Chapter 18.
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/ Xander's thoughts /
% Jolinar's thoughts %
#"Tok'ra or Goa'uld voice"#
"Well, gosh. Those soldiers sure are efficient. They could probably show the Slayer a thing or two. And are we sure that the report of the Male Slayer wasn't about these gentlemen?" the Mayor asked his Deputy.
"Well sir, we only have that one report of the Male Slayer and you dusted him already. For now, I'd say we focus on this military base as the biggest threat to us." Finch replied.
"Are they?" the Mayor asked.
"Are they what?" Allan replied.
"A threat to us?" Wilkins continued.
Finch fidgeted a bit as he thought. "Well, they killed four out of five vampires that we sent. That certainly puts them on par with the Slayer when she first arrived. And there's only ever one Slayer. But this might only be the beginning for a military base. The demons are already starting to stay away from campus. It puts them closer to the Slayer, but I guess they'll take their chances with one Slayer."
"Darn." The Mayor swore (at least for the Mayor), "Okay. Forget the Male Slayer. Forget everything except my Ascension and keeping an eye on this base. They're military? Military means patterns. Send someone out to observe them for the next couple of weeks. Once we know their pattern, then we'll hit them."
Finch nodded before he left to carry out his orders.
Xander sighed. It had certainly been an exciting week. Halloween followed by SG-1's visit followed by Billy Fordham followed by Eyghon. Xander laid in the sun in the park and swore to not move from this spot until sunset. This plan was quickly broken by severe hunger pains.
/ Gah. Anyone ever told you you're like a baby? Feed me. Feed me. Oh, what was that movie with the plant? / Xander thought as he grudgingly got up.
% You keep injuring yourself. I've been very close to completion for a while but you keep getting hurt. % Jolinar sighed. % One more trip to the buffet and I should be done. Then there will be no reason for extra food unless you hurt yourself. Again. And again. And again. %
/ Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'm seeing the pattern there. / Xander snarked.
% I hope so. I've certainly noticed it. Tell me, is every week as interesting as this one was? % Jolinar asked.
/ No. Sometimes there's actual danger. / Xander smirked. / Really. This was a busy week I'll grant you, but only Eyghon posed even a small threat. /
% And yet, you managed to get yourself hurt again. % Jolinar observed.
/ Which you, my wonderful symbiote, were kind enough to fix. / Xander complimented.
% All I'm saying is that maybe you could take it easy for a while? % Jolinar offered.
/ Not a bad idea. / Xander stopped walking. / What do you think? Should we raid Giles' fridge instead and get him to pay us our money? We could spend the day building that healing device instead of training? /
Xander felt himself turn. % Giles' place it is. % Jolinar said. They flubbed the handoff and stumbled a bit when Xander took over walking again. % Every skill needs training. % Jolinar observed. So they tripped and stumbled their way to Giles' apartment as they traded taking control from each other while walking. Though by the time they got there, they weren't falling down any more.
"Morning Ripper!" Xander said cheerily and with a bad British accent.
"Good morning," Giles stood aside and allowed Xander to enter. "Your accent is atrocious and never call me that again." he said seriously.
"It was worth a shot." Xander shrugged.
Giles shook his head. "You did see what I did to the last person who called me that?"
"That could have been him more than the name. He wasn't the nicest of guys." Xander observed.
"Quite. What can I do for you?" Giles asked.
"Well, I'd love some food if you have it and hopefully the money you promised too?" Xander explained their visit.
Giles waved to the kitchen. "Help yourself to some snacks. I'll go get your money." He called from the bedroom, "Doesn't your friend help you with food and such?"
"Well, I keep getting injured. Apparently all the food we eat goes to keeping me on my feet." Xander said as he ate quickly. There was no telling how long Giles would be gone, but he tried to take in as much food as possible before he came back. He even took some of those protein bars. Stuffing them in his pockets for later.
"Here you go. $300 as promised. A little later than promised, but I trust you understand the circumstances?" Giles said as he rounded the corner.
Xander finished swallowing the food he was eating and nodded. "What about the sword reward?" he asked as he took the money.
"I've put in the request with the council. I should know in a few days. I'll call them Friday morning if they haven't approved it by then." Giles answered.
"Okay, Jolinar and I are going to hit the buffet and then Radioshed for some parts. I'll be at Willow's if you need me." Xander said as he walked to the door.
"Yes, well hopefully one quiet day after the week we've had isn't too much to ask." Giles replied as Xander left.
They were on their seventh plate at the buffet when Xander suddenly felt full.
Jolinar breathed a sigh of contentment. % We're done. %
/ Alright. Lets finish this plate and get out of here. / Xander decided.
Priority number one scratched off his to-do list.
/ How do you feel? / Xander asked as they walked.
% It's hard to explain. It's like I've been hobbling around with only one leg and now the other one has been regrown. I can show you what I mean tonight. Angel will be quite surprised. % Jolinar teased.
At Radioshed, Jolinar took over. He asked the salesman all sorts of questions that Xander barely followed. In the end Jolinar only bought a few of the things that he had asked about. Those things were really expensive though. They ate through most of the $300 they had just gotten.
/ Okay, now to Willow's? / Xander asked as he took control with only a slight stutter step.
% No. We didn't have enough money for everything we need. We'll have to stop by the school first. We'll have to borrow some supplies. % Jolinar took control smoothly and took the next turn to the school.
Xander decided to just sit back and enjoy the ride for now. He figured it was kind of like riding a horse. Except that the horse he was riding was himself. It was odd, but not bad. Plus he got time to think about other things. He went over the plans for the healing device in Jolinar's memory. It was really cool and after listening to Jolinar's questioning of the salesman, he actually had an idea of how the thing was going to be built. How it worked? He was still clueless. The power supply was going to be the biggest problem. Liquid naquadah is very hard to come by on Earth.
They were already at the school when Xander came out of his thoughts. They were walking around the halls when Xander heard someone coming. Xander waited for Jolinar to turn into the next room. When he didn't, Xander took control and dove into the next room himself and quietly shut the door.
/ Couldn't you hear that someone was coming? / Xander practically hissed.
% I was thinking about other things. % Jolinar explained.
/ Fine, then give me control. You can think all you want then. Because in Sunnydale, not paying attention will get us killed. Okay? / Xander tried to explain the danger they were in.
Joinar sighed. % I apologize. %
/ Don't be sorry. Just don't do it again. Because the next time it might mean our neck. And I'm perfectly happy to do the moving around while you do your thinking. / Xander admonished. He was silent for a moment. / Okay, sounds like the coast is clear. Did you hear who it was or what they said? /
% It was Principal Snyder. He was complaining to someone else that food was being stolen. % Jolinar informed him.
/ A kid dies at school and not so much as a memo is sent out, but a can of fruit gets stolen and suddenly it's an emergency. / Xander stated sarcastically. / Well, I'm glad he took action and fixed the problem. Because I feel safer now. /
Next they went to the computer lab and accessed the DMV website. They were able to get the name of the person who owned the car the vamps drove the other night. They searched his name and came up with his license info. The picture on the license looked suspiciously like one of the vamps from last night. Xander decided he had no trouble stealing from vampires so the car was his now. He'd have Jolinar sign the title for him tonight.
Xander maintained control and got them to the AV room, where Jolinar grabbed several small rolls of wire and threw them in their Radioshed bag. He also grabbed a case of electrician's supplies. Then Xander led them out of the school safely and on to Willow's house.
"Hey Xander." Willow gave him a hug. "I was just about to make lunch. You guys want some?"
Xander decided he could eat and agreed. It wasn't until they were in the kitchen that what she said hit home. "You said, 'you guys'." he smiled.
Willow blushed and shrugged. "Well, I didn't want to leave anyone out." she explained nervously.
#"That is very kind of you Willow."# Jolinar bowed. This time Willow actually smiled (still blushing) at hearing his voice.
After a quick lunch of microwaved hotdogs, they went down to Willow's basement. Down there, Willow had her own workbench, with all of the tools that they had just stolen from school and a bunch of other electronic equipment including two computer cases. "Come on. This where I build all my circuits. I've built radios and even a basic computer chip." Willow's face rose at the last part but fell quickly. "But it's too big to use in anything and I'm probably boring you since you're used to some really great alien tech."
#"You aren't boring me at all. In fact, I find it fascinating. Your technology isn't even as primitive as I had first thought. It's almost completely different from ours, except that both use electricity and circuits. This will be a fun challenge. And I was hoping you could help me."# Jolinar offered.
Willows eyes went wide as she squeaked, "Me!?" An alien was asking was asking for her help. She focused on remaining standing and not fainting as her knees suddenly went weak.
#"Of course. Xander tells me that you are a genius. And doubly so when it comes to this kind of stuff. So, if you have some paper, I would like to draw some circuit diagrams and have you build them for us. Do you think you could do that?"# Jolinar asked.
Jolinar hadn't even finished speaking when Willow grabbed a large pad of paper and a pencil and thrust them into their hands. "Yes please." she was practically hopping with excitement.
They got to working right away. Jolinar drew the first circuit and gave it to Willow who started building it. Jolinar watched her for a while, then apparently satisfied with her progress, sat down to draw more circuits. After four circuits total, he stopped drawing.
Willow looked up from her circuit and flipped back the magnifying visor she was wearing. "Can I ask you something?"
"Please," Jolinar nodded using Xander's voice again.
"Well, why aren't you building these? I mean, it's awesome that you're letting me help, but do you really need me?" Willow questioned.
Jolinar smiled. "Actually yes. It's just like any other skill. You didn't become so good at building circuits just by reading a book. I have the knowledge, but these hands have zero experience. So, either I can do it myself and ruin a number of boards along the way. Or I can practice for a long time and then do it myself. Or I can swallow my not inconsiderable pride and ask for help." Jolinar paused and took a deep breath. "Speaking of my pride, there's a problem I can't solve. The power supply for this is completely unavailable. If you can think of a way of powering it when we're done, I'd be really grateful."
Willow lowered her magnifying headband and turned back to her work. "Yeah, I suppose you can't just plug it in."
Jolinar was silent for a moment, but it was Xander who jumped up and yelled, "Willow you're a genius!"
Luckily Willow's soldering iron was no where near the circuit when he yelled or when he picked her up and hugged her, much to Willow's blushing pleasure.
"It just never occurred to us. We'll need more equipment to allow for that. Rectifiers, I think they're called on Earth. But the point is, we can do it and it's all thanks to you!" Xander exclaimed as he hugged his best friend. Willow's face turned as red as her hair.
Xander called Giles and asked him to come to Willow's. He would have told him over the phone, but he really didn't trust the NID. He didn't know if the NID were watching them yet, but he didn't want to take any chances. At least he hadn't noticed any suspicious vans around town yet. He calmed himself with the thought that it wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you.
When Giles arrived, Xander practically accosted him and dragged him down to the basement. "Xander, I don't understand what any of this is." Giles complained.
"This is the start of a Goa'uld healing device. We're talking healing almost anything. Anything short of death anyway." Xander said excitedly.
"Any injury?"
"Cuts, broken bones, internal bleeding, heck, it might even be able to save that bastard Ford." Xander counted off the numerous uses. "Which brings me to the two things I need from you. Number 1; money. Maybe I could borrow against the reward the council is sending? I haven't pushed the issue before because we had a major roadblock to building this. We couldn't power it, until now. Willow figured out the solution. Tell him." he waved for Willow to explain her contribution.
Giles raised his eyebrows in wonder, Willow had figured out what an apparently advanced alien hadn't?
Willow flashed between her natural shyness and pride at having figured out the solution, even if it was obvious to her. "We plug it in. You see Goa'uld keep their followers low tech so that their high tech seems like magic and they can claim to be gods." Willow paraphrased what Jolinar had already taught her. "Plugging in a Goa'uld device just isn't possible cause there's nowhere on a Goa'uld planet to plug one in."
"Okay. You have a magical healing device, but you need money to finish it. How much and what was the other thing you need?" Giles interrupted.
"We need $5,000 to finish this." Xander let that sink in for a second before continuing. "And we'd like you to find Ford once we're done."
"Ford is gone Xander. If he wasn't eaten already, then he's probably left Sunnydale. And why would you want him anyway?" Giles inquired.
"Gonna need a test subject." Xander explained. "I'd rather it were one that I didn't mind whether it lived or died."
Giles nodded. He certainly understood Xander's sentiments. "$5,000 is a lot of money. The reward I asked for from the council was only $3,000 and I'm only expecting $2,000"
"Well if it works, you can make Ford pay you back. I'm sure he'd be wiling to pay $3,000 to live." Xander reasoned. He tried not to react to the fact that the reward for bringing back that sword was $2,000.
"How much do you need today?" Giles asked.
"We could probably do everything in two days. Three or four if we go to school." Xander explained.
"Xander!" Willow was shocked that he was suggesting that they cut class. Okay, not shocked that he was thinking about it, but shocked that he would suggest that she could. Even more shocked that she was considering it. School was school and was very important. Wasn't it? But this was Alien Technology! How many opportunities like this was she going to get in her life time? Besides the fact that she already had all the homework for the rest of the school year done.
Xander watched Willow's face as the 'old Willow' died and a new one was born. Because the old Willow he knew would never have even considered skipping class for any reason. He was pretty sure that a vampire Willow would have gone to school too.
"Tell you what, with $2,000 we could finish all the work we have today and then we can see if we have the materials to go on. If we don't have the equipment, then there's no sense in even thinking about missing class." Xander said to calm the internal debate in his best friend.
Willow sighed in relief. She didn't have to choose yet.
"Would you like me to cut you a check?" Giles decided that this was certainly worth the risk. If he was lucky he'd keep meticulous records and get his expenses reimbursed by the Council.
"Hopefully not." Xander said. "I may be paranoid, but the NID is still in town. Checks leave a trail. Cash doesn't. If you can get cash, I can make a list and the three of us can go into Radioshed one at a time and get what we need without attracting too much attention or leaving a trail."
Giles motioned to the stairs up, "Shall we then?"
"Alright people. Report." General Hammond ordered.
Daniel stood in front of the projector. Rupert Giles' face came up. "Okay, first up. Dr. Rupert Giles. PHD in History and the Occult from Oxford University. He's a British citizen but has his green card. What's notable about that is that he received it very quickly. It took only a week." Jackson looked around the room. "This is a process that normally takes months. Sometimes years. The fact that he got it so quickly tells us that he has some sort of political connections. Either here or in Britain. Which is very suspicious. People with powerful political connections and Doctorates in... anything, don't normally take jobs as high school librarians." Daniel paused to let the information sink in. "We also can't access his records in Britain. They're sealed. It would take some political maneuvering to get them released. We'd probably have to tell them why we want them. And that probably isn't worth it in my opinion." Daniel sat down and handed the remote to O'Neill.
"Thank you Dr. Jackson." Hammond said as the man sat down.
"Next up is Alexander "Xander" Harris." Jack said as Xander's goofy face appeared on screen. "Parents are Anthony and Jessica Harris. Both work in the booming field of mortuary science. Booming, at least in Sunnydale. Credit card records shows more money is spent on alcohol than food. Hospital records show.." Jack took a deep breath and focused on not crushing the remote. "at least some history of abuse. Both Jessica and Xander have had more than their fair share of trips to the hospital. Too many falls down the stairs. It seemed to drop off in middle school but has picked back up again as of last year." Jack hadn't been terribly sympathetic to whomever was doing this hacking, he didn't like to be jerked around. But it was hard not to feel sorry for a kid raised by abusive parents in a town where the life expectancy was 31. He sat down and passed the remote across the table to Teal'c.
The big man stood. "In our searching the pasts of the students. We discovered that Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris had another friend." Teal'c hit the remote and Jesse's face came up on screen. "Jesse McNally. Was mentioned often in conjunction with Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris until last year, when he disappeared and was presumed dead. Not long after Buffy Summers arrived."
"Is it possible that she killed him?" Hammond asked.
"It's unlikely, sir." Carter answered. "These disappearances have been going on since before she was born."
"Yes, it's more likely that the two friends sort of adopted the new kid, Buffy after their friend passed. It's not an uncommon phenomenon."
"Thank you Teal'c" Hammond said as he sat down and passed the remote to Carter.
"Next up is Willow Rosenberg." Sam said as she flipped to a picture of the girl. "Parents are Dr.s Ira and Sheila Rosenberg."
"Really?" Daniel interrupted.
"Do you know them?" the general asked.
"I know of them. But we don't run in the same circles. They're psychologists. And from what I've heard, they've been on tour almost continuously for the past ten years or so." Daniel clarified.
"Thirteen." Carter corrected.
"Yes, they're synonymous with phrase quantity over quality. They're almost as big a joke in psychological circles as I am in archeological. I never realized they had a daughter, do they take her with them on tour?" Daniel wondered.
Sam shook her head and pursed her lips. "No. She's had almost perfect attendance. Which means she's lived alone for most of her life. She's also had perfect grades. And she's genius level smart. There are tracks on her file. There's a couple of software concerns that are already looking to hire her and she isn't even out of high school yet."
"How smart are we talking?" Hammond asked for clarification.
"There's really no way to test. Off the charts, we used to say. Suffice to say, whatever she decides to put her mind to, she will accomplish." Carter paused. "Which leads me to some other points. With her intelligence and skill with computers. It's very possible that she's one of the hackers the FBI traced back to Sunnydale."
"Is it possible that she hacked us and got the information to access the other site that way?" Hammond offered.
"No sir. Not only was most of the information that Xander had not available online, Willow would have left traces of her attack. Even the FBI found traces of her previous hacks. She's good. Just not as good as she thinks, yet. But that leads to my other point. She is very good already. I would like to try recruiting her. Get her out of that town and out of the NID's hands." Sam requested.
"You want me to authorize you to recruit a hacker?" the general seemed a bit worried.
"Suspected hacker. And neither of the hackers in Sunnydale has done anything to warrant action yet. Just going places they shouldn't be. Harmless kid's pranks for now. I'd like to recruit her now before anything escalates. Because, with a couple years of NID training, she probably could hack our servers." Carter clarified.
"I'll take it under advisement Captain." the general allowed.
Sam passed the remote back to Daniel. "Which leaves Buffy Summers. The supposed ringleader of the group. Up until two years ago, she had no file. Cheerleader, prom princess, typical California teen. Then she allegedly burned down her high school gymnasium. Claimed it was infested with vampires. When nothing but ashes were found, she was sent to a mental institution for a few months." Daniel cringed at that thought. "A few months later, she claimed that she made the vampires up and they let her out. Apparently this put a strain on her parents' relationship and Hank and Joyce Summers divorced. Her father stayed in LA while she and her mother went to Sunnydale. Her mother owns an art gallery on Main street. Of all the people that we've looked at today. She does have the sketchiest record. She's had attendance issues and has been involved in a number fights, though more independent sources than principal Snyder list her as stopping the fights. Usually with force."
"With force?" O'Neill asked as disbelievingly as he could. He'd seen her fight, after all. He looked at the file in front of him. "She's 5'2" and I doubt she weighs more than a hundred pounds."
"Size is not always the measure of strength, O'Neill." Teal'c added.
"Yeah. But it's a pretty good predictor." O'Neill gave him a glare. They weren't supposed to know about Buffy.
Daniel jumped in before Teal'c could reply. "Yeah. I think I'm going to interpret force here to mean blackmail and other means."
Teal'c thankfully remained silent.
"Okay people. Good work." General Hammond complimented. "I'll look this over in more detail later. Your next mission is to P7J-989. The MALP sent back some beautiful images."
A/N: The movie Xander was thinking of was Little Shop of Horrors. (1986)
P7J-989 The Game Keeper.