Sorry for the delay -I had a crazy busy weekend and didn't get any time at all for writing. Plus, it wasn't an easy chapter to write. Plus, there didn't seem to be any good spots to end it coming up. I think the point it ends at is alright, it's just not as natural a stopping point as I'd have liked.
Here's hoping you like it! Please review!
Despite the short night's rest, Xander was in before Tony and Ziva the next morning. Gibbs, of course, was already at his desk. Xander decided to get straight to the point.
"Did you tell Ziva to follow me last night?"
Gibbs looked up, seemingly unsurprised by the question. "Yes. Did you have a nice evening of reminiscing, or did your friends have something to say about the case?"
"See, asking me outright I'm fine with. Being followed I'm not so keen on," Xander stated.
"Your friend was hiding something, and we've got a bunch of missing marines. It doesn't inspire trust."
"I don't expect you to trust him. But I expect you to trust me."
Gibbs locked gazes with Xander for a minute, before giving a single nod in acknowledgement. Xander knew that was about as close to an apology he would probably get.
"So, did he know anything?"
Xander shrugged. "Angel told me what he'd heard, and he was right -it didn't give us any obvious leads." He paused. "Has Abby done the report on O'Reilly's blood yet?"
"Yeah, it's here." Gibbs handed the file to Xander and then watched as the younger man looked through it, pausing on one of the pages. "Looking for something specific?"
"Maybe," Xander answered vaguely, paying more attention to the file than his boss. "Yeah, here: Abby found pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, acetaminophen and codeine phosphate."
"Standard cold and flu tablet, she said. The non-drowsy 'day' tablet from a 'day and night' pack."
Xander nodded. "That's why O'Reilly was killed. He had a cold."
"Explain," ordered Gibbs. Xander had his full attention now. He phrased it the careful way he'd worked out earlier.
"There's some people out there who believe in magic. They think they can do a sort of spell or ritual that will transfer the strength and health of a marine to themselves."
Gibbs' eyes narrowed. "We're dealing with a cult?"
"Something like that, according to the rumours Angel had heard. He's trying to track down the source of the rumours, but until he does, they're only rumours."
"So when they realised O'Reilly was sick..."
"He would have been unsuitable for their purposes. They took Taylor, and disposed of O'Reilly," Xander summarised.
Gibbs stood quickly, grabbing his gun and badge. "Where did he hear this rumour? We'll track it down ourselves."
"I don't know," replied Xander. "But I do know someone else we can ask."
"Then why are we still here?"
Xander led the way into the dingy bar. It was hours before opening time, but Frak had enthusiastically introduced Xander to the manager when they'd first had drinks some weeks ago. The manager had happily offered to let the 'One Who Sees' use the place for meetings if he ever needed to. Of course, Xander had hoped he wouldn't need to take up that offer so soon.
Frak was already waiting for them, sipping some drink.
"Frank," Xander greeted, emphasising the human name just a little and hoping Frak would understand what it meant.
"Xander! Oh hey man, how you been? Haven't seen you for a couple of weeks, you know? Suppose that means you've been busy, you know, federal agent and all. So were you serious about what you said on the phone? Oh, I can't wait to tell Clem about this, you know?"
Xander waited patiently for the babble to cease. He motioned to the man beside him.
"Frank, this is my boss, Special Agent Gibbs. Gibbs, this is Frank."
"Frank," Gibbs said, offering his hand. Xander had warned Gibbs not to mention Frak's 'skin condition' and Gibbs had agreed to let Xander handle the talking, much to Xander's relief.
Frak looked at Gibbs as if only just realising the second man was there. He took Gibbs' hand and shook it enthusiastically.
"So you're Xander's boss? He must be the best on your team right, because, you know, he is the best, isn't he? I mean, I know your other agents must be good and all, but, you know, this is Xander! The Xander! I mean, how could anyone be-"
"Frank!" Xander cut him off.
"Sorry, sorry, it's just, you know, you're a hero man!"
"What did I say about that word?" Xander asked. He sighed. He'd tried to lay down a few rules last time they'd met up, but obviously some things were going to take a while to sink in. Xander risked a sideways glance at his boss. Gibbs was keeping his face carefully neutral, which only confirmed Xander's suspicion that there would be questions to answer later.
"Sorry, sorry," Frank said again.
Xander motioned to the table and they sat down.
"So, you know I called because we need information."
"Sure, sure, anything you need," Frak replied eagerly. "You know, stuff's been happening lately. I've never seen it so crazy round here. You heard about the Faligata, right?"
"Yeah, we heard," Xander replied.
"You know, I'd love to get myself a piece of that action! But I don't think cleaning government offices is likely to be the right position, you know?"
Xander chuckled. "No, probably not. Sorry Frank."
Frak waved a hand dismissively. "Ah well, I haven't got a bad lot in life, you know? Not really."
"What we're really interested in, is what you might have heard about a Badinok," said Xander.
Suddenly, Frak's entire body language changed. His constant grin disappeared, and he sat back. He glanced around nervously.
"A -a Badinok? I haven't heard anything about that, no, definitely not."
"Are you sure? No rumours going around about it?"
Frak shook his head vehemently. "No, no rumours. I mean, really, if I was going to do something like that -which I'm not, no way -I wouldn't go around mentioning it to people, you know?"
"Yeah, well, apparently there is a rumour," Xander replied. "Listen, can you at least try to see if you can find out about it for us?
Frak's face clearly said 'no', but his hero-worship of Xander won out.
"Err, yeah, I suppose," he said reluctantly.
"Find out anything you can. If you hear about it, see if there's any mention of where the missing people have been taken, or who's doing it."
"Sure, sure. If I hear anything, I'll let you know." Frak clearly wanted to get off the topic. Xander grinned.
"Being a 'source' not as fun as you thought it might be, huh?"
Frak appeared to relax a little. "Well, you know, I thought it'd be more small time stuff. Like drugs or something, you know? You don't get much criminal activity in D.C. -at least, not amongst my kind. Until now."
Xander inwardly cringed at Frak's mention of 'his kind' -they'd been doing so well up to that point. Oh well. He'd have to deal with that later.
"Yeah, well, should all be over soon," he assured the demon.
Frak nodded. "Next week, right?"
Xander nodded and stood, the other two following his lead. He thanked Frak again and reminded him to call if he heard anything. Gibbs nodded politely at Frak before they headed back out to the car.
Gibbs was driving of course. Xander waited quietly for Gibbs to start with the questions. It didn't take long.
"I need answers Harris," he stated. He looked mildly surprised when Xander simply nodded.
"I know. I'll answer where I can."
"What's a Badinok?"
"The spell I told you about earlier. It's called a Badinok Spell."
"And that other word Frank mentioned?"
Xander thought for a moment. "Faligata? It's a prophecy. The Faligata Prophecy."
"You believe in that stuff, Harris?"
"Doesn't matter what I believe, Boss," Xander answered easily. "What matters is that they do."
"And they are?" Gibbs responded. "Something to do with the people Frank referred to as 'his kind'?"
Xander struggled with himself. It would be a hell of a lot easier to deal with things if he wasn't constantly trying to hide things from his boss. On the other hand, he didn't know how well someone as straight-laced as Gibbs would take the news.
"Harris," Gibbs said, a hint of warning in his voice. "This isn't a cult. A cult is small, enclosed, secretive. Your friend back there is clearly not a member of a cult, but you expect he could find out about what's going on. This doesn't fit the profile of a cult at all."
"Yeah, I know Boss," Xander sighed. He hesitated. He had planned for so long to never ever consider telling Gibbs the truth -why was he suddenly considering it now?
"Harris!" Gibbs barked. "You want me to trust you, then you have to give me something back. It's a two-way street."
That was the final straw.
Alright, here goes nothing. "Here's the thing. Demons are real."
"Demons..." Gibbs echoed thoughtfully, with a hint of confusion. "That's what this is about?"
Xander turned to stare at Gibbs. "You know about demons?"
Gibbs shrugged. "It's not talked about, but most marines who have seen battle in a desert find out sooner or later. They follow the battles. Something about the battlefield and the stench of death. But they generally only come at night, once all men are gone. I've only seen a demon twice, and even then it was dark and at a distance."
Well, that would make things easier. Xander hadn't heard specifically of demons which followed along the trail of fights and wars, but it wasn't surprising.
"Right. Okay. Well, the demons here in D.C. are mostly the civilised, political sort-"
"Wait. Demons can be civilised?" Gibbs paused. "I thought they were more like animals -never realised they might have the intelligence for..." A realisation hit him. "Frank is a demon?"
"Err, maybe we should pull over," Xander suggested quickly. The last thing they needed was for Gibbs' usually erratic driving to get any worse. Thankfully Gibbs seemed to agree because he pulled into a parking lot a moment later. Once they were parked, Gibbs turned properly towards Xander.
"Alright. Give it to me straight, Harris."
Xander took a deep breath. "There are all sorts of demons. Some are evil, some are not. Some can pass for human, others never could. D.C. is a political city, so it mostly attracts demons who want to succeed in life through money and politics. They work their way up the same way as any human would, and mostly play by the rules -which is why Frank said criminal activity amongst his kind is low. Any demon that wants to do well in D.C. doesn't want to attract attention by breaking the law."
Xander gave Gibbs a moment to absorb this information.
"Right," the older man said eventually. "So what's changed?"
"The Faligata Prophecy. Which is mostly likely false or incorrectly translated anyway. Basically, there's a popular translation that says some unnamed demon will become rich and powerful if he's in the right government job in D.C. at the end of next week."
"So everyone's jostling for position, resulting in the crime wave the Detective told us about."
"Exactly." Xander was relieved that Gibbs was focussing on analysing what was going on, rather than trying to get his head around a new worldview.
"Where do our missing marines come into it?"
"The Badinok Spell, like I said. Someone intends to use the strength of the marines for themselves -whether to defend their position or be strong enough to attack someone else's, I don't know."
Gibbs nodded, and sat in thought for a moment longer before restarting the car and driving out onto the road again. The rest of brief trip passed in silence. Xander was relieved at the lack of questions, whilst also figuring Gibbs needed the time to absorb what he'd heard.
Tony and Ziva were in the bullpen when Xander and Gibbs walked in.
"Yes, do you know if they were going out last night?" Ziva asked, phone cradled on her shoulder while she took notes.
"Two marines from one unit reported UA this morning, Boss," Tony explained as they entered the bullpen. "Ziva's just getting details. Where have you two been?"
"Following up a lead," Gibbs answered shortly. "What have we got?" he asked Ziva as she put down the phone.
"Two Lance Corporals told their fellow marines they were going out last night, and didn't show up this morning. Their CO reported them UA when they were just 15 minutes late, thanks to the warning we sent out."
"Nothing to indicate they are UA for any other reason?"
"Not that he knows of. I haven't looked up their service records yet, but their CO says they're both excellent marines and have never been UA before," Ziva reported.
"Do we know where they were going?"
"Yes, they were headed to a club called The Suite."
"Let's get going then," Gibbs ordered.
There was nothing to see at the club. The team covered every inch of it inside and out, but there were no signs of struggle or foul play at all. They had returned to the bullpen to go over the two marines' service records. As the CO had reported, they both had excellent reports and neither had ever been in trouble.
Gibbs turned from the plasma. "Ziva."
"Gibbs?"
"Give those security tapes to Harris, then you and DiNozzo go talk to the unit these two were from. Make sure there's no chance they went UA of their own accord."
"You sure that's necessary, boss?" asked Tony. Gibbs sent him a glare. "Right, of course," Tony backpedalled. "Always double check. On it Boss."
Ziva handed the tapes to Xander, and followed Tony out of the bullpen. Xander sat down and started going through the footage. The club had two cameras at the front entrance and one in the alley at the back. There were several cameras inside the club but Xander was hoping he wouldn't need them -the darkness punctuated by flashing neon lights made it impossible to make out much detail.
He found the two Lance Corporals entering the club at 9:30pm. Since it was known that Privates Taylor and O'Reilly had been taken via the alley behind the club they had gone to, Xander switched over to the cameras from the alley to find out when the Lance Corporals had left.
He was still working through the footage when Gibbs came back from a coffee run and stopped at Xander's desk. Xander paused the tape to look up at him.
"Boss?"
Gibbs' brow was furrowed. "So what about Angel?"
"What about Angel?" Xander asked.
"There are more than 17,000 people named Angel living in California. Not one of them has a PI's license."
Xander didn't realise that. And really, why hadn't Angel gotten one?
"He specialises in this sort of stuff. Demons don't really ask to see your PI's license," he replied. He hoped that would be enough -he wasn't sure Gibbs was ready for the truth about Angel yet.
"He specialises in demon cases?"
"Pretty much. That's how he had the right sources to hear about the Badinok Spell."
Gibbs grunted and returned to his own desk. Xander returned to the security footage. A short while later he felt Gibbs' stare on him again. He looked up, to find that Gibbs was indeed looking at him.
"Boss?" Xander asked, again.
Gibbs paused a moment.
"Why did Frank say you were a hero?"
Xander didn't know how to answer that. He didn't think of himself as a hero and wasn't keen on anyone else thinking it either. If anything, Buffy was the hero -or Buffy, plus Faith, Willow, and all the new Slayers -but not him. He was the One Who Hung Out With Heroes.
He shook his head. "I don't know exactly what Frank thinks he knows. I knew his cousin back in Sunnydale. Apparently he and Clem write to each other a lot, so Clem had mentioned me in his letters."
Something on the screen caught Xander's eye. He rewound it.
"Boss, I think I have something."
He put it up on the bigger plasma screen to play it again. The video showed a group of five men leaving via the back door of the club -the two Lance Corporals, and three others. The others were all tall and masculine and wearing black hooded sweaters, and Xander and Gibbs watched as the five walked down the alley and out of the camera's view.
"Didn't turn towards the camera once," Gibbs muttered.
"Wait, look here," said Xander. They watched as another person came down the alley towards the club, from the direction they others had disappeared in. He was wearing a dark green jumper and jeans -definitely not part of the group that had just left -but he turned to glance behind him as though he had just passed the others and something about them had bothered him. Eventually he turned back, giving the camera a full view of his face, before heading into the club.
"Looks like he might have heard or seen something," Xander observed. Gibbs was already reaching for the phone on his desk.
"McGee? Get up here."
McGee arrived in the bullpen two minutes later and hurriedly set up a facial recognition scan.
"I don't know if this'll do much good, Boss," he commented. "It's not as though we have photos of everyone in D.C. to compare against."
"Just do it, McGee."
"Yes, Boss."
McGee had a point though, so Xander printed off a copy of the image.
"Uh, Boss? I'll take this down to the club and see if any of the staff recognise him."
Gibbs nodded in approval and Xander left.
Xander was feeling pretty good a short time later when he called Gibbs.
"Got a name and an address, Boss. Apparently he's a regular, the staff know him pretty well. Want me to pick him up?"
"Call DiNozzo and Ziva, have them meet you there," Gibbs ordered. "Then yeah. Bring this guy in for a chat."