Chapter 28.

A big thank you to ReflectionsOfReality for help with the ideas for some new uses of crystal technology.

I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate SG1.

/ Xander's thoughts /

% Jolinar's thoughts %

#"Tok'ra or Goa'uld voice"#

Just a reminder: in my world, the laws of conservation of energy apply. So the Zats work like Tasers on steroids. One shot disables, two may kill, three or more will almost certainly kill, but additional shocks after death can sometimes revive dead people (like shock paddles). Three never, ever disintegrates.

"Jenny Calendar."

Jenny spun around at the voice then sighs, "You startled me."

The man stepped up to her desk as she stepped around the other side. "You look well."

"Yes, I'm fine." Jenny answered, "I know I haven't written as much lately Uncle Enyos. I've been busy."

Enyos removed his hat. "I cannot imagine what is so important to make you ignore the responsibility to your people."

"I haven't ignored anything. The curse still holds." Jenny assured him.

Enyos interrupted, "The elder woman has been reading signs. Something has changed."

"Nothing has changed." Jenny countered.

"You know what it is, this thing vengeance?" Enyos asked.

Jenny smiled a vicious smile. "I promise you. Angel still suffers. Only a few days ago he was tortured almost to death. And he makes amends for his evil. He fights for good now.

Enyos would not be consoled. "So you just forget that he destroyed the most beloved daughter of your tribe? That he killed every man, woman and child that touched her life? One day of torture is not enough. Vengeance demands that his pain be eternal as ours is!"

"Uncle. I think that.."

Enyos interrupted again, "You thought what? You thought you are Jenny Calendar now? You are still Janna, of the Kalderash people! A Gypsy. To the modern man vengeance is a verb, an idea. Payback. One thing for another. Like commerce. Not with us. Vengeance is a living thing. It passes through generations. It commands. It kills."

Jenny bowed her head, "I know... Uncle. I know."

"You do not know!" Enyos yelled. "The curse. Angel is meant to suffer, not to live as human. One moment of true happiness, of contentment, one moment where the soul that we restored no longer plagues his thoughts, and that soul is taken from him."

Jenny gasped. "Why wasn't I told this?"

"You did not need to know." Enyos answered.

"You told me to watch Angel without telling me what to watch for?" Jenny was the one who was outraged now. "I could have been killed! Uncle, this is insanity! If he loses his soul, people are going to die."

"Then so be it. So long as we have our vengeance. That is all that matters." Enyos countered.

Jenny grabbed her coat and walked to the door. "Then you are a fool."

Giles and Xander were showing Ford and Willow a few hand to hand moves. Buffy was probably sleeping in after a late night slaying. Willow was refusing to go full speed against Xander.

"Will. If you don't do this, I'm going to switch with Giles and let you try to hit him." Xander informed her.

"But what if I hurt you?" Willow whined.

"That's kinda the point, babe." Xander joked. "I'll heal. So give me your best shot."

Willow smiled. "You called me 'babe'. Like I'm a 'hot babe'."

"You are. Now would the hot babe please hit me before I trade her to Giles for a much less hot guy?" Xander quipped.

"I heard that!" Ford called out.

"Good." came the reply. And then an, "Ow." as Willow finally hit him.

"Oh, Xander! I'm sorry!" Willow cried.

Xander rubbed his jaw. "No. That was good. Hitting your opponent when he's distracted is actually lesson number two. So you're already ahead of the game." He paused for a second then ordered, "Again."

"Man, I really stunk up the place." Willow complained as the three students finished their training.

"You did very well," Jolinar assured her. "Xander doesn't expect you to become a Slayer. Just know enough to protect yourself and more importantly, not panic in a dangerous situation."

Willow gave a weak smile at that.

"Just be glad you're training against your boyfriend." Ford added. "Giles had no problem putting me on the mat, even if he didn't hit me."

Xander scoffed. "I was training against Angel, people. The guy is perfectly happy to hit me as hard as he could. And that's really hard."

"Thank you Mr. Travers." Giles said politely as he hung up the phone. He didn't particularly want to be civil to the man who had kept him in the dark about a second Slayer, but the Council had just done his Slayer a huge favor by getting the hit on Buffy rescinded. So he bit his tongue about their methods and even informed them that Kendra had also died and there might be a third Slayer on the loose; as thanks for calling off the hit from the Order of Taraka. The Order was not known for calling off hits and he wondered exactly what favor the Council had to give or call in to accomplish that and hoped it wouldn't come back to bite them in the ass.

Xander hated math class that day. Not because of the math. Because of the new student-teacher they had, Parker Abrams. Everything about him screamed military. The way he looked, the way he stood, the way he avoided all eye contact with Xander. Buffy wasn't so lucky. He caught him smiling at her, even though he never so much as grinned at anyone else. Unfortunately, the smile was fake. It never even reached his eyes. But Buffy didn't seem to notice. Xander shook his head. Buffy really had the worst taste in men.

At lunch, the four friends sat together.

"That's the last straw." Xander decided. "Planting agents in the school is going too far."

"Agents? Who's an agent?" Willow cried.

"The new student teachers. They're NID." Xander stated.

"Really?" Buffy whined. "But they're too cute to be soldiers. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Xander replied. "And we're going to-"

"Hi guys!" Cordy and a boy sat down with them.

Stunned silence greeted her, until Xander spoke up. "Cordelia. What are you doing here?"

"What? Like I can't eat with you guys?" Cordelia countered. More silence. "Ok. Fine. Four super hot student teachers just started and we wanted to know if they were monsters or something."

The four friends stopped looking at Cordelia and started looking at the boy she brought with her.

"Oh, it's ok. This is Devon. He plays in that band, 'Dingos Ate My Baby'. One of the guys is a werewolf. So they all know about the things that go bump in the night." Cordy explained.

"And what did you tell them about us?" Buffy said dangerously.

"Just that you guys are like an amateur demon-hunting group." Devon answered for her. "And Oz is only a werewolf three nights a month. It means we have to chain him up those nights and it cuts down on the number of gigs we can play. But we deal."

"Ok, back up." Xander decided. "You wanted to know about the student teachers? They're not monsters. They're soldiers. We don't know what they're after yet, but I'd keep your friend..."

"Oz"

"...Oz out of their way. I don't want to think about what they might do to him." Xander finished. "And we'd like to meet him. Make sure he's taking all the safeguards necessary. Could you send him by the library after school?"

"Sure." Devon nodded. "But aren't the military, like, the good guys?"

"Not this time." Xander answered. "These guys are like the Principal Snyder of the military. We're not sure yet what they're up to, but we're pretty sure it's no good."

Devon and Cordelia nodded at the simile.

"They've been sniffing around Sunnydale for a while now. And sending soldiers into our school is just the last straw. We're going to find out exactly what they're up to." Xander stated firmly.

"We'll warn Oz to stay away." Cordelia announced.

After school they made their way to the English room instead of the computer room.

"I thought you said we were going to hack the NID database?" Buffy wondered.

"Yeah, but it's a lot easier to do that when you already have a user name and password. And we're going to the English room because that's where the NID agent logged into their database. They should recognize the IP address and let us in without tripping any alarms. We might be able to get in without them knowing about us." Xander explained.

They got to the room and Xander explained how he had seen where the NID agent's fingers had gone as he was logging in.

"Ok, first letter. Right shift, left index finger. Either the upper or middle row." Xander took his seat and tried to visualize where he saw the student teacher's fingers going.

"You don't know the letter?" Buffy asked.

"It's not an exact science, Buff." Xander admitted. "But we'll narrow it down to a few likely possibilities."

"So, it could start with a capital F, G, R, or T" Willow announced.

"Probably T or G," Xander added, "That seemed like where his fingers were moving."

Ford dutifully started writing the letters. Buffy mostly watched.

They got it narrowed down to a few likely username and password combinations and Willow started entering them in, one at a time. GatesF and the password NID544 finally worked.

"We're in!" Willow announced.

Oh boy were they in. In deep was more like it. The NID had just about everything on them. Files on each of them, including Giles, Jenny and Ford. Transcripts of their radio communication almost since they started using them. And more recently, transcripts of conversations that took place in Giles' apartment, the school library, and Buffy's house. It also looked like they had those phones bugged.

Buffy was livid. "How dare they!" she shouted.

"Shh." Xander tried to calm her. They were here after school again. If anyone not in the know heard them, they'd be kicked out.

"And they've been tracking me on the radio." Buffy turned the volume down to a loud stage whisper. "The radio You made me use." she wagged a finger accusingly at Xander.

"And I knew they might be listening." Xander admitted. "But it was a calculated risk. They've been avoiding you ever since you started using the radios. And I have plans for using that to our advantage." Xander gave his best evil grin.

Buffy considered that and gave him a smack on the shoulder. "It had better be good, buster."

"It will be. Xander and I are working on sub-space communicators that the NID will never be able to crack." Willow beamed.

"As soon as those are finished, we're going to have a night of fun with the NID teams. Run them all over Sunnydale." Xander informed her.

"Fine. What about the other bugs. I don't want them spying on me in my house." Buffy complained.

"I'll call General Hammond, see if we can get some bug sweeping equipment. But for now, we'll just discuss important things outside, in places we know aren't bugged." Xander explained. "Willow, click on that." after looking at what came on the screen for a second. "Print them. Print all of them. Ford, could you get more paper?"

"What is it?" Buffy crowded around the computer too.

"SGC mission reports. Looks like all of them." Xander answered.

They had hundreds of reports once they were all finished. They carried them to the library to meet with Giles.

"What's all this?" he asked as they came in with the reports, totaling several reams of paper. Another young man was waiting there too.

"Homework. For Miss Calendar. She's such a horrible teacher. Giving us homework on the first day of class." Xander answered. He quickly started scribbling a note. "Hi, you must be Oz. Sorry we're late."

"Jenny assigned you this-" Giles stopped talking as he read the note. 'Library has been bugged by NID. Play along.' "I see." He said and passed the note to Oz, "Well, I shall certainly talk to her about the amount of homework she assigns you."

Oz nodded. "It's no problem. Devon said you wanted to talk?"

Xander scribbled another note. 'Take it to your house? It's bugged too though.' "If you're going to go to her house, do you want to take it with you?"

Giles read the note and nodded. "Yes, yes I suppose I could do that."

Xander motioned with his head. "Good, we'll walk you to your car. Oz, you want to walk with us?"

Outside, Xander figured they were safe enough to explain to Oz that there was a secret military organization that might be after supernatural beings in Sunnydale. Oz explained that he had some manacles that he chained himself up with. But they always chafed his wrists and ankles after he transformed. He was afraid they might not be enough some night. Giles offered him the book cage as a temporary fix until they were able to construct a stronger, more permanent cage. Oz thanked him for the offer and promised to be there the first night of the full moon.

After Oz was gone, Xander explained that they had hacked the NID servers and found the SGC mission reports there. It would be good reading for the people who didn't have memories of being on SG-1. And he was curious what SG-1 had been up to since his memories of the group ended. He also explained the bugs and the countermeasures they would soon be taking.

Giles felt that perhaps not tipping their hand so soon would be best and just work around the bugs for now. But the others all felt that enough was enough of this and to send a clear message that they weren't going to take this from them.

By then it was getting dark and high time to start patrolling.

Buffy and Xander did an early patrol together that night. Xander let Willow patrol with them on the condition that she carry a zat and shoot first, ask questions later.

It was a fairly successful patrol. Willow zatted a vampire. Xander was pretty sure it was the first time a zat had been used on the undead. But it seemed to work well enough on them. The vamp was down long enough for Xander to stake it with his spear. They checked in with Giles over their monitored radios to let him know that everyone was ok and that they were heading home for dinner.

"I realize that P90s aren't ideal for fighting vamps, but I think secure communications are far more important than having slightly more effective weapons." Jolinar stated. Again. Xander really wanted to adapt the staff weapons to fire from a more compact package. He didn't like how the vamps had shrugged off body shots from the P90s. He was really being more stubborn about this than someone with Major Carter's memories should have been. She would understand how important secure communications were.

"You have to get naquadah from somewhere." Xander argued. "And we don't have a source of that yet."

"So? We cannibalize a staff weapon or two. We have ten." Jolinar argued back. That was the real rub. Xander didn't think they had enough weapons yet and didn't want to sacrifice any of the few they did have.

Buffy and Willow just walked along enjoying the argument the other two were having. It was funny watching them argue back and forth in the same body.

"Enough." Buffy finally put her foot down. "We vote for the communicators. That's three against one, Xander. I'm tired of the NID listening to my conversations."

"Xander and I will start on them after school tomorrow." Willow agreed as they reached Buffy's porch.

As they reached the front door, Buffy went to unlock it, but the door swung open. "You guys wait here for-"

"We'll cover the back." Xander cut her off. He and Willow pulled their zats and ran around the house. Buffy gave them a five-count before she pulled her own zat and made her way into the house. Buffy heard glass breaking and her mom shout. She dashed for the kitchen. She found her mom in a man's embrace, clearly kissing him back. Buffy quickly hid her zat. She didn't think it was noticed when they were distracted by Xander and Willow coming in the back door.

"Mom." Buffy called their attention back to her while her friends put their zats away. "The door was open and we heard glass breaking."

"Uh, I-I-I broke a wineglass. Y-y-you're home early." Joyce struggled to concentrate. "Oh! Uh, this is my daughter, Buffy and her friends Xander and Willow. Buffy, this is Ted."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Here we go." Ted slid some mini pizzas from the pan. "So you kids thought Joyce was in trouble and came to rescue her? That's very brave. But probably not very smart. In a situation like that you should probably call the police."

"Oh, Buffy doesn't trust the police in Sunnydale." Joyce said as she and Buffy came back in from outside. "And I'm starting to understand why. They closed the case on our neighbor, poor Mrs. McGruber's house burning down, after they verified Buffy's alibi. Apparently she was their only suspect."

"That poor woman." Ted sympathized for a second before moving on to computers and computer programs. "So, what kind of technology do you kids play with?"

Willow and Xander visibly stiffened and exchanged a glance at that question. It could have been innocent, it was certainly in character for a computer salesman. But they certainly couldn't rule out an NID operation. Getting someone close to the target's mother would be just their style.

"Well...I like my new nine-Gig hard drive." Willow had to think for a moment about the Earth tech she had.

Ted pulled mini pizzas from his pan, "But you don't love it, 'cause without the DMA upgrade your computer's only half a rocket ship."

Willow sighed, "Yeah, but who can afford the upgrades?"

"Well, you can! I get the demos for free, I don't see why I shouldn't give 'em to you for the same price! Any friend of Buffy's..." Ted offered.

"Thank you! That would be so nice." Willow offered. It was pretty nice. She probably would have been speechless before leaning about alien technologies. She wasn't planning on using Earth tech much longer if she could help it.

Xander munched on a mini pizza. "Can I just say, this is the finest pizza ever on God's green Earth. What is your secret?"

"Well, after you bake it, you fry it in herbs and olive oil, but you gotta use..." Ted knocked on his pan, "a cast-iron skillet. No room for compromise there."

%They are very good. Especially the way he was able to cover up the taste of the sedatives.% Jolinar agreed. Xander almost spit out the pizza but Jolinar stopped him. %Relax, I'm taking care of the sedative. The dosage is quite low. You could eat every pizza in the room and it wouldn't have the slightest effect on us. Even Willow could eat every pizza and wouldn't be harmed, just groggy. I'm more worried about this Ted's motives now though. Sedating your date, even mildly, is generally frowned upon in Earth culture.%

/You don't say?/ Xander said sarcastically. /Fine, what's the plan? I vote we zat him. Right here, right now./ Xander challenged.

%I thought we were keeping this a secret from Joyce?% Jolinar wondered.

/We were. But then she brought home a guy who's drugging her. And possibly an NID agent. She needs to know about the dangers of this town./ Xander argued.

%I would clear that with Buffy first. She is already unhappy with you for shooting Angel.% Jolinar reasoned.

/Which brings us back to: what do we do in the mean time?/ Xander asked again.

%Eat as many pizzas as we can.% Jolinar shoved the rest of the one they were holding in their mouth.

"Sorry, these things are just so good," was Jolinar's excuse when he was reprimanded for the number of pizzas he was eating. Buffy didn't get any and Willow only got one.

Xander walked Willow home. She was perfectly willing to stay home for the second patrol of the night. Which made Xander wonder exactly what else she was perfectly willing to do.

/No, no, no, no, no./ Xander smacked his head.

%No, what? Why are you hitting ourself?% Jolinar asked.

/I was telling myself, no taking advantage of Willow./ Xander explained.

%An admirable sentiment, but was the hitting really necessary?% Jolinar praised.

/Tony always said.../ Xander stopped. /No. It probably wasn't necessary./

%I didn't mean to bring up...% Jolinar started

/Don't worry about it./ Xander cut him off. /Let's just find Buffy and let her know what's going on./

When they met up with Buffy and Giles, Buffy was pacing beside Giles' car. "We haven't seen a single vamp since that one Willow shot." she complained vehemently.

"Sounds like someone could use a mini-pizza." Xander offered as he walked towards the car.

"Don't start, Xander." Buffy warned. "I don't want to hear about how good they are."

"Xander is right, they were good, but they were also laced with sedative. Something in the phenotorin family. I believe he meant that you should, 'take a chill pill'." Jolinar stated.

Giles suffered a sudden coughing attack. Buffy glared at him and then back at Jolinar who was the picture of innocence.

"You should know that Xander wanted to zat the man in the kitchen. I was able to convince him to clear that with you first." Jolinar stated.

"Zat the man? Is that really necessary? Wouldn't it be better to turn him over to the authorities?" Giles asked as his cough cleared up.

"We think he might be NID." Jolinar explained. "We can't be sure yet, but it's the kind of op they would run. It's called a 'honey trap'. An operative goes in and forms a relationship with a target. This time using a mild sedative to help things along. Once he's in, he can gather information much easier, or even turn the target."

"Giles we have to stop them." Buffy was on her feet. "They can't do this to my Mom!"

"Miss Summers. We don't know for certain if Ted is NID. There is only a very good chance that he is. Capturing him might tell us more. Also, we both believe that it is time your mother was told. Everything." Jolinar stated.

"I don't believe that would be best." Giles countered. "There's a good reason that Slayers have always worked in secret."

"Giles. I've seen what 1,000 years of secrets managed to do for the Tok'ra. Bupkis. Ok? We have to make this knowledge public. Buffy's mom is the first step." Xander argued.

"You're overturning centuries worth of tradition for your own goals, Xander. You have to think. There are very good reasons for the secrecy." Giles contended.

"Oh, yeah. That reminds me. Here are your diplomatic IDs. You now have diplomatic immunity." Xander passed out the identification papers. "What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Secrecy. I'm tired of seeing Sunnydale as the front lines of a war that people don't know is going on. I'm going to make this public soon enough, Giles. The only question is whether she hears it from you now or from me later." Xander challenged. "Name one good thing that secrecy accomplished."

"It saved a number of Slayers during the Inquisition." Giles offered immediately.

"If I ask for two examples, are you going to have them?" Xander wondered.

"Enough." Buffy announced. "Fine, we'll tell my mother. After we have evidence that he's using sedatives on her. Xander, did you really have to eat all the mini pizzas?"

"They were really good. Besides, it kept the rest of you from eating many." Xander defended.

"They were evidence." Buffy declared.

"They were very tasty evidence." Xander countered.

"Well that was certainly convenient," the Mayor exclaimed. "Remind me to thank that Slayer for eliminating Spike for us. It certainly made recruitment easier. How many do we have?"

"We have 16 vampires and 7 assorted demons." Finch checked his records.

"Not bad. Keep up the recruitment though. We're going to need more for the Ascension." The Mayor instructed. "Now it's time to send them a message. You've got the sign done?"

Finch put on gloves to keep his finger prints off the large sign, before bringing it out. 'Sunnydale is ours.' it read.

"Wonderful. Make sure they leave that with the bodies." Finch turned to leave, but the Mayor called him back. "Oh, and Allen. If they could save me a heart? You know? A nice, fresh one? Just the one, though. Gotta watch the waistline." He waved as the deputy Mayor left to go organize their counter attack. Vampires and demons were leaving Sunnydale because of these military guys and he couldn't have that. Not when he was so close.

It was a political move really. One attack was unlikely to dissuade the military from continuing their operations here, but he had to show the demon population that he was doing something about this problem. He just had to buy enough time to get to the Ascension.

Captain Turner and his team were on a routine patrol and were chasing something. They hadn't gotten a good look at it. Then the screams started coming over the radio. Everyone in his squad had to pull their earpieces out. The screams were both loud and very disturbing.

Turner switched to the backup frequency and called the base.

The tech that answered the call transferred him to Major Rice. "What's going on out there, Captain?"

"Someone's under attack. We were hoping you could tell us which one and where they were." Turner answered.

Suddenly the noises in the other radios ceased.

"I'm going to do a check on the other frequency, sir." Turner informed him.

"Do it. Rice out."

He switched frequencies again. "This is Turner. All teams check in." he ordered. "This is alpha team checking in."

"Bravo team checking in."

Silence.

"Charlie team? Do you read?" Turner felt the pit grow in his stomach. After a few more seconds he decided to move on, "Delta team, go."

"Delta team checking in."

"Base, this is Alpha team leader. We cannot raise Charlie team. Repeat, cannot raise Charlie team. Please advise of their last known position."

"Stand by Alpha team." came the reply.

Once the coordinates were relayed, Alpha team headed out. He knew the other teams would be heading that way too. He just hoped he was wrong about what they'd find there.

The next day, Buffy and Xander explained their plans to Willow and Ford. Willow also got her diplomatic ID and Ford got a promise for one soon.

"If we can get you a sample of the sedative, can you identify it for Buffy's mom?" Xander asked.

"Sure, I suppose." Willow answered.

"So, we find a way for him to make more of those mini pizzas again. Xander tests them first, then Willow proves it. We figure out what he's trying to do to my mom, then we explain the supernatural to my mom. No sweat." Buffy decided.

It was convenient for Ted to show up at the school that day. They tried to schedule something sooner, but they'd have to wait until mini-golf on Saturday.

Until then, Willow and Xander had plans to create some Tok'ra communication devices from scratch. Xander was beginning to wonder when he was going to find time to look at houses for his base of operations. Until Ford made the mistake of mentioning that he had nothing to do that evening. "How would you like to help me out? I need someone to check out some houses for me." Xander asked.

"Sure. You'll have to tell me what you're looking for though." Ford agreed.

Xander had a list done up in no time. Big. Two or more stories. At least 6 rooms for offices or enough large rooms that could be split. A room in the basement big enough for a training room or space enough to make one without taking out support columns. Not near the campus, or the warehouse district. Those were the must haves.

To that he added things that would be nice. Good insulation, good roof, good electrical system, and highway access. Then he handed Ford the housing listing booklet he was looking at and thanked the man. Delegation was a wonderful thing.

That left Xander free to work on the communication devices with Willow. they weren't going to be able to use human tech for this. They needed crystal technology to access the sub-space pathways they were going to use for communication. The biggest problem was that they'd have to use naquadah as a power source and that meant shielding the radioactive element. He would work on that part while Willow worked on replicating the crystals.

Xander had already had instruction from Jolinar on this and had already successfully created a second set of crystals from their working communication device. He only had two crystals out of eight that had gone bad. Fairly good for a first try. To test the device out, Jolinar had called the Tok'ra and given them his briefing of the situation with the SGC and how he had helped them and how they had helped him. And how the war against the demons was going.

After that unpleasantness was over, he switched the original crystals back in and set out the copies for Willow to copy.

Willow was having a lot of trouble copying the crystals. They kept becoming far too big. It wouldn't normally be a problem for a Goa'uld, who would just cut the crystals to the right size afterward, but they lacked the technology to cut the crystals.

Xander couldn't do it for her right now, he was focused on building the devices themselves so they wouldn't kill the person using them. And the materials for crystals were cheap. So he let her keep trying.

She was still trying the next day during their free period in the library. She'd brought along only a limited amount of raw materials so she couldn't go overboard like she had at home.

Miss Calendar stopped by to see Giles between classes. "We still on for tonight? There's something I need to talk to you about." she asked.

"Mmm? Yes. Yes of course." Giles looked up from his books and smiled.

Jenny noticed Willow's activities and stopped to watch. "Willow, are you growing those crystals?"

"Yeah. Xander taught me how. We need them for the communication device, but I'm a failure. I keep growing them too big." Willow held up two crystals of similar shape, but one was twice as big as the other.

Miss calendar picked up the larger crystal. "You mean you can't use this because it's too big?"

"Yeah, I'm getting better though. You should see the ones at home. There's one as big as Xander's leg. He had to stop it so it wouldn't destroy the house." Willow told her.

"Willow, crystals like this are used in magic all the time and they're pretty expensive." Jenny started. "A small one like this might run $50. If you have one that's as big as Xander's leg... that could be worth thousands, maybe tens of thousands."

"Really? Wow. So my mistakes might not be a bad thing after all?" Willow brightened considerably. "Can I ask though? What do magic users use the crystals for?"

"They use them to channel and focus energy. Special ones can even store energy." Jenny explained.

"Hmm. That's what the aliens use them for too. Except for the power one. Not sure about that." Willow replied.

Xander was having a frustrating day. He just couldn't get the materials to shield the communication device at a reasonable price. And the equipment he'd need to reshape the shielding of the staff weapon was twice as expensive. No shielding meant no naquadah. No naquadah meant no power. At least no portable power. He might be able to rig something up to power this from the grid like the healing device, but that would leave them with only two secure communication devices and one that had to stay here.

Willow wasn't having any more luck with the crystals. She had gotten better but she seemed to have plateaued. He was about to relieve her and make the crystals himself and let Willow work on the power problem since she seemed to have solved the last one so easily.

"Oh, Xander. I talked to Miss Calendar today and she said we could probably make money off of all the crystals that I made." She held up her day's work. "She said that these are worth $50 each. And that huge one I made might be worth thousands!" Willow finished with a squeak.

"Thousands?" Xander repeated, intrigued. "A couple more of those and we might be able to afford the shielding we'll need to power these things."

"Ooo. Speaking of power. Miss Calendar said that some crystals can hold magical power. Can these hold power too?" Willow asked.

"Well not these, but some crystals can hold power. Some can hold a lot of power." Xander answered as one of their radios chirped from the charging stand. Buffy was calling in her position.

Power. Crystals. Charging stand. Rechargeable batteries. Thoughts and ideas started flying through Xander and Jolinar's minds as they both started digging through Jolinar and Carter's memories in search of the information they'd need. Xander lost his balance to the vertigo that caused and had to lean on the chair of the healing device.

"Xander! Are you ok?" Willow looked really worried.

Xander shook his head to clear it. He was glad they were now dating because it meant there was no awkwardness when he grabbed her and kissed her fiercely. "Willow. If the Tok'ra had someone like you on their side, they would have destroyed the Goa'uld long ago."

Willow blushed from both the kiss and the compliment.

"You've solved our power problems again. We just have to make the devices a little bigger to allow for some new crystals. They'll act like rechargeable batteries. It will mean we have to build some charging stations too, but that will be easier than trying to adapt the naquadah from the staff weapons." Xander waved at the parts on Willow's workbench. "So instead of making us some crystals, do you think you can make us some charging stations?"

"Can I?" Willow said excitedly. "I'll make you the best darn charging stations you've ever seen, bub. Just don't make me grow any more crystals?" she pleaded.

"I'll handle the crystals. I'll have to make the first power crystal from scratch. That'll be hard and time consuming. But once I have a template, copying should be pretty easy." Xander informed her.

"You mean you were just copying them?" Willow cried.

"You were trying to make them from scratch? No wonder you had trouble. I'm surprised you did as well as you did then." Xander was a little floored. "Did you want to try copying one to see if that's easier?"

She did. And she was able to copy the crystal on her first try. In fact, she copied all eight crystals perfectly before Xander had her stop. Her skills were needed elsewhere.

Xander grabbed a radio and left for Radioshed.

A/N: The conversation between Enyos and Jenny was mostly adapted from the two conversations in canon.

Inconsistent canon: Oz could not have been bitten by his cousin in human form and been transformed into a werewolf. And if he was already a wolf on the night of "Phases", then he would have had to have been bitten at least a month before. If not more.

McGruber. Probably inspired by SNL character. But spelled differently.

Dematorin is the sedative used in canon. It's not real.