Yes, yes, I know, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. (Ahem) This is a tad late. It was supposed to take two weeks to write and ended up at almost two months. This was because I'm an idiot. Here's a hint to all would-be writers - back everything up. Get a good spyware detector. Oh and try not to have a dodgy motherboard. All of the above happened to me, causing much anguish and interesting words. I have however learnt my lesson and am backing everything up. So. Enjoy!


Xander stared down at the small connections in his hand and suppressed a sigh. Jedi weren't supposed to feel frustration or vague annoyance at trivial things, but he was getting awfully close here. The problem with this planet, he thought wryly, is that half the parts he needed to build a remote target drone either didn't exist or were impossibly clunky. If he'd been depending on the local parts then instead of a small silver drone, he'd end up with a fat wobbling basketball that couldn't shoot straight and had to be recharged every few minutes. Which meant that he had a lot of work to do.

Well, at least it took his mind off the Mayor's upcoming ascension. He had the beginnings of a plan, but it was insanely dangerous and had one big over-reaching flaw that would doom it from the start. It was also far too complex, and that was a bad thing. If there was one thing that Obi-Wan's memories tended to stress, was that no plan ever fully survived first contact with the enemy. At least not completely intact. There were too many variables, too many things that might go wrong. So the simpler the plan the more robust it could be.

He soldered a connection carefully and put the assembly down. The rest could wait until tomorrow. He had some patrolling to do. Slipping the parts away into a drawer he stood up, picking up his lightsabre as he did. It was resting on a coiled blueprint, something that he'd been working on very carefully for a week now. Something else to take care of. Carefully, of course.

It was two steps to the window, which opened silently and then he was out on the roof of the porch, looking around carefully to sense if anyone was around. Satisfied that everyone in the area was asleep he leapt off the roof, tucked into a tight roll and landed on his feet. Another look around just in case and then he was off, walking quickly down the road.

On the whole, apart from the whole the-mayor-is-going-to-turn-into-a-giant-snake thing, things were going rather well. Oz was well into his advanced training, Willow had gained more control over her pencils, Wesley was actually starting to grow on them (like mould, possibly) and Faith wasn't worrying him as much as she had in the past. The brunette Slayer was still a bit wild and had gone through three practice swords quite quickly owing to her ability to treat them as, well, long bits of iron. However, she was learning fast. As for the others, well Giles was still Giles, Amy was showing signs of being a major magical asset and Anya hadn't skipped town yet. She was still dealing with the odd sensations of rearranging hormones whenever she was around Jonathan, even if she had no idea why. That was a pairing that made you shudder violently and then think about something - anything - else.

There was naturally a fly in the ointment however, and that fly was the atmosphere around Buffy and Angel every time the two met. If Ben Franklin had been around to do his suicidal kite in a thunderstorm bit around those two he'd have been a smoking blob of grease by now. It was scary sometimes.

Xander sighed. There was a time when he would have cheered if he'd seen Angel run out of town, preferably followed by a rampaging mob, along with pitchforks and flaming brands. Now it was all different. The vampire with a soul was fighting a battle that Xander had to admire, if only because he understood it far better now that he was a Jedi. Battling for redemption was something that could only be done a day at a time, an issue at a time sometimes. And to be in love with Buffy but realise that he had to walk away to prevent further hurt in the future…he winced as a memory bubbled up from the Obi-Wan part of him. He could understand that, even if Buffy couldn't. Not that he could explain it properly to her - it was all too raw and painful for Buffy.

As he walked along Bleeker Street he slowed slightly, looking off to one side into the cemetery there. Typical. Talk of the devil, so to speak… he reached down to his belt for his lightsabre and then took off at a run, vaulting the railings with the Force and breaking into a sprint.

It was your standard Sunnydale cemetery, much with the gravestones and monuments, but ahead he could see a small mausoleum, with ivy covering most of it with the exception of the doors, which were now wedged open. In front of the doors he could see four figures. Three were rather annoyed at the fourth, who was fighting desperately against the odds.

The first suspicion that the three ordinary vampires had that he was there was when he ignited his lightsabre and lopped the head clean off the nearest one. This naturally came as a surprise and the fight paused to allow the outnumbered combatant to nod at Xander and fall back to his side, wiping a trickle of blood away from a split lip as he did. "Thanks," said Angel and then looked at the surviving two vampires, who were staring at the humming lightsabre with astonishment.

"What the hell is that?" spat the bigger of the two, pointing at the blade. "No way is that a lightsabre."

"You might want to reconsider that, considering what happened to your dead and dusty friend there," said Xander quietly. "If you want to live, walk away."

But the two vampires were busy grinning at each other. "Sweet," said the smaller one, "I know some people in LA would pay top dollar for that thing."

The big one laughed at that. "Yeah, sounds good." He looked back to Xander. "Who d'ya think you are, man, Luke Skywalker?

"Jedi Knight Xander Harris," came the reply and then the lightsabre came around in a blur as he force-leapt forwards.

There was a blink of sound and then the big vampire stared down at where his hand used to be. "Shit," he said and then crumbled to dust as his head fell off a split-second before his companions' followed suit.

Xander sighed and shut the lightsabre down. "I take that they weren't friends of yours," he said wryly.

"New in town," came the reply as Angel brushed some of the dust off his leather jacket. "They were looking for a meal and thought that they'd got lucky. Thanks, that could have been nasty for a moment."

"Not a problem," said the Jedi as they walked back to the main road. "I'm off to run a quick patrol, before I check in and fall into bed."

"I just got up," said Angel tersely. "Overslept." He looked almost amused for a moment. "I'll take the night shift."

They walked on for a few minutes, quietly checking out the area, before Angel cleared his throat and asked, in tones of apparent unconcern, if Buffy was out tonight. Xander slowed and looked around. "Buffy's over there, about a mile away," he said, pointing east, "And Faith's over there, about the same distance," he added, pointing to the northeast.

Angel nodded slowly before looking at him. "You know, that still freaks me out slightly. I mean the whole Jedi thing."

"They both put out a big signal in the force. It's like… seeing ripples on the water. The bigger the ripple the more force being used on the surface. It's hard to explain." He shot Angel a quick sympathetic look. "Buffy says that you're leaving once the Mayor's dealt with."

Angel glanced away and then looked down at his feet as he quickened the pace slightly. "It's necessary."

"I think I understand."

The vampire with a soul stopped so suddenly that Xander almost walked past him. "Do you? Really? I don't think so."

"Hey, I've got a brain. You're practically immortal, she's not. She ages, you don't. She has to fight the things that live on the mouth of hell and you have to make sure that the thing that lives inside you never comes out. Me, I have to fight the Dark Side. My fight is a bit easier than yours sometimes." He paused. "Whatever I was before, I'm a Jedi now. I understand the concept of duty. I understand the need to look at what's going on and try to take what you hope – hope - is the least worst option. And I know how much it hurts to walk away from someone you love because it's the right thing to do, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much it makes your heart want to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. Because at the end of the day we have to do what's right. And that's hard. It wouldn't be life if it wasn't." By now he was jabbing at Angel's chest with one forefinger. "We do what's right, or people die. It's that simple. As a Jedi Knight, I fight for those who can't fight back, but more important I know when to fight and when to talk and when to listen." Looking away he nodded slowly. "So don't tell me that I don't know what it's like."

They started walking down the road again, more slowly this time. After a while Angel looked at the Jedi Knight. "Who was she?"

"That's the freaky part. Someone I – or rather Obi-Wan – knew on Coruscant. And the memory of leaving her behind near the Jedi Temple may be a false one – but it still hurts. It still hurts."

After a long moment Xander grinned slightly. "By the way, there's a group of, oh, maybe five vampires up ahead. After you?"

Angel grinned grimly in response. "My pleasure."


Lists. Her entire life these days seemed to revolve around lists. Things to do, things to check, things to organise… it never really ended. But at least the lists were getting shorter as the initial logistical problems inherent in setting up a base were dealt with. The air conditioning in corridor twelve on level B blew hot air all over the place no matter which setting the rest of the base was on, the canteen on level D was avoided by base personnel because of consistent clamminess, the security swipe card at the main entrance malfunctioned at 8am every second Tuesday without fail, and the investigation into how a civilian had managed to access one of the secure comm lines a few months back had come up with no answers. But at least the list was shorter than before and the rest of the base was running well so far. The first real patrols were out tonight, performing basic reconnaissance. Nothing fancy, just continuing to identify the various types of HSTs in Sunnydale. Finn was leading the main team. So far he was turning out to be as good as his instructors at Fort Bragg had predicted, maybe better.

Maggie Walsh smiled. She had big plans for Agent Finn. In fact she had big plans for the entire base. Colonel Maybourne had put her in the driving seat here and she intended to make sure that she delivered on her promises. The potential reward - the development of a super soldier who could go up against the Goa'uld - was vast. As was the chance to prove wrong everyone who'd doubted her theories.

She wasn't a person who ever hummed, but she felt almost close to it as she walked along the corridor. So much to do, so much to organise, so much to plan… Then she rounded the corner and looked at the empty row of clean brightly lit white cells. Empty for now… later there would be so much to experiment on. So much to tease apart and probe. So much to re-arrange. She was looking forwards to it.


"Ah, Alan," said a voice behind him, and then Finch had to suppress a shudder as a hand came down on his shoulder. "I've got a little job for you tomorrow tonight. Something to deliver for me." The Mayor grinned toothily. "Nothing fancy, just a delivery to a courier office in the docks. There's something I need to get to a safe place before… well, before this place gets a bit too unsafe."

Finch nodded. "Yes sir, but don't you need me to confirm the arrival of the Box of Gavrok then as well?"

"No, no," said Wilkins, walking down the corridor with his arm on Finch's shoulders, "Mr Tagget is taking care of that little chore. I think we need his particular brand of expertise to make sure that everything goes off as planned there."

Given the fact that Mr Tagget was an ex-navy SEAL and a vampire who enjoyed his… little peccadilloes, as the Mayor called them, this was understating things a bit, thought Finch. He wasn't as creepy or as clever as Trick, who had been killed by the Summers Slayer, but he still gave Finch a bad case of the creeping horrors whenever he saw him.

"Of course sir," said Finch, thinking furiously. This would complicate his escape plans a bit. But he needed to make Wilkins think that everything was okay before he disappeared, so he had to go along. "What needs to be delivered?"

"Come by my office at about 4pm tomorrow and I'll hand it over then. Nothing bulky, just a package."

"Yes sir," he said and then hurried off. The odd thing was that he could feel Wilkins eyes as he walked down the corridor and he suppressed another shudder. This place was making him paranoid.

As he approached his office he made sure that he didn't look over his shoulder or do anything that made him look even remotely suspicious. Instead he opened the door, strolled to his desk and spent the next ten minutes typing up a request for more lavatory paper for the men's toilets in City Hall. The old lot kept vanishing. Actually an awful lot of stuff vanished. Three thousand paperclips had disappeared the other week, along with what appeared to be miles of string, paper, electrical wiring and all kinds of things. The kitchen staff had complained that the tips of their washing-up gloves had been cut off the other day, which was just strange, and food kept turning up in odd places under floorboards. He'd mentioned it in passing to the Mayor, but all that Wilkins had done was mutter something about the damn Nomes being back again. Odd, that.

When he finished the memo he printed it out, put it in an envelope for internal mail and then put it on his secretary's outgoing mail pile, before grabbing his coat and slinging it over his shoulder. "I'm off for a sandwich," he said as he passed her, "Do you want me to bring anything back for you Ellen?"

She smiled and shook her head, as she always did and he walked out of the office at exactly 12.29pm, as he always did, striding through the doors into the sunlight and taking a very deep breath of air. It was a nice day, he thought, and crossed the road, looking both ways carefully. It never hurt to be extra careful in Sunnydale.

After walking for two blocks he turned a corner and then entered a small café, where he waited patiently in front of the counter to be served. Eventually a small dark-haired woman nodded at him. "Your usual, Mr Finch?"

"Thanks Mary," he smiled and then waited while she assembled everything for his Parma ham and salad sandwich, which she then made in front of him. Handing over the right amount of money he took it when it was ready, walked out again, down another block to a small park, where he sat on a bench in front of a fountain and ate his sandwich slowly and watching the pigeons beat themselves up for his crumbs. By the time he had finished it he was satisfied that no one had followed him or was now watching him. After working for the Mayor for any amount of time you picked up certain things.

Then he pulled out a cell phone, dialled carefully and waited. When someone on the other end answered he started to speak. "Rupert Giles? My… name is Alan Finch. I, I work for the Mayor. Reluctantly I must say. I have some information for you. It comes with a price though. I want out of here."


He was in the middle of a report on the trade negotiations between two demon tribes that had the unnerving habit of decapitating unsuccessful negotiators when the phone rang once. He looked at it sharply. A moment later it rang again, once. He leant back in his chair and stared at it. If this was the signal then… yes, right on schedule the phone rang once again. Harry Wolfit smiled briefly, picked his jacket from the back of his chair, picked up a folder to feign looking busy and walked out of his office, walking with just enough of a scowl to show to the world that he was on his way to kick someone's ass off the face of the planet.

This time, when the lift reached the right level and he stepped out, there was a distinct smell of sulphuric acid and the odd sensation that there was a little too much static electricity in the air. Turning a corner he slowed to step over a body bag, nodded briefly at a harassed member of the medical staff and walked on. They were damn good and deserved every penny. True they were on call almost 24/7, but they were a vital part of Wolfram & Hart's machinery.

Just before he reached the door he tripped slightly and dropped the folder, giving him a chance to check behind him as he gathered all the papers back together. Then he straightened and knocked briskly at the door. There was a pause before it opened to reveal the dishevelled figure of Walt, who was holding a complex tool with some kind of set of blades at the end. He glanced down the corridor at Wolfit and then opened the door all the way and nodded his head sharply. "Harry."

Wolfit strode in as Walt closed the door. "What's with the smell out there?"

"Cho almost broke through to the Dungeon Dimensions again. Something with a hell of a lot of arms and eyes almost grabbed him and now he's up on the next floor filling in all the paperwork for the stuff that was needed to weld the hole closed again. That's the third time this month and if he's lucky he'll just get a reprimand." He shrugged. "Well at least it wasn't that psycho chest with the little legs again. That still gives me the creeping horrors."

"How's the project going?" asked the lawyer. "The golden globe thing?"

"Ah that. Really weird power supply on that – those crystals again. I got Anderson working on them – he was working on something else from the dig that looked like a staff, but which had some kind of power source in it. Badly depleted though."

Walt reached out to the odd machine and fiddled with it for a moment. Something groaned deep inside it and then the flickering hologram reappeared in the air above it, showing a picture of a girl of about 15 or 16 with Middle Eastern features and a look of homicidal cheekiness. This time the voice was deeper and at a more normal speed as it spat something guttural and metallic sounding.

"What was that?" asked Wolfit, bemused.

"Not a clue," replied Walt cheerily. "We've got linguistics working on it, but so far nada." He paused. "Anyway…"

Turning to his still magnificently cluttered desk he opened a drawer carefully and pulled out the lightsabre, which he handed over with a certain wry reluctance. "There you go." He tugged at a stack of paper and pulled out a report folder. "My initial report. There'll be a full one in a week or so."

Wolfit took it with his eyebrows raised. "Fast work."

"Yeah, well, I've been reminded how much I don't know. That damn thing raises more questions than answers." Perching himself on a stool he shrugged. "Quick and simple summary? Whoever put that thing together just rode a pickup truck through at least one of the laws of thermodynamics. Basically it's made up of four major elements. There's the control panel and outer surface first – and that's the only normal thing there. Some kind of titanium alloy that the Air Force uses I think, and standard circuits. Nothing special."

He raised a finger. "Then when you open it up it gets interesting. The power cell's weird. It's like no design I've ever seen and it's both efficient and freaking small. Powerful too. It's made of parts you can get in any good electrical store, but like I said the design is weird – very advanced. Sets up an incredibly efficient feedback loop that's so advanced that I still can't believe it. Makes the best one available look like a cheap battery.

"The superconductor is the next odd bit. It's a modified version of something that the Army uses. Heavily modified, almost as if the most advanced superconductor the US Army has wasn't good enough. It's got some kind of array attached with crystals that I don't understand, but which seems cools it down. I'm running a trace on the base part – don't worry, I'm using a massive amount of camouflage on the trace. If anyone thinks to track it back they'll think that it came from a supply sergeant on a base on the East Coast. And then there's the ruby. Whoever got that must either have a stack of money or they lifted it from somewhere that hates publicity, because it's worth a hell of a lot of cash and no-one's screaming about it being stolen." He shrugged again. "That's the basics anyway."

Harry looked at the lightsabre and nodded thoughtfully. "Any idea about who made it?"

Walt shook his head with a grimace. "Sorry, Harry. But I did see something screwy. On the inside of the casing there were a series of symbols etched into the metal. I did some checking and it turns out that it's the alphabet used in the Star Wars films. I got out a source book and translated them. There are two sets, forming two words. One says, "Willow". Other one says "Padme".

"Padme?" repeated Wolfit, frowning.

"I went looking for that on the 'Net. Apparently it's going to be the name of Luke Skywalker's mother in the prequels that Lucas is making at the moment." Walt tilted his head and pointed at the lightsabre. "Whoever made that thing is more than just a fan Walt. There has to be some kind of connection there."

Wolfit nodded slowly and then carefully slipped the lightsabre into his pocket. "Good job, Walt. Let me know when the main report's ready."

"Will do, Harry." The scientist paused for a moment. "You going to try it out on you-know-who?"

The older man flashed him a grin. "Maybe." He moved to the door and opened it. Sniffing he looked down the corridor. "That smell's stronger. I thought you said that the hole was welded?"

"It should be, but sometimes things leak through because of some space-time crap thing." Walt sniffed at the air as well and then looked slightly worried. "Okay, it should be safe. But if you hear the sound of hundreds oflittle feet behind you – run like hell."


The vampire smiled at the redheaded girl in front of him, in the process showing a lot of yellow teeth and exposing her to yet another case of possibly terminal halitosis. "I like a bite to eat early in the evening, something to keep my throat wet." The smile became a grin.

"Oh please," said the girl dryly, "Of all the lines to use that's the lamest. Do I look like someone stupid enough to walk around the streets of Sunnydale without protection?"

"What?" asked the vampire, looking confused. It obviously didn't like having its taunts go unnoticed.

"Hi," said the girl brightly and pulling out a pencil, "I'm a witch. Oh and meet my boyfriend the Jedi Knight."

"Boo," said a voice behind the vampire and it spun just in time to get a sword in the neck that decapitated it cleanly, exploding it into a shower of dust a split second later.

"The standard of taunting is seriously going down in this place," said Willow, in mock-sadness. Then she looked back up at Oz. "Hi, what kept you?"

"Giles had a phone call," said Oz, kissing her. "Wants us all to meet in the library in an hour. Once Faith and Buffy have had their sword fighting lessons though."


The figure didn't scurry. She wouldn't have known how to scurry even if she'd been given scurrying lessons and a reason to scurry. But she did move with a slight air of furtive haste, not that she would have admitted that at all. She went down one corridor, turned into another and then looked through the windows on the library doors. Satisfied she opened one and moved in, walking with more self-assurance now.

"Hey, B, Giles, JX," said Faith as she approached them at the table. "I gave Wesley the slip back there for twenty minutes. He thinks I'm getting some food. So what's the programme for tonight's short-notice bit of training that you mentioned?"

Giles smiled and tossed a practice sword at the younger Slayer, who caught it in the air and twirled it in a complicated move around her body before winking at Buffy, who was looking impressed. "Practice makes perfect, B," she said.

"It certainly does," said Giles, hefting his own practice sword carefully. "Tonight, though, you have a new sparring partner." He threw the sword at Xander, who caught it and bowed playfully at Faith, who paled visibly.

"Um, do I get a head start here?"

Giles and Xander looked at each other for a long moment before they both grinned. "Nope," said the Jedi Knight, "Let's see how much you've learnt."

"Okay, five by five," she said and then things got complicated. Xander exploded into the air in a Force-powered leap that saw him pass over her head and land on both feet behind her. She span and was just in time to parry a blow that would have hit her back.

"That was sneaky, JX," she said through gritted teeth as she tried to force his sword back.

"Bad guys don't play by nice guy rules," he said before pulling his sword back and making her stagger slightly due to the pressure she'd been putting on her own sword, a stagger that he used to push her away. His sword came out and around and once again she was only just in time in parrying it. Then she blew the hair away from her face and grinned before pulling back and launching an attack of her own, trying to force him back towards the wall, trying to use her superior strength.

But every blow she aimed at him seemed to be absorbed and countered, as he moved with equal speed to meet her attacks. Slayer-speed. "Hey," she protested, "No fair – cheating with the Force!"

"Bad guys don't play by nice guy rules," he repeated and then slashed out again in a series of attacks that had her back-pedalling across the floor as she simply tried to stop him from hitting her with the blunt edge of the blade. It was easier said than done and she could feel the sweat start to form on her forehead and drip down her face as she desperately parried.

"Screw this," she rasped through dry lips and then tried to counter attack, following up with a kick that should have caught Xander in the right knee if he hadn't moved out of the way in time. He raised both eyebrows and then nodded approvingly. "Sneaky yourself," he grinned and then came at her again, his sword flashing. There was a shimmy as it seemed to wrap itself around her own weapon and then suddenly it was skidding across the floor before she felt a blow that brought her feet off the ground. She tried to move her feet back down in time, but she was falling now and the floor was coming up and… everything slowed as something invisible grabbed her and stopped her a foot from the ground.

"Okay," she said, "You got me. Give me a hand?"

Xander grinned at her and then made a gesture with his fingers. Whatever was holding her moved her back upright. "I know you too well Faith. You'd just take my hand and try to throw me." Then he looked at her more seriously. "You were good though. Well done."

"Lasted longer than me," said Buffy in tones of deep disgust. "And I thought I was getting good at this stuff."

"Really," asked Faith in tones of faint smugness. "How much longer?"

"About three seconds," said Giles dryly as he threw a towel over at her and puncturing her smugness completely. "You've both come on in leaps and bounds against me, so I thought I'd give you a real challenge." He paused and then smiled at them both. "And you did better than I anticipated."

"Giles, he beat us both without breaking a sweat," complained the brunette Slayer as she wiped her face with the towel.

"Yes. You were fighting a Jedi Knight, don't forget. And there will be times when you fight demons – or people – who will have a natural advantage over you. So never get arrogant – never think that you know it all. A little humility is a valuable commodity. Never think that you know it all, because in my experience there's no such thing as a perfect fighter. There are just fighters who either constantly strive to learn, to, to push the barriers of what they know, or there are those who regard themselves as being perfect and then die when they meet an opponent who is, to their very brief and terminal shock, better than them." He fixed them both with a piercing glare and then jabbed an index finger in their direction to emphasise his words. "Arrogance can get you killed, Faith, Buffy," he said then clenched his fist. "So you'll be sparring with Xander more often. Look. Listen. Watch. Learn."

Faith ran her hands through her sweaty hair and then caught Buffy's eye. Then they both slowly, reluctantly, nodded. "Okay, Giles. JX will be the man to beat. Any other news by the way?"

This brought up the inevitable Giles-like reaction, which consisted of the Watcher taking his glasses off and polishing them. It was something that the others now took for granted, although it did mean that he was going to deliver what was possibly very bad news. Or just news. You never knew with Giles.

"Willow and I have been looking into the identity of the corpse that Xander and Oz found in that tunnel, the one that had become a wraith. We might have a lead, so to speak. Willow brought up the initial lead and I've been doing some checking of my own on the, uh, 'web', which is oddly addictive once you know where to look. It's most disturbing."

Xander frowned. "The news is disturbing?"

Replacing his glasses the Watcher smiled. "Ah. No. Sorry, poor choice of words. I meant that the way that I've become used to that infernal machine is disturbing. I even found the BBC news website, so I've found a bit of home away from home. Ahem." He looked a bit embarrassed and looked around. "It might be worth waiting for the others. Faith, how long will it be before Wesley gets here?"

The younger Slayer rolled her eyes and winced. "I told Mr Tweediness to meet me here at 9. And… that means he'll be here in ten minutes. Joy. Not."

"Good," said Giles. "That means that I can also tell everyone about a very interesting conversation I had earlier today with the deputy mayor of Sunnydale who, I believe, wants to get out of town in a hurry. And he wants to provide us with information that just might stop the Mayor's ascension in its tracks." The Watcher leant back in his chair. "All in all, not a bad day's work."

They stared at him.

"Details, Giles, details?"

"All, all in good time, Buffy," said the Watcher, with a distinct grin on his face. "After all, Patience is a virtue."

Buffy looked as if she had sucked on a lemon.


"Hey there campers, and welcome to Caritas! You know, it's great to see so many of you here tonight, and I just know that we're going to be hearing a lot of good music as we go through to the early hours. So I'd like to kick off the evening with an old favourite of mine, and I know that it's one of yours too. A bit of Sting!"

The Host launched into the opening lines of "Fields of Gold" and Lindsay McDonald looked into his glass of bourbon bleakly. It was his first of the night and so far it was untouched. He had a nasty feeling that if he drank it another three would soon follow, and singing whilst drunk was never a good idea. For one thing the Host tended to be snarky. For another this could be a tough crowd if the regulars heard a duff note, and the more you drank the better you sounded in your own ears. Unfortunately the rest of the world heard you through ears that were not glazed over with alcohol.

He touched the guitar that was slung over his back meditatively and sighed. Caritas was now one of the few places where he felt… at ease. You couldn't go far wrong with music. He closed his eyes for a moment and shuddered. That led to questions about what he was doing wrong at the moment, and issues that he was trying not to think about. Independent thought about morality was not encouraged at Wolfram and Hart. At least he'd won his last three court cases. Nothing major, nothing that was too controversial, and all three had been very lucrative for the firm. Holland had singled him out for praise, praise that Lindsay was starting to think was unmerited. It wasn't that he didn't deserve it, it was just that…

He grimaced. He couldn't put his finger on it. Something felt wrong with his life. It had since Sunnydale. He should, strictly speaking, have taken all the data that he'd collected about Harris to Holland by now and told him that something odd was going on there, that Wilkins had pointed out that there was a potential future problem there for Wolfram & Hart.

And there was something there. Whatever had happened to Harris, it was major. Something had turned an under performing high school student into a hardworking scholar and, it seemed, demon-killing warrior. But he didn't know what it was or why it had happened. Lindsay sighed again. He'd put in a request to trace any odd magical activity in the area around Sunnydale a year and a half ago. The chances were that he'd get several tonnes of records, but it would be worth it to look.

He paused and, lifting the glass to his lips, sent the bourbon scorching down his throat. Then he stood up and walked up to the stage. Time to sing. Time to block out the world for a while.


The screen beeped and then a picture of a dark-haired woman appeared on the monitor. She was smiling at someone off to her right and was wearing a fairly attractive dress that hinted a tad more than it revealed.

"That's her," said Oz, sounding sad, and Willow squeezed his hand consolingly.

"Her name was Suzanne Morecombe," announced Giles to the assembled Scooby Gang. "And she was, well, quite well-known. She was the secretary to the chairman of the 2nd Sunnydale Savings & Loan from 1983 to 1985, a time when savings and loan operations were imploding all over the USA. She was well-connected, popular, and had no links to organised crime that anyone at the time could find."

"Why should she have links to organised crime?" asked Buffy, looking puzzled.

"Because at the time that was the theory behind her disappearance on June 18th, 1985. Well, I say disappearance, but she'd barely been seen for months before that. She was linked to…" Giles nodded at Willow and another picture appeared on the screen, this time of a tall man dressed in a tuxedo and looking almost handsome in an oily-looking way. "This man, Councillor Matt Stevens, who was a part of Mayor Wilkins' administration. Apparently they were quite the couple, being seen at all the best social functions in Sunnydale. He vanished at the same time that she did."

"But based on what, um, Oz said that he saw, they didn't go together," said Wesley.

"Yes and no," said the older Watcher. "She vanished completely, not being found until now. Mr Stevens on the other hand reappeared, in a manner of speaking. He was found dead in the desert to the south of here, although lacking large parts of his skin along with, well, other parts."

"Other parts?" asked Faith, raising her eyebrows.

Giles shifted slightly in his seat and looked intensely uncomfortable. "Yes, well, let's just say that if in the unlikely event that he'd lived, he would have been singing soprano."

"Ah," muttered Angel and Xander almost simultaneously, before all the men in the room shifted in the same way that Giles had as they shuddered at the thought.

"Just after they vanished the 2nd Sunnydale Savings & Loan collapsed, owing frankly vast amounts of money and the police were called in to investigate what they later described as massive fraud. No-one ever found Ms Morecombe who, it turned out, had given birth to a baby girl in a private clinic on the outskirts of Sunnydale a week before she vanished. The birth certificate is missing, but it might be safe to assume that the father was Matt Stevens. No one ever found out where Stevens had been before his death. And no-one ever located the missing money, but based on what Oz said the wraith told him before she died, there might have been a link between the two and she might have been waiting for him with the baby and some cash, although why it was fake is, again, unknown."

Giles paused. "It's a rather sad and pathetic trail, but it might explain why a wraith was formed at the spot where the two of them died. She must have been desperate, although the matter of who shot her remains a mystery.

"As for Mr Stevens on the other hand, based on a picture that Willow was able to drag up from the autopsy and which I won't show you because I don't want her to faint again…"

"Eep," said the redheaded witch faintly.

"Yes, well, I think it would be safe to say that he was part of a ritual sacrifice, although I can't hazard a guess as to who he was sacrificed to. What I would say was that he seemed to have made some very powerful enemies and it is more than possible that the Mayor might have been involved if, as we theorise, he is so heavily involved in the mystical history of Sunnydale. Not to mention the fact that Stevens was a part of his administration."

Willow looked up. "Giles, where did you get all this information? It wasn't on the Internet!"

"No, well, I went down to the public library and looked it up on the paper records and the microfiche." He looked at the blank expressions surrounding him. "Oh bloody hell, I did the old-fashioned way, alright?"

There was a small pause and then Xander cleared his throat. "Okay… right. You said that you had other news as well?"

"Oh that, yes. I had a phone call today from one Alan Finch, the deputy mayor."

This was enough to get everyone's attention as they all straightened up and stared at him, with the exception of Buffy, Xander and Faith, who had heard that part before.

"How he got my number I can only guess, but he said that he had some information that he wanted to tell me and that it pertained to the Mayor, um, 'changing', and that it would help the Slayers. He said that something called the Box of Gavrok will be coming in tomorrow night and that the Mayor won't be able to ascend without it. I've carried out some initial research and I have to say that he's right – an ascension has to be carried out with the preliminary help of the Box, which contains, well, certain spider-like creatures that have to be ingested to provide… um, well, I'd rather not go into the next part, being a bit of an arachnophobe. He wants to meet me tomorrow night before the Box arrives in Sunnydale."

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "And then?"

"And then he'll us where it's coming in and we arrange to get him out of Sunnydale. He seemed to know that we suspected that the Mayor is planning an ascension, but he said that he'll tell us everything he knows if we get him out." The Watcher leant back in his chair thoughtfully. "He seemed to think that if he left town the normal way, that the State police would be used to track him down under the pretence that he is a dangerous criminal. And would know a great deal about what the Mayor has been up to over the past few years. So," He sat up again and fixed them all with a grim smile. "In the off-chance that this is going to be a trap I think that we should take some precautions. Buffy, I want you, Faith and Angel to meet him tomorrow night. Xander, you and Oz are to be in reserve in the area, just in case, along with Willow and Amy. Wesley and I will meet you all once we've met this Finch chap and ascertained that he's clean. In the meantime we continue our reserve into the rituals that rely on the Box of Gavrok. Tea anyone?"


Richard Wilkins walked along the corridor, still dressed in his golfing outfit and with a song in what passed for his heart and a spring in his step. Yes, walking normally had its advantages, but it was going to be interesting to work out how to slither. Apparently it came naturally once the change happened, at least according to the texts that he'd read, but it never hurt to think about these things.

He rounded a corner and saw Mr Tagget up ahead. The vampire had a file in his hand as he broke into step with the Mayor. A good… man, for want of a better word, Mr Tagget. Reliable. Not too ambitious but he had enough in the old brain department to suffice. Shame he didn't smile more. At least on duty that is. Pity, because as his old mom said, a smile will get you far in this world.

"Did you have a good game of golf sir?"

"You know, I did. It was just a great day out there, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and I beat the tar out of my opponent 6&5. What do you have for me?"

"It looks like your suspicions about Finch were correct. He's been surreptitiously packing in his apartment. He might be about to flee Sunnydale."

Wilkins paused at the entrance to his office. He'd been right then. Poor old Alan. Not a patch on his father and grandfather. Ah well. As the deputy Mayor he couldn't just have him killed outright as well – the post had its own legal protection laid down by Alan's predecessors and there were also certain magicks and family oaths of loyalty that meant that Alan Finch couldn't be directly killed by his order. But there were ways around that. Indirectly killing him was more than possible. At least he had everything covered there. Plus it would be a bonus to get rid of that damn packet. He'd been… well, not nervous, but a tad concerned about it ever since he'd bought it. Still, two birds with one stone though. Maybe three if his other suspicions were correct.

"Very well. Send Mr Finch in so that I can tell him about his errand tonight. When he's gone I want to talk to you in my office. The Box of Gavrok will be coming in by road tonight. You're going to meet it. Oh and Mr Tagget." The Mayor's eyes glittered. "If you have any… friends in Sunnydale tell them to stay well away from the docks tonight. Something bad is going to happen to them otherwise." He grinned again. "Very bad. But worse for Mr Finch."


It was almost time for English Lit and Buffy was hurrying down a corridor when a hand came out from inside a room just in front of a junction and hauled her in. She whirled with an outstretchedfist and then relaxed as she looked into Xander's face as he held up a finger to his lips. "Shush," he whispered. "Snyder."

Sure enough she suddenly heard the sound of scurrying feet in the corridor outside, followed by hard purposeful footsteps that were accompanied by a snarky voice that asked various people why weren't they in class yet. After a moment the unnatural force that was Principal Snyder passed on.

Buffy peeked around the corner to see the Principal disappear around a corner and then grinned at the Jedi Knight, who smiled back. "Wow, Xander, that is still just so cool. Does Snyder ever see you anymore?"

They passed through the doorway and out down the corridor. "Well, not much. He still thinks that I cheated on my SATs somehow and occasionally he'll arrived in class and spring a spot test on me, but I think that I'm starting to freak him out. He's just a natural… well, control freak with a set view of the world." He paused outside the classroom that they were both due in. "The weird thing is that once we graduate from this place I'll almost miss matching wits with him." He caught her look of bemusement. "I said almost, Buff."


He paused outside the office to straighten his tie and calm the butterflies in his stomach before he went in. He couldn't give anything away now. Not now. He was too close to getting out of this Hellhole.


His inbox never really seemed to run out of memos, he mused thoughtfully as he looked at it. It had always been a complicated business running a town, and as the years and decades had rolled by, then the number of regulations and ordinances and things to file had increased. And although it had its disadvantages, it also had its benefits. Sometimes the lawyer's way could be the best way, although death was still the best way for the other times. Ah well, at least it meant that he always had a good grip on the reins of power. It helped to know where everything was. Including the bodies.

Wilkins picked a memo about the design of the new trashcans and nodded quietly. Yes, it was all in order and he pulled out his best pen to sign it. He was going to miss Alan – the man was very good at all the minutiae like that. But he wasn't going to need anyone after his Ascension, and frankly Alan had been going to pieces for months now. He knew too much. Plus he needed a holiday. And death was the ultimate holiday from the trials of life. You never got to come back for a start.

There was a soft knock and he looked up to see Mr Tagget at the doorway. "The deputy mayor is here, sir," he said quietly.

"Ah! Send him in please." Alan Finch appeared, looking slightly peaky. What a shame, he was nervous. Ah well.

Wilkins smiled genially. "Alan, good of you to come. Now then…" He leant over and rummaged in his desk drawer. After a moment he found what he was looking for, a smallish package which he handed over the desk. "I need you to run an errand for me. This thing is a gift for an old friend of mine that I'd like kept safe in case things go a little wild after my ascension. I'd like you to take it down to a place just off Sherman Street near the Docks. The address is here." He held out an envelope and smiled internally when Finch took it. That primed the trap. All he had to do now was set the timer. "Now this place has somewhat odd hours as the folks who run aren't exactly… normal shall we say. So I'll have a car pick you up from here at 9 and drop you off near the area. I want that package kept very safe, Alan. I'm relying on you." The last part was said with a sincere smile that hid the tears of laughter he was just aching to burst out.

His mind obviously working very fast, Finch nodded. "Yes sir. Any other instructions?"

"No, in fact why don't you take the rest of the night off."

"Thank you sir," he said and left.

Wilkins watched the door close and then counted to sixty slowly, before muttering a few Latin phrases in a low undertone while looking intently at a small gem that he'd been holding in his free hand. When it glowed once with a murky green light he nodded sharply and then walked into his bathroom where he laughed until he couldn't breath. Tonight was going to be fun.


"Hey B," drawled the dark-haired girl as she picked the dirt out of her fingernails with her dagger. As she walked out of the side road where she'd been waiting she cast an eye over her fellow Slayer, who was looking severely bummed as they walked down the hill towards the Docks. "What's up with you?"

"Mr Spurling's springing a surprise English test on us tomorrow, according to the rumour monkey. Something about Julius Caesar. Stupid Romans."

Faith laughed. "That's another reason why I don't miss high school that much. Too much work and not enough play makes for dullness," she said, shrugging. "Although I could do with the training stuff with Giles if I'm gonna be the first one to beat JX at swords."

"Hey! What makes you think that you're going to be the first to beat him?"

"Natural talent. What else?" She looked at Buffy with a crooked grin before the blonde finally broke down into giggles.

"Chain yanker," said Buffy accusingly and then stiffened, looking off to one side. "Hey Angel," she said quietly.

He appeared out of a patch of deep shadow, his face set and slightly furrowed. "Buffy. Faith," he said tersely. "Good to see you. You heard from Giles and the others?"

"We're good to go," confirmed Faith, sighing inside. The way that these two made with the tortured lovers act would break anyone's heart, she thought sadly. But it would be way dumb to interfere. She'd learnt that much from her time in Sunnydale. Sometimes you had to think things through for a bit. She preferred her old "want-take" approach, but she was starting to see that it was a bit too short-term. And she didn't want to end up a vampire snack like Kendra. Horry wouldn't have wanted that.

"Okay!" she said, breaking the silence that had descended on the trio as they walked down the road. "Let's go talk to a snitch."


The black car purred down the road slowly, came to a junction, paused slightly and then moved on, turning left. After a few hundred yards it slowed completely and the right hand rear door opened to reveal a very flustered Alan Finch. He closed the door and watched the car draw away, moving off into the night.

He shivered. The driver hadn't said a single word after asking his name at the town hall and had just driven him in complete silence down to the Docks. There had been an odd sheen to the skin on his face, as if it had been stretched a little too much. He certainly hadn't been human, that was for sure.

Finch looked around. Swings and roundabouts, as his mother used to say. On the one hand he was without his car and his things, not that he could have gone very far with them once the Mayor knew that he had defected. On the other he was reasonably close to where he had arranged to meet Mr Giles' people to escort him to meet the Slayer's Watcher. The timing was good as well. He reached into a pocket and pulled out the Mayor's package. What the hell was he going to do with this thing? Deliver it? After a moment he replaced it. It might be something that Mr Giles would be interested in. He walked off down the road, never seeing the brief green flash that came from the package in his pocket.


"How come they always make stakeouts look like fun in the movies?" grumbled Faith to one side as they stared out at the T-junction.

Buffy frowned. "I thought that stakeouts were always shown as being very boring," she objected. "Unless you're Richard Dreyfus in that film that is. Euw, old guy alert, don't want to think about that."

The other Slayer chuckled slightly and then stopped. "Over there," she breathed. Buffy turned her head slightly to look over at where Faith had gestured. Sure enough she could see a guy walking furtively and trying to look in all directions at once. He was wearing a suit and looked nervous. More importantly she couldn't sense anything inhuman about him or the nearby area.

"Guy looks as if he's gonna wet himself," quirked Faith and then looked over at their companion, who was staring at the man and frowning. "You okay Angel?"

The vampire started slightly and looked at them, rubbing one temple as he did. "No. Yeah. Um, I feel a bit weird. Got this headache that started a few minutes ago. Feels odd when I look at the guy, but I've no idea why."

Buffy and Faith exchanged glances and then looked back at the man, who was standing on the junction, looking even more worried than before. "Are going to be okay?" asked Buffy. Angel smiled tiredly and nodded. "Okay then."

As they walked across the road the man stopped fidgeting and looked at them as if he was about to run, before relaxing slightly. Getting closer they could see that he was youngish, thin and as Faith would say, freakin' nervous.

"Ah," he said as they approached. "I guess I should have expected it to be you three. I'm Alan Finch."

"You three?" repeated Buffy. "You know us?"

"Of, of you. The Mayor's got files on you all, Ms Summers. And you Ms Morgan, and Mr… Angel. Is Mr Giles nearby?"

"We're gonna take you to him," said Faith, exchanging the Slayer version of a worried stare at Buffy which was no more than a flicker of the eyes. "You packing anything?"

"What?" he asked puzzled.

"Weapons. Do you have any?" she said slowly.

"Oh. No, I don't. You can search me if you like."

Angel nodded and moved up to quickly pat the man down, the frown on his face growing slightly. "He's clean," he acknowledged.

Buffy relaxed ever so slightly. "Okay, let's go." As they moved off along the road she turned her head slightly. She could have sworn that she could have heard something. Shaking her head she joined the others, touching the sword slung by a hoop over one shoulder for reassurance. Aquila. She had to call it Aquila. That was its proper name, not Birdy, even though Birdy sounded nicer.

They'd walked no more than a few hundred yards when she first knew that they had company. Something was moving up ahead, walking in a stiff way towards them. "Guys," she muttered. "Something feels wrong about this." They kept walking, moving over across the road, but the figure just stopped for a second and then started walking towards them again. It was wearing a green coat of some sort and she couldn't see its' face… but then again perhaps that was a good thing, because it suddenly stopped and growled at them. From the way that the green coat was shimmering and rustling she could tell that it was something more like wings, while its face was twisted and ridged, with fangs that were not made to eat delicately at all. It growled again and then lunged in at them.

Three things happened at that point. Buffy dived off to one side, tugging Aquila out of its sheath and then jabbing it upwards beneath the demon's ribcage. Faith pivoted and let her dagger fly from her hand and sink into its neck. And Angel caught Finch, who collapsed like a folding sack.

The demon growled again, more messily this time as green blood dribbled out of various orifices, still staring ahead of it and then slowly collapsed. Buffy stared down at it and pulled Aquila out smoothly, before retrieving Faith's dagger. "Okay that was weird. Short but sweet. Angel, is that guy okay?"

Angel looked up, a frustrated glare on his face. "He fainted."

"Wow. For a guy who works for an evil boss, he's a real pussycat." Then her head came up and she sniffed the air. "Uh-oh."

"You said it, B," ground out Faith, who was cleaning her dagger on one of the fallen demon's wings. "We got a lot of company." The conscious three looked around. Shapes were appearing around them in the distance. All were non-human. All were walking stiffly. And all were converging on them.

"What is this, a zombie impersonation convention? Why are these guys all making with the Evil Dead lurch?"

"I don't know, but let's bug out. Too many to fight and besides we need to get this guy to Giles." Buffy turned to see Angel hoist the unconscious Finch onto his shoulder in a fireman's lift. "Let's run. See if we can lose these creeps."

They ran into the night, as the slowly growing crowd of demons, vampires and others followed them.


"Oz will be along in a bit. He said that he had to drop the van off to make sure that the band got their things back," said Willow, pouting slightly.

This brought a bemused smile to Xander's face. "You want him to rush back so you can hang around the docks in the dark with him and run backup for Buffy and Faith?"

"Yeah," she said sighing. "A chance for small smoochies too. It's kinda hard to have a love life if you're always vanquishing evil all the time."

Amy rolled her eyes. "At least you have a love life, Willow. And with the Prom coming up my options are worse than limited. Looking for an articulate date who doesn't grunt or faint is getting difficult."

The Jedi raised his eyebrows. "Okay, that opens up a topic of conversation that I'd like to close down as quickly as possible." He paused. "By the way, I don't think that Jedi Knights attend many Proms. I'm going to have to think this one out."

He paused again but this time to frown. Something was walking down an alleyway to one side of the road and by the way that it felt it wasn't human. He was right – as the figure came into view he could see that it had a distinctly non-human grey tinge to its skin and claws. Plus a big honking horn in the middle of its forehead.

Willow and Amy made eeping noises and he pulled his lightsabre off his belt. He didn't ignite it though as he was picking up really odd signals coming from the demonic whatever-it-was. Instead of charging or doing demony things it just stood there in the light of the flickering streetlamp before turning its head to stare down the street. Then it lurched off, stiffly at first but then faster and more fluidly as it picked up speed. At no point had it looked at them or even registered their presence.

"Well that was… creepy," breathed Amy.

"You've no idea how creepy," muttered Xander. "I couldn't sense much in the way of thought coming from it – it felt all wrong, like something was in control of it, or pulling it."

A scraping noise from further down the street made them all turn to one side. In the middle of the road a drain grating was being pulled to one side by a pair of hands from underneath it. Once the opening was clear then a dark figure – a vampire by the feel of it – emerged haltingly. It paused, swaying slightly and then took off down the road in the same direction as the grey thing. It completely ignored them as well. Furthermore it looked rather unvampire-like, moving in a somewhat jerky way, as if it had had too much coffee and not enough sleep.

"This is getting creepier and creepier," the Jedi said as they all stared down the road. "Okay, I'm-" A pair of meaningful coughs came out of the night, "-Okay we're going to check this out. I've never seen nastier members of the underworld act like they had their brains replaced with tofu and I don't like it."

"What about meeting Oz? And Buffy?"

He smiled. "Buffy and Faith are in that direction," he replied, pointing off down the road. This brought another frown. "Hmmm, same direction as the things that go bump in the night. Coincidence? As for Oz, he'll find us." He clipped his lightsabre back onto his belt. "The Force is with me."


"Damn it, more of them!"

"Road ahead's blocked, B, no way through. Where are they coming from?"

"I don't know… wait, wait a second. Up. See that fire escape on that place?"

"Yeah. What if they follow us though?"

"We kick some of the ladders off as we go up. Gotta be four or five stories up and we can catch a break up there."

"Five by five with me. You okay Angel?"

"This guy's heavier than he looks. But yeah. Head still hurts, but let's do it. They're starting to irritate me."

"Same here." Buffy took a deep breath. "Let's go!"


"Does anyone else have a really bad feeling about this?" whispered Xander as he looked around the corner carefully. Seeing the milling crowd at the corner of the street he looked back in time to see a very pale Willow and Amy glance at each other and then nod wordlessly at him.

"That's what I thought," he muttered and then turned back again to stare at the collection of monsters. Okay, this was freaky. They looked as if they were all looking at something. Or towards some odd general direction. And they were giving off a really freaky feeling in the Force, as if they had all had their brains replaced with tofu.

Easing back he thought quickly and then nodded down the road. "Okay, we very carefully go around them. Back down the street and then cross over into that alleyway fast. That should give us some space and get us reasonably clear." He looked at the pair of witches sternly. "If I say run you run, and no arguing, okay?" More nods as they moved out quietly, passing down the side of the building to a point where they could see that the alleyway was empty.

Xander paused to check that nothing was down there and then ran across the road clutching his inactive lightsabre in one hand whilst he kept an eye on the assorted demons as they milled around. All were still staring at that one point in the distance. He shrugged mentally and then beckoned for the others to follow, first Willow and then Amy.

"What are they looking at?" hissed Willow.

"Beats me," replied the Jedi. Then he paused. "Oh hell. They're looking in the same direction that I can feel Buffy and Faith. This is now officially not good." He tensed suddenly and then just as quickly relaxed as he heard quick steps running down the alleyway. Turning he saw an unflustered Oz approach.

"We have a lot of company," his former Padawan said, raising an eyebrow. "There must be a hundred assorted vampires and demons around the corner."

"Snap," said Xander. "We have something similar over here. They all looking off to one side?"

Oz nodded. "Towards the Slayers."

"Right," said Xander as he reached into his pocket for his cellphone, "I'm calling Giles to report a major freaky occurrence." He hit speed dial, raised the phone to his ear and then carefully peered around the corner at the still unmoving crowd. After a moment the steady rings from the number that he'd dialled gave way to a noise that sounded as if the phone was half dropped and then briefly juggled against some cloth, before a rather harassed voice said: "Hello? Xander?"

"Giles, we have a bit of a situation here in the Docks, off Halsey Avenue."

There was a pause and another odd noise that sounded as if the phone was being passed from one ear to another before Giles replied. "Let me guess, a large crowd of demons and vampires, all staring at a fixed point in space?"

"Got it in one."

"I think I can see the edge of it now. It seems to be growing, but I have no idea what could be attracting them."

"Neither do I, but I know what they're looking towards – our Slayer girls."

"Bugger."

"I'll see your bugger and raise you a bloody hell. I've got Wills, Amy and Oz here with me and they're all safe."

"Good. I've got Wesley here with me, so I presume that Angel is with Buffy and Faith. This is looking distinctly unpromising. I think that-"

However, what Giles thought was never revealed because suddenly the crowd was moving, first away from Xander and then suddenly back towards them as the blip in the Force that he could feel from Buffy and Faith suddenly approached at what could only be described as Slayer-speed. The thing was that they seemed to be above them and the two startled Jedi both looked up to see three dark figures leap over the small gap in the buildings far above them. One of them seemed to be carrying another person. Flashing overhead they kept heading south along the rooftops of the warehouses.

Followed by the crowd, which was now flowing straight down the street.

Quickly Xander turned back into the alleyway, and ignited his lightsabre. "Oz, you guard the other way! Wills, Amy, you stay between me and Oz and do your mojo when I say go!" he barked and turned to face the opening to the street ahead.

The noise of running and even shuffling feet swelled around them, along with the occasional clop of hooves as the demon horde approached them. Xander calmed himself and raised his lightsabre into the third advanced defensive position. He didn't have much room to swing in the alleyway and he quickly checked over his shoulder. He shouldn't have worried; Oz was in the same stance with his sword.

The noise swelled still further and then suddenly figures were darting across the mouth of the alleyway, first a few and then a torrent of fast-moving figures that passed down the road, all looking up at the roof tops. Some had horns, others had odd-looking eyes, one was eyeless and wore a motionless black cape, and that was just the ones that he could see. On and one they went and then suddenly the torrent ebbed and then dribbled off entirely, with just the slower – and more heavily armoured – puffing by. One looked a bit like a bipedal rhinoceros. Once the last was past, Xander looked around to exchange baffled glances with Oz and the others.

"Well that was weird," said Xander and then led them cautiously out to the road. The crowd was just visible in the distance, but was starting to slow as it reached a junction. Xander shut his lightsabre down and looked around to see Giles and Wesley, both clutching swords and panting rather badly.

"What the bloody hell was that?" cried the older Watcher.

"A lot of monsters," replied Xander tersely. "And they were following Buffy and Faith. Angel as well, along with some unconscious guy. They blew right past us, Giles and the freaky thing was they seemed to be following them with their eyes, like they knew exactly where they were."

He winced slightly. He could feel an odd combination of emotions from the two Slayers, like a combination of frustration and uncertainty. "Giles, even with my lightsabre and Oz's sword, plus everyone else, there are too many of them for us to stop. Even Jedi can be swamped by superior numbers." Images and memories from the Battle of Genosis were flashing through his head, including that terrible battle in the arena against the horde of 'droids.

"We need to find a place to hole out and work out what's going on with that crowd of things that go bump in the night. And we need to get the Slayers down from that roof, otherwise they're trapped."

"I agree," said Giles, staring down the road. "But that might mean that we trap ourselves."

"None of the options look good at the moment," said Oz. He paused. "There's the old factory building on the corner there. My dad used to work there before it closed. Isn't too run down and the windows are boarded and barred. The Dingoes checked it out a few weeks back for a gig, but the power was out."

"I can take care of that," said Amy. "That's an easy spell, creating light."

Giles looked around and then nodded sharply. "Right, Willow, Amy and Wesley you all get back there and open it up. Xander, Oz and I will work out some way of getting Buffy and Faith down – as well as telling them that we're here." He paused. Willow and Amy were already running for the building, but Wesley was still hovering. He looked undecided. "What's wrong Wesley?"

"Mr Giles, technically that building is private property and… I'll shut up now shall I?"

"Please do." Giles turned and looked down the street. "Now… shouting won't work and the nearer we get to that crowd the worse our chances. Do you think that you can contact them with the Force?"

Xander looked at Oz, who raised his eyebrows. "No, Giles. They'd need to be Force-sensitive to do that. But you can try and raise Faith on her cellphone."

This flummoxed the Watcher, who smiled weakly and scratched the back of his head. "Do you know that I keep forgetting that she had one?"

"Well, we need to have a word with Buffy as well about getting one. Her mom can help as then she'll know if she has to get in a bulk load of nachos."

"Good point," said the Watcher, fishing his cellphone out of his pocket and hitting speed dial.


"This is not looking good, B, not looking good at all," said Faith as she peered over the side of the roof at the crowd of nasties below. It was one ugly bunch down there, literally. "Yeuch, there's something trying to slime its way up the side of this place. Good thing all that gross stuff on the wall is counter-sliming it." She looked up and grinned, but Buffy could sense the tension in her fellow slayer. This was not looking good. At all. The three of them plus the Finch guy, who was still off with the fairies in dreamland, were stuck on top of the building, with a bunch of really nasty assorted things below them, all staring in their general direction.

She turned to look at Angel, who was still pale and who was still rubbing his temple. "You okay?" she asked softly.

"Still a bit off. Like something's trying to call me but all I'm hearing is static." He looked down at the unconscious Finch. "Has to be related to us meeting this guy. Has to be. Something happened back there and it has to be related to the monsters that turned up."

"Have to agree with the A-man, B," said Faith as she crossed over the roof and looked at the assembled horde on the other side of the building. "Whoa. I think they just broke the door down on one side. We're gonna have company real soon. We need a plan."

"I know, but wherever we go they go. It's like they know where we are all the time. We need to-" She paused and then raised her eyebrows as a cellphone went off. Faith looked startled for a second and then pulled at a pouch on her belt to reveal the ringing device.

"Hello?" she said as she answered it. Then: "Hey G-man! Yeah, I know, bad habit from JX. Um, we're on a warehouse roof in… oh. You're where? Shit, we must have passed you! Uh, it's a bit bad here, Giles, it's like being in Monsteropolis, if it existed and I think we're gonna have company soon. Yeah, she's here, so's Angel and the Finch guy. What? No, he passed out. Had a shock when he saw a demon with more ridges than the Rockies. Yeah, here she is." Faith handed over the phone.

"Giles, how come Faith has a cellphone and I don't?"

"Because she asked the Council for one and you didn't, Buffy."

"Oh. Well, if we get out of this okay, then I'll ask for one. In the meantime we have a bad case of the wall to wall demons here."

"We know, we saw. You passed over Xander and the others when you were making your rooftop escape, but you don't seem to have shaken them off."

"I know, and I'm finding their attention a bit freaky."

"Xander and Oz are sensing something odd from them, and from your location, so my theory is that there's something there with you that's attracting them. We need to get this sorted out quickly I think."

"B, they're getting in the other side!"

"Okay Giles we might not have much time here. Whatever it is might take us too long to work out and-"

"I know Buffy. Xander's found a warehouse north of here with thick walls and good doors that can be barricaded, so I think we have a fallback position. It's a warehouse on Johnson Street. Head back the way that you came and make it down to street level as fast as you can. Xander and Oz will be there. Xander says to just jump and to trust him. He and Oz will take care of everything." He paused. "For god's sake be careful Buffy."

"We will Giles." She turned the phone off and looked at the others. "Let's go guys."

Faith darted back from her post on the opposite wall and spread her arms in a gesture of bafflement. "Where too, B?"

"Back where we came up."

"We kicked out half the ladders so they couldn't follow! By the time we climb down they'll have caught up with us!"

"Xander and Oz are back there," she said, with what she hoped was the right amount of confidence. "They'll catch us."

Faith looked at her for a moment, before she licked her lips and replaced her dagger in the sheath at her side. "Let's do it then."


"Remember Yoda here: size matters not. This is going to be the most that you've ever moved with the Force, or rather the most you've ever influenced. Don't think about how difficult it is, just believe in the Force. And in yourself. Hold them, slow their fall and just concentrate on that," said Xander as they stood off to one side of the building.

"Yes, Obi-Wan," said Oz, looking in the same direction as he was, feeling with the force as the two Slayers, the unconscious man and the vampire with a soul sped towards them over the rooftops of the warehouses. "Is this another Dagobah moment?"

Xander paused. "Yes. But this isn't an X-Wing we're moving, it's four people. So it's lighter, but at the same time they're going to be moving at speed, so that makes it trickier. You need to open yourself up fully to the Force, feel the moment, judge when to grab them in the air. You take Angel and Finch, I'll take Buffy and Faith." He paused to quickly look at his fellow Jedi Knight. "The Force is with us Oz."

Snapping his gaze back to the building in front of him he snapped: "Giles, go. We're on it. You get back there with the others."

Giles paused and then nodded, looking quickly down the road at the approaching demon horde before taking to his heels towards the warehouse which was now lit by a pale glow inside as Amy and Willow did their mojo.

Xander exhaled slowly and then opened himself fully to the Force. Closer… closer… he could hear the faint thunder of feet along the roads to each side of the row of warehouses now, along with the odd feeling in the force that the demons let off.

And then three running figures, one carrying a fourth appeared at the top of the roof of the last warehouse and launched themselves into midair. Xander's hand shot up in a twisting gesture that he could feel Oz imitate as he reached for the two Slayers with the Force, feeling their trajectory, slowing them, pulling them, holding them. They were falling now, but he used the Force to slow them still further, using their momentum to work with the Force. He raised his hand slightly, using the Force more strongly now, using it to slow their fall, to slow them to the point where… Buffy, Angel and Faith's feet met the ground. They all stared at Xander and Oz for a stunned moment then they were off, running towards them. Xander let out a deep breath, grinned at Oz, whose chest was heaving slightly possibly more from relief than effort and then the two Jedi were also running, allowing the others to catch with them as they all sprinted towards the open doors of the warehouse, where Giles and a stunned Wesley were waiting.


"Xander, have I ever told you how glad I am sometimes that Ethan Rayne had that lightsabre prop that Halloween?" gasped Buffy as they ran through the doors and skidded to a halt.

"Not as glad as I am," replied Xander, looking around as the Watchers closed the doors and locked them. "That isn't going to hold guys, hang on…" He looked around and caught sight of a steel bar before using the Force to raise it in the air and make it fly across the room to wedge it between the door handles. That was start at least. "Oz, we need to get more stuff behind the doors." His words were backed up with a dull booming sound as the horde of demons slammed against the outside of the factory.

Buffy watched with some relief as the two Jedi worked to secure the doors, before something struck her. "Uh, guys, have you checked for other exits in here?"

"S'okay Buffy," said Willow, walking up quickly, "All the windows are barred and shuttered and the back door's okay."

There was a groan from one side and everyone paused to stare at the recovering figure of the Finch guy. "What happened?" he slurred.

"We met you, demons showed up and now we're kinda stuck trying to work out what happened," she said tightly. Finch looked panicky.

"It wasn't me, I swear, the Mayor doesn't know I'm here. I, I was going to meet you but I didn't tell him, I'm not that mad or anything. I was doing an errand for him here, but I figured that it was a good thing that it was in the same area that I was going to meet up with you."

Giles stared at Finch with an odd look on his face before straightening and moving over to glare at him. "What kind of errand? Did Wilkins give you anything today, anything at all?"

The Deputy Mayor gaped at him for a moment, his face still slick with nervous sweat. "Just… just a package to be delivered. He said that it was very important. I didn't open it because that's always a bad idea with anything to do with Wilkins – the guy before me had half his face ripped off by something in a box when he looked at it at the wrong time."

"Show me this package. Now!" Snapped the Watcher urgently, casting an eye over at the main entrance, where Oz was busy wedging another piece of machinery with the Force to block a window next to the doors.

Fumbling into his pockets Finch produced a package about the size of a man's hand, which he carefully handed over to Giles, who raised his eyebrows and then beckoned Wesley over. Then he carefully tore a corner of the package open and peered inside. After a moment he stiffened. "Bugger."

"Mr Giles?"

"Hang on a moment…" Giles told his fellow Watcher and then he opened the package up more fully and reached inside, to finally pull out a wooden box, the surface of which was covered in carvings of fanged skulls. Whatever it was, it made Giles go white, while Wesley jerked back from it as if it was a very angry snake, his eyes going wide.

Giles licked his lips slowly and then carefully bent down to place the box on the floor, before looking up at his fellow Watcher. "I think that we both know what this is."

"Indeed," croaked Wesley. "I thought that they'd all been found."

"Evidently not," came the dry reply. Then Giles looked up at Finch. "I think that Wilkins knew that you were about to betray him. This is, for want of a better phrase, a booby trap. It's a Karren Box."

"Which is what?" snapped Buffy, looking worriedly at the doors. The noise outside was getting louder and the way that the doors were now starting to bulge inwards was concerning her. Xander and Oz were busy moving more things to block the entrance, but she was starting to worry about how much time they had left.

Giles abruptly stood up and started to look around. "Willow can you look around for any water here? And Amy, I think I saw some dirt over there by the back entrance. Can you get some for me please? I'll have to provide the air and the blood for this, I think." He looked at Wesley, who was still staring in horror at the box. "What?"

"Mr Giles, this thing is incredibly evil and I don't think that elemental magic will-"

The older Watcher interrupted him with a gesture. "Wesley, Room 42 at the British Museum has come across two of these things and has the procedures in place to deal with them."

"But the Rite of Yuuu is long and complicated and requires-"

"The Rite of Yuuu is a bloody anachronism, man. There are faster ways to take care of this thing." He paused to look at the doors, which took that moment to groan horribly. "Much faster," he said, pulling out a knife with a wickedly sharp looking blade before kneeling down over the box and starting to mumble what sounded like Latin in a low undertone. After about half a minute the box made a clicking sound and then opened to reveal a large green gem, which glowed with a sickly light.

"Ah," said Giles with grim satisfaction. "Just as I thought. A Karren Gem." He looked up at the others. "They were made in the 12th Century by a, a magician named Karren who was, well, gifted, evil, horribly inventive and rather paranoid."

"Sounds like most bad guys over the years," said Xander, as he and Oz backed away from the now bulging doors with their new bracing. "Giles, whatever this Rite is, do it fast because we are running out of options just as fast." He ignited his lightsabre, which sprang into life with its distinctive hiss.

"Yes, I am trying Xander. He hated the possibility that some of his apprentices might turn out to be a tad better than him, so he tended to give his more gifted pupils a present in the form of a gem."

"I'm sensing that there's a catch coming up here," said Buffy as she and Faith stepped to join Xander and Oz to form a line between the others and the doors, which were continuing to creak.

Willow reappeared holding a mildewed cup in her hands, while Amy came running back from close to the creaking door with a clump of dirt and what looked like ash. Giles looked into the cup, which contained a lot of green scum and presumably some water and nodded sharply. "Excellent. What? Oh yes, Buffy, you might say that they were booby-trapped. Each gem was magicked so that when a certain time or distance had past between the former apprentice and Karren, it activated and became, well, incredibly attractive to demons and vampires. Any kind of demon and vampire in fact, who wanted to get close to it. And in the process rip apart anyone who stood between them and it."

"That explains my headache," breathed Angel, his eyes going wide with shock as he stepped away from it. "But why hasn't it got me?"

"I suspect that your soul is acting as a filter, so that what should be a compulsion is instead a vague longing." Giles paused and then swiftly ran the blade of the knife over his palm, causing a swift hiss of pain. The blade came away bloody and then the Watcher started to mutter more Latin, his eyes flickering to the increasing strain on the doors.

"Giles, they're coming through real soon!" shouted Xander and Buffy and Faith darted forwards with Angel to form a line in front of the older Watcher. Wesley paled and stepped forwards to join them. "I concur with Jedi Harris, Mr Giles," he breathed.

Giles nodded abruptly, before muttering more Latin. Then: "Willow, Amy, I want you to drop what you have onto the gem when I say now, and not before, do you understand? Good."

The Watcher thrust his unbloodied hand over the gem and muttered another long phrase in Latin, which ended in a great cry of "Nullio!" Then he reached down to blow gently over the gem, which pulsed slightly.

Almost in answer the hinges to the main doors groaned horribly and part of the metal bar locking them bent audibly, as the piled up machinery shook and fell away from the impact. The doors shuddered again and a hand could be seen for a second scrabbling against the lock before vanishing.

"Willow, dribble the water onto it now!" ordered Giles and the redheaded witch nervously bent forwards and let the water drip down onto the gem, which pulsed again.

"Amy, sprinkle the earth onto it," said the Watcher, who started to mutter more Latin as the blond witch did as she was told. The gem pulsed more weakly this time, as if something was dying inside it and the Watcher smiled grimly.

At that point all hell broke loose. There was a great crack as the crowd outside gave a collective heave and both the lock and the hinges failed catastrophically. The doors flew in and down and the crowd of demons and vampire flowed in behind them and over the barricade, eyes gleaming with the same odd green light as the gem, hands outstretched towards it, claws out, fangs prominent, a surging tide of monstrosity.

"Nullio!" roared Giles again and then let the blood from his bleeding palm spatter against the gem as he held his hand over the open box.

Something seemed to rumble and shake the entire building as the gem flared up with an unearthly scream for a split second, the sickly green light pulsing and then dying completely into a dull ember of light that swiftly faded. Something seemed to shoot outwards from the darkened stone, like a clean breath of air clearing a fetid room.

The reaction was impressive. The crowd went from a run to a complete halt in an eerie unison, the clatter of feet, hooves and other unmentionable things halting abruptly and leaving vague echoes from the walls. The nearest monster was literally a lightsabre's sweep away from Xander, who had paused cautiously.

There was a long pause and then one of the vampires blinked. "Where the hell am I and what the hell just happened?" he asked in disbelieving tones. Then he caught sight of the line of people in front of him and froze, his eyes flickering nervously between the two Slayers and the humming lightsabre. "This is sooo not good," he said quietly.

Behind the vampire there was a collective shaking of heads and a confused babble of voices was going up, a babble that quickly died away as the assorted monsters noticed the other people on the factory floor.

A red-faced thing with odd tendrils suddenly pushed its way to the front and snapped: "What happen? I at poker game with four Aces, now I here! What happen?" Then it caught sight of the green gem in the box on the floor next to Giles and its face turned even redder. "Karren Box!" It shouted, making the room echo. "Who brought Karren Box? Thing evil! Kill man who brought! Who brought!"

Giles cleared his throat. "It belonged to Mayor Wilkins."

The crowd went very quiet while the red-faced thing paled to a dull purple colour. After opening and closing its mouth a few times it finally said: "Oh. I go now. Maybe find poker game again. Bet more kittens."

"You do that," said Buffy cheerily, "Only without the kittens, whatever that means. Anybody else got any questions?"

"Yeah," said a voice at the back, "Why don't we rush them? We've got the numbers and…" The voice ground to a halt as the lightsabre came up with a menacing hum and both Buffy and Faith assumed fighting positions. Behind them there was a sudden flare of light as Amy thoughtfully hefted a fireball on the palm of her hand, while several pencils rose in the air around Willow.

"Any volunteers?" asked Oz quietly, assuming in the same stance as Xander.

"Yeah, come up here and say that," mumbled one of the vampires in the front row. Then it looked at its watch and did a terrible impression of a genial smile. "Oops, got to run." Then it was pushing backwards into the crowd, which was already starting to inch away towards the door in a number of nonchalant ways. After a few seconds mass panic set in and the assorted demons came very close to jamming the doorway with their bodies. Fortunately the crush didn't last long as the various monsters quickly scrabbled their way clear, with one even running through part of the wall and soon the Scoobies were on their own.

Giles let out a long breath and pulled out a handkerchief, which he used to mop his brow. "Well that was the proverbial close call. We were most fortunate there." He smiled at them all. "Well done, all of you. We'll get back to the library in a bit. But first, Mr Finch, we need to have a word with you about the Box of Gavrok."

Licking his lips nervously Finch nodded. "It's coming in tonight. On a ship called the Weatherwax. I think it's docking at Pier 10. I copied the Mayor's instructions." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a slim envelope. "I was supposed to pick it up, but I think that the Mayor is getting his pet vampire Tagget to pick it up instead. He's an ex-marine. Very tough. You'll have to be careful."

Muttering a curse Giles pulled his glasses off again and kicked at the cracked mug that Willow had used earlier, which sped across the floor and hit a pillar, where it smashed into a dozen pieces. Buffy exchanged worried glances with the others. This was very un-Giles of him. Then she noticed that the younger Watcher's face had fallen into a frown. "Damn," said Wesley.

"Um, Giles? Wes? What's wrong?"

Pausing to replace his glasses Giles left off cursing and looked at them. A combination of anger and weary resignation was in his eyes. "Buffy, a Karren Box is a an indiscriminate thing. It attracts vampires and demons of all kinds, it doesn't differentiate between them. And Angel here was only able to remain unaffected because of his soul. It can't otherwise be blocked, it can't be filtered, the only way to escape it is to destroy it, to turn it off or to be out of range, which is about half a mile in each direction.

"If Wilkins wanted to get rid of Mr Finch here by giving him the box, he would have made damn sure that none of his minions were anywhere nearby. Especially anyone he was sending to get the Box of Gavrok, without which he cannot ascend. We've been tricked. The Box must be coming in another way, nowhere near the docks." He sighed again. "Let's go back to the library. Mr Finch can run thorough what he knows before his ride comes."

"Ride?" stammered Finch, with a combination of hope and fear in his eyes.

"Yes. I put in a few calls today to an old friend. Let's just say that you're going to be the Catholic Church's latest recruit. Wilkins won't be able to lay a finger on you."

As they headed for the broken doors Xander cleared his throat. "Giles is this thing safe now by the way?"

Startled, Giles turned to look at the two Jedi, who were both staring down at the green gem thoughtfully. "Safe? Oh, yes, it's, it's perfectly harmless now that the spell has been removed. Karren used an ordinary emerald." He paused to watch Xander bend down and pick it up.

The Jedi looked hard at it and them bounced it on his palm, weighing it, before tossing it over to Oz. Both Jedi broke out into identical grins. "Jackpot."

"I'm sorry?"

"I think I'm going to be busy," said Oz laconically as he walked over to Willow, who frowned and then made an "Ooh!" noise of wondering glee. "Making a lightsabre, Giles."


Tagget stood outside the office, his hands clasped in front of him. He was trying not to hear the noises from inside the room, where the Mayor was busy with the Box of Gavrok. Tagget had been around the block a few times since he had been turned in the 1970's after a drunken night out had left him in a vampire nest, but even then all the things that he'd seen had been nothing like the weird shit that Sunnydale could produce. This place could be freaky.

He winced as a faint skittering noise broke out behind the door again, followed by a clatter that sounded as if some kind of armoured tentacles were being dragged over a wall and away from the door. This was followed by a horrible crunching noise and a stifled chittering noise. He smoothed his face again. His instructions were very clear – he was not to open the door under any circumstances. No matter what he heard.

After a moment the handle turned and he stepped away from the door, stifling a faint sense of dread. Wilkins looked out and grinned at him. He had something black stuck in his teeth and his eyes were slightly dilated. "Ah, Mr Tagget." The Mayor paused to look back into the room. "Can you bring me some salt and pepper? These things need some seasoning."

The door closed again and Tagget walked off down the corridor. Yes, this place was weird.