Cordelia had been patrolling with Xander, Faith and Buffy for a few months now. Xander welcomed her presence on their patrols, it seemed right that they guard their territory together. Willow and Oz would occasionally join them, but they mostly were working on a project with Jenny to save Giles' books to disks.

One night, as the four were patrolling, a large group of vampires attacked them. Xander and Cordelia were working as a team, with Cordelia making good use of her super soaker and Xander was staking them. Buffy and Faith were also working as a team, Buffy stunning a vampire and throwing it towards Faith, who then staked it. They'd nearly dusted all of the vampires, when a human seem to randomly walk into their midst.

Buffy, not realizing at first it was a human, stunned him and shoved him towards Faith, who was about to plunge her stake into his chest when Xander's senses registered 'natural' rather then the wiggy feeling the vampires gave him. He manged to grab her hand just before the stake would have gone in.

"Faith, stop, he's human!"

"What? Oh gods, he is!" As her own senses registered human.

"Faith, you nearly killed a human?!" Buffy asked, incredulous.

"And there you go being a hypocrite again, Buffy." Xander said, sourly.

"What are you talking about, Xander?!" Buffy said glaring at him.

"Shall we count the number of people that are dead because you? Oh wait, we can't, because we don't know the full number. We do know, you killed Catherine Madison and the zookeeper in self defense, Kendra wasn't self defense, thru. She died because you were protecting a vampire. And then there's all the people Angelus and Drusilla killed while you didn't want to do your job. And if this guy here, had died tonight, it would be partly your fault too, since you didn't notice, he was human either. Regardless, this was an accident. Neither of you realized it and I only did because I'm used to sensing the difference between human and vampire. You're senses don't work that good at detecting vampires, remember and Faith was caught up in the fight. As for you, how in the name of all the gods, did you happened to walk into the middle of a big fight with vampires?" Xander asked the human.

"I was hoping to get to you before they attacked. I was too late. They work for a demon named Balthazar. Balthazar wants an amulet my boss stole from him a century ago. I'm also hoping you'll help me get away from my boss, sooner or later, he's going to kill me too. He's evil."

"Who's your boss?" Cordelia asked.

"Mayor Wilkins."

"The Mayor?!" From all four of them.

"Yes. He's been running this town for over a century, since before it was officially a town. He sold his soul for longevity. But that's not all of it. He wants to achieve demonic ascension. He wants to turn himself into an Old One. One of the demons that ruled Earth before humans. He's been working towards it for a century. Hundreds of sacrifices and rituals and he's only a little more three months away from finishing."

"Alright let's head to the library, you can fill everyone in and we can figure out what to do about this." Xander said.

So they took the man, who introduced himself as Arthur Finch, Deputy Mayor, to the library, where he told everyone of the lastest horrors they had to deal with. Plus, solved a couple of mysteries in the process. Seems the Mayor was Ethan's client, the one who hired him to spike the band candy, so he could have four babies kidnapped and sacrificed to the demon, Lurconis. He was also responsible for the state of Sunnydale. He was well aware of the vampires and allowed them to be there. Part of sacrificing humans to achieve his ascension.

After getting all of the information Deputy Mayor Finch had, Giles arranged transportation out of town and for Finch to stay with a friend of his while the gang resolved the current situation.

Before they could begin discussing either the vampire attack, the demon Balthazar or the Mayor and his plans, something happened that derailed everyone's thoughts. Cordelia began to rant about the 'unnatural Mayor who sold his soul' sacrificing the people they were responsible for in their territory. Sounding alot like Xander had when they'd first realized something had happened to him.

"Cordelia?" Jenny asked, hesitantly. "How long have you thought of Sunnydale as your territory and the people here as your responsibility to protect?"

"I don't know, couple of months maybe?"

"Since you started patrolling regularly?"

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"Something just occured to me and should have occured to me sooner. I'm going to ask a personal question and I'm not trying to offend you, just confirm a theory. Have you and Xander been having sex?"

"Yes, since Homecoming."

"Do you use condoms?"

"Yes, and I'm on the pill. My stepmother insisted on it when I turned fifteen. I was a virgin until Xander and I got together, but she wanted me to be safe. Why?"

"Has he ever...bitten you?"

"He gave me a hickey the first time we were together."

"That might have done it, just scrapping the skin might have been enough."

"Why all the questions, Jenny?" Giles asked, confused.

"Yeah, I didn't need to know any of that." Willow said.

"Bear with me. I want to do a mystical diagnostic on you, Cordelia. Then I'll tell you."

"Okay, go ahead."

"Well, that confirms my theory." Jenny said, resigned. "A werewolf's bite transmits a virus that can turn someone else into a werewolf. Seems Xander can do something similar. I'm not sure if it's via a virus or what, but Cordelia appears to be in the process of becoming a hybrid. Like with Xander, it's not reversible. Probably also means, any kids you two have, will also be hybrids."

"I'm okay with that." Cordelia said.

"Me too. It's seems right that she be like me. It felt right with her helping protect our territory too."

"It feels right to you both? Interesting. Both human and animal are natural states of being. Even joined together in one being, you're still in a natural state. Not normal, but normal is something different. So it feels natural to you. I doubt we've seen the full fallout from this. Unless one of you bites someone else, it'll probably just be confined to your family unit, but who knows what the long term effects on you will be? I want to start doing regular diagnostics on both of you. Monitor the changes to make sure it doesn't go sideways on you. I should have been doing that all along. Do either of you have a problem with that?"

"No, if it helps keep Cordy safe, I'm fine with it." Xander said.

"Me too, I don't want anything to happen to Xander."

"Well, if that's all, then I suggest we call it a night. We can meet tomorrow and discuss the Balthazar and Mayor situation." Giles said.

Everyone agreed and headed home.