Cordelia? Listen to me. You need to chill. Right now!"

"Fine, whatever," she said grouchily, calming down; much to everyone's relief.

"Good. Okay, have you guys heard any news about those Akjin guys? Me and Cordy haven't learned anything on our patrols," Xander stated to the Pack.

"Us neither," Oz shook his head.

Suddenly everyone smelt something foul, something so malodorous, everybody present – even Cordelia and Xander – immediately felt nauseous. 'What the hell...' was the uniform thought across everyone's minds.

Multiple figures appeared at the edge of the clearing, surrounding them on all sides; deep red eyes shining in the darkness. Stepping forward, the lead Akjin a seven-foot-tall figure spoke. Spike's paid killer-slash-bodyguard said...

TBC...

A/N: DUN DUN DUN. I know you hate me, but bear with me, more is to come soon.