"Hey," Xander caught up with Buffy at the hospital after picking his car up from Willow's dorm. "How is everyone?"

"Well, Mom's in with Giles right now," Buffy said taking Xander's hand. "He's going to be fine, no real damage. Missed the bone, missed the everything. They gave him some blood, and some painkillers and told him to take it easy. They're drawing up his discharge papers now. Dawn's been out of surgery for a bit, the doctor said she got pretty lucky, nothing major was hit. She's going to be in here for a little while, but she'll be okay. She's in recovery right now, should be able to have visitors in the morning."

Xander nodded as he sat next to Buffy. He pulled her hand up and kissed the back of it gently, before wrapping his arm around her.

"You seem a little less tense," Buffy observed.

Xander nodded again. "Took it out on a demon," he said, rolling his neck to get the creaks out.

"That's good," Buffy said.

"Yeah. And I sent the Ikes back to your house to watch over the 'guys,'" said Xander, making air-quotes with his hands.

Buffy nodded. "Good," she said. "I think I'm going to tell Mom to stay with Giles tonight."

"Good idea," Xander said. "Plus, it'd be weird to sleep in a house with no windows on the first floor."

Xander scanned the area.

"Where's Faith and Riley?"

"Coffee," Buffy said.

Xander turned to Buffy. "Are you okay?"

Buffy turned to him, a pensive look on her face. "I don't know. I mean, everybody's going to be fine, I know that. That's great. But we've fought this guy a few times now, and he's taken us apart every time. And if the Initiative's going to be on their side too. . . "

"The Initiative's a. . . different kind of group," Xander said. "The guys tonight attacked us because Walsh was able to convince them we were against them, or a threat, or something. I can't imagine they would have done it without some serious cajoling on her part. But if they see a big demon- cyborg-man that's killing people, and answers to Walsh? I don't think they'll be that easy to convince. At least I hope not. If Riley's any indicator, they won't."

Faith and Riley re-entered the waiting room and sat on a couch across from Buffy and Xander.

"Hey, Riley," Xander said. "Your guys have been pretty busy, right?"

"What do you mean?" the older man asked.

"I mean on patrols. You've been getting lots of hits, captures, stuff like that. Right?"

"Yeah," Riley said. "It's weird, what with you guys being pretty bored. Except for the obvious. You know, Adam. And. . . tonight."

"Why?" Faith asked of her friend, pulling her legs up beneath her.

"Well, take a look at Adam for a second. He's a big freak of nature. Half man, half machine, half demon –"

"Uh, Xan. . . " Buffy said.

"I know what I said," Xander replied, smiling. "Anyway. That vamp Spike beat up for us. He talked about Adam's army, right?"

"Yeah," Buffy said. "And?"

"Well, what if Adam doesn't have an army yet? What if he's planning to make one. . . like him."

"What do you –" Buffy started.

"Oh, Christ," Riley said. "Then all the demons would –"

"And your soldiers, too," Xander said.

"Wait, what?" Faith asked.

"Okay," Xander said. "Adam is man, demon, and technology, put together, we think, by the Initiative. Well, technology parts they have. The others. . . " Xander trailed off.

"Demons in the cells and soldiers to kill them and be killed by them," Buffy said.

"Wait, but the soldiers would get slaughtered," Faith said. "No way do they match up. No offense, baby."

"No, not at all," Riley said. "I completely agree. But, so what, then?"

They sat in silence for a moment.

"We need a brain on this," Xander said.

"We have four," Riley said.

"I meant one that works," Xander replied.

"We need Giles," Faith said.

"Then Giles you shall have," Giles said, standing off to one side of the waiting area. The sight of Joyce's hand in his brought a smile to Buffy's face. "What seems to be the problem?" Giles asked.

The group described what they had thought of so far as Giles and Joyce sat and listened intently, Giles nodding at certain parts. "All right," he said, when they were finished talking. "Riley, allow me to ask you a question. If you were to want to kill all of us. . . two witches, two Slayers, a White Knight, a watcher. . . perhaps even the Ikes. . . how many soldiers would you send? Ten?"

Riley laughed. "No, way more," he said, then nodded, understanding. "You don't think they were really sent to kill you."

"No, I do," Giles said. "Just not all of us. Your Professor Walsh, while very likely insane, is also an extremely intelligent woman. She would know that ten soldiers, even professionally trained, would not stand a legitimate chance of defeating us all in open combat. As Faith and Xander so readily demonstrated."

"So what was the point, then?" Xander asked.

"To get us angry," said Giles. "To get us involved. If she wanted us dead, she could post snipers around the town and pick us off individually. I'm certain the Initiative soldiers are more accurate shooters than those vampires who pinned you down on Main Street. If, however, she is trying to build an army, and the soldiers she has available would not provide the appropriate. . . ratio of human to demon parts, I can think of nothing more than our group royally ticked off that would add to the stockpile of demon parts."

Everyone sat in silence.

"Well," Buffy said after a moment. "They came after my family. I guess we'll still just have to oblige them."

* * * * *

Xander and Buffy returned home to find their phone ringing.

"Jeez," Buffy said, looking at the clock above the oven, equaling the most use the oven had seen since they moved in. "Who's calling at 2 a.m.?"

Xander shook his head and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

[Where the hell have you guys been? I've been calling all night!]

Xander took a moment. "Uh. . . Cordelia?"

[Duh! Who else would be calling you at this time?]

"Well, last time it was Riley," he said. "Only we just left him."

[Oh. Well, it's me.]

"I gathered. So, the reason you're calling is. . . " he lead, as Buffy picked up the answering machine and showed Xander blinking number of 17. Xander rolled his eyes.

[Right. Where's Angel?]

This, again, gave Xander pause. "Uhhh. . . Los Angeles?" he asked as Buffy padded into their bedroom to change.

[Damn! You mean you haven't seen him?]

"Why, is he missing? You know, I hear that guy can take care of himself pretty well. 240 something year old vampire with a soul, there, Cor. He probably just got in a fight or something."

[No, doofus. He was coming to Sunnydale. I had a vision thing and it was this big ol' fight and Angel was there, and so were all of you, even that fish guy and Spike. So I told Angel and of course he has to go rushing off to Sunnydale like a big loser. Like a fight couldn't happen in LA. Hello! Big city here!]

Xander closed his eyes and pinched his nose, then realized he was acting too much like Giles and shook it off. "Okay. So Angel's supposed to be here. Maybe he just stopped off at the mansion instead of one of our houses."

[But he was supposed to be there last night,] Cordelia said. [And he hasn't called or anything.]

Xander sighed. "Okay," he said. "I'll go check out his mansion, and if he's not there, we'll look for him in the morning."

[Why not tonight?] Cordelia asked, worry clearly evident in her voice. [You guys are always up way late, I know that.]

"Yeah, well," Xander said, a little irritably "we're a little more tired tonight than usual after having been assaulted by some soldiers that shot Giles in the shoulder and put Dawnie in the hospital, so I'm going to look at the mansion and then sleep, okay?"

[Oh my god!] Cordelia said. [Are they okay? What happened?]

"Like I said, soldiers. Anyway, Giles is fine, just has to take it easy. Dawn's gonna be in the hospital for a few days, but she'll be all right. And have a fun story for show and tell."

[Xander, she's in eighth grade. Show and tell stopped like five years ago.]

Xander was slightly distracted as Buffy padded back out of their bedroom and over to the fridge wearing only one of his dress shirts.

"Uh huh," he said, watching his girlfriend move around the apartment. "Well. . . still a cool story."

[Okay] Cordelia said [Well, give everyone there my best, and if you see Angel, yell at him and tell him to call me.]

"Will do, Cor," Xander said, his eyes following his girlfriend, plus a pint of ice cream and a spoon, across the floor to the couch in front of the television, where she sat, folding her smooth legs up under her. "Bye."

"Something up?" Buffy asked.

Xander looked her up and down. "Yeah," he said, the double meaning not lost on Buffy. "Angel's apparently in town and incommunicado. Cordy had a vision and now she's all worried. I'm gonna go run down to the mansion, see if he's there. If not, then tomorrow it's 'Operation: Find the Dead Guy'."

Buffy pouted. "Want company?"

Xander smiled. "Always. But only if you wanna come."

"Well. . . " Buffy said. "It is kinda late. . . "

"Don't worry about it. But do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Well, two, actually. First, call Will? I promised her I'd call when we got in, so she wouldn't worry."

"Check. Second?"

"Warm up your feet. Always cold feet with you."

Buffy stuck her tongue out at him.

Xander smiled and swooped in to steal a kiss. And a second. And when he was about to pull away, a third and a fourth were taken by Buffy.

"Mmmm," Buffy said, enjoying the moment, her hands starting to wander across his body. "Love you."

"Love you too, Buff," Xander mumbled, still holding her, his lips moving to her neck. "I'll be. . . back. . . soon."

* * * * *

Two hours and one 'don't-rub-his-nose-in-it-his-sense-of-smell-is-better- than-Lassie's' shower later, Xander pulled up outside the old mansion on Crawford Street and hopped out of his car. Despite being, generally, a polite person, Xander refrained from knocking and instead waltzed right into the house, after noticing that Angel's car was sitting in front of the mansion.

"Hello!" he called out as he walked in. "If there are any soulful vampires in here, they're going to have a very pissed off seer on their hands when they get back to Los Angeles."

Xander's voice echoed a little throughout the mansion. "Nothing," he muttered. Xander walked around the main room of the mansion looking for evidence of recent activity, and found none.

"Stupid Deadboy," he said to himself. "Probably got lost."

Xander went out into the garden and looked around. He was about to head home when something caught his eye. Xander knelt to get a closer look.

"Yeah," he sighed. "That's a scorch mark."

He looked around, inspecting the floor more closely. "And another by the plants. . . and three trails of blood leading off up the stairs. Fabulous."

Xander headed back out to his car and headed home. Upon entering the apartment, he tossed his keys down on the coffee table and headed into the bedroom, muttering the whole time.

"Stupid people making stupid decisions and having stupid visions that cause us stupid headaches that we don't stupid need." He was vaguely aware that not all of those words went together quite right.

"Find Angel?" Buffy asked, her head still buried in her pillow.

"Shock of all shocks, I did not," he said, tossing his clothes on the floor.

"We have a hamper for a reason," Buffy said.

"I'll get it in the stupid morning," Xander said as he climbed into bed.

Buffy rolled her head so she was looking at him. "Not finding Angel bugs you this much?"

"It wasn't so much the not finding him as it was the finding clues to give me a good idea where he went. Which means tomorrow is no longer 'Operation: Find the Dead Guy' but now 'Operation: Go with Riley to Check the Holding Cells for the Dead Guy'."

"Huh?" Buffy asked.

"Scorch marks like a pulse rifle, blood trails. . . I think the Initiative got him."

Buffy looked at her lover for a moment before burying her head back in her pillow. "You go," she said. "I suck at undercover."

Xander opened his mouth to make a comment, then paused and shook his head. 'No,' he thought. 'Too easy.' He turned off the lights, and the two were asleep within minutes.

* * * * *

"Gosh, I'm really starting to love this unit that I work for," Riley said the next morning. The group had gathered at the Summers home and was sitting around drinking coffee as Xander took measurements on the windows. "They're really turning out to be a lot of fun."

Xander chuckled and put on a bad, semi-British accent. "Join the army, they said."

"See the world, they said," Willow continued.

Together, they finished, false disgust permeating their voices. "I'd rather be sailing."

Everyone else looked at them. "What?" Willow asked. "None of you ever played Warcraft 2? And clicked on the little guys?"

"Or the sheep, until they exploded?" Xander asked, bringing the attention back squarely on him. "Right. Joyce, I should be able to have windows for you in a day or two. I know a glass guy, he's real good and real quick."

"Great," Joyce said, sipping her coffee. "It'll be nice not to be able to just jump over my bushes from inside."

"Okay, what's the plan, then?" Faith asked.

"I should think it's fairly simple. Somebody accompanies Riley into the Initiative, they secure Angel's release, and come back," Giles said.

"Uh, Giles, one thing," Willow said, pointing outside. "Sunlight."

"Well, what does Spike do during the day?" Giles asked.

"Sleep," Xander said. "And drink."

"Probably smokes, too," Buffy said.

"Overall, low marks for health. But then, he's dead," Xander said. "But, there's a really easy solution to this."

"And that is?" Giles asked

"Well, there's a parking lot behind Lowell House," Xander said with a grin. "And my car has a trunk."

"Xander," Giles said, "I don't think we can ask Angel to –"

"You think he'd rather sit in a holding cell?" Xander asked. "Do you think he'd rather we wait until they put a chip in his head, so he's as impotent to fight as Spike is?"

"No," Buffy said firmly. "He wouldn't."

"So, how do we do this?" Riley asked.

"Well, we go in, find Angel, and leave," Faith said. "Seems. . . pretty simple."

"It's not," Riley said. "Military installation. Can't just waltz in and leave with whatever you want."

"Unless you're me," Xander said.

"What?" Riley asked.

"Oh," Willow said. "Just, this one time, Junior year, Xander went to the military base and walked out with a rocket launcher."

Riley looked shocked. "Really?"

Xander shrugged. "Military base here suffers from the same type of ignorance as the rest of the town does. Plus, I still had soldier memories fresh in my head, so that helped."

"Right," Riley said. "I knew about those. They still with you?"

"Only in the most basic form. I can march, I can salute, and I can probably spit shine some boots pretty well. More than that. . . no guarantees."

"Well," Giles said, "as little as that is, it's still more than the rest of us. I suggest you accompany Riley."

Both men nodded.

"Okay," Buffy said. "Who else?"

"Nobody," Riley said. "Smaller group is better. Plus, I can probably pass off one person as legit. More than that. . . much higher chance of something going wrong."

Everyone at the table nodded in agreement.

"So how do we get me in?" Xander asked.

Willow shook her head. "Xander, we have a basement full of tied up soldiers wearing fatigues. How would you go about sneaking into a military compound?"

"Oh," he said. "Right. Well how do we get him out?"

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End Chapter 24