Demon Command

In the control room, Xander along with the others were busy looking over recent satellite images of Sunnydale, and the area around it.

They looked up instantly though, as five people in military uniforms came in.

Four men, and a woman. The oldest man looked at Xander, "I love what you've done with the place. Not everyone can play shuffle board at work these days!"

Xander smirked as he asked, "And you are?"

The man looked at him for a moment before he responded, "Colonel Jack O'Neill, U.S. Air Force. And I am taking over this operation, as of right now."

Everyone in the room stopped to look at him, as Andrews came out of the nearby office behind O'Neill. "Could you repeat that please, Colonel?"

The man instantly snapped to attention. "Sorry, sir. We were not told another officer was on-site. Hell, we weren't told much of anything really."

Rebecca looked at him, annoyed. "So you just came waltzing in here, thinking you could simply take over?"

"Well, that was the idea. We thought this was a civilian operation."

Andrews shook his head. "This is an Air Force base, Colonel. Which means they, and you answer to me. Where are your orders?"

O'Neill looked to the woman. "Carter?"

The woman hands Andrews a folder. As Andrews started to read it, Rebecca came up to Carter. "Major Samantha Carter?"

She nodded, "Yes, and you are?"

"Lieutenant Rebecca Gerald."

Carter looked at her for a second. "Hailey's friend from the Academy?"

Rebecca nodded, "Yeah, that's me."

"You know her, Rebecca?" Xander asked.

"Oh, she's a legend back at the Academy. She once took a friend of mine who wanted to quit away for a few days. When she came back, Jennifer worked her butt off! After graduation, she got drafted into a classified program. She tells me it's deep space radar out of NORAD, but come on..."

Xander turned to Carter. "So that's your cover story? Deep space radar? I'm guessing you're here because of my comments to Martinson about the snake heads, and the Prometheus..."

O'Neill shook his head. "Sorry, that's classified."

Xander groaned, "We've got an invading army coming from another dimension, and we still have to deal with the red tape? And I thought the other dimension stuff was bad. Those are easy, but..."

Major Carter looked at him. "You've been to other dimensions before?"

Captain Harris shrugged. "Well, most of the time it was trying to avoid getting sucked into the damn portals in the first place."

"Portals?"

"Yeah," Xander continued. "Let's see, twice stopping the world from getting sucked into Hell. I guess we could count the time Glory tried to destroy the walls between all the different dimensions out there..."

He shrugged. "Plus the damn Hellmouth keeps almost opening, so often you could set your watch by it. But as for actually going to another dimension…uh, an old girlfriend and a vampire friend went to Pylea for a while. Not fun, from what I heard. Oh, and my friend Buffy spent some time in a hell dimension one summer..."

"Portals?" Carter asked again, still not believing.

Xander got a little annoyed. "How else do you get to and from another dimension?"

Another man with glasses came forward. "You, uh, you have a vampire friend?"

"Yeah, known him since high school. Same with the other one, but he's really not my friend. Hate him almost more than the first one. Now, before you go all 'vamps aren't real' on me? They are. You learn that real fast when you grow up fighting them, and other demons."

The man blinked as if he heard wrong. "Other demons? Well, it's possible that another race that looks different to us could be mistaken for a demon, but I don't..."

Xander just groaned. "Oh, great. A non-believer. We so do not have time for this!"

Gavin groaned as well. "Yeah, this is just swell. We're supposed to work together, and neither side knows everything?" He ran his hands through his hair. "Is it too late to join the Navy?"

While Xander continued to argue with the others, April moved over to Rebecca. "Hey," she whispered to her.

"Hey what?"

"That Carter woman keeps looking at me. She's cute and all, but I don't really go for that kind of thing!"

Rebecca sighed. "Relax! I don't think you two will be bar-hopping together anytime soon."

****

LA Suburb

An Air Force Major paced as he yelled into his living room phone, "No! I don't know how they figured it out. The orders just came out of nowhere. Yeah, the town is just about evacuated. I've seen the orders, everything is getting transferred there. They even have an aircraft carrier moving into position just off the coast! Look, we might be able to screw up some of the deployments, if we..."

A windowpane shattered, and the Major fell to the ground. His shirt turned red, as a river of blood gushed out from his wound.

From the roof of an apartment building across the street, Alexis watched him fall. She stared at the man through the windows, with a look of pure hate on her face as she disassembled her rifle.

Her voice was cold as she whispered to herself, "You think I'd forget about you? Bastard little Assembly mole. Think I'd forget who once snuck up on Uncle Xander, and shot him in the back?! Too bad for you, that won't be happening this time around..."

She looked in satisfaction at her work for a few more seconds, before taking off.

****

Cordelia's Dream

The wedding march started to be played, as Cordelia stood at the back of a church. She was in a very expensive-looking white wedding dress, and looking very happy. Two people were with her; her father and a young girl in a matching dress. The girl had a basket with flower petals in it, and was looking extremely excited.

"Do I look okay, dad?" the blushing bride asked nervously.

Mr. Chase smiled at her. "You look beautiful, honey. Just like your mother."

The woman had to keep herself from tearing up. "Thank you so much for being here, dad. I know you never really liked him..."

"Honey, he makes you happy. That's all there is to it."

The brunette looked at her other companion. "You ready down there?"

The little girl smiled up at her. "Yes, auntie..."

The music got louder, as Mr. Chase straightened the bride's veil. The flower girl got in front of them, as the doors opened to the crowded church. It was small, but packed to capacity. Everyone stood up, and looked back to the open doors.

Cordelia could see Xander standing nervously in a black tux, by the altar. Then the little girl started walking slowly down the aisle, gently tossing flower petals as she moved. A moment later she, and her father started walking slowly up the aisle.

The woman of the hour kept her head straight, but looked around with her eyes. On one side Cordy could see her family. Her mother, grandparents, and all her cousins. Also there were her old Cordettes...

On the other side, she could see all her friends from LA; Gunn, Wesley, Fred, Lorne, and even Angel. Conner was standing with Kristen, and looking very happy for her.

Cordelia also saw all her Sunnydale friends; Buffy, Willow, Giles, Spike, Lee, Amanda, Oz, and Dawn. Dawn's friends Kit and Carlos were also there, looking very uncomfortable in their formal clothes.

And all of them were watching her, with joy on their faces. Soon the flower girl reached the end, and moved to one side to stand next to Giles.

Cordelia, along with her father, soon stopped at the end of the aisle. Her dad lifted her veil, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. With a smile on her face, the bride went up the small steps to stand next to Xander. They both smiled, when they looked at each other.

Everyone sat at once. The priest looked at them kindly, and started the ages-old ceremony; "Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to witness, and celebrate the union of Cordelia Chase and…Angel."

Her eyes went huge, and the woman's head whipped around to look where Xander was standing. But now, Angel was standing there in his place.

In the exact same tux Xander had been wearing.

Cordy was so shocked, she didn't know what to do. She looked around frantically, but everyone just stared at her as if nothing was wrong.

The wife-to-be spun at the sound of a voice, as Xander came up behind her; and to her horror, he was now dressed in the same outfit he had on, when he ran out of the hotel.

He walked to the altar calmly and said, "What's wrong, Cor? You've moved on." Xander then put his arm around Angel, in a comradely gesture. "And it's better this way, don't ya think?"

Cordelia looked around in panic, then everything changed. The room got darker, more somber. She looked around to see all the people; and they were all dressed in black. Plus there was the fact all of them were crying; crying so much, that no one was saying anything.

Miss Chase then looked down, only to find herself in a modest black dress. She turned back around, only to find the priest gone. What captured her attention then, was a big photo of Xander on display.

She quickly screamed when she saw an open brown casket with Xander lying in it, very much dead. She then felt a hand squeeze her shoulder, along with a female voice saying, "He looks so peaceful, doesn't he Mom?"

Cordy was clueless as to what that meant, as the ex-bride turned to see two twin dark-haired women. They looked around 18 years old, and both were in matching black outfits.

She just stared at them in shock, as one took out a pack of Twinkies and slipped it into the casket. The woman looked at her sadly, "So that he'll always have something to munch on..."

The other twin got angry. "It's not fair! He promised us he would always come home..."

The two hugged each other, then looked at her. "You okay, Mom?" they chorused.

Cordelia then screamed, as she shot up in bed. Her eyes were red from tears, as she looked around in utter confusion.

A brief memory flashed into her mind. Xander looking to Angel, then back to her. "I know you've moved on."

Those words started to repeat over and over in her head, and almost drive Miss Chase batty.

****

Hyperion Hotel

Everyone except for Cordelia was in the lobby, looking very grim.

Conner was sitting on one of the couches, with Kristen lying next to him. Her head was on his lap, but she was staring at nothing; basically, she was fingering the necklace she'd gotten from Xander. The son of two vampires was trying to comfort her, but not having much luck.

Angel looked up, as Wesley came out of the office. "Still nothing?"

Wes shook his head. "Someone should have been there by now! I've left at least ten messages. I'm even thinking of calling Spike..."

"Don't bother, mate. We're 'ere already..."

Everyone looked up, to see the Sunnydale gang come in. Graham was with them, but he decided to hang back – since none of the LA people knew him. Angel rushed over, "He talked to you too?"

"Xander?" Angel nodded. "No, all we got was a video saying that we had to get the hell outta Dodge, and come here," Buffy told him with an annoyed tone.

"Xander told you to leave Sunnydale?" Wesley asked, slightly shocked.

"No," Willow answered. "He ordered us to leave. The entire town's been evacuated."

Fred looked to Angel. "So whatever he's going to die fighting is in Sunnydale?"

Buffy, Willow, and Dawn all yelled at the same time, "Die?!"

Fred went white. "You didn't know? Oh, boy. Didn't the video tell you?"

"No, we didn't know! What the hell are you talking…"

Buffy stopped, as she saw the state Kristen was in. She kneeled down, to be at eye-level with her. "Kristen?" she asked softly.

The girl didn't answer, but Buffy could see the sadness in her eyes. The older Slayer got up, turning back to Angel. "Please, what is going on here?"

Angel looked into her eyes. "Last night, his new friends came here accusing us of kidnapping him. Then this morning, he comes here with them. Says he was kidnapped, but a friend saved him. Then he took some of Kristen and Connor's blood for some test."

"Test?"

The vampire nodded. "We don't know what that's really all about. He then started saying goodbye to all of us. He even hugged me! He told Cordelia he loved her, and tried to leave. Then he sang to Cordy, letting Lorne read him..."

"What did he see?" Dawn demanded.

Angel was about to respond, when Kristen spoke up first. However, she didn't even look at them. "He's going to die." Conner tried to comfort her, as she started to cry again.

Willow tried to stop herself from crying. "Well, we have to find him! Cordy found him on a ship, right? There can't be that many around here!"

Angel shook his head. "We looked already, but it's the middle of the tourist season. There are several dozen large ships in this port alone. And we don't even know if this is the port it's in..."

Dawn was getting desperate. "What about his cell phone?"

"Cordy already tried several times. He's not answering."

Cordelia walked in the front door at that moment. "Yeah, he's not answering because he thinks we'll talk him out of it. God, he's in that damn stupid White Knight mode..."

The Sunnydale people quickly noticed the state she was in; no makeup at all. Dressed only in a sweat pants and T-shirt. Her hair in a ponytail, and her eyes red from crying. Dawn went over to her, drawing her into a hug. Cordy hugged her back.

"Cordelia? What did he say to you?" Willow asked her softly.

Cordelia looked down for a moment. "Just that he never stopped loving me. All this time, I wondered if he still did. And now, he's going to die before I can tell him..."

"Tell him what?"

"That I still love him!" she cried out. "With every fiber of my being. As soon as he said he loved me…it, it just clicked in my heart. And he thinks I'm still with Angel..."

The seer quickly got mad. "The man I love is gonna die, thinking I'm in love with someone else!"

During this Graham quietly made his way to the door, thinking no one would notice him. But just as he was almost out, Buffy ran and grabbed him, pulling him back in. "Oh no you don't, Graham. You're not going anywhere!"

"Who the hell is this?" Cordelia demanded.

"Just one of the old gang from the Initiative." Buffy turned back to him. "You said you're taking your orders from Captain Harris? So, you must know where his base is, right?"

Graham quickly noticed every single eye on him. "Look, I have my orders. Bring you guys here, make sure you're all accounted for, then leave. I kinda have a team to lead into Sunnydale. I'm sorry I can't tell you where he, or the base is, but national security is at stake..."

Cordelia angrily grabbed him, and shoved him hard against the wall. She got right in his face and yelled, "Don't even try that crap on me! The first guy I ever truly loved is going to die in some stupid pointless battle, so you're going to take me to him!"

Graham never flinched. "Pointless? Lady, you have no idea what's going on. He knows what he has to do. Apparently, he's the only one that can. And we can't let them get a foothold on American soil!"

She kept a firm hold on him. "I don't care! You are gonna take me to him. If he has to die, then I'm gonna be there with him!"

Before he could answer though, Skip appeared. He looked sadly at Cordy, "I'm sorry, Cordelia. But you can't go to him. This is his path, and he has to walk it alone. It's his, well, destiny."

Kristen jumped up at Skip angrily. "How the hell do we even know it's really you, this time?"

Cordelia walked over to Skip, and looked at him for a few seconds. "No, it's really him. I can feel it..."

"His destiny?" Buffy spat out. "This can't be how it ends for Xander! I've had enough of this crap – we're all going back to Sunnydale, and helping him!"

Skip looked at everyone. "No. You can't. The Powers knew this was coming. This is what Alexander Harris was born for. It can not be changed."

Everyone looked at him, when Graham started to laugh. Kristen got angry, though. "You think this is funny?"

He nodded. "What Harris was born for? That's the biggest load of bull I've ever heard! He knows what his real destiny was, before those Powers got involved..."

The soldier started to leave, but then turned back to Cordy. "I'll talk to Xander. Maybe we can do something, so you can talk to him. But I can't promise anything." He then left very quickly.

Skip looked at the closing door, shaking his head. "Alexander must face this alone. The Powers told me that themselves..."

Kristen looked to the others. "If there's one thing that Xander taught me. It's that none of us are ever alone. That's why he sent me here in the first place. We all look out for each other, and damn it we are going to be there for him!"

Cordy nodded in agreement to Kristen, before turning back to the messenger demon. "Skip, what did that idiot mean? What does Xander know?"

"I don't know Cordelia, but I will look in to it," he said, before he vanished in a cloud of smoke.

****

Demon Command

Everyone was standing around the large lit table, with several new satellite pictures of Sunnydale around it. Xander then started pointing out the area from the edge of the woods, to the desert. "The entire area is filled with caves, for miles around. Some are big enough to have entire buildings lost in them. It'll take forever to search them all!"

Daniel Jackson looked up. "How do you know so much about the area?"

"I grew up there."

"And you explored these caves for fun?"

"Nope. Only went in, when I had to. A crap load of vamps and demons use them for lairs, sacrifices, and other stuff. We had a few battles, but most were under the town itself."

"Do you think these vamps will pose a problem when we start to search?" O'Neill asked snidely.

"The town's evacuated. No one left to bite. They'll go after our search parties very quickly." Xander tried to keep his temper.

Jonas Quinn studied the images. "What about this Hellmouth? Maybe we can narrow it down a bit, if we knew where it was..."

"It's located under the high school, but that's not where the magnifier will be."

"How can you be so sure?"

"They have to use it to open the portal nearby. The school's near the center of the town; so you can't really launch an invasion from there. No room."

Major Carter wondered, "I'm still not clear on this whole portal thing. Are they, uh, miniature wormholes?"

Xander just looked at her for a few seconds, wondering where she'd gotten that idea. "No. They're magically created tears in the fabric of the universe, to allow point to point travel."

"Magic?" she shook her head. "Oh, I don't think that's the case. We've encountered many things that appear to be magic, until they're proven to be just a..."

Xander cut her off sharply, "Oh, give me a break! Lemme guess – when I say magic, you think of sawing someone in half, or pulling a rabbit out of a hat, right?"

"Why would one wish to be sawed in half?" Teal'c asked him in confusion.

Xander got fed up. "Okay. A big lesson in the way of the world, children. Vampires and demons are real. I have helped fight them, since I was 15 years old. Sunnydale is located on the center of the Hellmouth. It acts as a magnet, to all the evil things that go bump in the night out there..."

O'Neill tried to interrupt, but Xander kept right on going. "According to the daughter of a good friend of mine, the Assembly is going to open a huge-ass portal to bring in an invasion fleet to take over the world. And no, I'm not on drugs. We are on a very tight timetable here, so let's skip the classified crap and tell each other what we know!"

"I think that's an excellent idea..."

Everyone looked back to see Generals Andrews and Martinson walk in. Martinson was holding a large stack of papers, and he laid them down around Xander and his people.

"These are non-disclosure contracts. If you want to be let in on the biggest secret this planet has, then you have to sign them," the USAF general said calmly.

"This'll clear up all the classified crap?" Xander asked, still annoyed.

Martinson nodded. And soon, the sounds of scribbled signatures could be heard in the room.

****