"My mom has a new boyfriend, Ted, I don't like him. I think there might be something wrong with him." Buffy told the others a few days later.
"Why not?" Corda asked, eyeing the box of cookies Buffy had brought with her. She'd never worried about her waistline because she'd been so active. The Cordelia part of her was still a teenager and did though, 'one couldn't hurt, right?' She thought.
"We went miniature golfing last night, the three of us and he accused me of cheating when Mom couldn't hear him. He grabbed my arm and said, 'See here, Missy, I won't stand for that kind of malarkey.'
"Sounds like something someone would say on one of those old tv shows." Alexander said, pulling out his scanner, he never went anywhere without it these days. "Which arm?" He asked.
"This one." She held out her left arm. Alexander ran the scanner over it and checked the results.
"Bone bruises." He announced and indicated where they were.
"That looks like a finger pattern." Corda said. "Exactly the way it would be if someone grabbed her."
"He'd have to be incredibly strong to leave bones bruises." Giles commented. "So not a human."
"What do you know about him?" Alexander asked, investigating and figuring things out was part of a Captain's job after all.
"He works at a computer store downtown. He and Mom met when he came in the gallery looking for a display object for his home. He made those cookies Willow's chowing down on."
"So sue me, they're really good."
Alexander ran the scanner over the cookies and said. "They're also drugged. Something artificial that my scanner doesn't recognize. Which isn't surprising given its limited exposure to Earth drugs and such."
"Drugged!" Willow exclaimed, dropping the cookie she'd been eating.
"Willow, are you okay?" Alexander asked, the Xander part of him, feeling anxious over his friend.
"I think so, just really relaxed."
"Willow do you feel up to doing an analysis in the chem lab?" Corda asked.
"Yeah, I should be fine."
"Buffy, go with her, just in case she gets too relaxed." Alexander ordered.
Buffy nodded and picked up the box of cookies and she and Willow headed for the chem lab.
"I can check into him online." Jenny Calendar, the computer teacher suggested. "I guess our date will have to wait, Rupert."
"Figuring this out is more pressing, I'm afraid. But we will have to try again."
Jenny smiled, in full agreement and moved to the computer.
"There's only two independent computer stores in town and one has a Ted Buchanan working there." She reported. "Let me see what I can find out about him."
Willow and Buffy returned a little while later.
"There is a drug in the cookies, but I can't identify it." Willow said. "It's not in the chem lab library.
"I've found out something very interesting about Ted Buchanan." Jenny announced. "He's had four wives since 1956. Marriage certificates, but no death certificates or death decrees for any of them."
"Wouldn't he have been like six, then?" Buffy asked.
"Well his date of birth is listed as being in the early 1920's."
"He doesn't look old enough to be either of those." Buffy said. "He looks a few years older then Mom."
"I suggest we check out his home. Since he'd still be at work right now." Alexander suggested.
"I agree." Giles said. "But do be careful. He could have extended his life with black magic or he could be a demon."
Once at Ted's house, Buffy moved to break the door and Alexander stopped her.
"If we're wrong, we don't want to be calling attention to ourselves." He looked around and spotting a twist tie on the ground picked it up and stripped the paper way.
"What are you doing?" Willow asked.
"I'm going to pick the lock."
"You can pick locks?!" She asked. "Alterans have locking mechanisms like ours?"
"No, our locking mechanisms were coded to our genetics. Xander knows how to pick locks."
"Since when?!"
"Since he was eleven. He taught himself how."
"He never told me that!"
"There's a lot he never told you, but he did tell Jesse."
His back was to her, so he didn't see her astonished and hurt look at the idea that Xander had hid something from her. Alexander quickly got the lock undone and the four of them entered. Alexander pulled out his scanner once they were inside.
"Well, I've found the wives. There are four dead bodies downstairs. Preserved bodies."
"I suggest we anonymously let the police know about the bodies and we go to Ted's place of business and scan him with the scanner." Corda suggested.
"Works for me." Alexander agreed. So did Buffy and Willow.
Corda drove them over to the computer store in Cordelia's car. Once there, they waited until they saw Ted exit the building.
"That's him." Buffy said, pointing at a man in his mid to late forties, appearance wise, with a bit of a gut. Alexander aimed his scanner at him and was surprised by what it showed.
"He's mechanical."
"Like a Replicator?!" Corda asked, alarmed. "I thought they'd been destroyed by the bombardment."
"No, not a Replicator, a mechanical being. Xander's memories call it a robot."
"A robot?" Willow asked, excited.
"One that's killed at least four people." Corda reminded her. "So it's either programmed to kill or it's malfunctioning."
"An electromagnetic pulse would disable it." Alexander said. "It's not adequately shielded. I can configure the scanner to release a narrow range one and target him."
"That's a good idea. And it'll leave it intact. We can use the parts to build other things." Corda said.
Alexander sent a pulse at the robot, Ted, and it just stopped and dropped to the ground where it was standing near its car. The four hurried over to it and Buffy picked it up and dropped it in the trunk of Cordelia's car.