Wild Horses
Part 14
By Jeconais
Father Richard O’Reilly walked through the doors of XTech with his normal burst of energy. A passionate Irishman, with deep red hair and surprisingly dark eyes, he had been a member of the priesthood since repenting his youthful misdeeds. Having made more mistakes in his life than most of his flock, he had a lot more life experiences to draw on when dealing with the problems that people gave to him. It made him extremely popular, especially in a town that had such problems as Sunnydale.
He had met Xander Harris when he had caught the younger man appropriating some Holy Water from the baptismal font. He had approached the man curiously; his experience had been that hooligans and drug dealers preferred the gold religious paraphernalia that was a trademark of his religion.
Xander hadn’t explained fully why he needed it, but his earnest face, and very clear eyes, had convinced him to allow Xander to take what was needed.
A few days later, he had found out exactly why Xander had taken the Holy Water, when a vampire had attacked him in his church. The creature had entered the building, and taunted him, before vamping out. As far as he was concerned, no priest like him was going to be killed by a creature of Satan, and he had fallen in to old patterns. His strong fists had caught the vampire by surprise, giving him enough time to scramble for a cross. He used the cross to keep the vampire at bay, as he worked his way around to the font at which point the vampire had received a large amount of holy water to its face. The water acted like acid, blinding it. He then stood above the vampire and chanted an old blessing.
"Jesus Christ rebukes you, O Demon! By the sacred Name of Jesus and that of Mary, His Holy Mother, and by the power of the Most Holy Rosary, I command you: Be gone, unclean spirit! I exorcise you, Demon, this servant of Almighty God and His sealed Image, by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, by the sprinkling of this holy water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
He had been pleasantly surprised when it had worked, and the vampire had vanished into a cloud of dust. That night, the father had met another old friend, a bottle of 20 yr. old Scottish whiskey.
When Xander had arrived back for more supplies, the Priest had pulled him into his vestry, and explained what had happened. That had been the start of their friendship, and as Xander had started XTech, it had been him who had started to bless the bullets, deciding that an army fighting for God deserved the best it could get.
The small detail that had sealed his desire to help Xander had been the unassuming young man’s description of himself; that of a simple carpenter.
Father O’Reilly had always held a soft spot for carpenters.
"Morning Father," the receptionist smiled at him.
He grinned back at her, pausing to be identified. As he entered the main XTech entrance room, he frowned at the noise level. Or rather, the lack thereof. Normally it was a pretty boisterous place, but this morning it was silent.
Ominously so.
"Joe," he said, grabbing one of the guards as they walked past. "What’s happened?"
"You’d better get the full story from Andrew; he’s in his office."
"Thanks," the priest replied, and walked quickly to the office.
"Andrew, what in the name of all that’s holy is going on?"
"Morning Father," Andrew greeted him with a slight smile. "Have a seat."
He sat down as indicated, and looked at the young man before him. The blond boy looked tired, as if he had not had much sleep last night.
"Last night, Willow launched a magical attack on Xander and Dawn, trying to change their memories of something. It’s left them both unconscious in the hospital wing."
"And Willow?"
"In a holding cell, unconscious, down stairs."
"When is she likely to wake up?"
"When I turn off the sleep inducer," Andrew admitted with a slight smile.
Long talks with Xander, which had bordered on confessionals, meant that Father O’Reilly had an intimate knowledge of the comings and goings of the Scooby gang.
"What about Xander and Dawn?"
"We’re not sure. Xander’s eye is doing something, but we don’t know what."
"This that Orb of Isis item you mentioned?"
Andrew nodded, and then went silent as he could see his guest deep in thought.
"I think I’d like a talk with Willow, but I’ll need your help before hand."
Willow’s mind swam back into consciousness, and she protested the light with a groan. She experienced a second’s confusion, before reality swam back into painful focus. Her already pale face lost all its color as she realized her actions, and how it had backfired. Guilt swam through her, overwhelming her senses and causing her stomach to churn.
She looked around desperately, and seeing a toilet, fell to the floor in front of it, and lost the remaining food in her stomach. She dry-heaved a few times, then stumbled back to the low cot, her jaw reminding her of one of the consequences of the night before.
Incuriously, she looked around the small room. It was small and painted in soft beige. The only furniture was the cot she was sitting on, and the toilet in the corner. The solid one-piece door looked to be heavy steel.
She stared at the door, idly contemplating using magic to escape, as it opened.
A tall priest walked in, the door shutting smoothly behind him, and placed the chair he was carrying on the floor, then sat in it, shifting around a bit to get comfy, before saying anything.
"I’m Richard O’Reilly," he introduced himself, deliberately playing up an accent that was more cultivated than natural.
"Willow Rosenberg," the witch replied, a little dryly.
"Want to tell me what happened yesterday?"
Willow sighed, and in a monotone voice said, "I tried to cast a spell on Xander and Dawn, to change their memories. It wasn’t working, so I put more power into it. I remember a sharp pain in my jaw, before waking up and seeing a logo. I then passed out and woke up here a few minutes ago."
The idea of lying didn’t seem to be a good one, and she was sick of it. Sick of lying, sick of her life, sick of everything. She just wanted to curl up and drift away; maybe she would see Tara again. But would Tara want her now? Since the girl had died, Willow had eviscerated the man who had killed her, tried to end the world, jumped into a relationship with a younger girl and cast aside Xander, again, as she had so many times before. Then, to top it off, she had used a modified 'blank slate’ spell — the same one she had promised Tara she would never use again.
"Do you believe in God?"
"I’m a Wiccan. I worship my goddess."
"So your magic would work on me? Even though I am a representative of God?"
Willow shrugged.
Father O’Reilly smiled and pulled a pen out of his pocket and placed it beside him. "Would you mind doing a little test for me?"
The red-headed girl shrugged again.
"Can you make this pen levitate?"
Willow narrowed her eyes; something so little didn’t even require a spell. The pen floated a few inches of the ground, before dropping back down to the floor.
"Now, could you try that spell on me?"
She thought for a second, and mentally chanted a spell, pointing her hand at the priest.
Nothing happened.
A look of shock appeared on the girl’s face, and she tried again, throwing more of her power into it.
Nothing happened again.
Willow looked worried. She threw her power at the pen again, pointing at it, and it rocketed to the ceiling. She kept her power floating in the forefront of her mind as she pointed at the priest, a smile of triumph on her face.
Yet again, nothing happened.
With wide eyes, she collapsed back onto the cot, unable to believe what she had just seen.
"God is everywhere, Willow. He infuses us with his great love and lends us His power in times of need. He protects and He guides. All things come from Him, and all things lead to Him. For too long, you have used magic without respect and without guidance and without fear of consequence.
"He is watching you, as He is watching everyone, and He will judge you in the end. Everything you do will come back to you threefold, a cardinal belief of yours, I believe.
"He has lent you this power to serve Him."
"But I worship a goddess," Willow whispered.
The priest smiled slightly as he asked, "Who do you think your Goddess worships?"
He then stood, picked up his chair and slowly walked out, leaving a very confused wiccan behind.
Outside the holding cell, he was met by Brad and Andrew.
"I don’t remember that being the Catholic doctrine," Brad said curiously. "Doesn’t your religion talk about one true God, and everything else as being blasphemy?"
"Of course, but telling Willow that, when she has proof otherwise would be a little stupid. To be honest, finding that the Devil exists, and that witchcraft actually works, has caused me to examine my own beliefs. But, it was not difficult to reconcile the differences, when I realized that the gods and goddesses, were merely what we have called Angels before."
Brad nodded slowly, not sure that he agreed, as he was quite comfortable with the idea of multiple gods. "I half thought you’d want to burn her," he teased the priest, changing the tone a little.
Richard just laughed and turned to Andrew with a smug look on his face. "I told you it would work."
Andrew rolled his eyes at the priest. "You were lucky, if she hadn’t been making such wild gestures, there is no way I would have been able to turn on and off the magic suppressor like I did. You would have hit the roof so hard, we’d have been clearing up essence de-priest for a month."
"You need to have more faith in God, Andrew. He works in ways beyond our comprehension." He smiled beatifically at the two stunned men, and started to walk towards the infirmary.
"Remind me to never play cards with him," Brad said, after a moment’s thought.
"Agreed!"
Long before she became a Wicca, Willow was Jewish. It wasn’t like being a red-head, or being a girl, it was somehow more than that. It defined her life, and her existence. Everything from not having a Christmas like other kids and celebrating Chanukah instead, to studying the Torah had defined her. Yet she had found it controlling and dominating.
She had wanted more, and when she found the Wiccan religion, with its much more honest way of looking at things, and its unbelievable practicality of having a female God, she had embraced it whole heartedly.
But only to a point. She had paid lip service to the laws of the religion. She speed read the text, then promptly ignored it, and as long as her power increased, she saw no real reason to pay attention to the verse and chapter. After all, she had read the Torah and saw how out of date and archaic that was, with a lot of it contradictory and irrelevant in a modern world. How could the Wiccan religion, one that outdated Judaism by millennia, be any different?
So she had tripped along merrily, ignoring the signs that now seemed so obvious to her. Everything that had made her happy had now been stripped away. She was alone, friendless — Buffy was more of a subset of Spike these days — and had just alienated the only two other people she would have counted on in the past. She had no illusions about Giles, who had risked everything he had and was to give her a second chance.
The really sad thing was that she couldn’t think of a single reason she should have another one.
She was scared. She curled up on the cot, into a fetal position, and tried hard not to cry. The thought of a divine being, His presence being so comprehensively proved to her, judging her, and her actions, suddenly made her think of her immortal soul. Her upbringing had made her think that she when she died, she would simply be reincarnated, but now, the other thing that could happen came back. That her soul would be held in limbo until Christ returned.
Judgment Day.
When all the souls of the dead would be judged by their actions when alive.
Judgment Day.
The two words increased her fear, as she realized that Magic had been a gift. A gift with a price tag she had ignored with ease. Her almost digital memory was normally a blessing; now, it was a curse. She remembered everything, from reading about the Threefold rule, to her actions.
Tears slowly ran down her cheek as everything came back to her.
Inside the waiting room, Daryl, Ian, Chrissy, Molly and Kyle were all sat around a table, playing cards. They were using surgical swabs for chips, and judging by the large pile in front of Molly, she was having a good day.
"Of course, the fact that Molly spends every Thursday with her poker buddies would explain why she is winning," Kyle said with a grin.
"Kyle!" Molly complained, annoyed at him for giving away her secret.
The others laughed, it didn’t really matter. The games were just a distraction to the endless waiting for Xander and Dawn to wake up.
The door swung open, and Father O’Reilly entered with his standard enthusiasm. He received a mixed greeting, as Ian groaned, and Chrissy, Molly and Kyle smiled.
"Ian," the Father said with a smile. "It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you in church." His dark eyes noticed how close the boy was sitting next to Chrissy. "I’m sure there are all sorts of things you want to confess?"
Ian lent forwards and started to bang his head against the table. "Shouldn’t you be in church?"
The priest grinned. "I left my trainee in charge; he’s handling my duties for me."
Ian groaned again.
The others around the table burst out into laughter, except for Daryl who looked a little lost.
Molly smiled and lent over to him. "Father O’Reilly has been teasing Ian for the past two years. It’s his favorite sport."
"Who are you?" The father asked with a grin, deciding that Daryl looked like an ideal partner for him to tease with Ian.
"Daryl Marks, Father."
"Tell me, Daryl, do you believe in God?"
The boy took a deep breath, then grinned at Ian, fully aware that he was about to become a target as well. "Linus Torvalds? Sure, even talked to him a few times."
Father O’Reilly froze. His mind whirred trying to place the name that sounded familiar. Only a Time magazine article saved him, as he remembered the name of the Finnish student that had started the Linux operating system. The article had explained how techies and geeks around the world considered him a god-like figure. His eyes flicked to Ian, who was looking at his friend with a mixture of thanks and respect.
He laughed and relaxed. "I meant the real God."
Daryl frowned a little, looking him in the eyes. "I only found out that Hell existed a few days ago, I’m going to need some time to work through that, before I decide to move from my nice safe atheism."
The priest nodded slowly, "When you want to talk, I’m always available." The teasing was gone, replaced by his full religious persona.
"So," the priest said, pulling up a chair. "Poker, is it?"
What followed, was a tightly fought match between Molly and Father O’Reilly, with the others spending more time watching than actually playing.
Ian took the opportunity to try and exact some revenge on the Father. "You know, Daryl, that our Father here, is our secret weapon against Vampires?"
"Really?" Daryl asked, recognizing his role to encourage the story.
"Oh yes," Ian replied, conveniently ignoring the priest’s glare. "We were walking home one night, a few months ago, in the dark. It was me, the Father, Brad and Xander. We’d spent the day working on The Fortress, when a group of vampires approached us. Xander and I went ahead, we both had stakes, so we got to them first, leaving Brad with the Father."
"What happened next?" Daryl asked, trying hard not to grin.
"Well, we were using Xan’s strategy of shooting them in the kneecaps to disable them, then staking them before they could recover. It was working pretty well, but we needed help, so Brad joined in. This, of course, left our Father defenseless."
The man in question snorted at this, but raised Molly two swabs.
"With most of the vampires gone, Xander suddenly spotted one approaching the Father. None of us could get to him, we were all kind of busy, so we were worried. You know how Xander gets when someone is in trouble. Jump in the way first, think later. Anyway, he tried to, but a vampire grabbed his leg. He was extremely annoyed, shot the vampire five times, and then staked him.
"I’d finished mine by this point, and we turned together, to see our favorite Priest just standing there. We both shouted for him to move, but he just smiled and waited till the vampire was near by."
By now, Molly, Kyle and Chrissy were engaged in the story. The Father used that to his advantage to win another hand of poker.
"Anyway, our Father just raises his hand, makes a sign of the cross and says, 'O Divine Eternal Father, in union with your Divine Son and the Holy Spirit, and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg You to destroy the Power of your greatest enemy - the evil spirits.’ And the vampire exploded into dust."
The people listening applauded and cheered. "How did you do that?" Kyle asked, not having heard the story. "I thought Xander said that Priests couldn’t just bless vampires to death."
Father O’Reilly steepled his fingers, placing his elbows on the table. "I did a lot of research when I realized that Vampires are real. I already knew from talking to Xander that they were affected by religious icons - crosses and the like, and that it didn’t seem to matter which religion they were from. A Star of David was as effective as a cross.
"It seemed that it was not so much the icon itself, but the faith in a deity behind it that caused the reaction.
"I looked into example of priests being killed by vampires, and came to the conclusion that, when confronted by proof of the devil nearly all priests immediately started to question their faith. Instead of thanking God for the test, they questioned God, and lost faith in Him.
"The first time I was attacked by a vampire, I didn’t have time to question myself. I think that I had subconsciously been given a hint by Xander’s behavior that they exist, so I was a little prepared. I exorcised the demon, following the doctrine to the letter.
"So, armed with my faith in God, the most powerful weapon in existence, I was in no way worried about a mere vampire."
There was a moment’s silence around the table, as everyone digested the priest’s words, before the game picked up again.
It was no surprise to anyone, that when a beeping indicated one of the two patients was waking up, Molly was the first to move. The noise had barely registered when she was up, her chair bouncing to the floor, and she was through the door.
"You know," Ian said dryly. "She could put a vampire to shame with the sort of speed she just showed."
Molly stood over Dawn, watching as the girl struggled back into consciousness. She lightly brushed the girl’s hair back from her face.
Dawn jerked awake with a gasp. "Xander?"
"Shhh," Molly whispered, ignoring the doctor who was watching the monitoring equipment with interest. She pulled the younger girl into a gentle hug. "Xander’s fine, honey."
Dawn relaxed into the hug, recognizing Molly.
"He’s still unconscious, but we have the doctors monitoring him all the time. He is going to be fine. Do you remember what happened?"
Dawn nodded slowly. "Yes, we were walking towards the control centre when we attacked. I remember the pain, and how much Xander was in pain. When it ended, I think we both passed out."
Molly smiled in relief. "Yep, that was pretty much what happened. Now, how are you feeling."
The girl frowned for a second, and then looked surprised. "I feel great," she admitted. "Nothing wrong at all, not even a headache."
Molly and Dawn looked at the doctor. "As far as I can tell, everything is normal. However, if you get any headaches or dizziness, I want you to come back me immediately."
Dawn nodded, then stretched. "What time is it?"
"Nearly midday, you’ve been out for sixteen hours."
Dawn swung her legs over the bed, moved from Molly’s embrace and walked over to Xander’s bed. She lightly ran her fingers over his face, then leaned in and softly kissed his cheek. The gesture of affection was completely unselfconscious. She stroked his hair back softly.
"Rest, Xan. Wake up when you’re ready, I’ll be waiting for you."
The rumbling of her stomach reminded her that it had been a long time since she had eaten.
Molly smiled, "We sent one of the guards to your apartment to get you some new clothes. Why don’t you change into a gown, and I’ll show you the showers, before we order you some food. Everyone is waiting outside, so you can join us while we wait for our prince to awaken."
Dawn nodded, and watched as Molly and the Doctor left, turning off the cameras as they walked out.
She stripped the hospital gown off carelessly; she had no compunctions about being naked in front of an unconscious Xander. In fact, she was still looking forward to being naked in front of a conscious Xander. She pulled on her dressing gown, and grabbed some new clothing. She was pretty sure that a woman had chosen her clothing and guessed it was the wife of the guard.
She carried her clothing out, the door, smiling wryly at the others, who had been told, with extreme firmness, that they were not to ask her anything till she had cleaned up and eaten.
The shower was luxury; as with everything else in this building, Xander had not scrimped. The hot water sprayed down on her, rushing away the stress of the previous day. She luxuriated in it, washing herself with the supplied soap. The whole shower area was slightly reminiscent of her en-suite room at home. Obviously Xander had arranged for the same architects and designers, which made sense really, as they were from the same company.
She spent twenty minutes blow drying her hair. She was positive that Xander would not wake up yet. She wasn’t sure why, she just knew it for a fact.
Dawn felt totally refreshed, as she walked back to the waiting room. A large dinner, was awaiting her, as was everyone else. They were all eating the same thing, what looked like a turkey dinner, as normally seen at Thanksgiving.
"Dawn, this is Father O’Reilly, he’s our resident priest." Ian introduced them with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
Dawn grinned at him, "Pretty good. I’ll be better when Xander wakes up and I can make sure he’s ok."
Father O’Reilly watched the slim girl with interest. He, like most others at XTech, had heard a lot about her, about how she was making a play for his friend’s heart, and how, almost universally, it was being approved by people who knew him. She was very pretty, but, from what he had seen, all of Xander’s female friends were. He decided to reserve judgment until he had a chance to get to know her better.
After the extremely nice lunch, Dawn finally explained what had happened from their point of view. She recalled the memories with a soft smile, her first meeting with Xander was something none of them had talked about before, and caused a huge smile to appear on Molly’s face.
Chrissy, Ian and Daryl were smiling as well. They were finding out more about their friend’s history than they ever had. While Ian and Daryl were new friends, Chrissy had been friends with her for years, and even she didn’t know a lot of this stuff. Dawn’s past had always been a subject that was out of bounds.
"What happened to Willow?" she asked.
"She’s downstairs," Andrew announced, entering the room in time to answer the question. "Good to see you awake, Dawn."
"Thanks Andrew," she smiled at him.
"Yes, Andrew," Molly said. "Why don’t you tell us what happened last night?"
With Ian’s help, Andrew recounted the events, leaving out, for now, how Ian had knocked Willow unconscious, and how later they had contemplated killing her.
Dawn stood, walked over to Andrew, and hugged him. "Thank you," she said softly, before repeating the action with Ian, then Daryl. She sat down, unaware of the furious blushes that had appeared on the boys’ faces, or the amused looks on the faces of the adults.
"I want to see Willow," Dawn announced. Her anger at her ex-friend’s actions had been slowly starting to boil since she had awoken, and she wanted to confront the witch about her betrayal before Xander awoke. The feeling that Xander was going to be unconscious for a while yet was still strong.
Andrew looked at Molly, then Father O’Reilly for guidance. They both shrugged.
The blond boy saw no reason why not, since the two girls had been close when he had lived with them, and he led Dawn downstairs to the detention centre.
The guards who saw her on the journey down to the detention area, smiled, looking relieved that she was awake, as it boded well for their boss.
The guard who was currently on duty, took one look at her face, and quickly started broadcasting the feed from the cell, to every TV in the building. He had a feeling that everyone would want to see it.
Upstairs, Ian took one look at the feed, and said "Oh-oh, I recognize that expression." He thought for a second, and then smirked. "Poor Willow," his voice was extremely insincere.
"What do you mean?" Molly asked with a slight frown on her face.
"The last time she looked like that, she punched out the captain of the football team," Daryl explained, his grin matching Ian’s.
"Oh," Molly replied, and then she too, grinned.
Downstairs, Andrew opened the door to the cell, then stepped away, monitoring from outside.
"Willow," Dawn spat. Her voice was relayed with the video feed, gathering everyone’s attention.
The red-headed girl stood up from her cot, a look of sorrow on her face. "Dawn," she started.
"I can’t talk to you right now," Dawn said, a look of fury on her face. "You didn’t have to see the pain you caused Xander last night. Not just they physical pain of your attempted mind rape, but the mental pain that someone he once trusted so much, that he risked his life to stop ending the world, would do that to him." She took a step forwards, and punched Willow, hard. She looked down at the red-headed girl, who was now on the floor, a stunned look on her face. "That was for the physical pain you caused us."
The insulation of the cell meant that neither of them heard the loud cheering that echoed around the building.
"If it was up to me, I’d make sure that you never came into contact with him again. But we both know that Xander isn’t like that. It’s one of the reasons I’m in love with him. But if you ever even think of hurting him again, I will find a way to stop you. Permanently!"
Dawn turned on her heel, and stormed towards the door, which Andrew opened quickly, not wanting to spoil her exit.
Willow groaned, now her jaw ached on both sides. It was nothing compared with the revelation that Dawn has just proved conclusively. Dawn was in love with Xander. She had not even thought of that, and realizing that the brunette girl was only concerned about the pain she had inflicted on the male, not herself, was a little frightening.
She remembered clearly that one of Xander’s personality traits was his loyalty. She had heard about the time he had told Buffy he would kill her if Willow had been hurt due to the Slayer’s inactions. If Xander felt anything for Dawn, he would act the same way as she just had, more upset about what had happened to her than the pain and hurt he had suffered himself. She gulped, curling back up on the cot. Tears once more started to drip down her face.
The afternoon found the people waiting outside the XTech hospital room playing more cards, and idly talking. No one thought about leaving, they were all determined to be there when Xander woke up. Even Daryl, who had the weakest ties to the brunet, understood the price of friendship.
"You’re not as worried as I thought you would be," Chrissy said to Dawn, peering over her cards.
Dawn nodded in agreement. "Something’s happened between us, I can feel that he is unconscious and that he needs to be."
Molly frowned, swapping two cards for fresh ones from the deck. "Some form of psychic connection?"
"Possibly," Dawn replied as she folded.
"Any other table in the world, and that statement would be met with derisive laughter," Chrissy pointed out dryly, to chuckles from the rest of the table.
Dawn smiled. "True. I wonder if it will last, or if it’s just some remnant of the attack last night."
"We’ve only managed to locate two of them," the vampire admitted, groveling on the floor in front of the dark vampire.
"What?" the lady snarled, her face taking an enraged look.
"We tried, but the Carpenter has given them his personal protection. We couldn’t follow all the different vans."
The lady frowned, and idly kicked him in the face, throwing him across the room.
The last attack had been disastrous, losing half of her more reliable vampires, a loss she could ill afford. But with the demon council hidden, she had no chance of convincing the large demon population of Sunnydale to follow her.
She now knew that the Carpenter knew how to deal with vampires, so she decided that she would send her demonic henchmen to do the deed for her. Little things like property borders and religious icons did not affect them, so they would be perfect.
Her henchmen were four brutish looking Kalif demons; they rarely displayed any sign of original thought, but stuck to a task like glue, once it had been explained to them in very short words.
"Go with these vampires and kill the council members," she commanded imperiously. It was more than likely that they would manage to kill a lot of innocent humans as well. The thought of the upcoming carnage was enough to put her in a good mood.
The Kalif demons nodded. Outside the decrepit hideout, they split into pairs. Each team accompanied a small group of vampires to the different locations.
Two red-leather skinned demons grunted to each other, as they paused outside the first building. It was a small-ish apartment block, with the PJH sign above the entrance hallway. It was pretty modern looking, and reeked of exclusiveness.
Their grunting over, the two demons charged for the entrance, while the vampires merged into the darkness, their work done. The demons didn’t stop for the door; they merely burst straight through the glass panels.
The guard took one look, noting the horns and skin, and the dramatic entrance and smacked the emergency button. Instantly, a level three alert sounded on the XTech communicators. The panels in the back of the entrance foyer shifted slightly, revealing the same thin tubes that had been placed in the Fortress. The guard hit the floor, and a second later, the tubes seemed to expand a slightly.
Behind the tubes, a soft whirring was heard for a fraction of a second; an instant later the foyer’s heavy sound insulation was tested to the maximum, as five machine guns burst into life.
The 7.62mm NATO Vektor SS-77 general purpose machine guns were belt fed with armor piercing ammunition. The whirring sound was the automatic targeting system, hooked up to standard XTech security cameras. The guns had been chosen for their reliability. It was a simplistic solution to the demon problem, but was devastatingly effective.
The demons didn’t stand a chance, and a second later, the floor dropped open, sluicing the bloody remains of the demons away.
The remaining two demons attacked the second building at the same time. Structurally, it was identical to the first. They followed the same pattern, breaking through the door, and charged in, only to skid to a halt.
Before them, was their worst nightmare.
"I came to Sunnydale to retire," the nightmare growled, a sword appearing in his hands. "Now you invade my new home."
The demons exchanged nervous looks. They wanted to run, but couldn’t, as it was against everything they stood for. The Groosalugg demon was a champion fighter, a gladiator from the Scum pits of Ur. He was used as the bogey man by Kalif elders to scare children into following the true path.
They approached together, claws out, convincing themselves they could win.
The guard, watching with interest, was already piping the feed back to head quarters. If this was the sort of guest they would be looking after, he was all for it.
Groo hardly seemed to move, yet his sword swiftly danced a figure eight pattern, and two headless demons fell to the floor.
"If you’ll take a few steps back, Sir," the guard requested politely.
The champion fighter looked up in surprise, then took a few steps back. He watched with interest as the floor swung open, and the bodies were washed down into the pit.
"Nice," he grinned.
"You know," the guard said. "If you’re looking for a job, Xander would hire you in a second."
Groo smiled, "I’m retired."
"Yes, Sir."
"Is there a meeting room we could use? I think I need to talk to the council."
"We’ll arrange it, if you’ll give us an hour."
The half demon nodded, "I’ll tell the other council members."
"Have you seen Willow?" Buffy asked, idly watching the Sunday evening TV.
"Nope."
"Strange," Buffy replied. "She’s normally studying on a Sunday night."
Spike shrugged, unconcerned.
With Spike’s disinterest, Buffy dismissed the thought with an ease that would have scared her a few years ago, and went back to watching TV.
Willow tried to sleep, but couldn’t. Two thoughts running through her mind wouldn’t let her. The priest’s visit, proving that her use of magic was not unrestricted, and Dawn’s protestation of her love for Xander.
She shuddered, the thoughts revolved into one. Fear. Fear of Xander. She didn’t think she could face him, but knew there was no avoiding it.
She covered herself in the blanket, still curled in a ball, and stared blankly at the wall.
Dawn started to move about ten seconds before the monitors picked up the changes in heart rate and brain patterns that signified Xander waking up.
Molly followed her a second later, guessing that Dawn knew that he was awakening.
Xander groaned softly, the memory of pain still strong in his mind. He raised himself on one elbow, and opened his eyes.
A flood of information suddenly assaulted his brain, already over-extended by the attack the previous night. He panicked, shifting backwards against the wall as he tried to escape it.
Everything he could see seemed to flicker in a confused jumble of lights; things he shouldn’t be able to see seemed visible. He shrieked, as his heart rate jumped into panic status, adrenaline pouring through his body.
He felt a hand touch him, and jerked from it, rational thought long since gone. Xander fell off the bed, the monitoring equipment whined as it lost all contact with its subject. He backed into the corner, shivering, holding his hands to his eyes, trying to block out all the images.
"Shh, Xander, shhh, listen to me," Dawn crooned instinctively. She dropped to her knees next to him hovering nearby, trying not to scare him even more.
Xander’s breath calmed a little, responding to the sound of her voice.
As if she was approaching a scared animal, the long haired girl slowly moved closer to him, her body language as unthreatening as she could make it. She could almost feel the panic in his mind, the confusion, and she needed to help him.
From the doorway, Molly, Kyle and Father O’Reilly watched silently, the others trying to peer around them, or watching on the monitors. They all had identical expressions of concern on their faces as they watched Dawn try to reach the terrified Xander.
For Father O’Reilly, it was enlightening. He finally saw why everyone was so blasé about the idea of Dawn and Xander being together. It looked like the boy didn’t know that he was falling for the girl, but it was obvious that he was. He was responding to her on a basic level, as she pulled him back from what ever nightmare he was experiencing. He idly wondered if it was too late to join the betting pool that he had heard about. The average entrance fee for the pool had risen to two hundred dollars, and with over a hundred people already entered, the money was substantial.
In the corner, Xander turned and buried his face into Dawn’s shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him, and he breathed deeply, inhaling the light airy scent that was so Dawn.
"What’s happened, Xan?" she asked softly, holding him close.
"Too many colors," Xander whispered back, his voice barely carrying to the people listening at the door. "Too many shapes, everything is blurry. Colors shouldn’t exist, reds, blues, hazes."
Outside the door, Andrew’s face took on a thoughtful expression; the description rang a bell in his mind. Automatically he delved through his extensive sci-fi knowledge. Films like Blade Runner and Dune were examined and dismissed, Star Wars as well. Then he flicked through his Star Trek memories, and stopped. Star Trek. He delved through the episodes; all of them were catalogued neatly in his mind until he came across the scene he wanted. His expression turned reverent.
"Oh my God," he whispered excitedly, before pushing his way past the human barricade in the door.
The geek dropped to his knees next to Xander. "Xander, it’s Andrew. I need you to listen to me carefully."
Xander turned his head slightly, his eyes still closed but his panic receding. He didn’t move from Dawn’s embrace.
"I need you to open your eyes slowly, and then concentrate on Dawn, and Dawn alone. I need you to pretend that you are in a crowded room full of people, and you are trying to listen to her. Do that with your mind - see Dawn and nothing else."
Tension seemed to explode into the room, as Molly, Kyle and the Father entered, allowing Ian, Daryl and Chrissy to see as well.
Xander pulled back a little from Dawn, turning his head so he was facing her, then slowly opened his eyes.
The girl smiled encouragingly, preparing herself in case he flinched away again.
"Concentrate, Xand," Andrew said calmly. "You can do it."
Xander frowned, listening to his friend’s voice and concentrated hard. Slowly, the images seemed to disappear, and Dawn’s smiling face came into clear focus. He gave a relieved smile and hugged her tightly, whispering his thanks.
The tension vanished as Ian and Daryl cheered loudly, the three adults suddenly had huge grins on their faces.
Xander smiled as he turned to look at them, and they all pretended not to notice that Xander showed no sign at all of releasing Dawn.
Andrew was almost bouncing with excitement, a stage Ian had never seen the normally composed student in. His eyes were alight as if Santa Claus had just given him the hand written scripts to Star Wars: A New Hope, personally signed by George Lucas, Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford.
"You need to lay down, Xan, and let the doctor check you out," Dawn told him firmly.
Xander nodded, too relieved to have his sight back to normal to argue.
"Ok, people, everyone out!" The doctor ordered from the doorway. He had been alerted by the machine loosing contact with Xander, but had stayed at the back till he was needed.
Dawn was the last to leave, and only did so with a noticeable reluctance.
It took the doctor less than five minutes to pronounce Xander fit. The brown eyed boy grinned happily, and threw on the clothes that had been left for him. He walked out of the hospital room, and grinned at all the people gathering there.
"Can we hold this discussion in the cafeteria?" he asked, as his stomach announced its presence to the occupants.
With wide smiles, everyone agreed and moved to the canteen, taking over a table in the corner. While it was a little late for the normal selection of dinner foodstuffs, the staff were more than happy to make something for all of them to eat, relief showing on their faces that the boss seemed ok.
"Ok, And’. Hit me!" Xander said to the blond boy whose eyes were still looking as though he was a slight nudge away from doing the can-can around the room.
Andrew grinned. "What was it that Simon called you, when he gave you the Orb?"
"The One Who Sees," Xander replied.
Andrew’s grin turned to a triumphant smirk. "He was right."
"What?" Xander demanded with a slight smile.
"Can I call you Xander La Forge?"
"Huh?" Xander’s surprise was mirrored around the table.
"You’ve got a VISOR!"
An expression of surprise appeared on Xander’s face.
"Erm, for those of us who aren’t sci-fi geeks, could we get a translation?" Dawn asked, her light voice ensured that no offence was taken.
"Lieutenant Command Geordi LaForge, Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise," Daryl grinned, entering the conversation. "He lost his eyesight in a fire when he was two years old, and was fitted with a VISOR connected via neural implants that allowed him to "see" throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from heat and infrared through visible light to radio waves."
Andrew grinned and nodded. "On one episode, they hooked up his VISOR to the main screen and what it showed was exactly the same as Xander’s description. The episode used the same analogy I did, and it was how Geordi differentiated."
The blond suddenly frowned. "How are you feeling, any headaches?"
Xander shook his head, "I feel fine. How did this happen?"
Andrew shrugged. "We picked up some low level magic emanating from the Orb while you were out. I think it must have been changing the way your eye interacts with your brain, to allow you to handle all the extra input."
"How will this help Xander?" Molly asked. She might not have got the Star Trek reference, but the scientific references sounded interesting.
By now, Daryl and Andrew were grinning the same way. "He can literally "See" vampires and most, if not all demons. He’s a walking security camera."
"How?" Father O’Reilly asked, leaning across the table.
The reply was interrupted by the arrival of food.
Andrew picked up a folder and removed several pieces of paper. He quickly moved several cups to hold the paper upright, then moved a cup of coffee and a glass of water behind the paper, out of Xander’s visible sight.
"Xan, concentrate on the paper - you’re looking for heat. I want you to tell me which side the hot coffee is on, and which side the water is."
Dawn raised her hand, lightly resting it on his shoulder for support.
Xander stared at the paper, concentrating on heat. Every thing seemed to slowly shimmer around him, and he could start to make out the bright red that represented heat, and the cool blue that was cold. He pointed to the left, correctly identifying the coffee.
"Now look around, Xander. The people here are all human, and we should have identical temperatures." Andrew’s lecture was more for the non-XTech members at the table. "Vampires have no body heat, so should show up as a faint outline, Demons range, but are normally a lot hotter than humans, even when in disguise. It’s how our security cameras work.
"Xander, we are going to have to run a load of tests on this tomorrow."
The boy in question nodded, still looking around. The only difference he could see, was that Dawn was a slightly different color to the rest. He made a mental note to talk to Andrew about it, tomorrow.
With his stomach on the way to being filled, Xander reluctantly turned to the other item on the agenda. "Ok, tell me what happened yesterday."
Groo stood before the gathered Demon Council. True to their words, the XTech employees had arranged and coordinated the meeting with the utmost efficiency and a minimum of fuss. It had taken a quick call to Brad to authorize it, and once he had said yes, they simply moved.
"I took out two of the Black Lady’s minions earlier, when they attacked the building I’ve been staying in."
Bill grinned, "Yeah, mine too. Two Kalif demons. They lasted around fifteen seconds before the XTech security proved it’s the best in the world."
"What happened?" Simon asked, curiously.
"Five massive machine guns and almost unlimited amour piercing ammunition attached to an automatic targeting system, is what happened," was Bill’s smiling reply.
Simon whistled softly, "Two dead demons?"
"Yep," Bill said happily. "Looks like the Carpenter was right when he said he’d protect us.
"I do have something to report though so I’m glad this meeting was called." Bill knew he was hijacking Groo’s meeting, but this was more important.
"Last night, the Witch cast a spell on the Key and the Carpenter." As gasps echoed around the table, Bill gave a full report on the previous night’s raid by XTech, as well as the behavior of the Priest and the Geek that morning.
Bill paused, took a sip of water, and continued, "I attended a meeting with the Black Lady and the Betrayer. It seems that the Betrayer is working for her, in return for her casting the spell of bonding on the Slayer, as she is turned."
Horrified looks appeared on some of the faces, Micklansworth looked sick. "That’s horrible," he gasped. "Not even she deserves that."
The other members agreed.
The demon in black started to speak, in what was for him, an almost amused tone. "I think it is time we got off the fence, so to speak. I propose that we assist the Carpenter in dealing with the Betrayer, by breaking his hold on the Slayer."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Simon asked politely.
The demon’s voice changed dramatically, and it lost all warmth and politeness as he started to explain the plan he had for the Vampire.