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

Chapter 15

'Graduation Day 2 – The Bitter End'

AN: Yes! Finally, the last chapter. And only 7 months behind my last schedule. Damn my way too optimistic time tables and lazy ass. At least it's finished though. Finishing a story is weird. You get into an ecstatic rush, where every finished sentence helps build up the high. The final battle was written in an epic two day high. The only thing that can beat that feeling is reviews. And recommendations! ;-) So let me know, as always it helps me to write the sequel.

While writing this story I suffered a serious setback when my computer began to act up, crashing whenever I started certain applications, like Winamp. Since I can't write in silence I decided to reinstall the damn thing. To my horror, my computer afterwards refused to recognize one of my hard drives, claiming it wasn't formatted. The one with all my music, and yes, all my writing files, research. Luckily I had learned the value of backing up my most important files, with backups of this story on my laptop and the most recent version on a USB stick. So the story got finished on my laptop instead. But it really sucked to lose so much good material. Always back up as much as you can, boys and girls!

On the plus side, I got me a new computer. And I did manage to recover my 'lost' hard drive. Data recovery software rules!

BOM!

With a loud thud Yamcha fell to the ground. For a moment the fall had him rendered senseless. Glorious anaesthetization through sensory overload. To bad it never lasted.

He knew there were ways to make it last longer though. Mind over body. That sort of thing. To bad that when the time came to train his mind over his matter, that's when he always found that he was surrounded by loads of hot women at the gym, who were admiring his hot body in return. It was a tough job satisfying all those women which meant that unfortunately some other aspects of his training tended to slip.

But then again, why even bother? For as long as Yamcha knew the guy Goku had always outclassed him. And Krillin. And Tien. Only Chaozu and Roshi himself were even lower on the scale. And they didn't even bother to show up any more. Maybe he should also accept that he could no longer keep up with the rest of them?

Then again, Belmovekk's kids were still in it, Some of them hot on his heels so to speak. They weren't giving up and if things continued as they had been they'd probably overtake him by the time of the coming of the Androids. So maybe a bit less of the hot ladies and a bit more hitting the gym was in order.

Ah, there it was, searing pain. The kind that reminds you that your body was full of nerve endings and they weren't going to take it any more. With his body feeling like it was on fire Yamcha rolled over on his stomach, then he slowly got up on all fours and panted heavily.

He was not going to roll over and give up. He was one of Goku's original band of brothers. The first if you discounted Bulma. And she didn't fight. It was time he was going to live up to that reputation, dammit!

Leaning heavily on one hand he used his other hand to touch his face. While his body was a delightful symphony of pain, some nerves however were clearly playing a solo, especially somewhere around his face.

Nose intact? Check.

Eyes not swollen up? Check.

His mouth and gorgeous smile intact? Che…. oh crap!

As Yamcha fingered his mouth he noticed that several teeth were lose, including one that fell right into his hand.

"No," Yamcha wailed despairingly. Like almost everybody else Yamcha didn't like being in a hospital, but absolutely loathed going to a dentist even more.

"Not my teeth!" Yamcha complained. Why the hell did he ever come to Sunnydale?

Before he could finish his train of thought Yamcha felt two arms gripping him by the middle.

"MOVE YAMCHA!" somebody yelled in his ear. Still dazed Yamcha looked around and saw Krillin's face as the little fighter jumped off carrying him to safety as a large three toed foot came crashing down. Had he still been there it would have surely crushed him.

(Earlier that day)

It was absolutely a cruel and vile thing to do, Piccolo thought as he saw the Watcher Giles administer another injection of the vile Cruciamentum liquid to Faith's unconscious body. Even though he knew and agreed with the reasons, it still was a vile thing to do to a warrior. Even one who had chosen to side with the side of evil.

The Watcher Giles withdrew the needle from Faith's arm and loosed the noose around her arm.

"She will require at least two more injections before the drug can take full effect," the Watcher Giles said as he handed him the hypodermic syringe and two ampules of yellowish liquid in a small satchel, "She still needs at least two injections, with six hours between each."

"That means I have to wait for at least twelve hours before I can make it back," Piccolo complained as he accepted the satchel, "I might not make it back in time."

"I'm sorry," the Watcher Giles replied apologetically, "I wish you could administer them sooner but I already gave her two shots. Six hours per shot for the remainder is already perilously close."

"You want me to pick you up? Goku offered, pretending to put two fingers on his forehead, but Piccolo shook his head.

"Better not," he said holding up a hand, then nodded towards City Hall, "he may pull another surprise on us. For we know even you could suddenly find yourself unable to pass through the outer shield."

"Suit yourself," Goku shrugged, "if you're ready we'll go. I've gotta pick up the others."

"Tell them I'll be back later," Piccolo said as he stashed away the satchel, then he picked up Faith and draped her over his broad shoulder.

"Want me to drop you off at Yamcha's, or at Tien's or Roshi's?" the Saiyan smiled as he put two fingers on his forehead while putting his other hand on the Namek.

"Roshi will be fine," Piccolo replied.

"Tien's closer for you though," Goku countered, "I think I've finally found him.".

"I could do with a little exercise," Piccolo said indifferent, "besides, you heard the Watcher, I got twelve hours to kill."

"Suit yourself," Goku shrugged, then he, Piccolo and Faith disappeared like they were never there.

"That just has got to be helpful," Sergeant Burns said impressed to Riley as he watched the trio disappear.

"Don't count on it, sarge," Riley said shaking his head, "It has to be some pretty advanced technique. And somehow I think we don't even made it pass the 1st grade yet."

"Try kindergarten," a voice said behind them. The two men turned around, it was Belmovekk, still in his wheelchair.

"Satiya," Riley said as he bowed his head, "I didn't mean no disrespect. I…."

Instead of being offended Belmovekk laughed and wheeled himself past the two soldiers.

"Do not sweat it, captain," he laughed, "I am sure that if you ask him nicely he is perfectly willing to explain his technique to you."

Riley and Burns looked at each other.

"He would?" Riley said incredulously.

"Of course it took him a full year to master it though," the Saiyan said mischievously, "And he is a Saiyan master of incredible talent who puts me to shame. I am sure that if you two dedicate yourself fully to that technique you might master it in a century or two."

"Suddenly a Blackhawk helicopter ride doesn't sound so bad any more," Burns remarked.

"Goku?"

Krillin looked surprised as Goku and Piccolo materialized just outside of Kame House where Krillin was doing his early exercises.

"Thanks for the ride, Goku," Piccolo said, then he briefly turned towards Krillin and gave a short salute, "Sayonara, little man."

Then he launched himself in the air and flew away in ablaze of white chi. It was only then that Krillin noticed that Piccolo was carrying an unconscious girl on his broad shoulders.

"Goku? What's going on? You're not supposed to….," Krillin asked, then he knew the answer before he even finished his sentence. That smile, that look of enthusiasm. It could only mean…..

Goku quickly explained why he was bringing the band back together and why it would be fun to fight a guy who would turn himself into a large people eating demon. And who clearly thought that once he had changed he stood a chance against a Super Saiyan. That was actually the most scary part.

"Come on, Krillin," Goku said enthusiastically, "it will be fun!"

All Krillin could do was slap his face with a facepalm.

"I'm never gonna get a girlfriend."

In the Health City gym in down town San Francisco Yamcha was busy lifting weights. Not in the tons, that would attract to much attention. Besides, it wasn't always necessary to punish your body with the maximum weight it could lift. A good trick was to lower your power and test your body to its maximum at that level. So he lowered himself as low as possible so he could bench pressed as much as he could without attracting the wrong attention.

It was a good honest workout and in that way he could train while still attracting the right kind of attention. That of the ladies! Who just so happened to overrun Health City at this time of day. With an especially fine pair walking by him right at this moment.

So Yamcha grunted and pressed his weight upwards, reaching for just a smidgen of extra power to make it look good, letting his muscles bulge at the same time.

"Impressive huh, girls," he said in a very self-satisfied tone of voice. The two girls looked at him, then at each other and walked away giggling.

Okay, that didn't went as well as he'd hoped. It didn't matter. They were too young for him anyway. Young hot girls tended to be picky. All about who he was and what kind of job he was in, how much money he made. His natural prey however tended to be the many housewives who flocked to Health City while their husbands had gone to work. You had to love desperate housewives. Especially the ones who still tried to look good by working out. The prey of choice of the Yammer! Who didn't mind that he didn't have a real job and only lived in a crummy apartment with his cat Puar. As long as he rubbed a certain itch that is. And they were also extremely grateful for the attention.

Yup, the young girls may sometimes snub the Yammer, but the ladies sure knew how to appreciate him, Yamcha grinned as he lowered his weights and looked up.

Only to look up in Goku's grinning face hanging over him.

"Hello, Yamcha," Goku grinned. By now Yamcha should be used to having his alien friend suddenly appear at odd times and intervals, especially now that he had his teleport thingy. Yet still Yamcha was startled at Goku's unexpected appearance and almost shrieked like a little girl. Instead he let out a little yelp before let his weights come down hard on his chest and roll down towards his neck.

"Xwrtyhfl," Yamcha muttered as he as he trashed about on the bench.

"Something's wrong, Yamcha?" Goku asked surprised as he saw Yamcha flounder about.

"Maybe it would help if you took the weight of his throat?" another voice said. It was Tien, as Yamcha finally noticed once Goku took the weights of his neck. Great! If Goku brought old Three Eyes along it could only mean the human date repellant, the noseless rejection machine, the Moses of singles bars, the black hole that sucked the life out of any party was also present. Just being seen with him meant you wouldn't get laid for a week.

"Hi Yamcha," Krillin said, the little man stepping into view. With the weights off him Yamcha got up and sat on straight on the bench, rubbing his now sore throat.

"At least you're wearing something to cover up your third eye," Yamcha grumbled at Tien, who was wearing a woolly hat together with his woolly coat. Thank Kami for small favors at least.

"It itches like hell though," Tien said as he put a finger underneath his woolly hat to scratch around his third eye.

"I can't believe you're having so much problems with this, Yamcha," Goku said as he twirled the heavy weights around like it was a baton stick, "they weigh absolutely nothing."

Yamcha rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"We weren't all born on the planet Vegetable, Goku, some of us actually have to work out you know," he said in annoyance, then he sighed, "so Elwood, are you and Jake bringing the band back together?"

"Technically he's Jake," Krillin said as Goku and Tien exchanged puzzled looks, "Elwood was the long one, and Piccolo's longer then Goku."

Even more puzzled looks were exchanged.

"Hey," Krillin said defensively, "don't you guys watch any movies? I do, you know."

"I'm sure you have plenty of spare time for that, little man," Yamcha said facetiously

"A little man who beats your ass every time," Krillin bit back, "maybe if you trained a little instead of chasing your dick you'd actually beat me."

"You're just jealous cause I get some," Yamcha smiled, "you'd change places with me if you could in a heartbeat."

"I know," Krillin sighed sadly, his shoulders slumping.

"You two are pathetic," Tien said shaking his head.

"Says he who's living on some Himalayan mountain top with his mancrush," Yamcha snorted.

"For the last time, I'm not gay," Tien said angry at the now very tired old joke which Yamcha always made when they were together..

"Easy big guy," Yamcha said, holding up his hands to allay what was probably still the strongest human on the planet, "Just kidding. Of course you're not gay."

"Damn straight," Tien said as he turned his back on Yamcha and Krillin. No sooner had he done so as Yamcha winked at Krillin and pretended he was sucking on something long and hard.

As Yamcha made fun of Tien Goku looked at his friends and smiled fondly. Sure they liked to crack jokes at each others expense, most of them completely going over his head. But it was all in good fun as there was a lot of manly love between them. And the more he heard his friends laugh, the more he missed them each time they split up. Why couldn't life just be one big adventure forever?

Still twirling the bodybuilder sized weights around his fingers like he was the drummer of some 80's heavy metal hair band, Goku took up a step towards Yamcha.

"Yamcha, do you know where Vegeta is?"

"Why on Earth would you…..," Yamcha said, then his face darkened, "Oh, sweet Jesus, Goku, don't tell me it's that bad if you need the Vegetable?"

"Why do you think he's bringing us together again?" Tien asked, "if it was that easy he'd just do it himself."

"I don't know," Yamcha replied, "I kinda was hoping he'd just need us for a cheerleading squad."

Goku filled Yamcha in as to why he was 'bringing the band back together again'.

"Aw crap," Yamcha muttered dejected, "why can't that crazy Saiyan just nuke that place and be done with it."

"Aw, come on, Yamcha," Goku said as he looked up at the still twirling set of weights, "you know he can't do that. Wouldn't be right that is."

"Yeah," Yamcha muttered, "It would mean that for once somebody would actually do something sensible for a change."

"This is actually quite fun," Goku said as he threw the weights in the air and captured them in his other hand to begin spinning them around again. His little demonstration of both strength and agility was beginning to draw quite a crowd by now. Enough for Yamcha to get up and take the weights from Goku, then place them back on the holders beside the bench.

"You're drawing to much attention to yourself again, Goku," he said as he took the Saiyan by his shoulder, "let's talk somewhere else."

As he led the Saiyan to the exit Tien followed suit Krillin stayed on for a moment as he spotted a pair of girls who had been watching Goku's demonstration with interest.

"He's hot," one girl said to the other.

"And cute," the other replied back giggling.

"Excuse me, ladies," Krillin said walking up to the two girls, all sweaty in their spandex, "are you two talking about my friend?"

"Could you get me his number?" one of the girls, a redhead said enthusiastically, "He's dreamy."

Krillin smiled nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

"Hehe," he smiled, "funny thing about Goku, he's a…, well, he's….."

"He's gay, isn't he?" the other girl, a blonde, said as she thumped her friend's shoulder, "I told you he was to good to be true."

God they were hot, Krillin thought as he eyed the two girls, especially since their breasts were at his eye level, making for a spectacular sight. They'd turn master Roshi in a lecherous puddle of drool in no time.

"Uh, he's not gay," Krillin stammered. Upon which the two girls looked hopeful at him.

"He's not?" the redhead said.

"But he's married," Krillin blurted out hopeful.

"Oh," the two girls said disappointed and just turned around like he wasn't there.

"I told you he was too good to be true," the blonde said as they walked away, leaving a flabbergasted Krillin behind, "all the good men are either taken or gay."

"But I…., um…..," Krillin said dejected, then he hit himself hard on the forehead, "I should have said Goku was gay instead!"

Disillusioned Krillin went to the Gym's exit to go outside where he found the others on the sidewalk.

"Are you sure you don't know where Vegeta is?" Goku asked Yamcha who was leaning against a lamppost.

"Look, Goku, if I knew where his Royal Asshole was I'd say so," Yamcha said as he gestured around, "Bulma said he took off to parts unknown. Bastard even nabbed my hog."

"Hog?" Goku asked, upon which Yamcha held out his arms and pretended he was riding a motorcycle.

"My hog, my chopper, my ride," he bemoaned, "custom made by Arlen Ness."

"So no Vegetable then?" Tien said, shivering in the San Francisco wind in his woolly coat. He didn't even sound that disappointed Krillin thought. And who could blame him. Of all of them Tien hated Vegeta the most. Even more so then Yamcha. Who of all of them had the most reason to hate the prick, getting both killed thanks to Vegeta and having to live with him. But Yamcha was quite forgiving as to the Saiyan's attempt to kill them all. He wasn't one to hold a grudge. Whereas Tien did. It probably had something to with Vegeta being responsible for killing Tien's best friend, Chaozu.

Meanwhile Goku closed his eyes and extended his senses again to find his fellow Saiyan. But, just as before try as he might he just couldn't pick up any sign of his lost Saiyan brother. It was like he had disappeared off the face of the Earth.

"I can't find him," he eventually said, shaking his head as he gave up, "there's no sign of him anywhere."

"Then I guess he doesn't want to be found," Krillin said, "can we go now?"

"He's probably up to something," Tien snorted suspiciously, "that bastard always is."

"This is wrong."

"What is?" Giles said as he looked up. All night and day he, Wesley and the former vengeance demon Anya had been studying the parts of the book of Ascension Willow had recreated from her memory. Willow herself had long given up and fallen asleep and by now Giles himself wished he had joined her.

Wesley on the other hand seemed like a bloody energizer bunny, his enthusiasm keeping him up and then some. Even though so far they've managed to ascertain little useful facts other then that the book Willow had seen wasn't the one dealing with the specifics of the process. Basically it told you part of how to become a demon, just not what kind of demon, that was in different volumes. Just their rotten luck really.

But now the former demon seemed to have found something.

"This part," Anya said as she pointed to a certain passage, then she flipped a couple of pages to a different passage, "and this one. They're wrong."

Wesley looked up close at the offending passages, soon followed by Giles looking over his shoulder.

"How can you be so sure?" Wesley said, looking up at Anya again, "It looks the same to me."

"Then again, how can you?" Giles countered, "Neither of us has ever seen a book of Ascension, let alone a full set. It could very well be as she says that this is different then it should."

"Quite true," Wesley echoed.

"Or….," Giles continued and looked sharply at Anya, "our so called expert doesn't have much of a clue either and we're just wasting our time here."

"Hey!" Anya said defensively, holding up her hands, "Don't blame me for your lack of progress. Do you think I like staring at this….., this Xerox copy of a book?"

The two Watchers looked at each other.

"If it were up to me I'd be on the other side of the world," Anya continued angrily, "I'd be in another dimension if I could. But thanks to you people I can't. I can't even leave town anymore. So, unfortunately, the sad matter of fact is that my fate is now linked to your success. If you lose, I lose. So don't tell me I'm not trying hard."

"Look," Giles said as he tried to allay the former vengeance demon, "I didn't intend to throw sly digs at your character. I merely meant to say that maybe you just know as little about Ascension rites as we do."

"Hello," Anya said even further irate as she pointed towards herself, "former human turned vengeance demon back into human here? You'd think that if anyone here knows something about Ascension it's me."

Giles closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Except you told us you were raised into demonhood by D'Hoffryn," he said tired, "which is a completely different ceremony all together."

"It still involves certain similar rites," Anya pouted as she thumbed the book excerpts, "and I keep telling you, this is wrong."

Before Giles could continue Wesley interjected.

"Suppose you're right," he said, "in what way are these texts wrong?"

"I may not be a demon anymore," she said as she rested her hands on the table, "but I still know my demonic languages. And these passages have been amended."

"How have they been amended?" Wesley asked as he looked at the offending passages again, which seemed to be written in the same kind of demonic script as the rest. While there were many demonic languages, whenever there was a written version of it they all tended to use the same demonic script, the one used by the King of Hell itself. Akin to most European languages using the same Latin script. It didn't mean you could read them all as the various demonic languages tended to be quite different. Although strangely enough common English seemed to be gaining popularity, as Wesley had come across demonic texts in English itself, just written in the King of Hell script.

"These rites are off," Anya pointed out, "I know for a fact that the correct rites of demonification do not call for these chants."

"What do you mean?"

"When D'Hoffryn carried out the rites for me even he had to call upon the higher powers, the Unmentionable Ones," Anya said, somewhat uncomfortable at the memory, "these passages also call for higher powers. But I do not recognize which powers. They are completely unknown, I don't recognize any of their names."

"Fascinating," Wesley said as looked up the texts up close, "So if we know who the demon lords Gelida and Algida are, we might have an inkling as to what to expect once Ascension finally takes place."

"I guess I'll be hitting the books then," Giles said as he looked at a different table, the one on which his collection of demon and vampiric lore had been stacked.

"That may be a good idea," Wesley said, then he looked away and pointed to the outside, "I still have one or two friends left at the Council. No one important, but they do have access to volumes of lore we don't have. Maybe I should call them and see if they have ever heard of these demon lords?"

"You do that," Giles said appreciatively. For all his early pomposity and arrogance, Wesley seemed to be making a good effort to redeem himself. He might actually start to like the fellow. If he kept it up that is.

"Does this mean I can finally get some sleep?" Anya whined as Wesley left to find an outside telephone line.

"Sure," Giles said and waved dismissively, "go sleep if you can."

"Oh, I will," Anya yawned, "I haven't pulled an all-nighter like this since I cursed all the men of Yekaterinburg with an affectation to their…."

Giles sighed and took off his glasses for a moment.

"Please, Anya," he sighed tiredly, "for the love of all that is good, could you, um, please recount of your past glorious evil somewhere else?"

Muttering that she was grievously misunderstood Anya made for the exit of the base commandants office they had retired too, leaving Giles alone with his books. And a sleeping Willow on the next table of course. For a moment Giles contemplated waking her up, but he decided not to. She needed her rest. Her sorcery could be potentially more useful to them then her research skill.

Besides, he didn't really think researching his books would bring forth an answer. Overall Giles had a pretty good idea as to what was in them. It was finding the right information in the right place that made for the long nights. And he was pretty sure he'd never heard of any demon lords named Gelida and Algida. So instead of hitting his books he hit a different document instead, the by now well worn computer print outs of the Gypsy Prophecies Belmovekk had received from the Gypsies. Surely by now those pesky Necessities had come up with some kind of clue, right? They kept mentioning something called the Avatar of the Master, making time for him, but they were extremely skimpy on the details. Maybe this time….

"It's official," Xander said in disgust as he threw down his fork, "I always thought that our school's cafeteria was bad but it turns out all cafeterias are crap."

"Technically it's still a Sunnydale cafeteria," Oz said unperturbed as he lurked on the straw of a carton of chocolate milk, "maybe only Sunnydale cafeterias suck?"

The four of them, Buffy, Willow, Oz and Xander were sitting around a table in the base cafeteria trying to have a late breakfast. The impending doom of Ascension was drawing ever closer, yet somehow it felt like the mood had lightened up. Undoubtedly Faith's rescue, even though against her will, had done a lot to lighten up the mood within the group.

As he heard Oz's remark Xander shook his head.

"No, that's not it. I've tried cafeterias across the country and they all sucked," Xander said, then he stroked his chin and pretended to glare at the ceiling, "although the one at the New Orleans bus depot served a wicked Cajun steak though."

"So, did you eat anything weird at that place, Tangerine?" Buffy asked.

"Tanjecterly," Xander corrected Buffy but she, like always, was unimpressed and without repent.

"Whatever," she said unapologetic, "well, did you?"

"Well, there were these crazy critters they roasted at the inn," Xander mused, "really weird looking."

"Tasted like chicken, huh?" Oz chortled but Xander shook no.

"Oddly enough it tasted more like trout."

"Can't be the funkiest though," Buffy smiled, "so what tasted really gross on Tangiery?"

Again Xander dug deep into his memory

"Once Fisk halted that contraption of his and jumped off all excited, claiming he had found this delicacy. Guy was so excited like a leprechaun who had found his pot o'gold. Turned out he found this nest of bugs this big."

"Ew, grossfactor 9, Xan," Willow said in disgust as Xander held his hands ten inches apart.

"Don't tell me you ate them?" Buffy said all engrossed in the story.

"I didn't want to," Xander said, shuddering at the memory, "but Fisk, he ate them raw, letting them drop into his mouth."

"I feel sick," Willow said sickly.

"He claimed they were delicious," Xander said deadpan, "a delicacy amongst his people. 'Go ahead, Earthman,' which is what he called me all the time, 'you try, it's good for you.' The bastard could be very persuasive."

"So you did?" Oz said amused as he pretended to drop something in his mouth, upon which Xander nodded.

"Now I really feel sick," Willow said, her face a grimace.

"So how did they taste?" Buffy grinned impishly.

"Like a pus bomb going off in your mouth," Xander snorted, "local delicacy my ass! I swear Fisk just ate them so he could trick me into eating one. Bastard!"

The sad look on his face showed that Xander was anything angry.

"I'd eat a thousand of those slime bugs right now if I could have him and Liana back, right now," he sighed wistfully, causing the girls to reach out and put their hands on his shoulders. Oz on the other hand went with a different approach.

"You have to admire that kind of dedication though," Oz said admiringly, "to do all that just to make your life miserable."

"Damn straight," Xander said as he chuckled, then he reached over and grabbed his plate, "You know what, suddenly this cafeteria food ain't so bad after all. I'm gonna get some more. Are you guys coming?"

"Never say no to a free meal," Oz said deadpan as he also reached for his plate, then he turned to Willow, "You want some, sweetie?"

"Just some Jell-O," Willow said as she handed her empty plate to Oz.

"With bugs on them?" Oz smiled.

"Daniel Osbourne!" Willow exclaimed aghast, "Ew?"

Meanwhile Xander bowed over towards Buffy and spoke in a mock English accent.

"Anything for milady?"

"Oh, bring some Jell-O for me too," Buffy said, "Hold the bugs of course. Oh, and some of those cheese burgers. And some more diet-coke. Oh, and some salad. With fries. With ketchup."

"Ah, just a light appetizer then for milady," Xander nodded courteously towards Buffy, then he and Oz left.

"Isn't it fun?" Willow smiled as they watched the boys go stand in line, "It's almost like we're back in high school again."

"Uh, newsflash," Buffy chuckled, "Until we survive graduation we're technically still in high school."

"I know," Willow sighed, "It's like a sickness, Buffy, I'm just missing everything. I even miss P.E."

"P.E.?" Buffy snorted, "I'm sure that if you go outside you can find Captain Cardboard and play dodgeball with him or something."

"Do you think he would?" Willow said hopeful, upon which Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Come out of the fantasy, Will."

In response Willow sighed deeply.

"So, what are you going to do after High school, Buffy?" she eventually asked.

"I don't know," Buffy shrugged, "at one time I hoped that I'd get as far away from this place as I could. But then I realized that fate can take a dump on you everywhere. Just look at what happened to Xander. Now I think that assuming I survive Ascension I'll just stay at home and train. Because even if by some sheer fluke we do survive Ascension, there's still those stupid doomsday bots coming out. So unless Belmo finds the missing terminator I guess it's the gravity gym for me. Only this time full time."

"That's horrible, Buffy," Willow said aghast, "You should go to college. Can't you tell Belmo that you want to go to college instead?"

"Well, guess what, Will," Buffy said with a big smirk on her face, "guess who's not going to college either?"

"I, uh," Willow stammered, then a plate of Jell-O was put in front of her by the returning Oz, while Xander placed a tray full of food in front of Buffy.

"Why thank you, Xander," Buffy smiled as she reached for a cheese burger.

"Don't thank me, Buff, thank Uncle Sam," Xander said as he sat down, "Thanks to him it's free, remember?"

"Xander," Willow said imploringly, "talk to Buffy. She doesn't want to go to college. She says I'm not going to college either."

"Robots of doom?" Xander asked.

"Yup," Buffy replied before biting into her cheese burger.

"Good point," Xander agreed and picked up a chicken sandwich.

"Xander?" Willow said horrified, "Buffy should go to college. You should go to college. I should go to college."

Xander rolled his eyes and put his sandwich down.

"Firstly, I'm not going to college, I'm a high school dropout remember? Secondly, if we survive this day we can't afford to slack off. The world could still end, Will. Some guy came from the future trying to stop it. Skynet's going online in a year and Judgment Day's coming. And I'm not speaking of some demon yoyo coming to town thinking he's the latest big bad. I'm talking megaton range death with severe case of bad skin condition once the blastwave hits you. And thirdly, college's overrated."

"No," Willow said aghast, "I'm talking about learning. And books. And classes. And co-ed dorms. And….."

"You raise one good point there, Will," Xander said, "but overall I'm done learning, I hate books and if I never have to sit in class again I'll die a happy Xander."

Appalled Willow looked at Oz for support.

"It's only for a year," the young guitar player shrugged, "a year's not so bad now is it?"

"I guess," Willow said defeated. Meanwhile Buffy had finished her first cheese burger and paused for a moment to look at Xander.

"So," she said, "will you be going to graduation?"

"I've got no choice," he sighed, "our demon wannabe mayor's is the commencement speaker."

"That's not what I meant," Buffy said shaking her head, "you dropped out of school. Do you think Snyder's gonna allow you to be in the ceremony?"

Xander glared at Buffy.

"Buff, I was mercilessly tortured to within an inch of my life by a bunch of elite mooks in a medieval dungeon. Do you really think I still give a rat's ass as to what Snyder would say if he sees me?"

Oz looked sideways at Xander.

"So you'll hide right in the middle, right?" he asked, "Where he can't see you?"

"Damn straight," Xander replied.

"So these are Belmovekk's army boys," Yamcha whispered towards Krillin as they watched the small gathering of soldiers and aliens in the base briefing room..

"They're all men," the short fighter said back, sounding a little disappointed, like he had expected there to be at least one or two women around. Yamcha gave him a pitiful look.

"You know, if you weren't so desperate you might actually score with a woman," he said, "Women are like sharks. They can smell desperation from miles away."

The little fighter slumped as he looked downwards.

"I'm never gonna get a girlfriend," he moaned. Upon which Yamcha patted him on the shoulder.

"Relax, Krillin, "he said impishly, "Maybe the ladies are just not something for you. Maybe you can ask Tien here for some pointers as to how to score with the laddies instead."

"For the last time," Tien said through gritted teeth, "I am not gay!"

Yamcha and Krillin looked at each other, then they grinned.

"Sure," they said in unison.

Before Tien could say anything to defend his sexual honor the soldiers all stood to attention.

"ATTENHUT!" one of the soldiers yelled as their teacher was wheeled in his wheelchair by Goku.

"Maybe I should join the army," Krillin whispered to Yamcha, "don't they say women like a man in uniform?"

"Dude," Yamcha smirked as he held up his hand just above Krillin's head, "don't you know? They've got signs on their tanks and aircraft that say 'you have to be this big to enter'."

"Why would you even want too, Krillin?" Tien snorted, "You are one of the strongest men on the planet. You could wipe the floor with most armies. Don't lower yourself just to attract a female."

"Hey, cut the dude some slack for trying," Yamcha said back, "after all, it's harder for us straight dudes."

"For once I cannot wait until Piccolo returns," Tien grumbled.

Meanwhile Goku wheeled his still sick fellow Saiyan in front of the men. As soon as he did Captain Riley spoke up.

"At ease!"

32 pair of feet followed suit.

"All company is present and accounted for, Satiya," Captain Riley nodded respectfully to their teacher.

"Thank you, captain," the Saiyan said, then he placed his hands in front of him on his lap, "I know many of you have disagreed with my decision to retrieve the rogue Slayer. That it would give away our only chance at striking at the mayor beforehand. But what is done cannot be undone. The course is set. All that is left for us now is to see it through."

"Since I am to blame for the current mess I have chosen to relieve you of your duties. I hereby decree that your servitude to me is over and that you have become true warriors. You are no longer beholden to any of my orders save one, do not speak a word of anything you have learned or seen in this place to anyone. I ask only that. Other then that you are all free to go. I will not think any less of you if you decide to have nothing to do with this and abstain from this fight. Consider this my graduation present to you all."

There was no immediate reply.

"Hands up who saw that coming," Yamcha said in the back.

"I don't get it," Krillin said confused, "Shouldn't we need all the help we can get?"

"Truly the Saiyan mind never ceases to amaze me," Yamcha echoed.

"Probably for the best anyway," Tien said resolutely, causing Krillin and Yamcha to look weird at him.

"Are you crazy? We could use those guys!" Yamcha said flabbergasted but Tien seemed unimpressed as he explained.

"Look, these guys are barely at half the level we were when Vegeta and his gorilla came to Earth. To put it into perspective, if we are here now, then they are there."

Tien pointed to the room's exit.

"Not to mention Goku is somewhere across town," Tien continued and pointed the other way, "no disrespect to their hearts but they make you look like a competent fighter, Yamcha."

"Hey, I resent that," Yamcha said insulted, "I'm a great fighter! I came up with the Wolf Fist Attack. I mastered the Kamehameha."

"Big deal," Tien snorted unimpressed, "the Kamehameha's like a cheap slut. Everybody's been doing her nowadays. As for your Wolf Fist Attack, that was so ages ago. What have you been coming up with lately? Other then nailing desperate housewives?"

"That's low, Tien," Yamcha said sulking. Seeing that his remarks had hurt Yamcha Tien wanted to say something, apologize for them. But he decided not to at the last moment. And not just for the constant lame gay jokes. Yamcha was a good friend, a good comrade in arms. But damn his lazy bones. So he wasn't a Saiyan who could go Super Saiyan like Goku could. Didn't mean he had to slack off like he did.

Tien had long given up on keeping up with Goku, there was just no keeping up with him. When they were still rivals that had hurt. But nowadays Tien just tried to be the best that he could be. For the Earth still needed defenders. And what would happen if one day Goku was incapacitated, or found himself delayed? It had happened before. When King Piccolo had made a bid to take over the Earth it had fallen to him to delay him long enough for Goku to enter the fight. The same thing happened when Vegeta and his goon came to Earth. Who knows, it wouldn't surprise him the least if it were to happen again. The Earth would be in a sorry place of Tien wasn't up to the job just because he had been slacking off. And if a little insult now and then gave Yamcha the right kind of kick in the ass so Tien wouldn't be alone at that time, then it was worth it.

Meanwhile the soldiers and the aliens were still discussing it when one of the aliens spoke up.

"Disciple of Aldur," First Ma'el of the Sons of Priya spoke up reverentially, "Though this is not our battle, the Sons of Priya will stand by you in this time of need. Jaffa Kree!"

"There's a shocker," Sergeant Burns whispered in Riley's ear, "Brownnosing bastard!"

"Have a heart, sergeant," Riley whispered back, "we're about to do the same."

"You've got to be shitting me?" Burns exclaimed, "We are?"

"Damn straight," Rile whispered before he took the word, "I can't speak for my NATO and Russian colleagues but as an officer in the United States Army I'm obligated to fight all its enemies, foreign, domestic and I guess supernatural as well."

"His Majesty's armed forces could do no less then stand with our American allies," the British officer said proudly.

"Russian Army will not be scared by scary demon," the Russian officer spoke up, "If Grandfather Yuri could drive T-34 against Fascist Hordes, I will face demonic mayor."

"Today the fatherland extends to this town," the German said, "Sonnenstein, California."

That left only Frenchie.

"Why are you all looking at me?" he said surprised at the sudden attention, "I am, as you Americans call it, game?"

That meant the full Earth contingent was on board.

"Look, more toy soldiers for the cause," Tien said in the back, "I guess they'll serve some purpose after all. Any time one of them dies he'll buy a few seconds of time for us."

"Have a heart, Tien," Krillin said indignant, "we were once like that."

"And look how little it helped us?" Tien countered, "Vegeta's Saibaman killed Yamcha, Vegeta's goon had me for breakfast and Freeza squeezed you like a bug. But hey, we did buy some time, right?"

"Look who's all grumpy," Yamcha winked at Krillin, "I don't think Chaozu gave him a goodbye kiss before coming here.

"Yeah, keep 'm coming," Tien sighed, "Like that will change anything."

Now that the Sons of Priya and the Tau'ri had declared they would fight, that left only the Free Jaffa. And First Ru'pel wasn't averse to helping out their teacher. But unlike the sons of Priya he held no mystical reverence to the man either. Nor was this his planet like the Tau'ri. As a resistance leader he first and foremost had to conserve his assets for the big fight against the Goa'uld. Not waste it on grand gestures in a battle that wasn't even theirs.

"Satiya," he said somewhat uncomfortable, "Know that if it were just me I would join you in glorious battle. But I am a leader in the Free Jaffa. I must think of the big picture here. This is not our battle. And the knowledge we have learned here must get to our people if they ever stand a chance to be free."

"I bear you no ill will, First Ru'pel," Belmovekk said sympathetically, "I understand."

This perversely made it all the more the worse as this sinking feeling of betrayal sank in. A very painful silence followed that was broken when a certain other Saiyan finally spoke.

"Fine, now that's all settled, can we eat?"

My my, Xander thought as he walked through the town in daylight, you'd think that in those few months that he was gone the place would stay the same. But he found the odd discrepancies here and there. Proving yet again that nothing can stop the remorseless advance of time.

After spending all that time at the Army, oops, Air Force base, well, you could only stand for so much of those hurrah types before you felt a change of scenery was in order. And with the truce in effect until Ascension he might as well take advantage of a walk about town. Besides, at the moment he was sort of the fifth wheel at the moment. Giles, Giles Junior and the Big Guy were all busy plotting and scheming coming up with a battle plan. Oz and Willow, Kami bless them, had snuck away to who knows where to spend some last 'quality time' together. Buffy and Angel, well he hoped for their sakes that quality time wasn't in the picture, as having Angelus around at this time, not a good thing. But he had faith in Buffy to do the right thing. And D.B. did seem bend on doing the right thing by leaving town afterwards, so he couldn't begrudge the two having at least a few last cuddles together, now could he?

So he made himself scarce and strode through town. He could see that their little demon hunt had had some effect. At least a fifth of all shops had closed signs on them signaling their owners had gone for healthier places to be. He also had contemplated swinging by the house of his parents, have maybe one last look at the old dungy dungeon. But better not. He no longer was the same cheerful Xander of old, champion of humanity. If anything his stay in Tanjecterly had lowered his inhibitions towards taking human life and he didn't want to risk killing his father over some stupid remark he was undoubtedly going to make. Tony may be a bastard by the book, but he was still the man that had contributed some genetic material to his make up. At least he hoped so, otherwise his mother had some explaining to do as to who his real father was. As far as he was concerned that stupid short tail on his back was still the result of that stupid Halloween shindig.

As he walked about the town he came upon what he was looking for. Graduation called for those stupid graduation caps and gowns. The gang would get them through the school, but since he no longer was in school, and neither were Goku's buddies, he would have to get some himself. As he stepped inside the April Fools dress shop great was his surprise as he found Cordelia inside, admiring a dress she was holding up. For a moment he contemplated going away, wait until she was gone. But this was still the only place he knew that had the gear he needed. And maybe the offense was the best defense.

"I know you like clothes but how long does it take you to buy a damn dress?" he said trying to sound amused, "Shouldn't you get ready for graduation?"

Startled by Xander's sudden appearance Cordelia almost let the dress fall.

"Xander?" she said as she put the dress back in the rack and looked him over, "I, uh, I'm considering things a little more carefully nowadays. I don't want to get stuck with another dud."

Then she gave him an odd lock.

"Didn't you leave town?"

"I'm back, baby," Xander grinned and held out his arms, "come give Onkie Xander a big hug will ya!"

Cordelia looked him over, not certain what to say. And for a moment Xander felt hopeful. Maybe she had changed. Let time create some distance to what had happened. And then, just like that, she slipped into uber-bitch mode.

"I wouldn't hug you even if we were the last humans on Earth and survival of the species rested on it, Xander 'I'm as stupid as I look' Harris. Couldn't cut it in the real world and you had to come back to hide behind your precious Buffy, you…. you Buffyfucker!"

It would seem it was too soon to hope for a reconciliation. So be it. She was free to insult him, but damn her if she thought he was just going to take it.

"Still pissed off I see," Xander nodded, "and to think I traveled back across time and space to hear that lovely voice of yours again."

"Oh, I have tons of those waiting to dump on you, but be that as it may, I can't talk with you," Cordelia said as her tone changed from bitchy to evasive, "I, um, got to prepare for graduation. Unlike some here present I did finish high school."

"School's overrated," Xander shrugged, "And who needs college anyway?"

"Well, the rest of us who don't want to spend the rest of their lives becoming a name tag person do," Cordelia scoffed, "I have my pick. USC, Colorado State, Duke and Columbia. What do you have? KFC? Doublemeat? Mickey D.?"

"Wow," Xander said pretending to be impressed, "Wow! These are great colleges. I'm guessing they must have seen a different side of your father's money."

"Go away, Xander," Cordelia said nervously now, looking around the store like she was looking for someone. No sooner had she said that when a salesgirl came up to them.

"Is this a customer or a friend?" she asked. Strangely enough she asked Cordelia, not Xander.

"Both," Xander smiled at the girl, "I stopped by for my daily helping of bile. But I also need some of those graduation caps. And some graduation capes would be nice as well."

The girl looked at him, then she looked at Cordelia.

"Then quit goofing and help the man," she said sternly, "Mrs. Finkel so has it in for you, you know."

"You work here?" Xander said surprised after the salesgirl had left.

"Yes," Cordelia said as she rolled her eyes, "Yes, I work here."

Cordelia had to work? The world was truly going to end today.

"But, uh, why?" Xander asked as Cordelia let him to the back of the store where they had some graduation clothing.

"Well for one I'm tried to buy a dress," she said sullen.

"But don't you already have all the dresses?" Xander said, still trying to comprehend his brain around the concept of Queen C. having to de menial work. She stopped and turned around.

"I have nothing, okay?" she said angry. Angry at being humiliated by her former cheating boyfriend finding out her secret.

"No dresses. No cell phone. No car. Everything's been taken away because Daddy made a little mistake on his taxes. For the last twelve years. Satisfied? Are you a happy Xander now? I'm broke. I can't go to any of the colleges that accepted me. And I can't stay home because we no longer have one."

"Uh, wow," was all Xander could utter. Didn't he feel like a heel right now?

"Yeah, neato," she said bitter, "Now you can run along and tell all of your friends how Cordy finally got hers. How she had to work part time just so she could get a lousy prom dress on layaway. And how she has to wear a name tag. Oh, I'm a name tag person. Don't leave that out. The story just wouldn't have the same punch. But please do it after graduation. It's all I have left right now."

"Look, all I wanted were a few stupid graduation caps and capes," Xander said holding up his hands, "honest!"

"Why do you even want one?" Cordelia said as she reached for a cap, "You bailed school, remember?"

"Oh, for shits and giggles really," Xander replied casually, then he turned serious, "look, Cordy, I know you hate me, and I probably deserve some of that. But I don't hate you. And I hate to take away the one thing you still have left but if I can make a friendly suggestion, don't go to graduation."

Cordelia stopped what she was doing and slowly faced Xander. She may hate his guts, but he was in the know of bad things to come and since their break up she wasn't. He wouldn't say something like that if there wasn't something going on.

"What's going on, Xander?" she said wearily.

"Oh, just your case of an evil 100 year old mayor who wants to become a demon and destroy Sunnydale in the process. You know, the usual friendly neighborhood apocalypse."

Wiping away a tear Buffy made her way through the Air Force base. Damn Angel and his stupid plan to leave town. Sure it made sense, but since when did common sense have anything to do with it? Stupid common sense! So they had had yet another fight. Great! Way to go Buffy! Instead of spending the last moments together with the love of your life, pick a fight with him instead.

Sensing there was nothing for her in the building where Angel hid from the sun she made for the base commandant's office, where she knew Giles was, and probably Belmo and Prince Margaret as well. As she did she crossed over the courtyard and passed several airmen whom she noticed looking after her. Unlike Belmo's toy soldiers they weren't in the loop, they only had to keep the place running and provide support. And with lots of strange stuff happening the base's caf chatter had to be deafening. But Buffy didn't really care. It was Belmo's problem, let him deal with it.

So she walked into the commandant's office, past the secretary who by now knew better then to stop her. Past the deputy commander's office, which the base commander now had to use. Into the commandant's office. Where she found Belmo all tucked in shivering in his wheelchair, Giles and Prince Margaret with their books, Captain Cardboard and his mini-me, one of those alien commanders, the sniveling one, also with his mini-me, and of course Forest Gump and his friends.

"So, got any plans yet?" she said straight-faced, then she pretended to look around, "Hey? Where did the transvestite go?"

"First Ru'pel is no longer with us, as are his men," Belmovekk said, followed by a bout of coughing. No sooner did it start as Giles took out the small vial with future medicine and handed the Saiyan a pill. The imminent danger to his heart may have passed, the fever hadn't.

"You know you should be in bed, right?" Buffy said frowning. Saiyans! Give them a fight and not even their deathbed would keep them. It was probably a smart move on his part to have sent her mother and her sisters away using Forest Gump's 'beam me up Scotty' technique. Cause if she was still here and saw how sick he still was she'd strap his sick ass in bed, the mayor be damned.

"I will be alright, young lady," the Saiyan said, his voice wheezing. Oh yeah, no doubt about it, You're lucky Mom's no longer here. She was about to make a remark when one of Forest Gump's friends spoke up.

"Hey Buffy," Yamcha said grinning nervously, "remember me?"

"Oh, it's Mr. 'Check out Buffy's behind'," Buffy said ruefully, "well, Mr. 'Check out Buffy's behind', do you think my ass looks big in these trousers?"

Defiantly she turned her posterior towards him and looked over her shoulder grinning.

Meanwhile Yamcha's face was becoming as red as a tomato as everybody looked at him, curious and with perverse delight as to what he would say.

"I…., uh…," was all he could stammer.

"Even I know there is no safe answer to that question," the three eyed Tien whispered in Yamcha's ear with visible glee.

"Never mind," Yamcha replied nervously as he waved his hands in front of him.

"Thought so," Buffy said dismissively and her attention moved on, causing Yamcha to let out a huge sense of relief.

"And you think you can give me advice on women?" Krillin snorted towards his friend, then he checked out Buffy's ass since it was turned towards them anyway, "Still, nice ass though. I wonder if she's single."

"I don't know," Tien said critically, "I'm still missing something."

"Yeah, it not being a man's ass probably," Yamcha said.

"I am not gay!" Tien said tiredly.

"You know, if you say it often enough you might actually start to believe it," Yamcha said as he patted Tien on the shoulders.

While Goku's friends talked on Buffy went and joined next to Giles. As had become the norm lately everybody stood around a map. Great. The military sure loved them maps. On the map she noticed that Sunnydale had been carved up in segments, with each part color shaded in a different color.

"So, what's with all the pretty colors?" she asked.

"Deployment areas, Miss Summers," Riley said in that condescending voice of his he always used with her, like she was stupid or something, "Every colored section gets its own team to keep the people there safe."

Buffy leaned over and pretended she was interested.

"Why not concentrate everything on the Mayor instead," she asked. Upon which Captain Cardboard groaned, the arrogant bastard!

"Um…, from what we could learn from the Ascension texts the…, um… actual ceremony requires an unordinary amount of blood sacrifice after the actual Ascension," Wesley spoke, "We know the Mayor has been stockpiling enough supplies to feed and maintain a small army. We know there have been sightings of vampires with chi training still out there. It only stands to reason that once the mayor ascends his army will emerge from the caverns underneath Sunnydale and turn on the people of Sunnydale. Gather them for the slaughter."

"Neato," Buffy nodded.

"As you can see every team will cover the same amount of manhole covers and underground exits," Riley explained, pointing to black dots on the map.

"That's a lot of ground to cover for only seven teams," Buffy said. And by the looks of it Captain Cardboard wasn't happy with it either.

"I only have 22 men, Miss Summers," he said, "We're trained to fight in threes. They'll be hard pressed as is. Either I split the teams up or I'll give each team more ground. I'd really rather not split my teams up."

"Makes sense," Buffy said, then she turned to Belmo, "and us?"

"We shall be at ground central," the Saiyan said pointing to the dot on the map that represented Sunnydale High, "Once the mayor ascends Goku will teleport the students to safety, while his friends and your friends will keep him busy until he returns. After which we can only hope Goku can defeat him."

"Still no clue as to what he'll become?"

Belmo shook his head.

"Despite their best efforts Masters Giles and Wyndam-Pryce could not deduce it. But we all think it has to be pretty strong, considering he knows what we can do."

"Neato," Buffy said again, shaking her head, "So does we include you as well? Cause in your current condition you might as well stay in bed."

"It is absolutely imperative that I be present," Belmo replied..

"Somebody has an inflated opinion of himself," Buffy singsonged, causing the Saiyan to wince.

"Please, young lady," he sighed, "not in front of the men."

"What?" she smiled as she crawled on his lap and put her arm around him, "Does my public affection embarrass my new daddy in front of his toy soldiers?"

And then she kissed him. Oh, that look on his face. Priceless!

"Do I give good squirm, daddy?" Buffy pouted.

"You are a cruel woman, young lady," Belmo said through gritted teeth.

"You have no idea," Buffy whispered back, then she hopped off him.

"You know, suddenly I don't think I want her to be my girlfriend," Krillin whispered to Yamcha in the back.

"I don't know," Yamcha shrugged back, "at least she doesn't scream like a fishwife, like Bulma does. That's a pleasant change."

Seeing the amused looks on the faces of his former trainees, Belmovekk shot a quick dirty look towards Buffy, then he looked at Captain Riley. Who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Be glad, be very glad that you are no longer subject to my orders, captain," he said annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sure that I speak on behalf of everyone when I say that we are," Riley grinned, then he made a slight bow, "Satiya."

"Seriously though, is there any plan or is the plan to basically go out there and fight him, hoping for the best?" Buffy asked, "How very Faith of you all? Don't we have anything else? Like some kind or spell or artifact we could use? Some kind of super weapon we can use. Some kind of prophecy that tells us of a weakness?"

Giles shook his head.

"There is none, Buffy," he said, "I've checked everything. All my books, all my prophecies."

"What about that other prophecy you mentioned," Wesley said to Giles, "the one on the printout? Didn't that mention something? Something of called the avatar?"

"The Avatar of the Master," Giles nodded, "But it makes no sense. We've ransacked the Master's lair after Buffy vanquished him. We made an extensive catalog of everything we found. There is no artifact of that name."

The Avatar of the Master. Why did that ring a bell with her, Buffy thought.

"Maybe we should go look for it?" she suggested, "Hit some of the old cemeteries like in the old days?"

Giles took off his glasses and sighed.

"Buffy, it could be anything. It could be anywhere. We don't know what it is or how it even looks like."

"Not to mention that we killed or chased out of town the only things who could have known anything about it," Wesley added, "the town's demons."

"We could still go look for it," Buffy volunteered.

"There is no time, young lady," Belmo said, "besides we do have a plan."

"So that's why you think you're so indispensable?" Buffy asked, then she grinned again, "So, what is it, daddy?"

For a moment Belmovekk facepalmed his face, then he sighed and pointed to the tattoos on his arms.

"These are not just for decoration, young lady."

"They're not?" Buffy said as she looked Belmo's tattoos over, "I always thought they were some weird form of Saiyan cultural thingy. Like the Fonz going ah all the time. Or Giles with his obsession with tea and scary books."

The Saiyan rolled his eyes.

"Think, young lady, think, have you ever seen Goku or Vegeta with tattoos?"

"Well, Vegeta's the Prince of Dorkness. So I guessed maybe him being a prince means he doesn't get to have any. And Forest Gump here grew up on Earth, so he doesn't have any either."

"Who's Forest Gump?" Goku asked his friends, who were too busy doing their damnest not to laugh in his face.

"These are the marks of high grade Karandese and Morindim wizards, young lady," Belmovekk said pointing to his hideous tattoos, "While my sorcery may be weak I do excel at Karandese and Morindim demon magic."

"If you ask me you should have gotten your money back," Buffy said unimpressed, "I still don't get it why Mom doesn't march you into laser removal. At least tattoo them over. If you like I know this place in LA…"

"These marks are integral to performing Karandese and Morindim demon magic, young lady," the Saiyan said annoyed, "and no, while I know what your mother wants, they are not coming off."

"I don't get it though, what's so special about this Carry Dee Monkey magic," Buffy asked.

"Buffy," Giles spoke up, "it's the purpose of the magic involved. As you may know all magic except sorcery is derived from an external source. And it's the source that defines the magic. Wicca for instance derives its power from the Earth. Whereas other branches get their magic from imploring a variety of higher powers. Ranging from Gods, to spirits and de…."

"Giles, please, the cliff note version please," Buffy said impatiently, "before the mayor ascends. In response Giles rolled his eyes, then he sighed.

"Almost all forms of demon magic get their power from invoking the power of demons, giving them soothing in exchange for power," the Watcher explained, "however the demon magic practiced on the world Belmovekk lived on for 4000 years doesn't seek to beseech demons for power. It seeks to control them instead."

"Why on Earth would they want to do that?" Buffy exclaimed in shock.

"Why bother with begging for crumbs if you can control the source itself," Wesley replied, "make them do your bidding."

Buffy looked at Wesley, then the quarter fell and she looked at Belmovekk.

"You're gonna make the mayor your sockpuppet?" she said wide eyed, "I just got to see his face once you do that. And why didn't you do it before?"

Belmovekk gestured around.

"Because it only works on true demons, and there are none here. "

"Except there will be one soon," Riley said, then he looked at his mini-me, "or so I heard.".

"There are no guarantees that it will work," Giles said and pointed towards Belmovekk, "even more so now that Belmovekk's still sick. This is why Wesley and Willow will help him. The plan really is for Goku here to defeat the mayor."

"I'm looking forward to it," Goku said enthusiastically, "I really want to find out how this mayor fights."

"Why am I not surprised?" Buffy said deadpan.

"Belmovekk only really comes into play if the mayor proves to hard for Goku to beat," Giles continued, "If we can take control over the mayor's demon form, even if only for a moment, it could be all the time Goku needs to defeat him."

"I see," Buffy said, then she pointed over her shoulder towards Belmovekk, "since I guess we're finished now could you guys give me a moment alone with my 'daddy' here?"

"I think we can do that, now can we?" Riley said amused as he reached for the map and began to roll up the map, "If you need us, Satiya, we'll be in the briefing room."

One by one everybody filed past until only Buffy and Belmovekk were left in the room.

"Why on Earth did you even learn that crap?" Buffy asked.

"What crap?" Belmovekk asked surprised.

"That demon crap," Buffy said as she picked up one of his tattooed arms, "this crap."

"It's a useful craft to possess, young lady," Belmovekk said calmly as he pulled his arm loose, " and my master did command his disciples to learn what there is to learn out there. And…."

"You know what I think?" Buffy said interrupting as she folded her arms across her chest, "I think all that master commanding bull is just bull. I think you just couldn't resist summoning a demon and have a spar with it."

Belmovekk rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Young lady, it grieves me to think that you think that of me. I have been nothing but a loyal servant…"

"God you're so full of it," Buffy said shaking her head, "you're just like Xander. Get a little power and suddenly you're all cocky. No wonder you two are such good buddies. Summoning demons because of all that 'hungering for a true challenge' crap. You know, in that respect you're even worse then Vegeta, at least he makes no pretense about it."

Belmovekk looked downward, evading her gaze.

"Alright, I do admit, it did make for good practice," he said guiltily.

"I knew it," Buffy said victoriously, then she turned serious, "But this will be the last time, right? Cause I swear, you Saiyans get bored way too easily. You'll three will be death of this planet. Get a hobby!"

"Are my personal pursuits the only reason you wished to talk to me?" Belmovekk asked tired.

"As a matter of fact," Buffy said as she looked downcast, "Belmo?"

"Yes, young lady?"

"Why can't you sit this one out? I mean, you're still as sick as a dog. You need help going to the bathroom, yet here you are, Roller Boy ready to wheel into battle."

Belmo looked at her with his black iris eyes, that very same sympathetic look he had first given her when they first met, now a lifetime ago.

"I am the head of my household, young lady," he said gently, "I would be in remiss of my duty if I were to step down and let others fight this battle for me."

Buffy rolled her eyes in disgust.

"And the lifetime male chauvinist reactionary patriarch award goes to…., drum roll…., do I need to say more?" Buffy said.

"That is not what I meant," Belmovekk said quickly, "what I meant to say was…"

"Oh, I think you meant what you said," Buffy interjected as she poked his chest," You think that because you are some big ass disciple of God that you're special. That you should be the one who always has to go in first. And it doesn't help that for the past months you've got to boss those soldiers around making you feel like General Patton again. Well, guess what, Patton, you're not the only strong chauvinist pig in here. We've got Forest Gump, the Three Stooges, Pickles. Xander's back, there is the rest of the gang."

Then Buffy kneeled down in front of him and took his hands into hers as she looked him in the eyes.

"And there is me," she said softly, "this should be my battle. My graduation."

"I know," Belmovekk said as he smiled, "You are like a daughter to me, Buffy."

"I know," Buffy said, then she picked up his hand and placed it on her cheek, "You are more a father to me then my own father. Did you know he wouldn't even come to see me graduate?"

"He does not know how truly blessed he is," Belmovekk smiled as he shook his head, "All the more reason for me to protect you. I promised your mother to keep you safe, remember?"

"Mom would also be heartbroken if you died," Buffy said, "Strange though as it may be, she actually likes your male chauvinist ass. And I can look out after myself. Sure, I'll make mistakes. But if I can't make any mistakes, how could I ever learn? So could you please, please stay here?"

Belmo looked down, then he swallowed and looked up again.

"Young la… ," he said, then he stopped and smiled, "Buffy, I wish I could oblige you. But the sad matter of fact is that there is no safe place. And at least at the school I can be of some use through my magic. Distasteful though it may be. And besides, who would you rather have in charge. Goku?"

"Point taken," Buffy chuckled, then she stood up, "but you be careful though. Remember the first rule of Slaying."

"Do not die," they both said in unison.

"A sound rule indeed," Belmovekk said, then he reached out and took her hand, "You do not need a slip of paper to tell me that you have graduated. I can see that just by looking at you, young lady."

"Thanks," Buffy said touched, "that means a lot."

"You are welcome," the Saiyan smiled, "now, is there something else you wish to discuss?"

Buffy looked upwards and pretended to think.

"Well, now that you mention it, I can think of a few other things," Buffy said smirking. Then she moved lightning fast and struck him with her open hand.

BAM

"AUW!" the Saiyan moaned as he reached for the back of his head where Buffy had just hit him.

"Why did you do that for?" he asked incredulously, rubbing the sore spot.

"That's for lying to me when you dropped me and Xander off in the woods, remember?" she said angry, "Xander told me all about your little plan to hitch us up, your hezma thingy."

Oops!

Busted!

"How did you learn of the Hez'màta?" he asked surprised. Damn did she hit him hard!

"Psycho Saiyan told him back on Tangery," Buffy said, then she leaned over and whispered in his ears, "she told him a lot of Saiyan match making tricks. So no more of them, right Belmo?"

"No more Saiyan match making tricks, got that, Young Lady," Belmovekk said meekly. Then she punched him again, this time on the shoulder. Again hard.

"AUW!" the Saiyan groaned with pain, "why did you do that for?"

"That's for keeping secret you still got that crazy Goold in your head," Buffy said, "now do you have any more secrets you wish to confess?"

"As you humans say, I take the Fifth," Belmovekk said cowering as he rubbed his sore spots.

"As I thought," Buffy snorted in disgust, then her face changed and she smiled like nothing had happened, "See you at the graduation?"

"Would not miss it for the world, young lady," Belmovekk replied. Then she gave him a brief peck at the cheek and was out of the door.

"Earth women are crazy," Belmovekk sighed and wheeled his wheelchair around. Only to see the spitting image of himself leaned against a file cupboard, dressed in his gold armor but carrying a leather WW2 US army tankers jacket over it and a leather cap on his head.

"You know something, I really like her," Amūn smirked.

"This itches," Goku said as he lifted up his graduation cap to scratch his head. He and his friends were standing on the grass outside Sunnydale High amidst some of the other students. Nearby the school staff had erected benches on the school lawn and a podium for the speakers. A table with a box of diplomas stood next to it.

"Don't touch it, Goku," Krillin said as he tried to stop the Saiyan from fidgeting with his graduation gear

"Yeah, but it drives me mad," Goku said scratching underneath his cap like crazy.

"Well, tough it out dude," Krillin sighed, "Surely if you can subject yourself to the most grueling training in the world a little itch shouldn't be too much."

While Goku reluctantly stopped scratching Tien and Yamcha were looking around. While Yamcha wore his graduation cap loosely, Tien's was placed as forward as possible, to cover up his third eye.

"Strange that we are about to go into battle in a place like this," Tien said somewhat perturbed, "normally we fight as far away from civilization as possible."

Yamcha wanted to say something when a girl dressed in an outfit with way too much cleavage and way too much leg on show walked past. Eyeing the girl he could only sigh dreamily.

"Huh."

Ironically Krillin, their most desperate member didn't even notice her. Probably Goku fidgeting with his costume next to him had something to do with it.

"Goku, stop that!"

"I just hope we can keep these people safe," Tien said, "It's not right that we should fight here. Too many witnesses, to many innocent bystanders. Too much things that can go wrong, What do you think, Yamcha?"

Yamcha didn't respond, instead he was leering at a couple of girls who were obviously from the cheerleading squad. Sighing deeply Tien shook his head despondent.

"Why do I even bother?"

"So, how do I look?" Willow said as she twirled around in her graduation kit and then pretended to pose like a mannequin.

"Absolutely fabulous," Oz smiled at her modeling

"I'm worried though," Willow said as she stopped posing and bit her lip.

"What for, sweetie?" Oz asked, "Are you scared?"

"What if the mayor ascends before we get our diplomas?" Willow said worriedly, "I mean, does that mean we've not graduated? I don't get to go to college because I have to say 'I'm sorry but I have no high school diploma because our town mayor became a demon and destroyed the school before I could receive my diploma?' What would they say and…"

Instead of trying to convince her with arguments Oz just leaned over and kissed Willow full on the mouth.

"Good answer," Willow smiled afterwards. Meanwhile Buffy and Xander were already seated amidst many of the other students.

"I can't believe that bastard Angel," Buffy said angrily, "would you believe him? Leaving town without even saying goodbye after this is over?"

"Buff, please," Xander said worried as he looked around shiftily, "normally nothing would give me more pleasure then hearing you say the words bastard, Angel and leaving in the same sentence. But not now."

"Why do you even care what Snyder would say," Buffy said frowning, "he's been a shadow of his former nasty self lately."

"Don't jinx it, Buff," Xander said as he watched Snyder walk past not that far from him, "pride before the fall, remember?"

"Pff," Buffy snorted, "I still don't see why you're worrying so much. At least you look like you belong here. Unlike Gozer the Gozerian and his Three Stooges over there."

Buffy nodded towards Goku and his friends who looked severely out of place. Goku's wild hair was straining to break out from underneath the cap, and the cape wasn't really fooling any one. Midget Man could have passed if it weren't for the fact that the class of 2000 didn't have a noseless midget. Yamcha, well, the lecherous look with which he eyed the student body's female population wasn't that uncommon. If you were a freshman with hormones overflowing from his ears that was. Not on a graduating senior.

Unless you were one of the nerds of course. And Yamcha could never pass as a nerd. The nerds oddly enough seemed very relaxed as Buffy saw them sitting together, the three of them looking almost serene. She recognized Jonathan, who seemed like a far cry from the nervous wreck he always used to be. She couldn't remember the names of the other two he was sitting with. Such was the fate of nerds. If they were lucky that is.

Oddly enough out of Goku's Three Stooges Tien looked most like he belonged here. With his third eye covered up (Ew!), his muscular physique and his relaxed attitude he could easily pass for one of the Jocks. Only one who was stupid enough to graduate ten years later then he should have. But still.

"Couldn't you have gotten them something else other then grad wear?" Buffy asked Xander.

"Hey there wasn't much to choose from ," Xander said defensively, "besides, how else are they going to blend in? Could you picture them as proud parents? We have to fool that demon wannabe somehow."

"They're not fooling anyone, Xander," Buffy countered, "Besides, it's not like he doesn't know they're here. He's probably expecting us to show up with everything but the kitchen sink."

Then Buffy sighed deeply.

"I wish I had it though," she said wistfully.

"What, the kitchen sink?" Xander asked, one eyebrow raised in surprise.

"No that thing Giles mentioned," Buffy said, "that avatar thingy. I hate it when I'm supposed to have some super weapon and I'm not having it. It's like realizing your missing your fashion accessories just before you go out on a hot date."

"A bit late to go looking for some mystical super fashion accessory Giles uncovered at the last minute," Xander said, then he pointed to the chair right in front of them, "although if I were to survive this day and build a time machine to go back in time and look for it, this would be the moment were it would pop up."

Nothing popped up on the chair in front of them.

"I guess this is a sign that you either didn't build a time machine or you couldn't find it," Buffy said amused.

"I'm so glad you didn't suggest the other alternative," Xander said morose, "that the reason I didn't go back in time is because I'm gonna die today."

Buffy looked at her friend and shook her head.

"Wow, you've really mastered the art of positive giving up."

In a different place others were gathering as well. In a large underground cave a Gero type android, #13, had gathered his lieutenants for a last minute briefing. They were completely different then his creator could ever dream, and certainly more different then his original fellows, #14 and #15.

But in many ways he preferred them over #14 and #15. To start with, there wasn't the constant bickering. Oh, the vampires didn't like the demons. And many of the demon species and clans hated each other. But at least they were all united in a common hatred against the Slayer and the Saiyan that transcended any programmed imperative #14 and #15 ever had to work together. Also they did as they were told. Which was also a refreshing change. While #15 carried out orders, #14 only did so reluctantly.

It was a strange road that had brought #13 back to Sunnydale. It had become very clear that the Saiyan Belmovekk had the aid of the authorities in finding them. They had used this to lure him away on their assault on Bulma Briefs, but after the loss of #14 the net grew ever tighter on him. And then the Dark Slayer had found him and offered him shelter in Sunnydale. The last place they would look for him.

For over a month he had hidden underneath the town, the mayor offering to help him get back the diskeys of #14 and #15 so he could complete his mission, yet so far delivering preciously little in return. At one time it had even come to a scuffle between him and the Dark Slayer, after which the mayor had made it pretty damn clear that the only way he could get what he wanted was on Ascension day.

And that day had finally come! The completion of his mission was at hand!

With his demon and vampire lieutenants gathered around a large map of Sunnydale #13 spoke to them.

"The transformation should begin at exactly 3:28, "he said leaning on the map table with both hands, "just after the boss finishes his speech. He also wants to let it be known that if any of you are in a position to hear it, you should. It's as he says in his own words 'speaking to everyone of us'."

"Pff," a demon snorted derisively, "So like Boss. He full of caca."

Several of the other demons sniggered. By now Mayor Wilkins' penchant for edifying lectures had become legendary in his own private army. #13 waited for the sniggering to stop, then he continued.

"The boss expects everybody to run. That is why you each have your assigned areas," he said pointing the map. Captain Riley would have been proud to see that his enemy had adopted almost the exact same approach as he had. Like his #13's map was subdivided in color shaded segments.

"Each of you will stay in your assigned area and gather the humans there for the final slaughter," #13 continued, "Once the boss is finished he will come and slaughter the humans. He asked me to tell our vampiric brethren that there should be, under no circumstances, any snacking. The moment any of you see a vampire bite into any human, he or she is to be summarily executed."

"That will not be easy," one of the vampire lieutenants said, "Some of them haven't tasted a human in over a year thanks to that bloody Edict."

#13 looked at the vampire lieutenant, a blonde woman. He had no problems with her. She had her group well trained and she was neither stupid, arrogant or lazy. Still, he had to impress the urgency of the situation on her. And the other vampires.

"Then make them listen. The boss lets it be known that, again in his words, 'any vampire that gets caught snacking will get a visit to the wood shed'. And that includes his or her commander if it happens again. Am I clear?"

"What about the sun?" another vampire spoke up, "How can we even move in daylight?"

"Do not worry about the sun," #13 replied, "again the boss lets it be known that 'Darkness will follow and day becomes night'. There will be a solar eclipse."

"Cool!" another vampire said excited.

"Now, to paraphrase," #13 continued as he looked around, "You each stay in your designated area. You gather the humans for the boss' feast. No snacking. You will focus on any resistance first. There will be resistance from the Slayer and the army men. They are well trained so don't be cocky. So if you come across any of them take them out first. The humans can't escape town so there's no point gathering them first while you still encounter resistance."

"Bah, too much think," a Kragh demon snorted in disgust, "If Faith was still sub-boss there be no think. Just smash, just grab!"

#13 looked at the Kragh demon with cold piercing eyes.

"And look where her charge first, think later approach got her?"

"The silence before the storm," Riley said as he peered through his binoculars and saw the graduation ceremony taking place on the school lawn. He, Sergeant Burns and one of those Sons of Priya Jaffa stood on top of a church building in downtown Sunnydale.

"I hate waiting. How much longer do you think before its show time?" Burns asked. While Riley stood up straight so he could watch through his binoculars, Burns and the Jaffa sat on top of a pair of small chimneys.

"Not for long, the mayor has already arrived," Riley replied, then he looked over his shoulder at his sergeant, "did you know there's going to be a solar eclipse?"

"No," the sergeant said impressed, "I've never seen one before."

"I don't think you'll get to see much of it," Riley chuckled as he returned his attention back to the binoculars, "You do realize that when the sun's out the mayor can also bring out the bloodsuckers, right?"

"Aw, crap!" Burns muttered, then he looked up and said surprised, "oh, captain."

"What?" Riley said, looked around and saw Burns pointing up into the sky. To his surprise he saw at least seven Jaffa flying towards him, with Rue Paul in the lead. Within seconds they touched down next to them.

"Greetings Captain Riley," Rue Paul said as he bowed slightly, "we have come to join battle with you today."

"I thought you guys were going to sit this one out?" Riley said surprised, "I thought this was not your battle?"

Rue Paul nodded, then he grinned.

"This may not be our battle, nor our world," he said as he gestured around, "but you are our comrades in arms. And it would reflect poorly on us if we were to stand aside. I have left some men behind so they can bring what we have learned back to our people. But we will fight and die with you today. Jaffa Kree!"

"Jaffa Kree!" said all the other Jaffa, including the one from the sons of Priya.

"Where do you want us?" Rue Paul asked and Riley had to think hard of it. Preferably he would create smaller deployment areas. But there was no time to redeploy the teams. He could reinforce each team though. Seven teams, one extra member each. Increase the odds per team. They might even stand a chance right now.

After a few more close calls for Xander the graduation ceremony finally began as Principal Snyder finally took the stage and stood behind the mike. Tapping it once to see if it was on he finally began to speak.

"Congratulations to the class of 2000. You all proved more or less adequate. This is a time of celebration, so: sit still and be quiet."

Snyder paused one moment to and surveyed the students as he saw something suspicious. Naturally this was the time for Xander to huddle even deeper in his seat.

"Spit out that gum," Snyder finally said as he pointed to somewhere else in the student body, "Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker: Richard Wilkins the 3rd. "

The mayor had no sooner taken a step onto the podium as Snyder again pointed to someone in the crowd.

"I saw that gesture. You see me after graduation," he said before standing aside so the mayor could stand behind the microphone. In passing both men shook hands, then Mayor Wilkins stood behind the mike and smiled as he pulled out several cue cards. Next he cleared his throat as he looked around. Making sure to pause for just a second on each enemy that he saw.

"Well. What a day this is!" Wilkins said, again surveying the student body, "Special day. Today is our centennial, the one hundreds anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale, and I know what that means to all you kids: not a darn thing. Because today something much more important happens: today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain, all the work, all the excitement is finally over. And what's a hundred years of history compared to that? You know what kids? …"

"Oh my God!" Buffy whispered to Willow, "He's going to do the entire speech."

"Man, just ascend already," Willow said frowning. Some horrors were just too much to take.

"Evol!" Buffy echoed.

"… for all of you it may be that there is a place in Sunnydale's history," the Mayor continued as he was in full swing now, "whether you like it or not. It's been a long road getting here. For you… for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times,… and there has been grief. There's been loss. Some people who should be here today… aren't. "

Did it look like for a moment the mayor was faltering? Whatever it was it was gone as the speech continued.

"But we are. Journey's end. And what is a journey? Is it just… distance traveled? Time spent? No. It's what happens on the way, it the things that happen to you. At the end of the journey you're not the same. Today is about change. Graduation doesn't just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend… to a higher level. Nothing will ever be the same."

Suddenly a shadow fell upon the mayor.

"Nothing," he said, then he looked up. Buffy and the other students also looked up. In the sky the sun was in its final stages of being eclipsed by the moon. Soon the sun wouldn't be visible at all.

"And cue D.B.," Xander said deadpan.

On the stage the mayor began to flinch as pain rocked his body. He swallowed and tried to continue his speech.

"And so as we look back on…" he spoke before even more pain hit him and he had to turn away to groan. And yet still he tried to finish his speech.

"….on the events that brought us to this day…," was all he could utter as more pain hit him.

Amongst the students Buffy took of her hat and looked at her friends, then she nodded towards Goku.

"Come on."

"We…," the mayor tried to say as spasms of pain rocked his body, "…we must all…AAAAAAHHHHH!"

A loud scream set the mesmerized students on edge. Then for a moment the mayor seemed to get a better grip on himself..

"It has begun," he said panting, "My destiny... It's a little sooner then I expected I had this whole section on civic pride… But I guess we'll just skip to the big finish!"

Dropping his cue cards the mayor crossed his arms in front of him and cringed , as lightning began to arc around his body. First to die was the PA system as it died in howls of feedback. Then the mayor released his arms and stretched them out into the air

"YES!" he yelled as a swirling cloud of white chi began to form around him. As it did Buffy stood up and turned around so she could face the student main body and yelled.

"EVERYBODY, FORM UP! NOW!"

In the centre of the students Goku looked at his friends, who like him had gotten rid of their graduation clothing. One by one they lifted themselves up into the air until they hung above the students.

"See you later," the Saiyan smiled as he put two fingers on his forehead and felt countless hands of the students around him touch him.

"Don't be fashionably late though," Yamcha called back. Then Goku disappeared and with him every student that was in direct and indirect contact with him as well. In one fell swoop the entire student body was teleported to safety.

And just in time as strong winds began to blow across the now mostly deserted graduation field, soon followed by earth tremors.

"Go inside," Oz yelled towards Willow as he lowered the both of them and let her go.. Willow nodded and ran away, back inside where she ran upstairs until she came to the ladder that gave access to the roof. Climbing she emerged on the roof where she found Belmovekk in his wheelchair together with the two Watchers. As she joined them she had first rank seats on the graduation lawn below, the transforming mayor still surrounded by white energy and strong gust winds hammering everything in an ever increasing area. Only Snyder, Buffy, Xander, Oz, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin were left, hovering above the field. Except for Snyder of course who stood there gobsmacked.

And then the mayor exploded, a shockwave of white chi going over Sunnydale, blowing out windows and streetlights all over town.

And then came the quiet.

It was broken by Belmovekk.

"Unfucking believable!"

Somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean Piccolo hung in mid air and he looked like he had just seen a ghost.

Or maybe the better word was sensed.

"No way!" he gasped. Then he redoubled his efforts to make for Sunnydale.

"You get back in here, young man!"

Gohan hadn't set two feet outside the door as his mother's voice called him back. And not in the casual voice she reserved for giving statements and announcements. No, this was the voice that could strip paint of walls and had Super Saiyans cower in their Super Saiyan boots.

"But Mom," Gohan said as he turned around to face his irate mother, "Dad's in trouble. He needs me!"

"I don't care if Satan himself were to break the sixth seal and calls in a thousand years of darkness while the combined choirs of heaven and hell sing when the saints go marching in," Chichi said unimpressed, "Your father and I made a deal. He'd train you during the day so you could fight those robots. But only, and I say that again, only to fight those robots. And in return I get you for the evenings and the rest of your life."

He may be only ten years old but Gohan had seen and experienced more then most adults had their entire life. Having to grow up with Piccolo in the wilderness and the burden of first saving the world, then journey to planet Namek to bring back his friends and now the world again had made him a precocious child. So when his mother said he'd be hers for the rest of his life he more then understood the finality of what that meant.

Suddenly his mother dropped on her knees so she could look into his eyes on the same level. And she put her hands on his shoulders.

"Look," she said gently, her anger gone and replaced by something else, "I know you want to help your father. And it's hard to sit on the sidelines doing nothing as the world's in danger. Believe me, Gohan, I know. But it will take you hours just to get there and by then it will be over either way. And if your father can't stop it, what chance do you have?"

"I know, Mom," Gohan replied, "but I still want to help."

"Your father has plenty of help," Chichi smiled, "He has Piccolo, and Krillin, and Yamcha and Tien with him. And then there Belmovekk and his friends. You remember Xander, right?"

"I guess," Gohan said reluctantly. Chichi gave his shoulders an encouraging squeeze, then she stood and took his hand to lead him back inside.

"Come, let's do some homework," she said as Gohan allowed himself to be taken back inside, "I'll help you."

But despite her promise Chichi was of little help to her son as her eyes continued to drift to the windows while Gohan struggled to do his homework.

"There's something you don't see every day," Xander whispered into Buffy's ear after the mayor's transformation was over, "it doesn't look so bad though. Just a color change, some horns and a tail."

"You do know you just spoke the mother of all jinxes, right?" Buffy said back as she lowered herself to the ground and surveyed the transformed mayor. Then she put on her scouter and saw the thing go off the scale.

"You just had to say it, right?" Buffy muttered dejected. Xander followed suit with his scouter and it soon had him downcast as well.

"Why do you guys have so much fun at my expense?" he said, glancing up to the heavens.

"Check out the little guy," Oz said pointing to Goku's friend, not even getting the irony of his own statement, "he's seriously freaking out.

All eyes turned to Krillin. Who was indeed freaking out. His other two friends looked aghast, but the little guy looked like he saw Death itself. And he was stuttering like crazy.

"F-F-F-F-F-F-F-Fr-Fr-Fr-F-F-Free-Fr-F-Fr-Freeza!"

He opened his eyes for the first time. He was surprised he could suddenly see in a different spectrum. No more Technicolor vision, that would take some getting used to. But it was of no consequences as it was worth it. Originally he had wanted to become a Qua'etzecatl demon. As they were amongst the most powerful in known existence.

The keyword being known of course.

And then the Saiyan came to Sunnydale and raised the bar. Especially after his showdown with the order of Taraka it became obvious that a Qua'etzecatl would be mere lunch to a Saiyan.

He could see that his plans needed changing. At first he thought that maybe if he could somehow weaken or kill the Saiyan beforehand his problems would be solved.

But then he learned that there were more of them. That complicated matters. He could come up with ways to kill one Saiyan. Or incapacitate one. But not all three of them. And then there was the Demon King Piccolo as well. Four strong enemies who could be counted upon to take the field against him. Four strong enemies who could easily crush a Qua'etzecatl.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had his character Sherlock Holmes state that whenever you eliminate the impossible, whatever it is that remains, no matter how improbable, has to be the truth. And the truth was that his old plan to become a Qua'etzecatl wasn't going to cut it. So, like the imaginary hero whose books he liked to read before going to bed, he was facing an uncomfortable truth. Either give up on his plans. Or change them.

He needed to know more about Saiyans and know it quickly. Their strengths, their weaknesses. And he knew from his informers that they had one great enemy. A being called Freeza.

Unfortunately Freeza was also a dead enemy. Then again, maybe that was fortuitous as well. A foe capable of defeating Saiyans may not have taken kindly on seeing a rival rise who could do the same. And a dead foe could be contacted via necromancers far more easy then a live one ever could. It just required the right kind of necromancer. And in that respect Ethan Rayne came through on his promise.

It turned out the dead Freeza was more then willing to help him in his quest to defeat all Saiyans, especially one in particular. Hatred being everything sustaining him in the afterlife. It also turned out that Freeza was willing to explain his own origin and that of his father. For it turned out there didn't exist a race of beings like Freeza and his father in this universe. In fact they were quite unique as they weren't native to it at all.

Once on a planet in a galaxy far away there existed a race of creatures who were fairly good fighters in their own right, but nothing special though compared to some of the other races. Considering that that galaxy had some pretty unsavory other races it was no coincidence they eventually found themselves subjugated by a cruel warlord.

The cruel warlord demanded heavy tributes from this planet and conscripted many of its best fighters as cannon fodder for his armies. The price became to great to bear after a while and a rebellion ensued. It failed, and in response the warlord exacted a terrible revenge on that planet by committing decimation against its population. He literally killed one in four of every inhabitant, knowing that this would hammer the message down.

It did.

But not in the way he imagined it.

For this race was a race that worshipped demons and a powerful shaman who saw his son murdered before his eyes swore deadly revenge on the warlord. While they were demon worshippers this race still knew that demons were best worshipped from afar. Never up close. But since his son had been murdered the shaman felt he had nothing to lose and committed the ultimate sacrilege. He would not only contact the planet's Demon Lord, Algida, he would actually bring it into this realm.

Of all true demons, Demon Lords are the most fickle and the hardest to control. But the shaman had no intention of controlling this demon. He promised to do whatever the Demon Lord wanted if only it would kill the warlord and its henchmen. That the Demon Lord could do easily. Upon summoning he single-handedly slaughtered the warlord's forces on the planet and then he teleported himself to the warlord's planet of operation, summoned his army from the nether and eradicated every living soul he found there.

It is the nature of the universe that it does not tolerate the presence of a Demon Lord in this plane of existence for long, nor any other true demon for that matter, so eventually the Demon Lord would be forced to retreat to his own Hell dimension. But the Demon Lord had no intention to give up his foothold in this universe so easily. So he demanded that the shaman presented him with his prize. A thousand females for his troops to mate with. The resulting mixed offspring could then bear to remain in this universe and be his foothold in this universe.

The shaman obliged. And yet…., even in his grief he was still no fool. He cast a spell that would see all females die in the throws of giving birth, killing their demonic offspring with them. All accept one. In her case the spell didn't work. And she gave birth to her half demonic offspring. It clawed itself from her belly and stepped into this world. Thus the Shaman was foiled.

But the Demon Lord Algida didn't get what it wanted either. For the demon was not a true demon. Physically it resembled its father. Three toed feet, a white exterior, clawed hands, horns and a tail. Inwardly it resembled its mother, who had been a cruel and haughty woman, a member of the local elite that ruled the planet for the warlord. Once born into this world the new demon refused to pay heed to Algida's summons and once fully grown it set up shop for itself instead. Soon it had eradicated most the inhabitants of his birth planet as they tried to kill him. It tracked down the remainder of the warlord's operations off planet and appointed itself head of its organization. Later it would return to its birth planet and destroyed it, making sure no one could trace back its origin.

As it was not a true demon, it did discover that it aged with time. Growing old with time and trusting no one else to be its successor the half demon turned to technology to come up with answers. In some places of the universe cloning was as normal as natural conception. And here the half demon ordered that four clones of himself be made.

He would also come to regret this decision as once they got old enough his clone spawn combined forces against him. They killed him and then fought each other over who got to run the family business. The sole survivor vowed never to make the same mistake as his father again. Once the time would come to clone himself he would order only one clone. One offspring would be more easy to control, having no brothers to plot with. If it did try to overturn him he would just kill it and order a new clone until the father became too old to defeat his son. After which the cycle would began anew. The arrangement would stand the test of time until one day both father and son would meet their ends together on the windswept plains of Turkmenistan, thus ending the line.

From the dead Freeza Wilkins learned the truth of the origins of Freeza and King Cold. And a new name to contact, the Demon Lord Algida. And the Demon Lord Algida was more then interested in helping him ascend. The Earth was at a nexus of various dimensions, including many hell dimensions. But Algida's dimension wasn't part of that nexus. Having Wilkins ascend into a true demon was a bonus really, as Algida's true goal was for his dimension to join that nexus. And if Wilkins ascended by using that Hellmouth it would re-align the demonic realms in such a way that Algida could finally join the big league as it were.

And Wilkins' plan for ascension relied heavily on the Hellmouth. That is why for a century he had been charging it with blood sacrifices until it was a loaded gun about to go off. After that all Wilkins needed to do was apply the right template. And templates could be changed. Into the one given to him by Algida.

That of a demon like Freeza.

Only this time that of a true demon.

Algida ordered that Freeza's demonic soul temporarily be released from its eternal pit of torment and ordered it to help the aspiring mayor. And Freeza eagerly complied, seeing a chance to strike at his hated enemies.

And now it had happened. Wilkins turned his head and surveyed the graduation field. The Slayer was there, together with her friends and those of the other Saiyan. And on top of the school he could see his nemesis. The one who had taken away his girl. Good, they were present.

But first, a snack.

In his career Krillin often got dumped upon for being one of the weaker fighters, maybe not as much as Yamcha, but both Goku and Piccolo had long surpassed him, and it looked like Tien was well on his way on surpassing him as well. And yet… with the exception of the battle against King Piccolo Krillin had fought alongside Goku every time. He had been there alongside his son Gohan as well. He had survived the onslaught of Vegeta when the others hadn't, he was the only human fighter to have gone to planet Namek, the only human fighter to have fought against the Ginyu Force, the only human fighter to have fought against Freeza. And almost gotten away with it.

But just as they thought they had won against the evil tyrant after Goku's Spirit Bomb attack, the evil tyrant returned to prove them wrong and killed him. His death was what pushed Goku over the edge into Super Saiyan. A poor consolation though for what was still a terrible trauma. So once the mayor's Ascension was finished and revealed himself as a second form Freeza on steroids, old traumas began to play up again.

"F-F-F-F-F-F-F-Fr-Fr-Fr-F-F-Free-Fr-F-Fr-Freeza!"

Yamcha and Tien looked at the small fighter in their midst freak out and then at the large horned demon on the stage. Unlike Krillin they had never seen Freeza first hand, always having to rely on the strange King Kai to provide them with 2nd hand imagery. But they had sensed the evil tyrant when he had come to Earth, now almost two years ago. And this demonized mayor did give off the same feeling, only ten times worse.

"So that's Freeza," Yamcha said both surprised and appalled.

"Now might be a good time for you to come back, Goku," Tien said through gritted teeth.

Meanwhile, close to the transformed mayor Principal Snyder got up from the ground.

"This… this is simply unacceptable!" he said while dusting himself off. For almost three years he had maintained order and discipline on this school. And throughout that time he felt he had the support of the mayor and the school board. And now it was the mayor itself which caused his school to become a battleground. So faced with the unthinkable Snyder fell back on the only things he knew.

"This is not orderly. This is not discipline!"

Snyder's outrage caught the demon mayor's attention. Ten feet of whitish demon turned towards the principal

"You're on my campus buddy!" Snyder said outraged, "and I won't stand for….."

Those were his last words as the mayor's tail lashed out and pierced him right through the chest. Then it lifted his stunned body up until it was near the mayor's face and he began to devour Snyder's still living body.

"Holy crap!" Yamcha exclaimed aghast, then he turned to Krillin, "please tell me Freeza did the exact same thing?"

Cause if he didn't it would be so much worse.

Krillin looked even more shocked as the mayor continued to devour the luckless Snyder.

"He never ate one of us," he finally gasped.

"We're so screwed," Yamcha moaned.

It was at that time that a large force of vampires and demons suddenly burst onto the school ground. For a moment both groups stared at each other, then a voice yelled.

"GET THEM!"

"Aw crap" Xander said. Then the fighting began.

In no time each of the six fighters was swamped by the monsters and a wild free for all ensued. Buffy herself fought at least six of them at once and there were more of them looking for somebody to fight. With sheer hatred they fought her tooth and nail, and they were all trained fighters.

Dammit! Chi Fighting was no fun if your opponents also knew chi moves! Or maybe it was, once you got in the swing of it. And suddenly Xander's tired cliché, the hunger for a true challenge didn't sound so tired any more. From a corner of her eyes she spotted Oz going down underneath a mountain of baddies.

Before she could come to his aid something dressed in black leather jumped in and began pulling off vamps and demons of the young man.

It was Angel.

Before Angel could get to Oz however a clawed and hairy fist ripped through one of the bodies covering the teen. The vamp to whom the body belonged crumbled to dust and Oz became visible again, in the final stage of his werewolf transformation. WereOz threw off another vampire, then it noticed Angel, who by then had vamped out. For a moment it looked like both fighters would attack each other, then the strangest thing happened. With Faith now gone Oz had been partnered up with Angel and WereOz now recognized the vampire. WereOz screamed, then Angel screamed, next they headbutted each other and screamed some more, like it was some atavistic greeting. And then they fought shoulder to shoulder.

"Men!" Buffy sighed as she returned her attention to her own fight, kneeing a vampire on her left and giving a knuckle sandwich to another. Elsewhere she saw Xander swinging a large blade of blue metal around with one hand, keeping his attackers at bay, with the other hand he was firing of blasts of chi.

Behind her Goku's friends were equally kept busy, only each of them faced even more opponents, like whoever was in charge knew that they were even more dangerous.

All the while that the fighting raged on, the demon mayor didn't make a move, content with finishing off the remains of Snyder. And from the shadows underneath the trees along the edge of the school ground another figure stood unseen and waited.

On top of the school building Giles looked down at the free for all in horror. It all went down way too fast to really see what was going on, the way it only happened when his kids were in full training mode. If their enemies moved just as fast it could only mean that they were chi trained as well.

"What the hell is going on down there?" Wesley said flabbergasted, he could probably see even less of it.

"It is as we feared," Belmovekk said as he tapped the scouter on his face, "the mayor did have an army of trained underlings."

"This is bad, right?" Willow asked nervously.

"Good God," Giles exclaimed as he tapped his own scouter, "some of them are at least 2000 strong.

"This is bad, right?" Willow said even more nervously.

"That is at the edge of the range of the vampire and Daniel," Belmovekk said offhand, like he was coldly appraising some trainees on training instead of two of their own, including Willow's boyfriend.

"That is bad, right?" Willow almost yelled.

"It is fortunate indeed that Daniel has his werewolf transformation," Belmovekk continued, "that should give him the edge."

"That is good, right?" Willow asked. Next Belmovekk looked elsewhere.

"Captain Riley is under assault as well," he said again in that offhand tone, "although he is fortunate that his opponents only rate 400 at best, he does face a lot of them though."

"Why is he not making a move?" Wesley wondered out loud.

"Who?" Giles asked.

"The mayor," Wesley said and nodded towards the demon mayor. Who throughout the scuffle just stood there, having now tired of feasting on the luckless principal. No sooner had Wesley said his name as the demon mayor looked up, straight towards the two Watchers.

"You just had to say it, don't you?" Giles said horrified.

Before anyone could move the mayor appeared right in front off them.

"Hello, monkey," he said disparagingly.

Even his voice sounds somewhat like Freeza, Belmovekk thought. He had twice met the tyrant as part of the King's entourage. During Freeza's visit to the King's palace on planet Vegeta the tyrant seemed courteous enough. But it was when King Vegeta had been summoned to the tyrant's own world that he had shown his true colors, humiliating the king in front of his own men, constantly calling him and the other Saiyans by the derogatory name monkey.

Floating just off the ledge the demon mayor calmly looked at all four of them, arms folded across his chest.

"I only have a quarrel with one of you," he said condescendingly, then he used his sharp pointed tail to point, "Eeny (Giles), meeny (Wesley), miny (Willow), moe (Belmovekk)."

The tail's point came to a stop just inches away from Belmovekk's forehead.

"You're it, Monkey." The demon mayor said, "oh, by the way, when I said I only have a quarrel with him, it doesn't mean you're all not going to die as well. He just dies first."

The demon mayor's tail now began to lightly tap Belmovekk's forehead.

"Where's my girl?" the demon mayor asked, "Where's Faith."

"Where you will not find her, demonspawn," Belmovekk replied calmly. The demon mayor moved one hand to his chin and tapped it with one finger.

"Wrong answer, maybe you'll be more talkative once I kill her?"

Lightning fast the tail now lunged towards Willow, yet somehow it went all in slow-motion for her. Somehow she could see the tail's tip retract from Belmovekk's head, then coil for a strike and uncoil as it moved straight towards her face.

And then came the arm, clad in one of Xander's old Hawaiian shirts, seemingly out of nowhere as it grabbed the demon mayor's tail and stopped it just inches from her face.

Next came another arm and it struck straight towards the demon mayor's face. Hitting him with so much power it send him flying into the sky.

It was Goku.

"Sorry I'm late," he grinned sheepishly, "but those kids just kept on asking questions."

Then the Saiyan transformed into Super Saiyan and flew after the demon mayor. It was time for the battle to begin in earnest.

On the ground the battle raged on. But the tide was turning. Despite their numbers Wilkins' demon/vampire forces were losing. Their opponents were just stronger and better trained. And they lacked the coordination to use their numbers to keep their enemies busy. It would only be a matter of time before the last of them would bite the dust. Or become it.

Originally Wilkins had wanted Faith to take care of anything his own forces couldn't. But Faith was gone. That task now befell to #13. But #13 had no intention of carrying out those orders. As far as he was concerned Wilkins had kept him dangling long enough. The man had achieved his ghastly goals. He had played being the loyal lieutenant, it was now time to finish his own mission. He had observed the fighting on the ground, the rate of attrition his forces suffered and what time window it gave him. Wilkins had shown him where his target was. It was time to finish the job.

Without further ado #13 left his position underneath the trees.

In the sky Wilkins battled the Saiyan Goku, still in his second form. With his new body also came knowledge. And almost like he had been there as well, on that fateful green planet far, far away, he knew that his second form wasn't going to cut it. But for now he enjoyed his new body as he seemed to keep up with the Super Saiyan. Not only had he the knowledge to battle his opponent, he also seemed to know his moves as well, like he had fought him before. It was perfect. And at the same time uncannily spooky. Like he had a whole new set of memories. Just like he knew that the only proper name for a Saiyan was to call them monkey. And that they should be hated.

So fueled by intense hatred Wilkins dueled on.

Njet! Not like this! Not like this!

Lieutenant Andropov, a Spetznatz commando from the Russian Army was literally swarmed in vampires. And losing badly. He did the best that he could, but after the death of his partner, a Jaffa from the Sons of Priya, he found himself cut off from the others in this sector.

The thought of protecting civilians had long ceased to be a priority as there were just too many of the vile creatures and not enough of them to be everywhere. Luckily so far the creatures seemed hell bent on fighting them first. So in a sense they were still protecting the civilians.

But not for long once he died.

Ten of these accursed vampires were busy pounding him right now. And all he could do was huddle up, protect his head and body from the most serious hits. But that was not a winning strategy.

Njet! Not like this! Not like this!

When he had been a child and grew up in St. Petersburg, or Leningrad as it was still known then, his old grandmother had told him stories of the Strigoi, the deathwalkers who killed humans to feed upon. She had been old back then, a tough woman as only old Russian women could be who had survived the early throws of communism, the purges of Stalin and his insane five year plans to turn Russia from an agricultural society into an industrial juggernaut. And finally the onslaught of the Fascist horde in the Great Patriotic War, as the Russians called World War Two.

When his mother worked in the factory grandmother Ilsa would tell him stories. As an adventurous boy he loved to hear the tales of the Great Patriotic War, of his uncle Yuri who had fought in the world's greatest tank battle at Kursk, battling the Fascist horde up close like a medieval knight. But she could also tell him scary stories, of the Strigoi, who came to her little village in the Urals during the chaos of the Russian Civil War. Of how the creatures would bash in their door and take her parents and her siblings to feed upon. How only she survived by hiding for days on end as the Strigoi went from house to house until there was no one left. How she had trekked across the Urals in midwinter, finding only village after village depopulated by the Strigoi. How her luck finally ran out as she was caught by a band of Strigoi and taken to their camp, where she was put in a cage with other children until she was the last one left.

It was then that a band of Chekists, the forerunner of the KGB, came upon the camp and liberated her. After that she was sworn to secrecy by the Chekist commander who told her that she be taken and shot if she ever mentioned the Strigoi again to anyone. She kept her silence for more then 68 years, never telling her own children of what had happened to her. Only when the new policies of Glasnost and Perestroika swept the country and the old fears began to subside did she began to tell what had happened. And only to her grand children. Her own children thought she was just old and crazy. And truth be told so did he at the time. But he was also the only one who liked hearing them, so she told more of them to him then to the others.

And now here he was. Some godforsaken place in America fighting the damn Strigoi all over again. The circle complete. Choice assignment my ass!

Njet! Not like this! Not like this!

"TAIYO KEN!" a voice suddenly yelled, soon followed by a massive flash of light.

"Aw crap!"

"Shit!"

"Fuck!"

While the light didn't kill the Strigoi it did throw them off balance as several were now blinded.

The respite was all he needed.

"DIE YOU BASTARD!" he yelled as he extended his hand like a blade and poured all the energy he could muster into his finger tips. Then he rammed it right into the chest of a Strigoi where the heart should be until it came out on the other side. The Strigoi crumbled to dust on top of him.

Next another one was pulled off of him and soon also died in a ghastly cry. Say one thing about those Strigoi, they sure made a very satisfying sound as they died.

Finally able to move again Lieutenant Andropov kneed one vampire, then he elbowed another and then he could jump up. And saw he was no longer alone as a Jaffa, a Free Jaffa by the looks of it, was fighting along with him.

"Where is Sergeant Peters?" he asked.

"Dead," the Jaffa replied fighting, "And Mu'ar?"

Mu'ar was of course the Sons of Priya Jaffa who had been with him when they got separated from Peters and this Jaffa.

"Also dead," Andropov grunted. That meant half their team was dead. And from the corner of his eyes he could see another group of Strigoi coming.

The British had a famous saying. He who fights to live another day shall live to fight another day. They couldn't hope to fight against those odds. It was time to put that saying into practice.

"There too many of them," he yelled as he killed yet another Strigoi by decapitating its head, "this battle is lost. Maybe we can win somewhere else."

"Indeed!" the Jaffa concurred. Then the both of them jumped into the air and lifted themselves up.

It was in the air that Lieutenant Andropov noticed something as he looked back at the seething mass of angry Strigoi below.

They couldn't fly!

What idiots they had been! Uncle Yuri and grandmother Ilsa must be turning like crazy in their graves.

"They cannot fly," he said to the Jaffa, "we can shoot from air!"

The Jaffa looked at him, then at the Strigoi below and then he smiled. Next he brought both hands above his head and began to charge energy.

"MASENKO!"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Goku yelled as he tried to reach inside him for some more power. He'd need it. The demon-mayor who looked so much like Freeza was easily holding his own against him, matching him move for move, blow for blow and kick for kick. It was like he knew his every damn move- before he even made them.

And to put insult to injury he was still in what Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin had called his level two transformation. He still had two transformations to go.

To make things even worse Goku had to fight in such a way that the damage to Sunnydale below was minimal. It was quite a challenge.

Naturally he was loving every second of it!

Goku wasn't like most other Saiyans. Oh, he felt the call of his blood, the call to engage in glorious combat. And he loved fighting. To test himself and his limits. But he wasn't like Vegeta, to whom any fight was a good fight. He wanted his fights to have meaning. To feel like he was making a contribution. To protect this planet he called home and to protect his loved ones.

It was probably why he had only ever won one of the three Budokai tournaments he had participated and been finalists in. His battles against Roshi and Tien had been about test of will and character. But there was no imminent danger to anyone, not even himself as killing your opponent meant instant disqualification. Only in his battle against Piccolo had the future of the Earth been at stake. And that was perversely the only Budokai he had ever won.

On and on the battle raged. A knee to the groin proved ineffective as the demon mayor no longer had any visible genitalia there. An elbow to the head did however impact very painfully to Goku. A mid air roundhouse as a counter attack was easily blocked by the demon mayor, but it did prevent him from exploiting his earlier hit. Flying back a few meters Goku created a pointblank energy attack and unleashed it the demon mayor. But without much effect as the demon mayor's chi easily blew off the attack.

Damn him for being so strong. It probably was a good thing this demon mayor wasn't an experienced fighter. That kind of power combined with Goku's experience would be unstoppable. At the moment it was like a lightweight boxer darting around a heavyweight. With his greater agility he could evade most blows from the heavyweight. But the heavyweight would need to be lucky only once. That's where the comparison went bust as the demon-mayor was learning fast, never making the same mistake twice.

And he had yet to go to his third and fourth transformation!

It was time for a breather as Goku began to distance himself from the demon he was facing, climbing ever further into the sky. The demon-mayor gave pursuit of course. And with the shield still in effect there was only so much space to go to before running out. Luckily with all the fighting going on there were more then enough low-lying clouds to hide in. Now if only….

As soon he entered the clouds he could feel the demon-mayor stopping.

Just like Freeza on Namek he seemed unable to follow him using chi sense. Good, now he stood a chance.

"Ka."

"Me."

"Ha."

"Me."

Suddenly the power of the demon-mayor shot up significantly and a strong wind began to evaporate the clouds.

And the demon-mayor became visible again.

He had changed. His horns were shorter, he had grown fangs, spikes on his back and he looked more sloped.

Colors aside he looked straight out of the movie Alien.

Goku may have missed Freeza's third form on planet Namek, he did knew how an alien from the Alien/Aliens movie series looked like. Thanks to Krillin having the bright idea of showing him one of those movies. Needless to say that was one movie Goku ran away screaming from like a little girl, and which he would never EVER see again. Which made this third form even more scary. And that was excluding his chi which had grown considerably. He was now most definitely stronger then Goku.

Well, what was he waiting for?

"HA!" he shouted and unleashed his Kamehameha wave, at full power, at the demon-mayor. The massive attack sped towards the demon who casually awaited its arrival. Good. At least he also seemed to have inherited the same arrogance that came with this form.

When it hit the demon-mayor it didn't explode. But then again Goku never expected it would. Against a foe as formidable as this any large chi attack wasn't about shooting a shitload of explosive energy, it was about a test of will. Even now he felt the demon-mayor push against his own attack.

This would take some time. It was also probably a good idea for Belmovekk to start doing his thing.

On the roof Belmovekk had come to the same conclusion as he got up from his wheelchair and tried to walk. He nearly feel over and Giles and Wesley had to come over and steady him.

"I will be fine," the Saiyan said standoffish, wanting to stand on his own power.

"Like hell you are," Giles said concerned, "Why don't you just sit. We'll wheel you over to your circle."

"I must stand in the circle on my own power anyway, master Giles," Belmovekk said weakly, "the walk will help steady me. Even if it is just a few steps."

Giles muttered something under his breath which sounded surprisingly much like pigheaded fool. But other then mutter he and Wesley only helped steady Belmovekk as he walked over to his circle with pentagram drawing on the roof.

"Can you stand upright?" Giles asked once the Saiyan stood inside the pentagram.. The Saiyan didn't immediately respond.

"A moment please," he said, "I will be fine once the world stops spinning."

"You'd better hurry," Wesley said with one eye at the lightshow going on up in the sky, "I don't think we have much time."

He then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then he opened them again and nodded.

"I am ready," he said and looked at Giles and Wesley, "now may be a good time to go to a safe distance. If the spells backfire you will be outside of my protection."

Before they could continue somebody shouted.

"GILES!"

It was Willow's voice. Next her limp body slid across the roof , only to come to a sudden stop at the other end of the roof.

"What the…." Giles tried to say and then the lights went out on him as well.

"Hello, Saiyan," a voice said calmly. As Wesley turned around he saw a man standing there he had never seen before. A man in a surplus US Army military uniform, like many of Wilkins' demons and vampires had worn. For a moment Wesley thought that maybe one of the trainees had returned, but Wesley had spent some time at the base and never saw him before. For one thing he wasn't wearing a beret or cap, and his platinum blonde hair was way to long to be regulation.

"Android #13," Belmovekk hissed slowly, causing Wesley to look to the Saiyan and then back to the man. That was one of the androids he had heard so much about? He looked completely human Then again, maybe he had to be artificial. Nobody would look this white trash on purpose.

"You have something that belongs to me," #13 said, a sly smile on his face, "well, actually it's two things."

A lightning bolt arced overhead and came down somewhere close, a result of the epic battle taking place overhead. But neither man flinched.

"Now is not the time, #13," Belmovekk said calmly, "the fate of the world is at stake. Do you not care? It involves you master as well after all."

#13 shrugged carelessly.

"Now is the time, Saiyan," the android replied, "I know the mayor's plans and they don't involve destroying the world. He'll just flatten this town and then some more before crossing over to a more favorable planet or dimension. The fact that he'll also kill Goku in the process is just the icing on the cake."

"So you were hiding here? Quite clever," Belmovekk said appreciatively.

"The diskeys?" #13 said, his right hand outstretched.

"Excuse me, but there's no time for this. The battle…" Wesley tried to say but instead #13 raised his left fist and smashed it backwards into his face. Before Wesley dropped down unconscious #13 moved and swept Belmovekk's feet out from underneath him, sending the Saiyan down crashing as well.

"Ugh," was all Belmovekk could say when the wind was knocked out of him as he landed quite painfully on his back. Next the android planted his foot on his neck and reached downward, inside his shirt, twisting, feeling around, until he found what he was looking for, two small diskeys hanging by a chain around the Saiyan's neck. Then he yanked the chain loose.

"Like taking candy from a baby," the android smirked as he held up the two objects of his desire.

Damn my lack of strength, damn this illness, was all Belmovekk could think as #13's foot slowly squeezed the life out of him.

I'm sorry Joyce that I could not keep your daughter safe.

I'm sorry Father that I failed to protect my sister.

I'm sorry I failed you, my brothers.

I'm sorry I failed you, my master.

I'm sorry I could not save you, Mayan, light of my life.

I'm sorry I could not save you and your friends, Buffy, I….

"You know, if you would feel a little less sorry for yourself and a little more anger you might actually save the day," a voice said. A voice overlaid with harmonic overtones.

From a corner of his eyes he could see his Goa'uld spitting image laying next to him, resting on his side like he was at the beech, his head resting on his hand as the apparition looked at him.

"Cat got your tongue?" the Goa'uld specter said pouting, then he used his other hand to pat the Saiyans arm that was clawing at #13's leg, "Don't worry. You're in for a lucky break."

No sooner had he said those words as a hand swiped the diskeys out of #13's hand.

"I'll take those, Toasterboy," a voice said confidently

"She shoots, she scores," Amūn grinned victoriously.

And then Belmovekk passed out.

"You know, if there weren't so damn many of them these guys would actually be a challenge," Xander called out after he dusted another vampire

"So help me God, Harris," Angel yelled back, "if you ever utter the words true challenge again I'll rip off your head and shit down your neck!"

No sooner had he said it when he bit down hard into the neck of a struggling demon he was holding and started sucking.

"Like you could even pass a solid stool," Xander snorted.

"ROOOOAAAAARRRR!"

Behind them WereOz, blood dripping from his snout, dropped the dead body of yet another demon to the ground, its throat ripped out.

"Having fun, Chewy?" Xander grinned, then he swung the sword Kahanthus, imbued with his chi, into the neck of another demon. Damn there were a lot of demons suddenly. Did they bring up another batch or something?

"How're you holding up Buff?" he asked.

There came no response.

"Buffy?" Xander said concerned and had a quick look around. There was no sign of her anywhere.

"Buffy?" he said again as he looked around frantically. She really was gone. Did she go down? There was no sign of her body though. It would explain the sudden rush though, they were now getting her share.

"Damn you Buff for going on a wild goose chase," he muttered as he sank his blade into a demon's chest, "Be careful."

Buffy had been in a fight with five demons at once when she suddenly saw someone behave in a very unbefitting fashion.

Instead of rushing her like a proper fiend it moved away.

In her experience vamps and demons only moved away if they were either running away scared or were up to something. It moved way too slowly to be a scared vamp or demon. That left only up to something. And that was usually no good. Especially as her Spidey sense was at Defcon 1. Even more as it was now climbing up the school walls towards the roof where her friends were.

She blew off her attackers with a chi wave, unleashed a second wave that decapitated at least two of them before she hopped into the air and somersaulted herself out of the fight.

Lifting off in the air she flew towards the school roof and saw she was already too late. Intruderboy had already knocked out Giles, Pestley and Willow and was squeezing the life out of Belmo using fancy footwork. Then he reached inside Belmo's shirt and pulled out the diskeys from those two robots, holding them up victoriously.

Then she recognized him as well. Oh, he had changed alright, but there was just no shedding those Jerry Springer roots. Every time you saw him you just couldn't shake the feeling that somewhere there should be an audience shouting: 'JERRY, JERRY.' Well, time to explain to the trashcan that Sunnydale was a white trash free zone.

She walked up to the android, who was still reveling in his victory. Then she swiped the chain with the two diskeys from his hands.

"I'll take those, Toasterboy," she said in her usual voice, the kind that drove vamps mad whenever she used it, then she dropped the diskeys inside her tank top, "why don't I just keep them, for safe keeping?"

Before the dumbfounded android could speak she shoved her elbow in his face, sending #13 back staggering and off of Belmo. She jumped after him and spun round her axis so she could sweep his feet from underneath. As he fell backwards she brought her leg up and then hammered her foot heels first hard on his stomach with so much force it send the android crashing through the roof.

For a moment she paused to look at her friends, extending her senses to check on them. Giles, Wesley and Belmo were unconscious, Willow on the other hand was already coming round.

"Buffy," Willow said as she recognized her friends, "what happened?"

"He's back, Will, the android," Buffy said and tapped between her cleavage, "he's after the diskeys and working with the mayor. Look after them."

"Buffy!" Willow called out but it was too late, she had already jumped in the hole she had created, leaving Willow on top of the roof. With a crazy android below and the mother of all deadly light shows going on in the sky this was not exactly an enviable position.

"Not good," Willow began to mutter as she drew her legs underneath herself, "definitely not good!"

High in the sky Wilkins was straining under the assault of Goku's Kamehameha. Was there no limit to that Saiyan's power?

"Quit yammering, monkey," a voice spoke derisively in his mind, "he's at his breaking point."

Who is this?

"Well, you didn't think I was just giving you the blueprints to my body, now did you," the voice spoke, "Silly monkey. I'm here to make sure that this time the job gets seen through the end."

And then Wilkins felt more power surge through his body as he slowly but surely began to push back Goku's Kamehameha.

"Victory is mine!" Xander shouted victoriously as he held out his arms and the sword Kahanthus into the air. He had just killed his last opponent. Behind him WereOz and the still vamped out Angel were headbutting each other in triumph as they had also vanquished the last of their foes.

"Lousy fighters," Tien scoffed as he kicked a dead demon, "but they made up for it in numbers."

"Hey, as long as I'm still standing at the end of the day I'm not complaining," Yamcha said as he picked up a chair and sat down on it.

"It's not over yet, dummy," Tien said as he pointed upwards where Goku still battled the demon-mayor.

"Can't do much about that," Yamcha shrugged, "Not in a long while. So I'm gonna sit here on the sideline and catch a breather."

As Goku's friends gave in to their post-battle banter Xander looked around to see if he could find Buffy. Where the hell did she go? Then he spotted a familiar object lying on the ground. He walked over to it and picked it up. It was Buffy's scouter.

"Damn my head hurts," Angel's voice said behind him.

"Then maybe you shouldn't have butted heads with the WereOz," Xander replied back, then he looked over his shoulder, "Why did you do it anyway?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," Angel said as he rubbed his de-vamped forehead, "Goes with the vamping out I guess."

Xander had always wondered why vampires did vamp out in combat. He could understand why they did it before draining a victim, but other then that it seemed to serve no purpose, unless it gave them some sort of edge in combat. But any vampire he studied with a scouter didn't show marked increase in power when it turned on its gameface.

Then Giles explained to him that vamping out meant regressing to a more atavistic state. A more primitive mind. A more vicious mind. Xander could see why vampires might think it would give them an edge in battle. Channel their rage, their viciousness into battle. Of course he always thought it was a load of horse piss. Channeling your anger was a good thing, as it helped you in battle. But it was also the Dark Side, as giving in to your anger clouded your judgment and made you make stupid mistakes.

"Caution to the wise," Xander chuckled, "vamping out when the WereOz' in town, not a good idea."

"Why?" Angel asked curiously.

"He exudes pheromones when he's like that," Xander told the vampire, "Faith told me it jazzes you up, gives you a rush. Now, I myself could never tell as my sense of smell…. Well, let's just say that when your father gives you a model plane kit and a tube of glue at age four it's not a good idea really. But you…., Buffy always told me how you brag about being able to smell the slightest things. I guess that when the WereOz meets the Gameface…, Qu'apla Klingon warriors! Bring forth the Gagh and the Klingon bloodwine! Which would nicely explain the fruit-punch mouth I might add."

Angel clasped his mouth and noticed there was demon blood on it.

"Aw crap," he said shocked, then he went in search of something to wipe his mouth.

"What's with him?" Oz asked, no longer in his werewolf transformation.

"Angel just discovered his inner Klingon," Xander said, then he looked at Buffy's scouter. What the hell had happened? With all the energy being thrown around it was hard to sense anything. And his own scouter wasn't of much use either. Those two big chi's in the sky made it impossible for the thing to function properly.

"So how's the Goku/Wilka fight," Oz asked.

"Wilka?" Xander asked surprised.

"You know," Oz said, "Wilkins turned Freeza. Wilka."

Xander thought of it for a moment, then he shrugged.

"I guess it beats Frilkins," he said.

Next thing Angel returned with a piece of cloth.

"Where's Buffy?" he asked as he was wiping his mouth.

"My thoughts exactly," Xander said as he held up her scouter. Seeing her scouter caused Angel to go into full loveslave berserker mode and Xander decided to nip it in the bud before the vampire would go off on a wild goose chase.

"Stop it, Soulboy!" he yelled, "This is not the time to get hysterical. Buffy's alive. I know this."

"How?" Oz asked deadpan.

"I just know, right?" Xander said and pointed to his gut, "I've got this feeling. She's Buffy, she's our Goku, only better looking. She's around here somewhere."

"Then we go help her," Angel said resolute, but Xander shook his head.

"No," we have a job to do," he said resolutely.

"What?" Oz asked, upon which Xander pointed at Goku's friends who had been listening to the conversation.

"We've got scouters, they don't. So we're teaming up with them," he said.

"WHAT?" three voices said aloud.

"Don't tell me all you guys do is stand and watch him fight," Xander said pointing upwards. Upon which the three fighters more or less looked sheepishly at each other.

"I was only kidding," Xander exclaimed surprised, "don't tell me you guys actually do that!"

"Well, we do once the fighting starts," Yamcha said scratching his head, then he looked at Tien and Krillin, "It's true! You can keep kidding yourself it's not but it is. We're here, those Saiyans are way over there. We used to be a speedbump to keep bad guys busy until Goku showed up, but I'll doubt we'll even be that anymore."

"So?" Tien said back, "We'll just be a better speedbump."

"It doesn't matter," Xander said out loud, "it doesn't matter if you're just a speedbump for the bad guys, or just an insignificant insect to be stepped upon. You do what you can. If a butterfly can cause a hurricane just by flapping its wings, then we can still make a difference. And right now, we're still the most powerful people on the ground."

"Fat good that does," Yamcha said and pointed upward, "the real battle's up there."

"There are still the army guys," Xander said, "And they're still fighting. Least we can do is help them. Anything's better then just standing here and comment on those two."

"Xander has a good point," Tien said approvingly, "we should help the…."

DOOM!

A deafening noise roared up in the skies.

As all eyes looked up they could see that the light duel in the skies was over, and Goku's Kamehameha wave had detonated high in the upper atmosphere.

"Who won?" Yamcha asked surprised.

BANG!

Another explosion happened, only two miles high above town. Then a beam of chi came down and touched the sea offshore, causing a geyser of water and steam to erupt.

"They're still at it!" Krillin said, then he looked in the sky and worry crept in his voice, "Goku, be careful."

As another fireball came over, disappearing into the distance, Oz turned to Xander.

"He's not going to be able contain him anymore," the young guitarist said, upon which Xander nodded.

"Alright, new plan," Xander said, "forget the soldiers, we've got bigger fish to fry. We've got to protect the town at all cost. Tien, go with Oz and protect Northern Sunnydale. Krillin, you and the Crypt fiend here will protect the south. Do whatever you can to protect the town. Anything to prevent one of those attacks from hitting the town. Shoot at it, raise shields, use harsh language. But do something.

"You got it," Tien said and nodded towards Oz, "can you fly?"

"Does Eric Clapton play a Stratocaster?" Oz replied.

"I take that as a yes," Tien said, upon which the two flew off.

"Come," Krillin towards Angel and lifted off himself.

"I sure hope this eclipse's gonna last," Angel muttered before following suit.

"And us?" Yamcha asked Xander.

"We protect the centre," Xander said, then he lifted off himself, "but first we check with the Big Guy."

No sooner did he say that as every glass window in the school that hadn't broken yet suddenly exploded outwards, including the scouter on Xander's face.

When Buffy had jumped after the wily android she didn't expect him to have recovered so fast. The robot had crashed through two floors and yet he had vanished by the time she landed on her feet.

"Crafty bugger, aren't you?" she called out. There came no reply.

"I hate it when they play games," Buffy muttered. Stupid robot! Now she'd had to go find it. Or it was escaping right now. But she didn't think it would. Not unless he had a get free out of the Sunnyhell shield card.

"Yoohoo, C3PO, where are't thou?"

There was no reply. Stupid robot! It should at least have the grace to stand up and be pummeled. Now she had to lure it out. How on Earth do you lure out a robot? Vamps were easy, just parade on a graveyard and look vulnerable. Demons? Depended on the type. But robots?

"Danger, Will Robinson, danger?"

She walked down the stairwell to the first floor and peered down the corridor.

"Exterminate?"

The corridor was empty.

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope?"

Carefully Buffy opened the door to the biology class.

(with Austrian accent) "Hastalavista asshole?"

The school cafeteria looked equally deserted.

"Oh Data, I got an emotion chip for you?"

Giles' library, scene of so many, many things, good and bad, was now a ghost town.

"R2-D2, where are you?"

Roaming down the central corridor Buffy halted before the trophy cabinet and looked at the cheerleader trophy.

"I guess you wouldn't know it either where that droid is, would you?" Buffy asked. The trophy didn't respond, but in the dim light Buffy could have sworn she saw the eyes move. Just like Oz once said it did. It didn't matter, after three years on the Hellmouth little surprised Buffy anymore. As long as it didn't come alive it could stare as much as it liked as far as she was concerned.

Suddenly the eyes stopped moving. No sooner after they did Buffy's Spidey senses began to tingle. Without thinking she jumped back as shards of glass and bits of wall suddenly showered the hall where Buffy just had stood. But even faster then that Android #13 had crashed through a wall trying to knock her out.

Instead of crashing into Buffy he just hit the trophy cabinet. Coming to a dead stop he looked around and straight into Buffy's held out hands, where an energy attack was being charged.

"Biddybiddybiddy, looking for this, Buck?" Buffy said, then she let go of his attack at pointblank range into his face. The resulting blast destroyed everything in a 30 foot area. Vaporizing everything in that zone, including a certain sentient statue, the sentience inside by now probably welcoming the end to her suffering. Unfortunately Android #13 on the other hand wasn't vaporized. There had been no time to charge a truly devastating blast. But this time Buffy wasn't going to give the robot the chance to recover. So she dove right into her own explosion to attack the android.

Only to found him equally determined to take the fight to her as well.

The ensuing fight was so intense it raged throughout the school. Attack and counterattack through corridors and classrooms as mere glass, doors and walls proved no obstacle to these fighters. Even the floors proved no hindrance as Buffy rammed #13 into the basement, scene of his earlier crimes.

When last they met Android #13 had wiped the floor with every one of them. As a Gero type Android #13 got its power from his power generator, one which easily supplied him with near limitless amounts of power. The downside of course was that unless he received an upgrade to his power generator or a firmware upgrade to use it more efficiently that power had a ceiling. There was no way for him to increase his power.

Buffy on the other hand could increase her power. In fact in the time since last they met she had increased her power threefold. And she was supercharged with righteous anger. For this bucket of bolts had dared to hurt her friends. It had hurt Giles and Willow. It had tried to kill Belmo. She was going to rip off its head!

Unfortunately for Buffy a threefold increase in power plus righteous anger wasn't enough yet to rip off the wily android's head. For while its power generator wouldn't allow for power increases it did have the advantage of being near infinite. So while she tired herself out #13 wouldn't. So as they battled down the basement slowly but surely the initiative shifted back to #13.

Damn, Buffy thought as the android pressed her back to the ground floor, I need some time to charge one of those supercharged attacks. A Kamehameha would sure go down nicely down that smug 'bot's face. Stupid lousy long lead-in attacks!

Despite her threefold increase in power plus righteous anger Buffy was still not up to the level of Android #13 and once the battle had tipped into the android's favor the difference in strength became all the more apparent. Instead of being the smackee he now smacked Buffy through various surfaces. And it hurt being the smackee.

Eventually came the moment that she made the inevitable error. The fighter on the defensive has to be lucky 100%, the attacker only once. A slight mistake left her vulnerable just enough for the wily android to take advantage off and he did. Suddenly her arm was caught in a vice like grip, then yanked away until Buffy dropped onto her knees and the whole of Buffy was in a vice like grip.

"Give me those diskeys," #13 grunted as he sat down on her back so he could exert even more pressure on her arm.

"Let me think about it," Buffy said as she pretended to think, "No!"

"You know they will be mine eventually," #13 said as he forced her onto the ground and exerted more pressure.

"Oh please, hurt me now!" Buffy said through gritted teeth, "Anything but a lengthy Big Bad speech."

"Your wish is my command," the android smiled behind her and upped the pressure.

Instead of crying, grunting, yelping or giving expression to any kind of pain experience Buffy closed herself off completely from all sensations. Cause in a way the android had given her the one thing she needed. Time to do something. Something she had seen in the Matrix. Alright, the martial arts scenes in that movie sucked ass. But it did give her an idea for the very situation she was now in. Of course Belmo hadn't been pleased when she first showed him the move, calling it irresponsible, foolish and useless as he cleaned up the mess afterwards. But she knew deep down he liked the originality of it. The smile as on his face as he cleaned up was too much of a giveaway.

So as the android kept upping the pressure she ignored the pain and gathered in her energy. After all, while she wasn't going for something high yield here it still took what looked like an eternity to gather in the energy, and mold in the right shape.

Meanwhile seeing how she wasn't reacting to his hold #13 changed tactics. While still struggling to contain her he tried to extend a free hand so he could go in search for the diskeys in her cleavage. Straining to reach them the android paid a little less attention to Buffy and a little more to the elusive diskeys. Until he finally hit pay dirt.

"I have you now," he said triumphantly as his fingers touched the diskeys.

"Gee, you do know how to treat a girl," Buffy suddenly said as she opened her eyes again, "what kind of girl do you that I am?"

Suddenly electrical discharges began to arc around Buffy.

"Nighty night," Buffy smirked, then she erupted.

KRAK!

As Buffy erupted in a massive blueish discharge of electrical energy a shockwave sped through the school, destroying every glass window or object still left standing in the building. Electrical appliances, computers, PC screens and electrical outlets all erupted in fire as they burned themselves out as a massive electromagnetic pulse swept through the school and beyond. In fact all over Sunnydale electrical appliances and electrical outlets erupted in flames.

The discharge itself knocked Android #13 off her back and sent it slamming into a wall. Upon which Buffy finally was able to get up from the ground and massage her tortured limbs. Her Matrix inspired EMP attack seemed to have been a smashing success.

And they still said she didn't pay any attention in physics class!

"Told you I wasn't that kind of girl," she said triumphantly, "whatever happened to dinner and a movie?"

The android didn't respond as he just lay their like a sack of potatoes. Seemingly lifeless now she carefully approached it. After all, she'd seen the horror movies. The villain always makes one last attempt when everybody thinks he's dead.

"BUFFY!" a voice shouted. Buffy turned her head around and saw Xander running through the devastated hallway towards her, with one of Goku's friends in his wake.

"Buffy, are you alright?" Xander asked worriedly once he had reached Buffy, "what happened?"

"He happened," Buffy said pointing to the crumpled android.

"Whoah, it's the other android," Yamcha said big eyed, "what the hell is it doing here?"

"I think he's working with the mayor, but he's gone independent again. He was after this," Buffy said and reached inside her tank top's cleavage and fumbled around for a moment, "damn, it must have slipped."

"Hmmm," Xander smiled with a big goofy grin, "that brings back memories."

"Xander Lavelle Harris, wipe that smirk of your face. Don't even think what you're thinking," Buffy said angry but still groping.

"Not my fault you look like her," Xander replied piously.

"I don't look like her," Buffy said angrily, "she looks like me, and don't you forget it!"

"If you say so, Buff," Xander said with an amused smile on his face. Buffy wanted to say something about it when she suddenly withdrew her hand from her tank top.

"Hah," she said victoriously as she held up the two diskeys, "he was after these."

Next thing she knew the android got up lightning fast and lunged for the two diskeys.

Things were not going well for Goku outside.

He wasn't even enjoying himself anymore. Much.

He had just gone through a massive test of will with his Kamehameha duel with the demon-mayor and lost. Things had gotten fast downhill after that. With so of his energy spent Goku had been on the defensive ever since. He had done his best to protect the town, but the demon mayor was throwing attacks all over the place. And to make it worse nothing seemed to have come from Belmovekk's promised demon magic.

Luckily he didn't seem to be alone at the job. Several times he saw an energy attack coming up from somewhere in the town deflecting attacks that might have gotten through.

So the guys were still down there!

It was reassuring to know he wasn't completely alone up there. What the hell had happened down there though?

At the moment that wasn't his main problem though. Getting out of the trench he had just made with his face was however. And to make things worse he had dropped out of Super Saiyan. He may have been more experienced then the demon-mayor, his opponent had power to spare though. And he learned so damn fast!

Next he felt a slight movement of wind. Without looking up he knew the demon-mayor had landed beside his trench. Probably to make a speech. Bad guys loved to posture. Especially after trouncing all over him and his friends. At least this time he ended up getting beaten up before his friends. Maybe at least now the jokes would finally stop.

"Are you having as much fun as I have, monkey?" the demon mayor said jovially. Goku wanted to say something but found it kinda hard to talk with his mouth full of grit. By Kami, that mayor sounded more and more like Freeza by the minute. His voice used to be Freeza-ish, but now it seemed more and more Freeza and less and less mayor.

"Of course all things come to an end," the demon-mayor continued, "only in your case it comes a little sooner, haha. Pity though, I really wanted to test my limits today. I figured you'd put up a far better fight."

Yup. Posturing time. Just keep it up. Just a little longer and I have a surprise for you, Goku thought. While the demon-mayor talked he had been gathering his strength again. Nothing much. Just enough for him to go Super again and get in a lucky blow while the guy's posturing. A pressure point maybe, or a blow to the throat. That was probably better as he didn't know any pressure points on this demon body. Not even a gazillion powerlevel could help you breathing when your throat was shattered. Just a little more. For the Earth.

For Chichi.

And for Gohan.

Meanwhile the demon-mayor prattled on.

"… and it turns out I don't even need all my power to defeat you guys," the demon-mayor said somewhat disappointed, "a shame really, to see all that power go to waste. Still I look quite handsome, don't I? Way better then as a snake."

Sensing this was his best shot Goku transformed and launched himself at the demon-mayor. His fist came within an inch of the demon-mayor's throat.

But no more as the demon-mayor stopped him by taking his wrist in an iron grip.

"The monkey still has some fight left in him," the demon-mayor said derisively, then he lunged with his other hand and slapped Goku so hard it sent him flying for over a hundred feet.

"Time to die, monkey," the demon-mayor yelled and jumped upwards, intending to come down, one clawed foot first, on Goku's neck.

CRASH!

Instead of coming down on Goku's neck the demon-mayor was knocked aside when something hard came to a sudden stop in front of him.

Something long, tall and green. And with shoulder pieces that would make Joan Collins green with envy.

"Piccolo!" Goku exclaimed happily, "Fashionably late. As usual."

The tall Namek glanced over his broad shoulder piece and smirked.

"Mind if I take over?" he said as he took off his weighted turban helmet.

"Be my guest."

When the EMP wave had hit #13 it had been lights out for the android. His delicate sensors noticed the EMP wave's release a fraction before it happened. Before even he knew what happened a protective protocol kicked in and triggered an emergency shutdown.

Doctor Gero didn't think Goku or his friends would ever unleash an EMP attack against his androids, causing them to burn out. But he did expect governments to use it though. Which is why he struggled to come up with a solution for proper shielding. Which he did eventually. Just not in time to implement in his earlier androids. But installing a protective algorhythm? That was easy.

The downside of the emergency shutdown was that the android became vulnerable for a minute while his system rebooted. That was the trade off. Of course, when dealing with governments the chances were that any EMP attack would be a last ditch effort as it meant a severe disruption for themselves as well. So a minute was deemed acceptable.

For an older obsolete model like #13.

The first thing #13 noticed as his systems switched online again were voices talking. He recognized one as the girl he had been fighting with and the other as belonging to a boy he had fought before. And then his vision switched on and saw the girl dangling the diskeys of #14 and #15 in front of her.

"Hah," she said victoriously as she held up the two diskeys, "he was after these."

No sooner had she said that as #13 got up and tried to grab the two diskeys.

And found his hand blocked by a strong hand.

"I don't think so, pal," Yamcha said resolutely as he shook his head, then he grinned, "remember me?"

"Yamcha," #13 hissed angrily. Yamcha's grin turned into a smirk.

"#14 says hi by the way. From the dumpster that is."

"Nice going, dude," Xander said appreciatively, then he turned to Buffy, "Shall we? Together?"

"Dinner and a movie," Buffy smiled as she tugged the diskeys back in her tank top, "How romantic, you say the nicest things, Xan."

Before Xander could reply, Yamcha put up his free hand.

"Do you guys mind if I were to take care of this piece of trash?" he said without taking his eyes of the android, "We have unfinished business, the both of us."

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Buffy asked, "He's slippery like an eel."

"Look, I can do this," Yamcha said, "I know I suck at everything, that they all make fun of me as Vegeta's punching bag. But he's my 15 minutes of fame, my moment in the sun. Besides, he hurt Bulma. He tortured her."

Buffy and Xander looked at each other, then they smiled at Yamcha.

"Who am I to stand in the way of righteous revenge," Xander said, then he stood to attention and gave Yamcha a military style salute, "Go get him, Chief!"

"Have fun," Buffy said, "do you need help or…."

"I'll be fine," Yamcha said, "I tore up his buddy, I can tear him up as well."

"Have it your way" Buffy said as she and Xander turned around and walked away, "Don't they make a twosome of cuteness?"

Somehow Goku managed to pick himself up and limp back to the school. As he touched down on the roof he found his fellow Saiyan lying on the ground, with the red-headed magic girl hunched over him. It was obvious something had gone horribly wrong here.

"What happened here?" he asked worried.

"The last android," Willow said and pointed to the hole in the roof, "he came and attacked us. He works with the mayor."

"That's not good," Goku said and saw the two unconscious Watchers still lying around, "Could you bring him around? We need him."

Willow looked from Saiyan to Saiyan.

"Maybe I could use a restorative spell," she said hesitantly.

"Do what you can," Goku said and looked upwards, "cause try as he might Piccolo's not going to last much longer then I did."

"Or should I use sorcery," Willow mused, then she reached out and tentatively put her hand on Belmovekk's forehead.

"No!"

It was Giles, who somehow had awoken.

"Don't," Giles said as he stretched out a hand towards Willow, as if it could stop her, "the moment you'll use sorcery of that scale the mayor will come down on you. If you have to, use magic."

"But Giles," Willow protested, "I have no powder to do a healing spell."

"I got some in my pocket," the Watcher said as he sat up straight and reached inside his pocket to take out a small packet of powder, "Take it."

Willow took the packet and sat down on her knees next to the Saiyan.

"Let's see," she said as she opened the packet, "It's been a while."

Meanwhile Goku helped Giles to get to his feet.

"We're lucky you brought some with you," the Saiyan said as Giles dusted himself off.

"I thought it might come in handy," Giles said smug, "you know, be prepared and all."

"You don't happen to have a senzu do you?" Goku asked hopeful but Giles shook his head.

"I'm afraid not."

Meanwhile Willow had finished the preparations of her spell.

"Asklepios vindictos," she said as she sprinkled the dust over Belmovekk. No sooner had she finished as the Saiyan began to glow in a yellowish glow. When it disappeared he began to stir.

"Cool," Goku said impressed, then he pointed to himself, "could you do me as well?"

"It's not like a senzu," Willow said as she looked up, "it will only heal injuries and certain poisons, not restore your lost power."

"Its better then nothing," Goku shrugged, "I'll take it."

Willow sprinkled some of the dust over Goku as well.

"Asklepios vindictos."

The yellowish glow crept over Goku as well, eliminating pain, healing injuries, stopping the bleeding of his many wounds. But just as Willow had said his tiredness did not go away, nor did his lost energy return. That would take time. Time they didn't have.

Still, he could do worse. At least he could relieve Piccolo for a few more rounds if need be.

"Where's the android," Belmovekk said as he came around, "he ambushed us… Buffy…?"

"Buffy went after it," Willow explained as she pointed to the hole in the roof.

Belmovekk put his hand to his chest, where the chain with the diskeys was supposed to be.

"Where…., the diskeys," he said in panic, only to have them thrown into his lap. Surprised he looked up. Only to see a smirking Buffy with behind her Xander emerging from the hole as well.

"Young lady," he stammered, "did you…?"

"Relax, old man," Buffy grinned, "Goku's buddy's busy pounding him to pieces. Said he had some unfinished business to finish. Something regarding Bulma. Do you happen to know anything about it?"

"I might," Belmovekk said as he looked at Buffy, then at the diskeys in his lap. He picked up the diskeys on the broken chain, held the broken ends together for a moment and concentrated. A slight rushing sensation followed and the ends were whole again. Then he put the chain around his neck again.

"You felt that?" he asked as he saw that Willow looked at him. Willow nodded.

"My illness, it makes me clumsy," Belmovekk said introspective, "although it is no excuse for you, young lady, you are still quite noisy yourself."

BOOM!

A loud explosion high in the sky caused everyone to look up.

"Oh dear," Goku said concerned, "looks like Piccolo won't last for long."

"Might be a good time to start cracking on your mojo, old man," Buffy said to Belmovekk. Who shot her a quick glare.

"You are a cruel girl, young lady," he muttered then he pointed to the hole on the roof, "My circle is gone."

"Draw a new one," Buffy shrugged as she picked up a piece of concrete and handed it to the Saiyan. Muttering something in his native Saiyango about Earth women he then drew a circle on the ground with the concrete piece and then a five pointed star inside. Then he stepped inside.

Holding up his arms the Saiyan began to speak in an unfamiliar language. Muttering incantation upon incantation.

"I'd better get back into the fight," Goku said as he lifted himself off into the sky to join Piccolo. No sooner had he done so as a bright blue beam erupted from one of the sides of the school building, a Kamehameha wave.

"I could have sworn something or somebody was riding that wave," Xander said as he peered at the disappearing wave intently. Next it exploded to the north of Sunnydale with a massive explosion.

DOOM!"

"If he was he's not a happy surfer," Buffy shrugged.

High in the sky Piccolo felt like he had gone through seven kinds of Hell himself. Battling the mayor was the hardest thing he had ever done. And to put insult to injury if that damn Freeza like demon was anything like the real thing he still had one more transformation to go. But he wasn't giving up. Not by a long shot.

He was about to go another round with the damn demon when Goku came up, looking in way better shape then before, but still a far cry of his former self.

"Need any help?" Goku grinned as he transformed into Super Saiyan again and joined battle against the demon-mayor. Then he winked at Piccolo. Okay, something was up.

Sweat poured off Belmovekk's face as he invoked spell after spell, to the detriment of himself.

"He looks worse by the second," Buffy said worried as all she could do was watch on helplessly.

"He's working on sheer will," Giles said, absentmindedly polishing his glasses so hard Buffy was surprised they hadn't broken by now.

"Boy is he going to be pissed he missed it all," Xander said as he glanced at the still unconscious Wesley.

"I wish I could wake up and have missed it all," Willow said sitting on the roof rocking back and fro, trying her best to ignore the emanations of the dark spells Belmovekk was using, "I could sure use some warm comfortable Nile water to sit in."

The first sign something was happening was when the air began to shimmer around the demon-mayor, like hot air in a baking desert sun.

"What's going on here?" the demon-mayor said as he looked at the shimmering air rising from his body.

Taking advantage of his distraction Goku and Piccolo distanced themselves from the demon-mayor.

"This is it," Goku said as he began to cup his hands in front of him, "Once Belmovekk's spell is at full effect we're going to hit him with everything we still have."

"This better work," Piccolo said as he brought two fingers to his forehead.

While the two fighters charged their attacks the shimmering around the demon-mayor became more pronounced, with shattering pieces of a rainbow now being infused as well, until it burned brightly as a multicolored fire. Then it took form as the demon-mayor changed form, transforming from a 3rd transformation Freeza into a hideous demon, six arms with horrendous claws on each arm, an elongated birdlike beak now adorning his face and a blood red carpet of feathers now adorning his back.

"NOOOOOOO!" the demon-mayor yelled as he felt his body begin to move against his will.

"NOW!" Goku yelled, "KAMEHAMEHA!"

"MAKANKOSAPO!" Piccolo yelled. And two massive energy attacks sped towards the demon-mayor.

And they exploded.

BANG!

A truly massive explosion happened, outshining the sun by a factor of many degrees. Next came the noise, shattering every piece of glass which somehow had survived the battle in some form throughout Sunnydale County. The only reason the downward pressure wasn't flattening Sunnydale was because Willow used her will to erect a massive shield over the town, supported by every chi fighter still alive in the town. It was for this reason that she had been kept in reserve. Had she used this shield earlier the demon-mayor would undoubtedly have swooped from the sky to rip her power from her. Now it saved the people of Sunnydale from the blast wave.

And then the worst seemed to be over. As the fiery center of the blast still burned high in the sky Buffy could finally open her eyes again and looked around. She saw Xander was doing the same. Then he opened his mouth and spoke.

" !"

She just couldn't hear any of it and pointed to her ears.

To her side she saw Belmovekk was on his knees, panting like crazy. She moved over to him.

Are you alright, she wanted to say. Instead she couldn't even hear her own voice.

" ?"

Then the Saiyan looked up at her and smiled.

" ," he said as he took her into his arms and rested his head on her stomach. Without thinking she returned the embrace. Since she and about everyone else was deaf as a post for the moment she felt safe to say the next thing out loud.

I love you, you crazy Saiyan!

" ."

To her surprise Belmo looked up and smiled at her. Oops, maybe his hearing wasn't as shot as hers was.

" ove t , ffy," she heard, that and a hefty high pitched noise that started to ring in her ears. Then he hugged her some more.

Next to her Xander looked up, his eyes coming down like he was following something.

" ll i ring h oes," he said as Goku and Piccolo came down not far from them.

"Oh, isn't that cute, Piccolo," Goku said after they had landed with a big goofy grin towards Piccolo, "a father/daughter moment."

"Truly sickening," Piccolo said in disgust as he watched the other Saiyan hug the Slayer, but his face betrayed he was putting up an act.

"Oh shut up," Buffy said, glad she could hear again, even with that ringing noise, "can't you give me and this Saiyan oaf some privacy?"

"Buffy's gotta daddy, Buffy's gotta daddy," Xander singsonged. Buffy let go of Belmovekk and raised her fist.

"I'll show who your daddy is, you immature baby!"

"I'm sure y'all will be very happy together!" Xander smirked as he took a step backwards.

"Pff," Buffy snorted, "it's not like he wasn't living with us already."

"That's quite a shield you just employed, kid," Piccolo said approvingly to Willow, "I'm impressed."

"Uh, thanks," Willow smiled nervously.

From the hole in the roof Yamcha emerged.

"Is it over?" he asked nervously.

"It's over, you milquetoast," Xander said, "Had fun with the robot?"

"Hey, we all do our part, right?" Yamcha countered, then he grinned, "Did you see that asshole ride my Kamehameha?"

"Yes," Xander said as he rolled his eyes, "it was impressive. For about two seconds. You scattered him all over the northern hills."

"What?" Belmovekk said worried, "please do not tell me you destroyed the android?"

"So?" Yamcha shrugged, "Bastard tortured Bulma, he had it coming."

"But the diskey, I need his diskey," the Saiyan said disheartened.

"You just had to do it, didn't you," Piccolo said frowning towards Yamcha, "Better prey he finds that diskey or you just made your date with the other androids final."

"Bastard hurt Bulma," Yamcha muttered softly.

From the north came two persons flying. It was Tien and Oz.

"What is it with you Saiyans?" Tien said angry as he landed, "You guys will not positively rest until the whole planet is destroyed?"

"What he said," Oz said as he nodded towards Tien, then he held up his burnt out scouter, "and what's the deal with this?"

Xander examined it curiously.

"Yeah, same thing happened to mine," he said.

Buffy raised her hand and smiled sheepishly.

"Oops, my bad," she said, "did that happen even where you were?"

Oz looked at Xander, then at Buffy again.

"Well, I suppose there may be one or two things still intact," the guitarist said, "but overall I think all of Sunnydale needs to shop for new TV's tomorrow. And radios. And, well, basically anything electric. By the way, you now probably owe me a new guitar amp."

Buffy looked at Belmovekk.

"Uh, daddy, could I, um, get an advance on my allowance? For the next fifty years or so?"

"Two words, Buff," Xander said as he leaned over, "plausible deniability. Deny everything."

"That's four words actually," Buffy countered.

From the south several more fighters came flying in. One of them was Goku's short friend Krillin, the others were part of Belmovekk's band of brothers. The annoying army captain and his sidekick, followed by some of the aliens.

"I don't see Angel," Buffy said as she tried to see the souled vampire, then she looked at Xander, "do you think…?"

"If only," Xander snorted, then he pointed upwards, "I don't think he packed his factor 100 sun block. Eclipse's gone."

"I'm hungry," Goku said as he sat down on a piece of rubble.

"You were born hungry, Goku," Piccolo snorted, then his face softened, "but I guess you earned it today."

The other fighters touched down on the roof.

"Sunnydale secured, sir," Riley said as he stood to attention.

"Well done, Captain Riley," Belmovekk said approvingly as he sat down on a piece of concrete. After all, he was still sick.

"Thank you, sir," Riley said proudly, "it wasn't easy though."

"I think so too," the Saiyan said, "how many did we lose?"

"I think about 13 in all, sir," Riley replied, "it was kinda hard to make a full tally after the radios suddenly got fried."

After hearing that Buffy tried to look very inconspicuous.

"I am sorry to hear we lost so many, Captain Riley," Belmovekk said sorrowful. Over the past months he had gotten to know all those men and Jaffa quite well and it pained him to hear so many had died today.

"I am sorry to say First Ma'el did not make it either," a Jaffa said, Ma'el's subordinate.

"He will be missed, Jo'bel," Belmovekk said solemnly.

"So, what now?" Riley asked.

"Well, tonight we're gonna party like its still 1999," Xander said and performed a little silly dance, "there's gonna be booze, and broads and hopefully lots of relief sex."

"Shindig or hootenanny?" Oz asked.

"I don't care, as long as there's plenty of beer and women," Xander said shaking his head to an imaginary beat, then his head turned to Krillin, "what do you say, little guy? Are you ready to finally get laid?"

Krillin didn't say much of anything. All he did was look up in the sky, with fear written large on his face. Like he saw the devil itself. That was the cue for everybody to look up.

"Not again," Piccolo muttered in disgust.

"Oh shit!" Xander said.

"Now there's something you don't want to see every day," Buffy said,

High in the sky, where the fireball of the explosion used to be a large bubble of whitish energy could be seen. And inside that bubble was the mayor. Gone were the horns. And gone were the spikes on his back as well.

"The bastard transformed," Piccolo growled, his eyes wide, "he's gone level four on us."

High in the sky the demon-mayor dropped his shield, then he came down.

"He's coming straight for us," Yamcha yelled in panic.

"Then we better stop him," Goku said and transformed into Super Saiyan, then he looked at his friends.

"Are you kidding?" Yamcha said pointing upwards, "Game over, man! He wiped the floor with you before, he's gonna wipe the floor with all of us now. Game over!"

"You only live once, bro," Tien grinned as he powered up, white chi flames coming to life around him.

"Technically this is my third life already, I died twice already, remember?" Yamcha said and held up two fingers, "and third death's most likely not a charm."

"Die in battle or die on your knees, your choice, bro," Tien shrugged.

"Maybe we can make a deal?" Yamcha said hopeful, "Maybe this guy's a Republican?"

The only response came when Tien launched himself in the air with Goku and the others. Even Buffy and her friends joined in the battle.

"I should have stayed in bed that day," Yamcha muttered, cursing the day he first met Goku as he launched himself after his friends.

High in the sky he watched the others lift off towards him one after the other. They had thought they had beaten him. Richard Wilkins had thought he had been beaten when the massive explosion happened.

But was he still Richard Wilkins I, II and III?

As the combined attacks came a different part of him took over. A part that held memories of things Richard Wilkins had never done. Places Richard Wilkins had never seen. Planets laid to waste, including a certain world full of annoying little monkeys. A part fueled by malice and sheer hatred.

He had expected to be changed once he ascended, but he never expected the changes to go beyond the physical. It would seem that Freeza still had a bone to pick with a certain individual. That was okay. He now also had some bones to pick with certain people. If the price for that was to have Freeza's hatred coarse through his veins he'd gladly pay it. Today was going to be the day of reckoning for the remainder of the Saiyan race and its friends. The two Saiyans he loathed the most would die. And afterwards he would seek out their abominable offspring, followed by the Prince of all Saiyans.

And then the universe would be his!

Whoever he still was by that time.

BOM!

With a loud thud Yamcha fell to the ground. For a moment the fall had him rendered senseless. Glorious anaesthetization through sensory overload. To bad it never lasted.

Leaning heavily on one hand he used his other hand to touch his face. While his body was a delightful symphony of pain, some nerves were clearly playing a solo, especially somewhere in his face.

Nose intact? Check.

Eyes not swollen up? Check.

His mouth and gorgeous smile intact? Che…. oh crap!

As Yamcha fingered his mouth he noticed that several teeth were lose, including one that fell right into his hand.

"No," Yamcha wailed. Like almost everybody else Yamcha didn't like being in a hospital, but absolutely loathed going to a dentist even more.

"Not my teeth," Yamcha complained. Why the hell did he ever come to Sunnydale!

Before he could finish his train of thought Yamcha felt two arms grip him by the middle.

"YOU CAN'T STOP ME," the demon-mayor roared angry as he swatted the three eyed Tien to the ground, only to receive a full blast in the face from Xander, "DARN!"

Elsewhere Goku tried to gather the remainder of his power. He had lost the ability to go Super, but he still had another trick up his sleeve. One he hadn't used in a while.

"KAIO-KENN!" the Saiyan roared and enveloped his body in red chi flames, using the technique taught to him by King Kai to give multiple increases to his strength. It didn't seem to be working in Super Saiyan, but that hardly mattered right now. Going for the maximum 20 fold increase he once achieved on planet Namek he flung himself into the battle once again.

Around them Sunnydale High and its surroundings had already been reduced to rubble as the battle had come down right onto the school building. One good thing had come of it though, by now there were very few people left in the town as most people had fled as far away as they could, helped by the surviving trainees. The shield still kept them trapped but at least they were clustered around the edges.

Using his twenty fold increase in base power Goku hurled himself into battle with the demon-mayor, who by now resembled Freeza's final form, only with even more power to spare.

But it was not enough as the mayor swatted Goku aside with a double fisted blow, then as his body fell backwards he used Freeza's piercing energy attack and pierced the Saiyan, just missing his heart by mere inches.

As the Saiyan fell to the ground, clutching his pierced chest in pain Willow came by, sprinkling Goku with the healing powder as she enacted the healing spell.

To bad my regeneration increase stopped once I became a Super Saiyan, Goku thought as he felt the pain go away. Upon his return to Earth he let Bulma run some tests on his DNA, comparing it with some of his old DNA from before Namek. She had come up with a very complicated story, of which Goku had tuned out most of it. But the basic gist was, he had been altered somehow. Going Super had rewritten his genetic makeup. Probably to make it easier for him to do so again. What he had lost however was the ability to become stronger from traumatic injury. That's the ropes, though. One trade off for another.

"Thanks, little lady," Goku smiled thankful at Willow. He was about to launch himself into the air again when he saw Piccolo crash down not far from him. And there weren't a whole lot of the others left in the fight. With the major fighters out that left only the smaller ones and they went down even faster.

And then it landed right in front of them.

"Hello little girl," the demon-mayor said in his new voice, one that by now only had the barest trace of his original voice, "you have been dishonest with me. And you do realize that lying goes against one of the Ten Commandments?"

"Get behind me," Goku yelled defiantly as he pushed Willow behind himself.

"Not again, monkey," the demon-mayor sighed, then he lashed out with his tail and slapped Goku aside, leaving Willow to face the demon-mayor alone.

"You have far more power then you let me believe," the demon-mayor said as he took another step towards Willow, "when I thought I noticed a sorcerer when the Sisterhood of Jhe came to town I thought it was the Saiyan, but it was you, wasn't it? Faith lied to me. My Faith! But I forgive her. She probably did it out of loyalty to your boyfriend, didn't she?"

The demon-mayor's tail lashed out again and this time it wrapped itself around Willow's neck.

"I may have all the power I need, that doesn't mean I should pass up on the opportunity to suck a sorceress dry," the mayor smiled, "I'm going to enjoy this, it's been a long time since I had one. Unfortunately little girl, you're not going to like it. But you can take comfort that part of you will always live on. Inside me."

He should have known that something was wrong when she wasn't struggling against his tail. Instead she looked aside and stretched out her hand. Next thing he knew half a class room knocked into him, knocking him over.

As he was knocked over he was forced to let go of his grip on the little sorceress.

"Where are you?" he roared as he got up again.

"I'm here you monster," the girl said, with steel in her voice. As he saw her she had her hands in the air and all over the school terrain large pieces of debris began to rise into the air.

"Good girl!" the mayor said appreciatively, then the pieces of debris slapped all into him at once.

Willow used her will to throw everything that could float and inflict damage at the demon-mayor. But it was still a losing battle and she knew it. Still, better to go down fighting then to die on your knees. After she exhausted her supply of ammunition she threw fireball after fireball at him and when that didn't work she erected the mother of all shields to stop him.

But it did not stop him.

Slowly but surely he pushed against her shield until it began to fall back towards her. Pouring every piece of her will into the shield she managed to push him back for a few moments but to no avail. He was just to strong.

Others joined in the fight. They had been knocked out earlier, but they were still not down. Somehow Yamcha found it in himself to volunteer for another round of punishment. Tien threw a few Kikoho blasts at the demon until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Krillin threw at least a dozen Kienzan disks at the thing, all in vain. WereOz threw himself unto the demon and tried to rip out his neck until the demon's tail knocked him off. Buffy and Xander threw Kamehameha waves at the thing to no avail. The survivors from Belmo's military trainees did what they could lobbing energy attacks. A black car with blackened windows drove as far on to the school terrain as it could, then an energy beam lanced from inside the vehicle.

The only one who didn't join in was Goku.

Instead the Saiyan stood at the edge of the terrain holding his hands into the air. It was clear that despite their best efforts they couldn't stop the damn beast. That left only desperate measures. And desperate measures included desperate techniques. Like the Genki Dama Spiritbomb. The resulting blast would very well obliterate Sunnydale, and probably half of California with it. But the demon could not be given free reign to wreak havoc on the Earth. At least by gathering the Dragonballs afterwards some of the damage could be repaired.

The problem with the Genki Dama Spiritbomb was that it took an extraordinary amount of time to form. Especially for the kind of power he needed. He did his best to call upon the Earth and its living beings to give him some of their power.

Beings of the Earth, please, lend me your power!

In the control room of the SGC, where a certain portly general and his command staff were hunched over maps and viewing screens of Southern California they suddenly all felt tired, like they had run a marathon or something. Panting with exhaustion the portly general reached for a chair and collapsed.

Even in space, in a geo-synchronous orbit over Southern California the effect was known. The crew of the USAFSS Enterprise (a certain USAF colonel did have some success after all), a Ha'tak class cruiser formerly known as Pride of Amūn, with on board several SG teams also felt suddenly tired.

"For crissakes, what the hell just happened?" Colonel O'Neill, all decked out in combat gear cried out as he felt the sudden urge to sit down and take a breather.

It came in, Goku felt it. From all over the planet. And it was forming high up in the sky, outside the shield, on the edge of space. But the shield wouldn't stop it once it got going. But he just needed more time. Time he didn't have as the girl's shield was now collapsing rapidly. It would have to do, he thought. Throw the Genki Dama at the demon-mayor, then use his teleport technique to save the girl and as many who couldn't make it out in time.

But then the girl's shield collapsed entirely and it was to late for Goku to throw the Genki Dama and save the girl.

"Forgive me," Goku said as he closed his eyes for a brief moment, then he opened them so he could throw the Genki Dama.

Only to find to his surprise that a second demon had stepped in and was now battling the mayor.

When Sunnydale High had collapsed in the battle, somehow Giles and Willow had managed to secured both Belmovekk and the still unconscious Wesley to safer grounds. There the sick Saiyan sat down exhausted, while Willow went back to the battle to help where she could. As Giles put down Wesley in the grass he checked his fellow Watcher who was still out cold. Lucky bastard!

It was only then that Wesley began to stir, the Watcher reaching for his bruised face.

"Good God," Wesley moaned as he opened his eyes, "I feel like I was hit by a freight train.

"In a sense you were," Giles said and he began to explain what had happened. As he did Wesley sat up straight, then at his knees as he peered over a piece of rubble to look at the battle.

"Good God!" Wesley said aghast, "They're tearing the place apart!"

"And we're still losing," Giles said, "he's just too strong for us."

"We're gonna die here, aren't we?" Wesley said dejected as he sat down again.

"It looks that way," Giles said casually. Since he had been following the battle for longer he had more or less resigned himself to his fate.

Neither man said anything for a moment until Wesley spoke up.

"What's he doing?" he said and pointed towards Belmovekk. The exhausted Saiyan had somehow gotten up and drawn another circle and pentagram on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Giles said, "You hardly survived it the last time."

"I have to do something," the Saiyan said as he raised himself and stretched out his arms.

"But it didn't work," Giles countered, "not for long enough that is.".

"Then I make it work!" the Saiyan said resolutely, and briefly pointed upwards, "Because you will not like the alternative."

Giles and Wesley looked upwards. High in the sky a large sky blue sphere of energy was growing.

"What in blazes name is that," Wesley asked as he shielded his eyes from the sun, just so he could look better.

"Goku is creating a Genki Dama," Belmovekk explained, "a spirit bomb. He is gathering energy from all across the world. And when that explodes, well, last time he used one it blew a hole in a planet. And I think he needs an ever bigger one this time."

"You mean he's going to blow up Sunnydale?" Wesley said aghast, but the Saiyan no longer responded as he began to mumble incantations.

Giles took another look at Goku's Genki Dama.

"I think we'll be lucky if he just blows up California."

"What the hell is that?" O'Neill said as he looked at the images the control room of the USAFSS Enterprise was relaying to the ring transporter room he was in, together with Sam and Teal'c and a couple of other SG teams.

"It looks like one of those energy attacks," Sam said absolutely fascinated.

"I can see that," Jack said annoyed, "the question is what does it do up here, nearly in space, almost right next to us."

"I can only conclude it's some kind of top down attack, sir," Sam replied, then she wiped her forehead, "I wish I wasn't so tired. I can't think straight."

"Top down as in boom?" O'Neill said as he held his fist in the air and then smashed it down on a railing, "how bad?"

"Hard to tell, sir," Sam replied, "I've yet to fully study the data Janet gave us of those trainees. But considering the size I'd say it's gonna be big. Really big. We may lose large parts of California."

"We gotta stop it," Jack said, "Any suggestions?"

"We could shoot it," the captain of the Enterprise, who was listening in through the intercom, suggested.

"I don't think that's wise," Sam said shaking her head, "it's fairly close to us. We could be destroyed as well."

"A small price to pay to stop the destruction of a part of the United States," Jack countered, "even if it is only California."

"Is it wise?" Teal'c spoke up, "Maybe we should have faith in our friends in Sunnydale? After all, our Satiya knows best."

"God," Jack said as he shook his head, "we sent them men, we're getting back cultists."

"It may not be wise to destroy the sphere here in orbit, sir," Sam interjected as she studied some more readings, "if what I'm reading here is correct we could trigger a massive EMP explosion that would destroy every electrical appliance from Hawaii to New York. At worst that explosion destroys California on the ground, but an EMP explosion from up here would send us as a whole nation back into the stone age."

Absolutely fascinated Wesley Wyndham Pryce watched the Saiyan perform the demonic magic ritual. Atop a boulder not far from them the air began to shimmer, like warm air above a hot tarmac surface. Then the shimmering grew more pronounced, into shards of color, flickering, shifting, undulating in waves until a shape began to form.

"He's summoning a demon, isn't he," Wesley said to Giles, "I thought you said he was going to trap the mayor into a demonic shape."

"That was the original plan," Giles agreed, "but it failed. He clearly didn't gain complete control like he hoped."

"So, he's going for a more direct approach," Wesley said sounding almost excited, "this is fascinating, we should take notes."

Meanwhile the apparition continued to gain shape, until the process suddenly fastened until the various forms and colors coalesced with ever greater speed into a form.

And then there stood a demon, a snarling and raging demon, ten foot high, with four arms, two legs and horns running down its spine. It bellowed and revealed a mouth with razor sharp teeth. But even as he stood there something was wrong, for it looked like something was rippling underneath the skin. Something that possibly looked far worse then the exterior

"Good God!" Wesley and Giles exclaimed both. Upon which the demon noticed and turned towards them. It stopped only yards away from them snarling, like it was going to rip off their heads if it weren't for the incantations the Saiyan was saying. Then it turned towards the demon-mayor. And Wesley could have sworn the brute took a step back in shock. It roared defiantly at the Saiyan, who in response upped the numbers of his incantations.

Then, reluctantly at first, like it had no desire to fight at all, it stormed towards the demon-mayor.

The intervention of the demon saved the girl's life, Goku noted, and as the two demons fought each other one of the girl's friends swooped in and took her to safety. Goku had no idea where this timely intervention came from, but who was he to look a gifted horse in the mouth? If it gave him the extra time gather his Genki Dama to its full strength, so much the better.

"What the hell are you doing?" a voice said angrily. It was Belmovekk's girl, the Slayer.

"It has to be done," Goku said, sweating from the concentration of gathering and maintaining all that energy.

"You're going to destroy my town," Buffy countered.

"And what do you think he will do?" Goku said back.

"And how's leveling Sunnydale any better, Forrest Gump?"

"We can use the Dragonballs to restore most of the damage," Goku replied, hands still in the air.

"And what about the people," Buffy replied as she pointed around herself, "I thought you needed their bodies to revive them? Kinda hard when they're vaporized don't you think?"

"I love to help you, little girl," Goku said, "but I'm outta options really. If you have a better idea I'd really like to hear it."

"You're not going to blow up my town," Buffy said putting her hands in her sides, "not on my watch you are."

"I may have no choice," Goku countered, "he must be stopped."

"Not like this."

"I have no choice."

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Then you'll have to kill me first," Buffy said resolutely.

"Then I will," Goku said back equally resolute, "I will not have this demon run around in the world. I will do whatever it takes, little lady, for the good of the Earth. For mankind. For Chichi. For Gohan."

When an immovable force meets an immovable object something has to give. And for the first time in her life Buffy met someone who was as determined as she was. And to make it all worse he was stronger then she was.

Realizing she couldn't sway Goku Buffy flew back to where she had dropped off Willow, at Giles and Wesley's.

"He's really going to do it," Buffy said dispirited, "He's really going to blow up Sunnydale."

Giles and Willow didn't really know what to say about that.

"In order to save the village we had to burn the village," Wesley said softly, paraphrasing an old argument once voiced in a different time, in a different war.

Buffy sat down distraught.

"This isn't happening," she said dispirited, "there has to be something we can do?"

"I'm afraid not," Giles replied as he sat down next to his Slayer and his arm around her, "we had a good run, Buffy. Three years the two of us, four if you count Merrick."

"I just didn't think it would come down to this," Buffy sighed dejected, "Not like this. I knew we should have gone looking for that avatar thingy."

"Buffy, you know perfectly well there was no time for that," Giles said, "We got the information to late. There was no time to look for this Avatar of the Master."

Buffy pointed angrily towards Goku.

"He begs to differ!"

Wesley meanwhile had been watching the demon duel while hiding behind a boulder.

"Something's wrong," he said back, "the mayor's ripping whole chunks out of that demon, but he's not bleeding."

"That's not good," Willow said as she joined Wesley's side, "that demon should be bleeding. If he's not then Belmo's losing control."

Wesley turned to Willow.

"That's bad, right?"

"Very bad," Willow said back, "If Belmo loses control the demon would break free of the cast it's now in. It would then turn on Belmo instead."

"Good Lord, I'm going to die," Wesley moaned.

"We wouldn't be in this situation if we had gone looking for this avatar thingy," Buffy muttered, then she looked at Giles, "What's an avatar anyway?"

"It's a personification, Buffy," Giles explained, "a manifestation of a higher order made flesh. When….."

Buffy got up like she had seen the light.

"Maybe it's not a weapon at all," she said with renewed hope, "Maybe…"

Without thinking Buffy ran up to Belmovekk, who somehow was still standing, mumbling his spells and incantations, but outwardly he was but a shell of his former self.

"Buffy, no," Giles shouted, "If you break his concentration the demon will…"

She ignored her watcher and stepped inside the circle. Once she did she understood why Belmo looked so gaunt, it felt like the magic was literally cooking him alive. Then she placed her hand on his sweaty forehead.

As soon as she did Belmovekk's concentration was broken and he stopped saying his incantations.

As soon as she did the demon battling the mayor stopped fighting and tore off the guise he was trapped in, revealing his true form. Which was a far more human looking form, two arms, goat's legs and just a pair of horns on top of its head. And it looked straight towards where Belmovekk was. With hatred shining from its eyes.

"Where are you?" Buffy shouted defiantly as she found herself standing inside yet another of Belmo's funky dreamscapes. This time she stood on a beach of green sand, as purple seawater splashed on it's shores. Overhead the sky was orange while in the distance a blue sun shone. Okay, severe color mismatch here. Call in the fashion police.

Besides crimes against the visual senses this place held little to warrant her presence here.

"This isn't funny!" Buffy yelled, "people are dying out there!"

"You have to excuse him," a voice said behind her, a voice overlaid with harmonic overtones, "he is mad with fever and exhausted, his mind does not work quite the same."

As she turned she saw Glow in the Dark Belmo sitting in his comfy beach chair, still wearing the leather second world war clothing.

"Not you again," she sighed in despair, "I need the other one. Old guy, big white beard?"

"Santa Claus?" the Goa'uld sniggered.

"Very funny," Buffy said as she folded her arms across her chest, "you know, you make the hunchback look sociable."

"We all have our crosses to bear," Amūn shrugged, then he reached beside him to pick up a bottle of whine from which he took a sip, "unfortunately I can't put you through to the one you seek. I guess that since I took residence up here there have been some…., changes? I guess there is only room for one God up here."

Buffy walked up the Goa'uld.

"There's gonna be some more changes if I don't get to see the Master," she said resolutely, "Or I'm gonna make Giles go full on exorcist on your ass."

The Goa'uld looked at her with big eyes, then he threw away the bottle and clapped in his hands like some excited schoolgirl.

"Oh, you figured it out," Amūn said excitedly, "the Avatar of the Master."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded, "now I want to talk to him. Where's Aldur? The one he calls Master?"

The Goa'uld shrugged and reached besides his chair for another bottle of whine.

"He knows what's going on," he said calmly as he uncorked the bottle to take a swig.

"Then why hasn't he showed up yet?" Buffy asked. Before the Goa'uld could reply the scenery began to fade. And then she was in the real world again, standing in the circled pentagram as Belmo next to her toppled over and passed out, face forward.

"That was helpful," she muttered. But then she heard a ghostly voice, overlaid with harmonic overtones.

"Even the celestial ones have to abide by certain rules, Buffy."

"Oh my God," Wesley yelled in despair, "the demon, he's coming for us!"

Buffy looked upwards.

Now might be a good time!

"No, not like this," Wesley cried out as a demonic voice came closer and closer. Buffy stepped out of the circle and sighed.

"Might as well go down fighting," she sighed. She was about to power up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was Willow.

"It's okay, Buffy," Willow smiled gently, "I will take this."

Still smiling Willow reached down and picked up a laptop that somehow lay on the ground, then she walked towards the demons.

"Will, no!" Buffy cried out and tried to stop her friend. But she found she couldn't move, like she was nailed to the ground.

Willow walked past the boulder where Wesley was hiding behind and then she stopped. The demon Belmovekk had summoned made straight for her as she had stepped into view. Then she put her hand up and signaled it to stop.

"Halt," she said in a voice that was not her own, that somehow seemed greater, "Begone, demonspawn. I abjure ye!"

For some reason the demon stopped ten yards from here, there it bellowed impotently at her.

"Return to the place from whence ye came, lest ye die," Willow said, her voice this time overlaid with another voice, a voice seemingly so gentle it couldn't possibly be a threat. And yet there was power in that voice. Power to shape worlds like they were just mere pieces of clay.

Even the demon knew it as it took a step backwards, then it roared a roar of defiance.

"Begone," Willow said as she pulled forth her laptop. Only it no longer seemed like a simple laptop. While it still looked like a laptop it also looked like the deadliest weapon ever fashioned.

"The Avatar of the Master," Giles exclaimed as he looked at Buffy, then Willow, "of course! How could I be so blind? It wasn't the Master, it is Belmovekk's Master! She's become the embodiment of a God!"

Barely perceivable at first Willow began to grow in stature. The more she did, the more the demon backed off. She passed the ten feet mark, the height of the demon-mayor, but she didn't stop there. Only at twenty feet did she stop. The demon actually began to show fear now. Then it turned tail and ran, a portal opening in front of it through which it fled, then the portal closed and the only demon left standing was the mayor. Unimpressed the demon-mayor clapped his hands.

"Bravo, little girl," he said as he walked towards Willow, "you scared away the puny demon. Nice growing trick by the way. But you're still no match for me. My power is limitless!"

Had he still been Richard Wilkins III he might have noticed there was more to the girl then just a change in size. But now he was more Freeza's hatred personified then Richard Wilkins III. And Freeza didn't have first hand experience with divine intervention. So the demon mayor put on the constipation face and reached inside him for more power. As he did the earth began to tremble and pieces of dirt rose into the sky. His muscles began to bulge, as if to accommodate all the extra power. Then the shaking stopped and the demon-mayor grinned.

"Time to die, little girl."

It was clear that the demon-mayor was brimming with so much power it was off the scale. As he attacked Willow she shouldn't have been able to see it, it happening so fast. Yet somehow Buffy could see everything like it happened in slow motion.

The demon-mayor rushed Willow, intending on ramming his shoulder into her stomach. Willow didn't move until the last moment. Then she swung her laptop and with a grace not befitting on a Slayer she swatted the device like it was a heavy hammer against the demon-mayor's face. The noise of the impact was deafening.

BAM!

The impact sent the demon mayor flying backwards and he landed on his back 100 feet away from Willow. It actually looked like his face had a laptop imprint. The demon-mayor touched his face.

"This is not supposed to happen?" the demon-mayor said incredulously, then he got up and charged Willow again, "This is not supposed to happen!"

Again at the last moment, like in slow-motion Willow swung her laptop and hammered the demon-mayor on his face. Only this time she swung downwards instead of sideways, causing the demon-mayor to fall down face first in front of her.

BAM!

Again he couldn't fathom what was happening to him.

"This is not supposed to happen!" the demon-mayor said raging as he pounded his fist on the ground. Then he got up.

And again ate laptop.

"Begone!" Willow shouted. Then she began to pound into the demon-mayor, even developing a steady rhythm.

"Begone!"

BAM!

"Begone!"

BAM!

"Begone!"

BAM!

"Begone!"

BAM!

"Begone!"

BAM!

"Begone!"

BAM!

Goku had been about to launch his Genki Dama when the 2nd demon stopped fighting the demon-mayor, shed off its hideous exterior, then he charged back to where he had come from. And then he stopped as the magic girl stepped into view. She said something so loud even he could hear it. And then she grew. Next thing the 2nd demon ran away into a portal and the demon-mayor charged her. Only to receive a smackdown the likes of which he hadn't received all day.

After this sudden reversal of fortune Goku couldn't bring himself to lop his Genki Dama onto Sunnydale. So he put it on hold. As long as he kept part of his mind on it, it would still be there if he needed it.

His head was spinning as blow upon blow rained down on him. It wasn't supposed to happen this way! Purple blood ran down his cheeks as more blows rained down on him.

He had sacrificed too much for this moment. Wilkins had planned, schemed, plotted and conspired for over a century for this moment. Freeza had spent time unfathomable in the vacuum of space, an experience worse then Hell. And now it was all falling apart. All thanks to a monkey girl.

No!

"Begone!"

BAM!

"Begone!"

BAM!

And then it happened. Suddenly something broke free of the mayor, something dark and black. A dark essence. Willow reached out and grabbed the dark essence in her hand. The darkish ectoplasm swirled around her fist, in and out through her fingers, not able to escape her grasp.

"Begone!" Willow's voice boomed one last time, then the dark essence evaporated in a ghostly scream.

"NOOOOO!" Wilkins yelled but it was too late. Without his demonic essence his body reverted back to what it once was, a mere human. Soon all that was left of him was a naked broken human, moaning as he lay in a pool of mostly purple, but now increasingly red blood as well.

"It is over, Willow said panting after she dropped her bloody laptop and she had shrunk back to her original size.

"Well I'll be damned," Wesley said as he emerged from the boulder he'd been hiding behind, "we made it!"

He wasn't the only one as all across the battlefield that had once been Sunnydale High and the surrounding district the surviving fighters emerged.

"Will, you beat him," Buffy said as she finally could move again and ran towards her friend so she could hug her. Then she stopped short of reaching Willow.

"Or are you Aldur?" she asked wearily. Upon which Willow smiled.

"Most astute, young lady. I can see why my disciple favors thee."

Then Willow/Aldur turned to Belmovekk, still lying unconscious on the ground.

"Rise, my son," Willow said and stretched her hand out towards Belmovekk. Upon which the Saiyan began to stir, then he looked up. The gaunt feverish look was gone. Instead he looked his old self again. Then he saw Willow. Even though he had missed everything he immediately recognized who she really was.

"Master?" he said, then he got up on one knee and bowed, "I tried, Master, I tried, but I failed."

"You did not fail, my son," Willow/Aldur smiled then she walked over to the Saiyan and took his hands, "Your foe was strong and crafty. But you choose your companions wisely."

"It is as you say so, Master," Belmovekk said as he lowered his head again.

"Come," Willow/Aldur said aloud as she beckoned all the fighters to come closer, even to Angel who was hiding from the sun in his overturned car, "come, good friend, for the rest of this day the sun's rays shall not harm thee."

Cautiously Angel extended a hand into the sunlight, only to find that nothing happened. Tentatively more of him emerged until he stood fully in the sun. For a moment he looked at the sun. An object he hadn't seen for centuries. In real life that is.

"I don't get it," a limping Yamcha said to Piccolo as the fighters gathered round Willow/Aldur, "what exactly happened here?"

"Divine intervention, Yamcha, divine intervention," Piccolo said, then he looked upwards, where he knew Kami to be, "Don't you dare laugh, you old coot."

"Know that I bless thee all," Willow/Aldur said as she touched each fighter on the forehead. As she did each fighter felt their tiredness gone, their energy restored and their pain and injuries gone.

"This is way better then a senzu," Yamcha said excited after Willow/Aldur had touched him, "at least she doesn't leave that foul aftertaste."

"What are you blabbering on about?" Tien said surprised, "Senzu's don't leave any aftertaste."

"Yeah, but that's because you're gay," Yamcha countered with a big grin, "you crave that sweaty nutty aftertaste."

"I'm not gay!"

When she came to Xander, who had a broken arm, Xander stepped back from Willow.

"Please, Will, um, your worship," he said hesitantly, "don't! I'd rather heal the normal way. It's, um, already long enough. I don't…., uh…"

Willow/Aldur leaned over and smiled as she whispered in his ear.

"Do not worry, my son," she said as she touched him, "if thy tail offends thee, verily shall it be removed."

Xander reached behind himself, just above the buttocks, no longer finding anything there, then he smiled.

"You are a God of my own heart indeed, Willdur," Xander beamed.

And so she blessed every fighter. As she did Buffy suddenly felt a hand took hold of hers. It was Angel.

"So how do you like the sun?" she smiled .

"It's a…., a new experience," Angel smiled back.

"I thought you would leave without saying goodbye?" Buffy asked.

"That was my original plan," Angel nodded slowly, "but then fate handed me some time under the sun. It seems a shame to spend it all alone."

"Now you're talking," Buffy chuckled, then she got an idea, "Oh, Will, uh Aldur?"

"What, my child?" Willow/Aldur asked. Buffy stepped forward and pointed towards Angel.

"His soul," Buffy said hopeful, "since you're handing out divine booty, could you, um, sort of, fix it? Make it permanent?"

Willow shook her head, crushing Buffy's hopes.

"I could not, my child," the Avatar of a God replied, "for he is bound to a different fate. For me to interfere would cause great upheaval, least of all to thee and thy friends."

"Bummer," Buffy said depressed as she lowered her head. But then Willow/Aldur smiled again.

"That does not mean I cannot give the both of thee a last moment together. For the remainder of the day thy curse shall be lifted."

"I don't get it," Yamcha said, "What just happened?"

"I think somebody's going to get laid today," Tien replied as he saw Buffy and the vampire exchange glances.

"Now know that I must leave thee all," Willow/Aldur said, then she held up her hand and a silver chain and amulet appeared in her hand, then she turned towards Belmovekk, "Know that this good child is now also my beloved Disciple, as she was best suited for the task amongst all ye. Look out well after her."

"I shall welcome her as my sister, Master," Belmovekk said formally, "will she be returning with me after my task here is finished?"

"That is up to her, my son," Willow/Aldur said, the Godly voice now almost gone. And then it was really gone as Willow looked around the group and smiled sheepishly.

"Wow, that was quite a ride, wasn't it?" she said. Only for Belmovekk to come forward and take her into a huge.

"Long has it been since I had a new sister," he said as he embraced her. Then he let go and stepped back proudly.

"Ohmigod, Will," Buffy said as she looked Willow over, "your hair!"

In panic Willow touched her hair.

"Did something happen to my hair? Don't tell me it's all old and grey, I couldn't do old and grey."

"It's mostly still you," Buffy said, then she reached out and touched a white lock in Willow's hair, "mostly."

Before Willow had time to panic she was seized by both Xander and Oz and hoisted on their shoulders.

"It's time for a new tradition," Xander said proudly, "From this day forward if you save the day, you get a victory lap!"

"Xander, Oz, put me down," Willow protested, but to no avail as the two teens began to parade her around.

"All hail the victorious redhead," Xander sang, "all shall love her and despair!"

"What about me?" Buffy protested, "didn't I save the day?"

"You'll get your victory lap," Angel said as he took Buffy by the shoulders, "just not on their shoulders."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Buffy smiled impishly as she looked at Angel.

"That depends," Angel smiled back, "although I have to warn you, I can think quite deep. Like, gutter deep."

"Oh," Buffy grinned, "then you are thinking what I'm thinking."

"Sir, what are we to do now?" Riley said to Belmovekk as the teens wandered off. He had only twelve men left standing behind him.

"We will gather the fallen, commander," Belmovekk said solemnly, "if you and your men can keep one more secret we will perform one more duty together."

With the Scoobies gone and Belmovekk leaving with his trainees that left Goku and his friends gathered around the still dying mayor. No longer a demon he was slowly bleeding to death from his many injuries.

"What are we to do with him?" Piccolo said as with a poof his white turban and caped shoulder pieces re-appeared on him.

"I guess we should take him to a hospital," Goku said as he looked from one friend to another.

"He tried to kill us, Goku," Krillin protested.

"He's human now," Goku shrugged, "he deserves another shot."

"You're too good for this world," Tien said shaking his head. That was classical Goku, right here and there. The guy would try and redeem Hitler, Stalin and Mao if he had the chance.

"Why don't we let human justice deal with the man," Piccolo said as he saw the two Watchers approach. "They'll know best what to do. You'll take care of him, won't you?"

Piccolo didn't wink but Giles and Wesley got the hint.

"We will see to him alright," Giles nodded back.

"See? Taken care off," Piccolo said, then he took Goku by the shoulders and pointed elsewhere, " What do you say if we go and look for something to eat?"

"Great idea, Piccolo," Goku said excited, then he looked over his shoulders to the two Watchers who kneeled beside the mayor, "Will they take him to a hospital?"

"Oh, they'll take good care of him alright," Piccolo said, trying to look as straight faced as possible.

As Piccolo gently led Goku and his friends off in search of something to eat something else occurred to Goku.

"Strange that Vegeta didn't show up though," Goku mused, "usually he does not stay away from a fight."

"I was thinking the exact same thing," Piccolo echoed, "You do know what this means, right?"

"He doesn't want to play?" Goku suggested.

"No, you idiot! He's not on the planet."

"If only we could so lucky," Yamcha sighed blissfully

Meanwhile on the now abandoned school grounds the two Watchers kneeled next to the mayor.

"Are you going to do it or should I?" Giles asked.

"Technically I'm still a Watcher and you're not," Wesley replied back, then he reached inside his tweed coat and pulled out a small knife, "Mayor Wilkins, as my last act as a Watcher I hereby find you guilty of supernatural crimes against humanity and conspiring to cause death on a massive scale. By the articles of Oversight I am hereby authorized to carry out the punishment."

Taking a big sigh Wesley slid the mayor's throat and together the two Watchers watched the life slip away from the mayor. The mayor made a few gargling noise, then he died.

"Are you going to be alright?" Giles asked his fellow Watcher as Wesley wiped his knife clean, then put it away.

"I'm alright," Wesley said without much emotion, "it had to be done. He was still a powerful mage."

"I shall see to it that his remains are incinerated," Giles nodded, "will you…., are you going to stay?"

Wesley shook his head.

"No," he said, "I'm leaving town. Funny how life can go. I came here thinking I was a man. Instead I became one."

"Well, if you need a place to stay, you're always welcome to drop by," Giles said as he extended his hand. For a moment Wesley hesitated, then he took the hand and shook it.

"Thanks, it's good to know."

Suddenly a whining noise came and a set of rings materialized out of nowhere. Then a group of armed soldiers appeared in them, including a certain alien and two US air force officers Giles was intimately familiar with. Then the rings disappeared.

"Alright," Colonel O'Neill said angry as he stepped forward, "what in blazes name happened here?"

It was evening and the site that used to be Sunnydale High was swarming with soldiers, investigators and aid workers. It appeared that as soon after the mayor had died the shield that surrounded the town was also lifted. Opening the way for a small army of aid workers and a not so small army of soldiers to enter the town. The town was immediately cordoned off from the press, as the military tightly controlled who came and who entered.

On a sidewalk a group of teens sat down as they watched the proceedings.

"I wonder why he didn't show up earlier," Xander said thinking out loud.

"Who?" Oz asked.

"Well, that God of course," Xander said, "I mean if Wills had gone Super Willow at the ceremony we could have spared ourselves a lot of trouble."

"And miss all the fun?" Oz chuckled.

"Fun's relative," Xander shrugged, "sometimes you have fun, sometimes the fun has you."

"Even the celestial ones have to abide by certain rules," Buffy chuckled as she joined in, "Lets just keep it at that."

"Yeah, but still," Xander countered, "Did we need to get pounded into a pulp beforehand?"

"I like to think our suffering was for a good cause," Buffy smiled, "today it was our turn to be speedbump guys. We rose to the occasion, we bought time so Willow could save the day. In a sense I'd say we graduated."

"Well, I second Xander," Willow said, "I wouldn't have mind becoming Super Willow earlier."

"How did it feel?" Xander asked curiously, "to have a God inside you?"

Willow wanted to say something, then she looked unsure as what to say.

"I don't know," she said unsure, "I can't describe it."

Xander wanted to ask something when Oz spoke up first.

"Guys, take a moment to deal with this," the young guitarist said solemnly, "we survived."

The group looked at him, then nodded in agreement.

"It was a hell of a battle," Buffy said as she massaged the sides of her head, "I haven't processed everything yet. My brain isn't really functioning on the higher levels. It's pretty much: fire bad; tree pretty."

"That's not what I meant," Oz said and nodded towards the rubble that used to be Sunnydale High, "Not the battle. High School! Let's take a moment."

For a moment everyone was silent. Then a car drove by, an old Thunderbird convertible, with Angel by the wheel.

"Got to go," Buffy said as she hopped into the car, "We still have some time left."

"Hey, that's my car," Xander protested but it was in vain.

"Fire bad; tree pretty," Buffy grinned back as Angel drove the both of them off.

"And we're done," Oz said, then he turned to Willow and touched the white lock in her hair, "you know, I like it."

"Aw crap," Xander said as he smacked himself on the head with a huge facepalm, "Crap, crap, crap, crap!"

"What's wrong, Xan?" Willow asked.

"When you were still his celestial worship I should have done what Buffy did and asked him a boon. He could have cured Angela!"

"Bummer," Oz said, "you guys really don't know what to do?"

"I need divine help, that should tell you," Xander said dejected as he reached behind him and took the sword Kahanthus in his grasp.

"You still got the girl's stuff?" Oz asked.

"Yeah," Xander replied, "Shimrod's got it."

Oz then began to sport a slight smirk as he explained his idea to Xander. Who turned wide-eyed on hearing it, then he looked at the sword in his hands.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" he said flabbergasted as he suddenly realized the implications of what Oz just had suggested.

"Daniel Osbourne," Willow said as she looked at Oz, "since when did you get so smart?"

"That's because I hung out with all the cool people," Oz said smug, "so, are you gonna do it?"

"You betcha," Xander said, then he looked away. Now why didn't he think of that? He must be getting old.

For a moment neither said anything. Then Xander spoke up.

"You know, in a way it's a shame that high school's over. The place is probably the safest place to be right now."

"Its also the flattest place to be," Oz said.

"What makes you think so?" Willow asked. Upon which Xander pointed the sword towards the ruins.

"A true honest God walked the place. That makes it holy ground. No vamp or demon dare set foot on it now."

Oz and Willow looked at each other, then Oz smiled and patted Xander on the shoulder.

"See? Hanging out with the cool people does rub off."

(Cue dramatic music)

Until the End of the World

Album: U2, Achtung Baby

Lyrics by Bono, music by U2

Haven't seen you in quite a while

I was down in the hold just passing time

Last time we met it was a low-lit room

We were as close together as a bride and groom

We ate the food, we ate drank the wine

Everybody having a good time

Except you

You were talking about the end of the world

I took the money, I spiked your drink

You miss too much these days if you stop to think

You led me on with those innocent eyes

And you know I love the element of surprise

In the garden I was playing the tart

I kissed your lips and broke your heart

You

You were acting like it was the end of the world

Kickass guitar solo by The Edge

Love love love, love love

Love love love love

Love love love, love love

Love love love

In my dreams I was drowning my sorrows

But my sorrows they learned to swim

Surrounding me, going down on me

Spilling over the brim

In waves of regret, waves of joy

I reached out to the one I tried to destroy

You

You said you'd wait until the end of the world.