Chapter 29.
Thank you to my new Beta Prometeus. This story is so much better thanks to his efforts.
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate SG1.
/ Xander's thoughts /
% Jolinar's thoughts %
#"Tok'ra or Goa'uld voice"#
The next couple of days were a blur. He and Willow worked on the new communication devices whenever they had a spare moment. The difference between building these and the healing device was that they now had funding and they also now had Buffy pestering them for an ETA on a finished product.
After they had finished their first two devices, Willow had another breakthrough. She figured out a way to adjust the frequency (for lack of a better term) of the transceiver by adjusting the amount of electricity that flowed through one of the crystals. She and Xander together were able to improvise a control knob that users could now turn to change 'channels'. The down side was that the new channels used progressively more power, so they decreased the talk time from weeks to as low as four days depending on the channels used.
On the other hand, Xander had perfected his 'battery' crystals and they now had a good supply of them and a couple charging stations. Each crystal was purple and about the size of a Double-A battery. And while one crystal could power each communication device on its own, each device had room for two crystals. The devices used one crystal at a time for power until one was dead and that one could be hot-swapped out while the device was still being powered by the other. All the same, the batteries took a lot of energy to charge. Each crystal took the equivalent of running the healing device for five hours straight to fully charge. But since they were only running the chargers on one circuit instead of six for the healing device, it took almost 30 hours to charge each crystal. Xander cringed a little when he thought of what the Rosenberg's electricity bill was going to be like.
Willow didn't want to stop and think about things like that, she was far too focused on building their Subspace Radios, or S-Radios as she called them. He did however, force Willow to take a break with him and Ford to go look at houses. Ford had narrowed it down to three choices and now they were going to make a final decision. The one on the west side was nice, but it was old, which would mean upgrades, and it was the furthest from everything.
The one on the south side was also older, but it was closer to everything. And it was Huge. Enough room for them to expand a couple of times.
The one on the north side was the newest, but also the smallest. However, all the amenities were up to date. Roof, insulation, wiring, etc. It had enough room, but seemed small after the south side house. The only thing that was really too small was the training room downstairs. But they could probably make do.
The fact that they'd probably have to re-wire the new one to get more power for their tech anyway, plus Willow's vote when they told her she could have a new workshop in the south side house pushed them in that direction.
Xander made a cash offer of $10,000 less than they were asking, but since it wasn't contingent on financing, he was hopeful it would be accepted. If there was one nice thing about Sunnydale it was the housing market. It meant that the folks in Washington had seriously over estimated their housing allowance. Xander was able to buy a virtual mansion outright with the first check he'd been given. Granted, it didn't leave much for salaries or refurbishment on this check, but they were used to not getting paid. One more month wouldn't hurt.
Willow gushed and grabbed Xander's arm when the real estate agent had called them a couple.
Xander was surprised to get a call that night. The offer had been accepted. He was to bring a certified check to the closing the next day. He had to reschedule the closing until after school, explaining that he had class and hoped they assumed college.
Willow kissed and hugged him when he told her the news. Once she'd calmed down they went back to work.
Angel was finally feeling strong enough to go out again after the Drusilla incident. He was walking around a cemetery and then...
He opened his eyes and looked around. All he saw was white. Was he dead? Was this heaven?
"You idiot." Major Rice yelled at the soldier in front of him. "We are about to try and recruit the Slayer, and you go and kidnap her boyfriend. Tell me how this helps our cause?"
"He's a vampire, sir." Captain Turner explained. "Hard to tell them apart." Turner was more than a little upset after the slaughter of Charlie team. What was the difference? This vampire or another. Just dust him and problem solved.
"And you, Doctor Angleman. You had good lighting, why didn't you discover this error?" Rice accused.
"I never saw his face Major, I only implanted the chip in the back of his head." Doctor Angleman explained.
Major Rice had the sneaking suspicion that Maggie Walsh had known who they'd taken in and did nothing to stop it. But he couldn't prove it right now. He just sighed. Without proof there was nothing he could do. He disliked this posting and had been all too happy to have Colonel Maybourne relieve him for a time. But there were pressing matters in Washington to take care of and the Colonel couldn't stay. "Fine. Dope him with some happy juice. Triple dose. That should erase whatever memories he might have of this place or at least make him think it was a happy dream. Then let him go. We can't afford to bring the Slayer down on this place."
Buffy was walking through the park by her house. It was daylight but she and Angel were walking side by side. They passed Miss Calendar who was holding a pair of binoculars saying that it was 'a wonderful time for bird watching'. Jenny unwrapped a piece of cheese. Cutting a cross out, she gave the cheese cross to Buffy then the rest to Captain Turner as the scene changed to a concrete bunker.
Captain Turner stood behind a kneeling Angel and drove a stake through his heart. "Oops." He shrugged his shoulders apologetically.
"Angel!" Buffy woke with a start.
"I'm not sure that a dream of someone staking Angel means that he is in trouble." Giles reasoned.
"But Giles, I went by his apartment this morning after sun-up and he wasn't there." Buffy argued.
"There are other places he could spend the day." Jolinar observed. "But we shouldn't discount the dream. It may be a warning of some kind. The Tok'ra are aware of... other beings in the universe that sometimes choose to communicate through dreams."
"What kind of beings are you talking about?" Willow asked.
"Well, they call themselves the 'Ascended', but really they're just people who exist as energy." Jolinar informed them.
"Good lord! Is that even possible?" Giles was astounded.
"Apparently." Jolinar shrugged. "Conservation of energy. Converting matter to energy and back again. We're not sure how it works. But we do know they exist. You don't hear about them much. But accounts of glowing beings are usually them. Xander figures stories in the Bible of Angels were probably ascended beings."
After school, he, Willow, and Ford headed to the closing. The buyers were happy that the deal didn't have to wait for financing and Xander was happy to save ten grand. Everyone was happy. Xander got the keys and handed one to Willow and two to Ford, to give one to Buffy when he saw her. He kept two spares. One for Giles and one to hide out around the house somewhere for that inevitable moment when he lost his keys.
Jolinar didn't think it was worth the security risk. As a symbiote, he had a very good memory and could usually be counted on to remember things like that.
But Xander had insisted.
They decided that he and Willow would move in that weekend. Ford had fewer belongings and would be moving in that night.
Things were looking up.
Angelus the vampire woke up face down in the sewers. Not a pleasant way of waking up for someone with an enhanced sense of smell. But better than not waking up at all. He had a fuzzy memory of a bright white light but nothing more. He wasn't sure what it meant. All he knew was that he was finally free of that accursed soul. He was breathing free air again for the first time in 100 years. Sure it stank, but being free of that tortured soul was worth in. Though, he had to give it to the man. Even if he was on the side of good, Liam always did have a taste for the veal. Sixteen? Ha! Angelus planned how he was going to torture that innocent little girl.
He had to wait in the sewers all day and had to beat off a couple demons who thought he looked like an easy mark. But once the sun was down he went straight for Angel's apartment. The place really wasn't to his taste and he was going to be moving out soon enough. But first he needed to get out of these smelly clothes and into something clean.
A knock on his door interrupted him with his shirt off. Must be the Slayer. She trusted Angel, so she wasn't about to dust him. He decided to open the door.
"Angel! Oh my god! Where have you been?" Buffy rushed in and hugged him quickly. Too quickly for him to bite her.
"I got trapped in the sewer. Can't you smell? Or is your nose still broken after that scuffle with Xander?" Angelus sniped. It was all he could do to not attack her physically. Mentally was another matter.
"Angel? I was worried about you!" Buffy pleaded.
"Yeah, well, I'm fine. Thanks for noticing. But I want to get cleaned up now." he made a shooing motion. "It's been a long day."
Buffy went to leave but turned around just outside the door. "Angel, I-" she's cut off when the door slammed in her face.
Showered and changed Angelus made his way to the factory where he knew Spike and Drusilla had been hiding. He didn't really know what had stopped Angel from telling the kids about this place. As he entered, he spotted a minion vampire. Short, balding, and wearing glasses. He remembered Buffy's description of the vamp that had gotten away and smiled. "You're one of Spike's minions aren't you?"
"Angel." the vamp froze.
"Angelus now." he corrected. "That do-gooder is finally gone."
The vampire breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm Dalton. We were just moving some of Spike and Drusilla's stuff."
"Like what?" Angelus asked.
"Well there's some body parts in boxes. Not sure what they're for. And-" Dalton began.
"Show me." Angelus ordered.
Dalton took him to the boxes. Angelus smiled. Dru had really outdone herself this time. Well, if this was her last wish, then so be it.
When Jenny Calendar got home from school that day, her uncle was already waiting for her.
"You can apologize for what you said later." he began. "I have just received news. Angel's soul is gone."
"Then you can apologize for what you did, now." Jenny intoned.
"Me apologize, Janna?" Enyos was offended.
"No, Uncle. It's Jenny now. You should have told me about the curse. I just had a very unpleasant conversation with the man that I love, where I explained who I used to be and why I was sent here. And the man that used to love me back no longer does. He seems to think that I'm part of a... 'honey trap' to get close to him, his Slayer, and Angel." she shrugged. "Not that I can blame him. But if what you say is true, then I have to call him and let him know that we have to kill one of our friends because of your foolishness. Do you know who he's going to blame?"
"Janna!" he yelled.
"That's right! And what kind of curse was that anyway? I don't think I'm as good as the spellcasters we had back then, but even I could cast a spell that really would torture him for all eternity, with no escape clause."
"That's enough!" Enyos was turning red.
"You're right. It's time for you to go Enyos." Jenny used his first name. "This is our problem now. The gypsy curse is broken and you have no claim on him. You are no longer welcome here." Jenny crossed her arms and backed him to the door.
"This is not over." Enyos said before he left.
"We'll see." Jenny said to the closed door. Then she turned to call Giles and inform him of the bad news.
Buffy collapsed on her bed crying. Angel had been acting so weird when she finally found him, but her relief at finding him made her not want to believe anything was wrong. And now Giles called to tell her that Angel had lost his soul.
Why hadn't he attacked her then? Giles had explained that Angelus' M.O. had been to toy with his victims first. Buffy felt like her heart was being ripped out. She had loved Angel and now there was a monster out there wearing his face. She wondered if Xander had felt this before he staked Jesse.
Her mother came in to comfort her, but she couldn't tell her what was going on. It felt good just to be held while she cried. And she consoled herself that the next day was Saturday. The day they were planning on telling her everything. The thought filled her with both a sense of comfort and dread.
Saturday arrived and Willow and Ford were at the school science lab setting up the lab equipment to test Ted's cooking. Meanwhile, Buffy's golf game was off. Though Xander was able to maintain his concentration. She was watching him for eye glow, as she suspected that Jo was doing the golfing. And she considered that cheating.
Well, two could play at that game. She dropped her ball in the cup by hand and claimed a '2' for the hole.
"Beg to differ." Ted said from behind the windmill.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
But Ted was angry. "I think you're missing the point here, little lady. Right is right, wrong is wrong. Why don't people see that?"
"Maybe because it's just a game?" Buffy snarked.
"Right, it's just a game, do your own thing, well, I'm not wired that way. And I am here to tell you it is not a game! It does count, and I don't stand for that kind of malarkey in my house!"
"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm not in your house." Buffy smirks.
Ted wasn't amused. "Do you want me to slap that smart-ass mouth of yours?"
"I'd like to see you try." Buffy offered.
But Ted noticed that the others had joined them, "Who's up for dessert? I made chocolate-chip cookies!"
Joyce opened the zip-lock bag of cookies.
Xander smiled and reached for some. "Yeah."
"I had expected Willow, so I made too many, you guys are gonna have to take some home, then." Ted offered.
Buffy's stomach tightened as her mother took a cookie. They had decided that they wouldn't interfere until they had scientific proof that they were laced. And Xander had made the point that a sedative might be just the thing her mother needed when she learned about the Slayer.
"Mm! Buffy, you've got to try one of these! They're really good!" Joyce exclaimed.
Buffy felt her stomach tighten even more as her mom munched away. Until Xander gave the code phrase: "Mm! These are tasty!"
Then she gave Ted the nastiest smile she could manage. Gotcha! she thought
"Mom, could we stop by the school quick? I have to drop something off at the science lab."
"Sure honey." her sedated mother agreed quickly.
Once in the science lab, Joyce wondered what was going on, seeing Willow and Ford there and perfectly healthy. Then she recognized Ford. "Billy Fordham? I haven't seen you in ages." she gave him a big hug.
While Ford and Joyce got caught up, Xander passed Willow the bag of cookies to begin her experiments on, though he snagged one to munch on too.
"Xander!" Buffy complained in a stage whisper. "Those are evidence."
"But I'm hungry and they don't affect me. Besides. I already touched this one so it's contaminated evidence. Best to just destroy it." he said and then shoved the whole cookie in his mouth.
Buffy stared at him open-mouthed as he chewed away at the cookie pleasantly.
"Xander leave some for the others this time." Joyce scolded pleasantly. Then she went back to catching up with Ford.
"Finished!" Willow exclaimed. "And apparently the secret ingredient is not love."
"What do you mean?" Joyce joined the group.
"What is it then?" Xander asked.
Willow frowned. "It looks like it's Dematorin. It's a type of tranquilizer, keeps you all mellow and compliant. It also shares a few components with Ecstasy."
"What does?" Joyce asked again.
"The sedative that Ted put in your food." Xander stated flatly.
"Oh. Is that bad?" Joyce wondered.
"Unless being drugged and controlled is your thing?" Xander received a shot in the ribs from Buffy for that. "Yes. It's bad."
"I should probably be angry. But I'm not." Mrs Summers observed.
"That's probably the drugs talking." Willow assured her then turned to Xander, "We should probably tell her the rest of the stuff now while she's nice and mellow." she advised.
"Will she remember?" Buffy asked.
"She'll remember most of it." Willow assured her friend. "And once she's had time to process everything, she should be more rational about everything once the drugs have worn off."
"Ok. Mom. I want you to listen to me very carefully. Ted is a bad man. He's been drugging you and he threatened me today. But that's not the most shocking news I have for you today." Buffy began.
While Buffy explained the Slayer to a very understanding mother figure, Xander gave Ford his diplomatic ID.
"I thought you said it wouldn't come till Monday?" Ford asked.
"They told me by Monday. Courier arrived this morning." Xander clarified. "Congratulations, you are now an official attaché of the Tok'ra. Willow and I are going to move in after we're done here. You have some rooms picked out for us?"
"Yeah, but I hope you're bringing some furniture. The place is a little bare." Ford admitted.
"Oh my gosh, Ford. What did you sleep on?" Willow asked.
"I had a mattress and a blanket. No frame, but I can get that later. I was talking about the other stuff. There's no fridge, no kitchen table, we have a dryer but they took the washing machine. Oh, and they took that little outdoor fountain that you liked." Ford enumerated.
"The one with the birds? How could they? Do they know how hard it is to find a water fountain without frogs on it?" Willow complained.
"We'll deal Willow." Xander gave her a one-armed hug. "Although, we may have to leave early if Mrs S. doesn't start coming out of it soon."
Sure enough, Joyce started crying not long after that. Apparently all the news she had received while she was drugged was catching up with her.
Willow went to go comfort Buffy and Joyce while the boys stood there looking uncomfortable.
"You want to go grab some snacks?" Xander offered.
"Yes, please." Ford agreed and the males left the room.
Xander bought them some pop and a bag of chips. While they were eating, Giles and Miss Calendar came by.
"Ahh good. Xander. You passed along my message to Willow about Angel losing his soul, yes?" Giles asked.
"Yes. Everyone knows." Xander informed him.
"Wonderful. Have you seen Buffy? I expect that she might be emotionally distressed right now." Giles scratched his temple and looked at Jenny in such a way, it made Xander think that perhaps it might not have been Giles' idea to comfort his Slayer.
"She's in the Science Lab comforting her mother. She just told her everything." Xander told him.
"Dear lord. Everything?" Giles was shocked.
"I think she might have left out our suspicions that Ted is an NID agent, but everything else." Xander announced.
"Joyce is dating an NID agent?" Jenny slapped Giles' arm lightly, "Rupert, why didn't you tell me?"
"Well we're not sure yet." Ford jumped in. "But there's a good chance. Xander got 'NID agent' in the pool. Willow got 'human psychopath' and I got 'not human'. But they let me buy in for half when I got that category. No one thinks he's demonic. Just psycho."
"You're having a pool? What's the buy in?" Rupert asked. At another smack from Jenny he added. "I mean, that's very wrong, you shouldn't be betting. You're clearly underage." At another smack from Jenny he asked her, "What?"
"They shouldn't be betting on this stuff at all Rupert." Jenny hissed.
"Oh. Well Jenny. You see it's a way of letting off steam and injecting some levity in an otherwise dark situation. Plus it gives them something to look forward to." Giles explained. "As I understand, Xander and Willow have had pools going on how many vampires Buffy might slay in a given night almost since they found out." He waved his hand. "Anyway, I suppose we should go see if Buffy needs any backup." and they walked off in the direction of the science lab.
After they left Ford asked, "Is that true?"
"The pools? Sort of. We had them for a while, but Willow's too smart. She started getting eerily close to the correct number of vamps each night. For a couple weeks I made her pick one number and I got every other number. But she was still winning too often so we called it off. She claims she's not psychic. It's just pattern recognition and reading Buffy's moods. But I don't know."
Ford opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by an enraged yell from Joyce, "You Knew?"
Ford and Xander rushed to the science lab and found Giles sprawled in the doorway. "You know, that might be one of those reasons for maintaining secrecy." Ford remarked.
"The anger of a mother who just found out her little girl is a superhero destined to fight the forces of darkness. Good reason for secrecy. We'll put that down as number two." Xander quipped.
"Xander? You knew about this? And Billy?" Joyce deflated a little bit.
"Mom! Xander insisted on telling you." Buffy defended. "And Ford helped."
"I think you're an afterthought." Xander whispered.
"That's ok. They don't notice me then. I see more than people think this way." Ford whispered back.
Xander looked at Ford, who had just said in so many words the way he had felt while tagging along with Buffy. Ford just looked back and gave him a crooked smile.
"Willow, we should really get moving. Why don't we let the adults discuss this?" Xander said.
She finished helping Giles to a chair. "Ok." then waved to Buffy. "I'll see you later."
They got to Willow's house just before the movers arrived. Willow didn't have much to move. Bed, some clothes, plenty of books, and her computer. The hardest thing to move was her fish. Her mother had just gotten them for her the last time she'd been home. But the movers were apparently experienced in moving fish. They went into a large, very sturdy, plastic bag and the tank itself was drained before being moved. Willow had to sign a release stating that she understood the fish might not survive and that she wasn't going to hold them responsible if they did not.
Then on to Xander's house. They used the back stairs and didn't even have to go through the house. Xander only really had clothes and his bed. Though he was starting to collect a few books since Halloween. The hardest part was his hide-a-bed couch. The thing was super heavy and fairly unwieldy, but the burly moving guys seemed to have little trouble with it.
They stood looking at the back of the moving truck. All of his and Willow's possessions combined couldn't fill a moving van.
When they got to the embassy, as they were calling it, it was closing on sundown. They let the moving guys get the big stuff out while they moved the little things. They had no real plan for where stuff went so everything just kind of piled up in the entry way. After a tip, the movers were on their way. Hopefully home by the time the sun set.
Leaving Xander, Ford and Willow to sort out where they wanted everything to go. Step one was to look through all the rooms and decide which one they each wanted. Step two was to set out the 'unwelcome mat' as Xander called it. A mat with the phrase 'come back with a warrant' on it. Then they set to unpacking.
Angelus smiled at his new minion. 'D' something or rather. He was extremely meek, almost to the point of being human. But the guy was both smart and efficient. Which were far rarer skills in a minion than bravery. He had a dozen brave vampires who would attack the Slayer on his order, but only the one who had a chance of defeating her.
In fact, he was very close to defeating her. On Drusilla's orders he had been collecting 'body parts' as he called them. They were, in fact, pieces of The Judge. An unstoppable demon that Dru and now Angelus planned on unleashing upon the world once more.
They were only missing an arm and a leg. And those were both on their way. Angelus was impatient. He wanted to punish the Slayer now. But he refrained from taking his wrath out on the minion. Too hard to replace that one. So he went out to feed. Better to take his frustrations out on some human. Plus it had been so long since he had a kill.
He stepped outside and made his way towards the Bronze. There were always stupid kids walking home alone after dark around there. Plus it increased his chances of seeing Buffy.
Finally a boy came out alone. Boys were always more likely to travel alone at night than girls. Angelus wondered if that was the reason there seemed to be so many more male vampires than female vampires in Sunnydale. Shaking off the thoughts, he snuck up behind the boy and attacked.
Or tried to attack. Before he reached the kid's neck a horrible pain flashed through his head. Like being smacked in the head with a bowling ball. He reeled backwards and thrashed on the ground until the pain started to subside.
"Are you ok, man?" the kid asked.
"Fine." Angelus stood up and showed him his game face. "Pain's gone now." And he attacked again. And got hit with pain again. It was excruciating. And the second time was the charm. The boy finally did the smart thing and ran away.
As the pain faded, Angelus stopped screaming in pain and instead screamed in frustration. What the hell was going on? He decided to head back to the factory and have Brainy Vamp research it for him.