Chapter 5

Xander woke up slowly, enjoying the large, comfortable bed he waslaying in. After a few moments of enjoying the bed, he sat up, eyes glancing around. Xander found his clothing, the black ops camo,lying on the dresser by the door. He sat up, yawning and stretching.
He hadn't slept that well, but considering the last year, he wasn'tall that surprised.

He dressed quickly, and left the room. He walked down the hall tothe front door; Kitty looked up at Xander, noticing her placement between Xander and the door. She smiled weakly at him, stillslightly uneasy around him. 'It may have had something to do with trying to kill me,' Kitty mused in her head.

"Good morning, did you want to have breakfast with the guys?" she asked. Xander was about to say no, when his stomach growled at him
in a threatening manner. Xander looked up at Kitty with a sheepish grin crossing his face. "I'll take that as a yes then," she said,
Xander shrugged, a lop-sided grin on his face.

Xander sat at the large table, watching the surreal scene taking place around him. The assorted mutants, ranged around the dinner, conversed and ate pancakes like some of their numbers hadn't almost been killed yesterday. Even odder, to Xander, was the fact that they
included him in the conversation, seemingly forgetting that only the day before he had attempted to kill them.

Kitty glanced over and smiled in his direction. Xander returned the smile, however weakly. He ate the pancakes in front of him. Xander was startled when he heard the distinctive shhknt of Wolverines claws extending. His head whipped in Logan's direction, and he saw a
single claw pierce an orange that was on a platter in the middle of the table. A dark hand reached out and slapped the extended hand.

"Logan," Orroro Monroe said, warning in her voice.

"Sorry, Ro," Logan said. Xander's eyebrow rose, as the others at the table shared a laugh. 'I wonder if this is how Faith felt, the
first time she came to Sunnydale,' Xander thought suddenly, surprising himself.

"So, Alexander, what are you doing later, man?" Bobby "Iceman" Drake asked.

"It's Xander," Xander corrected, disliking his full name now more then ever, "and I am leaving, I have some things I have to do."

"Sorry," Bobby said, "Cause me and Kitty were gonna go to the park later, Marie was posed to come with us, but she's outta town," he
finished.

"I noticed she wasn't around, Cyclops or Gambit either. Where are they?" Xander said. While he had never met Gambit, he had seen the picture and read the file that Ross had on him.

"They, uh, went on a trip," Bobby said lamely.

"They went to Sunnydale, Xander." Professor Xavier said as he rolled into the dinning room.

"What," Xander asked, alarmed.

"Scott went to visit his cousin, Buffy," Charles said, as gently as possible.

"Oh… god…" Xander choked, he pushed himself away from the table, and the chair fell behind him. "She knows, doesn't she?" Even though Charles could not read his mind, everyone in the room knew what Xander meant by that. Xavier could only nod, his eyes filled with empathy.

"Calm down kid, Scott will temper it for you," Logan said.

"You don't understand, Logan, you don't know Buffy. There is no going back now, she's not the kind to forgive and forget, well, unless you're a vampire who happens to bang her." Xander said, anger filling his voice.

"I do not usually offer this to people who are not mutants, Xander, but you will always have a place here, among my X-men." Xavier told
Xander with a smile.

"Thank you, Professor," Xander said, the respect and gratitude in his voice surprising him.

"You are welcome, Xander," Xavier said.

"I have to get to Texas," Xander said. Charles nodded, having anticipated this turn in the conversation.

"I'll take em Prof." Logan said.

"I'd rather go alone," Xander interrupted.

"Will you allow us to buy you a ticket?" Charles asked. Xander nodded reluctantly, he had little choice.

Ross walked out of the conference room, rubbing his temples. The chiefs were not happy with what he had to tell them, especially
since they had not heard back from the black ops teams they had sent with Alexander. He left the building and strode across the street to
the Hulk-Buster' HQ. He was halfway to the door when the remains of a Blackhawk chopper dropped to the ground in front of him. His eyes shot up just in time to catch the body that was falling quickly towards him. Only battle hardened reflexes allowed him to avoid
being crushed.

He looked down at the lifeless body lying at his feet. On the back of the body, a piece of paper flapped idly in the breeze. Written on
the paper in black magic marker was a short message.

"Leave Alexander alone." It was signed "A friend". Ross felt anger rising from his gut, his face turned beet red. Then he rationalized, "At least we know what happened to the teams."

Ross stormed into the base. His eyes glowed with anger; he glared at the two majors sitting at his desk, awaiting a debriefing.

"I want contingency plan Alpha 4-Omega activated, and I want it done thirty minutes ago, those fucking freaks have gone too far this
time!" Ross ranted. The two majors only gulped.

Three hours later, New York.

Xander exited the sporty blue car that Logan had assured him belonged to Cyclops, just after the Backstreet Boy song came on the
CD player. Xander had merely raised an eyebrow in his direction. The next flight for Texas didn't leave until eight, which was four hours
away.

"I can't believe you listen to The Backstreet Boys," Xander smirked.

"Listen, boy," Logan stressed the word, "I don't listen to that crap, and if you don't shut up about it, I'm gonna have to kick your
ass."

"Whoa, calm down man. Besides, you don't want none of this, I already handed you your ass once, grandpa" Xander grinned. Logan's
cigar actually dropped from his lips in shock.

"Wait one second, pup. You ever handed me anything, maybe that guy you used to be was tough, but you ain't shit." Logan said.

"You wantin' to test that, Wolfy?" Xander smirked.

"Wolfy? What the hell was that? Wolfy. Man, Bobby has better insults then you do." Logan said.

"Oh hell no, you didn't" Xander said, a mock growl erupting from his lips. Wolverine merely smirked and copied the motion Alexander had
given him the first time they fought.

An instant later the two warriors clashed. As before, the fury of their battle was like something few had ever seen. With a flurry of
blows, Xander struck three times for every one of Logan's. However, Logan's blows were always well placed; hitting spots where Xander's Adamantium laced bones would not protect him.

Xander was the first to draw actual blood when, mid-jab, his right forearm blade extended, drawing a shallow line across the bridge of
Logan's nose. Less than a second later, all six of Logan's claws extended. Now the fight was visible from a larger distance as eight
sharp, metal objects glittered in the sun. From an outsider's perspective, the battle seemed fairly even. But, to Logan and
Xander, it was almost one sided. Without the ruthless determination that Alexander had, Xander was hardly able to keep up with Logan's
skill, precision, and experience.

They broke apart when Wolverine hit Xander with a solid punch, connecting with Xander's jaw, swinging him around. Logan flowed
smoothly through the punch and connected with a spinning kick to the back of Xander's now turned head. The force knocked Xander from his feet and cause him to slide across the ground, face first, leaving a furrow in the ground.

Xander stood slowly, spitting bits of grass and dirt from his teeth.He wiped the remaining dirt and a trickle of blood from his lips
with the back of his hand. His eyes narrowed slightly; with a single thought black armor enveloped his body. The metallic skin shinned
duly in the sun, and a grin crept across Xander's lips. Just as he was about to attack Wolverine once more, a giant energy blast hit
the ground in front of his feet, launching him into the air. He landed with a grunt and rolled onto his back.

In the sky above the mansion hovered at least two dozen Sentinels. Wolverine looked up, and allowed himself to gulp. Most of the other
members of the X-Men who were in the mansion came out to face the threat. Narrowing his eyes, Xander called upon his Halloween
memories from some tactics, a plan formed.

"Alright, this ain't pretty. Kitty and Nightcrawler, I want you two to team up. Kurt, I want you to teleport Kitty over those fuckers'
heads and drop her. Kitty, you do your thing, as soon as you are clear of them, Phase back and Kurt will catch you, Got it? Bobby….
Slow em down as best you can" Xander said, Bobby smirked at Xander.

"Slow em down?" Bobby asked, his hand shot forward, ice shards began to form around the area his hand had moved, carrying on in the
same direct as if he had thrown them. The assorted shards, some inches long, some feet long, peppered into the nearest Sentinel's head, causing it to drop from the sky.

"Or you could do that," Xander said. He looked at Logan, a smile spreading across his lips. "I guess we get to do the hard work, eh?"

"You got that right, Kid," Logan said, surprised by the boys apparent leadership abilities. He leapt at the nearest Sentinel who was firing an energy beam at Storm. The weather witch herself was blasting Sentinel after Sentinel with lighting.

Sometime later, Xander found himself climbing, hand over hand, up the leg of a Sentinel. His blade sheared into the left arm, causing sparks to fly up into his face. Disoriented for a moment, he was almost dislodged when the arm was torn off by the now unstable Sentinel. He scrambled up, using his forearm blades to hold himself on the Sentinel; he crawled onto its head.

He rained blows down on the steel skull of his opponent. Between his strength and the Adamantium protection of his skin, the steel gave away, a single bladed hand shot down, into the CPU of his opponent.The Sentinel flopped to the ground, Xander rode it down, leaping off just before impact, he rolled to his feet, taking in the battle before him.

Kitty phased, the energy beam shot at her passed through her harmlessly, connecting with the chest of the Sentinel behind her. As
it fell, its head rolled off, just missing Nightcrawler who teleported to Kitty's just now solidifying body. He caught her out of the air and teleported her to the ground.

Breathing hard and exhausted, Bobby Drake watched his last opponent fall to the ground, a human sized ice shard piercing its chest. He glanced around to see how the others had faired, thus far. It appeared as though the fight was coming to a close. Wolverine's clothes were in tatters, though how much of that was from the Sentinels and how much was from Xander, he was unsure. Storm had a nasty gash over her left eye, and Nightcrawler was clutching his tail, his forehead creased with pain.

"Whoa, someone put a bug in their bonnet," Bobby said, looking at the scrap metal littering the mansions courtyard. "You think we can call Magneto so he can do a dust buster?" Bobby asked.

"Can it, Drake," Logan said, noticing the look on Xander's face.

"This is my fault. They sent these things after me. One of you could be hurt. I have to leave, now." Xander said.

"Whoa, calm down kid. These damn tin cans have been coming after us for years, we all got problems. But we stick together, its kind of a
thing, you know?" Logan said.

"Yea I'll bet you and Scott are real close, but I gotta go. Bye bye bye" Xander said, his patented grin coming to his lips.

"Screw you kid," Logan managed, after his jaw worked for thirty seconds with nothing coming out.

"I just got off the phone with the Professor," Scott said to Remy and Rogue. "It seems that Magneto was able to remove the microchips in Xander's brain that were controlling him. He seems pretty sure that Xander intends to find the people who did it to him. Oh, and half a dozen Sentinels attacked the mansion." Scott said.

"What? Is everyone okay?" Rogue said alarmed.

"Everyone is fine; apparently Xander was pretty handy, with some tactical leadership abilities to boot." Scott said, "This came directly from Logan."

"Wow," Rogue said.

"You'd best watch out, Scottie, or you gonna lose you're job, Mon Ami" Gambit said.

"Shut up Remy" Scott said.

"Dis is the thanks I get?" Remy said. "After treatin' you're family so nice too." Scott glared at him.

"Oh boy," Rogue said, wishing she were anywhere but where she was.

"What should I tell Buffy?" Scott asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"The truth," Buffy's voice.

"Uh, hi Buffy…" Scott muttered. He looked at her for a moment. "The truth? Alright, here's what I have gathered. Right after Xander's death' some top secret government agency scooped Xander up. They resuscitated him and then artificially enhanced him. After that they sent him after us. Rogue here got your name and Sunnydale from him during the battle and we came here looking for answers. While we were here, not only did Xander battle The Hulk, but he also went back to the school and attacked them again. A… old friend of Professor Xavier's was able to, hopefully, permanently disable the microchips the government was using to control Xander." Scott said at length.

"Oh," Buffy managed.

"Way to drop the bomb gently, Red Eye" Gambit said.

"Quiet, Remy," Rogue said.

"So Xander is going to be okay?" Buffy asked after a moment.

"Well, physically, yes. But I am afraid that he may be mentally
debilitated," Scott said.

"But he is alive, anything else, we can work through, right?" Buffy asked.

"I hope so," Scott said.

Xander walked into the airport. He walked down the hall, found his flight number and started towards the terminal. He got in line to wait for the metal detector. Waiting patiently, he watched as the annoying man before him refused to take his coins out of his pocket. 'What an asshole,' Xander thought.

Finally, five minutes later, they pushed the man through and towards his flight; a very unhappy airport security motioned him through the metal detector. Xander stepped through and heard the buzz. He walked back through and emptied his pockets. He walked through again and heard the buzz once more. Realization crashed down on Xander. 'Aw fuck,' he thought.

"Please lift your arms," The security guard said with an exasperated sigh. Xander shared his sigh, spread his arms and closed his eyes in anticipation. The wand began to sing before it even came close. The guard raised an eyebrow as he waved it over his arm. "What is that?" The guard asked.

"Metal plate?" Xander asked in return. Rolling his eyes the security guard continued. Everywhere the wand passed on Xander's body it beeped.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" he asked.

"Would you believe metal plate?" Xander asked.

"Is this some kind of fucking joke?" The security guard asked. Xander rolled his eyes.

One hour and thirty minutes later.

"Great, now what the hell am I supposed to do!" Xander asked in frustration, standing outside the airport where the guards had
planted him.