The next day Xander headed out to the lab with the repository in it. He was nervous and praying this would work. They needed answers in order to protect the people they loved. And he had always been willing to go a long way to protect people he loved.

Once there, he didn't hesitate. Thinking one word and one word only, he stuck his head in the repository and silently said, 'Dagan'. A bright burst of rainbow colored light and information was in his mind. His conscious mind. It had worked. He returned home to talk to Cordelia. Kari was hanging at Giles' new store, the Magic Box and helping shelve supplies. He could see Cordelia anxiously watching out of the window.

She pounced on him as soon as he came in the door. "Did it work? Are you okay? Do we need to call Colonel O'Neill and the others?"

"It worked. It doesn't feel at all the same way it did before. There's just a little bit of information in my mind. But wow! Is it a doozy of information. Dagan was the name of a planet, in a galaxy approximately 3.1 million light years from here. It's the galaxy the Alterrans went to when they left Earth. They seeded human life in that galaxy. When they came back to Earth 10,000 years ago, some of those humans came with them. Those humans call them the Ancestors, even though they're not actually related to them, at least not like we are. It's more that they taught them, the way that a parent teaches a child."

"That's all? It didn't download millions of years of information into your head?"

"That's all. And now that I know how to use it, I'll see if it has any information on the Key. Although that may be harder to get, since that's an awfully vague term."

"Wait a couple of days, make sure you're okay."

"Alright. Come on, we promised Giles we'd help out at the Magic Box."

Over the next couple of days, they continued with their usual routine. They patrolled and dusted vampires. Then Tara's twentieth birthday came and with it her jackass relatives. They got their asses kicked out of the door when the Scoobies found out that they'd lied to Tara her whole life and terrified her into believing she'd turn into a monster on her twentieth birthday. You mess with one Scooby, you mess with them all. The party was fun.

Xander began working on a new device for Slaying, he expanded his uv light idea and began trying to make a wide beam laser with it. He took it to the Magic Box to show it off to the others.

"Another of your inventions, Xander?" Buffy asked. "What's this one do?"

"I expanded on the idea of the uv lights. I made a battery from scratch, it's alot stronger. Now the uv light is more like a wide beam laser. It can cut thru things. Watch." He aimed it at an empty box and activated it. A light hit the box and cut a hole about four inches across in it. And the other side of the box.

"It's short range, right now. No more then five feet, but as a last resort type weapon, given that I'm trying to avoid up close and personal fighting, I'd say it's very effective."

"Xander, when did you get interested in making stuff like this? You never showed any interest in it when we were in school." Willow asked.

"That's because stuff like this was always your stuff and you didn't want to share. But I like making stuff and figuring stuff out, it's fun and challenging."

"You were never any good at it, Xander. It just came natural to me, that's all."

"Willow, I took the same classes you did, I may not be a genius, but I'm not an idiot either, I can figure things out. I am majoring in mechanical engineering after all."

She gaped at him. "Since when. When did you decide this?"

"Last year. Willow, I've talked about it a few times. Haven't you noticed.?"

"No. I didn't. You really like making that stuff?"

"Yes and I think I'm good at it. Max thinks I have an aptitude for it."

"Who's Max?"

"Dr. Maxwell Aaronson. He's an engineer. A friend of friend. I met him last year. He gave me some advice on figuring out if I really did want to study engineering. He suggested I try designing and building something, get a idea how to do it and in the process, figure out if I enjoyed it. So I did. I built that air gun and I enjoyed it. From start to finish. Figuring out the design, how to build it, what I would need to build it and finally, building it. It felt good. I accomplished something and it's something useful to boot."

"It is indeed and quite effective too." Giles agreed, just as a large half snake/half sort of person crashed thru the front window of the Magic Box and stared at Kari. It flicked it's tongue at her and then turned and started to slither away. Xander raised his hand with the uv light laser in it and shot it at the creature. It screamed as it's flesh began to smoke, as though it were being roasted. The smell was awful, but it gave Faith and Buffy time to grab weapons and shish kabob the thing.

Cordelia grabbed Kari and the two of them held each other tight, Cordelia praying they'd continue to be able to protect her from whatever was after her.