CHAPTER TWENTY:

Storm clouds gathering…

Buffy had fallen asleep snuggled up with Angel and he had kept watch to make sure that Buffy and Faith remained safe during the night. Angel assumed that Michael was keeping an eye on the outside of the house, so Angel used the time with Buffy to relax and enjoy it—well not enjoy it too much.

He had been going over the plan that Buffy had laid out to him. It was an audacious plan to say the least and had a lot of risk, but it seemed the best bet for confronting the Mayor and dealing with him—considering the demon he was going to ascend to. It was getting closer to morning and Angel was starting to doze off, but he forced himself awake and would look at Buffy curled up next to him sleeping. He was still planning on leaving Sunnydale after graduation and Buffy knew it as well, but they had both agreed to put their melodramatic moment on hold until after they had dealt with the Mayor. They had enough melodrama dealing with Faith and Michael and to be honest it seemed to have a greater importance right now.

Who would've thought of Faith being married and a mother in the future? Just when you think you know people they surprise you, Angel thought.

He just started nodding off again, when the door burst open suddenly and Xander, Oz and Willow came barging in a rush. Buffy woke up startled and Angel jumped as the light from the doorway came streaming in and he naturally wanted to avoid bursting into flames.

"Hey! Watch it!" Angel said as he moved towards a darker part of the house.

Xander and Oz looked at Angel non-apologetically. Willow looked at least a little apologetic looking at him and saying, "Sorry… Our bad."

Buffy was wide awake now with the commotion, "What's wrong?" she asked as she sensed something had happened.

"Oh… I don't know… Except somebody turned the library into Swiss cheese last night." Xander said in his normal dead pan style.

Buffy's eyes widened at Xander's report, "What? What do you mean?" Buffy said trying to understand what had happened.

Oz interpreted for Buffy, "What Xander means is that someone decided to shoot up the library."

"Giles? Was anyone hurt?" Buffy asked with concern.

Willow spoke, "From police reports, no one was injured, but we haven't talked to Giles yet today. We wanted to tell you first before heading over to check on Giles."

"Do we know who is responsible or if we were the actual target?" Buffy asked.

"The police are blaming gangs… For the target…well it was either us or someone that has a pathological hate for books." Xander replied.

"It could be someone that didn't want to pay an overdue fine…" Oz deadpanned in reply.

"Enough!" Buffy said. She had an idea of who was behind the shooting, but she had no idea why. Buffy stood up and went to the bottom of the stairs and yelled, "FAITH!"

Buffy yelled for Faith one time and was about to head up the stairs when Faith showed up at the top of the stairs yawning and looking like she was just waking up.

"Hey B… What's with the early wakeup call?" Faith said stretching.

"We have trouble." Buffy said and this got Faith's attention immediately.

"What's up?" Faith asked as her focus switched and her concern became obvious.

"Looks like the school library was shot up last night… We need to go check on Giles." Buffy replied.

The group—minus Angel—headed out and rode in Oz's van to Giles's place. This was quickly reported to the Mayor by his man keeping watch outside the house…

oOoOo

Giles made his way tiredly to his door to answer the pounding on it. He opened it and was greeted immediately by a wave of teenagers giving him a group hug.

"Oh my… What's happening?" Giles asked slightly confused.

"Giles! Thank God you're okay! We heard what happened at the library and we were worried!" Buffy said expressing her concern and relief for the group.

"I'm perfectly fine… If you come in I'll explain everything." Giles said.

Giles tried to move back into the apartment, but everyone was still hugging Giles.

"Uhhh… If you would all kindly release me… We could be a little more comfortable and I would be able to explain…" Giles said slightly sighing and rolling his eyes, but secretly he appreciated the concern that everyone had for him. Everyone finally let go of Giles and made their way awkwardly into his apartment.

Buffy was the first to speak, "So what happened? Do you know who did the drive by?"

Giles gathered himself. He looked at Faith somewhat uncomfortably, "Yes… I know who did it and why…" he said pausing.

He could see that everyone was waiting for him to continue, "…It was Michael who shot up the library last night."

Faith was dumbstruck by what Giles had said, "It couldn't be… He wouldn't do anything like that… He's on our side." she said in an unbelieving tone while shaking her head.

Giles quickly spoke to calm any fears, "It's not what you think…"

"What the hell is he up to?!" Buffy said angrily interrupting Giles.

"Michael was putting on a show for the Mayor… He did give me a little warning before he started firing…" Giles replied.

Giles saw Xander holding up his hand—like he was in school, "Yes, What is it Xander?"

Xander looked somewhat confused, "Who's Michael?"

Giles looked at little exasperatedly at him and then he saw the same confused looks on Willow's and Oz's faces. He belatedly realized that the other members of their group hadn't been brought up to speed on everything that had been happening. Giles looked at Buffy and Faith and saw the same "oops" look on their faces.

"You might as well all get comfortable as this will take some time to explain everything that has been happening." Giles said with a sigh as he realized that it would take some time to explain the whole story.

oOoOo

Giles didn't know what was worse—the constant questions… the looks of disbelief as he explained who Michael was and his connection to Faith… explaining the plan that Michael was running… or the headache that had started as he had to explain about time travel and temporal paradoxes.

The others had looked at him as if he was crazy as he went through the whole story. Buffy and Faith managed to confirm the story and add more details without adding more confusion to the situation.

Giles managed to get the others caught up on what was happening and he was finally able to continue off from where he'd left off before being forced to backtrack, "Michael believes that Mayor is not buying his show of working for him… He was hoping that his display of force would get the Mayor to feel safer, but he's not very confident of it, so we have to make some minor changes to our plans."

"Like what kind of changes?" Xander asked.

"Well first of all… When we confront the Mayor our main goal is to now contain the Mayor close to or in the school and make sure we get all the people safely away from what Michael referred to as the 'kill zone'." Giles replied.

Everyone except for Xander had somewhat blank looks. Xander had looked at Willow and Oz as Giles explained who this Michael was. He was going to call bullshit on the story, but with Buffy and Faith backing Giles up, he had to accept it as the truth—despite how crazy it all sounded. Xander went over the new plan that Giles had outlined. The first plan had been crazy enough—planting explosives in the school, but this new one was bordering on insane. Xander retained enough of his time of being a soldier from the Halloween curse to understand what a "kill zone" was. He got a very bad feeling about where this plan was going, but he didn't voice he concerns as he glanced towards Faith. He would talk to Giles later privately about it.

"Michael has given me a list of items he needs picked up. He also provided instructions on how he wanted everything setup and placed." Giles said as he handed the paper with the information on it to Xander.

Xander read over the paper and it took every ounce of his self-control to not yell out. Jesus… This is insane… At least he didn't ask for a nuke to use, he thought as he tried to control his expression and emotions.

oOoOo

Wilkins was at his desk and his thoughts were preoccupied once again worrying about what to do about his robot problem. The more he thought of it the more he didn't want to have to deal with the robot at his ascension. If there was some way to lure the robot out so the demons he hired could kill that robot before the ceremony and then he wouldn't have to worry about any problems when his time came.

The Mayor sat back and went through everything that he knew about the robot in his head. He sat and let himself review every detail that he had learned from his sources and Faith—before she defected back. He knew something was there, but it was just out of reach. His mind started wandering and he thought about Faith—how he had held such promise and high hopes for her... How upset she'd been with him in her apartment… She was going to be his pride… She'd been so upset over this Michael character and now she was reported being happy… She was the daughter he never had… She was…

The Mayor stopped as a thought came to him like a thundering revelation, No… That couldn't be right… That's impossible, he thought.

The more the Mayor considered the impossibility of it the more it started to seem possible. The Mayor quickly fished out the phone number of the demons that he had hired and gave them a call.

"This is Mayor Wilkins in Sunnydale… I need to meet with you ASAP… Yes I know we weren't scheduled to meet again, but we're going to have a change in venue and time for the work I contracted you for… Tonight after 9pm here in my office… Thank you."

The Mayor had a predatory smile as he hung up the phone. I have the place and time… I just need to arrange one more thing to have some insurance and to take care of some betrayal, he thought. Wilkins kept smiling as everything was coming together and soon all his problems would be gone.

oOoOo

Michael was resting in his room in the warehouse basement. He was going over the changes to the plan in his head. His new plan was a little more risky and had a higher potential for the dreaded "collateral damage". Getting the required material was no problem as he had already gotten Junior to hack into the appropriate business and military databases to arrange for the re-routing of certain items to the location where Giles and Xander would pick them up.

He recalled from his memory, what Buffy and Giles had told him about the original confrontation with Mayor Wilkins in his time line. They had organized and armed the students, at the graduation ceremony, to fight off the vampires and Buffy had lead the Mayor, in his demon form, into the school library where they had placed a cache of explosives. Buffy escaped as the explosive charges went off barbecuing the Mayor. In this time line the conditions had changed, so the plan had to be adapted. They were still planning to arm the students to fight off the vampires, but instead of attacking, they would do a fighting withdrawal getting all the people to evacuate from the blast zone radius. Michael had planned for a bigger explosion and to also help contain the Mayor and prevent the vampires from pursuing, he had taken a page from his "Battle of the Hellmouth" playbook. Michael had tasked Giles and Xander to pick up the materials and assemble what would be some very large home-made claymore mines using oil drums packed with explosives and ball bearings and nails. Michael knew that his role would be to keep the Mayor occupied and as close to the school as possible. If he couldn't kill the Mayor with his weapons, he would be able to set off the explosive charges and fry his ass. Michael knew that by all probability he would still be in the blast zone, he would use his armor lock system to make sure his ass didn't fry along with the Mayor's.

Michael sighed as he reviewed the plan as he also knew that while all this was happening, he would also have to obtain the "Staff of Uman" and then portal back to Virgil and have him figure out how the staff worked and then activate it and then he would be back home in his time line before the hole in the space-time barrier closed…

Easy as pie… And if I believe that it will all go according to plan then I'm also one of the Covenant prophets and we'll all come together holding hands and singing Kumbaya…

Michael was a realist in terms of operational plans—that was had kept him alive this long. He knew that the odds were good that he would either die or be stranded in this time line forever. That created a paradox for him. If he was stranded in this time line what about Faith? The past version of himself would be arriving here in a few months. Did he stay and deprive his past self of being with Faith and experiencing all those moments of being with her so that he could be selfish and try to get back what he had lost?

I'm eleven years older than when my past self will be when he comes through and Faith is only eighteen years old now. She should be with a younger man or younger version of me… Damn! That headache is starting up again.

If somebody asked Michael why he was going through all this when he knew that the odds were stacked against him—then he would just say that they didn't know Spartans very well. He—along with the other Spartans—had been battling against the odds their whole lives since they had been selected for the program. He was a realist and knew that eventually the house would win, but that never kept them from trying to achieve what some would consider the impossible.

He had given it some thought about what he would do if he failed to return home—he would return back to the UNSC in this alternate time line. He already knew that the war with the Covenant would be over soon, but the UNSC could always use another Spartan as there still would be a lot of work to do in the peace. He made the decision knowing that he would never see his wife and daughter again, but he realized he couldn't stay here—he didn't belong here at this time with this younger Faith.

This isn't my time or place… The younger me…this is his place and it's for him to travel this new unknown path with Faith.

Michael had already decided that once he was back in the UNSC, he would destroy the dimensional recall device in his suit. There would be no temptation to return to Virgil or to Faith. Faith and the other Michael would have their lives together and they would have the opportunity to be together. He was realistic, knowing that he couldn't force them to be together, but he was putting everything in place for them to have that choice.

He consoled himself that he planned to spend the time he had left here with Faith. He was going to go to her tonight and he would love her like he always had. He had briefly considered not telling her of what he was going to do, but he needed to be able to say good bye cleanly. He knew there was a high probability that he would never have that opportunity with his Faith. She had been and would always be the one he was supposed to be with and he felt that it was important that she needed to know that.

oOoOo

As evening arrived, Faith was feeling anxious. She had hoped that Michael would have showed up by now, but there had been no sign of him yet. She needed to talk to him. With everything happening with the Mayor and now the changes to the plan, she was getting worried and she was also getting a bad feeling. She was feeling confused along with being anxious. She knew that she loved Michael, but she thought that everything was going so fast and she didn't know if she was ready for the type of relationship that she would have with Michael in the future. She kept thinking of all the choices and her feelings.

Damn it! Michael was right… You can get a hell of a headache thinking about all this time travel stuff, Faith thought holding her head and rubbing her temples.

She tried to look at all the positives and negatives and she got even more confused, but as she tried to clear her mind and get rid of her headache, she remembered how Michael looked at her when she had woken up in the installation with the sun coming through the windows and balcony door—it was as close to heaven as she could have ever imagined it. She could never recall feeling so happy and loved in her life.

Where the hell do you think you're going to find another guy like Michael again? It's not like they are standing around on street corners waiting for you to show up. He's a one of a kind!

Faith was all caught up in her torrent of thoughts and emotions that she was startled by a voice behind her.

"Hi…"

Faith turned around quickly and saw Michael standing in the bedroom doorway. He wasn't wearing his armor. She quickly ran to Michael and jumped up into him. Michael reacted quickly and grabbed her as she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and kissed him hard.

Faith finally broke away from the kiss and looked Michael in the eyes, "I'm glad you came… I was wondering when you would show up… I see you came without your armor." she said.

"I snuck in the back way… It's what I do… My armor is stored in another room. I know I won't need it tonight." Michael said with a smile.

He touched her face gently and they leaned in and kissed again. The kiss seemed to last an eternity for both of them. They finally parted and Faith looked at Michael and smiled.

"Whoa… That was… Does it always feel like that?" Faith said in a sexy whisper as she tried to catch her breath.

"Every time…" Michael replied to Faith smiling and feeling the same way.

"Let's not waste any more time then…" Faith said as she leaned in and kissed Michael again.

Faith wrapped her legs around Michael as they still kissed. They made their way to her bed and quickly took their clothes off and touched and explored each other. They spent hours wrapped in each other. At that moment the world didn't matter, it was just the two of them together—like it was always meant to be.

oOoOo

Mayor Wilkins was meeting with the demons he had hired to deal with his robot problem. The demons were a little upset as they had their made plans on certain assumptions that the Mayor had already provided and now he was making last minute changes.

The first demon spoke, "Mr. Mayor… I can understand that you want to change the location, but dealing with these types of situations requires planning…"

"Yeah… We don'ts like last minute changes… Causes too many headaches and problems and things can go wrong." the second demon spoke to support his partner.

The Mayor smiled, "I can certainly understand and appreciate your position, but what if I could arrange the robot to be at a pre-determined location and time so that it can make your work easier?"

The two demons looked at each other and then the Mayor, "I thought that you wouldn't know when this robot would show up until your ascension ceremony began?" the first demon asked.

The Mayor continued smiling, "I thought so too, but looking at and analyzing this robot's behavior. I do believe that this robot has a particular fondness for one of the Slayers… I believe this is a weak spot that could be exploited…" he explained.

Wilkins paused for a moment as he saw that he had the demons' attention with what he was saying. The Mayor continued, "I know where the Slayer…Faith…is holed up right now. If you were to say… stage an attack on the house where she was staying. I am absolutely positive that you could draw the robot in to respond to your attack and then…"

Both demons smiled as they grasped what the Mayor was suggesting. "We sucker it in and then we kill it…"

"I call dibs on its head… I want to mount it as a trophy… I ain't never killed me no robot before…" called out the second demon much to the chagrin of the first demon.

"Okay you can have the head…." said the first demon.

Wilkins didn't dissuade the demons from their thoughts that they were still dealing with a "robot". For him it was a minor detail, if his problem was caused by a robot or a human, it was the end result that was important. Much like an election, the campaign promises were unimportant, it was the ballot results on election night that only mattered.

As long as this Michael character ends up dead...that's all that matters.

"You can keep whatever trophies you want… You'll be ready to go the night before my ascension ceremony?" the Mayor asked questioningly with a smile on his face in anticipation for getting rid of his problems.

The two demons looked at each other for a moment and then nodded. The first demon turned to the Mayor, "It will be kind of tight, but it's doable… Can you provide us the address of where the Slayer is staying? We would want to give our regards to her afterwards." the demon said smiling.

"No! You'll not harm the Slayer… I have other plans for her." the Mayor said in a stern voice.

"Whatever…as long as we gets our money we'll take care of our side of the bargain." replied the first demon.

"That's good to hear… I look forward to the successful completion of our business arrangement." the Mayor said smiling as he escorted the two demons from his office.

Wilkins had just sat back down at his desk when there was another knock at the door. The Mayor smiled as he answered with a pleasant "Come in…"

The door opened and a couple of vampires that were providing their services to the Mayor entered the office stopping in front of his desk. He could see that they were anxiously anticipating his orders.

"You sent for us?' asked one of the vampires somewhat nervously as they were wondering why they had been summoned.

"Yes I did… In three days' time, our robot problem will be removed. The robot will die trying to protect Faith…when it is dead I want you and a group of your friends to go in and secure Faith. She is not to be killed or bitten… She is to be brought to me 'relatively' unharmed. I need to teach that young lady a thing or two about loyalty and respect. Do you understand?" Mayor Wilkins said smiling.

The vampires smiled as they nodded their understanding…

oOoOo

Faith and Michael lay together in bed holding each other. He knew that she was asleep from listening to her breathing patterns. He couldn't sleep, but he didn't want to move or leave. He didn't want this moment to end as he was actually afraid. Michael found he was more afraid now than at any other time he could ever remember feeling fear. He didn't want this to end, but he knew it was going to end—at least for this version of him. Michael wished that he had one more opportunity to hold his daughter and tell her that he loved her. A part of him wanted to rage at the unfairness of it all and the cruelty of the universe, but considering that he was a Spartan and the life that he'd lived and what he had to endure. He knew that he'd been lucky to have lived as long as he had and that he had been able to have his family. He knew that there was always a slim hope that Faith and Virgil from his time line would try to look for him. His Faith could be pretty stubborn and wouldn't give up easily—that was one of the many things he loved about Faith.

Michael was finally able to relax enough to fall to sleep and he found himself dreaming of many things… Blue skies and green fields of his childhood… Friends and comrades that were long gone… Faith and Adriana standing by a deep blue lake and a blue sky that seemed to go on forever…