A few quick phone calls later they had all the scoobs informed about the extra curricular meeting. After that, Buffy and Willow went to the liberary. One after one the Scoobs arrived, the last ones were Faith and Angel. That left Xander and Giles missing. Xander of course wasn't informed but Buffy couldn't guess where Giles was. She decided to ask the one person who stayed with him at his place.

"Faith, do you know where Giles is?" she asked the dark haired slayer.

"No idea B, he didn't come home" she answered her.

Angel spoke up.

"Giles came to me earlier. He bought these books of Ascension from a demon," Angel said and lifted the duffel bag he had with him. "He left them at my place. He said that they were very important for the Mayor. Then he left and told me that he was going to LA, to look for anything that could help us."

"Now, what's up B?" Faith asked "What's so important that we had to meet here?"

Buffy prepared herself for what was coming next. But no matter how she would say it, it would have quite an impact on the whole group.

"Willow called me earlier and told me that she found out something," she started. She paused a second before she continued. "She was able to hack into City Hall's computer system and found something." Again she stopped, deciding how she could formulate the bitter truth. Finally she decides to just say it. "It seems that Xander is getting paid by the Mayor."

Silence was now ruling the library. No one present knew how to react to the revelation.

Cordelia was the first to react. "You're insane," she accused the blonde slayer.

"Cordelia.," Angel tried to calm her down.

"No, that can't be true," she continued. "Xander would never do anything like this."

Willow interrupted her. "I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw it. But it's true. Xander seems to be working for the other side"

Cordelia kept quiet this time. Oz interrupted the silence. "Do you know for sure that the transactions were real? Maybe the Mayor faked them, to make us believe that Xander is working for the dark side."

Willow and Buffy looked at each other. "We haven't thought of that," Buffy admitted truthfully.

"But it might be right, him working for the Mayor," Angel interrupted. "I mean he killed Travers. And the following months after that he mostly kept to himself. Just recently he started spending more time with you again."

"And let's not forget that you two forbid him to help out with the slaying," Cordelia added and looked at Willow and Buffy.

"Well I have to agree with the bitch queen at that point," Faith said. That earned her a glare from Cordy. "I mean I don't know him as good as you and Red, but excluding him from slaying seemed like a heavy blow for him."

"Can you two please stop." Buffy finally said. "So we don't know for sure if Xander is working for the Mayor, okay? But we also agree that it might be possible."

"I tell you what, slayer," Cordelia interrupted. "If Xander is working for the other side you sure like hell deserve it."

"Willow, hand me a stake please. I think it's time to slay Cordelia," Buffy said and glared at the ex-cheerleader.

"Enough!" Angel said and stepped between the two females." Since Giles is not here and you all are starting to act like kids I think it's my job to come up with a half decent plan."

"What's on your mind," Oz asked the vampire.

"So, we don't know for sure if Xander is working for Wilkins, right?" Everyone nodded at that. " I say we plant a trap and see if Xander is gonna step into it."

"A trap?" Buffy asked.

Angel nodded.

"But as far as I know every trap needs a bait. What are we gonna use as bait?" Willow asked.

Angel thought about the problem, but came surprisingly quick to a solution.

He lifted the duffel bag on the table and took one of the books from the interior.

"If the Mayor want these books so badly, Xander surely also wants them" Angel finally said.

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"That's not good," the Mayor exclaimed.

"Yeah," Xander answered. Either I get the books and maybe my cover is blown or we leave them in Giles possession and he finds everything out about your plans."

"Yes, I came to the same conclusions," Wilkins said. "I will think about that problem, Alexander. But you should go home. I will tell you tomorrow what we're gonna do."

Xander stood up from his chair.

"Okay boss, see you tomorrow," Xander said and left the Mayor's office.

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Xander parked in front of the Summers residence and entered the house. But he was surprised to see Buffy storming down the stairs.

"Hey Buff. Why in such a hurry?" he asked.

"I have no time Xander," she told him. "Giles called from LA. He ran into some trouble and he needs our help."

"He's in LA? What is he doing there?" Xander asked confused.

"He wanted to see if he could find any information about the Mayor." Buffy was finally able to calm down a bit. "Look, I'll give you the short version. Giles bought these Books of Ascension from a demon. He left them at Angel's place and went straight to LA. He wanted to look if he could find anything else about the Mayor. But like I said, he ran into trouble."

"Oh, I see. Can I help?" Xander asked

"No, I don't think so."

"So, you are all going to LA?"

"Yeah, well except for Angel. He said he would handle tonights patrol." They were interrupted by the horn of Oz's van. "I have to go."

"No prob Buff. Good Luck," he told the blonde slayer.

"Thanks Xand. I will see you tomorrow" Buffy said and ran to the zebra striped van.

Xander waved after the departing Volkswagen and waited until it was out of sight. Then he took his cell phone and quickly dialled the Mayor's number.

He had to wait a few seconds before someone answered.

"Boss? Maybe I found a way of bringing you these books," Xander said into the phone and smiled.