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Wild Horses
Part 13

By Jeconais

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Willow had designed her spell carefully; she had learnt her lesson well since she had clumsily wiped Tara’s mind.  That time, she had made herself a house of cards: pretty on the outside, but one touch and it all came tumbling down.

This was different; it had taken her a great deal more time, since this spell was a kind of spell virus which would affect anyone Xander or Dawn came in to physical contact with. It would track back to last Saturday, and change everyone’s memories, so that it looked like Willow had supported Xander. While people’s memories of subsequent events, would continue unchanged, the perception of everyone affected would be that the witch had helped Xander when ever necessary, and was now living with him in his huge apartment.

The pentagram was a standard defense against magical backlash; it would keep all magical energy away from her, just in case a problem should develop

With the spell cast, she frowned, as she sensed something was blocking it. Some kind of force field seemed to be protecting Xander and Dawn.  

Her eyes turned black as she put more of her own energy into the spell. Stopping never occurred to her - it was now a personal challenge.

--

"Down here we have the control center, it’s the main hub for all of our reconnaissance," Xander said to Dawn as they walked down a corridor.

The brunette smiled, enjoying Xander’s undivided attention for the first time during the day.

"How do..." Dawn started, before suddenly throwing her hand out against the wall, as she lost her balance.

"Dawn, you ok?" Xander asked, before he was hit as well. He fell to his knees as he felt something enter his mind, a hostile invasion.

The Orb of Isis, recognizing a magical attack, did what it could to help. It dumped some information directly into Xander’s brain, and then prepared to help its host defend himself.

Xander swayed on his knees, grasping Dawn’s hands.

"Dawn, look at me," he demanded harshly, his voice echoing the pain he was now feeling.

Dawn moaned, turning her head and looking into his eyes. Her gaze seemed to catch in his, and she found herself unable to look away. She fell to her knees as the pain started, materializing as an intense headache.

"Are you alright?" The worried voice of a guard asked, shocked to find his boss and Dawn in the middle of a corridor, on their knees in pain.

"Get Andrew," Xander growled, his lips pulled back as he struggled to fight the magic, ignoring the pain the fighting was causing. "Someone’s casting a memory spell on us."

The guard didn’t panic; he had been trained too well for that. He pulled his communicator from his pocket.  

"Andrew, Level 3 alert, Corridor 2b, Headquarters."

Andrew was still talking to Daryl when the call came in on his communicator. He blanched and instantly shot to his feet, "Come with me."

Andrew arrived precious seconds before Daryl - standard XTech procedure had meant he had started to work on his physical fitness, and as such, was capable of moving a lot faster than the untrained computer specialist. "What’s going on?"

Xander groaned, pulling Dawn tightly against him. "Memory attack - someone’s trying to change our memory of something," he ground out through clenched teeth.

Andrew thought for a second, analyzing both demons and humans capable of doing such a thing. A few came to mind, but only one person they knew off had the raw power to breach his anti-magic defenses.  

"Willow?" he ventured.

Reluctantly, Xander nodded, agreeing with the blonde hacker/mage’s assessment.

"You have to fight it, both of you together. Try and bring up memories that you share, it should confuse the spell long enough for us to stop it."

Andrew turned, and switched his communicator to a general frequency. "X1 is currently under magical attack; prepare for immediate deployment into hostile territory. We are dealing with a powerful witch, so everyone be on high alert. This is a level three emergency. Repeat this is a level three emergency."

The control room followed its emergency procedures. Level three was only one level short of a full demonic invasion and with Xander under attack, nervous looks were exchanged. Every guard in the building rushed to the armory, picking up their G36C assault rifles and bullet proof vests before assembling in their squads, outside in the parking lot.

Trained ex-police drivers pulled up in XTech marked vans, as well as several motorcycles.  

Andrew turned to Daryl. "Go back to my office, use the computer there to access the City’s network, and clear us a path through all the traffic lights."

Daryl nodded and took off, a thrill of excitement, anticipation and a little bit of fear going through him. Finally, he was using his computer prowess for a reason: to help Dawn and her future partner.  

Ian shot to his feet as the call came through on the general frequency. "Sorry, I have to go."

"Can I help?" Chrissy asked, understanding the serious nature of the emergency.

"You’re not cleared for patrol, Chris. Help Dawn and Xan."

The blonde nodded, and watched with a slight smile as the ex-psycho ran at full speed towards the armory.

She quickly made her way to the corridor where Xander and Dawn were fighting the spell’s effects, passing Andrew.

"Chrissy, keep an eye on them. Don’t let anyone touch them, they have to stay together and stay awake to fight the spell," Andrew shouted as he ran past.

Chrissy picked up her pace, arriving the same time as the medical team.

"Andrew says they are not to be touched till this is over, they’re fighting a magical attack," she informed the med-techs before they could touch either of the two.

Andrew ran through the corridors, not stopping to put on any of his own protective clothing, since time was off the essence. He almost flew out of the building and into the open door of the brand new Ford Taurus waiting at the curb.  

The two-liter Zetec engine roared as the accelerator was rammed to the floor. Behind them, a row of heavy duty vans, loaded with armed personnel followed. He nodded to Ian, who had jumped into the back seat as soon as he had seen Andrew appear, and fastened his seat belt.

Ian handed him a bullet proof vest. "You’re not getting out of the car without putting this on!"

Andrew grinned, struggling into it. Despite the seriousness of the situation, his eyes were alight with excitement and accomplishment. Finally, he *knew* he was doing something directly for Xander, not something for Xander that was really for everyone else. He was paying his boss back for the faith he had placed in him, for the chance at redemption, for making him feel like he was a valuable and accepted member of society.

The four motorcyclists took point, moving ahead and clearing junctions. Andrew smiled with pleasure as he noted that the traffic lights ahead started to turn to green long before they got there, and held till they had gone through. Daryl was obviously living up to his billing.

At the same time, Daryl, in Andrew’s office, pulled up the police network, and started running distractions, keeping the Sunnydale police force clear of the route the vans were taking.

--

"Dawn," Xander gasped, "We’ve got to fight this. Andrew said to remember something together."

Dawn nodded, her eyes still locked on his, noticing that both his eyes now had a gold tinge. "Remember the time we first met?"

--

Flashback

--

"Mom," the blonde haired girl said brightly. "This is Xander, a friend from school."

"Hi, Mrs. Summers," Xander said with a cheerful grin. "It's a pleasure to meet you; I can see where Buffy gets her looks from."  

Joyce Summers took a long look at his face, and then smiled. The young man before her had an open honesty that was instantly appealing to her. He looked like the sort of person who, once he made a friend, would stick by them for life. Her instant judgment was that he was a nice boy, who seemed better than that Puck, or whatever his name was, guy from back home.

"Xander's an unusual name," she said with a warm smile, reflexively offering him a cookie.

His eyes firmly fixated on the treat in front of him, he replied absently. "It's short for Alexander, Ma'am."

Joyce grinned; she had him figured out already. "You can have the cookie if you promise to call me Joyce."

"I can do that, Mrs. Joyce," Xander said, his expression clearly teasing her.

'Oh Buffy, you've got a good one here,' she thought to herself as she handed him the sugar coated cookie. "Are you going to be staying for dinner, Xander? I'm making lasagna."

Xander's eyes lit up, almost transforming his face. She'd never come across someone so incredibly open with his emotions before.  

"Yes, please!" he nodded eagerly. "I'm even willing to sacrifice someone to you if it will help get me more invitations."

Buffy nudged him hard, but he ignored her objecting to his off color joke; it cut a bit to close to the bone.

"That's ok, Xander," Joyce said with a grin. "I will, however, accept compliments if you like the food."

"Oh fair and beauteous lady," Xander declared, going down on one knee in front of her. "I do solemnly swear to cast a multitude of fulsome praise on the products of your dainty hands’ hard labor, if that be the currency of the kingdom."

"Xander," Buffy started to pout, not liking her new friend giving attention to someone other than her. "Stop flirting with my mom."

"I'm not flirting, Buff. I'm merely ensuring that your mother knows that I realize that she was the original model that you were cast from, and that I am prepared to worship her, especially if she cooks as well as she looks."

Joyce couldn't help but laugh; it felt good to be admired, even if it was patently false and designed to get on her good side. It was working. Still, Xander had one more test to pass before being given the keys to her dinner table: the younger sister.

Speaking of which, the shy eleven year old was peering around the door, wondering what the commotion was. She was shocked to see a really good looking boy kneeling in front of her mother, while her sister was frowning. Not shocked that Buffy was frowning — she did that a lot. She was shocked to see a good-looking boy hanging around her sister. Ever since the burning down the gym incident, there hadn’t been a lot of people hanging around any of her family.

Xander turned his head, a small movement catching his eye. An incredibly cute young girl was peering at him, her green eyes wide. She had long brown hair that emphasized the elfish shape of her face. He threw a wink and a wide smile at her.

"What's that," he asked, pointing at the young girl. "It looks like a spy."

The girl giggled, her shyness forgotten.  

"You know what we do with spies?" Xander asked, looking up at Joyce.

Joyce's smile grew a lot warmer. "Nope. What do we do with spies, Xander?"

The brown haired teenager's grin turned teasingly evil. "We capture and interrogate them."

He jumped to his feet and ran towards her, ignoring Buffy rolling her eyes at him.

The younger girl squealed with laughter and turned, trying to escape, but couldn't. He caught her with ease, lifting her way up, over his shoulder, letting her hang down his back in a fireman’s carry. He brought her back into the kitchen and placed her on the table firmly.

"So, who do we have here?" he asked.

"Not gonna tell," she giggled, and then mimed zipping up her mouth and throwing away the key.

"Oh, like that is it?" Xander totally missed the look between Buffy and Joyce, as they both wished that the locking was real, for once.

"Well," he continued, "I guess I'm going to have to torture it out of you." He took a step forward and started to tickle her sides.

She squirmed under him, desperately trying to keep quiet.  

"I can do this all night," he told her. "I've had lots of practice of getting secrets out. It's why I'm the Chief Torturer." As he spoke, he puffed his chest out and looked proud.

The girl laughed loudly, unable to keep quiet any more. Joyce and Buffy joined her, he looked so ridiculous they couldn’t help themselves.

"Laugh at me, will you?" he said, semi-pompously. "I'll teach you pay proper respect!" He resumed his tickling, causing Dawn to scream at him to stop.   "See, you can speak," he looked triumphant.

"Dawn, Dawn, I'm Dawn," she gasped. Her capitulation was total, and she breathed heavily with relief as he stopped his tickling.

"Dawn, eh?" He grinned at her, "a pretty name for a very pretty girl."

The smile that appeared on Dawn's face was one that her mother had not seen since her divorce. It was incredibly joyful, a far change from the sullen child they had lived with recently.

"You think I'm pretty?" she asked hesitantly, looking down at her feet as she sat up.

Xander nodded, "Yep. All of three of you are good looking. Your mom's the prettiest, and normally I'd say that Buffy was second, but she's always frowning and pouting, lately. She doesn't know that if the wind changes, she'll be stuck like that for life." The last part was said in a conspiratorial whisper, that Buffy had no problems hearing at all.

She frowned at him, really not liking in the least the fact that HER friend was being so friendly with her Mom AND her annoying brat of a sister.

"See!" Xander said, pointing to her. "Frown-y face."

Dawn giggled.

"Xander," Buffy ground through her teeth. "We have homework to do. Upstairs, now!"

Xander rolled his eyes at Dawn, causing her to giggle again. "Yes, Mistress Buffy," he said with a thick accent, doing a fairly good impersonation of Frankenstein.

He lumbered over to her, swaying his arms.  

"You’ve got an hour before lunch," Joyce said, smiling at Xander.

"Woo Hoo!" Xander grabbed Buffy's hand. "Come on Buffster, we can fail the Math homework easily in that time."

The kitchen was a lot quieter with Xander gone. Dawn hopped of the table and hugged Joyce. "I love you, mom," she said quietly. With a further squeeze, the girl vanished into the living room, the sound of the TV soon echoed back to a shocked Joyce.

She had been trying for nearly a year to get her youngest daughter to open up and laugh again. She'd taken Hank's departure a lot harder than Buffy, as she'd always been his favorite.   It made it harder for Joyce to understand how her husband could just up and leave them like he had.

It had taken Buffy's friend five minutes to get through to her. She smiled, appreciatively; that boy was going to get the best meal of his life.

True to his word, Xander had been fulsome with his praise. He even went to the extent of dropping his play face and stating seriously that it was the best meal he had ever had.

Joyce smiled happily at him, wishing that, just once, her daughters would make nice comments about her cooking.

"Can I watch TV before bed?" Dawn asked.

Joyce looked at her watch, surprised to find that it was already half past eight. "For half an hour, yes, but get ready for bed first."

Dawn smiled happily and scampered out of the room.

At the mention of bed, Xander said, "I should be getting out of here as well."

Joyce grinned at him, "If I let you leave before Dawn got to say goodnight, I'd regret it for a very long time."

Xander smiled. "In that case, I'll do the dishes till she's done." He didn't wait for a reply, and started to clean up.  

Joyce shot a look at Buffy, clearly pointing out that Xander's behavior was exemplary and that she should take notes.

Buffy rolled her eyes and frowned at Xander. She'd told him to turn down his flirting with her sister and mother. He was definitely potential boyfriend material, although there was the whole mess with Willow shooting cow eyes at him all the time, and she didn’t want to lose her only girlfriend so far.

Typically, he had simply ignored her and continued to entertain both of them.

Four people didn't create that much mess, so he was finished the same time as Dawn, and they all moved into the living room to watch TV and talk.  

Dawn showed the cunning nature that all young girls seem to possess instinctively, as she managed to arrange for Xander to sit on the couch, her mom and Buffy to sit on the chairs and her to sit next to the male guest.

They talked for a while, with Xander entertaining all three of the Summers’ ladies with tales of him and Willow growing up, and Sunnydale in general. He had just got to the "We Hate Cordelia" club when he felt the weight against his arm relax. He looked down to find that Dawn had finally succumbed to sleep, and was resting against him.

He smiled gently at her, and looked at her mother for guidance.  

"We need to get her into bed," she said quietly.

Xander nodded and shifted slowly, catching her as she slipped on to his lap. With one arm under her knees and one around her shoulders, he easily lifted the small girl and followed Joyce upstairs. He placed her in a pink bed in a room that reminded him a lot of Willow's and dropped a light kiss on her forehead. "Sweet dreams, Dawnie," he whispered, covering her in the blanket.

Joyce watched from the doorway, having carefully been observing him. She was a mother first and foremost, and wanted to make sure that Xander wasn't some sort of pervert. While she knew he was friends with Buffy, and was becoming friends with her, she didn't know much about him, yet. There were always some men who preferred little girls, and she had to make sure that Xander wasn't one of them.

She smiled happily; she couldn’t sense anything negative or dangerous from him. Joyce wondered what his home life was like; he seemed to be really enjoying spending time at her house.

Dawn kept her eyes closed as she listened to them leaving her room. She hadn't actually fallen asleep, she'd just wanted to see what would happen. The last thought on her mind, as she drifted into sleep was, 'Dawn Harris'.

When Joyce checked in on her later, her daughter still had the widest smile on her face that she could ever remember seeing.

--

As the vans, bikes and cars screamed through Sunnydale, Andrew continued his briefing over the communicator network. "Our target is a red headed Caucasian female. Willow Rosenberg, you have seen pictures of her in X1’s office. She is currently casting a spell to change X1 and D1’s memory." D1 was a new designation, but everyone knew who Andrew meant; after all, they all had money on her succeeding.

Switching channels, Andrew called Daryl back at the office. "Can you get blueprints for the house?" he asked.

"Not a problem," he replied. "Want me to fax them through to the vans?"

Somehow, it didn’t surprise Andrew that Daryl knew that the vans had fax machines, or that he knew the numbers.

"Please. Andrew Out!"

The blond haired young man now leading the teams bore almost no resemblance to the shy geek the XTech guards had been introduced to a few months ago. He had blossomed under Xander’s tutelage, till he had reached the stage where he automatically took control of this mission, because he was the ONLY person with experience dealing with magic users.

XTech was unusual in that the only qualification needed for advancement and command was competency and acceptance by peers. Andrew had been accepted as a member, for his knowledge of magic, his technical ability and numerous clever ideas for the anti-vampire and anti-demon defenses, and when he had started shouting orders about what to do, he had been accepted instantly as the mission commander. With Xander incapacitated, they were grateful for his experience.

"I want a perimeter guard patrolling the back and the front, and three insertion teams, Alpha, Beta and Charlie - Delta and Echo, you’re on patrol and crowd control.  

"The subject is probably in the basement, so I want the first floor cleared by Charlie and the ground floor cleared by Beta. Alpha team, we’re going into the basement. The house is a standard four bedroom suburban two story house. Maps are coming through on the fax machines now.

"Alpha team, when we enter, do not touch the Witch. Clear the surrounding area, but make sure you do NOT go inside any areas protected by candles or a chalk pattern.

"Everyone, there may be a blonde, Billy Idol look-alike vampire inside. If you see him, do not kill him, unless you have to. If he refuses orders, shoot him immediately.

"There is also a chance that the Slayer may be in residence. If you see her, surround her and don’t get near her. She is lightning fast and extremely strong. Shoot only in self defense, but don’t take any chances with her. If she won’t cooperate, take her down." It wasn’t a difficult decision for Andrew to make.   Xander’s life was possibly on the line, and he wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of saving him, even if it meant killing the Chosen One. After all, there would always be another Chosen One; there would only ever be one Xander.

"ETA is three minutes, do a final weapon check and prepare for action. Andrew Out."

Andrew looked over at Ian. "What?"

Ian smiled, "I didn’t think you had it in you. Good job."

Andrew blushed, "Thanks." He pulled out his own gun and calmly checked the clip of blessed bullets in it.

--

Willow was shocked; something was going wrong with her spell, and she didn’t know what. It was if something was blocking it. She gritted her teeth; black veins seemed to explode around the side of her head.

--

The XTech med unit was blocking the corridor, next to Chrissy, looking annoyed at their own impotence.

Identical thin trails of blood ran from Xander and Dawn’s noses. Their brains felt like they were on fire, as mystical energy battered them unrelentingly. Xander’s resistance was being boosted a little by the Orb, Dawn by her slight slayer powers and Key essence. The bulk of their resistance was being powered by fear.

Dawn was terrified someone was trying to make her forget that she loved Xander, and so, was concentrating everything she had on him.

Xander was petrified by the idea that someone was trying to take Dawn away from him, that maybe Spike had persuaded Willow to make Xander forget about her.  

He concentrated on the green eyed girl in his arms, her eyes still locked on his brown ones. His anger grew as he saw the pain she was in; Dawn’s pain was far harder for him to take than his own.

'I’m gonna punch that Bitch into next week,’ Dawn thought savagely, hating the pain she could see in her love’s eyes. She desperately wanted to take it away from him.

"Remember that time Buffy left town?"

--

Flashback

--

Xander pulled up to the house on Revello drive, parking his Uncle Rory's car.

The seventeen year old hopped out of the old convertible and bounded up the steps.

"What are you doing here, Xander?" Joyce asked, surprised to see him up so early.

"Came to visit my favorite lady," he grinned. "And kidnap her daughter for the day."

"Oh?" Joyce asked with a smile.

"There's a big fair in Oxnard. Willow's making kissy faces with Oz and Cordy's still in Mexico. So I thought to myself, 'Xander, who's the prettiest girl you know who you can abduct and make it look like coming was her idea?' Only one person came to mind."

Joyce laughed loudly and raised her hands. "Let me go and see if she's awake and wants to go with you."

"Thanks," Xander grinned at her, jumping into the couch and turning on Cartoon Network.

Joyce trotted upstairs and into her youngest daughter’s room. The past two years had seen the childish pink be replaced with a more mature color scheme and a lot more posters. It was much more like a traditional bedroom of a girl about to enter her teens.

"Dawn," she said gently, sitting on the corner of the bed.

The vaguely human shaped form on the bed groaned. "Yeah?"

"Xander's downstairs, and he wants to take you to Oxnard for the day, to the fair there."

Those words had a miraculous effect on the twelve year old. Her head shot out from under the covers.

"Xander wants to take me out?" she squealed quietly in excitement.

Joyce nodded, completely trusting her daughter in the young man’s hands.  

"I've got nothing to wear." Dawn's face suddenly fell.

Joyce couldn't help but laugh. "Why don't you pop into the shower while I find an outfit for you?"

Dawn nodded and scampered out of bed, while Joyce walked into the abandoned bedroom of her eldest daughter. This was so like Xander: he had noticed that Dawn had been missing her sister badly the other night, and had told her that he would do something about it.

To her lasting regret, she could now see that Buffy was never going to see Xander 'that way’, and it was only now that the boy was starting to get over his massive crush on her.   It was such a pity that her oldest daughter was so attracted by the dark, dangerous types, overlooking what she had in front of her.  

Joyce picked out an outfit that stood bang on the line between being youthful and being adult. She placed it on Dawn's bed and went back downstairs to make them both some breakfast.

Dawn bounced out of the shower, letting her hair down from the pony tail she had used to keep it out of the water. She looked at the clothes and smiled; they were perfect, especially if she pulled the skirt up a little as soon as she was away from her mother.  

The girl grinned happily, and pulled on her sister’s clothing, before walking downstairs. It took a lot of effort, but she managed not to bounce.

"Hey, Morning Dawnie. Looking good."

Dawn smiled happily and twirled for him.

Joyce smiled to herself, her daughter’s crush was so obvious, but she couldn't think of any other person she would rather have her aim her affections at.  

They ate breakfast fast, before Xander ushered her out the door. Joyce thrust fifty dollars in to his hand, frowning at him as he opened his mouth to protest.

Xander gave in with a grin, and tossed a salute at her.

The drive went relatively well; Dawn had pulled up her skirt a bit, but Xander hadn't noticed, to her disappointment.

They walked around the fair, riding a few of the attractions, just generally talking and having a good time.

"Win a prize for your girlfriend, Guv?" a fake British accent interrupted them.

Xander looked up - a tall, long haired man, with numerous tattoos, was standing in front of a shooting gallery.

"Sure," Xander said, to Dawn’s delight. The fact he hadn’t denied being her boyfriend was possibly the best thing that had ever happened to her.

He picked up the fake rifle and handed the guy a dollar. He fired at the target, missing. Soldier Boy memories started to flood back and he fired again, and again. He missed all three.

"Aww, want to try again?"

Xander turned and winked at Dawn. "Which prize do you want?"

Dawn pointed to a huge pink elephant. "That one."

"To win that, you’ve got to knock down all six boxes with 3 shots," the stall owner said, indicating a pyramid of boxes as far away as they could be.

Xander handed him another dollar. With a quick movement he pulled the air rifle back to his shoulder and let off three rapid shots, adjusting for the distorted sights that had caused him to miss the first time. All 6 boxes went flying.

With a very sick look, the tattooed man passed Dawn her prize, and made it clear he wanted them to leave.

With a laugh, Xander wrapped his arm around Dawn’s shoulder and led her away.

They walked over to the Ferris wheel, and had a carriage to themselves, as long as you didn’t count Mike the Elephant, as Dawn had insisted on calling him.

"You miss her?" Xander asked, finally broaching the subject he had planned the day around.

Dawn looked out over the fair, as the Ferris wheel slowly looped. "Yeah," she nodded. "She may be a pain, but she’s still my sister, then suddenly gets in an argument with Mom over her being a Slayer and vanishes."

Xander took her hand gently. "Dawn, Buffy didn’t just go because of the argument, but because of Angel as well. She had to send him to hell. It’s a hell of a burden for anyone to carry.

"She asked me to look after you while she was gone," he confided to her. That was a lie, but Dawn didn’t need to know that. "She felt that she needed some time to herself, away from the fighting, away from the constant pressure, so she left town. She loves you, she always has. It was nothing that you did that drove her away."

Dawn looked at him, a tear dropping down her cheek. "But —"

"No buts, Dawnie." Xander’s hand cupped her cheek and wiped away the tear. "She loves you and wanted to keep you safe. She’s only going to be gone for a bit, and it’s not your fault."

Dawn smiled slowly, and leant forward and hugged him hard. She was so relieved and grateful for what he had said, that she forgot to take advantage of the hug, and for once, was just a girl on the cusp of womanhood.

Xander stroked her back gently. Joyce had told him a few weeks ago that Dawn was blaming herself for her sister’s disappearance, and he’d been determined to make sure she stopped thinking it was her own fault.

--

The cavalcade screeched to a halt outside the Summers’ house. The team leaders jogged over to Andrew, who looked at his watch. "Entry in 30 seconds, three, two, one. Mark!"

The team leaders synchronized their countdowns and took the teams took their places, two teams going to the back of the house.

Andrew and Ian took their positions behind the Alpha team leader; for the moment, he was in charge.

"Three, two, one.   Go! Go! Go!"

Simultaneously, the front and back doors were forced open, hand held battering rams powered by over a metric ton per square inch pressure made short work of the locks.

Beta and Charlie teams entered first, their rifles held at the ready as they stormed through the house, one team splitting and sprinting up the stairs. One person covered while his partner opened a door, before both of them did a visual check, before entering and shouting "Clear."

Alpha team burst through straight after Beta team, and smashed open the door to basement, entering quickly and efficiently.

Mindful of Andrew’s warning, aside from keeping watch for any offensive actions she might take, they ignored the now-black-eyed witch who appeared to be totally focused on her spell.   Once the surrounding area was cleared, Ian and Andrew approached Willow’s protective circle.

Andrew studied the layout of the candle and the chalk design inscribed on the floor. It was a standard pentagram, designed primarily to keep out magic. He leant down and blew out the nearest candles, and nodded to Ian.

Ian took two steps forward and punched Willow, his anger at her attack meaning the punch was a little harder than he might normally have used on a human. He caught her flush on the chin and knocked her out cleanly. She fell to the floor, unconscious.

--

The pain suddenly stopped for the two people on the floor.

"Dawn?" Xander asked.

"Yes, Xander?" her voice was soft and full of pain.

"Do you remember?"

She smiled at him, showing her emotions a little. "Yes."

Despite the blood on her face, the pain in her eyes, Xander had never seen her look more beautiful. "I do too, Dawn."

He pulled the girl to him tighter, as they both collapsed to the floor and passed out.

It took the med team only three seconds to get to them both, and start to do their jobs.

--

Willow’s consciousness slowly swam back into place, and she looked around with bleary eyes. She could remember starting a spell, it going wrong and her having to pour her energy into it, then a sharp pain in her jaw, which, now she noticed it, was causing her an immense amount of pain.

She opened her eyes as her eyesight returned fully. She was flat on her back, and had four heavily armed men pointing assault rifles at her. Her eyes widened in fear, and dread started to set in as she saw Andrew.  

Terror grabbed her when she saw the logo’s the guards were wearing. A stylized X.  

She recognized it, because she had drawn it for Xander, when she was fourteen.  

Xander must know that she cast the spell.

Her last thought as she too passed out was, "Oh shit."

--

Andrew looked down with barely disguised anger at the girl on the floor.

"Go and get a stretcher," Andrew said quietly, to two of the four guards. "We’ll keep her in the holding cells."

They saluted and left, leaving Andrew to walk up to Ian.  

"They are both unconscious, but Chrissy said that they seemed to remember before they passed out."

Andrew nodded, and looked down at the Witch again. "I’m not going to allow her to do that again."

"What are you going to do?"

"Talk to Giles, and then find a way to bind her powers.   She’s done this before, and we all thought she had learnt her lesson. She treats magic as a convenience.   It’s like someone who uses karate to change a light bulb, by destroying the bulb first, then wondering where to go from there."

Ian nodded. "We could just kill her," he suggested.

Andrew actually considered the idea for a few seconds, before his common sense returned. "Nah," he smiled. "I think losing her magic will be punishment enough."

Ian grinned, glad his comment had been taken the right way. "I guess so."

Andrew pulled out his phone, and made a call directly to Pete Morris, Xander’s boss and partner of PJH Construction.

"Mr. Morris, it’s Andrew Wells from XTech. Sorry to call you on a Saturday night, but we have a situation."

"What is the problem, Andrew?" Pete asked, vaguely remembering the young man he had been introduced to once, while on a tour of the XTech building.

"Xander’s been the victim of a magical attack; we had to destroy several doors of the house he used to live at, to stop the attack. We need a crew here, urgently to fix up the mess we made."

"Is Xander all right?" Pete asked, sounding worried.

"I’m not sure yet, Sir. The medics at the scene say he is unconscious."

"A team will be there in five minutes. You better tell Miranda and Kyle Michaels what has happened."

"I will, Sir."

"Please keep me informed of any further developments."

"Certainly, Sir."

They exchanged goodbyes and hung up.

"Do you mind staying here, with Alpha team, for the clean up crew?" Andrew asked Ian.

"Nope, just tell Chrissy I’ll see her tomorrow."

Andrew nodded, "Brad’s gonna be pissed he missed this."

For the first time, Ian cracked a smile. "True."

The drive back to XTech head quarters was a lot more sedate, giving Andrew a chance to make his next phone call.

"Mrs. Michaels? My name is Andrew Wells."

"What can I do for you, Andrew? Is there a problem?" Molly instantly recognized the young man.

"I’m afraid that Xander and Dawn have been the victims of a powerful magical attack. They are currently unconscious at XTech headquarters."

"We’ll be there in two minutes!" Molly hung up the phone and turned to her husband. "Xander’s been attacked and is unconscious."

Kyle swore, and jumped to his feet. Together, they jogged out to his car, climbed in, and he took off at high speed.

They arrived the same time as Andrew.

"They are in the First Aid room," Andrew said, after exchanging greetings. The nearest he had previously come to these two was when Xander had given them a guided tour of the buildings.

Molly nodded, and instantly took off towards it, leaving Kyle to find out what happened.

She burst through the doors and headed towards the door.

"Whoa! Where do you think you are going?" Chrissy stood in front of the door separating the waiting area and the room the two victims were sat in.

"Do you know who I am?" Molly would regret using that phrase for a very long time, it was completely out of character for her to say something like that.

"I don’t care who you are," Chrissy said firmly. "The doctor’s said to make sure that only people we know get in to see Xander and Dawn. They have already been attacked once today."

Automatically, Daryl stood and moved next to Chrissy, backing her up completely.

Molly took a deep breath, but was interrupted by the door being opened by Andrew and her husband.

"It’s ok, Chrissy," Andrew said with a smile. "I’ll vouch for them."

Chrissy nodded and stood to one side, allowing Molly in.  

"Oh, Xander," she whispered softly, moving over to him. She looked at Dawn, and noticed that they both had a thin trail of fresh blood dripping from their noses. She picked up a cloth and tenderly wiped them both clean, then sat down to wait and watch.

Kyle turned to Andrew. "Thanks for letting us know, and for what you did."

Andrew shrugged, "Xander saved me, and I owe him big time.

"Anyway, I need to check on the being who did this, then do a full debrief with the men. So, if you’ll excuse me..."

Kyle nodded, and watched with a smile as the blond haired young man strode confidently out of the room.

He joined his wife, and sat down next to her. "Molly, did you say anything to the people stopping you from entering?" Twenty five years of marriage meant that Kyle knew his wife’s responses to frustrations quite well.

She paled and nodded. "Wait here," she told her husband, not wanting for Xander and Dawn to be alone for a single minute.

 She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, and walked out to meet the two teenagers who had stood in her way.

"I’m Miranda Beauchamp-Michaels," she introduced herself, and hid a small smile as both of them recognized the name.

"I just wanted to apologize for my earlier behavior. It was quite inexcusable, not to mention downright rude."

Daryl and Chrissy looked at each other, shocked. "Erm, that’s ok," Chrissy replied softly, "you were just upset about Xander and Dawn."

"Please, call me Molly," she said with a smile. "I have to say I’m impressed that you both stood up to me, it’s been a while since anyone has done that."

Both of them blushed.  

"Has there been any change?" Daryl asked, changing the subject as smoothly as he could.

 "Why don’t you wait with us inside?" Molly invited the two of them. "We can talk more there."

--

"What happened?" Brad Hooper asked Andrew as he arrived back. With Xander unconscious, he was the second in command.

"Magical attack." Andrew pointed at Willow. "She broke through the shields with a spell designed to modify Dawn and Xan’s memory."

"How did she get through the shield?"

Andrew sighed, "I designed them to negate magical energy, but unfortunately she has enough power to blow up the world, and nothing I could do would be able to stop her."

Brad nodded slowly, "What are you going to do with her?"

"Find a way of ensuring it never happens again. She has too much power and nowhere near enough discipline. She’s like a six year old with a grudge and a Kalashnikov." Andrew’s analogies changed depending on who he was talking to.

Brad nodded again, scowling at the unconscious witch.

"When do you think she will wake up?"

"I’m keeping her unconscious," Andrew admitted. "I need time to prepare, and have to check with a few people. I also want Xander’s input."

"How did the teams do?" Brad asked, changing the subject slightly.

Andrew smiled, "Brilliantly. We were in and out within 3 minutes, the whole house cleared."

"Good," Brad smiled approvingly. "I thought Xander was nuts, insisting we train like we did for fast entries. Looks like it’s paid off already."

"Yeah, but I think he had vampires in mind, not stupid, overly powerful witches with a complete lack of moral compass.

"Anyway, I need to give the guys a debrief. You want to tag along?"

"Yeah, I think I will."

--

Kennedy sat in her car and watched, shocked, as a bunch of humans burst through the door of her old home, then a few minutes later, carried the unconscious form of her ex-girlfriend out.

A few minutes later, a couple of vans pulled up, marked with a construction firm’s logo. As she watched, several doors were carried out, locks were replaced and the house was restored to its original state.

Stunned, she drove to the hotel her father had made her a reservation at, wondering how she could exploit this situation best.

--

Ian joined the others waiting inside the large room that was the XTech primary medical lab. Xander’s planning had reached this part as well, he had too much experience in the damage that fighting vampires and demons caused, to have ignored such a vital component.

The medical department had one large reception/waiting room, and two fully equipped surgeries. There were two medical teams on full time duty, to give complete 24 hour coverage.  

The reception room had extremely comfortable chairs, a TV, and monitors that could show the contents of the surgical rooms, for people who didn’t want to wait inside.

After Andrew had joined Chrissy, Daryl and the Michaels, they had agreed to move somewhere a little more comfortable, with the door open and the monitors on.

Much as Molly wanted to stay in the same room, she accepted the advice of everyone else that they should move out.

"What’s the situation?" Ian asked, not liking the look on people’s faces.

"The doctor has done a full examination, and he doesn’t think there is any brain damage. It looks like they are suffering from a form of physical exhaustion. They must have used up a lot of energy fighting the spell." Kyle ran his fingers through his hair, wishing that he had some better news.

"Well, Dawn’s been wanting to sleep in the same room as Xander for some time," Chrissy said with a slight grin. "I think she’ll be pissed when she realizes she was unconscious during it."

The bad joke only raised a few smiles, but the atmosphere in the room lightened considerably, and it wasn’t long till they were all involved in a wide ranging conversation.  

"They have to be alright," Andrew stated calmly. "For Willow’s sake, more than anything else."

"Why is that?" Molly frowned.

"Because downstairs, I have thirty men, all of whom have been trained to kill, all of whom have access to all sorts of weapons, all of whom are loyal to the boss. I’ve already had to have words with several people who were in favor of an 'accident’ happening, and ending the Witch problem once and for all.’

"Oh." Molly thought about it for a few seconds, and then said, "Good." She tried hard to ignore the disapproving stare of her husband. Damn it, her son, and someone who in a very short time had made a huge impression on her heart, was inside that room, unconscious due to some selfish bitch with unbelievable arrogance.   If either of them was hurt, she certainly would not be sad to hear about any 'accidents’.

Kyle smiled slightly, able to read his wife perfectly. She might be feeling a little bloodthirsty at the moment, but it wouldn’t last. As soon as the kids woke up, and she calmed down, she would help anyway she could to deal with the long term effects of this evening. She might have a short fuse, but once it had blown out, what was left was a warm, loving, caring woman, willing to do anything for her friends. It was one of the many reasons he loved her.

With her dad downstairs, Chrissy had no trouble spending the night in the waiting room. Ian’s parents were used to him spending all night out, so weren’t worried. Daryl had phoned home, talked to his mother, and had told her that he was staying at Ian’s. His mother had been so pleased that Daryl had actually made a friend, and was out of his room, that she hadn’t put up a fuss at all.

Daryl was the first to fall asleep, curling up in one of the arm chairs.

Chrissy had fallen next; she had been sitting next to Ian. With a sleepy smile at him, she calmly pulled her legs up, and slid down, resting her head in his lap.  

Ian had tensed, unable to believe that she would do that with him, that she would trust him so much. Gently, and as tenderly as he could, he stroked her hair back.  

Andrew, Molly and Kyle each exchanged smiles at the sight. Andrew had known Ian the longest, and was really pleased the boy had found someone; he understood the loneliness of being single during your teenage years better than most.

Ian continued to stroke the long hair of the blonde, admiring the texture and softness of it. She wasn’t a stand out beauty, but at this close range, he realized how pretty she was. Her nose turned up a little at the end, she had a mouth that was more suited to smiling than frowning. She had eyes that seemed to change color depending on her mood.

He wasn’t a poetic person, hell, he was more at home in a fight than a restaurant, but he slowly started to realize that he wanted something else, he wanted her trust: he wanted her.  

A noise from the corner, as Andrew shifted his chair, caused her to wake for a second. She looked up at him, smiled sleepily, and went back to sleep.

Ian smiled, and rested his own head back, drifting off himself.

Andrew, Molly and Kyle talked for a bit longer, till Andrew yawned, and practically ordered the two older people to take the beds in the other room. They tried to protest, but Andrew’s fatigue, and the effects of a long day, meant that he dropped his usual deference and ordered them to go and lie down.

The married couple gave in, but not before Molly extracted a promise that Andrew would wake her if anything changed, and a few seconds later, were very comfortably asleep.

The doctor, a fifteen year veteran who had treated most of the Scooby gang during his career, had been pleased to finally learn the truth about what was going on in Sunnydale. He had already started to develop new treatments and procedures to treat victims of 'gang members on PCP’, based on the extensive research available from some of the websites that Andrew had given him access to.

After working with Xander for several months, he understood the loyalty that these people, and the guards below, felt for the young man now in his care.  

He pulled out some blankets, and gently covered the sleeping teenagers and Andrew.  

With that done, he dimmed the lights, and walked into the room with Dawn and Xander.

"You better wake up soon," he said softly. "There are a lot of people who need you right now."

--

Later that night, while the Doctor was checking on the two, he noticed some unusual eye movements under Xander’s closed eye.  

With a frown, he walked back out and gently shook Andrew awake.

"What’s up?" Andrew asked, coming to full consciousness quickly.  

"Strange eye movements, and as it’s his artificial eye, I figured it was more your area than mine."

"I’ll take a look at it," the young blond said with a smile.

Andrew nodded, and walked into the hospital room. He looked at the readout on the nearest computer, and then pressed a few buttons to bring up a magical scan of the area. The scan showed that there was some very low-level magic being wrought in Xander’s vicinity.

Keeping his promise, he quietly walked through the darkened reception room and into the next room and gently touched Molly’s shoulder.

She awoke immediately. "What’s happened?"

"The Orb of Isis is doing something to Xander," Andrew explained quietly.

Molly nodded and got up off the bed. She silently followed Andrew into the other room.

"What’s it doing, exactly?" she asked quietly, as she looked down at the two children who had taken their places in her heart.

"I don’t know," Andrew admitted. "I don’t think it’s hurting him, though."

Molly nodded slowly. "Go back to sleep, I’ll stay with him for a bit, just to make sure."

He nodded and walked back into the waiting room, dropping into a chair and curling back up. He was asleep in seconds, a trick Xander had taught him some months earlier.   'Considering the situations we’re going to be handling, you need to be able to rest wherever and whenever you can,’ he remembered his mentor telling him.

Molly pulled up a chair next to Xander, and quietly sat down, taking his hand in hers. She looked down at the artificial eye, that was twitching softly, and started to pray. She prayed that the eye was doing something good, was not causing him any pain.

She stayed there till the twitching stopped, then gently kissed his forehead, before returning to sleep rejoin Kyle in the next room, and eventually fall into a troubled sleep.

Andrew woke up and groaned, stretching.  "I’m getting too damn old to be doing this," he mumbled to himself, as he tried to un-kink his back.

He walked over and checked on the two patients, who were both still unconscious.

"Any change?" Ian’s low voice asked from across the room.

Andrew checked the charts. "There was a little magical activity from the eye last night, but that was it."

"What was it doing?" Ian asked.

"Don’t know," Andrew sighed.

"Damn," Chrissy said, sitting up and stretching. "Ladies room?"

"Down there, 2nd door on the left," Andrew replied.

"Thanks," she said with a smile, then turned to Ian. "You make a good pillow, sugar."

She grinned and bounced out of the room.

"No one should have that much energy first thing," Daryl complained, stretching himself. He delicately ignored Ian’s blush.

Andrew grinned, and picked up the phone. He dialed the canteen, and ordered six full breakfasts to be brought up.

"Good man," Kyle said approvingly, coming out of the other surgery. "How are our sleeping beauties?"

"Still awaiting their prince," Andrew said dryly. "Sleep well?"

"Reasonably," Kyle said.

"I need to go make a phone call, and check the nightly logs, but I’ll be back in time for breakfast. If anything happens, dial 0 on the phone and ask for me."

"Will do," Kyle said.

Andrew walked out and down the hall, into his office. He pulled out his Sharp Zaurus handheld and checked his address book, looking for the number he needed. He found it, and dialed it quickly, sitting back in his seat.

The phone was finally answered after half a dozen rings, and Andrew heard the sounds of fumbling, followed by a faint, "Blasted contraption."

"Hello?" The voice finally came through loud and clear. "This had been be bloody damn important."

"Giles, it’s Andrew."

"Hello Andrew. I take it that, due to the fact you are phoning me on this irritating device, there is a problem?"

"’Fraid so." Andrew took a deep breath. "Last night, Willow fell off the wagon, and tried to do a memory spell on Xander and Dawn."

"Oh my," Giles said, softly.

"We stopped her before she could finish the spell, but Xander and Dawn have been unconscious all night, and I’m keeping her sedated, under armed guard."

"Is the guard truly necessary?"

"It’s to keep people out, not her in!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Giles," Andrew sounded a little exasperated. "Willow launched an unprovoked attack on the Head of XTech security. I have a building full of very well trained men who really object to that sort of thing, and are very interested in setting a precedent that will scare the hell out of anyone else who thinks about attacking him."

"Oh, quite right," Giles said.

"I think it’s time you came home. We’ve got the SIT training center about finished, so the accommodation is ready for you."

"SIT Training center?" Giles asked, confused.

"Oh," Giles could almost hear Andrew blush. "I guess Xander wanted it to be a surprise for you. Well, he’s built a series of bedrooms and a common room next to the XTech training room. I think you’ll find it a lot more comfortable than living in a small house."

"Oh yes, indeed," Giles said reverently, realizing all the benefits that this would give him as he tried to rebuild the Watchers Council. "You’re quite right; it is, indeed, time I returned to work. The vacation has been fun, but there is a lot to be done."

"And Willow to deal with," Andrew added, refocusing the ex-Watcher.

"Yes," Giles agreed, his voice changing as the earlier message started to sink through properly. "What exactly happened?"

Andrew frowned, suddenly realizing that Giles hadn't been kept informed of the recent events. "I think it would be best if we tell you in person. It's been a hectic week and a lot has happened. If you're willing to come home, I'll prepare the travel arrangements for you and the SIT's."

"Thank you," Giles said. "I do hope that Xander and Dawn are alright."

Andrew said goodbye, and hung up. He spent five minutes organizing the return flights, phoned Giles back, and then joined everyone else in the surgery waiting room, for breakfast.

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