Xander jogged through the halls of Sunnydale High. He was late for an important meeting Giles had scheduled for this afternoon.
Things between him and the Scoobs were getting better, which was one of the reasons he was invited to the meeting in the first place. They still didn't let him take part in the action, but that was okay with him.
That his purpose in the group was limited to research gave him enough time for his night time job.
Working for the Mayor was not that bad. He paid well and the job was interesting. And the fact that he became again a more integral part of the gang gave him the opportunity to give his boss all kinds of information about his opponents. The drawback was, that he couldn't spend his money without attracting attention. Sometimes the world was unfair.
Xander crashed through the library's door, immediately turning the attention of all the occupants on himself. Everyone was there: Buffy, Willow, Oz, Cordelia, Faith and Giles. Of course Angel was missing, it was still day after all.
"Hi guys," he greeted everyone. "Sorry I'm late, but Ms. Walker wanted to talk with me about my homework," Xander said and walked up to the table in the middle of the room. He took a chair and sat down, looking at Giles with anticipation.
Giles sighed. "Now that you are all here I think we can begin with our meeting."
Buffy interrupted him. "Yeah, Giles. What's so important that it couldn't wait till school was over."
"Well, I will explain that to you. First, I have a question for you," and pointed at Xander, Willow and Cordelia.
"Fire away G-Man," Xander told the librarian.
Giles grimaced at his nickname but decided to let it slip this time.
"Who is the Mayor of the Sunnydale?" he asked the three teens.
The three looked at each other confused, trying to find out what this strange question was about. Xander at least tried to look confused, knowing exactly who the Mayor was.
Willow finally broke the silence and answered at Giles's question. "Well, as far as I know, Richard Wilkins III is the Mayor of Sunnydale. Why?"
But Giles continued without giving her an answer. "You three lived your whole life in Sunnydale. Has there ever been an election for the position of the Mayor?"
This time it was Cordelia's turn. "Now that you mention it...no, I don't think there has ever been an election in this town. And I have to know it. My parents support every important politician in the whole state."
Buffy was now clearly confused "Giles, what's that all about? "
Faith agreed with her sister-in arms. "Yeah G, I'm getting a bit impatient here."
Giles took his glasses from his nose and cleaned them. Everyone in the room could see that he hadn't slept much the last night.
"Last night I got a call from the Deputy Mayor Allan Finch," He started his explanation. "He told me that he had information that would prove that Mayor Wilkins was behind some of the supernatural threats we faced in the last months. He was willing to give me these information. His only condition was that we would protect him and his family. I asked him, if we could meet and he gave me the address of a hotel at the city limits."
Buffy looked around trying to find a trace of the mentioned Deputy Mayor.
"And where is this witness of the evil in politics?" she asked
Giles looked with at his young charge before he answered. "He's dead, Buffy."
"Oh," was the only thing Buffy muttered.
"By the time I arrived there he was already dead. Mr. Finch was killed by vampires and completely drained. I searched through the whole room, but the vampires must have taken the files with them. But the fact that he was killed shortly after his call seemed prove enough for me that something has to be true about the accusations he made."
Xander grimaced. The Mayor called him last night and told him everything about this operation. Xander was out of town, doing an errand for the boss in LA, so he wasn't available for the job.
From what the Mayor had told him, Finch broke into the Files-Room and stole the most compromising material , that would prove that the Mayor was involved in nearly every supernatural business in the whole town. He also told him that he had to send a couple of vamps to take care of that problem.
That Finch was able to call Giles before he was eliminated was a surprising turn of events, but Xander already asked his boss if the Deputy Mayor had known about him being on the payroll of City Hall. But Wilkins was able to reassure him, telling him that his name was never mentioned in any of the files and that Finch also didn't know anything about him.
Xander was brought from his thoughts when Giles continued.
"We have to assume that the Mayor found about Mr. Finch's change of heart and sent a few vampires to take care of that situation. And it would also clear some of things that happened last time. We all knew that Trick was not working on his own. But questioning him is not possible, since no one has seen him in the last few months."
"Allright Giles, I think we get it: Mayor equals Big Bad." Willow threw into the room. "But why were you asking us about the elections here in town?"
Giles looked at Willow.
"That's a good question Willow," he told the young witch with an approving smile. "After yesterdays happenings I decided to take a closer look at Mr. Wilkins. This morning I went to the Hall of Records and looked through everything they got on the Mayor. Well, it looks like Mr. Wilkins is not only over one hundred years old, he is also the founder of Sunnydale"
Faith was the first to speak up. "The guy is over one hundred years old? How is this possible?"
"It has been known that some humans have sold their souls in exchange for power and immortality. It seems that Mr. Wilkins has done exactly this."
"So the Mayor is the Big Bad around here. Any idea what we can do about it?" Buffy asked.
"Well for the moment I propose that we act as normal. I maybe have a few contacts that can help me getting some information about our new enemy." Giles sighed. "You now can all go on with your regular activities. I will know more after this weekend."
When he left the library, Xander thought that the Mayor would be very interested in this information.
"That's not good," the Mayor exclaimed after Xander told him about the Scoobie meeting.
"What ?" Xander said and looked shocked at his boss. "The gang finds out about you being the bad guy around here and that's all you can come up with?"
"What do you expect me to do?" the older man asked him a little bit confused. "Should I start screaming, ranting how unfair the world is? Maybe shatter the chair you are sitting on?"
Xander had to smile at that answer, picturing an angry Mayor Wilkins demolishing his office. "Wouldn't be that bad. And quite funny I may add."
"Oh, I'm quite angry Alexander, believe me. But burdening the tax payer by breaking my furniture wouldn't change anything." The Mayor paused a second before he continued. "All we can do now is to deal with the problems."
"Yeah, mainly my cover. Are you sure your Deputy Mayor didn't know that I was working for you?"
"No he didn't know that. And I have to say, I'm glad that I didn't tell him that."
Xander looked around and sighed.
"Alexander, is there something bothering you?" the Mayor asked worriedly.
"No, nothing important. I was just wondering... Look you are the boss of Sunnydale, right?" That earned him a nod from the politician. "You rule all the demons in this place. And someone in a high position like you surely has a lot of enemies. But you have no protection, no bodyguards, no nothing. Isn't that a bit dangerous for you?"
"Good question Alexander" The Mayor told him and smiled. "You got your gun with you."
Xander shrugged and drew his H&K USP from under his jacket and handed the gun to his boss.
The Mayor looked at the gun in his hand. Suddenly he pointed the gun at his temple and pressed the trigger. The .45 cal bullet went right through his head, leaving a large hole in his skull.
Xander was temporarily deafened by the loud detonation in the small room. However, every sign of dizziness quickly faded away when he saw that the man in front of him not only was alive, but instead also grinning at him. The Mayor turned his head and Xander could see that the bullet wound was healing with an incredible rate.
Under Xander's shocked stare the Mayor took a letter opener from his desk and went to the place were the bullet hit the wall. He quickly dug the bullet out of the wall and walked up to Xander's side.
"You see Alexander, I need no protection," the Mayor told him and gave him his gun and dropped the now deformed bullet on the desk.
"Wow," was the only thing that came to Xander's mind.
Wilkin's secretary suddenly burst through the door, looking worried at her boss.
"Mr. Wilkins, are you okay? I heard a shot and...." she started.
"It's ok Carol, nothing happened here. Please close the door when you leave."
The secretary walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, all the time eying Xander with a wary glance.
Xander was finally able to formulate a question. "So, you are invincible?"
"Yes, you could say that."
The second time Xander was at a loss of words. "Wow."
"Well, let's get back to normal business," the Mayor decided
"Okay. So, what do you want me to do?" Xander asked him.
"Well, in general, what you have done in the past. Monitor everything important in your little group and report it to me."
"You got it boss? Anything else before I go."
"Yes. I heard some rumors about a demon that has the books of Ascension in his possession. It will be your Job to retrieve these very important volumes for me, either by buying them or by eliminating the demon."
The Mayor opened his top drawer and gave Xander a piece of paper with an address on it and an envelope, which by it looks was filled with money. Xander took both items and put them into the pockets of his jacket.
"The books of Ascension, huh? A hint about your great master plan?"
"Alexander, I told you that I will tell you everything about my plans for this city if the time is right. For now you have only to know that the books a quite important for me," the Mayor answered his question.
"Okay boss. But remember: I hate it when people leave me in the dark," Xander said and left through the door.
The Mayor smiled till Xander left the room. After that he looked worried at the dent in the wall.
"How am I gonna explain that to the carpenters?" he asked himself.
Meanwhile the demon who had the so important books in his possession was packing his few belongings into his suitcases. He was nearly finished when he heard a knock on the door.
He quickly ran through his small apartment. He opened the door and looked at the man in front of him with relief.
"Oh, it's you. You got the money?" he asked and took a step back to allow his visitor to enter the room.
Giles accepted the invitation and walked into the demon's apartment.
"Here," Giles said and handed the demon a wad of bills.
The demon quickly counted the money.
"Okay, the books are there," he said and pointed at his bed.
Giles walked up to the bed and looked through the books.
After a while the demon was getting impatient.
"You satisfied with them," he asked.
"Yes, the collection seems complete," Giles answered.
"Anything else you want."
"Yes, you could tell me where you got these books from."
"I bought them from an occult book store in LA."
"Do you know if they have anything else on this Ascension?"
"Don't know, you have to ask them."
The demon went back to his suitcases and searched through them. Finally he found what he was searching for and produced a small business card from one of the pockets. He handed Giles the card, but before the watcher could grab it the demon took the card out of his reach.
"That will cost you another grand," he told the watcher.
Giles cursed under his breath, muttering about demons not having any kind of sense for tradition. But in the end he gave the demon the requested money. The demon continued packing his few belongings together while Giles stuffed the books in a duffel bag, he brought with him for this purpose.
When he was finished he walked out of the door, leaving the demon to himself.
The demon finished his preparations and made himself ready to leave, when he heard another knock on his door.
"Have you forgotten anything?" he asked the person on the other side of the door.
He opened the door and revealed a smiling Xander Harris.
"Hi," was all the boy said before he punched the surprised demon in the face. The demon lost his equilibrium and collapsed on the floor, clutching his broken nose.
Xander casually walked into the small apartment and threw the envelope with the money on the demon's chest.
"I hope that's enough," he told the demon. "Where are the books?"
"Which books?" asked the demon, trying to sound clueless.
Xander lifted him up by his collar, so the two where on the same eye level.
"Do you think I'm stupid, demon. Where are the books of Ascension?" he asked him again.
"I sold them," the demon answered his question.
Xander let the demon fall to the floor. He drew his USP from under his jacket and pointed it at the frightened demon.
"You sold the books?" he asked. "To whom?"
The demon smirked up at him, realising that thing swere now standing in his favour.
"That information will cost you a pretty penny," he told the Mayor's personal hitman.
Now Xander was getting angry. He pressed the muzzle of his gun against the demon's forehead.
"I am gonna ask you this only one time, before I'm get angry. Who bought the books?" he asked the demon.
"The Brit, the Slayer's watcher. " he stammered out. "Please don't shoot me."
"You sold the books to Giles?" Xander asked.
"Yeah, that's his name," the demon confirmed his assumption.
Xander took the envelope and put his gun back in it's holster. He turned around and walked in the direction of the door.
"If I were you I would leave the town or else I'm coming back for you," he threatened the demon before he left.
Buffy arrived at the Rosenburg residence. Willow called her earlier, telling her that she found something important out. She knocked twice on the heavy door and seconds later Willow opened it.
"Hi Will," she greeted the witch. "What's so important that you couldn't tell it to me on the phone?" she asked her friend, noticing the sad look on her face.
Willow took a step back, allowing Buffy to enter the house.
"I will show it to you," she said and turned in the direction of the stairs. Buffy closed the door behind her and followed her friend.
Both walked up the stairs and Willow started telling Buffy what she found out.
"After Giles told us about the Mayor, I decided to look if I could hack into the computer system at City Hall. Most of the stuff is really well secured and it'll take me some time to break these." she explained.
"But you found something, right," Buffy interrupted her. "Something important, because you look pretty shocked."
"Yeah, I found something," Willow said and smiled weakly. "One of the things I was able to hack in were the financial records. It was not that interesting and I already wanted to try something different, when I spotted a familiar name on the payroll of City Hall."
They finally arrived at Willow's room and entered through the open door.
"Who?" Buffy asked.
"Look for yourself," Willow said and pointed at the computer screen.
Buffy quickly sat down in front of the computer and read the name Willow had underlined.
"Nom that's a mistake Will. He wouldn't do something like that." she told the witch with disbelief in her voice.
"I'm afraid it's true Buffy," she told her friend and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Xander is getting paid by the Mayor."
Both were silent for the following minutes.
Finally Willow was getting concerned.
"Buffy?" she asked.
Buffy turned around and looked at her. She now had the same look of shock and defeat on her face.
"What are we gonna do?" Willow asked her.
Buffy tried to compose herself before she answered.
"Call the gang. We are gonna meet at the library," she finally said.
A few quick phone calls later they had all the scoobs informed about the extra curricular meeting. After that, Buffy and Willow went to the liberary. One after one the Scoobs arrived, the last ones were Faith and Angel. That left Xander and Giles missing. Xander of course wasn't informed but Buffy couldn't guess where Giles was. She decided to ask the one person who stayed with him at his place.
"Faith, do you know where Giles is?" she asked the dark haired slayer.
"No idea B, he didn't come home" she answered her.
Angel spoke up.
"Giles came to me earlier. He bought these books of Ascension from a demon," Angel said and lifted the duffel bag he had with him. "He left them at my place. He said that they were very important for the Mayor. Then he left and told me that he was going to LA, to look for anything that could help us."
"Now, what's up B?" Faith asked "What's so important that we had to meet here?"
Buffy prepared herself for what was coming next. But no matter how she would say it, it would have quite an impact on the whole group.
"Willow called me earlier and told me that she found out something," she started. She paused a second before she continued. "She was able to hack into City Hall's computer system and found something." Again she stopped, deciding how she could formulate the bitter truth. Finally she decides to just say it. "It seems that Xander is getting paid by the Mayor."
Silence was now ruling the library. No one present knew how to react to the revelation.
Cordelia was the first to react. "You're insane," she accused the blonde slayer.
"Cordelia...," Angel tried to calm her down.
"No, that can't be true," she continued. "Xander would never do anything like this."
Willow interrupted her. "I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw it. But it's true. Xander seems to be working for the other side"
Cordelia kept quiet this time. Oz interrupted the silence. "Do you know for sure that the transactions were real? Maybe the Mayor faked them, to make us believe that Xander is working for the dark side."
Willow and Buffy looked at each other. "We haven't thought of that," Buffy admitted truthfully.
"But it might be right, him working for the Mayor," Angel interrupted. "I mean he killed Travers. And the following months after that he mostly kept to himself. Just recently he started spending more time with you again."
"And let's not forget that you two forbid him to help out with the slaying," Cordelia added and looked at Willow and Buffy.
"Well I have to agree with the bitch queen at that point," Faith said. That earned her a glare from Cordy. "I mean I don't know him as good as you and Red, but excluding him from slaying seemed like a heavy blow for him."
"Can you two please stop." Buffy finally said. "So we don't know for sure if Xander is working for the Mayor, okay? But we also agree that it might be possible."
"I tell you what, slayer," Cordelia interrupted. "If Xander is working for the other side you sure like hell deserve it."
"Willow, hand me a stake please. I think it's time to slay Cordelia," Buffy said and glared at the ex-cheerleader.
"Enough!" Angel said and stepped between the two females." Since Giles is not here and you all are starting to act like kids I think it's my job to come up with a half decent plan."
"What's on your mind," Oz asked the vampire.
"So, we don't know for sure if Xander is working for Wilkins, right?" Everyone nodded at that. " I say we plant a trap and see if Xander is gonna step into it."
"A trap?" Buffy asked.
Angel nodded.
"But as far as I know every trap needs a bait. What are we gonna use as bait?" Willow asked.
Angel thought about the problem, but came surprisingly quick to a solution.
He lifted the duffel bag on the table and took one of the books from the interior.
"If the Mayor want these books so badly, Xander surely also wants them" Angel finally said.
"That's not good," the Mayor exclaimed.
"Yeah," Xander answered. Either I get the books and maybe my cover is blown or we leave them in Giles possession and he finds everything out about your plans."
"Yes, I came to the same conclusions," Wilkins said. "I will think about that problem, Alexander. But you should go home. I will tell you tomorrow what we're gonna do."
Xander stood up from his chair.
"Okay boss, see you tomorrow," Xander said and left the Mayor's office.
Xander parked in front of the Summers residence and entered the house. But he was surprised to see Buffy storming down the stairs.
"Hey Buff. Why in such a hurry?" he asked.
"I have no time Xander," she told him. "Giles called from LA. He ran into some trouble and he needs our help."
"He's in LA? What is he doing there?" Xander asked confused.
"He wanted to see if he could find any information about the Mayor." Buffy was finally able to calm down a bit. "Look, I'll give you the short version. Giles bought these Books of Ascension from a demon. He left them at Angel's place and went straight to LA. He wanted to look if he could find anything else about the Mayor. But like I said, he ran into trouble."
"Oh, I see. Can I help?" Xander asked
"No, I don't think so."
"So, you are all going to LA?"
"Yeah, well except for Angel. He said he would handle tonights patrol." They were interrupted by the horn of Oz's van. "I have to go."
"No prob Buff. Good Luck," he told the blonde slayer.
"Thanks Xand. I will see you tomorrow" Buffy said and ran to the zebra striped van.
Xander waved after the departing Volkswagen and waited until it was out of sight. Then he took his cell phone and quickly dialled the Mayor's number.
He had to wait a few seconds before someone answered.
"Boss? Maybe I found a way of bringing you these books," Xander said into the phone and smiled.
Xander was now waiting two hours for Angel to leave the mansion. He had positioned himself in the bushes around the big house, watching the main entrance through the night vision scope on his M-16. Dressed in army fatigues it was unlikely that even the souled vampire could see him in the darkness. At least he knew that Angel was still in the house, he saw him about five minutes ago through one of the windows.
Finally the vampire left the mansion, closing the door behind him. Xander decided to wait an additional two minutes, just to be sure that Angel didn't forget something.
After the two minutes and no Angel in sight Xander slowly moved in the direction of the door, checking his surroundings, just to be sure that no one was watching him. The lock on Angel's door was a joke and he was able to pick it after a few seconds. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and opened the door.
He entered the mansion and immediately spotted the books lying on a table near the fireplace. He took the rucksack from his shoulders and quickly grabbed one book after another and put them into it.
He just placed the last one in the rucksack when he heard a noise behind him.
He looked over his shoulder and saw Angel standing in the doorway. His whole body tensed at the sight of the souled vampire, especially in this kind of situation.
"Hi Xander. Are you searching for something," Angel calmly asked, like everything was normal.
Xander grimaced. Dressed in fatigues, with camo paint on his face and a rifle over his shoulder he expected something different from him. He decided to play along, just for the hell of it.
"Yeah, Buffy wanted me to look through these books and I thought it would be nicer reading them at home," Xander tried and smiled at the vampire.
But Angel's face had the same calm expression as before.
"You're not buying it," Xander stated.
"No," was the only answer.
Xander shrugged. "At least I tried it."
Suddenly the whole Scoobie Gang entered the room through the various entrances. Buffy and Faith had a crossbows in their hands and immediately aimed at him whereas Willow and Cordelia were unarmed. But Oz had a nasty looking machete in his hand.
"Oh look the whole gang is here. I'm so honoured," Xander greeted them with sarcasm in his voice.
"My pleasure," Buffy responded coldly.
Xander sighed. " Well, I guess that means you found out about my little night time job. Please tell me what gave me away."
"One thing after another. First drop that rifle," Buffy told him.
Xander grabbed the M-16 at the muzzle and let the deadly weapon fall to the floor.
Buffy decided to answer his question. "Willow found out that you were getting paid by the city by......"
"...by hacking into City Hall's computer system" Xander completed her sentence. "Great. A damn rookie mistake. Fuck," he cursed.
" How could you do that Xander?" Cordelia asked. "Working for the Mayor and all that?"
"Easy Cordy. He pays good and he respects me and my abilities. In contrary to my "friends". And he has a great sense of humor. God, this guy joked with me about selling my soul for a better handicap," Xander said and laughed at that memory.
"So this crap about us getting close again....," Buffy started her question.
"Just an act Buff. To get back into the gang and have better access to information regarding our little group," he told her with a smug grin.
"But the Mayor is evil. He killed people .... or ordered people to kill people, which is somehow the same," Willow started but had to stop to compose herself. "How can you work for him?"
"Hey, he also killed people," Xander said and pointed at Angel.
"He has a soul," Buffy answered.
"I also have a soul," Xander said, but lifted his hands in surrender. "But let's not get into this kind of conversation again. I'm more interested what you have planned for me."
"We will have to think about that. But for now I think I will be satisfied to lock you away," Buffy told him. "Angel, get the books" she told the souled Vampire.
Angel walked up to Xander and stopped in front of him. He raised his hand and waited for Xander to give him the rucksack. Xander shook his head. "Here Deadboy," he said and lifted the rucksack with his left hand to give it to Angel.
But before anyone could react he dived with his right hand into the backpack and suddenly Angel's body was shocked by the impact of two bullets. The souled vampire collapsed on the ground and Xander removed the pistol from the interior of the rucksack, where he hid it for situations like that.
Before Faith or Buffy could shoot him he pointed the USP at Angel's prone form.
"If anyone of you guys move I will kill him. And don't think that won't be possible."
From under him Angel groaned. "What have you done with those bullets. They burn inside of me."
Xander smiled and looked at him. "Well, a priest blessed them for me. According to some vamps I tested them on they should hurt like hell," Xander told him. He took the rucksack from the floor and slung it around his shoulders.
"What do you want?" Buffy asked him.
"I want out of here, unharmed," he told her and took his M-16 from the ground. "Then I will Angel here live. Or else I'm killing him."
Xander knew that he had her. Buffy wouldn't risk the life of Angel for some old books, regardless if they were important or not.
"That will not happen," Buffy stated, her face stone cold.
"Huh," was the only response Xander could formulate. That answer was the last thing he expected.
"You are not leaving with the books," Buffy told him in the same cold tone.
"Well, guess it's time to say goodbye Angie. Give my regards to Satan if you see him," he told the vampire and tightened his finger around the trigger.
But before he could shoot Angel, he felt a pain in his upper body. He looked down and saw an arrow, sticking out in the center of his chest. He looked up and saw that Buffy shot him.
He stumbled a few feet backwards before he hit the wall behind him. He leaned against the wall, trying desperately not to fall to the floor. He again looked down at the arrow and then at the people around.
"Fuck," was the only thing that came to his mind.
Right after Buffy shot Xander with her crossbow, Faith ran to Angel and dragged his body away, just in case Xander was still able to shoot him.
All the Scoobies looked at Xander as he looked down at the arrow. Then he looked back at them.
"Fuck," he cursed out loud, for everyone to hear. "You shot me," he accused Buffy.
The Scoobs looked puzzled at him. Xander seemed alright, despite the arrow in the middle of his chest.
"Xander?" Buffy asked confused.
But Xander ignored the question. He grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his body. Everyone could see that the tip of the arrow was broken.
Not waiting any longer he ran in the direction of the glass door, which lead out of the mansion. He aimed his USP at the door and emptied the rest of the magazine, shattering most of the glass in the process. The Scoobs were too dazed to react, so no one was in his way.
He jumped through the door and ran as fast as possible to his parked SUV. Quickly he threw the rucksack and the rifle on the backseat, jumped onto the drivers seat and drove at top speed down the street.
Meanwhile the Scoobies were only able to look with amazement after the retreating form of their former friend.
Xander drove directly to the address of the Mayor's mansion. He parked his car in front of the big house, took the rucksack with him and walked up to the porch. He knocked twice, before a butler opened the door.
"Yes sir? How can I help you?" the butler asked him.
"Alexander Harris for Mayor Wilkins," he said and walked past the man in front of him.
The butler frowned at that, not accustomed to that kind of behaviour.
"Mr. Wilkins is awaiting you in the living room, Mr. Harris," he said and pointed at the large oak door to his right.
"Thanks, I think I will find the way," Xander said and walked in the direction of said door.
When he entered the living room he immediately spotted his boss, sitting comfortable in a large chair in front of an already burning fireplace.
Xander sat down in the other available chair.
"Good evening Alexander. I suppose you have a little present for me?" the Mayor asked.
Xander pointed at the rucksack. " Do you know what I had to go through to get you those fucking books," he asked.
"No. Why don't you tell me?" the politician asked in a calm tone.
"Well, Buffy and the gang found out that I was working for you. They set a little trap for me and the books were the bait," Xander told him.
"That sounds not good," Mayor exclaimed.
"Nope. But the best part is that that blond bitch shot me in the chest, with a crossbow," Xander said. Before the Mayor could ask how he could survive a crossbow bolt, Xander already stripped out of his fatigues jacket. The Mayor could see the bullet proof vest that protected most of his upper body.
"Kevlar vest with ceramic trauma plate," Xander explained and knocked with his knuckles against his chest, which resulted in in dull sound.. "It takes a bit more than a crossbow to crack one of those."
The Mayor now smiled at him. "You're full of surprises Alexander."
"So you keep telling me" Xander said and reached in the rucksack. One after one he handed the books to the Mayor. When he gave him the last one, he had to grimace. The book had a large hole in the middle.
"Sorry boss, collateral damage."
The Mayor nodded. "No problem, Alexander. I don't need the books in perfect condition," the Mayor told him and looked at the books in front of him.
"The books of Ascension. Wars have been fought and empires were destroyed for these books, Alexander. The greatest leader in history tried to come into their possesion, but failed," the Mayor explained. "But where they failed I will succeed."
" So tell me. What do you wanna do with the books?" Xander asked.
The Mayor looked at him and smiled.
"I'm gonna burn them," the Mayor said and threw the book into his fireplace. The book immediately started to burn.
Xander looked shocked as the Mayor continued to throw the books into the fire.
"You know Alexander," the Mayor explained. "I already know everything about the Ascension. These books could only be useful for my enemies."
"You wanted me to get these," Xander said and pointed at the fireplace "so you could play Hitler and burn a few books?"
The Mayor nodded.
"Fantastic," he exclaimed.
"Don't be too hard too yourself. You did a great job," the older man told him.
"Maybe. But I think I have to go. I have to look for a hotel," Xander said and stood up. "No way I'm going back to the Summer's residence. Buffy would kill me on sight."
"Alexander, you are not sleeping in a hotel," the Mayor told him. "For the next few days you will sleep in my guest room. And after that I will find you a nice apartment, funded by the city of course."
Xander smiled. "You really take good care of your employees."
The Mayor smiled back "It's a gift. Robert!!" he called his butler.
A few seconds later Robert stepped through the doors
"You called sir?" the butler asked.
"Please show Mr. Harris the guest room and make sure he has everything he needs."
Robert turned around. "If you would follow me sir."
Xander walked after the butler. "Lead the way, penguin."
Buffy laid on the couch in Giles' office. After they returned from the Mansion they immediately removed the bullets in Angel's chest. Xander didn't lie: They were really burning the flesh of the souled vampire, like a small cross.
After that they called Giles and told him about tonight's happenings. The watcher immediately returned from his trip in LA and brought some sort of order to the chaos that ruled the Scoobie Gang. With the exception of Buffy he sent everyone home to rest, especially Angel who looked like he couldn't stand on his own feet.
Giles entered his office with a cup of tea and handed it to Buffy. She gladly accepted the cup and took a sip.
"If this was a normal situation, I would say that I can't leave you on your own for a few hours," Giles started. "But this is hardly what I would call a normal situation."
"I know," Buffy exclaimed sadly. " I should have waited for you."
"What?" Giles asked puzzled.
"Well, it's my fault that we lost the books, right?" Buffy asked.
"Buffy, You did remarkably well. The plan was alright as far as I know. Like I said, that was not a normal situation."
"Yeah, who would've thought that that Xander would switch sides."
"Well, no one, that's for sure," Giles told her.
"What I don't understand is how he got his hands on all those guns," she explained. "I mean, when we gave Angel his soul back he was able to kill Spike and even wound Angel dangerously with a gun, but this time he also had an army rifle."
"Well Buffy, I think it's time that I tell you a few things. When you threw him out of the group, Xander started to patrol on his own."
Buffy stared open mouthed at him, but Giles silenced her. "Please let me continue. He wanted your patrol schedules, he could avoid running into one of you. I asked him, how he would compensate his lack of strength and he showed me a few of his guns. He told me that he ran into a weapon dealer on his road trip and saved him from a few vampires. He gave him the guns as a gift. So he started patrol and he was quite good I may add. I followed him one night and he fought five vampires at once and still was able to win. What I want to tell you Buffy, is that Xander is not as helpless as you think. I thinks he is far more dangerous than the most of the enemies we ever faced."
Buffy waited a moment, trying to work her way through all the information.
"Great. Xander is a Natural Born Killer working for the Mayor and he also got his hands on the books," she exclaimed sadly. "That's the worst case scenario, isn't it?"
"Well, the first part is right. But I have to say that you got the second part wrong," Giles said and produced a CD from his jacket.
"What is that," Buffy asked confused.
"Well, I went to LA to see if I could find any information on the Ascension. I also visited the bookstore, where the demon got the books from," Giles explained and pointed at the CD. "They made a digital copy of the books before they sold them."
The first smile in hours came to Buffy's lips.
"You mean, we still kind of have the books," Buffy asked.
"Yes," was Giles' only reply.
"Well, I think a little victory is better than nothing."
"I hope you are right. It will take some time to read through all the books, but I think we definitely have something against the Mayor," Giles told her.
Suddenly Buffy looked very tired.
"Giles, please drive me home. I just want to sleep through the whole weekend."
"Yes Buffy, you should sleep. You need all your strength when you have to face Xander the next time," Giles told the blonde slayer as he accompanied her out of the office.