"This is quite the story, and would explain a lot," Joyce told the group in response to Giles' Slayer speech and the general recounting of tales since Buffy's arrival, "But do you have any real proof?" She looked around the room at Giles, Buffy, Willow, Cordelia and Jenny. A well-timed knock on the back door turned everybody's attention away from the conversation. Buffy got up and answered it.
"Everybody come out back," Buffy called out to the living room, "Nighthawk and his crew brought the proof." The others traversed from living room to back step, Joyce reticent. 'What if it's true?'
Joyce was surprised to find three dark-clad figures with balaclavas disguising their faces holding another man dressed poorly in clothes better suited for a colder climate. The 'prisoner' was thrashing around and swearing.
"Ah, Miss a-Joyce, it is a-pleasure to finally a-meet the Slayer's younger sister, no?" one of the figures spoke in a bad Zorro accent, stepping forward, "And I must a-pologize for the a dees-picable language this beast is a-using." He hands her a single white rose, and stage whispers, "Alas, biz-ness requires a less romantic ending to this meeting."
The two men held the captive tightly as Buffy had her mother touch a cross and dip a finger into water. Buffy then moved forward and addressed the vampire.
"I'm the Slayer, if you're good, this will be quick," she stated. She reached out and touched the vampire on the forehead with the cross, causing it to flinch back in full vampiric visage, cursing the Slayer. Joyce was shocked at the transformation, but carefully reached out and touched the ridges, pulling back in disgust.
"Using such language in front of my mother isn't making you any friends," Buffy said, glaring, "So now that mom saw that a cross isn't liked by you guys, let's show her what holy water does." She threw it at the vampire, which began to smoke and burn as it screamed in pain. Joyce backed up, horrified, but watched as Buffy pulled out a wooden stake and dusted the beast.
"How? What happened?" Joyce asked, walking forward to find the dust scattered around the undead's former location. "What happened to its clothes?"
"W-we don't a-really a-know, young lady," Xander continued in his very bad accent, "But vam-pyres seem to fill what touches them with their own aura, or a-energy, eh? So if the a-vam-pyre goes 'poof' everything goes a-with it yes?" Giles nodded, and one of the disguised men leaned forward to Xander.
"Colonel, it's time to go?" Doyle told the youth, who nodded.
"Duty, it a-calls us, yes?" Xander tortured a language, "So, a Buenas noches." They departed quickly and quietly into the night.
The group explained more about the things that existed and prowled the night, and after about ten minutes, reentered the house to find Xander and Charlie fighting over the television remote, Charlie getting the best of the younger man.
"Hey, Miss S, tell soldier-boy to give me the remote," Xander greeted and then glared playfully at the older man, "I've known you longer so *I* have seniority in taking your hospitality for granted." Joyce smiled, the mood lightening as 'normal' behavior glimmered in the midst of her troubled evening.
"I think we can skip the tv and settle for coffee and pastries, boys," Joyce smiled, now merely whelmed rather than overwhelmed, "And you can fill me in on what's been going on after the Reptile story, Halloween and such." Xander quieted, and gestured to Giles, getting up and heading to the kitchen with his coffee.
Xander walked into Ted's house for the first time, being too wrapped up in a quick shift in patrol tactics, and running a few excess weapons down to Gunn and his crew having used up much of his group's energy. Willow and Cordelia had planned a 'Girl's Night' and that had left Giles, Charlie and Doyle to help Xander go through Ted's stuff again. On the upside, the red-head *had* managed to crack the codes on the mainframe and back-up servers running in a rear basement. T-3 connection, back-up power and generator, forty-year-old food stocks in perfect condition. Xander detected a slightly familiar odor, but the sheer number of materials in the building prevented him from tracking it down. They found a small electronics shop with four half-finished Ted-bots.
"What do you guys think?" the young man asked his comrades, "I'm thinking we move in here and take advantage of the facilities."
"Yeah, Colonel," Kowolsky replied, "The guy was a technical genius *and* a survival nut. And his?robot?clones?kept it up and even tweaked it a bit." Doyle let out a 'hey' that attracted their attention. They found him in the front area.
"I tripped over the roog," Doyle blushed as he got up, "And look what I found underneath." They saw a trap door. Giles moved towards it when Charlie called him back.
"And it's part of an even bigger 'trap door' if I'm not mistaken," he said as he carefully traced out a section of flooring that seemed to match up with the unnecessarily high ceiling, "I'm guessin' if we head down there, we'll find a mechanism that activates a lift."
"D-doesn't that normally require cables?" Giles asked, looking upward.
"Not if all the machinery is under the lift, and pushes it up and lowers it down, probably no more than one to four levels," Doyle responded, then rolled his eyes at their looks, "Whot? I serviced elevators for a livin' while I was goin to school to become a teacher, alright?" They nodded.
"Well, let's clear off the top here, and head down," Xander stated, "Charlie and I first, so we can look around and see if there is any trappage. If not, then in six minutes, you two can follow."
Five minutes later, the two had made two discoveries: Ted's first four wives, and the lift controls. Using the latter, they directed it upwards, and most of the room slowly rose.
"Interesting," Giles remarked as the floors aligned themselves, "The furnishings on the top of the lift actually fit in the raised ceiling. One might never know that it was a lift."
"And one might never know 'Ted' kept his last four wives in a closet after they passed on," Kowolsky grimaced, "So Colonel, what are we gonna do about Ted?"
"Well, it's just a machine, right?" Xander asked, the others nodding, "If Willow can remove the code that makes him do a male black widow, we can reactivate him for slaying and maybe use parts to assemble some 'Slayer-bots' for helping out on patrols and such.
Otherwise, we don't reactivate."
"Shall we call the police?" Giles asked.
"Nah, let's see where this lift goes in the other direction," Xander suggested, "Anyone want to stay up here? Thought not?" He waited as they moved to the center of the platform, and he hit button three, second and first being the two they knew about.
Five minutes passed, and the concrete walls scrolled by slowly until they halted at a room of equal size lighting up, like a small lobby. On the other side a large elevator with large doors opened and paused. Looking at each other, they noticed four buttons, with the top lit. They hit the second button and they could hear normal if large-scale elevator machinery working as their descent continued.
The doors opened into a huge cavern reinforced with steel and concrete, lights coming on throughout to illuminate the acre-sized chamber. Below them and off to the side, was what looked to be an exact replica of the building up on the surface. The rest of the way looked to be terraced gardens, well-manicured and designed for decoration and consumables
Across the way, a 'cliff-dwelling' seemed to rise up to fill in a fair section of the cavern, the reinforced flooring from the elevator to the structure indicative of heavy equipment being possibly inside.
"I-Impressive," Giles remarked, "It's like a giant?bunker or fall-out shelter I suppose."
"I think we've just found ourselves a new home, guys?" Xander murmured in awe, "We'll just need to be sure that it's really sealed from the outside world and you require a pulse to get in."
They explored and inventoried the place for nearly an hour, finding a full and up to date series of materials and processing shops, armory and weaponry being the only additions that might need adding. Finding a computer console, they'd called up schematics and, more importantly, a very detailed three-dimensional map of the Sunnydale area within a five mile radius of the bunker. Finding an icon that simply read 'Ted' and clicking on it, they in a sense met the man.
"Hello to any who find this terminal. As you may or may not know from my robot successor, I am, was, Ted. Regardless of the reasons for your being at this location in my sanctuary, I hope it wasn't the global war I expected to happen. If it was, I hope you *really* make use of my place to get through the difficult times you're going through. My brother and his wife have a similar place in Los Angeles, so hopefully one of us made it.
"Since you've reached this point, either my robot failed and you chanced upon the place, or you're just damned lucky, I don't know, but you need to input a user name and a password into the system, then stick your finger in the connector on the desk. I will continue when you have done this."
Xander looked at the others and they shrugged. Xander did as asked, Lavelle as user name and Angelus as password. Then he placed his finger in the slot.
"Ouch!" he cried out as a needle pierced the end of his finger, drawing blood, "That hurt!" The others looked half-concerned, half amused as the screen reactivated.
"Sorry for not telling you about that, but if you'd been?not alive? this place would be blowing up about now," Ted chuckled, "But since you have a pulse and your blood is showing as not being demonic?goo, the place and all that is Ted's is yours. As we speak, the system is making the necessary arrangements for all accounts, deeds and another niceties as I know them in 1960 or updated by the Tedbot, to be transferred to you upon completion of the form that will pop up after I'm done talking. If the Tedbot still exists, give the code on the screen and it will be rendered as obedient to your orders. At each shop or room station, you will be able to access the particular inventory and manuals. I hope the Ted that came after me 'lived' a good life. Good Luck."
Xander began filling out a lengthy form as the group discussed the matter.
"That was unexpected," Doyle admitted, "I wonder what happened to his brother, since obviously he never quite showed up."
"I'm guessing he either thought the Tedbot was Ted, or maybe he died about the same time and didn't tell anyone," Kowolsky said, "But if we don't suffer the fate of the pyramid's architects in the next few minutes this should work out." They all nodded at that, hoping for the best.
"Okay, Xander," Doyle sighed with fatigued, "We, uh, figured out who the women were that the Tedbot killed, and talked to our contact at the funeral home. He'll be by in an hour with the three nice caskets, and he'll make space for them."
"Did they have any family?" Xander asked, finally accessing account information.
"None living now, sadly," Doyle remarked, "Though for us it means few if any questions."
"Did the funeral guy?John?" Xander tried to remember the name, "say how much it would cost for them?"
"'round thirteen grand for the three of 'em," the Irishman noted, "Nice, but not overboard, and one short service by Father O'Malley, the one I've had blessin' all our stoof."
"Good," Xander nodded, sighing, "They deserve someone to send 'em off proper, even if we're not family." 'Must be feeling a bit tired,' Xander thought to himself, 'I'm letting the Irish in a little.'
"Xander, wait up!" Jenny Calendar called out to the young man, taking a moment to catch up with him, "I just wanted to let you know I have? relatives in town looking into both the chaos magic waves and the Angelus disappearance."
"I *so* do not have time for this now," Xander sighed, "Tell them that 'Nighthawk' is responsible for the departure of the demon Angelus, and that the chaos magician is no longer in Sunnydale. I have no desire to meet with them at this time."
"If they force me to tell everything?" she asked quietly, "I've taken oaths of loyalty, Alexander."
"Then you will tell them that your King has returned, intends to destroy the Darkness within the next generation," he grimly emphasized with a nasty smile, "And will expect them to demonstrate proper obeisance in the old rites if they do not wait until gathered to be told more."
"The old ways," Jenny choked, remembering stories of centuries ago, where firstborn sons and daughters were given over to service until the declared mission was successful, succeeding children replacing the fallen ones.
"Just hold them off until after Christmas, Jana," Xander whispered, "After that we'll see where things are. An extra few teams in Sunnydale and LA would be nice."
"I was, uh, talking to Rupert?and he's under a lot of pressure from the Watcher's Council along similar lines," the teacher said, continuing the subject.
"I know, and I'll probably want the support of the Tribes and the Garoun before meeting with the Brits," Xander conceded, "Only some type of infrastructure will allow the tweed-men to see beyond my pretty face."
"If not at school, I'd make a comment, Alexander."
"Only a comment, Jenny?"