Title: Unexpected Family Relations

	Autor: Holger

	Summary: Mutants are out there, even in Sunnydale!
	         Now one Slayer and her friends have to deal
	         with the fact...and they shall find themselves
	         all caughtup in the conflict, not just right
	         between the lines.
	         Is it just my feet or does anyone else smell
	         character deaths around?

	Spoilers: Set in some alternate season four, where Buffy
	          is together with Riley Finn and the Initiative
	          is as yet unknwon to the Scoobies...oh, and it
	          is just after the events from the X-Men movie!

	Rating: R to NC-17

	Disclaimer: Not mine, BTVS from Joss and WB, X-Men from
	            Marvel and Stan Lee, legalese add-ons...
	

#1
Omens


"You know as well as I know there will be war, Charles,"
the old man said. He did not look that dangerous, in
fact he looked more or less harmless. One might think he
had been a military man before, he had the bearing, the
air of discipline. And from the hard face he made one
who saw more than a fair share of the action, too.
But all that paled when one looked into these black eyes
and saw the burning emotions in there. Hate, fear and
the overwhelming certainty of a terrible decision.
This was a dangerous man, the eyes said, and they were
right. Eric Lehnsherr was, in fact, one of the most
dangerous people on the globe and his captors seemed to
know it. "And your plastic prison will not hold me here
forever. I will get out and fight, and fight I will with
all I夫e got..."

The other man, Charles, looked him in the eyes.  He was
as well as the other an older and very distinguished
gentleman, looked a bit less wiry and much more at ease
with his surroundings. Were Lehnsherr radiated boldness
and barely leashed energy, always intense with whatever
he decided to do, Charles Xavier seemed much less
agitated or likely to act rashly. Charles Xavier might
be a cripple in a wheelchair, he still was the most
powerful telepath on earth...and he was as sure as his
other of his own convictions. "I know, old friend. But
I will be there as well, to oppose you at every step of
the way."

"Why does it have to be like this, Charles?" Eric said,
suddenly his animosity vanished and deep regret showed
on his face. "Can付 you see? It is just a matter of time
until there is another registration law...how can you
sleep with that?"

"Badly."

"Do you? One of these days, they will come for you and
your kids, Charles."

"And I pity the men who try that," Charles Xavier then
chuckled, as a guard appeared to bring him out.

Eric Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto now, looked at
his friend and shook his head, a gesture of sorrow. He
was about to say something else but he never opened his
mouth.
As the man in the wheelchair was away and he again was
sat in his transparent plastic cell inside the deep
bunker vault, he allowed himself a short smile. Charles
was not the only one with disciples...


#2
Traces


Jean Grey, otherwise known as Phoenix, was a very
striking woman. And a major psychic talent as well.
She was waiting for the professor as he rolled out of
the car and barely managed to keep shut.
They had found Magneto不 base of operations a few days
ago and the raid had shown them it was just a forward
base of the brotherhood.
The battle of the X-Men and Magneto at Liberty Island
was already past by more than a month now and the
conclusion was anything but as decisive as they had
thought back then. Wolverine was in Canada right now,
looking for his buried past and dark secrets.
The mutant mystique had, just this same day, made an
appearance on the senate hearing about the registration
law. She still showed herself hurt from Wolverine不
claws, an injury received at their duel, as she was
appearing as the late Senator Kelly. She outvoted the
law but the vote was tight against.
Since she vanished and so many of Kelly不 people did
the same, and since the senator was really dead, it was
just a matter of time until speculations and rumours
came along. And then the shadowy They would be at it
again.
Another bad news, the mutant Sabretooth had been sighted
somewhere in Florida just this day, well alive and still
kicking. Sabretooth was a dangerous beast, a murderer
and porud of it. He had broken into some government
installation and stolen some data there, then firebombed
the place to cover his tracks.
It seemed the brotherhood had only lost one of their
number, the mutant known as Toad, and had an imprisoned
Magneto. They might try to free him in a while, but the
two of them were yet to weak to conduct that operation.
As the professor entered the school building and went
directly to his office, without speaking any words, Jean
knew he was in a bad mood.
That could only mean...what?

"Jean, sometimes I wonder why mundane humans fear us
mutants so much," Charles Xavier suddenly spoke up, a
sly smile on his lips. "It doesn付 take a gift for
telepathy but just an open mind and some observation
to see how unsettled you are."

"Am I that easy to see through?" Jean asked, confused,
and then decided to put the matter to rest. She knew
she was not. "And am I right?"

"I fear you are," Charles said slowly. "My sources and
Cyclops have confirmed that Sabretooth did survive."

"Than he and Mystique will try to free Magneto?"

"It appears logical," Charles said. "Yet Mystique is
weakened for months to come and Sabretooth is too much
of a wild beast to come up with any plan that won付 end
up with himself in the cell right besides Magneto."

Jean had to chuckle and nod at that. Thanks for the
small help, god. "Mystique might...?"

"She cannot, either," Charles said uncomfortably. "But
I think I know something about what they will do. No, I
did not manage to read Magneto不 mind. I just asked an
old aquaintaince of mine to...look at the data you and
Storm brought back from their base."

"You mean, a piece of the wreckage that survived the
explosion there?" Jean sighed. They had underestimated
the brotherhood and what sort of security measures they
might take. Clearly, the rocky island had not been one
important base for them. And most of it got destroyed
the moment they tried to learn more about it. "I瀕 sorry
we failed like that."

"You had no way to know," Professor X reminded her and
shrugged. "Anyway, my friend manage to read some of the
data stored on the hard drive there. It is not much but
enough to understand it...Jean, Magneto has a lot more
supporters and brothers than we ever thought."

"Has he?"

"Yes he has," Charles said. "I think Sabretooth and
Mystique will look for someone suitably powerful to
get Magneto out of prison again."

"Any idea whom they are looking for?" Jean asked.

"No," Charles said stiffly. "But I have an idea. Magneto
had one supporter with him in the months before he began
his mutation plot, from all I gather one powerful mutant
whom they just called Magnus. Magneto has been training
this Magnus and there are reports to say Magnus was part
of some raids...according to my source they are unsure
about it. There was only Magneto seen, Jean."

"You don付 know anything?"

"I do not," Charles nodded. "All I know is that we have
to find him or her before the brotherhood does."

"Great," Jean sighed. "The needle in the haystack."

"Perhaps not," Xavier grinned wisely. "The building our
friend Sabretooth broke into was an city archive. It
seemed he was looking for a birth certificate and some
medical files, for nothing else gets stored there. I
think the brotherhood has to track down this Magnus
themselves." A quick nod confirmed it. "So we just will
have to pick up the traces."

"You know as well as I that our chances aren付 that
good," Jean muttered. The trace would be damn cold if
they found what Sabretooth and Mystique were looking
for. "Or don付 you?"

"We can always hope," the professor answered. There was
always some hope.


#3
Registration


When I entered the bookstore, there was the usual - or
not so usual - activity going on. First I saw Buffy sit
in a corner and work on something or the other with
Willow, heavily arguing. Some complicated formula or the
other and there was big talk about something or the
other. Coming closer and shortly greeting the two woman
did not get me much of an answer, certainly nothing more
than some absentminded "hello Xand," and then they were
at it again. Just looking at the paper I got an idea of
what they were about.
Funny thing, that. Back in high school I never was that
bright. Even if I made an effort to appear even dumber
than I was, crack that part, I certainly was nowhere
near Willow Rosenberg. Right now...who knew. Probably
not so far away from her anymore.
I was tempted to ask them about the matter. If I had
learnt one thing over the last summer and my road trip,
it was that one better had to know for oneself about all
sorts of matters.
Willow was right, there were worlds out there I never
had even realized existed. What would she say if she
found me reading up on history and mathematics now, or
try learning to use a computer? She would be hurt I did
not ask her to teach me...and if she got over that she
might get to ask herself why. If I was lucky, she might
conclude it was about my pride. If I was not...I did not
even want to go there.
So I looked to see Spike, for the time being now an
electronically neutered badass and dependant on his
enemies for survival, and discovered him watching TV.
Giles sat at his desk and was reading some old book and
then the Simpsons ep Spike had been watching was broke
for some news bulletin. The corpse of Newt Gyrich, aide
to the vanished Senator Robert Kelly, had been found in
some trashcan in an alley in New York. Months ago, but
only identifyable by his dental records.
A dreary eyed reporter said something or the other and
interviewed some old political ally of Kelly, a woman
named Cramer. And she said she thought the senator had
been killed by mutants to cover up how they forced him
to abandon the registration law.
"Oh buddy," Spike whistled. "Now that would explain..."

"Explain what?" Willow said, looking up from her papers.

"Senator Kelly and his laste vote in the senate, the one
that broke the registration law," Spike laughed happyly.
"Bet you ten bucks a day some mutie took things serious
and wayed the thing."

"Oh sure," Buffy groaned and sneered visibly. "Vampires
playing at conspiracy theories. Oh brother, that不 been
what the world had missing!"

"I would not joke about it," Giles said concerned. He
looked at Spike and then at Buffy and everyone ignored
me as I sat uncomfortably in the back. I knew there had
been something more to the UN conference in New York,
something they didn付 tell the public. But right now I
was more interested in the gang不 reactions. "The mutant
question is no small issue, Buffy."

"Oh comeon, guys," Buffy grinned, sure of herself. "If
they really were THAT bad, surely we錨 know about 鋲m!"

"Don付 bet on it, sister," Spike answered wryly. He
killed the TV and crossed his legs, tugged at his old
duster. "After all, how much do people know about you
and me and hell and so on?"

"Oh sure, and I bet you know some mutants, too."

"I met a few," Spike said without flinching. "And I tell
you, from what I heard, these dudes are scaaary!" For a
badass vampire like him that was a statement.

"So they are real?" Buffy wondered, now being a bit more
attentive. "What do you say, Giles?"

"What can I say...the Council would favor to know about
mutants itself. I think, for the human race, it might be
very good to know about who they are and what they can
do," the Watcher said, clutching his book like a shield.
"What we heard is that these mutants have powers beyond
what most demons and vampires possess - some are said to
be as powerful as, say, the Judge or the master. Many of
the Watchers assume they might be of demonic origin."

"Oh comeon," I groaned, trying to hide my fears. "That
is just this much media hysterics. Maybe there are
mutants, so what? Just humans with some powers. Isn付
like YOU would not know enough about it how to deal
with it."

"Xander," Willow argued up at once. "Witch power and
magic are...are nothing extraordinary! To some degree,
we all can learn to use magic and..."

"He got a point there, red," Spike cut her short, with
a wide gesture. "Don付 know about mutants, though. Some
of the talking heads at Willie不 claim they瓶e the, what
was it, yeah - the future of humanity and that we瓶e in
deep shit for they will not be easy prey."

"Mutants," Buffy sneered again, cracking her knuckles.
"Say, are they really THAT dangerous?"

"Some might be," Spike said. "With mutants, you cannot
be sure of anything." He winced as his chip punished
him for some bad thoughts. "Sooner or later some of 鋲m
will turn up here."

"Oh goody, more concerns to worry about!" Buffy muttered
darkly. She was right. As if there were not enough
issues already.
Like Buffy and Joyce, the Faith-matter, the commando
boys and that new dick Buffy was hanging out with.
Or me hanhinging - and making - out with Anya, former
vengeance demon accidentially turned human.
And then there was the usual amount of end of the world
prophecies, demon activity and common hellmouth action.
"Do we patrol tonight, Xander?"

"Well...," I said and looked striken. "If Anya agrees
to wait at the Bronze afterwards..."

Willow grimaced. "Eeewwk, Xander! How can you even
touch that one? I mean, she...she..."

"What?" I inquired and she was lost for an answer.

"Uh - she makes Cordelia seemed mannered?" Buffy helped
out. "Or is it that she不 just some nympho with whom you
can live out all your dirty fantasies?"

You wish, I said silently while looking at her. You just
wish that. I was not so sure what I felt about Anya.
Sure, she was good in bed (as if I knew that much about
sex) and good to look at. And fuck that she was a
thousand year old demon turned human, who cared?
Only normal girlfriend I had was Cordelia and I錨 really
check HER bloodlines and parentage before I錨 label her
a human being.
It was not that complicated with her around.
Willow saw it different. Wonder why she complained, what
was a witch with a werewolfe for an exfriend and was now
about to out herself as a lesbian, at least as bisexual? 
Pointing that out, however, would have been quite rude.
So I was lost for words, for a while.

"I see you got nothing to counter," Willow gloated.

"No, I just got nothing to say in polite company," I
answered pissed. "How about that, Wills - doesn付 she
have a right to decide about her own life? Or me?"
I shook my head, slowly. "Dig it, Wills. It不 none of
your business what I do and with whom I do that!"

"Now listen up, you...," Willow flared, reddening. Who
would have thought, but behind the meek exterior she
was nothing less than insecure...or meek. She caught her
words before she spoke them and drew deep breaths. "I瀕
your friend and I瀕 concerned about you, damnit! Don付
you see that Anya is no good for you? There IS no future
for you two!"

"Looking at my job and the dump I call home, Wills, how
much of a future do I have?" I replied, in a sober tone
to that. Took her really below the belt. And that was
even the good future - there always was the chance to
go back to my dad...real dad. The family business was
still open...and with his last failure up in New York,
I錨 bet he would show up here soon. "Well?"

"Xander, I...we...," Willow tried and came short.

"Giles, scratch the calender," Buffy remarked giggling.
"Xander won an argument with Willow by using logic!"
Looking at Spike laughing his dick off from the strife
and asking aloud how such a band of whimps like us ever
came to beat HIM was to much to stomach.

"Maybe because your own goons sucked worse than we,
not even speaking of you, Mr. Bagged Blood," I groaned
before a knock at the door spared me the troubles. It
was Anya. Came right on time. "Now, I瀕 in no mood to
go patroling. We瓶e...we瓶e at the Bronze, maybe!" And
off we went. Willow could take patrol or Giles, or she
could ask the fangboy.
All I cared about was to get happy, and that Anya
accomplished rather well.

"You know, Anya, one of these days we really will have
to do something else," I whispered, clutching to her in
my cheap old bed in the infamous Harris estate, sublevel
one, room 101. Otherwise known as my basement. "Not that
I can complain about dancing and then..." I looked at
the ceiling and noticed she didn付 listen, she lay there
asleep. Snoring softly.
Yeah, demons could snore.
And wasn付 she a nympho! 
Little did I know that this same night Riley Finn was
out with Buffy when a vampire came along to the Bronze.
He had left Willow to her drink and brooding and feigned
some irresistable need, so she wasn付 asking questions.
And then he stood there and watched his girlfriend get
out a pair of stakes and do some flashy battle with at
least four of the creatures he and his men called the
hostiles - and they were. Far stronger than normal and
harder to bring down they were, so he just marveled at
how the lithe blonde could take heavy hits and still
keep upright. Even break their holds.
He vanished as the last hostile disintegrated and
was back at the table, looking concerned as his pager
beeped and saved him the embarassing scene to come.

#4
The Initiative


Riley Finn didn't know squat about what the prof was up
to, right now, but Jo Walsh certainly was upset. Had
even called for a general alert state and double teams
out on the streets tonight. Which did not endear her to
the teams whose leave just got cancelled.
Soldier's live, Riley mused, looking at his boss.
"Okay," he said. "What is the reason why you come here
screaming hell?" And surpass my authority in that, too!
After all, security matters - including attack patterns
and patrol rosters - were his to decide about in the
Initiative.

"Sorry, but we received some very important info," the
professor said. "It might be that there is a grade A
mutant in Sunnydale!"

"A grade A mutant?" Riley asked, swallowing. There were
not that many who even rated a C on the danger scale...
and all his instructors had told him that a C was even
with a team of commandos. A B-grade mutant was in the
advantage...and the A would probably trash an army.
There was only one A mutant captured ever, up to now,
and he had been decisively weakened by what he tried to
do in New York. Rumour had it he was some leader of a
mutant terrorist group called the brotherhood. No joke,
these guys had the strong desire to do more harm and
damage to the world than all the muslim fundamentalists
had achieved combined.
And they could make it.

"Yes," the professor nodded. "Our sources speak of one
Magnus, nothing else known. He's probably a member of
the brotherhood and might try to liberate his comrade."

"Great," Riley answered and cursed the intel people.
"And why do they think he or she or IT is here? Just
because we got that many...whatever creatures around?"

"No," the professor replied sternly. "Fragments of some
brotherhood datafiles reveal Magnus to be some sort of a
proteg^ to the brotherhood's leader, whom we right now
hold captive. Not only the brotherhood files confirm he
has been part of at least three strikes against, uh, US
government facilities this summer..."

"Answer my question," Riley said angryly. He did not
want to know so much intel-crap about that Magnus, he
just needed facts. Like powers, limits, weakspots. And
what led him-her-it here.

The professor pulled out a file on some B-grade, a real
monster. Had teeth and claws and he even looked like a
wild animal. He was...huge. Strong.
And from the pictures added to the reports - murderous.
Riley did his best not to swallow at some of the data
and then he looked up. "And?"

"That B-grade is some muscle employed by our imprisoned
mutant terrorist. A brotherhood agent named Sabretooth,"
Jo Walsh explained while looking at her fingernails.
"Less than a week ago this mutant has raided some public
archive building and set it afire. A security cam shows
he has taken some file. Our agents managed to determine
which files could have been taken and which had not been
taken by a comparison with a backup inventiory...we have
a dozen suspects, one of them here in Sunnydale."

"Who is it?" Riley asked, features frozen and praying it
was not Buffy. Please, god, let it not be her... Yet he
knew she was a mutant, had to be. No human was strong
enough to do what she had done.

"Sabretooth was interested in all woman who died in a
certain hospital during childberth in the years of 80
to 83," Walsh smiled. "We know that one of these had a
sister here in Sunnydale, who has taken her of the
baby since."

"Ah," Riley croaked. Buffy - it had to be her. Or was
it? Physical enhancement like hers was NOT grade A,
was it? "What am I supposed to do?"

"Just keep your eyes open for all mutant activatay,
most of all that Sabretooth. If he comes here you'll
take him in!" she ordered. "And for the time being, our
suspect gets placed under active surveillance. If he
really is some grade A mutant we will devise a plan to
capture him." She handed him another folder, the file of
their suspect.

"Of course," Riley said and took it. He bit his lips.
Well, he mused, it could have been worse...or it could
mean that Magnus had a whole cell of the brotherhood
here in town.
Anyway, he had to find out...soon.
One of these days he really wanted to know who these
mysterous sources were, one of these days. Probably
nothing he was supposed to know.


#5
Patrol surprises


Buffy laughed as she saw the vampires on the cemetry and
moved forward to engage them. Wonder why, but these guys
never get any wiser...showing up on her patrol route.
Arrogant fledgelings who were about to be so much dust.
On the other hand, if there were NO vamps coming from
the resting places, it was no wonder she found groups
of undead waiting for their new additions.
But these vamps were NOT just about to wait for a riser,
they were hunting someone. And right there things went
wrong. Majorly wrong, for their prey didn't think of
itself as that. Rather...the other way around.
Buffy, stake in hand, got to see a huge man with blonde
hair in some ragged duster come out of a crypt to see
the vampires. Now, that guy was Spike squared...he was
broader, bigger, heavier and builty more massively.
Right next the stranger was howling at the vampires and
began to pound them. He was easily as strong as they
were but obviously faster and ten times as wild.
Buffy couldn't help a shudder as the creature used his
clawed hands to rip a vampire's heart right out of the
chest. The laugh on the face vanished to some sort of
confusion and annoyance as the vampire dusted.
She moved forward, hoping Willow wasn't to dumb and kept
hiding. She stood behind a massive gravestone as the
last of the vampires died...or ran away screaming.
Now that was unusual, Buffy thought. But seeing that guy
she understood them. She didn't want to meet such a man
after dark either.
If it was a man and no damn demon, he rather looked not
so human-like. What was it this time, some man possessed
by a lion spirit?
Buffy decided to stay wary. The thing was FAST and it
seemed to be immensely strong. And from the hits it had
taken without even stumbling back, it seemed to be as 
hard to kill as anything.
Why does it ever have to be ME? she wondered. 
The stranger was about to look at some graves, kneeling
to read the names and looking for something. A certain
someone?
Buffy kept her distance and stiffened as the creature
was sniffing the air. And right next he jumped up and
howled, moving to the side as a bright red beam came
out of the dark und blasted some gravestone to bits.
Buffy froze and cursed. Now that got interesting, really
interesting!
The stranger began to run away as some figures came
running after him. She saw a somehwate petite black
woman with a cape and another, a brunette, together with
a man with the oddest high-tech visor she ever saw. Some
night vision equipment, probably?
They had no weapons on them but these really cool black
as night leathers, some sort of combat suit? Whatever,
their fashion department had way more budget than hers.
And then she spied the man with the visor stop and look,
a hand on his stily visor and suddenly a red beam came
out of it, shooting away into the night.
"Wow," Buffy said. Another moment later there was some
movement in the bushes and some fouth man appeared, some
slightly smaller guy with enough muscles to make up for
lost height. He had dark hair and much of it, everywhere
around. Somehow it didn't even look to ugly. He looked
at her with flaring nostrils and then his clenched hands
went down to his sides. "Hello mister. Cool outfit you
got there. Mind telling me where I can get one?"

"Nowhere. You shouldn't be out here, after dark in a
place like this, girl," the man growled, blinking.
"Don't you know that can be damned dangerous?"

"I can handle myself," Buffy said, certain. And quite a
bit more enangered than she liked to. Hell, she was the
one to tell that line! "Mind telling me what's going on
around here?"

"Nothing," he growled. "If you know what's good for you,
take your girlfriend and get lost. You never were here."
With that, he turned around and jogged after the others
from his group. Buffy was to furious to note that he had
sneaked up on her and known about Willow - until later.
And then she got pretty scared.

"Neat," Buffy said, eying his behinds and shaking her
head. Just what the heck was happening here? People in
leathers, energy beams and beastmen tearing up vampires.
It was odd, more than weird and it all sounded really 
interesting. In short, the shit was about to hit the fan
again...she had a bad feeling.

She thought she saw more than shadows moving at the edge
of her vision but she wasn't certain. So she began to
move it, got Willow out from her bush and took one a bit
puzzled witch straight over to Giles' bookstore.
Turned out Spike was there as well, and Xander too. And
Buffy didn't notice the hard glances anyone gave each
other.
Probably to make up for him being out with Anya lately
instead of patroling with her, Buffy thought. But no, he
was not. He had been to visit Faith at the hospital -
what the hell was he doing there? They hadn't been that
close, had they?
Buffy had no time to ask when Xander said Faith had
woken up three days ago - and noone had notified them or
noticed. She had packed up and left the hospital on her
own, with one nighttime nurse knocked over the head.

"Now that sounds great," Buffy smirked. "All the shit in
the world has to happen on the one and same day!"

"Buffy...?" Giles asked. "Anything wrong?"

"Don't know!" she said. "I just got a man, who seems to
be the real version of the beast from beauty and the
beast, only much less nice and way more beasty, know what
I mean..."

"Buffy!" Giles groaned.

"Okay, okay," Buffy said and gave the more formal report
of her patrol. "So, we got a bunch of guys out there and
I got no ideas what sort of freak they are!"

"Mutants," Spike said smuggly. "Have been some tales. I
heard one about that guy with the energy beam eyes, no
idea who HE really is, though."

"Oh great, you want to tell me there are mutants around
here?" Willow growled, furious. "That's way beyond the
usual creepy!"

"It better be," Buffy said. She was impressed with the
lionmen - even awed. That thing meant business, really.
Seemed as if Spike was right and these mutants packed
some punch. She saw Xander fall silent and sit in the
back of the room, content to wait for...whatever. Was it
just her or did he seem to listen way more intensely
than he was speaking? "Say, Wills, what is it with you
and these mutants?"

"Don't you know?" Willow said and looked ashamed, and
a bit annoyed. "I had an uncle and an aunt, they died
in a robbery when some mutant fought with the police.
He fried them alive."

"I didn't knew..."

"It's not so important," Willow said bleakly. "But now
you know why I say mutants are dangerous. They should
all be registered properly."

"Right alongside with vampires, demons and anyone able
to hold a gun," Xander sneered, and he showed not the
least bit remorse as he said that. "Did it ever occur
to you to say that you faced ONE bad mutant out of how
many who just go about their own business?"

"Xander," Buffy warned him. "We got a problem with
them, too!"

"Have we? All you said was that some vamps tried to eat
Mr. Lionheart, he kicked them in the balls as anyone
would want to - and then he and his mutant pals played
some hide and seek," Xander growled. "Now, where is the
big threat to the world in THAT?"

"Are you crazy? There are mutants out there, mutants
who are SHOOTING with...with energy beams!" Willow
flared. "What is it with you!"

"And do they happen to be bulletproof or don't we have
anything like, say, laser rifles and how many guns?"
Xander replied, grimly. "Face it, Wills, they're some
idiots in a costumes with some special effects. Wait a
day or two and they're gone again, whatever."

"How can you even think that?"

"I think it's just logical," Xander scowled, shaking
his head in a manner that was unfamiliar. It seemed
natural for him, but something about it was not - that
gesture and the calm reasoning he displayed seemed not
to come from Xander at all. That man, who stood there
in the body of her friend and in his leather jacket,
appeared as a total stranger to Buffy. "First, we got
a bunch of mutants going to reduce the vampire menace,
nothing wrong with that. Second, we got a mad, bad and
dangerous Slayer with a long list of vengeance claims
against us. Third, is there any sign of some end of the
world prophecy about or what? NO! And fourth and final,
who knows what the commando boys will do anyway." He
almost spat the last words out. "And thus far I'd say we
should not overreact and take care of Faith first, then
we can always look after some stray mutants."

"That...," began Willow, reddening.

"Is an entirely sound strategem," Giles said stiffly.
"Albeit you ignore the mutant threat there."

"Am I?" Xander asked, wondering. "For all I can say, a
mutant is no more of a danger to us than anyone else
on the hellmouth. Probably less, the last place any
mutant wants to stay in is one with high crime rates.
All to easy to say it's been the mutant's fault."

"And you would know," Willow barked, humoring him.
Mocking him nastily. "Xander Harris, the world's leading
expert on mutants. As if you'd know anyone!"

"As it is, Willow, by the book most of my friends here
ARE mutant creatures," Xander sighed. Again, reasoning.
Buffy wondered when he had stopped to act all emotional
and became...what? Calm inside? He was. Awfully so. And
he had become liek that, a bit distant, ever since he
had returned from his summer road trip. "I mean, we got
a werewolf, Cordelia's pretty much the psychic these
days and several vampires, Slayers and some witches. Did
I leavy anything out, yeah, I got a half-demon for a
girlfriend!"

"Can that, mate," Spike chuckled. "Now what's your stake
in that?"

"The usual - gotta know where the next shot at you people
comes from. It isn't like you would EVER try to predict
that or prepare," Xander said, peeved. The first time he
showed any real emotion. "So is that settled?"

"Since when are you our planning guy?" Willow inquried.
"Aren't you, what, donut boy or the Scoobie groupie?"

"Comeone, I was at this with you all years now," Xander
said. "Who came up with the battle plan at the school?
Or the missile to take out the judge? Damn it, ANY time
I try to do something on my own and right there you are,
Wills! What is it, you can't stand to see me do without
you?" He shook his head, sad - for her sake. A real bad
insult and one that left Willow stammering. "Well, I can
get by without anyone of you! If you don't WANT any help
from me, then why should I waste my time with you here?"

Buffy was speechless as Xander looked at her and then
at Giles - and finally at Willow, who was staring at him
with intense loahting. And away he went, frustration by
the textbook as he stuffed his hands into his jacket's
pockets and hurried out. Slammed the door.
Spike was laughing tears about it all, of course.
"Shut up or I'll break ever ybone you have and then some
more," Buffy snapped at him and he did so. But he still
grinned. "Willow, that...that was..."

"Long overdue," Spike said, while he got up. "Face it,
people you treated him like shit and he's never ever
said a word of complaint."

"We never...!" Giles began and shut up, swallowing. "We
did not do that."

"Sure, and what did you do? Hey, even _I_ got more from
you loosers than your white knight. Seems like he got
it together, in the end," Spike chuckled before leaving.
As he moved through the door he added he wondered what
they'd do now.

"Oh comeon, you think XANDER...?" Willow laughed, not
so hollowly. "Dream on, Spike. We do not need him."

"Do we?" Buffy said, hurt. She realized she and her
former close friend had grown apart - really, what had
she ever been doing? She just had paid no more attention
to him, just some small talk and seen him around. She
had no idea what he and Anya did, besides dancing and
fucking - or what he did besides being a whitehat and
doing some crappy job after another, never staying at
anyone for long.
There was no denying, he was their weakest member. But
he always had contributed. And neither Willow nor
Giles were of that much use on patrol, Giles because
he had more important things to do and Willow because
she was a witch. Now, who was to be her shadow at the
patrols? SPIKE? She almost heard his answer to such a
request. Dream on, Slayer!
And rightly so.
"He may not be so wrong there," Buffy mused. Yet it
still did not fit. Xander had not answered why he was
no enemy of mutants...and they were none! Come to think
of it, he always had acted on the tips of his toes when
the issue was mentioned. What was it that got him to do
that? "We just don't have the people and the time to
deal with that and Faith _is_ around...maybe she is the
bigger threat?"



#6
Witness


Faith did not just feel weak and tired, she was. Months
of inactivity had sapped her strength and even famous
Slayer healing did not help much.
She had barely been able to escape that hospital and it
was an effort to even knock that nurse out. At least she
still had some bolthole to crash at and hide in. The
last reminder of the mayor's empire, it was. Some shaby
room under the townhouse and some cash, enough to get by
for a while. And his last gift to her, too.
Faith would have to wait using the machine, however.
Right now she needed to recover and gather information.
More than she got out of the little weasel Willie.
She was as good at lurking as always - but, reminded of
her condition, she did not follow the more dangerous
Scoobies around. Xander, now he was just human. She'd
have no troubles to escape him...and stood a good, well,
more than even chance to win a fight with him.
Or would she?
Time went by and people changed, even the zeppo. He was
growing up and it showed...one of these days he might
even remind her of that blasted vampire, Angel.
Faith briefly wondered what Buffy felt like - she had
saved his ass and everything, and still he left. But,
they had grown apart before, hadn't they? She just hoped
B was in as much upheal over it as she could be.
After all, she had decided for the vampire and against
herself! Faith thought, filled with regrets. Maybe she
should have taken another approach...maybe.
She just wanted to pay B back, big time. Make her see
what life meant for Faith, the not quite perfect girl.
The Slayer who hadn't been needed or intended and, by
all accounts, not even wanted.
And she had some little plan for that, too. One that
would get her revenge against all of the others, too.
Faith had come here certain of her reasoning and she
had seen how Xander and his new girlfriend made out.
No trace from his parents to see, which made it easy
to break into the house and enter his basement hole.
Funny, how that reminded her of that dump of a hotel
room she had stayed in, before.
He seemed to haven't learnt a bit, the fight for that
good and just cause certainly did not give him back
anything. At least nothing to live with.
Maybe she had been wrong, after all he got that girl.
Faith felt her own wetness as she had watched the two
fuck each other madly in some public place. Had been
damned long since she last got fucked for good, and he
wasn't that bad a lay. Seemed to have learnt a thing or
two over the months.
Boinking with someone able to spot them any second was
a rush, really. Faith hadn't figured Xander for the
daring type. 
Faith decided she might give him another try later on,
and wouldn't that get some people mad? And then she had
come here while the happy couple decided to go out for a
movie. Well, he did the decision.
She just wanted to look through his things and study it.
Maybe learn about him so she could have an easy way to
lay him later on. 
Everything as she expected, comics and old toys and so
much trash. And some more or less interesting materials,
but no diary. Faith was about to stop when she found the
locked trunk under the bed.
Now, waht did he have in there?
Taking it out was easy, picking the lock was not. She
could not find the key for life and she did not want to
leave a trace. So she used some needle and time and the
fruits of a youth hanging out with the bad crowd.
Got her to see...books and papers.
Faith almost scowled when she saw that - and then she
fell silent. The paper was covered with Xander's scrawl,
she had seen enough of that around. But that were no old
remains of his high school years.
"Now, what is THAT?" she whispered as she looked through
the books. The Holocaust, she read at one. Another was
some textbook on advanced mathematics, physics and
chemistry...whew. Then came Rise and Fall of the Third
Reich, a real monster he seemed to have read a lot in.
There were markers around and he had written comments,
underlined phrases and figures.
Faith whistled as she, browsing through it all, learnt
Xander was obviously studying that stuff. Which was a
bit beyond odd, after all he was just another piece of
white trash tumbling from one hopeless low-wage slave
job to the next. He was no college guy.
And she doubted college guys would read half of that
sort of books. Explosives, the Ranger's handbook, some
volumes about tactics and warfare in general.
"Now there, someone is going for a career," Faith smiled
with a wide grin. He must be about to try enlistment at
some crackpot army unit. The type of guys going for all
the heavy duty shit. "Doesn't look like the gang is five
by five with it..." She could imagine to see a totally
baffled Buffy. Xander going to be a killer!
Not that he hadn't it in him, oh no.
She closed the trunk and put the lock back and shoved it
under the bed again, quickly, as she heard someone come
in. She got a good look at the guy and was impressed as
she hid in a shelf.
Now, there was some piece of bulk muscle. And some man
even Faith would have hesitated to challenge, he did not
look like a man at all. He had no demon aura but he had
fangs and claws. And he moved like a wild beast.
But he was not alone, Xander was with him there.
And it seemed as if the big blond guy in his shabby old
duster was injured. He certainly sat down on the couch
in the living room and removed some bloodstained shirt.
While Xander kept talking to him, called him 'Tooth.
Seemed as if he knew him.
The fact was that this Tooth-guy called him Magnus and
seemed to be rather at odds with something about a guy
named Magneto, who was in prison. My, my, but that one
certainly was no Scoobie.
On the other hand, if they had managed to accept SPIKE
in their midst, his big brother might just be one, too.
The giant clearly expected Xander to do something about
Magneto's situation.
Faith felt her mouth go open as Xander, who had come
in with a first aid kit, moved a hand over some bigger
wound - some bleeding gunshot wound - and Tooth groaned
in pain. Next Xander seemed to have something in his
hand, studied it and gave a comment about ammunition.
Which earned him a growl by the giant.

"Cut it, Sabretooth!" Xander snarled, not the least bit
worried as the giant moved a clawed hand bigger than
his head at him. "I told you before, I do not want to
get involved with that war until I have to. Killing is
no way out of the tight spot in my book. And Magneto is
well able to free himself!"

"You ARE a brother! How can you refuse?"

"Thanks, big guy. See, up until you shithead turned up
with god and the world on your heels, I had some live
and some clean ID!" Xander answered wryly, eying the
round in his hand a bit. And then he threw it away in
disgust. "Not only that Xavier's bunch is around and
probably looking for me now, you got at least ONE black
ops unit down on your head already. Let's hope it have
been just our resident commando boys."

"What does it matter? Kill them all!"

"Bright idea, badass. Almost as bright as staying out
alone after dark," Xander laughed and threw him a look
while he began to clean up the wound and do some bit
of expert first aid. "You know, at times there ARE
scarier things than you out there, 'Tooth. And don't
even try to tell me you do not believe into vampires,
you got to kill a few of the fangboys tonight."

"No," Sabretooth - the name fit him, Faith thought -
growled. "Did not look so scary, are they?"

"Yeah, for you!" Xander sneezed and sighed. "I just have
that much business around here, and I am not even that
experienced! Why the heck can't you get anyone ELSE?" He
pulled at some white plaster and fastened it around the
huge man's chest.

"He's _your_ dad."

Faith gaped inside her shelf. Xander was not his dad's
spawn? Who was that mysterious Magneto, who were these
brotherhood people - that they seemed not so impressed
by vampires! And what was it with that war Xander had
mentioned? Questions over questions.

Xander groaned, threw himself into a seat and crunched
his teeth. "And he just got his ass royally kicked, too.
Might do him good to coold down a bit," he said angryly.
And laughed. "Probably will not change him a bit, will
it? Fuck. 'Tooth, if that prison can hold him, I am not
exactly the best guy for a rescue squad, remember?"

Sabretooth said nothing, just stared.

"And then right away with everyone on my fucking tail,
charging into something we all have no idea about!"
Xander went on, head shaking. "Shit it, big guy, that
is one doomed mission."

"What will you do, then?"

"Get a lid on things here, first. There are some issues
I got to settle first...," Xander said icyly. "And then
you can get the new base set up. Mystique has to recover
fully and we need at least one telepath worth the label.
If you could get a teleporter, and someone who can take
several of us over long distances, that would be quite
nice, too. Oh, and I want all the tactical data about
the prison. Where he is, who's who around, the security
system! And then I will come and prepare that raid." He
groaned. "I will not have you mess up the rescue of my
dad, do you understand that?"
Sabretooth sat up and glared viciously and Xander, but
he did not even flinch. right next some invisible force
slammed into Sabretooth's big face and made him and the
couch he sat on move back half a meter. It was audible
and visible how that had hurt the giant.
Faith nearly forgot to breath. What the fuck, not even
the withc had THAT sort of...and he just sat there, not
even flinching. Totally in control of himself, no sign
of stress.
"I asked you a question. ANSWER IT!"

"Yes," Sabretooth grunted, not that pissed. He smiled.
"Now you act like yourself again, Magnus."

"Better don't believe you know the real me that good,"
Xander replied levelly. "Please make it out there this
time without tipping off anyone else! My cover is weak
enough around here."

"Why do you have to stay, anyway?"

"Hah, you think humans are the only danger to us? Tooth,
around this town the end of the world can happen any
day. And I mean it, the end of the whole fucking world,"
Xander barked. Barely controled anger in his voice, some
big sort of danger. "Someone HAS to keep a lid on that."

"Whatever you say, Magnus, whatever you say," Sabretooth
grinned ferally. "And it hasn't anything to do with any
woman, has it?"

"It has," Xander nodded uncomfortably. "You can crash
here for the day, but better be away tomorrow. And let
them SEE you left town! And don't leave that much of a
mess behind, please!"

"Okay, okay," Sabretooth said, yawning. "Have fun, kid."

"Hope so," Xander declared as he got up and took his
jacket. "Don't kill that many humans on the way."

"Now, where would be the FUN in THAT?"

"Yeah, where would be the _fun_?" Xander echoed him,
his less audible voice hollow, and left the house.

Soon after, Sabretooth fell asleep and snored and the
darl Slayer sneaked out of the house quickly. Left to
ponder the new information she got.
Xander was not human, he seemed to possess some odd sort
of power and he also was involved with some secret and
very probably terrorist organization. And he seemed not
about killing, either. Now that was a great surprise.
Looking back at the crate with the books, it fit in.
Little goody two shoes Xander Harris was some son of a
nunhuman terrorist organization and about to enter the
family biz, to that!
Faith laughed.
She had some ideas about what to do next. B would be so
pissed when she destroyed her whole world, and when she
was all alone and nothing was left, Faith would be there
to get her. "You will be mine or dead, B," she uttered
a promise to herself.
Now, what to start with?
Or rather, whom?
Time to get Willow distracted, she owed little red some
for her stunt in the mayor's office. And how? Oh yeah.
Make her get angry. Hurt her lover. That had worked for
Spike, hadn't it?
Time to kick some witch butt.


#7
Mutants


Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, wearily looked around the
dark room he was in right now.
Not only had the X-Men lost track of Sabretooth again!
But some black ops agency was after the mutant, too. And
the government soldiers had gotten a headstart at the
mutant after a while. Didn't do them any good so far,
the mutilated corpses were left in the dark factory the
mutant had lured them into and slayed them all.
And they also found some other sort of a problem as they
came to the corpses. A whole bunch of really unfriendly
creatures had found the bodies and were looking at them.
Creatures that seemed to be living inside of that burned
out wreck of a factory, creatures that looked human and
could change into fanger monsters. 
And they had not been in the talking mood, exactly.
Even worse, they seemed to go for human prey. Seemed as
if someone around here was doing mutation experiments
and producing something akin to the legendary vampires.
Cyclops had to admit the scientists had surpassed their
own slippery self. The things had no body heat, breath
or heartbeat. They also were unnaturally strong and
quite aggressive. They also seemed damned hard to kill.
Cyclops saw Wolverine stab some vampire coming at him,
he rammed his claws right into their chests - and then
had them go to dust in another instant.
That was the most uneery thing of it all, Cyclops was
about to say as some other creatures jumped at his
comrade's back. A short tip at his visor and a red
energy beam stabbed the thing in the chest. And burnt
it outright, to dust again. The way these corpses
disappeared without anything left to prove they were
somehow alive and real before!
"Was that the last one?" he asked aloud.

"No idea," Wolverine said, looking around spooked.
"There is that much smell of death around here, I can't
say..."

"Same for me," Phoenix - in real life known as doctor
Jean Grey, telekinetic and telepath - added in her
bit to the worries. "I can't get anything. It is as if
they...they are not really THERE...maybe the professor
might pick up anything, I do not!"

Great, Cyclops thought. The creatures were immune to
telepathic scanning. Maybe even invisible, too. That
nicely explained how the professor was unable to tell
them anything about them. Seemed as if the whole town
was somehow different from the rest of the world, at
least to the astral plane scouting of the professor. He
had never seen anything like that effect and was unable
to see much, or even reach them as he usually could. 

"Anyway, they are dead," Storm - Ororo Munroe - said
as she stepped away from the wal she had held at her
back. "Do you think they were...human?"

"If they were, they are a legend come to live," Scott
whispered and shuddered. There had been more than two
dozen of them in here, outright hell. If whatever had
made them was some contagenious disease, they really
were into troubles. "Phoenix, you think that they are
some experiment from Magneto?"

"Maybe," Wolverine answered slowly. "Would make some
sense. These things were shapeshifting somewhat, they
could pass as human..." And then he stepped forward and
suddenly groaned, ripped open a hastily covered wall
with his claws. Out came an overwhelming stench of decay
and death - and some lighting later they found a room
full of corpses in various stages of decay. It must have
been dozens. A horrible sight to behold. "We...we have
to stop whoever did this!" Wolverine hissed, claws at
the ready and shivering. "This is...monstrous."

Scott had no intention of disagreeing, he had to fight
to keep his lunch down. "We will have to investigate
that!" he declared, staggerring a bit. "Whatever sort of
monsters are responsible for that, we will bring them to
heel..." There even were small children added in that
heap of bodies. Close to a hundred people? Maybe. And
there were rats and other creatures out and eating the
humans away.
The X-Men would figure out the secret of Sunnydale,
California. Turned out there were that many.
And not just since yesterday.
The computers back at the mansion got to dig around the
net a bit and soon spilled volumes of facts and figures
about this town. Mysterious events by the dozens and
more, more more.
Scott, sitting behind some terminal at the X-Jet, had
nearly lost his morning coffee about it as the data
began to scroll over.
For a first, the death toll at Sunnydale was as high as
that of the entire Washington DC area. With nowhere near
the same amount of crime, gang activities and population
around. If one looked through the figures one could say
that in this town people dropped like flies.
The Sunnydale High School even had some sort of casualty
figures in their yearbooks, holy lord in heaven! Scott
had a blank stare behind his visor while Ororo nearly
had a fit on it. It was even on the net, with some lot
of details about why and what else happened.
Heck, there even was a feature-sized article about the
last graduation day. Some story about the entire school
fighting the mayor, who turned into a giant snake and
ATE the principal - same as the LAST principal got
eaten by some stray dogs.

"Stray dogs, my ass," Wolverine coughed. "That stinks!"

"Indeed," Jean said. "Am I just mad or did they really
blow up the school with that snake-monster inside?"

"In the public files, it's listed as a gas leak," Scott
whispered belakly. "And that mayor is supposed to have
run for he  was a fraud, he left the city funds and his
own businesses broke..."

"Did we say that town was odd a bit?" Jean observed. "I
thin we hit Grand Central for something big, people. It
could be some...some sort of mutant experiment center."

"Dream on. Something of this size and age, it never be
covered up, not even by the brotherhood!" Scott said.
Or at least he hoped he was right. "It is to big."

"But the government might do it," Wolverine said. "They
have a long history of illegal experiments into mutants,
to be used as weapons of war...maybe around here they
try them out?"

"Against the unsuspecting population?"

"Why not? Wouldn't be the first time!" Wolverine said
gravely. He growled with hatred, so much anger. "Comeon,
any other way than someone high up hiding this town?
Just look at the reports, there are way to many reports
to even be explained away with the least looks."

There were freak accidents, civil unrest, missing mass
murderers, wild animal killings, missing people by the
hundreds and about twenty graveyards, even more churches
and so many deserted houses. There also was a long and
well documented history of earthquakes and all sorts of
unexplainable weather phenomena, including snow. Snow in
an otherwise warm as something winter.
"I don't believe it," Scott said. This was a town where,
if they had been real, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully could
have set up shop. They could have filmed a season, no,
the entire series in this town alone! "But look at how
far BACK that goes..."

"So maybe they have been experimenting with some mutants
found around here for that long?" Storm proposed, awed.
"We have to get more research done. In depth research."

"I'll wake up the professor, let's see what his contacts
can tell us."


#8
Reports


Riley Finn was no happy man. He was barely relieved to
hear his love interest was not the mutant he was sent to
hunt. In fact, it would not be so bad at all to bring
down Harris. He didn't like that piece of white trash,
nor did he want him and that shameless psycho he had
for a girlfriend around.
The observation had revealed Xander had been contacted
by Sabretooth. Even if the giant left and Xander did not
go with him, he was to be arrested by all means and then
to be brought in for questioning. Maybe there even was
need for full examination as the Initiative's scientists
still struggled to understand the mutant phenomenon.
Harris certainly knew answers.
Like what went on in this town anyway.
All the weird phenomena and mutant creatures, all the
deaths. Was the brotherhood far older and experimenting
with the hostiles or was it just something else?
Whatever, the downside was that Buffy could be revealed
as a mutant. Maybe even one connected to the terrorists
from the brotherhood.
Next there were the questions he feared - how would
Buffy react to him knowing the truth about her? Or about
the Initiative?
She just had to be reasonable and understand that the
government had to protect citicens and the human race,
had to control the mutants. After all, what problems
could there be? As long as they obeyed the law, they
were free citizens as everyone else.
He feared what sort of lies and propaganda Harris might
have told her. Certainly, the brotherhood were the real
bad guys. Ruthless enough to do mass murder and genocide
even, if it fit their ends.
Riley wiped the Buffy-issue from his mind. He would
handle that by doing the questioning of Harris himself!
Now, the real trouble. Sabretooth had escaped, he had
killed the two squads of soldiers sent after him and
then there were other mutants around.
Maybe another brotherhood cell, or even some rival
organization. They still were a group that came digging
at Sunnydale's secrets. Something that could not be
allowed to happen.
The situation was anything but clear.
And he had to find a way to tell the professor.
"How can I do that...and keep my balls?" Riley muttered
bleakly. That woman, she didn't like to hear her orders
not being executed. She didn't mind loosing soldiers but
only so long as she got what they were after.
Blasted woman, he HAD to find a way...or he might just
send some note and go out to get Harris in himself? Yes.
That was the decisively wiser course of action.


#9
Anger


There she laid, pale and unconscious on the whit ebed of
the hospital. Tara. Her girlfriend. In capital letters.
Willow Rosenberg found she was shuddering and stopped
her trembling hands, by sheer force of will. She did not
sob, just cried silently. And raged.
The machines beeped and hummed and whoozed, but they
kept the fragile shell of a body alive. For now. Whoever
had pounded Tara, he or she had done a great job at it.
Tara had a major concussion, several broken bones and
some internal bleeding.
Willow knew who was responsible, though.
Faith, the bastard psycho slayer. Faith, the madwoman.
Faith, whom she and the others had not killed as she had
had the opportunity to do so.
Barely escaped and out of the hospital she began the old
game anew. And right at the time mutants appeared in the
city, too. Willow didn't trust mutants, she didn't trust
them a bit as they stayed hidden and had unknown powers.
Maybe the mutants had some secret alliance with the
demons and vampires, too.
One had better be careful about these things, with all
the rumours around there were reasons. Rumours about a
mutant terrorist organization about to wipe out all of
humanity.
Willow knew it was possible, contrary to some others.
She helped to prevent demons from doing the apocalypse,
now she might have to do the same with the mutants.
Right now she just wanted to have her hands at Faith's
throat.
"We do not know if it was her, Willow," Buffy said
hollow voiced beside her, placing a hand on Willow's
shoulder. "You know the police think it was a serial
rapist."

"Don't make me laugh," Willow answered, sniped. She
knew as good as anyone that good old Sunnydale PD was
unable to find their own ass in the dark on principle.
Serial rapist, she just had to laugh. Of course.
"You know as good as anyone who has done this!"

"I...," Buffy began and fell silent. She sighed. "I can
not say it was _not_ her, no."

"Then what are you here standing and mourning? She was
not your girlfriend!"

"Willow..."

"No," Willow hissed. She would not let her get through
with this, not this time. "No more, Buffy, no more! I
had enough."

"Willow," Buffy tried again, "she also was my friend."

"And I bet you would be in here and mourn if that was
Riley in there, would you?" Willow barked, stepping
aside and away from the Slayer. She tugged at her dress
until it sat more straight than before and she also had
to control her breathing. "It is your fault. YOU should
have ended it long ago."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, roughly. "That I should
have gone and killed her, in here?"

"YEZZZSSSS!" Willow snarled. That was what got them all
into troubles in the first place. She also should have
gone forward and killed Angel, after he lost his soul.
That would have saved so many people, among them Miss
Calender. "If you don't have the spine to do it, I
certainly will!"

"Willow!" Buffy gulped, abhorred. "Faith is...she is
not...she's a human being!"

"She is just another type of mutant, Buffy. Another one
who misuses her powers," Willow spat back, turning on
her heels. "We have to find and stop her, before she
does anything more."

"And you have any idea how?" Buffy asked, evil humor in
her voice. "We just go to the next corner and there she
will come, to gloat over her deed, yes?"

"Don't try a Xander now, Buffy Summers!" Willow groaned
while striding faster. She would have to do this, either
with Buffy's help or not. "Go around and ask the usual
suspects, beat someone up...just stop her. And I'll see
if there are any of the mayor's places left. She needs
some hole to hide in, she cannot live without food and
shelter."


#10
Arrest situations


It was a day as any other when they came for me. I was
just out in the back of the restaurant I was currently
working at, or slaving considering the wages. After
moving some crates from the storage area out and some
new deliveries in, Anya had come by and we were talking.
Okay, we were kissing and I got all the envy from the
other guys around for the blonde.
She had made the great admission yesterday and I had
cursed myself for not even thinking about protection.
What the crap did I think a demon knew about human and
sex, precaution and pregnancy? Okay, considering her age
she probably had some lot of spawn lurking around some
corners, but no human babies yet.
Especially not _my_ baby.
I could see a future in here, somewhere. I was not so
dumb and I could get some better job. Marry her. And
get away from all that madness and violence, even from
the man who was my real father.
Get a live.
Funny thing, that one about my dad.
About twenty years ago now he and some other woman had
had a short fling - and again someone seemed to have
forgotten about protection. Probably they got together
because she had been a mutant herself, my mother. None
so powerful nor did she ever get a happy life. And even
the relationship was a real one-night stand.
Eric Lehnsherr only learnt about it much later. As he
was moving under a fake identity, he never learnt squat
about mom dying in childberth and her last letter to him
never caught up. A relative of mother, still resident in
that old town in Florida, had received the letters and
had them in store.
Problem was, my mother - well, in relaity my aunt - had
no man, no money and she left town without ever even
calling back. She changed her name soon.
At that time, mom had died in childberth and I was with
my aunt...and came here to Sunnydale as her baby, when
she married Mr. Harris. Turned out there were no kids
for the couple besides me. And, appearance aside, they
and especially he had always resented me for this fact.
They never told me, either.
Probably wasn't any good for that as Eric Lehnsherr
already had started to build the brotherhood of mutants
and became Magneto.
First time I learnt was when I made the road trip after
graduation. Never got that far before the old car of my
uncle broke down...and I ended up broke and in need of
some money. Got a job as a male stripper, and wasn't
that one the pure and unadultered humiliation? At least
to me it was!
Funny thing about growing up as a mutant, I always was
some minor psychic...got that gut instinct. And a bit of
luck and survival skills, which kept me around with the
typical Sunnydale nights. Really nice. Me and the one
normal human guy on the gang, what a sick joke.
A joke that had come to an end the same day that damned
truck nearly rushed me. Believe it or not, I just got
caught dead in the middle of the street and was like
hypnotized by the headlights.
And then the stress forced my development to blow up.
Some magnetic pulse stopped a thirty ton vehicle going
for fifty miles an hour dead in it's tracks. Even threw
the thing back a bit and causing some major traffic
accident. A bus hit the truck's back and the collison
resulted in fifty injured and some dozen dead, most of
them drivers who razed into the crashing metal mass.
I was down on my back and out cold, mental overload.
The nature of the accident and the nature had alerted
Magneto and so he came for me.
Funny thing to meet a stranger coming to your aid when
you are totally and irrevocably screwed up. And he was
wondering how someone could have HIS unique brand of
power.
I had laughed at him and called him quite mad for even
thinking I had some kind of superpowers...not that I
doubted they existed, just that I had any. And next I
knew I was bending steel tubes thick enough to be my
thighs around just by wishing it to happen.
Before long, Magneto had me hooked for the brotherhood,
too. Despite my lack of control over the mutant powers
and some other sophistication, the years in Sunnydale
had gotten me some great preperation. And didn't I get
to use the soldier knowledge or the memory of the me
with the hyena.
Actually it was not that bad until Magneto and me found
out about that paternity thing. He was just doing some
routine genetests to figure out if there was some gen
responsible for the magneto powers, he had done a lot
of research into genetic activation and such. All for
his machine to get humans to mutate and solve the whole
issue of mutant-humanity warfare by just absorbing the
competition.
As far as wars went, that was the most human solution
I ever heard of. Really. The other side was by then
certainly thinking about camps and some not so loud sort
of genocide. Really cute.
Magneto could be cruel and cold, but in a personal sense
he was still a better father than the one I had had.
Not that I doubted much there would come a war, no. I
knew it. Humanity was simply mad and there were that
many assholes out there.
To be true, I never had much reason to love the people
even for a bit. Most of them either were uncaring or
outright hostile, who had not lashed out against me in
High School? And since then, what was I but another one
of the human scum element. White trash, indeed.
It also helped me to deal with the loss of live because
some idiot truck driver was forced to drive double hours
and more by some greedy boss. I did not walk across the
street illegally, he came shot over the street.
So should I have let him plow me down and save all the
people in the bus? Let's be honest, NO! Everyone has the
damn same right for self preservation and did I knew the
truck was gonna hit the bus? No!
The whole cause-thing, the brotherhood, the family. I
just got to me and enough to get me to become a mutant
terrorist. Or rather, a mutant freedom fighter.
That was just depending on whom you were asking.
To me it was more about to what side you belonged to.
Born a mutant, one just had to deal with that. I could
do better than end up in some sort of hell made by the
human race. Especially because some crappy racists were
steering up the government.
Be honest, most of the time I got into troubles because
of the fucking law. What sort of respect do you have for
a government that doesn't care scrap about you and all
the other people living or dying! Not that much.
Hey, we had never received a single penny or thanks for
staying out after dark and saving the world. Well, Buffy
got that protector of the year title, small wonder. And
Willow got some thanks, too.
Noone ever thought to say thanks to me, not even them.
And they were the ones with a career and a future in
live...even if it wasn't that likely for Buffy ever to
live long enough for that.
The worst was how people just forgot, even those who had
been fighting with me on the graduation day battle.
And here I was one of the guys who had been doing most
of the work on graduation day. It had neither been Buffy
or Willow who had come up with half the arms and all the
explosives or the flamethrowers! And neither girl had
been the one to do the battle plan beyond the simple
rough outlines. Buffy just got to play heroine, nothing
against that, but what wa sit with Willow?
Everyone loved her and was sweet enough to make me puke
around red. And here I was the fucking idiot of the day
again...okay, I didn't do it for fame and glory. I did
it because someone had to. It just would have been so
nice to get anyone's thankyou for my part.
The only thing I received was some kick in the ass by a
policemen who had come because we blew up the school
building. Sure, the mayor was a huge snake and wanted to
eat you all. Didn't matter that he had been there and
his twin daughters had been spared the ordeal. No, I got
off easily because he had no proof to nail me as the
fucking asshole who blew up their school.
Really great guys, the old Sunnydale PD. 
And now that same government was bound to come for me
just because of what I was. Didn't matter what I did to
get human lives saved, I just was a mutant and they said
that justified whatever they decided to do with me.
What was I supposed to do, sit down and preach Ghandi's
nonviolent way? I got involved in things and blew up
some of their research labs and armories. And it was fun
as long as it lasted.
But then the summer was over and I had to get back to
Sunnyhell on the double. Didn't like it so much, but
even mutants needed some earth outside of hell. And then
there was the fact that I had killed some inncoent guy
the last time. I didn't want to do that.
Magneto might say it was totally impossible for humans
and mutants to live together, and yet I had done such
for some while. It was possible as long as there were
bigger threats out there and as people ignored the fact
of mutants around.
Ironic that I soon slipped back into the old self, one
who did not make decisions but helped others execute
theirs. I didn't even mind so much that I went from
one crappy job to another, or that I had to study for
myself afte rhours, and then there was Anya.
Can it all, I could not complain about live.
I even found I had enough of that violence act...it was
just to much. Couldn't we settle that peasefully? I
mean, at the time Spike came into the fray and what was
it like to hear that even demons could exist without
killing. Just make the right conditions.
The vampire was totally unhappy, of course. Which was
fine with me, I never had any reason to like the guy.
Or let him sleep under my roof if he did not have his
chip to block any attempt to kill me.
It all just became so fine and...the mutant war was a
bit unreal, from my view.
Until Sabretooth came and told me about Magneto in his
prison, their failure. And blew my cover, right as I had
decided not to get involved anymore.
And then came Anya and her pregnancy and I had one
night, one night and one day, to pounder that. I had
at once asked her to marry me, be the upright guy.
I would find a way to get a job and give them some sort
of decent live, away from all the risks and violence of
the hellmouth and the war.
And then there they came.
The resident commandos, before only hunting demons and
vampires to bring them in and experiment. I had tried
to learn more about them and all I had seen was that
they actually did some good by removing most of the
baddies' presence. Of course, it was not their intention
at all. Just some side effect of no consequence.
They went for Sabretooth - and now they went for me.
I let go of Anya and looked at the twelve men who were
just training their arms at me. A dozen guys in some
black combat armor with high end armaments and all of
them gunning for me.
The next surprise was the leader who came for me. He
wore the same black and was masqueraded as his fellows,
but i still recognized him. I wasn't old enough and
trained enough to recognize the movements, and I did
not smell him either. But part of my dad's inheritance
had been this senses.
Like your very own implanted GPS signal, you always
knew were you were and heading towards. And you could
see people right through their own bioelectric field.
Besides, I had good hearing.
And it was possible to recognize his voice.
Riley Finn, Buffy's boytoy from Iowa. Turned out to be
some commando boy bigshot. Cute, really cute. You never
could trust anyone anymore, today. And here I just had
known that guy meant trouble after seeing him.
But, of course, her omnipotent Slayerness had to follow
her own damned cunt and go for his tight ass. As if 
there would not have been enough lections for her.
Just think Ford and Angel.

"Hands up behind the head, eyes closed, kneel down!
Alexander Harris, you're under arrest," Riley said a
little bit to smuggly, his stun gun pointed at me,
"for acts of terrorism against the american people."

"And you are _the people_, aren't you, beefstick?" I
snarled, casually standing but not trying anything.
Just reveled in his shock. "What shit are you pulling
here, Riley? I didn't do anything!" I just helped to
free mutants and stop you guys from abducting any more
innocent mutants right out of their own houses, to
torture them in your labs. 

It was the wrong move. He just got scared and thought
I read his mind, was some telepath. Sorry, guy, I just
used my human hearing. Riley fired his gun and the next
instant they all gave stungun fire. And it didn't get
them squat, I quickly erected some forcefield around
myself and was protected.
But I still was so much of a beginner at this, and I
could not protect Anya right there. The massive volleys
of electrical charge beams shot through the alley and
scorched stone and asphalt and got ricochetted from the
forcefield, hitting something and then Anya.
They kept discharging their stun guns at full auto,
thinking that firepower alone was enough to breach my
forcefield. And they inevitably hit some of the people
around, innocents and their own. Riley went down, hit
in the chest by some of their own beams. And Anya as
well.



It was the wrong move. He just got scared and thought
I read his mind, was some telepath. Sorry, guy, I just
used my human hearing. Riley fired his gun and the next
instant they all gave stungun fire. And it didn't get
them squat, I quickly erected some forcefield around
myself and was protected.
But I still was so much of a beginner at this, and I
could not protect Anya right there. The massive volleys
of electrical charge beams shot through the alley and
scorched stone and asphalt and got ricochetted from the
forcefield, hitting something and then Anya.
They kept discharging their stun guns at full auto,
thinking that firepower alone was enough to breach my
forcefield. And they inevitably hit some of the people
around, innocents and their own. Riley went down, hit
in the chest by some of their own beams. And Anya as
well.
That was the moment I freaked, totally freaked. I cried
and I sent them flying, within seconds all the commandos
were down and some had to be dead.
I didn't care shit, I just looked at the wide eyed
blonde woman who I just was about to marry. I knelt
besides her, held her shudering from. I saw the
scorchmarks the beams had left on her and I felt the
charge on her body, I felt it...I heard her scream. I
just held her as she fell unconscious in my arms, and
I wept.
I clung to her and got us to fly, shooting in the air
and then over to the hospital. My love and my daughter
were at risk now and I would do anything to keep them
safe. Anything.
I arrived at the hospital only half a minute later. I
ripped the doors out of their hinges and began to run
as my feet touched the ground. With the cover blown,
what reason was there to keep my face a secret?
I reached the ER and got the docs to look at Anya, and
they began to work on her. It looked bad, really bad.
They attached machines and they shot her full of this
or that, I didn't know.
All I could see was that she did not move or wake up,
that in her brain the activity died down...and their
rather crude sensors did show it.
The electric discharges she had been hit with had fried
her nervous system for good, giving her a heart attack
and cramps and some local yet heavy burns.
All I could do was to sit there and cry freely, weep
in helpless fury. I should have known better, I should
have expected...gotten her out and away the same night
she told me...as Tooth appeared and broguht it all back.
I should have done anything. I could have done this and
that. It did not get her back to live, on that bed they
just kept a body. A dying body, to that. The body of my
wife and the childe that had just died with her, killed
by two direct hits into her stomach.
For a long time I just cried, even as the doctor was
there to tell me there might be a wonder yet. I knew
better than that woman and her crude instruments, as
she told me about their limits. I could damned well
SEE the currents and acitivites, I could feel the live
flowing out of her body.

"You're obviously just deranged, mister," the doctor
said and called for a nurse and some sedative. "Here,
let me..."

I looked up to her and for a moment my eyes flared
bluewhite, and she coughed and stumbled back.
Retreating from me as if I were contagenious.
"I can see it," I just said bleakly. "She is dying. The
mind is gone, the body just doesn't know it yet..."
I swallowed, ignoring the shouting about the mutant and
the upheal it caused outside at the ER. They all just
went away from me, even some of the patients in waiting
got up and left, as the freaking nurse ran around and
called for the guards.

The doctor stayed, albeit warily. In fear. Maybe I even
saw her before, years ago. A black woman or the other.
I had no idea about that nor did I care. "Mister, you...
we did everything we...anyone could have done. Maybe you
are mistaken." I wished.

"It isn't your fault," I said roughly, grimacing. "I do
know that." I took out a handkerchief and began to wipe
my face clean. "Just...just let me sit here for a while
and leave me alone, please?"
As if they could have gotten me away.
But she just nodded, stiffly, and left.


#11
Magnus


Willow was furious as she saw Xander sit in some chair
at the ER, pale and with gritted teeth and looking at
an empty bed. After looking through some files with her
laptop and mobile internet access, she thought she might
have gotten something and sent Buffy a message about a
few places to check out.
Then everything had erupted into screaming and people
ran around like there was a fire, crying havoc about a
mutant in the ER. So she went down there but the panic
quickly got settled, nothing was happening.
Then she spied Xander, sitting there.

"Aren't you in the wrong room?" she barked at him. She
had called for him hours ago, but he had not answered
the phone nor did his machine do anything about that.
After the way he last backed out of their circle, she
wasn't about to be any friendly. He had to apologize
for...well, whatever, many things. But he had to
apologize. "Or can't you even read any room numbers?"

"Willow," Xander said, his voice flat and dead. "Hi."

"Hi yourselves, you ass!" Willow groaned back, and
then scowled about him not paying any attention for
Tara - who had been in here, injured for the better
part of the day now, and Faith was still out at large.

"Tara?" Xander asked, not really interested. The tone
was enough to drive her nuts, really. As if she did
not matter at all. "She has been hurt?"

"Yes! She will have to stay several weeks in here,
all because you backed out the night before! You
could have helped to look for that psycho bitch!"
Willow cried at him, about to punch him. "And where
have you been, you asshole? Fucking your demon girl
in the bus station toilet, probably!" She slapped
him...and then she tired to slap him again, tears
running down her cheeks.
He moved his left arm, countere dher blow, and then
he followed through with an uppercut. A full force
blow that got her jaws decked.
Willow tasted blood, her own blood, and saw stars swirl
around her face for a few seconds as she flew through
the air and then landed on her behind. Slittering over
the waxed floor for a feet or two.
It hurt, it really hurt. 
He stood up, slowly, and looked down at her as she was
gathering up herself, in shook, breathing heavily.
There was...anger on his face. That much anger. And
other emotions.
That was not the Xander she knew. There was no sparkle
of humour in his eyes, no grin, just fury. A cold, icy
fury that was speaking about him being ready to do
murder.
And she was shocked herself. How dared he do that! HE!
Willow felt the pain and suddenly had something on her
tongue, she spat into her open palm and there were some
teeth...three, four of her teeth. At least.
She was lost for words, she felt the blood run out.
Her jaw was broken, too.

"Anya has just died. She was carrying my childe, you
idiot whore!" Xander whispered that icyly she just
shivered. "And I never heard of Tara, I was out at my
work!" He looked at her, not a hint of an apology OR
regret in his features or voice. "If you had not been my
friend for so long, Willow, I would kill you right now."

She could just stare, spat out blood and more fragments
of teeth. She was unable to speak. Anya? Pregnancy? And
she was dead?

He suddenly sneered at her, disgusted. "You don't even
understand WHY I hit you, don't you?"

She clould only nod. If he was that down, she had been
terribly rude - she could have understood if he had
chewed her out but not that brutal punch. Or even the
threat of murder.

"I told you to dig out what there was about Riley Finn,
Willow. And you assured me, on your soul, he was just
a sutdent of law at Sunnydale UC."

Riley? What had Buffy's boyfriend to do with this?

"You see, Riley is part of our resident black ops unit.
The commandos. They work for a government agency known
as the Initiative, I could not unearth more," Xander
said devoid of any emotion. "Riley is a secret agent."
Riley? A secret agent? Had he totally gone nuts?
"You swore to me he was but an ordinary guy. And right
here he comes, leading a whole squad of his hunters
after me!"
Xander looked down at her and stood rigidly erect, his
shoulders raised a bit. That was...not like him. It
was totally against his character. "I wanted to get out
of this, I wanted to believe YOU and Buffy. That it is
possible for humans and mutants to live together, in
peace. I just wanted away, marry Anya and raise my kid."
He sucked in the air, a dark laugh.

Willow felt her shock overturn her mind, she was used
enough to danger not to be overwhelmed. But this talk
about mutants and humans and...believing her and Buffy?
"What is that about?" she said, it didn't come out as
that. The sounds were horribly distorted, beyond any
recognition.

He still understood her, somehow. "You see, Willow, I
AM a mutant. Homo superior," Xander told her simply.
He neither gloated or chuckled, he did not grin. He
was not even speaking matter of fact, no, it was just
something else. "And Riley and his consorts, they are
our enemies. The hunters." Now he laughed, chuckled a
bit. It was nothing funny in there. "You should better
tell Buffy that she has to run, Willow. It doesn't
matter that she is not Faith, they will be treated just
the same as me, as any mutant. And better tell her to
keep out of my way, too. Tell all that ask to beware
the wrath of Magnus!"

Talking in the third person? Uh-oh, that meant he got
dangerous...damned dangerous.
Willow was unable to voice anything, she just wanted to
say a million things. Most of all she wanted to scream
at him, a long howling of one word. No. 
They just locked eyes with each other.
"I have to thank you one last time for the lection,
Willow. For showing me the truth about humanity. Pray
that the next time we meet we will not be enemies. I
will not hesitate to kill you, if I have to. Or anyone."

And then he turned around and walked away, noone was
there to stop him. Noone dared to even come near him, it
seemed almost as if the whole hospital was deserted.
Willow only later discovered that noone had been there
to even notice his acts with her.
Willow just laid on the floor and weeped. She hurt in
any number of places, she was bleeding, humiliated and
had the wort sort of pain inside of her heart.
At least there soon was some nurse who saw her and
came to help her. She had a cracked jaw, she had lost
some teeth and she needed surgery right now.
They sedated her and when she woke up there was Giles.
And a pair of people, some striking brunette woman and
a blonde man with odd, purple-coloured glasses.


#12
Occult mumbojumbo?


What had tripped them off had been the police, and that
was a true wonder. Jean Grey had not needed half a day
to be sure that the Sunnydale Police Department was made
out of the biggest bunch of arrogant incompetents on the
planet. Even more, most of them were chauvis staring at
her and making gestures and comments.
She had left the department walking stiffly.
Anyway, she got what she had come for.
If there was anyone in this town who might knew what was
going on, it was a group of some citizens who fairly
often were mentionend in the casefiles and seen at the
crimescenes.
Jean disliked using telepathy like this, but time was
essential and she just had enough of the attitude the
detective showed towards her. So she had pried his mind.
There was a group who seemed to investigate the strange
cases in Sunnydale. Consisting out of a number of former
high school students and the librarian of the public
library at that school.
Some interesting list of members.
The prom queen, her geek boyfriend, the old librarian,
a high intelligent musician, the school's hacker champ
and then the misfit number one.
The files they had gotten out of the computer were
even worse. Rupert Giles had now a bookstore here in
Sunnydale and he arrived shortly before Buffy Summers,
he had some higher academics credentials. Enough to make
sure he was not well suited to work in a public library
in a small town in the US but rather in some museum of
international acclaim.
About Rosenberg there was nothing, really. Just the near
perfect girl, she seemed pretty meek and so straight, if
not boring. So it was no wonder she was a wallflower.
She was now a student of computer sciences at the
Sunnydale UC. And wonder who her roomie was.
Next there was Buffy Summers. What a long file. Some
large account of violence, shifting grades, enough to
get studied.
Jean had seen enough files about mutant children to
suspect Buffy Summers was one candidate for the school.
And the next character was of the most importance.
Alexander Harris had a paper trail leading to his mother
and a town in Florida, he was the prime suspect as the
identity of the mutant Magnus.
It wasn't that they had gotten any data about him they
did not have about the others. The three dozen others.
But Sabretooth came here, so he probably was the guy.
Looking at his picture there was something else, some
vague notion she might have seen him already somehwere.
Or someone who looked somewhat similiar. It was the
eyes, yes, the area around the eyes.
But she could not say why for her live.
Whatever, they determined Rupert Giles was their best
bet to get answers and then things went out of control.
There were reports of a mutant hitting some are of
the town and some battle with armed men, a dozen.
Going there the armed men were gone, and the police
was just packing people into bags. The EMTs were
long gone or stood treating witnesses for shock.
Fact was that some guy working at the restaurant here
had been attacked by the guys in black and there had
been a shooting, but he was a mutant and kicked their
ass. Some innocents got hurt as well. There were
traces of electrical burns all over the back alley.
Cyclops just needed half a second to conclude that the
mysterious black ops unit had appeared and taken a shot
at Magnus, then he battled them and escaped.
And it HAD been Alexander Harris.
So the two X-Men had again used their rental car and
paid a visit to Rupert Giles at his bookstore. Just
in time to see him leave in a hurry and drive to the
hospital.
Where he hurried into the ER - and they just saw the
plain clothes cops going around and asking questions.
A short scan said they were looking for witnesses for a
mutant creating havoc in the ER some hour ago. 
Turned out there was only one woman injured and the said
mutant was again Alexander Harris. He must have flown
directly from the restaurant fight here into the ER, but
he wasn't the injured.
Instead he had brought a woman here. A young girl, about
twenty, who had died because some electrical shock had
fried her nervous system for good. The ER personnel had
been unable to save her.
Jean paled as she went through the repercussions of the
news. Another high powered mutant with a vengeance
agenda and already associated with the brotherhood of
mutants.
Meanwhile, Cyclops determined that Rupert Giles had come
to visit Willow Rosenberg who just underwent surgery.
Somone had given her a real punch into the chin, she had
lost teeth and there were cracked bones.
It took something to hit a woman like that, Jean thought
disgusted. But if he hated her enough to do this, why
not anything else?
There was another girl in here, some Tara whatever. She
had been Willow Rosenberg's girlfriend and had been
hospitalized the same morning. Someone had hurt her far
worse than Rosenberg, a real roughup. She had still not
woken from her concussion.
That was the moment when Rupert Giles noticed them. He
was a bit edgy, unquestionably a refined englishman and
seemed not to like questions.
Jean used her telepathy to get him into a room, but he
had a strong will and seemed quite determined to break
her control. She could barely hold him in here as she
and Cyclops introduced themselves.

"Please excuse the means I used to get you here, but
it doesn't look as if we will have all the time in the
world," Jean said, crossing her arms in front of her
chest. "We have to talk."

"And who are you, Miss Phoenix?"

"We are X-Men," Cyclops declared proudly. "That means
we are mutants."

"I do not see what we have to talk about," Giles groaned
unfriendly. "I would like you to leave me alone."

"Not right now, Mr. Giles," Jean said. "We X-Men are a
group of mutants who have dedicated themselves to the
protection of others...mostly we try to achieve some
peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans."

"How very...noble of you."

"Hardly," Cyclops answered. "Anyway, there are other
mutants who do not share our respect for humanity OR
human live. Like the brotherhood of mutants."
Giles shrugged, disinterested. As far as he was
concerned, that did not mean anything to him. He was
trying to hide his interest - he seemed curious.
Jean had never seen a man who was so curious about them
and yet that inconspicious. He was someone trained to
be inconspicious while studying someone else, but he
was not a spy. To much of an academic for that.
"The brotherhood is a band of terrorists who think they
will have to fight a war of mutants against humanity."

"Oh, do we have reasons to be concerned now?" Giles
asked, dryly. The man was not disregarding them, he just
looked as if the danger was nothing new to him.

Cyclops seemed to take his coolness hard, for next he
spilled about the Magnus-issue. Some powerful mutant who
was a member of the brotherhood and residing in this
town. That seemed to get him interested.

"And what does this Magnus want here?"

"As you do know him, intimately, you could tell us."

"I do not happen to know any mutants besides you," Giles
replied amused. Inside he was wondering - and worrying.
"About whom are we talking here?"

"You knew him as Alexander Harris."

"XANDER?" Giles barked, then laughed, shaking his head.
"You must be that mistaken if you think HE...!" Another
laugh and Jean understood Giles saw this Xander as the
normal human boy - and one without powers.

"And how can you explain how he was able to outfight at
least six armed men, all trained soldiers?" Cyclops
asked casually, shaking his head. "Mr. Giles, mutants
can grow up just as any other human being. Usually their
powers manifest at some point in puberty but sometimes
it does take them longer...like when they are well into
adulthood."

"Xander is...resourceful," Giles replied, he was still
unbelieving. Strangely, he seemed to trust this young
man very much. "You must be mistaken."

"I do not think so," Jean sighed. "Are you certain he
did not hurt Miss Rosenberg or her friend?"

"NO!" Giles croaked. And he thought about who had done
it, whom he suspected. A name, Faith. Jean could not
resist to ask the question.
And that got her, besides some dark looks, more than one
picture. Faith was a madwoman and a murderer, a laughing
beast with a bloody knife in the body of a young woman.
He did not tell anything about that. "I rather would
like you to leave, now."

"We are not even beginning," Jean replied and nodded at
Cyclops. Giles was their hit, he was full of secrets.
He knew things they needed to know. "Mr. Giles, you and
your friends have been involved in any number of...shall
we call it incidents...over the last...four years? You,
Willow Rosenberg, Alexander Harris and Buffy Summers."


"We are not even beginning," Jean replied and nodded at
Cyclops. Giles was their hit, he was full of secrets.
He knew things they needed to know. "Mr. Giles, you and
your friends have been involved in any number of...shall
we call it incidents...over the last...four years? You,
Willow Rosenberg, Alexander Harris and Buffy Summers."

Giles kept his mouth shut and panic grew in him. As well
as some resignation...and respect for them? 

"We like to know what is going on in this town, Mr.
Giles. In fact, we have to know if we...are to stop
it," Jean said, friendly. "Please explain what you know
about...vampire-like creatures...?"

Bingo, Jean thought. The word vampire alone hit a couple
of dozen references in his librarian's mind. And more to
come and more.
Jean felt her features move to show herself astonished
and utterly awed, and she wasn't often that openly awed.

"I wish you much luck there," Giles said adamantly. "I
can only tell you - this is not your business."

"Mr. Giles, what is a hellmouth?" Jean asked. And so the
game began for real. "What is a Slayer? And what has a
teenage girl to do with stakes and...vampires?"

He began to sweat, he tried to hide his thoughts. He was
unable to, as all merely normal humans were. 
The next couple of hours was the most interesting, to
label it as nothing beyond of awing. Rupert Giles was a
trained expert for paranormal creatures - demons and
vampires, but also things like witches, magic, ghosts
and werewolfes. Or prophecy.
In short, anything popular superstition held.
With one few exceptions...the man was far to intelligent
to be fooled or superstitious, and he was almost as
analytical as any scientist could hope to be.
What he knew was far to accurate and deadly factual to
be just made up by a deranged mind, it just was to
logical.
Jean struggled to come to grasp with the realization
that they had fought REAL vampires last night. And that
she stood in the town built on the entrance to hell, a
very REAL hell as well. Where all sorts of odd things
were possible.
All the old superstitions were true, to some extent. The
peoples had souls, there were demons and monsters by the
bucket, and they had been there for thousands of years.
Forever as far as Giles believed.
Cyclops gaped for the first time she saw him, he was as
much at a loss at she herself.
And so the two X-Men learned about the fact that hell
was not just some philosopher's idea to scare the dumb
masses, but a very real thing and that armaggedon could
be waiting at the next corner any day...that there were,
in fact, several forces on earth who would like to bring
the end of the world about! Or create all sorts of human
suffering and chaos.
How did you deal with the reality of ultimate evil, one
NOT made up to describe a human being, however deranged?
Jean had no idea either but she had a headache.
And Rupert Giles was shivering in his chair, glaring at
her like at any enemy.
"So now you know," he said flatly. "What will you do
now?" Kill him?

"Mister Giles, we are no killers," Jean said exhausted.
"We are, sort of like you, there to protect others and
safeguard human lives."

"You do not behave like good men, or women."

"I know you have a hard time to believe it," Jean slowly
answered and then asked him what he would have done if
their positions were reversed. She had to assume that a
black agency from the government or renegade mutants was
controling this town to conduct experiments. Making up
the vampire-like creatures as a tool of war.

"Why would anyone do that?"

"There is always a demand for new weapons," Cyclops said
grudginly. "Especially nowadays. There are humans as
well as mutants who think there will come a war...and
your friend Alexander, Magnus, he is one of them."

"Ridiculous," Giles said. "Xander has been with us for
years. He has been fighting as anyone and I never saw
him display any sort of power. And there were situations
when anyone would have, more than enough!"

"That may have been true in the past, Mr. Giles. But for
about eight months there has been a Magnus with the
brotherhood and he has been part of several acts of the
brotherhood...acts commonly referenced as terrorism,"
Cyclops answered unhappyly. "The brotherhood would be
more than anyone else interested in means to do much
damage."

"You think them capable of mass murder?"

"Mr. Giles, just a couple of weeks ago the founder of
the brotherhood and mentor of Magnus, a mutant by the
name of Magneto, had very nearly killed fifty million
humans," Cyclops rasped out. "You can guess that they
would have no qualms about killing all five billions
on the planet if they only were sure to get rid of
them without a danger to themselves."

Giles clenched his teeth. "I can quite believe that
part about the terrorist, yet I...I cannot believe
Xander Harris could be part of...any such crimes,"
he finally declared. "Even if he is a mutant, he is
no murderer. I know him enough to say THAT!"

Cyclops looked at Jean and she nodded. Giles did
believe that. It didn't mean it was true.
In fact, a short time later - after discussing recent
events and the battle at the factory, for whom Giles was
quite impressed - they saw Willow Rosenberg reawake from
her sedation. She was unable to speak, but she could
write. And she did say something else than Giles wanted
to hear, and Jean was sorry to see that good man suffer
such betrayal.
For Xander Harris had broken Willow's jaw and he had
admitted to being a mutant. He also said something
else, Willow was fairly busy writing her story down.
It was not so long.
But quite horrible.
The girl Magnus had brought to the ER was his human love
and she had been pregnant. Willow had come to him in the
total wrong way at the total wrong time. And she just
got killed by people she called the commandos.
Giles had told them a bit about some unknown group of
soldiers, who had started to cause worry in Sunnydale
lately. They did not know who they were and what they
were after, but they didn't look like good guys.
"Oh my god," Giles whispered as he finally had read the
lines Willow wrote him. "Oh my god..."

He could say that aloud, Jean thought. It was a she had
thought. A powerful mutant, found and trained by the
brotherhood. And now one with so much more hate.
>From all she had learnt so far, Xander Harris was just
a warrior, in his own way. A very brave man who did not
hesitate to fight an enemy, even one more powerful than
himself. Giles had called him resourceful and he had to
be - to survive four years in this town, fighting demons
and monsters. She had seen the things in the factory and
she had still been threatened, despite her powers.
She would not have gone there that easily if she had
known what to expect...and if they had been a bit less
lucky, if Wolverine had been slower to save her first,
they very well might have lost someone.
And then such a man suddenly became a mutant and got all
the power he might ever have dreamed about...and found
himself just thrown into the next war.
Small wonder he reacted by his nature - fight the enemy
to your group, fuck the disadvantages. And now he had
gone completely over to Magneto's camp.
Small wonder Sabretooth came here to get him, if they
wanted to break Magneto out of his prison they needed
all the capable man they could get.
Whatever they did in Sunnydale now, they had failed
miserably.
And then Willow had to add another scrawl.
A note about the commandos going for them, for Buffy in
particular.
Buffy Summers, the Slayer.
The poor girl. Jean knew damned well how it was to find
herself fundamentally different from the rest of the
world.
But how much worse was it for a Slayer? A girl who got
called at her late teens, bestowed with some set of
superpowers and then had to go out during the night and
fight the creatures up to her death.
Which usually was not very far away.
She had at least someone else, she had had the school
and Charles Xavier. Other mutants had not and they had
just been bullied by some normal humans, they had not
been forced to fight inhuman nightmares to their death.
And now Buffy Summers got also hunted by a different
enemy, one she had no idea of...

"Oh my," Giles said shocked. "That...that...are you
sure of that, Willow?" She was, she nodded crisply.
Thought that Xander had been sure - Magnus.

Jean bit her lip and closed her eyes. Here these people
risked their life and well-being unasked, put everything
on the line for others who would never come around to
thank them...and now the same humans sent some scummy
black ops unit after them.
It was easily understandable what a black agency might
do. These vampires would make some ideal army, if one
could control them somehow. And the people looking for
the tools to fight mutants would see nothing beyond some
other odd mutations in them.
She could have laughed.
Not even the mutants themselves ever expected to be
confronted with real demons and hell...who would?
And now that black agency had started to hunt mutants.
They must have tried for Sabretooth and their soldiers
died for it, now they had tried the same with Magnus and
failed again. And this time they got the man angry as
anything.
That bode ill for them, great ill.
"You know you need help?" she said. "These black ops
types have the damnable character flaw never to come
alone - or leave you alone afterwards!"

"What could you do, Miss Phoenix?"

"There...are people who can hide you," Cyclops said.
"A new identity at least, some new place to live in."

"I appreciate the offer, yet...my duty binds me to
this town," Giles smiled saddly. "Even if there is any
more danger to us...again."

It should not come like that, Jean thought. These brave
people should not be treated like this. Especially with
some shadowy government agency, some HUMAN agency, doing
that, it was so...so against the very idea of their
fight!
But then, that assumed the brotherhood would leave much
of them standing. If Magnus was as powerful as it was
looking like, and he certainly was even more angry than
it looked like, he might not leave much standing.
They still had no idea of his true powers after all.
Now, what could he do?
If he were Magneto, Jean knew the black agency got an
enemy for live. Magneto still had been hunting old Nazi
war criminals and executing them after more than half a
century.
Magnus, Magneto. All the missions seem as if Magneto
himself had done them. Was that the key? Was Magnus
someone with similiar powers as Magneto?
If he were, god may help them. The X-Men had barely won
their fight against him the last time...they only made
it because he had been weakened from his contact with
Rogue. Before, Magneto had overwhelmed them with the
most frigthening ease. If he had wanted them killed, he
could have done so.
The idea of facing a PAIR of that at the same time was
enough to give her nightmares, that is if she had not
already been more than full of those after the factory.


#13
Bodyswitching


Buffy awoke with some pain in the ehad and an unfamiliar
feeling in her body - weakness. She felt incredibly weak
right now. Only time she had been like that was...right
during her cruciamentum. When her power was neutralized
by some venom Giles had injected her with.
She opened her eyes...and blinked.
Where was she?
Dully, her memory kicked in. She had been hunting Faith
and Willow had handed her a list of locations to look
through. One of them had been some old warehouse and
she had just came in when something had hit her in the
back...and sent her down into unconsciousness.
Next, she awoke her.
She felt weak and unfamilar and she was bound to some
bed. Expertly bound, quite naked (she felt ashamed at
that) and very furious.

"Don't bother to flee, B," a voice said. Strangely
familiar. Buffy mover her head and nearly had a stroke,
there she saw...herself. From the OUTSIDE. But it was
only her body, in it was...Faith. She stood there, her
body language and her speech quite the proof. "You are
not able to, right now anyway."

"Faith," Buffy coughed out. "What have you done?"

"Nothing. YET!" Faith replied, smiling. Her smile.
Buffy felt ired just by the sight of it. "You see, the
boss left me this place and some little tool. A device
to exchange bodies. Pretty useful, isn't it?"

"You bitch!" Buffy howled. And knew that even IF she
got away from the bed and into a fight, in Faith's
weakened body she would stand no chance against Faith
with her own, fine tuned fighting machine.

"Don't worry," Faith answered magnanimously, bowing like
a star at a stageplay before her. Smiling nastyly. "See,
originally I wanted to go out and do that anyway. But I
never expected you to come to me so easily." Buffy just
snorted, anything else was barre dright now. "Whatever,
you don't have to worry about your live. I do not want
to hurt or kill you."

"You're scuh a comedian," Buffy spat back.

Faith shrugged. "Believe it or not, B. Last time I said
I messed up, whatever. Still didn't justify you gutting
me and now you will pay for that."

"Oh, what will you do? Take out the irons and the whip?"

"Well, I might have an idea for whips," Faith said in
complete honesty and blinked. Buffy felt utter dread
climb up from her stomach. "No, I will just give your
boring old live some quirks...originally I wanted to
irritate you a bit before, bang up red's girlfriend
tomorrow for starters."

"As if you hadn't done that already!" Buffy acidly
pointed out. "You murdeorus psycho bitch."

"WHAT?" Faith exclaimed, astonished. "You say someone
else beat me to that? Wow. Really dangerous world out
there!" She laughed, as if it was terribly amusing.
And worse, Buffy found herself believing her. "Anyway,
I just wanted to tell you I'll be fucking your boy
tonight. And then I'll kick him away, do some nasty
things about that boring John Boy's self esteem."
Faith grinned wide at the thought. "For the rest, I am
not sure yet. Mhm, I'll probably kiss a woman in front
of your mom - or shall we try the full game? I am so
eager to see how it feels in your body. You are so
easily excited..."

"Faith," Buffy said, alsmost whining. "What sort of mad
scheme is that?" Especially, whom do you want to kill?
She could not just go to those lengths just to get Riley
in her bed, or could she?

"It's just called revenge, Buffy. Lean back and sleep a
while, enjoy the ride. And I really do want that body
of mine back," Faith said smuggly. "And when I'm through
with this, you will know how people look at me exactly."

"Is it that? Make me see what life is like for you?"

"That is part of it. And Buffy, I hid the machine. I
am the one and only girl who can give your back your
body!" Faith declared proudly, coming closer and then
touching her. Making a sound of delight as she moved
her fingertips over naked skin. "You know, you were
supposed to come to me that night, loose the fight and
beg. And then I would have saved your tame vampire and
got my night with you. We would have spent the Ascension
in my bed. And you would have enjoyed it!"

"You're sick," Buffy answered gravely, she drew as far
back from the touch as possible. Even if she felt some
tingling sensation. "I do not go for girls. Ever."

"Well, you'll soon get the rep. I plan on dancing naked
in plain sight of a crowd, fuck some hot cunts. Maybe
even Cordelia. She was good at that, so good."

"Try another one."

"No joke, B. Queen C is really some litte screamer, know
what I mean? Boy, she has these great breast and when
she gets on top...well," Faith grinned, shrugging some
old memories of a very good time away. "I just wonder
why she got that fit about Xander kissing Willow. She
did way more than that with me and she never had any
problems about it."

Buffy bit her lips to withold any scowl.

"Oh, and B? I fully intend to fuck Xander in this body.
Owe him one for our last date in the hotel," Faith said
grinning. "And just because I like you so much, one
word of advice. You really should look into your donut
guy more. He might...surprise you." She laughed as she
began to intensify her touch. "And now we will fulfill
my dearest fantasy. Just lean back and enjoy, B. As you
will. Remember, I know exactly what that body wants!"

Buffy held her breath and tried no to moan as Faith
expertly massaged the naked breasts of her - heck, the
language part really got complicated there! Faith, in
Buffy-body, kissed Buffy's breasts, well, they were her
own. And she knew every hair in her own body.
Buffy closed her eyes as she felt the borrowed body get
wet and excitement raise her boobs. Faith grinned wider
at that, the tip of her tongue wandering around at the
belly area now. Then the thighs.
Fingers twirled a nipple.
Buffy bit back a moan. She was not going to enjoy that,
she was not going to enjoy being raped, she would not.
Faith had to get the face between the legs and start to
lick her clit - and Buffy felt equally disgusted by
the whole ordeal as aroused. She loathed the thought of
HER face down there, HER tongue wandering through the
intimate area. And then doing more wicked things.
Then Buffy could not help the moans, streaming away
between curses and oaths to revenge herself for that.
Faith only laughed and went at it with more delight.
Promising she'd kiss Riley with a taste of that juice
on her tongue before she brought orgasm to her.
Buffy screamed in helpless rage.
If she just had been raped, it certainly was the most
tender sort of rape she had ever heard of...so far.
Still, it had been non-consensual sex.
And Faith had repeated the procedure four times before
she left and Buffy could only stare after her, captured
in that bed and with an IV up her arm.
Buffy felt raw and exhausted, extremely exhausted and
great. Faith certainly knew how to get her to orgasm!
Buffy resisting as much as possible had only worked to
enlarge Faith's joy.
Buffy could see how Faith had stripped for her and then
brought herself off, had fingered the core that was not
her own by right of birth. Had danced for her.
Buffy tried to forget it all, but she could not. She
had been raped by another woman. She was about to get
raped even worse, her live would be turned upside down.
And the worst was - if Faith did not return, she might
be captured in her and starve to death or something.
There was noone around who would come for her screams.
There was no way to escape.
She could only wait for Faith to destroy her live.
And, yeah, the excuse will be so great. A murdering
psycho with a fixation on my ass bodyswitched with me,
then fucked up my whole live and left me in the dirt.
Great way, either they thought she went for drugs or
she went nuts, and either way she was finished.
Buffy feared that Faith would leave her as some other
nutty, perverted criminal the cops were after. Just what
she yet had to add to her list of worries, the cops.
What the hell had gone wrong?


#14
Signs


A dark room, with a window barred by wood planks. Nailed
shut to keep out the hated light of the sun, so that the
children of the night could stay in here. It was not
much better than a dump, but it was a safe dump.
The new vampire twitched and rose, blinking. Her face
morphing into the demonic features betrying the nature
of the beody's new inhabitant.
She sat up and got thrown a bag of blood, the samm of it
so delicious. She tore the plastic apart and drank it
all down and it was great - no matter that it seemed a
bit stale and she lusted after warm, live blood.
The sire sat on the floor across from her, grinning. A
smoke in his mouth, a wry grin in his human face. He
tugged at the collar of his duster and clung to the cell
phone he used right now.
"Yes," he said. "Your plan really worked out, mate."
It seemed a bit annoyed and happy at the same time, and
the new vampire was not that interested. All it - her -
cared about was blood. She needed more of the red fluid,
more. She wanted to hunt. Barely she remembered the name
the human shell had, the past buried in the brain.
The sire looked at her and she stopped to groan and
waited, patiently. In fear of the power in this eyes.
"Little red's all tears and such, and now they're all
totally wrong about who did it," the sire said, amused.
"Wonder how they even find their own ass in the dark,
know what I mean?" He laughed, roughly. Viciously.
"Yeah, I'll just bet they'll let my new girl get her,"
he said next. "Doesn't matter. She's dead meat either
way, trust me. The bitch will break after that."
The vampire smiled, blinking. Fangs flashing. She was
getting to hunt someone. That was...good.
The sire talked a bit more with his cell and then he
killed the connection. "Well, well, well, puppy. What
shall we do with the hours to sundown, huh?"

"I have some ideas," the female vampire said, after one
hunger remembering another. And due it was, the human
she had been before certainly had not gotten her share
of the action. Time to make up. She began to strip her
clothes. "What do you want me to do?"

"Good girl," the sire grinned, dark eyes sparkling with
clear evil. "Well, how about you starting with some
good, old blowjob? And remember, you swallow."

"There any other way?" the vampire said, licking her
lips and moving closer. Her hands reaching for his
croch and tearing at the zipper. "Say, will I get more
blood?"

"Baby, with that coupe done, you'll soon get all the
blood you can dream of!" the sire chuckled, moaning as
she began to do him. "Oh, you're a really wild one...
keep doing THAAAT!"


#15
It wasn't at all planned like that!


It had been almost easy, Faith reasoned. Almost. Riley
Finn had acted that understanding and happy when she
came to him, looking startled and in tears over her hurt
girlfriend. Some sweet moves later they had made love.
Not just what she came to do, no.
Faith had played Buffy well enough that he asked her if
she was sure, they had waited longer and played with
each other before going at it. So much time wasted.
Seemed as if B really like arousal and excitement, the
sweet tortures. Figured.
Faith never had the stomach for that ones. She wanted to
get him horizontal, rip away the pants and get going. Or
just about something like that.
She never had met anyone who would have done otherwise,
she never had made love. Left her pretty confused.
It was just the feeling, not that the sex was so great.
The trust in his eyes, the open face.
And wonder why, holy shit, it all came apart.
It was not that she fell in love with the man, no way.
Faith saw a boring, self-righteous asshole in Riley. He
even seemed to be a real prick, neat and all as he was.
Even his bed, crap, who had such a bed outside of some
military academy and such? Tidy, the cloth so tense one
coin would have jumped right up again.
Guess scaring her will have to be enough, Faith decided
as she kissed Riley goodbye. She did not have to fake
being confused and unsettled then, just full of self
doubts and uncertainty. Had she been doing the right
thing? Poor boy didn't know how B's life was, with the
monsters lurking in the corner.
She really did not want to mess it all up.
"Buffy, please, don't leave me now," he begged.

"Riley, you and me...that...maybe it's just a mistake,
maybe...oh damn, I need time to think about this!" she
croaked back. "My live is...complicated."

"If you were not ready, why did you come here?"

"I thought I was," Faith had told him, smiling saddly.
"Don't take it personal, Riley, but I...I just don't
know if this can work out. You and me and all that
other stuff."

"I can help you. Whatever it is, I can help you to
deal with it," Riley assured her, pleading. So much of
a puppy dog. "Buffy...just tell me what it is."

"Maybe another time," Faith said, grimacing. Looking
at him with regrets. Damn, she came apart like the
proverbial heartaching teenie girl! Where was the
tough Slayer who got some and got gone? Dead, after
being stabbed in the gut and falling some five stories
on a moving truck. "Be seeing ya."
And then she had left.
Faith grabbed her clothes and, for all effects, ran out
from Riley's without even showering. She guessed B would
have trouble enough to reset that one.
She went to the hospital to find Tara sleeping alone,
faintly wondering who had done that. Surely it had not
been HER.
Strangely, there was noone else around. No Giles, no
Willow, noone sat there to stand guard over the sleeping
witch.
Strange, she mused, but only until she learnt that a
Willow Rosenberg had ended up as a patient herself. Now,
whom did she know who managed to get banged up inside
of a hospital?
Faith laughed and decided against visiting Willow. That
would not be nice, no, no. She wrote a short message for
red, something that guaranteed Willow going for imminent
thermonuclear meltdown. And now she would go out and be
seen dancing at the Bronze and having a cherry good time
and fuck some guy HER way. B had no idea what to do with
such a sensitive body as her own anyway.
Looked as if god had something against her tonight for
as she came near to the exit there was some hairy guy in
a biker's leathers. Wild guy, maybe thirty. A bit old,
but right up her alley. Maybe he'd get the ball and
follow her and they could go for a quickie.
Faith gave him a checking glance and grinned, then went
her way with moving her hips and ass. Now, now, where
had Buffy learnt how to do THAT? Seemed as if blondie
had some bitchy secrets in her past, too, if her body
still remembered the bitch in heat walking style.
And, ah, the hairy gun followed her. Good.
Faith was heavily thinking and came to the entrance when
her eyes widened. She took two steps forward and stopped
dead in her tracks.
Just great, of all places to be she had to be here,
right where Mrs. S showed up. Faith was not sure how to
deal with B's mom, who had been a nicer person than her
own mother. 
"Buffy," Joyce Summers called out, moving towards her
with a broad smile and no good intentions. "Stay right
there, little missy!"

"This is really not the time," Faith said as her spider
sense began to tickle. Damn, B's sensing skills were as
lousy as ever...there was some vampire around. Where the
hell was...?
And then she had her jaws hanging open as Joyce vamped
out right before her eyes, coming for HER with fingers
turned claws, and Faith reacted.
She ducked the stupid grab attack and gave Joyce some
nasty uppercut, whirled and repeated the act and then
used a spin kick to send her sailing against the wall.

The vampire was screaming in surprise and fury, looking
at her as she regained her footing and balance. "You
will not do that again, Buffy!" Joyce shrieked. "I am
_your_ mother!"

"Some bossy delusional ho you are," Faith laughed as
she reached for a stake. Now, B would go ballistic
over that, and she'd probably be dead meat right now.
"Comeon, fanggirl, let's finish this. Haven't got all
DAY, er, night, you know?" She let the blonde vampire
come at her and easily sidestepped her, not caring who
watched. She slammed the stake home with practiced ease
and then Joyce grabbed at it in wonder. Right before
she was nothing more than some pile of dust.
Great, and who had to tell this to B? Sorry there, your
old hag of a mommy was a bit vamped and came for you,
dusted her right away and how was your day!
She laughed hysterically. B would really be going
spacewards after that. Nah, wasn't HER problem!
She didn't have to tell B, did she?
B would learn soon enough anyway.
Faith looked around, another stake at the ready and
scanned for more vamps but saw none. Only some crowd
of staring humans and the biker, gaping at her.
She shrugged and threw him a kiss before she turned
around and went out before some genius got any ideas.
Remembering the way the minds of Sunnydale residents
worked, they would just forget about the whole incident
by the next day.
And she had to get to the Bronze.
Mhm, maybe she'd feel better in some classy thing
either. Being in anything else but some tank top,
leather jacket and skin-thight leggings wasn't so
great.
She got as far as to the parking lot before the biker
caught up with her, placing a hand on her shoulder and
calling her to wait.
She ripped free, but she had to put some effort in that
and that was just a human, wasn't he? It certainly did
not feel like one, from the amount of strength she had
used. "Watch it right there, buddy," she hissed at him.
Noone touched her without HER permission, noone!

"Okay, okay, I don't do anything!" he said, raising his
hands in a gesutre of peace. Studying her intensely.
"Um, you don't happen to be...Buffy Summers, are ya,
kid?"

"That's my name," Faith lied and wondered what he wanted
from Buffy. And right now? "Who're you?"

"Wolverine," he said without flinching. Odd name. "Say,
you know that your Wachter, that brit, is looking for
you?"

"Well, I ain't looking for HIM," Faith answered amused.
Giles would probably look through her facade within a
few minutes. "Thanks for the news, anyway, Wolverine."

"Say, you're a cold one or what?" Wolverine asked her,
just curious. "Last I heard, two of your friends are in
there and you didn't even visit them?"

"Got things to do," Faith declared with a shrugg. And
wrecking B's social standing and live was top of the
list. "Hey, can you do me a favor? Go an' tell that old
stuffy ass of brit I'm outa this, gonna go the L.A. for
a couple of weeks."

"Wha...?" he gulped.

"Men, you can be DENSE!" Faith tried her last defense,
shoving him away with radiated fury. "I just dusted my
dear ol' hi of a mom, capisce? I AM OUT!" And then she
turned and wanted to run.
Fuck it all, it was never supposed to go that way!
And then the shit really hit the fan as some vans shot
out of nowhere, tires and brakes screached as the vans
came to a halt. And out stormed the stromtroops, black
body armor on black masks with black uniforms and some
fancy weapons there.
Faith made wide eyes - was the whole world going nuts
now or had she finally reached the bend? Didn't matter,
she began to move right away as the first commando was
aiming some of that fancy hardware her way.
Run close and deck him, his comrade, duck a beam...what
the fuck was that? Star Wars? And why in the name of
shit did some bunch of overarmed HUMANS go gunning for
a Slayer?
Faith screamed and let loose, noone took HER down any
easier. She curshed a windpipe, rammed some fingernail
into an unprotected eyeballs and laughed as they began
the screaming and dying. Shitty bunch of humans.
She saw the biker, Wolverine, stagger back after some
hits and he had some shiny long metal claws coming out
of his hands. Wow there, that was some gear! Better than
any of her party toys by a long way.
She lashed out and heard bones break and she got hit by
some of the blue beams, electric shock taking effect.
She didn't go down, she was weakened and really angry
now. She howled and grabbed the soldier who had shot her
and then a human gave his deathcry as she broke his neck
with brute force. Big mistake, though. The commandos
were everywhere and they shot her up right next. She
felt her muscles go limp and saw red and agony as a
dozen stunbeams wrecked her in the next seconds.
"Shit," Faith gurgled. "That wasn't...planned..." And
away she was.
She never saw Wolverine fall down as the commandos took
him right besides her.


#16
Strike out


Spike listened to the raven demon whom he had hired to
watch the Slayer during daylight hours. He gave him a
big smile. So, Buffy had found Faith and walked away to
her boytoy. Meant she had won. And now was en route to
the hospital to see her friends.
Interesting, highly interesting.
He promised the demon he'd get paid like usual and then
send his tool out to get Buffy. Even if she won, she'd
be destroyed. If she got to fight she certainly would
dust his new childe, and in a few hours she might be a
total wreck. Just the right condition for him to finish
her...oh no, he would not leave it at that. He would go
to the hospital and drain her friends first.
But right now he wanted to go elsewhere.
Who would have thought, the mayor hiding some bolthole
under this wreck of a warehouse? Tricky guy, that man.
But not tricky enough to overcome that blasted blonde.
Spike was unsure what he should do now.
He still went into the secret chmaber in the basement
and found a naked brunette girl bound on some bed,
expertly bound. Wow there. Seemed as if Summers had a 
practical side...Spike admired the beauty. She would
make such a good dinner, but he never went for some
helpless Slayer before.
And he would not, now.
"Hi there," he said as the girl looked up at him. Slowly
awakening from her slumber and then panicking. "You must
be Faith. Heard a lot about you."

"And you're Spike," Faith said, eying him warily. "And
likewise."

"Hope it was bad."

"You're one of the worst," Faith said without much of a
meniacal grin. "They also say someone has cut of your
balls."

"Don't believe everything you hear," Spike said amused
as he neared her. A cold hand touching bare skin. Mhm,
a Slayer. Only Angel ever fucked a Slayer. He'd been
quite near there, once, but never scored. "Delicious. If
I didn't know her better, the little bitch might have
SOME fantasy after all...or was that your idea?"

"Yeah, I really like to be tied up by my mortal enemy,"
Faith laughed, tugging at her bounds. "What's it gonna
be next, Spike? Kill me or fuck me?" She laughed. "As
if you could do either."

"Oh, wouldn't it be a real waste to kill you?" Spike
then gloated, doing away his belt. Time for some little
fun. "After all, the dumb bitch still thinks YOU have
banged that annoying witchgirl. Talk about stealing
credit for someeone else's"

"Huh?" she made and then her mind worked it out. "So.
That was YOU?" Not really a question.

"Bet on it, girl," Spike grinned and lowed his pants.
Buffy had left him some prize here, and he would not let
that opportunity pass. She looked at him, suddenly she
smelt scared. "Oh, I don't kill a dark Slayer. Who can
say he ever had a willing Slayer?"

"Angel," Faith replied before a grin grew on her face.
Her legs moved apart a little bit, an invitation. She
breathed harder, looking at his dick. "Oh wow."

"Mine is bigger than his," Spike said with maly pride.
"So, what did the bitch do to you?"

"Beat me up from behind and bind me here," Faith said
and grinned. "To bad she didn't have the stomach for
more...might have been fun..."

A real tough slut she was, and it turned him on.
"Don't worry, I'll give you ALL the pleasure you lust
after," Spike said. He would not kill her, not now.
But he didn't want the Slayer - Buffy - to go down
thinking that psycho had been the one to do it to her.
"Say, you interested in some little job?"

"Maybe."

"Good. 'Cause there's some redhead witch in the hospital
right now," Spike said and chuckled. "Believe it or not,
that geeky looser Harris punched her out and left. Seems
unbelievable, isn't it?"  He freed her legs.

"Xander? Striking Willow?" Faith gurgled, wide eyes and
then she groaned as he rammed his erect member into her.
No long foreplay, Spike grinned at her and she spread
the legs, slung them around him. "Aw...good...!"

"Better be, bloody fucking hell," Spike said and admired
her breasts. If she was what a Slayer could be like,
maybe it would be a splendid idea to drive more of them
mad, bad and dangerous. "Yeah, the looser had enough of
them pulling his strings and ran away. Probably to blow
his own head off."

"Ssavessss me the trrroubllle t-tto kiiiill him," Faith
acknowledged while coming on to him. She breathed harder
and faster and her hands tugged at her restraints. Her
nice ass ate his dick whole and Spike licked her breats,
his fangs scratching her sensitive skin. "Oh yeah."

Wow, what a whammie! To bad she was a Slayer, didn't
turn so well, Spike thought. She certainly had some
way to fuck and he always liked the crazies. What was
live without a little bit of madness? Or some not so
little bit of that. He grunted and thrusted harder,
feeling her warmth - unusual for a vampire, one ate
humans and didn't fuck them. But...he could get used
to that. He moaned. Slayerblood so near, just had to
bite and suck. He came into her hard, grinning wider.
"Like that, huh?"

"Much," Faith admitted freely. "Now, can I get that
released?"

Spike, busy admiring the two breasts and stroking her
skin, turned his head to a side and told her to wait
for later. Much later. He wasn't finished and he was
on top right now, which he liked very much.
"I'll fuck you bloody raw, bitch," he promised her
with a mean glint in his yellow demon eyes, posing
before her. "Scream for me, babe."
She screamed. Not that good at it, but her animal growls
were fantastic. And that strenght! Even weakened, she
was a Slayer. Didn't break so easy as the rest of the
mortals - and he made use of that, sat up and felt her
legs on him. Slung around him hard enough to break bones
in mortals. Like sex with a vampire.
Spike kept true to his word, he fucked her raw. And he
learnt she liked to hold back as long as she could
before shuddering in a really violent orgasm. Ata, girl,
he thought. She knew how to have serious fun.
But he had things to do yet and lots of them.
So he freed her and let her run, there would be time
enough later on. Then he could fuck her brains out.
And Faith would just raise some nice little bit of
mayhem of her own.
Spike decided he needed some blood and with that blasted
thing still keeping him from proper hunting, the next
certain source was Willie's bar.
Go for a drink and then see the hospital and what was
left of the people he had sent Joyce after. Turning her
was some real feat, mixing that vampire blood in her
drink and then cutting open her veins. Still, he had
been lying on the floor with that big a migraine.
The mother of all Tylenol moments.
Spike could barely wait until his employer would deliver
the next dose of the painkiller. He so loved to hunt and
without the stuff it HURT to much. Even with it, there
were limits to what he could do.
One of these days he would have to find some of these
bloody commandos and make them spill what they did to
him. And how to reverse it.
Right now, he wanted some drink.


#17
Preperations


Funny what you can miss, I thought. Oh yes, when I came
back to Sunnydale and buried what I had brought from the
mutant brotherhood, I had made my own bolthole.
Unfortunately, I never took to really furnish the place.
Meaning that simple things like a bed were missing as
much as any mirrors. And right now I needed a mirror.
Okay, it was a bit of arroganze and vanity that made me
wish for a mirror. But I never wore that grey and black
body armor with the coat for long, the copy of what dad
had made for himself. 
It was not just a fashion statement either. The cloak
was ballistic, the armor ingrained with metal so it was
easier to fly, there were certain other instruments.
Most notably a helm that protected me against telepathic
assaults and screening. Funny thing, that one.
Whatever. One would be surprised what I had come across
in the last six to eight months, I certainly had my own
stash of equipment and I was finally going to use the
stuff as had been inteded right away.
For a few hours I sat in the dark room in the roof of
some decyaed building, it wasn't easy to get in there if
one could not climb over the roof or fly. By the way,
the place was a ruin. The roof leaked, there were all
sorts of rodents and dirt piled high, the walls were
crumbling and the wood was decaying. The whole structure
war pretty unstable, barely able to support the room I
was interested in.
I still just said there and wept, wept for the live that
might have been and now never was. Then I made plans and
preparations, planned my next moves.
Suiting up without a mirror was a real bitch. That armor
outfit was not just there to look cool, anyway. If I had
that much trust into my power like dad, I would not make
half the effort. So I took knifes, pistols, ammo and many
other weapons as well as some amount of explosives with
me. The commandos were going to get their ass kicked.
I made some calls before I went out and I had to secure
another building, get someone to come over from LA.
I much doubted anyone would expect that, it was always
good to have five or six aces in the hole. Maybe Willow
would have loved to kill me if she had known I fooled
her that big...taking out the Amy-rat and then leaving
another rat in the cage. She had spent most of a year
with trying to come up with a proper way to break the
spell Amy had used to transfer herself into a rat.
All I then had to do was wait until the spell's effects
wore off and see some naked witch before me. Yeah, well,
I am a bastard.
But Amy was pretty much pissed at all of Sunnydale for
trying to burn her at the stake, her own dad delviered
her there and she had some trust issues. So she was
happy to let the world consider her done for and moved
to east end LA, some place a lot safer than Sunnydale.
At least to a witch that could make anybody blind, deaf
and impotent who annoyed her. One shouldn't doubt what
some good public relations and a few examples of blind
bad fury could do with the gangbangers.
So Amy was pretty much left alone and she owed me big
time, more after I sent her most of what I plundered
from the mayor's magic stash after his downfall.
Okay, it was a nasty joke and the act of theft was some
new thing for me. Could have made a few grand if I had
sold the toys to Willie and his crowd, but I never was
that greedy. Besides, they would have just used it to
cause more harm and Amy wasn't that bad.
And I much liked to have one witch I could trust on my
side. Since I came back I was a lot more paranoid, and
so I came to spy after my friends. Turned out Willow
had been playing around with the lust spells a bit, to
get me in her clutches way back, before Oz. And she had
failed miserably - at least until we were in that tight
spot in the factory, with Spike out to rip us apart.
Anyway, it was Willow who tried to set me up with Cordy
in order to find her shallow and repulsive and then
come to her, discover true love and all.
Except for outsmarting herself, she was a pretty good
manipulator, the meek thing. What she hadn't counted
upon was me and Cordy actually falling for each other.
Wasn't very charming to us, anyway. It had been a big
reason for me to finally punch the bitch out and make
her remember that forever. There was something wrong
with my live, always had been.
And it was all her, just her - my best friend.
Now we were probably even.
The sun had already set down as I went into Willie's
bar, the Alibi, looking for some other people to help
me conduct my revenge. Some duster hid the armor and
the ordonance I was caring, but not the helmet.
I looked at the demons and whatevers in the back and
they looked at me, up from the drink. Most would have
recognized me and then they ignored me and even the
vamps glanced away. Carrying some big cross on the
chest was a good way to get less troubles.
Besides, I was the Slayer's goofy sidekick. Sort of bad
choice in food. What they never realized was that it
usually had not been Miss Muscle who had kept them of
my back but my own handywork. I learnt quite a lot about
hands to hands since that little Halloween, thanks.
Anyway, I was probably the only whitehat in town who
actually paid Willie for information instead of banging
his head against something. The snitch thought I would
not have it in me and boy, was he wrong there!
Anyway, the person I was looking for was at the bar and
sipping some A positive. Always knew Harmony had no real
taste, first she just aped Cordelia - being more Cordy
than Cordy herself - and now she tried to look as if she
were a real evil bitch.
I went to her at the bar and cleared my throat, had her
turn around and look at me. She didn't even vamp out.
For a bloodsucker Harmony was not that bad, she had some
working brain up there. Enough to stay alive so far.
"Harris," she groaned, moving the brown eyes away from
the big cross. She never had liked me a bit. "What is
that supposed to be, the big bossy bitch let's you play
tough guy? Or did you start Halloween early?"

"I have some issue with you, Harm," I grinned and took
out the assault rifle I carried under the cloak. Even
the vampire made some eyes at the weapon as I undid the
safety with a thumbstroke. "Now, either you come with
me on your legs or I'll tow your holed from outa here."

"Have you gone totally crazy?" she asked. "That THING
doesn't kill me, or did you forget?"

I sighed, leveled the rifle and just sent a bullet into
her shoulder, a single shot. She tumbled backwards and
morphed into gameface, then growled at me. Several of
the regulars got pretty pissed. Didn't look like THEY
were feeling bulletproof today.
"Still hurts, doesn't it?" I said casually, turning the
rifle on full auto and moving my gaze to the side where
some scaly demon showed some amount of foul teeth to me.
"And you get lost. Or do you want me to get angry?"

"Oh wow, goofy boy finally lost it," some catlike figure
in a great amount of rags and cloak purred. Her hands
came out of the rags and showed she had claws. "Look,
your Slayer isn't there to protect you tonight, buddy.
So pack that thing away and leave us the fuck alone."

"I do not NEED a Slayer," I said and took out some
concussion grenade with the left hand. No need to show
any power, just give them the real hard psycho bastard
act. Was some fun, by the way. "Anyone around feeling
particularly invulnerable today?"

"Harris!" Willie screamed, at the top of his voice and
real fear for his bar. "Have you totally lost it?"

"Maybe," I said, uncaring. "Shall we find out how many
of you guys I can take with me?" The scaly red demon
in the trenchcoat and the old hat breathed some foul
smell from his mouth and closed the foothole, stepped
back. The catgirl retracted her claws.
I felt a lot of eyes come at me with taxing glances.
Willie stood there, shivering. Insisting that I could
not do that, just come in and molest his guests.
I sneered and kept the rifle pointed to Harmony's head.
Told Willie to shut up and her to follow.

"Or what?"

"Or we'll see if you can live on without a head," I
calmly said. "And don't worry, I don't want to stake
you or such."

"What else could you want from me?"

"Maybe I need fashion advice," I laughed and raised the
grenade. "Move it, cow."

"No need to sink to YOUR level," Harmony said as she got
on her feet and raised her good arm. The other one hung
limb and she still had her gameface on. "You know you'll
die for that, don't you?"

"Feel free to make as many empty threats as you like," I
shrugged, a crooked grin on my face. This WAS fun. Just
show these assholes that a true human being could kick
their asses around, powers or not. Just needed the right
state of mind. Like more than a bit suicidal. And some
bit of firepower along the way. "My cable TV is out and
I need entertainment."

"You need some shrink, Harris," Harmony argued, "and
some years of therapy. Or did you forgot who's hunter
and prey around here?"

I pocketed the grenade again, took a better grip on the
gun and went there. "So long as we let you, deadgirl, so
long as we let you," I sighed. "And I don't."

"Oh great," one of the more human-like demons said, his
lined face radiating disgust as he moved his glass of
whatever to his lips and downed it before slamming it
on the bar. Aloud. "Just what we need. Another damned
psychopath playing with guns!"

"Humans shouldn't have that dumb toys anyway," his big
and broad neighbour agreed. The guy looked like a steel
safe come alive, and he even looked made out of stone.
"We should take it away from him and see how big he's
without it, shouldn't we?"

I trained the rifle on him and pulled the triger, a
short roar and some spent cases clittering on the dirty
floor later he was minus a head. The big great corpse
fell to the floor in another amount of dead silence and
the sound was audible like the rifle's shots. It seemed
louder, somehow. Then the big demon began to dissolve
into some sort of stinking mud.
My ears still were ringing from the burst.
"Get it in whatever you use for thinking," I shouted
angryly. "You do not fuck with _me_ and get away. EVER!"
Harmony thought it was her chance to teach me a lection,
and she was wrong. I expected her to make the move, to
grab at the rifle, and so she found herself holding the
rifle - about to wrecnh it away from my hands. And then
she was seeing a cross really close up against her face,
so close her skin began to burn. With a shrill shreak
she let go of the weapon and jumped back, her hands
clutching at her face. She was screaming and she turned
her head away from the small cross I had attached to my
gloves. "Got that, bitch?"

"Shit, my face! You ruined my FACE! YOU!" a steaming
and horrified Harmony was howling, but she and the rest
of the crowd glanced at me with a newfound respect. Or
newfound fear.

A the leather faced demon, whose pal had just dissolved,
glared at me with eyes glowing red. "You'll pay for
that, Harris," he barked. "Not even your Slayer will be
able to save your live now."

"And I shall be scared by _you_ guys?" I asked, amused.
Maybe I should, I got a few new enemies. As if I had not
enough of those. But what the hell! "Pal, that's a good
one! Just don't fuck with me and I don't fuck you, got
that?"

"We shall see," he said and tried the red eyes again.
Obviously thinking he had some magic trick going for
him!
And he had, I suddenly knew. Good thing that, being
somewhat precognitive. Not that I needed it right now.
Two short red beams shot out of his eyes and hit me,
and then they dissolved with no effects at all.
All that happened was that the amulet I carried around
the neck got hot a bit. Some little protection gadget
out of the mayor's closet, something he'd used before
he became invulnerable. Didn't do crap against any
physical attack and most enchantments, but it made me
immune to all that little combat spells. And most of the
demon tricks. Had Amy identify it and return it to me,
in a manner that I could use it.
"What the...?" the demon gulped, trembling as he'd for
the moment exhausted his powers. "How did you...?"

My answer was me training the rifle at him and then
gunning him down. He was no tough guy and he knew it, as
they all knew they were second rate creatures. And just
smart enough to keep out of harm's way. This time that
particular demon had found his master and he soon was
just some clothes left in a pud of green goo. Stinking
goo. Now, what was it about these demon types?
Anyway, leaden bullets were pretty effective. So much
for the legend that a gun was of no use in Slaying. Just
had to have some alternatives at hand when the lead was
not enough.
The demonic and otherworldly crowd was certainly gaping
and gasping and now the first guys moved out of the
field of fire.
"Don't mess with me," I smiled and kicked the whining
Harmony in her behind as she didn't move fast enough. 
That was the time when Spike came along, to get some
drink. As he still could kick any demon ass, noone dared
to tell him otherwise and he stayed much out of trouble.
Whatever, I couldn't stand the asshole anyway.

"Harris?" Spike said, looking at Harmony. "What in the
name of hell are you looser doing here?"

"What I should have done a year ago," I said and gave
him a full shot of ammo. Barely five steps away the
rifle's muzzle fire seemed to reach out and touch the
vampire. Anyway, two dozen bullets shot through the
peroxid-blonde vampire and tore big, gaping holes into
him. Spike fell down and tumbled backwards, screaming.
Harmony morphed and went for my throat but I jumped
out of the way and used her own force against her. She
jumped at me only to fly into thin air and land in the
dust and roll around. Her wound slwoed her down enough
that I could exchange the spent banana clip of the
AK-47 against the full one, fastened to it with binding
tape right away, and chambered a round.
She tried to run away until I shot her in a kneecap,
then she rolled around on the earth and clutched her
hands at the shattered knee. Howling and screaming.
When I turned around I could see Spike come up again,
hands clutching to keep his entrails within what was
left of his stomach. He didn't look amused at all
with full gameface on and attention turned to me.
"Can't hurt me, remember?" I said, thinking of the
whatever the Initiative had implanted him with. "Now,
just be a good fiend and wait for me to dust you."

"Dream on, sucker," the vampire snarled and produced a
knive from his belt. He threw it with some accuracy at
me but I just ducked it, knowing it was coming. The
knive could have killed me.
Had I been that experienced with my power than dad, I
would have plucked the thing out of the air and sent it
back with interests. So it just got stuck in the dirt.
Now, that was some interesting development! Spike had
tried to kill me. Shouldn't he wither in agony at even
the attempt? "Shit," the vampire cursed, now clearly in
agony. "You asshole..."

I shot his shoulders and knees out, aware that the
vampire healing would get him going again within a few
minutes. Still, that was all the time I needed to get
closer and take out a bottle of holy water. Some of that
on the entrails and wonder what screams even the mighty
Spike had to offer. "HOW can you do that, Spike? What
has happened to your inability to kill?"

"Fuck you," Spike uttered, weak as a kitten. And then
another scream as more holy water got splashed on him,
more burning vampire flesh. "Can't end...not with a...
two-dime asshole like you...shit, gonna kill you...!"

"We'll SEE about that," I said seriously and turned to
look for Harmony. She was crawling away, at least until
I got closer again and shot her in the back. Some more
holy water and she was that scared that she agreed to
keep lying where she was. Then I refocused on Spike.
"Now, do you want to die right now or do I get to make
you scream more? In there are some two or three dozen
witnesses and I bet they're just to happy to tell how
the mighty Spike came to his end."

The vampire stared up to him, unbelieving that is was ME
who did that to him. "Go fuck yourself," he muttered
between gasps of pain. "Won't tell you anything."

Deciding that it wasn't really important for me, I was
about to dust him and be done with it. Thinking what a
great way that made, I still was interested. He had some
sort of control implant, i knew that, and now there was
a way to bypass it...had he disabled it somehwo? No.
It was still active.
Some use of power later the implant began to stimulate
a certain part of his brain, the pain center. That was
how they did it? One short burst of induction there and
suddenly I heard Spike scream. Scream really, really
loud. Thinking back on all that this shithead had done,
including trying to kill me half a dozen times or such,
I decided I liked that. "Hurts, doesn't it?" I grinned.
"Now, Spike, you tell me how you do it."

"Tell you...fuck your...aaaaaahhhh!" he howled, dirty
and ragged and not caring that his shot body got more
damage on him. "I will rip you to shreds for...urgh...
that!"

See, see, the implant still worked. Interesting. I then
spilled a bit more holy water on him, just to get him to 
suffer a bit more. And then I knew the implant was not
the problem but something else. How had he managed to
delay the implant long enough to take out that knife and
try to kill him? I asked the question without getting
any answers, only more curses.
"Let's try something new," I muttered and moved a hand.
Using magnetic induction randomly on the brain. Dad had
told me that was a most delicate endeavor and I should
really be cautious there. But, with vamps, I did not
care about any lasting damage. I got some screams and
more sounds from him, including tears...who believed
vampires could cry? Well, he could.
Something seemed to go wrong, however. For suddenly
Spike's screams stopped and he became dust.
I looked at the remains and then shrugged. He was gone
now and I had other issues. For example, Harmony was
still there. Way to scared to run.
"We learn fast, don't we?" I grinned, pocketing the
mostly empty flask of holy water again. Harmony had her
burned face show a mask of terror as she kept obersving
me and Spike. And how Spike died. She seemed somewhat
taken by surprise, shock.

"You...you killed...SPIKE!"

"And what?" I asked, thinking back to the Judge. Sure,
Buffy had had the honor of firing the rocket. But it was
all mine, my idea and my plan. I had killed more than
enough deadly things to know everything could die. "Just
one badass less around."

"But...he was...Spike," she said. "One of the old, the
great masters, the...the rebel...he took out Slayers!"

"And he died screaming," I laughed, motioned her to get
on her feet. She had troubles, the knee was still not
serviceable. She stood only with great pain. "Move it,
now. We got a deadline to meet."


#18
Tragedy


Rupert Giles stood at the door and looked up as it
opened and his worst nightmare entered. He was all
alone in here, the X-Men were out to search for Buffy
and their own man after the commandos took them right
in front of the hospital.
Contrary to hi susual habit, Giles was not just armed
to fight vampires. He had some old gun, a short-stubbed
.38 pistol with six bullets, and he reached for it now.
Faith came in with a hurry, clad in her leathers and
wild, probably to finish what she started.
Willow soundly slept in the bed behind him.
She opened her mouth to speak, he heard his name and
then he had the weapon in his hand. Out of his pocket.
A frantic attempt to evade him, slow, slow. She was
still weak and underestimated him.
Because he was well versed in the use of firearms, he
and Ethan had not been just using magic to get their
way in the old days. There was a time when they'd done
armed robbery and assault for fun, and been on the road
with no protection save their own strengths. Giles had
spent weeks on weeks to learn how to hit what he was
shooting at. And it was like bicycling, one did _not_
forget it.
"DIE, you slut! DIIIIEEEEE!" Giles shouted as he fired.
The first shot hit her abdomen, the scond shattered
some rib, the third went in besides the sternum, the
fourth bullet hit her throat. The fifth scratched her
head and the sixt hit her squarely in the forehead.
Bleeding and a surprised, frantic look on her face the
brunette girl fell to the hospital floor. Giles stood
there, aiming his pistol at her and still kept firing.
Albeit the hammer only hit empty chambers.
He had no shadow of a doubt that Faith had been the one
responsible for it all - Joyce becoming a vampire, the
commandos taking Buffy, Tara, and now she had come to do
even more. Hardly could be worse.
Giles didn't even flinch as the guards came and took
him away, to the police station. It would not be hard,
after all Faith was a wanted felon...murder, theft and
so on. He had just been defending himself.
Except that mayor Wilkins had cleared her file and that
the woman had NOT been armed - contrary to his belief.
The detectives of the Sunnydale PD grilled him right
away, put him in a hold and had his signed testimony.
And only hours later, as the first rays of the sun
climbed above the horion and touched the barred window
of his cell, did he understand he now was on trial for
murder in the first.
In a state that had the death penalty.
And with elections being due, there would be some quick
trail before his execution...really, really quick.
Strangely, he did not rue anything at all.


#19
Success means undoing


Riley Finn was a happy man, or at least a lucky one.
He did not feel like that, not in any way.
He had felt really like shit when that stunbeam had hit
him and knocked him out cold. Just luck that he had not
taken worse damage when Harris - no, Magnus - striked
back. Somehow he'd been invulnerable to their weapons.
And had killed or knocket out half of his team in just
a few more moments.
Then he'd been away and Riley had woken up again in the
infirmary. With some amount of failure on his name. And
then he'd been barely home again when Buffy came and
bedded him, some great sex later he was just about
shattered as she ran out on him. A complicated live,
yes. And he did understand better than before.
You had your chance, he thought, and reported her as a
mutant. Another agent of the brotherhood here, without
a shadow of a doubt they were after the hostiles, too.
Some weapon for that damned war of theirs. 
But that could be used either way and they would see
their own weapons turend against them.
He was trying to sleep and failing miserably as he got
the news about Buffy's capture alongside with some other
mutant - and hadn't she put up one hell of a fight!
There were eight dead and six heavily injured soldiers
the Initiative had from that fight, all the dead went
on Buffy Summers' conscience.
Just hearing about it he could imagine. She was fast and
strong, like a hostile. Some physical mutant that did
not show herself as what she was, the most dangerous
type of these creatures.
And yet she had not killed him, Riley thought. She had
been almost gentle as they had made love...and she had
been faking something. Interest, maybe.
Oh, I understand you so well, Buffy! Riley thought.
She had been that disgusted with becoming his lover,
with being sent here to do it with HIM - a human. She
had blown her mission.
The only thing he still was not sure about was Magnus.
How had he recognized him? Or was that just his own
imagination?
Whatever, Harris had had some girlfriend. A human, to
that. Or someone who seemed human, she had no real ID.
Riley sighed and looked at the floor. It should not be
like that, they should be able to live in peace...but
the mutants were dangerous, were making war.
Humanity had to take steps to guarantee it's security
and survival, even if that meant to kill the mutants.
There were some who were just to dangerous to live.
He wondered if Buffy was one of those.
Was there ever anything she really felt for him or did
she dream of some scaly, slimy creature with six arms?
Who knew what mutants were!
The scientists were still trying to find out. Should
they. As far as he was concerned, he had done his job.
The area was secure, they held two mutants, had routed
the brotherhood chapter. Sabretooth was on the run and
Magnus as well, he certainly was a thousand miles away
by now. One of them was in prison, for murder to that,
and two others were in hospital.
Maybe some cleanup over the next days and then it all
would be done for. And he could look again for some
girlfriend! But this time he'd make sure she was human 
before he committed himself to any feelings.
Riley crossed the arms behind his head and winced as
his cracked ribs acknowledged themselves. Or some torn
muscles cramped. He gave up the position.
Would take him a few days to recover from the ordeal.
"Awh, fuck," he muttered to noone, he was alone in his
flat. "Maybe I should go again for Graham."

Riley barely heart the glass crack and then something
flew in, he heard the bump as the object hit the floor.
Then there was a bright flash.
His eyes, used to the darkness, were blinded by the
flash grenade and Riley's stunned mind remembered his
training. He tried to move from the bed, try to go for
the hidden stash of weapons and the emergency signal.
The device, hidden inside of his watch, was lying on a
table ten steps away. An eternity.
And right away came the sound of breaking glass and then
a body moved in. As blind and stunned as Riley was, he
never stood a chance. Someone he could only feel, hear
and smell came for him. Some boot smashed into his face,
gloved hands punched against him and then he was yanked
brutally forward. His head hit the wall hard and Riley
goraned, he tried to fight back. But it was just some
feeble attempt, his attacker easily evaded him before he
kicked him down and then some.
Riley spat blood and winced, the attacker kept pounding
his ribs albeit he was already down and defeated. Sheer
act of cruelty, torture. The man produced some cuffs and
next Riley got restrained - very tight and uncomfortable
to that. His arms and legs were bound behind his back
and he got another kick into the kindeys afterwards.
"Bastard," he coughed, as the stun settled and the dread
filled him whole. "You bastard..."

"Believe what you want, Finn. If THAT is, indeed, your
real name," Xander Harris said icyly. Animously. He
reached down and Riley felt his jaw forced open.
Dazed as Riley was, he had not thought about swalloing
his suicide pill. That pill was standard issue for the
Initiative officers and soldiers on a mission.
Riley could not determine how, but somehow the false
teeth containing the poison was ripped out of his
setting and that hurt. He tasted blood and screamed,
spat blood and the tooth away in a reflex.
Next he cursed himself, he had just given away his last
weapon. And he did not even wore a tracer on him. Fuck.
For his neglect of personal security, Riley deserved
punishment - even death.
But that wasn't what Harris was about to give, or at
least not yet. Not after a whole lot of torture. Harris
picked him up and towed him out, not caring about any
damage he did on the way.
Riley was taken into a car and then there was a bag
over his head. Making breathing difficult. When the
car stopped, he got taken out and was brought into
some hose. It smelt rotten, bad.
Maybe he was near the harbour area, he had no way to be
sure. There were others here besides Harris, they talked
or, rather, they received orders by the young mutant.
Riley tried to make himself feel better. Unless the man
was a telepath, he had no way except torture to make
Riley spill any secrets. And he had no idea about what
training he had gotten, he could hold out long.
Maybe enough that the man would kill him.
The bad was taken away and Riley blinked, then he began
to see his surroundings again. There were two women,
blondes. One of them was busy with some pots and to
draw some symbols on the floor. The other, a blonde in
a bloody dress, seemed uncertain and was just waiting.
She eyed him a lot, and Riley shivered as he saw the
facial features shift. A hostile. Now, that confirmed
his theory of the brotherhood being the ones behind the
whole town.
Then he was crucified to the wall, metal cables moved
of their own accort and bound him to a column. Riley
had no idea how the mutant did it, but he did so with
disdainable ease.

"I bet you wonder what I will do to you, now," Harris
said. He stood there, in some body armor and loaded with
weapons quite heavily. He wore a helmet that hid most
of his head and left the face free. These brown eyes
nearly burned with hate and the smile was just cruel.
"You fear what I will do to make you talk, isn't it?"

"What do you want to know, anyway?" Riley asked sourly.
He brielfy cursed himself for not trying the stupid
routine but then, that would have been a waste of time
and effort.

"Nohing much, just everything about the Initiative. The
location of your headquarters, how to get in there, who 
is a member, who pays the bills, who is calling the
shots. What you plan to do," Xander - Magnus - said with
a magnanimous gesture. "You know, I will hear that all.
And despite what you might think, I do not get a happy
on hearing you scream. Why don't we make it easy and
you just talk? I'll kill you quick and clean, then."

"Fuck you," Riley said, quite proudly. He was not that
weak. He looked the mutant in the eyes. "I will not
talk, you bastard." He owed it to the men of his team,
those this mutant bastard had killed and hurt. He owed
it to his whole race to keep and stand the torture.
And he owed it to himself.

"That is, essentially, correct," Magnus answered with
a sober nod. "I will tell you what I will do to you,
however. I doubt you have understood what happens in
this town by now, or are you actually something else
than criminally stupid?"

Riley spat at him but the spat just stopped in midair
and returned to hit himself. Magnus smiled, yet again
he did not hit Riley any worse. "We know you are behind
that monsters out there."

"You couldn't have been further away from the truth,"
Magnus chuckled. "You see, Riley, the answers are in
the past...way before there ever WAS humanity, there
already was hell and the demons and...whatever else."

"Hell," Riley chuckled. "Oh comeon, you really expect
me to believe into THAT shitty religious crap?"

"I don't, but there is some truth. And there is hell,
there are demons. Like it or not, Riley, that is real,"
Magnus began and spun a wild tale about an entrance
to hell, the war between good and evil, demons around
to end the world and souls, the origins and nature of
vampires.
Riley barely believed a word of it all.
Yet, he could believe that Magnus believed this.
The man was obviously deranged.

"So what will you do now?" Riley asked, interested,
hoping beyond all reason there would come a rescue
squad. "Try to bewitch me and spill all my secrets?"

"Oh no, no," Xander Harris sighed. "You killed the
woman I loved, Riley. And the baby she carried. You
should know that I never intended to go back to the
brotherhood and participate in the coming war." He
shrugged. "Whatever else I now do, it is about YOU. Not
you as a person, about the Iniative you belong to, and
about the believes you enforce."

"And what will you do, mutant? Besides making grand
speeches!" Riley laughed, defiantly. Any minute he
stood there was one without torture.

"I will wipe out the Initiative and all members. I will
help to bring down the human rule of earth and you will
become either extinct or our slaves," Xander simply
declared. A statement. "But you, Riley, to you I will
do more. You see, a while ago I meet the most annoying
repentant on all earth. A vampire who had been cursed
with his soul. A man possessed and fighting his own
demon nature for eternity. Oh, his live is about real
suffering..."

"And that is supposed to make me shudder?"

"Oh yes it is. See Harmony over there? She will turn you 
right away, and then you will spill all your secrets,"
Xander nodded crisply. "You will help me to bring down
the Initiative, you will kill your comrades. And they
shall know about it. And after I am then done with you,
Riley, I will see you souled again to know about your
betrayal. To bad you can't kill your own family."

"You're late for that, asshole. Mutants killed them!"
Riley groaned, grumpyly. He laughed. "First time I am
happy about it."

"As I said, to bad. Anyway, we spoke about hell before,
didn't we?" Harris said unmoved. "I will then banish you
to hell for eternity, Riley. I will SELL you to a demon
lord, your eternal torture in exchange for some small
favor to me."

"And that favor is?"

"Something that will help me bring you all down," the
mutant said evasively. "It is nothing big, really."

"Tell me. You want more power, eternal life? What?"

"Truth be told? I just want a little enchantment,"
Xander said, eyes half closed, a bit dreamily. "A spell
that will make anyone I want to fall in eternal love
with me...to become my virtual slave for live."

"What, you need that much to get into Buffy's pants?"
Riley chuckled, disgusted. He saw Xander's face darken.
"Oh, of course. She'd never even touch such a slimy
bastard like you, wouldn't she?"

"Contrary to what everyone believes, not everything I do
is about gaining Buffy," Magnus said slowly, annoyance
on his face. "In fact, Riley, I do respect her far to
much to even consider her."

"Thought you wanted to know I got there first, Harris,"
Riley spat. He would give him as good as he could, maybe
he could raise the mutant's anger to where Magnus killed
him before they mutated him into one of their creatures.
"She came to me and whored herself, as you ordered. Oh,
it was brilliant...your attempt to turn me. Really."

"My attempt...?" Magnus echoed, spooked.

"Of course, I saw through it right away. She really was
such a big waste of time...do you really believe _I_
would fall for such a little slut? I might have been
more tmepted by money. And maybe you shouldn't have
indoctrinated her so well," Riley grinned. "Because she
messed it up, and not only in bed. The worst lay I ever
had...maybe you teach your agents to fuck better in the
future. By the way, I ordered her brought in right after
she ran away in tears." 

Instead of an answer what he got was laughter - loud and
great and meniacal. "You idiot...you _really_ believed
I...and she? Oh, Riley!" he declared, breathlessly. "It
was genuine. I never knew you were Initiative until you
came for me in that alley." He sneered. "And there _WAS_
no brotherhood chapter in Sunnydale, it just happened to
be my hometown." He laughed again. "And your attempt to
lie about Buffy, really. She really liked you - and if
she decided to sleep with you, I bet she was no waste of
time. Like it or not, Riley Finn, but you really let the
best that ever could have happened to you slip away."
Magnus shook his head in another salvo of laughter. "And
here I thought I might HURT you a bit...ah!"

"Nice lies."

"I do not need any lie if the truth is far, far worse,"
Magnus shrugged. "Anyway, I see Harmony is ready...I
bet you are just that hungry, Harm. And remember, if you
fail I will send YOU in his place down there..."

"Don't remind me, Harris!" the hostile snapped, stepping
closer. "Hello there, puppy. Please rest asusred that,
on my own, I'd never choose to sire such a boring and
closed up tightass as you." Her fangs moved closer and
Riley screamed despite himself as she bit into his
throat. He literally felt his life drained from him.
And then, then, he finally believed it. Oh god, no, the
bastard wants me to be eternally damned!
He just had no way to resist anything.
A few hours later, as Harmony sat chained to a wall
and waited for her childe to rise, a bag of blood in
her hand, the vampire with his face awoke and did all
the talking anyone could only hope for.
Riley could see it all, somehoe he was aware of ti and
he could not change anything. It was all so unimportant
compared to the bag of blood he was offered in exchange
for the knowlegde.
Magnus even taped his testimony.
VampRiley didn't think a second about it.


#20
Shards


Jean Grey was sure of one thing, and one thing only. It
had been a very big mistake to come here, to Sunnydale!
Not only did they found themselves pitched against real
vampires and who knew what else was crawling around in
this town, literally the very edge of hell.
They just had come to grab a brotherhood mutant, the
murderous creature known as Sabretooth, and maybe learn
about the mysterious mutant referred to as Magnus.
Sabretooth had escaped them and led them into a trap
that had kept them occupied long enough so that the
lionmen had vanished from the face of the earth.
Now they had to deal with another superpowered villain
going for human/mutant warfare, a secret organization
sending out teams of commandos to abduct people and now
the few people who kept a lid on things in this town
went down in a matter of hours only.
First there was one woman assaulted, then one of their
number was a mutant terrorist and got into a fight with
the commandos - only to loose his family and go totally
crazy and hurt another one badly.
Jean had not much faith into men who hit woman like
that. Poor Willow Rosenberg was scarred for life, with
just one moment of careless violence. Even if she came
on as an absolute ass, as she herself said, Alexander
Harris had no damn right to do this to her.
He had no right to break her jaw and break out half a
dozen teeth in the process, making surgery imminent.
But then, he had no right to kill humans too, and if he
was another member of the brotherhood he would not even
think twice about inflicting casualties.
Right next Buffy Summers, probably the most important
character in the whole town (for she was the one to keep
the forces of darkness at bay), went missing for hours.
Only to show up at the hospital much later, leave a note
that was a real slap into her friends' faces and then
leave the hospital again.
Wolverine, being on guard down at the entrance, had
recognized her from the cemetry they had followed
Sabretooth to. No wonder she had been running around
there at night, it was her job.
Anyway, there had been a vampire coming for her and
Buffy had killed the creature. The fight had been seen
by all people around and the video surveillance cameras.
Disturbing enough to see some ordinary older woman come
in and suddenly change into a monster. But that was just
the beginning.
Buffy had left the building and then, followed by
Wolverine, had been assaulted by the commandos. They
were obviously mutant hunting and it was very easy to
assume that a Slayer was a mutant.
Yet all she knew about mutation showed her that, while
some sort of powers may be inherited truly, the idea of
a strain of those powers transfered for thousands of
years was impossible. Especially if one went at people
beyond direct blood relations and that there always was
at least ONE girl with them around.
The very idea of a secret agency that old, more than
twice the age of the Vatican and the roman catholic
church, was enough to drive anyone crazy. Well, it had
to work, given that this agency was the one line of
defense humanity seemed to have against the end of the
world. In the literal sense.
The commandos defeated Wolverine and Buffy and took
them with them as they vanished again. There had been
some witnessess, however, and Jean had telepathically
interrogated them.
It did not fit to what she had learnt about Buffy that
she seemed to have killed quite a few of the soldiers
sent after her. She rather would expect Wolverine to do
that...and there had been bloodstains indicating he had
not been taken down easily.
Still, they had been taken!
So far they had found out a few disturbing things, very
disturbing things. Like that the vampire Buffy had
killed in the hospital had been her own mother...and
that noone had expected that so far.
Jean wondered how she would feel to see her mother as
the very thing she had been fighting forever and then
have to kill what remained of her. She shuddered at the
mere imagination of what that would do to her.
There was another Slayer out there, a superpowered being
just like Buffy herself. A Slayer gone bad, as bad as
one could be...Faith.
Mr. Giles, Buffy's Watcher (something like the Professor
was for the X-Men), and Willow thought that Faith had
been the woman to assault Tara and maybe tried to hurt
Buffy as bad as she could, weaken her before she came
out to fight her directly. From all she knew, that girl
Faith was just a slightly less dangerous creature than
Sabretooth. 
And they were missing Wolverine, in the one location the
professor and cerebro could not detect him. And then to a
secret agency which might conduct experiments on captived
mutants. As if Wolverine hadn't had more than his fair
share of that already.
They went searching anyway.
In the end they even turned to the informant Mr. Giles
had pointed out to them, a local bar where all sorts of
demons and other creatures hung out.
Jean had not felt very well entering a smoky dirthole
full of barely less murderous creatures than the wild
vampires and demons out on the prowl.
Some of the creatures there had growled at their mere
entering, others had openly leered and she had just seen
enough freaky creatures to make even Sabretooth or the
shapeshifting mutant Mystique look VERY human. A lot of
them resembled Mystique, somewhat at least.
Cyclops had not moved a muscle as some heavily built
creature with red scales and some great mouth full of
sharp teeth (and the worst bad breath she had to smell
in all her years), clearly a demon, had practically
attacked him.
Shouting something about damn humans sticking to their
own damn places and leaving them alone! What a change.
Human-discrimination by the denizens of hell. She had
not been sure if she should have laughed or whined,
or just smash the demon.
Scott had done that as the scaled creature had moved
to close to him and then there were some bits of a
toasted monster flying around.
Which got even more angry growls.
A short moment later, after many of the demons had
huried out and grumbled about how unsafe the damn place
was, Jean had gathered new information. A pair of some
obviously similiar demons and one creature in rags,
which had glowing golden eyes under the dark hood, had
spoken out loud about the plague of freak and psycho
humans. As if the Slayer wasn't bad enough and so on.
The man running that bar, a weasel-like human by the
fitting name Willie the Snitch, had come screaming at
them for killing his guests.
Storm had waved a hand and some wind had blown through
the room, making the rest of the demons groan and leave.
As long as they were able to do so, alive.
Jean rued that she was not able to copy the professor as
a telepath, but she doubted even he could do much with a
demon either. These creatures were somehow beyond mere
telepathy.
Cyclops then began to question the Snitch and soon they
heard a not very freindly tale about Alexander Harris.
Noone had any idea about Faith OR Buffy Summers, but
Buffy's friend Xander had been her.
Willie, and everyone else, seemed to had him labeled as
some goofy sidekick geek to the Slayer. Noone touched
him in order not to get a mad Slayer after oneself.
But it seemed as if they had underestimated the young
man, he came marching in with an assault rifle and some
grenades - looking ready to start a war, totally psycho.
Jean was puzzled, Willie did not see Alexander Harris as
anything but a normal human.
Did Magnus have no power he could use against demons? It
did not sound like that. Sabretooth wouldn't have been
hunting after him for weeks if he hadn't been damned
sure that Magnus was able to free Magneto.
Now, how did Alexander Harris fit into that? Willow had
been sure he had powers. Could he project illusions
and the demons were not affected?
But no, Willie had something to tell about that. Harris
had used a rifle to take a vampire girl capture. One he
had been looking for - the purpose had been unknown, but
it must have been more than just killing this vampire.
He certainly had come over as a psycho, ready to die to
take down any enemy he came across, and he had killed a
number of demons here. He survived a strong magical
attack, too. Now that was somewhat crazy. Or did he have
some defensive power?
Willie did not know.
All he knew was that right outside of the bar Harris and
his prey had run in with another vampire. Someone he
knew as Spike and whom everyone in the bar had been
scared off. Turned out that Spike was some supervillain
who had been hurt by the commandos and since had been
forced into an alliance with Buffy Summers and Company.
Harris had killed Spike and made him scream before, it
looked like a real messy kill. Maybe one with torture
involved.
"If Spike was an ally, why should he kill him?" Storm
had asked astounded. "This makes no sense."

"Hey, the guy is mad, someone killed his girl and since
he's not exactly, you know, stable," Willie whined and
then made big eyes. He was hiding something. A glance
at the flashing red visor Cyclops showed and then he
swallowed hard. "Or...it's been only rumours, but it was
said...Spike had found some way to...break whatever kept
him from killing...just a rumour, though. Anyway, there
was talk of him plying some scheme..."

He really did not know more, Jean thought. And he did
not give to much weight to these words. Spike was far
from the only vampire who had been abducted by these
commandos and had then been returned, unable to kill
anymore. Most had committed suicide within days, others
had tried to continue killing until whatever was in them
had killed them. Yet Spike had survived it far longer
than anyone else.
Willie was not so wondered, Spike had recovered from
serious injuries before. He was an older vampire, far
more powerful and extremely dangerous. In fact, he was
the second most scary vampire Wille knew. Which might
explain why Buffy Summers and her friends kept him alive
and around, he was a very useful asset to them.
It galled Jean for a moment that the Slayer and her
allies resorted to such mean, but then she began looking
at the situation as they saw it. They had not a fraction
of the means the X-Men got, they had next to none backup
and noone else to ask for help...and then they had to
fight villains who commanded vast resources, even who
had control of the whole town and civil authorities.
The late mayor himself had been one of their enemies.
She thought then that Buffy and her friends knew what
they were doing, staying alive in here for years.
They left the Snitch to himself and clean up his bar.

Returning to the hospital showed them that there had
been a crime happening. Mr. Giles, the peaceful and
friendly, albeit a bit distanced librarian, had shot
a girl as she came to enter the room he and Willow
Rosenberg occupied. Mr. Giles had already been arrested
and now sat in a dentetion cell at Sunnydale PD, there
he was waiting for charges to be filed. Right now it
was not about murder but attempted murder and possession
of some illegal firearms.
The latter dissolved quickly, Willow Rosenberg told them
Giles had had a registered weapon. And about the attack,
well, the girl had come in and Giles had thought he was
attack. He had filed a self defense claim.
Only - the attacker had not been armed.
It was, to what Jean could learn from Willow by using
her telepathy, Faith who had been shot by Giles. Which
explained a great deal about why he had opened up on
anyone.
Jean would not have hesitated to use a gun against
Sabretooth herself. If she had thought it would do her
any good.
The girl was hit by five bullets and one scrape, she was
terminally injured, but somehow she still clung to live.
Jean remembered what Wolverine could do and somehow did
not doubt, she even hoped that a Slayer had similiar
recuperative powers. Then the girl might live and the
murder charges would be put down. It seemed pretty
probable that she would survive the ordeal.
Jean, who wanted to know if Faith had been preparing
anything else or knwon more, tried to read the as yet
unconscious girl's mind.
And she reeled back in shock.
The girl - Faith, from the picture - had been shot in
the head, but the bullet was stuck in her skull. The
real reason she was in danger were three other hits:
Primarily her throat wound, but the modern live support
machines she got connected kept her from drowing in her
own blood and suffocation. Then there had been some
bullet near her heart and one hitting some blood vessel
in the abdomen. Both had been taken out in an emergency
operation and the doctor had made it. She looked as if
she would make it now despite heavy bloodloss.
Jean wouldn't have any doubts if Faith had been in some
normal physical condition, but after waking up from a
coma lasting months she was very weak. That she came
back at all was more than a wonder, after being gutted
and falling down several stories unto a moving truck,
the end of her last fight with Buffy Summers.
Anyway, the girl in the ER intensive care station was
Faith. The picture she got from Willow's mind and from
Giles before were clear enough.
The body was Faith's.
But not the mind.
Either Faith was that insane she thought she was her
mortal enemy, and Jean would not have put that past
the woman. Or else somehow Buffy Summers' mind had
ended up transferred into this body.
Leaving the question where Faith's mind had gone to.
If she had not been some superhero herself and if the
X-Men had not looked for a bodysnatcher - a mutant gone
serial murderer - some while ago, she would have even
snorted at the idea. Dismissed it as horror movie tick.
But she was not able to do that.
What if it had been Faith's plan all along, to steal
the other Slayer's body - the strong, healthy one?
On the video where she killed the vampire who had been
her mother, Buffy had been entirely to unconcerned for
what Jean thought about Buffy Summers. Buffy would have
been shocked helpless by her own mother coming for her,
barely able to fight back at all.
Faith had no reason to even hesitate.
Nor would Faith have any problem with killing a group of
human soldiers attacking her. Buffy was not about to go
for any kill, even if that meant taking greater risks to
herself.
As dawn broke, and with Storm and Cyclops watching over
Tara and Willow in the hospital, Jean walked towards the
police station and wondered what to tell Mr. Giles.
She had seen his mind, it had been unavoidable, and she
knew he would die before seeing harm done to his charge.
If that had been Buffy and he had shot her down, he
would get the shock of his live.
If she died because of his action, Jean had not much
doubt that he might try to kill himself. He would be
unable to live with the burden of his guilt.
Looking at the sun rising over the hills surrounding
the white SPD building, Jean decided not to tell him
anything until she was certain.
Figuring out what happened in this Sunnydale was like
trying to perceive the image of a person in a fractured
mirror, there were to many cracks and shards to see for
real.
God, Jean prayed, if it was indeed Buffy in that body...
don't let her die! The girl deserved better.
She looked at some patrol cars driving by and gritted
her teeth. The X-Men were no closer to figuring out
what the commandos were doing here, who they were and
hot to get back their captives. Wolverine and a least
one Slayer's body.
Worse, Magnus was still around. And seemed mad enough
to do...anything. Anything at all.


#21
Revenge done


I like to think that, in his last moments, Riley knew I
had spoke the truth. Probably, though, he just wanted
to spite me again. Annoying prick that he was.
Anyway, his vampire self was pretty cooperative. Sold
all he kenw for two bags of blood, what a sick joke.
Bet the tape with him confessing would get over really
well with the people I intended to receive it.
And I wondered how easy it was to kill a human being,
to condemn him to the worst fate I could conjure up.
I felt no great satisfaction, just a dull sense of...I
believe I might call it grumpy contentment, that some
sort of justice was being done.
His fate would not get me Anya back.
It would just mean that he paid for his sins.
And I would, indeed, rest a little bit easier.
Same for killing Spike.
I should have done that a long, long time ago.
Wonder what the others will think about it, when they
learn I did that. No powers, whatsoever. I have taken
Spike down, as a human being. It was a great thing for
my self-esteem, at the least.
I felt...free. In a way I was.
The old me, the person I had been, had gone down in the
course of year after year of fighting all the forces of
hell. It changed me, from a real trash teen into whom I
was now. And now I would enter another war, no less
intense.
I would be Magnus, son of Magneto.
I saw myself punch into Willow's face again. I was not
very proud of that, but she had just made me get so
angry. After years of manipulating me, after making me
loose the one real normal love I ever had, she came and
cried about her damaged lovergirl...while my wife was
dead and my baby with her. And it had been possible
because I had trusted HER to check out Riley Finn.
All so many reasons for me to hate her, and in that one
moment I had been determined to kill her for it all. I
had not done it, she was my friend after all.
No, I doubted Magnus was some very great guy.
He was to ruthless, arrogant and dangerous.
He was a mutant, a homo superior, hell bent on getting
his will. Even if he had to kill.
Still, Magnus was what I was going to be.
To many dead people, to many other mutants and families
who would be hurt if we did not fight the war now.
Better now before the humans came up with armies and
new weapons, all sorts of horrors might grow from their
drive to prevent the advent of mutant humanity.
For that was what would come to be, in a while.
I had no troubles to get Harmony to bring me some dozen
or two of eager vampires. disciplining them was a bit
harder, but from what I learnt from Spike that went
rather well. Said I'd hunt anyone down whom I found
disobeying my orders.
Then I used Riley to enter the Initiative base through a
backdoor, scrapping the security system under way and
inviting the fiends in.



I walked among the beasts and watched them murder and
kill humans, after I tried to prevent them from that
for years. And I did not feel an ounce of regret.
Probably I was pretty much a psychopath myself.
A normal human, that close to the action, had to show it
in some way or the other. Had to be pretty damaged. But
who cared if he was a normal being, I certainly did not!
The dark part of me, the part that had been left after
the hyena came along, even liked that new persona.
I took inventiory and I shortcircuited alarm systems and
weapons and controls, preventing the Initiative people
from defending themselves or escaping.
They did not die easyly.
The soldiers knew how to kill vampires, after all.
But they were scattered and stunned, had few weapons and
if anyone tried to stop them for real I used my assault
rifle on them. I felt nothing as I ducked bullets,
walking around and my precognition always warned me the
moment before anything could happen to me.
That great instinct made me keep out of harm's way, if
I made the mistake of getting there in the first place.
I saw people as they got ripped apart and drained by the
vampires, and I saw how the dying got tortured by the
beasts as well.
Some were just taken down and captured. I needed some of
these people alive yet, for my other plan.
I looked around a corner and ducked, a commando came
from the corner and his stun gun hissed. He had aimed to
high and next my AK-47 roared, the bullets ripped him
apart. I used up my AK clips, went for the shotgun and
then for handguns.
I placed shaped charges at different places, sometimes
opening locked doors that way. Sometimes just destroying
the laboratories and the demon prisons.
If there was anything useful in here, I didn't even look
to take it with me. I was here for another reason and I
would fulfill my mission of destruction.
Within about half an hour the Initiative headquarters
was mine, within another hour all the personnel on the
rooster got called in and was taken down by the vampires
placed at the entranceways.
I remembered how I walked in the command center, seeing
the leader of the Initiative here. Some soldier named
Forrest, a friend of Riley's, and a scientist. Sunnydale
UC had some psychology professor, Joan Walsh or whatever
her first name was. Walsh was her surname and that was
what I called her.
She stood still in here, proud and a bit taken aback.
She ordered Forrest to take me down but I just raised
my handgun and blew some holes into Forrest. Having
my magnetic vision and perception systems made me one
hell of a marksman.
Turned out the Initiative had been trying to use parts
of captured demons to build some ultimate warrior, a
cyborg they controled and could use to hunt mutants like
me. A weapon to take out all the major players staying
in the underground.
Walsh had tried to activate the creature but they were
unable to get their monster to wake up. It would have
taken them some month or two before that worked.
Her fellow scientist, some bearded african male in a
strangely white labcoat, came at me whit some ax for
firefighting in his hands. A wild scream on his face.
He never got more than two steps to me before I had
shot him dead. Red flowers blowed on his coat and he
staggered another tow steps before he just collapsed,
dying. His hands lost the grip on the ax.
The other scientist was an older female, some minor
assisstant, who rather cut her own throat and bled to
deatht han to die by my hand. I grinned at the lone
woman left and my eyes flared blue.
I did not need to have Riley tell me who she was, I
could see her stand there. She struggled a bit to keep
standing and I knew she had swallowed her poison pill.
It would take a while to kill her, yet it also was
unstoppable. "Say, why do you hate mutants, professor?"


"I do not hate mutants," Walsh answered. I believed it
of her. She didn't appear defeated at all, but she was.
"All I care about is the advancement of human knowledge.
My job was to study these creatures and create weapons
to be used against mutants, superior combat capable
cyborgs." She stared at me, blinking. "May I ask one
question of you, Magnus?"

"Sure," I nodded.

"Why?" she asked. "Why do you force the war? You are
such a small group, you could gain more by cooperation."

"Because of people like you, Walsh. I do not lust to
rule anyone, I do not want to fight but I won't stand
aside and wait for you to create obsceneties like that
and send it after us mutants, to enslave us!" I said
sternly. "It is about survival and freedom for us,
Walsh. WE can only gain anything, but you have that
much to loose. And that is why we will prevail."

Walsh considered that and laughed, nodded. "You are a
fool if you think you can win. There are others around,
and we will find a weapon to defeat you. Even if we have
to destroy the whole world to do so."

"Then you die, too," I said.

"Better to die than to leave the world to such monsters
like you, Magnus," she declared with her hands at her
side, trembling. Sweat ran down her face as the poison
began to take her down. she still smiled triumphantly.
"You have nothing to offer, you are just another failure
in human evolution."

"We shall see about that," I answered as I exchanged
the clip of my pistol, chambered a round and heard the
automatic slid into place. I raised the pistol, aimed
at her head and shot her dead. Killed her before she
could kill herself.
Then I placed shaped charges in the lab and blew it all
to kingdom come. Some stash of explosives in the base
Riley knew was used next, to make the whole base get
ready to blow.
I turned to get the captived mutants freed and got all
people out to the surface. The vampires kept a wary eye
on my captives, quite the dutybound goons they were.
Buffy was taken out of a lab, she was still unconscious
from their first looking at her. She was healthy but
drugged heavily and Riley carried her along.
And then there was the other mutant.
The one who killed two of my vampires before I stopped
him. Having some remarkable metal joined to all of his
bones and razorsharp metal claws for weapons, he was
somewhat helpless against my magnetic power.
He growled like a wild animal at me. "So you are that
infamous Magnus," he hissed. "Damn. Should have seen it
right away - you got your father's nose..." He guessed
from the power, of course. No big feat.

"Really?" I asked, figuring that he must be one of the
lackeys Charles Xavier had sent after Sabretooth. He
had spoken of one in particular...that must have been
him. "Are you that sure I am Magneto's son? Anyway, I
also heard a bit about you, Wolverine."

"And do I match up?"

"Right away," I nodded and motioned at the way to the
elevators. "My...associates have the place rigged, so
would you mind a temporary peace between us?"

"Until we are well out of here," Wolverine grunted
reluctantly and as he saw the first bodies and signs of
the fight before, he gronad a curse. "Damn. Did you have
to kill them all?"

"They killed who mattered to me most," I answered simply
and with an edge in the voice. "I just return the favor
now. And anyway, _they_ are our enemies...it's war."

"Fuck, you just want revenge!" Wolverine muttered as he
strolled along. His claws kept retracted. "You are so
much like your father...always going for overkill. You
do know that his wonder machine was a failure and he'd
have gotten fifty millions killed with it?"

"Doesn't surprise me much," I admitted while looking at
the secret base and what was left of it. The deadline
was to close, the experimental phase left out and the
machine could not do what it was supposed to do. "I do
think Magneto would have stopped if Senator Kelly hadn't
escaped."

"Dream on," Wolverine spat. "He's some powermad bastard.
Right the same as the poeple here, thinks he can use
others for his own gains. Even YOU."

"Welcome to the human race," I shrugged. There always
were those who used the others for their own gain, and
it didn't even have to be harmful or evil. It happened
in the mundanest activities as well as in the economy.
"It isn't that impressive."

"Do you really think you have to do that?" Wolverine
asked, startled. "There is no need for war. We can
coexist. _You_ know we can."

"Can we?" I said, thinking of the regulars at Willie's
and their nature. Thinking of Angel and what happened
if he lost it. Of Giles' past and some demon. Thinking
of a lone girl out in the dark of the night. "I saved
that world a number of times now and don't think I
would call that a waste of time. It's just...I don't see
why all that humans out there shall be able to go after
me and mine."

"What?" he gulped.

"It is just something that has to be done, Wolverine. We
will coexist the moment when one side knows it cannot
win a war anymore," I explained to him. "Take away their
weapons and means to harm and harass us, then there will
be peace."

"And allow mutant domination," the mutant spat out with
fervor. "You think you'd make some splendid ruler."

"Why do you think I just want to rule others?" I asked,
amused. Authority over others was nothing I ever had, I
always was the one who was ruled over. I just wanted to
see the mutant hunters wiped out and then the sensible
guys would make up something else. Maybe there was some
other family out there, then. Whatever. "All I want is a
live in peace...and the Initiative routed."

"Revenge."

"It's the traditional way, forget the rest. See, I don't
even demand any justice," I nodded as we came to enter
the elevator and ride out as the last. "By the way, you
really think I look like Magneto? Or is it just because
of that costume?"

Wolverine grinned and tipped his nose. "You are his
son. I can smell it."

"Pity," I sighed, would have been good to keep them in
doubt for a while yet. As I stepped out of the elevator
access I motioned Riley to hand over the drugged Slayer.
"Greet her from me when she wakes up again, will you?"

"I will," Wolverine acknowledged as he took hold of
some blonde body. She wasn't so much smaller than him.
He spat on the floor. "And when we meet again, don't
think we will not kill you."

"Why should we kill each other?" I asked, wincing. "I
do not go for such measures until I have enough of a
reason."

"I bet that's why you are working with THAT!"

"One has to use whatever means are available," I said
with a small, crooked grin. I never said I would let
the vampires leave again after they fulfilled their use
to me - that meant seeing them sent to hell as well or
destroyed by whatever means. The Initiative personnel
however would become demon food. "Pay my respects to
your friends and mentor. I really look forward to the
day when we are meeting."

"I can't imagine us inviting murderers over for tea,"
Wolverine grunted grumpyly, resettling the blonde on his
shoulder. "But if you want to get us into your den..."

"You'll show up there on your own anyway," I laughed
and shook my head, then waved my hand in a grander
gesture reminiscent of my dad. "Now get lost."

He looked at the vampire-guarded soldiers and scientists
and asked what became of them.

"You don't want to know," I said as the first stolen
truck came along. Enough vehicles to move them over to
the old school and into the gym, where Amy was waiting.
And the summoning of some lord of hell would be done.
"Better get lost now."

"Yeah," Wolverine declared, throwing me a mock salute as
he turned around. I knew he'd be running to get his
friends and then to free the captives. He'd be to late
by far, however. "We will meet again, Magnus."
Oh, he knew how to carry a grudge, too. To bad for him.

Half an hour later I stood in the smoke filled gym and
had all my work done. Riley Finn was lying on the ground
and weeped uncontrollable, tried to claw out his own
eyes and bloody fangs. The captives and some of the
vamps stood with him, inside the summoning circle.
And in the myst there was the great form of the demon. I
could see it...a scaly creature, more hideous than even
the mayor. Glowing red orbs, six of them, on a head big
as a small truck. A mouth wide enough to swallow a man
whole...with enough teeth to cut that man into very tiny
slives on the way down the throat. And then the lower
body! WAY to many legs and some tentacles and other
apendages or whatever was there. I wouldn't have bet
against the idea that it was changing even while I did
look at it. Urgh. This thing looked distressing and
unfriendly enough to be an enemy to all sort of human
live, mutant or not.

"What do you want for them?" the demon hissed in it's
eerily child-like voice. Some smartass kid's voice.

I told him - and he laughed, telling me that such a
spell was impossible. Damn, what a mess, the big bad
demon was unable to help me...wrong agency to bestow
real love. Some days live was just _that_ unfair.
Especially it was impossible with a Slayer. Which meant
my big plan suffered some bigger setback. I scanned the
list of alternatives again. Out of the question to ask
for a closed hellmouth, of course, or the end of all the
demon vampires. Or some army of Slayers.

"Well...make a suggestion," I grinned. "What would you
offer me for that bunch of poor souls?"

"What about some little bit of...immortality?" the demon
offered seductively. "Or I could make you invinceble."

"Thanks, but I am quite happy being what I am," I said
honestly. And I had no idea of aping the late mayor.
Fuck, what was it with these demons that they always
thought we wanted immortality? Maybe because they knew
some little tidbit about what came after...maybe. Or
they just got contacted by all the shits who were after
some eternal existence. Which I considered that boring.
"Comeon, what else do you got to offer?"

"What about charming all the females of your kind?"
the demon began. "Just touch one and every she will be
yours for the taking...!"

I bit my lips, tempted for a moment. But then, I could
get whomever I wanted without magic. Cordelia had been
a lection to me about that, as well as the time when I
got to see what that meant, available for the taking,
my ass! So I shook my head. Been there, done that and
had _not_ liked it a bit.

"You're a complicated one, human," the demon snorted.
"What about a magic power?"

"Sounds interesting," I said and almost laughed as he
came up with energy beams, telekinesis and foresight.
Funny, I already had all that! Well, in some ways.
"Oh comeon, there have to be more. And no, I do not want
to read minds or become invisible! What about healing?"
I could use some healing touch. 

"I could grant you the ability to heal yourself...like
you all do but much faster. Like the one you call
Wolverine has it, yes. It would make you live very long
and extremely hard to kill!" the demon said, somewhat
resignant. "And you would not have to become something
else than you are right now."

"NOW we're talking," I said, nodding. "And you'll also
guarant me that he is down there forever?" I pointed
at the weeping Riley Finn. Who didn't even notice my
words, lost in his sorrow and battling his demon.

"He will suffer to the day he does no more, and then he
dies," the demon chuckled. Venom in his voice. Oh, he
would. It was the condition in his curse. Amy had done
a lot of work to get that one done. "Do we have a deal?"

"Well...you never said forever," I shook my head, a wry
grin at the corner of my mouth. One should always listen
well to what demons said at a deal. Or lawyers. They
always tried to make you think something they could use
against you - some cowardly, dishonest and nasty trick.
"But throw in some nice little sideshow gift, and we do
have a deal."

"What more do you want? To raise the dead or what?"

"No," I said, shivering. Anya had suffered enough, I'd
not dishonor her by calling her back from the grave.
"We both know I'm selling those souls damn short here.
So you grant me a wish."

"What wish?"

I looked at him and remembered that love was out of the
question. To bad, to bad. So, no way to hold dominion
over Faith. I'd have to take my chances or go without a
Slayer for support. Suddenly, I had an idea - forget
about Faith. Think about useful tools.
Like a tool to get dad out of his prison.
What I wanted was some artifact, a ring and a greater
stone platform with a magic circle on it. And anyone
saying out loud a magic word while carrying that ring
would instantly be teleported from any place unto that
stone. Then I'd just had to get my dad that ring and
make him whisper a word and free he was.

"Forget that, human. That needs way to much power to
justify these meager souls," the demon bickered. "You
asked for love before, human, and that I cannot grant.
Yet there is a way to achieve dominion over another."

"And how exactly?"

"I give you a potion. Mix it with your blood and whoever
drinks it shall be your servant for the rest of the
servant's live," the demon said slowly. "Either take it
or summon someone else, after all I'm a major demon of
hell and no damned salesmen dealing in used cars! We do
have _SOME_ standards!"

"Oh, you've been to earth recently," I had to laugh and
got me some mumbled answer. Looked like that demon was
not as dumb as so many others. "Very well, you got the
deal."

"Finally!" the demon laughed and then there was some
thunderstroke, radiant yellow beams of light shot from
the eight demon eyes right at me. I felt a short stab of
pain and then nothing.
Suddenly, under the captives and the vampires who forgot
caution the floor turned into a gaping whole. They fell
into the black nothingness, and they fell very deep.
One could hear their screams and smell sulfur and heat
coming from that bottomless pit before the hole vanished
again.
The myst began to dissolve, the demon dived down into
his summoning circle and something - a little vial with
a green fluid - was lying at my feet.


With a last echo of laughter the demon was done for.
I picked up the glass vial and looked at it, then I saw
Amy stroll over. Blonde, blue-eyed and only slightly
puffy the witch was clad in a skin-tight dress. And I
did notice her quite well. As well I knew she wasn't
interested in me, she was a lesbian. 
"That was interesting," Amy declared after a sneer. "I
never met anyone who began that idiot bikering with a
major demon of hell - and getting anything out of it!"

"You think I should have gone for immortality?"

"I would not turn away some major power," she said with
a frown. "But then, since you already got more than just
that, I can see your problem."

"Yeah, me to," I humored her and saw her look. She taxed
me, thought about something. "Penny for your thoughts."

"Will you use it on Cordelia?" Amy said staunchly and
laughed as I really gaped at her, open mouthed. Now,
why did she think I would go for that? "Obviously not.
Whom else?"

"That's my little secret. Maybe next time you'll know,"
I grinned and put it away. In truth, I wasn't sure on
whom to use that little trinket. "Anyway, thanks for the
favor. I owe you."
>From a sheat at my back I pulled a knife and cut me in
the back of the hand, careful to do no real damage. I
saw the blood flow out and I felt the pain and then I
could see the cut heal in a matter of moments. Ah, that
healing factor already worked!

"If you make me learn the great spells that easily, my
pleasure," Amy answered. Refering to the soul curse and
the summoning of that demon, stolen from a dark mage
Buffy and me had stopped a few months ago. The guy had
wanted his dead mother returned to live...you had to be
on your toes when dealing with the trickster. She had a
duffel bag with her belongings and all the really
important equipment with her. And a cross hung around
her neck. "Do we go on to the final act?"

I looked at my watch and sighed. More than an hour until
sunraise. Okay, that had to be done the hard way. And I
would enjoy it. I just nodded as Harmony strolled over,
much less scared than excited now.

"I never knew you'd be such a great badass, Xander," she
purred, weighing her hips in her cheap attempt to appear
seductive. Might work for college boys and high school
types, but he was a few years to old to fall for that.
"What will we do next, kill the Slayer and take over the
town? Or do you want to fuck me instead of witch girl?
Or do we go for a threesome?" She licked her lips, so
hungry and debauched.

I was tempted to tell her how disgusting I found that.
Not the idea of a threesome, but with HER? I had some
standards, after all. "Oh, you had a change of heart or
what?" I asked. "Or didn't you want to kill me?"

"Well, you killed Spike, brokered a deal with some major
demon and pretty much wiped out the commandos...I'd say
you're one of us blackhats now! Blacker than black. And
you're the boss in town, no question to that! Did I tell
you that power makes man so incredibly sexy? And I _SO_
like any a ruthless man..."

"Don't I know?" I said, disapproving. Friends like these
vampires were the last thing I needed, I had more than
enough enemies already. "Hand me the tapes."

"Oh, yes," Harmony said and reached into her pants.
She made a show of removing the small black video tape
that showed our assault - or rather, their assault -
on the Initiative base. Some lot of dead bodies and
Riley Finn doing some nasty things. Together with his
testimony, and after some edit just in case of any new
troubles, I would have it delivered to the media in a
few days. Right now I already planned on making some
call to media agencies to get a good look at the
secret army base destroyed in Sunnydale.
"What do you want with that anyway?"

"I plan on stirring up troubles," I said plainly while
Amy pocketed the tape. And asked Amy for her cell phone.
She handed ot to me and then I called the bloodhounds
in. The vampires got all goofy as I factually explained
that the backers of the Initiative would get into some
troubles because of this. "And we all want them to be
troubled, don't we all?"

"But that tape shows our faces," one of them said. One
with some brain in use, uncommon for a vampire. "What if
they recognize us from that? They might hunt us again!"

"Yeah, Xander, what will happen to us...?" Harmony asked
with a slow realization of the truth as I assured her
they didn't have to worry about it, not at all. They all
would never be hunted again.

"And how exactly will you achieve that?" the blonde
vampire bitch asked. "Do you want to...protect us? OR
open up the hellmouth? Please let's open up that one,
it will be such fun to watch the end of the world..."

I looked at her and then I grinned, darkly. Harmony did
not smile anymore as I showed her that face and raised
my hands. Blue flames trailed eyes and gloves as I used
my power.
Sure, open up the hellmouth and oust myself right away,
what a crappy idea. One thought they knew I'd never do
that. After all, how did Spike phrase it? I like that
world...yeah, me too.
One instant later all the assembled vampires were on the
floor and wimpering, holding their heads. And I held Amy
tight as we went flying into the air.
One wave of a hand later part of the roof screamed as the
steel inside the roof consturction bent towards me and
tore a big hole into the construction.
"Byebye, baby," Amy sneered with her arm around me and
breathed harder. We flew out in the air.
I took hold of the detonator device Amy handed me and
the vampires got up from the grounds. Some were still
weeping but I could see Harmony come to her feet and
look up to see us. A scream of rage emitting from her
as she realized what was happening.
And then I detonanted the charges and the gym erupted
into flames all around them. There was no way out of the
inferno, none at all for a vampire. They did not react
so well to fire.

"Why do it that way?"

"Oh, since I am a terrorist now, I can blow up things
and I like doing that. And I always hated the gymn," I
said content with my work as we flew to the ground and
I set her free. "Will you get home safely?"

"Of course I will!" Amy chuckled, tugging at her tight
velvet jacket over the bodysuit. She actually bowed
and kissed me on the cheek. "Look after yourself, Xand.
You're the best firend I have, after all."

"Don't you worry about me," I replied, as she stepped
back and turned to leave. "Greet Cordelia and Angel
from me, will you?"

"Just call me once in a while, as long as it doesn't get
me into troubles, okay?" the blonde witch said goodbye.

And I took to the air again.
Now, what to do to get a Slayer as a companion...


#22
Judge and Jury and Executioner


It was odd, very odd, Cyclops thought. Since Wolverine
had returned with the blonde Slayer the night had become
somewhat hectic.
Not only that, however.
Right before it had only been frantic.
Since Jean returned from the prison they had tried to
come up with any ideas on how to search Wolverine while
keeping the injured at the hospital safe. If there was
one attack, there would come others. Especially with so
many undead and demons with a grudge against them. Or
with a hunger for Slayer blood.
And then Wolverine came in, the blonde Slayer blurry and
far away from being fully awake. One half hour more and
she might have woken up and been fit to cause troubles.
Jean immidiately immobilized her again.
"Jean? Why did you do that?"

"Because that isn't Buffy Summers, Logan," Jean said
with an unfamiliar hardness in her voice. "THAT is her
body, but it was stolen from her some day and a half
ago."

"And whom have I just gotten out of the shit?" Wolverine
asked, looking for a seat and clearly in need of a drink
or two. Or more. "Damn, what is it with this town! Just
a few hours and the whole picture changes totally..."

"You can say that again," Cyclops answered, feeling some
heavy burden leave his back. "Some time after you and
she got abducted that other Slayer, the renegade, came
here and was shot down by the Watcher. Yet Jean learned
that this renegade found a way to transfer her mind into
another body...the renegade had stolen Buffy Summers'
body."

"Another bodysnatcher? Awh fucking great," Wolverine
groaned, gaping. The need for a few drinks was exchanged
against the need for a crate of whiskey. "That town has
it in for us, people. I don't know why and how, but it
has it in for us!" Logan laughed, hard. "Still, that's
some believable explantion for that girl's behavior.
I mean, she killed her own damn mom and then went right
after these commandos...like she was Sabretooth with an
edge."

"It has it in for everybody, it seems," Cyclops muttered
scared. Bodysnatchers, demons, vampires, commandos. What
came next, ET walking across the street? "And you got
that last part right. The renegade IS a killer. How did
you escape the commandos?"

"Magnus showed up at their base and set us free," Logan
muttered, eyes cast down. Any strength drained from his
muscled body, even in his eyes. He suddenly seemed old.
Very old. "That was some scary bastard."

"What did he do?" Cyclops demanded to know.

"He got a whole bunch of vampires into the secret base
of the black agency, they slaughtered next to anyone
they found down there...real nasty battle. They still
took out some live captives and left with 'em," was
Wolverine's hollow voiced reply. "And, people, it's ten
times worse than we thought. He's the son of that freak
Magneto, believe it or not, and he's even nastier than
his old man."

"You mean...?" Jean gulped.

Logan nodded. "Bet the little creep has control of the
same magnetic power, he immobilized me in the blink of
an eye. But he seems to prefer using guns and blades and
explosives."

"He plays soldier?" Scott heard himself ask, astounded.
"I thought all the brotherhood types were that certain
of their superiority that they never would..."

"Yes, I know. He does not, okay?" Wolverine barked
darkly. Claws ripped out of one hand and got retracted.
"He got the whole place trashed for good measure, then
told me he'd just go on with this until the brotherhood
has won their war and played his dad's first advocate."
He swallowed. "I stole a car and drove right here, with
whoever that girl is - don't have any. Don't think the
hostages will have gotten very far."

"Why?"

"Jean, that boy carries a grudge with these Initiative
buddies big as the Grand Canyon. He won't stop until he
has them all six feet under or worse...!" Wolverine
explained, very much believing his own words. "No idea
how he can control the vampires, but he could. Even the
demons were scared of him."

"Small wonder," Cyclops said as he remembered Willie's.
Xander Harris was playing his own game and there were
people dying in huge numbers for it. The man was ready
for just about anything.
Even for mass murder.

"Looks like he wants to get his father out, too," Logan
added another piece to the puzzle. The picture displayed
in there was not to pleasant. "Cyclops, if you get any
chance to blast that character away - shoot first and
ask questions later."

"You think he's that dangerous?"

"Damned well is!" Logan nodded. "Give him a year or two
and he's as dangerous as his father. Heck, if he lived
in here as a human for years - he may already be."

"Now let's not overdo it," Jean reigned them in. "We can
deal with Magnus later. Right now we have to get Buffy
Summers her body back."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

"I think we may ask the perpetrator of the theft," Jean
said and laid a hand on a blond head. The whammied girl
seemed to realize someone was intruding her mind and
moaned, she made a defensive gesture. Luckyly the drugs
kept her weak as a kitten. Jean still showed signs of
a greater struggle and she drew some heavy breaths.
When she had cleared her throat again she told them
about a bodyswitching device Faith had found. They had
to get hold of that and use the machine to restore the
Slayer.

Cyclops wondered if Buffy would like to wake up in a
world where everything that mattered to her had been
turned upside down. Her friends were in hospital, her
mother was dead, that uneasy ally had managed to betray
her, her lover was an agent sent after her by the I
nitiative, her watcher was in jail - and that brunette
bitch of a psychotic was still alive. Oh, and her close
friend was revealed as a mutant terrorist.
Otherwise than that, things probably were pretty fine.
Well, the X-Men knew how to take care of Faith. There
was some facility to take care of her and also hold her.
That they could do.
For the rest, however, Scott foresaw nothing good.
He knew how bad he felt. Ever since coming here they had
just reacted and taken one hit after another. There must
be a way to hit back, to DO something.
There was not.
All they could do was to get the device and restore a
very angry Faith to her original body. Which was in bad
shape, and after the bullet in the throat had reached
the spine and damaged nerves she probably was paralysed
for live as well. Not that she would not have merited
something like that.
It still was a bit ironic, that she'd survive it all
and even heal the gunshot wounds in due time. Only to
sit in a wheelchair and be unable to move more than
her eyes and tongue.
Scott still felt uncomfortable as they played Jury,
Judge and Executioner on this girl. The choice was no
great one at all, but condemning that Slayer to an
existance as a cripple meant to condemn her to death as
well. There was great need of a Slayer, one who stood on
the side of good and humanity.
He looked at Jean as she used the damnable device.
Whoever had made that machine, he ought to be the one to
go into hell for it. Scott was abhorred by the very
existance of the thing after the bodysnatcher case.
"We should destroy it."

"And loose any chance about ever learning who made it?"
Jean said, adamantly. "We have to study it and come up
with some way to counter it, detect the effect. And we
have to learn who built the thing in the first place!"
Her fervor, especially at the last issue, was visible.

Even Wolverine showed her his empty palms to keep her
from getting mad anymore. It was that whole town. This
Sunnydale got to them, close and personally.

"Don't like it either," Cyclops declared, albeit he
gave in to Jean. She was the working brains around
anyway. "Wolverine, do you think Magnus will stay here
anymore?"

"He probably has vanished already, under way to meet his
brotherhood buddies," the mutant muttered. "Yet if there
is a place he goes to, this is it."

"Yes," Jean said, looking at the two unconscious women
in the room, concerned. "Either he vanished by now or he
will come here next. Everyone who matters a damn to him
IS here...we might get a chance to stop him before he
can go and free his father."

"I'd like to see him in the prison right next to that of
Maggie," Wolverine grinned ferally. "Or six feet under.
That bastard is the butcher type of a guy, trust me on
it. Bet he gets off on that."

It just kept getting better, Cyclops mused. It just kept
getting better and better. They had a few reasons to
stay in this hospital anyway. At least until they could
get the wounded Slayerettes and Slayers out inot the
blackbird and over to Westchester. They were much to
vulnerable in this hospital.


#23
Next year's girl?


There was a bird on the road before her, probably a
pigeon. Buffy was not sure. She just saw the bird and
then it stretched it's wings and flew on. Some second
later a man in a grey suit began to curse aloud, that
bird had shit on him.
A daily scene and she might have laughed about it. If
she had been in the mood. Right now she was not. Within
less than a week all her live was utterly destroyed.
Giles was in prison, awaiting trial on attempted murder.
Faith was still in a coma and she'd hardly come up on
her own feet again for years...maybe ever.
Buffy Summers followed the bird with her eyes as it rose
into that endless blue sky, her face hard and hollow.
There were just so many news.
That Spike had betrayed her was none. Buffy preferred to
keep the incident as much a private concern as possible.
Not only that she had been Faith for a day, and then
been raped first by Faith and then by Spike.
Even worse, she'd gotten off on it!
Not that she had that much sexual experience...well, she
had Angel. And that had been it. There were flirts and
some kisses, but she never hit the sack. She might even
do it with Riley once in a while...that was, she might
have done if he were still around. Even as a vampire.
She had more than enough reason to doubt it.
Buffy laughed, rough.
Oh god, was it such a crime if she liked sex? Or was it
just Faith's body? No, it had been her. She had gotten
it first from Faith. And then there came Spike, his big
dick and hours without him showing any exhaustion. She
had been well and truly raw after he was done with her.
And she had enjoyed the sex.
Buffy had played Faith, a frantic attempt to save her
own neck. Big surprise that the perexoide blonde punk
was still able to kill. He never explained how, but he
had been. Good enough to kill her own mother.
That last bit got Buffy to cry for real. Her mother was
dead, dead and vamped and dusted by Faith. Spike had
turned Joyce Summers, he was the only vampire who did
know about her and could get into her house. She had
even thought it was a good idea since he could not kill
and depended on them for survival...what idiocy!
She never should have trusted him an inch.
Spike had betrayed her trust, vamped her mother and then
sent the vampire after her. Buffy knew, even while she
was sobbing, that she would have been to stunned by the
vamped mom to fight any good. And even if she had won,
the dusting of Joyce would have broken her.
Spike would have made short work of her. He or whoever
he'd been about to send after her. Faith for a first.
The cunning bastard had been at Willie's and Buffy was
in serious doubts he went there just to get some drink.
More probable that he wanted to hire some of the undead
hanging out there and get them Buffy-hunting.
Buffy laughed pained, wiping her tears away and just
got new ones running over her cheeks. Her eyes burned.
Her stomach hurt, her throat seemed to small.
She felt like throwing up for a while, then crawling
into some cave and sleeping forever. Or jumping of a
high building.
She felt that damned low and it was foremost Spike who
stood behind that plan. He'd been the one who must have
beaten up Tara, and these other victims as well. He'd
been the one to set Faith free, send Joyce and hire new
muscles to further her worse condition.
If she HAD not been bodywitched that day, she would
probably have died already. What a sorry joke!
Faith, who came for revenge, ended up with saving her.
And it was Buffy's response to let her borrowed body
get shot up. By her own damn Watcher to that!
"Some things are just to bad," Buffy spat, angry at
herself and the whole world. She never expected Giles
to possess a firearms, much less to use it on her. She
had not even thought of herself as Faith, never even
did she consider the notion of them mistaking her. She
came to explain and get it all solved.
Oh yeah, Slayer, sweet dreams about that one.
She got nothing resolved and things got even worse.
Ironically, Spike's downfall originated from the one
fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Right in front of Willie's bar as some mighty pissed
Xander came out and killed him just because he never
could stand Spike...Xander.
The next matter, and again one that was unsolved.
How should she deal with it that her best male friend
turned out to be a mutant terrorist? And that he just
had killed her boyfriend and some dozen humans, who had
been keeping Sunnydale safe and clean for a change.
Well, in some respects. The Initiative had not come to
be the paranormal police after all.
Even more, what Willow told her was that Riley was an
agent. He probably had been assigned to seduce her. He
most probably had never felt anything for her, if not
outright disgust.
Buffy sobbed as she stomached that.
Anyway, Xander had said Riley killed Anya and his baby.
He had nearly killed Willow as she apporached him in
the hospital right after and dear old Wills gave herself
the responsibility for that one.
No, Xander had no right to beat the crap out of her,
no matter what. Even if Willow had come on as the total
ass he had no right to hit her.
But the mutant terrorist might have. He said he made her
responsible for not breaking Riley's cover in due time!
First thing she ever heard about Willow checking up on
her boyfriends, probably by request of Xander.
She wanted to blow up at him, them. She would have.
Only...only Xander had been right. All aside, Riley had
been an operative of that ultra-secret agency with just
a whole load of ulterior motives - and a danger to her
security.
She walked through town and realized all she really knew
were graveyards, the sewers and the boltholes the vamps
used. She never saw the children at play in the light of
the day, she never came to the green grass in the parks
with a boyfriend, she never did so many things.
Face it, Buffy thought, she was finished.
With the Initiative after her ass AND well in possession
of information about her, them all, they would never be
safe in Sunnydale again. They had to get lost for quite
a while before they could think on returning.
Which meant leaving the hellmouth unguarded.
Which meant breaking Giles out of prison.
And which also meant for Tara, Willow and Giles as well
as herself to go with the X-Men and accept their help.
Little choice they had.
And then there was Faith.
Another matter to settle another time.
"So much to do, so little time," Buffy sniffled looking
out at a pair of lovers kissing besides some fountain.
Maybe she could Angel to settle in Sunnydale again and
keep a lid on things. He could do it.
Or the Council of Watchers would intervene.
Yeah, sure. Quentin Travers and company would as soon
send murderers after her OR Faith to get a new Slayer,
another one of their pet Slayers to use up, as they
would come to her aid. More.
The Council was totally out of the quetion.
Faith's situation was mostly Buffy's fault.
Look at it any way you liked, Buffy grudgingly had to
admit to herself, but the whole situation was a mess of
the highest order. And it all came right down to her.
She had made the dire mistakes.
Trust Spike, ignore Xander, look after Faith alone, get
into that hospital room without knocking. It all had
been her failure.
At least the X-Men had shown her a way out.
She just hoped Giles would come along, he had not taken
the revelation about whom he had shot very well. Buffy
had assumed he already knew, and it couldn't be his
fault. He had done the right thing.
But he was just that shaken!
Buffy bit her lip and turned around, just to see a
young man stand across from her. He wore no armor or
cloak, just a leather jacket and jeans and a red shirt.
And some shade of a beard in his face, a pair of old
Nikes at his feet. If he had not stared at her right
away she might not even have noticed him.
"Xander," Buffy spoke out first, her voice flat and so
hollow, it sounded utterly wrong even to herself. "I
know this is sounding stupid...but shouldn't you be
attacking some army base by now or what?"

"You see to many bad movies," Xander answered as he came
closer, hands at his sides. "Anyone told you lately you
look like so much shit, Buff?"

"How'd you feel...way, I think you can understand how I
feel," Buffy muttered. He had lost his family to. The
one who mattered anyway. "Is it safe around here?"

"There are no X-Men around, I checked," Xander said with
a crooked grin. "Fancy name, that. Figures to them."

"You really are full of it," Buffy observed but somehow
there was no power behind the accusation. She didn't
feel up to dealing out any stings, not even verbally.

"Hey, it isn't that different from Slaying."

"Only that you kill humans now."

"And what's the big diff?" he asked, waving his hands.
"It is not as if I would blow up pediatric wards or
such. I'm not into genocide."

"And why do I doubt that? From what they tell...," Buffy
smiled slyly, blinking at him. "Do you really think
violence is the only way?"

"YOU ask ME that?" Xander asked, then laughed. "Mhm. I
suppose it is. It's war out there, Buffy. If we mutants
want to survive we have to take action. Like with the
demons and the vampires."

"Ah," Buffy made, angered. She still did not disagree.
The Initiative was quite real and the notion of being
assaulted by a whole army of elite soldiers the next
instant was not about to cheer her up. They nearly had
taken her, too - but instead they took Faith.
She was tempted to laugh about the hellmouth. There was
noone left who had gotten what he wnated, well, noone
but Xander right now. "I suppose I can deal with you.
If I dealt with Angel and Spike before...and Giles..."
They were all killers. And who knew what other dark
secrets lurked in the shadows, and hos many of them
were her friends. "What do you want?"

"Would you believe if I said it's just coincedence?"
Xander grinned, motioning for her to walk a bit with
him. "I got to admit, I was looking for a way to see
you. I was at hospital and looked around, but I found
no way to get at you without causing troubles."

Buffy was not even surprised. She just nodded wisely.
"And here we run into each other."

"Yeah, like Oz liked to say," Xander giggled. For a
short moment he was all the old Xander again, with no
nothing serious to him. And then he had that cold look
in his eyes, the look of a man who had seen more than
a fair share of hardships. A man with a cause, he was.
"How are you?"

"I'm bloody fine!" she snapped. On second notion, she
might scratch the word bloody. Way to much Spike.

He looked at her and shook his head. "Did they do
anything to you at the Initiative base? I'm sorry, but
I could not get there any faster..."

Buffy laughed tormented and filled him in about Spike,
the bodyswitching machine and Faith. He really was
surprised, even laughed and rubbed his temples as he
contemplated the news. He'd saved Faith's ass. Really.
"You know, Faith was not even doing anything."

"Buffy, she went to Riley and fucked him. Then she left
him alone and then Riley finally decided to get you
brought in," Xander croaked. He informed her of what he
had gleamed from debriefing Riley. There were some hours
worth of talking. Names, projcets, acts. History. And it
was all the utter truth, as far as Riley had seen it.

Buffy felt relieved as she learnt about it. Just fate,
she had not misjudged him that much. She still felt for
him, a lot. Even if she could hear the hate and the
sound of fulfilled revenge out of his mouth. She asked
what he had done and he told her, it made her gasp. A
souled vampire in hell, for eternal torture to that.
"You really don't go for small time revenge, do you? No,
you cannot be content just with ripping him apart alive
or such, you have to go for eternal torment!"

He looked at her, eyes hooded. "Tell me you would settle
for less if you had the chance to get Spike," Xander
said. "If I'd known about your mother, Buffy, I swear I
would have done it...at least he suffered."

"I even can believe it!" Buffy groaned, confused. Part
of her disliked him much, part of her agreed. She had
made fists and was stomping over the earth and it took
her some ten-count to get calm again. "Xander, why did
you hurt Willow like that?"

"I hated that bitch for a long time. You just cannot
trust her," Xander said with resignation appearant. "I
do not want to tell you, but she manipulated me for
years...tried to pull our strings."

"Did she?"

"I have no great doubts. You know the spell Amy did for
me, the one that made you become all my lovers? Ever
wonder why it failed?"

"Because she messed up! Cordy did love you," Buffy said
aloof. That was an old story. "Or did she?"

"That's the trouble. Would YOU credit Cordelia Chase as
a loving person? Buff, she wouldn't have been able to
name love such if it came and bit her head off...!" he
remarked a bit bemused. "Well, since there were so many
things trying that, Willow had enspelled us. Our dear
little witch tried to make me fuck her and then get
totally disgusted with her...cheap bitch that she was.
And then come crawling to some redhead we know."

"Wha...!" Buffy said, open mouthed. "You just think that
or do you have any proof?" Could he read minds?

"Read her diary, it's all in there. Even some of the gig
she has pulled on you, Buffy. You know that she had some
hand in you and Angel, too? All to get you out of her
hair!" Xander insisted, and he believed every word of
this. "It's so simple. Everything that ever was wrong in
our lives comes from her."

"Now you're overdoing it."

"Probably, probably, I meant out private lives," Xander
nodded. He sighed. "She's been doing that ever since we
came out of kindergarten. Jesus, she's still learning.
You should be on your toes around the witch, Buffy. Just
some advice."

"Funny. Last I looked, she was not the killing guy with
some hidden superpowers around!" Buffy barked at him.
She barked a bit more, about when and why and how he
could have kept that from them. 

"It happened on my road trip. An accident trigged the
power and then I met my father...the rest is, as they
say, history," Xander answered. He never said more.
"When I returned I found I better kept it all to my own
self. You know that Willow could sign up with the mutant
hating crowd any day?"

"She's no bigot."

"She's out for revenge, as am I, so I know!" Xander
disagreed. "Maybe I should have killed her. She might be
a danger to me - and you as well." The latter sounded
clearly more agitated.

"You really would kill for me?" Buffy swallowed and she
saw the answer in his eyes. He wouldn't think twice.
It was not what she wanted from him, nothing at all. But
it had some effect as well. "Oh Xander."

"Can't help it, Buffy. It's just what I am - how I am.
Once I committed myself to a side I am loyal. And as I
see it, mutantkind has to fight," Xander said and he
grinned. He not even mentioned they were his side. "You
know, you got more in common with us than them by far.
And you to go out and kill your enemies."

"It's different."

"Is it?" Xander asked, considering. "Maybe Faith was
right after all and killing is killing. Oh no, not the
vamps...they are dead. But some demons, yeah. And there
certainly were enough humans by the way."

"Oh comeon, when did we ever kill a human?"

"Mhm...there was the coach of the swim team. And Ford.
And more," he reminded her sharply. "And you went to
Faith to kill her, Buffy. As you would have killed Ted.
Just your luck you did not."

"I am nothing like Faith!" Buffy snapped, the fury of
her outburst wiped away the next instant. Was she? She
might not be. It would be terrible to behold. "I am
not like her, I am no sadistic psychopath!"

"But you are as capable of murder as I am, Buffy. If it
had been some human guy who killed your mom, you would
not even have hesitated to beat him to pulp," he said
softly, touching her and making her lift her chin, her
head, look into his intense eyes. "Sometimes that can
worry you, when you look into the mirror. Sometimes. You
learn to live with it."

"You are mistaken," Buffy answered silently. Or was she?
She had enjoyed fucking Faith, she had enjoyed Spike. It
was nothing she would ever have chosen to do, but she
had enjoyed it. Maybe there were sides to her she did
suppress, and for a reason. Still aspects of her.
She bit her own lips to keep from asking about that.
Instead she wiped her tears away, wondering when she had
stopped to cry. A while ago.
She could have asked what he wanted to do now, how long
he would go on, what he would do about the X-Men. She
could have warned him they wanted him dead.
Instead, she aksed about his father.

"Yes, he probably did that," Xander said. "Acting rash.
But, in the end, he tried the bloodless solution to the
war...think about what THEY want!" He winced and made a
fist. "You should not go with them, Buffy. Go to LA,
hide with Angel and in a year you can come back...or he
takes your place here."

"Because someone has to watch the hellmouth?" Buffy
said, knowing she herself had had similiar ideas. "It
isn't just about me..."

"No," Xander croaked. "We all carry our burden. If I
get the Initiative routed, you will be safe, too."

"You want me to help you?"

"I didn't even expect that to be an option for you," he
laughed and grinned. And she did, too. Strangely, but
she felt almost complacent about him doing this. It was
a bit romantic, her chavalier fighting for her. And it
was that barbaric, too. "I just don't want you to get
caught up in the war...you are way to important here."

"And you do not want to fight me!" she added, certain.
He looked a bit ashamed at her and shrugged, and she
felt a small grin flash on her face. "Thanks."

"For what?"


"Being you, behind all that shell," Buffy said. She had
an idea - just an idea, but still mad enough - and she
wondered if she was mad. A bit. But what the hell, with
her live being ruined and she being on the run, she
should take what she could get. "Xander? Do you have any
dates or plans set for the next hours?"

"Not that I knew, no," he said. "Why?"

"'Cause I want you to come with me to my old house and
fuck me in my bed," Buffy declared. She needed something
to keep her going, now. She needed the release, she had
to know about herself, she wanted him...she was not so
sure about it all. And she did not care. "Not because of
what you did to Spike. Or for burning down the gym. They
don't think you killed the vamps you used."

"You do," he said, relieved.

"Maybe I do know you to well," Buffy said. She had no
great problem with him killing vampires - before or
after he made use of them. Or seeing those Initiative
people dead, she had not. She was horny, she was hurt,
she was helplessly confused. She needed something real.
"So, can I have you now?"

"You know, it is rude to ask this from me. After all I
was about to become a married man...with children."
He said it in a neutral voice and could barely hide
his eagerness. She was always what he had desired. Not
that she felt drawn to him that much more, but she was
just...just...different. So she looked at him, and got
a sigh. "All you ever needed was to ask."

"Well, I guess then we go to my place?" Buffy smiled,
saforing her little victory. She touched him and they
hurried of. it was not that far. Neither of them was
speaking any word.
Buffy was thinking about it amd found she wanted to
do that. 
Buffy still had a key to the house, even if she lived in
the UC dorms, and there was noone around. He wondered
if she really wanted to do it as she entered, he even
asked her and she pulled him in and into an embrace.
Sealed his mouth with a kiss, a hard kiss. A Faith kiss.
Want. Take. Have.
Maybe there was a part of Faith left in her.
Maybe the last days and the incredible sex and all the
shock and stress caught up with her. She certainly was
not ready to deal with it. She did not want to, either.
She got him naked, she got naked, on their way up the
stairs. Tearing away their clothes was fuunnn!
She didn't even think about precautions, she wanted it
real. Raw. Hard, fast. Something to feel, to forget.
She threw him on the bed, kissing him. Nowhere gentle,
she wrestled him down and looked into his eyes. She
might have liked the Xander possessed by the hyena now,
but he did as well. Buffy straddled herself on him and
began a slow rhytm, she kissed him and she scratched
him with her nails. They both moaned and she had his
hands on her, she saw him suck her toes as she leant
back and enjoyed her sensations.
She just wanted to come and that was not long away.
She did not scream, she just rode the orgasm with an
open mouth, breathless. She needed that, that little
spark to keep her going, to know she stiull was alive.
She never allowed him to get out of her after he came,
well, not fully. And then only to pleaure her with his
tongue, tasting himself in her.
Buffy had never before even thought about going for
oral sex, now she forced him down and took him in. Her
tongue dancing around the erection and her head moving
him in or out.
It certainly got him hard again. And she felt the power
she had over him, the power born of desire. Of lust.
She lost herself to it as well, let go. There was no
world beyond the room, no past and no future.
There was no dead mother, no injured friends, no black
agency gunning for her ass...no question beyond what
she wanted to do with the man she was with now.
She originally had not intended for him to come into
her but she liked to feel him hand out control to her.
One hard bite of her and he was in great troubles, and
anyone ever thinking a blowjob was some sign of pure
male dominance was an idiot.
She did not bite, and she did swallow. No truth to the
honey taste and all, she did not like it, but she had
no troubles about swallowing it either.
Or kissing him next, just enjoying to touch him.
Then they got inventive - say what you want, Anya had
given him all the practice she could only hope for.
Buffy had her recent experiences to match up to, and
at least the physical pleasure was no different.
However, she liked a consensual fuck much more.
And she liked to bite, to! If she had had any cuffs,
she might have used them to.
On herself, on him, she wasn't sure.
At least she had some candles and so she could play
with them and him. Feeling the hot wax touch her
sensitive skin, as she laid on her belly, her back
and look in his eyes. Or as she sat on him and saw
it flow on him. She didn't care about pain, bruises and
real scratches, or to lick some blood away.
Okay, she liked that. 
They both spoke not much over the time, and Buffy did
add and add to their time. She finally began to feel
exhaustion and wondered how he kept up.
Being mere human...um, no. Probably no more.
She smiled as she collapsed on him, still inside, and
she locked eyes with him. Just breathing and exchanging
quiet moans of pleasure.
"Wow," she said finally, kissing him on the lips. She
did not ask if she was better than Anya, she might
have done it if the demon-turned-human had been alive
still, though. "We have to repeat that...another time."
She might also have kicked Riley out and gotten into a
relationship with him. Mother, she never thought she'd
be such a horny bitch.

"You won't hear me complain," he croaked, his hands
wandering over her back. Fingertips carassing her
flesh. "Buffy, what happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"That. Isn't like you."

"Well, all my live fell apart and I'll probably don't
see you again for months, maybe years. Oh, and did I
mention I got more action in the last days than in the
years before?" Buffy said grinning, or she might have
whispered it at him. She moved her hips a little bit
and flipped on her back, him over her. "Maybe there is
some bit of Faith left in me, maybe I just don't ask.
I just want to fuck, now do me again..."

He thrusted deep into her and she moaned, hard. Had
her hands on him and felt her nails dug in, heard his
labored breath and felt herself get closer. She had
her legs around him and she never broke eye contact.
Fuck the nice girl, she had been to weak to fend for
herself before. Time to grow up.
Time to scream, time to feel him collapse on her,
spent. Time to remember she was dripping his seed on
her bed. Maybe she'd get pregnant.
Right now she would not mind a baby in the least.
"What will you do?" he asked, numbly awake on her.

"I'll go to LA and get Angel move his ass here on the
double, that's what I will do!" Buffy sighed. And then
she snorted. "Does it feel any...different...after
you...?" After you got to be a killer, Buffy thought.
Her eyes told him the question.

"That's the problem, it does not. Sometimes you see and
regret it, most of the times...I don't have any more
nightmares than before!" Xander answered. "Strange. I
never thought I'd see you like that for real either. Or
that I'd ever go to be what I am now."

"Hope you liked it."

"You were incredible, Buffy," Xander said and meant it.
He hesitated but then he asked her what became of her
gentle nature. "That wild girl streak again?"

"Probably," she nodded, unconcerned. "Maybe I just found
out I liked it. You know, I might even have liked Faith
to fuck me again...no matter what else she did." Buffy
looked at him and remembered about her encounter with
Faith fucking her that eagerly. And her responses. And
the time...a might have been, if not for that deputy
mayor's staking. "She just took you, in that hotel, did
she? Just got you down and fucked you."

"Yes."

"Like me?"

"A bit. She was...less caring," he said, after he had
considered his words and emotions. Less caring, that was
some choice. Faith had never cared about hurting her
lovers - she simply used them. "And what was it like for
you? I mean, with another woman...if I may ask."

"Good," Buffy said unashamed. Pretty much useless to
be ashamed anymore, after she had him in her all
around...and enjoyed it. "She was more gentle. But, oh
my, the hottest was to see her finger herself. I'd
nearly begged her to let me do it."

"In hindsight?"

"Of course in hindsight, I was much to angry to even
speak up," Buffy said. Maybe, once Faith got back, she
might consider some repeat. "I must be pretty screwed up
if I do not bark out at my being raped! Crap, I was even
enjoying that...once I gave in."

"Spike?" he said, just observing her.

She nodded, and there were no tears about that either. 
"After a while I let go...first time ever, I just let
go and it went automatic. Not really that fancy, but a
lot of...of using the other!" Buffy commented, wondering
about the pillow talk. It seemed so...distanced, to talk
after sex with a man about her other lovers. "Do you
think I'm in some state of shock, say, out of my mind?"

"Probably."

"My, my, but are you going for Oz-imitation now?" Buffy
laughed. Usually it was rather the problem to stop him
from talking, not to get him to open his mouth. And her
being a bit out of her mind, well, who could deny it?
She could have been down screaming, being suicidal.
Strangely she was not.
The Buffy who had gone into the ordeal, now, she might
have gone over the brink by now. But she had changed.
Buffy was not sure if for better or worse, and right now
she did not even care. 

"No. I'm just...thinking!" Xander said, disturbingly
calm and showing some very happy face. The face of a man
who just got some sexual fantasy fulfilled and did not
want to think about reality. Yet they had to return
there next. "Better we get going, don't we?"

Buffy nodded, got out of the bed and grinned. "After a
shower, okay?"

He looked up to her, sorry. Told her had didn't have
the energy to even consider that.

"Pity," she said. "We can still pretend, I never did it
in the shower."

"Okay," Xander said. Good for him, really good. "Anyone
ever told you you're a damned bitch?"

"I'd consider it a compliment," Buffy giggled, thinking
back to her early years. As a normal teen she had been
bitchier than Cordelia, albeit with a lot less money.
"I still will not go with you or kill humans."

"I would never ask," Xander replied and Buffy suddenly
lost her weight and floated upwards. She felt the hairs
on her body arch up and gawked at first, then laughed
as she got moved into the showers and he followed. 

"Why didn't you come up with that before?" Buffy asked.
"I'd liked to do it on my roof..."

"Then we would have had some bruises now," Xander
answered a bit annoyed. "If I loose concentration..."

"Oh," she nodded. "To bad."

"Hey, I didn't have much time to learn, Buff. Give me
a couple of years and it's quite a reflex. You would
not believe what my dad can do, if he puts his mind to
it!" Xander laughed, revealing some little bit of his
new identity to her. "There is no way for us to stay in
contact, or is there?"

"I doubt it," Buffy said, and she disliked it. She did
want to repeat what she had done today. Ten times at
least. Maybe she would change her mind in time, maybe.
"But we should try. Mhm, let's see...what about if we
meet in six months in some place we know?"

"Can't promise you that I can show," Xander sighed, dark
regret flowing from his voice as they came into the
shower and kissed again. Until they had to break it for
need of breath. And it was true, he had to give up his
power while doing this. "But I will try."

"You know my old school? The gym I burned down? Let's
meet at Hemery High Gym!" Buffy grinned. "And then we
can get into some hotel room and repeat that, can we?"

"I'd love to," he nodded, his hands on her and the warm
water running over her skin. "I really would love it."

Buffy chose to ignore his doubts, she could quite well
see a future again. Maybe become a PI or whatever in LA
and get to live again, as a Slayer. No mutants anymore,
she was just a Slayer and content to stay out of all the
power struggles and riots.
Maybe Willow would come, to. Or not.
That was not Buffy's decision to make.
The one matter that remained was Faith. What should
become of her now, after all it was Buffy's fault that
she was again in a maimed body. Even if she looked as if
she might recover in a few months. Faith just had to be
protected and guarded for the time. And afterwards there
was the need to reform her.
Strangely, Buffy could not even hate Faith. Considering
what had happened, Faith's quest for revenge was one the
biggest setbacks ever.
She pitied the psycho girl.
Maybe there was a chance...maybe Angel could help.
Maybe, right now she was not certain of anything.
Not even that she wanted to help Faith.
She closed her eyes and thanked for Slayer healing. She
would be raw from overactivity for hours otherwise. But
so she had his face in her lap and then a tongue on her
clit and could get another orgasm.
One last kiss later Xander began to clean himself and
prepared to leave, and she went down into the kitchen.
To get something to eat, she felt starved after all. It
was not even important what she took out of the fridge.
He was gone after she came out of the shower herself.
But Buffy could still feel him in her, if she closed her
eyes. She sighed.
"And now back to real live," Buffy muttered starkly.
She still had to visit some friends, after all.


#24
Witches


Willow had no reason to feel well. She was up and able
to walk, but the dental surgery she had underwent made
her unable to speek. She looked like she came out of
the trauma ward, with severe head injuries.
She would not even loose her teeth, albeit it would take
at least some weeks until the newly reimplanted teeth
were again securely covered in flesh. The wonders of the
modern reconstructive surgery.
It did not get her any less mad about Xander, he had not
had to hit her like that. Although she had not been able
to clear ehrself of any guilt, after all Tara was alive
and would recover while he just lost...so much more.
Still, the mutants made her pretty nervous and wary.
Especially the telepath among them.
Willow was never sure if she thought her own thoughts,
she had seen the redheaded woman - Dr. Jean Grey - cloud
others mind after all. Who might say what these mutants
could and would do?
But then, she was a witch herself and she could also
move objects with nothing but the power of her mind!
Albeit there was a little difference between a pencil
and some stone weighing close to a ton. And doing so
under such different circumstances.
No, the mutants were not to be underestimated.
She still could not quite believe Xander being one of
them. Wasn't he the Mr. Normal Guy around here? And now
that! Talk about him killing Spike, slaughtering a real
little army and using vampires to do his bidding, being
a powerful mutant and a terrorist.
Willow felt quite betrayed.
Why didn't he tell her? He had to! She was his friend,
and his behavior fairly proved he had needed help. He'd
made so many wrong decisions.
He must be stopped, soon.
Willow turned around and began to walk up the hospital
room again, then turn around again and walk it down.
One of the beds was empty, the other was occupied by a
thankfully crippled Slayer. Faith was still unconscious
but she might be awake soon, really soon.
Not that she were fit to make any more troubles. What
she had done to poor Buffy, the bitch be damned for it!
Willow threw the pale brunette on the bed a burning
glare after another, which Faith of course never was
able to realize.
Well, Faith WAS damned for it.
Giles had made certain of that, at least.
Good god, the idea of what would have happened if that
had been Buffy...if Faith, with Buffy's body, would have
disappeared. 
"I don't know how you did it, bitch, but I know YOU are
responsible for all of this...!" Willow groaned. Albeit
silently and only to herself. She could not speak with
all the surgery right now.
She was no telepath like Jean Grey, she never could rip
the answers to her questions right out of Faith's mind.
But she had other ways to discover the truth!
"And you made it really worse, all my live is in
shambles just because of _you_...my family is endangered
and I loose my friends and my home and whatever...!"
There was Giles, in prison. Tara and herself, injured
for a long time to come. Xander, a murderous madman. And
Buffy, now the walking wounded Slayer. Joyce was dead,
Spike was dust (no big loss there) and then...who knew
what might happen next!
"I have to do something," Willow decided. But what?
It seemed as if there simply was no way to do anything.
If she had known where Buffy was, she might have been
somewhat less on edge. But she had vanished sometimes
around noon. Maybe something had come to hurt her, now
that she was vulnerable.
So a few hours passed by and then Willow had an idea.
It just took her the laptop and an internet access, she
had a remote one over her cell phone. It was not that
good or fast but enough for email.
She long ago had found out about some of Giles' old
contacts and concluded they were with the Council. The
Council would help settle the Faith matter. It was just
a small note to one of them, one who actually HAD an
account. And then all she had to do was wait...wait for
their agents to come and pick up one disabled Slayer.
Whatever they would do, Faith would suffer for her sins
and greatly so - and that was right. SOOOO right.
It had been long overdue.
Willow felt a bit better and settled for reading some
book or the other, though she never got far. Her mind
could not ignore the other issues.
Giles freedom was no big deal, just crak the files of
the SPD - as if she hadn't done that a hundred times
by now. Just reenter some of Faith's past, burglary
and assault on a police officer, resisting arrest.
And voilf, giles was as good as free again. Some less
than unusual but very explainable computer problem.
Willow wanted to grin wide.
All that was missing now was Buffy and then some way to
get out of the crosshairs of this black agency, that
Initiative. Willow was still poundering how she could
switch identities and shake them and then Faith stirred,
waking up.
Of course she had to wake up.
Willow nearly smiled openly at Faith as the brunette had
to learn she was a cripple, paralysed from the head down
and that most probably for live. Faith was helpless.
Unable to even scratch her own nose.
Willow felt sweet contentment fill her. How would that
bad girl feel once the Council came for her? Oh, all the
bittersweet feelings of justice being done!
She wished she could have told Faith so she would be
screaming and struggling, could properly be terrified.
And despair at the futility of her desire and attempt to
escape justice once again.
Most of all Willow wanted Faith to feel despair.
And then the mutants came in and there was some quick
talking being done. Nothing Faith liked to hear much.
Willow was hurt by her attempts to giggle as that man
with the steel claws in his hands, that Wolverine, came
to talk with the wild girl. He wasn't so happy about her
deceiving him. Or her being a bodysnatcher.
Willow tried her best to evade Jean Grey's attention and
that was why she went to see Tara. Her still unconscious
girlfriend was on the slow and painful road of recovery.
Willow held her hand for a long time and wished she were
able to speak, to whisper encouraging words to Tara.
She was just about confident they could do it.
Still, Buffy was suspiciously absent and when she came
in she was pretty adamant about telling where she had
been and what she had done. She looked a lot better than
last time Willow had seen her, anyway.
The man with the red glasses, that Cyclops, scowled at
her for not informing them and she just coldly replied
it wasn't his business to look after her.

"And what if anything happened to you?" Cyclops asked.

Willow could only say he was right. And the X-Men had
already saved Buffy's live twice...she should not be
that ungrateful. Or bitchy. Yet she was. Willow could
only throw up her hands in an uncharacteristic gesture
of despair.
Why couldn't Buffy be somewhat more sensible?

"Please remember that there is one dangerous mutant out
there, who might come after you! And then, don't you
have enough OTHER enemies?" Storm argued on Cyclops'
behalf against Buffy. Who could not defend herself by
reason. "After all that happened you should know better
than to behave like that!"

"I just needed some time alone," Buffy replied, angryly
and showing it. "And for all that, doesn't look like
Xander is a danger to ME...and I was pretty much able
to handle anything beyond Faith, and she got lucky."

"Overconfidence," Wolverine surmised his answer to her.

"Don't you ever have to be alone and deal with _YOUR_
troubles?" Buffy shouted back, charged up enough to get
into a fight right here. "I don't think you..."

Whatever she wanted to say died as there was a loud
explosion outside. And wonder why, it was far from the
last one.
What was happening?
As they rushed out of the room, with Jean Grey staying
behind to watch over Faith and Willow wishing Tara was
in the same room, they quickly learnt the hospital was
under attack.
A whole group of demons and vampires had come out of
the swers just after sundown - and now there was a big
battle.
Willow could see dead people by the dozens. Scores of
live humans who ran around, hunted by the minions of
the night. What the crap was going on here?
She didn't knew, she just took out her cross and tried
to scare away as many vamps as possible. She could
see the mutants and Buffy going into battle.
The black woman with the whitegold hairs, Storm, stood
in the midst of a real storm. Stormwinds blew some of
the attackers away and cracking white lightning strikes
came gunning for some others, dusting them instantly.
Cyclops blasted one demon and vampire after another.
Wolverine had extracted his claws and was going to rip
anything to shreds that came close to him and didn't
look human enough. And Buffy traded kicks and blows
and was dusting one of them after another.
It was not enough - not with ten times more enemies
coming for each of them and about a dozen already IN the
hospital.
Willow used a stake she levitated to stab one reckless
vampire in the back, dusting him just as he was feeding
from a screaming nurse, and she scared another away from
her. Damnit, there were to many and the demons were not
as easy to get rid of either!
Just what was that about?
Willow was about to scream as her witch power failed to
be of any use against the scaly demon coming for her,
in front of two vampires in game faces. The patients and
doctors and nurses ran around in panic, noone had any
idea what to do but run...save themselves.
Noone was able to fight back as the trio of fiends came
through the corridor and Willow failed to do more than
block the vampires with her cross. The demon, now, she
had no idea how to kill the humanoid snake - demons like
that needed some brute power to kill. Buffy's department
and not hers, she had no combat spells at her disposal.
She tried to duck the first attack and was driven back
to the wall, lost her cross...she was about to die.
And then Jean Grey came out of the stairs, pointed her
hand at the demon and he was thrown backwards. He reeled
back and hissed, clawed hands spread out as he ran for
the redheaded mutant. He never got near her before her
telekinesis got hold of him and he went flying, then the
vampires decided to run. They never got very far, the
stake was ripped from Willow's hand and flew into the
first bloodsuckers back and through the eruptind dust
to bury itself into his partner and dust him as well.
Then the demon screamed, muscles strained and he got
moved upwards. Hit the ceiling, fell down, got back up
and banged his head again. More hissing, howling and
attempts to break the hold.
Jean gritted her teeth under the concentration, she
was in great pains and had trouble to keep standing.
Willow hurried to her side.
Suddenly there was a loud crack and then the demon fell
back to the ground, limp. Dead. His neck was snapped.
And Jean Grey got better, she just needed a few seconds
to recover her composure.
Willow wondered if Xander could do something similiar.
If he could, he was a double traitor for not making that
gift immidiately available to the Slayer.
She would have to find out.
But right now, all that mattered was to look for Tara.
Willow could not explain how, she just had the feeling
that this attack was meant for Tara and Faith - and the
weakened Slayerettes. Certainly there had to be some
reason to all this.


#25
The New Boss


Faith was lying in her bed, totally helpless. And there
was nothing she feared more than to be helpless like
that. She could move her head, but nothing else. She had
not even any feeling in her body below the shoulders.
The doctor had said she wasn't entirely paralysed, over
the next couple of days some of it might return, but
Faith was certain she would not live that long.
There were to many out to get her.
Most of all the fucking Council, but also these mutants.
And then there was Willow, Willow with the eyes full of
hate. Faith didn't bother to mention it, normally she
would just have laughed about red being angry at her.
Poor little red, Buffy's pet witch!
Faith might have enjoyed to scare her, maybe add here or
there some nice scar. Cut her and lick the blood away.
Oh, what fun it might have been to fuck her in B's body
or make a pass at the shy girlfriend of hers. And get
caught in bed, scoring before the witch.
So many plans, so many intentions.
And she didn't manage anything for real.
There was a longer story to how she got to be back into
her own body. And how that body became a crippled wreck!
She even got that, from the furiour redheaded mutant.
Faith had laughed as she heard it had been Buffy who ran
into Giles - and her own Watcher nearly shot her dead.
She had laughed so hard about it.
That figured, a Watcher was always what got a Slayer
killed in the end. Couldn't trust the smugg bastards.
Of course, the mutant never understood the irony.
She also didn't understand why Faith did not want to
hear her assessment of Faith's medical condition. Wow,
that drop dead gorgeous redhead (Faith would have liked
to fuck her and get her totally rotten with that body)
was a trained M.E. and a major brain, too.
Slayer healing might do a lot but she was already at her
limits. Maybe she could recover, in months. Faith was
awfully certain she would heal perfectly, with even her
damaged nerves being intact again. It was how it worked
after all.
But she could feel her imminent doom, nearly taste it.
And she knew, knew for a fact, that she was done for.
Thinking in hindsight, she had come here to Sunnydale
just to safe B's ass.
The Chosen Two, oh yeah. What hybris of her to even
believe that. Buffy was the Slayer, the prime one, to
the day she died and whatever might happen after.
And Faith just was some expendable addition, there to
shield the almighty Buffy from harm.
Like with the mayor. She wasn't sure what really had
made her go there, it was just a bit more than simple
desperation. And in the end she had that fight and then
came the dream, her meeting B and telling her how to
kick the boss's sorry ass at the ascension.
And now she saved her butt again. With mommy vamped.
She was lucky to have survive twice and after all, she
even got to fuck B. Couldn't say her live was anything
but a real waste of time, yet it had been fun.
Given a choice Faith would do the same over again.
And now doom was coming for her.
Faith was determined to go down with dignity. She would
not beg or cry, she would spit at them and she would
not even scream.
She failed at that, she fumed at whatever higher power
decided to just use her like that. It was not fair. It
never had been fair.
And as the group of vampires entered, Faith thought she
even recognized their leader. A blonde bitch she might
have seen at the high school around, she seemed a bit
burned at the edges but otherwise quite fine. She was
the only one who actually came into the room.
"Hello Slayer," the blonde vamp hissed. "I bet you would
like to get up and run, wouldn't you, dear?"

"Fuck you," Faith answered, her voice uneven. She would
not beg, that she would not do. "Comeon, bitch, let's
get it over with."

"Oh no, first you will SUFFER!" the vampire said. "For
what your friend did to me."  

"My friend?" Faith echoed and laughed. She did not have
any friends, never had. Maybe B might have become one,
but the darn little witch had been there before. And
then there was Xander, whom she just plainly ignored.
Just a human being, then. Boy, couldn't she be wrong!
"I do not have any friends, baby."

"Oh? To bad. They guard you and I will kill you just
to spite them!" she declared and her demonic features
were lighted up by her bloodlust and hate. "And your
blood will make me...STRONG...strong enough for me to
get my revenge..."

"Just kill me and stop the talking, will you?" Faith
yawned, disgusted. Another vampire with delusions of
grandeur and revenge for whatever. She nearly laughed
aloud as she saw the vampire get anrgy. "You vamps are
just that boring - always so predictable. I just bet
you'll get some stake up your ass as a result of that
thirst for revenge...mhm, whom are you even angry at?
Can't be blondie, you would be down there, and these
freaks are not here long enough...and the witches
aren't here, so I'd settle for Xander, is it?"

She twichted at the mention of the name and Faith knew
it had been him. Boy seemed to be moving up in the
world. The vampires sniffed the air, moved her face
closer and then asked Faith if she was mad or what.

"Who cares?" Faith sneered. "Yeah, I am mad. Probably
certifyabkle, okay? Now, drain me and get it done! I
haven't got all day!"

"You're nuts," the vampire coughed up, astonished. "A
nutty Slayer, I don't believe it! Who the heck put you
in here?"

"Some trigger-happy fool," Faith answered and wished she
could have shrugged. And some idiot who came into his
line of fire, not her. What a damn crap, B had her in
the shit again. "Now, can you end that staring and get
down to business? No wonder you suckers always loose!"

The vampires snorted, fangs reached for Faith's neck
and she was about to bite Faith and drain her when
the door flew open and someone came in the room. There
was no trace from the other vamps outside left, and
Faith did not doubt they were dust.
Instead of them there stood one man in a grey cloak, a
young men with a helmet on and clad in some sort of
body armor. Looked not so bad or trashy at all. And the
arms he carried were just as real as anything Faith had
ever seen. He had an assault rifle slung over the back,
a pistol at each a hip and under a shoulder and he had
some grenades, spare ammo clips and some knife sheats
in the belts strapped over the armor and the cloak.
Now, speak about a guy going rambo.
The blonde vampire whirled around and shrieked, went
at once to attack - and was stopped in midair, some
safe distance away from the figure.

"Now why am I not surprised you are here, Harm?" Xander
Harris sighed as he shook his head. "Tell me, how many
of you types have survived my little firebomb?"

The blonde growled in rage, then screamed in agony and
then she growled again. This time while talking, weakly.
Faith wondered what he did to her to make her scream
like that, or what sort of a mutant power he had. It
certainly looked impressive. She spoke about somehow
escaping the first blasts and then hiding inside of a
maintenance tunnel under the gym. There was a trapdoor
she remembered from before, but it had only been her and
her now dusted companions to make it out of the gym with
her unlive.

"And then you came up with that attack?" Xander asked,
incredulous. "Comeon!"

"No, that attack is the work of...something else. I have
no idea whom, don't even care. They just came out of the
night - we all were called by something we could not
resisit and then I knew a downed Slayer was in here, I
saw Summers fight down there...," the vampire girl had
to stammer. She cursed. "Should have known you asshole
would not..."

"Can it," Faith sneered. "Tell us about the calling."

"It was just there, okay? A voice in my head, it called
to me, my demon. I was promised chaos and bloodshed.
Noone said anything about fighting you guys!" the blonde
barked, and Faith grinned at the anger in her voice.
"I don't know anything else."

"Why do they not run?"

"Can't, but do not ask me why. They just follow that
darn voice...was that another of your tricks?"

"No, but it sure would be useful," Xander sighed and
waved his hand. With a final curse the blonde vampire
became dust. "Impressive, isn't it?"

"Sure is," Faith said. She blinked and licked her lips.
"Seems we are full circle, aren't we?" Now she was at
his mercy, like he had been at her mercy in that hotel.
When he had his throat between her legs and she had
strangled him. She was not sure if she really wanted to
kill him or play some dominance game on him, sometimes
she liked to do that.

"I am not here to gloat. Or kill you."

"Are you not?" Faith asked astounded. "Then why?"

"I did not know you were...paralysed," he said instead
and looked at her. Then at the bodyswitching device that
stood on the shelf behind her bed. "Now that machine
offers some fascinating possibilities."

"Didn't do me much good," Faith complained to noone in
particular - and in the end, she had not been able to
help her own doom. "Say, shouldn't you be out there and
help the other hero types save the world or what?"

"What do I care about some dead humans?" Xander answered
with amusement and Faith rose an eyebrow. "I am not here
to help them, I came for you."

"Why?"

"Thought I should get you out of here, somewhere safe,"
Xander said, a hand at his chin and busy looking at the
device. "And I wanted to get at this little piece of
hardware. Could use it."

Faith did not sneer, she felt the impulse however. "What
are you playing at now?"

"Is it that important? I would trade your knowledge
about the operation of the device against your freedom,
Faith," he said equanimously. "Of course, it does not
look like you're in any state to make use of that."

"Dead on there, Einstein," Faith chuckled and closed her
eyes. Remembered a much happier night, one where they
had avtered apocalypse once again. He'd saved her live
back then and he had fucked her. "Say, you don't plan
on raising some little hell or what?"

"Just mutant supremacy in the world, no apocalypse in
that," Xander smiled distanced. "Well, we'd settle for
the normals not gunning for our asses anymore, too."

"Mutant terrorism," Faith surmised his intentions and
remembered what she had seen in his house. "You want to
free your dad, don't you?"

"If he was your - well, I doubt you would bother, but
I actually do," Xander said, a soft laugh in the break
while he scratched his bearded jaw. "Could need someone
to kill a few humans for me. But you're out of the count
right now."

"This body is," Faith said, looking at him. A vague idea
formed in her brain. "You know I'm loyal, ain't I?"

"Are you?" he said, then shrugged. "What do you want to
propose?"

She told him. Faith wanted revenge against the woman who
had made her awake as a cripple. Who decided it was her
that should lie here and not Buffy, even if she'd been
the one to get herself shot.
Even more important, the bodyswitch did not transfer any
powers. They went with the body. So she'd get rid of her
Slayer nature before it could finally kill her.
Faith knew she was a mean one and if anyone proved even
a normal human could play ball with her, he stood right
across from him. But she wanted a mutant body and mutant
powers. What a nice revenge to show that bitch Jean Grey
what Faith thought of her decision making.
If they'd fucking asked her to sacrifice herself for B,
she'd probably done that. But they decided about her.
And anyway, Faith did not much like her own body after
she got to be B. Maybe, this time, she could throw away
so much of her old self, rather undesired personality
traits for starters or bad habits.
And maybe she could fuck for good, that Grey did not
look like she knew what to do with her assets anyway.

"I do not think she's right here and available," Xander
said and then the said woman came in through the door.
Her black battledress a far cry away from the body armor
he wore, and Faith couldn't tell who was more surprised.
Well, she was surprised like hell.
One eyeblink later the two mutants struggled. And then
she went down, unconscious - and Xander flew back at the
wall. There was some wet and crunching sound and he gave
a loud shriek of pain and shock.
Faith could not see it but she was certain he had some
broken bones, yet barely half a minute later he was back
on his feet and groaned in pain. Held his chest and
seemed to wince at every breath he took. "Now, if you
just speak about the devil...!"

"Will you do it?" Faith asked, fresh hope in her guts.
"I promise I'll be your faithful little girl. Hey, you
can fuck me anytime. Even in the ass..." Grey had some
nice ass. And if she could walk again, be alive...Faith
always liked some good fuck.

"Settle for loyal partner, I don't care much whom you
fuck, but you do what I say. And if you do not, I will
punish you - hard," Xander said with a mean streak in
his eyes. He'd go far enough to kill her, Faith saw.
"Understood?"

"Okay, I swear on my soul I'll be your personal aide and
sidekick for live," Faith announced mockingly. Fuck, if
she was a mutant she might mean that! He didn't look so
bad and she might get a chance... "To bad I'll loose my
powers with that transfer. Always liked to kick ass."

"Yeah, we will see," Xander said and the door slammed
shut again. Then he took out the bodyswitching device
and asked how to apply it.
But as she told him he did not go to do it with the fair
Jean Grey, he left the room - and returned with a nobody
of a nurse! One who was old and frail and if she ever
had been striking, it must have been in some previous
century.

"Fuck you," Faith gulped. "You said you'd..."

"She is far more useful to me in her own body," Xander
said icyly as he attached the device. "I will never see
ANY mutant robbed of his body. So don't complain."

"But then I will be just a normal human!" Faith cried.
Just another deranged psycho killer, nothing special
anymore. She always liked to be special.

"Faith, whatever you will be, normal it is not!" was the
answer she got, some dark humor involved. Xander then
activated the machine, not about to discuss it with her
anymore. Everything went black.

When she woke up, he had done something to make the
redhead woman switch sides. There was something in her
eyes, the way she looked at him, that made Faith get
jealous. That was the way she wanted B to look at her,
a long time ago. A gutting and a kidnapping ago.
She was still startled at the change of attitude and
then she got back on her feet...the new body felt so
odd. The center of balance, the length of the limbs,
all was alien. She could only stagger onwards.
Faith saw Xander pack the bodyswitching device into a
backpack, careful not to damage it. Probably had all the
reason to do this. Damn, for a terrorist that thing must
be some godsend - just imagine what kind of damage it
could do!
"Fuck, you promised me something!"

"I promised to get you out of here," Xander answered
with his back to her. Faith sneered in rage and then
she jumped at him, though she never got far before some
invisible force stopped her. Grey and her mutant power.
Or he and his. "Fuck you!"

"Not in THAT shell," Xander answered flat out, his brown
eyes sparkling with amusement. "By the way, you do not
miss any Slayer strength and speed, do you?"

"You know I do not have that anymore," Faith answered.
Angryly and loud at first but then she got more and more
quiet. She had just moved like normal, well, about to
her noraml. Meaning way faster than this body should be
able to move. "What's going on?"

"Simple, F...you don't mind me calling you that?" Xander
smirked, immensely satisfied with himself. "Anyway, you
are no damn mutant, got that? You're a Slayer and your
powers are part of YOU, not just some genetic matter."

"So...I am still...?"

"Yeah, there is no way out like that," Xander said and
pointed to Jean Grey. "You will have to thank her for
the little mindwipe, that girl down there won't remember
who she is for days to come." And then he picked up the
backpack and motioned for them to leave.

"Wait a minute," Faith said, hestitating. "Aren't there
some monsters out to get me?"

"With any luck they will wipe our trails," Jean Grey
said with a new edge to her words. A coldness. Whatever
Xander did to her, Faith considered it a big improvement
on the redhead do-gooder. "We will change your body in a
while and then dispose of the shell, so don't complain."

"Faith will not complain, Jean," Xander said as they
headed for the stairs. Faith could see some bloodstains
around and bodies, in the disnace alarms rang and people
were still screaming. The fight outside was still going
on, with the attackers getting decimated over time, as
Grey informed them. "And Faith, remember our deal. You
are now mine!"

Faith bit the fat lips of the nurse and grimaced. She'd
agreed to be his sidekick - okay, she was going to be.
"What do you want from me?"

"Ah, F, what do you think? A superpowered agent, able to
take any body...ring any bells?" Xander laughed, full of
ideas and none of them pleasant. "You will work for me,
dear. First order of business, we bail my dad out of his
prison. Second we wipe out the Initiative goons. And the
third will be the downfall of human power on earth. Any
questions left?"

"No," Faith said. Well, he surely was ambitious. But it
might be fun. Go around, raise hell, fuck with other
people big time - sounded like he intened to be like the
mayor in overdrive. "Boss," she said for the first time.
She had a boss again, someone to make decisions. Some
guy who mattered to her, who commanded her. Whew.
She nearly had forgotten how she missed that, not to be
alone anymore. And how she missed the directions!

"That's the spirit," Xander said. They entered the
stairs but they went up instead of down. Form down there
came a number of people, and other things. Screams and
smoke and horrors.
It was a simple walk up and on the roof, then they got
moved up in the air and flown away into the night.
First time she ever flew, especially like that! Faith
laughed as she looked down and noticed how tiny all the
people were from the height. Grey said nothing at all.


#26
Afterwards


Willow looked out of the window of the black plane the
X-Men used to get around as they neared the manor, the
building housind the school atop the secret X-Men base.
It sure was nice to look at.
And probably even better to work at.
But it was not enough to cheer her up. The last day,
the day after, had done her in for good.
First the cataclysmic battle at the hospital - were they
got to save some dozen lives. But not without casualties
and setbacks.
Overall, whoever had been after that attack got his will
done. Faith was dead, but probably not by any monster.
A vampire would haved drained her and the demons there
did not look like the kind who used any weapons. 
It was more probable that an operative from the Council
got there first and simply stabbed her, she looked bad.
The murderer had nearly cut of her head to make sure she
was dead, and from a purely practical point of view
Willow could understand the henious act. The Council
needed another Slayer.
And now they probably got one.
It was a sick joke, if it had been the Council indeed.
There also was another suspect.
The forces of evil had failed in their attack before,
the X-Men and Buffy and Willow herself had stopped them.
Even if there were scores of dead and injured people, it
would have been far worse otherwise.
But the victory never was anything but phyrric.
Jean Grey was MIA, probably dead. Faith was dead. And
Rupert Giles had committed suicide after someone had
called him in prison and told him whom he had shot at.
The Watcher had lost it at that and hung himself on a
rope made from his underwear.
Of course, noone knew who had made the call. Neither did
anyone know who alerted the Council - which had been her
mistake. She'd never really thought they would go and
kill Faith.
Buffy had gone to LA, taking the books with her. Wesley,
who had hooked up with Angel after leaving the Council,
was going to be her new Watcher. The vampire moved over
to the hellmouth until someone else came to guard it.
Which would probably be the new Slayer.
Willow didn't care much right now.
What mattered more was the missing Jean Grey and the
bodyswitching device. If Xander had come to get that, 
he might have killed Faith and took Jean Grey prisoner
or something.
So morale was at a real low right now.
Willow wished her medical condition allowed her to talk
again, well, without using telepathy. But for the time
being she was down to using paper, gestures and signs. 
She had agreed to come here and be some advisor - on
research, computers and magic - to the mutants and she
looked forward to teach again. She had liked to teach.
If just the history had been different.
If only this, that and those.
If only Xander were no murderous mutant terrorist, who
was by now certainly working on a plan to break his
equally dangerous father out of prison.
Wonder what would happen next...
When the Blackbird had come to a halt on the ground, in
the secret base, Willow could see an old, bald man in a
wheelchair come closer to her. Charles F. Xavier, the
professor and founder of the academy. And the X-Men.
And her new boss. He did not look like he was in any
particular good mood, either.


#27
Victory


He walked the streets of Sunnydale again, and this time
the city was as good as his. The one being left to guard
the hellmouth was of no interest to him.
The souled vampire, Angel, was no threat. He'd just have
to stay indoors after dark and keep to the daylight.
He had to admit - his attempt to destroy Buffy and her
friends had failed. All he managed was to get the damn
old fool who was her watcher to do suicide. And here he
just wanted to turn the knive in the wound, just hurt
his old friend Ripper once again.
Ethan Rayne adjusted his tie - something he just wore
as part of his gisduise as a normal businessman, he got
to old for his street punk image anyway - and then he
cleared his throat.
To bad that noone left around knew about him.
To bad, too, that Xander managed to go psycho like that.
He certainly had not considered the boy to be capable
of doing such damage. Yet he was.
At least the Slayer was out of the way and the Council
would leave him alone as long as he kept out of the way.
And if he kept anyone from trying to open the good old
hellmouth again.
Ethan had no intentions to do that.
At least not in this century.
"Hm...that town needs a new mayor," he smiled. Old
Wilkins had done some fabulous job around here, just in
the very end he messed up. Typical. Never trust a Slayer
to be anything else than your worst enemy.
Wouldn't be so hard to get himself settled here and he
would have no problem to start a career. Take over the
nightclubs, including the Bronze. He had the money and
with his magic he also had the good fortune to keep the
clubs running.
As long as he had the artifact, he also could control
the vampires and the demons. Soon they would be used to
obey his words, and anyone who came here and dared to
threaten his power would be destroyed.
No problem.
Keep anyone from becoming Mr. Big, have the smaller
gangs and beings fight each other. Divide et impera, it
worked even for the inhuman beings.
He would have a few select servants, keep his identity
well hidden and get all the bigwings to stay out. 
Wait a few years and build up his power until he, too,
was invincible. And as long as he stayed near the town
he'd stay invincible and forever young.
Ethan Rayne adjusted the tie. He could get used to that
horrible thing, as long as he just had the power and
his expensive manor with the naked little girls in the
bedroom. He could get used to becoming rich and powerful
and staying in the background.
Maybe Angel would even stay, so what? In the end, he
would HELP Ethan to take over. Only some extremely dumb
asshole with delusions of grandeur would take on that
vampire. Especially as long as he had the backup of a
Slayer and a full team of powerful mutant warriors and
who knew what else.
Ethan chuckled and grinned at the sun, grinned at the
trees and grass and flowers. He even grinned at the
people. For he was a happy man today, the winner in the
game called power.
"And all that just for some painkiller and a few choice
words," Ethan mused. Okay, without the artifact he had
no chance to pull that one of - he'd had to invest much
more work. And he never expected the Slayer to fall down
that easily. Maybe just bad luck, she couldn't keep up
her lucky streak forever.
He still had to collect more artifacts and spells.
Gather more power.
And then he'd be one of the most powerful mages in the
world. One who defied death and mortal weaknesses and
battled for power beyond the mere imagination of most
mortals.
All his dreams would come true, in the end.
Ethan could taste the power, the success, the victory.
And it made him feel alive like nothing else could.
Whistling an old song he strolled the streets and saw
the sun rise to the highest.
Soon, in a few hours, he'd be a respected citicen of
the town and in a few months a successful businesman.
Maybe he'd even find some bitch who could show herself
and marry her, some woman who knew what to do. Might be
fun to get some girl he could humiliate for decades, a
girl who would be turned on by that and his less public
interests.
Maybe he might even revive his old buddy Ripper, some
intelligent zombie might be just the right assisstant.
And Ripper could be fun once he forgot to be that old
and stuffy goody two-shoes of a Watcher.
Oh well, he'd see to that later on. Much later.

The end