A/N I'm going to take a moment and add a personal note here. I don't hate Buffy. I hate the message of the show. They claim it's female empowerment because the title character is a female superhero. Buffy has nothing to do with female empowerment. It's a show about a deeply disturbed child allowed to get away with crimes that would land anyone else in prison. People hate Xander's character because on the show, he pointed out the stupidity of her choices. After season three, the character was downgraded and we rarely saw him call her out for her bad choices. The only other sane character on the show, Cordelia, was sent off to the Angel show, where they changed Angel from a creepy stalker into a hero and destroyed her in the process. The show could have been everything they claimed it was without making Buffy a hypocrite. Faith accidentally kills a human Buffy throws at her and is declared evil. Buffy tries to kill Faith and feed her to a vampire and it's proof of love. Neither is true. And that's just one example of the hypocrisy of the show. In the Cruciamentum episode, Giles betrays Buffy in a deeply terrifying way and all is forgiven by Buffy and fans because he's accused of having a father's affection for a child. Interesting that it happens just as Hank Summer, up 'til now, a loving father, starts making excuses to not see his daughter. From an outside perspective, it looks like straight up manipulation. Not to fans. Fans want to believe the fantasy, the message. But I don't see what they're seeing. And they refuse to see what I see. Every one of those characters were screwed over by Joss Wedon, they all could have been so much more, without the mixed messages. I write both fiction about the show and commentary about it. I want people who read my stories to understand why I see the characters the way I do. Maybe it will promote dialogue instead of diatribes. Here's hoping anyway. Now on with the story.

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Xander was feeling kinda bummed. Cordelia had gone to L.A. with her father and stepmother for some gala party. He couldn't go because there was an apocalypse looming. All though if it got him out of wearing a tux, maybe he'd take a moment and thank one of big blue Jhe demons who wanted to try to open the Hellmouth tonight.

He was driving towards the school when he saw Jack O'Toole hassling someone. Bully and three time repeater of a grade. The kid needed help, so Xander went to see what he could do.

"O'Toole, what is it you get out of being a bully? I'm curious, 'cause it really doesn't look like that much fun."

"Harris, I think it's plenty of fun. Ah, now I lost my plaything. He had a cherry car. I need a ride. Maybe I'll just borrow yours instead, it looks nice too."

"I don't think so. Look, I got business elsewhere, so just move on, ok."

"I want the car." Jack pulled a large knife out of a sheath on his back. Once it would have intimidated Xander. Not anymore. Between Leo and Faith, he'd learned quite a bit. He kicked out with his foot and connected with Jack's hand, sending the knife flying.

"Go home Jack. Like I said, I've got business elsewhere." Just as Jack rushed him. They grappled for a moment until Xander could get some leverage and shoved Jack away from him. "You've got a problem with the word no, don't you?" Xander said.

"Which is why I just take what I want."

"Well, not this time." Before they could continue their fight however, one of the Jhe appeared and backhanded Jack. He flew back quite aways and landed on something sharp. The Jhe turned toward Xander, who grabbed his ax from the backseat of his car and swung for the fences. The Jhe's head came off. Xander turned toward Jack, who was just getting up There was a small problem though. A rod was sticking out of his chest. As Xander watched, Jack pulled it out.

"Ok, I know you're not a vampire, O'Toole, but what exactly are you?"

"My gramps is a voodoo necromancer. He raised me from the dead."

"So some sort of zombie. Good to know. Bye, Jack." And swung his ax again and took Jack's head off too. Leaving both bodies where they were, as there were scavengers that would take care of them, Xander resumed his trip to the school. He stopped again when he saw another one of the Jhe's going after Faith, who was currently without a weapon. "Faith, here!" He said, tossing her his ax. She caught it in mid air and imbedded it in the demon's chest, before pulling it back out.

"Thanks, X. Great timing."

"Hop in, we've still got time, before the Jhe's make their run for the Hellmouth. I was just on my way to pick up Amy."

Later, he, Faith, Amy, Giles and Professor Dormer were gathered in the library. They checked to be sure it was secured.

"The sewer entrance is blocked, both with Magic and welded bars. Good thing Oz knows how to weld. He's secure, right?" Xander asked.

"Willow is watching over him. We tranqed him earlier and the two of them are at my place." Giles told him.

"So the only way in for the Jhe's is the main doors of the library here. Amy, how long do you think your barrier spell will hold?"

"Maybe a hour. At best."

"It's ten o'clock now. For their ritual to work, they need to do it at midnight. They'll probably wait until the last possible moment and try to overwhelm us or given that they don't seem to be very smart, might just try to outright attack and either kill us all or wear us out. So the next couple of hours will either be very exciting or very boring."

They were both. The Jhe's intermittently attacked and were repelled by the barrier. When it went down, there was less then ten minutes until midnight. Those last ten minutes were very exciting, but the five of them managed to hold the Hellmouth and kill all the Jhe's.