It didn't take long to appropriate a dolly, or to find the human-sized access to the loading docks behind the Buy More. Anna lingered once they got there, her curiosity overwhelming her.

"Aha!" Xander said. "Knew I wasn't too far off, yep." He crouched down and hopped off the dock itself to land on the asphalt below. Striding over towards a black paneled van that was about thirty feet away, he stripped off his suit jacket and tie, revealing a cross-the-shoulder holster. Anna was taken aback. She hadn't even noticed that the one-eyed man was armed. For that matter, she was alarmed as well. Why would someone need to be armed here? And, worse yet, why would someone armed know who she was?

Xander reached the van, opened the door, and pulled himself up into the driver's seat, tossing tie and suit jacket over the passenger side. He considered for a long moment, then popped the loaded holster from its brace and turned to the lock-box between the two seats, opening it. He set the gun inside and snapped the box closed, pressing his thumb over the lock. Though Anna would certainly not see it, there was a brief flash of blue light. Xander chuckled for a moment as he recalled trying to convince Willow about creating these things. Heh. Never know what you can learn from role-playing games, eh? he thought to himself, and not for the first time.

* * * *

"Just imagine, Wills. If we had this kind of thing, so much could have been different!" He knew he wouldn't really have to convince Willow of too much, but he had to be seen making the effort. Everyone knew that Willow would do just about anything for him, just like he would do just about anything for her, but they weren't just the Scooby Gang anymore. Already they'd found over thirty new Slayers besides the ones who had survived Sunnydale.

"Like with Ted, for example," he added. "If Buffy could have kept her Slaying supplies somewhere a little more secret than a simple false bottom, she would never have had to go through that whole thinking-she-killed-a-human thing."

Buffy wasn't there at the moment, which was probably a good thing. Even though Ted had turned out to be the robot from hell (though not literally), it still wasn't a good idea to remind her of how she'd felt back then.

"Look, I even have an idea how to do it. Here." Xander handed Willow a book, opened up to a bookmark and pointed to a particular part of it. "Think you can do this?"

Willow looked down at the book, and then where Xander was pointing. Her eyes widened, and her lips trembled, and then she started giggling like a maniac, beginning to turn as red as her hair.

"What?" said Xander, though his lips were twitching too; laughter, like yawns, tended to be catching.

"Xander, this says 'Secret Chest'! Are you trying to tell me something, Mister?!" And then she was laughing outright.

* * * *

After Willow'd gotten over her bout of semi-inappropriate laughter, she'd started researching. Now every Council vehicle had at least one of these built-in, usually a lock-box or some other kind of container, one that was bigger inside than outside, and one that locked using not only the owner's fingerprints, but their magical signature, along with those of anyone else they designated. Xander also had two more of these kinds of things in the van with him, though they were in a different form.

Xander hung an arm out of the driver's side window and, after turning it on, drove the van around towards where Anna Wu was still standing. Once he got close enough, he shifted to reverse to back the van up to where it would be easier to put stuff on the dolly, turned off the engine, and got out.

"Could you bring that down here?" he called up to the Nerd Herder, taking a moment to unbutton and roll up his sleeves. Anna shrugged and rolled the appropriated dolly down the ramp to where it met the van, and Xander popped the rear access open.

"Take a picture. It lasts longer," Anna ground out when she got to the van. Xander had been watching her the entire time, almost staring - or even leering - at her, though with the pinched look on his face, it probably wasn't quite like that.

"Huh?" Xander blinked, and looked around, realizing what the problem was. "Oh! I'm sorry. Hey, I know it sounds like a pick-up line, but have we met somewhere before?

"Um... no?" Anna replied, her own brow furrowing at the question.

"It's just that you look incredibly familiar, and I don't know why. I thought so when I first saw your picture, and it's even worse now meeting you for real. It's driving me bananas." With a shrug, Xander leaned into the van to grab ahold of something, and began to pull and yank at it. "Oh hey, lock the wheels, wouldya?"

"Need some help?" Anna asked, since it was the right thing to do.

"Eh?" Xander replied, turning his head and looking over. "Oh, no. That's all right. It's just stuck on something. I'll get it out in a second." He paused for a moment. "Actually, there is something you could grab for me, if you don't mind? There's a box right behind the driver's seat. You'll have to tilt the seat forward to grab it, but it's not heavy or anything like that. I just don't want to take a chance on it getting crushed."

"Sure," Anna said. She trotted around to the front of the van and opened the door, which was still unlocked. For that matter, the window was still open, so, even if had been locked, unlocking it would certainly not have been too much trouble.

"Um," came Anna's voice, as she stared in disbelief at what was in her hands after re-closing the door. "I'm not sure if I have the right thing here."

Xander looked up from the dolly, where he was negotiating a large - it looked like a bookcase or display case of some kind - onto it. "Huh? Oh, no, that's it. Thanks."

Anna stared for a few more seconds, and then turned more fully in the one-eyed man's direction. Her tone was strangled. "You have an emergency supply of Twinkies?!?!"

A beatific smile came to Xander's face. "Golden, creamy goodness. Mmmmmmmmm!" He shook himself abruptly, and then nodded. "Yes, that's one part of it. Could you hang onto that until we get up to my office and I can put them away?"

Anna just stared.

Xander went back to extracting things from the van, starting with what looked like a second display case.

Anna continued to stare for several long moments before what Xander had said caught up with her. "Your office? Wait. You are our new Assistant Manager?" And there was that strangled tone again, yep.

Perhaps luckily (or maybe the other way around), all Xander heard were the words and not the tone, mostly because he had crawled most of the way into the van to retrieve the next item, this time a large black duffel bag. It clinked - with what sounded like metal-on-metal - when he put it down on the dolly. "Yep. I'm the new Assistant Manager. That's why I know who all of you are. I glanced through your personnel files on the way here."

Xander scooted around to the passenger side of the van and opened the door, grabbing his jacket, tie, and what looked to be a case for a laptop computer out of it. Like the lock-boxes, the laptops that Council members carried were access-locked by fingerprint and magical signature, but Xander hadn't had to talk Willow into that - she knew better than anyone how important computer security was.

Slamming the door, he scooted back around to the dolly, and began to push it towards the ramp leading up to the dock. Anna followed in something of a daze. This guy carried a gun but kept an emergency supply of Twinkies? Or more than one? And that suit of his hid all kinds of interesting muscles too; don't think she hadn't noticed that.

"... you do?" She heard Xander say, apparently having only caught the tail end of the question.

"Sorry, what was that?" Anna asked.

"I asked what style you do?" Xander repeated, pushing on the dolly without apparent effort.

"Style?" she asked, not understanding what was, to her, a non-sequitur.

"Of martial arts," Xander said, having finally reached the top of the ramp.

Anna blinked, and then did it again. "How did you know I do martial arts?"

"I can see it in how you move," Xander replied. "I'm only blind in one eye." This last was said in a disarming tone, not an irritated one. He was joking about it. "The other one sees just fine."

Anna found herself staring again. This guy was strange. He could determine she was a martial artist just by looking at her, he carried a gun, and he had multiple emergency supplies of Twinkies if the black felt-tip pen markings on the box were to be believed. These things do not fit together, somehow.

"Hey, could you get the door?" Xander asked, patiently.

"Sure," Anna said, mostly on automatic. She scooted around Xander and headed through the doors, putting down the stops to keep them open. Xander pushed the dolly in, looking around the display cases on both sides to make sure he had clearance. Anna, still on automatic, kicked open the stops and let the doors swing shut behind them.

In the meantime, Xander had kept moving, making his way through the backside of the store. Momentum and all that. Better to not stop and have to start again. "So, where's the office?" he called back, and Anna hurried to catch up and bypass her one-eyed... manager?

Xander slowed as they moved past the first office. He nearly stopped until he saw the swordfish on the wall, which made him continue. Of course, the presence of a irate man yelling on the telephone probably helped make the decision. At the next office, he stopped and locked down the wheels of the dolly.

When the door opened, Wesley looked up. "You've got everything, Xander?"

Xander shook his head. "Mostly, but there's still some stuff in the van. I'll get it when I go back out to move it."

Wesley nodded as Xander ducked back out, coming back in with the clinking duffel bag. He looked around for a moment, then just put it on the ground. "I'm gonna need to get a couch or something in here. The desk will do, but I'll need a couple extra chairs too. Worst comes to worst, we can grab some from the store itself."

Wesley nodded again, not replying other than to look over the paperwork. Xander ducked out again, and nodded to his escort. "You can put that on the desk for now. I'll take care of it later."

Anna, still somewhat in her daze, nodded and headed into the office. Xander soon followed with the first of the display cases, which he positioned against the far wall. And, at that point, afforded Anna with her first look at the front of it.

Anna put down the case of Twinkies and wandered over to the display case, even while Xander disappeared outside again. She ran her fingers down the intricate designs - flowers and vines, mostly - that had been engraved into it. "Wow," she murmured, mostly to herself. "That's so pretty."

"Thank you," Xander said, making his way in with the second display case -- and incidentally proving that he had pretty good hearing. "I made it myself." He paused. "Well, actually, made both of them, but that's besides the point." Was he blushing? "I'm pretty good with my hands."

Xander muscled the second display case around the desk and behind it. This one was undecorated, left with the natural grain of the wood to draw the eye.

So, so her new Assistant Manager carried a gun, could figure out she did martial arts by looking at her, needed an emergency supply of Twinkies, and did his own woodwork too? Anna wasn't quite as dazed anymore. One can only take so many shocks before they start having less of an affect on you. She shook her head, trying to clear it.

"Hey, you all right?" Xander said, and Wesley looked up. The two men shared a look, and Xander shrugged, having no idea what the problem was.

"Ye... yeah, fine," Anna finally replied. "You want me to take the dolly back?"

"Sure," Xander said. "I'm going to go move the van back around. Thanks a lot, Miss Wu. I really do appreciate all the help."

"That's okay," Anna replied, distractedly. "I'm glad to help." And, with that, she left, taking the dolly back with her.

Xander tossed one more look back at Wesley, raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner, and shrugged again. Then he followed the Nerd Herder out to go move the van.

Author's Notes: For those interested, a public domain version of the spell that Xander was pointing out can be found at http://www..