The hospital was particularly deserted at this time of he night. The survivors of the attack against the First and Caleb rested in their hospital rooms. Five minutes ago the last of the SITs was finally able to fall asleep.
The still motionless body of Xander Harris rested in one of the beds, the left side of his head covered in bandages that protected his now empty eye socket.
It was that moment that a lone figure chose to enter the room, immediately spotting the carpenter. He silently walked up to his bedside and stared down at him.
"Man," he said and sighed. "This time you got yourself into deep trouble Alexander. Your lucky that someone up there likes you."
With these words he placed his hand above Xander's eye. Suddenly his hand began to glow. "Can't return what you lost, but I can make it better," he said and a fine stream of yellow light went from his palm to Xander's empty socket. The man did this for a minute before he removed his hand.
"And now," he whispered and grabbed Xander forehead in his hand, "remember."
And with that words Xander jumped up from his bed, the stranger suddenly gone.
Willow walked down one of the corridors of Sunnydale Hospital. After three hours of sitting at Xander's bedside she decided to do something. So she got off and searched the hospital for an eye patch fro her friend. She knew that he couldn't use it immediately. His eye had to heal first, but still it was better than sitting there and feeling useless.
She just rounded the corner when she spotted crowd standing around the entrance of the hospital room Xander and the SITs shared. She quickly rushed passed the people and looked within and was shocked at the scene in front of her.
Xander stood in the middle of the room, struggling with three orderlies at the same time. Another one already lay on the ground, his nose bleeding.
He was currently chocking one of the guards, when he kicked another one on the head knocking him out. The third orderly quickly took some steps back, getting some distance between himself and Xander.
When the ordely in his arms finally lost consciousness, Xander dropped him on he ground where he joined his two colleagues.
Xander scanned the people around him, searching for more potential threats. He looked furious, his chest was rising and falling pretty quickly and had a look of pure rage in his eye.
Willow finally snapped out of her daze and slowly walked up to her friend. Xander immediately turned into the direction of the redhead. He mustered her, almost like trying to decide if she was a threat to him or not.
"Xander it's me," Willow said and took another step forward. When nothing happened she crossed the gap between her and childhood friend until she stood in front of him. Xander had meanwhile calmed down. He looked at her, and finally recognition came back to him.
He reached out with his arm and touched Willow's cheek. "Willow?" he stammered out.
"Yeah," Willow exclaimed happily and threw herself into the arms of her friend. Xander clung to her for dear life and completely forgot the world around him
He didn't even notice it when one of the nurses place a syringe at his arm and emptied the tranquilizer into his body. Xander's body suddenly went limp and two other orderlies carried him back to his bed.
"What happened?" Willow asked the responsible doctor, while the orderlies placed Xander into his back. The rest of the hospital staff was currently busy examining the wounded orderlies on the floor,
"I have no idea," the doctor admitted. "Miss Rosenburg, was Mr. Harris every in any kind of military unit?"
"Xander?" Willow asked confused. "No. Why?"
"Cause he screamed that we would get nothing out of him," the doctor explained "And then he always repeated his rank and his identification number."
"My god," one of the nurses exclaimed, when she removed Xander's bandages to check for his eye.. "Doctor, you have to see this."
The doctor quickly rushed to the nurse's side, Willow following him.
"What is it," Willow asked worried "Is he hurt?"
"Quite the opposite," the doctor said when he examined the wound for himself. "The wound around his eye. It has completely healed."
"What?" Willow asked with disbelief. She pushed the doctor aside and watched for herself. But that didn't change the facts. Xander wound had completely healed.
"I've never seen anything like this before," the doctor muttered.
Willow stared in shock at her friend then back at the doctor.
"I have to make a phone call."
Consciousness slowly dawned back on Xander. And with that came the memories of the last hours. The battle against Caleb, him losing his eye and the pain. But surprisingly his eye didn't hurt anymore when he finally was fully awake.
Deciding to bless God for the little wonders, he wanted to open his good eye when he heard the voices. He immediately recognized them as Buffy's and Willow's. He wanted to sit up and make his presence know, but a small voice in the back of his head told him to wait. So he lay there and followed the conversation.
"And his wound has completely healed," Buffy asked bewildered.
"Yeah," Willow exclaimed. "I couldn't believe it until I saw it myself."
"Any idea what might have caused this?" Buffy asked.
"No, I have no idea," Willow admitted. They paused for a second "Wait a second, you are not thinking….."
"Willow," Buffy to her friend "We have to be completely objective on this thing."
"What do we now about Caleb?" Buffy asked rhetorically. "He seems like a normal human, but he has supernatural strength. He is the leader of the bringers. He poked Xander's eye out. So, what if he tried to turn Xander into a bringer?"
Again both women kept quite for a moment. That was exactly the opposite to what was happening inside of Xander's head. Objective, Xander mocked Buffy in his head. Let's keep Spike running around and killing people. But if I get injured I'm immediately one of the bad guys.
"And you think he might have succeeded?" Willow finally asked.
"I don't know." Buffy admitted.
"But Buffy, that makes no sense," Willow interjected. " I mean, the doctor told me that Xander seemed to him like a soldier. The sounds more like his memories from Halloween returned."
"Either way, we have to keep a close eye on him," Buffy declared "If they managed to turn him into a agent of the First, then we have to be very careful. God knows what damage he could cause."
"Please Buffy, don't tell me you are going to kill him," Willow pleaded.
"I don't know Will," Buffy admitted and sighed. "It could be like being turned into a vampire. Maybe we would do him a favour with it."
"I'm not giving him up Buffy," Willow declared sternly. "I can try some spells on him, finding out if something changed with him."
"You can do that," Buffy said and Xander could hear footsteps as they walked out of the room. "Let's check up on Rona. She is currently being X-Rayed. They want to see how bad exactly she is hurt."
When they finally were away, Xander opened his eye and took a look around him. No one else was in the room, the remaining Sits were obviously asleep.
He climbed out of his bed, careful not to make any sound. He spotted a sink with a mirror on the other side of the room and walked up to it.
Slowly at first, but when he realised that he had no problem moving with one eye he quickened his pace. When he was at his destination, he took a long look in the mirror. Finally he removed the bandaged around his left eye and looked into his reflected face.
Willow didn't joke. His eye looked fine, except for the lack of eye. But it seemed like the wounds had healed.
He could partly understand why Buffy was disturbed by the fact. Nonetheless, he had no interest getting locked up in the slayer's basement, just because she thought the First Evil corrupted him or something like that. Getting out of here was his first priority. Then back to his apartment. Everything else could wait.
He walked back to his bed and noticed for the first time the eye patch at his bedside. He quickly took it and fastened it around his head. He returned to the mirror, to see if it fitted. Satisfied with the results he returned to his bed and began searching for his clothes.
The results of his search weren't that promising. Someone must have taken his clothes, probably because they were full of blood. Xander sighed and thought about his options. He couldn't walk out of here in his hospital gown. Even in Sunnydale something like that would attract attention. But he couldn't stay here and wait for Buffy and Willow to return.
Finally he stepped out of the room and slowly walked down the corridor. He rounded the corner and looked down this corridor. The corridor was completely deserted, only a single security guard leaned against the wall.
Deciding that this was probably his best chance, walked up to the guard. The man looked at him and nodded in greeting. Xander nodded back, but never slowed his pace.
When he reached the guard he sucker punched him in the face, knocking him out instantly. The now limp form of the guard fell into his arms and Xander carried him in the direction of the nearby toilet.
Two minutes later Xander emerged out of the door, completely dressed in the guard's uniform. He walked down the hall, searching for the nearest exit. When he reached it he nodded at the nurse at the front desk and walked up to the door.
Just in that moment Willow and Buffy emerged from the corridor to his left, but luckily neither of the noticed him when they passed. Quickly he opened the door and left the hospital.
"Did you see that?" Willow asked as they passed one of the security guards. "With that fracture she can be lucky when she is able to hold a soda can in the future."
"I know," Buffy said quietly.
"Buffy, it wasn't your fault," Willow reassured her friend.
"Doesn't make it easier," Buffy told her with a dry laugh.
Both walked in silence up to Xander's hospital room. When they entered they immediately spotted the empty hospital bed.
"Will," Buffy told the shocked wicca. "Call Dawn. Tell them to arm themselves. Just in case Xander shows up."
Xander silently entered his apartment. After a quick check of all his rooms he found not a living or unliving soul. Not even the sleeping bags of the SITs were there. Buffy had probably taken them back to her house after the disastrous attack.
He shrugged and went into the bedroom. He knew that he had not much time. Sooner or later they would probably check his place. And when this happened he wanted to be long gone.
He stripped off the security guards clothes and opened his dresser. He quickly grabbed at some of his less colourful clothes. A pair of black jeans, a black T-shirt and an equally black army jacket, completed by a pair of heavy combat boots. Finally he took a box from under his bed. Even if he didn't use it often he had a set of slaying gear for himself. Nothing special, just some basics. Taking a duffel bag he quickly stuffed as many weapons in it as possible. He knew that he probably didn't need all of these but it was best to be prepared.
When he was finished he took the bag and went into the living room. He just had one thing to do before he continued with his plan.
Dawn Summers paced nervously through the kitchen. Buffy had phoned the house about half an hour ago, giving them a brief summary of what happened at the hospital.
To say that she was disturbed was the biggest underestimation. First a lot of SITs get either injured or killed, Xander loses an eye and now Xander's supposed to be working for the First.
Now the house was full of scared and terrified girls, that feared that they would probably die in the next few days.
Faith sat on one of the kitchen chairs and watched with a certain interest as the youngest Summer's girl walked up and down. She also was confused by the recent events, but she hid it better than Dawn. If Faith could choose, she would go out there, find Xander and talk some sense into the blonde slayer's head. But she had ordered them to stay at the hose to protect the SITs. Their leader was currently on their way to the house, but since someone had slashed the tires of their car it took the slayer and the witch much longer.
Both were startled when the phone suddenly rang. Dawn immediately ran over to it and took the speaker in her hands
"Buffy, have you found him?" Dawn asked immediately, not waiting for the person on the other end of the line to respond.
"Hi Dawnie," came instead Xander's calm voice through the speaker.
"Xander," Dawn exclaimed shocked and waved at Faith. The dark slayer immediately walked up to her and Dawn held the speaker so both could listen."What the hell happened at the hospital?" Dawn asked finally "And why does Buffy have the insane idea that you are working for the First?"
Xander sighed before he answered."I don't know it myself," he said and took a second to gather his thoughts. "Look, all I know is that, when I woke up Buffy and Willow discussed how my wounds had miraculously healed. And somehow they thought that it something to do with the First. I took off there before they could go further than just talk about the whole thing."
"Xander," Dawn tried to reassure him. "Buffy wouldn't harm you, you know that."
"You sure Dawn?" Xander asked with a slight chuckle. "The way she is acting lately I'm not to sure about that. And don't forget that she practically allowed Spike to kill Principal Wood, if he tried anything fishy again. Staying there and hoping for Buffy to make once the right decision awfully sounded like a game of Russian Roulette to me."
"Maybe you're right," Dawn agreed and sighed on her own. "Where are you?"
"Oh please Dawn," Xander said amused "I'm not smart, but I'm not stupid. You are not either. I bet you can figure out where I am. There are not that many places I can go anymore."
"Your apartment," Dawn realised. "Look, you stay there and I talk to Buffy. There has to be something that can convince her. Maybe there is a spell that can prove that you're still you."
"Would do Dawnie," Xander exclaimed. "But if I have learned something over the years, then it's that you sister can be pretty stubborn about some things. And since Buffy thinks I work for the First I'm proving her that she's wrong."
"And how do you want to do that?" Dawn asked confused.
"You will see." Xander said with a chuckle. "Let's just say that I have some payback to do. Look, I have to go now. Oh, and tell Faith that eavesdropping is a cardinal sin."
And with these words the line went dead.
"How did he know I was there?" Faith asked when Dawn hung the speaker back on the cradle.
"No idea," Dawn admitted.
"So he is at his apartment," Spike concluded. Both Girls jumped, since they hadn't noticed the vampire.
"Spike don't do that," Dawn told him angrily.
"Yeah, I might take you out of reflex," Faith added, "Wouldn't be that a bad thing."
"Like you could," Spike told them with a snort and turned around.
"What are you doing," Dawn asked as he wandered into the living room, the girls following him.
"Following Buffy's orders," Spike said and opened Buffy's weapon box. He quickly examined the contents and took crossbow and a knife. "I'm bringing Droopy here, dead or alive," he explained.
"Wait a second. Buffy never said anything about going out and hunting him down. She just said that we should watch out if Xander appeared here. And what gives you the idea that Buffy is right about the whole thing?" Dawn asked him angrily.
"I don't care," Spike said and walked to the front door. "I'm just doing what's necessary."
"No, you're just doing what's necessary to get back into my sister's pants," Dawn accused him.
"Whatever," Spike said and left the house. Both girls stared after him a few seconds before he vanished into the darkness.
"Why do I get the impression that things have got even worse now?" Faith asked rhetorically.
"Come on boys," Caleb called out and clapped his hands. The five Bringers that were still in the cellar of the vineyard looked shortly up at their leader but continued with their preparations. The rest of his forces were already finished with the packing and were upstairs ready to change their headquaters. "We have a tight schedule here," he said clapped one of his 'boys' on the back.
Further orders were however interrupted when he heard some noise from upstairs. At first he couldn't place it, but after a few seconds he recognised it as the sound of fighting. The noise went on for an moment before it quietened down.
"Go up there a look what's happening," he finally ordered one of his five Bringers and the hooded figure quickly walked up the stairs.
A few seconds later the noises appeared once again, but like before stopped down pretty quickly.
Caleb juts wanted to go up himself, when the body of the bringer was thrown down the stairs, a battle axe buried deep in the man's chest. A second later Xander followed the body, the duffel bag in his right hand.
"Ah, you are back again," Caleb told the Zeppo with a smile. "Nice to see you."
Xander reached the end of the stairs and faced the preacher and his remaining minions. He quickly dug in the bag and drew a wakizashi from the interior before he let the bag fall to the ground. "Would like to say the same about you but….," Xander said and motioned for his eye patch.
Caleb's smile grew even wider "So, why are you here?" he asked and motioned himself at his missing eye. "Want me to finish what I started?"
"No chance," Xander told him with sneer.
"Too bad," Caleb exclaimed and sighed "You would have made a very good Bringer," he said and waved with his hand. Instantly the four Bringer's around him advanced on Xander
"But it's not like I can't force you to become one," he finished with an evil smile.
Xander calmly waited until the bringers were only five meters away. Then he lifted the wakizashi and threw it with all his strength into his advancing enemies.
"Okay," Buffy announced when she and Willow stormed through the front door. "Willow, you prepare a location spell. I want to know where Xander is," Buffy told her and looked at the group consisting of Dawn, Faith and some of the SITs. She however noted the absence of some of the members of their group.
"Where are Anya and Giles?" she finally asked. "And where's Spike?"
"Anya and Giles left shortly before you called," Faith explained. "They wanted to check out I they could find out something about Caleb. Spike left after Xander's phonecall."
"Xander's phonecall?" Buffy asked confused.
"Yeah, he called us shortly after your one," Dawn interjected. "He told us what happened."
"And you believe him," Buffy asked with disbelief. "For all we know he might be working for the First."
"At least his story made a lot more sense then the shit you've been feeding us," Dawn told her angrily. "Come on Buffy. Xander working for the First? This has be the most stupid idea I've ever heard."
Buffy looked open eyed at her sister. "You were not there Dawn," Buffy said when she suddenly found her speech again. "His eye healed completely. This couldn't have happened naturally."
"Easy there you two," Faith said and stepped between the two sisters. "You can continue this later. The important thing is what we do now."
"Nothing easier than that," Buffy declared. "We find Xander and find out if he is betraying us or not."
"Great idea," Dawn exclaimed. "If Spike doesn't kill him before we can do that."
"What?" Buffy asked shocked.
"The bleached wonder left earlier," Faith explained. "Went to Xander's apartment. Said something about getting him dead or alive."
"No," Buffy said and shook her head in disbelief. "Spike wouldn't do that."
"And why not?" Dawn asked. "There is nothing stopping him. It was your great idea to remove his chip."
"But he has a soul now," Buffy declared.
"Oh," Dawn exclaimed mock understanding. "That's making it better, huh? Well, newsflash sis, Xander also has a soul. And in his case I at least know that it is a good one."
But before Buffy could respond, Willow appeared the ingredients for the spell under her arm.
"Ah, guys," she exclaimed. "We could start now if you are ready."
Buffy glared for another second at her sister before she followed the redhead into the living room.
Faith just wanted to follow her, when Dawn grabbed her arm.
"You believe me, don't you?" she asked the dark slayer.
"I do kiddo," Faith responded. "Come on. Let's make sure that your sis doesn't react to impulsively when we find Xander."
The now airborne weapon impaled itself with the head of the closest bringer, imbedding it's blade up to the hilt in the minion's skull. But the casualty didn't stop the remaining Bringers from attacking Xander.
The first one tried to stab Xander in the stomach, but he quickly sidestepped the attack and grabbed the bringer's wrist in a vice like grip. Surprised by the pain the Bringer let the weapon fall. Xander grabbed the falling knife in midair and rammed it into the minion's chest.
Xander instantly tossed the dead body into the direction of his next adversary. The weight of the corpse and it's momentum was enough to bring the man down. With this Bringer occupied in getting back up, Xander focused his whole attention to the other Bringer.
Xander ducked under the first swing and blocked the second one with his left arm, while he simultaneously stabbed the Bringer with the knife in his throat. The minion immediately clutched his wound, with the knife still in it.
While the bringer sank to the floor, the last one was finally able to free himself from the corpse and stand up. Xander didn't wait for him, he immediately kicked him in the stomach. The bringer again fell to the floor. But this time Xander didn't give him another chance. He quickly grabbed both sides of his head and twisted it hard, until he could hear his neck snap.
"I'm impressed," Caleb announced, his arms crossed behind his back. "Now I understand why she wanted you."
"You know that you're talking a lot of shit," Xander said and stood up, focusing his eye on the fallen preacher.
"No need to be rude," Caleb told him. "You know that you haven't won anything with this," he said and motioned for the bodies of the dead Bringers. "You just delayed the inevitable."
"Yeah. That might be the case. Let's see if we can do something to even the odds," Xander said and reached into his waistband. From there he took a gun, which was ironically the same gun Willow had bought to kill Kennedy. The same gun Andrew should have used to kill the SITs. And the same gun Buffy had given him to store it at a safe place.
Caleb stared first confused at the gun, but when he realised what it was he started to get nervous. "You think you can harm me with such a mortal weapon?" Caleb asked him, but Xander could hear the fear in his voice.
"I don't know," Xander told him with a evil grin and thumbed the hammer. "But I hope you don't mind if I try," he said and thought about which body part he should aim at. Finally he got an idea, and connected the sight of the pistol with Caleb's left eye. "This is payback," he said and pressed the trigger, sending a single bullets right through Caleb's left eye and his head.
The body of the preacher instantly fell to the floor, joining the ones of his minion.
Xander slowly walked up to the corpse, retrieving his wakizashi on the way. He kneeled down beside the body and looked him into his left eye.
"You know what they say buddy," Xander told the dead preacher. "An eye for an eye," he said and thought another second. "Oh, here's another good one: It's always funny till someone loses and eye," Xander said but shook his head. "Man, what am I doing here. I sitting in a cellar, telling eye jokes to the guy that gouged my one out," he said to no one in particular and looked around.
"Now," he said. "How am I going to convince Buffy that I really killed this asshole?" he asked himself. He again looked down at Caleb, then at his wakizashi and came quickly to a solution.
"I don't understand it," Willow exclaimed for the umpteenth time. She had tried the locator spell now for the seventh time. "Its like something is shielding his presence, so that I can't find him," Willow explained as she removed the spend ingredients.
"Maybe the First?" Buffy asked the witch.
"Maybe," Willow muttered and prepared the spell for the eigth try. While she worked on the locator spell, Spike came through the front door.
"Have you found him?" Buffy asked immediately
But the now souled vampire just shook his head and dropped his crossbow on the table. "Nope. Been at his apartment. But Droopy was long gone. And he raided his weapons box."
"Great," Buffy exclaimed angry. "Now he is also armed. This is really one of my bad days."
"I did it," Willow suddenly cheered from behind them. She walked up to Buffy and showed her the map of Sunnydale. A small scorch mark on it showed Xander's supposed position.
"Okay," Buffy said, glad that things were finally moving. "So, where is he?"
"He is," Willow said and inspected the map more closely. When she looked back at Buffy she was clearly confused. "Across the street?" she muttered with disbelief.
"What?" Buffy asked shocked. But before she or anyone else in the room could react, an object was thrown through the window of the living room.
It landed on the table, bounced off it and rolled along the floor. Everyone jumped out of the way, but finally it came to a halt when Faith stopped it with her foot.
"What is it?" Dawn finally asked, when it was obvious that there was no danger.
The dark haired slayer kneeled and took the object in her hands. It was wrapped in a blue plastic back. Faith carefully reached inside the bag and took what was inside out.
When she pulled her hand out of it I was clearly visible that the object the bag was wrapped around, was a head.
"Eww," one of the potentials exclaimed when Faith removed the rest of the bag from the head. "Is this a head?"
"Yep," Faith stated the obvious and turned the head to see who it was. She grinned wickedly when she realised that she could see through the hole that was its left eye. "And from the looks of it, it is or rather was Caleb."
"Caleb?" The name was muttered by most the potentials. The one that took part in the attack stared disbelievingly at the head of the fallen preacher, who had killed several of the SITs. Even Buffy looked shocked.
"But who killed him?" Dawn exclaimed, asking the question that ran through everyone's minds.
"I don't know," Buffy admitted and stormed in the direction of the door. "But I'm going to find out."
Buffy opened the door and walked out of the house. She instantly spotted the car that was parked on the other side of the street. But more importantly she noticed the figure that leaned against the vehicle.
"Xander," she muttered and approached the car.
Xander meanwhile remained where he was and waited for the arrival of the blonde slayer. When Buffy was about five meters away Xander straightened and lifted his hand to stop the slayer.
"That's close enough," he said. "I don't want to you to come any closer. The distance is just right"
"For what?" Buffy asked confused.
"That enough distance for me to take you down if you try something stupid," Xander explained calmly.
Buffy looked wide eyed at her friend, but quickly regained her composure.
"Please, like you could stop me," she mocked the former Zeppo. "I could reach you in a heartbeat."
"Yeah, you could," Xander said and drew the pistol from his waistband. "But I got 14 little friends left that claim that they are a lot faster than you," he said and cocked the gun. "And you don't want to challenge them. Last time you did you nearly ended up dead and I'm a way better shooter than Warren," Xander said and somehow he enjoyed the hurt look on Buffy's face, when she remembered that particular incident. "If you want a honest opinion, ask Caleb. He will tell you how well this worked out."
"So, it was really you who killed him," Buffy stated.
"What can I say," Xander said with a smile. "I felt a bit restless when I woke up. All those memories from Halloween just wanted to jump into a fight," he told her. "But what's really bothering me are a few questions. For example, why you think that I'm working fro the First? Or why are you sending Captain Peroxide after me on search and destroy mission?"
"Spike was never supposed to kill you," Buffy tried to explain.
"Yeah, well. Tell that to my bed," he said and wiped a imaginary tear from his cheek. "The sucker sent one of his crossbow bolts into it. Probably hoped to get me when I was asleep. But we're getting a bit off topic here. Why did you think that I was working for the First?"
"Isn't it obvious," Buffy said and motioned for the eye patch. "Have you seen your eye? The wound has healed completely. Something like that doesn't happen overnight."
"I have seen it Buffy," Xander said in a cold voice. "Things like a missing eye even get my attention. All I can say is that It don't know why it healed or why I have no trouble walking around without bumping into the nearest lamp post. Or why the sergeant is running loose in my head."
"Then why did you ran away," Buffy asked. "We could have figured out what happened to you. Instead of being afraid that you are out there doing God knows what."
"Because I overheard Willow and you talking about the whole thing," Xander explained. "And I knew this tone. It was the same one when you told us that you were going to kill Anya. So I made a decision," he explained with a sigh. "Yeah, I ran away in order to escape my upcoming death."
"Xander I wouldn't have killed you," Buffy said, more softly this time.
"Yeah, me being a human and all," Xander mocked her. "But see Buffy, I talked to Wood. Mainly about threatening to look while he is killed by your pet vampire. And after that I wasn't too sure about your morals in that particular area."
Both remained silent for a few more moments. "And now?" Buffy asked finally.
"What now?" Xander repeated her question. "I think I proved a lot in the last few minutes. Mainly that preacher guys head is currently in your living room. That should at least give me a fair trial at Judge Buffy's court of justice."
"Still, you might be under the control of the First," Buffy stated. "This could also be another plan to play with our heads."
"I admit that there is a slim chance for that to be the case," Xander agreed. "But all I want is a fair chance to prove that this is not the case."
Buffy nodded at that and turned in the direction of the house. While their conversation, the Scoobies and several of the SITs had gathered on the porch, observing everything that happened on the other side of the street. "Willow," she called out.
The read head instantly ran up to the two. "Hi Xander," she greeted her childhood friend.
"Hi Will," Xander greeted her with a smile. "So, you got any spells that prove that I'm not one of the bad guys."
"Yeah," the witch replied. "I will just take a long look at your aura. I could see it if the First did anything with you."
"You sure that'll work?" Buffy asked.
But Willow just nodded at that. "I tried it once with Andrew. There were certainly some dark stains in his aura."
"Okay Will," Xander said and stepped up to the witch. "Do your worst."
But before Willow could start, Buffy stepped between the two. "And what if she proves that the First did something to you? Are you going to cooperate, even if that means that we have to lock you away."
Xander looked Buffy directly in the eyes before he answered. "If that's the case, you can lock me away," he said honestly. "I would never do anything endanger anyone of you guys. And if that means to stay the rest of our battle in your basement, than I'm more than willing to do that."
He stopped a second, the image of the recent murders of Spike before his eyes. "I was always better than Spike and that's not going to change now," he finally added. "No chance I'm going out there, killing people if I'm under the under the control of the First."
Satisfied ,but also a bit insulted by his answer, Buffy stepped out of the way while Willow stepped forward and placed the palm of her hand on Xander's chest. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her hands.
"Will?" Buffy asked worried, when the witch hadn't moved for a full minute.
"Sorry," the witch answered and took some deep breaths to gather herself. "I double checked the whole thing, because of that it took me so long."
She looked first at Buffy and Xander before she continued. "Xander has nothing to do with the First. He is clean."
"And the sudden healing of his eye," Buffy asked, still doubtful.
"I don't know," Willow admitted and turned to Xander. "All I can tell that magic was involved. But no matter who did it, he has no connection with the First," she explained. "He left some traces, like the First. But these were caused by white magic. In fact by a form of white magic, that is so pure that it almost blinded me. I have never seen anything like that."
"So one of the good guys healed me? And we don't know who was it?" Xander asked. Willow nodded at that.
"So, no evil in Xander?" Buffy asked for a final time, but Willow only shook her head.
"You satisfied Buffy?" Xander asked and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Yeah," Buffy said unable to meet Xander's eyes. "I'm sorry Xander. But you should know that we have to expect everything when we deal with the First."
"Yeah," Xander said and scratched his head. "To some part I can agree with you there. But I still feel a bit disappointed that you didn't trust me more than that."
Both remained in silence for a few moments.
"You know," Xander said and opened the door of his car. "I should get some sleep. I was a pretty exhausting night."
"Why don't you stay here;" Willow asked, while Xander stepped into his car.
"A house full of teenage girls?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow. "They are making so much noise that I wouldn't get any sleep at all. No, my apartment is the choice of the day."
Xander started the engine and closed the door. "I'm going to visit tomorow," Xander said. "Tell Dawn that I'm okay."
And with these words Xander drove down the road, while all occupants of the Summer's house watched after him.
Back at his apartment, Xander quickly ate something and then he took a long relaxing shower. After that he again examined his healed wound. Deciding that he couldn't do anything about it, he fastened the eyepatch around his head.
But when he again looked into the mirror, he spotted Buffy standing in the doorway of the bathroom.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked surprised and turned around.
"What?" she asked with a smirk. "Not glad to see me Xand."
"If you were Buffy, maybe," Xander exclaimed as the First walked up to him. "But you're not."
"But this body is so comfortable," it said and ran her hand along Buffy's body. "It's so hard nowadays to fool you guys," the First pouted.
"You got me curious," Xander said and followed it into the living room. "My first visit by the First Evil. What got me the honour?"
"Isn't it obvious," the First replied and morphed into the Mayor. "I'm offering you a job. Good pay, career choices and also a dental plan."
"You are offering me a job?" Xander repeated and laughed. "You really are insane."
"Why?" It replied and changed into Drusilla's form. "My kitten has got some fangs now. And all due to my work."
"You healed my eye?" Xander asked doubtful. "And restored the soldier memories?"
"Yes," the First replied and morphed into a form Xander only knew from his nightmares. The man in front of him wore an army uniform with the insignias of a Ranger. "Caleb was not suitable enough. But with my help we are going to accomplish our mission."
Xander stared at the First for a few seconds before answering. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I have information from a very reliable source that you had nothing to do with my quick recovery," Xander said and pointed at his eyepatch. "You didn't heal me at the hospital. You are just trying to make the best out of the situation. You lost the commander of your troops and now you're trying to replace it ," Xander told it with a smirk. "But I'm playing for the other team."
"Too bad," the First said and morphed back into Buffy. "You could have ruled by my side when all this is over. But now you are going to die like all the rest of your group."
"Well, I'm taking my chances with the good guys," Xander said and walked up to the First. "But I just realised something. All you can do is talk. Yeah, you can send your Bringers or your super vamps. But you yourself are pretty useless and annoying."
"What are you going to do about it," The First asked sarcastically "Kill me?"
"No," smirks "But believe me, I also can be pretty annoying."
"What…," the First started. But Xander had already pushed his finger into the incorporeal body of the First. Before it could mutter another word, he began drawing patterns onto its body, which had to be done pretty fast since the First only slightly dissolved when Xander touched its body.
The First could only stare open mouthed as Xander managed draw a Smiley on its body.
"Enough," the First shouted and stepped out of his reach. Its eyes suddenly glowed red. "You will pay for this respectlessness," it growled with the twisted voice of Buffy.
Before Xander could do anything, the First vanished into thin air. Satisfied that he managed to piss off the Big Bad, Xander moved in the direction of his bedroom.
It was around noon and the training sessions at the Summer's residence were already in full swing. While Faith and Kennedy took turns in training the SITs, Buffy walked down the stairs of the basement.
"Hi Spike," Buffy greeted the souled vampire. "Just getting some more weapons for the SITs to train with."
Spike nodded at that and watched as the blonde slayer collected the weapons. But he quickly noticed that something was wrong with her.
"Is there something bothering you?" Spike finally asked.
"Nah," Buffy replied. "It's just.." she started. "Since Xander killed Caleb the SITs start to … talk."
"Talk?" Spiked asked confused.
"Yeah," Buffy said and sat down on his cot. "They probably think that I can't hear them. But with my slayer senses and the thin walls it's hard to ignore."
"So, what are they talking about?"
"Me," Buffy replied with a dry laugh "Mostly me. They talk about how Xander was able to take out Caleb. Him, the normal one. Whereas me the slayer, the supposed leader, only got smacked around and lost a couple of them in the fight," she explained and paused for a moment. "They talk about how I should pass leadership of the group and let Xander handle things."
"Buffy," Spiked said and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You said it yourself. This is a war. And we can't let Xander take the leadership this late in our campaign. It would screw up everything we worked for."
"It was already bad when Faith came," Buffy stated. "But what am I supposed to do now? I can hardly force them to follow my orders. All I had on them was the common fear of a sudden death and that I was the only who could give them a least a bit of chance to survive all this."
Both sat in silence, while they thought about their common problem. "You have to take the respect back you lost. You have to show them that you are superior," Spike explained, while Buffy only looked confused at him.
"And how am I supposed to do that," Buffy finally asked.
Spike thought about it for a moment. "Invite Xander for a sparring match," he proposed. "I will arrange it that all the SITs are present. Toss him around a bit, show them that you can beat him at every day of the week."
"You think that this will work?" Buffy asked doubtful.
"Hey," Spiked exclaimed. "I was the leader of vampire group. There were more than one wiseass newbie that threatened my position. That's how I took care of them: Public mutilation."
"I really don't know," Buffy admitted. "I don't want to hurt him."
"Buffy," Spike said. "That's one of the things that has to be done. Think what might happen if you don't do it. We might loose this war."
Finally Buffy walked upstairs with the weapons in her hands. But Spike's idea occupied her thoughts most of the time and finally she came to a decision.
Meanwhile Xander drove through the streets to an appointment he arranged this morning. It took him some time to reach the address, since the streets were crowded with people that wanted to leave the town as soon as possible.
He parked the car in front of the apartment building entered it. He quickly found the right apartment and knocked twice on the door. After a few seconds a middle aged woman opened the door and looked questioningly at Xander. "Yes?" she finally asked.
"I'm Xander Harris," he said and followed the woman into the apartment and spotted the packed suitcases at the door. "I called earlier."
"Yes, Willow's friend," the woman said and sat down at the kitchen table. "How is she by the way? I haven't heard anything from here since this incident where she turned into a man."
"She is doing okay," Xander said and took himself a chair. "Do you have the spell I asked for?"
"Yes," the witch replied and went into one of the other rooms. "How do you know my number by the way?"
"Let's just say that Willow shouldn't leave her address book lying around," Xander replied calmly as the witch returned into the room.
She eyed him strangely for a few seconds, but finally she reached into her pocket.
"Well here it is," she said and placed the pendant on the table. "Once you put it on, everyone around will ignore you. Unless you do something to directly threaten the persons life he will pay no attention to you."
"Sounds like I'm back in highschool," Xander muttered and took a couple bills out of his wallet. "I think that should be enough."
"Thanks," the witch said and took the money. "Now I have enough money to leave this cursed town."
"So, you're really leaving Sunnydale," Xander said and motioned at the suitcases.
"Like the rest," she said as she accompanied him to the door. "Even the normal people sense that something bad is going on. You don't want to know what it is like for a witch to feel the evil. I'm leaving before it is too late."
"Well, good luck," Xander said and left the apartment. He quickly made his way back to his car and drove in the direction of his next destination.
Xander stopped and parked his car directly in front of the police station. It had taken him almost an hour to make it through the thick traffic that covered the streets of Sunnydale. Almost everyone who had a car was doing his his best to get it and himself out of town.
"Now, let's see if you're worth your money," he said to the pendant he had fastened around his neck. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and entered the building.
"Hello," Xander called out, loud enough so that everyone could hear him. "I've just been murdered. And I want you to catch my killer."
But no one entrance hall reacted to his strange behaviour.
"Either vamps visit this place regularly," Xander mused. "Or this little gimmick is really working."
Deciding to take one final test, Xander walked up to one of the police officers that stood near the entrance. He stopped right in front of him, but the policeman still didn't react. Finally Xander snapped his fingers right in front of the officer's eyes. Xander was satisfied with the results, when the policeman didn't flinch.
Xander walked into the back of the entrance hall. But the door to the more sensitive part of the building was secured by num-pad and Xander didn't know the code. But it was only a short while before a policeman opened the door and Xander simply joined him.
Xander walked down the corridors, followin the signs that read 'Armoury'.
At first Xander had some trouble transporting all the equipment from the police station to his car. But he came to a quick solution when he spotted a supermarket on the other side of the street.
Now he was whistling a happy tune as he pushed the shopping cart loaded various boxes of ammunition and guns out of the police station.
Xander was surprised that the police force of such a small town like Sunnydale was that well equipped. But after some thinking he decided that was probably the legacy of the deceased Richard Wilkins III.
He loaded the remaining ammo and guns in the trunk of his car and closed it afterwards. Giving the shopping cart a kick he walked around the car and sat down into the driver's seat.
"Next stop: Fort Sunnydale," he muttered and started the engine.
"Okay," Buffy said while she walked down the stairs to the basement. Spike immediately looked up, noticing the determined look on her face. "How are we going to proceed?"
"Easy," he said. "He wants to drop by this afternoon. You challenge him and I'll make sure that all the SITs are watching when you take care of him."
Buffy nodded and walked back up the stairs. "I hope this works," she said and closed door behind her.
Xander parked the car in front of the Summer's residence. The visit to the army base was not as successful as his raid at the police station. The Army had already withdrawn most of their forces, also taking most the equipment with them. That left only a small selection for Xander
He stepped out of the car and just wanted to walk up to the porch, when he spotted two familiar figures approaching his position..
"Ahn! Giles!" Xander called, but both just continued on their way, as if he hadn't said a thing. Xander frowned at that, but finally realised that he still wore the pendant.
"Guys," he tried again after he had removed the pendant. This time Anya and Giles turned into his direction, surprised to see Xander where seconds before no one had stood.
"Xander?"Anya asked, for a momentarily sure if it was really her ex- fiancé. The black clothes and the eye patch irritated her for a second, but finally she ran up to him and threw herself into his arms. "Oh my god, I'm so glad you are okay."
"Thanks," he said and untangled himself from her.
"Why are you out of the hospital?" she asked confused. "Shouldn't you be stuck there until your eye is healed up properly?"
"Yeah," Xander admitted with a nervous laugh. "See, about the eye. Somehow miraculously the eye healed overnight," he explained and almost instantly Giles and Anya backed away from him. "No, it has nothing to do with the First," Xander tried to reassures them. "Willow did a spell and everything is okay. You can ask her if you don't believe me."
"Your eye has completely healed," Giles asked still doubtful. Xander nodded. "Anything else that might be important?"
"Well," Xander started. "I have no problem with the depth perception, even if I still have only one eye. Oh, and my soldier memories from Halloween have been restored."
"Oh," Anya said, remembering the story Xander told her once. "Was that that night where Buffy thought that a car was a demon,"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't mention it in front of her. Unless you have a death wish," Xander told her with a smile. "Well, to make a long story short. I went home, grabbed some weapons and took care of Caleb in order to convince Buffy that it was still me."
"You did what?" Anya almost screamed at him. "Are you insane?"
"That was probably the most stupid idea you ever had," Giles agreed, but remembered something else. "Well, apart from throwing yourself into the magic blast of a witch that tried destroy the world."
"What can I say, I had some time to burn," Xander told Giles with a shrug and focused his attention on Anya. "I didn't know you cared Ahn."
"I don't," Anya clarified. " But we searched all night for information about this guy. And now you tell us that you killed him. Couldn't have you waited a few more hours?"
"Why?" Xander asked. "Did you find anything?"
"No," Anya said, drawing the word out. "But it might have been the case, so it was really selfish to kill this guy before you knew if we had something on him," Anya finished, taking a deep breath after the sentence.
"Taking lessons from Willow?" Xander asked with an amused expression.
"Sorry to interrupt you," Giles said. "But I'm curious. How did you manage to kill a being that managed to win against a vampire and two slayers?"
"Simple," Xander said with a smirk. "I cheated."
"Huh?" Both, Anya and Giles asked at the same time.
"I shot him," Xander admitted with a roll of his eye. "You ever heard of firearms Giles? They are a common tool to deal with the bad guys this part of the Atlantic."
"You simply shot him with a gun?" Giles asked as they walked up to the door.
"Yeah," Xander told him with smirk. "Ironically the same gun Willow bought to kill Kennedy."
"Well, it seems that you have a talent to come up with some unconventional solutions."
"Thanks," Xander said and opened the door.
He had just crossed the threshold when a body he could barely identify as Dawn jumped into his arms. "God Xander. I'm so glad that you're okay."
"Strange," Xander muttered and looked over his shoulder at Anya. "You are the second person today that has said this."
"Well, let's make it a third one," Faith said and gave him a friendly hug. "Glad that you're back X-Man."
"Thanks Faith," Xander said. "I hope I didn't worry you guys too much."
"Nah. We deal with that kind of situation 24/7 and..," she started, but stopped when she saw the eye-patch for the first time. "Does it hurt?"
"The eye?" Xander asked and Dawn nodded. "No. Not since it got poked out."
"Dawn," Anya interrupted their conversation. "Giles and I, we're pretty tired. Which rooms are free?"
"Well," Dawn said and though about it for a moment. "Willow is currently in her room. Those locator spells yesterday drained a lot of her energy. But you can take Buffy's room. And Giles can sleep in the guest room."
"Thanks Dawn," Giles told her and walked up the stairs, Anya joining him.
"Night guys," Xander called after them, and focused back on Dawn and Faith.
"Look guys," Xander started. "I really want to catch up with you, but I have some things I have to discuss with Buffy first. Where is she?"
"She is in the backyard," Faith said and motioned with her thumb in the direction of the kitchen. "Training."
"Okay," Xander said and walked in the direction of the kitchen. "I'll be right back."
On his way to the backyard, Xander crossed paths with some of the Potentials. He greeted them with a nod and in response they gave him what he presumed as a thankful smile.
Finally Xander walked into the backyard, where Buffy went through some exercises.
"Hey Buffster," Xander greeted the blonde slayer.
"Xander," Buffy returned the greeting. Both stood in silence for a few uncomfortable seconds. "So, how are you doing?" Buffy asked finally.
"Well, still getting used to the one eye thing," Xander told her. "But except for that pretty good."
"Look Buffy," Xander started after a moment, but Buffy's whole concentration was focused on the blonde vampire that stood near the kitchen window. Spike nodded once and Buffy knew what she had to do. "I admit that we have some problems at the moment, but that shouldn't interfere with our ability to work as a team. See, I made some errands this morning and…:"
"Wanna spar?" Buffy blurted suddenly out interrupting Xander in mid sentence.
"What?" Xander asked confused.
"Well you got all that army training now back in you head," Buffy explained. "I would like to see how good you are exactly in a fight."
"I killed Caleb," Xander told her with a smirk. "Isn't that proof enough?"
"You shot him," Buffy said coldly. "Every idiot can pull the trigger of a gun. It's harder to beat an enemy hand to hand."
"Then why didn't you shoot him, when nearly everyone can do it?" Xander asked. He shook his head. "I don't think that this is a good idea."
"Why Xander?" Buffy challenged him. "Afraid that I will hurt you."
Xander contemplated the offer for a minute. Finally he stripped off his jacket and threw it to the ground.
"Fine," he said with a shrug. "I can use the training."
"Girls," Spike called out as he entered the living room. "Wanna see something interesting?"
"What?" a few of them asked curious.
"Xander just challenged Buffy to a fight," he said and smirked as the mass of Potentials stormed through the door, nearly stomping him into the ground.
"You want to start?" Buffy asked.
"Nah," Xander said and moved into a fighting stance. "I never throw the first punch."
"Fine with me," Buffy exclaimed and immediately threw a right hook at Xander's head. He barely had time to avoid this attack. He blocked the next punch with his arm, but it still hurt, because of the force Buffy had put into it.
"Easy there Buff," Xander said, trying to reason the slayer. But Buffy ignored his words and threw two more punches. Xander blocked the first one, but the second shit him square in the chest and nearly knocked him off his feet.
"What the fuck," he started but Buffy already started her next attack. Xander blocked the next two punches, but a swing from Buffy caught him right under his chin. Before he could react Buffy had kicked his legs out from under him and Xander hit the ground hard.
"Oh, come one Xander," Buffy challenged him. "I didn't hit you that hard."
Xander groaned. He could fell with the tip of his tongue that one of his teeth was coming loose. He sat up on his knees and spit out the blood that was in his mouth.
While he stood up he passed a glance in the direction of the house and was surprised to see nearly all the Potentials standing behind the kitchen windows, including Faith and Dawn. But more important he saw Spike among them, an evil smile plastered on his face.
"Okay," Xander said and stood up. He again took his fighting stance and glared angrily at Buffy. "If you want it that way."
"Oh, now I'm frightened," Buffy exclaimed with confidence. Both circled each other for a few seconds. Finally Buffy attacked, kicking Xander into the stomach, but Xander was able to catch her foot. Buffy reacted quickly. She jumped in order to kick him in the head with her other leg. Xander however had already foreseen this move and simply ducked under her kick.
Even her slayer strength couldn't save Buffy from the outcome. Xander let loose of the leg her had grabbed and so she landed on the ground. The impact wasn't very hard and did nothing more than anger Buffy.
"Nice," she admitted and stood up. This time she aimed a roundhouse kick at Xander's head, but the Zeppo dropped to the ground, kicking Buffy legs out from under her.
For the second time Buffy landed on her ass. "Is that all you can do," she challenged him angrily, but Xander only stared at her. "Come on Xander. Attack me," she tried again and threw two powerful punches at Xander. But he simply deflected them, taking most of the force out of the attack.
"Fight like a man," Buffy challenged, but Xander continued continued to block her punches. Finally Buffy became sloppy with an attack. Xander was able to grabbed her right arm and after that her left one. Before she could make any attempts to get free out of his grip, Xander brought is head back and slammed it with all force into Buffy's face.
The dazed slayer couldn't react as Xander let loose of a series of punches. A hard uppercut finally send Buffy to the ground, for the third in their match.
"Now I'm angry," the still slightly dazed slayer seethed. She wiped the blood away that had formed from the cut on her forehead and went into the next attack.
Xander stood still and just waited for the attack. Buffy again tried it with a roundhouse kick, but Xander was again able to duck under her leg. But what happened now surprised Buffy, the SITs and even Spike who was the master of all dirty tricks.
Xander waited until Buffy was back on her feet. Before the slayer was able to react Xander had already extended his right arm and stabbed with two of his fingers into the eyes.
The blonde slayer's hands immediately went up to her momentary blinded eyes, trying protect them from further damage. That was exactly was Xander had planned.
He didn't wait for Buffy to regain her eyesight. He walked besides her grabbed her ponytail. He pulled hard, bending her head backwards, while he lifted his other arm. He didn't wait another second and brought the strike down as fast as possible.
The edge of his hand hit Buffy right on her exposed throat. The blow not only drove all the air out of Buffy's lungs, it also interrupted for several precious seconds the blood flow to her brain.
Xander let loose of her pony tail and let Buffy's unconsciousness body fall to the ground. But Xander wasn't in any better condition. His exhaustion caught up with him and he sat down, taking extra care to take as much distance between himself and the blonde slayer.
After half a minute of deep breathing he stood up, noting that Buffy had already regained consciousness.
"You know Buffy," Xander said and spat out some more blood. "If you wanted to beat up a guy, you could have just asked Spike. I'm not into that kind of stuff."
And with these words he left the backyard, leaving a shocked and beaten slayer behind.
When Xander entered the kitchen the group of Potentials that stood in front of him parted almost liked the red sea. He ignored the whispering and stares of the teenagers and quickly left the room.
"Xander," Dawn called after him, but Xander also ignored her and walked up the stairs of the Summer's house. Dawn followed him up the stairs and into the bathroom.
"Xander…," she started again, but instantly stopped when she saw the pained expression on his face. "You okay?" she asked instead.
"I'm just dying. Feel free to ignore me," he joked, while reaching with two fingers into his mouth. After a bit of pulling the tooth finally came lose and fell into the sink, followed of a stream of blood.
"Xander," Dawn exclaimed shocked.
"It's okay Dawn," Xander said and spit some more blood out. "I still got enough teeth in my mouth."
"It's not okay," she said and went to his side. "That should have never happened."
"Yeah," Xander said absently and looked around. "Do me a favour. Hand me the box of painkillers over there."
Dawn did as ordered and gave him the box. Xander immediately opened it and put a dozen of the small pills in his mouth.
"Ah," Faith said as she spotted the two in the bathroom. "Here you are."
"Hey Faith," Xander said with a weak smile. "How are things going on down there."
"It was fun," the dark slayer admitted with a smile. "I guess it was pretty embarrassing for Buffy to face the SITs after you beat her down."
"She brought that on herself. Not my fault," Xander said and groaned and took his T-Shirt off. Dawn cringed as she saw the fist shaped bruise on Xander's chest.
"It's not that bad Dawn," Xander said, trying to reassure her. "One ore two ribs are probably bruised. That's nothing a good sleep couldn't cure."
Dawn shook her head as Xander began to strap some bandages from the first aid kit around his chest.
"I don't understand how Buffy could lose it," Dawn said. "She was always violent, she's a slayer after all. But it never went that far."
"Well, she didn't loose it," Xander said and put the shirt back over his bandaged chest. "She did that on purpose."
"What?" Dawn asked shocked. "Why?"
"Because she wanted to impress the SITs," Xander told her. "Look, I'm the guy that killed the enemy she couldn't beat. She thinks that I stole something from her. The victory that proved once and for all that she is the leader of the group. And by beating me up she wanted to prove that she is still the Alpha."
"That's a pretty fucked up point of view B has there," Faith exclaimed. "But I guess it fits with her personality. She never could accept competition."
"You should know it," Xander said. "You have the most experience in competing with her."
All three stood in the bathroom for for several long, silent moments.
"Xander," Dawn finally started. "Maybe it's time that we do something about Buffy."
"What are you talking about?" Xander asked confused.
"I don't know," Dawn admitted. "All I know is that in her current state of mind she is far from being a responsible leader."
"And what I'm supposed to do?" Xander asked. "Take over the leadership?"
"Why not?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah," Faith agreed. "I'm with the jailbait."
Dawn glared at Faith, but the slayer returned it with an amused smile.
"No," Xander declared and shook his head. "That's not an option."
"Why not?" Dawn said. "With all that army experience in your head you're the one most qualified for that position."
"Forget it Dawn," Xander said and walked up to the door.
"Why not?" Dawn asked again.
"Look," Xander said, trying to get his thoughts in order. "I'm not fond of Buffy right now. But she leads the group, not me. And even if she is a bit jumpy right now, we could always count on her to make the right decision."
"Like when you went to kill Caleb," Dawn threw in. "Admit it Xander. She made mistakes. And if she keeps on doing them. It's because she doesn't see that she is doing something wrong."
"Dawn," Xander said more calmly. "I would risk my life for each and everyone of you. But I won't accept the responsibility of leading a group of teenage girls into a fight."
And with this words Xander left the bathroom and walked down the corridor, leaving a confused slayer and key behind.
Xander immediately went back to his apartment. He didn't feel like staying at the Summer's house any longer. Back at his apartment complex, he unloaded the equipment her had stolen from the police station. Normally he would have been about more careful, but the streets and the surrounding buildings were already deserted.
When he had finally stored all the stuff in his apartment, he began to check the guns he had liberated.
He had two Baretta 92, three Benelli M3 shotguns, one H&K Mp5 from one of the SPD's SWAT teams and enough ammunition to start a small war. In addition to that he also had a couple of holsters and extra magazines from the police station. From the army base he had five grenades, two night vision goggles and a pair of night vision binoculars.
Xander started to take the guns apart and cleaned each one of them. After he was satisfied with their condition, he turned his attention to the Mp5. One of the things he had taken from the police station's armoury was an upgrade kit for the sub-machinegun. The kit consisted of a silencer, a scope, laser sight and a flashlight for the Mp5.
He had just finished screwing the silencer to the muzzle, when he heard a knock on his door.
"Hey Xander," Faith greeted him, as he opened the door.
"Faith," Xander exclaimed surprised. "What are you doing here?"
Faith shrugged. "B sent me and Wood out to search for the Bringers. I though you might want to join."
Xander looked confused, but a quick look out of the window showed him that it was already dark. He hadn't noticed that had worked that long on the Mp5. "Wait a second," he said and walked back to the kitchen table. He took one of the Barettas and stuffed in one of the shoulder holsters. He also grabbed the Mp5 and walked back to Faith.
"Whao," Faith exclaimed surprised as Xander fastened the holster around his shoulder. "You want to start a small war or what?"
"Just compensating my lack of super powers," he said as they walked down the stairs and out of the apartment complex, where Wood already waited for them.
"Xander," Wood greeted him and shook his hand. "Glad that you're okay."
"Thanks," Xander answered with a thankful nod. "So, where do we start?"
"I'd say the classics," Faith proposed.
Xander nodded. "Cemetery is it."
Back at the Summer's residence Buffy stared into the mirror of the bathroom. The cut on her head had already healed and would disappear in a day or two. Same went for the bruise on her throat where Xander hat hit her. But right now it was a reminder of her embarrassment this afternoon, when she had to face the SITs in the kitchen.
She sighed and splashed her face with some water from the sink.
"Your plan didn't work," she said, accusing the souled vampire that stood behind her, even if she couldn't see him in the mirror. Spike simply leaned against the wall and watched her. "Now it's even worse," she continued. "All the SITs saw how he beat the crap out of me."
"That wasn't your fault and you know it," Spike said, trying to convince her of that. "Xander tricked you. He only won because he cheated."
"What am I supposed to do?" Buffy asked after a long pause. "The Potentials lost nearly all their respect for me. It won't be long before they'll stand up against me and I have no idea how I can prevent that."
Spike considered that for a moment, he already knew that answer to that question. "We need a quick victory," he finally stated. "Xander beat you up. Now you have to show them that you're despite that the better leader."
"That's the problem," Buffy exclaimed with dry laugh. "Caleb was our best chance to wipe the First's troops out. But his Bringers are now somewhere else. And we don't know here they are."
"Don't worry," Spike said and walked in the direction of the door. "They will turn up eventually."
"Did Buffy have any idea how we're supposed to find those Bringers?" Wood asked when they walked through Restfield cemetery.
"I don't think so," Faith said and tried to pierce the darkness with her eyes. "Buffy normally doesn't think."
"Well, that might be helpful," Xander said and handed her a pair of binoculars.
"What's that?" the slayer asked.
"Night vision binoculars," Xander explained. "Took them with me from the Army base. Bu I can't really use them," he said and motioned at his eyepatch.
"You raided the Army base?" Faith asked with an amused expression. "Way to go X-Man."
They continued their search in silence without any results. When they had searched the whole graveyard without encountering any Bringer, Faith decided to break the silence.
"Hey Xander. Have you reconsidered what Dawn and I talked about with you?"
"Yeah I have," Xander admitted. "Had some time think over it."
"And?" she asked.
"I still don't think I would be a good idea," the Zeppo told her.
"Why not Xander?" Wood spoke up. "Buffy is not exactly doing a great job with leading the troops."
"Yeah X," Faith agreed. "And I'm sure that most of the Potentials have the same opinion. Woody and I would support you in a heart beat. Dawn too. And I'm sure that Giles and Anya would do the same."
"Well, I'm flattered for all the support," Xander told her with a smile. "But I still hope that Buffy will come to her senses."
"If you ask me that's a lost cause. But whatever suits you," Faith said and peered again through her binoculars. "Wait a second. I think I have something here."
"Bringers?" Wood asked.
"I think so," Faith said and handed him the binoculars. "There are not many people here in Sunnydale that walk around in hoods. What are they doing?"
"They're heading toward that church at the other side of the street," Wood said and pointed at the building. "I think we should follow them."
As silent as it was possible the three followed the First's minions to the church.
The inside of the church was crowded with Bringers. They all stood in the main chamber and had kneeled down in front of the altar. A hooded person stood in front of them and waited patiently for the arrival of their master. Finally the First appeared behind the altar and looked expectantly at the figure in front of it.
"Is everything prepared?" it asked the hooded figure that stood in front of her.
"Yes master," the figure replied with a woman's voice. "All you troops have assembled here. We are awaiting your orders."
The First nodded at that and looked its assembled soldiers. "Calebs's demise delayed our plans," it declared. "And we are not strong enough to attack the slayer directly."
The First stopped for a moment. When it continued an evil smile had appeared on its face. "But our numbers will continue to rise. And soon we will be enough to face them. And then they will all die."
Xander and his two companions followed the two Bringers to the church. They stopped outside the front doors and peered inside the church.
"Crap," Faith whispered, after the First had finished its speech. "They plan their attack on us."
Wood nodded at that and looked closer at the assembled Bringers. "There are about thirty Bringers in there," he finally said. " That's not enough for them to attack us. But could be a problem for us if they really reinforce their troops."
"What do you think Xander?" Faith asked the Zeppo. But Xander simply stared at the Bringers, not noticing the dark slayer. "Xander," she whispered again and slapped him on his forearm.
That finally got his attention and he looked over to the slayer. "What?"
"You okay?" Faith asked. "You kinda zoned out there."
"I don't know," Xander admitted and again looked at the groups of Bringers. "There is something wrong here. I just can't put my finger on it."
They waited for another few minutes,just in case something important happened.
"I think we have to get out of here," Faith said finally and stood up. "We have to tell the group about this."
Wood nodded and followed the slayer instantly. Xander stayed for few more seconds before he also left his spot at the door. But he couldn't shake of the feeling that they had missed something important.
About five minutes after Xander, Faith and Wood left the church the hooded figure finally became impatient.
"Are they away?" she asked annoyed.
"Yes," The First told her with a smile. "You can drop the spell now."
The hooded woman nodded and folded her hands in front of her. She chanted a few words in and ancient language and waited for the results. Right after the spell had ended, the air behind the Bringers began to shimmer and weaver.
Finally the air cleared itself and revealed another group of Bringers, that up to now were hidden by the cloaking spell. The First smiled as it watched it troops. The number of Bringers had more than doubled in these few seconds.
"Your orders master," the hooded woman asked. "The real ones."
"We follow the plan I have initiated," the First replied calmly. "And if it doesn't work, then we still have brute force to accomplish our goals."
Back at the Summer's residence the Potentials had gathered in the living room to watch some TV. The rest of the Scoobies had joined them, while Buffy and Spike sat in the kitchen, brooding over a map of Sunnydale.
"Faith," the blonde slayer greeted her dark counterpart as she walked into the kitchen with her two companions. She eyed Xander with a dark expression, but quickly focussed back on Faith. "How did your patrol go?"
"More or less successful," Faith told the slayer. "We followed two Bringers to an abandoned church. They set their base up there," she said and marked the position on the map.
"The Bringers are there," Buffy asked and pointed at the map. "How many?"
"About thirty of them," Robin answered. "And a hooded woman that leads them."
Buffy contemplated her actions for a moment. Xander watched her during that, hoping that she would make the right decisions this time.
Finally Buffy stood up and walked in the living room. She grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. That got her the attention of everyone. "Okay everyone," she called out. "Gear up. We're paying the First a little visit."
The Potentials looked at each other, not sure what to make out of Buffy's order.
Buffy noticed the lack of enthusiasm. "Any problems with that?"
When none of the occupant of the room spoke up, Xander stepped forward and addressed the blonde slayer. "Yeah, I've got a problem with that."
Buffy glared at him, but didn't want to embarrass herself in front of the group again. "And why's that?" she finally asked, masking her anger as good as possible.
"I don't know," Xander admitted tiredly. "But something was definitely wrong when we were at the church. Call it a feeling."
Buffy snorted at that ."And because of your feeling I'm supposed to wait and let the First get away with its troops."
"If I remember correctly it was you that attacked Caleb's vineyard out of a feeling," Xander threw back at her, finally running dry with his patience.
"That's something different," Buffy told him."I'm a slayer. It's not like I didn't have more than one prophetic dream in my life. When I get a bad felling and act on it, it's justified. If you get one, than simply because you're scared."
"Oh, cause you're the slayer you are allowed to act on your instincts. But the rest of us not, because we have no supernatural senses?" Xander stated angrily.
"Buffy! Xander!" Giles called out and approached the two. "I think you should both calm down and continue this conversation in civilized matter."
"Stay out of this Giles," Buffy snapped at her former watcher and returned her attention to Xander.
Xander sighed and looked around the room. All of the SITs and Scoobies watched their argument with growing interest. Realizing that her probably wouldn't reach Buffy with reason, he decided to change his tactics.
"Okay," Xander sat after a moment. "I have a deal for you. Buffy. I will support you in every way possible. I'll do everything you want me to do. I will never question your decision again as long as the fight against the First goes on. All I expect from you is to answer me one single question," Xander told her. That statement surprised everyone in the room, Buffy the most. None of them expected Xander to cave in that easily.
"Fine," Buffy replied finally, happy that the constant questioning of her leadership skills would soon be over. "Ask your question."
"What's your plan?" Xander simply asked. If the offer that he wouldn't challenge her again didn't throw Buffy of her feet, this few words sure did the job.
"Wh…What?" the blonde slayer stammered out. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you must have some kind of battle plan," Xander stated. "Or did you just want to storm into there and start killing ."
"I….."Buffy started, but was a complete loss of words.
"I'm going to make it a bit easier for you," Xander told her. "Do you want to attack them from one side only? Or do you want strike from different positions, so the Bringers have no chance to escape?" he proposed, catching Buffy off guard with each word. The Slayer just stood there as the Zeppo continued his interrogation. "And if you want to do that, who is supposed to lead the different groups? What about reconnaissance, so we don't run into the next trap the First might have planned for us. And where are we supposed to treat our wounded? Sunnydale hospital is already deserted. What about reinforcements? Where are we supposed to regroup if the Firsts troop overpower us."
"Stop it," Buffy screamed, barely holding herself back to physical harm him. She took some deep breaths before she answered. "I have already considered all that," she exclaimed finally.
"Oh really," Xander asked with a sneer. "Why does it seem to me that you're just saying that so you don't look like a fool in front of everyone."
"Xander," Buffy said, faking a smile. "Could I speak to you for a moment," she said and tried to drag Xander in the direction of the kitchen.
"No Buffy. I don't think so," Xander replied and yanked his arm free out of her grip. "If you want to lead all those girls into the next pitfall, well, that's your decision," Xander told her with the barest hint of emotion and leaned forward so their faces were only inches apart. "But I want nothing to do with it."
Before the slayer could mutter another word, Xander had already turned around and walked in the direction of the front door.
"Good," Buffy exclaimed after he had slammed the door behind him. "I thought he would never leave,"
"How dare you," Dawn accused at her."Even when all of us thought that the attack on Caleb was a mistake, he still supported you. He lost his eye because he believed in you. And now you are thanking him that like this?"
But Buffy just stared coldly at her. "You can leave if you don't like it."
"You know what," Dawn told her with furry expression. "I'm doing exactly that."
"Wow," Faith exclaimed after Dawn also had slammed the door behind her. "Little sis has more spine than her sister," she said, which earned her a glare from Buffy. Faith ignored the blonde slayer and instead turned to the dark skinned man besides her. "Come on Woody. We have nothing left here."
"You coming G," Faith called out as she and the principal of Sunnydale High left through the front door. Giles and Anya exchanged a look for a few seconds. Finally both shrugged their shoulders and followed the dark slayer.
Buffy meanwhile could only watch shocked as more and more of her friends left the house.
"Okay guys," Buffy exclaimed, trying her hardest to hide her nervous state. "Now that we have lost this extra weight we can go on with the initial plan."
"Plan?" Kennedy asked with a raised eyebrow. "You have a plan now? I though Xander prooved that this is not the case."
"Kennedy," Buffy snapped at the Potential. "Shut up."
"No, I won't," the SIT declared. "Admit it Buffy. You fucked up in your fight against Caleb. But instead of learning from you mistakes, you are about to repeat them."
"You don't have any idea what it's like to lead a group into a war," Buffy accused her.
"No I don't," She admitted. "But even I could do a better job than you, despite my lack of experience. Think about it. When even your friends have given up on you, why should we bother any longer?"
When Buffy couldn't find an answer to that question, the potential slayer stood up and walked in the direction of the front door.
That action finally broke the dam that had keeped the Potentials under Buffy's control. One after another stood up and followed Kennedy out of the house.
During all this, Willow stood up and walked up to the blonde slayer.
"I'm sorry Buffy," The witch told her ."But Xander is right. You have no plan. And you wouldn't even consider another opinion or our help."
"You too Willow," Buffy asked her, trying her hardest to suppress the tears that stated to swell in her eyes. "Even after I accepted you back here. After everything you did?"
Willow glared at her. "Just another point why I should leave," she accused the slayer. "My Buffy, the Buffy I proudly could call my friend would have never used that against me in an argument." Willow followed the last Potentials, but stopped in front of the door. "You are not that person anymore," she said over her shoulder. "I hope you will be it one day again. But right now, I would choose Xander's side anytime of the day."
And with these words she closed the door behind her.
"Xander wait," Dawn called out, running up to the departing form of he Scoobie.
"What do you want?" he snapped at her, without slowing down. When he realise what he just said he turned around. "Sorry Dawn. But I'm just not in the best mood right now," he apologised with sigh. "I mean what am I supposed to do? I tried to get through to her, but she just won't listen. No matter what I say, she sees it as a kind of challenge for her position of the leadership."
"It's not your fault," Dawn reassured him. "She doesn't listen to anyone of us," she told him. "Except Spike," she added after a second.
"Yo X-Man," Faith called out attracting both their attention. "You ready to accept some more fugitives?"
"What are you two doing here?" Xander asked surprised as the dark haired slayer and the principal walked up to them.
"Isn't it obvious?" Faith told him with a smirk. "We're joining the rebellion against the evil Emperor."
"Giles, Anya," he greeted them. Just now he spotted the stream of Potentials that had followed them.
After a couple of minutes, all the Potentials stood in a semi circle around the male scoobie. The last one to join them was Willow.
"Okay Xander," Willow started. "We're all here. Now, what are we supposed to do?"
Xander shook his had and took a long moment to gather his thoughts.
"Okay," he finally. "First priority is get us a new base of operation. My apartment is obviously not big enough for you all. That means we have to search for another location."
Xander though about his possibilities and came quickly to a solution. "I got it," he said and turned to Giles. "Giles. Take Anya and Willow with you. Bring the Potentials to Angel's old mansion."
"Good idea. The building is big enough and there are few entrances we have to guard," the watcher said with a nod and led the Potentials down the street.
"Faith, Dawn," he said and turned to the two. "You two are going to raid one of the supermarkets. We need something to eat after all. Take my car," he said and handed Faith the keys. "It's still at my apartment. We are going to meet at the mansion once we're finished."
"Yes sir," Faith said and mock saluted in front of Xander.
"And what am I supposed to do?" Robin Wood asked, once the two women had disappeared around the next corner.
"You got a car?" Xander said without looking at him.
"Yeah," the principal responded. "A SUV. It's still at my apartment."
"Good," Xander responded with a smirk. "Robin, You ever broke into a police station?"
"They left," Buffy repeated for the umpteenth time. "All of them."
Since all her friends and the potentials had left the house Buffy sat on the couch, repeating those words over and over again.
"Oh Buffy," Spike said from besides her. "I would like to say that I could make it better. But I can't," he admitted and stood up. He walked to the other side of the room and waited a few more moments. "And even if I could I wouldn't do it."
That statement finally brought Buffy out of her trance. "What are you talking about?" she asked confused. "I don't understand."
"Well that's nothing new with you," The First replied sarcastically. Buffy almost jumped. She hadn't noticed the appearance of the ultimate evil. It sat besides her on the couch, where only moment before Spike had sat. It smiled with Buffy's face at her. "Don't you understand blondie? Spike is finally showing his true colours."
Buffy could only stare between the First and Spike, still don't able to believe what she just heard. "I don't understand," she repeated.
"Oh, are that the only words you know?" Spike asked with a snort. "Don't you get it you stupid bitch? I'm working for the First."
"But you have a soul," Buffy responded.
"You really thought I would voluntary get my soul back," he asked her with an amused expression. "Damn. You must have read Anne Rice book once too often."
Buffy just wanted to ask her next question, when the First silenced her. Buffy was shocked to see that it had taken the form of her Mother. "Sweety, I'll explain everything to you, I swear," the First told her with a smile. "But we have tight a schedule to follow."
The First nodded at someone behind Buffy. "What…." Buffy started, but was silenced, when her whole body was encased in ice.
"Good shot Andrew," the First congratulated the geek, who had and upgraded version of the evil trio's freezing gun in his hands.
"And she won't take any damage from that?" Spike asked and lighted a cigarettes.
"No," Andrew responded. "Captain America was locked in an iceberg for decades and it didn't harm him. She won't hurt get by a few ours in this thing," the geek explained, but Spike had already stopped listening after the first few words.
"Whatever," Spike said and focused on the front door. The hooded woman entered the room, a couple of Bringers behind her.
"Right on time," the First exclaimed with a smile. The Bringers immediately lifted Buffy frozen body off the couch and carried it out off the house.
"Is everything prepared?" the First asked.
"Yes master," the woman replied and threw the hood over her head, which revealed the smiling face of Amy Madison. "The school is in our hand. And everything is prepared for the sacrifice."
"Excellent," the First said with a smile. "Everything went according to the plan."
"How is she?" the First asked and watched as the bringers tied Buffy down on a big marble throne they had placed in front of the seal.
"Her vitals are strong," Andrew said after checking her pulse. "The freezing process didn't harm her, but she might catch a cold with the wet clothes on her."
"She's a slayer," Spike exclaimed with an evil smile. "She can stand the cold."
"Good," the First said and turned to Spike and Andrew. "You two make sure that no one will be able to penetrate our defense." Both nodded at that and left the basement, leaving the First and Amy alone. "You prepare everything we need for the ritual. I'll join you in a few minutes."
"Yes mistress," Amy replied and also left the basement.
After all of her minions left, the First focused its sole attention and the awakening slayer. "Hello Buffy. How are you?"
"C....old," Buffy stammered out. After a few seconds she stopped shivering and opened her eyes slightly, only to be greated by her own immage. "What have you done to Spike?" she finally asked.
"That's all you have to say? I mean, we captured you, tied you up here and all that you can think of is the vampire," the First asked with a raised eyebrow and shook its head. "Your obsession with souled vampires is really sick, even from my point of view. Maybe you should choose some professional help," it mused. "But on second thought, there won't be anyone left who could help you after I'm done with the world."
"What have you done to him," Buffy demanded again, more urgently this time.
"Don't worry blondie," the First said after a few seconds. "Everything will be explained to you in due time. But we have some things to take care of before. So, be a bit more patient, okay?"
Before Buffy could say anything else, the First had already vanished, leaving her completely alone. Finally she opened her eyes completly and took in her suroundings, realising with fear where she was.
Xander and Wood had just finished unloading the last of the cardboard boxes they had liberated from the police station.
"That's the last of them?" Wood asked and placed the last box next to the other ones they had already unloaded onto the sidewalk.
"Yep," Xander replied and closed the trunk of the SUV. "That's all of them."
"So, what are we going to do know?"
"First we check up with Giles," Xander said and walked in the direction of the mansion's front doors.
"And what about the boxes?"
"We'll leave them here for the moment", Xander replied with a shrug. "It's not like there is someone here who would steal that stuff."
Xander opened the mansion's door, only to find the house practically alive with movement. The SITs were busy cleaning out the main rooms of the mansion, while Giles stood in the middle of the chaos, speaking on his cell phone.
"He is here Faith. Wait a second," Giles spoke into the phone and walked up to the other two men.
"Hi Giles," Xander greeted the older man. "How are you guys doing here?"
"We're nearly finished cleaning out the main rooms," the watcher replied qith a shrug. "That is about everything we are able to do right now. I have Faith on the phone. She wants to talk to you," he said and handed the phone over to Xander.
"Faith?" Xander asked once he had the cell phone in his hand
"Hey X-Man," came the instant reply from the dark slayer. "What's up?"
"Nothing," Xander returned. "Any success with your supply mission?"
"We had a few problems at the beginning," Faith admitted. "Some jerks already looted most of the supermarkets in town. But they left the walmart at the City limits untouched. We have everything here that you wanted. Food, camping stuff."
"I just realised something," Xander exclaimed. "Can you fit all that stuff into my car?"
"Nah, that's not a problem. I hotwired a van that still stood in the parking lot."
"Okay. Do me a favour. Check the gun stores on your way back here. The owners probably took most of their stuff with them when they left the city. But maybe they left some stuff behind. Crossbows, knives, the stuff the SITs are familar with."
"You got it X. Okay, I gotta go," she said and ended the connection.
Xander gave Giles his cell phone back. "I don't suppose that Angel left some of his weapons behind?" The shake of the watcher's head confirmed his question. "Damn. We're really lacking in the weapons department."
"We could use some of the stuff that I have in my Office," Wood proposed after a few seconds.
"You got some weapons in your Office?" Xander asked suprised. "How many?"
Wood counted mentally."A dozen knives, two or three short swords and a few crossbow pistols."
Xander nodded. "Not much but its a good start."
"Can't we use the weapons Buffy kept in her house?" Giles asked
"Maybe," Xander mused and rubbed his jaw. "But I don't want to face Buffy or Spike right now. That could cause quite some trouble," he mused and thought about his possibilities. "Okay, that'she plan. Wood and I will get his weapons from the office. That and the stuff Faith hopefully will dig up should be enough to equip the Sits properly: When everything fails, we can still raid Buffy's arsenal."
Both men nodded. "Okay. Giles, take a few of the SITs. We left some boxes in front of the mansion."
"God Xander," Giles groanded. "What did you do this time?"
"We raided the police station," Xander replied, trying keep his face as straight as possible.
"Xander," Giles said and leaned close, so none of the nearby Potentials could hear him. "I don't think that it's a good idea to put a gun in the hand of one of those girls. They justfinished some basic training with mellee weapons."
"That's good to know Giles, because the boxes aren't loaded with guns," Xander explained and walked in the direction of the front door. "The police took all the dangerous stuff with them when the left the town. But they left some other stuff behind," he said and punched the watcher slightly on the arm. "You'll see."
Giles still shook his head as Xander and Wood left the mansion. "Kennedy," he finally called out.
After Buffy had regained some feeling in her legs and arms, she tried her hardest to break the ropes that held her in place. The Bringers had made a pretty good job of tying her down. She had nearly no room to move her hands and feet and no matter how hard she pulled, she couldn't free her hands.
"Don't waste your time," came suddenly Spike's voice from the other side of the room. Buffy briefly turned her head to look at the vampire. "Amy had these ropes enchanted. They pretty much neutralize your slayer's strength," he explained and sat down beside her.
"Fuck you," Buffy snapped at him.
Spike chuckled at that. "So. The boss said you wanted someone to talk to."
"Yeah," Buffy muttered. "I'd really like to know when you betrayed me."
"You're taking it better than I thought," the vampire exclaimed with a chuckle and lit himself a cigarette. "This whole plan has been going on for a few years now." At Buffy's shocked look, his smile grew even wider. "Three years to be exact. Three long years where I had to play the newly reformed good guy. You see, the First recruited me shortly after the ADAM debacle. It was pretty impressed, that I nearly managed to split your group up. It wanted me to do it again, only this time with a bit more backup and success. But I had to earn your trust first. So I started helping you regulary. Staking a vamp here, rescuing one of your friends there. All sacrifices for the greater good."
Buffy leaned back and listened to Spike's tale as he went on-
"And after while it worked," the vampire stated with pride. "You trusted me. You considered me an ally, or at best a love sick puppy that followed you around. That went one for the whole year. Of course there had to be certain key events that had to happen in specific order so the First's plan could actually work."
"Events?" Buffy asked shocked.
"Oh, not what you think," Spike waved off. "We had nothing to do with your mother's death. For once nature played for our side. No, the important thing that had to happen was your death."
"How many?" Xander finally asked.
"I've counted more than fifty right now," Wood replied behind his pair of binoculars. They had arrived at the highshool, only to find it heavily guraded by the First's bringers. The plan to retrieve Robin's weapons was immediatly forgotten. Instead they had taken position on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. The principal was currently observing the school ground with one of the night vision binoculars Xander had given him. "About ten on the roof, twenty at the front entrance and another twenty behind the windows of the second and first floor."
Xander nodded. "Let's double that number to cover the other side of the building," he calculated. "I'd say between eighty and one hundred bringers."
"Fuck. Outnumber us two to one," Wood cursed under his breath. "What the hell are they doing here?"
"There's only one thing I could think off."
"The seal," Robin realised. "Damn. I knew that we shouldn't have left it unprotected."
"Too late to worry about spilt milk," Xander exclaimed and retrieved his cell phone from his pocket. "Giles, it's me," he muttered into the phone. "We've got trouble brewing. The First and its cronies have taken over the highschool."
Xander listened for a few seconds. "Yeah, I know. Bad news. Look, Robin and I'll stay here and see if we can find anything out, okay? By the way, is Faith already back?" He nodded at Giles answer. "Good. I want her and Willow to go on a little mission. Remember the church we told you about? The one where the First was holding its little meeting? I want the two to pay it another visit and see if Willow catches any weird vibes." He waited again for the watcher's answer. "It's just a feeling Giles, but I want to be sure about this. Okay, see ya back at the mansion."
"What's important about the church," Wood asked a moment later.
"Don't know," Xander admitted. "Like I told Giles it's only a feeling."
Despite Buffy's shocked look, Spike continued. "You know, the First ist not that good with the destiny crap. But it can pinpoint certain key events that are going to happen. It knew that you would lose the fight against Glory, that's why it told her where she could find her key. And it knew that your witch would resurrect you after your death. Those were the important things."
"You mean that everything I went through only happened because the First had some kind of master plan in the background?" Buffy spat out angrily.
"You got it," Spike told her with a cruel smile. If the ropes hadn't held her in place, Buffy would have leaped at the vampire and punched that self- satisfied smirk off his face. But instead she had to listen as Spike went on. "Anyway, the important thing wasn't that you died. More important was where you went after your death. But for you to understand that, I have to give a bit of backround info about the First."
"You see, a few millenias ago the First was a really big shot in hell. But at one step or another it pissed of the wrong people," Spike explained. "Bottom line is, that it was banished from Hell and forced to exist from now on on Earth. Now, instead of brooding about the unfairness of all this, it began its plan to take over its new home. And so it created the first vampires, the TurokHahn, as foot soldiers for its army."
"Now, the big boss down there was even more pissed now, cause if the First managed to conquer earth it would made him look bad. So he decided to do something about it. He locked the First away, together with its troops in this giant cave, surrounded by an indestructible energy field that was generated by the seal," Spike told her, but noted that Buffy was only mildly interested. "Okay, back to the why you had to die issue. You see, Satan has a real sick sense of humor. The only way to open the seal is a certain type of energy. The one that only exists in heaven." At that revelation Buffy looked wide eyed at the vampire. "Yes I think you finally got it," he exclaimed with a smile.
"You mean when I died....," she stammered out. "And when I came back....."
"That's it pet," Spike told her. "You're pratically charged up with heaven's energy. That was also the reason I could hit while my chip was still in my head. Do you undestand it now? Your sister isn't the only 'Key' around here. Your blood will open the seal and let the First escape from its prison."
"Ah, but I'm still not finished," Spike stated and brough Buffy out of her shocked state. "Your track record shows that you're not easily defeated. That's why the First wanted me to infiltrate your crew. You were all lonely and depressed after your return and blamed your friends that they took you from heaven. And I was the only one you could confide in."
"And I took advantage of that trust at every possible moment to plunge a wedge between you and your friends. And our 'relationship' was just another way to reach that goal," he explained, but had to sigh. "But slowly and steadily you managed to pull yourself out of the hole you dug yourself in, which lead to a last desperate attempt to return you to the darkside," he said and looked at her. "Rape is such an ugly word."
"The First was pretty angry with me that it didn't work out as planned.But there was one last trump card that we could play. So I went to Africa to get my 'soul' back. The catch line is that I didn't get my soul back. The demon cast a pretty effective illusion spell on me, that would fool any kind of detection spell your witch could throw my way."
"Only thing I had to do now was to play the poor tortured soul that was controlled by the bad First Evil to get back into your good graces. And so the game was on again. Only this time we played it a bit harder. We put the responsibility of fighting a war on your schoulders. And the responsibility of protecting all the girls whose watchers we killed. It was only a matter of time before you would snap and your friends would turn against you."
"You got," Spike said and looked at his watch. "Fifteen hours left to live. That's the time Amy need to perform the ritual. And then I'll personally cut you open, using your blood to free the First. I have to congratulate you. You single handedly managed to doom this whole planet."
"Spike," Buffy replied with clenched teeth, barely containing her anger. "Pray that I won't be able to escape. Cause there won't be a place on the whole planet where you could hide from me."
"That's a nice threat luv," Spike told her with a smile. "But reality is, that you won't get out of here. And your friends don't know that you're here. You're finally all alone. And you'll die alone," he said and lit another cigarette and placed it between Buffy's lips."You should try it. Not like you'll make that many new experiences in your life."
Buffy paid close attention as the vampire left the room. When he had finally closed the door behind him, she instantly went to work. She leaned over to the rope that tied her right arm to the arm rest and brought the tip of the cigarette closer to the rope. Thankfully, Amy had chosen the proably cheapiest rope she could find. It took her only half a minute to free her arm. Two more minutes later she was a completly free slayer again and carefully sneaked in the direction of the door.
"Maybe we should go," Wood muttered.
"Let's wait another few minutes," Xander interjected. "Maybe we'll catch something useful."
"Yeah, like a cold," the principal replied sarcastically, but continued observing the school grounds. "It doesn't look like ....wait something's happening down there."
"Luckily none of them is patroling the hallways,"Buffy thought as she sprinted in the general direction of the front entrance. But she already could see the the shapes of the bringers through one of the door's windows.
She quickened her pace and kicked the double doors open, hitting five unlucky Bringer that had stood next to door and knocked them out. That left her and the dozen remaining Bringers that still stood between her and freedom.
But Buffy had actually had to frown. None of the First's minions made a move to attack her, they merely formed a semi circle around her.
"Oh yeah," Buffy exclaimed with sudden realization. "You're not allowed to kill me yet. Well, your bad," she said and kicked the closest Bringer hard in the head, knocking him out.
Before one of the remaining Bringers could react, Buffy had already sommersaulted over their heads and continued her run away from the school grounds.
"Oh no," Spike muttered from his position on the second floor. "You won't get away that easily."
Slowly he lifted the rifle he had in his arms and pointed it at the fleeing slayer. When he had her in the middle of his scope he pressed the trigger.
Buffy felt only a small sting when the tranquilizer dart hit her in the back. But it almost instantly took effect. He movements became slower and less coordinated until she finally slumped to the ground.
A few seconds later the Bringers had caught up with her.
"Come on," Wood urged, but Xander held the other man back. "We have to help her," he said and motioned at Buffy's unconsciousnes body. They had instantly left their position on the roof when Wood had spotted Buffy. But they were already too late. By the time they were outside the house, the Bringers had carried Buffy already halfway back to the school.
"Forget it," Xander exclaimed, equally pissed about the situation. "Too many bringers."
"We can't just leave her in their hands," Wood protested. "No one deserves that."
"We won't," Xander promised. "But we wouldn't be doing Buffy a favor when we get ourselves killed."
"Damn," Robin exclaimed and looked again in the direction of the Bringers. But what he spotted made his blood boil. "Spike," he spat, making the name sound like a terrible curse.
"Where?" Xander said and moved his head in the same direction. Finally he was able to spot the bleached blonde vampire among the group of Bringers. "That lousy motherfucker," he cursed.
"What are we going to do now?" Robin asked after a few seconds.
"Can't do anything about it right now," Xander admitted angrily. "Come on. Let's get back to the mansion. The rest of the guys have to know about about this. But I can already tell, this is a brand new level of bad."