Xander, was sitting in a hotel room idly watching the street outside his window. Although truthfully it had been years since he had been called Xander these days he went by Alex. Close enough to his old name to remind him who he was, but different enough that most days he could forget the past. Today was not most days, and Alex was again raging against the past.
Five years. For five years we've been stuck in the twisted dimension. I'm going to kill Spike if I ever see him again. Spike, the bastard who pushed us into the portal. The sick son of a bitch smiled as he did it. Oh yah Spike was going to die, all we need is a way home.
Not much hope of that though, we've been stuck here five years and if Willow was going to rescue us she would have done it by now. Can't even rescue ourselves, I haven't seen a whisper of the supernatural here, no spell casters, no demons. Sure there is that beheading cult running around the world, but no mystical mumbo jumbo there just a bunch of crazy bastards cutting each others heads off.
Stupid portal couldn't even drop us in a decent place. A sunny beach, a tropical resort, even a vampire-infested warehouse would have been fine. No we get dropped into a Red Cell training facility, and let me tell you our arrival did not go over well. It could have been much worse though. No one saw how we got in and the 'investigator' choose to use drugs and some hypnotherapy crap to try and get information out of us. We were only there two days and they hadn't yet resorted to physical torture before Section liberated the facility and us along with it.
I remember thinking "Yay we've been saved." I wasn't expecting the reception we got. Strapped down in rather uncomfortable metal chair in a very bright room, some sick psycho asking questions. Madeline would get a kick out of that thought I'm sure. Anyways I'm in this lovely white room and all I can think about is her, where is she, I saw her in the van. God what are they doing to her and all the while the sick bitch is asking questions I have no answers for.
Seems they were curious why we didn't exist in their databases. Anywhere. There were no records of anyone with our DNA profile, or anyone even close. Birkoff later told me that he should have been able to at least obtain a maternal link somewhere.
I think it was only the fact that we were being tortured by Red Cell that saved us from being canceled. Section really hates mysteries. They still couldn't allow us to walk free, and the fact that we didn't exist gave them the perfect opportunity to recruit us. Not that things were simple or easy after that. We went through two years of 'training' that put my soldier memories of boot camp to shame.
If she wasn't there with me every step of the way I wouldn't have made it. It was her strength that pulled us through. I still remember Michael's first visit. Comes in all cocky quoting gravesite rows and plot numbers, half a second later she has him laid out on the floor. I guess fighting creatures five times faster than you pays off.
I think they figured we would try and escape at that point because he looked surprised when she sat back down and waited for him to get up. But really, where would we escape to. We knew no one here, had no money and new nothing of the world. Plus we knew nothing about the people we would have been running from. Escape wasn't realistic.
I don't think Michael liked us much. Sure he never said anything and you could never tell what he was thinking behind that mask of his. He seemed to make a point of sparring with us even though we weren't his assignment.
I have to say that we were pretty good at the hand to hand even before training. She took out the instructor in two moves on the first day. Said it was like the guy was moving in slow motion. Don't get me wrong we still took our share of beatings in training. We may have been fast but our technique was pretty sloppy.
"Team lead your target is approaching from the east." A voice interrupts my thoughts. Well back to work.
Madeline climbed the stairwell to the perch to attend another meeting with Operations regarding the two mystery guests. Even after five years their past was still a mystery. They had no records, and never discussed their past. The only clues she had managed to pick up on were the sub vocal death threats against 'Spike', and cries for Buffy and Willow during the night. None of which lead her investigations anywhere. Medical showed that the boy had had many injuries, which would have necessitated hospital visits, but again there were no records. If Oversight hadn't cleared them she would have been positive they were Red Cell plants.
Their performance during training was another mystery. Both performed well above average in combat training. Their training ended up being two years of polishing, and rounding off rough edges, mostly etiquette, language and high tech skills. By the time their two years was up their skills ranked them among the best of the field operatives and could fit in any social circles. The following three years only improved that ranking and refined their skills. Alone they were an asset to any team, but together… they were the team Michael and Nikita could have been if it wasn't for Nikita's discipline problems.
She punched in her access code and submitted to the retinal scan before the door opened. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes." responded operations not turning away from the glass, "Oversight has expressed an interest in Alex and his partner. George has requested them for a two week operation."
"I see… and you don't want to let them go." Madeline observed reading Operations slightly tensed shoulders. "What is the problem with the request?"
"I don't want to loose two trusted operatives." Operations paused "While we have many good operatives, and a few excellent operatives, you and I know we can count the trusted people around here on one hand. The intel George provided for the mission is sketchy at best, and I'm not sure I want to trust our assets in this."
Madeline tried not to wince at Operations using of the word trusted in relating to those two. She trusted only one person, and him only so far. She didn't like that Paul 'trusted' Alex and Dawn, but they had that argument before and now was not the time. "We could have Birkoff look over that intel, work out escape scenarios for them if things go poorly. We can satisfy George's request and still have confidence in both of them returning."
Operations turned to look at Madeline a small smile on his face, "Excellent." He walked over to a data port and punched a few keys. "Birkoff"
"Yes, Sir"
"I'm transmitting some data to your terminal, I want you to set up four complete escape scenarios. Passports, travel plans, safe house, everything."
Through the glass Madeline watched Birkoff focus on his terminal.
"Sir this data is incomplete, is there more or do you want me to increase the profile?"
"No. Work with what you have, an increase in profile will notify the target."
"Yes sir. I'll have the scenarios to you in… four hours."
"Very good"
Operations turned back to Madeline. "Call Alex and Dawn in for a briefing in five hours. I'll let George know that he can pick them up in six."
Operations mentally dismissed Madeline picking up a PAD off his desk and began reviewing the logs from the operation in the Sudan.
Five hours later found Alex, Dawn, Birkoff and Operations staring at the holographic projector.
Operations punched up the mission profile.
"Wade Wells, British businessman, self made millionaire, recently entered the political arena. He appears legitimate, however recently several suspicious transfers have been made from his accounts. He is also associating with people of questionable loyalties. His profile, associations, and general paranoia make him a difficult person to gather detailed information on."
"What we have are a lot of suspicions, we need confirmation of his loyalties and associations. If the associates prove to be hostile you will eliminate them and bring the target in for questioning. Birkoff."
"Alex you are Alex Davenport, English Industrialist. Inherited your money and company. Dawn you are his wife Rebecca."
Dawn looked over at Alex with a smirk. This was her kind of mission nothing fancy and she got to be married to Alex again. If section wouldn't permit their operatives to marry she intended to take full advantage of missions like this.
Alex caught her smirk and grinned back.
"I have developed four scenarios for your extraction should you break cover. Details are on your pads, and Walter will have additional equipment for you."
Both frowned slightly at that looking towards operations. Having four extraction scenarios was a little unusual for a mission of this type. After a second both mentally shrugged and returned to reviewing the profile. They knew they weren't in abeyance and trusted Paul to give them the information they needed, if he didn't say anything it didn't need to be said.
"Any questions?" asked operations as he shut down the projector. "Good, see Walter about the additional equipment."
Operations watched as Alex and Dawn started to assume their characters. Awaiting the usual banter as they tested out the details on each other. He had to admit that whenever Alex and Dawn were operating with a cover it tended to run smoother than those where the operatives strictly memorized the details.
Alex and Dawn rose and headed towards Walter's little fiefdom. Dawn nudged Alex, "Cradle robber." She snickered.
Alex glanced at his PAD, "Hey. I'm only four years older than you and we waited till your eighteenth birthday before we got married."
Dawn laughed "Birthday and Anniversary on the same day. I expect lots of presents husband mine."
Alex winced. "I'm not sure if I want to know how you got Birkoff to fix it so the date falls within the next two weeks."
With a twinkle in her eye Dawn just smiled and turned to Walter. "What have you got for us this time?"
With a genuine smile Walter pulled an envelope out of an equipment drawer. "First off your rings. Stop in at medical before you leave to get the tan lines fixed."
Alex grabbed the envelope, and emptied it into his hand. Plucking out the engagement ring he turned to Dawn. "Rebecca will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Dawn looked over to Walter, "But you haven't asked my fathers permission, how can I accept without his approval."
Alex flashed a dark look at Walter, who raised his hands and stepped back. "Whooo. How can I get between you two lovebirds? You have my approval, but if you hurt her I'll break both your knees."
Alex nodded, "How could I ever hurt my darling Rebecca."
Dawn solemnly offered her had to Alex who slowly placed both the engagement ring and wedding band on her finger.
As Alex slid his own wedding band on he turned back to Walter. "So I doubt that's it, what else have you got for us?"
Walter reached into the equipment drawer pulling out a pair of cell phones. "Usual Section cell phones, but Birkoff and I played with them a bit. Not only do they work on any cell network, they use the GPS network to track each other. Communication between the two phones is encrypted, when in use it jams electronic snooping devices, and I upped the battery life 50%."
Alex and Dawn nodded suitably impressed as they pocketed their phones.
Pulling out a Sig Sauer P220 and a Glock 31 he handed them over. "Your usual weapons, MP5's will be on site in the usual location."
Dawn reached over and picked up the Glock, and tested its action before placing it her shoulder holster. "Birkoff mentioned extra equipment?"
Walter shrugged, "Not so much equipment but a backup plans. Here I have two money belts each carrying fifteen thousand Euros. As well I have extra sets of passports, one from the UK, one from Canada, and the third from France."
Alex nodded instantly recognizing the color schemes of the passports. "Any other cool toys?"
"Well I have a prototype of some night vision glasses, but there is only one pair. Who gets them?"
Alex and Dawn looked at each other before she grinned "That would be me, he owes me for taking the last of the captain crunch this morning."
Alex shrugged, "I thought you had already eaten, how was I to know you decided to get in your range work before breakfast?"
She winked at him, "You're just supposed to know these thing.
Anyways what's special about these glasses?"
Walter reached under the table pulling out a set of sunglasses. "These have an infrared and UV sensitive film over the lenses that gives you damn near perfect night vision. Power is supplied by a watch battery and they are activated by opening the arms. Battery life is roughly 6 hours. Don't expose them to sunlight or you will ruin the UV film. That's all I've got for you today boys and girls everything else is on site."
As Dawn and Alex walked off Dawn turned "Walter they didn't tell us what kind of car we get this time, you wouldn't happen to know would you?"
"A 1959 Corvette Roadster. Dream car, your going to love it. Now shoo." Walter waved them off.
The first few days of the mission went smoothly, Dawn and Alex integrated themselves into the necessary social circles smoothly. While they were the center of gossip amongst the ladies Dawn managed to pick out quite a bit of information on Wade Wells and his associates. Mr. Wells' money gave him some latitude in the social niceties, but the ladies picked his mistakes, and those of his associates apart for amusement. As a newly minted millionaire he just didn't fit in, and his hangers on just weren't the right sort of people.
Alex inevitably ended up playing several rounds of golf in his effort to fit in. It was Alex's invitation to Mr. Wells to join them for a round that finally permitted a meeting between the two and a chance to obtain real intel.
"Mr. Wells, we are just heading out for a round of golf and are in need of a fourth. I was hoping you would be interested in joining us."
"I would." He turned to his associates, "If you will excuse me we can continue our discussions later."
The taller of the two associates spoke up. "That will not be a problem, I have some things that need to be taken care of. Perhaps we can meet again this evening."
"Excellent, I'll see you tonight then."
Alex turned to the associates. "Sorry for taking him away, no hard feelings" and offered his hand.
Taking the proffered hand in a firm grasp, "No. No hard feelings we could use a break and as I said I have things to take care of."
Alex glanced down at his hand as he released, and for the first time caught a good look at the ring he was wearing. One word echoed through his mind as he turned back to Mr. Wells and headed off for the golf game. "Terakan"
"Rebecca remember those guys that blond hired to kill your sister?"
Dawn nodded, trying to remember which guys Alex was talking about. It took a half second before it clicked the assassins that Spike hired to kill Buffy. "What about them, that happened a long time ago and you said we wouldn't have to worry about them anymore."
Alex frowned "That's what I thought to, but Mr. Wells' associates were wearing the same ring as those guys were. It's a different situation here, so I'd like check this out before we do anything drastic."
Dawn walked over to Alex and pulled him into a hug. "That's what I love about you, always so observant. One of the women was wearing a ring on a chain around her neck, and I didn't even think twice about it. Lets get this checked out. If they are who you think they are we could have a problem, and I don't want to worry about this any longer than we have to."
Alex returned the hug, then pulled out his cell and dialed a number from memory "Birkoff, got some information for you to check out for me. Yep, a stylized signet ring. Rebecca is sending the information to you as we speak."
Dawn picked up one of the laptops and prepared a sketch of the ring and description and sent it off to a dummy PI firm.
"No not too many of them, there are two that accompany him almost constantly, I've counted two others and Rebecca has spotted one of the ladies wearing one on a chain. We were just wondering if they are some kind of secret society, and you know how we get along with secret societies."
Alex paused listening to Birkoff work for a minute. Looking over Dawn's shoulder he checked out the info packet she had created. 'How on earth did she get a photo of the ring? They hadn't made it easy to even see the rings.'
"OK Birkoff you've got the information get back to us as soon as you can, we're going for a drive, so contact us on our cells." Alex finished as flipped his cell closed.
Dawn closed the laptop and got up. "A drive, anywhere particular?"
"Nope, just getting some air. I know how much you like to drive, and we haven't had a chance to enjoy the car in a while."
Dawn grabbed the keys and headed for the door. "Hurry up slowpoke or I'm leaving you behind."
"You know one of these days I'm actually going to get to drive."
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Twenty minutes later they were pulled off to the side of the road a set of lights flashing incessantly behind them.
Alex was trying his best not to laugh, but it wasn't working all that well. Every time he looked towards Dawn he'd snort and turn away. Dawn for her part was looking frustrated and angry.
"Trust you to get pulled over for speeding yet again, and by a lady cop no less. Birkoff is going to have a field day with this, and Walter owes me twenty."
"You bet on me getting pulled over?" Dawn tried for a hurt expression, quite realistic, but Alex knew her better.
"It wasn't so much getting pulled over as to when."
Dawn was about to reply when Alex's cell went off. "Hello Birkoff, could I call you back in about five minutes. Rebecca got pulled over for speeding again and the lady cop is just finishing up the paperwork"
Dawn could hear Birkoff's laugh on her side of the car.
Alex waited for the laughter to die down, "What, oh about twenty minutes. Tell Walter he owes me, see if you can get a photo of his face when you tell him. Bye"
Alex turned to Dawn and flashed her a big grin. She in turn stuck her tongue out at him, just as the cop thrust the paperwork in the window.
Five minutes later found them further down the road, traveling only slightly above the posted limit.
"Birkoff, what have you got for me?"
"Terakan, professional assassins, bad guys got that. Any further instructions?"
Dawn looked over and saw Alex was smiling at whatever Birkoff was telling him.
Alex flipped the phone closed, "Guess what dear, they're bad guys, not the same breed as the ones that went after your sister, but bad guys all the same and we get to remove them from the equation. Mr. Wells will be watched and if contact persists will be dealt with, but he's no longer our concern. We get the Terakans."
Dawn's mouth quirked into an evil grin as she spun the car 180 degrees tires smoking she sped off back towards their home. "I say we take them tonight, we know were they are, let's get the work out of the way so we can take the rest of the two weeks as vacation."
"Sure" replied Alex knowing full well they would be back in Section as soon as the mission was over.
"Any details your forgetting to tell me about Alex?"
"Hmmm. Lets see 5 or so Terakans armed with small caliber pistols, personal security force of five in a roving patrol. No cameras to speak of alarm system exclusively on the house. But Birkoff has already killed that. The security force will be a joke, the Terakans are really good for assassins over a hundred confirmed kills each, but are nothing special, you know how you're your average assassin performs in a standup knock down fight."
"Yep they stand up we knock them down." Quipped Dawn
"Should be a cakewalk, so we are obviously missing something"
"Well that's to be expected, the intel we had was sketchy and our contributions haven't fleshed it out all that much. But with what I have seen we have it covered."
Alex agreed there was little they couldn't take on in this world, and with ordinary human assassins this was going to be easy. Still it would be nice if that itch on the back of his neck would go away.
Alex and Dawn were parked a half mile away from the Wells' estate getting kitted out for a strike. Both had donned their equivalent of Second Chance vests and were strapping on assorted knives and backup weaponry. Pistols in shoulder holster, spare clips, and a backup piece were clipped to the money belt. MP5 SD6 on shoulder strap, hanging loose and finally passports tucked into pockets on the inside of the vest. Finally slipping their ace in the hole into the sheath on their backs. With a nod they silently headed off towards the mansion.
Three minutes later they ghosted up to the wall around the estate, a quick check verified no security sensors in the area. Alex frowned, for a guy as paranoid as Wade Wells his home security was pathetic.
Alex rolled himself over the brick wall followed seconds later by Dawn. He could see two of the guards patrolling the grounds. The idiots were using flashlights, how were they supposed to see anything. With a silent shudder Alex looked away searching the rooftop for any signs of activity. There. With a nudge he pointed out the sniper to Dawn.
A quick inspection of the sniper with the field glasses showed he was scanning the grounds with a night vision scope a spotter beside him with night vision binoculars. So there are a few teeth he thought. Dawn tapped him lightly on the arm motioning that she would take the spotter leaving him with the sniper. He looked down at his gun, and shaking his head slightly, he silently wished mission spec's had allowed for a sniper rifle. Shouldering the weapon he took a breath, gave himself a slow three count and let a three round burst take out the sniper. At the same instant he fired Dawn let loose with a burst that dropped the spotter.
Dropping to the ground beside Dawn he looked for signs that someone had seen the muzzle flashes. Dawn had night vision glasses on and was currently studying the sniper nest looking for any sign of movement. After a full five minutes with no signs they started towards the main building. He was starting to miss that little voice in his ear that told him where the hostiles were.
Once they reached the patio door Dawn covered Alex's back as he entered and swept the room. Receiving an all clear she followed him into the darkened ballroom. The place was a standard Victorian Mansion and the layout was almost identical to the many others they had assaulted. Once leaving the ballroom they continued a room-by- room sweep heading towards the study. Alex always felt strange sneaking around in a fully lit house but silent and deadly were the watchwords of the day.
After clearing two rooms they opened the door to the third and observed a sleeping female in a large four-poster bed. Motioning to Dawn to join him they slipped over to the bedside. Keeping his attention on the woman he allowed Dawn to examine the room. When she held up a Terakan ring on a chain Alex popped a single round into her forehead. Exiting carefully they continued the room-by- room search.
They grabbed a two man roving patrol knocking them unconscious and pulling them into an empty room. No need to kill the security, all they were after was the Assassins. Finally they reached the Study and were pleased to hear Mr. Wells and at least two of his associates. Save us the time and effort of hunting them down Alex gave Dawn a small grin and a nod. They stepped through the door together, Alex firing a burst into the Assassin on the right Dawn into the one on the left, and that left… the one with a knife to Wade Wells throat. Interesting.
Stepping away from the open doorway Alex grinned "Bringing a knife to a gun fight how very twentieth century of you."
"Lower your weapons or I'll kill him."
Dawn snickered, "There you go assuming we want him alive. Honey can I cap the bastard?"
Alex smirked, "Not yet, I've never had the opportunity to interrogate a Terakan, imagine the stories he could tell."
Dawn fired a single round destroying the assassin's elbow. "Then at least I can liberate the hostage. I can say that can't I liberate?"
Alex responded by firing a round into the assassin's knee as he tried to flee, "Sure you can say liberate. We are the good guys."
Dawn walked over to the downed assassin and cheerfully stripped him of weapons before applying tourniquets to his wounded arm and leg. Alex moved a catatonic Mr. Wells to a chair before giving him a sharp rap on the head knocking him out. Looking around Alex turned to Dawn "Your turn to call it in or mine?"
"I'll do it, they seem to hate you for some reason." Flipping open her cell she dialed a number from memory and spoke a single word "Housekeeping".
"You know this was way to easy don't you." Claimed Dawn
Alex removed his half spent clip and replaced it with a full one. "Yah I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"Ok by the numbers, one female assassin check. Two lackeys, that's the snipers on the roof check, two associates check, one extra guy … whose body we seem to have misplaced. Damn and things were going so well to."
Dawn nodded to a blood trail on the floor, "Well at least he left us some breadcrumbs. I don't think the one armed one legged man will be getting far do you?"
She watched Alex draw in a deep breath, "Don't answer that lets just find the bastard and get out of here, we still have to tie up the rest of the security force before housekeeping shows up."
Alex let out the breath "After you milady"
Stepping out into the hall she walked square into the second roving security patrol. Dawn reacted immediately letting her MP5 swing free she hit with a knife hand strike to the first security guard's throat disabling him. Spotting the second guard with his pistol already drawn she spun left as he opened fire. The first round smashed into the plaster wall to her right showering her with dust. The second ripped past her shoulder and the third narrowly missed ripping her ear off. Wincing from the loud report of the pistol in such an enclosed space she dropped to the ground in front of him. Hitting him with a brutal yet effective groin punch, she then removed the pistol from his unresisting hands as he keeled over.
As Alex joined her they tied up the two guards before re-locating the blood trail.
Following the trail was exceedingly easy and despite his lead it was a matter of moments before they had caught up with their two armed, two legged assassin. "What the hell…"
The Assassin turned throwing a knife straight at Dawn. She spun to her left to try and avoid the projectile, but it caught here square in the chest. Alex flipped out and opened fire on the Terakan. The first burst tracked up the assassin's chest, the low velocity rounds mangling his internal organs. The next bust was to the neck and head. Finally Alex stood over him and emptied the remainder of the magazine into the mangled body of the Terakan. Changing clips he turned to Dawn. "Dawn are you OK, how bad are you hit?"
Dawn stood rubbing a spot directly over her heart. "I'm fine, the knife cut through the Kevlar but was stopped by the ceramic plate. I love these vests, I'm never going anywhere without one ever again."
Alex smiled in relief "Good, now that the assassin over there is dead …" He motioned to where the Terakan was feebly trying to crawl away. "Damn it why won't you just die." Letting his MP5 hang loose on his sling he pulled out his 'ace in the hole' looking at Dawn he grimaced "When all else fails…."
A quick swipe of the sword and the Terakans battered head rolled free.
Slowly a mist started to accumulate and a static charge began to build. Alex and Dawn were backing away but didn't get far before the lightning struck. A majority of it seemed to be hitting Dawn with only a few random strikes hitting Alex. As Dawn collapsed with the final strike a portal opened. One in which Alex could clearly see Buffy and Willow. Not wasting a second he scooped up Dawn and stepped through.
Alex stepped through the portal and set Dawn down. He carefully began to check her for injuries. The first thing he noticed was that none of her ammo had cooked off. God we're lucky that would have been a mess. Ok, pulse steady, breathing … normal, pupils… *Slap*
"I'm fine Alex. A little tired… actually completely exhausted. But I'm fine what happened?"
Alex rubbed his cheek as look of amused relief spread across his face. "That last freak was part of the head hunting cult. Seems his little light show opened us a portal home. We're back."
Buffy stepped up to them Mr. Pointy held threateningly in her hand. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"What Buffy, have we been gone so long you don't even remember us? Five years and I still recognize you in a heartbeat." Alex looked hurt.
Willow was staring at the two new arrivals intently and with a hesitant voice identified them "Xander, Dawn…" then the babbling began. "What happened to you, your so different, you fell through that portal and I spent all last night and most of today researching a spell to get you back I was just about to try it that's why we're in the graveyard. Why do you look so different? Oh My goddess you said five years were you stuck in a hell dimension like Angel, and what's up with the guns."
Willow was ecstatic seeing Xander and Dawn again. Despite her research she wasn't sure that her spell would retrieve the two of them, the translation had been difficult, and dimensional magics were really tricky. Willow wanted very much to go and hug her childhood friend, but he looked so different now she was not sure she could, plus the weapons were kind of intimidating.
Alex smiled slightly looking up at Willow, "God, Wills it's good to hear your babble again, I've missed that." Standing up and helping Dawn to her feet he continued, "I doubt we were in the same hell dimension that Angel was as we never saw any demons, but time obviously runs different there. It was five years for us, and from what you said only a day has passed here." Getting a nod and a smile from Willow he relaxed a little, but Buffy's posture and lack of response preventing him from letting his guard down entirely.
Buffy was staring intently at Alex and Dawn. 'This can't be them. It's some trick. The First is trying to trick us and stop Willow from doing the spell that will bring the real Dawn and Xander back. I mean just look at them she has short hair, Dawn loved her long hair, she'd never cut it. And him, all dressed in black and muscled he looks incredible. He just can't be Xander. Besides I heard her slip and call him Alex. I'll have to take them out before they can go for their guns.'
As Buffy was going through her mental debate two more figures approached the group. The first of them in his trademark tweed was easily recognizable as Giles. The second a bleach blond Billy Idol wannabee strutted along as if he owned the cemetery.
Spike was on top of the world. He'd gotten rid droopy last night, shame about the bit, but you had to take the bad with the good. He had even managed to mistranslate Red's spell so it would send her to them instead of them to her. Soon Buffy would be alone and all his. No, things couldn't get much better. Approaching the Crypt where he was to meet Buffy and Willow he noticed the two additional people, and judging by Buffy's stance someone was going to get their arses kicked. It wasn't until he was nearly to the group that the two people started to look familiar. Spikes good mood evaporated in an instant, "Droops, good to see you ba…"
As Alex had been watching Buffy and keeping a portion of his awareness on the arrival of Giles he had completely missed the arrival of Spike. It was the word Droops that drew his attention. With a shouted "Spike!" he turned, pulled his Sig Sauer and blew out both the vampires' knees, the spray of bone and blood covering the grass. A third muzzle flash from behind him and Spike right shoulder was destroyed.
Spike was to say the least stunned by his reception. As the strength left his right arm his cigarette tumbled to the ground, shortly followed by Spike himself.
Alex turned his attention from the downed vampire for a second glancing at the rest of the group. Willow was wringing her hand, obviously trying to decide if she should cast a spell or not. Buffy had taken a half step forward but was now frozen in place, her sister's Glock at her temple. Dawn always had his back and while he doubted she would actually shoot Buffy the threat would keep her out of this. Giles was reaching for his glasses, and if Alex knew him there would be some serious rubbing going on. Turning back to Spike.
"Spike! Thought it was funny tossing us through that portal didn't you! Thought you would get away with it didn't you. Thought we would never make it back that we would be gone forever. Spike you have no idea how long I've dreamed of seeing you again. For years I planned tortures for you, a hundred different ways to kill you. But you know in the end I decided it doesn't matter how you die just that you do."
Spike looked up trying to focus through the pain. 'I can't believe droops shot me. I'm going to rip that boy in two, slayer be damned.' He could already feel his vampiric healing at work, and it would only be a minute or two before he was mobile again.
Alex tucked his pistol back into its holster and drew his 'ace' for the second time that night.
As he approached Spike he heard Buffy's cry, "But you can't kill him. I need him, he has a soul."
Alex paused and looked first to Buffy and then to Willow and Giles who merely shrugged, "Your kidding right, your saying I can't kill this bastard because he has a soul." Alex pointed at Spike with the tip of his sword. "Let me tell you something I've learned in the past five years Buff. A soul doesn't make you a good person. I've seen hundreds of evil people who have committed unspeakable crimes and they all had souls. And just because this bloodsucker" He gave Spike a vicious kick to the ribs "has a soul doesn't give him a get out of jail free card."
Dawn spoke up, "Cut the speeches and just finish it Alex I'm exhausted and I want to get home to bed."
Alex pulled himself out of his rant and staring the crippled vampire in the eye drew back and severed the pale blonde head from its body. As Spike crumbled to dust he heard a screamed "NO!" from Buffy as she collapsed to the ground.
Alex sheathed his sword and turned back to the group. "Well now that that is taken care of, G-man can you give us a lift home?"
Willows eyebrows were in danger of becoming a permanent part of her hairline. What had happened to Xander and Dawn? How could Xander so callously kill Spike, after all he had done for them? How could sweet innocent Dawnie point a gun at her sister's head and then tell Xander to hurry up 'cause she was tired. What had happened to them, what kind of people had they become?"
Giles was secretly dancing with joy. Spike was finally dead, he would have done it himself long ago if his slayer hadn't forbidden it. Giles knew his codling of Buffy was a problem; his slayer wielded too much power but didn't have the knowledge or wisdom to handle it. No one stood up to her, or if they did they were quickly beaten down. He had tried leaving in an effort to get her to grow up. That had worked so bloody well, she actually regressed back to shagging vampires. Looking down at the broken woman at his feet he felt somewhat sorry for her. This was a serious blow, something that would either break her or make her stronger in the end. He was hoping for the latter but right now it could go either way and he knew his presence wouldn't make things better. He would just end up agreeing with her, and come tomorrow Xander would be a dead man.
Looking over at Xander and Dawn he noticed the changes in the two. Both were extremely fit, with bulletproof vests and a wide array of weaponry visible or partially concealed. The way they carried themselves reminded him of the way the Council teams, all ex SAS or SBS, carried themselves. Their response to Spikes presence was shocking in both its speed and effectiveness. Bullets may not kill a vampire but one could hardly put up a fight without knees or shoulders. Giles had to admit that whatever training they found had to have been extremely effective and he was looking forward to seeing more of what they could do. Provided they were on his side of course.
Giles finished wiping his glasses, "Certainly Xander, although you might want to stay in your apartment tonight. I don't think it would be a good idea for you to be in the same house as Buffy. Dawn you may want to stay there as well."
Dawn flashed Giles a weak smile, "Where Alex stays I stay." Turning to Willow her smile turned into a look of concern. "Can you look after Buffy, make sure she gets home safe. Let her know we'll be by tomorrow to explain things." Then as she was walking off to where Giles and Alex where waiting Willow heard her whisper. "I had dreams about today, but none of them were ever like this. Well except for the killing Spike part. Everyone was supposed to be so happy, this is a nightmare."
Willow pulled Buffy up off the ground and the group headed in silence to the car park. Willow and Buffy keeping some distance between themselves and Giles group.
As Giles pulled out of the cemetery car park he looked to Xander beside him in the front seat. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"Not at all, just understand that we may choose not to answer. We will be available for a more detailed debrief tomorrow, but feel free to ask questions till we get to the apartment."
Giles' eyebrow rose at the way Xander spoke, again seeing more and more military in him. "I suppose my first question would be why does Dawn call you Alex?"
Alex shrugged, not what he expected for a first question, but relevant anyways. "It has to do with where we were and who we worked for. The people we were with demanded your best everyday. Xander was good, but he, I, just reacted to situations. Back then I didn't show my best side to anyone, I held back in fights, didn't try in school. The attitude I had as Xander would have gotten us both killed. To become the best I could be I had to become more than just Xander. It was actually pretty easy Dawn was the only one who knew me as Xander and so long as she called me Alex I could concentrate on the training."
"You mentioned training can you tell me anything about it?"
Alex tensed and looked towards an equally tense Dawn in the back seat. "No. We can't tell you anything, and before you go and get all pissy on me let me explain. The dimension we were in was very different than this one. No magic for one thing, but there were similarities as well, companies, organizations. The people may be different, but the overall structure of society was the same. Just before we came over we took out six Terakans, professional assassins on that world as well. Back to the point, in that world if I told you which group we worked for we would all be sanctioned." Alex pointed his finger at his head and jerked it back. "If you catch my drift. I don't want to take the risk of word getting back to this group should they exist in this reality."
Alex could practically feel Dawn relax, until Giles asked the next question. "Dawn would you have actually shot Buffy back there?
There was no hesitation in Dawn's reply. "If she tried to hurt Alex, in a heartbeat. I would have gone for disabling shots, I don't want her dead, I don't even want her hurt! She's my sister and despite her multitude of bad decisions still a good person. We don't kill the good guys. But if she tried to attacked my partner I'd stop her."
Despite Dawns attempts to hide it the weariness in her voice was becoming more and more apparent to both men. Fortunately they were pulling up to Alex's apartment complex.
"What time do you want to meet tomorrow?" Asked Giles as Alex gathered their equipment from the trunk of the car.
Looking up at the sky trying to gauge the time Alex replied, "Say twelve hours, about two thirty. Should give everyone a chance to rest and calm down a little." Alex blinked for a second trying to remember something then continued "Could you get the Potentials out of the house. They don't need to hear this, and they won't help the situation. The fewer people we have to deal with right now the better this will go."
Giles agreed and as he was getting back into his car couldn't resist a final comment. "I expect you'll be explaining the wedding rings tomorrow as well then." Quickly closing his door before Alex could comment he started the car and headed for home. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.
Alex walked up to his apartment actually glad that the vampires kept people indoors at night. Two thirty in any normal city and he would have had to explain his weaponry to a bunch of drunks stumbling home from the bar. Reaching his apartment he turned the handle and was pleased to find that Dawn had left it unlocked for him. Note to self: get another set of keys made. It would be a pain to have to pick the lock every time he wanted into his own apartment.
Entering the apartment he could hear water running and knew Dawn would be a while. Collecting Dawns weaponry from the living room he moved about the apartment stashing guns and knives in various places. Finishing in the kitchen he looked around thoughtfully. It had been a while since they had eaten, and they had just finished a somewhat strenuous mission perhaps some food would be in order. With that in mind Alex set about preparing a light meal for the two of them.
When Dawn walked into the kitchen clad only in an old dress shirt she was pleased to see Alex had whipped them up a vegetarian Quiche. He didn't cook often, but when he did it was always mouthwatering. She raised an eyebrow at the wine on the table, and took her seat at the table. She wasn't much for wine but she supposed they did have something to celebrate. They were home, even if things were a little tense right now.
As Dawn sat across from him Alex reflected on the evening. He supposed he could have handled the Spike thing with a little more tact. Buffy was going to be a serious problem because of this. He half expected her to storm through the door any minute and try to kill him. Well, spilled milk and all that. They would deal with the consequence tomorrow. Tonight he just wanted to bask in the fact that he was home and free of Section. No matter how well Paul treated them, or the friendship they shared with Birkoff and Walter, Section was still a prison and the freedom felt nice.
Alex lifted his glass, "To homecomings, friends lost and friends regained."
Dawn lifted hers, "To friends."
They finished the meal in a comfortable silence, and as Alex was clearing the dishes away he finally broached the topic Giles had brought up. "Dawn, you know how we are both wearing wedding bands right now, well Giles saw the rings. Right now he assumes that we are married, and is expecting us to explain tomorrow. By the time we meet them tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised if he'd told Willow and Buffy. As I see it we've got three possible responses, but I'm partial to the first." He paused for effect. "I did ask for and received your fathers approval after all and you accepted." Alex gave Dawn a cheeky grin.
Dawn gave a weary smile back, she was really too tired to play this game but she couldn't let him off that easy, "I accepted your proposal, but I never got a ceremony. I'm afraid I will have to insist upon a ceremony here."
"Of course love. I'm sure you'll plan something suitably elaborate. But for now…" He scooped her up and headed for the bedroom, "Its way past someone's bedtime, and you should get some sleep to."
Nine am the next morning found Dawn sitting at the kitchen table carefully cleaning both her and Alex's MP5's. While they hadn't gotten a lot of use it was still best to keep them maintained. She had been pleasantly surprised to find a can of gun oil under Alex's sink. She didn't think he'd had need of it back then. She had ripped up a few of his more hideous shirts. He needed a new wardrobe anyways. What he had here really didn't suit him anymore. Although she carefully set aside a few of the smaller T-shirts, he'd definitely look good in those.
She was just putting the firing pin back in the second gun when the door to the hall was kicked violently open and Buffy strode in.
"Where is he? I'm going to kill him."
"He's not here, and you can calm down right now or get the hell out." Dawn set the gun on the table and strode over to confront her sister. "We told both Giles and Willow that we would be over later today to explain in detail what happened to us. Now you come in here threatening Alex when you have no idea what he and I have been through. What Spike put us through, because there is no doubt in my mind that Spike was entirely responsible for the last five years. You didn't see his grin as he tossed us into that portal."
"You bastards killed Spike without any provocation, you took him away from me. Your not Dawn, my sister would not have pointed a gun at my head while her partner butchered a defenceless person."
"Not your sister!" Dawn's voice was like ice her eyes flashing dangerously. "I spent five years dreaming of the day I could see you again. Every day for five years I imagined the day that we would get back, and you would be happy to see me. We finally find a way home and the first thing I see is my sister preparing to attack us. And don't try to lie to me, you were going to attack us whether Alex had attacked Spike or not."
"Don't you dare try to put this on me. You pulled a gun on me, your partner killed Spike and all because you couldn't hack a few years away." Buffy Spat back
"You have no idea what happened to us. What, just because we didn't come back naked and loony we must have been fine. We may not have been in a hell dimension, but we may as well have been in hell. You couldn't even imagine the things that were done to us, the things that we had to do. I'm not trying to put this on you. It. Is. All. Spikes. Fault. HE is the one that tossed us into the portal. HE is the one that grinned at us as he did it. HE is the only one we held responsible, and HE is the one we punished."
Dawn took a deep breath visibly calming down and tried to put a little warmth into her voice. "Buffy, you have people willing to help you, Giles, Willow, myself. Why is Spike so important? Why did you need Spike? Did you love him that much or was it something else?"
Buffy screamed in frustration. "I just don't know Dawn. He was always there. I trusted him with everything. When he was there I wasn't alone. He made me feel … something. After I was pulled from heaven I was messed up for a long time I admit it, and he was there for me. Then when he went and got his soul 'just for me' I thought that he must really love me. I saw what I wanted to see. Now I just don't know. Did Xander have to kill him like that? Spike couldn't have even hurt him with the chip still active."
"Alex did what he had to do, and if we hadn't disabled Spike would have fled and the manipulative bastard would have turned you against us worse then you are now. We spent a great deal of time thinking about Spike and what he was doing. When we thought back all his careful manipulations came to light. It was just like Adam all over again. Spike was carefully setting us against each other."
"We also checked up on his Vaunted chip. There is no way that the chip could still have been working after all this time. While we were … away Alex and I both read briefs on similar technology. The expected lifespan of such behaviour modification chips was a year. With the amount of use Spike put his to we estimate it failed after four months perhaps sooner. Everything after was an act. Spike wasn't a stupid vampire like the minions you usually slay he could make elaborate plans and assuming he didn't get bored would execute them flawlessly."
Buffy hissed in shock, "The chip wasn't active, I let a dangerous vampire stroll around as he pleased." She paused before continuing with more confidence "But he never killed anyone. And don't even start on those he killed under the firsts influence, that was the First."
"Those may have been killed by the First, but how many other basements has Spike buried bodies in?"
"Spike never killed, he only drank purchased blood, or went to Willies. He wasn't hurting anyone."
Dawn gave her an incredulous look. "Spike go to Willies, alone. He'd be dust before he got in the door. The entire demon community calls him a traitor and has threatened to kill him on sight. I'm sure that he was quite careful about when and where he drank so that you wouldn't get suspicious, but just because he hid the bodies well doesn't mean there weren't any."
Buffy put her head into her hands and through choked sobs replied "I don't know what to think anymore Dawn. I wanted him to be good so badly. But I should have known better, there were so many signs. His claims of going to Willies, the stories about Xander and how he couldn't be trusted, saying he could hit me because I wasn't human any longer."
Dawn pulled her sister into a hug, letting her cry on her shoulder. "Spike said you weren't human and that was why he could hit you?" When Buffy nodded a reply Dawn continued. "Lets look at this then, me a mystical key, couldn't hit me. Willow Uber witch couldn't hit her. Alex twice possessed human couldn't hit him. Anya ex vengeance demon couldn't touch her and you think a little thing like a resurrection would let Spike hit you. It was a lie Buffy he hit you because he wanted to, you are as human as the rest of us. Although I guess that isn't saying much."
Buffy let out a weak laugh into Dawns shoulder. "Thanks Dawn. You've helped. I can't say I'm better or anything but I think in time I could be. I was, still am messed up and I have a lot of thinking to do, but with my sister and my best friends by my side I can face anything. That doesn't mean I've forgiven Xander for everything, but I'll listen to what he has to say before I pound him into the dirt."
Letting go of Buffy Dawn motioned toward the couch, "We'll explain more tonight, but for now why don't we just sit and talk just sisters, no Super Slayer, No mystical key just sisters."
Buffy seated herself on the couch and turned to Dawn "Why Alex, what I mean is why do you call him Alex and not Xander?"
"It's something Alex requested shortly after we went through the portal. I think it was the third day. He asked me to call him Alex, said Xander couldn't deal with the situation. He didn't explain any further, but as time passed I could see that Alex had all the best qualities of Xander without the self-doubt and self-depreciation that kept Xander from being great. He still treats his friends the same way Xander did, but he is very careful about who he chooses as friends. Before Xander didn't care about himself, he would go to the ends of the world to protect a friend, but he wouldn't walk a block to save himself if it would inconvenience a friend. That's not Alex. Alex will go to the ends of the Earth for a friend, but he expects his friend to be waiting there when he arrives."
Buffy caught the slight rebuke in Dawns message flashing back to how she had treated him in the past couple of years and silently vowed the be worthy of Alex's friendship.
"So Giles said you were Mrs. Alexander Harris now?" Buffy looked at Dawn for confirmation
"Well we talked last night and settled at engaged until we can get the ceremony performed." Offered a grinning Dawn.
Buffy's face lit up in a genuine smile. "My baby sister is getting married. That's so weird, last week you were in high school now here you are as old as me, and engaged to my Xander shaped friend. I get maid of honour right?"
"Of course, and we'll make Giles father of the bride. I'm sure Alex will want Willow as best person."
Alex was up early, yet again. He hadn't been able to sleep past sunrise in years. Not that he was really interested in moving. Lying there with Dawn's head pillowed on his shoulder had him utterly relaxed, almost a foreign feeling, and he was reveling in the feeling. Absently he ran his fingers up and down Dawn's arm as he planned his day.
Finally after an hour he gently rolled Dawn over and crawled out of bed. Dawn lifted her head and blearily looked for the alarm clock. Finding it was only 7:30 she dropped her head and mumbled into her pillow "S'to Early, more sleep."
"Go ahead and sleep, I'm going to run a few errands. I'll be back around one and we can go for lunch before meeting Buffy and Wills OK."
"Mmmm. One lunch eating fluffy pills."
Alex smiled. "Get some more sleep," and with that he walked out of the bedroom.
Making his way to the kitchen he started looking to scrounge something up for breakfast, before remembering that he had used the last of the eggs last night. There was really no food in the house. His past self had been spending so much time at Casa del Summers and hadn't bought groceries in quite a while. Even the bread was looking a little fuzzy. He'd just have to add groceries to his list of things to do.
Giving up on breakfast he began searching through a drawer filled with paper. First out was a wallet. A quick check verified that his backup wallet had his debit and credit cards as well as $50 cash. The next item took considerably more time to find. Finally pulling out a ripped corner of a page with a phone number he grinned. "Some days it really pays to be a packrat." Punching the number into his cell he waited for a response.
"Huckleberry…. How's the wife treating you?"
"Glad to hear. Look remember when you left you said if we ever needed something with more of a kick than a crossbow to call."
"No it's nothing that serious, well yet anyways. This is more of a Boy Scout list"
"Yes I know you are not an arms dealer, but this stuff could end up saving our lives, and I'd rather deal with you guys then risk robbing the armory again."
"Thanks I appreciate it. First off I need an AWP 308 with silencer, night vision scope, and a thousand rounds of ammo. Make half high explosive. Secondly I need 20 flash bangs. Third I need 5000 rounds standard 9mm rounds and a thousand 9mm tracer rounds. How soon can you get this to me?"
"Two Days. Great that will be fine, same time same place…Yes I know they will be expensive, but I recently had a windfall of cash, you don't have a problem with Euros do you?"
"You'll take them, great I'll see you in two days. Oh and you'll be happy to hear that the 17 situation has been resolved. Although, I expect to see some fallout from Buff later in the day."
"Yah I thought that would make your day. It certainly made mine. Well I have to go, give Sam a kiss for me."
Heading out to start his shopping Alex was surprised to find his SUV in it's parking stall. One of the Scooby's must have returned it for him, as it wasn't there last night. Approaching the vehicle he remembered that his keys were in an alternate dimension. 'I don't suppose they could arrest me for stealing my own vehicle, and I'm certainly not going to carry all the groceries I'll need. A few seconds of work the SUV was running and he drove off to start his day.
Eight am on a Sunday most shops would normally be closed. However Sunnydale was far from normal. Quite a few shopkeepers chose to open on Sundays rather than subject their customers, and themselves, to the risk of late night shopping. It was with some trepidation that he made his way to the magic box. He wasn't sure what Anya had been told of the situation, but he didn't expect her to remain ignorant for long. Despite her flaky attitude he knew she was incredibly observant. If he had anyone to bet with he'd put money on Anya picking up on the narrow tan line where his wedding band had rested.
Upon entering the magic shop Anya's greeting was pretty much as expected all smiles until a fateful glance at his hand. "Xander I thought it was 'till death do you part' not 'till I find myself in another dimension'. Who is she and what is to stop me from going and offering her my services."
"First off Anya I don't think Dawn would have any need for your services, we have settled for engaged until we can have a proper ceremony performed."
"You and little Dawnie isn't that sweet."
"Yah me and not so little Dawnie. You know five years passed for us. She's now technically older than Willow."
"I figured something like that. You never responded well to the schoolgirl or cheerleader outfits I wore. So she'd be twenty-two now. I bet she kicks some serious butt too. You always liked strong women."
"She kicks more butt than Buffy." Alex pasted a wide grin on his face. "She doesn't have Buffy's mystical strength and speed, but her technique is incredible. Plus she's more cunning than Buffy, willing to use the right weapon for the job. Last night she held her sister off while I finish Spike. She backed me over her own sister, a position I'm sorry I put her in and hope never to again." Alex finished his grin slipping a little.
"What I came over for though was not to stop you from going all vengeancey on me, although that is a big plus, I was hoping that you knew something about the first."
"Oh the First and I go way back. D'Hoffryn and him had a running feud for millennia. Why back in the 1300's I was with D'Hoffryn when we stormed the gates to the Firsts realm. We couldn't get in though. There wasn't an energy source powerful enough to breach his gates. Did set the old boy back a few hundred years as we butchered over half the demons loyal to him." With a dreamy look she finished. "Those were the days."
Alex blinked. He had been hoping for some second hand information. Bits and pieces of things Anya had picked up over her 1100 years as a vengeance demon. First hand information was more than he could have hoped for.
"Anya, do you think you could prepare a briefing on the first. Strengths, weaknesses, minions, usual tactics, goals, long term plans whatever you can think of. I'd like you to present it to the Scoobies tomorrow, say eight before Buff takes the potentials on patrol."
"Well I'm pretty busy, and it might interfere with people practicing their capitalistic rights."
"I'll compensate you for your time. Say 500 Euro"
"Euro's that's foreign currency, I'll have to pay the exchange on that. You'll have to do better if you pay in Euros."
"Fine, eight hundred should more than cover the exchange fees and leaves a bit for the hassle dealing in foreign currency causes you."
Anya put her hand out.
"You get paid after you prepare the brief. Otherwise I know you will spend all your time trying to figure out how to get the best exchange rate."
"Fine eight hundred Euros tomorrow night and I'll tell everyone all about the first."
Alex shook Anya's outstretched hand "Agreed"
"As he was leaving the shop Anya called out one more piece of advice. "If you drop anyone else through a dimensional portal let me know. I can pop in and retrieve them without wasting all that time researching spells that may or may not work. D'Hoffryn lets me teleport where ever I want now."
Alex paused, "I thought he was disappointed in how you were performing, what changed?"
"Oh he could see that I wasn't going to work out in the scorned women arena, my heart wasn't in it anymore. So we talked and you are looking at the new patron saint of murder victims. I have to do a bit of planar traveling to visit the souls of the victims, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, it's all open to me now. Although I don't do much business in heaven, they're all about forgiveness up there."
Alex looked at her and blinked for a second. "Well good for you seems everything is working out for you. Wait when you threatened me earlier you were bluffing weren't you?"
"Well maybe a little, I couldn't have done it myself. I'd have had to ask Hallie for help." With that she dismissed Alex and went back to setting up a display of fertility symbols.
Alex stepped out of the magic shop visibly stunned by his conversation. The knowledge and talents that Anya could supply to the group were going to waste because no one had bothered to talk to her. Buffy and Wills had essentially tuned her out because of the sex talk, and he had been uncomfortable around her after the whole wedding fiasco. Not that that was an excuse. They had been ignoring a valuable asset because of personality conflicts. If you did that in Section it wouldn't be long before you got yourself or someone else killed.
After shaking his head clear he spotted his next stop. Walking into the Sony store he picked out the manager and recognized the junior clerk. 'Looks like Larry's sports career didn't work out. Must be pretty new as well, doesn't even have his name on his badge. As Alex approached the counter he could see Larry shooting nervous glances towards his boss. She in turn gave him an encouraging smile before retreating to her office, leaving him to handle the customer.
Alex pasted a friendly look on his face, "Larry I was hoping you could help me out. I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I've narrowed it down to a Sony Vaio with wireless Ethernet. Thing is I need it now so I'm limited by what you have available."
Larry blinked at him for a moment, but recovered quickly. "A Vaio laptop with wireless Ethernet. There are several available models, but at the moment we only have two in stock. Now normally I'm supposed to hand you a fist full of brochures, but as you know what you want why don't we take a look at the actual machines."
Half an hour later Alex was the proud owner of a new top of the line laptop and Larry had made his first sale. Popping the laptop open he set it up to start trolling for open LAN connections before heading off.
Next stop was the construction office. For the life of him he couldn't remember what project he was supposed to be supervising, and it wouldn't work to show up Monday and tell his foreman to 'Carry on as you were'. Nothing would get done and his credibility would be shot. Checking his watch he figured two hours to review the prints, an hour to walk the site, then grab some groceries and head back to pick up Dawn for lunch.
As he passed the INITECH building the laptop caught his attention. 'Cool an open LAN connection, and fast to'. Looking around he spotted a couple of restaurants in close proximity to the INITECH building. The signal range was extremely good and he suspected that one of the employees had set it up so he could do some web surfing from the restaurant over his lunch break.
The rest of the morning went well. The construction job was pretty straightforward and he had kept a detailed logbook. It wouldn't be any problem to keep the project on time and under budget. He had even noted a few suggestions for increasing the quality of material while staying within budget. He hadn't presented any of the suggestions to the client, lacking the nerve back then, but he made a note to discuss the changes in the meeting tomorrow.
Grocery shopping was another highlight of his day. Working in Section there was very little point in buying food in quantity. Most of the time what you did purchase went bad when you were called in for a mission. Approaching the checkout lane with a very full cart he felt for his wallet in his back pocket. Reassuring himself that it was there he began unloading the cart. If it hadn't been for that T'Nrith Demon whose blood melted plastic he would never of made a backup wallet and he would be unable to access his money till Monday. Smiling he handed the clerk his debit card while the bagboy loaded his cart.
Returning to his apartment Alex was carrying in the first load of groceries when he noticed that his door was ajar, the frame splintered around the lock.
Returning to his apartment Alex was carrying in the first load of groceries when he noticed that his door was ajar, the frame splintered around the lock. While he was debating how to enter the room he recognized two distinct laughs. 'If Buffy's laughing maybe she won't kill me when I get in. But she did kick the door open, so play it cool Alex.' Relaxing slightly he shouldered the door open.
"Honey I'm home, and I've brought food. Now get your cute butt out here and help me carry it in."
Stepping out of the kitchen, Buffy by her side, Dawn asked "And why Alexander Harris, would I be interested in such a menial task as hauling in groceries?"
"Because the sooner the groceries are put away the sooner you get your present and the sooner we," he made a broad sweeping gesture to include Buffy, "can go for lunch. I found the perfect place while I was out shopping."
Buffy chimed in, "Perfect place, Xander the double meat palace is not the perfect place."
Alex never lost his smile, but Dawn saw the amusement fade from his eyes. In the old days one or both of them would have made some comment to relieve the insult. Now they just shrugged it off. Buffy still had no idea how different Alex was from Xander and despite their talk still expected the old Xander. After hauling in and putting away the mountain of food he had purchased Dawn turned to him. "Alright, someone promised me a present where is it?"
Alex reached and grabbed Dawn pulling her in for a kiss. "Demanding little thing aren't you."
"Damn Straight." Dawn reached up and grabbed the back of his neck pulling him down for a longer more passionate kiss. Hands were just beginning to wander when Buffy cleared her throat.
"Ahem. Sister in the room. Don't need to be seeing this."
Dawn turned her head to look at Buffy. "Well would you mind turning around until we're finished then?"
Buffy blushed but rallied back. "Well I could do that, but you haven't gotten your present yet, and someone promised lunch."
"Hey that's right, no fair Alex distracting me from my present."
"It was a perfectly fair distraction, and quite a good one to. But if you want your present you'll have to go out to lunch with me."
"You mean like a date?" Dawn replied with feigned innocence
"I think that's what it's called. We can bring your overprotective and prudish sister along to make sure I don't get out of hand."
"Well if we have a chaperon I guess it's OK."
Buffy watched the interplay between the two. There was so much of the old Xander and Dawn there she had to admit that it really was them just more grown up. They joked as much as they ever did, only now she felt like an intruder when she tried to join in. Slowly she followed them out, trying in vain to close the door behind her. Feeling a little guilty she looked about for some way of securing the door closed.
Upon reaching the SUV Alex looked questioningly at Dawn, "What's up with Buffy? She kicks in the door, but when I show up she's laughing and smiling. What did you do drug her?"
"No didn't need to just explained a few things to her. Your right though her switch was way to quick, I hardly had to say anything to get her to change her mind about Spike. It's almost like she's been conditioned to believe whatever someone tells her."
"Now that doesn't sound good, you think it was something Spike did?"
"Who else would?"
"Could be a remnant from the dark Willow days." Alex replied
"Either way this can't be good."
With a shrug Alex opened the car door and pulled a laptop out from under the seat and handed it to Dawn. "Your present Milady. I know it's not up to your usual standards, but it's the best I could find on the domestic market"
Opening up the Laptop and dropping into the CMOS she quickly checked out the stats. "It's a great present Alex, it has everything a girl could need. A little sparse on the wrapping paper though."
"You're stuck with Windows XP until we can grab a new OS. Shame we can't get a hold of one of Birkoff's custom jobs…" Alex broke off as he watched Dawn pull out a USB Drive and plugged it into the computer.
Dawn looked over, "Just a few toys I couldn't leave home without." Whispering in Alex's ear she continued "Mission spec's were sketchy so in case we ended up bailing I did a backup of our laptop, including OS. Kept it shielded so the light show shouldn't have affected it."
Spotting Buffy finally approaching Alex motioned for both girls to get into the vehicle. Dawn climbed into the passenger seat already working on her custom restore, while Buffy hopped in the back. Alex climbed into the driver's seat and turned to Dawn. "Finally I get to drive. I'll have to buy you presents more often."
Dawn nodded absently, all her concentration on the laptop.
Buffy piped up from the backseat, "So where are we going Xan?"
"It's a surprise, but I think you'll like it."
"You know I don't like surprises Xander, just tell me. Dawn did you get your present? What did he get you?" Buffy fired off the questions.
Alex shrugged and looked over at Dawn who was deeply involved in the laptop. "She seems to be enjoying her new toy."
Buffy poked her head over the seat. "Oh my god you got her a computer. What kind of present is that, and why is she like glued to it? She hasn't said a word since I got in the car."
"Buffy, this is a great present." Dawn replied without looking up, "I love it, and it's the best thing he could have picked out for me right now. Much better than that fruity computer Willow insists on using. Nothing against Willows skills, but I can do more faster and easier with this laptop than she can with hers."
"I just meant that a computer is a strange and expensive present. I was expecting… I don't know some trinket or something. It just surprised me."
As they pulled into the restaurant parking lot Buffy again spoke up, "Chotchkies isn't much better than the double meat palace Xander. I mean the waiters are covered in crappy pins and buttons and that Brian guy, I really think he's a demon or something. No normal person would willingly wear that much Flare." She latterly spat that last word.
Listening absently to Buffy's rant about a previous employer Dawn smiled to herself as the laptop found the wireless Ethernet connection. With a few keystrokes she began acquiring packets for analysis and closed the screen.
Looking around she spotted the three restaurants and tried to decide which one they were going to. Chotchkies was pretty much out from the way Buffy talked about it. Chillis had a drive through window. So that left only Flingers. Once the SUV stopped she got out and headed towards Flingers noting that Alex joined her while Buffy in her rush to be first had headed off to Chotchkies. With an elbow and a snigger she pointed out Buffy's mistake before calling her back.
"Buffy we're eating at Flingers, we know how much you hate that Brian guy and we wouldn't want to inflict that trauma on you."
Dawn climbed into the SUV and opened the laptop to check on the program she had cracking the Wireless network. "Excellent. Your right Alex this was a great place for lunch. An hour and I've grabbed enough interesting packets to crack their Ethernet. You know if we were limited to using public domain software like Airsnort it could have taken a week to gather enough interesting packets. Shame we can't try it out now, but the battery is running low so we'll have to recharge and come back later."
Alex looked over "That's OK. We have the meeting with the rest of the gang in 20 minutes. We can come back after and fix everything."
"What are you going to fix?" Questioned a confused Buffy
Dawn turned to Buffy, "To start with we are going to fix a few records, Birth certificates, Passports, Medical files, Drivers Licenses. You know update everything so that the records match our physical age. Plus I don't think I'd fit in at High School anymore so I'll fix that as well."
"How are you going to fix that?"
"Well when you blew up the school it took all the paper records for your graduating class with it. So a few pokes and prods at the computer records and viola Dawn Summers graduated alongside her sister. Fixing Alex's records will be a bit more difficult. May involve some extra curricular activities at the school board. It will be interesting to see how thorough the monks were in creating my identity the first time."
Buffy tried for a stern disapproving mother look, "Extracurricular, what exactly are you planning to do?"
"The School board will have paper records for the years that we have to put you in Alex. So we'll have to get in and add those. People are unlikely to check, but I insist on being thorough. This is a real identity that we'll have to live for years, so I don't want any mistakes. Personal memories we can't fix, but it's unlikely anyone will do personal interview."
Frowning slightly Buffy looked out the window. It sounded like her sister was "Seems like a lot of work just to change your ages on your records. Is it really necessary?"
"Alex you could probably get by without it, but I don't look or act seventeen anymore. I just don't fit in and I won't go back to that unless I absolutely have to. Besides this way we can get rid of that whole child welfare thing. Speaking of which we'll have to add that to the activities list. That record has to disappear completely."
Buffy's mood lightened a little, "Oh come now I can just see them coming to take you away. Especially when you stop showing up to school."
Dawn grinned evilly, "Lets see, maybe we could just make a few changes to that file. Hmmm Dawn Summers Blonde 5' 3", you are the younger sister now after all."
Buffy smirked back at her, "Bitch, you would send your only sister off with child welfare wouldn't you."
Dawn grinned back "Well she is quite a handful. Out at all hours, always getting into fights and is big into the occult and demons. But I love her and no one is going to take her away from me."
"You really mean that?"
"Of course I mean it. You're my sister. The person I missed most over the five years I was away."
"So why did you point a gun at my head? Were you planning on shooting me like you shot Spike?"
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but I couldn't let you stop Alex from taking care of Spike. I love you Buffy, but I love Alex and hated Spike more. Please don't ever ask me to decide between you and Alex."
"So you love Xander more than me?" Buffy's expression couldn't decide on whether to settle on astonishment or a pout. 'How can she love anyone more than me? I'm her sister. She has to love me more.'
"I love you both equally. You're my sister and have always been there for me, I love you for that and I always will. But if you attack Alex I will stop you. Please don't make me choose Buffy."
"So you would actually shoot me if I attacked Alex? I bet you never put a gun to his head." Buffy had finally settled on a sulk.
Dawn was struggling to contain the urge to slap her sister and tell her to grow up. "If you were intent on maiming or killing him. Then yes Buffy I likely would shoot you. You heal faster than he does and we know a bullet won't keep you down for long.
"And if you think I wouldn't do the same to Alex if he went after you, well you would be wrong there to. Alex has stared down the barrel of my gun and he learned how willing I am to pull the trigger to protect the people I care about."
Alex reached over from the drivers seat and grasped Dawn's hand. "And I promised you that you would never have to do that ever again. I'm sorry about the way I handled things last night. I shouldn't have put you in a position where you had pick between me and your sister." Looking at Buffy in the rear-view mirror he continued, "This time I can't promise it won't happen again, but I'll do my best to see that it doesn't"
Dawn squeezed his hand accepting his promise for what it was.
Buffy watched the two of them and tried to pick out what exactly Xander was sorry about and what his promise implied.
The rest of the trip to Chez Summers was made in silence.
By some twist of congressional backroom politics Sunnydale had received a signals intelligence training facility. Unlike many such training facilities they did not bother simulating signals for the trainees to practice on. The nearby community had a wealth of signals for them to practice with. From eavesdropping on low strength signals of baby monitors through cell phone traffic right up to the secured transmissions of emergency service vehicles the trainees sifted through it all.
Lieutenant Tim Baker was on his second cup of coffee and it wasn't even eight yet. With a yawn he logged into his station and fired up the monitoring software. His class had completed low intensity broadband signals last week and were working through the slightly more secure cellular networks. He was hoping they would get to encrypted signals soon. This stuff was just to dull. Paging through his list of intercepted signals he spotted something interesting.
"Sarah, look at this." Lt. Baker pointed at the data coming up on his screen.
"What ya got?" questioned Lt. Richer
"Some geek managed to configure his cell to work with a 555 prefix."
"That's kinda cool." Lt. Richer took a closer look at the monitor. "Your signal looks a little weird. Sort of like those Thurya satellite phones but not quite. Can you hear what your geek is saying?"
"Sure let me pipe it through audio."
…risk robbing the armory again."
There was a pause.
"Look I'll see what I can do. No promises."
"Thanks I appreciate it. First off I need an AWP 308 with silencer, night vision scope, and a thousand rounds of ammo. Make half high explosive. Secondly I need 20 flash bangs. Third I need 5000 rounds standard 9mm rounds and a thousand 9mm tracer rounds. How soon can you get this to me?"
"The ammunition is no problem, but we don't use that particular sniper rifle. It'll take two days to gather that up and get it out to you."
"Two Days. Great that will be fine, same time same place."
"Look X, this stuff isn't cheap. I may have some out of pocket expenses getting this for you"
"Yes I know they will be expensive, but I recently had a windfall of cash, you don't have a problem with Euros do you?"
The two Lieutenants looked at each other in shock.
"Did you record that? Tell me you recorded that."
Lt. Baker quickly checked his computer, "Yep got the whole thing. I'm dumping it to a CD now."
"Did you get a position on the signal?" Lt. Richer asked, "If it was from a personal residence we could figure out who it was."
Punching up another window Lt. Baker swore under his breath. "No damnit. The signal bounces all over the place."
Bringing up a couple decryption algorithms he ran the signal through them. "Whoever built the phone knew what they were doing. They bounced the signal off every available tower in the area and set up dozens of nodes. It's impossible to tell which one is the real signal."
Stabbing his finger at the screen he spat. "See these. There are even three nodes on the base itself, and another four at the National guard depot."
"OK so we can't find out who he is, but we know who he called, just bring up the number and we'll track it that way."
"No can do, it's blocked."
"Unlisted? Just run it through the database." Lt. Richer reached for the keyboard.
Slapping her fingers away Lt. Baker frowned, "I said blocked. There is no number or signal to decrypt. The initial dialup was non-standard with some sort of encryption and the carrier containing the number disappears almost immediately. I can't even tell you if the person is in this country."
Lt. Richer thought for a moment. "So basically we've done everything we can here. We have to report it to the instructor. If it turns out to be important someone else will follow it up. If not it will likely be given to the advanced classes to crack."
Lt. Baker sighed. "Your right. There is nothing else we can do."
Calling over the instructor he removed the CD and prepared to inform the instructor on the signal.
General Oates had been with signals intelligence for his entire military career. He had spent time in Alert monitoring Russian com traffic. He'd worked in West Germany decrypting Stasi communiqué. Normally an officer of his caliber would be sitting in the Pentagon reviewing actual intelligence reports not manning a training facility. But with the failure of intelligence during the September 11th attacks and the new war on terror the Joint Chiefs had decided that their current training program was insufficient. So with only one star he had been transferred to Sunnydale to manage an underfunded apathetic training facility.
Right now however he was looking at a very interesting report. He had listened to the entire cell call before opening the folder that accompanied it. The actual conversation didn't interest him, he'd heard the same thing hundreds of times. It was the cell number that made the entire thing worth his while.
A 555 prefix. He'd run across that a total of six times in the past ten years. Each and every time the data disappeared before he could do anything with it. With his first star and higher clearance he'd researched a little. He'd gotten far enough to find out it was intelligence before he was stonewalled. He hadn't even been able to find out whose intelligence.
Reading the transcript again he cursed. "Fucking bastards are running an op in my town."
Leafing through the folder he noted that the trainees had been relatively thorough in their investigation. The subsequent analysis hadn't found out who or where 'X' was but had managed to track down 'Huckleberry'. The dialing encryption had been top notch, but had fallen to brute force methods.
He'd inform Huckleberry's commander and let him deal with that end. He already had a system monitoring for further traffic.
The General growled under his breath. "You're not pulling something in my town without me knowing about it you bastards."
Birkoff nervously walked up the stairs to the perch. He always hated coming up here. In part because he never had good news and partly because Operations intimidated the hell out of him.
Passing through the security and entering the perch he approached Operations desk. "Sir you should take a look at this." Handing over a PAD he continued. "A sig int trainee recorded a conversation off one of our cells. The individual called an unsecured number so the full encryption didn't kick in."
Operations glanced at the PAD before sitting back and motioning Birkoff to continue.
"We've tracked both ends. The call originated from the apartment of AleXander Harris. The individual on the other end was Reilly Finn. Both individuals have military files and are linked through project Initiative. Major Finn is your classic US black ops with minor genetic enhancements from project initiative. Almost everything he's done has been classified." Birkoff stopped his brief and was noticeably looking everywhere but at the man behind the desk.
After a few seconds Operations tossed the PAD on his desk, "And Mr. Harris? What were you able to find out about him?"
"That's where it gets weird sir, I found evidence that he stole a AT-4 from the Sunnydale armory yet no charges were filed. He blew up his school during the graduation ceremony and again no charges. His police and hospital files would fill that PAD. The military has a file on him linking him with four other individuals who have similar stats.
"I dug a little deeper and Harris has a black bag account attached to his name. I followed that up and ended up at Oversight. Harris appears to be protected and funded by Oversight. Other than his history the military file is blank as are those of his associates.
"Sunnydale appears perfectly normal with the exception of the missing person list and a death rate higher than the Balkans."
"The trace to Oversight is positive"
"As positive as you can get. It *is* Oversight or someone who authorizes Oversight's budgets."
Operations sat back a grin forming. "You either stumbled on Oversight itself or one of its recruiting and training centers." He pause steepling his fingers, "I want you to lose the data. No need to have anything for Oversight to find if they go looking at us."
Birkoff nodded already planning how to wipe out the data and all the backups. "And the signals data?"
"We'll let George clean up his own mess. But keep an eye on Sunnydale I would like to know what exactly they are doing there."
As the SUV pulled onto Revello Drive Dawn spotted Giles' mid life crisis in the driveway. 'Going to have to see if I can get my hands on the keys'.
Alex grinned seeing the look Dawn was giving Giles' car. "Your going to have to wait until you get your new drivers license. Knowing your luck you'll get pulled over right away and I don't want to deal with the Sunnydale PD anymore than we have to."
Dawn wrinkled her nose, "I'm not that bad, and I don't get pulled over every time."
"Nine times out of ten, often enough that we bet on how long it took you to get pulled over, rather than if." Alex replied as he pulled into the driveway.
Buffy had quit sulking and was starting to get curious about what Xander and Dawn were going to explain at the meeting. Opening the door she stepped out, "How many times have you been pulled over, Xander makes it sound like it happens every day. Are you that bad a driver?" She smirked, "Must run in the genes."
Dawn replied defensively, "I don't get pulled over that often. I really haven't kept track, and it's not that I'm a bad driver, it's that the police pick on me for the types of vehicles I drive."
Alex grinned and winked at Buffy. "She's actually a pretty decent driver. The police just have this thing about enforcing speed limits. Plus her tendency to leave strips of rubber on every corner tends to get the cops upset. The last time I checked with Birkoff you had accumulated 437 tickets and fines amounting to upwards of thirty thousand dollars."
Buffy gasped, "And they still let you drive? They must have been insane. I only had a few minor accidents, ran a red light or two and they took away my license."
Dawn shrugged and opened the door, "If I had had or had caused any accidents they might have considered pulling my license, but a few fines for speeding, really no big deal. As far as they were concerned I wasn't driving recklessly, I was driving to my skill level."
As they entered the living room Giles caught their attention. "Now that you're finally here perhaps you can explain where you've been, what happened to you and why you felt the need to destroy Spike." And muttering under his breath he continued, "And hopefully calm Willow down."
Alex stepped forward, "We will do our best to tell you what you want to know. But I'll have to insist that you don't go spreading this around. That means we won't be telling the fang gang or the potentials. This is for you, so that you can understand our actions and trust our abilities. You recognize that we have changed, this is to help explain the changes."
Dawn took up the story, "I'll start with the events two nights ago. We were all fighting a group of Vamps over in Hillcrest when I saw Spike hanging back a little. As Buffy had the situation under control I started to head over to him to see what was up, I thought maybe he was hurt or something.
"I was approaching from behind so I guess he didn't see me, but just before I reached him he turned and threw a crystal at Xander. I was close enough that I ran to knock him out of the way and succeeded. When the crystal landed it shattered and opened a portal.
"While I was still trying to untangle myself from Xander that bastard Spike came up behind us and gave us a push. The last thing I saw before falling into the portal was his grinning face, and that image has haunted me for 5 years."
Alex picked up, "Your wondering where the portal lead? Well the world itself isn't all that bad, no magic to speak of and no demons. But they have an equivalent for almost everything. The demons were replaced with humans, their souls so black they could do the Master proud.
"Now we happened to be just lucky enough that the portal dropped us into the middle of a terrorist organization's headquarters. Our reception was less than pleasant. We were tortured for two days before an anti-terrorist team liberated the headquarters." Alex paused and looked around. "Now your thinking like I was that we were saved and everything would be OK. Well you would be right and wrong about that. Buffy what would happen if the initiative had raided a vamp nest and discovered two victims who they couldn't classify?"
Buffy and Willow paled and Buffy responded, "Well they would confine them ppprobably run a lot of tests, even question them to find out what they were."
Dawn nodded, "Right on the money. We spent another couple days being interrogated by the good guys. They had no records of us existing and for them that shouldn't be possible. They have very comprehensive records. When they couldn't get us to give different names after three days they made us an offer. We could work for them or not. It wasn't that hard a decision. When they mentioned the not they slid us a photo of a cemetery. We ended up with two years of intensive training. That's two years where we did nothing but train, there were no days off, no trips to the mall it was training 16 hours a day every day. It was hell and the only way out was a bullet. If I hadn't had Alex I never would have lasted the first month much less two years."
Alex broke in, "And if I hadn't had Dawn I never would have accepted the offer to begin with. After the two years were up they took us out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, a tradition I think he called it. Turns out it was also our final test. It was supposed to be a simple assassination of a high profile crime lord, something to test our metal and get a feel for fieldwork. Only someone botched the mission profile and there were two crime lords and a high profile diplomat present all with at least three bodyguards armed to the teeth. The first part went smoothly as the target was eliminated, then all hell broke loose. In the end we had taken out both of the crime lords, all their bodyguards, and unfortunately one of the diplomats body guards."
Buffy broke in "You killed people Xander. I can't believe you would do something like that. It's our job to protect people not shot them. I thought you knew better than that, I thought I could trust you. You're no better than Faith, actually your worse she only killed two people, how many have you killed. And to think I trusted you with my sister."
Dawn came to Alex's defense. "Buffy he protected me, kept me alive in situations where we both should have been dead. Yes he's killed people and so have I but to quote Arnold 'They were all bad'. Some of these guys were worse than the demons and vampires you kill. The vampires kill for food these guys killed and tortured for the fun of it."
Buffy stood with her hands clenched knuckles white. Her whole body radiated rage and imminent violence. Then with a glance towards Dawn she opened her fists. The rage was still clearly visible in her face but the threat of a violent death had been banished.
"I don't care how you try to justify it! He killed people, they weren't vampires or demons they were living breathing people with *souls*. Don't you understand that?"
"Believe me Buffy we know that! But you don't understand why. WE did it to protect other people. People who didn't deserve to suffer and die. The men and women that WE killed were intent on destroying the lives of innocent people. They were evil. They cared nothing for humanity. Some people are just better off dead."
Dawn was starting to loose control, something Alex hadn't seen in a long time. The signs were small but he recognized them instantly. The twitch of her right shoulder, flexing of the left hand, the slight change in posture all signs that she was about to do something she would regret later.
Alex stepped in before Buffy could retaliate. "Suffice it to say they were not nice people and they got what they deserved."
"Deserved, did the diplomat's bodyguard deserve to be killed, did any of the bodyguards deserve to die? Did you enjoy it Xander? I bet you did, shooting them down as they were enjoying their supper. What happened to you? I don't even know you anymore."
Stalking right up to Alex she poked him in the chest, "Keep away from me." With that she stormed out the room unwilling to listen to anything else they had to say. The thought 'Xander is a murderer' was the only thing running through her head.
Alex looked around the room and shrugged, "I'd follow her and try to explain but I don't think she'd listen to anything I told her."
Giles grimaced, "You're probably right, she didn't seem to hear anything Dawn said."
Willow looked a little shaky but had to ask, "She was wrong wasn't she? You don't enjoy it do you?"
Dawn stared her right in the eyes. "We do not enjoy killing, but we do it because it makes the world a better and safer place. I like knowing that at the end of the day that people are safer because of my actions. Some days I actually enjoy my job, but I have never liked the killing."
Giles studied the two young people in front of him before asking, "If you had the chance would you stop. Completely stop even knowing there were evil people out there killing innocents and that you could prevent it?"
Alex glanced at Dawn before replying, "We wouldn't actively seek out people and situations, but if we were placed in a position where killing one evil person would save even one life I … we wouldn't hesitate."
Dawn nodded in agreement. "While everyone deserve a chance at redemption, that redemption should not come at the cost of innocent lives."
Willow turned to face Alex, "Xander, … Alex at what point when I was all veiny Willow would you have tried to kill me?"
Alex shifted uncomfortably, "You don't really want to know."
Willow pulled out the resolve face, "Tell me, I deserve to know."
He actually struggled against her resolve for several seconds before he finally conceded defeat.
"Willow I love you and you have been my best friend for like ever. You have to know that I understood when you killed Warren, I didn't agree with your method but I understood. However when you tried to end the world I had to stop you. I couldn't let you end the world any more than Buffy could let Angelus open Acathla."
With a hitch in his voice he continued. "I had a pistol with me that day up on the ridge. If you had continued we both would have died that day. If I had to kill my best friend to save the world I could do that, but I wasn't going to live in a world without my best friend."
Willows eyes widened and stepped forward to hug Alex, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I never meant it to go that far, but after Giles supercharged me all I could feel was pain, a whole world of pain and I wanted it to go away. I'm sorry." Willow sobbed into his shoulder.
After a few minutes Willow pulled away from Alex and sniffled a bit. Dawn handed her a couple of Kleenex "It's ok Willow, it's all in the past and all is forgiven."
Willow offered both Alex and Dawn a small smile before return to her seat.
Taking the opportunity to bring up something that had been bothering him Giles spoke up. "Yesterday the two of you were wearing wedding rings. I don't see any today would you care to explain?"
Willows eyes got wide, she hadn't noticed either in all the excitement. "Wedding? Married? Explain please."
Dawn smiled and grasped Alex's hand, "Well in the other reality we were married, but here... well I convinced Alex here that we needed a ceremony all our friends and family could attend. Right now we've settled on engaged, and this morning Buffy and I had started with the wedding plans." She paused and continued in a sadder note, "Although I'm not sure how much of those plans are valid anymore. I do have one important question to ask you though Giles."
Giles waited expectantly.
"My real father hasn't cared about me since I was ten, and you have been more a father to me than anyone. I was hoping you could fill the role as Father of the Bride."
Giles' smile practically lit up the room, "I would be honored."
Taking his cue from Dawn Alex turned to Willow, "Wills, I'm going to need someone to stand up for me, and I wouldn't want anyone but my best bud there with me. Willow will you be my best person?"
Willow was practically bouncing in her seat, "Oh yes certainly for sure. I'll be the best best person ever. Oh I have so much planning to do. Everything will be just perfect. You two will be so great together. Oh so many things to do where to start."
Alex smiled, "Calm down Willow we have lots of time, we haven't even set a date yet." Turning to Dawn, "We haven't have we?"
"No. No date yet, it may be a while, it may take Buffy some time to calm down and I really want her at the wedding."
The group continued discussing wedding plans and sharing stories for a time until Alex's stomach rumbled.
Alex rose and prepared to leave, "Well I guess it's telling me I should go and find us some food. I've enjoyed this. It's been a while since we've sat with friends and just relaxed."
Giles smiled at the young people in front of him. "It was good, it's a shame Buffy didn't stay to here the entirety of your story. I'll try to explain your side to her, but as you said before she may not listen."
As they headed to the door Alex spotted Buffy standing in the kitchen. She seemed to want to talk to them but was hesitant to approach. Realizing it was his presence that was stopping her he pointed her out to Dawn and then slipped out the door with Giles while Dawn was putting on her shoes.
Buffy approached Dawn with more confidence than she had been showing a minute before, "You know you don't have to leave. This is your home as much as it is mine. I can kick the potentials out of your room and you can have it back."
Dawn stared into Buffy's eyes, "And is Alex welcome to stay as well?"
Buffy looked away, "No. He's just changed so much, and after what he did to Spike I can't trust him." She held up one hand to stop Dawns tirade, "I believe you that Spike had it coming. But he didn't take time to explain it, he acted without consulting me, and he put you in a position where you felt you had to threaten my life. I can't trust a person like that around the potentials, I don't know what he will do. He's dangerous Dawn, he carries guns, isn't afraid to use them and has killed people."
Dawn realized that Buffy had either ignored or blocked out the part where she had claimed her hands were just as bloody as his and sighed. "WE may have killed people, but each and every one of them deserved what they got. WE never tortured, WE never taunted, each and every execution WE performed was sanctioned. WE are not serial killers, each action we took was calculated to minimize the risk to civilians and protect the innocent. You have killed demons that were nicer than these people. If you can't forgive and trust Alex, how can you trust me?"
Buffy visibly flinched at her words. "I'm sorry Dawn, you're my sister, but I hardly know you anymore. If you want to live with a murder that's fine, but I'll never trust him. I can't and won't trust a mass murderer if he comes on patrol you're responsible for him."
Dawn's eyes widened at the comment, who was she to talk, she had trusted Angel and Spike both confessed murderers. She couldn't trust Alex, but she made me responsible for his actions during patrol. And I'd done just as much as Alex. Her sister was more messed up then she thought.
As she was leaving Willow stopped her, "I'll try to calm her down, make her see reason. But I don't think she will ever accept Xan…Alex for who he is now. She'll always see him as Xander and nothing will ever justify killing a human to her. She still hasn't fully forgiven me yet and the person I killed had shot her.
I think part of the no killing thing is due the whole Ted fiasco. You saw how scared she was when she thought she killed him. Protecting humanity is something that she has beaten into herself as part of her destiny and she won't give it up lightly." Giving Dawn a sad smile she finished, "Can you tell I've spent a lot of time thinking about this?"
Dawn smiled and thanked Willow before heading out he door to join Alex in the SUV and head home.
"Well that went well."
"Could have been worse, I was expecting a beating from your sister at the minimum."
"Yah well I think my threats put a stop to that."
"At least Giles didn't try to pry any information out of us."
"Thank goodness for small favors. Buffy's little fit distracted him and Willow from asking any serious questions. What we did tell them was bad enough, but not enough to get them killed or recruited."
After a long pause Dawn continued, her voice almost a whisper. "You really think that they are here as well don't you? How soon before they come for us?"
"Sir. You wanted to be informed if there was any activity on the Sunnydale files. We've had multiple hits on the Finn file as well as the Harris file."
"Who?"
"The first hit was solely on Finn and was done by Sig Int out of Sunnydale. They recorded a conversation between Finn and Harris that had them concerned. Apparently Harris requested some equipment for his night job. They didn't dig deep and failed to touch the Harris file at all."
"The Others."
"The second was by 'One'. Very thorough they touched everything. I blocked Seymour's attempt to track Harris' budget. Sent him off to US senate appropriations and left him lost.
"The third had the fingerprints of 'One'. Quite clever actually if I hadn't been watching the files from the earlier hits I might have missed it. They heavily modified the personal information on two records; Harris and the younger summers."
George raised an eyebrow. He was very familiar with the Sunnydale situation. He'd had had 'Three' monitoring the situation for years and his memories of the younger summers did not match their files to begin with. Even her civilian records were poorly crafted forgeries.
They bumped the ages up five years; added firearms carry permits, as well as altering some of the history. I checked further and found that all their records had been altered to match. The IRS even has filings for the appropriate periods.
"I don't know how they expect to pull this off but they added a bachelors in Computer Science major in information theory to Miss Summers and a masters in Political Science major in international relations to Mr. Harris. Both from the University of Sunnydale."
George grinned, "How to say I'm a spy without the words."
Greg shrugged, "If you say so, but judging by their old high school records they would never be able to back up those degrees."
"So what attracted the attention of 'One' to these individuals?"
"I'm still looking into that. It could be they noticed the Sig. Int query and followed it up. Looks like they just stumbled into them."
Greg was actually concerned. He hadn't been able to find out why Birkoff had been interested in Harris and Finn. He had tried every trick he knew to extract the data from section but got nowhere. Had Seymour found a way to hide data from him? If so how.
It was a much more confident Birkoff who approached Operations this time.
"I have an update regarding the Sunnydale situation for you sir."
Operations punched a key and the window darkened. "Continue"
"After my initial report I put tags on all the personnel involved. Two have since had their profiles highly modified. Nothing alarming individually, but both profiles practically scream CIA. Looks like Harris and Dawn Summers are now active.
"An hour after the modifications we had an incursion from Oversight. I logged several attempts to locate information on Harris and one for Major Finn. From the methods I would say that Hillenger is not as deceased as we believed him to be."
"I see. Do we know who did the modifications?"
"The traces place it in Sunnydale, but the methods used make it look like we did it."
"Have they moved?"
"No signs of it. Both cell phones are still located in Sunnydale."
"Both?"
Birkoff winced, "When I put a tracker on the first cell phone I located a second section cell. Both residing in Alexander Harris' apartment."
Operations nodded the information just kept getting better and better. "Anything else?"
With a shake of his head Birkoff withdrew and headed back to systems.
"Damnit George what the hell are you playing at this time."
Punching a few keys he brought up a comm. line. "Madeline can I see you in the tower. Immediately." Not waiting for a response he disconnected before slamming his fist into the consol. He had pieces, but nothing made sense. He couldn't run sims as none of this could pass through the section computers, and he couldn't see what Oversight hoped to accomplish with this. He needed Madeline's dispassionate view on the situation.
Lieutenant General Christoph was locked alone in his office and to say he was not in a good mood would be an understatement. He'd been in the military a long time and it still pissed him off every time one of his men went bad. He wouldn't have to worry about that if he'd accepted that fourth star, but no he wanted to stay with the fieldwork. Wanted to feel like he was making a difference, not sitting behind a desk in the Pentagon plotting wars that would never happen. With a sigh he turned back to problem at hand.
"Finn what the hell have you got yourself into this time."
The General was flipping through a folder. The transcript in front of him seemed pretty damning without knowing who 'X' was. The robbing the armory part tickled something in the back of his mind but he couldn't put a finger on it. Something about the initiative files.
With a curse he powered up his computer. He really hated the machine. More trouble than it was worth most days. When he reached the logon prompt he pulled out a palm pilot like device and pressed his thumb to the screen. A minute later he entered a 16-digit code and waited a few more seconds before receiving the password he needed.
He was just about to bring up the initiative files when he was struck by a flash of insight. Xander Harris. The boy had stolen an AT-4 to take care of a particularly nasty demon. He already new everything in the initiative file so rather than waste time re-hashing old information he decided to check out what the boy was up to now.
Despite Harris' claim you do not request a sniper rifle and flash bangs just in case. Opting to start with academics he brought up U of C Sunnydale checking for Harris' records.
Masters of Political Studies major in International Relations. It was a pretty specialized field of study, now why did that remind him of Webb?
If the kid was one of Webb's he wasn't going to step in it. Might as well put the matter on the back burner until he could contact Webb personally. Still it would be best to watch Finn in the event Harris wasn't working for the *State Department*.
Feeling somewhat better about the situation he tossed the file in a drawer and locked it before heading home for the day.
Everyone had gathered at Alex's request in the living room of the Summers home.
"So what did you want us here for Xander?" spat Buffy
"I have found someone with detailed knowledge of the First and have asked her to give us a run down on his abilities. Please listen closely, as what she has to say may save not only your life, but everyone else's as well."
Willow looked around. "Who is it, I don't see anyone new around? Is she outside, you know it's not safe to leave people outside after dark. Hurry up and go get her."
Alex coughed trying to stifle a laugh before pulling Anya up to the front.
Buffy looked confused at first and then upset. "If you know so much about the first why didn't you say anything?"
Anya gave her a withering glare, "Because you tried to kill me and no one else bothered to ask. Hello vengeance demon for eleven hundred years you think I might pick up some knowledge along the way."
Buffy looked more angry then chastised, and turned to glare at Alex as if it was his fault. Alex just shrugged and took his seat beside Dawn waiting for Anya to begin.
Anya began her briefing, "Xan… sorry Alex has asked me to tell you everything I know about the First. I will cover his Strengths, weaknesses, minions, usual tactics, goals, and long-term plans. I could keep you all sitting there for weeks talking about the First, I have been dealing with the pest for eight hundred years now. But Alex isn't paying me enough for that so you'll get a quick rundown on him."
Several potentials let out a breath they hadn't known they were holding and relaxed a little knowing that it would be a short lecture.
"OK I'll start with what is one of his biggest strengths as well as his biggest weakness. The First is non-corporeal on this plane." Seeing the blank looks from most of her audience she huffed and continued. "That means he can't touch or be touched by anything. Actually non-corporeal isn't quite accurate enough, what you see here is really a sending.
"The First never leaves his own realm. He has enough enemies on both sides he would be in a world of hurt if he did. In his own realm he's perfectly safe and his sendings are illusions and as such *nothing* you can do will harm him. On the plus side he can't physically harm you. That doesn't mean he won't manipulate you or use others he's manipulated to attack us.
"Another of his greatest strengths is his planning. He his time setting up a scenario and never ever exposes his actual plan. It's like playing that game with the three cups and the ball. While your trying to guess what cup the ball is under the First is picking your pocket. No, that's not right, it's more like he'd be robbing your house and emptying your bank account. So even if you do guess right the First has still beat you.
"This leads into his motivations and goals. The First has little to no interest in opening a Hellmouth or destroying the world. He considers this realm a playground and humanity his playthings.
"He has a set of customs and agreements made with various gods and demons that he abides by which limits his role on this plane. If he was truly interested he could overrun this planet in hours killing every living thing human and animal. Fortunately for us that wouldn't suit his plans. He has all the territory he needs, and why kill someone when his or her soul will just ascend to heaven. No his goal, his plan is to corrupt innocent pure souls to the point where they will spend eternity in hell. His favorite past time is corrupting Champions, and he's remarkably good at it.
"I remember this one, a Russian noble, the guy thought he was defeating the First at every turn. He had defeated the demons that the First threw at him, and destroyed his lieutenants even though he had to sacrifice a few villages to do it he had won. But his minor skirmish with a few demons polarized the people, and the innocent deaths were blamed on the ruling class. A few months later you had the Russian revolution, and thousands of pure souls were tainted and corrupted. Now don't let me screw up your history Russia was a powder keg, but the First manipulated it so the end result was in his favor. Because of the First's games Stalin eventually came to power."
Seeing the blank stares of the people around her she sighed, "Russia's answer to Hitler. It was only 60 years ago, don't they teach anything in your schools?"
Not waiting for an answer Anya continued, "Now as for minions, he has the usual assortment of demons under his command. But I wouldn't expect to see many of them. He likes to have something unique in each game he plays so your likely to see creatures that haven't been around in thousands of years or new unique demons. He may send some of his acolytes to observe the situation." Anya snickered. "I shouldn't say observe, they are all blind. He's named them bringers after one of his most impressive successes. The corruption of the bringer of light, he who was once favored above all others."
Giles and Willow paled further and gasped in shock. It took a second before Giles stuttered out "He was the one who corrupted Lucifer?"
Anya nodded, "It was the early days of the Universe and the creator was very busy with fine tuning everything. When he returned to heaven he put an end to the First's manipulations but a portion of heavens armies had been corrupted. See the creator is big on free will and the Seraphim, Cherubs and Angels had all made their choices. Rather than reverse their decisions and thereby take away their choice he banished them. But that is a little off topic and not something that we need to concern ourselves with right now. Where was I … Ah yes leadership.
"His leaders are almost always recruited from those he's already corrupted. Defrocked priest, fallen champions, darkened heroes. Faith and Willow would be excellent examples of what he would have been looking for."
Seeing several faces darken and Buffy open her mouth she continued quickly. "Although now that you are on the path to redemption he would no longer be interested in you. His leaders would be confident of the rightness of their actions, their corrupted beliefs would justify anything they did."
Willow leaned forward staring at Anya intently, "So you're saying because we realized that our actions were wrong the first isn't interested in us?"
"No I didn't say he wasn't interested in you, just that you weren't suitable to serve as his lieutenants. As he's playing his game here there is no doubt that you have a role to play. You all are involved to some degree. Think of it as a chess game, some of you will be pawns," she made a gesture at the potentials, "some of you will be the more important pieces. The thing you need to figure out is where everyone fits into the game."
Buffy jumped in, "Well it's obvious that I'm the Queen and Angel is the King. I mean we are both champions and you said he likes to corrupt champions."
Anya snorted and mumbled "Important much" before continuing, "He does like to corrupt champions, but that is his past time. He's playing a game here. His goal might be simple like the loss of a single pawn, or more complex like destroying all the supporting pieces and turning the king and queen. It all depends on his long-term plan. Something we will likely never know until it's to late."
Giles felt it was time to add in his point, "Could it be as simple as destroying the slayer line?"
Alex winced at Giles' simplistic thoughts on strategy. After everything Anya had told them so far he knew it had to be more than that.
"Maybe something deeper like the corruption of the Slayer line. He's destroyed the council, and is attempting to kill all the slayers and the potentials they trained." Alex pause to gauge the response of the potentials before continuing. "But there hasn't been a noticeable rise in the death rate of young women around the world so it seems he's leaving the untrained potentials alone."
Anya smiled, finally someone who saw the bigger picture and actually listened to what she was saying. "That's more likely… Alex. Could you just imagine what kind of damage a slayer could do without any supervision? Sure the slayer spirit would drive her to hunt vampires. But give a 15 year old super strength and quick reflexes how many do you think will go bad. How many champions could he corrupt simply by destroying the watchers and their influence?"
Everyone paled at the thought. The Scoobies thinking of Faith when she had gone bad and the potentials concerned that Alex was right and they were definite target simply because they had been trained.
Anya watched them all closely finding it interesting how they all dealt with the possibility. The potentials shifted and twitched, but this was really only confirmation of what they had already been told. Giles removed his glasses and made to clean them before placing them back on his face and sitting up straighter. Xander and Dawn had both blinked at the same time with identical frowns and then with a slight shake of their heads focused again on her. Willow's shoulders slumped almost in defeat, but the electricity crackling along her fingers said she wasn't going to go without a fight. Buffy was the most disturbing. She slumped bonelessly back in her chair her eyes closed and it seemed to take a long time for her to gather herself together. It was almost as if she was accepting defeat before the battle had been joined.
Anya cleared her throat gathering everyone's attention, "Well this scenario is a possibility, but we can't focus on it exclusively. The First will play games within games. Expect him to lie to you, promise you anything and everything you ever dreamed of. But remember you're only as weak as you let yourself be, the worst thing that can happen to you is that you listen to him, to trust him. If you do that your soul is truly damned. If all he does is kill you… well you end up in heaven enjoying the afterlife."
"As I said earlier one of the First's greatest strengths is that he is non-corporeal. That is also one of his greatest weaknesses. He is easily identified by his inability to touch anything. Something as simple as a handshake will tell you if the person you are talking to is the first or not." Anya broke off and walked about the room shaking the hands of everyone present.
"See now we know for sure that none of you are the First. A common greeting in many countries will verify who you are talking to. It's a good idea for all of you to take up the habit of greeting people with a handshake. I don't however recommend hugs as that puts your neck to close to someone's teeth."
There were several muted chuckles from around the room.
"Now another of his minor powers is his ability to appear as anybody who has already died. I believe you all know about this one already, but to clarify it a bit, he can be anyone who has died. That includes the truly dead, vampires, and even resurrected people like you Buffy. He won't limit himself to good taste, he can and will assume the form of your watchers, family, friends, anyone and everyone is fair game.
"If he identifies a living person with a great deal of influence over you he may have that person killed so he can assume their identity. The best way to counter this is again the handshake greeting. If the illusion is constantly broken there is little point in him trying to assume their identities, and one less reason to kill people close to you."
Giles and Willow were nodding their heads. Alex sat with a small smile on his face. This briefing was more than he had ever hoped for, and he was quite impressed with Anya's presentation.
"One thing you have to remember is that the First is absolutely invulnerable in this realm. There are no magical or non-magical weapons capable of harming him. If there were my Lord D'Hoffryn would have put an end to the pest millennia ago. The only way to defeat the First other than breaking down the gates to his domain and attacking him there is to survive the game he is playing. Once the game is played out the First will leave, win loose or draw. He doesn't do vengeance and doesn't gloat. He will leave to play elsewhere and you will likely never know if you have won or lost till your final judgment comes." Anya paused "Any Questions?"
Giles spoke up. "Yes does he have any enemies that would help us? Say if we found a way to assault his domain directly."
Anya looked shocked at the thought. "It would be extremely foolish for you to assault the Firsts realm, he has hundreds of thousands of true demons and followers as well as hundreds of fallen champions. But if you were to find a way to breach the gates I can think of three or four demon Lords that would be glad to run the assault themselves.
I told you that the First has made many enemies over the years. His game playing has upset many powerful beings. The Egyptian Pantheon for instance wasn't to impressed with the First's stint as the god Bes. Bes had worshippers and idols in every home in ancient Egypt, taking followers from all the gods."
Giles looked confused, "But wasn't Bes a neutral god? I know he was considered a demon but most of the population worshipped him as a protector and guardian of women and children."
"The origin of the role of Bes was due to a comment by Amon-Ra. Ra claimed that the First would be unable to steal or corrupt any of his followers. The First took up the challenge. It took almost a thousand years but there was a time Bes was worshipped in every home in Egypt. Not even Ra had as many followers or as much loyalty. Quite often the first word an infant would say was his name.
"The First doesn't play well with others and has made himself some powerful enemies. The only thing that keeps him alive and safe is the fact that physical or magical forces cannot breach the gates to his realm. My Lord D'Hoffryn tried everything he knew for thirty years to breach the gates and nothing, not even the power of *his* wishes could scratch them."
Alex leaned forward intently, "Exactly how much power would you need to breach the gates?"
"A Supernova would do it, but you can't control those or someone would have already done it. I'd say you would need at least enough power to vaporize the planet and shatter the moon."
Gasps were heard around the room.
Alex nodded deep in thought, "But if we found the power the explosion would take place in his realm and wouldn't harm ours right?"
"More or less. Dropping that much power in one location tends to lead to sudden dimensional instabilities of short duration. You'd get something like when Glory tried to merge the dimensions focused around all the dimensional weak points. It would only last a second or two but a lot can happen in that time. Where do you think you could get that kind of power?"
"I have an idea, but I need to contact a few people and check out some organizations first."
Dawn's eyes widened for just an instant before her face shifted to a You better not be planning what I think your planning look. There was only one way she knew to get that much power, even from a nuke, and she wasn't looking forward to dealing with the organization in question. Especially if General O'Neil was commander here like he was in the other reality.
With Anya's presentation done Buffy, Willow and the potentials prepared for patrol, while Giles cornered Anya with a thousand questions. Alex and Dawn slipped out the door and headed to their car to gather their own tools for patrol. Buffy may not approve, and they may not have slayer strength or magic, but they were going to contribute their training and skills to the fight.
Webb was normally a very busy man. In the last six months he had traveled more miles and been to more 'developing' countries than he cared to count. Currently he was sitting behind a desk reading reports. Not by choice but because he'd caught a piece of shrapnel in the leg while he was in Srinagar. So the DDO had put him on desk duty till he could walk unaided.
Fortunately for General Christoph this gave Webb plenty of time to leaf through the pile of paper that he had acquired on Harris and his people. It wasn't until he got towards the bottom of the pile that things got really interesting. "How the hell did Harris get involved with the sections?"
Webb had run into the Sections a time or two. Section one had extracted one of his teams from the Balkans and they often shared intelligence. That didn't mean he trusted them. How could you trust an agency that forcibly recruited its agents from the criminal population? He preferred patriots and while you still couldn't trust them you at least knew their allegiances.
Flipping through the papers again he sighed. Harris must be a key part of section's plans for the hellmouth to have a budget that big. Most of the nations he'd visited lately didn't have GDPs that big. It seemed a little odd that they trusted a kid with something this important. However the kid got results, he had to admit that.
He could see the talent the kid had from the reports. You don't fight the darkness for that long and survive without some sort of ability.
Picking up a report on the theft of an AT-4 from the Sunnydale National Guard depot he chuckled. The kid had nerve. Walked right up to the sentry and talked his way past. Then his team fired the rocket from the help desk in the mall. It wasn't exactly discrete yet it was still very effective against the blue skinned demon.
Digging out the report on the school explosion he flipped to the HAZMAT portion. The kid had used home mixed ANFO combined with military grade detonators and used a small quantity of C-4 to kick start the whole thing. The combination wasn't something you saw everyday but spoke of his efforts to be thorough. He shuddered as he read the reports on the Demon corpse. The HAZMAT team had discovered eight bodies inside the remains of the worm. In less than a minute the Demon had consumed eight people, he didn't want to imagine the destruction if Harris hadn't eliminated it.
Tossing the report back on his desk he sat back to consider everything he'd read that morning. Harris and his team seemed efficient and effective. However all of their actions appeared to be reactionary. Even the vampire hunting was at best a holding action. The only proactive instance he could see was their attempt to retrieve the Box of Gavrock. Perhaps they lacked the manpower to be proactive. With Harris' budget they had all money and equipment would need so that wasn't a factor.
Who was capable of assisting Harris' team though that was the question? He couldn't send any of his own people, they weren't legally permitted to operate on US soil and he didn't trust the NSA to know a stake from a steak.
He briefly pondered taking a trip down to Falls Church before deciding that Jag would be more hindrance than help in the current situation. Although if he ever needed someone to look into Sunnydale he could always feed A.J. an edited version of the AT-4 file.
No, what they really needed was a team experienced in Demon hunting.
Reaching a decision he picked up the phone and punched in the extension of the DDO.
As Alex and Dawn were getting kitted out in their usual gear, swapping some of the smaller knives for stakes Dawn questioned Alex in a hissed whisper, "Are you insane. You know what the SGC is like. They were no better than Section and I thought we didn't want to get involved in that sort of thing anymore."
Alex sighed, "They weren't all bad, I know they tried to force us to join up. But O'Neil did keep the NID off our back."
"We wouldn't have needed his help if that bastard Set had been a terrorist and not a stupid alien with illusions of godhood. Hell we still wouldn't have needed him if SG-1 hadn't gone riding to the rescue halfway through our mission. We had things well under control."
Alex had to admit that point. Things had been proceeding according to plan, and they had contained the bio-agent that Set was using to hypnotize his followers. They had even gotten close to Set before SG-1 started blazing away.
"I still don't get how we managed to convince Kawalski we were civilians. Especially after the way you drove that knife through the back of Set's neck."
"Didn't have to do much convincing. A few tears, claims that the bastard had it coming after what he did to us. They were ready to believe the worst of the Gao'uld and we apparently got caught up in his nefarious plans. Everything was going fine and we were set to disappear when Maybourne stepped in with the NID."
Alex smirked, "And then Kawalski tried to bail you out by phoning O'Neil who immediately offered his protection."
"Like we needed help. He was just using the NID as a method of forcing us to join. Claimed if we were part of his command we would be protected just like Danny and Carter. If we hadn't been Section we would have had to accept the offer. It makes me furious, first they screw up the mission we spent weeks setting up. Then they endanger the very people they are trying to rescue by initiating a firefight in a room filled with hostages. AND then they have the gall to try and forcibly recruit us."
"OK fine if O'Neil is in charge we'll bypass him. But I know you liked some of the people at the SGC. We can try dealing with them first. Dr.'s Carter and Jackson seemed to have pretty good heads on their shoulders. But before we start worrying about the people, lets check and see who actually staffs the facility in this reality."
"Fine. So this Ra that the First had the bet with, do you think it was the one SG-1 killed or the original version?"
"Tough to say. I don't know enough Egyptian history to be sure, but I'd put money on the Gao'uld version. That ego thing sounds about right for them from the mission reports I've read. We could ask Daniel though. He'd know for sure."
"I'll take your bet. The way she specified Amon-Ra makes me believe she meant the actual god. But your money is no good to me I already have that. If I'm right you will be my slave for a day."
"And if you're wrong?"
Dawn flashed him a smirk, "I'll give you a kiss"
"Not good enough I already get enough kisses from my fiancé. If I win you have to watch the entire first season of Farscape."
Dawn gave a dramatic sigh, "Alright I'll watch the show but only if you win. I'm still sure I'm right and your going to be feeding me grapes."
"In your dreams."
"There to."
Dawn looked at the remaining gear in the back of the SUV, "MP5's?"
"Nah shouldn't need them and there is no sense in pushing the Sunnydale Police any further than we have to. We probably shouldn't even be carrying sidearms until our Federal carry permits arrive, but I feel naked without one."
Dawn's lip quirked upwards, "Remind me to take that from you later."
Leaning in and brushing his lips across hers he whispered, "Only if I can take yours."
From the porch Buffy shouted, "Hey I thought you two were here to patrol, now are you ready to go 'cause we are leaving."
Slamming the SUV's rear door closed he looked over at Buffy. "We've been ready for a while, got bored waiting for you so we were entertaining ourselves."
A couple of the potentials snickered before Buffy turned on them. Spotting Vi and Molly with grins she spat, "Dawn, you're in charge of these two. I don't want to deal with them or Xander, so keep them out of my way."
Dawn shrugged and smiled at her two trainees. "No problem, you'll hardly even know we are here."
An hour into the patrol the group had only met up with the odd Vampire. Alex and Dawn had kept their two potentials to the back of the group, instructing them on how to slip from shadow to shadow. The four of them were currently stalking the rest of the group holding true to Dawn's promise. Buffy hardly even knew they were there even as they picked off the stray vampire that tried to sneak up on Buffy's crew.
Part of Dawn and Alex's instructions had been 'strike hard strike fast', and 'they can't hit you if they're dead'. Molly and Vi took these instructions to heart, and there were no witty comments made. For two of the three vampires they encountered the first strike was the only one needed. Thus proving the potentials were competent and quick learners. This strategy also gave them plenty of time to watch Buffy beat the crap out of any Vampire that came at the group head on.
When Vi failed to dust the third vampire with a single strike Dawn took the opportunity to use it as an instructional tool. Stepping in for Vi she started quietly pointing out weakness as she danced around the Vampire. Her first strike to the creature's throat silenced it. "They don't need to breath, but residual instincts will cause the young ones to panic when you crush the trachea. Plus it prevents them from screaming when you do this." Grasping one of the wild punches she spun to face them and snapped the elbow over her shoulder. The sickening crack of bone and feeble gasp of pain from the Vampire testified to the damage.
Dropping the arm she kicked back pushing herself out of range of the creatures other arm and turned to face it. "Now a wound like that will heal in a couple minutes but till then it won't be using that arm." The creature approached more cautiously this time before throwing a slow and clumsy kick towards her. Stepping to the side she returned with a snap kick of her own aimed at the Vampires supporting knee. The vampire actually managed a squeak as his kneecap shattered and he collapsed on the ground.
Dawn looked to her group, "OK now just because you have your vampire on the ground don't get cocky. He's hurt but he's far from out of the fight. Always approach from the injured side if you have a chance and before leaning over to stake him…" Dawn gave the creature two vicious kicks to the temple stunning it. "Make sure he's down for the count. I like to wear steel-toed boots for just this occasion. Now this is the point where you can dust him." Standing over the downed Vampire she jumped and aimed a heel strike right over the Vampires heart. The sound of snapping ribs followed by the whoosh of a dusting vampire was heard.
Dawn looked down at the ashes, "Cool, I read that their own ribs could dust them and I guess this confirms it. Now remember we are not slayers, a single punch will knock us out and then we're vamp chow. If your facing more than one vamp run. Get to the nearest house kick in the door and get inside. Shout your apologies to the residents, but the vamps can't get you once your inside. Alright troops that concludes this demo lets catch up to the rest of the squad."
They were just finishing the patrol of their third graveyard when the scream came. Buffy was off like a rocket her potentials strung out behind her. Willow was trying her best to keep the group together. But she wasn't having much luck as everyone made their best speed trying keep up with Buffy. Molly and Vi made to break and run after them when Alex stopped them.
"We follow but we watch and make sure that no one gets left behind. Keep your eyes and ears open where there is one vampire feeding there is likely more."
By the time they had caught up with Buffy Vi and Molly had added another Vampire each to their total and Alex and Dawn were up to four each. The potentials were struggling with six vampires while Buffy pummeled a demon and Willow held off another two.
Alex looked to Dawn with concern, "Way to much activity here. Nine vamps hanging around to pick off stragglers and block any retreat and only eight more to attack the slayer. Even adding a demon something doesn't add up." Pulling his Sig-Sauer he nodded to Dawn, "You take Vi and recon the south I'll take Molly and do the North." Turning to the potentials he continued, "You will stay with us. If we find something let it come to us. If we break and run you damn well better keep up." With that he turned and headed off.
Vi and Molly looked at each other each with wide eyes as they turned to follow their respective leaders.
Alex had reconned half the north side before he ran across a pack of four Polgara demons. He motioned Molly to stop before leaning over and whispering into her ear. "Polgara, the front of their heart is encased in bone. Sides are open. Groins are likewise protected. Knees are extremely sensitive. Watch out for their arm spikes and wait for them to attack us." Alex placed one of his knives in her hand before he shifted away and melted into the shadow of a parked car, Molly frowned and followed his example and concealed herself.
When the Polgarans were just passing his position he heard a faint noise as Molly shifted. One of the demons heard her and paused swinging his head around looking for the source of the noise. Taking advantage of the stationary demon Alex fired a round directly into the demon's heart.
As the first demon crumpled to the ground his death cry in the air Alex picked off another of the demons with a heart shot. He had enough time to fire a third round into one other creature's knees before he was forced to drop his gun. This time he opted for his Tanto knife over a stake figuring the possibility of slashing damage would be useful. The injured creature roared and charged the final few feet swinging wildly. Alex ducked the blow stabbing the creature in the right side 'Punctured lung, that should slow him a little bit'. Leaving the knife embedded he dropped to his knees and delivered a sharp savage punch to a point halfway between the creatures bellybutton and groin. A sharp crack was heard followed by a groan as the creature doubled over in pain. Pulling his dagger from the demon he stepped around it and plunged the dagger into the base of the neck severing the spinal cord. Retrieving his dagger he looked over to see how well Molly was fairing with her demon.
Molly was freaked. Sure she had done well against the vampires, but vampires weren't seven feet tall with armor-plated vitals. 'How the hell does Alex expect us to take on four of these creatures? Sure he gave me this fancy knife, but the thing is like seven freakin feet tall.'
Shifting slightly she pulled out her stake with her off hand. 'God I hope Alex can take these guys I don't want to fight them.'
She saw the first one turn his head towards her just before he crumpled to the ground followed shortly by a second. It wasn't until she saw a third demons knee erupt in spray of blood and bone that she realized what had happened. By that point she didn't have time to think anymore as the fourth one was charging her. Realizing that she would need higher ground if she hoped to hit anything vital she jumped onto the hood of the car and settled into a defensive crouch. The demons first strike was an overhand strike aimed to smash her into the hood of the car. Sliding back away from the punch she got a good look at the Polgaran's face and drove her stake into it's right eye as it drove it's bone spike into the hood of the car. The crippled demon screamed in agony and ripped the hood of the car away before flailing around trying to remove the spike from its eye socket.
When the demon had ripped the hood from the car it had sent Molly sprawling on the pavement. Fortunately the creature was too concerned about it's damaged eye to take advantage of her position. Molly recovered quickly but with the way the creature was flailing around was leery of charging in. Remembering her watchers advice she crouched behind the car waiting patiently for an opening. When it finally came she was ready for it. In its effort to extract the stake it had cut it's face quite badly, to the point where blood was running into its good eye making it virtually blind. When she recognized this she crept up behind it and with a sudden strike drove the dagger into the demons heart before skipping back out of reach.
Alex had to give Molly full points. She didn't rush the fight, attacked from an unexpected direction and delivered debilitating strikes. One Two and the demon was down. He only hoped that Dawn was having as good luck on her side. Walking over to Molly who was cleaning her knife he gave her a wide grin. "Nice work kid. One Two lights out, couldn't have done better myself."
Molly looked up beaming from the praise. "Got lucky is all, if it had attacked me while I was down…."
"Ah but it didn't cause someone stuck a pointy stick in its eye. It was a good move and it worked well. But I bet next time you don't stand on a car hood." Alex finished with a wink.
Molly's smile slipped a little, "Nope I'm not going to do that again."
"Come-on I think we're clear here, but we need to finish the recon."
Dawn hoped Alex was wrong about this, but she knew never to doubt his feelings. If he said there was something wrong here then there was. Frankly she was concerned as well she hadn't even seen a victim where Buffy was fighting, so where had the scream come from?
Her and Vi ghosted down the streets sweeping alleys and side streets. They were almost due South of Buffy's position when she spotted a group of six lizard like demons headed North. The two in the lead had red gems on their forehead and carried twin swords, while the remaining four carried a variety of club like objects. Crouching behind a car she motioned Vi to join her.
"See those two in the lead?" she whispered. "Those can only be killed by destroying the gem on their forehead. DO NOT get any of their blood on you. The ones in the back… head or heart will do the trick, not sure about their blood, try and avoid it if you can. Here take this, might work better than a stake on these guys." Dawn offered her a carbon black Tanto.
Pulling her Glock she fired at the demons, "I'll take the big guys and then we can deal with their playmates." Her second round was on its way before the first gem fragment hit the ground. With the two leaders dead there was enough of a pause for Dawn to fire twice more killing one and blinding a fourth demon before it fell to hand to hand. Her and Vi each had one creature while the injured one stumbled around.
Dawn stepped back, away from the demon attacking her and grasped the outstretched arm with a sharp twisting jerk she heard multiple pops. 'Compound elbow fracture with a dislocated shoulder. He's not using that arm any time soon.'
Ducking the swing from the creatures club she launched a wicked punch at the creature's groin. The demon didn't even blink and kicked forward hitting her in the shoulder. Spinning with the blow Dawn stuck out a leg, sweeping the creatures feet out from under it. Once she had it on the ground she followed up as she had in the demo. Two swift kicks to the head but this time she finished by crushing its trachea with the heel of her boot. Listening to the Demons death gurgle she looked around to see that Vi had finished off her demon and was going after the blind one.
Vi looked at the black knife in her hand and then over at the demons. Drawing in a breath she steeled herself. 'Right you can do this, you've killed two vampires already tonight you can take a demon or two.' Reaching into her ankle sheath she drew her own knife with her off hand.
She counted four muzzle flashes out of the corner of her eye and watched three of the demons fall. She noted that a fourth was clutching his eyes before one of them reached her. When the demon got within four feet she leapt to her feet and stepped inside the guard of the creature driving her dagger into it's unprotected belly. The Tanto she snaked around under it's left arm before driving it in to the hilt.
The creature gasped in shock before slumping forward heavily. Vi prepared for such a reaction shouldered it off her drawing both knives out with the same action. As the demon started to fall she drove the Tanto up under the jaw and into the brain. The demon jerked violently before continuing its collapse to the ground pulling the Tanto from her hand.
Drawing her stake Vi proceeded towards the blind demon that currently had its back to her and was trying to stumble away. Walking quietly up to the demon she drove her dagger in to the base of its skull killing the demon instantly. Retrieving her weapons she noticed Dawn watching her.
"So did I do good teach?"
"Not bad. Not bad at all. I think you had your first one down before I got mine. But I thought I told you to try and avoid their blood?"
"You also told us hit hard and hit fast. I figured if I killed them fast enough they wouldn't get me and I'm not squeamish, I can deal with a little blood." Vi argued back
"Didn't say you couldn't. It's just that some demon blood has hazardous qualities. Some is poisonous, some eats metals, and… well when you get back I want you to research aspects of the demon. It's not a pleasant thing, almost drove my sister insane, and that was only from a little blood. Those two with the gems, I believe contact with their blood is toxic to humans. Anyways as I was saying I'm quite impressed two vamps and two demons, and the night is still young. What's say we continue the recon and meet up with Alex and Molly?"
By the time both teams had completed their recons and joined up they had been away from the main group for fifteen minutes. Alex and Dawn were discussing their success as they headed back to try and locate Buffy. "So we hit four Polgarans headed towards Buffy. Got two with the pistol one hand-to-hand and Molly took the fourth. How did you guys do?"
Dawn smirked, "We ran into six lizards headed towards the potentials. Pistol got three and disabled one. I took one and Vi took one and mopped up. All around a good run, ten down and not a scratch." Dawn paused, "You were right though. This was set-up, if they had all hit Buffy at once there would have been no way she could have protected all the potentials. Hell even with the pistols doing fifty percent damage and all our training we were hard pressed. If we hadn't had those two this could easily have gone the other way. I'm really not liking this. Lets find Buffy and the rest of the potentials before any more surprises pop up."
"I'm with you on that." Turning to the rest of their crew he said, "Kids we are going to see how fast you can sneak, follow Dawn I'll pull drag. Bonus points if we can catch Buffy without her knowing we are coming."
When they finally caught up with Buffy it was near the end of the patrol and she was nearing the Summers home. Coming in from behind Buffy failed to notice their arrival. Chao-Ahn actually managed to pick them out before they joined the group and looked quite relieved to see them. Something both Alex and Dawn noticed with interest.
Dawn drifted over to Chao-Ahn, <So you noticed we were missing and spotted us when we first arrived, I'm impressed. >
Chao-Ahn gasped, <You speak Mandarin. > Recovering herself she continued <You are very silent your teacher must be very good. I noticed you were missing after the big fight, but no one understood when I tried to tell them. The blond leader made shushing motions and sent me to the back of the group. I was worried you had been killed or captured. >
Dawn smiled, <I speak a little Mandarin. My accent is probably terrible. > Deciding that she should tell the Asian girl what was going on as no one else could she explained. <When we disappeared we went to clean up some of the straggler demons that were coming to join the fight. Alex and Molly ran across four Polgarans, while Vi and I eliminated six lizard guys. Difficult fight, without pistol it would have been bad, Molly got a Polgaran and Vi got two lizards. Add that to the two vamps they each got and they have had a decent night. How did you guys fair? >
It took Chao-Ahn a second to understand Dawn, some of the inflections she used weren't quite right but her overall statement was clear. <The blond leader got eight vamps and a Chaos demon. Red leader got two and I got one of the vampires in the big fight. Three of the other girls also got vampires before leader finished with the demon and killed the two remaining Vampires. One of the girls was struck on the head, see how the red leader is supporting her. >
Dawn did the numbers in her head, Buffy faced 14 Vampires total and one demon and one of hers got hurt. Buffy's better than that, at the worst fighting there were 8 vampires and one demon she should have been able to take that alone. Shaking her head slightly she thanked Chao-Ahn for the information before heading over to join Alex.
Pulling Alex off to one side she started to fill him in on what she new. "Pretty productive night Buffy's crew got fourteen Vamps and a Chaos demon. We got twelve Vamps, four Polgarans, and six lizards. All the vamps were fledglings from the sounds of it so we have what? A new master or the current big bad making a play to remove the slayer?"
Alex shrugged. "Doesn't sound like the First was making a play, not from the way Anya described his tactics. I'd say either a new master or one of the Firsts minions trying to make a name for it's self. We really need to find out what is going on here. What do you want to do, snag a vamp or visit Willy?"
"Well we could visit Willy but I'd prefer not to use snitches any more than we have to. Hit him up to often and soon he'll be useless, as any real information will be kept from him or he will be dead. After we get the potentials back to base we can re-arm and snag a vamp or two and see what they can tell us."
Alex nodded, "Sounds like a plan. We'll let Molly and Vi do the de-brief." Motioning for the two potentials to join them he started, "OK kids Dawn and I are going to do a little intelligence gathering after patrol. That means your going to have to debrief with Giles. Now when you give him the rundown on tonight stick to details. Don't try to embellish or describe the fights. If he wants more details he will ask you after. The purpose of after patrol debriefs is to map out where the demons are, what type and how many. We use this information in planning patrol routes in the future as well as checking prophecies so be complete and be accurate."
Dawn continued, "Vi expect him to ask for details on the Lizard guys, since we don't have a name for them he'll have to look it up. Think you two can handle it?"
Both potentials nodded eager smiles on their faces. "No problem teach, we got this covered."
As they approached the Summers place Buffy finally spotted them. "So you show up after patrol where were you all night? We could have used you during one fight. Eight vampires and a demon attacked me. One of the potentials got hurt before I finished them off. If you want to come on patrols you could at least be there when I need you."
Dawn's pasted a smile on her face that didn't reach her eyes. "We were there. You and Willow had the front covered so we covered the rear. You said you didn't want to see us so we kept to the shadows. You didn't seem to need any help with the demon and the potentials were fairing pretty well against the Vampires. Why they had all but two dusted by the time you finished off the Demon. Oh and Willow, two vamps at once, nice."
Willow blinked confused for a second. Fighting two vampires at the same time wasn't anything really new for her. If it had been three that would have been different but she could handle two fledglings. Then she realized that they were pointing out to everyone that they had been there. She gave Dawn a small smile as she realized that they hadn't abandoned the patrol after all.
Buffy scowled at the two before turning and leading the potentials into the house.
After Buffy disappeared inside Willow walked over to Alex's SUV where Dawn and Alex were re-arming.
"So how did Molly and Vi do?"
Alex replied "Not bad they followed our instructions, were quiet enough that Buffy didn't spot us, and they didn't break when attacked by a superior force. They each got a pair of Vampires. Molly got her first polgara demon and Vi took down two lizard creatures. Both need some more experience and some better weapons but I liked what I saw. I hope that all the potentials are as good. What about the one that got hurt?"
Willow shrugged, "She was paying more attention to me than the vampire she was fighting took a glancing blow to the head. I think she was milking the injury for sympathy."
Noticing that the two were re-arming rather than putting away their weapons Willow looked at them curiously. "You know patrol is done for the night. You can go home and get some sleep, and you don't need weapons for that."
Alex shrugged. "Something fishy is going on. We were going to see if we can find out what is going on in this town."
Willow looked at them, "And you need the big guns for that. You didn't take them earlier."
"Got to have something to intimidate Willy with. We won't have the big bad slayer with us."
"Do you want me to come along?"
"Nah. It's just going to be a quick visit. Get some sleep we'll see you in the morning."
"K."
"Why did you lie to Willow, you know we aren't going to Willy's?" Questioned Dawn.
"I don't think she would have understood if we said we were going to hunt down and torture a few Vampires for information. And if she did I didn't want her joining us."
Dawn raised an eyebrow.
"I trust Willow, but after the way she took care of Warren I'm afraid she'll develop a taste for that sort of thing. The last thing we need is for Willow to turn into another Madeline."
Dawn shivered. Alex was right the last thing they needed was Willow the emotionally dead master torturer. "So where do you want to go hunt for Vamps?"
"How about down by the bronze. They seem to enjoy snacking on the people there."
"Sounds like a plan."
Twenty minutes later found the two sitting outside the Bronze.
"So dear you want the front or the back door?" questioned Alex.
"Let's see sit out front and flirt with the bouncers or hang out in the trash around back. I think I'll take the front this time. You got to flirt last time." Dawn said with a smirk.
Alex coughed. "It was not flirting I was just discussing my career options to pass the time."
"Yah like you really wanted to become a bouncer. Anyway calls every ten minutes to check in?" she asked turning on her cell.
Checking to see his was on as well he replied "Sounds good. Give me a shout if you spot one we'll take him together."
"Will do. Now go the night isn't getting any younger and you have work in the morning."
"Yes dear." Responded Alex as they slipped out of the SUV.
Making his way around back he eventually took up position on the first floor fire escape across from the rear exit. "God I hope one shows up soon the smell here is going to kill me."
Meanwhile Dawn was thinking similar thoughts but for different reasons as she concealed herself in the entryway of a Chinese restaurant. "God I should have eaten more. I'm absolutely starved and this smell is going to be the death of me."
Fortunately for them they didn't have to wait long. A long legged beauty walked out of the bronze with a geeky looking guy and headed to the back alley.
"Alex, one bombshell and one geek headed your way."
"K"
Dawn waited for them to get out of sight before heading for the alley herself.
Alex saw them enter the alley and the blond woman was pressed up against the wall. The guy's hand disappearing under her skirt as she stuck her tongue down his throat. Unable to pick out which one was the vampire Alex trained his pistol on the most likely target. When the geek vamped out he had to shift his aim to take him. He destroyed both knees before dropping off the fire escape. Walking up to the woman he was surprised to find her in game face as well.
"You jerk you shot my Billy I'm gonna rip out your lungs and feed them to th…"
Her rant trailed off into a scream as Dawn's round destroyed her shoulder.
Looking over Dawn gave him an evil grin, "Looks like it's two for one night at the Bronze. Which one do you want to start with?"
"Blonde seems the most talkative. Billy here seems to have decided it was time for a nap." Alex prodded the prone vampire with the toe of his boot. "We should take this somewhere else though. We wouldn't want their screams interrupting peoples dancing."
"Building behind us has a walk in freezer that should cut the screams enough. Will that do?"
"Should be perfect." His grin sent a chill down the vampire's spine.
Using techniques they themselves had experienced as well as those taught by Madeline they quickly extracted the information they wanted. They quickly learned the location of three nests and a safe house.
They had also discovered that the attack that night had been arranged and paid for from Spike's estate. Demon lawyers were meticulous in following the wishes of the dear departed, and Spike had apparently been quite explicit in his will. The vampires were not sure of all the details of the will only that the estate had ordered that Buffy and her followers were to join him in death.
Sitting in the SUV Alex hit the steering wheel with his hand. "Damn it! We've dusted the bastard and he still haunts us. We have to track down the lawyer and find out what other contingencies Spike had in his will."
"We'll do that, but not tonight. It's been a long day and we need to recharge. As well we are not taking on a nest without some form of backup."
"Points noted. We'll see if we can get Willow and a couple or three potentials before we hit the nests tomorrow. I've got a meeting with Riley at noon and work till five. How about you meet me at the jobsite and then we'll grab our backup and start on the nests around six?"
"Sounds like a plan. Hit them during the day so they don't have a chance to scatter. If we enter through the sewer access they won't have anywhere to go. Can we pick up some food before we go home, I'm absolutely starved and I don't think I can wait for you to cook something."
"Not a problem. McDonalds OK?"
"Perfect I've been craving one of their apple pies ever since we got back."
"You wanted to see me sir?"
"Major Finn yes come in. You know what this is about."
"Not really sir." Reilly's thoughts jumped through his last couple of missions, his men, before landing on his recent trip to Sunnydale. They couldn't have found out about that, he was discrete, and the equipment he'd handed over wasn't listed on any inventories. No he was sure this meeting wasn't about Sunnydale. The Generals next statement shattered that illusion.
"I'd like to discuss your expedition to Sunnydale. Specifically the disposal of one Sniper rifle, twenty concussion grenades and seven thousand rounds of ammunition."
Reilly's right eye twitched twice before he got himself back under control. Damn how much did the General know? He'd always got along well with the General and had never lied to him, but this could end his military career. Wondering if they had picked up Xander with the weapons he began his denial. "Sir I have no knowledge of the weapons and ammunition in question. I was in Sunnydale to visit old friends."
The General noted the eye twitch and the delay in Reilly's response. "At ease soldier, we aren't discussing charges. However you are expected to verify the disposal of said items to one Alexander Harris. You are also required to relate your actions while in Sunnydale for entry into your file."
Blinking in confusion Reilly responded, "Sir?"
The General reached out and pressed play on a mini tape recorder.
"Huckleberry"
"X"
"How's the wife treating you?"
"Great. I think she really loves me."
A muffled "Damn right I do"
"Glad to hear. Look remember when you left you said if we ever needed something with more of a kick than a crossbow to call."
"What did you run into this time, another ascension, do you have another god roaming around?"
"No it's nothing that serious, well yet anyways. This is more of a Boy Scout list"
"X, I'm not into running guns here, If you need something to take down a big bad I'm more than willing to help. But I'm not giving you weapons for no reason. I'm not an Arms dealer you know."
"Yes I know you are not an arms dealer, but this stuff could end up saving our lives, and I'd rather deal with you guys then risk robbing the armory again."
There was a pause before Reilly's voice continued. "Look I'll see what I can do. No promises."
"Thanks I appreciate it. First off I need an AWP 308 with silencer, night vision scope, and a thousand rounds of ammo. Make half high explosive. Secondly I need 20 flash bangs. Third I need 5000 rounds standard 9mm rounds and a thousand 9mm tracer rounds. How soon can you get this to me?"
"The ammunition is no problem, but we don't use that particular sniper rifle. It'll take two days to gather that up and get it out to you."
"Two Days. Great that will be fine, same time same place."
"Look X, this stuff isn't cheap. I may have some out of pocket expenses getting this for you"
"Yes I know they will be expensive, but I recently had a windfall of cash, you don't have a problem with Euros do you?"
The General stopped the tape before continuing. "The equipment has been listed as Agent Harris' assets but we need confirmation that he received the mentioned equipment. As well we understand that while in Sunnydale you participated in several actions with Agent Harris and his team. These need to be logged and recorded in your file."
Before Reilly could stop himself he sputtered out, "Agent Harris?"
The General smirked at him. "That's the designation he's been given. Judging by the things I've read I doubt he even knows his status. Prior to the military incursion in Sunnydale certain civilians were reviewed and given designations." Holding up his hand he cut off Reilly's question. "No. Ms. Walsh was not aware of this information. It was held by the people overseeing the initiative endeavor and was classified beyond her clearance.
"Four individuals caught their interest. There was the Slayer, the Witch, the Watcher, and a civilian who didn't fit. A closer examination of his history revealed enough information that he was given the designation *Agent* and a budget was established to cover any further *acquisitions* he made from Sunnydale armory. From the notes and the size of his budget someone up there thinks very highly of Agent Harris. As you are co-operating with him now we felt it necessary to inform you of his status and insist that you report all transfers of equipment to Agent Harris."
Reilly struggled with his thoughts trying to decide how much he should tell the General. Finally he decided to provide the information he was asking for and see how the chips fell. "In addition to the items he requested I supplied Agent Harris with ten WP grenades as well as a spare AT-4 and a pair of vests that we had lying around."
The General allowed himself a small smile, lying around indeed. Obviously it was leftover ordnance that someone hadn't returned to the armory. "Very well that will be added to his list. You are the closest liaison we have to him and you will keep us informed of his activities."
"Sir, with respects, but Harris and I don't talk that often, once or twice a month at best. It will be difficult to keep you informed on his activities."
"That's what Sig. Int. in Sunnydale said as well. Therefore to facilitate this endeavor you will be transferred to Sunnydale with authorization to assist Agent Harris with whatever resources he requires."
"What about my team, Sir?" Reilly was boggled by the 'whatever resources he requires'. Not one of the missions he had been on had that designation. That meant the brass knew how important Sunnydale was, and they had designated Xander… No Agent Harris as their point man on this.
"Your team, Major Finn will be joining you. I can use you just as well based out of Sunnydale as I can here. You and your team will be transferred effective immediately."
"Finn, you will not be in the Sunnydale chain of command. *All* your activities are need to know and no one there needs to know. You report only to me or Agent Harris."
Reilly accepted this with a nod. He had answered to civilians before and unlike Maggie Walsh he knew he could trust Xander not to abuse his power. "Sir, you mentioned that I was to provide Harris with whatever resources he requires. Could you be more specific?"
"If the guy needs an armored battalion or two get it for him. The guy has a bigger black bag than the initiative." The General paused a small frown appearing on his otherwise blank face. "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell him that. I would really prefer not to see him on the news driving one of our tanks down Sunnydale's main street."
Reilly actually smirked a little at the thought. He could actually see Xander sitting in the commander's seat of a Bradley as it rolled down the streets of Sunnydale. "No we definitely wouldn't want that Sir."
"Now Finn before you leave I need a debrief on your latest trip to Sunnydale." The General wasn't going to mention that it wouldn't have been needed if they hadn't shaken the surveillance team.
"As you know I went to Sunnydale with the sole intent to provide Agent Harris with the items he requested. Upon delivery he asked if I would be interested in taking out a few blood suckers. He had located several nests and was looking to clean house. Truthfully I was leery, I trust Harris to watch my back but I hadn't seen him lead and as the slayer wasn't to be present I was concerned. However the plan he presented was well thought out and very doable."
"We grouped up with the rest of his team that evening; the witch, the Key and three teenage girls. I was set to refuse when he explained that the girls were potential slayers and were to be backup. He called it carefully controlled field experience.
Before the assault he briefed the team with prints of the sewer system and plastic overlay of the housing structures. Entry was through the sewers during daylight. Four remained below to take out any vampires escaping that way; the three potentials and the witch. I was equipped with the sniper rifle with HE rounds and was instructed to find a position and take targets of opportunity while limiting the number of creatures entering the sewer. I was told specifically to allow some access into the sewers. Agent Harris and the Key assaulted the main group with flash bangs to stun them then MP5's to bring them down with a sword as follow up."
"Finn the reports I have read stated that vampires are unaffected by bullets. How did agent Harris expect to take them down with a couple of MP5's?"
"They aimed for crippling wounds, hips, shoulders, knees. They avoided the standard torso shots picking targets that would slow the creatures enough that they were no longer a threat."
The General nodded in approval, "Good idea that. They would recover of course, but if your fast enough you can take them out before they do."
"Yes sir, that was the plan. We hit a total of three locations in that manner. I scored twelve KIA while Harris accounted for eighteen and the Key sixteen. The potentials picked off six who broke and ran and the witch toasted five. Altogether we removed fifty-seven bloodsuckers from the three locations.
At each location Harris and the Key questioned one of the vampires. They then removed sizable quantities of cash and valuables from the nests. With the nests cleared we proceeded to a demon safe house. I covered the sewers on this one with the Witch and the potentials guarding the back. Harris and the Key entered through the front door.
There was no attempt to exit through the sewers although I understand a Feoral demon did attempt to leave out the back. When I received the all clear I entered the house to find Harris and the Key questioning a demon. They were quite intent upon discovering the details of William the Bloody's last will and Testament. He was the escaped vampire known as hostile seventeen to the Initiative. He had put a half million-dollar contract out on the slayer and they intended to have it removed. The demon was stupid enough to have the cash with him rather than use an escrow agent. After taking the money and threatening the demon it assured them the contract would be lifted by nightfall.
After the mission Harris handed me a hundred thousand dollars. Said it was my share and that he was planning on using most of the rest to buy more weapons.
The General looked closely at Reilly. "What were you planning on doing with the money?"
"Truthfully, I hadn't come up with any plan yet. It would be nice to keep it but I was thinking I would likely end up donating it to charity."
The General sat back thoughtfully. "Tell you what. Donate half to charity, use some towards buying your new home in Sunnydale and use the rest on entertainment for your unit. So long as you declare the portion you keep on your taxes I can't see Uncle Sam getting upset. When your unit collects sums like that in the future keep the same ratio and you will be fine with me. Just remember that you still work for Uncle Sam and aren't a bunch of mercs."
"We won't forget sir."
"Very well. If that is all… Dismissed. And Finn good luck in Sunnydale."
"Thank You."
Once Reilly had left the General sagged back in his chair. "Damn it Webb that's the last time I ask you for a favor. I ask for a little information and you go and hijack one of my teams."
Alex had left work early today. He had a few errands to run and wanted to get them out of the way without running into Buffy. He knew he had to deal with her eventually. But for right now his mere presence antagonized her. He was willing to give her a little more time to come to terms with who he was before approaching her again, especially without Dawn present. Odds were he could take her in a fight. But not without killing her something he was unwilling to even contemplate.
Alex walked into the magic shop and browsed idly until Anya finished up with her customer before approaching the counter and shaking Anya's outstretched hand. "Anya, I have a couple of magic questions for you."
Anya smiled for a second before carefully blanking her face. She'd seen this on a movie and was anxious to try it out. "My memory of magic is a little vague right now, perhaps with some encouragement…"
Alex raised an eyebrow before tossing a twenty on the counter.
"It's getting clearer, but things are still foggy."
He tossed another and then a third and fourth on the counter before Anya perked up "Oh I think the fog has receded, what was it you wanted to know."
"You mentioned you can teleport anywhere now, can you teleport to the first's realm?"
"Nope."
"How about to the gates in front?"
"I can do that why?"
"It goes with the plan to attack the first. Second question. Can you open a portal to the same location?"
"Ok I told you it would be insane to attack the first right. And no I can't open a portal myself. I would need at least two other powerful witches and a dimensional focus."
Alex sighed, "I know it sounds insane, but I can't let the first play games with my friends. Do you think you could find two other witches and a dimensional focus within the next month?"
Anya frowned, "Well, the witches wouldn't be to much of a problem we could use my apprentice and if Willow was willing to help we could use her. The dimensional focus would be tricky they are pretty rare. Unless Dawn was willing to volunteer I don't think I could get one in time."
"Dawn? Sure she was the key, but I've seen her wounded plenty of times and no portals. Are you sure about that, and how safe is it? I won't risk her. Not for anything."
"Dawn is still the key, she is a weak point in the fabric of reality. Channel enough power through her and you will create a rift. If you have someone to guide the rift you can pick the end point. I would need a triad of witches to draw enough power and I would choose the end point.
"As for Dawn's safety. The spell itself will leave her tired and opening a rift into the first's realm will leave us vulnerable to attack. We will be concentrating on holding the rift open and unable to defend ourselves."
Alex paused deep in thought. "But you can do it. I don't know if we'll need it, but I suggest you start preparing yourself and your apprentice just in case."
Walking into the Summers home Alex was astonished by the changes in past couple of days. Where the potential slayers had once been withdrawn and jumpy they were now sitting in groups chatting amiably like regular teenage girls. Taking it as a good sign he headed off to find Giles.
Walking past different groups of girls he picked up bits of conversation
"… and then she stomped on it's chest and poof …"
"… they took out a hundred vampires and twenty demons in two days…"
"… and then I got coated in mucus and Willow stabbed it with that little dagger she carries…"
"… I don't know what Molly, Vi and that Asian chick did to earn that money, but I don't believe their story about taking out nests. I mean Willow would have asked *me* to help if she wanted one of us."
Alex stifled a groan at the last comment and identified the speaker as the girl who had taken the head injury two nights ago. She would have been the last potential they would have put Willow in charge of. She had absolutely no focus when Willow was around.
Finally he located Giles in the kitchen flipping through a rather large tome. He cleared his throat to get Giles' attention. "Hey. Giles what's new in the world of books?"
Giles looked up and upon seeing Alex narrowed his eyes. "Not a lot Alexander. Why do you ask?" His voice was positively frosty.
"Ouch. What did I do this time. Whatever it is… well I was going to say it wasn't my fault but odds are it was. So just tell me why you hate me this time."
"Alright. You assaulted a nest of twenty vampires with only Dawn, Reilly, Willow and three potentials. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You could easily have gotten them and yourself killed or turned. Why didn't you inform me, why didn't you ask Buffy for backup."
Alex sighed, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately. It was things like this that made him almost wish he were back in section where they trusted his planning and abilities. "We didn't invite Buffy along because she didn't fit the mission profile. We needed firepower, as in guns. You know how she feels about them. We only asked two potentials because that was what we needed and any more and they would have gotten in each other's way in the tunnels. We had to act quickly to remove the contract on Buffy's life before the Terakans started showing up. Look I'm sorry I didn't let you know, but I'll stand by my actions."
Giles relaxed slightly. "See that you let me know in the future. It's not that hard to pick up the phone and call you know. Now I want you to tell me everything that happened. Including how you found out about the contract."
Alex launched into a description of events that was very similar to Reilly's. He did limit his description of the initial interrogations to 'questioned the vampires' before proceeding on to the assaults on the nest.
When he had finished Giles' eyes were wide with astonishment. "The potentials gave me a brief description of events, but I didn't realize the full scope. Fifty Seven Vampires and six demons. That's…That's just incredible." Pausing to collect himself Giles continued. "You say Spike put out a half million dollar contract on Buffy. Where did he get that kind of money and if he had it, why didn't he help her out with the bills here?"
"As close as we can tell he always had the money. Why he didn't help out? Your guess is as good as mine, but the Spike I remember was a selfish bastard. He wasn't interested in helping people unless it helped him. But speaking of helping out." He reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope.
"Give this to Buffy. Tell her it's from the council or something and to use it to pay off her mortgage and other bills."
Giles took the envelope and looked inside. "There must be a hundred thousand here. Are you sure you want me to give it all to her, or do you want me to take care of the bills and give her the rest?"
"No. Give her everything, and tell her you trust her to do the right thing with it. Make sure you mean it when you tell her Giles. It's important that you say the words and mean it when you give her the money."
Giles just raised an eyebrow.
Alex looked down at the table, "Right now Buffy is alone. She has no one she trusts that she can go to with her problems. Basically she has trust issues with me and Willow over the killing thing, and you and Dawn sided against her regarding Spike and myself. She needs someone, and you're the one with the easiest fix."
Shifting in his seat looking exceedingly uncomfortable he continued. "There is also something that Dawn and I noticed when we returned. Buffy seems highly suggestible. She has a tendency to believe whatever you tell her particularly if you use the words love and trust. We are not sure if it's residue from Dark Willow or one of Spikes ploys. Either way it's not something we are capable of fixing. I admit I did briefly consider using this to try and get the Buffy I knew back. But then I'd be no better than Spike, manipulating Buffy to be what I wanted her to be. Regardless I thought you should know, maybe you can do something."
Giles sat back to consider. It actually explained a lot of Buffy's actions lately. "Thank-you for informing me. I'll look into it and I'm glad you choose not to manipulate Buffy. Now if you don't mind my asking why are you giving her this money?"
"Two reasons Giles. One the contract was put out on her by Spike so she deserves it. Two I won't see her dead because she was too stressed out over money to fight properly. We need her at the top of her game and we won't get that if she's worrying about how to feed her new army of potentials.
"Speaking of the potentials we need to start them on a training program. Why don't you hire Buffy to train them? Negotiate a generous salary and make it clear that she is part of the new council but ultimately reports to you. I'll set up an account for you to pay her from until you can access the watcher funds. And don't worry about the money, Spike was very generous and it's the least he can do. That should solve two of her immediate problems."
"Two?"
"I'm betting with her work and patrolling and everything, Buffy has done very little training herself over the past few weeks."
Giles just nodded.
"Skills must be trained or they fade Giles. The newbie vamps around here aren't a challenge for Buffy, but one of these days she's going to run into something where she needs all her skill. Frankly I'm surprised you let her get away without training. I remembered you as being more forceful regarding that."
Giles withered under Alex's comments. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't true. By failing to see to Buffy's training he was failing her as a watcher and ultimately signing her death warrant. Squaring his shoulders he resolved to see that she began training again.
Focusing on Giles again Alex switched topics. "Dawn is working on a system for tracking vampires and finding patterns. It should help out in choosing the most effective patrol routes. What we need is some data to put in and I was hoping I could get copies of your watcher journals for the past couple of months. Any chance?"
Giles nodded absently still thinking about Alex's previous comments. "I can get copies made and drop them off tomorrow."
Willow was sitting on her bed staring at the pile of cash in front of her. Who knew raiding vampire nests could be so profitable. Counting the bundles again she reached the same total. One hundred thousand dollars! What was she going to do with that kind of money? She could pay for the rest of her university or she could buy a place of her own. So many options, she couldn't decide right now.
Maybe Anya would be able to give her a few pointers. Reaching a decision she put the money in a shoebox and slipped it under her bed. Anya the happy little capitalist would be able to help her figure something out.
Looking around the house she noticed Buffy wasn't back from her job of the week so she waved goodbye to Giles and the potentials and headed out.
Willow had plenty of time to reflect on the events of yesterday as she walked to the Magic Shop. It had started with Dawn's phone call shortly after her last class of the day.
"So Willow what have you got planned for the rest of the day? You up for a little excitement?"
"Well I had planned to research my Poli. Sci. paper, but I could put that off it's not due for a couple of weeks. What do you have planned?"
"Well Alex and I got some information yesterday on a couple of nests. We were thinking of taking them out this evening before patrol."
"Nests, how are you planning on taking out nests? You don't want me to do magic do you, because Buffy still won't let me cast any spells?"
"Well maybe a few small combat spells, but nothing that should be a problem. We are more hoping you will lead the backup team.
"Tell you what. Alex has dropped some prints off here why don't you come over and we can go over Alex's plan."
She wasn't sure if it was Dawn's acceptance of her magic use or the leadership role that snagged her but she found herself agreeing to join in the raids.
The planning had been nothing like what she was used to.
Looking over the blue prints Dawn had outlined her plan "Ok we are going to enter through the sewers. Each location has two sewer access points. Alpha team, that's Alex, Riley and myself, will enter through this point.
I want you and whatever potentials we get sitting here. Where the two exits meet. You should only get vampires coming out from one access but some may slip past us so keep your eyes open."
"How many do you expect at each location?"
"Our source claimed only a dozen at each location. So we can expect roughly twice that. Likely around twenty give or take. With only three of us attacking I don't expect any to head your way until we've destroyed two thirds or more. Even once they've broken Riley will be picking them off with the rifle. You shouldn't get more than three at any one time."
"You plan on attacking twenty plus vampires in their nest!?! Are you insane?!? Where is Buffy during all this?"
"I think we can pull this off without much effort. We will be using the big guns for this one, which will even the odds out. With Riley covering us with the sniper rifle the only thing we really have to worry about is bad luck.
"Buffy is not playing a part in this for two reasons. One she can't handle a gun so couldn't be part of the lead team and you know she would insist on being in the front. Two she doesn't trust Alex and he's leading this. We can't do this with someone who can't trust us."
Willow nodded in understanding. "If she doesn't trust you she's not likely to follow your lead. This looks to be difficult enough without fights for command. Without the guns or Buffy assaulting a nest of twenty vampires would be almost impossible." Willow paused and looked over the blueprints. "Couldn't you use someone as cleanup coming behind you and staking the vamps you take down?"
Dawn offered Willow a small smile pleased with her understanding of their strategy. "Good idea, but I don't think we'll use it this time. With that many vampires we'll have to put a lot of lead in the air to take them down. It's too easy for the backup to be hit by a stray round."
"Ok, so I'll watch the junction with the potentials and we'll take out any runners."
"You'll also want to have someone watch your back incase of late arrivals. Let the potentials do the work. They need the experience more than anything. If it looks like they are being overwhelmed or are getting into trouble feel free to step in then.
"If you need it don't hesitate to use a few incindres or a little telekinesis. But don't go overboard. We want you to lead not crush the vampires yourself the goal is to give the girls some experience. Observe their technique so you can offer pointers to them later. I'd like to use Chao-Ahn to watch your back she's a lot more observant than most of the potentials. Do you think you could find a translation spell or something?"
"I know one that should work, but it only lasts fifteen minutes."
"That's perfect, the raids shouldn't take more than that. If you cast it before each raid she'll be able to understand your instructions."
While the planning had been very interesting the assaults on the nests had been quite dull. She had been forced to incinerate a few vampires when they came out in groups but she left most of them for her potentials. She found the magic easier to control than she remembered and despite the joy of casting again she didn't feel the addiction that she thought she would. Still she limited the spells she did cast, not wanting to abuse the trust Alex and Dawn had shown her.
Her team had performed well. Riley told her roughly twenty percent of the vampires had tried to escape past her. Higher than the ten to fifteen percent they had expected.
Chao-Ahn had watched their backs and she caught one late arrival sneaking up on them while Molly and Vi tackled the vamps trying to escape taking out 5 of the vamps. Not one of the vamps trying to escape survived which earned her and her team a job well done by both Alex and Riley.
The safe house had been interesting. Riley managed to pull sewer duty on this one, as there was only one sewer access in the middle of a long straight tunnel. They got to guard the back.
When a Fyoral demon burst out the back door she tried to warn the girls about the mucus. She was a little too late and Vi got slimed before Molly gutted the creature and Chao-Ahn hamstrung the beast. Things still could have gotten unpleasant if she hadn't carried a silver dagger. It was a force of habit. Oz had given it to her to use as a last resort and she'd been carrying it as a memento for years.
That brought her back to the money again. Her and Riley had received a hundred thousand each while Dawn had counted out ten thousand for the potentials. Her instructions were amusing.
Staring at an immobilized and mucus covered Vi, Dawn handed over the money to Molly and Chao-Ahn. "Share this with the others. Use it to buy some new clothes and things. Lord knows slaying is hard on your wardrobe and we don't want you running around naked."
Alex perked up, "I don't know it might be kind of interesting."
Willow gave him a poke in the chest. "None of that now you're engaged mister."
"Hey I didn't mean it like that. I meant it might distract the vampires making it easier and all. They'd make much better bait that way too."
"True, but half their attackers would be human. It would be a serious pain sorting out the demons from the lust crazed boys." Said Dawn
Alex smirked, "You've got a point. Girls go shopping, buy clothes we don't need to fight off an army of teenage boys in addition to the demons and vampires."
Riley looked on amused as the two English speaking potentials flushed in embarrassment.
Breaking out of her thoughts she spotted the Magic shop. Let's hope that Anya doesn't have any customers.
Entering the magic shop Willow immediately noticed that there were no customers in the store. The second thing she noticed was that the person behind the counter was not Anya.
"Amy, what are you doing here?"
"Working what's it look like." With a panicked glance around Amy continued, "Sorry I mean how can I help Willow. We have a special on spider silk. Twenty percent off regular price."
"Umm. I'm not actually shopping today I was hoping to talk to Anya."
"Sorry she's out on business. She should be back soon though if you want to wait."
"Thanks I think I will."
As the silence dragged on Willow tried some small talk.
"So Amy how long have you been working here?"
"Almost two weeks now. Anya really needed a hand around the place, and when Buffy quit she found she that she didn't have time for both jobs and the magic shop was suffering. She wanted someone who understood magic and wouldn't sell real items to the dabblers."
"So you applied and even with the magic abuse she accepted you?"
Amy flinched "She didn't seem concerned about that. She laid out several rules for me on how to run the store but restrictions on magic use weren't included."
Willow frowned in concentration. "You know everyone talks about how magic is an addiction. But I went months in England only using it when Giles allowed me too and even longer here without using it at all and I never suffered any withdrawal symptoms. They mistook my grief for withdrawal I think."
Amy shook her head slightly. "You never had any real training did you?"
Willow replied with a shake of her head, "Tara was trying, but I didn't listen very well."
"Well I actually had years of instruction before my mother snapped. One of the things I learned is that magic is not addictive. However the power it gives you can be.
"Don't want to do your homework, make the teacher think you've handed it in. Can't afford a new dress, magic one up. Someone disagrees with you, change their memories or simply kill them. Like they said in that Spiderman movie 'With great power comes great responsibility.'"
Willow sighed, "I see what you mean. I had the power to do anything I wanted so I did. No one else's opinion mattered because I was stronger then them. When they tried to stop me from doing magic I was upset. Not because they prevented me from casting spells, but because they took away the part that made me special, made me powerful."
Amy nodded, "You had spent so much time being the witch of your group that you forgot that you had other skills. Anya was telling me that a lot of witches who don't have proper instruction often abuse their abilities.
"She's training me now and I'm understanding more and more. You know how we used to feel so good, so powerful after a visit to Rack?
Willow nodded frowning at the unpleasant memory.
Well Anya explained that, he was forcing our magic. We were gaining power faster then we were capable of handling it and it was slowly driving us mad. He couldn't raise us above our potential peak, but he could get us there sooner than we were ready for. The rush of the extra magic feels incredible. But then you know that."
Willow nodded her head a sad smile on her face. "So your saying that other than the rush we got nothing from our visits to Rack?"
"Well not nothing, we did get our strength in magic sooner than we otherwise would have. Then there is the fact he was slowly driving us mad. You can't say he didn't do anything for us." Amy finished with a sick look.
"What about that whole black eyed veiny look I get when I cast dark spells. Is that because we pushed our powers? Is it a symptom of the madness?"
"It's not the madness leaking through, but your partly right. You get that because you didn't have enough ability or strength to power the spell so you were pouring yourself into it. The more the spell exceeds your ability the more of yourself you have to feed in. First your eyes, then hair and skin pigment, then blood, then tears. If you push it enough eventually there is nothing left and you just cease."
"You mean I could kill myself by trying to cast to powerful a spell?"
"No. You cease to exist. You would have fed your body and soul into the spell and you would simply no longer exist."
Willow struggled trying to understand the concept. She had always known she would die someday and move on to whatever afterlife awaited her. Buffy's return was proof that there was life after death. But to hear that she could lose her chance at heaven (slim though it was) because of magic deeply disturbed her.
They settled into an uncomfortable silence for a while.
Finally after fifteen minutes Amy jumped like she had been poked and broke the silence.
"Did you know D'Hoffryn was going to offer you the job Anya got?"
"What? He was going to offer me another chance to be a vengeance demon?"
"Well yah, he was kinda impressed with how you handled Warren. You blew it though when you attacked your friends. With that and trying to end the world he felt you weren't a suitable candidate."
Willow furrowed her eyebrows. "I thought he was a demon isn't that something he'd want?"
Amy gave a light laugh, "D'Hoffryn try to destroy humanity, you're funny."
Looking back at Willows confused expression she said, "You really meant it didn't you? You've been researching and fighting demons for six years and you still don't really understand them."
Amy took on a patient expression, "Ok you know D'Hoffryn is a demon lord of vengeance right"
"Well yeah Anya is a vengeance demon and answers to him, so I guess that's right."
"Ok. So who does he seek vengeance for humans or demons?"
"Well Anya has only talked about granting wishes to humans so I'd say …
"Wait are you telling me that all the demons that work for D'Hoffryn grant wishes strictly to humans. That his power is derived from humanity?"
"Exactly. Not only that but all his 'girls' were formerly human. D'Hoffryn is linked to humanity so strongly there is no way he would or could let it be extinguished. Now since you were going to end the world with the limited power you had he felt you couldn't be trusted with the power of the wish."
Amy stared into Willows eyes. "It takes considerable strength of character to be able to handle the power he grants as well as survive in the world for hundreds of years. Despite his claims that there are always many more girls out there he doesn't grant power to just anyone. They have to earn it first and then they have to show that they are strong enough to handle the power. You've managed the first, but have a long way to go in proving the second."
Trying to discretely edge away from Amy Willow asked her, "Your not one of his girls now are you? I mean you seem to know an awful lot about D'Hoffryn and Anya trusts you with her store…"
"No. Well not yet anyways. I hope someday to but for now I'm still Amy the rat girl. I've just had a lot of conversations with Anya what with her teaching me magic and all."
"Oh."
They lapsed into silence again before Willow spoke up.
"I suppose I should go. I need to grab some supper before patrol. Say hi to Anya for me."
"It's been nice talking to you Willow. Stop by again maybe we can practice some of the spells Anya has been teaching me. Well if she approves."
"If she approves! You need Anya's approval to practice magic with me? Is she still afraid I'm going to go bad or is it you?"
"Nothing like that Willow. It's just that I'm Anya's apprentice and I need her approval before practicing new spells. One of her conditions to teaching me."
"Oh." Willow blushed in embarrassment before turning and fleeing the store.
As she left a second figure shimmered into being.
"Nicely done Amy. You have given her a great deal to think about. Perhaps she can yet be salvaged. She'll never be a true Wicca but perhaps we can show her the shades of gray and teach her some responsibility. In time she may even be worthy of Lord D'Hoffryn's offer."
With a flash of irritation Amy bowed her head Amy replied, "Thank you Anya. I tried to be honest as you instructed me, but it was difficult. I still want to rip her hair out for the things she's done. She had everything I ever wanted. Friends, power, respect and she didn't care. She attacked her friends, abused her power and lost any respect people had for her."
"Enough of that." Anya laid her hand on Amy's shoulder. "Come along apprentice we'll close up the store and we'll work on that invisibility spell you were so curious about."
"So you're sure you don't want someone to go with you Wills?" Questioned Alex.
"Nah I've got it covered. They've already got Angelus locked up. I only have to run down there and do a quick re-soul."
"I can't believe they let Angelus out again. Cordelia knows how dangerous the bastard is. I can't see her wanting to see Angelus ever again." Alex cleared the thoughts away with a shake of his head. "Do you have to go can't you just do the spell from here?"
"We discussed this already. They put his soul in a container to protect it. Somehow it was stolen and I have to track it down first. Plus it takes much less power if I'm closer to the person I'm placing the soul in. I could do it from here, but I would have to be dark veiny Willow again, and no one wants that." 'Me least of all' Willow thought with a mental shudder.
"Can't say I'm happy that your heading down there alone, but do what you have to do and get back. If it looks like you need a hand don't hesitate to call. We are only a few hours away, less if Dawn is driving."
"Stop worrying, I'll be fine. Look I gotta go. See you in a day or two."
"Be careful."
"Always."
Alex watched Willow drive off before heading back into his apartment. "Dawn, did Sam say what time they expected to arrive?"
"Sometime around four. Said she would call when they got in and we could come over and help unload the truck."
"Have you seen their place yet?"
"We jogged past it this morning sleepyhead. It was that blue two story place with the arched windows I pointed out to you." Joked Dawn
"That was why you pointed it out. I thought you were hinting that you wanted a bigger place."
Dawn replied with a smirk. "If I wanted a bigger place we would already be moving. But lucky for you I'm quite happy here in your apartment."
"Lucky me." Walking up behind Dawn he wrapped his arms around her resting his chin on her shoulder. Looking at the laptop screen he asked her, "What exactly are you working on now dear?"
Dawn took his left hand in hers and wove their fingers together before grabbing the mouse with her right. "Got a couple of things running. Since you got me copies of Giles' watcher journals from the past couple of months I started to analyze the vampire's movements. I've plotted all the locations where Buffy has slain vampires during that period. As well I've plotted out the location of any deaths due to 'gang members on PCP'. I've got it running through a sim right now looking for patterns.
"Now that we've got net access here I've done the research on the SGC. In this reality Kawalski didn't survive long. Without someone he trusted to take over SG-1 O'Neill declined the promotion to head up Star Gate Command. Hammond is still the head, and I think we can trust him."
Alex accepted Dawn's assessment of Hammond. If she trusted him despite her hatred of the SGC then he had to be a pretty decent guy.
Dawn broke through his thoughts as she continued her rundown.
"I've put in a material transfer request and the second stargate should be shipped to the SGC this week. We were lucky that the second one is still available here, not traded away to the Chinese as a political bargaining chip. I also have a shipment of sheet steel and the electromagnets you wanted enroute. The magnets were tough to get, they aren't exactly off the shelf you know. Fortunately the latest fusion project was having funding problems and I hijacked their order. They are almost exactly what we were looking for."
Bringing up another window she continued on, "Now I'm not to sure about this here, I pulled up some of the com traffic in the intelligence community. I couldn't decipher ninety nine percent of the stuff, but the routing of some of the traffic was interesting. There have been a lot of hits to our files. A lot more than we were expecting. I even tracked two back, one as far as the Pentagon backbone and the other to Langley. It's the ones that I couldn't track that concern me.
With a shiver Alex silently agreed with Dawn. If she couldn't find out who had viewed their files it was likely section. But why the multiple hits if it was section? And why hadn't Section done anything yet.
"I sent a viral data sieve out to locate any documentation related to us. I got back a couple of hits this morning while you were shopping. The first one came from Riley's CO. Part of his transfer orders included a change of command structure. It names you as one of Riley's commanding officers."
"Any idea of how that came about? I'm not even in the military and they put me in command of a Major. Not seeing the logic here."
"That's from the second hit. The viral picked it up in Langley. Some secretary didn't encrypt her files fast enough and it got a bite. It looks like the DDO requested that Finn be transferred to Sunnydale and placed at your disposal. They are using him to discretely keep an eye on us.
"In addition the viral reported dozens of other hits that I was unable to retrieve. Our presence is causing a big stir in the intelligence community. We've got their attention and right now they don't know what to make of us."
"Could be they are trying to figure out who we work for. You know how it goes. No one wants to piss of another agency by treading on their territory or assaulting their agents. We'll be safe until they figure out that we are independents. With luck we'll be fine until this thing with the First is over."
Alex sighed, "If it wasn't for the need to protect the potentials we could go and settle things with section ourselves. There is no point in hiding anymore, we've attracted their interest and sooner or later they will send a team."
Dawn leaned back into Alex's embrace. "We'll be ready for that. There is no way that I'm letting them take us back."
"We'll be ready." He repeated. "What do you have planned for the rest of the day? We've got a few hours till Riley gets in."
"I was going to wait for the sim to finish, then review the patrol scenarios it presents with Giles. But it won't be done for hours yet. Why what have you got planned?"
"I was hoping to spend some time with my fiancé, just the two of us."
"Oh and what exactly would the two of you be doing?" She asked as she turned towards him with an amused smirk.
"Well I picked up some strawberries and chocolate sauce when I was shopping, but I'm not sure what to do with them, as someone ate all the ice-cream." He mumbled as he nibbled on her earlobe
"Perhaps your fiancé can think of something. Where did you put them?"
"If M'lady would follow me I'll show you."
Dragging her from her chair by their entwined hands he led her to their bedroom.
Birkoff was pissed. His expressions had skipped right past 'kill the bastard' and moved well into 'cut out his heart with a dull spoon. A very dull spoon.'
He'd spent the last ten minutes chasing down a viral data sieve. He'd been forced to offline Section computers for the entire duration to prevent the viral from sending out information. Whoever built it was clever. The viral had placed itself on every computer and half the PADs within the first thirty seconds. It leafed through 80% of section files and 25% of the backups before he had eradicated it.
Now he had to explain to Operations why he had off lined section in the middle of an op. The team in Skopje had survived with one WIA but that was irrelevant. For ten minutes Section had been unable to gather information, track personnel or communicate with their field operatives.
Running a quick system check he verified that the modified antiviral was in place and his system was clean. Checking the logs he confirmed that he had prevented the viral from transmitting anything out of Section. When he checked the origin of the virus his face twisted in utter hatred. "God Damnit Hillenger."
Operations was approaching systems a vague look of disappointment in his eyes. As he got close he heard Birkoff cursing out Hillenger. The disappointment faded to be replaced by a glimmer of curiosity. Birkoff would have a good excuse for off lining if Hillenger and Oversight were involved. Perhaps he wouldn't have to move his status towards abeyance after all. He carefully masked his curiousity as he stepped into systems.
"Birkoff. My office now."
Birkoff punched a couple more keys dumping the log files to a PAD before following Operations back to the perch.
"I want an explanation Birkoff. Section does not go dark without my approval."
"There wasn't time sir. During Hillengers latest search for data he introduced a viral into Section. It was searching for information on the Sunnydale people and set to transmit the data location when found. It would have compromised Section."
"You are sure that it was Hillenger?" If Birkoff had evidence of a breach this serious he could use it against George. A little blackmail to keep him out of Section one or even to give him a foothold in Oversight itself. The other Section's wouldn't tolerate such an abuse of their security.
"Absolutely. The method of entry was the same as before." Birkoff was calming down and was starting to look uncomfortable. "The trouble is the viral didn't originate with Oversight. I haven't had a chance to positively identify the source but it looks like it was Sunnydale. If I can confirm then Sunnydale isn't as strongly affiliated with Oversight as we believed."
"So Oversight is infected with a viral that is transmitting data to a third party."
"Correct."
"And the suspected third party is running on a system you appear to have designed"
Birkoff frowned in disapproval, "It looks that way. I still have to confirm the identity of the third party."
"Get me that data. Follow it up. I want to know everything that Oversight knows about Sunnydale." Operations barked the command.
Birkoff turned and quickly headed to the door.
Greg was staring at his computer confusion written all over his face. He'd just gone back into Birkoff's system when it disappeared. He'd spent the last ten minutes trying every trick he knew just to locate it again.
Now suddenly it was back, and the port he usually accessed Section One through was blocked. As a matter of fact every time he touched Section his process was terminated. That didn't make sense, Birkoff used more finesse than just killing processes. Trying a different route he hit the same wall. Whatever Birkoff changed caused the Section One computers to drop him immediately.
He was still struggling an hour later when Oversight walked up to him flanked by two operative.
"Mr. Hillenger, I'm afraid my initial assessment of you was in error. I have been informed by Data storage that Oversight has been leaking like a sieve for the past three hours. Your services are insufficient and are no longer required. Would you please accompany these two gentlemen?"
"No. I can fix it, just give me one minute."
"You've had three hours while someone has obtained our entire data structure. Your time has past."
As the two operatives dragged Hillenger off for disposal he was still begging for a chance to fix the mistake.
Gesturing to the woman who walked up behind him George began. "I appreciate 'Ones' willingness to assist with the situation. Please take whatever corrective actions you feel you need."
Nodding Quinn pulled out a PAD. "It will just take a moment to install the software, but with a system as large as yours it may take several minutes to clean. I would recommend going dark until the procedure is complete."
Oversight looked around. "The damage is done. They have had three hours in our system what is another few minutes compared to the losses if we went dark."
Quinn shrugged, "Your choice. Shall I begin then?"
Oversight nodded then spoke to the three other people still in the area. "Observe her. If she does anything to further compromise us contain her. If not you may at least learn something."
Without changing his expression George turned and walked away. You would never be able to tell from his face but his temper was boiling. Paul was blackmailing him, forcing him to fill key positions with personnel loyal to 'One'. How long before Paul made a move for Oversight himself. He had no doubt that section had taken full advantage of the hole on oversights security as well. If they had time to send a systems specialist they had time to acquire copies of all his files. If it hadn't been for Hillenger's incompetence this would never have happened. It was just a shame you could only kill a person once.
The ringing phone was answered by an out of breath Alex. "Hello."
"Harris, you up for moving some boxes?"
"Finn. Your early."
"Nooo. Actually we ran a little late. Had a flat on the U-Haul and traffic was brutal." Noticing the panting in the receiver he smirked, "Not interrupting anything are we?"
"Huh, oh interrupting? No we were just exercising. We'll be over after we've showered. We're a little sticky… err… Stinky."
There was a muffled laugh in the background. Riley tactfully chose to ignore the last slip.
"Exercising. Uh huh. Well don't rush on our account. There will still be boxes to unload when you get here, and there's plenty of time to sundown."
"Sundown right, see you in a few."
The sudden dial tone caused Riley to break out in a laugh.
Sam walked over with a box full of dishes destined for the cupboard beside the phone. "What's so funny?"
"Alex and Dawn will be a few minutes they were in the middle of *exercising* when I called.
"I hope you told him to take more than a few minutes."
"I did, but I don't think it was really necessary. He thought we were early when I called."
Sam smirked, "As interesting as your CO's sex life is, you have boxes to move. Now get to it. I want everything in the house before sunset. That gives you a little under three hours, so move it Mister."
Operations had just finished reviewing the data acquired from Oversight. Birkoff had again exceeded expectations and retrieved all of oversights files. Most of the information would be reviewed later, the sunnydale information was his primary concern right now. It was a real eye opener. Demons and vampires were real. He was still having difficulty wrapping his mind around that. If Oversight had presented it without any backup evidence he would have questioned George's sanity.
Still it would have been nice to have had the information available to him and it wouldn't have been hard to obtain a vampire for proof. He could easily recall dozens of incidents over the years where teams had been lost to terrorists that wouldn't die. At the time they had put it down to a combination of body armor and drugs that allowed them to keep fighting despite lethal wounds.
'Damnit George how many of my people died because you couldn't share. It was your job to make sure that we could do ours. We'll see if you can hold your position after the next meeting of the sections.'
Shrugging off the unproductive thought he focused again on the data in front of him.
The data on Sunnydale and Harris' team was astounding. Oversight had apparently had a person on site for well over six years now, and from the quality of the reports was intimately familiar with Harris and his people. The journal format of the reports however was unusual and they seemed to focus on Buffy Summers a little too much. Then again everything to do with Sunnydale had been unusual why should the informant report things in the normal way.
Bringing up the file on Harris' funding raised further questions. Why tie Harris' directly to the Oversight budget. Section never did that, ever. Tying your entire budget to a single person was unthinkable. The justification listed was insufficient in his view. 'Vetted and capable person. Will do what needs to be done if all Hell breaks loose. Contingency.' Sounded more like quotes from a personnel report than justification for tying a multi-billion dollar account to a single individual. Looking closer at the account he discovered that the link wasn't established until the summer after Harris graduated.
Bringing up the records for that summer he found a discrepancy. The informant claimed that Harris had spent the summer in Oxnard when his car broke down. However Oversight had detailed records of his activities in Phoenix, Denver, and Vegas. Section six had even done a psyche evaluation during his brief stop in Roswell. He'd get Birkoff to chase down the specifics of the discrepancies later.
Operations was getting frustrated nothing in the reports or files gave him the information he was looking for.
How did you get Section One cell phones? What are you doing with a computer running an operating system Birkoff designed? Why did you change your personal information? And why the hell were Riley Finn and his entire team reassigned to you Mr. Harris?
Even combining everything they knew with everything that Birkoff had swiped from Oversight they still had huge gaps in their knowledge. The only way to fix that problem was to send someone to observe.
Pulling up a list of available personnel he started picking a team. He selected three abeyance operatives, as he didn't want to risk quality people on a mission so far outside normal mission parameters.
However the team leader had to be capable of making the right decisions and take appropriate actions in abnormal situations. That narrowed the field to Michael and Davenport. Normally he'd send Michael but with Nikita's recent disappearing and reappearing act his efficiency had dropped. Davenport was the only choice then.
It would be another three hours before Davenport was back from Prague. Giving him nine hours to debrief and rest that left twelve hours to prepare a mission profile. They could use the sim that Birkoff had found in Sunnydale as a starting point. It actually contained quite a lot of useful information.
Bringing up the mail system on his consol he quickly sent a memo to Birkoff with instructions to prepare a packet on the Sunnydale wildlife including the necessary survival techniques. There should be enough information in oversights version of the Initiative files to do the job.
Sending another memo to Walter he attached the Initiative files on Vampires with instructions to prepare hunting kits for a four man team.
Even if most of the team members were in abeyance he'd at least give them a chance at survival. It was rare but occasionally operatives survived long enough to pull themselves out of abeyance.
Finally he directed the psyche profile to Madeline's system. It would be interesting to hear her analysis of this Harris character.
"Finn where do you want this last box?"
"Basement with the rest of the miscellaneous equipment."
"Miscellaneous equipment. Right. You know you could have just written Guns and Ammo on the boxes and passed them off as a magazine collection."
Riley laughed, "I considered it, but Sam labeled all the boxes. It was either Miscellaneous or an itemized list."
Putting the box down with a stack of others Alex replied, "Good choice. Say when do you report for duty?"
"I have a couple of days to get settled. I am supposed to be available a week from Monday. Why?"
"Well I was planning a field trip, and I was hoping you would join us."
"What kind of field trip? I would like the chance to unpack before we start chasing demons all over the country."
"Not that kind of field trip. I need to talk to some people. Thing is it would be better if I had a team especially someone who was military. What do you know about Cheyenne Mountain?"
"NORAD Hq.?"
"No underneath NORAD."
Riley's eye twitched, "Something to do with Deep Space Radar Telemetry. Or so I've heard."
Alex smirked. "Good so we are on the same page. I want to go and visit them. Ask them if they can do us a favor."
Riley sighed, how the hell did Harris know about a top-secret project like the SGC. He'd only found out when his team discovered a sarcophagus while stopping a demonic ritual in an Aztec pyramid. "What kind of favor are you going to ask and how painful is it going to be?"
"Well I was looking to ask them for their Naquadria and the use of their Stargates for a day or three."
Riley choked, "Are you insane. There is no way they are going to hand over their Naquadria. Not to me and especially not to you. And letting you use their gates, not a hope in hell. I don't even want to hear how you expect to talk them into it. Oh wait yes I do, I could use a good laugh." The words whatever resources he requires were running through Riley's head. He couldn't just ask for an armored division, no Harris has to ask the impossible.
"Hmm. What to tell General Hammond? Well I thought I would start with the truth and go from there."
"What your going to walk into a top secret facility babbling about demons and vampires and then ask to borrow their facilities for a couple of days. Oh and I almost forgot, you want to get your hands on a material that is more dangerous than Plutonium. You are insane."
"It took you long enough to realize that. But anyways I think this can work. We'll start with the basics, Time and dimensional travel. Then throw in an imminent global threat on the order of the Gao'uld."
"And you think that is going to do it?"
"Read crazier stuff in their mission reports. But if that fails I still have a plan B fallback. Actually plan B is easier to pull off but the chance of overall mission success is smaller."
"You still haven't told me why you need to do this. Must be a serious big bad if you need Naquadria to take it out."
Alex shrugged, "This won't take it out. The goal is to make it vulnerable and let its other enemies destroy it. This one is so far out of our league that we normally wouldn't stand a chance. We are fighting the First Evil this time. The one who corrupted Lucifer, the light bringer and brought about a war in heaven."
Riley paled. "Your kidding right. Please tell me you're kidding."
"Can't"