Original of the Species 2B: The Mayor and the Saiyan: Wilkins Chapter Ten, a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer + Dragon Ball Z Crossover fanfic

Chapter Ten

'Alex descends into hell for a bottle of milk/Korova 2'

AN: So I didn't win the COA for best anime. Ah well, there's always 2008. It probably wasn't smart to have two stories running as it split the vote. At least, that's what I keep telling myself and I stick with it. Next year, just go with this one. ;) It should be finished by then. Honest!

Not a case of another chapter brutally cut in two, this particular story was always intended to be a two parter. It's probably long enough to be a three parter. Unlike chapter 9, which took forever to write, this one went fairly quickly as I now had an idea of where I was going. I keep this excel file where I do my outlines in, doing a short synopsis for every scene and it never ceases to amaze me how different it can turn out once I finish a scene. It's this what keeps me going, wanting to know how the story unfolds myself.

green falcon: Thanks for noticing, dude! Hope you enjoy the rest of the story.

To say that Faith was getting pissed was an understatement. For three days now she had been kept in the basement of Angel's place, chained up to the wall with chains enhanced by whatever Mojo Red had worked upon them. Constantly being questioned by Prince Margaret and his lap dog Jeeves. And if they weren't working her, B. would come by trying to reason with her, spouting goody two shoes bullshit. It was annoying when Faith had still been free, it was even more annoying now. So, after a while she just stopped listening. Or talking back.

The only one whom she still talked to was Oz. God bless Little Brother for still being on her side. They had noticed it and therefore instructed him to question her. But Oz refused to do so. He quickly asked what he had to ask, expecting no answers and then went on to talk business as usual. His loyalty meant a great deal to Faith. Even though what he had to say disheartened her. Her only hope had been the Saiyan, Big B. He was the only one who could talk some sense into the others, especially B. herself.

But he refused to come.

And that hurt. Especially since Faith knew Big B. would cross through Hell itself if B. had been in her place. It told her of her place in this little outfit. Oh, she had no doubt Big B. would defend her, if he had been here. But just not when he wasn't. Which meant the only friend she still had was Oz. The only other one who could have swayed the group, Xander, was gone. Whereabouts unknown. And even Oz was trapped in his dual loyalty towards her and his love for Red. Who hated her with a passion that only seemed to grow with every new magical trick she learned. Like she was going to steal Oz from her.

Okay, granted, the thought had crossed her mind a few times. Little Brother was a nice guy, but deep down Faith knew she quickly tired of nice guys, just as much as bad boys. And she valued her friendship with Oz too much to endanger that.

A key being twisted in a lock was the signal that ended Faith's musings. Someone was coming.

She turned her head to the right, towards where the door was that gave access to Angel's basement. It swung open and Angel stepped in carrying a tray of food. So far Angel had been a good host, if you can call being kept prisoner in one's basement as being part of one's hospitality. But he had fed her regularly and saw to her bathroom needs. Even if it just was placing a bucket underneath her. But at least he had done so without trying to make her talk or give her a lecture.

"How are you, Faith?" Angel asked courteously as he put the tray of food on a small table.

"I've been better," Faith shrugged, insofar as a person can shrug with her arms held up in the air through chains.

"I brought you some dinner," Angel said as he took a glass with water and a straw and held it up so she could sip from it.

"Thanks," Faith said after she had taken a big sip.

"You're welcome," Angel said and put down the glass to pick up a bowl of food and a spoon. Then he began to feed her one spoonful after the other until she had finished the bowl and Angel put it down again.

"You want desert?" Angel asked pointing to a pudding.

"You're the best jailer, Angel," Faith grinned, "I think you've missed your calling."

"I take that as a yes," Angel said and picked up the bowl of pudding so he could spoon feed her.

"Can I have some more water?" Faith asked after Angel was finished.

"Sure," Angel replied and reached for the water glass.

"Aaah," Faith said satisfied after she had emptied the glass, "thanks Angel, see you again when I have to a take a piss."

Angel picked up the tray and made for the exit. He was about to open the door when he stopped and turned around.

"Faith," he asked curiously, "why did you do it?"

"Aw crap, Angel," Faith sighed, "why did you have to ruin our relationship? It was so perfect. You feed and clean me, you don't ask any questions, we get along famously. Now you throw that all away."

Suddenly Faith began to smirk.

"Or maybe that was all part of your master plan? Pretend to be nice, earning my trust?"

Angel reached for a chair and sat down with the back of the chair towards Faith.

"We have little time Faith," he said, "Giles called. Wesley wants to charge you with treason and send you to England."

"Oh, lucky me," Faith sighed as she rolled her eyes.

"I know what's goin' on with you," Angel said as he leaned his arms on the back of the chair.

"Join the club," Faith shrugged as she looked away bored, "Everybody seems to have a theory."

"I know," Angel nodded, "Wesley thinks you've gone dark side on us. Betrayed us to the mystery player for whom the deputy mayor used to work."

"Last time I checked a deputy mayor works for the mayor. Maybe you should check him out?" Faith said offhand.

Angel reached out and turned her face back towards his.

"I know what it's like, Faith," he said softly, "I too have gone down the dark side. Did things that caused people to die. See their futures end, snuffed out through my actions. After a while it became addictive, the power, the exhilaration, no drug can match that."

"You think this is some power trip to me? Sounds like maybe you need some

help. A professional maybe," Faith bit back, "I've said it before and I'm saying it now. All I ever wanted to do was to catch Trick. I did not go dark side on anybody, nor did I betray the group, as Buffy harps on about. I made a bad call. That's it!"

"Why do you want to catch Trick so badly?" Angel suddenly asked, stopping short Faith's little tirade. Instead she sighed and rolled her eyes again, like she was about to tell the same story for the umpteenth time.

"He's the one that got my Watcher killed," she said tiredly, "cause while Kakistos killed her, he's the one that lured her to his boss in the first place. Has nobody in this stupid town heard of revenge?"

"What was she like?" Angel asked, sounding genuinely interested. And surprising Faith as well. In all the time she had been interrogated, nobody had ever asked her that question. As she pondered Angel's question she couldn't help but feel things again she rather wouldn't.

"Lindsay was like a mother to me," she said, her voice sounding a bit off as she fought down the tears. But she wouldn't cry! Never cry!

"She was more then a mother to me, she was also like a father to me," Faith continued, "She rescued me from the streets when my own parents had abandoned me. She did it because she realized I was a Slayer of course, but there was more to it. We were like Buffy and Giles, only closer cause Lindsay didn't come with a cricket bat stuffed up her ass. She accepted me as I was, never tried to change me. She was the brain, I was the hand. I trusted her completely. She told me what to do, I did it and she was never wrong."

"So what happened, Faith?" Angel asked softly and Faith looked downwards, averting her eyes.

"Lindsay knew Kakistos ruled the Boston underworld but was reluctant to take action against him. Not until I had more experience. That was her game plan all along. Take out the small demons and vamps, prepare me until I was ready to face Kakistos. I knew she wanted to do something and I was eager to do something as well. You can become so cocky once you become a Slayer."

"So, for the first time I disobeyed Lindsay and attacked one of Kakistos' lieutenants. The asshole thought he was invincible and could do as he pleases as we hadn't moved against Kakistos yet. I quickly cured him of that. I thought after that we were committed. That Lindsay and I would take out his lieutenants one at the time before taking on the big goat himself. I was wrong."

"Within 24 hours Trick sent me a message, supposedly coming from Lindsay that I had to go to the other side of Boston. As I did, he ransacked my place and sent Lindsay a different message. That Kakistos had gotten me and that if she wanted to get me back she'd show up in person. Lindsay knew it was a trap but she went in there anyway. When I returned from the other side of Boston Lindsay was already gone and Trick had left his final message."

"I tried to rescue her but Kakistos just proved too strong. It was like you could slam a two by four into his chest and nothing would happen. Lindsay was right in thinking I needed more experience before taking him on. He overwhelmed me. He overpowered me and made me watch as he told Trick to torture Lindsay to death before my eyes. And after she died he tried to rape me. But in trying to rape me he gave me the chance to escape. I knocked out his eye and that's how I got here. And now it's almost a lifetime later but Trick's still here. And I want him. I want him dead for what he did to Lindsay. I want him dead because I know the whole plan came from him as well."

Angel said nothing. It was a terrible story. As Angelus he did similar things. It was so easy to snuff out a human life. The rush it gave you, even more so then the taste of blood, that was what hooked most vampires, gave them their thrill.

"I'm sorry," he said as he tried to reach out towards Faith, but she recoiled from his touch.

"I don't want your pity," she said angry, "I don't your pity, I don't need anyone's pity. I want Trick!"

"Vengeance can be a cold and stingy paymaster, Faith," Angel said as he withdrew his hand, "Rarely does she live up to her reputation, especially if you sacrifice everything else that was good in your life for it."

"Well, you can sleep easy then," Faith said offhand, "I didn't have much going for me here anyway."

"It saddens me to hear that, Faith," Angel sighed dejected, then he pointed towards the door, "Look, Wesley can come through that door any minute taking you away to England. He's convinced that whoever our mystery player is, you're in cahoots with him."

"Like he could hold me all the way," Faith said after letting out a loud snort, "I'm not exactly your average Slayer any more."

"You're still not indestructible yet, Faith," Angel countered, "Even Belmovekk could be taken down by something as simple as gas, remember?"

"They'd have to find me first," Faith grinned.

"Oh, they got ways," Angel said as he stood up, "and its not like you keep a low profile."

"I can so keep a low profile," Faith said aggrievedly, "Especially if you give me a head start."

Angel shook his head.

"You know I can't do that, Faith," he said folding his arms across his chest.

"Maybe you should," Faith said as she began to grin wickedly, "who knows what I will tell them in London? What do you think is going to happens to your little girlfriend if I tell them what's been going on here?"

"You wouldn't!" Angel gasped, stepping back in shock at what she had said.

"To stop the Tweed Brigade from picking apart my brain? Damn straight I would!" Faith said holding her chin up defiantly.

"That puts me in an awkward position," Angel said as he cupped his right elbow with his left hand and used his free hand to support his chin.

"Hello!" Faith said as she rattled her chains, "How do you think I feel?"

"Hmm," Angel nodded as he began to pace the room, "I can't let you spill the beans about Buffy."

"Then let me go," Faith said as she again rattled her chains. Angel turned around and looked at her while holding up a finger.

"Or…., maybe I should just kill you instead?"

"What, you and whose army, squirt?" Faith snorted, "I could kick your ass even still in these chains."

"I'm not completely useless," Angel said injured. Faith rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Listen up, Soul Boy, with Big B. and Xander gone only your precious Buffy and Short Stuff stand any chance against me. And he has to transform, remember?"

"You're forgetting Willow," Angel interjected. And he had a point. Willow had become the wild card. While she wouldn't last two seconds in a stand up fight there was no telling what kind of mojo she could unleash from a safe distance. Angel took her silence as the cue that she realized Willow might indeed be a force to be reckoned with.

"It would seem that we have reached a Mexican stand off here," he said as he reached for the chair to steady himself opposite Faith again.

"So it would seem," Faith agreed, "What do you propose?"

For a moment Angel said nothing.

"What if I let you go?" he suddenly said, "I'll let you go and together we'll try and find a way to clear your name. See if this Trick is out here."

"What? Now you suddenly believe me?" Faith gasped surprised but Angel shrugged.

"It's clear something's out here. Somebody ordered the deputy mayor killed. You think it's Trick, I call it X, they might be the same."

"You're not kidding, right?" Faith asked hopeful, "You're not yanking my chains here, Angel?"

As to illustrate her point Faith rattled her chains again.

"We'll go together," Angel said as he stepped past the chair and reached for her cuffs. He was about to unlock them when the door swung open and Wesley stepped in, followed by a three man team of strong men.

"Step away from her!" Wesley said softly but sternly.

Angel with his hands on her cuffs slowly turned his head towards Wesley.

"This..., um, isn't..., uh, what it seems like," he stammered.

"I think this is exactly what it seems like," Wesley said, going into smug mode again, "I knew I was right about you, Angel. You couldn't be trusted. That's why I came here early."

"I was only trying to win her confidence," Angel said pointing at Faith, "I wasn't really going to…."

"Angel, you dirty rat," Faith called out angry but Angel ignored her.

"Look," Angel said as he took an involuntary step away from Faith, "it doesn't have to be like this, Wesley. There are other things we can do to resolve the situation. We could…."

"Back off," Wesley said as he pulled a large crucifix from his coat and held it up to Angel. Who couldn't help but flinch at the large religious symbol being shoved into his face. To the delight of Faith

"Sucks to be you, you undead thing!" Faith yelled in glee.

And it sucked to be undead indeed at this very moment, Angel thought. What good is a ±1200 powerlevel if you still flinch at crosses being shoved into your face? He couldn't even help but think that maybe crosses and other religious paraphernalia should be part of his training altogether. So he could build up a tolerance for it or something like it. Of course he could knock the thing from Wesley's hand before the idiot even knew what was going on, but come on, to still flinch at the sight of a cross was, how to put it, embarrassing?

Still holding up the cross Wesley gestured towards his men who then advanced towards Faith.

"By the order of the Watcher's Council of Britain... I am exercising my authority and removing you to England, where you will accept the judgment of the disciplinary

committee."

"You've got to be kidding me," Faith exclaimed, her voice going up an octave.

"Oh, he's not kidding," Angel said.

Faith shook her head.

"Screw this!" she said before Wesley's henchmen could touch her. While her arms where still being held in chains, her hands could still reach her face. Bringing her hands to the sides of her head she touched it with her finger tips.

"TAIYOKEN!"

An excruciatingly blinding white flash went to the room.

"Aaah, bugger," one of Wesley's goon squad yelped, "what the hell was that?"

Even though he knew the move Angel was still caught with his pants down in the blast and suffered from massive retina overload. Unlike the others however he was the first to recover. When enough of his eyesight returned the first thing he noticed were Faith's cuffs, gently swaying empty.

Talk about awkward situations, Bulma Briefs couldn't help but think the moment she stepped into her parents living room. After pulling way too much hours in the lab again and then followed by a quick late dinner in the kitchen she entered the living room only to find her old boyfriend Yamcha sitting there, chatting cozily with her parents. And then gazing at her now very pregnant looking body with his mouth nearly hitting the floor. Strangely enough Yamcha's new look had Bulma's jaw also hitting the floor. For some strange reason he had begun to grow long hair again, but also used what was probably copious amounts of hair gel to style it upwards. Like he fancied himself a Saiyan or something. Which was why it was probably just as well that Vegeta wasn't around to see it. And to finish it off Yamcha had also begun to grow a beard.

"Holy shit Bulma," he gasped aghast, "you look like a beached whale!"

Forever blessed with lack of tact, Yamcha's outburst caused Bulma to look upwards and roll her eyes in exasperation.

"Thanks for reminding me why I dumped you in the first place, Blackbeard," Bulma sighed. Meanwhile Yamcha had left the sofa and came closer, lowering his head so he could look at her distended belly.

"So that's Vegeta's kid?" Yamcha said dejected, then he looked up at Bulma's face and grinned, "Can I touch?"

"No, you can't touch," Bulma said stepping backwards from Yamcha's already probing hand, "Why are you here, Yamcha? I thought you'd left for good?"

"I, uh, I still have some stuff of me lying around," Yamcha said as he straightened himself and absentmindedly scratched his beard, "I was, um, just in the neighborhood and I thought I should swing by and get them."

Bulma closed her eyes and let out a long dispirited sigh. Of all the times he could have picked he chose this one!

"Oh, alright then," she said and turned around, gesturing Yamcha to follow her, "I might just as well get this over with. Come with me, Pirate of the Caribbean."

"Thanks," Yamcha said as he went after her, stopping for a moment to wave goodbye to Bulma's parents, "Thanks Dr. Briefs. Mrs. Briefs, thanks for the cupcakes, they were delicious, as always."

"So nice of you to come by, Yamcha," Bulma's mother called out after him, "It was nice to see you again."

"Don't be a stranger, young man," Bulma's father called out.

"Meow," the ever present small cat on his shoulder said.

"I'm going to miss your parents," Yamcha said after they had left the living room, "They were always so nice to me. They always liked me."

"Sometimes I lay awake and wonder why," Bulma sighed, "Then again, they also like Vegeta. So maybe you shouldn't be thumping your chest so much. For all you know Freeza himself could walk through our front door and mom would be offering him tea and cupcakes."

"Gee, Bulma is it that time of the month already or did you have a bowl of Bitch for dinner," Yamcha retorted.

"I'm pregnant, you dolt," Bulma sighed rolling her eyes again, "You don't have periods when you're pregnant, imbecile!"

"Ah, that famous acerbic Bulma Briefs wit," Yamcha smiled at her outburst, "How I've come to miss it these past months. Not!"

Bulma stopped and turned around to face Yamcha.

"Did you come here to insult me or to get your stuff?" she asked angrily.

"A bit of both I guess," Yamcha said musingly, "When I heard from Belmovekk that Vegeta had impregnated you I felt like crap. But now that I see you again and hear that being pregnant has turned being with you into a nine month long time of the month I count my blessings."

"Ha ha," Bulma said unimpressed as Yamcha pumped his fist like he had just scored the mother of all zingers.

"Don't worry," Yamcha grinned, "I'm sure the two of you will be very happy together. Although I must ask again, why him?"

Bulma leaned over to Yamcha's face and gave him her most smug look.

"Maybe because he was there and you weren't?"

She then mimicked a pistol going off into Yamcha's brain at point blank range, then she pulled back her hand and blew imaginary smoke away from her finger. Smiling at him she turned around, leading him on again towards where she had stored his stuff.

"What's with the new look?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, I've been traveling a lot," Yamcha said trying to sound as casual as possible, "and I thought since you always insisted I keep it short I might as well grow it long again."

"That explains the long hair and probably the beard as well," Bulma said glancing over her shoulder, "but why the coupe de Saiyan?"

"No it's not!" Yamcha said aggrieved as he touched his spiky hair, "It's the latest in fashion!"

"Yeah, I'm sure it is," Bulma sniggered, "On Vegetasei that is!"

In the back of the Briefs family complex there was a small dome functioning as a storage shed and once they got there Bulma pulled out her key chain to get the key that would open it. Once she had she opened the door and swung it open.

"There it is," she said and gestured inside, "all the crap you left behind, Yamcha."

"Geez, that's a lot," the Z-fighter said as he stepped inside and switched on the light, "Hey look, my Oakland Raiders beer hat!"

Yamcha dusted off a baseball cap with two cup holders for beer cans and straws to drink from. Sighing for a moment at the memory, he then put it on.

"Still fits like a glove," he smiled contently at the memory. The smile faded in no time as he saw a box on a shelf full of familiar stuff.

"Hey!" he said aggrievedly as he took the box from the shelf, "I gave you these! The whole box is full of things I once gave you."

Bulma shrugged unimpressed at Yamcha holding out his books towards her.

"Why would I want to keep these things?" she said casually, "We broke up, remember?"

"Yeah," Yamcha said with a sorry face as he pulled out an item to hold up, "but I gave you these."

It was a small plastic statue of Bulma with an exaggeratedly large head bobbing on a spring coil. Shaking her head Bulma yanked it from Yamcha's hand and threw it back in the box.

"It was tacky," she said disapprovingly, "like most of your gifts."

"You seemed perfectly happy when I gave them," Yamcha said sulking as he put the box back on the shelf.

"I was being polite," Bulma shrugged as she folded her hands across her chest, "I'm sure any girl is thrilled when her good- for-nothing-can't-find-a-real-job-mooching-off-her-parents-boyfriend gives her cheap crap."

"Oh, like Vegeta has so much money," Yamcha bit back angry but Bulma wasn't impressed.

"It was never about the money, stupid!" she burst out, "It was about you doing something useful with your life. Other then hanging around the place waiting for another one of Goku's whacky adventures or those budokais to happen."

"Oh, and like Vegeta isn't hanging around the house doing nothing," Yamcha countered.

"Trust me, Vegeta never hangs around the house doing nothing," Bulma said deadpan, "That's the difference between the two of you. You always complained how much Goku got ahead of you every time you saw him. And yet you did nothing about it. Vegeta on the other hand does something about it. In order for you to do anything we need the threat of alien invasions or future robots to get you of your lazy ass. And even then you were always more busy ogling other women in the gym!"

"Speaking of his Saiyan highness, where the hell is he?" Yamcha muttered aggrieved, "The least he could do for stealing my girlfriend is help carry these boxes to my car."

"I wouldn't know," Bulma said, "I'm not his personal assistant and he doesn't leave post its on the fridge telling where he's off to. He goes where he wants to go. For all I know he's gone to see Belmovekk. The two of them seem to be hitting it off together lately. All I know is he took the bike and went off to do Kami knows where."

"Aw crap," Yamcha moaned, "Not the chopper! That used to be my thing. Arlen Ness built it for me."

"But I bought it," Bulma said without remorse, "So that makes it mine. Now get your gear and go. I got stuff to do."

Leaving Yamcha to his own devices Bulma left the shed and returned to her lab. Seeing Yamcha again had left a bitter taste. One that only hardcore science could purge. She was her father's child in that respect. Better men and women could probably run the company financially. And probably would have if the Briefs family didn't own 51% of all its stock. That was the golden rule they always adhered too. But there was no denying that the combined father/daughter genius was what helped Capsule Corp. to its cutting edge in the high tech business world. Even though they literally employed legions of scientists it was always the father and daughter team that came up with the most original designs. They weren't always successful but those that were made the other 49% of its stockholders very happy.

Entering the access code that gave entry to her own lab, Bulma opened the large steel door that protected the outside world from any unfortunate accident that might occur inside and kept eager competitors at bay from acquiring Capsule Corp.'s latest secrets. It also served to shield the rest of the company from learning that most of the research that went in there wasn't even company related.

Normally keying in the door entry code meant that the lab's lights would automatically switch on. Instead, everything remained covered in darkness.

"Aw crap," Bulma muttered as she groped around the corner to reach for the light switch instead, "it never rains when it…"

After flipping the light switch, they still remained off.

Crap! That meant calling maintenance. And she hated having maintenance inside in her special place. Not even housecleaning was allowed in here, only her mother was and every cleaning session was like a long drawn out battle to ensure she didn't accidentally moved or Kami forbid removed something by accident.

Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed Bulma, one around her waist, another placed on her mouth. She was yanked away from the door and the light switch, and even though Bulma was surprised like hell, she knew enough of the layout of her lab that her assailant was dragging her towards the center. Then some electricity arced near where the light switch was and suddenly the lights switched on again.

Even though she had never seen them, only heard their description and they had changed their garb considerably Bulma recognized her assailants immediately. He may have discarded his vest and cut off his mullet, wore a white T-shirt and leather jacket instead, pretending to be a rough and ready biker, he still looked he was utter white trash.

Android #13!

Which meant….

Her assailant yanked a wheeled office chair and without any regard for her pregnant condition he dropped her on it. Giving her her first chance to see what was undoubtedly Android #14.

Like #13, #14 had cut off his long hair, gone for a very short crop instead going with his black t-shirt and leather jacket. Like #13 jeans and army surplus boots finished off the looks. The large brute even had the gall to wear a pair of sunglasses.

"You know, Bruce Schnitzengruber just called, he wants his look back," Bulma couldn't help but blurt out.

"Very funny, miss," #13 said as he came towards Bulma and #14. Occasionally he halted to study the odd half-finished item or object of interest on the various work benches.

"What do you want?" Bulma said angry. She'd be damned if she was going to let these windup dolls intimidate her.

"Oh, nothing much," #13 said amiably, "We're just here to gather some information and then to kill you."

"You know, usually you get more information if you promise the victim she gets to live," Bulma said as she tried to get off her chair but the large #14 pressed her back relentlessly.

"Sit down," he grunted.

"Oh, stuff it!" Bulma said shooting a venomous look over her shoulder. Once she looked back at #13 the white trash android continued.

"Nevertheless, you're going to tell us what you know."

"Yeah right," Bulma said defiantly, "Give me one good reason why I would tell you anything. You just said I was going to die anyway."

"Cause if you don't we're going to kill your parents as well?" #13 smiled cordially as he hopped on a workbench opposite Bulma, "Nothing will remain of this place, except for a crater."

"Vegeta will stop you," Bulma said trying to sound as resolute as possible but to no avail.

"Puhlease," #13 snorted in disgust, "We checked the gravity gym before coming here. It's not even been used in days. He's gone. He won't be here in time to stop you."

"Then he and Belmovekk will hunt you down," she said, "They will find you and rip you apart limb by limb!"

"Who cares?" #13 shrugged indifferently to the sudden dislike of the large brute.

"Hey, I care," #14 objected but #13 waved away his objections as he petted one of Bulma's unfinished inventions.

"You may know we learned of the arrival of the Saiyan from the future," he said literally stroking the thing, "It is obvious to us he intends to change time by preventing Dr. Gero's plans from coming into fruition. We may have failed in our original fact finding mission, but it did present us with another mission. He intends to stop our master from succeeding; we intend to stop his plans in return."

"Then you're too late," Bulma said out loud, "He has already told us what we need to know. Goku and his friends will be prepared."

"Funny thing, time travel," #13 said as he ignored her outburst, "It's all about cause and effect. Throw a stone into a pond and its ripples spread out all across its surface. Now ripples are hard to stop, but if somebody were to stop that stone from being thrown there wouldn't be any ripples at all. I figure there is only one person who has both connections to every known Saiyan in existence and who's smart enough to build a time machine. If we were to say…kill that person, let's say now? Before she ever gets to build that time machine, there would be no way for our future Saiyan to come back through time and warn you, would there? We win by default."

Aw crap! It was as Belmovekk had feared. Damn Vegeta for going walkabout when he was supposed to protect her. That left only Yamcha. And after the way she had yelled at him he was probably long gone with his pathetic belongings. This meant she only had her wits to help her. Her brain raced for a solution as there were safeguards put in place in the lab against intrusion. If only she could get access to a computer…

"You don't know that for sure," Bulma said, "For all you know nothing changes, as all you do is create a new alternate reality. Advanced quantum physics says that that's not only possible, it's the most likely outcome for a multiverse where every possible outcome spawns its own universe."

"That's what I said!" the brutish #14 said aloud as if he had suddenly found a new soulmate. Earning weird looks from Bulma and a frown from #13.

"Only if by saying 'hey #13, what if nothing changes for us?' you meant advanced quantum physics, you dolt!" #13 said irritated. Had he stood next to #14 Bulma had no doubts whatsoever that #13 would have smacked the large brute against his head.

"He's not very smart, is he?" Bulma asked looking at #13, who nodded in agreement.

"What he makes up for in muscles he lacks in computing power," #13 echoed.

"Hey," #14 frowned, "I'm right here, you know."

"Good, then I don't have to repeat myself," #13 smiled at the brute.

"Words can't describe how much I hate you," #14 bit back at his fellow android. Meanwhile Bulma looked from one android to the other.

"You sure the both of you function normally?" she asked curiously, "Cause it seems your personalities need tweaking. If you'd like, I do have some experience with you guys lately….."

"I know," #13 said as he pulled some of Bulma's own notes from his leather jacket, "I've read parts of your examination of #15."

"Where is that little turd's body by the way," #14 asked, "I thought for sure she kept his mangy body around here somewhere."

"Of course not, idiot," #13 said, then he glanced through Bulma's notes, "It says here he's been shipped to some military facility. The US Air Force Deep Space Telemetry Station in Colorado Springs."

"The what?" #14 exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter," #13 said as he put away the notes, "It's clearly a cover."

"So we're going to assault a US military installation?" the brute asked.

"Only if they have #15's diskey," #13 said, "the notes did say it was taken somewhere else. Just not where that somewhere else was. For that we're probably gonna hurt her a little."

"Lucky me," Bulma sighed, "Why the need to torture me? I thought you were going to pull a terminator on me?"

The white trash android leaned over.

"Because, Bulma Briefs, while the nature of time travel is much discussed about, the only thing everybody agrees upon is that they agree to differ. And while one school speculates that everything changes, another follows what you and #14 said, that you create an alternate reality instead. While it would improve the chances of Dr. Gero in that reality, in ours things would stay the same. This means we still have to safeguard Gero's plans."

"Let's get on with it then," #14 said as he began to knead his knuckles behind Bulma, "I could do with some violence. It's been a long while…."

Bulma looked over her shoulder at the eager looking #14, who grinned his teeth at her, then at #13 still sitting on her workbench.

"Have fun, #14," he said smiling amiably.

"Wait," Bulma cried out waving her hands at #13, "Shouldn't you be asking questions first?"

"Perhaps," the white trash android smirked, "I always find that a little taste of what's to be expected keeps people honest and wets the tongue."

Bulma felt a pair of iron gripped hands take hold of her left arm.

"This is going to hurt you a whole more then it will hurt me," #14 whispered gleefully in her ear.

"But there's no need to hurt me," Bulma moaned as her arm was being pulled in ways it shouldn't, "All you need to know is on my computer."

#13 suddenly held up his hand, signalling #14 to stop.

"The one that is password protected?" he asked, pointing to a machine on which a screensaver was currently active.

"I can give you the password," Bulma nodded eagerly. It wasn't quite true of course. Firstly the information the two androids were after wasn't on there. Secondly, her computer responded to two different passwords. One gave access to the machine, the other would trigger the alarm and cause seven kinds of hell to go off, her only chance at making it out of here alive.

"Aw crap," #14 said disappointed as #13 hopped of her workbench and sauntered over to her computer. Once there he pulled the keyboard towards him and flexed his fingers. Then he looked over his shoulders at her.

"So what's the password," he asked.

"Kamehameha?" Bulma said.

"Predictable," #13 said shaking his head as he ticked in the password. He was about to hit the enter key when his hand halted.

"Maybe a bit too predictable," #13 said hesitantly as his hand hovered above the keyboard.

"Does this mean…" #14 asked hopeful, still holding Bulma's arm in a painful grip

"It's real," Bulma said desperately, "trust me, it's real!"

She realized immediately she shouldn't have said that as #13 withdrew his hand.

"It took our dearly departed brother months to hack into your system," he said as he waved his indexfinger at her like she had misbehaved, "I'm sure that if your passwords were that predictable it wouldn't have taken him that long."

"Does this mean I get to …?" #14 asked hopeful again.

"Yes," #13 sighed, like answering a child who had been asking the same question a million times in succession.

"Finally," #14 said gleefully, "clobbering time!"

Using Bulma's left arm as leverage he pulled her around so he could control her and hold her arm in an extremely painful hold using one hand and take her struggling hand with the other.

"This little piggy went to market," #14 spoke softly in Bulma's ears.

Crack!

"AAAAAAH!" Bulma yelled as pain soared through her left hand as a finger bend backwards and the bone snapped..

"This little piggy went to town."

Crack!

"FUCK!"

"This little piggy went to the bank."

Crack!

"FUCK IT HURTS!"

"Bloody plebeian!" #13 muttered disapprovingly as he shook his head at #14's rough methods. Breaking fingers was so vulgar. Not for the first time he wished his creator had blessed him with a little more sophisticated appearance instead of his white trash origin. More distinguished English villain looking would have suited his character so much better. It couldn't be helped. Gero knew what he was doing and probably had to make do with what he had.

"And this little piggy…."

"What the hell is going on here?" a new voice suddenly called out.

Everybody turned their heads.

The door had been opened and in it stood Yamcha.

"What have we here?" #13 said as he reappraised the newcomer. Unlike Bulma who had seen Yamcha earlier he didn't recognize him, but his memory banks did tell him there was a 76% probability that he was familiar with this man.

"Who the fuck are you two?" Yamcha blurted out, "And what are you doing with Bulma?"

"Yamcha! They're the Androids!" Bulma yelled.

"What? Already?" Yamcha said bewildered as he looked at the two men. Truth be told, when Trunks had told them two deadly androids would come and lay waste to the world, Yamcha had expected them to look a lot more robot and a lot less human. Not like Arnold Schwarzenegger and his white trash side kick.

"Shut up bitch," #14 yelled, breaking Yamcha from his reverie and yanking Bulma's arm, causing her to be thrown against another workbench where she impacted hard against its steel legs.

"Hey," Yamcha yelled angry, "Don't you hurt her!"

"Make me!" #14 said defiantly.

"Oh, for god sakes," #13 said dejected. Then he raised his hand at Yamcha and fired off an energy blast that knocked the Z-fighter out of the lab's door and caused a huge explosion outside.

"That was Yamcha?" #14 said to #13 as a fire alarm began to sound, "He doesn't look anything like him. He looked like a cross between Vegeta and the Yeti."

"People can change," #13 shrugged as he walked through the door, "Obviously our files are out of date. The others might very we…."

No sooner had he said it as the Earth began to tremble.

"Somebody's raising his power," #14 singsonged at #13.

"Oh shut up and help me," #13 said annoyed.

Caulfield was one of the many cemeteries in Sunnydale that until recently had seen extensive expansion. Nowadays however vast plots lay empty as demand had fallen sharply. Even the plans to clear some of the older graves to make room for new ones had been given up. Even though work had already begun on some. Like one of the 19th century mausoleums, a family crypt of whom the last living member had finally gotten the hint, packed up and left Sunnydale before she joined the rest of her family in the year Buffy arrived in Sunnydale. With no address to contact her it was decided to clear the bodies from the mausoleum. And then all work had been stopped.

While technically no longer necessary Oz and Faith still did the occasional patrol. Especially in the time Oz's girlfriend had been taken by Belmovekk to be personally trained in the arcane arts. It was on one of those patrols that they found the empty mausoleum and used it to hang out. Her having a smoke, Oz having the occasional beer. Faith had frequented the place from time to time with some of her 'conquests'. It had become their little corner of Sunnydale. So it came as no surprise to Faith, that when she stepped inside she found Oz there waiting for her.

"Took you long enough," was the only comment Oz made.

"Your girlfriend sure knows how to make some strong chains," Faith grinned as she closed the crypt door behind her, "But she's yet to learn that there is no lock Faith can't pick."

"I'll pass on the message," Oz smiled, "Still don't explain why it took so long?"

"I was like never alone," Faith said as she reached into a duffel bag with fresh clothes Oz had brought for her, "If Pestley, Giles or B. weren't boring me to death it suddenly was Angel. The bastard!"

Faith suddenly began to kick against an empty tomb, destroying half the thing before Oz stopped her.

"Stop it!" he yelled, "Not now! Willow and Giles are probably already firing up a tracking spell."

"It felt good though," Faith panted as she put her hand through her hair, "That bastard Angel actually had me convinced he was on my side. I can't believe I was so stupid that I fell for it!"

She then gave Oz a quick account of how Angel had almost conned her.

"Clever," Oz shrugged, "If the bad cops don't succeed, send in the good cop. So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure," Faith said as she stopped changing clothes for a moment, "I have to clear my name somehow. I have to find Trick."

"I think you're way beyond clearing," Oz remarked as he shook his head, "I mean, even if you find him, then what? You still be the one that told the bad guys and got the deputy mayor's killed."

"But I'll feel better?" Faith replied.

"Go feel better somewhere else," Oz said giving her an odd look, "Everybody's looking for you here. If I were you I'd either leave town or lay low until the Saiyan returns."

"And when will that be?" Faith snorted, "You talked to him. He's busy chasing his pet robots. As far as he's concerned we're only on the B-list."

Oz nodded silently as Faith finished changing her clothes.

"No, we're on our own," she said resolutely, "Only the two of us can clear my name."

"Except like I said, there is nothing to clear," Oz countered, "Even if you find him you still told them where the deputy mayor was."

"I mean clearing as in finding out who 'they' are," Faith said as she closed her duffel bag, "hell, even Pestley was more interested in the deputy mayor's information then in his safety."

Faith moved to the back of the mausoleum where a metal grid cover gave access to the sewer system. It had probably been used as a fall out base in the time when the Master, still trapped, sent out its minions to wreak havoc at night. It probably saw service in the time Spike and Drusilla took over what remained of the Master's power base and when they hid from the Slayer and the Saiyan. After the fall of Angelus and Buffy's return to Sunnydale things got quieter as there were no signs of recent use. Or at the other known sewer access points. That and a lack of reports dealing with underground sightings of large groups of vampires and demons had lead to a feeling of security.

And it might even be true. But little was still known about the underground tunnel system. It was vast and a lot of it still unexplored. Worst of all, the Hellmouth shielded any attempts through magic, scouters or extension of one's senses to penetrate deeply. This was exactly why Faith wanted to go underground as she removed the metal grid cover. Once open she grabbed her duffel bag and dropped it below, then she hopped inside until only her head stuck out.

"You coming?" she asked Oz. But the young guitarist shook no.

"This is as far as I can go," he said resolutely, "Will's gonna skin me alive if she finds out I was helping you. Anything further might be irreparable."

Even though a part of her expected something like this might happen, Oz's refusal to go any further hurt Faith deep. He was the older brother she'd never had, even though he was shorter then her. They had faced thick and thin together for most of a year now. He had stood by her even though it had hurt his relationship. And now that damned relationship prevented him from going all the way with her.

"I understand," Faith said as she fought back a tear. She wasn't going to cry. She did that once, she never was going to ever again.

"Look," Oz said as he knelt next to the sewer hole, "go away. Go far away! Once Belmovekk returns we'll sort things out. Here's some money."

He gave Faith a tight wad of cash.

"It isn't much as Will monitors all the accounts but its better then nothing."

Speechless, Faith accepted the money.

"Is this what I think it is?" she said, cause if Red was watching all the Slayer related accounts it could only mean she was holding the petty cash of Dingoes Ate My Baby.

"Think of it as a loan," Oz smiled. Faith couldn't help but think Red wasn't going to be the only one going PMS on him.

"And take this," Oz said as he pulled an amulet on a chain from his jacket and handed it over to Faith. It was the amulet the deputy mayor had worn.

"It will shield you from Willow and Giles' locator spells," he said as she accepted the amulet, "Giles tested it. It works. Now you can get away from the Hellmouth unnoticed.

"I'm speechless," Faith said choked.

"Then go and don't do anything stupid," Oz said as he took the metal grid to close it up after her again, "Go, Big Sister."

As he closed the hole Faith let herself fall down into the sewer system and picked up her bag. She shouldered it and began walking.

"I'm regular five by five, Little Brother" she said, finally wiping away a tear.

The battle had been over by the time Belmovekk touched down on the Briefs family mansion lawn. He had traveled all the way from San Antonio in Super Saiyan, traversing the distance in less then 8 minutes.

As he landed on the lawn he saw that the house had suffered extensive damage. Part of the house had been blown up, with Vegeta's gravity gym being heavily damaged. Mrs. Brief's nice rose garden thrashed and the lawn riddled with craters and holes.

As he de-transformed Belmovekk took in the sight. It was only 8 and a half minute ago that Bulma had given him a call telling him the androids were battling Yamcha outside her lab.

"Took you long enough," a voice said. Belmovekk turned around. Sitting on Mrs.'s Brief's now slightly out of bent garden bench sat Yamcha. One eye was beaten shut, there were cuts on his face, including a busted upper lip. But he was grinning proudly, in a way Belmovekk hadn't seen him do often.

"Yamcha, are you alright?" Belmovekk asked worried.

"I feel like I've gone ten rounds with Vegeta," Yamcha said as he winced, flexing one of his shoulders

"And Bulma?"

"Bulma's inside," Yamcha grimaced as he nodded towards her lab, "She's locked herself in. That place is now better defended then Fort Knox. I'm amazed she hasn't installed a point-defense laser system yet. Probably will though, knowing her."

"So she's okay then?" Belmovekk asked worriedly.

"I don't think so," Yamcha said shaking his head, "I think they were torturing her when I walked in. She's pregnant and those damn machines hurt her!"

Belmovekk looked around.

"Where the hell is Vegeta? He was supposed to watch over her."

Yamcha began to laugh.

"Belmovekk, oh Belmovekk, by now you should have learned that Vegeta doesn't do anything but chase his own selfish desires," he sniggered, "Bulma said he has gone walkabout. Lucky for you, you could count on your big uncle Yamcha."

Yamcha reached behind the bench and pulled something up. It was a body. The body of what seemed like a large bodybuilder, dressed in the tattered remains of a black leather jacket.

"Tada!" Yamcha said proudly, then used his other hand to reach for the dead body's head, which was hanging like its neck was broken and pulled it up straight, "I guess you learned not to fuck with Yamcha the Magnificent!"

"Is that…..?" Belmovekk exclaimed excited.

"Sure," Yamcha said as he threw the body towards Belmovekk, "although I have to say dude, if these are the androids we were warned about then I don't see what the fuss is about. Of course I did work out a bit, but still, dare I say, pathetic much?"

"And the other…?" Belmovekk asked eagerly. Yamcha shook his head.

"Bastard ran off after I killed his buddy."

"Damn!" Belmovekk said disappointed, then he looked at the dead android, from the look of it and Willow's description it had to be #14.

"It really is a shame," he continued, "but to answer your question, these are not the androids we were warned about. More like they're the, um, advanced scouting party?"

Yamcha stopped looking pleased with himself and looked at Belmovekk oddly.

"I don't remember Piccolo telling us anything about an advanced scouting party. Unless he left out some details from what Trunks told Goku."

Belmovekk suddenly laughed nervously.

"These, um, they came because, I, uh, it is because I, um, in that, uh, other timeline, did not blow up, um, Gero's old lab by, uh, accident."

Yamcha's mouth almost hit the floor when in the distance sirens could be heard together with the steady whooping noise of helicopters, signaling the arrival of the emergency services.

"Look," Belmovekk said, "I will tell you later, but for now it's probably better if you leave. Not unless you want to explain what happened to the United States government. If I know a certain major he's probably mobilized half the army already."

"How are you going to explain a dead android?" Yamcha asked curiously, "I mean, it's not an everyday occurrence."

"Oh, me and Uncle Sam go back a long way," Belmovekk smiled as he looked at the dead android he was holding.

"Belmovekk, you've been here for only a year and a half," Yamcha countered.

"Long enough for me to go a long way with him," the Saiyan grinned, "Now go, before they find you here. Oh, and whatever you do, don't fly. Uncle Sam has eyes in the sky that can track us in flight."

"Once this is over we're going to have a long chat over this," Yamcha said pointing a finger at Belmovekk, "You're lucky that I'm well traversed into escaping from here on foot. I've been doing it for so long even before I learned to fly."

And with that Yamcha ran off into the night. No sooner had he done so as a searchlight shone into the Brief's garden from the night sky and captured Belmovekk.

"FREEZE!" a voice called out soon thereafter. Then armed soldiers carefully entered the garden, their weapons trained on Belmovekk. Carefully he shouldered android's #14's body with one hand, then he smiled at the nervous troops as he held up his free arm.

"Take me to your leader!"

In the Library Oz sat defiantly as all hell broke lose. Willow blamed him, Buffy and Angel blamed Wesley and Wesley blamed everybody. Oz couldn't care less. Even though Willow was furious at him for having helped Faith and given her the shielding amulet he could see in her eyes it wasn't the end for them. Oh, she would huff and puff, he would grovel and most likely there would be no nookie for the coming weeks. But it wasn't the end for them both. Anything more might have though, but Oz had done what his friendship with Faith demanded he should do. He had been a good friend.

Meanwhile Oz watched the spectacle as Angel and Wesley were ripping into each other. Luckily for the group Giles had managed to explain Faith's sudden use of the solar flare technique as a magic trick she picked up somewhere so the argument only went over who intruded upon whom.

"And I was making great progress with Faith if Wesley here wouldn't have shown up with his goon squad!" Angel almost yelled angrily.

"You were about to release Faith," Wesley countered, "If I hadn't shown up in time she would have walked out the door."

"Which thanks to you she did anyway," Angel said and threw up his hands into the air and turned away from Wesley.

"I was trying to win her confidence, you dickless Brit!" he yelled, "It was the plan Buffy and I agreed upon.

"Is that true?" Giles interjected, sitting at Wesley's customary position at the head of the table.

"Yes," Buffy said deadpan as she moved to Angel's side and nodded towards Wesley, "this man has no dick."

"Buffy!" Giles gasped horrified at his protégé. Buffy shook her head and sighed.

"Yes, Angel and I had planned for Angel to win over Faith's confidence. So she would open up. And it was working until our Glorious Leader stepped in."

"Faith committed treason, Buffy," Wesley said towards Buffy, "that alone warrants that she should be taken to London for further questioning."

"She's still one of us," Buffy bit back, "we take care of our own."

"Now she's suddenly one of us," Oz snorted silently, only to receive an elbow from Willow in his side, "auw!"

"Charming," Wesley said to Buffy, like chiding a small child, "May I remind you that as a Slayer you are bound to follow the rules of the Council."

"Bite me!" Buffy said defiantly.

Seeing that things were getting tense and that Buffy might blurt something out which they would all regret later Giles stepped in.

"Please, let's all remain calm here," he said as he stepped in between Buffy and Wesley, "we're losing sight of the big picture here. We still don't know to whom Faith's leaked information passed too and who gave the orders to kill the deputy mayor. Maybe we should spend less time looking for Faith and more time for our opponent."

While Buffy still glared at him Wesley straightened his jacket and turned to Giles.

"You're right, Rupert. We will let others look for Faith. My men are looking for her already and I will place a bounty on her head through the usual channels," he said, for which Wesley meant the demon snitch system, "Maybe this might be a good time for Buffy to go check the deputy mayor's office for clues."

"You think so, Sherlock?" Buffy snorted, "Don't you think it's a little late for that?"

Wesley turned his head towards Buffy.

"You will do as I tell you, young lady," he said haughtily. Buffy's eyes flared angrily as she took a step towards Wesley.

"Don't you call me that," she hissed angrily, "you don't get to call me that. Ever! Or you'll find Faith's not the only one who can do that little magic thing."

As if to illustrate her point Buffy brought her hands to the sides of her hand and touched it with her fingertips."

"Okay," Angel laughed nervously as he took Buffy by her arms, "Time to go before we all do something we regret tomorrow. I was there too remember and once was enough for the evening. Our fearless leader has given us his marching orders. Let's go."

"Can't I? Just once?" Buffy pouted as Angel dragged her towards the door, "Just a little?"

The pornstar life was a funny thing, Xander thought. When you saw the movies you sure thought those were some interesting people who knew how to party. Or how to get laid all the time. Instead it was mostly… boring. And he knew there were pornstars like that out there, cause that's what they said in the interviews right? Just before some bronzed Greek god, who was hung like a horse, banged the shit out of them. But in the days he'd been in LA with Madison Lane he'd seen precious little of it.

Maybe it was his fault. After all, she had offered herself practically the moment they got off the airplane. Of course, there was no way he could do it. Not now. Not after Buffy. It might also be her fault though. Even though he had been in LA for a couple of days he had still not managed to get started on what he had planned to do here

First thing Xander did (or had to do) once they arrived at Madison's apartment was to gather up Cornholio's stuff and put it into the downstairs storage. His first instinct was to throw it into the trash but Madison pleaded with him not to. So he did.

Second thing he had to do was clean up her apartment. The girl may know how to have sex on film but housekeeping and cooking weren't part of her talents. Now, Xander was used to some grime, having lived in the danky dungeon of his parents basement. Plus as a man he suffered from what Willow used to call the 'good enough' gene whenever it came to house cleaning. But one look at her place and he suddenly felt the urge to reach for a vacuum cleaner and the nearest cleaning products. Preferably industrial strength.

Which meant a trip to the nearest supermarket to get some. Which also gave him the opportunity to buy something decent for them to eat for dinner, cause the only sight giving him more heartache other then her mess was the content of her fridge.

"No more take outs while I'm around," he said when she protested. Now before, Xander's cooking skills only extended to ordering in take outs himself. But if there was one advantage of having spent one year in a crazy training dimension with a girl who was absolutely a disaster whenever she stepped into a kitchen, it was that you quickly learned how to cook.

So Xander cooked her a simple meal, which she greatly appreciated as if it were a five star one. And then he did his exercises on top of the roof of her building while she watched in fascination. Now that he lacked the use of a gravity gym Xander had to subject his body to the greatest possible stress and exertion while at the lowest possible power level. It was very hard and grueling to do and made Xander long for the old gravity gym. It may be heavy at 50 G's or higher, but the gravity alone made it a workout that killed most people. At least it required less thinking. Normal G training on the other hand required constant thought to get the most of it. And seeing him punish himself quickly cured Madison of any idea of taking a few lessons.

And so basically his days here were filled. The cleanup of her apartment wasn't a one day affair. It was only when they were about done and Xander declared the place fit for human living again that fate threw another monkey wrench into his plans in the form of a phone call from her agent. As Xander finished dinner and set the table she noted down some details on a notepad.

As they sat down for dinner she kissed him on the cheek.

"It looks lovely, Xan," she smiled as she sat down, "as always."

"Geez, I've only cooked for a few days," Xander said as he began to serve the food. Buffy never complimented him on the food. She either just ate or complained if it wasn't enough to her liking. With Madison you could serve her a boiled shoe and she'd still compliment you. It wasn't something Xander was used to.

"It already feels like forever," she smiled as she put her fork into her food.

"Well, as they say in catering, it never hurts to be nice to the people serving your food," Xander smiled back at her, "So Madison, now that we've made your place livable I was thinking of maybe finally getting on with my business."

She looked up at him like a deer caught in a headlight.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her good mood suddenly gone.

"I was thinking of hitting the known demon hangouts tomorrow," Xander said as began to eat, "Getting a feel of the place, see who's boss here."

"But you can't," she gasped horrified, "I've got to work tomorrow."

It was obvious of course that by work she didn't meant going to the office.

"Surely you don't need me for that, Madison?," Xander asked, "You were working long before I got here. I'm not going to stand there and look cryptic while you get…., um…., well, you know."

"But I do need you," she said, "and you don't have to watch if you don't want to. Look, Xan, Mike used to do this all the time. I feel safer that way."

"I uh, um," Xander tried to say, but he could see it in her eyes. The girl was desperate for him to come along. It all fit into the pattern. Back before Buffy arrived in Sunnydale, in another lifetime, he and Jesse spent hours talking about and categorizing girls. To bad neither of them managed to do much with what they learned. Or put any of it successfully into practice. And Madison was what Jesse called a clinger. Terribly insecure and desperate for approval. Easy to score with but hard to get rid off.

Of course meeting the real thing Xander realized it wasn't so simple. It was clear the girl had suffered from terrible abuse at some point in her life. She didn't talk about it but it fit the pattern. She had hinted that she was a runaway and had survived on the streets before ending up in porn. And she desperately wanted a white knight to look out for her, to take care of her and protect her. And even though Xander had refused to sleep with her, or maybe because of that, he was now her white knight.

Which made it all the more ironic. For years he tried to be the protector of what he thought were 'his girls' back in Sunnydale. But they didn't really need him for that. And now he practically got what he wanted dropped into his lap and now he didn't know what to do with it.

"Look," she pleaded, "if you come with me I'll help you look for your thing afterwards. I know a few places myself. Deal?"

She pouted at him in that way only the Buffy's and Willow's in his life seemed to have the market cornered on. The way he just was unable to resist. Realizing that in the battle of the sexes raw physical strength was the least important attribute Xander caved in.

"Alright, alright," he said as he threw his hands in the air, "I'll go with you tomorrow. But I won't look! Much."

Not that far away a room was covered in darkness. Then a door opened and light from the hallway behind it fell inside, followed by two people stepping inside. Once inside the shortest one closed the door behind them and only then did they switched on the light.

"I think we're too late," Angel said as he looked around the room, "the place looks like they cleaned it out."

"Maybe he was a neat freak," Buffy said as she walked over to his desk and pointed to a collection of pencils neatly arranged next to an orderly stack of papers, "see! He's anal. No normal being arranges his pencils according to HB to 2B. Not unless he's called Pointdexter and carries special prescription glasses."

Angel walked over to a cupboard and pulled it open.

"I think you're right," he said as he quickly closed the cupboard, "too orderly. Unless he's some secret Nazi bureaucrat or something."

Buffy looked oddly at Angel.

"Did I miss something?" she asked wearily.

"I did have a life before I met you," Angel shrugged.

"One that usually comes back to haunt us," Buffy said deadpan, "like ex-girlfriends slash vampires you once sired or annoying pesky gypsy curses."

"Give me some credit, Buffy," Angel sighed in exasperation, "I did spend a whole century with a soul. Contrary to what some people think and say I wasn't brooding that entire century."

"Sure," Buffy sniggered, she was just yanking Angel's chain while she continued her examination of the deputy mayor's desk, opening up a drawer, "Well, somebody's been here before us."

"Same here," Angel said as he pulled open an empty file drawer.

"Conspiracy much?" Buffy asked rhetorically.

Angel's face assumed a brooding look as he closed the file drawer.

"Could be the guy himself," he said, "Think about it. The guy tries to defect from somebody in exchange for our help. But the only thing he carries with him is a suitcase full of fresh clothes?"

Buffy leaned on the desk as she looked at Angel.

"You think he hid his evidence somewhere else?"

"Has to be," Angel said as he nodded in agreement, "He probably was going to tell us where to find it once we got him to safety."

"If only he left us a clue," Buffy said shaking her head.

"Like a railway deposit box key?" Angel suggested.

"That would have been nice," Buffy sighed, then she looked around, "We might as well leave. We're not going to find much of anything here."

"Ladies first," Angel bowed as he gestured towards the door.

"Why thank you, good sir," Buffy smiled as she passed him and opened the door. Carefully she peeked around the door post to see if anybody was there. The coast wass clear so they stepped out.

No sooner have they done that as another door opened. Before Angel even realized what's happening Buffy pushed him back into the deputy mayor's office and closed the door behind them. Then she brought her finger to her lips signalling him to shut up. Then outside Angel can make out the footsteps of two individuals passing. Only after a minute had passed did he dare to speak.

"That was close," he spoke softly.

"Too close," Buffy said in agreement, "We have a problem. Did you see who they were?"

Angel shook his head.

"No, everything went so fast. Did you see…?"

"I think we were wrong about Faith," Buffy said, sounding a little pissed about herself, "Really wrong. Guess who I just saw?"

Seeing Buffy's displeasure with herself Angel could make a fairly good guess.

"Lemme guess," he said, "tall, black and well dressed?"

"Yep," Buffy nodded as she carefully opened the door again to peek into the hallway, "and guess which guy he seemed to be on a play date with?"

"Look! I don't need all of this attention!"

Doctor Janet Frasier again said a silent prayer (or curse) to the God of Patience who all doctors worship, or call upon, when faced with unruly patients. What was it with patients that they all thought that they knew better then a physician what was wrong with them? Or that being an obstinate asshole made the examination go any faster?

Like the current fine specimen of womanhood Janet had the displeasure to examine. One Bulma Briefs. Like the rest of Belmovekk's merry band of trainees, the Saiyan had kicked everybody out of their beds in San Antonio and unto the nearest airplane to San Francisco. By the time they got on one of the large Air Force bases near San Francisco they were taken to a military hospital. To take care of three civilian patients held under massive guard. It was like the president was there. Maybe there weren't any tanks stationed outside but what the base commander did have, he stationed it around the building.

Once inside the hospital Janet and Belmovekk's recruits were taken to the best secured ward of the building where they found Belmovekk guarding three patients. And a corpse. With his recruits finally there he ordered them to break out several cases of weapons, mostly staff weapons and those hand weapons that O'Neill had dubbed zats. Then he ordered them to take up positions around the ward and guard it with their lives.

Janet however was ordered to take care of the three patients. The first two posed little problems, a middle aged couple with a lot of bruises and cuts. Especially the woman was constantly apologizing for being a burden. From what Janet could make out they had been in their living room when part of their home had collapsed, luckily sparing them. The man seemed insanely worried about their cats, even though he had a cute small black cat almost permanently attached to his shoulder.

It was the other patient, their daughter, who was the patient from hell. Forever blessed with the attitude of a naquada enhanced nuclear warhead five milli-seconds away from detonation. The only reason Janet didn't throw in the towel and tell the Saiyan to stuff it was because she was clearly pregnant. It turned out from the examination that she suffered trauma to her left hand. Three of her fingers had been broken and from studying the girl's X-rays it looked as if they were deliberately broken.

Strangely enough the biggest reason Bulma Briefs was such an asshole wasn't some deep-seated fear of doctors or hospitals. Or even being under safe guard in a military facility. No, she wanted to examine patient number four, the corpse.

When she arrived and Belmovekk filled her in, Janet couldn't help herself but give the dead man a quick examination. She had heard of the androids and the search for them and this was the first time she came close to one. He looked so human! The SGC itself had come across human looking androids. Like the one that had spawned the Replicators. But that one had been of advanced alien design. This was the first time she came across something that was not only made on Earth, it was made without the use of any advanced alien technology

It was such a waste of human potential. For years the SGC had to scour, beg, cajole or steal the universe for any piece of advanced alien tech it could find and here was a guy who had the know-how to help them defend Earth, but instead was using it to plot the Earth's destruction. And she could tell she wasn't the only one being impressed. Captain Finn and the Jaffa firsts Rue Paul and Ma'el were even now staring at the dead android. It stared to the ceiling with blank eyes as parts of its body was ripped open, revealing some of the advanced technology inside.

"Amazing. He looks so real," Ma'el said shaking his head.

"That is because it is part flesh, part machine," Rue Paul said pedantic, "While not common, it is not completely unheard of. There are rumors of some Goa'uld experimenting with such technology."

"The Tau'ri do not possess such technology," Ma'el replied as he carefully poked the dead android, like it could stir back to life at any minute, "You have seen their technology. It is beyond creating such hybrids."

"Technically the correct term is cyborg," Riley added.

"Do you think it was grown or that he was once a normal Tau'ri?" Rue Paul asked Riley.

"Anything is possible," Riley nodded, "but my gut tells me this guy was once a normal human being. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns up in some missing persons report somewhere."

"To be turned into a machine against one's will, a fate worse then death," Ma'el said dejected, "No warrior deserves such a fate."

"Indeed," Rue Paul said, for once agreeing with his Sons of Priya counterpart.

Meanwhile Janet Frasier finished her examination of Bulma. Her hand had been taken care off, the bones set straight. All that remained was applying a cast.

"Can I go now?" Bulma said acerbically.

"Well, I'm finished with you," Janet replied stepping aside so Bulma could hop off the examination table, "all that remains is applying a cast. If you would please step through that door, a special somebody is waiting for you. One that isn't me"

The Briefs girl looked at Belmovekk who had been standing there looking cryptic.

"Don't you have any….?" she asked pleadingly as she made an eating gesture, "Surely you got some….?"

The Saiyan shook his head.

"No. Carrin is hoarding them like they are worth their worth in gold tenfold. I was lucky to get one. And I gave it to, well, you know who."

"Maybe if we go….?" Bulma again pleaded.

"On a mere broken hand?" the Saiyan snorted, "I do not think so, Bulma. Like I said, he is hoarding them for the coming of the Androids."

The answer was not to Bulma's liking and Janet was amazed she didn't verbally tear the Saiyan's head off.

"Why can't he spare one?" she complained, "One lousy bean's not going to mean the end of the world. I thought you could do that replicating thingy?"

"Do you not think that I tried?" Belmovekk said shaking his head, "If I could the good doctor here would carry them by the pound load."

"Bummer!" Bulma said dejected, "And now?"

Belmovekk took Bulma by the shoulders and steered her towards the door that Janet had pointed towards.

"Now you go and get yourself a nice white cast," the Saiyan said gently but firmly, "We will all sign it with get well messages afterwards. It is your custom, is it not?"

"I hate being encased in plaster," Bulma moaned like a little girl.

"Then you are in luck," Belmovekk said and nodded towards the three commanders in training standing by the corpse, "I will send the boys out to get your stuff and once they return I will take you to a safe place where they know how to heal your hand in no time."

"WHAT?" five people said in unison.

"What do you mean us getting her stuff?" Riley said on behalf of his fellow leaders.

"Clearly you don't mean the SGC?" Janet said equally horrified.

"I have to go?" Bulma asked bewildered.

"You three will do as I say," Belmovekk said to the three commanders, "and if that means you carrying her bags then you will do as the lady demands."

Then he turned to Janet.

"I intend to take her away from here. The androids have stated their intent to kill her and as long as the last one is still at large she is not safe here on Earth. So I intent to take her through your Stargate."

"Does that mean I don't get to examine the terminator over there?" Bulma asked pointing to the bodily remains of #14. Belmovekk reached inside his coat and pulled out a bloody diskey."

"I have what I need the most, for the rest, feel free to examine him while you are here. Do not worry, Bulma, where you go, there will be plenty of interesting technology for you to examine."

"Aaah, aaah, aaah."

The sounds of repeated moaning coming from the sound engineer's sound system was really getting on Xander's nerves. He never liked the fake moaning when he was watching porn, hearing it happening from the next room over the sound system didn't add much to the ambience either.

Like promised he had accompanied Madison to her movie shoot out in the Hollywood hills. It may surprise some to know that in the shadow of the glitter and glamour of Hollywood there existed a parallel industry that in terms of money being made not only eclipsed mainstream Hollywood, it even put it to shame. And while most people didn't dare to admit it, some if its stars had probably even greater name recognition then the so called real Hollywood stars.

Xander wasn't a complete novice when it came to porn, he had had his share of lonely nights. But he wasn't a voracious consumer of it either. A lone hand date with a Playboy magazine made him just as happy and to be honest, most of it he had gotten from other people. His favorite uncle Rory, God bless him, occasionally slipping him a tape or magazine. Or God rest his soul Jesse, for giving him some stuff he had grown tired of. Which he did quite often.

But he was utterly unprepared when he and Madison arrived at the set in a villa in the hills surrounding the San Fernando Valley. Literally the whole crew was made up from demons of various kinds. The director, dressed in one of those Hawaiian shirts Xander used to wear ad nauseum, greeted Madison like she was his long lost sister.

"Oh Madison darling," he said as he kissed both her cheeks in the gayest way possible, even his speech sounded gay, "so nice of you to come on such short notice, hon. You're really helping me out from a singe, Jenna cancelled at the last moment. Ever since she became a big star she's such a b.i.t.c.h."

"No problem, D'mitri," Madison said as she returned the hug, "I'm happy to be of help."

"Again, thank you, Ange," D'mitri, the demon porn director said before turning to Xander, "and who is this yummy treat? Something bad finally happened to Mike, hon?"

Madison looked uncomfortably for a moment, then she resumed her smile.

"Mike isn't coming back."

The demon porn director cooed with approval as he gave her a girlie pat on the shoulder.

"You dumped him? Way to go, girl!" D'mitri said approvingly, "I was getting tired of seeing his ugly face. He was always giving the place a bad vibe. And you know how much I hate bad vibes on my set. So, who's the new boytoy?"

"This is Xander," Madison said as she almost unconsciously reached for Xander's hand. Which D'mitri didn't fail to notice.

"Good choice, girl, going up in the wo-hurld! Doesn't he look all yummy?" D'mitri said as he eyed Xander approvingly, especially his well toned physique, then he leaned over to Xander and grinned, "If you're up for it I can get you a role in one of my films. Its male-demon male of course, but it pays well!"

Xander looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding truck.

"Uh….," was all he could utter.

"Just kidding," D'mitri said as he patted Xander on the shoulder, only to discover how hard his muscles were, "On second thought…."

Then another demon came by and whisked Madison away.

"Off to make-up with you, hon," D'mitri said shooing after Madison.

"So what happens now?" Xander asked the demon porn director.

"Now I get the camera man and we do a little interview with your girlfriend as they make her pretty," D'mitri said, "and then I'll get the boys and they fuck the shit out of her. Do you wanna watch? Mike always did."

"I'll pass," Xander said holding up his hand, "I'm not that keen on the whole voyeur thing. Well, enough to watch the occasional film, or peek through a keyhole or window if it's Buf…, uh, never mind, just not like this."

"I understand," D'mitri said in an understanding way, "Don't worry, we'll take good care of your girlfriend. I'm not Max Hardcore."

"But she's not my…" Xander tried to say but D'mitri interrupted him.

"You know, I'm glad you're with her now. That Mike was such an asshole. Always made me want to punch him in the eye. Did you get to meet him?"

"I had the misfortune of meeting him," Xander nodded, "and then I knocked him into the hospital."

"Good for you, lovely boy," D'mitri said approvingly, "You're my new hero. Take good care of her, my friend, she's not had a happy life. She deserves a little happiness"

Xander wanted to say something about him not being her boyfriend but at the last decided not to.

"What's the name of the movie?" he asked instead.

"What was it again," D'mitri asked himself as his eyes looked upwards, "Demon in the Ass 7. Or was it 9? I always keep messing the number."

After hearing that Xander made sure he wasn't going to watch. Instead he went into the kitchen where he found some trays of food, several six-packs of beer and two idle demon crew members having a beer.

"Can I…?" Xander asked pointing to the food.

"That's what its there for, dude," one of the demons nodded approvingly so Xander began to help himself to some food. The beer he left standing as it was a bit too early.

After his impromptu lunch Xander decided to go outside and do a little exercise. While most earth based martial arts went best on an empty stomach, the Saiyan martial arts on the other hand seemed to go well with a full stomach. As did the Turtle style of Goku's teacher Muten Roshi. In fact they always seemed to burn so many calories you could eat again right thereafter.

For now however Xander skipped the intense heavy parts and instead focused on doing some slow Aisni'itsu forms. Aisni'itsu, the way of the soul, was the only Saiyan martial arts form to frown upon physical combat. Its forms originally meant as pure meditation. It was also the mother of all Saiyan chi attacks. The other styles had developed their own chi attacks over time but Aisni'itsu was acknowledged to be the original creator. It also was the style that closest resembled Chinese Tai chi and a great way to relax through its meditative forms. As he did the forms in the mid day sun, a few demons even came by to watch him do them.

Once he was finished and felt better Xander went back inside to see if the shoot was already over. Instead he walked right smack in the middle of the blow job scene between Madison and an impossibly large, disgustingly naked and grossly slimy demon. And certainly not large in the sense of his height.

"Aw crap!" Xander muttered as he ran back into the kitchen, where by now he could hear the moans coming through the sound system but at least he didn't have to see it.

"Bad mental polaroid," Xander said shaking his head as he tried to erase the disturbing images from his mind, "Okay, happy thoughts, Buffy naked, Cordelia naked. Both of them together naked."

Xander could picture them together on a king-sized bed and felt himself relax again.

And then an impossibly large, disgustingly naked and grossly slimy demon crawled in between them.

"Even worse mental polaroid!" Xander moaned, "Okay, something different then? Captain Sheridan leading the army of light to Coriana 6 to battle the Vorlons and the Shadows. Darth Vader battling Luke while the Emperor watches."

Suddenly in his mind Darth Vader unzipped his black leather front and revealed something impossibly large and slimy.

"Aw crap!" Xander moaned as he opened his eyes again. Then his eyes fell on a full sixpack of beer.

"Bittersweet foamy nectar of forgetfulness," he said as he reached for the six-pack, "don't fail me now!"

It was a few hours and a six-pack later when Xander sat outside on the porch sipping on his last can when D'mitri came outside looking all pleased with himself.

"Hey, hot guy," D'mitri asked as he hunched down next to Xander, "How are you, my friend?"

"I'm sitting pretty," Xander said in a mellow tone as he pointed towards the view he had of LA below him, "Just enjoying the view of LA. That is if you can see past the smog."

"Yeah, it can be a bit hazy," D'mitri nodded, "It didn't used to be so 60 years ago."

"You were around then?" Xander asked as he looked at the demon porn director.

"I came here occasionally," D'mitri smiled, "although back then I did more work in New York and Kopenhagen."

"Spiffy!" Xander said before emptying the can, "Madison ready?"

"She'll be out shortly," D'mitri said as he patted Xander on the shoulder, "A word of advice, my friend., Maybe next time, do yourself a favor and stay at home. You look like you could beat Mike Tyson without breaking a sweat but you're not cut out for this work."

"Truer words have never been spoken," Xander nodded in agreement, "Too bad…"

"Ah, there's my angel," D'mitri said as he turned his head around and saw Madison coming from the house, all cleaned up and back in her daily wear, "Always a pleasure, sweetie."

"Same thing here, D'mitri," Madison smiled as she let the demon porn director kiss her on the cheek.

"Thanks again for coming on such short notice," D'mitri said as he handed her a check, "Until next time, honey. And take good care of your friend."

"I will," Madison said, then she turned to Xander, "let's go to the car."

"Finally," Xander sighed as he got up. He tried to say goodbye to D'mitri but the demon porn director had already disappeared into the house.

"Should I drive or do you want to?" Madison asked as they walked back to her car.

"I think it's better if you do," Xander said as he moved to the passenger side of her car. She unlocked the car and they got inside. Once inside Xander buckled himself in and looked at her as she turned her car on and drove off. Her hair was still somewhat wet from having just taken a shower but other then that it was hard to believe only moments ago she was… no, bad mental polaroid again!

"And now?" he asked, feeling suddenly very tired.

"Now we go for some dinner," she said as she turned the engine on, then she looked at him, reached out with her right hand to take his left hand and smiled, "I'm so glad you came along, Xander. D'mitri is okay but every time, I feel dirty when I'm done. You make me feel safe."

Despite having downed 6 beers not to feel anything Xander couldn't help but feel a little warmth at what she said.

"Glad to have been of help," he smiled at her.

"These shoots can be dicey at times," Madison said as she put her car into reverse, "at least the money is good."

"How much did you make?" Xander asked.

"$1500," she said. Xander looked ahead.

"It seems like such a small amount to do for what you just did," he mused

"Are you kidding?" Madison countered as she looked briefly at him, "That's three times the amount of a normal shoot."

"And this shoot you have to do this evening," Xander asked, "Is it also…?"

"No silly," Madison smiled as she shook her head, "just a boy-girl BJ scene."

"BJ?" Xander asked looking at her.

"You know," she replied, "blowjob. Some flick called Throatgaggers or something."

"Lucky you," Xander sighed as he turned his head away to look outside.

Dinner time in Sunnydale was usually the slowest time in Willy's as the cretin only sold drinks and information, not food. At least nothing beyond the odd snack. This was done so deliberately as Willy had no desire to add slaving away in the kitchen as part of his job description and he couldn't find anybody to work as a cook for him anyway. So around six o'clock the place began to die down gradually until business picked up again after eight. This was usually the time Willy nuked up some food in a microwave underneath the counter. That way he could eat something and still service the odd customer.

Currently there were no customers so Willy used the opportunity to prepare his dinner. Hunching down underneath the counter he shoved a TV dinner into the microphone and set its timer. Satisfied he had activated the microwave properly he rose again. Only to see Faith resting with her arms on the counter smiling at him.

"Hello Willy," she grinned impishly, "did you miss me?"

Seeing her there so suddenly caused Willy to nearly jump into the air and reach for his chest.

"Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick, kid," he said as he felt his heart pound in his chest, "where the hell did you come from?"

"I have my ways," Faith smiled as she fluttered her lashes at him.

"I thought I had closed the roof after your last visit," Willy said as he stepped backwards until he stood against his counter in the back, where he stacked most of his bottles..

"True," Faith nodded, "but I didn't come through the roof this time."

"Look kid," Willy said as he nodded towards the door, "somebody could come in any minute, and your boss put a large prize on your head. Now, you can trust your uncle Willy, but I can't vouch for my customers not to rat you out."

"No problem," Faith said as she held up a key swaying from her finger, "I put the closed for business sign up and then I locked the door. There won't be any interruptions."

"Good thinking, kid," Willy said nervously. Ever since her last visit Faith was giving him the creeps far more then Buffy ever did. She at least was straightforward. Fess up or get beaten. Faith was more into mind games and if there was anything Willy hated it were mind games.

"Now, I need to go and pee," Faith said as she got up and walked to the toilet, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do until I get back."

"Who? Me?" Willy said deadpan as he pointed towards himself, "I am the epitome of honesty."

No sooner had she stepped into the toilet and closed the door behind her as Willy raced towards the telephone.

"Hello, Willy here," he said after he dialed a number, "about that reward for information regarding Faith? It's still up, right? Good, have I something for you then, she's right here, in my business. If you guys hurry you can still catch her. Please hurry!"

Willy put down the phone and turned around. Directly into Faith's disapproving face.

"Willy, Willy, Willy," she said frowning as she folded her arms across her ample chest, "What am I going to do with you?"

Wasting no time Buffy landed outside Willy's bar and found the door locked. Again wasting no time she pushed against the door with enough power to break the lock and swung the door open. Then she stepped inside.

Inside the place was deserted. Buffy walked towards the back to check it and found it just as empty. By the time she returned to the bar Angel had also arrived as he stood in the entrance.

"We're too late," she said.

Before Angel could answer there was a loud ping from behind the counter, signaling that Willy's dinner was ready.

"When you said we were going far away I didn't think you meant this far," Bulma said as she studied the completely unfamiliar night sky. This was the second time she was on some alien world. Unlike planet Namek this world at least had a normal atmosphere. It even reminded her of a visit she once made to the Pacific Northwest.

"So where are we?" Bulma asked as she looked around.

"I'm sure if you ask the good captain he can give you a P3-something number," Belmovekk said, sitting on the stairs leading up to the Stargate they had come through a little earlier. He was using Bulma's laptop to study #14's diskey to see if there was anything useful on it. He had been since he, Frasier and Bulma had left for the SGC to take Bulma to the only safe place he could think off, off planet.

Suffice to say there were some at the SGC who weren't pleased to see him. Especially one elderly colonel who had just recovered after having been crippled with severe muscle pains for the last couple of days. Or one General Hammond, for him turning up with the heiress of the Capsule Corporation. A corporation which handled much confidential research and development for the SGC. To say that Hammond was not very amused upon learning Capsule Corp. was connected to Belmovekk was an understatement.

It was after Belmovekk and Bulma had shown up that the portly general suddenly connected certain intelligence reports that surmised that Vegeta lived somewhere in San Francisco and that the Capsule Corp. Silicone Valley headquarters was located there as well, that he had to retire to his office and get his stomach ulcer medicine.

"Why me?" Hammond sighed in despair as he sat down in his swivel chair, "I truly regret the day I ever learned of Saiyans."

"You gotta keep this a secret from Washington," Samantha Carter said as she, O'Neill and Daniel came in after the general and closed the general's office door behind them.

"He should?" Jack said surprised, "We finally have a chance to nail that Saiyan's ass after all the trouble he's cost us and you want to let him off the hook?"

"How in blaze's name am I going to keep this a secret, major?," Hammond sighed, gesturing towards the conference room where Belmovekk and Miss Briefs were, "The Androids hit the Capsule Corporation. They're practically building the F-302 for us, there's no way Washington's not gonna notice."

"Well you have to tell them something but you can't tell them the truth," Sam said vehemently, "If the NID learns of this we're screwed."

"Besides the NID being assholes, why's that?" Jack asked dumbfounded, "Surely that Saiyan and the NID deserve each other, right?"

"Because…," Sam said looking around the room as if she was the only one who got it, then she sighed, "causality!"

Jack sighed and closed his eyes as he began rub them with one hand.

"Just pretend we're all stupid, Carter. We usually are, remember?"

"I think I understand what Sam means," Daniel interjected as he went for Hammond's white board and picked up a marking pen to illustrate what he was going to say, "More then a year and a half ago a warning was received, from a Saiyan claiming to be from the future, right?

"Yes," Jack nodded as Daniel drew Future Saiyan on the board.

"We now know that Vegeta regularly moves to and from San Francisco, close to the Capsule Corp. head quarters, which means it's fair to say he's connected to the place, right?"

"Yes," Jack nodded again as Daniel drew Vegeta on the board and drew an arrow from future Saiyan to Vegeta.

"Miss Briefs is said to be one of the most brilliant technical minds on the planet who can give Sam here a good run for her money, right?"

"Yes," Jack said as Daniel drew the name Bulma Briefs on the board and drew an arrow from Vegeta to Bulma Briefs.

"Now we all thought after learning Belmovekk had fathered some children that one of them was going to be the Saiyan from the future giving us the warning. But now we learned that, surprise, surprise, Miss Briefs just also happens to be pregnant."

"I still don't get it," Jack said as Daniel drew pregnancy on the board and drew a line from Bulma Briefs to pregnancy.

"Think about it, Jack," Daniel said as he drew a final arrow from pregnancy to future Saiyan, then he slammed the cap back on the marker and put it down, "Not only is Miss Briefs pregnant, most likely from Vegeta, she's also the only person besides Sam on the planet who, when given twenty years of prep time, is even remotely capable of building a time machine to send a person back in time."

"Oh," Jack said as the quarter finally fell.

"Causality," Daniel said as he looked at the board where the four words, together with the arrows formed a circle, "If somebody were to interrupt this little circle who knows what would happen?"

"It would be like that ruined Earth where Bulma's child originally came from," Sam said pointing to what Daniel had drawn, "We can't allow anybody, especially the NID to interfere."

"Why me?" Hammond sighed again as the enormity of it all sank in.

"We have to do as Belmovekk asked us to do," Sam said, "for the safety of the future and the timeline, Bulma Briefs can't stay on Earth until that final android has been found and taken care off."

And that was how Bulma found herself on some godforsaken world somewhere in the ass end of the Milky Way.

"I wonder how it works," Bulma said as she studied the only object worthy of interest on this world, the Stargate, "The technology that's behind the creation of creating a stable wormhole must be truly fascinating."

"I am sure the good major back at the SGC can send you a nice schematic," Belmovekk said staring at the laptop. Bulma was about to make a snide remark when they heard the noise of footsteps coming from the clearing's edge.

"No sign of anybody," Captain Petrelli, the CO of SG-15, said as he led his men back to the stargate, "We've even been to the compound where they ambushed SG-13. They're not here."

"Remarkable, good captain," Belmovekk said as he took #14's diskey from Bulma's laptop, turned it off and gave it to her so he could walk up to the captain, "Then why are there twelve Jaffa to the northeast of us watching our every move?"

Petrelli turned his head to the direction the Saiyan had indicated. If there were any Jaffa, he couldn't see any. And those guys were usually not that hard to miss in their shiny armor.

"I can't see anybody," he said as he gestured his men to proceed in that direction to check things out, "Are you sure, Saiyan?"

The three soldiers moved cautiously to the clearing's edge.

"No sign of anybody, captain," a lieutenant called back once they reached the spot the Saiyan had indicated..

Suddenly the grass came alive as four figures emerged from what seemed like the ground and threw off their camouflage covers. Within seconds Captain Petrelli's men were disarmed and had armed zats pointed at their heads.

"I am quite sure, captain," Belmovekk smirked as he patted the good captain on the shoulder. Then he walked towards the captured SG-15 team members and the Jaffa that were holding them. At least eight more of them emerged from the forest and all were dressed without their customary armor. Instead they wore a motley mismatch of improvised camouflage, like the outfits US Army snipers wore.

"They're wearing camouflage now?" Petrelli exclaimed incredulously as he and Bulma hobbled behind the Saiyan.

"You cannot always rely on your enemies to keep on making the same mistakes," Belmovekk said without sympathy for the unfortunate captain.

"Belmovekk, who are these people?" Bulma asked as she struggled to keep up with the Saiyan.

"They are good friends of mine," Belmovekk said as he waved towards the Jaffa.

"Why am I not surprised?" Bulma snorted.

"Emissary," the Jaffa commander said respectfully as he sank onto a knee to greet Belmovekk once he and his followers had reached them, "we have awaited your arrival as ordered. The First Prime sends his regards. He asks if our comrades are doing well?"

"They are. And you may give my regards back to him," Belmovekk said and gestured towards Bulma, "and as you do, I would take it as a personal favor if you were to give this woman shelter. She needs safe keeping until I come for her again."

"We will guard her with our lives, Emissary," the Jaffa commander nodded respectfully, then he signaled his men to let the captured SG-15 members go.

"You're foisting me off to these guys?" Bulma asked in 'the' tone. The one that had almost everybody except Saiyans cower in fear. Goku because he was, well, for lack of a better word, too dense to get the intricate subtleties of some women. Vegeta just didn't care enough to take notice of her anger. And Belmovekk because he knew that right now he was just a few hundred yards away from a stargate that could take him to safety across the width of the galaxy.

"Relax," Belmovekk smiled, trying to put Bulma at ease, "While technically, yes, I am shipping you off to live with these guys, they have a lot of interesting gadgets you can study. Just think of all the new technology you can patent once you come back."

Seeing that Bulma was quickly turning red Belmovekk turned to captain Petrelli.

"If you value your life and that of your men, good captain, then I suggest you run back to the stargate. And run fast. Because I will."

With his superior speed Belmovekk was able to make it to the gate and dial up the stargate before Captain Petrelli realized what was going on. It was only him having to wait for the wormhole to form that caused Belmovekk to still hear a deafening scream.

"BELMOVEKKK!"

It was getting late, really late now. How much longer would it take to shoot a damn sex scene, Xander thought. Even the best sex Xander ever had never lasted longer then 15 minutes. Yet here he was, still sitting on the sofa in some room as upstairs Madison's shoot took place.

Say what you want about these so called BJ scenes, it did have the advantage of him being spared hearing the constant fake moans coming upstairs. There were two things Xander could say about that matter. Firstly Madison was never going to win an Oscar. And secondly, like his mother used to say in better days, you can't speak when your mouth is full.

If only the same could be said from the male actors. Over the past hours Xander had heard more 'fuck's, suck this' and stupid bitch's' being said then he heard on MTV and VH-1 combined. Hell, he was pretty sure it even put Reservoir Dogs to shame and that was saying something. That and the constant sounds of Madison being not so gently slapped in the face was grating on Xander's nerves. Maybe it was because he hadn't seen any porn in a long time, maybe it was because his were older hand me downs, but Xander didn't remember porn to be this degrading towards women.

At least there was beer again while he waited. Sweet foamy nectar of forgetfulness. Who gave a crap that the Big Guy was always bashing the American good stuff? Calling it dishwater at best. It tasted good enough for Xander, it did the job and scoffing the ordinary over something special and obscure was a snob's trait anyway. Plus the more you drank, the better it tasted anyway.

Suddenly Xander heard the director instruct the guys to cover her face and the guys beginning to moan. That was his cue to pick up his beer and leave the house quickly. Maybe he should have done so long ago but now for sure. Cause if they were going to do to Madison what he thought they were going to do, he'd better make himself scarce or he was going to rip off some heads. And while he had a pretty good idea she liked a white knight coming to her rescue now and then, ripping off heads of fellow actors was probably a bit to much.

So Xander deftly took his beer and left the set, yet another San Fernando Valley home up in the hills. He made for Madison's car on the driveway outside and sat on the hood, so he could look out over the valley. In a way it was ironic. All over America teenagers loved to make out at places with views like this. And here he was at an actual make out point in the literal sense of the word and desperately wanted to get away from it.

As Xander looked up into the sky and drank from his beer he suddenly realized he really missed his friends. His oldest friend Willow, her odd Willowgasms as she stretched the human envelope of how much a person could talk before dying from lack of breath. Buffy, sweet Buffy with her Angel shaped appendage. Well, he wasn't really missing D.B. even though it always did feel good every time he managed to insult him with a zinger in front of everybody. Granted D.B. tried to zing him back, but that only helped to keep him sharp. Giles, crazy Giles, who had probably aged 20 years while he was trying to keep things from falling apart in his absence. The Ozman, forever trapped between fighting the forces of Darkness and trying to make it in the music world. Belmovekk, well, he had a feeling he would run into the Big Guy at some point sooner or later. He could sense him moving about the place. And judging from the erratic journeys it could only be related to those evil robots of his.

But mostly he missed her. The real Buffy. The others may call her the other Buffy or , but Xander had no qualms who was the real one. At least to him. Sorry Buff, you're as real as anybody else. But some Buffy's are more real then others. God he wished he could just have a talk with her right now. Have her chew his ass off for being such a whiny loser. Now all he had were memories. And they seemed to fade awfully fast. If only…..

Xander looked at the beer bottle he was holding. Maybe it was because he'd been drinking beer all day, maybe it was the late hour but suddenly he had an idea and it seemed like a good one. Like ideas can only be once you're under the influence of something. First he emptied his bottle. Then he concentrated and focused internally. It was harder because he had drank so much today, but perversely it was also helpful. Lowering his chi to the lowest level he could muster Xander looked at the empty bottle and an old quote came back to him.

"The kiss of a woman. Oft-sought, hard-fought, and veritably guaranteed to complicate matters...," he said solemnly, then he thought it probably made him look foolish, "ah well, nobody ever said I was the smartest…"

Then Xander smashed the glass bottle against his head.

Searing pain.

Throbbing pain.

Xander re-opened his eyes.

"Hey, it worked!" he said as he looked around and saw he was surrounded by infinite whiteness again, with immense gravity pressure taking hold of him again.

"Hello Jean-Luc, welcome to the afterlife." a voice heavily drowned in reverb said solemnly behind him.

As Xander turned around he could see it was Buffy, this time dressed in a Star Trek Starfleet uniform.

"What the….?" Xander said flabbergasted as he took her in. Buffy eyed her uniform, the red command version with admiral's insignia.

"You once mentioned how this place reminded you of that Star Trek episode," she said as she cupped her right elbow with her left hand and held up her right hand like she was about to snap her fingers, "The one where that bald guy died and the obnoxious one shows him how life would have been if he made some different choices."

She then snapped her fingers and in a white flash Xander's outfit changed to a Starfleet uniform as well. Naturally she had made him an ensign.

"How come…." Xander said as he eyed his new attire, "I thought you'd said you never saw the series?"

She shook her head and reached out to thump his forehead.

"It's all in there, Flyboy!"

She snapped her fingers again and in a flash rows of movie theatre seats appeared and a giant movie screen appeared playing the corresponding scene from Star Trek the Next Generation with Buffy sitting in one of the chairs, her feet resting on top of another chair and a jumbo bag of pop corn in her hands. Xander took the seat next to her

"Of course, I can see why I missed it," she said pointing to the screen, "this is about as nerdy as it comes. And what's with Rogaine Boy's Frenchness? He's about as French as my left foot. Drinking tea all the time, reading Shakespeare. Come on, not even Jeeves is that British."

"He's from the future, Buffy," Xander countered, "Things are different there."

"Yeah right," Buffy snorted, "The weather changes, fashion changes, the French? They stay the same. And why does Rogaine Boy allow the obnoxious prick to walk all over him? Omnipotent being or not, if it had been Captain Kirk up there he would have kicked his omnipotent ass seven shades of blue and still be back in time to nail the hot ensign. Even though on a pure technical level his fighting moves are below fledgling standard."

"Wait a sec," Xander objected as he turned his head to look at her, "Captain Picard has many redeeming qualities that Kirk lacks. For instance…. Why are we even talking about this?"

Buffy turned her head towards him as well.

"I thought it was always your greatest fantasy to see me in spandex? Okay, maybe the other me originally, but still…"

She now fully turned to him and purred into his ear.

"Do you like it?"

"Geez, Buffy," Xander said as he stood up and stepped back from her, "what's gotten into you? You were never like this!"

"Aw come on," Buffy moaned not pleased with his rejection, "I'm horny. All this time of you trying to repress your evil mental snapshots of your new girlfriend in action, seeing all those big dicks, how do you think that makes me feel?"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Xander yelled and turned around.

"I bet you she thinks differently," Buffy's voice said breathing down his neck, "I'll bet you that when she goes to sleep at night, knowing that you're on her couch, she starts to fantasize about you and reaches into her night stand for her big long….."

"Enough!" Xander yelled and looked over his shoulder, "Geez Buffy, again, you were never like this before! What's gotten into you?"

"How the hell should I know?" Buffy smiled as she sat down again, "I'm just your neighborly figment of your imagination. The one that only comes once you knock yourself out cold. Which is hardly the most logical of times, is it?"

"I suppose not," Xander admitted as he sat down next to her again, "Look, I'm sorry, Buffy, after having spent the whole day like Rip van Winkle in Porno land, fooling around with you is the least of my priorities. As Kami's my witness, if I ever hear another fake moan again I'll go impotent."

"Can't have that now, can we," Buffy grinned lasciviously as she reached for his crotch, "Gotta protect the warpcore from being breached, right?"

Xander squirmed into his seat.

"For the love of all that is holy and good in science fiction, Buffy, can't we just watch. I could use a little togetherness. I know you were never a big fan, but since you're now my figment of my imagination, could you please humor me?"

"You're no fun today," Buffy said bored as she leaned back in her seat, "nor is this episode."

"It's a classic episode!" Xander said pointing to the screen, "Q showing Picard what his life would be like if he had made some different choices. Who doesn't think of such things from time to time? I know I do."

"Why dwell on the past if you can't change it?" Buffy shrugged unimpressed, "You never heard me complain about old stuff. Stupid boring episode."

Xander looked up towards the endless white sky and rolled his eyes. It was clear that he was also rapidly forgetting how annoying she could be at times. Patience was never a Buffy virtue, neither of them and this one in particular.

"Fine!" he said holding up a hand, "You're the omnipotent being today. Why don't you snap your fingers and change the movie. I'm sure there are some WWF wrestling matches in my mind somewhere that are more to your liking."

"I know some great movies that are buried deep in your mind," Buffy grinned a bit too lecherous for Xander's taste.

"And NO porn!"

"Spoilsport!" Buffy moped, then she looked away snapping her fingers and the movie theatre setting disappeared except for the two seats they were sitting. It was time for the silent treatment. The one time most men aren't happy when their women stop talking.

"That is so typical," Xander said annoyed, "When things don't go your way its moping Buffy time."

"This isn't gonna work," Buffy said equally annoyed, "We're too different."

"Gee, do you think so," Xander said sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed."

"Then why do you keep coming back here?" she said angry, "Why don't you accept that I'm gone and link up with your pornstar? She may be messed up but hey, that's never stopped the Mighty White Knight before. She won't mind if you try to save her. I'm pretty sure she's begging for it. "

Xander buried his head between his knees and put his hands on his head.

"But she's not you," he said softly, "Flawed as you are, as I am, you're the one that I want."

Buffy patted him on the back.

"Poor Xander, forever wanting what he can't have and ignoring what he can get. Oh, that's a nasty gash you have on your head."

Xander looked up and saw that there was blood on his hand.

"Next time, try not to do something so stupid," Buffy said as she shook her head disapprovingly.

"Xander!" a new voice said, sounding extremely worried and things began to blur.

"Adieu mon capitaine," Buffy grinned one last time as she snapped her fingers. Next a giant flash happened and Xander looked up into the LA night sky again with Madison hovering over him, looking worried like crazy at him.

"Xander!" Madison cried out, "Wake up Xander!"

She was crouched over him, dressed only in a bathing robe, hair all wet again from another shower. Underneath the robe she was clearly naked and her ample enhanced breasts were dangling from the robe.

"Either I'm in Hell or LA," Xander moaned as he reached for his aching head, "Either way, the décor needs work."

"Xander, are you OK?" she asked as she sat up straight on top of him in semi relief, relieved that he was reaching consciousness again, still worried as to why she had found him unconscious and bloodied next to her car on the ground in the first place, "What happened, Xander?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Xander said as he looked around himself. He had fallen off the car and there were shards of glass around him. Okay, so maybe he was certain as to the how. But as to what exactly happened, as like after every time dream Buffy made her appearance he still wasn't sure.

Thump!

Suddenly Madison punched him in the chest. Not hard, more of a girlie punch.

"You had me so damn worried," she said angry, "I was just finished shooting and when I looked for you, you weren't there. Then I looked outside and saw you lying here and I ran outside."

"Does this mean we can finally go home?" Xander asked deadpan.

"You sure this is the place?" Faith asked as she stuck her head out of a manhole cover. As she looked around she saw she was right in the middle of a road and a car drove by her just yards away. She reached for the cover and placed it back above her head as she lowered herself back into the sewers again. As she did she found she was alone again.

"Willy?" Faith sing-songed in her most bored tone, "Don't make me come after you again! You know I'll find you again."

Around the corner of a sewer crossing a head cautiously peeked around the corner.

"Sorry," Willy said apologetic as he emerged. Faith walked up to him and put her arm around him.

"Shush," Faith said gently, as if in comforting a child, "You can't help being who you are."

"Does this mean you'll let me go?," Willy asked hopeful.

"No, cause I can't help being who I am either," Faith said as she bared her teeth at him in a feral grin, "The biggest baddest bitch this side of town who just got kicked out of the good guys club and if you ever do that one more time I'm gonna show you what it means to piss off a Slayer on her period! Comprendé?"

Willy gulped loudly.

"And I'm not kidding on the period part," Faith whispered in his ear, then she let go of him, "Now, to rephrase my original question, are you sure this is the right place?"

"Yeah, this is the place," Willy nodded quickly, a little too quickly for Faith's taste.

"Willy!" she said sternly, giving him a death glare.

"It is," Willy moaned like a child nobody believed, "I'm keep telling you, kid, the Sunnydale Activity Centre is where it's at. That's where The Committee gathers every other day. And considering you're on the loose they're probably there right now."

"Then why is there no sewer access?" Faith asked suspiciously as she pointed to the above ground centre, "You have the crème of the Sunnydale underworld gather in a community centre. I can buy that. It's Sunnydale. But I don't buy that there's no underground entrance. No way, even in this fucked up town, that there's no way a bunch of demons can gather in a public place like that!"

"Jeez, kid," Willy said in a pitying tone of voice, "Has it ever occurred to you that maybe not everything is connected to the sewer system?"

"And pigs might fly," Faith snorted incredulously.

"Who says they go in at broad daylight?" Willy shrugged as he took a step backwards, "Most of them are, whatchamacallit, nocturnal? Well, now you know. Can I go? I'm hungry!"

"Nice try, Willy," Faith said as she grabbed the steadily backwards moving Willy and threw him towards the ladder, "Now get up there!

"Why did I have to come to Sunnydale?" Willy muttered dejected as he climbed up while Faith followed.

"Welcome to the club," she said echoing the sentiment. They both climbed out of the manhole cover and Faith closed the cover behind her. Which wasn't so easy. Despite what Willy thought she had to be very careful and suppress her strength as close to the average human, lest she got noticed by B.. Who not only had scouter technology and chi sense at her disposal, but also the magic of both Red and Jeeves.

"Move!' she said as she shoved Willy along to go a little faster towards the centre. The walk towards the centre felt like the longest walk in her life but once inside Faith felt confident nobody had seen her. Strangely enough there didn't seem to be a doorman at the centre, but Faith was more or less used to that after having spent many a late night sessions at B.'s school.

"And now?" she asked impatiently while Willy studied a map of the building.

"I'm working on it, right?" Willy said annoyed at being abducted, forced, pushed and now rushed, then he pointed to a location in the basement, "There, that's where they get together."

"Always the basement," Faith muttered as she shook her head, then she shoved Willy again, this time towards the stairs, "Okay, let's go."

As they walked towards the basement room that was the furthest away Faith became curious.

"So, how long did it take you to rat me out to B.?" she asked, "Knowing you, you probably spilled the beans within seconds of her walking through that door."

"It wasn't me," Willy objected, but Faith just smiled and pushed him along.

"Yeah right!" she sniggered.

"But it's true," Willy moaned, "On my deer mother's grave, kiddo, scouts honor!"

"Liar! Your mother's still alive and well," Faith said.

"But I didn't," Willy said before getting another push in the back, "It really wasn't me! And while I admit that, yes, I sell information for money, the first rule of information selling is never give up anything for free. Yes, Buffy and Angel hit my place after that deputy mayor got killed, they only asked if I knew who killed him. It was the Committee that told them about you, kiddo, not me."

Faith began to laugh.

"They beat you to it, didn't they? You thought you could make some money by making B. sweat and then rat me out. Instead they beat you to it."

"Nothing wrong with making a little money," Willy whimpered, "Everybody else makes money, or makes fun of poor Willy, why shouldn't I?"

"What? Making fun of yourself? You're doing a great job of that already, Willy," Faith said as she patted his back.

"Yeah, everybody makes fun of Willy," Willy said dejected as he halted before a door, "This is it."

"You'd think they post guards or something," Faith said, a little surprised as she examined the door, one just like all the others down here.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I wonder about that myself," Willy nodded in agreement, "Usually there's somebody around. Some big strong guy. Can I go now?"

Almost out of instinct Faith reached out to nab Willy by his neck.

"You're not going anyway until I've met The Committee," she said, "and since there's probably nobody here that means you're stuck with me for a long time."

"Why me?" Willy moaned in disappointment.

"Well, here goes," Faith said and reached for the door handle. Half expecting it to be locked it opened instead and a thick dense smoke greeted her as she and Willy stepped inside.

Inside the room four demons sat round a table, seemingly playing poker and smoking cigars. Two of the demons could pass for human, with the right clothes, one had huge horns, like he was some Texan longhorn bull and the fourth one was covered in scales, like he was a lizard or something like it.

"Who the hell are you?" the scaly demon hissed, a snake like tongue emerging from his mouth.

"Holy shit!" one of the human looking demons muttered aghast as he recognized Faith.

"Dude!" Bighorn said big eyed as he gestured towards Faith, "It's her! The rogue Slayer!"

"Where the fuck is Antwon?" the other human looking demon said, "Why isn't he…."

"Hi guys," Faith said as she closed the door behind her, dragged Willy along and sat down by the table, then she pointed for Willy to sit on an empty chair next to her. As he meekly did she looked around, into each of the four demon's eyes.

"So, what kind of game are we playing here?" she grinned. Before one of the demons could answer she heard the sound of a cat meowing. She stretched her neck and on the other side of the table she could see a big cardboard box.

"Again for the kittens," she said in a pitiful tone, "What's with the kittens?"

"It's a demon thing," Bighorn said without realizing it. Then the door opened again and another demon came in, also covered in scales, be it in a slightly different color then the one who sat opposite Faith.

"What the….?" the newcomer muttered surprised.

"And you must be Antwon, right?" Faith smiled over her shoulder..

"Where the hell were you, you imbecile?" Snakehead asked the newcomer, obviously not very amused. Antwon looked around the table, not sure what to say.

"I had to go," he said uncomfortably and pointed to his groin

Snakehead threw his cards down on the table in anger.

"You always have to go, you weak bladdered imbecile! You're supposed to be on guard, you nitwit! Not walk away and let anybody just walk in!"

"I'm sorry, uncle," Antwon said apologetic but uncle Snakehead wasn't having any of it.

"You idiot! Stupid dumbass! Oh, that's it, Teresa be damned, tonight you're gonna wear your ass for a hat, Retard! That's what you get with family, a cousin of my wife."

"You want me to throw them out uncle?" Antwon asked meekly but one look by Snakehead at Faith was enough to dissuade him from that.

"Nobody's leaving the room," Faith said as she held her hands apart and let a small ball of blue energy form between them. It was just harmless energy, and probably more of a show then was wise. But it had to be made, to show she not only held them in contempt, but also the Scoobies looking for her.

"No," Snakehead said as he shook his head after seeing Faith's lightshow, "You just go stand over here and grow a brain. And leave the talking to the grown-ups."

Antwon did as he was instructed and walked over to stand behind his uncle.

"So," Faith asked as she re-absorbed her energy, "what brings you gentlemen all together at this late hour? Other then playing cards that is."

"Nothing, we're just playing cards," Bighorn said nervously, who actually was still holding some in his hand.

"Aw, come on," Faith smiled, "you can play cards anywhere in a dozen better places then this? I've never heard of hot action taking place in the basement of the community centre. I mean, where's all the things that make it fun? Where's the booze? The cigars? Okay I can see cigars, but still?"

"It's just a friendly game," Snakehead said, holding up both hands trying to look honest, "My wife would kill me if she found I was playing cards. So a cousin of mine, not this idiot here, but one who works at the centre allows us to play here in the evenings."

Faith smiled again as she held up her hands and slowly clapped in the most condescending manner to show she didn't believe a word of it.

"And pigs might actually fly," she said ruefully, "Now, we can go on telling fairytales that nobody believes or let's do some business. I'm looking for a local group of demons that call themselves The Committee and a little birdie told me you guys were it."

As if to illustrate her point Faith smiled at Willy, causing the barkeeper to bury his face in his hands.

"You rat bastard!" Bighorn said angry as he threw his cards at Willy, "You're worse then the National Enquirer! Is there absolutely nothing you can keep a secret?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Willy moaned dejected.

"Bah." one of the human looking demons snorted as he folded his arms across his chest, "Besides spineless, also gutless!"

"The same little birdie also told me that when it comes to knowing things you guys know everything that happens here in Sunnydale," Faith continued, looking at each member of the Committee, "Which is most fortunate cause I need to know some things myself."

"Look Slayer," Snakehead said as he pointed in the general direction of where Sunnydale High was, "We would like to help you, but we don't want to incur the wrath of the other Slayer. No offense, Slayer, but she's stronger then you. And even if she weren't, one word of her will send her scary stepdad down our backs. And he can probably tear this state apart if he's in a foul mood. If you go now we'll not send word to the English idiot for 15 minutes."

Faith looked at Snakehead, then she began to laugh like she just had heard the best joke ever.

"Oh, you crack me up," she said pretending to wipe away a tear, then her face turned dead serious again, "How about my offer? I may be the weaker Slayer but I can still tear this town apart and unlike B. I'm sitting right next to you. Tell me what I want to know and I won't wear all your guts for garters."

The four demons looked at each other.

"What do you want to know?" human looking nr. 1 asked.

"Where's Trick?" Faith asked deadpan.

"Trick who?" Snakehead asked equally deadpan, causing Faith to hit the table with enough force to shake up everything on it.

"You know!" Faith said, for the first time angry, "The black vampire that came with Kakistos to this town. And who's still here."

"Oh, that one," Snakehead said nervously as he looked at human looking nr. two, "Didn't he leave after Buffy and her friends killed his boss?"

It was like the room temperature suddenly dropped to below freezing, Faith became that angry, causing Willy to eye the door nervously. Even the kittens stopped meowing. Faith slowly rose and leaned over the table.

"What did I say?" she spoke softly, "I know for a fact that he was still here during the army base incident."

"Oh, that one," Snakehead grinned nervously as he looked at Bighorn, "There were some rumors weren't there?"

"Sure," Bighorn echoed and nodded vehemently, "Larry, he worked at the base, he mentioned something about a black vampire, well dressed, might have been him. But we really haven't seen him since. Honest! Scouts honor, cross my heart, hope to die."

Faith eyed Bighorn wearily.

"Let me put it this way," she said, "I know you guys ratted me out to B., but which of you ratted me out to Trick? Who passed on what I told Willy here to the assassin that killed the deputy mayor?"

The silence that followed was deafening.

"What? Don't you all fall over each other trying to talk," Faith said as she looked around the table, "My bitch Willy here has told me that he passed the information onto a guy of yours. Since ya'll the spiders in the web it had to come past you."

"Well, I heard about it," Bighorn said, the first to break the silence, "but only after it happened. I was away at the time."

"Yeah right," Faith said as she raised her hand towards Bighorn, ready to release an energy blast at any moment, "The old 'I wasn't here at the time'. Wrong answer, goodbye!"

"Wait!" human looking nr.1 said as he stood up gesturing Faith to stop, "It's true! Tex wasn't in town at the time. He was away in LA doing some business for us."

Faith lowered her hand slightly.

"Guess you're off the hook, Tex," she grinned, much to Tex's relief who let out a big sigh, then Faith's grin went away and her hand moved towards human looking nr.1.

"Since he wasn't here that means you were!"

KREK!

With a loud discharge she fired an energy attack into human looking nr.1 and his head exploded, splattering flesh, bone and brain matter all over everybody. For a few seconds the body remained upright, then it fell over, crashing into the table and breaking it in two. Next Faith turned around and pointed her hand at Antwon, who had moved towards the door and was three steps away from it.

"Make one wrong move and you're next," she spoke softly.

"HOLY SHIT!" Willy yelled, the first to come to his senses, "Holy shit!"

"What's it going to be, Antwon?" Faith meanwhile said to the demon near the door.

Antwon, despite his lack of a brain, quickly realized this wasn't a fight he was going to win, raised his hands into the air and slowly moved away from the door. Which was just as well, Faith thought because she didn't think she could get away with doing another blast. Her blast probably made every chi sensitive and scanner go haywire. She only thought she'd get away with it because she had done it so quickly. The fastdraw she called it, raising her chi from low to high enough to shoot a blast and then lower it again immediately. The result of too much afternoons watching crappy westerns in her motel room. It probably would have been better to have used a hand to hand move but she knew the situation called for something flashy and dramatic.

"Holy shit," Willy yelped, lost in his own horror.

"Are you crazy?" Tex yelped aghast, goo dripping from his horns, "Why did you that for? He just stood up for me, for god sakes!"

"Holy shit!" Willy yelped again.

"That wasn't smart, lady," Snakehead said as he began to wipe human looking nr.1's goo of him, "You may have just killed the guy you were looking for. If you wanted to make an example, why not kill Tex or Antwon?"

"Holy shit!"

"Over there," Faith said towards Antwon, signaling him to stand behind the other demons again, then she turned to Snakehead.

"Simple," she said grinning like she hadn't blown somebody's head off, "If Headless had been guilty he would have let Tex become the object lesson. By standing up for him he proved his own innocence, making an even better object lesson. Which means whoever ratted me out is one of you two."

"Holy shit!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" human looking nr.2 yelled, holding up hands full of brain goo, "You're crazy, bitch! In fact, you're beyond psycho!"

"Holy shit!"

"Oh, can it," Faith said annoyed and delivered a swift blow to the back of Willy's head, sending the barkeeper down unconscious. Then she raised her hand again, going from Snakehead to human looking nr.2 and back again.

"Now, which of you two rats told Trick where to find the deputy idiot?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, I didn't do it," human looking nr.2 said, starting to get worked up.

"Kill me if you have to," Snakehead said as he folded his arms across his chest," my conscience is clear."

Faith moved her hand from one to the other.

"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe," Faith singsonged as her hand moved with every utterance. She seemed just about ready to fire at Snakehead when she turned her head to Tex.

"Tex, who was…, why Tex?" she asked the big horned demon curiously.

"I… it's a, um, nickname," Tex said pointing to his two huge sideways growing horns, "like the, um, Texas…"

"Like the Texas longhorn," Faith said ruefully, "Well, Tex, I was hoping for something a little more original. But I guess that's life. Now, before I came in, who was winning your little game?"

Tex pointed to human looking nr.2.

"He was. But usually …."

Before he could finish the sentence Faith reached behind her and pulled out a knife, the size of which would make Rambo green with envy, which she then threw it into human looking nr.2's left eye. Human looking nr.2 grasped for the knife's handle protruding from his eye, then his brain finally registered he was dead and he collapsed on top of human looking but now headless nr.1.

"Holy shit!" Tex gasped as Faith stepped over and yanked the knife from human looking nr.2's head.

"You had me at usually, Tex," Faith said casually, like what she was doing was the most common thing, then she looked at Snakehead, "Him however, I can spot a poker face a mile away and he had one the whole time."

"What, Jonny?" Tex said incredulously as he looked at Snakehead, "You think Jonny betrayed you?"

"Oh, I know so now, Tex," Faith said confidently as she wiped her knife clean, "Time to bare up, Cobrahead!"

Although shaken by what he had seen, Jonny the Snakehead managed to keep his cool.

"Do what you want Slayer," he said, like he knew he was going to die, "My conscience is clear."

"Are you crazy, Jonny?" Tex said, unable to believe what was happening, "This isn't Buffy you're dealing with. She only beats you up. She on the other hand is psycho enough to kill you. Like she did with Fu'que'wa and Heartiste!"

Faith stepped in, her knife at the ready.

"You seem awfully willing to die," she said as she walked past Jonny and Tex, up to Antwon, "either you have a death wish, or you're a religious nutter willing to ride the martyr train or…."

Faith was about to put her knife against Antwon's by now very nervous throat when suddenly she was jumped from behind by Jonny.

"Run," Jonny hissed at Antwon while he wrestled with Faith, "Run you idiot!"

While the two wrestled Antwon was too flabbergasted to move.

"What are you waiting for, braindead moron!" Jonny yelled again, "Hurry!"

Normally a demon like Jonny wouldn't stand a chance against a Slayer, let alone a Sunnydale Slayer. But he had correctly guessed by Faith's use of the knife that she was lowering her strength. Being a member of The Committee had its advantages. Namely you learned a lot of observations on the Slayers, their friends and the big scary one. And one thing they discovered was that they could vary their power, lower it if need be. And that they had means to detect each others power. Which meant that Faith had to keep a low profile else she get her fellow Slayer down her back. When she had used a chi blast to kill Heartiste Jonny had doubted his theory but it came back after she used the knife on Fu;'que'wa.

So taking advantage of the situation Jonny attacked Faith, hoping he would buy precious seconds before she threw him off, enough time for Antwon to get away. While Jonny had no love for Antwon, truly despising his wife's cousin, he was however his wife's favorite cousin. And Jonny was, if anything, a devoted and loving husband. He had promised her to look after him and he'd rather die then be the one to tell her was the one who got her favorite cousin killed.

As his uncle wrestled Faith Antwon finally got the message and made his escape.

Since her attacker proved to strong for her to wrestle otherwise Faith had to raise her strength. Which she did without hesitation. If this Jonny was that desperate to stop her from hurting his cousin then he was leverage for her to use. And you don't let leverage get away.

"YAAH!" Faith yelled as she raised her power, resulting a small shockwave that sent away her wrestling partner for long enough for Faith to throw her knife at Antwon. The knife hit Antwon in his lower stomach and the snake demon fell to the ground in the door opening, groaning with pain.

"NO!" Jonny yelled and raced to his fallen wife's cousin, "No, you murdering bitch! Easy, kid, easy. Why didn't you listen to me? You never listen, idiot!"

As Jonny held Antwon clutching his stomach, Faith came by and casually yanked the knife from the wound, causing it to bleed. Like she had turned on the tap or something.

"He needs a doctor," Jonny said towards Faith, "You've hit an artery. Please…?"

Faith knelt next to the two demons.

"You know what you have to do," she said deadpan as she held up her knife, "Who did you tell and where's Trick?"

"I can't," Jonny moaned, torn between what he knew he could tell and knowing what he had to tell to save his cousin, "I really can't, please, a doctor."

"Then he dies," Faith shrugged indifferent, "Either you sing or he bleeds to death. I don't care."

"I can't," Jonny said tear stricken, that is, if his snakelike eyes could produce tears, "you don't understand, Faith, he'll kill my family."

"And I don't care," Faith said indifferent, "then he dies. And you're wife's gonna be next so you might as well talk."

"It's the mayor," a voice called out.

Faith jumped up and turned around, only to see Buffy and Angel standing on the other side of the door opening.

"Hi Faith," Buffy smiled as the two Slayers looked at each other, "Been busy I see?"

"B." Faith said softly as she acknowledged her rival, "Nothing much, just your standard investigation."

"I've noticed," Buffy said as she stepped over Jonny and Antwon, and walked over to the demon with his missing head, "Messy, real messy."

"Can't all be as prissy as you, B." Faith replied, "Had to make do with what I had. What is this about the mayor that I heard?"

Buffy shrugged as she walked over to dead human looking nr. 2.

"We went to city hall and saw him walking and talking to your favorite obsession, you know, Puff Daddy."

"So it was the mayor," Faith said as she glanced at Jonny still holding his wife's cousin, "It all makes sense now."

Buffy put her hands in her sides and looked away.

"Yeah, I guess you were right after all, Puff Daddy was here."

Faith held up both of her two index fingers.

"Could you…. repeat that, B.?"

Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"He was here all along."

"Which makes…. ?" Faith said almost lecherously

"You we're right. Happy now," Buffy sighed.

"Absolutely orgasmic," Faith sighed, smacking her lips in the process.

"Look, now you know," Jonny said holding his wife's cousin, "Can I now, please, take care of this idiot?"

He wanted to get up but Faith pushed him down again

"No you don't," she said, "Do you know where Trick is?"

"Yes," Jonny nodded in defeat, "he's… he's below. Deep below."

"Then take me to him," Faith said, "B. and her boyfriend can take him to a doctor."

"No I don't," Buffy objected, "I'm not 911! Coat hanger boy here can play ambulance if he likes, but I won't."

"Hey," Tex said aggrievedly, "don't call me that."

"He's called Tex you know," Faith smirked, then her face turned serious, "Jonny here's going to take me to him and that's final. This is between me and Trick."

"Always the loner," Buffy said as she shook her head, "Haven't you ever heard of backup."

"Oh, I don't mind back up," Faith said coolly, "I just don't want yours."

"This guy's bleeding to death and you're stalling because you don't like me?" Buffy said incredulously, "Do you hate me that much, Faith?"

Faith pretended to think for a moment.

"No, B., I don't hate you, "she finally said, "I just think you're full of shit."

"Funny, I'm thinking the same thing here," Buffy replied offhand, "Now that we agree to disagree can we finally go or does Snakeboy have to bleed to death first?"

Faith looked at Buffy and her resolve face came on. Angel looked a little uncomfortable, as he seemed to understand that both girls had issues with one another that he didn't want to be in the middle off.

"Time to be a team player, Faith," Buffy said, folding her arms across her chest, "What's it gonna be? The only way out is through us."

Faith's reply came in the form of putting her fingers to the temples of her head.

"Tex, Jonny, close your eyes," she said calmly.

"Not again," Angel muttered as he averted his own eyes.

"Another solar flare?" Buffy said frowning, "Pathetic much, Faith?"

Instead of the expected solar flare Faith removed her hands from her temples and raised them into the air.

"VORTEX ATTACK!"

Suddenly the room and hallway were filled with all kinds of swirling and pulsating energy that reminded Buffy of the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the Nazi's opened the Ark of the Covenant and all kinds of swirling and deadly energy came out from it. Energy that melted off their faces. Faith's attack however didn't melt faces, but it did screw up with Buffy's senses as she suffered from a massive sensory overload. Enough to give an ordinary man an epileptic seizure.

She did however barely make out how Faith held up her hand and blasted a hole through the ceiling and the other stories above into the open air. Before she could react Faith grabbed Snakehead with two hands and then flew with him through the hole she had blasted into the open air.

"FAITH!" Buffy yelled as she finally moved and looked through the hole into the night sky. Curse Faith and her disco inferno attack. Even though it was by now rapidly subsiding her senses were still screwed, suffering the equivalent of her ears having undergone several hours of standing next to the PA of a heavy metal concert.

"When did she learn how to fly?" Angel asked flabbergasted as behind them Tex was throwing up his dinner.

"I don't know," Buffy said still pissed off, "There's a lot of things she seems to be keeping a secret lately."

Usually Faith had a good sense of direction. Exemplified by her ability to always find her way back to her motel room after a late night partying. But currently she had no idea where she was or where she was going. Wherever Jonny was leading her in the underground maze that was underneath Sunnydale, only he knew.

At least she could entertain herself reliving the look on B.'s face when she pulled off her surprise moves. Ah, B., always so arrogant in her superior skills. Well, she'd shown her. If you can't beat them, join 'em said a familiar saying. But there was also another one, can't beat 'em? Outsmart 'em. And unlike B. who wasted half her day in school learning useless stuff Faith had oceans of time to come up with innovative new moves.

Similarly with the flying. Instead of waiting for somebody to teach her like B. had, Faith wasn't going to wait to get what she wanted. Hers was an I want, I take approach. She asked Oz to 'borrow' some of the notes Giles had made and very uncharacteristically of her she spent days on end reading them. Combined with what she had managed to extract from Xander after buying him a few beers it was enough to piece together the basics of chi powered flight. It was like a revelation had happened.

Like every revelation it was all about how stupid one had been not to notice it before. It was dead simple. The closest analogy was that of the Harrier jump jet, which used moveable exhausts to push its thrust either backwards for flight or downwards for hovering. The only difference being that Faith had no moveable exhausts and used chi for thrust.

To the north of Sunnydale Faith had discovered a secluded canyon that she had used for flying lessons. This for two reasons. Firstly she didn't want B. to know that she was mastering the art of flight on her own, secondly she figured that flying in the open would attract the Air Force's attention. From watching the Discovery Channel however she'd learned that radar is not a perfect detection tool. It's easily disrupted by obstacles standing in its path and the canyon walls were her best shot at avoiding unwanted detection.

The downside of course was that she could never practice on her speed. She was excellent at hugging the dirt but most likely she'd fly like an elderly lady on a Sunday in the open air. It couldn't be helped. Choices meant consequences and this was hers.

Once she had escaped with Jonny the snakehead demon Faith made for a sewer entrance she knew near Evergreen Terrace. If you wanted to get deeply underground quickly, where the Hellmouth would shield you from detection, this was one of the best places to enter the underground system.

Making her best speed she reached the place within 30 seconds, ripped off the manhole cover, threw Jonny inside and then jumped in after him. As she closed the cover above her head she was amazed B. hadn't caught up with her yet. She knew for a fact that B. could cross the distance way faster then she had. Which either meant B. had let her go or she was still disorientated from her vortex attack. Since she also knew for a fact that B. was stubborn to the extreme it meant she was most likely more disorientated then she could have hoped for. Which filled her heart with pride. She had after all developed the vortex attack especially for B., to shock and awe a superior opponent other then through the solar flare. After all, there were only so many times you could get away with using the same move.

To say that her involuntary travel mate was happy was an understatement. For the first 15 minutes he complained bitterly all the way. Forever talking about his poor bleeding to death wife's cousin. Made all the weirder because he truly despised him. Faith had never seen a man, even if he was a demon, so utterly pussy whipped by his wife. Eventually it got to Faith and she slammed him against a wall.

"Look!" she said as she pulled out her knife again and held it up for him to see, "I don't know your wife, and she may rip off your balls because that idiot cousin of hers ended up with my knife in his belly. But she can only do that if you live to tell what happens now. And for now I'll cut off your balls and stuff them down your throat. So I finally can have some peace until you bring me to Trick. Got it?"

Jonny nodded quickly with wide open eyes. If anything the events of this evening had convinced him that unlike Buffy, who played by certain rules, Faith was crazier then a loon and far more capable of anything.

Faith sheathed her knife again and pushed Jonny to lead her towards Trick again.

"Now lead on! The sooner I get to see Trick, the sooner you get to check if B. or Tex have taken your wife's idiot cousin to a doctor."

After that Jonny kept his mouth shut .While it obviously sucked to be him, Faith had no compassion for him whatsoever. He made his bed by throwing it in with the mayor, if what B. had said was the truth. It made sense of course. If the mayor was the big bad guy it stood to reason why the deputy mayor wanted to get away from him. Why the cops had been looking for him and why they were generally so incompetent to begin with. Hell, it explained a lot of things.

The why wasn't even so important. In her Boston days Faith never cared much for the why, just that her Watcher told her which demon or vamp to kill and she'd stick something in them. With evil guys the motives were usually moot anyway. After all, that's why they were evil to begin with.

Suddenly Jonny halted in yet another tunnel, how he kept them apart she never knew, and turned around.

"We're close," Jonny said apprehensively, "Beyond these tunnels the vampire has his lair. It's just a question of following this tunnel. He is well guarded though so beware.

"Then let's go," Faith said pointing ahead but Jonny began to struggle.

"Why?" he asked, "I did my part, you don't need me? If the mayor knows I'm helping you he'll kill me and my family."

"And I'll kill you now and then tell him you did it if you don't go on," Faith said as she put her hand on the grip of her knife, "You're not going anywhere until I see Trick."

Bitterly moaning his fate Jonny led Faith on until they reached a larger cavern. One that ended in a wall with a big door. And outside the door, lit in the light of a series of torches stood two large bickering gryphons. The beasts had the lower bodies of lions, upper bodies and wings of eagles and a human upper torso with a humanish head and arms. The arms ended in sharp claws, as did the four legs and it was clear the beasts sported impressive sets of teeth. The only saving grace was that the two gryphons were too busy bickering with each other to take notice of the new arrivals.

"Crap," Jonny whispered as he and Faith took cover in a recess, "Vus and Vuwas!"

"What the hell are they?" Faith whispered as she eyed the creatures.

"Guardians," Jonny said aghast, "Ancient demons from the past. I knew the mayor had recently acquired their services but I didn't know they were guarding Trick's lair. Usually it's a pair of Kragh demons."

"How strong are they?" Faith asked as she eyed the two creatures.

"Vus and Vuwas are rumored to be way stronger then any Slayer or even Angelus as he was last year," Jonny whispered, "They can rip an ordinary human to shreds in seconds. But since you're not like any Slayer you could probably defeat them."

"Oh," Faith said relieved, "Then what's the prob?"

"Trick's on the other side of that door, and he's going to notice it if you're fighting those two gryphons."

"Crap," Faith muttered and turned to Jonny, "Is there any other way in?"

"Undoubtedly," Jonny replied, "but I don't know of any. I'm sure Trick does. That is why you have to be careful."

"Crap," Faith muttered again, then she put on her resolve face, "Full frontal it is. Do these guys have any weaknesses?"

Jonny shook his head.

"Their absolutely lethal. The only possible weakness I've heard off is that they're not that bright."

"Not that bright, huh?" Faith mused for a moment. Then she grabbed Jonny and together they stepped into the light where the gryphons immediately took notice.

"Faith, what the hell are you doing?" Jonny asked through clenched teeth, "They've seen us."

"Relax, I know what I'm doing," Faith said back as she held up her hand and waved in the torchlight, "Gents, or whatever I'm supposed to call you two, how are you?"

"Who are you?" one of the gryphons asked wearily. Its voice sounded surprisingly melodic.

"Who? Me?" Faith said as she put her hand on her ample chest, "Faith's the name. And this here is Jonny. Maybe you have heard of him? He's on very good terms with your employer."

"You mean the human?" the gryphon snorted as he crossed his arms across his chest, "He is cheap, gaudy and wastes our services on guarding a mere undead. Nor does he provide us with nearly enough honey."

"I see," Faith said as she halted, close enough but well outside the immediate range of the two gryphons arms and claws.

"Are you from the human?" the other gryphon asked hopeful, "are you here to bring us more honey?"

"I am," Faith said with a big grin not believing her luck, "I brought you a fresh shipment. If you would just come and follow me, it's rather large and I could not take it all with me."

"About time," the gryphon said as he (or she, it was hard to tell) smacked his clawed hands together. He was about to move after Faith when the other one stopped him.

"We're not supposed to go away from the door, remember?" he said slowly, emphasizing every word. This was not to the liking of the other gryphon.

"Why do you always have to spoil the fun, Vuwas? Why can't you be happy for me instead? We're finally getting some honey."

"Somebody has to be the smart one, Vus," Vuwas said and pointed towards Faith, "She didn't even give us the safe word, remember?"

"Yeah, that's right," Vus said as he turned to Faith, "What is the safe word, human?"

Faith sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Alright, you got me," Faith sighed, "Me and Jonny came here to see the vampire. Can we pass?"

The two gryphons looked at each other and laughed, then they both turned to Faith.

"No," they said in unison.

"Bummer," Faith muttered dejected, "So what now?"

"Now we're going to kill you two," Vus said causing Jonny to whimper.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God oh…..".

"And what if I don't want to get killed?" Faith asked with a growing smirk on her face.

"Then we'll come after you," Vus said, only to have Vuwas slap him on the head.

"Idiot!" he said angry, "We're not supposed to leave the door, remember?"

"Aw, crap!"

Now Faith slapped her hands together in glee.

"Then it would seem we have a Mexican standoff here, gents," she grinned.

"Mexican what?" Vus said to Vuwas, but he shrugged. Then he turned to Faith

"Why don't you save us all a whole lot of trouble and step over here so we can kill you?" Vuwas asked hopeful

"Tell you what," Faith said conspiratorially, "I'm going through that door there and there is nothing you gents can do about it."

"You got to be kidding?" Vuwas said incredulously, "How are you going to do that?"

"Simple," Faith smirked, "Catch!"

Suddenly Faith grabbed Jonny and threw him towards the two gryphons. Caught unaware Jonny landed right in between them and before he knew what was happening the two gryphons were ripping into him

"FAITH! OH GOD! NO! AAAAHHHHH….."

While the two gryphons were distracted Faith used her superior speed to move past them and she opened the door, stepping through. As she closed the door behind her she found a room covered in darkness.

In order to alleviate the darkness Faith created a sphere of light over her upheld right hand. It created some light in the darkness but not enough to illuminate the room, which seemed to be vast.

"TRICK!" Faith yelled, "Are you in here, you bastard!"

At first there was no answer. Then it came.

"You shouldn't have come, Faith," a familiar voice suddenly spoke.

Faith looked around she couldn't see much in the dim light.

"Quit being melodramatic and show yourself, you bastard," she yelled.

Then the torches went on and the place was illuminated, finally giving Faith a chance to see where she had ended up.

The place was huge and roomy, like a cathedral, it looked like it could house an army. It also put the gravity gym to shame with a large round arena where people could fight. Behind Faith was the door through which she came and behind which the two moronic gryphons were even now most likely feasting on poor Jonny's body.

On the opposite side of the arena a large stairway led into the wall, and where it disappeared into the wall stood her nemesis, Trick. He was without his customary suit and tie, instead he wore just a pair of trainers and black training pants.

"Welcome to my humble place, Faith," he said as he walked down the stairs, his hands extended like he was welcoming her, "What took you so long? I was expecting you long ago."

"I was delayed," Faith replied as she walked towards the center of the ring. There she awaited Trick's arrival.

"I've heard," Trick grinned as he reached her, "Ran into a little trouble with your friends?"

"No thanks to you!" Faith bit back as the two of them began to circle each other.

"I may have had a hand in it," Trick replied offhand.

"So how did you do it?" Faith asked, "How did you kill the deputy mayor?"

"I did it myself of course," Trick said, "I was a soldier in the Civil War, remember? I used to be a sniper in the 54th Massachusetts. The saying is true, some things you never forget."

"Clever," Faith said, then she assumed a fighting stance and brought her hands above her head to gather energy, "Enough talk. Let's fight. MASENKO!"

Faith brought the energy she had gathered in her hands in front of her and threw the yellow beam at Trick. Instead of dodging the attack Trick just stood there grinning. Then he folded his hands into a prayer in front of his face, with his index fingers standing upright against each other.

"TSUIHH!" Trick yelled when Faith's masenko was just two feet away from his face. The energy beam suddenly halted inches in front of his face. And then it reversed, going at an ever increasing rate back to Faith, who only barely was able to cross her arms in front of her and brace herself.

DOOM!

The loud explosion reverberated through the room as Faith got a dose of her own medicine.

Lucky for Faith her Masenko wasn't at full power. Part of her refused to believe Trick could be this strong. He always was a thinker. The brains behind the throne, never the fighter. It would seem she had to re-appraise the situation. As she was enveloped in dust she realized she was now caught in a real fight.

"Hello, Faith," Tricks voice suddenly said self-satisfied in her right ear. She immediately reached out and just barely blocked a punch to her head. She rolled with the punch using Trick's momentum against himself and threw him off his feet, so as the dust began to clear, Trick nearly keeled over, making a somersault on the floor before coming to a rest, eying Faith wearily.

Now it was Faith's turn to grin.

"What happened to the cocky 'tude, Tricky?" Faith said as she held out her hand and signaled Trick to bring it up, a la the Matrix. It always drove B. mad whenever she did it, the effect was similar on Trick and her Nemesis went on the offensive, unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks, which Faith could block, but which stopped her from taking the offensive of her own.

It did allow her to study Trick's moves. It was a style she was unfamiliar with. She had been told how some of their advanced martial arts had made it into the demon underworld through Spike and his psycho chick at first and then through Angelus. But Since Angel had never made it into the advanced Saiyan martial arts, what he did spread however was only basic stuff. Certainly not the six styles.

Yet somehow Trick was using some pretty advanced stuff. Oh, there were hints of Saiyan martial arts, stuff from the first and second basic form, but mostly it was a wholly different style. The Sisterhood of Jhe had its own style and this wasn't it either. He also seemed stronger then her. Way stronger. How on Earth had he done that? Had he somehow managed to unearth Angelus' spell?

Whatever it was, it was time to take back the initiative. If she couldn't match him in strength, maybe speed was the answer. Using her speed she evaded yet another strike only to slip away and began to ran circles around Trick.

"Maybe I'm here?" she said teasingly as she left behind a ghost image, only to have a second one appear behind Trick, "Or am I here?"

"Now I'm here!"

"Now I'm there!"

Trick looked around in befuddlement, then he relaxed and began to laugh.

"Is that the best you can do, Faith?" he said as he reached for a ring on his finger and touched the stone, "You seem to be quite fleet of foot. Time to clip your wings though."

Suddenly Faith felt something she never thought possible outside the gravity gym. Immense gravity pressure taking hold of her. And while she was used to it, even trained in even higher gravity, it did slow her down considerably. After all, it was now like walking through water.

"How do you like my little play pen?" Trick said, gesturing around the cavern.

"You got a gravity gym?" Faith exclaimed as she came to a stop," How did you…?"

"Faith," Trick said in his most condescending tone, "You fail to realize who my employer is. You think he's some mere bad guy? He built this town, Faith. This is his playground. He's been playing you guys all along. He created this place after he learned what your alien friend built for himself. He may not have access to advanced technology but he's wicked with the magic."

"Magic can do this?" Faith said bewildered. To which Trick shook his head.

"There are no limits to his power," Trick grinned, "Who do you think made me this strong? That spell Angelus used is kid's play compared to what he can do. What he can give."

"So that's how you got juiced up, huh," Faith said unimpressed.

"Indeed," Trick grinned, "and now Faith, time to finish what we both started back in Boston."

"Sure," Faith shrugged, "Before you bore me to death."

"That's what I like about you, Faith, forever the optimist."

Then Trick leaned forward, his fists extended and began to concentrate.

"NAH!" he yelled.

"NAH!"

"Are you constipated or something?" Faith asked mesmerized as Trick continued to concentrate. She should attack. It was the smart thing to do. But part of her wanted to see what Trick was coming up with now."

"NAH!"

Then two bumps began to grow rapidly on Trick's back, around the shoulder blade area.

"What the…." Faith gasped, then to her horror two arms sprouted from the two bulges on his back.

"Raaaah!" Trick yelled and began to pant heavily as he began to flex his new two arms.

"What the hell!" Faith exclaimed, "How…..?"

"Oh my, granny, what extra pair of arms you have," Trick grinned as he assumed a four armed fighting stance, "That is so I can pummel you better to death, my child!"

"Screw this!" Faith said and brought her hands to side of her head, fingers touching her temple, "TAIYOKEN!"

For an instant the cavern was lighted brighter then a thousand suns. Which was exactly the moment Faith used to launch herself at Trick, making a blindingly fast head roundhouse kick for Tricks head.

But to her surprise the attack was stopped and as the light subsided she saw that one of Trick's arms had blocked the attack while Trick looked at her through the fingers of two hands that had covered his eyes, shielding him from the solar flare.

"A solar flare, Faith?" Trick said disapproving, "I'm disappointed in you. You're repeating yourself."

"As I recall at the time you chickened out just before I did it," Faith said.

"It's interesting that you used the solar flare though," Trick smiled, "And highly ironic, my teacher trained the guy who invented it."

"Oh, shove it!" Faith hissed and stepped back. Upon which Trick began his four armed attack.

The four armed assault however was troublesome, but to her surprise Faith learned it didn't really cause her that much more problem then Trick's earlier assault. Oh, he was powerful alright, but he lacked the experience to really take advantage of it. And while the additional two arms made it even more difficult for Faith to get in a blow, it ironically enough also made it harder for Trick as well. As all too often the two additional arms got in the way of the original arms.

"So, how's it working out for ya?" Faith began to smirk, "Do you like your new arms?"

"Shut up," Trick sneered and disengaged. As he did he concentrated again and the two arms disappeared.

"Poor Trick," Faith smirked, "Forever the thinker, the only lieutenant who always got his boss to do the dirty work. Had you actually done some of that fighting yourself you might actually have been lethal with those arms."

Having gotten a breather from Trick, Faith wasted no time to take the offensive. See how he held up under constant attack. She had often seen in the gym how Xander had kept up with Buffy's superior strength by using superior skill and a greater array of tactics. Granted, he usually fought for a draw, but the situation was similar to hers.

Trick on the defensive was even more disappointing then on the offensive. Even his tactics showed it. Whoever had trained him seemed to place little emphasis on the defense. And while it was true that the best defense was a good offense, a good defense was still the basis of everything. Exploiting the gaps in Trick's defense Faith began to pummel him mercilessly.

But while she showed Trick all corners of his private arena of death, and although his defense was, inadequate, Faith never quite managed to deliver the killing blow. For that the strength difference was just too great.

Eventually though Trick had enough of Faith's constant attacks and revealed another new trick of his, he rose into the air until he was halfway to the ceiling.

"You're friends are not the only ones who know how to levitate," Trick said, his voice regaining some of his arrogance again, "Too bad they weren't much of a friend to you. Buffy nor the alien never taught you how to fly, did they?"

To Trick's surprise Faith didn't burst out in anger, she just smiled. She then rose up into the air as well.

"Oops," Faith said in her most girlish voice as she brought a finger to her lips, "It would seem your information is a little out of date. You see…. I cheated."

"Bitch," Trick growled, "Time to die!"

Trick held up one hand in the air and began charging a pinkish glow in his index finger.

"Oh, goodie," Faith said pretending to be excited, "Energy attacks, two can play that game."

Faith brought two fingers to her forehead and began to charge energy as well. She hoped she would have enough time to charge her attack, the Makankosappo was the strongest attack she knew of, only Big B.'s Fire and Blood was potentially stronger but he never taught it to anybody else yet. Even with their strength difference the Makankosappo could finish Trick.

If she got enough time to charge that is.

Unfortunately for her Trick didn't give her that change.

"DODOMPA!"

A pinkish beam shot forth as Trick fired his attack at Faith, cutting short her charging.

"Should have gone for B.'s move," Faith muttered before firing her own attack prematurely, "MAKANKOSAPPO!"

A dark red/purplish beam shot forth from Faith and met Trick's attack. But it was to no avail. A second more and her attack would have been equal, two seconds more and she would have pushed back Trick's attack. Now Faith was faced with the combined energy coming her way and she quickly stopped pouring energy into her beam.

KABOOM!

A massive explosion rocked the cave, the shockwave of which produced a tremor that rocked Sunnydale, causing seismographs all over the Western United States to go off and register a slight earthquake.

Inside the cavern Faith had only barely managed to evade being in the epicenter of the blast by launching herself at the ceiling. When the explosion happened she got slammed against the ceiling and then fell exhausted to the ground.

She tried to get up, but there was just no strength left in her arms. Given a minute she'd recover but Trick would most likely not give her that minute. With all the dust she couldn't see the bastard, the Hellmouth screamed in her mind with whatever limited chi sense she had. But her Slayer instincts told her he was close. Very close.

"End of the line for you, Faith," Trick's smug voice said, "Time to join your Watcher, wherever she is now."

Bastard! Faith thought, if only she had the strength. If only she was better trained. But no, it was always Buffy that got the better of things. Buffy who was the center of things, the Watcher's pet, the Saiyan's darling. If that furry tailed asshole had spent as much attention on her as he did on his darling Buffy, Faith would have wiped the floor with Trick.

Instead Trick picked her up and as the dust began to settle again he dusted down her clothes. What remained of them.

"No need to die dirty," Trick grinned as he steadied her, then he stepped backwards.

"KIAI!" he yelled and a blastwave of chi struck Faith like a ten ton hammer, sending her backwards across the floor in pain.

"Not like this," Faith said defiantly through gritted teeth, "Not like this!"

"KIAI!" was Trick's response and another chi blastwave hit her .

"Not like this!" Faith groaned as she slid across the floor again. Trick walked after her in a contemptuously slow pace, giving Faith the opportunity to crawl up before hitting her again with another blastwave.

"KIAI!"

This time Faith slid backwards and almost hit the wall. Somehow she got up on her knees and began to pound the floor.

"Damn it, this isn't fair!" she yelled, "I came this close! Damn you, Buffy! Damn you all! I need more power!"

"What if I were to give you that power?" a voice suddenly spoke in her mind, "Would you take it?"

"I'll take anything from anybody from anywhere," Faith replied determined.

"You sure, Faith?" the voice said questioningly, "This may be one bridge you're not willing to cross."

"Cross?" Faith said incredulously, "I'll nuke that bridge if I have to!"

"That's my girl!" the voice then said triumphantly.

It took a moment for Trick to unleash his next attack but he planned it to be his last, gathering everything he had left in it to knock Faith against a very lethal and sharp rock protrusion behind her.

"KIAI!" he yelled as he unleashed his final and lethal blastwave.

Instead of Faith being knocked back against the sharp rock she suddenly stood her ground and took Trick's blast head on.

"What the…" Trick exclaimed as Faith leaned forward and put her hands by her side in an all too familiar move, "What another solar flare, Faith? Can't you think of anything else?"

Faith began to grin.

"As a matter of fact…." Faith smirked, then instead of bring forth the expected solar flare she raised her arms into the air.

"VORTEX ATTACK!"

Suddenly it was like Trick was suddenly caught in a 60's acid trip. A bad 60's acid trip. Weird and strange colors began to swirl around him as energy shards moved through the room, confusing his senses and working their disorientating effect on his subconscious.

While Trick was disorientated Faith brought two fingers to her forehead and focused her energy. She still didn't understand what was happening but somehow she'd gotten a second wind and she fully intended to exploit it. As Trick staggered around in confusion she lifted herself ten yards into the air and charged her attack for what seemed like an eternity, ten seconds.

"Shit!" Trick yelled as he finally began to recover from Faith's LSD like attack. As he did, he noticed she was hanging in the air and charging what seemed like the same attack she tried to do before.

"Oh no you don't!" Trick yelled and launched himself at her, a raised fist ready to strike. The moment he got close however, in what seemed like slow motion, Faith moved aside at the last possible moment. As he passed her, the two fingers on her forehead that she was charging moved and she brought down that hand in one fell swoop, hitting his neck with every ounce of chi that was concentrated in there. And in doing so severing his head from his body.

"NO!" Trick somehow managed to scream before both his head and body separately burst into dust.

As Trick disintegrated into dust Faith fell back to the floor in exhaustion. Landing on one knee she lowered her head close to the floor and panted heavily.

"It's over, Lindsey," she said softly, and with far more gentleness then even Oz would give her credit for as she said the next part, "You can rest now."

Clap clap clap.

The sound of clapping woke Faith up from her revelry.

As she got up and turned around she saw a blonde man in a business suit sitting on the stairs, clapping politely and smiling at her.

"Well done, Faith," he said as he stood up and walked towards her, "You were magnificent."

"Who're you?" Faith asked weary. His voice sounded familiar, almost too familiar.

"Who I am is inconsequential, young lady," the man smiled as he stopped once he had reached her, "The real question you should be asking yourself is how do you feel? Well Faith, how do you feel now that you've had your revenge?"

Faith looked at the man, then at her own bloodied hands, still covered in Trick's dust. She then balled her hands into fists and felt raw power coarse through her veins.

"I feel great," Faith said almost exultantly.

"Good," the man smiled almost lecherously, "Then let's talk, Faith. We have much to talk about."

Some things were just too damn hard for a man to resist.

If the previous day's adventures of Xander in porno land were hell, today he had another installment coming. He had hoped to get cracking on the list of contacts Xichulub had given him when Madison dropped another bombshell on him by asking if he would come with her to yet another shoot. Yet another trip to the San Fernando hills so she could let others do terrible things to her body for money. He wanted to say no, he desperately wanted to say no. After all, he had things to do. But she gave him the puppy dog eyes look again, the ones his girls back in Sunnydale had managed to perfect as well. With cherries on top.

Some things were just too damn hard for a man to resist.

So he caved in and got in her car. Boy, did he have it bad. He couldn't help but wonder how bad it was going to be if he ever got married. Kaching! Xander Lavelle Harris, pussy whipped by a pair of sad looking eyes and a pair of pouting lips. And they dared call themselves the weaker sex!

Once at the location Xander met the director, and apparently also the main star, a guy with blond curly hair who hid his growing baldness by wearing a white cowboy hat. Xander hated him at first sight. He made Cornholio look like a saint by comparison. As was now customary Xander excused himself to grab some beers in the kitchen and hang out in the garden, far away from the moans as possible. Damn, he was never going to look at another porn flick ever again.

The view was again spectacular as Xander leaned over the railing, first looking down into a 300 feet sharp drop, then over sunny LA, City of demons. There were probably more of them here then in Sunnydale, Xander suddenly realized. And yet even though LA was a wild city, it still was nowhere near as bad as Sunnydale had been. Most of the violence seemed to be human related. Maybe that was why demons felt so at home here. The natural chaos and the climate both suited them and they didn't have to do anything to achieve it either.

As Xander pondered and mused the various comings and goings that had brought him here he suddenly realized something. He may be stuck up here in the Porn hills of Porn town, nothing prevented him however from making a few calls and finally get started on his quest. Xander however didn't have a cell phone. All he had was a scouter and it was in Madison's apartment in his bag.

But he knew Madison carried a cell phone. It stood to reason that since she kept dragging him to these ghastly shoots the least she could do in return was provide some free cell phone time.

However she kept her cell phone in her purse. Which was in the dressing room upstairs. Ah well, time to brave the moans and be done with, Xander thought as he emptied his beer. Putting on a brave face Xander crushed the beer can into a tiny ball, then using his chi he vaporized the thing. After all, one had to be environmentally conscious these days.

He entered the house through the kitchen and made for the stairs. And that's when he ran into them.

Madison was spread naked except for a pair of high heels across the stairs, feet up, head down. And the guy in the cowboy hat (which was all he was wearing now) was stuffing his dick down her throat so much he could practically see her throat move. As he did he must have triggered a gag reflex because suddenly chunks and bile came flying from her mouth and nose. This was his cue to disengage and take his dick from her throat. Then, to Xander's sheer amazement, instead of going to the bathroom to clean himself off and get a towel he pointed his dick at her face and began to pee while she was still coughing.

Something snapped inside Xander and before he knew it he jumped in between Madison and the naked cowboy and lashed out with his chi. Naked Cowboy flew backwards and crashed against a wall, knocking the wind right out of him. His cowboy hat fell off, showing his balding scalp as he collapsed on the floor.

"Hey!" the camera man said as he lowered his camera so he could look at Xander, "What the hell do you…"

Faster then seemed humanly possible the camera was grabbed from his hands into that of the angry teen. Without saying a word the teen held the camera up between his hands, touching the lens at one end and the back at another. Then while shooting looks of sheer venom he crushed the camera between his hands like it was made from cardboard until both of his hands met.

Xander let the flattened camera fall and turned around to Madison.

"Come!" he said as he held out his hand towards her. She took it without questioning at first and he pulled her up and dragged her along upstairs.

"Xander, what are you doing?" Madison asked as she let herself be dragged. Once upstairs Xander halted, turned around and pointed towards the dressing room.

"Get dressed!" Xander commanded, "We're leaving!"

She seemed like she was going to do it but then she stopped.

"Xander, I'm working," Madison protested, "You can't just…."

"You call this work?" Xander erupted as he pointed downstairs, "Letting some balding asshole stick his dick down your throat until you puke, then piss all over you? I'm sorry Madison, I've killed demons for less. He's lucky I didn't rip his dick off and stick it down his throat!"

"It's just make believe," the girl countered, "It's not…."

"Don't tell me it's not real!," Xander yelled, he then brushed her mouth with his hand and held it up for her to see. There was piss and puke on Xander's hand.

"Make believe is Industrial Light & Magic making special effects. This does not look like make believe, Madison. I can't believe you even defend that piece of shit. Only piece of shit whores do such things."

"So I'm a piece of shit whore now?" Madison said angry. And then it happened.

What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion, like he wasn't there but was looking through somebody else's eyes. As a strange noise drowned out everything he remembered Madison raising her arm but to no avail as he was faster and his open hand struck her in the face. Kami be thanked that he somehow made it a low powered blow. Had he really been out of control he could have torn her head off.

Instead she fell to the floor clutching the side of her face that he had hit and braced herself, like she expected more blows to follow. Like she was used to the fact that the men in her life slapped her around. No protest, just assuming the position, just… routine.

"I'm sorry," she moaned, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so…."

He didn't hear the rest. The out of body experience was gone and the all drowning noise in his ears lessening so he could finally make out what it was. It was the sound of his father, laughing out loud like the Emperor from Star Wars when Luke gave in to the Dark Side for a moment. Even worse, to his horror Xander realized he also had his hand raised in the air for yet another blow. Seeing her like that and hearing the man he detested more then anyone in the world, every trace of anger left him and a part of himself died inside.

Xander lowered his hand and without saying anything he turned around and walked downstairs. As he did he passed Naked Cowboy who had regained consciousness again.

"Who the hell do you think you are, asshole!" Naked Cowboy yelled at him accusingly, but Xander didn't hear him. He just walked by, into the kitchen and then into the garden. He didn't hear how Madison came running after him and called his name. Nor did he hear her shouting when he walked towards the garden's edge and climbed the railing to look down into the 300 feet drop.

To Madison's horror Xander climbed over the railing, then he jumped over the edge and let himself fall.

In that moment of free fall he felt freedom. And as he lowered his chi to as low as was possible an almost sure knowledge that finally he was going to see her again.

And then….

Blackness.

Cue dramatic music

Numb

Linkin Park, album: Meteora, Lyrics by Linkin Park

Tired of being what you want me to be

Feeling so faithless, just under the surface

Don't know what you're expecting of me

Put under the pressure, of walking in your shoes

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

Every step that I take is just another mistake to you

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

I've become so numb, I can feel you there

I've become so tired, so much more away

I'm becoming this, all I want to do

Is be more like me, and be less like you

Can't you see that you're smothering me

Holding so tightly, afraid to lose control

Cause everything that you thought I would be

Is falling apart, right in front of you

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

Every step that I take is just another mistake to you

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

And every second I waste is more then I can take

I've become so numb, I can feel you there

I've become so tired, so much more away

I'm becoming this, all I want to do

Is be more like me, and be less like you

And I know, I may end up failing too

But I know, you were just like me with someone disappointed in you

I've become so numb, I can feel you there

I've become so tired, so much more away

I'm becoming this, all I want to do

Is be more like me, and be less like you

I've become so numb, I can feel you there

Tired of being what you want me to be

I've become so numb, I can feel you there

Tired of being what you want me to be

Postscript

I rarely talk about these little songs I stick at the beginning and endings of each part. Most of you will probably ignore them but a lot of thought has gone into selecting them, with often those songs on repeat during writing.

The begin song is supposed to reflect the general theme of the part, the end song the feeling the ending is supposed to convey. In this part things are slightly different because unlike the other parts I've begun posting chapters before the whole part was finished. And as happens so often, the feelings and themes I was hoping to convey changed, the price for not finishing the whole part first.

At the end of chap 8 I added Radiohead's How to disappear completely because it was a song about getting away, about escaping unbearable pressure. Which fit chapter's 8 theme of desperately wanting to get away and be herself again. And while Linkin Park has been used to death Numb does fit the theme of chapter 10 and part of 9.

Tired of being what you want me to be

Feeling so faithless, just under the surface

Don't know what you're expecting of me

Put under the pressure, of walking in your shoes

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

Every step that I take is just another mistake to you

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

This is Faith, never able to do anything right in the Scoobies eyes, forever the outsider, forever having to struggle to meet a standard she can't live up to until she says fuck you, I'll do it my way. And then falls into darkness.

Can't you see that you're smothering me

Holding so tightly, afraid to lose control

Cause everything that you thought I would be

Is falling apart, right in front of you

This is Xander, who feels like he's getting trapped into a relationship he wasn't even looking for by a girl who desperately wants to find somebody who looks after her, who's willing to settle for an abusive relationship, just as long as he takes care of her.