Hope was deeply embarrassed when she woke up and decided she'd fainted. She immediately apologized.
"Do not concern herself, young one. Your excitement at your first trip off of your world and onto another is very understandable. You have not offended anyone, I promise you." Opher told her. "It is our hope that one day, you will return to visit us again."
"I'd like that, thank you. I guess it's time to go home now."
Once they were back on the Altimah, Alexander joked. "They told some friends of ours that they were young and needed to grow up before coming back to visit again. You, they invite back. You made a good impression on them."
"I did? Even though I fainted?"
"They were probably flattered that you were so excited to meet them." Corda told her, with a smile.
"It was exciting, thank you so much for this. Aside from Faith bringing me to live with her, very little about the last several years has been good. This went straight to amazing."
"Just remember, you can't tell anyone. There are people in the government who know about us, but they're not ready to have the whole world know." Alexander warned her.
"I promise, I won't say anything."
"Well, let's head for home. We've got some business we need to take care of." Alexander launched the Altimah back towards Earth. After arriving, Faith and Gunn took Hope back to L.A. while the others headed to the High School. And the Hellmouth.
"Opher didn't say any kind of ceremony was necessary to do this, but maybe we should take a moment and remember all of the people who have died because of this thing." Giles suggested.
"A good idea." Jenny said and they took a moment.
'Jesse.' Alexander thought. 'I hope you really are at peace.' The others were thinking similar thoughts. Then Alexander set the container on the Hellmouth and opened it. The green ball of energy rose up out of the container and then settled down to the floor. Slowly, the glow faded, until it was a dull green instead. Alexander pulled out his scanner.
"It's closed." He said, softly. "I'm reading no more energy coming from it. It worked." He maneuvered the container around the dull ball of energy and scooped it up, closing the container when it was safely back inside. "Now we just need to figure out where other rifts are and do the same thing."
"Well there's a Hellmouth in Cleveland." Giles said. Silence as everyone stared at him.
"And you're just now mentioning this?!" Buffy asked, incredulous.
"Giles, we could have been doing something about any demons there!" Alexander exclaimed.
"We could've gone in with our protective shields and pulse pistols and cleaned out most of the demons, just like we did here!" Corda was pissed.
"How could you not think to tell us about it before now?!" Jenny was equally incredulous.
"Gods, I need a good night's sleep." Alexander said. "And then we'll discuss going to Cleveland."
"Giles, Sunnydale has been quiet." Buffy said. "For a couple of years now. Years! I know you're smart, but sometimes, I can't help wondering if you're senile! Good night!"
"I honestly never thought about it. I should have, I just didn't."
The next day, Alexander called Jack. "So the Nox were able to help us. We closed the tear under Sunnydale, it's no longer leaking any energy." He reported. "And we have a lead on a potential one in Cleveland. We'll go check it out and let you know what we find."
"Well that's both good and disturbing at the same time. I've got a request from the President. We've verified that you, Corda and I have a gene that has not been catalogued by the Human Genome Project. They think it might be the gene you were talking about. They're going to start screening for it. But right now, there's just three people in the whole world that they know have it. He wants you to go the outpost and help the scientists start figuring things out."
"I'll talk to Corda about it and let you know. I don't think it'll be an issue, as long as it's not for too long. We do have other things on our plate."
After discussing it, it was decided that Alexander would take the Altimah and go to the outpost in Antarctica, while Buffy and Corda went to Cleveland. Giles and Jenny would look after Sunnydale while the group was scattered.
The next day, Corda and Buffy took the Chase family's small plane and the container with the Key in it, and headed to Cleveland. Alexander, along with Johnathan, who was one of two people, Oz being the other, who could be considered leading experts on Alteran tech, took the Altimah and headed back to the south pole.
Alexander set down near the outpost, on a newly cleared area where helicopters were also landed and he and Johnathan were able to exit through the airlock.
"You go to the computer room." Alexander told Johnathan. "I'm going to go to the control room. Obviously, they haven't figured out how to turn on the heat in here."
Once he was in the control room, Alexander took his seat and interfaced his mind with the computers, seeking the environmental controls, he activated them.
"Who the Hell are you and what the Hell do you think you're doing?!" An annoyed and strident voice demanded to know. Alexander glanced at the entrance to room and saw a man and woman standing there. Both looked upset.