X-1000

Author: Anime Ronin <diabloslayer21[at]yahoo.com>

Rating: R

Summary: BTVS meets Terminator 2: Judgment Day - run and hide right now, because this is going to get VERY ugly for certain parties.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Kiss Canon goodbye - massive OOC here, especially with Willow, Joyce and Xander.


Joyce smiled at Xander, who stood before her in a uniform of a police officer, dark blue with a shield, gun belt and most of the accessories - he looked just like one as she let him in and trailed a look down his back, wondering if her daughter was blind in passing up such a delicious-looking young man, "So, Xander, going as an officer of the law, I see - are those handcuffs real?"

Xander blushed lightly at the tone she used and Joyce marked up a point, thinking that she still had it, until he smiled slightly at her, "Why Joyce, if you wanted to find out, all you had to do was ask me - I'll give you a very good demonstration on just how real they are." She felt herself blush slightly as he flirted right back with her and her daughter walked down the stairs.

"Mom! Stop flirting with Officer Harris - I'm not sure I'd be able to post your bail." Her daughter was dressed as a noblewoman and Joyce, while she was not sure why, knew there was a man involved, especially with the way Xander rolled his eyes away from Buffy.

"Don't worry, Buff - if I DID arrest you mom, I'm sure we could find SOME way to … work off that bail money." He grinned at her a little more and Joyce felt her cheeks burn just that much more as he walked up to her, "Two dozen cookies would cover the first offense."

Joyce smiled as he daughter gawked slightly, "Xander, trust me, I'd give you MUCH MORE than mere … cookies."

He arched an eyebrow, "Brownies?" She grinned at him a little more and he blushed a little harder, "Ah, THAT - be sure that you take some vacation time off, Joyce, we may be … detained."

"Okay, THAT'S IT!" Buffy came down the stairs the rest of the way and pushed Xander back, "You, no flirting with my mom about sex-like acts you'd try and perform on her. Mom, no flirting with Xander - he's flirt-less, of the non-flirting variety, protected under the No Flirtage Protection Act."

Joyce arched her eyebrow - her daughter was a tad bit protective, "Buffy, is there anything you want to TELL us? You seem a touch protective of Xander … like you are staking your claim or something."

Xander, after hearing this, just snorted, "Yeah, right - Joyce, I love your daughter like a sister, but no, I have not only my pride, but also my standards." Buffy gave him an injured look, a genuinely injured look, and he went on, "I know why she's wearing that … monstrosity tonight, and for whom she is wearing it - trust me, Joyce, no."

Joyce frowned slightly at that, looking at Buffy, who appeared to be a second away from bursting into tears, and then looked back at Xander, "Really? And whom is this person, precisely? What do you think of him?"

Xander just snorted again, but this time there was more than a little disgust behind it, "I don't use that kind of language in front of ladies, and we're also on a timetable here." He poked his head into the stairwell and shouted, "YO, CASPER, GET YOUR FRIENDLY-GHOST-BUTT DOWN HERE! HALLOWEEN. CANDY. BRATS OF ALL AGES DUMPED ON US BY THE TROLL!"

Joyce frowned as she heard a stumble from upstairs and then saw Willow walk down, with a sheet on that had 'Boo!' written across it, "How'd you know I was going as a ghost, Xand?" Joyce knew the girl had a crush on her best friend, but was very afraid to try anything with it.

"Wills, if anything, when it comes to Halloween, you're becoming predictable. Lose the sheet and beat feet - hey, that rhymed!" Joyce watched him wrangle the two girls out of the house and off to the school and once the door shut, she sighed and leaned back against it - if Buffy didn't take Xander as a boyfriend, and SOON, Joyce would have to take him as a boy toy. Letting an ass that nice get away was a crime … one that she didn't intend to commit, she thought with a smile.

{At Sunnydale High}

"Where'd you get the uniform, Xand? Look authentic."

Xander smiled at Buffy slightly, "It is - Ethan, the guy who owns the store, says it was used in a movie not too long ago by one of the main characters."

She looked at him oddly, "And you fit in it? Where's all the padding?"

He rolled his eyes as Willow came back from Snyder with bags, "My character was a BAD guy, Buffy - Uber-bad, of the worst kind of bad."

She gave him a look, "So, you want to be a bad guy?"

Xander gave her a look in return, "It was the only one in the store that fit, Buff - don't read too much into this." He left her to her pack of screaming kids and went to his own, smiling as they all looked at him oddly, "So, who wants to learn how to sleaze more candy?" All of the odd looks turned to smiles and nods, "Good, now tears are key, so if you go for the 'you missed me' act, make sure you go straight for the chocolate, right?" They all nodded and he smiled, "Good, now let's go and get some good stuff - remember what places give you the cheap stuff, we'll … do something about them, later." The kids all cheered and he led them off on their hunt, getting into character as a police officer, but also as the character in the movie by thinking up a believable set of mission parameters:

Primary Mission Statement-

- Protect Willow Rosenberg at all costs.

- Eliminate all demonic threats.

- Assist Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers.

- Ingest as many Twinkies as humanly possible.

Secondary Mission Statement-

- Personal Survival.

- If Willow Rosenberg is harmed or killed, eliminate person or persons responsible with extreme prejudice (upgrade to Utmost Priority).

- Secure financial independence.

No sooner had he finished that list, some of it funny, some of it deadly serious, he heard people begin to scream and look around - kids began to act just like … the demons they turned into, and it was then that he was driven to his knees by a sheer force of agony and felt his insides turn first into molten fire and then into cold steel as blackness came to his mind … and then he knew nothing.

{Elsewhere, Else-when}

Deep within the ravaged core of the computer complex, a single terminal whirred to life and it's screen blinked on, flashing 'Uploading Mission Statements to Unit X-1000 … Upload Complete. Updating Scanning Software … Complete.' With that done, the system shut down and went dormant once again as bombs began to rock the buried complex.

{Sunnydale California - 10/31/1997}

[… Booting Operating System … Checking Memory Core … Checking Power Source and Reserves … Checking Software … Updating Software … Updating Mission Statements … System Check - Complete.] It snapped open it's eyes and smoothly pushed itself off of the ground that it had been laying on - it's internal scanners flipped through it's new enhancements and soon began to scan all of the beings around it as chaos seemed to reign; numerous humanoid life forms, yet not … human, according to scans - energy spikes in 76.54% of all scanned not consistent with humans, "Interesting." It looked down and took in it's uniform, that of a police officer, circa 1992 and from Los Angeles, according to the name on the badge, then looked over and around itself before looking at it's Mission Statements. Protect Willow Rosenberg - Terminate demonic threats, and assist Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers; 'demonic' and 'Buffy' - does not compute.

"Help me!" It looked over and saw a young female human running from a group of young men in 'pirate' regalia - she saw him and ran towards him, the men following her, "Help me, Xander!"

Brunette, moderate height and weight, brown eyes - not Willow Rosenberg, so it snapped it's hand out and skewered the leading 'pirate' through the heart, which got a shriek from the woman as he began to walk and scan around him. Odd energy spikes in the surrounding air were very low on the radioactive scale, but still enough to possible induce fits of mass amnesia, "Interesting."

"Xander!" Turning towards the name of his apparent form, he came face to face with what appeared to be Willow Rosenberg - female, approximately 17 years old, five feet four inches tall, red hair to neck, green eyes, slim figure, petite breasts, pale features … and after a quick look, a natural redhead. "Xander?"

"Willow Rosenberg?" She had no mass, no density, no pulse, no life signs, and this puzzled his internal processors - what was she?

"Yeah, Xander, now stop kidding around and - AH!" Something passed right through her and he reacted, slamming his fist into it and then decapitating it while turning his left arm into a blade. When he turned back to her, she was shaking, "W… what are you?"

"I am unit X-1000, of Cyberdyne Industries. I have been assigned to protect you." He reached out and tried to grab her arm, but passed right through it, "Odd, you appear to be of an intangible nature. Query: if you cannot be harmed, how am I to protect you?"

The 'ghost' who was Willow Rosenberg worked her mouth once, then twice, and finally managed to speak, "Xander, what happened to you?"

{Willow's relative POV}

"I am unit X-1000 of Cyberdyne Industries. I have been assigned to protect you." Willow felt her brain begin to shut down as 'Xander' reached out and tried to grab her arm, but when his hand passed through hers, he spoke again, "Odd, you appear to be of an intangible nature. Query: if you cannot be harmed, how am I to protect you?"

She worked her jaw once, then twice, and finally was able to get out one solitary question, "Xander, what happened to you?"

"Nothing has happened to me, Willow Rosenberg - I am unit X-1000, I am running at peak efficiency, and I require you to duck." She reacted on instinct and dove out of the way as he shot his hand up and … it changed - it became liquid and silvery in appearance, distended and formed into sword blade of some kind and skewered another 'demon', though if it was or was not a demon, that was up in the … air.

It hit her like a Mack truck - he had dressed as a cop, an Uber-bad cop from a movie a few years ago … and now he was a 'Cyberdyne Industries Unit X-1000; he was a TERMINATOR! "Oh, this is bad, this is very bad." She got to her feet even as he retracted the sword/arm back and turned it back into an arm, "Unit X-1000, what is your name? What is you … Mission Statement?"

He looked at her oddly and then spoke, "I have no name. My Primary Mission Statement is to protect you, to destroy all demonic entities and to assist one Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers in her life. Query - what kind of name is … 'Buffy'?"

Willow snorted at that, having asked herself that question a few times herself, though more to the tune of 'what the hell was Joyce thinking', "Well, Buffy is a nickname that she prefers over her true name, so we stick to it. Now, I need you to listen carefully, Xander - your real name is Alexander Lavelle Harris, you've been my best friend since Kindergarden and you cannot kill anything else unless I say so, alright? Something weird is going on here - I dressed up as a ghost and now I am one, you dressed up as a cop from a movie, a Terminator, and now you are one and Buffy … oh shit, Buffy!" She took off running, not even realizing that she was running right through bushes, cars, dogs, demons or rocks, but when it did finally hit her, she looked back and saw her path and smiled, "Cool!"

"Shall we leave?" 'Xander' melted through a fence instead of jumping over it, passing his liquid metal body through the cracks and gaps in the fence and keeping himself upright, "I do believe that you think that Miss Summers is in danger."

"She is - she went as Lady Useless tonight." Willow took off again and kept note that Xander was keeping up with her without any real effort.

{Elsewhere}

She screamed yet again as a horrible little demon nipped and slashed as her rapidly-shredding dress - she wasn't sure where she was, or just whom was responsible for her capture, but she wanted to go home, where it was safe and she was protected from having to think too much, "Will not some brave man come and protect me?"

As if in answer to her question, one of the demons around her shrieked and a woman … no, as she as dressed she must have been a harlot, ran right through it and towards her, "Buffy!

Not knowing just whom the harlot was calling for, Elizabeth just screamed again … a scream that was answered by screams from the demons, though more painful in nature.

"Xander, what are you doing!" She stopped screaming long enough to open her eyes … and fall in love - he was tall, a bit on the thin side, but he held one of the things by it's throat with several others around him dead from decapitation. Had she been in her right mind, she was sure she would have swooned, but the dark blue uniform he wore, with silver and colorful adornments he had upon his chest and shoulders were enough to override her natural reaction; he looked at the ghostly harlot in a way that even she would call blank and then threw the beast some goodly four lengths away, slamming it into the side of what appeared to be a settlement's wall. "What did I tell you about not killing them?"

The man looked her up and then down, and Lady Elizabeth felt herself becoming very warm in the cheeks as he spoke, his eyes obviously probing her for her virtue, "She is Elizabeth Summers - facial recognition to memory index is a 99.87 percent match, retinal, physiological and voice-recognition patters are all matches. Query: Why is she acting so … odd?" Elizabeth was sure that the man had found that she was a pure, chaste, good woman and would gladly accept her as his bride, but truthfully, she didn't understand anything except for his past question and was only mildly vexed by it.

"Because we all turned into our costumes, Xander - she went as an 18th century noblewoman and here she use, putting Women's Lib back a good century or two without even trying." The Harlot, as she came to call her, ran her hands through her red mane, natural by the looks of her brows, and let out a muffled screech before taking a breath and passing right through one of the decapitated bodies of the demons, "Buffy, are you okay?"

"Who is this 'Buffy' that you speak of, you low-borne harlot? I am Lady Elizabeth, and I demand that you return me to my father - he may spare you your lives, should I remain unharmed."

The Harlot's eyes narrowed slightly as the mumbled, "Oh, you are SO going to pay for that when you get back to your right mind," before stomping off to the most-assuredly Lord-sent man, "Xander, come on - we're going."

"And what about … 'Buffy'? Is she not part of our group?" Elizabeth was sure her grin split her cheeks, as her true knight had not forgotten her.

"If she wants to live, then yes, she'll be coming with us." The Harlot glared at her and, contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth got the message and followed them even as the man removed his oddly shaped pistol from his holster.

"Good sir, where is your musket? Surely you, a true knight and noble man, would have a musket."

"I am incapable of producing chemical or mechanical projectiles with my own body, hence, I am relegated to using this standard-issue weapon." His tone was flat, crisp, like that of a scholar, but his eyes swept to and fro before him, scouting out any and all possible threats to her person, and this made her cheeks even warmer and her pulse quicken as the Harlot led them away.

{Buffy's House}

Willow was seething by the time they reached Buffy's home - Xander had, in the almost ten minutes they had been walking, shot four different mini-demons/kids in the legs and, when she confronted him about it, calmly swatted her rant aside with logic, 'you told me not to kill them, and I have not - they will live'. Not only that, 'Lady Elizabeth', as she demanded to be called, was about one 'Harlot' away from getting her teeth knocked down the back of her throat - Willow knew that Buffy was more than occasionally annoying and rage-inspiring to Giles, but now she could truly feel his pain in how she was being treated by her while she fawned all over Xander, practically dry-humping him half of the time. When this was all over, Willow decided, she was going to lay one on Xander so hard and long that he'd never think of looking at another woman, let alone ever think of Buffy ever again.

One inside, and with Xander locking the door, she turned to Xander again, "Now, Xander, tell me who and what you are - all of the details this time."

"I am a Cyberdyne Industries Terminator-series model X-1000; made from poly-mimetic alloys, my base lifespan is nearly 200 of your human years - I am capable of attaining any shape that is not of a mechanical nature, much like scissors, internal combustion engines, locking mechanisms, etcetera, but I am capable of becoming any and everyone I come in contact with." To seemingly prove this point, he stepped forwards and … shifted … until it was like she was looking at an exact, yet nude, replica of herself, and then spoke again, only now in her voice, "My micro-processors allow me to computer more than four trillion computations per second." He shifted again, this time into Buffy's body, once again nude, which was really beginning to irk her, "I can turn into surfaces, clothing, weaponry, and I am capable of interfacing with computers with a mere touch." Her skin morphed into the police officer's uniform again and 'she' expanded and changed until he was Xander again. "Is that sufficient, Willow Rosenberg?"

"Demon! How dare you rake your eyes across my pure and chase self!" Lady Buffy went on and on about how dare Xander 'molest' her, but Willow could have cared less as she heard a familiar voice from outside scream for help. She pushed her head through the wall and then jerked it back, "Cordy! Xander, Cordy's outside!"

He cocked his head at her, "Cordelia Margaret Chase, age 17, brunette, dark eyes, socialite from her father's company, 36C-25-30." He walked away even as Willow growled - how in the hell did he know her measurements? Even as she turned to rant at him, much as Lady Buffy was, he unlocked the door, drew his gun and walked out of the now-open door and began firing at the large beast/dog that was chasing the cat-suited bane of her existence - for the first time in her life, Willow was seriously contemplating homicide as an option as her Xander-shaped Terminator finished killing the 'dog', grew another hand to help facilitate his reloading the pistol he had, and brought Cordy back into the house.

Cordy was a mess - cuts, blood, matted hair … cat ears … and Willow sighed, "Okay, you're Cordelia Chase, and you're not a cat."

"Of course I'm not a cat, you doofus! God, I am not some mental patient like you three … and why does Xander have a third arm sprouting out of his chest?"

Willow looked over and saw that, yes indeed, her Xander had a third arm that was holding the spent magazine, "He went as a police officer and the uniform was the same one used in that movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, so now he's the evil Terminator."

Cordelia shrieked and backed off into a wall and began to cower, "Don't kill me! I'm young, beautiful and really rich!"

"I am not to kill anything unless otherwise told to by Willow Rosenberg - I have been sent back to protect her." Willow felt a small smile tug at her lips even as Xander reabsorbed the arm back into himself and locked the door, "Query: What are we to do now?"

Willow's brain was going a mile a minute as she tried to figure out just what was going on, but Cordelia brought up another question, "What's with Lady Useless over there? She's looking at a picture of herself - is she that vain?"

"She got turned into her costume, Cordelia Chase, as I have also, apparently; due to her position in history, she is in a state of shock in seeing herself in photographs, but it not being her." Willow looked over at Xander and absently nodded as she hoped that some of this intelligence carried over if this wackiness ever ended.

"Willow!" She looked back at the door as she hard someone yell out her name, "It's me, Angel! Open the door, and hurry!"

She didn't even think about it even as her hand passed through the knob of the door once, then twice, but then stomped her foot ad looked at Xander, "Open the door, Xander!" He complied, though with a cautious look on his face, and Angel rushed in, covered in cuts and bruises, but his vampire healing was already work on it, "Angel, what's going on?"

"All hell's broken loose out there, Willow, but it's a spell of some kind, I think. The air's thick with it-" Angel started to say, but was then belted away from her by a hand that was connected with Xander's body, a flat, murderous look on his face, and his arm morphing into a sword.

"Vampire."

{X-1000}

The individual speaking to Willow Rosenberg had no pulse, no body heat, unusual brain activity and was healing at an impossible rate for a human - his CPU was processing all of the factors and finally came up with one answer, which lead to him belting away the thing from Willow Rosenberg, "Vampire."

"Xander, don't hurt him!" He heard Willow Rosenberg scream, even as Lady Elizabeth screamed but was then silenced by what sounded to be a right hook to the jaw from the other occupant of the room, Cordelia Chase, "He's our friend!"

"Primary Mission Statement Three: Eliminate all demonic threats. This 'Angel' is not human - he is a demon, hence his Termination." He raised his blade in the air, ready to decapitate the thing, when Willow Rosenberg stepped in front of him - she was a ghost, intangible, thus he could not harm her, but if he did attack, it would violate his programmed Mission Statements and he would be forced to self-terminate, "Remove yourself from in front of it, Willow Rosenberg."

"No, Xander - Angel has a soul, he's our friend and he's an ally! Don't kill him, that's an order!" He froze and looked at her, lowering his weapon slightly, "I mean it, Xander, don't kill him!"

Keeping the comment that, with popular knowledge, one must die to become a vampire, he amended his Mission Statements:

Primary Mission Statement-

- Protect Willow Rosenberg at all costs.

- Eliminate all demonic threats. Amendment - demonic entity known as 'Angel' is an ally of Willow Rosenberg and Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summres. Investigate into the claim he has a soul - do not trust, but do not eliminate.

- Assist Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers.

- Ingest as many Twinkies as humanly possible.

Secondary Mission Statement-

- Personal Survival.

- If Willow Rosenberg is harmed or killed, eliminate person or persons responsible with extreme prejudice (upgrade to Utmost Priority).

- Secure Financial Independence.

He looked back at her, 'Angel' getting to his feet and his eyes wide with shock as the unit returned his hand to 'normal' form, "He will not be killed, Willow Rosenberg, unless he presents a clear and present threat to your safety or that of Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers."

She sighed, "Call her Buffy, Xander - 'Elizabeth Anne Buffy Summers' is a real mouthful, right?" She smiled at him and he accepted her attempt at humor.

"Agreed." He turned around and looked at Cordelia Chase, who was still rubbing her knuckles, "Nice shot."

She smiled a little, but her vital signs showed that she was in a state of emotional distress that humans called 'panic', "Thanks, Xan … um, what do I call you?"

"'Xander' will suffice, in that it is what Willow Rosenberg has been calling me over the elapsed time. Query: why is it that this … 'Angel' has not been eliminated?"

She shrugged even as Willow Rosenberg began to speak to 'Angel' in a highly agitated voice, "I didn't know he was a vampire until tonight - makes sense, though, in a freaky necrophiliac way with Lady Useless over there. She has a major thing for him, apparently, and he's her boyfriend."

'Xander' furrowed his brow, "That is … disturbing." He turned around and looked at the vampire, who was doing his best to not shake visibly, though his scanners could see the micro-vibrations in the muscle tissue of the vampire, "Query, Willow Rosenberg: who else is living in this domicile?"

She scrunched her face up, "Um, Buffy's mom, Joyce Summers, but she's at her art gallery tonight. Cordelia, where did you get your costume?"

Even as Cordelia answered, the unit once again updated its Mission Statement, but this time it was in clear preparation of an event that had a 67.85 percent chance of happening:

Secondary Mission Statement-

- Personal Survival.

- If Willow Rosenberg is harmed or killed, eliminate person or persons responsible with extreme prejudice (upgrade to Utmost Priority).

- Secure Financial Independence.

- Protect Joyce and 'Buffy' Summers - if relationship with demonic entity known as 'Angel' leads to putting Joyce Summers in danger, eliminate 'Buffy' Summers and 'Angel'.

{Sunnydale Library}

Rupert Giles was sitting back with an old book, looking through it with an idle fascination and wonder just what the hell he had been thinking when he had turned down the invitation to Jenny Calendar's costume party - that was one bird that could most definitely ruffle his feathers any time she wanted to. "Giles!" He jerked in his seat and fumbled the book as Willow ran into the room, quite literally through the door, and in a leather outfit that made his inner Ripper sit up and beg for more. "Willow? What is going on? How did you phase right through that door? What … are you wearing?"

She blushed lightly and began to babble about costumes, people turning into demons and such, but eventually he got enough of it to finally make sense of it - people had been turning into the costumes they had been wearing, but not all of them; Buffy and Xander both had, as had she, but Cordelia had not. Once all of this processed, he asked her, "Where did you get your costumes? Did Cordelia get hers at the same store?" "No, she didn't, Giles - she went to Party Town."

He frowned, "What did you go as? A hooker?"

She growled, "No, I went as a ghost and this is what I was wearing under that! Oh, when Buffy stops acting like a ditz I'm going to slap her for calling me a harlot all those times."

Giles shook his head, "Willow, focus! What did Xander go as?" Over the next minute of explanation, Giles felt all of the blood run out of his face - he had seen the first movie when it had first come out, on a dare rather than having any real want to see it, but had seen the second one of his own violation and if Xander had become that … thing, then he could sum the entire situation up in one short sentence, "Oh bloody hell." "Eric's? Erin's Place? No, that's not it. Oh, Ethan's!" He snapped his head over as she hopped up and down and clapped her hands, "The costume store was name Ethan's!" "Ethan? Ethan sodding Rayne - I should have guessed, this whole stunt stinks of his meddling. I will contact the Watcher's Council to see if they know anything on how to counteract this … childishness."

{Outside Of The Library}

'Xander' listened and tapped into the phone lines as Rupert Giles made his call to England, asking about ways to get rid of 'Chaos Magic', a concept which puzzled him, but then when things in the conversation went from how to contain the problem to eliminating all potentially infected people, several subroutines within his programming instantly came online and began functioning their due process - one subroutine was to ferret out the location of the potentially hostile threat, another was to probe it's electronic databases and establish a link to it, preferably undetectable, a feat that was highly feasible given the low-grade technology that was present compared to his own capabilities. These probes found numerous things that his processors found … disturbing, and filed these remarks away for further study as he stood and began to walk away - he had a target to find, one Ethan Rayne, and once found, that threat would be terminated.

Working his way through town, processors still working on the links to the Watcher's Council, he absently disabled many of the demons whom were foolish enough to come his way, but all of that came to a stop when he saw a group of humans dressed in pirate regalia stalking a young woman dressed in what his saw to be a Catholic School girl costume, all of them highly aroused and the young woman terrified - he started to walk away when something made him pause, a … feeling of what could be called outrage, no, of rage, and he turned on his heel, morphing his hand into a blade, and began to approach towards the group of men, "Cease and desist, humans - you are breaking the law."

One of the 'pirates' turned towards him and grinned, "Arr, mateys, we have ourselves a law man here to try and tell us seadogs what to do! I say we run him through and rape the woman all night long. What say ye?" The pirates all agreed and began forwards. "Halt or you will be harmed." Remembering Willow Rosenberg's words, he put his hand back to normal and pulled the 9mm at his side, "This is your last warning." The men charged and he executed his programming, firing one round into the knee of each of the five charging pirates, generally before they got more than five feet from their original positions, and then holstered his weapon. "Xander?" He stopped and turned to the young woman, who was quivering, "Is that you?"

Deciding to go for the simplest explanation, he shook his head and, after a quick scan, turned into her, costume and all, "No, I am not - I am the X-1000 model from Cyberdyne Industries." He reverted back to his 'normal' look and she passed out, which allowed him to walk off and continue his search for Ethan Rayne, a fairly simple affair when he found a phone booth and accessed the local database, finding 'Ethan's Costume Shop' rather easily.

{Ethan's Costume Shop}

"Ripper? Is that you old mate?" Nothing was said in return as the door shut, but he did morph his hand into a short-bladed knife as he walked forwards, "Mate? Is that you?" "I am not your … mate, Ethan Lewis Rayne, born to Jonathan and Michelle Rayne in Sussex, Engand, June 21, 1958. I am your death."

The already pale man turned an even paler color when he saw the hand at his side, and began to back up, "W … what are you doing?" "How do I stop the spell, Ethan? How do I stop this … madness?"

The Englishman stopped quivering and then grinned, "Now, that would be the question of the evening, wouldn't it? What will you give me if I tell you now?" "A quick death." This shocked the man, "One of my Mission Statements is to terminate, with extreme prejudice, the individual or individuals whom harms or kills Willow Rosenberg, and to elevate it to my utmost priority - she is a ghost and to become a ghost, one must first be killed." He turned the short blade into a long, tapering needle, and held it chest-level to Ethan, "How do I stop the spell, Ethan?"

The man grinned and sing-songed, "I'll never te-ell!"

With that, Cybredyne Industries Terminator model X-1000 lanced the needle forwards and punctured the chest of Ethan Rayne, knowing that sooner or later, the man would give him the answers he sought.

{Later - Streets of Sunnydale}

Giles cursed his car to go faster even as Lady Buffy, or Lady Useless, depending on whom you decided to speak to, lay passed out in his back seat with Cordelia and Angel in the front seat - in a fit of supreme and divine humor, Willow was jogging through objects and opening a lead on them as he pushed the accelerator closer to the floor, but only a tad bit. The pair of them had found out Ethan's base of operations, but on the way there they had come across Angel, Cordelia and Lady Buffy and had been forced to stop in order to save Buffy's life, again; all along he had been asking just where Xander was, but when Angel had said that Xander vanished not long after Willow had left, Willow remembered Xander's 'mission statements' and that one of them was 'protect Willow' - he had presumably followed her to the Library but from there it was anyone's guess. "There it is!" Giles pulled into the front of the store that Cordelia pointed out and saw immediately that Willow was stumbling out of the store, looking very sick for a ghost, and that only spurred him to move faster - inside, though, he saw a sight that would haunt him for years to come.

Ethan Rayne was on the ground, bleeding out, gutted, one arm severed at the wrist, the other at the elbow, one leg gone at the knee and had one of his eyes gouged out, his right one, and before him stood Alexander Harris, his first finger on his right hand having speared and plucked out the eye of Ethan, who was moaning in agony even as he whimpered, "Break the statue - stop the spell and break the statue." Xander slammed his left arm out, morphing it into a blade of some kind and shattered the bust, which caused a surge of power, which not only flattened everyone in the room, but also tossed Xander through a shelving unit.

It was several minutes before Giles was able to get to his feet, but when he did he saw the Ethan was dead, a large puddle of blood having formed around him, and after looking around saw that Angel was attending to Buffy, Willow was on the ground, unconscious but breathing, Cordelia was griping about her security deposit for her costume and Xander … Xander was still out and under several pieces of shelving. "Giles? Are you okay?" Buffy sat up and slowly got to her feet, seeming having regained what passed for her intelligence, and walked into the store before he could stop her - she turned a rather putrid color of green at the sight of Ethan and immediately emptied her stomach on the lower skirt of her horridly over-done dress, several times, in fact, and it was several minutes before she could control herself enough to ask, "What happened?" "Xander wanted answers, apparently," Angel said, his pale face slightly green as he moved the pieces off of Xander and checked him over. "He's alive." "Then let us be out of this ghastly place - I want to ask him what the bloody hell is going on when he wakes up." Rupert Giles of England looked over at his old friend and sighed as they all piled back into his Citroen, which coughed to life and then, slowly, made it's way down the street and back to the school Library.

{Next Day - Sunnydale Library}

Willow worried about her friend as he massaged his temples, again, and tried to answer Giles' questions about just what he had done the previous night - she knew he was a capable liar, after all, he had taught her the arts, but while he had a single tell, his left eye twitching slightly when he did lie, there was no tell this time; he was telling them the truth in that he didn't remember anything from the previous, hellish night.

The interrogation had started off nearly an hour before, but almost an hour before that Willow had started laying into Buffy for calling her a 'harlot' numerous times on the previous night, swatting her in the arm whenever she got near, and while the Slayer had apologized profusely for the next forty-five minutes, it didn't make it hurt any less until Xander looked over at her and told her to quit because Buffy's whining about being hit was only making his headache even worse. Of course Buffy took offense to this, but he told her to zip it, backing that up with a glare that nobody would have questioned, before saying that if she didn't he'd go and get Cordelia to nag right back at her, which shut her up and made Willow grin, remembering the right cross that had shut up the Slayer the previous night. "Xander, are you positive that you do not remember-" Giles started out, but Xander cut him off by slamming his hand down on the table and glaring at the librarian. "Damn it, Giles, if I could remember don't you think I'd fucking TELL YOU?" Willow back off as Angry Xander came out to play, and he wasn't a nice Xander even as Giles at back in his chair and Buffy perked up, "Look, I'm sorry your friend got killed and I got turned into his murderer, but to tell you the truth, I don't care - he got what he deserved for causing all the chaos that apparently happened last night, so just drop it. If I remember something I'll tell you, but I have to get to the computer lab now - I have a project I need to work on." With that, Xander got up and walked out of the library.

Willow walked over to Giles, who sighed, "Don't push him, Giles - if I were in his place, I wouldn't want to remember either." "It's not that, Willow - if he is or has any part of that thing left in him, I shudder to think what would happen if it was allowed to run loose, uncontrolled! It could bloody well start off World War Three." "Or he could use it to keep us all alive. Look, Giles, I'll talk to him, but don't expect anything out him - Xander likes his secrets and unless you need to know, he'll never tell you." Oddly enough, Willow felt like her own words were being written in stone as she spoke - this was not a good omen.

{Computer Lab}

Seated in the back row, away from the sight of all of the others in the room, Alexander Harris 'typed' away on his keyboard on a project, but was doing much more than that - Cyberdyne Industries Terminator model Alexander Harris was probing the Internet and electronic databases for ways into the Watcher's Council's bank accounts, especially after what he had found the previous night. They were a bunch of crooks under the guise of an organization that 'protected' the world, and they needed to be dealt with - before that, though, he needed funding, which was the purpose of his current project.

A smile crossed his face as he found one account, the account of one Quinton Travers, and he drained it to one of his new off-shore accounts, a sum to the tune of nearly 33 millions pounds Sterling - it would do, for now, but this project was one that would take years to complete, so he erased any traces of him being there and then brought up a computer file that he had tucked away in the school computers, via the phone modem line, and saw his listed Mission Parameters, before updating them one last time:

Primary Mission Statement-

- Protect Willow Rosenberg at all costs.

- Eliminate all demonic threats. Amendment - demonic entity known as 'Angel' is an ally of Willow Rosenberg and Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summres (the Slayer). Investigate into the claim he has a soul - do not trust, but do not eliminate.

- Assist Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers (the Slayer).

- Do Not Trust The Watcher's Council - gather evidence against them and eliminate them.

- Terminate employment of Snyder, John, as principal of Sunnydale High School - he is an unnecessary threat to self and others.

- Run security checks on Snyder, John; Wilkins III, Richard - Mayor of Sunnydale; and Calendar, Jennifer - computer teacher at Sunnydale High School (suspicious energy spikes surround her).

- Personal Survival.

Secondary Mission Statement-

- Personal Survival. (Upgrade to Primary Mission Statement)

- If Willow Rosenberg is harmed or killed, eliminate person or persons responsible with extreme prejudice (Upgrade to Utmost Priority as necessary).

- Secure Financial Independence.

- Protect Joyce and 'Buffy' Summers - if relationship with demonic entity known as 'Angel' leads to putting Joyce Summers in danger, eliminate 'Buffy' Summers and 'Angel'.

- Research subject of 'Magic' and its possible applications to current and future missions.

- Keep demonic entity 'Angel' under surveillance - probably of his pursuing an intimate relationship with Slayer Summers: 93.79 percent.

- Distance self from Cordelia Chase - verbal spars only.

With a smile, he shut off the computer and left the room, idly scanning all of his fellow students as he walked down the hall - one never knew when they would need to assume a new face in order to get away.

AN: Okay, this one is finished - I may or may not do a sequel to this. What do you guys and girls think? Feedback, please. AR.

The End