Wild Horses
Part 08
By Jeconais
"Buffy, we’re out of coffee," Willow shouted up the stairs.
"Take some cash from the jar and go get some."
"The jar’s empty."
"What?" The blonde Slayer suddenly appeared, dressed only in a towel.
Willow held up the brown ceramic jar. "Jar. Empty."
Buffy looked surprised. "The jar’s never empty. Spike must have forgotten to fill it up. Wait a minute."
The Slayer trotted back to her room.
"Spike," she whispered, nuzzling into his chest.
"Whassa ou want?" he mumbled. There was still a hint of daylight outside and he had no wish to see it.
"The jar’s empty. We need coffee."
Spike groaned, "Tell Xander to put my share in for me." The tired vampire rolled over, trying to get back to sleep.
It was a very confused blonde who went back down to the kitchen, a few minutes later, after taking the time to throw on a robe.
"Willow, did you ever put any money in the jar?" she asked her friend.
The red-head shook her head and paled as her agile mind started to put things together. "Xander told me he’d put my share in for me, that I needed the spare money for college. You?"
Buffy slumped into a chair. "Xander told me that he’d take care of my share, since I needed to concentrate on beating the First Evil."
The jar sat forlornly on the kitchen table, next to the faxed letter from the bank, stating that the mortgage was paid in full.
"Buffy," Willow said quietly. "That jar has been keeping us alive for the past four or five months. With Giles unable to access the Council’s bank accounts and looking after the kids, we used it for everything. I always thought that everyone else put money in as well. I’m betting that Xander took care of Giles’ share as well."
Buffy frowned in thought, "Let me get Spike. We need to discuss this."
She jogged upstairs again, and shortly afterward Willow could hear the protests as the Vampire was dragged out of bed. She looked around the kitchen, and reached over and grabbed the pile of mail on the counter top.
"Junk, bill, junk, bill, bill, junk," she mumbled as she sorted the letters into two piles. Throwing the junk mail into the trash bin, she tried to ignore the giggling she could hear from upstairs.
She opened each of the bills and placed them on the table.
"Ok," Spike bounded into the room; obviously, the giggling had been something enjoyable for him. "What’s the problem?"
Willow sighed to herself. "Jar. Empty. We have bills that need paying and a rather large shortage of anything to pay them with."
Spike slumped down on to the chair, watching as Buffy joined them. "What happened to your share of the money?" he inquired, looking curiously at the witch.
"Same as you," Willow snapped. "Xander put it in for me."
"You too?" The peroxide blonde asked the Slayer.
Buffy nodded. "And we think he put in Giles’ share as well."
Spike scowled, "You’re telling me that Droopy was bankrolling us?"
His statement was met with twin nods.
"Wonderful." Spike was not happy; this was going to set back his plans. A lot.
"We’re going to need to split the bills three ways," Willow said, trying to move forwards. "We’ve got Gas, Electric and Telephone bills here that all need paying."
Buffy smiled, a slightly twisted expression without any humor. "I’m guessing that leaving the bills on the counter, so that they disappear like they used to won’t be an option?"
"Xander paid the bills as well?" Willow groaned.
"Ok, we can handle this," Spike pronounced. He picked up the bills. "Ok, we’ve got around $100 worth here; do we get any other bills?"
Buffy and Willow looked blank. "No idea."
Spike rolled his eyes and walked over to a drawer; he opened it and pulled out a large wad of paper. "The whelp put everything here. We’ll just go through it and get everything for the last month."
They sat together, separating the invoices, all of which had been paid either by check or by debit from Xander’s account. The two women were disappointed when they saw that the water bill had been paid by debit in the past, but had been stopped this month. Obviously, Xander had meant it when he had said they were no longer friends.
"How come Angel always had money?" Willow asked Spike, out of the blue.
Spike looked embarrassed, as he rather sheepishly explained. "He was always into that sort of stuff, liked to be in control of everything. He looked after the money when we were together. I didn’t care as long as I had my fags. I used to steal anything else I needed."
"What about when you were at the crypt? You had electricity there."
"I was stealing it from the church; I had a cable run down there."
"Ok," Buffy interrupted, looking at the total on the calculator in front of her. "At the moment, we need around two hundred each to carry on as we have been. If we get rid of the Cable TV and economize a little on the food, we can get that down to one-fifty."
No one felt the need to state how difficult it would have been if they had the mortgage to pay as well. It was rapidly becoming obvious just how significant a role Xander had played in their lives, and just how oblivious they had been to the fact.
Willow did a couple of calculations in her head. With the refund she had gotten from the college for moving off campus, she could just about handle that amount.
"That’s fine by me," she said. "I’m going to go get some coffee."
"K," Buffy said, watching her red-headed friend leave.
"How are we going to find three hundred a month?" Buffy looked at her fiancé, clearly worried.
"I’m not sure," he replied. This really put a hitch in his plan to get rid of Willow; at the moment, they needed her.
Coffee in hand, Willow sat at her computer. She brought up a web browser and did a quick DNS lookup for the DMV computer. Getting the IP address, she fired up a program she hadn’t used in ages and waited expectantly.
Only it didn’t work.
She frowned, and did a trace route to the computer she was trying to get into. She counted down the hops, the computers the message passed on from her source computer to the destination computer, and finally saw the reason why. A new firewall had been installed, and she didn’t have a clue how to bypass it.
She contemplated nipping into a chat room and asking for help, but couldn’t face it. The great W!cked!W!sp reduced to being a script kiddie? Not a chance! She hadn’t realized how out of date she had become, having concentrated so much on her magic these past four years. Without doing some in depth analysis, using packet sniffing, she couldn’t even use magic to help her bypass the sophisticated firewall.
Out of curiosity, she tried the local hospital, and was relieved to find a back door she had programmed years ago was still functioning. It was the first time she had ever been grateful that the hospitals were under-funded and relatively technologically backward.
With a happy smile, and a quick sip of the hot coffee, she browsed through the records, bringing up Xander’s medical file.
The list of incidents was long, a tribute to how long he had been a Scooby. Reaching the last one, she brought it up, and started to read. Half way down, she spit her coffee over the screen.
Suddenly incredibly pale, the red headed witch grabbed a tissue and slowly wiped the screen clean. She took a deep breath, and read it again, then re-read it a third time, before collapsing back in the chair.
With the medical terminology deciphered, she realized that Xander had lost an eye. That Spike’s throwing her best-friend-since-childhood across the room had crippled him for life.
No wonder Xander had been so cold to them.
A small box appeared on the center of her screen. "You have new mail."
Wondering what else could go wrong, she opened her mail client and smiled. It was from Kennedy.
Later that night, Spike poked his head around Willow’s door. He could hear her in the bathroom; it sounded like the stupid bint was crying over something. He wandered over to her computer and looked at the screen. Unable to believe his luck, he saw Xander’s new address. He quickly memorized it and left the room silently, creeping downstairs.
Once down in the kitchen, he picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory. "It’s me," he whispered. "I’ve got Xander’s new address."
In another part of town, a tall black haired woman laughed to herself. It was time to remove the Carpenter from any future consideration.
"You," she pointed to one of the vampires. "Take a group over to this address, and then force the guard to let you in. Kill everyone you find except for the Key."
"Can we hurt her?"
"Of course. Just don’t kill her. Or you’ll wish you had truly died all those years ago," she smiled at her minions, a sight that most of them shiver with fear.
The vampire she had designated smiled and bowed. This was going to be a good night.
Louie McMaster had been a vampire for nearly a century now. In that time, he had both ruled and served. It had taken him nearly a quarter of his unlife to realize that he was not destined for leadership, he just didn’t have what it takes. From that moment on he’d attached himself to those who could, and served them loyally. Well, at least as loyally as any vampire could serve another.
He looked around him, as he had his companions arrived at the address they had been given. Fourteen other vampires were looking as eager as he was.
"Charge," he yelled, running forwards.
The automatic doors of Xander’s apartment building parted as they ran in.
A few seconds before the vampires entered, a warning light went off on Brad’s desk. He jumped to his feet, pulling out his gun and swapping the standard ammunition clip for one with the blessed bullets their tech division had developed. A flick of his fingers turned on the video cameras, piping a feed straight back to XTech HQ. A calm smile appeared on his face; it looked like he finally was getting his wish.
"Stop!" he yelled forcefully.
Surprised, the vampires actually obeyed him, skidding to a halt.
"This is your first and only warning. If you do not turn around and leave, I will activate the defenses."
Louie laughed. He’d see just how brave this guard was, when his stomach was being spread over his own desk.
"Kill him!"
The vampires howled in pleasure, and jumped towards Brad. He calmly flicked another switch and sat back to watch the show.
The first time that Louie realized something had gone amiss was when the Vampires bounced off an invisible barrier and started to jump around, as their feet started to smoke.
Behind him, steel shutters slammed down to the floor over the entrance, trapping them inside the lobby.
Small nozzles appeared from recesses in the ceiling and started to spray water. Agonized screams followed from his team, shouts of pain that he realized he was participating in, as the holy water started to burn his skin.
In front of them, wall panels slid open, revealing rectangular panels, with bulbs in them. They started to hum as they warmed up, putting out intense ultra violet light, enough to give a human a sun-tan in minutes. It was more than enough to start to burn the vampires.
Louie didn’t even feel the floor underneath him suddenly drop open; he was already dead (again) by the time his body landed on the densely packed forest of ultra sharp stakes beneath.
Brad turned off the defenses and walked to the edge of the pit. He could see a small robot scoot around the bottom, sweeping up the ashes for analysis later. The floor swung back into place, the water having drained off, and was, once again, pristine.
With a huge grin, the ex-soldier walked back to his desk, whistling. "Sometimes, it’s good to be me."
He contemplated letting Xander know what had just happened, but figured the boss could find out in the morning.
Reluctantly, the witch got out of the shower, and wrapped a towel around herself. She walked back to her room and started to dry herself methodically. She pulled on an old t-shirt and sat in front of the mirror.
"Who are you?" she asked softly, looking at her reflection.
Everything had been so simple, five years ago. She’d been a shy computer nerd, completely in love, or so she thought, with her best friend. She had spent her days hanging around with Xander and Jessie, secure in the fact that they both loved her as a sister.
Then Buffy had arrived, and everything changed.
Over the years, she’d lost her friendship with Xander. Sure, they’d experimented with kissage, but when they had been discovered, she’d made a conscious decision to pull away from him, so she wouldn’t be tempted again.
It had been easier when they went to college for the first few years; with Xander being off campus, it became second nature to forget him, to leave him out. "It’s for his own good," had been their combined mantra.
It had been a lie; they just didn’t want stupid Xander with his strange fashion sense and weird humor around the sophisticated crowd they wanted to hang with.
Even when he had been engaged to Anya, they had continued to ignore him, only calling him when he could be useful for fixing things.
Yet, he had stopped her from destroying the world. When Tara had died, Buffy, Giles, Dawn — hell, even Anya had all tried to console her, trying to get her to accept her grief. It had been Xander who had helped her get past it, to start to move on. Despite how badly he had been treated, he had still been there for her. Buffy had tried, but the clumsy 'I know your hurting’ routine had rung sour, especially when everyone knew that she had been out frolicking with Spike all the time she wasn’t with them.
Xander had always been there for her. It was just another facet of her life. She was red headed, she was Jewish, she was Wicca, Xander would be there for her.
But now he wasn’t.
Now, he lived in a nice apartment, judging by his address, on the other side of town. Now, he was looking after Dawn. Now, he was living with the fact that he would only have one eye for the rest of his life.
Kennedy, the dark haired Slayer-in-Training. She had been the first girl Willow had been interested in, after Tara. It had been fun to be chased by the younger girl. She’d felt wanted again, and had started to fall in love with the younger girl.
She had been so upset when Xander had suggested that she back off a little. Didn’t he know how wonderful it was to wake up with someone again? To have someone you could talk to again?
He probably did, she admitted to herself. Slowly, her hand went up to her head and she started to comb her hair, losing herself in the repetitive task.
Despite knowing that Xander was right, she’d sided with Buffy, as she had so many times over the year. When did she become such a lap dog? What had happened to Feisty Willow, the cute redhead with the famous Resolve Face?
Yet again, she’d turned away from the one person who would always be there for her, and chosen someone else.
Yet again, someone else had left her.
Only this time, he had left as well.
She was alone.
"You ok?" Buffy asked softly from the door.
Willow shook her head, still watching herself in the mirror. "Kennedy has left me."
"Oh, I’m sorry," Buffy said quietly, moving forward to hug her friend.
"Silly Cow doesn’t know what she is missing out on," Spike said, trying to act supportive from his perch outside the bedroom door.
Willow felt the magic surge inside her, and the urge to unleash it at the Vampire was immense. Only Buffy’s hug saved the bloodsucker from being fried from the inside out.
Willow buried her face in Buffy’s shoulder. Insults aimed at Kennedy was the last thing she needed right now. Sure, Spike was trying to help, but doing it in such an insensitive manner actually made it worse.
Seeing how late it was, Willow said, "I’m going to go to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow."
"Ok," Buffy said gently, walking out and taking Spike’s hand. "Sleep well."
Willow lay on the bed, idly playing with the t-shirt she was wearing. Xander had given it to her a few years ago, after she had admired it. For the longest time it had smelt of him, and wearing it still gave her comfort.
Xander hated her; she’d trodden on him one time too many.
That thought actually terrified her. He’d been the one constant throughout the changes in her life and, now, he was no longer there. Realizing that Kennedy was also gone somehow paled in comparison.
She’d never be able to look into Xander’s eyes again. He’d always have one missing, and now, she was scared of finding out what the remaining one would tell her. Would the eye that had always laughed with her, always sparkled at her, be dead?
If only she hadn’t chosen a young girl she had known for just six months over her lifelong friend.
If only she could turn back time.
If only it had never happened.
Then everything would be fine.
She could work at making Xander love her again.
She’d be safe and protected once more.
Her rock would be back.
She could love him like she used to, as her brother, and treat him properly.
Xander and Willow. Friends forever.
If only she could change her decision.
If only she had supported him.
If only.
Xander closed his eyes and leant back, letting the stream of water hit him firmly in the face. Four days of having to closely watch himself, to ensure that his bandage stayed dry had been frustrating.
With his hair clean, he whistled as he dried himself, then dressed in some khakis and a casual deep blue shirt Dawn had picked out for him the day they had gone shopping. Brown loafers completed his outfit. While he wasn’t due back at the office till Monday, he wanted to get in today and make a start on the paperwork.
He joined Dawn in the kitchen, and quickly put together some scrambled eggs on toast for them. Dawn stood and made him a coffee as he worked, neither minding the comfortable silence.
"I’m going to drop you off this morning," Xander eventually said, as they sat at the kitchen table and ate. "I want go get into the office, 'cause I’m probably going to have a foot-high pile of paperwork to look through."
Dawn smiled at him. "Can I drive?" Her grin was clearly teasing him.
He just laughed at her, then reached into his pocket and flipped a card across the table at her.
"What’s this?" she asked, picking it up and looking at it curiously.
"Debit card," Xander replied with a grin.
"Why?" Dawn watched him closely; she definitely hadn’t expected this.
"There is going to be times when you need money, when we need some shopping and I can’t do it. There’s also the chance that something Sunnydale-ish will happen, and I’d rather you were not stranded anywhere. The money comes straight from my account."
Dawn was shocked. A couple of weeks ago, being handed this would have been like being given the keys to Fort Knox, and she would have gone on a mega shopping spree. Not now. She promised herself to only use it in emergencies. He’d already given her all the clothes she could ever want, and the apartment, while sparsely decorated, had everything she could need.
"Thank you," she said simply. As he had the night before, Xander found himself getting lost in her smile.
Ian walked into the front office of XTech bright and early and smiled. "Morning Gladys."
"Morning, Ian," the receptionist smiled at him. "You might want to pop into the back; the boys are really excited about something."
Ian grinned and walked to the door. He paused and held up his hand as a simultaneous retinal, palm, and infra red scan verified both his identity and that he was alive, and the door opened.
"Ian," Andrew called him over excitedly. "You have to see this! We had a bunch of Vampires try out the Fortress last night."
Ian’s eyebrows shot up. "No way!" he challenged him.
Quick as a flash, he joined the group of technicians and XTech guards gathered in front of the large monitor.
The screen replayed the action, repeating it from many different angles. "Fifteen vampires wiped out in less than seven seconds." Andrew stated, sounding awed.
Ian grinned. He had helped to install some of the defenses and knowing they worked so well was a huge satisfaction for him.
Leaving the technicians to analyze the different data streams, Andrew and Ian wandered off, idly checking out some of the new weapons the lab boys and girls were working on.
"Andrew, can you run a background check on someone for me?" Michael requested as he approached the two of them, backed up by Rob and Joe, the other two guards from the night before.
"Sure, who?"
"The long-haired brunette with green eyes from the photos in Xander’s office."
"Dawn?" Ian asked, getting in just before Andrew could. "Why?"
"We think she’s interested in the boss, and we just want to make sure she’s on the level."
"No, I won’t run a check on her," Andrew stated firmly. "It’s completely unnecessary. Dawn is the sister of the Slayer, and is *completely* trustworthy," he emphasized. "Xander’s known her for seven years."
"I agree," Ian continued. "Dawn is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met."
He moved to the table and sat down on the edge, looking at the four of them. "Monday morning, at school, I started to hear rumors that Dawn had a new rich boyfriend, and was trying to become the new Queen of Sunnydale high."
Andrew snorted. "Dawn wouldn’t want that," he commented. "She wouldn’t be interested in anything like that!"
"I know that, now," Ian agreed. "But I didn’t at the time. She had changed, though; she was looking a lot older than she had a few days before, and had this bright, friendly smile on her face. Anyway, Porsche — Molly and Kyle’s niece — who was the current Bitch Queen - accused Dawn of sleeping with her boyfriend for the new clothes."
Ian’s smile suddenly grew. "Dawn took a step forward and knocked Porsche on her ass with just one punch. Then, she looked down at her and accused her of giving blowjobs to the entire football team and walked off."
The four of them laughed, smiling. "Wish I could have seen that!" Andrew grinned.
"Anyway, on Tuesday," Ian continued, "I went up and talked to Dawn for the first time. She knew who I was and wasn’t scared of me in the least. She even offered her hand for me to shake."
The three guards looked slightly impressed. Despite not yet being eighteen, Ian had a presence, when he got in a mood, which easily scared people. It was a determination that he would take down his opponent, no matter what the cost to himself. A feeling that, if you were standing in his way, you were going down, even if it killed him in the process.
"That afternoon, Adam — my cousin — came up to me and asked for some backup. He’d heard that Porsche, with her boyfriend Lance, were planning on jumping Dawn. Well, I wasn’t going to let a friend of Xander’s down, so I went with him.
"They talked for a bit, I taunted them, and then I told them very firmly that Dawn’s was under my protection. Lance ignored me and tried to hit me." Ian shook his head, trying to keep his laughter down. "I know he thought he was being fast, but I had time to make a coffee before his punch would have landed."
His audience laughed again, amused. This was the first time the intense young man had opened up like this, and they were surprised to find that they actually enjoyed seeing this side him. They had no idea that Dawn’s influence was already showing.
"Anyway, I knocked him down and they all surrendered. The school’s a much nicer place now. Dawn’s the Queen, but doesn’t act like it. No one is scared any more, it’s just a load of kids getting on together and trying to learn.
"Dawn and Xander are not together. Xander doesn’t think of her that way, yet. I am positive that she will not hurt him, and is not trying anything. She couldn’t," he finished his story and sat back.
The three guards nodded slowly, deciding that with two people that Xander trusted so much endorsing her, they could accept it.
"But," Ian’s grin turned a little evil, "I do think we should run a book on when Dawn gets him to change his mind."
The guard’s eyes lit up, and seconds later, money was being placed on the table. Andrew agreed to run it, and began taking the bets. By the end of the day, every single member of XTech — apart from Xander - was taking part, as well as some people who weren’t officially affiliated with the security company.
Unaware of this, Xander walked into the XTech building, and greeted Gladys.
He passed through the same security, and walked into the large open plan office space. Surprised at seeing the youth so early in the morning, he turned to Ian. "Aren’t you going to be late for school?"
Ian moved towards Xander, distracting him, while Andrew tidied away the cash and the other guards and technicians made themselves scarce. He checked his watch and swore. "Sorry, lost track of time."
Xander grinned; he reached over and opened a locked key press. "Here, take a company car. Drop it back later."
"Thanks, X-Man," Ian said, grinning at his future boss.
"Get." Xander pointed to the door.
Ian threw a cheerful salute and dashed out, ignoring Xander’s groan.
Xander walked over to the guards still gathered around the monitor. "Brad, aren’t you off duty this morning?"
Brad turned and grinned, "Didn’t want to miss your reaction. Watch this, boss. A bunch of tangos attacked the building last night."
"The defenses worked?" Xander asked, suddenly excited.
"Just watch."
They played the tape in real time.
"Wow," Xander said, extremely impressed after he had seen the teamp. "Wish this had been available a few years ago."
"It will be standard installation now for all PJH buildings," Andrew said, entering the conversation.
"How does it work?" Dean, a relatively new member asked from the back.
Xander looked at his watch. "Ok, people, we’ll do a full debrief in the mission room in twenty minutes."
Murmurs of agreement followed his statement as people dispersed. "Andrew, can you set the tape up in there?"
"Sure, Xander," he smiled.
"Do you have classes this morning?"
"Nope, free till lunch."
"Good, you can help me up front, then."
Andrew suddenly looked nervous. "I’m not good in front of a crowd, Xander."
Xander clapped him on the back. "You’ll be fine, buddy. I’ll be right there next to you. All these people know you’re the man behind the defenses we’re showing off. It’s only fair that you get the credit as well. Just talk to them like you do to me."
As Xander walked to his office, Andrew walked into the debriefing room. He could hardly believe how much his life had changed since Xander had decided that he was worthy of a second chance. As much as he regretted his actions with Warren, he was secretly glad it had happened, because it meant he was now a trusted member of XTech. He was getting great grades at college, he had a bright future and he was helping people. Andrew was yet another person whose loyalty to Xander bordered on the fanatical.
"Ok, people." Xander easily brought the room to attention. "Last night, fifteen tangos attacked the Fortress. This video will show what happened."
The lights dimmed and the curtains automatically shut as the projector kicked into life. Twenty seconds later, it was over.
"I’m going to ask Andrew now to describe what happened. He’s the team leader responsible for the technology," Xander announced to the assembled troops.
The warm applause that greeted Andrew gave him the courage he was lacking.
"At exactly 02:15:47 hours this morning, XTech security cameras picked up multiple heatless targets, moving rapidly towards the entrance. The alarm activated, alerting the current guard, Brad Hooper," Andrew announced, as the projector once again begin the records of the attack.
"Following standard procedure, Brad turned on the cameras and activated the defenses in 'Passive Mode’."
The video beside then him switched to a different angle, the small controller in Andrew’s hand sending the commands to the computer under the screen next to him.
"After offering a warning, Brad then set the defenses to 'Attack Mode’ and the Vampires attacked.
"As you can see, the standard XTech 'Passive Protection’ program is extremely effective. The barrier the tangos are hitting, here, is the residential border of the property," Andrew pointed out, as he paused the projector momentarily. "By having an open, non-residential foyer, we get an extremely effective killing ground. The steel shutters prevent any hostile force from both escaping, and calling reinforcements.
"The blessed floor with the inlaid crosses also seems to be reasonably effective, as the vampires’ feet are starting to smoke.
"Now, the aggressive defenses kick in. The multi-directional nozzles are hooked up to standard XTech security cameras and are programmed to direct the spray at moving targets that lack a higher than ambient temperature heat source. Although it looks like we are spraying acid, it is purely holy water. We have designed this system to be as safe to non-hostiles as possible.
"The second stage defense, kicking in, now, is the Ultra-Violet light sources. Vampires can not face sunlight, and we believed that it was UV rays that caused the breakdown in the enemy’s molecular structure. I won’t go into great detail here, but if anyone is curious, they can ask me for details after the debriefing is finished.
"Now that we know that the UV lamps work, we will see if we can get a power increase. At the moment, they are enough to cause the Vampires to start to smoke, so, if we pump up the juice, there is no reason why it can’t be instantly fatal. The effect on a human would probably be an instant sun burn, but I’d rather have peeling skin than be a Happy Meal on legs."
Andrew’s attempt at a joke was met with appreciative laughter.
"Finally, the heat sensors also made a check for any living being present among the vampires. Finding none, stage three is activated, and the floor dropped away. This had the added bonus of sluicing all the water away, cleaning the floor. All the remaining vampires fell, to be impaled on the spikes below. Their ashes were collected and returned here for study."
Enthusiastic applause rang out as Andrew finished his presentation. XTech’s recruitment drive had continued in Xander’s absence, and they were now nearing eighty members, of which it was a pretty even split between technicians and guards. Everyone was here, except those on actual guard duty.
"Thank you, Andrew." Xander took over, as the lights came on.
"Any questions?"
"Can I have a copy?" A voice from the back yelled.
Xander looked at Andrew, who shrugged. "Sure, I’ll stick it on CD for anyone who wants a copy."
"Excellent." Xander paused, and looked around the room. "What we have seen here is proof that we will soon be ready to take the war to the vampires and demons. The first stage is nearing completion. We have seven secure bases located around Sunnydale, all equipped with the defenses you’ve just seen so effectively demonstrated. The new weapons are almost ready for field testing, and as soon as I can arrange for some non-technical back up, we *will* start to take the fight to the enemy."
Loud cheers met his final statement. For far too long the people living here had fought an ongoing campaign, winning small battles but ultimately losing the war. Now, finally, they had a chance to be the predators, to hunt the vampires and demons who regarded Sunnydale as some truck stop on the way from Hell to Earth.
Xander let them cheer for a few minutes, then dismissed them. He walked out of the conference room and into his office. He sat at his desk and picked up the phone; he had a few things he needed to arrange.
Lance Michaels was most definitely having a bad week. Monday morning, everything had been great in his world. He was the school King, was dating the Queen, and had almost the entire student population scared of him. Walking down the corridor, he had always felt a wonderful feeling of power. With his cronies, he laughed cruelly as people got out of his way, and gloried how the geeks would try and hide from him.
Now he was ignored, forced to walk like everyone else and he hated it. During the lunch break, he walked down one of the long corridors and finally spotted someone he could take his frustration out on. The guy’s name was Darren, Daryl or something like that. He didn’t really care; the guy was a total geek, more interested in computers than sports. As such, he was a natural target for the large quarterback.
Lance walked up behind him, shooting a quick glance at the people backing him up. They were all members of the former elite - football players. He wished Porsche was here - she’d enjoy the humiliation he was about to dish out. That damn psycho had scared her badly, though, by mentioning that Dawn was friends with her aunt. Well, he didn’t believe it; there was no way a low class girl like Dawn could even meet a high class lady like Miranda.
He kicked out with his left leg, catching Daryl’s ankle. He roughly pushed the dweeb against a locker.
"What the hell are you doing?" Daryl spat, the fear he had held the quarterback in had been lessened by the events of the past few days.
"Ooo, the dork’s fighting back," one of players tittered.
The lack of fear enraged Lance; he grabbed the smaller boy by the throat and lifted him up against the lockers, lifting his feet from the floor. The boy’s eyes seemed to flicker to the right for a second, and he still refused to look scared, despite his position. Lance decided that it was time to start putting himself back on top of the pyramid. He pulled his fist back, ready to knock Daryl into next week.
Only his fist never connected. An absolutely furious Dawn had marched through the crowd that was gathering, grabbed the fist and wrenched it back, hard. You’d think that there should be no way the slim brunette could overpower the huge quarterback, yet she did.
She spun the quarterback around, and, like she had with Porsche, launched a straight right hook to his chin. Unlike with Porsche, however, she didn’t hold back this time. Lance’s head snapped back, crashing into the locker. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.
With her hands on her hips, Dawn glared at the remaining eight football players, while myriad groups of students quickly began surrounding them, eager to see what was going on.
"Any one else want to start bullying?" The slim brunette demanded, the anger almost literally radiating off her.
Bruce Harper was Lance’s best friend, and wasn’t going to let this arrogant little bitch get away with knocking out his buddy.
"She can’t take the eight of us," he said with a growl. "Get her."
"I warned you."
Three words were all it took to make the players pause in their tracks.
Ian suddenly seemed to materialize next to Dawn, a scary grin on his face.
"You can’t take all of us. We outnumber you eight to two," they heard one of the eight say loudly.
Ian’s voice seemed capable of freezing water, as he calmly replied, "Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But I can, and will, break the left leg of the first person who moves."
Dawn suddenly realized what Ian was doing, and was impressed with the subtlety of his approach.
"And I will break the arm of the second person."
The normally warm and happy girl sounded like she was seriously contemplating attacking the players, her voice was so enraged.
Ian’s expression didn’t change, but was very pleased that the small girl next to him understood basic psychology. "So, what’s it going to be? As a group you *might* win, but the leaders *will* have their football careers ended."
He waited while the players looked at each other; no one wanted to be the person to take that first step, or the second person.
Having seen both of their opponents take out Lance with disturbing ease over the past few days, and watching as the Queen and her Knight stood and glared at them, the players had no doubt that they could, and would, follow up their threats with actions.
"Do you want to draw lots?" Ian taunted, unconsciously slipping into a martial arts stance.
One by one, the players backed down. All of them, except Bruce. It was probably the repeated blows to the head from his position on the defensive line, but despite the fact his support had vanished, despite the fact his best friend was still unconscious on the floor a few feet away, despite the fact that neither Dawn nor Ian showed an ounce of fear, he decided to attack.
He managed three steps forward before Ian intercepted him. It wasn’t really a fight, since the term 'fight’ implies two participants. There was only one in this incident. An incredibly brutal move, where all of Ian’s power was coalesced into a short movement was unleashed, and a second later, Bruce was unconscious, his left femur neatly broken.
"Is there a problem here?" Principal Wood asked, moving through the large crowd that had gathered.
"No, sir," Dawn smiled at him.
Lance was starting to regain consciousness and sat up.
"We were just having a chat with Lance and Bruce. Lance was just saying how much he’d like to volunteer for the Senior Citizens Villa visits on Monday nights, when he tripped and crashed into Bruce."
"Excellent," the principal said with a smile. "We can always use more volunteers."
He had enjoyed his best-ever PTA meeting of his career last night, during which the parents had spent the time they usually devoted to complaining about the students and the facilities, congratulating him on the changes that happened to the school. A lot of the lower grade students had raved to their parents about how much fun school had become, and how much the atmosphere had improved. A quick check of the attendance record showed that, in only four days, the number of students truant had dropped 64%.
The parents had presumed it was down to changes the Principal had made, which made the normally torrid meeting go extremely smoothly.
Robin Wood had inherited a very useful skill from his mother, a Slayer: the ability to be present in a crowd and remain unnoticed. As a principal, he should have stepped in and stopped this incident, but fighting vampires all his life had given him a different outlook.
The future of the school had been balanced on a knife edge for a second. If Lance had managed to hit the student, it would have cast a small amount of doubt in the minds of the student population about the validity of the new order, possibly allowing the old elite to make a comeback in the future.
With that first threat handled so effectively by Dawn, it had left another possible. Eight students against two. The mood of the crowd had been easy to read, and it boded poorly for the former school 'elite’. If the players had all attacked, it could have quickly turned into a riot, as the other students moved to protect the new Queen. That would have pushed the school too far in the other direction, and he would have had to stamp it down, quickly and harshly. The way that Dawn and Ian handled the affair was perfect.
Ian had started to isolate the leader, and Dawn had followed his lead instantly. As a group, the eight students might have attacked, gaining courage from the actions of each of his comrades. But with their opponents clearly stating that first two individuals to step forward would pay the price of taking the first step, the mob was left leaderless.
For some reason, one that Principal Wood did not understand, Bruce had decided to attack. As he did, Ian had to make a split decision. He could easily have stopped the football player by simply knocking him out. But that would have left another chink in the new regime’s image, that their promises would not be kept.
Both of the teenagers had been on a war footing for a significant part of their young lives, so their responses were in line with that. The promise to break the leg of the first person to move had been kept, and anybody who even thought about doing something similar in the future would have to do it *knowing* that the best they could hope for was a broken bone.
Every other member of the school student population was a normal teenager. No one had the authority to order another to make the first move, not when that first move would result in guaranteed injury. No one had the courage to lead, accepting that they would receive such an injury; the rewards were not high enough.
The counter attack had been successfully neutralized before it had begun.
"Lance, I expect to see you after school, at the bus stop, for the next eight weeks. Transport will be provided for you." Wood tried very hard to hide his smile; another volunteer would be gratefully accepted. "Now pick up your friend and get to the nurse."
"I think I heard a crack when Bruce fell, Sir. He might have broken his leg." Dawn’s voice was back to normal: warm and caring.
"You two carry Bruce to the nurse’s office," Wood pointed to two of the group from earlier, guessing, correctly, that seeing that the Queen and her Knight had done exactly what they promised would inhibit further displays of stupidity.
The principal turned and walked away, merging into the crowd and seeming to vanish. Almost invisible again, he hung around the outer fringes to see what, if anything, else was going to happen.
"I really don’t want to see anything like this happen again." Dawn’s calm voice floated through the room.
Happy smiles broke out on the students, as they started to disperse. Dawn’s legend continued to grow as everyone started to talk about *that* punch. The punch that had knocked out someone who outweighed her by over 120 pounds. Although she didn’t know it, a school legend had already started to grow about Dawn and her confrontation with one of the more prominent, and obnoxious, bullies that had marred the school’s - relatively - peaceful atmosphere.
"You ok?" Dawn asked Daryl quietly.
He nodded, a stunned expression still on his face. He had hoped that Dawn would rescue him - hell, everyone had hoped that, but he hadn’t been expecting *this*, personal recognition and interest from her.
"Good," Dawn lent in and gave him a small peck on the cheek, thinking that he needed a little boost. "If anything like this happens again, let me know."
She walked off, joining Chrissy, and completely oblivious to Daryl falling to his knees behind her.
"Don’t do it," Ian advised Daryl as gently as he could.
"Do what?" the geek asked, no longer afraid of the once-time-psycho, who had just helped save him.
"Fall in love with her."
Daryl looked up, blushing.
"I know her boyfriend really well, and Dawn is completely in love with him. If I were you, I’d just try and become friends with her." He too turned and walked away.
Daryl smiled slowly. Friendship would be good.