Part 7 The Illustrious Major Finn

"You wanted to see me sir?"

"Major Finn yes come in. You know what this is about."

"Not really sir." Riley's thoughts jumped through his last couple of missions, his men, before landing on his recent trip to Sunnydale. They couldn't have found out about that, he was discrete, and the equipment he'd handed over wasn't listed on any inventories. No he was sure this meeting wasn't about Sunnydale. The Generals next statement shattered that illusion.

"I'd like to discuss your expedition to Sunnydale. Specifically the disposal of one Sniper rifle, twenty concussion grenades and seven thousand rounds of ammunition."

Riley's right eye twitched twice before he got himself back under control. Damn how much did the General know? He'd always got along well with the General and had never lied to him, but this could end his military career. Wondering if they had picked up Xander with the weapons he began his denial. "Sir I have no knowledge of the weapons and ammunition in question. I was in Sunnydale to visit old friends."

The General noted the eye twitch and the delay in Riley's response. "At ease soldier, we aren't discussing charges. However you are expected to verify the disposal of said items to one Alexander Harris. You are also required to relate your actions while in Sunnydale for entry into your file."

Blinking in confusion Riley responded, "Sir?"

The General reached out and pressed play on a mini tape recorder.

***

"Huckleberry"

"X"

"How's the wife treating you?"

"Great. I think she really loves me."

A muffled "Damn right I do"

"Glad to hear. Look remember when you left you said if we ever needed something with more of a kick than a crossbow to call."

"What did you run into this time, another ascension, do you have another god roaming around?"

"No it's nothing that serious, well yet anyways. This is more of a Boy Scout list"

"X, I'm not into running guns here, If you need something to take down a big bad I'm more than willing to help. But I'm not giving you weapons for no reason. I'm not an Arms dealer you know."

"Yes I know you are not an arms dealer, but this stuff could end up saving our lives, and I'd rather deal with you guys then risk robbing the armory again."

There was a pause before Riley's voice continued. "Look I'll see what I can do. No promises."

"Thanks I appreciate it. First off I need an AWP 308 with silencer, night vision scope, and a thousand rounds of ammo. Make half high explosive. Secondly I need 20 flash bangs. Third I need 5000 rounds standard 9mm rounds and a thousand 9mm tracer rounds. How soon can you get this to me?"

"The ammunition is no problem, but we don't use that particular sniper rifle. It'll take two days to gather that up and get it out to you."

"Two Days. Great that will be fine, same time same place."

"Look X, this stuff isn't cheap. I may have some out of pocket expenses getting this for you"

"Yes I know they will be expensive, but I recently had a windfall of cash, you don't have a problem with Euros do you?"

***

The General stopped the tape before continuing. "The equipment has been listed as Agent Harris' assets but we need confirmation that he received the mentioned equipment. As well we understand that while in Sunnydale you participated in several actions with Agent Harris and his team. These need to be logged and recorded in your file."

Before Riley could stop himself he sputtered out, "Agent Harris?"

The General smirked at him. "That's the designation he's been given. Judging by the things I've read I doubt he even knows his status. Prior to the military incursion in Sunnydale certain civilians were reviewed and given designations." Holding up his hand he cut off Riley's question. "No. Ms. Walsh was not aware of this information. It was held by the people overseeing the initiative endeavor and was classified beyond her clearance.

"Four individuals caught their interest. There was the Slayer, the Witch, the Watcher, and a civilian who didn't fit. A closer examination of his history revealed enough information that he was given the designation *Agent* and a budget was established to cover any further *acquisitions* he made from Sunnydale armory. From the notes and the size of his budget someone up there thinks very highly of Agent Harris. As you are co-operating with him now we felt it necessary to inform you of his status and insist that you report all transfers of equipment to Agent Harris."

Riley struggled with his thoughts trying to decide how much he should tell the General. Finally he decided to provide the information he was asking for and see how the chips fell. "In addition to the items he requested I supplied Agent Harris with ten WP grenades as well as a spare AT-4 and a pair of vests that we had lying around."

The General allowed himself a small smile, lying around indeed. Obviously it was leftover ordnance that someone hadn't returned to the armory. "Very well that will be added to his list. You are the closest liaison we have to him and you will keep us informed of his activities."

"Sir, with respects, but Harris and I don't talk that often, once or twice a month at best. It will be difficult to keep you informed on his activities."

"That's what Sig. Int. in Sunnydale said as well. Therefore to facilitate this endeavor you will be transferred to Sunnydale with authorization to assist Agent Harris with whatever resources he requires."

"What about my team, Sir?" Riley was boggled by the 'whatever resources he requires'. Not one of the missions he had been on had that designation. That meant the brass knew how important Sunnydale was, and they had designated Xander… No Agent Harris as their point man on this.

"Your team, Major Finn will be joining you. I can use you just as well based out of Sunnydale as I can here. You and your team will be transferred effective immediately."

"Finn, you will not be in the Sunnydale chain of command. *All* your activities are need to know and no one there needs to know. You report only to me or Agent Harris."

Riley accepted this with a nod. He had answered to civilians before and unlike Maggie Walsh he knew he could trust Xander not to abuse his power. "Sir, you mentioned that I was to provide Harris with whatever resources he requires. Could you be more specific?"

"If the guy needs an armored battalion or two get it for him. The guy has a bigger black bag than the initiative." The General paused a small frown appearing on his otherwise blank face. "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell him that. I would really prefer not to see him on the news driving one of our tanks down Sunnydale's main street."

Riley actually smirked a little at the thought. He could actually see Xander sitting in the commander's seat of a Bradley as it rolled down the streets of Sunnydale. "No we definitely wouldn't want that Sir."

"Now Finn before you leave I need a debrief on your latest trip to Sunnydale." The General wasn't going to mention that it wouldn't have been needed if they hadn't shaken the surveillance team.

"As you know I went to Sunnydale with the sole intent to provide Agent Harris with the items he requested. Upon delivery he asked if I would be interested in taking out a few blood suckers. He had located several nests and was looking to clean house. Truthfully I was leery, I trust Harris to watch my back but I hadn't seen him lead and as the slayer wasn't to be present I was concerned. However the plan he presented was well thought out and very doable."

"We grouped up with the rest of his team that evening; the witch, the Key and three teenage girls. I was set to refuse when he explained that the girls were potential slayers and were to be backup. He called it carefully controlled field experience.

Before the assault he briefed the team with prints of the sewer system and plastic overlay of the housing structures. Entry was through the sewers during daylight. Four remained below to take out any vampires escaping that way; the three potentials and the witch. I was equipped with the sniper rifle with HE rounds and was instructed to find a position and take targets of opportunity while limiting the number of creatures entering the sewer. I was told specifically to allow some access into the sewers. Agent Harris and the Key assaulted the main group with flash bangs to stun them then MP5's to bring them down with a sword as follow up."

"Finn the reports I have read stated that vampires are unaffected by bullets. How did agent Harris expect to take them down with a couple of MP5's?"

"They aimed for crippling wounds, hips, shoulders, knees. They avoided the standard torso shots picking targets that would slow the creatures enough that they were no longer a threat."

The General nodded in approval, "Good idea that. They would recover of course, but if your fast enough you can take them out before they do."

"Yes sir, that was the plan. We hit a total of three locations in that manner. I scored twelve KIA while Harris accounted for eighteen and the Key sixteen. The potentials picked off six who broke and ran and the witch toasted five. Altogether we removed fifty-seven bloodsuckers from the three locations.

At each location Harris and the Key questioned one of the vampires. They then removed sizable quantities of cash and valuables from the nests. With the nests cleared we proceeded to a demon safe house. I covered the sewers on this one with the Witch and the potentials guarding the back. Harris and the Key entered through the front door.

There was no attempt to exit through the sewers although I understand a Fyoral demon did attempt to leave out the back. When I received the all clear I entered the house to find Harris and the Key questioning a demon. They were quite intent upon discovering the details of William the Bloody's last will and Testament. He was the escaped vampire known as hostile seventeen to the Initiative. He had put a half million-dollar contract out on the slayer and they intended to have it removed. The demon was stupid enough to have the cash with him rather than use an escrow agent. After taking the money and threatening the demon it assured them the contract would be lifted by nightfall.

After the mission Harris handed me a hundred thousand dollars. Said it was my share and that he was planning on using most of the rest to buy more weapons.

The General looked closely at Riley. "What were you planning on doing with the money?"

"Truthfully, I hadn't come up with any plan yet. It would be nice to keep it but I was thinking I would likely end up donating it to charity."

The General sat back thoughtfully. "Tell you what. Donate half to charity, use some towards buying your new home in Sunnydale and use the rest on entertainment for your unit. So long as you declare the portion you keep on your taxes I can't see Uncle Sam getting upset. When your unit collects sums like that in the future keep the same ratio and you will be fine with me. Just remember that you still work for Uncle Sam and aren't a bunch of mercs."

"We won't forget sir."

"Very well. If that is all… Dismissed. And Finn good luck in Sunnydale."

"Thank You."

Once Riley had left the General sagged back in his chair. "Damn it Webb that's the last time I ask you for a favor. I ask for a little information and you go and hijack one of my teams."

~~~~**~~~~

Alex had left work early today. He had a few errands to run and wanted to get them out of the way without running into Buffy. He knew he had to deal with her eventually. But for right now his mere presence antagonized her. He was willing to give her a little more time to come to terms with who he was before approaching her again, especially without Dawn present. Odds were he could take her in a fight. But not without killing her something he was unwilling to even contemplate.

Alex walked into the magic shop and browsed idly until Anya finished up with her customer before approaching the counter and shaking Anya's outstretched hand. "Anya, I have a couple of magic questions for you."

Anya smiled for a second before carefully blanking her face. She'd seen this on a movie and was anxious to try it out. "My memory of magic is a little vague right now, perhaps with some encouragement…"

Alex raised an eyebrow before tossing a twenty on the counter.

"It's getting clearer, but things are still foggy."

He tossed another and then a third and fourth on the counter before Anya perked up "Oh I think the fog has receded, what was it you wanted to know."

"You mentioned you can teleport anywhere now, can you teleport to the first's realm?"

"Nope."

"How about to the gates in front?"

"I can do that why?"

"It goes with the plan to attack the first. Second question. Can you open a portal to the same location?"

"Ok I told you it would be insane to attack the first right. And no I can't open a portal myself. I would need at least two other powerful witches and a dimensional focus."

Alex sighed, "I know it sounds insane, but I can't let the first play games with my friends. Do you think you could find two other witches and a dimensional focus within the next month?"

Anya frowned, "Well, the witches wouldn't be to much of a problem we could use my apprentice and if Willow was willing to help we could use her. The dimensional focus would be tricky they are pretty rare. Unless Dawn was willing to volunteer I don't think I could get one in time."

"Dawn? Sure she was the key, but I've seen her wounded plenty of times and no portals. Are you sure about that, and how safe is it? I won't risk her. Not for anything."

"Dawn is still the key, she is a weak point in the fabric of reality. Channel enough power through her and you will create a rift. If you have someone to guide the rift you can pick the end point. I would need a triad of witches to draw enough power and I would choose the end point.

"As for Dawn's safety. The spell itself will leave her tired and opening a rift into the first's realm will leave us vulnerable to attack. We will be concentrating on holding the rift open and unable to defend ourselves."

Alex paused deep in thought. "But you can do it. I don't know if we'll need it, but I suggest you start preparing yourself and your apprentice just in case."

~~~~**~~~~

Walking into the Summers home Alex was astonished by the changes in past couple of days. Where the potential slayers had once been withdrawn and jumpy they were now sitting in groups chatting amiably like regular teenage girls. Taking it as a good sign he headed off to find Giles.

Walking past different groups of girls he picked up bits of conversation

"… and then she stomped on it's chest and poof …"

"… they took out a hundred vampires and twenty demons in two days…"

"… and then I got coated in mucus and Willow stabbed it with that little dagger she carries…"

"… I don't know what Molly, Vi and that Asian chick did to earn that money, but I don't believe their story about taking out nests. I mean Willow would have asked *me* to help if she wanted one of us."

Alex stifled a groan at the last comment and identified the speaker as the girl who had taken the head injury two nights ago. She would have been the last potential they would have put Willow in charge of. She had absolutely no focus when Willow was around.

Finally he located Giles in the kitchen flipping through a rather large tome. He cleared his throat to get Giles' attention. "Hey. Giles what's new in the world of books?"

Giles looked up and upon seeing Alex narrowed his eyes. "Not a lot Alexander. Why do you ask?" His voice was positively frosty.

"Ouch. What did I do this time. Whatever it is… well I was going to say it wasn't my fault but odds are it was. So just tell me why you hate me this time."

"Alright. You assaulted a nest of twenty vampires with only Dawn, Riley, Willow and three potentials. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You could easily have gotten them and yourself killed or turned. Why didn't you inform me, why didn't you ask Buffy for backup."

Alex sighed, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately. It was things like this that made him almost wish he were back in section where they trusted his planning and abilities. "We didn't invite Buffy along because she didn't fit the mission profile. We needed firepower, as in guns. You know how she feels about them. We only asked three potentials because that was what we needed and any more and they would have gotten in each other's way in the tunnels. We had to act quickly to remove the contract on Buffy's life before the Terakans started showing up. Look I'm sorry I didn't let you know, but I'll stand by my actions."

Giles relaxed slightly. "See that you let me know in the future. It's not that hard to pick up the phone and call you know. Now I want you to tell me everything that happened. Including how you found out about the contract."

Alex launched into a description of events that was very similar to Riley's. He did limit his description of the initial interrogations to 'questioned the vampires' before proceeding on to the assaults on the nest.

When he had finished Giles' eyes were wide with astonishment. "The potentials gave me a brief description of events, but I didn't realize the full scope. Fifty Seven Vampires and six demons. That's…That's just incredible." Pausing to collect himself Giles continued. "You say Spike put out a half million dollar contract on Buffy. Where did he get that kind of money and if he had it, why didn't he help her out with the bills here?"

"As close as we can tell he always had the money. Why he didn't help out? Your guess is as good as mine, but the Spike I remember was a selfish bastard. He wasn't interested in helping people unless it helped him. But speaking of helping out." He reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope.

"Give this to Buffy. Tell her it's from the council or something and to use it to pay off her mortgage and other bills."

Giles took the envelope and looked inside. "There must be a hundred thousand here. Are you sure you want me to give it all to her, or do you want me to take care of the bills and give her the rest?"

"No. Give her everything, and tell her you trust her to do the right thing with it. Make sure you mean it when you tell her Giles. It's important that you say the words and mean it when you give her the money."

Giles just raised an eyebrow.

Alex looked down at the table, "Right now Buffy is alone. She has no one she trusts that she can go to with her problems. Basically she has trust issues with me and Willow over the killing thing, and you and Dawn sided against her regarding Spike and myself. She needs someone, and you're the one with the easiest fix."

Shifting in his seat looking exceedingly uncomfortable he continued. "There is also something that Dawn and I noticed when we returned. Buffy seems highly suggestible. She has a tendency to believe whatever you tell her particularly if you use the words love and trust. We are not sure if it's residue from Dark Willow or one of Spikes ploys. Either way it's not something we are capable of fixing. I admit I did briefly consider using this to try and get the Buffy I knew back. But then I'd be no better than Spike, manipulating Buffy to be what I wanted her to be. Regardless I thought you should know, maybe you can do something."

Giles sat back to consider. It actually explained a lot of Buffy's actions lately. "Thank-you for informing me. I'll look into it and I'm glad you choose not to manipulate Buffy. Now if you don't mind my asking why are you giving her this money?"

"Two reasons Giles. One the contract was put out on her by Spike so she deserves it. Two I won't see her dead because she was too stressed out over money to fight properly. We need her at the top of her game and we won't get that if she's worrying about how to feed her new army of potentials.

"Speaking of the potentials we need to start them on a training program. Why don't you hire Buffy to train them? Negotiate a generous salary and make it clear that she is part of the new council but ultimately reports to you. I'll set up an account for you to pay her from until you can access the watcher funds. And don't worry about the money, Spike was very generous and it's the least he can do. That should solve two of her immediate problems."

"Two?"

"I'm betting with her work and patrolling and everything, Buffy has done very little training herself over the past few weeks."

Giles just nodded.

"Skills must be trained or they fade Giles. The newbie vamps around here aren't a challenge for Buffy, but one of these days she's going to run into something where she needs all her skill. Frankly I'm surprised you let her get away without training. I remembered you as being more forceful regarding that."

Giles withered under Alex's comments. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't true. By failing to see to Buffy's training he was failing her as a watcher and ultimately signing her death warrant. Squaring his shoulders he resolved to see that she began training again.

Focusing on Giles again Alex switched topics. "Dawn is working on a system for tracking vampires and finding patterns. It should help out in choosing the most effective patrol routes. What we need is some data to put in and I was hoping I could get copies of your watcher journals for the past couple of months. Any chance?"

Giles nodded absently still thinking about Alex's previous comments. "I can get copies made and drop them off tomorrow."