The night was young, and time was stopped except for two humans. Even most of the Powers That be and Infernals That Are were unaware of the frozen time. In truth, time was entirely stopped, but when the differences came to within a billionth of a light second, the effects were essentially the same.
Xander had a scary intelligence, Jana of the Kalderash considered, one of amazing focus when it came to what he had planned. Apparently for the last ten weeks he'd been using his computer and military skills to research Sunnydale and long-term contacts with the town.
He'd led her to a 'secret compartment' behind Giles' library counter, cut from what was supposed to be empty space under the bottom shelf. In it, he had hard copies and disks containing his findings, which translated onto a map as a lot of abandoned properties, and a few city properties that had suspicious deaths mounting nearest them compared to elsewhere. In the next 'drawer' over, he'd pulled out infrared and night goggles, a few boxes that contained about five hundred sharpened wood pencils, a handyman's tool bag.
"What's all of this, Alexander?"
"The goggles should work to help detect vamps and other demons, the pencils will be jammed into each one so that when they animate again when I restart the watch it will be as dust. Also, if they animate while we remove their belongings, they should also dust. Think five hundred is enough?"
"Okay, you're planning to use your gift all in one night? And what about the maps?"
"The maps are going to narrow down our search, and our income prospects. Also, we'll only use what we need. I also noted that a lot of business over the years has gone to a couple of firms in LA, mainly legal and other services that aren't clearly documented by the City. So we'll be visiting the city VIPs tonight also."
"Ambitious, did you know about the watch?"
"No, just that while I had the soldier memories full-on, I used them as much as possible. So I've been working out, practicing firearms, taking some karate and judo lessons, and hacking like a fiend. Most of the rest, except for some access codes that should work on the base, are pretty much gone."
"So what first?"
"The base."
"Really, why?"
"Lots of explosives and such. If we need to take out the Judge for keeps, or another one in the future…we'll be ready. At the very least the blasts should use up a lot of demon healing."
"Okay. You seem to have a plan, I'll just back you up until I notice something, alright?"
"Okay, and thanks for the trust."
The two time-avoiders were quite tired; after raiding the base and pursuing Xander's plan for several hours, the fact they hadn't had sleep in a subjective day took its toll. But the results were worth it.
Based on Buffy's directions, they'd found Spike's lair, and after looting the place and loading it into a moving truck, they'd followed up leads that crossed over with Xander's research. Four apartments, Willy's bar, six warehouses and two houses later, and they'd staked almost a hundred thirty vampires and hacked up fifteen demons. The money and such were nice, the weapons recovered potentially helpful, but it was still physical work.
They took the time to thoroughly search the offices, records and homes of the leading city officials, and what they found was scary; apparently the Mayor was a hundred years old, a dark mage of sorts and actually controlled much of the shadowy goings-on in the City of Sunnydale. Jana had gone along with his setting charges in the man's office, including around Wilkins himself, and then the man's home. The loot had been very lucrative, and a very quick on and off, Jenny had accesses the man's personal accounts and begun a series of worms designed to eliminate themselves and every mention of him on the Internet as further cover of their trail.
"What of the lawyers in Los Angeles, Alex?" Jana replied, using a name that from fatigue she used instead of his full name. He'd gotten used to it.
"Think you can last another few hours?"
"I'm really tired."
"How about we off-load into the house what we have this trip, then you sleep while I drive us to LA?"
"Can you avoid falling asleep at the wheel?"
"Yeah, I have a couple hours left in me, and besides, I think I'll do a fast raid of the Mayor's remaining vamp nests, set some charges and get us to LA. At that point, I'll wake you and catch an hour or two of shut eye while you do an inventory and stuff. Fair?"
"Yeah, but what are we going to do in LA?"
"We'll check out these lawyers, and if they really are demonic evil like Wilkins, a big 'ol fire is going to sweep the building and hopefully put them out of business."
Jana of the Kalderash, known also as Jenny Calendar, woke from her slumber feeling refreshed. She sat up as Xander was getting into the truck and smiled at her.
"What?"
"If only I was only six or ten years older…"
She blushed with a delighted smile, "Thank you, Xander, but I'm sure you'll find some one; if Rupert can, so will you." They shared a conspiratorial smirk.
"Rested?"
"Yeah, how long did I sleep?"
"I let you sleep a whole six hours," he responded, yawning, "But those eight big nests in Sunnydale are taken care of. Now, I have all the stuff in the back, so you should be able to make sense out of it; don't let me sleep more than three hours. I have strong coffee and food, too. Hopefully I picked what you like."
He yawned again. "So, three hours or so, okay?"
"Okay.
The lawyers were a real piece of work; demons, vampires, and odd things apparently worked for, were clients of or were somehow otherwise associated with Evil, Inc. Xander went back and of the six remaining large explosive-filled boxes, brought out four of them and found the big supports, gas intakes and such in the lower infrastructure of the building. Jenny helped carry detonators while checking out what of use might be lying around. They'd already blown eight safes in two real-seconds, and emptied them. Then, stopping to sleep short naps three more times, using up two full days and two hours, they were finished with the place. And a day planner of the man in charge gave them some interesting addresses in the area.
Another five hour, and five very nasty criminal syndicates, an Archduke of Hell, a necromancer and a couple of demonic mages, were added to the list of targets and loots, forcing Xander to briefly start and stop time again to animate a full-sized semi and trailer. They felt the beginnings of explosions in those seconds.
The two made it back to Sunnydale, and after a couple more hours, had catalogued, and safely secreted their loot in the sub-basements of Xander's new home. Additionally, they sent the two trucks hurling into the deep waves beyond Kingman's Bluff, rigged with explosives that shredded the rest of possible evidence, including clothes they'd worn.
"So what are we going to do about Angelus?" Jana as they looked at the door that sealed in the chained vampire now stored in a casket under a five-hundred pound weight, in a bank-quality vault in one of Xander's basements.
"See about researching the spell to re-soul; like I said, if that doesn't work, then dusting." He sighed, and thought about the last three solid days they'd used, "But we'll give it an honest try."
"Xander? Why are you going to do it? After everything else that happens, the others might eventually catch on and be scared or angry anyway."
"I don't plan on letting them in on the secret, Jana," he replied, "And I pretty much… fixed … the ability for Angelus or Angel to have another happy moment again."
"You're kidding!" she half-laughed, half-gasped in horrified shock, "Why?"
"Can't take a vampire to court for statutory rape, or stalking. But mainly frustration. His 'mom' killed my 'brother' and all the bastard does is stare at Buffy and not help. Also, when he was offering to Spike as an appetizer at Parent-Teacher Night, why didn't he just grab the stake in his pocket and try to dust 'Billy' or instead of talking to Drusilla a few months back, stake her and end the misery?"
"You're full of anger."
"And I'm tired. But I'm not really filled with anger anymore. I vented and 'fixed' the problem."
"What else did you do?" Jana asked, "I can see it on your face."
"I looted his apartment and transferred the title of his car to me, and dressed him in a neon-green mini-dress. Over his boxers: no way did I want to see anything of that thing's."
"No wonder my uncle loves your family…vengeance is a living thing to you, too."
"Like I said, I'm done…though wait until you see the hot-pink Mohawk."
"You're evil."
"No…but if you so approve of a minimum ten-year adult-teenager age gap, I'm available."
"No, I don't, so we'll just stop before we start to argue."
"Shall we head back to the library? Make sure the others get home safely?"
"I do miss Rupert..."
"I don't need to hear about THAT."
