Author's notes: I've cleaned up some formatting errors on this one and added a few lines here and there that should make it flow a little better.  

Previously on Buffy:

Caleb has come to Sunnydale. So has Faith. Spike has his soul and this is explained to Faith. Shannon the SiT tells about Caleb from the hospital. Plans are made to get Dawn and Xander out of town but this is postponed due to Xander leaving suddenly.

*_____*_____*_____*

Xander drove as quickly as he could and not get pulled over. Traffic was heavy heading towards LA. Looking across the roadway he realized that all the traffic was heading out of Sunnydale. No one was headed in towards his hometown.   He needed to get to Los Angeles as fast as possible in order to set up everything he needed before nightfall. The schedule was tight and he couldn't afford to be gone for long. The people he needed to see had to be seen in a specific order or the whole thing was going to be a waste of time and effort.

The music blared from the speakers as he headed down the road thinking back on what he had done in order to get to this point and what he still had to do.

Leaving Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Fai… His mind sheared away from even thinking her name. Leaving them even for just these few hours hurt him. Knowing, or rather not knowing, what could happen while he was gone and not there to help them, scared him. 

Clem had been a veritable goldmine of information about the demon scene and where to go in order to find certain 'people' with the items and skills he needed. Besides, it wasn't like Xander was going to ask Spike for help.  Luckily he'd managed to talk to the Demon before he'd skipped town. Actually, he'd helped him load up his VW with all of his belongings. Clem was bugging out... Xander couldn't blame him really. He still thought that the whole baby kitten poker thing was wrong though...

He pulled into the alleyway near the railroad section of town and slowed down looking for the small building he'd been told he'd find.

The hardware and weapon items he had needed proved to be the easiest to gather, just like he thought they would be. Drawing on the memories of being a soldier Xander had quickly filled his 'to buy' list with some impressive toys. The auto-shotguns and the 45's were the least lethal of weapons he gathered. *Damn, it's a good thing that Giles and Willow managed to get into the Council of Dipshits funds.* he mused quietly. *Otherwise this would have gotten way to rich for me. Nice of them to pay for all this gear…* He fingered the Balaclavas and then reread the tag under the shelf in disbelief. *Bite proof?! Damn, 'coulda used these a while back.* He grinned mirthlessly and then threw the whole stack into the cart. *Better late than never though.*

The ammo section was a revelation in and of itself. It did make him wonder though about the kind of place that regularly stocked blessed ammo and Holy Water Aerosol Grenades.

The rear of the car was suspiciously low as he pulled out of the fixer's place. Unfortunately the other side of the equation wasn't working out quite as well.

Xander had tried three places that Clem thought could help him and they had all been a bust. He was starting to get discouraged. Would he ever find someone that could, and more importantly would, help him? His time was getting short. It was nearing nightfall, and he was afraid that he'd end up having to go to the person that he'd hoped to go to once he had everything ready: Angel.

*_____*_____*______*

To say that Angel was surprised was an understatement.

He'd already received a phone call from Willow asking him to keep an eye out for Xander, but he hadn't expected Xander to simply stroll in the front door and ask for a favor.

"You're insane!" Angel had gone from moody-pouty to incredulous in 2.4 seconds. Xander timed it. "Tell him he's insane Wesley."

"Well, it is a bit unorthodox, true, but it does have some merit." Xander smiled at Wesley. Probably the first time he ever had, come to think of it.

"What?!" Angel exclaimed looking at Wesley as if he'd grown another head. "Gunn, Fred, back me up here. Somebody. Lorne, come on, say something."

Gunn and Fred went from looking at Xander like he was a lunatic to looking at Wesley the same way.

"Okay, I spent some years in a Hell Dimension and I have to say that that's the weirdest idea I think I've heard." Fred looked over at Wesley if to say something more, but instead she just shrugged her shoulders.

"Look Angel," Xander started again. Xander was being on his best behavior here. He hadn't even called Angel 'Deadboy' once, though it was fairly obvious to all present that he really wanted to. "All I need is one Witch to do one spell and a little help from you. We need the firepower... it's getting really ugly there. Ugliest. Mega-type." Xander sighed to himself and then threw away the last shreds of dignity he had. "I need your help. Please."

"Do you have any idea at all what Buffy would do to me if...No. Not going to happen." Angel couldn't believe it. Xander, of all people, being polite and standing there asking him to… No. it wasn't going to happen.  He paused, maybe this was a sign that the world was ending.

"Do you have any idea that Buffy and the whole world might not be here next week?" Xander retorted ruthlessly. "Look, we've got a bunch of SiTs up there..." At their blank looks he explained. "Slayers in Training, Potentials. Buffy, Dawn Giles and Willow are sitting in the middle of one giant pwderkeg and the First has already lit the match.."

"What about Faith?" Wesley asked quietly. "Willow came down and brought her back up in order to help out."

"Oh. Yea. Faith also. She's there." Xander's expression went all not-expressiony and Angel wondered just what Xander was thinking. He was pretty sure it had to do with the Slayer known as Faith.

"This is about her isn't it?" Angel snarled at himself for even asking that question.

"Her? Xander asked nervously. "No, it's not about Buffy."

"Not Buffy. Faith. This is about her isn't it?"

"No Angel, this not all about Faith." Xander sighed heavily. "Look, we need the firepower, A lot of people are going to die if we don't win this soon. Possibly the whole world if we screw this up. I need your help to do it. It's not about Faith," Xander continued. "It's about getting the job done." Xander quietly added, "Besides it's not like she'd want me again anyways." A small portion of Xander rose up at that side comment in a decent bit of pissed.

Angel shook his head. He never had liked Xander a whole lot, but he did have to admire the sheer amount of balls the man had. More than once, Xander had shown a cavalier disregard for his own safety in order to help. 'Course he still has a blind spot about his women that was the size of the Pacific Ocean...

"Do you know how light Faith travels?" Angel asked quietly.

"She caries nothing more than she has to." Xander replied, "So? What does that have to do with any of this?" he inquired, wondering at the change of topic.

"Maybe nothing. Maybe everything." Angel could see the frustration and feelings on Xander's face, even though the boy…. No, even though the man was trying his damndest not to let them show.

"She has every one of the letters you wrote her while she was in jail."

Xander could only stare at Angel in surprise. Wesley nodding tersely in support of the comment only served to bring it home to Xander. "What? Why? What?"

"Three very good questions." Wesley said in his clipped British voice. "Obviously they mean something to her."

Xander shook his head in frustration. This wasn't getting him anywhere and he needed to keep it on track. He couldn't let them get him into a discussion about Faith. He was afraid if he did that, that his whole scheme would fall down around him like a house of cards.

"Look, it doesn't matter. I can't let it matter. Are you going to help me or not?"

One look at Angel's face told him his answer.

*__________*__________*

He walked along thru the slightly chilly night, his head down. Wasted. His time was wasted and he wasn't any nearer to his goal. *No Witch, no hope, no chance in He...*

"Ello Kitten." Came the seductive voice from just up ahead. "The Stars told Miss Edith and I to come meet you here, they did. Said that Not-Daddy wouldn't help my little kitten. I've been waiting for my kitten, I has. Don't fret kitten, Mummy's here."

Xander walked up slowly and just looked at her for a moment. A vampire who also happened to be a witch…  Just what the Xan-man ordered.  "Hello Dru." He smiled at her as she tentatively reached up and caressed his face with the hand that wasn't holding her doll.  "About that conversation you and I had once upon a time..."