Chapter 3

Please review! Compliments make me write faster; criticisms make me write better.

Giles was beginning to regret agreeing to help Xander. Xander had asked for help in evaluating his CQC or Close Quarters Combat skills he seemed to have acquired from Halloween. It seemed a rather unfair trade. The other memories that Xander had to play host to in exchange for some fighting moves seemed to be excessive. Still, the moves were there whenever Xander could get out of his own way and access them. As was clear from the fact that Giles was now laying on his back, staring up at the high ceiling of the Library. A hand entered his field of vision, he took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

"It's just not working." Xander said in frustration.

"I have to disagree." Giles retorted. His body was certainly voicing its disagreements loudly.

"I can't close my eyes in a real fight, Giles. I need to be able to access the CQC memories at will or I might as well just forget them." Xander replied.

Giles winced. The boy had beaten him with his eyes closed. Literally. "You simply need to practice, my boy. And you are going to have to find someone else to practice with I'm afraid. I'm too old to spar with someone of your caliber any more." Not if he wanted to be any use to his Slayer any way. "Perhaps you should train with Buffy instead?" he suggested. The girl could certainly use a more qualified punching bag.

Xander bowed his head at the thought. "No. I don't think I could hit a girl. Even a Slayer."

"Well, it's either her or Angel. They are the only ones I can think of that have the training and strength to go up against you right now." Giles reasoned.

Xander thought for a minute. "I could see myself beating up Angel." he smirked. "I'll ask him tonight. Thanks for your help Giles. Mind if I take this book with me?"

Giles looked at the book in his charge's hand. 'Mysteries of Ancient Egypt' by Dr. Daniel Jackson. Some interesting views on stories of demons residing in ancient Egypt. Fairly tame reading compared to some of his other books. Still, it was good that the boy was taking an interest in such things at last. And it wasn't an old, irreplaceable volume. "Yes. Yes you may. Just bring it back when you're done."

'Murray' was fascinated by everything, but especially the airport. Jack was pretty sure, anyway. It was always hard to tell with the big guy. They were sitting in the boarding area, waiting for their call to board. There were far more civilians than Teal'c had ever dealt with before. He was watching two kids run past their seats with a slight smile on his face.

Murray turned to Jack, "Colonel O'Neill, I am very pleased to be taking this trip with you. It is good to see more of your w-"

"Bup, bup, bup." Jack raised a finger and finished for him, "Country." Several members of SG-2 smiled at the correction. Daniel was engrossed in a book and didn't hear the exchange.

"Yes. Your... country is quite interesting. Though very similar to my own. Families greet each other. Children play. It is good to see this again. I fear I have spent too much time on base. I have missed this more than I was aware." Murray sighed.

"And I am sorry about that." Jack apologized again. The treatment Teal'c had received since joining SG-1 hadn't been quite as good as he had hoped, or promised. He had had to settle for keeping the alien alive and undissected for now. "But, this should be just the first step in making things up to you. You just keep an eye on junior there for now and we'll see about making this a more regular occurrence." Jack assured him.

Xander had spent most of the morning reading Dr. Jackson's book at the park. Samantha Carter had never had time. He had lots of time and nothing much to do, which hadn't been a problem before Halloween. He could spend all day vegging at Willow's house while his friend did homework and occasionally joined him in vegging. But the book helped. Learning something new seemed to calm both the other... what was he going to call them? Memories? Spirits? Personalities?

In the afternoon he decided to visit Buffy's house. The Slayer should probably be up by now and he might be able to get some lunch out of the deal. She wasn't there, but he did snag an apple before he left. He ate it while walking to meet both his girls over at Willow's house. It made sense to go to Willow's if they wanted to talk about Halloween. With Willow's parents gone again, they could talk openly.

He knocked before letting himself in. "Willow?"

"In here." came the reply from the kitchen.

Xander joined the girls already eating in the kitchen. "Ahh, lunch. One of the five most important meals of the day." he said before helping himself to the ingredients to PB&J sandwiches.

The girls just rolled their eyes while finishing their own sandwiches.

"So, what did you go as Xander?" Buffy waited until after he had taken his first bite to ask.

Xander chewed slowly. It wasn't that he wasn't expecting the question. He had hoped that they would wait until after he was done eating first. He looked down to the other five sandwiches in front of him. He was feeling really hungry today and he didn't know why. And now he was done chewing. He swallowed and drained his glass of milk. "A soldier... sort of."

"Well, I remember your uniform. It was kind of a weird one so it was hard not to. But what about your gun? What kind of soldier doesn't have a gun?" Willow asked.

"It was a choice. The coolest uniform ever, or a gun. Couldn't do both."

Both girls looked a little abashed at that. They could have bought him a gun if he had asked. But he was too proud to ask and it would have been embarrassing to offer.

"So I went as an unarmed soldier from Wormhole X-treme. You guys know the show?" They both shrugged. They only knew what Xander had told them, which was plenty, but not the same as seeing it. "Well, it turns out that there aren't any names on the uniforms. There are four members of the WHX-1 team. The gray-haired colonel, the glasses wearing anthropologist, the gray-skinned robot, and the female scientist/soldier. Guess which one of those is tall with short, dark hair?"

Admittedly, Buffy and Willow did an admirable job of trying not to laugh, for teenaged girls. It didn't last long.

"You mean, you were a girl for Halloween?" Buffy controlled her laughter first and was able to ask the first question.

Xander kept his temper. He had expected this. But he couldn't stop a groan from escaping his lips. "No, I was still in my body. You saw it was me. Remember?" at least they stopped laughing to think about that. "What do you guys remember from who you were?"

Willow made a face. "I don't remember anything special. I was me, just a dead version of me."

Buffy shrugged. "I have a feeling I'm going to ace French this year and I could arrange a 16 course dinner tomorrow if I had to. Also I have this strange desire to do needle work. But I'm totally squashing that one. I refuse to even be in the same room as a needle until the drive disappears."

"If you were a soldier, why didn't you tell us that you were one that night?" Willow questioned.

"Because it wasn't me or her in control," he answered. "There was some weird, fictional alien in control. You know, which is great if we ever meet any other fictional aliens, I'll have a step up on everyone else using alien technology and all that." the lie was cast.

"So, not so much with the useful then?" Buffy asked.

"Not from the alien, no. But the soldier lady was pretty good at hand to hand combat."

"How good?" Buffy was intrigued.

"Well, we beat the crap out of Larry. That felt pretty good. I'd like to find out how good though too. The thing is, when I think about it. I can't do anything." Xander explained.

"Oh Xander. You didn't go out last night did you?" Willow whined.

"No, I got up early and sparred with Giles a bit." Xander stated. "He beat me whenever I tried to think about what I was doing. But when I let my instincts take over, I actually beat him a couple times."

"So, you want to spar with me sometime?" Buffy asked perkily.

"Strangely, no." Xander smiled back. "Actually, I was thinking Angel."

Buffy made a face, "Angel? Why Angel? You don't even like Angel."

"Exactly. I really can't control this... whatever right now. I'd rather test it on him than you. Plus, who's the better fighter, him or you?"

"Me of course."

"Exactly. It makes it easier to punch someone in the face when you don't like them very much. Once I can beat Angel, then I'll come to you for the Advanced Placement course. Okay?" Xander gave her a pleading look.

Buffy sighed. "Fine. I'll come with you tonight and see if I can talk him into beating you up." She brightened a little. "Actually that will probably the easy part." She darkened again, "It's the not killing each other part that will take some talking, won't it?"

"I found the soft drink quite refreshing, however I counted only 13 peanuts in the package I was given. It was not nearly enough to even take the edge off my hunger. I found myself hungrier than I would have been had I not been given the peanuts." Murray intoned. "I also found that there was not nearly enough space for myself. Even the false gods ensure that their troops have more room than that."

"Yes, the wonders of modern air travel." Daniel quipped.

"You guys have never flown in a military aircraft." Major Louis Ferretti smirked. "Makes that feel like you were just sleeping in a queen sized bed."

"Your military transports their soldiers in conditions worse than that?" the Jaffa asked.

"Our trips tend to be much shorter than the trips you've probably been on." Jack reasoned.

"Warriors should be treated with more respect." Murray stated.

"We do the best with the technology we have." Jack argued. "And it depends on how full the plane is. A full plane is really tight. But a half-full plane is good. Both are pretty loud though."

"Indeed."

A/N: I don't think I ever got 13 peanuts on a flight. Surely it was fewer than that.

.

Chapter 4.

Thank you to borgrabbit for most of this Haiku

Poor child of great strife
Lives his complicated life
Event Horizon

Please review! Compliments make me write faster; criticisms make me write better.

Ah. The joys of walking through a Sunnydale cemetery at night, Xander thought. But at least he had Buffy. A little vampire slayage on the way to see their tame vampire. Also Buffy didn't want him wandering the streets of Sunnydale alone after dark with Spike still on the loose. Unfortunately for Buffy's mood, there didn't seem to be any vampires out tonight. Maybe it was a Halloween hangover but the cemeteries seemed deader than normal.

"Buffy!" the souled vampire seemed quite happy to see the vampire slayer. He greeted her companion with an even, "Xander." He then led them to what he used as his living room. "I got your call, but I'm still confused.

"Okay, long story short; Xander went as a soldier for Halloween and now he has some memories of hand to hand combat training but he needs some help getting his body to do what his mind wants. Understand?" Buffy summarized.

Xander didn't just have hand to hand training. He had actual memories of hand to hand combat to the death. But he decided that now was not the time to mention that.

"A little. But, why me?" Angel looked at Xander. "You don't really like me. Why would you want me to train you?"

"I'll enjoy hitting you more. Besides that fact that I can't kill you. I'm having control issues and many of the techniques can kill. I figure, who better to practice on than a corpse?" That last barb earned him a shot in the gut from Buffy. Ow.

Angel thought about it a bit. Buffy went over and talked to him aside. Xander only caught a few murmurs before Buffy threw her arms around Angel and said, "Thank you!"

After Buffy left, Angel laid out some mats for them to spar on. "You ready? You know I'm going to hit you back, right?"

"I can take anything you can dish out." Xander assured him.

That night, Xander was in pain. But happy. He had given the vampire as good as he had gotten. There might have even been a glimmer of respect in his eyes after he helped Xander home. A three hour training session that night had finally ended when Angel got a blow in on Xander's left side. There was a good chance that he had a cracked rib or two. Xander actually found himself wishing that Jolinar were still in his head just for the healing abilities. As it was, he would have to call Angel and arrange their next meeting when he was feeling up to it. Xander snuck upstairs to find his parents passed out in front of the TV, which was fine with him. He left them there and grabbed his third huge meal of the day. Sure, teenaged metabolism was one thing, but he was going to outstrip Buffy at this rate. Anyway, he took his pile of food downstairs to his room, he ate the whole thing before turning in for bed.

They left Colorado Springs at 1620. A 2 hour and 20 minute flight with a headwind got them in LA at 1740 local time after gaining an hour with the time shift. Another 3 hours in the car driving to Sunnydale and it was 2040 by the time they arrived in Sunnydale. Finding a hotel had been more difficult than expected. It was almost like they didn't want them there. It wasn't the first time O'Neill had experienced hostility towards the military, but it was the first time he had felt it in America. The clerk had finally agreed to let them have 3 rooms if they paid an extra 'After Dark' fee of $100 per room. Jack had almost ripped the guy's head off, but Daniel had stopped him and agreed to pay it.

"Can you believe the nerve of that guy?" O'Neill ranted once they were in their room. "I've never seen such a blatant display of discrimination against the armed forces in my life."

"Are you sure Jack?" Daniel wondered. "I mean, most of you guys are clearly military, but I'm just as clearly not. And I was getting the same looks the rest of you were. And I also didn't see hatred. I saw fear."

"Fear?" Teal'c mused and replayed the conversation in his mind. "I agree. The inn keeper did not approach within arm's reach of the desk until we had agreed to pay extra for the rooms. Even then he kept his eyes on all that was around him. It was not the actions of a warrior, but it was vigilant none the less. Perhaps he believed us to be a threat."

"You mean like the military attacked this town some time?" Jack wasn't buying it, but did add. "Daniel since you're the 'non-military' one, tomorrow ask around and see if anyone else around here thinks the military is trouble. I'll have Hammond run a check too. See if there have been any incidents here recently. Sound good?" After nods from Jackson and Teal'c, he and the Dr. went to bed while Teal'c started his kel'no'reem.

The same clerk was still on duty that morning when they woke. He was sitting in the reception area on a bench, in the sunshine from a large skylight and a series of mirrors that bounced the light around the room. The clerk tensed when he saw Jack, but actually seemed to relax when Jack approached.

"Did you have a good night?" the clerk asked.

"Yes. We did." Jack replied.

"Wonderful. Breakfast is through that door," the clerk pointed. "Sunset tonight is at 6:00 sharp. Be back by then if you'd like to avoid the after dark fee."

"You mean to tell me that that's actually policy?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Technically, the policy is no check ins after dark, but I bent the rules for you because you were obviously military. My brother's serving in the Marines right now." the clerk explained.

"Oh." O'Neill was a little taken aback. "Thank you."

"Hey Jack." Dr. Jackson arrived.

"Morning buddy. Breakfast is thataway." he pointed where the clerk had pointed him. With a final nod to the clerk he followed him to the breakfast nook. It wasn't much. They started eating. Teal'c joined them soon and SG-2 not long after that.

They finished eating and Major Ferretti spoke up. "Anyone notice something fishy about the clerk last night?"

"Yes," Teal'c replied. "We discussed it last night."

"Yeah, but I talked to him this morning and he seemed... better." Jack added. "He also told me that the official policy of the hotel is 'no check ins after dark'. Even told me that it'll be at 1800 sharp and that we need to get back before then to avoid additional charges."

"Curiouser and curiouser." Daniel quipped. "How was he better?"

"Well he seemed the same at first, but once I reached the reception area he seemed better. Maybe it was the light." O'Neill reasoned.

"The light?" Jackson wondered.

"Yeah, they have sunlight bouncing all around that room. Maybe he saw me 'in a better light'? So to speak." Jack wondered.

Daniel groaned. "Jack. Please?"

"Okay, okay. Let's get going. I want to swing by the school first, then we'll check out the rest of the town. Recon only today. Tomorrow we'll interview some students."

Xander woke feeling surprisingly good. He also woke surprisingly early. He blamed Carter's military memories for waking him so early. On the plus side, he was up before his parents. That allowed him to eat an entire box of cereal and had half a gallon of milk before he left. Daylight was just peeking the horizon when he walked out of the house.

Walking through the park, Xander noticed that his ribs didn't hurt nearly as much as they did the night before. They no longer felt like they were cracked. Which was good. He had probably been wrong about that. They were certainly still bruised though. The mirror this morning had shown him many ugly bruises. But he was an old hat at hiding bruises. He headed for the high school. A special Sunday research party to try to figure out what the heck Spike was up to.

It was going to be a quiet, boring day. Right up to the point where he ran into SG-1 and 2.

"You see? I'm telling you there is something wrong in this town." Jack lamented. "That kid was clearly scared of us."

"It does not mean he was frightened of the military. He seemed equally afraid of myself and Daniel Jackson." Murray intoned.

"Yes, T-Murray. But your posture says 'Military' as strong or stronger than everyone else. And I'm traveling with six very military men. If Sam were here, it might have been better." Daniel reasoned.

"Dr. Jackson, do you believe the child would have reacted differently to the presence of a woman?" Murray asked.

"It's possible," Daniel shrugged. "You've seen it. Children are initially afraid of you and Jack, but they're willing to open up to Sam and I. Sam more than myself. I hate to admit it, but she's probably opened more doors than I have as a trained anthropologist." Daniel stopped and thought for a minute. "He could be an army brat."

"What makes you say that?" Colonel O'Neill wondered.

"Well there's an army base not far from here. Plus he called you 'Sir'." Daniel explained.

"So?"

"Well, outside the military and their children, it's very odd to hear a kid call anyone 'sir' nowadays." Daniel stated.

"Still doesn't explain the fear." Jack reasoned.

"He could be afraid that you would report him to his parents." Daniel considered.

"On a Sunday?"

"Sir?" Major Ferretti put in, "You never snuck out of the house on a Sunday?"

"He did retreat down his previous path instead of continuing on." Murray added.

"There's your explanation Jack. We caught the kid playing hookey on a Sunday and he's scared that we'll turn him in. Now, unless you really do want to turn him in, I suggest we continue our survey of the city." Daniel reasoned.

Colonel O'Neill laid out the plan to everyone. SG-1 would take the North side of the city. SG-2 would split up. Two taking the West side and two taking the east side and splitting the south between them.

SG-2 split off while Daniel Jackson tried to explain the concept of 'playing hooky' to Murray.