Wild Horses
part 12
By Jeconais
Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, Savior of the World on numerous occasions, liked to think that she was pretty jaded. A new vampire threat was met with nonchalance, a new Big Bad, boredom.
She knew that it took a lot to shock her.
It only took eight words from Willow to make her stumble, as shock and horror interfered with her natural process of walking.
"What?" she asked stunned, praying that she had misheard.
With a sort of grim pleasure, Willow stopped and turned to the blonde Slayer. "Xander Harris, the man who has saved both of us on numerous occasions, is now crippled for life."
"How?" Buffy gasped, leaning against the nearest wall for support.
"Probably when you decided that it would be better to kick him, than let him leave, and when your fiancé threw him across the room." Willow hoped that by passing some guilt onto Buffy, she would feel better.
"But…" Buffy started, pausing. With a sick feeling in her stomach, she remembered the bandages around his head, and how they had covered his eye.
"When did you find out?"
"Yesterday," Willow admitted grimly. "Seconds before Kennedy dumped me."
"Oh."
"His hospital report said that the corner of the table pierced his cornea, leaving a splinter. They had to remove everything."
"But Xander never gets injured," Buffy protested.
"Not when fighting demons and vampires, no." Willow’s tone was inexorable, as she dealt with her own feelings of guilt by attacking someone marginally more at fault that she was. "Kinda ironic that the first serious injury any of us gets is caused by someone supposedly on our side."
Buffy frowned, realizing that there had been a slur on Spike. "He is on our side, he has a soul."
"Do you really believe that the only difference between good and evil is a soul?"
Buffy nodded.
"Then why did you want to kill Anya?"
"She was a demon!" Buffy protested.
"She also kept her soul."
Buffy’s mouth opened and shut as she tried to think of a retort.
"Why did you want to kill her, anyway?" Willow asked, pushing the point she was trying to make home harder.
"She was a demon!" Buffy was starting to get irritated.
"Don’t take that tone with me," the Wiccan snapped. "You’re not the Slayer laying down the law to a bunch of scared teenagers. Now, what was so bad about Anya becoming a demon that you wanted to stake her?"
Buffy modulated her tone a little. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had talked to her like that, but she did remember just how powerful Willow was these days, and she felt a little flush of fear. Fear that she would not be able to beat the witch in a one on one fight. "She had those frat guys killed."
"And she sacrificed her best friend to bring them back to life."
"She would have done it again."
"How do you know?"
"She was a demon." The Slayer’s argument was flimsy at best.
"So why haven’t you staked Spike?"
"Because he has a soul."
"As had Anya. So that’s the soul argument completely out of the way."
Willow was determined now to get a response from the Slayer, one that made some sort of sense. She had no idea why it was so important to her; she just knew that she wanted something out of Buffy. "Now, why has Spike had a 'get out of staking free’ card, and why has Anya, who has not killed anyone, who has been a friend of ours for several years, who helped figure out how to defeat Glory and save Dawn’s life, had a staked shoved against her heart at the first hint of trouble?"
"I don’t know." Buffy spat the words out, leaning against the wall as her legs started to give way. "It just seemed right, you know - Demon, stake it."
"So why not Spike?"
"Because I love him."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"Do you, really?"
"I don’t know." Buffy was getting confused and upset. "I need him," she cried. "He’s always been there for me."
"Over everyone else?"
"Yes."
Willow sighed slowly, starting to piece things together. "What have we become?"
"What do you mean?"
"When I was fifteen, before you arrived, I thought I’d eventually grow up, marry Xander, have two point four kids and a white picket fence. When we started helping you, everything started to change. Look at us, seven years later. You’ve been dead twice, and you are now marrying a vampire. I’ve changed my sexuality, had my lover die in my arms, tried to end the world, then jumped into another relationship so I wouldn’t feel so alone when I woke up.
"Seven years later, my best friend, the one person who looked after me above anyone else, hates my guts because I took him for granted, not just recently, but probably since the start."
Willow laughed ironically. "Can you tell I’ve been thinking about this all day?"
Buffy nodded slowly. "What are we going to do?"
"I don’t know," Willow sighed. "I keep remembering Xander saying 'Only my friends call me Xander.’ And then how cold he acted towards us when he was protecting Dawn.
"Do you ever wonder if he was right?"
Buffy shook her head violently. "Spike wouldn’t lie to me."
"And Xander would?"
Buffy frowned as she felt everything slipping away from her. "You’re supposed to be on my side here," she said plaintively, looking at the Wiccan.
"Answer the question, damn it."
"I don’t know. Wait. Yes, he would. He made me send Angel to hell."
Willow blinked. "Five years ago? You’ve been holding a grudge for five years?"
Buffy shrugged, sinking to the floor. The night was forgotten, as was patrolling. "He lied to me once about someone I loved, why not again? Spike never lied to me."
Willow decided to ignore the issue of the numerous Spike lies for the moment. "So you were punishing him for ruining your relationship with Angel, by trying to kill Anya?" she asked, wanting to make sure that there were no misunderstandings.
Buffy nodded her head slowly, looking shocked as she realized the full import of her actions for the first time.
"Oh Goddess! Did it ever occur to you that Xander might possibly have had a different reason than jealousy for the Angel thing?"
"He did it because he wanted me, and was jealous of Angel."
"And the thought that saving the world was more important than you, him, you and him, you and Angel, anyone, 'cause I was lying in a hospital bed, never having performed the soul restoration spell before, and the end of the world was scheduled to happen and you think, that maybe, Xander was a little more concerned about everyone on this planet becoming a happy meal?" The babbling was pure Willow, although it did make more sense than usual.
It took the blonde Slayer a few seconds to decipher the whole sentence. "But, he wanted me. Besides, you backed me up. You always do."
Willow sighed, and in a tone full of self disgust said, "I always chose the side opposite to Xander. You know why? Because I *knew* that he would always be there for me, no matter what I did. I wasn’t sure about you, or about anyone else. So, it was much easier to take the other side, 'cause it wouldn’t damage anything. Xander would always be there for me, when I needed him.
"I was always comforted by that," the witch admitted. "I didn’t need to pay him any attention, or have him around. I treated him like a dog.
"I chose your side on Saturday because Xander asked me to go easy on Kennedy, that she wasn’t ready for a relationship yet. And hey, what’d’ya know, he was right."
"Oh," Buffy said quietly, thinking over everything that had just been said
.As long as Willow had been supporting her relationship with Spike, everything had been ok. She didn’t have to think, because that was what Willow was for, and all she had to do was listen and feel. Finding out that the Wiccan had only supported her because she wanted to keep from losing her friendship was both upsetting and slightly sickening.
Willow had always been the brainy one. Buffy had simply presumed that the redhead had thought her relationship with Spike through for her, and that she had approved. It meant that she had not had to think about it for herself.
"I save the world," Buffy announced suddenly. "I can’t deal with all this as well."
"With thinking for yourself?" Willow asked dryly.
"No. Yes. I don’t know."
"Perhaps it’s time you learnt."
"Spike…" Buffy started.
"No, Damn it! Buffy, you need to think for yourself, not let someone else do it. Who the hell are you? Do you even know?"
"I’m the Slayer."
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"What about Buffy?"
"Huh?"
"You are Buffy."
"I know."
"Do you? Because the Slayer would not be in love with a Vampire."
"Then I’m Buffy."
Willow growled with frustration. "Damn it, think for yourself."
"I don’t know how."
Willow collapsed onto the cold concrete pavement next to Buffy. "Are you happy?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you happy, with your life? When you were growing up, is this what you imagined?"
Buffy shook her head. "No."
"When did we become train wrecks?"
"Huh?"
"Our lives," Willow clarified. "When did they become train wrecks?"
Buffy shrugged. "What are you going to do about Xander?"
"I don’t know," the redheaded Witch replied. "I wish I could go back and chose door number two."
"Leaving me alone, you mean."
"Not everything is about you, Buffy. You’re twenty two; you should realize that by now."
"What does that mean?" Buffy snapped back.
"It means," Willow said slowly, as if talking to a child. "That you need to look around and see how your actions affect other people. Take responsibility for them. We both do."
"And how is that going to help us get back to being friends with Xander?" The blonde asked her.
The red-headed witch blinked at the Slayer.
"Do you really think that a quick 'I’m sorry’ is going to make any difference at all? Or you could really go for it and say 'I’m sorry, I thought that waking up next to someone in the morning was more important than any mere friendship." Buffy moved onto the attack, she felt she had been on the receiving end to much this evening already.
"And we both know what Xander is like," she snarled at the redhead. "He’s hated Spike for years, and he hated Angel before him. When that guy hates, he hates for life."
Willow burst into tears as she realized the Slayer was right, which suddenly made Buffy realize that the words she had thrown at her friend applied to her as well.
A second later, and they were embracing, crying and holding on to each other.
"What are we going to do, Wills?"
"I don’t know, Buffy. I don’t know."
"I need money."
"That wasn’t part of the deal."
"Look, you asked me to get rid of her support, I did that. How was I supposed to know that Droops was bankrolling the whole shebang?"
"I don’t really care. You got rid of her support for your own reasons; they merely coincided with mine."
"I don’t need much, just enough to keep her happy. When she’s unhappy, she wants her friends around to cheer her up."
The lady in black sighed. "Fine, I’ll give you some money. How are you proceeding?"
"She believes everything I say."
"Excellent. The time is drawing near."
"Yeah, about that," Spike interrupted. "Do you have to kill the nibblet?"
The lady in black frowned. "Are you questioning me?"
Spike shook his head, "No, no. It’s just, I kinda like her."
"You were the one who told me she is the Key. With her blood, I can open the Hellmouth completely. All I have to do is perform the ritual and then drain the power from her."
"But you will perform my ceremony before you open it, right?"
She sighed, again. "Yes, Spike. We will perform the ceremony on the Slayer beforehand. As promised. I will cast the spell as you turn her, and she will be yours for all eternity."
Spike smiled slowly.
"Now, you may kiss me, then leave."
Spike, knowing a command when he heard one, followed her instructions to the letter.
Unseen, a nameless vampire slowly walked away. As he left the building and silently vanished into the night, he seemed to blur a little as he faded out of sight.
Saturday Morning
"Do you want to come into work with me today?"
Dawn smiled when she heard Xander’s offer, she has been thinking of the best way to ask if she could accompany him when he headed in, today. "I was going to ask if I could come. I know that Daryl and Ian are going to be there."
"What’s Daryl like?" Xander asked, curious to know something about his prospective employee.
"He’s a geek, like Andrew and Jonathan used to be," she said with a grin. "He knows at least as much as Willow did about computers and hacking, if not more. He’s also starting to look like a really good, loyal, friend."
Xander nodded and smiled. He finished his morning coffee. "Leave in fifteen minutes?" he half stated, half asked.
Dawn nodded and threw a smile at him, walking back into her room. She could feel his eyes on her as she went, and once inside the privacy of her bedroom, her face broke into a huge smile.
She dressed quickly, packing some sweats in a bag at the same time. She hoped that she would get a chance to do some training today. It had been over a week since she had done any real workout, apart from the fight with Ian, and wanted to make sure she didn’t lose her edge.
Xander drove them competently through town, maneuvering the powerful car with ease. "I’m going to hate to give this car back to Kyle."
"Why not buy your own?" Dawn asked.
Xander laughed softly. "I’m not that rich, Dawn. This car is the top of the line model, and the prices start at 300k. I’m pretty sure Kyle paid even more for this."
"Oh," Dawn’s face had an expression of amazement on it. "And you let me drive it? What the hell were you thinking?" she asked, unable to believe he had trusted her to handle the car properly.
"Pretty much, 'I hope she doesn’t crash it’."
Dawn laughed, startled. "I meant about letting me drive it, idiot."
Xander grinned as he pulled into the car park outside his office building.
"That, Dawn, is something you will have to find out later," he said, as he got out of the car.
'Flirt-age!’ Dawn’s mind screamed. 'That was *definitely* flirting.’ The rest of her thoughts were along the lines of a Super Bowl celebration party - lots of hooting and hollering, but very little sense. She climbed out of the car as well, and followed Xander into the building.
She smiled as she saw the exterior. A low-key entrance way, in a standard business park, it looked just like one of a hundred different warehouses in Sunnydale. It was definitely the sort of place Xander would choose.
The entrance hallway had a modern feel; it had been designed to put people at their ease as they waited. A single receptionist sat behind an imposing counter, occasionally answering telephone calls. She smiled at Xander and Dawn as they entered the vestibule, recognizing the girl from the pictures and gossip. She had bet on mid-December in the Xander-Dawn pool.
Xander identified himself, explaining to Dawn at the same time what each part did and why.
"Hi Xan, Dawn." Andrew said, walking up to the couple, an easy-going smile on his face..
Dawn smiled warmly back at him, noticing the little differences in an instant. Their ex-enemy was walking with confidence, his head held high. He looked a lot fitter than he had been, and now had an aura of confidence, as if his always high intelligence was now backed up by high self esteem.
"Any problems last night?" Xander asked.
"Nope, nothing on the cameras."
"What’s the plan for Daryl today?"
Andrew smiled. "I’m going to start with the standard Psych test, as long as he passes that, then, I’ve got a couple of computer tests lined up for him. If all goes well, I’ll pass him to you and you can make the final decision."
"Thanks," Xander said dryly. "We’ll be in my office."
"K, catch ya later, Xan, Dawn."
"Wow," Dawn said as they walked off towards Xander’s office. "He’s changed."
Xander nodded. "All he needed was a bit of encouragement."
They entered his office, Xander sitting in his chair as he indicated Dawn to sit in front of him.
She did, feeling a little nervous, and suddenly realizing that this was becoming very official. This wasn’t Xander and Dawn Scooby stuff, this was now 'Alexander Harris, head of XTech and Dawn Summer, student’ stuff. She licked her suddenly dry lips slightly, and noticed just how well Xander seemed to suit his position. The clumsy youth she had known seemed to have vanished, leaving behind a man accustomed to giving orders in the business world. Dawn wondered how well that ability would transfer to a battle field.
"Do you want a drink?"
"Please," Dawn nodded. "Water."
Xander moved over to a cabinet, opening it to reveal a full mini-bar. He poured himself and Dawn large glasses of cold water, added a couple of slices of lemon and some ice, and gave one of the two to the girl.
"Thanks," she smiled.
Xander sat back down, and looked across the desk at her. "Why did you want to come here today?"
"Because I wanted to train," Dawn replied honestly, wondering what was going on.
"To fight vampires?"
"And demons, and anything else that tries to end the world."
"You don’t want to live a normal life, finish High School?"
"I can’t. I can’t abandon people to die. I don’t just fight because of Buffy, or because of you. I need to know that I’m helping the people who are willing to stand up. I chose to help, Xander." She knew the last argument would have a bigger effect on the brunet than any other.
"I thought you would say that," he said dryly. "I have an offer for you, if you’re interested."
"Go on." She took a sip of her water.
"I want to employ you, here at XTech, on the same terms as Ian. You’ll be paid to work for two nights a week, and a Saturday, at twelve dollars an hour.
"But, I can not show any favoritism to you. You’ll have to follow orders like everyone else, follow all the rules. I will not be involved with what you do while you are here, although when we start actively patrolling, then I will probably be in the same group as you."
Dawn’s looked shocked as she tried to take his offer in. The thought of being paid to do something she would do for free was a concept she had difficulty with, after witnessing her sister’s and the Scoobies’ labors for the past several years.
"One of the reasons I started this firm was so that the people willing to put their lives on the line were well compensated for their efforts.
"If everything goes well, you’ll be given another choice in the summer."
"What’s that?" Dawn asked, intrigued.
"You will be offered the same deal as Andrew. XTech will sponsor you through college, on the condition that you work for us for five years at the end. If you don’t want that, then I will pay for your college personally, but you will have to promise not to patrol, at all."
"What do you mean?" Dawn frowned at the thought that he might be trying to 'protect’ her, the way all of the Scoobies had done the past few years..
"The idea of a group of teenagers patrolling at night, armed with a couple of stakes and a crossbow is a ridiculous, archaic idea. When we start patrolling, we will be carrying the latest weaponry, have backup available at all times, and will work on a shift basis, so that no one has to spend every single day doing it. Everyone working the hunter patrols will have regular psychiatric checkups to make sure the pressure isn’t getting to them, and if it does, they will be moved to standard XTech guard jobs, without any loss of pay. If you’re not going to be with us, you have to promise not to go looking for trouble on your own."
Dawn nodded her head, solemnly. It was not exactly a hard choice for her. On one hand, she could go to college, have all her fees paid for by Xander’s company, work with him at nights and at weekends, probably still live with him, then work for him full time afterwards, while enjoying the benefits of patrolling with professionals. On the other, she could try being a normal teenager at college, not having to worry about the safety of her friends each night they went out on patrol.
She had never been conscripted, she wasn’t the 'Chosen One’. Sure, her place on this earth was not exactly the most normal, but she was definitely her own person, able to make her own choices. As she had already said, she wanted to fight, and would fight for free, if that was necessary.
As well as wanting to fight, she wanted to make sure Xander was safe. She had realized a long time, there was no way he would stop fighting. Like her, he had chosen to fight, and was now making some extremely positive contributions to it. There was going to be a revolution in how the Darkness was fought, and he was bringing it about.
She smiled and answered immediately, "I accept the job offer, Xan."
Xander grinned at her. "Good. Now, get your butt out to Andrew, and tell him you said yes. He’ll give you access to all our buildings and sort out the paperwork. If you see Ian, tell him I want a word. Oh, and don’t mention this to him yet, I need to make him the same offer."
"Yes, sir." Dawn stood and snapped a cheeky salute at him.
Xander’s eyes fixed on her chest for a fraction of a second, as the fabric was pulled tight, before he regained control of himself. He sighed audibly, "Get."
Dawn laughed again and walked out.
"Honey?"
"Spike," Buffy said with a smile, having just picked up the ringing telephone. "Where are you?"
"My crypt," the vampire responded. "I got a job last night, as a bouncer at Willy’s, and got caught by the dawn."
"That’s great news," Buffy said with a happy little bounce.
"Why don’t you come over now? We can stay here, then go patrolling later, okay?"
"’Kay," Buffy said with a smile as she hung up.
The Slayer walked through the kitchen to the living room. "That was Spike, he’s at his crypt. I’m going over to see him, then we’ll patrol from there, so I’ll be out the rest of the day."
Willow nodded, "Try and remember a little of what we talked about last night, Buffy."
The blonde girl nodded, then bounced upstairs to get changed for her fiancé. Willow sighed as she watched her, 'in one ear, out the other’, she reflected. Or as her Psych teacher would put it, she had strong behavioral tracks and was not comfortable in leaving them.
With Buffy gone, Willow’s mind started to go around in circles. Xander would not forgive her, she told herself and wished once more that she had chosen door number two.
'Magic can help,’ a soft voice told her seductively. 'It can make it like you did choose to back him, and you would be living in luxury with him. You’d have you friend back,’ it whispered to her.
The Wiccan shook her head, trying to fight the idea, but it made too much sense. It never occurred to her what a simple and heartfelt apology would feel like, since she had never given one before; she had always hidden behind anger and magic.
Almost in a daze, she stood and walked downstairs into the basement. She moved some of Spike’s old stuff to one side and slowly started to draw a pentagram.
"We need to talk, Spike."
"What about?" Spike asked, his voice curious.
"Willow found out, from Xander’s medical records, that he lost an eye when you threw him across the room last week."
"Serves him right," Spike said automatically, then realized he had said the wrong thing as Buffy pulled away from him.
"What?" she asked.
"I’m sorry, Ducks," The vampire apologized, lowering his voice into the steady cadence he normally used when he spoke to her alone.
Buffy absently shook herself, unconsciously throwing off the effects of Spike’s attempt at hypnotism. "No, why do you think he deserved that?"
"He was trying to stop you from being happy."
Buffy shook her head, "No, he was trying to stop me from making what he thought was a mistake. He was doing what he felt was right."
Spike looked a little worried, he thought he had broken the need for Buffy to think for herself; had presumed that she was totally dependent on him, as well as Willow, a little. "You think I should apologize?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Buffy nodded and smiled, relaxing a little. "I think that would be a good start."
With a relieved look, Spike scooted next to her, and soon had her very distracted.
"I’m here to see Andrew, my name is Daryl Marks."
"One second, Mr. Marks." The receptionist smiled professionally as she dialed a number from memory. A short conversation later, she looked back up at the teenage boy. "Please take a seat, Andrew will be with you in a minute."
No sooner had Daryl settled down on the couch when a casually dressed youth walked through the double doors off to the side of the receptionist’s desk.
"Hi, I’m Andrew Wells." The blond haired young man introduced himself with a smile. "It’s good to meet you."
"Thank you," Daryl said nervously, a little surprised to find that the person interviewing him was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It made Daryl feel rather over dressed in his store-brought suit.
Andrew smiled. "We’re very informal about dress code when we’re not on duty," he explained his experience. "It comes from Xander hating formal wear."
"So I can lose this damn tie, then?" Daryl said with a smile.
"Absolutely," Andrew agreed. "This is a retinal, palm and infra-red scan," he explained as they stopped before the doors and indicated a black assembly set into the wall. "Checks that I’m alive, as well as identifying me. We wanted to make sure that someone couldn’t get through just by doing a 'demolition man’."
Daryl nodded, recognizing the reference to a movie where a retinal scan had been fooled by Wesley Snipe’s character simply cutting out the eye of an authorized person. "Why didn’t you choose a full biometric scan?"
"Facial recognition software isn’t that effective, yet. A baseball cap can stop it from identifying someone, despite what the government tells us. It’s just one of the things we are working on."
They walked through the door, past the reception room into the lab, and Daryl stopped dead in his tracks.
As he looked around, there was really only one reaction possible from the geek. Stunned silence.
Andrew grinned. "Xander gave me a huge budget to get this area kitted out properly. It’s our R&D area for XTech Security. All the passive technology that we develop is also sent out to PJH Construction, the company that owns XTech.
"XTech started when Xander met up with Brad Hooper, Chrissy’s Dad." The former would-be super-villain explained. "He sold the idea to the owners of PJH who immediately saw the benefits of both having a team of people dedicated to fighting evil, as well as having researchers come up with different ways of identifying and destroying demons and vampires.
"It took a massive investment to get it started, but we paid for ourselves inside the first six months, when some of the technology we developed was the key factor in a huge contract to renovate a chain of hotels.
"In that corner we have a cluster of Sun servers, used for heavy duty computational stuff. Those three racks are filled with Intel blade servers. All of them are identical dual 1.5ghz Zeon processors with 2 gigs of ram each. The final racks are standard Athlon’s and are used as our network storage drives. We’ve got an OC-3 connection directly to Cable & Wireless’ OC-48 backbone in LA, with triple redundancy. We also have a satellite connection on the roof, to a separate hub in Atlanta. The building’s power supply has two unique incoming connections as well as a back up generator that can power us for five days before needing refueling. The desktop machines are similar in spec to the servers, each with its own 80gig hard drive and 17" flat panel monitors.
"Each night a backup is taken of everything and stored on a tape here, and on a rewriteable DVD offsite."
"C-can I?" Daryl stuttered, looking at a computer before him.
Andrew smiled and nodded.
Daryl opened the browser, went straight to Red Hat’s site, and a few clicks later, started downloading an ISO of their latest release. His eyes turned reverently wide as the download completed faster than he had ever seen it.
"The bottle neck is the Disk I/O," Andrew said with an amused smile. "If you want to see some real download speed, use one of the Suns and download it into memory." He had done some similar tests when the line had been installed, and it was only his four months of using it constantly that had calmed him down a little.
"Operating systems?" Daryl asked.
"Custom versions of Gentoo Linux on the desktops, Debian stable for the servers, although the Kernels have been updated. We have a couple of 'BSD machines floating around, a QNX box in the corner, we’re playing with the benefits of a real time OS for the facial recognition software."
"Databases?"
"MySQL for light stuff, and Oracle for the heavy duty stuff."
"You do realize I would pay you to play with this stuff, don’t you?" Daryl asked, a bit hesitantly.
Andrew laughed loudly. "I thought the same thing. I was so nervous when I took the proposal to Xander; he just stared at it for a second, then looked at me. He asked, 'We need this stuff?’, I nodded and he simply signed it off."
"Just like that? No committee or anything?" Daryl’s experience with office operating procedures had been garnered through reading the Dilbert cartoon.
Andrew shook his head, "Xander is the ultimate boss here. What he says, goes. Anyway, first thing I need you to do is take this test. Don’t worry about it, it’s a standard psychology test to make sure that some of this stuff isn’t going to blow your mind and turn you into a vegetable." Andrew’s grin was clearly teasing, and it relaxed the younger boy.
It only took ten minutes for Daryl to fill in the boxes, and ten seconds for his answers to be scanned and a verdict come up on one of the computers. "Excellent," Andrew said with a smile. "Now the real tests can begin."
Andrew moved to a machine that was on the desktop. "I want you read the contents of this hard drive, and tell me where the file 'Andrew1.txt’ is located. It’s running the standard Gentoo linux, and no, I’m not giving you the login."
Daryl nodded and smiled, it was an easy test. He turned the computer on, and attempted to get into the BIOS. The computer’s control system was password protected, so he shut the computer down and unplugged the power supply. The case design was very modern, with handles to pull the sides down, baring the motherboard to his eager gaze.
He idly pulled a few things out of his pockets, an anti-static wrist band and a small box. He pulled the wristband on, and opened the box, pulling out a small pair of tweezers. Daryl examined the motherboard for a second, then moved a jumper along one position. The change restored the BIOS to its factory settings, removing the password. He moved the jumper back and closed the box, restoring the power. He booted it again, this time changing the BIOS’s boot sequence as he had with Xander’s laptop. He recycled the power once more, this time with his USB hard drive in the rear, and waited for it to boot. A simple command, "Find / -name Andrew1.txt", later, and he smiled. "There you go," he indicated the screen.
Andrew smiled broadly, decidedly pleased with the teenager’s actions. The test itself was simple, if you knew what you were doing. He had expected the boy to try and use a password tool against the login program, but this approach bypassed it completely and showed a different way of thinking. He decided to skip several of the tests, and move on to a big one.
"Ok, you have an hour to break into the machine on 10.91.64.22. You can download any tools you want."
Daryl nodded, excitement showing in his eye. Still using his own Linux distribution, he shot off a quick traceroute to the internal IP address, then raised his eyebrows as he found a firewall in the way. This would certainly be a challenge.
"You want a drink?" Andrew asked.
"Dr. Pepper would be great," Daryl replied absently, pulling up NMap to help identify the firewall he was dealing with.
Andrew wandered off to get them both a drink, placed the cold can next to the boy and moved over to his own desk and started to work.
"Done it!" Daryl said forty-five minutes later.
"Read the text file in the Andrew home directory."
Daryl nodded, and typed the commands to change to that directory, list the contents, then read the file. It simply said, 'Congratulations, you’ve passed the practical tests.’"
The boy grinned, while Andrew picked up the phone. "Xan? He passed, with flying colors. Ok."
"Come on," he said with a smile. "It’s time you met the boss."
Daryl nodded, taking a last swig from his can, and dropping it into the trash. His nerves returned with a vengeance as he followed Andrew to an office, and was ushered in.
Xander stood and walked around to him, offering his hand. "I’m Alexander Harris, although everyone calls me Xander."
"Nice to meet you," Daryl said formally.
"Take a seat."
Daryl sat, as Xander returned to his chair and picked up a piece of paper. The carpenter was very relieved to see that Daryl was just eighteen. With Ian’s, Dawn’s and now Andrew’s recommendation, the decision to hire the boy was a very easy one for him to make, so he made the same offer he had given to Dawn and Ian earlier.
It took Daryl much less time to accept it, especially when he realized just how much he would be getting paid for a part time job, exactly what equipment that could buy him, and how much it would get his mother off his back. Added to that, the chance to waltz through college, emerging without any student loans, while doing it with friends and doing something worth while, and having that huge lab to play with, meant that he simply said "Yes," almost as soon as Xander finished talking.
Xander grinned at him. "Welcome to the team. Are there going to be any problems with your family, about you working?"
Daryl shook his head, "There shouldn’t be. Mom’s been pushing me to get a part time job for the past six months," he admitted with a smile.
"If there is, get her to call me and I’ll talk to her." He offered Daryl his professional business card.
Daryl took it and smiled, starting to see why this man was held in such high regard by everyone.
Xander joined Dawn, Ian, Daryl, Chrissy and Andrew for lunch, although he was surprised to find the blonde there. He knew that Brad had a daughter, but had never actually met her.
The XTech canteen was superb. Being someone who thought with his stomach first, food was very close to his heart. He had hired some designers to make the canteen a place where people could relax and unwind, and at meal times, get served some excellent food. It was yet another reason he had more people wanting to join, than he had places for.
It was only when they were walking towards the armory that Xander suddenly realized what had happened at lunch time. He had refereed the conversation, pointed it in new directions, reigned in some of the wilder ideas and generally acted like a mature adult.
He had become Giles.
Xander groaned, and got some strange looks from the people walking around him, especially when he almost blushed and waved it away.
They walked into the armory, which had a shooting range attached. Andrew took Ian and Chrissy to one side as they already knew how to shoot.
"As part of working here, there is a requisite for both of you to become competent with the handling of a firearm." Xander was speaking a little more formally than he normally did; respect for firearms was pretty inbuilt, especially since the Soldier Guy incident.
Daryl and Dawn exchanged looks, smiling slightly.
"I’m going to hand you over to Brad for the actual training. You will not be allowed to patrol with us, until you have passed the basic competency tests. When we go out, no one will be defenseless."
Brad walked up with a smile, and took over. The two new XTech members were slightly disappointed to learn that they were not going to be able to fire a gun till they had learnt how they work and how to take care of one.
Xander walked over to Andrew, Ian and Chrissy, leaving the other two in the ex-soldier’s capable hands.
"Here, try this out," Andrew said, handing Chrissy a bow.
The girl smiled, and expertly hooked it back, using one of the arrows that Andrew had passed her, and released with a small hitch in her breath.
The arrow arched through the air gracefully, impacting dead centre in the chest of a target, which was mocked up as a vampire. The arrow penetrated, then suddenly exploded, destroying the upper half of the target.
Andrew grinned excitedly. "The explosion pushes fragments of wood all through the body, so it should be lethal, no matter where it hits."
Xander smiled as he walked up. "We could have done with something like that in the early days."
Andrew nodded, "Yeah, hopefully we’ll be able to shrink the arrow heads, so that they’ll fit a crossbow. Until then, though, we’ll need someone who can shoot."
Xander nodded, trying to avoid the idea of having to hire another teenager. He suspected that he would have to, if Chrissy was anything like her father. Still, he figured he would talk to her father first, sound him out.
With the demonstration over, Xander spent some time just practicing with his gun.
Brad was showing them the standard XTech handgun, a Glock 31, when Dawn frowned. "Xander doesn’t use that one, does he?"
"Yeah, that’s the prerogative of being the boss. He uses a Sig Sauer P220 sport, I think he likes it because of the Duotone finish, but don’t tell him I said that."
Dawn laughed. "Yeah, Xander would choose a gun that looks cool."
Brad smiled, and continued the lesson, ending, several hours later, with allowing the two of them to shoot for the first time.
Xander walked over and watched with a grin, making eye contact with Brad.
Dawn pulled up the weapon and tried to follow the instructions she had been given. She slowly squeezed the trigger, and didn’t jump when it the bullet exploded from the barrel. The electronic board next to her showed her exactly where her bullet had landed. She had been going for the chest, but had aimed too high, nicking the target’s neck.
She took a deep breath and tried again, compensating for her last mistake.
This one was a lot closer; it was in the fifth ring radiating from the heart shaped target in the center. With a slight frown, she fired again, and then rapidly fired off the remaining seven bullets.
Brad looked at the targets, checked the readout and sighed. He pulled out his wallet and removed a twenty dollar bill. "Wise-ass," he mumbled, handing the money to Xander.
Xander smirked and admired the money, lifting it to the light. "My wallet thanks you."
Dawn removed her earplugs and looked at the two of them. "What was that about?"
Xander grinned. "I bet Brad twenty bucks that you’d pass the basic test first time, and you did. Congratulations."
Willow finished her pentagram and looked at it. She knew that Xander had no magical ability, and neither did Dawn, so the chances of the spell not working were incredibly slim.
She promised herself that this would be the last time she would ever do anything like this; she just needed to get back with Xander first, before giving up magic completely.
She took a deep breath and lit the candles.
Willow started to chant. The spell was designed to make Xander and Dawn forget exactly what happened last Saturday.