Weirder Than Usual Horrors.



Steve and Danny rushed over to where Xander was whacking away at a higher level demon who was laughing. "Kid, can we blow this one up?" Steve called.

"I would adore it, but nope," he called between swings. He pulled back to glare at the thing. "I'm waiting on the local coven to destroy his healing amulet." He pointed at it. "I'm about to let the thing go eat them if they can't handle it though. I'm tired."

"Can't we blow the head off?" Danny demanded.

"Nope." The demon smirked and shook his head. "It takes blessed objects and I don't have any of those right now in the artillery class," he said dryly. "Though I'm about to find a priest to bless a few pieces the next time I get some."

A woman came jogging over. "I can fix it," she called.

Xander looked at her. "I asked the local coven to get his healing amulet, Miss."

She smirked. "I'm better than that, Xander. You know that." She raised her hands and magic came out to glow around the demon. It shrieked and exploded but started to reform. Xander grabbed the amulet and tossed it away then cut the head off the stump of neck and shoulders. The demon quit reforming. She grinned at Steve. "I'm mythical."

"Since you weren't born in this realm," Xander agreed. "Hi, Dawn."

She grinned back and gave him a careful hug. "Willow called my ass over from a realm where I was about to die instead of Buffy. Totally killed Glory that way."

"She's back in her body already? I'll have to go fix that," he said blandly.

She giggled, shaking her head. "No. She did it from the astral realm. Apparently someone's going to need some power."

He nodded. "Which means you're in danger, young lady, and without relatives. Does Buffy know?"

"I'd assume so since the coven had me." They shared a look and she shrugged. "I ran away to see if Ethan could take me in to protect and teach me without icky sex magic rites. Because he's daddy range and I'm not into daddy sex."

Xander grinned. "You and Anya both."

"At her age...that'd be weird to find unless we're going to suddenly import immortals from that show. Though I doubt Methos would put up with her."

"No clue." He leaned on his axe with a sigh, looking at the witches running over. "Thanks. This is Dawn. Rosenburg summoned her to this realm."

The witches stared at her and one backed up a step. "I heard about you."

Dawn grinned and waved. "Hi. I hope you guys are nicer than the Devon Coven was." They all nodded. "Cool. Then I won't have an urge to smite you like I do them." She flicked a hand and muttered, burning the demon's body. She frowned, picking up something. She held it up. "Since when do higher level demons swear to an order of assassins?"

Xander took it to look at, holding it a bit away. "That's an owing mark. So apparently they owed him something. Huh." He put it into his pocket. "If you need it, you can snatch it some year."

"I can do that," Dawn quipped. "So, why show up, ladies? Were you going to help Xander get the healing amulet so he could take out this icky thing?"

"He thought we should've," one sneered at Xander.

"Well, yeah, covens do that as far as I know. Unless said coven wants that demon to come eat magic users like them. That's why hunters call on covens," he said dryly, smirking at them. "Didn't your elders teach you that? It's community cooperation that keeps everyone healthy and uneaten you know." He smiled. "Because he was heading for your shop when I stopped him. He's the one that took us here to this charming bare area."

The witches shared a look. "Do covens actually do that?" one demanded.

"Um, yeah," Dawn said. "It's a responsibility of the power to help when there's huge problems to keep the whole community whole." She looked at the charred spot then at them again. "That guy would've went for the weaker witches first and then you guys as he got stronger." She looked at Xander. "He teleported you two." He nodded. "How many did he eat?"

"A coven in lower Florida from what the bulletin board was shouting about warnings." He pulled out his phone to show her. "Them." The witches came over to look. Steve had the healing amulet. "Steve, don't let the blood on you unless you want to answer about weird DNA warping things forever."

"I'm not getting any on me." He stared at Xander. "Do you have to do that about more than the mermaid taint?"

"Yup," he said dryly. "A few other ones that don't show up on most tests and only matter to one class of drugs that I've ever been warned about." He shifted and stretched his free arm. "That's better."

Danny stared at him. "You're injured again."

"Just sore," he quipped with a grin. A new demon appeared and glared at the charred spot. Xander stared down at him. "Sorry if he was your pet."

The little demon looked up at him. "He owed me favors, human."

Xander grinned. "Sorry. He was eating people."

"Pity. He needed to be in more control so he could fight the hell goddess coming this way next week. Humans could have willingly sacrificed themselves."

Dawn smiled and waved a hand. "What hell goddess please?" The demon blinked at her, frowning slowly. "A Rosenburgian plan to defeat a Glory in another realm," she said dryly. "Which hell goddess?"

"I doubt it's Glory," Xander said. They both looked at the demon, who was shaking his head slowly. "This is Dawn almost Summers."

"It's not Glory, right?" she asked politely.

"No," the tiny demon said quietly. "She's not in this realm." The girl beamed at the hunter. He groaned. "We have Miala showing up later today."

"Here?" Xander asked. "Or somewhere else?"

"She's against hunters. There's someone aiming her at them."

"Yeah, the PTB only want balance so they're trying to take us all out," Xander said dryly. "Guess I need to find where a few dates are hiding their stashes and a priest."

"We can raid a few places," Steve quipped.

Xander grinned. "I was going to lead her to one of them and let them help."

"Too much innocent damage," Danny said. "Or we'd let you." He grinned at Dawn.

"I'm not a priestess of anyone at this time. I'm unvowed." She looked at Xander. "Ours would have some."

"I'm out," he admitted. "There's almost no poker circuit here."

"Damn."

"I have some stuff but it's permanently shrunken thanks to the redheaded menace. And she probably broke it too,"

"The Empress of Sith?" Dawn joked. "How unusual of her."

Xander grinned at her. "She started off soulmates here because she's just *sure* that I have an owner somewhere."

"Yeah, I remember her from my home realm." She sighed and shook her head. She looked up then at him. "It's here."

"I felt the wave of magic," he admitted, checking his axe. "You're sharp enough." He looked at the demon. "Most of them take beheading or dismembering. Which is she?"

"Dismembering," he admitted. "And it'll be harder since she's at least eight feet tall, Hunter. Which are you?"

He grinned. "Harris."

"Oh my Dark Below," he moaned. He sniffed him. "Oh. Thank you, Hunter." He nodded at Dawn. "And you for attending."

"Tell Rosenburg. She's out of her body," she said dryly, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "Let's go pretend it's Sunnydale."

"Steve, I'll need blessed by a priest or at least two other ministers, don't ask I don't know why it's different, weapons. A lot of weapons. Generally they have tougher skin and have some sort of protections inked on." He nodded, calling in that call. "And tell us where so we can get there." He looked at his phone then called. "Ahn, me. A hell goddess just appeared. Miala. The one I was just fighting was supposed to fight her but he was eating people. Yes, that one. Thanks. Let us know if you hear where. It's really hard to hide an eight foot goddess." He hung up and put the phone back into his pocket. He looked at the demon. "Water?"

"Yes. She does appreciate water."

"Sure, we're on an island, that makes sense," Xander agreed. "Thanks. Be safe and at peace." It fled. He and Dawn shared a look then Xander sighed. "Anya is not my heir," he told her. "But she can have the rest of my veggies in my garden if she wants."

"Okay. I'll remember that."

"His medical records are on a keychain key," Danny said. His phone rang. "Yeah, Chin?" He listened. "We've been looking for her. Thanks." He hung up. "The one by the fancy tourist hotels."

"Yeah, she'd want worshipers," Xander agreed dryly. "Sure, let's go take out the high level target." He strolled off, his axe over his shoulder. "Dawn, how weapons oriented are you?"

She snorted. "My sister wouldn't allow it, Xander. Not only am I normal but I'm helpless and defenseless according to her."

"The cure to that is learning self defense," Steve said. He was following the kids.

"Yeah, she won't allow that. She's the slayer, her word is law, and I'm to be protected like I'm in a tower with a lot of hair." She shot him a grin. "My Xander taught me a bit but I'm barely able to stake properly. Nothing on the sword front. I'm doing better at magic than she was though. Even if I did take the same books, I learned all of them, not just the happy making things. Tara made sure of it."

"We had a Tara too," Xander said with a nod. "I got to escort her to her final happy place while I was out of my body." Dawn hugged him around the arm. "We'll handle it. You help with the weapons firing."

"Yup. Don't be the bait all by yourself."

"If she's here for hunters, she's here for me. No others that I know of on the islands." He shrugged but grinned at her. "She'll find me."

"Sure. I get that. If you get injured I'm going to nag. Then call my sister."

He snorted, shaking his head. "We're not a team anymore, Dawn. That was her choice. Hers and the Sith Empress' choice."

"Oooh. Bad breakup?"

He looked at her before pulling out his truck keys. "Like some marriages, cancer came between us. They didn't even visit. So they can have a great life."

"Sure, I get that," she agreed. "Is my mother still here?"

"Yeah. Just out of the hospital again. With your sister."

"Great. I'll call her later." She got into the truck. Xander got in to drive them off. "Are we going to be okay?" she asked quietly. "You look exhausted and skinny."

"Yeah, I can handle it. It's been a bad few years but I've got it. As long as Steve can get us weapons."

"Sure, I can help. I hope." He grinned at her. They found the right beach. There was a police quarantine going on.

Xander pulled up next to the checkpoint. "I'm Hunter Xander Harris. Part of 5-0 is behind me to handle the hell goddess."

"Sir, we're not allowing any civilians. The Navy is going to handle her."

"Then they need a lot of blessed weapons," he said. "She's got to be dismembered by blessed weapons."

The officer stared at him then called that over his radio. "Park please, sir and miss?"

"Sure, we're used to it," Dawn quipped. They parked and got out. Xander had a sword instead of his axe this time. "You sure?"

"Yeah. The other's too soft for her skin. This is blessed but it's iron."

"Okay. You're the guy with the skills. I'm just the little sister sort." They walked over to where the demon queen was sneering at those who would not worship her.

"Ah, a hunter," she purred. "You come to challenge me."

"I come to kill you," Xander noted. "You're annoying and polluting the water. Why don't you let the people go?"

"They will learn to worship me properly, human."

"No we won't," Dawn quipped. "I don't worship anyone who's not my future lover." The demon sneered at her then flinched back. She grinned and waved a hand. "The redheaded one summoned me to defeat their Glory. Yay you."

The demon leaned down to look at her. "You are not native."

"No, I'm not." She smiled and shot a spell at her. "Let the humans go so we can chat, one higher being to another."

"You are not on my level, Key."

Xander grinned. "No, she's better. She's probably ethical and not out to be worshiped."

"No, I'll wait on a real lover to teach them proper worship," Dawn agreed. The demon queen snorted so Dawn threw a spell at her. "Out of the water so we can talk once the humans are running away screaming like usual, bitch." The demon queen stepped out. The officers got the civilians out of the way. Navy and other military people showed up. One of them fired on the demon queen, who snorted.

Xander looked back. "It needs to be priest blessed or two ministers of any other faith blessed," he yelled. "And she's got to be dismembered." He looked at the demon queen again, who was giving him funny looks. "What? You have a weakness to something like pewter? I can have them find some."

"I doubt I would tell you."

Dawn looked her up, shaking her head. "Not pewter. Or silver. Just blessed things and not blessed by someone Hindu for some reason." She looked up, putting her phone back into her pocket. "So Anya said."

"Great." An officer was reporting that to the higher ups. "So. Should we get this thing started now?"

"You are not worthy of me challenging to take out," she sneered. "You're weak."

Xander snorted, smirking at her. "I've been weak in the past. I'm not as strong as I could be but I'm pretty darn close. You won't win even if I die."

"I can claim your spirit as my warrior," she said smugly. She summoned them. Dawn blessed them and the spirits faded with smiles for her. "How dare you!" She tried to hit Dawn but a grenade got shot at her. Dawn ducked out of the way. The grenade didn't do much damage. "Bah! Weak and human weapons," she sneered.

Xander looked at Dawn. Then at Steve. He sighed. "I wish I had the Gratus weapon from that book," he yelled.

"Wish granted," a panting voice called. "Thank you for the easy one."

"Welcome." He waved and grabbed the weapon, firing it on her. The pretty, heavy light beam shot out and she screamed as it cut off her arm. Xander handed it to Dawn. "Takes five minutes to recharge but I never read anything as powerful," he noted.

"Makes sense to me." She took it to look over. "Okay, recharge meter," she said, finding it. "We can handle that." Steve and Danny came down with swords. "Wow, hotties with swords." She got out of the way. "Five minute recharge but it's the only one he knew about," she told the nearest officer. He just nodded. She watched the recharge bar. When it was nearly ready she lifted it to brace it against her shoulder. It beeped quietly.

"Move," she called. She fired it and the guys all got out of the way. A few more soldiers showed up to help. "We so need someone like that Ironman guy from the comics," she muttered, cracking up the officers around her. The demon queen bellowed when they used something appropriately blessed finally. The queen started to send out magic so Dawn dropped the weapon and stepped up to help, putting up a capturing shield around her.

The demon beat at it but Xander moved in and cut her knee. She screamed and the guys got the rest of that leg while Xander harassed her. Dawn turned the magic back on her. That was the end of her energy for a bit too. The queen was heading for the water to recharge so she grabbed the weapon. Not quite full. She fired it anyway. Nothing. "Damn it! Always when you need it!" She heard the beep and hit it, blowing her heart out this time. The guys ran in to pull her out of the water and chop her up. Dawn leaned on the weapon with a sigh, looking at them. "It needs to recharge faster."

"It's for use on space creatures," Xander quipped. "To blow up something like a space kraken." He leaned down to pant, breathing hard. "Wow." He stood up and winced as he stretched up. "Been a while since it was one that tough." He slumped, walking up to take the weapon from Dawn. "Thanks."

"Welcome." She followed him back to the truck. People got in the way. "Guys, I'm not too tired to turn you into mice," she warned with a smile. "Move. We need to go clean up. Xander's got icky things on him from her."

"We have a nice quarantine area for him to do that in, miss. Can we debrief you?"

She leered at him. "If you're good at it."

He cleared his throat. "Not that way, miss. You're underage."

"Which does suck for me with all the prettiness around," she shot back. "Xander?"

"I only really want a shower. I've got most of my bruises barking, guys. Can we go do that then debrief? Steve knows where I live."

"No, sir," one said, coming over. He was in a Navy uniform. "But you can come with us to shower and get a medic to check you over." Xander stared at him, shaking his head slowly. "We need to insist in case something of hers might become infectious."

"Most demon plagues are spread by more flimsy beings," Dawn told him. "All the books show that they're usually air like of some kind, or they blow long streams of air. Demon blood can be warping but that usually takes exposure into an already open injury. A few can do it by bleeding on bare skin but they're rare and there's a potion to take care of that. Beyond that, Xander doesn't go near medics."

"No he doesn't," Xander agreed. "Not since the Army gave me cancer. Twice."

The Navy guy winced. "We're not going to do that."

"Xander, I'm going with you," Danny called. "That way we know you're going to be all right and you don't have to be paranoid." He put his sword in the back of the truck. Steve's went with it. "Whisk us away to a shower please. That's nasty and I'm sweatier than I've ever been."

"I was about this sweaty after the invasion," Steve admitted. "But had less goo on me." He looked at himself then at the Navy person. "General." He saluted.

"At ease, Lieutenant Commander. We're going to the showers, medics, then debriefing. Bring them with you." He looked at the weapon. "We'd like to examine it."

"It came from a book and I'll probably need it later. I'm one of the last hunters on this realm thanks to the higher ups over the slayers."

"Human or otherwise?" the general demanded.

"Otherwise. They want *balance*. We hunters make sure that mostly the good side wins."

"Ah. That sort of higher up. Yeah, that'd suck. McGarrett, get them to the base's quarantine center."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you." He walked off to talk to the officers.

Xander groaned, looking at him. "This is going to get mean."

"No it won't," Steve said. He looked at Dawn.

"I'm going with Xander and I'm not leaving his side once he's redressed." Xander nodded that was a good idea. They got into their vehicles and drove that way with a police escort. Someone was paranoid. Dawn was almost pulled away but Xander glared and Dawn got her arm free. "No thank you anyway." She followed Xander. She waited outside the shower area while checking her nails and texting Anya about Willow but she was fine. The guys came out together and the other team got to use the showers. She let them get dressed and looked at Xander. "You look weird in camo."

"Yeah but no spare clothes in the car," he said dryly. "They're offering so I'll wash them and give them back tomorrow."

She nodded. "That'll work." She stood up and walked out with him, holding onto his arm. He looked down at her. "Feeding you energy," she said with a grin.

"Stop it. I'm fine. I can unblock the hellmouth taint and it'll grow to refill me with energy for a bit until I can get a nap." He yawned. "I could use a nap. And lunch."

"Hopefully they'll feed us since I could eat a whole cow myself," Danny said.

Steve nodded. "Definitely." They were taken to a medical bay. Xander stared at the nurse, who smiled. "He's not fond of us since a rogue project in his town gave him cancer," Steve warned.

"Sure, I can understand how that wouldn't make him trust us," a doctor said as she came over.

Xander smiled. He had seen her in a vision. "Hi, Doctor Keller."

She pinched his cheek. "Doctor Lam would've come but she's busy with her father's hearing. On the bed, Harris." He hopped up there. She looked at Dawn. "I'm SGC, Miss."

"I'm Dawn." She shook her hand. "I got pulled here to defeat a hell goddess in my home realm. The redheaded one," she said at the opening mouth.

"Is she a hell goddess?" Doctor Keller asked.

"No, she was stopping that one from using me to open portals. I'm a witch."

"Oh, that's fine. Sit and talk to him." She looked at the other two, who smiled and pretended to be good boys. "Thankfully I don't have to treat you like my whiny Marines, boys. They always fuss about things." She looked at Xander. "Bloodwork, scanning, physical," she said bluntly. He nodded once, letting her have his arm to draw blood. "Lots of scar tissue. Is this still the better side?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "You can't dig deep enough on the other side. Butterflies are hit and miss with my veins." She checked his wrist and hand then got what she'd need for a butterfly needle draw. He looked away. She smiled slightly. "I still hate needles, Doctor."

"I would too after how many you've had to live through, Xander. Just relax." She stuck him and started to draw. He worked his hand a bit to help it go faster. Five tubes then she bandaged it for him. "All right. Let's scan you." She pulled that over, running it over him. "I'm seeing a slight infection," she said, looking at his side.

"The really high demon a few weeks back," he said, pulling up his shirt to show that healing cut. "It's nearly sealed."

She scanned it then Dawn. "Yeah, that's not the same goo signature." Dawn looked at herself then got a papertowel she wet down to wipe at her skirt. She checked his head again. "I'm not seeing anything beyond lesions, Xander."

He nodded. "I've got those from both tumors," he agreed with a slight second nod.

"Good to know." She checked his back. She looked at one cut then went to get something, coming back. "Antibiotic for that small infection. The one on your back is still slightly infecting too." He winced but leaned over for her to hit it with the needle. She got both sites for him. "That should help." He sat up. "I'm going to do something weird." She smiled. "I'm going to check your DNA against ours. That way we can see if anything demon related is in the databases already."

"They were there before the Ancients," Dawn said.

"We heard." Doctor Keller got another machine and put it onto his finger, letting the scanner read what it was. "Hmm. One of them is."

Xander looked. "That's from one of the ones that I was fighting in the park that scratched me so many times." He grinned at her. "It probably won't read mermaid since they were a project of someone."

She ran it again to find any new samples. "You're right, it's reading the project name. That's interesting." She patted him on the cheek and handed him a tootsie pop. "From Carolyn." She winked, going to check the other two. "I'm Doctor Keller from the SGC, boys." Danny stared at her. She pinched his cheek. "I'm used to stubborn Marines and Air Force colonels. Even your SEAL isn't that bad." Steve snorted but looked amused. "I have a large rubber mallet for my people, Commander." She grinned. "It's needed some days so they stay in a bed." She checked them both over. "I don't see any demon tainting." Danny sighed but smiled and nodded. She looked at him. "Kids?"

"One," he said. "Preteen girl."

"Aww. The fun years. Just wait until she's dating."

"Yeah, not looking forward to it," he assured her. At least this doc had some humor and knew how to handle McGarrett's stubborn nature. "We need to hire her at our usual hospital," he told Steve. "You listen to her. Unlike the usual one that sees us."

Steve scowled at him. She laughed. "I would but I'd miss our insanity in the mountain and on Atlantis, Detective. Maybe when I'm ready to retire." He grinned at her. "It'd be nice not to need my big rubber mallet." She looked over at Dawn and Xander, since she had just moved to help him lay down. "Sudden headache, Miss?"

"Vision," she said. "They suck monkey ass."

She came over to scan him while he had it. "That's interesting." She gave him something a nurse fetched for her. It eased the pain and he groaned as he came out. "Can you debrief or would you rather write it?" she asked quietly.

Xander blinked at Dawn. "The coven's going to try to kill you for being here."

"Fuck 'em," she said. "Not my choice and they're supposed to be handling Willow but didn't. Their own fault. I'm not paying for their mistakes. My mother would've been pissed beyond belief if they tried that at home."

"They had no idea what you were until the demon noted it, Dawn."

"Oh, well. Still, fuck them and their bitches." She shrugged. "I'll open that portal myself so they can go talk to Willow or whoever if they want." She smiled. He patted her on the arm. "But I'll take protections, dear. Don't worry." She kissed him on the head. He sighed but drifted off under the medicine. She smiled at the doctor. "I'm not the average girl."

"I figured that." She went back to the other two.

Steve grinned. "We'll help her be protected while she's here."

"Athena, grant me the power to make the weapons I need to handle those who pray at Hecate but not to her," Dawn said, looking up. "Before I have to do it the Sunnydale way." She sighed and patted Xander's hand. "I can help protect you too. I'll miss my Xander but you're pretty neat."

Danny leaned around the curtain to look at her. "You're into the old ways?"

"Yup. Most witches are in one way or another. Not like any modern church knows how to teach us ethics of magic usage."

"Point. That's cool, kiddo." She grinned. "My daughter's only a few years younger than you."

She winked. "I'm actually only fifteen but I'm very mature."

"Uh-huh. We'll figure it out." He sat on his bed again.

Dawn frowned, looking up. "What is that hum?" she muttered.

"Atlantis," Keller said. "She's reading through the scanner, Dawn."

"Oh, okay." She shrugged.

"Magic is the flipside of ATA," Xander said quietly. "It's the mutated version."

Doctor Keller came back to scan Dawn, frowning at her. "It is! Huh." She did a full body scan, nodding at what she saw. "That's very interesting."

Dawn grinned. "Thanks. Being interesting is better than being cute to a girl my age."

"To women my age too," Keller agreed. "Cute gets you stupid boys or men. Interesting gets you better dates." She went back to the other two again.

The general came in. "Doctor, are you one of ours?"

She smiled at him. "SGC. We're the ones who'd handle the weird diseases."

"All right. I wish someone had told me about that switch."

"Your people called, General." She went back to looking at Danny's few injuries. "At least this one didn't have claws like the one that got Harris a few weeks ago."

"He stitched and treated at home with some potions to take out puss and poisons," Danny told her. "I made him go to a healer for antibiotics."

She looked at him then leaned back. "You do what?"

"I've been able to stitch my own owwies since I was a kid, Doc," he quipped but had his eyes closed. "Docs and healers are expensive and I haven't had decent insurance since the first bout of cancer. I had some that covered the second bout's treatments but nothing else."

"That sucks, kiddo." She got back to treating injuries. "Let me check that other group for any sucked in demon blood taint." She smiled at them and stepped back. "You both look fine, boys." She looked at Steve. "You know have a weak ATA?" He nodded. "Good. We'll remember that for the future." She patted him on the cheek and handed them suckers. "Because food never comes soon enough after a battle for your blood sugar needs." She went to check the other team.

Danny unwrapped his sucker, sticking it in his mouth. "This is really helpful."

"I usually have gatorade and a power bar or something," Steve admitted, sucking on his own. "Are we debriefing here, General?"

"No, we have a sitting room, boys. Follow." Xander got up with a groan but Dawn helped him. "Are you injured, Harris?"

"Post-vision headache count?" he quipped. He followed them, Dawn wrapped around his arm. He popped his neck. He nodded at the two other people in there. "General, I'm not going to be around NID mother fuckers," he noted. "I don't want to be an experiment. They've already tried." One of those two sneered and pulled up a gun. Xander moved. Dawn shot a spell and that one fell down as he changed into a gerbil. It squeaked a lot but nothing else. Xander grinned at her. "Thanks."

"I sucked off your hellmouth taint," she quipped, sitting down and pulling him down with her. "So, General, why the talk?"

"Why were you there, miss?"

"Because I have family that hunts demons, General. I may not be old enough to know about more than a few things but I'm damn helpful with my inborn skills."

"The military doesn't accept that magic exists," he said firmly.

"Sorry, General, but my SEAL team escorted a young Marine back for a hearing because she made all the higher problems near her pregnant one night," Steve said. "It lost all those men their influence and power very quickly." The general stared at him in horrified awe.

"My Willow used to mutter about gang members and that but Tara stopped her from actually doing it," Dawn quipped.

"You know we can quarantine you indefinitely," the general said smugly.

Xander looked at him. "No you can't. I'm not military. I haven't been military. Got injured by the military but I'm not military and neither are Danny or Dawn. For that matter, I don't give a *damn* what you think you're going to do but you won't or I'll summon something to eat you myself." He stared at him. "Hunters are practical beings, General." He sneered at him, getting up to get into his face. "For that matter, you're not a local. Your patch has you from a unit out of DC and part of the same clusterfuck that I had to get help to stop under my town." The guy smirked and waved the other doctor forward. Xander pulled off his hellmouth hiding necklace, handing it to Danny. "Don't let Dawn touch that." She nodded, getting comfortable by crossing her legs. "Come at me, bro." The doctor sneered and moved closer. Xander put a hand on him and pushed some of the hellmouth taint out, making him scream. "I'll be damned. The US isn't going to fall to your demonic influence either." He looked at the MP's rushing in. "We're being illegally held here. I'm not military. Only one of us is."

"Sir, there's a public health matter," one said.

"No there's not," Dawn said. "The doc already cleared us."

"Guys," Steve warned. "They can quarantine civilians."

Xander smirked. "Only in a state of federal emergency, Steve. This is not one. This is more torturing sick fuckers."

"True," Keller said as she came in with two generals. "Admirals on deck," she announced. All the military people had to salute. "Xander, sit." He sat down. She checked him again. "Is that what that necklace does?"

He grinned at her. "It hides hellmouth taint, Doctor. My hometown had one and I soaked up more than my fair share."

"I heard about radiation sickness from it."

He smiled and nodded. "Yup."

"Huh." She handed him back the necklace, scanning him as he put it on. "Interesting. Magic?" He nodded. "Good idea. Without it you read as closer to Dawn's power level."

"Can't be used the same way," Dawn said. "But he can push it like a spell in a lot of ways. Now, a real magic user could channel it," she admitted. "And use it for various good uses." Xander nodded. "Which is why he wears the necklace. Otherwise the hellmouth forming up the island," she said with a point. "Would have been opened by someone sacrificing him."

Steve groaned. "I thought we stopped them." He found his phone. "Kono, me, Danny, Xander, and Dawn. That hellmouth wanting group is trying something right now. Yes, them. Or her, one of the two. Thank you. Dawn can feel it. West Oahu." He hung up. He looked at Dawn. "If they really open one can you stop it?"

"I have no training on it but if someone has the spell I can try," she admitted. "At the least it'll close it."

"Just don't tie yourself to it like Willow did," Xander complained. "I can walk into the middle of it and suck the spell into my hellmouth taint so it'll be stopped, Steve."

"Okay. We can go do that. Doctor Keller, are we released?"

"Yes. None of you show any contamination from the demon earlier. Xander's infections from the earlier ones is going to clear up quickly probably." Danny glared at Xander. "Two of the cuts infected, Detective. Calm down unless he's yours to baby."

"I never really played that way," he quipped. "But I can maybe find someone to baby him for a bit."

"If you're considering Anya she'd just try to kill him in bed again," Dawn quipped back with a smile. "She does that a lot." Xander nodded.

"We heard after they removed the second tumor and we had to save him from her," Steve said. He stood up. "Are we done, Admiral?"

"Mostly. Harris," he said, getting Xander's attention. "How many take blessed things?"

"About a third," he said. "I have no idea why there's a difference between priest and two other ministers though."

"I was going to ask."

"No clue. I didn't read it anywhere. You should ask someone like the Council."

"We would if they hadn't tried to blow themselves up."

"Awww, the assholes are suiciding," Dawn quipped. "Hopefully without taking out any potentials they have."

"No, the British government raided them for the girls," the admiral said with a smug look. "They insisted."

Xander moaned and held his head. "That's going to put a lot of artifacts out on the open market and a good half are dangerous and can summon or release something." He sat down with a sigh. The doctor got another scan of his brain. "If you find whoever sends those, please take them out for me, Doc?"

"If I can," she promised. "I'll ask Rodney to do it for me, Xander. He'd hate visions." He snorted but looked amused at least. Dawn was rubbing his scalp gently to help him.
Xander looked up at her. "Half those who raided the Council laid the spell to make them off themselves so they could get the artifacts. They're a rival group."

"Understood," the admiral said, calling that in.

"We need a group like those books about Librarians," Dawn said. "I have no idea if they're real on this realm or not."

"Not, we have them as books," Danny said. "My little girl likes them."

"Shoot." She shrugged. "I tried. Ask Giles if there's a better group."

"We'll do that later, Miss. Are you here as well?"

Dawn shook her head. "No, they sidestepped the hell goddess coming to shared life." They looked confused. "She has to be summoned and put into a body to possess it. She time shares the outside and inside. In mine, she was my mother's oncologist."

"You're related to Summers," the admiral said. Dawn smiled and nodded. "Naturally?"

"No, they made me to protect an artifact. Putting me with Buffy was to protect me. I'd rather not. The coven called them and she had fits at me for Willow pulling me here."

"She's got a lot on her plate," Xander told her.

"I realize that. I'm glad Mom lived here." She shrugged. "I'm in talks with a chaos sorcerer to be his apprentice hopefully. At least I know he won't sacrifice me."

"Where is Miss Rosenburg this time?" Doctor Keller asked.

Xander grinned. "Still out of her body. She pulled her from the astral plane."

"Charming." She smiled back. "The coven?"

"Has her body," Dawn said. "They tried to blame me too." She shook her head. "Not my fault she pulled me here to defeat that hell goddess on my natural realm."

"We'll figure that out later. Mr. Harris, can she have your couch?"

"I have a spare room. I wouldn't let anyone sleep on my junky old couch, Admiral."

"I used to have one of those too then I got married, son."

"I'm not thinking about that being an option," Xander admitted. "Only deadly ones like me and they're not the marrying kind."

"My you nearly married Anya," Dawn quipped.

Xander looked at her. "Nearly?"

"He was having a few thoughts."

"Ah." He nodded. "Great." He shuddered. "She'd kill me for the insurance money," he muttered. She hugged him. "Thanks."

"Welcome."

"Should we pay attention if her current boyfriend or future husband dies?" Steve asked.

"Anya knows a lot of demons who'd eat the body," Dawn said dryly, smirking at him. "Why would she bother to hide one or to make up a heart problem? She's got enough magic that she could magic him into a purely natural heart attack or stroke."

"She was a vengeance demon for over a millennia," Xander agreed. Danny shuddered. "Yeah, if she *really* wanted to get rid of one, she could do that. Of course, if they scorn her she could ask to get her powers back," he said, looking at her.

"Humanity would've changed her but I'm not sure how much," Dawn agreed.

"Great, so he cheats on her, she finds out, she's back at work," Danny decided, nodding at the end. "Wow." Steve nodded quickly.

The admiral shook his head. "That's very weird. Who do we go to so we can learn how to handle things? Since somehow there's a lot fewer hunters now?"

"That was the PTB's thing," Xander said. "The higher powers that pick slayers and plays chess with all the warriors on this plane." He grinned. "They want *balance*." The admiral stared at him, shoulders starting to slump. "They still need me but that demon was probably thanks to them. Or the coven since they're part of the Council." He shifted. "Personally I'd go ask Wesley in LA if he's still alive or Giles."

"Wesley should still be in LA for at least another few months," Dawn said. "There's a push to get him out of the way since he's not considered a watcher anymore. He got fired for going with Buffy's plans and not the Council's."

"Giles got fired for giving too much of a damn," Xander said. Then he grinned. "We're really happy the UK saved the potentials."

The admiral nodded. "I'll pass that on, Mr. Harris and Miss Summers. You two can go home. Commander?" McGarrett stared at him. "I need you to work up a response criteria for when we need to add military to the local PD and Mr. Harris to handle something."

"I can do that," he agreed. "I'm doing it for the PD too since I've met him."

"Thank you." He shook his hand. "Be safe, go home. Let us know if you have physical problems from this." Doctor Keller handed out her phone number to those two. "Let us know if Harris has problems?" he asked more quietly. "He's just one man and he's still recovering from cancer treatments I'm told."

"Second time," Danny told him. "They redosed him." The admiral winced. He stood up. "Thank you, guys. Doctor Keller, nice meeting you." He shook her hand. "Let me go calm my daughter down. She's got to be having screaming fits about that." He walked off. Steve shook hands and followed. Danny turned on his phone in the car, staring at the message count. He had over sixty texts. He called. "I'm okay. We're out of quarantine already. The debrief was short and sweet," he told Rachel. "The attempt to keep us failed. We're all good. Heading back to the office for a few, Rachel. Yeah, I can see her tonight. Of course I can see her tonight! No, I'm calm. Just need food right now." He leaned his arm on the car door and held his head to rub it. "Nah, we're both okay. Yeah, it's all good. Sure, come on by with the munchkin." He hung up and put his phone back into his pocket. "Rachel's bringing us food."

"That's nice of her. Think we'll have more problems?"

"If they're like that one doc that tried to capture Xander I say we borrow that gun and blow the fuck outta them." He looked over.

Steve smiled. "I could like that plan." They shared a look and a smile then he had to stop at a red light. "What's your take on Dawn?"

"She's a bit worried but hiding it not too well."

"So he'll fix it you think?"

"Could be. Not real sure how that'll work out with the taking out the Council thing."

"True. I didn't factor in that." He drove on once the light changed and went back to the office. Rachel was there with Grace, who rushed over to hug them, clinging to her father. "It wasn't that bad, Grace."

"Shut up," she mumbled into her father's chest. He poked her for it but oh well.

Steve took his sandwich. "Thanks, Rachel. We had a lollipop there thanks to the SGC doctor that showed up to help."

She smiled. "You always need more food after a huge problem. Candy will only take care of the immediate need." She pushed Danny into a chair and put food next to his free hand. Kono got them coffee and waters. Chin was typing something. "Huge problem, Chin?"

"No," he said, looking up with a smile. "Logging the event for the governor before she loses her mind. She ordered me to and said to make Steve do one too." He looked at him. "About the debrief and what was said."

"We defeated a push by the NID," Danny said. "To capture us and Xander. An SGC doc showed up to check us over. An admiral showed up to solve the NID thing. One's a gerbil thanks to Dawn."

Chin typed that in and sent it. "There, now she knows what we know." He took his own bottle of water to drink. "Are we going to have more of those?"

"No," Danny said with a grin. "Probably not. We've only heard about three and there's been ten in the last four years."

"Xander's only been here about eight months," Kono said.

"Yup," Danny agreed, sipping his water. "He sure has."

Grace looked up. "You can't do that again!"

"I'll try not to, Gracie, but if I got to, I'll take lessons on how to use a sword." She snorted but cuddled again. He patted her. Girls got clingy when their fathers were in danger. It wasn't the first time.

Steve smiled. "We should have tomorrow off, people. It should be quiet all day. If not all week." They nodded and packed up, settling in to eat and relax. Rachel relaxed finally too.

***

The next morning Xander walked up to where the hellmouth spell was set to go off, walking over it and taking off his necklace. The spell tried to pull at his hellmouth taint but his radiation was stronger than the light amount that the spell had summoned to start the rip. So he sucked it up and walked off putting back on his necklace. He grinned at the women staring at him in horrified awe. "A real one will always take over a fake one. Though you should've put it over the weak spot." He walked off shaking his head. He had to apply for a job later. He really needed to get back to work. If only so he could pay the property taxes soon. Plus feed Dawn. For being a teenage girl she really hated vegetables.

"What did you do!" she yelled. "There's no natural one out here!"

"If you could actually use your skills and feel natural energy you'd know that there is. It's just not real convenient to get to, thankfully. So much nicer than under a high school's library." He really had to call someone about that. He found his phone in his truck and paused to call that in. "Doctor Keller, can you have the giant geek that wants to rant at me about the hellmouth being illogical come see me later this week? I found a new one starting. This way he can study it and rant at it instead of me." He grinned at her answer. "Sure, let me know so I can tell a few locals so they can be less than amused. Thanks, Doc. No, just ended the spell to start a new hellmouth. So I'm ignoring the whiny, pouty witch. Laters, Doc, and have an easy day." He hung up and got into his truck, wincing at the level of his gas tank. That was an expensive problem he'd have to fix later. He drove off, going to fill up the tank first.

***

Xander leaned into the team's office, smiling at the stares he was getting. "Oh, Steve? I'm going to make you mad."

"Why? Are you dating someone worse?" Danny quipped.

"No, I'm introducing you and another guy to the local actual, starting hellmouth." He grinned. "Coming?"

"Oh, damn," Danny complained.

"Not for a few years. And it's hard to get to."

"That's a benefit," Steve said, coming out to go with Xander. "I'll drive. Save your gas." Xander beamed at him. "I figured you were running low."

"Filled up yesterday for the last time before I find a job." He got into Steve's truck and he handed over the directions. "It's hard to get to. We're getting a geek to come look at it too."

"That could help. Maybe it'll get fixed."

Xander grinned at him. "The universe is getting a new stretch mark, Steve. How do you fix those?"

"I'm hoping the geek knows." He followed the directions to a rocky, unusable beach with a pretty high cliff face. He looked up then at the geek that stomped over. "Xander's getting a rope ready so we can put the science things nearer to it."

"That's fine," Radek Zelenka said with a sigh at the end. "How bad is it?"

"Nearly open," Xander called. "Dawn found it the other day." He came down from the top, pointing. "It's about here."

Steve looked. "That would be hard to get to."

"Hard to put markings around it or spell components to open it too," Xander agreed. "It's still a baby rip, just barely leaking." He came down and got the two meters, they could stick in the rocks for a bit. He went back up and found it with his necklace, which flew over to suck at the hellmouth's spot. Xander put both meters next to it then took his necklace back, going down to the ground.

Radek pulled up the reading from the meters. "That is universal energy. That's like the one in Sunnydale only lesser."

Xander grinned. "And it loves me already. And Dawn." He grinned at Steve. "See, it's important."

"It is," he agreed. "At least no one lives near here." He looked around. "That's near the lava fields too so maybe it'll be covered."

"The portal's inside the rocks. Melting it may create more problems than letting it heal," Radek told him. He looked at Xander. "Are there other such areas on these islands?"

"Two holy shrine places that hold magic for some reason?"

"No, not what we need to look at. Magic might like me and follow me back to the city. Would upset all the science and me when they beat it out of me." He grinned. "Step away, Xander?" He did and Radek nodded. "It likes you. Is coming out to greet you."

"Dawn came out to test it last night and it nearly cuddled her."

Steve stared at it. "We can arrange for people to watch this spot. That way if we see light or anything we can have it handled."

"I'm not sure if there's a kraken on top of this one like in Sunnydale or not," Xander admitted. "If so, watch for tentacles."

Steve looked at him. "Don't help. I'm getting a headache."

"Sorry." He grinned. "Dawn hates veggies so I need to find a way to sacrifice a cow."

Radek looked at him then at Steve. "We'll see what it can be handled by." Steve nodded. A jeep pulled up and two military people got out. "Did not call you on my way from Colorado," he called loudly.

"We're paying attention to what Mr. Harris rushes off to handle," the driver said with a small smile. "Is it a new demon emergency?"

"New hellmouth," Xander said with a smile. "You feel like Sunnydale."

"I grew up on the one in Cleveland, Mr. Harris."

"Wow, I'd hate to be them," Xander admitted. "If that thing opens it'll be much worse than in a high school library that almost no one visited."

"It's in a park and we've been subtly pushing to expanding it."

"Good luck with that." Xander smiled and pointed. "It's up there."

The other one looked up and nodded. "Very hard to use magic around it while hanging from a harness. You could probably do it from the top but as far as I've seen the opening spell has to be done overtop of it. You have to kneel in the circle."

"It can be done from a bit farther away depending on the doer. There's a few demon species that have tried," Xander said with a smile. "Magic user?"

"Very weakly but yes, sir." He nodded, grinning back. "Do you have anything on those?"

"Beyond seeing a few demons trying it and the online spell sites?"

"There's online spell sites?" Steve asked, looking confused.

"Yeah. There's a few sites that hold spell books. Some are scanned in copies. Some are personal journal sort of sites. One's set up like a mini wiki. It's even editable slightly but you can add comments at the end. The one under 'sleeping beauty curse' is really adorable with the teenage girls that tried to do it to their rivals for prom dates. And a few who wanted to do it to the really popular bitches in their schools."

"Because seventeen and eighteen-year-old girls don't really get true love feelings yet," the magic using soldier said then shuddered.

"There's also not that many soulmate sort of matches that would automatically release it," Xander said. "Unless someone screws up a spell because it was nearly set off by Rosenburg's soulmate curse too."

"Where is she?" the magic using soldier asked. "Just in case?"

"I hauled her out of her body and to the astral plane. She's stuck there until she can get back into her body on her own. And the body's in England somewhere. She's being watched over by the witches."

"The astral plane?" the other soldier asked.

"It's not so bad," Steve said.

"I saw a lot of interesting things when I was out of my body thanks to cancer treatments," Xander agreed. "Including helping a few others out so they could handle later things I might not be there for."

Steve nodded. "I saw a few very weird things."

The magic using one stared at Steve then at Xander. "It's an interesting thing." They climbed up to put the monitors into the rocks so they wouldn't be easily moved.

"That helps," Radek said. "Move other one to the left." They did that and he nodded. "Is reading easier now. Thank you." They anchored it for him. "We can pay remote attention to that."

"We can do that from the base," one of them offered. "That way you don't have to come back from Colorado, Sir."

"Is prettier than Atlantis's many broken wires," Radek admitted. The soldiers both groaned. Radek smiled. "I am second-in-command in sciences. Head one would still be ranting about this."

Xander frowned, looking up. "Guys, get away from it. It's flexing. Someone's trying something." He looked at his moving pendant. "It's getting happy." The soldiers climbed to the top, going to find that magic user. They found two, one of them being Dawn, and then pounced the other one. They brought them both back down there. "Hey, Dawn."

"Hey. I'm weaving a reporting alarm around it, people. That way people who'd have to respond will know." She did that, holding a hand against the bottom of the rock cliff face. The other sorceress was moaning on the rocks. Dawn got done so Xander walked over to the other one and hugged her. It sucked all her magic out to hype his protections. She whined as the beauty spells she used dropped. Then the one keeping the hair frizz down.

Dawn looked at her. "Wow, Rosenburg Light. The rest of us just use a hairbrush and some makeup. Maybe some conditioner. It's so much easier and less energy use." The girl was crying. Dawn looked at Radek, shrugging at him. "Most magic users don't waste energy that way because it wears us out so we still look horrible from exhaustion. It's like running a marathon just to get to a 7-11 for a bottle of water."

Xander nodded. "That is stupid." He let her go and some of the magic came back but he dropped his protection necklace on her head. It sucked the rest out and glowed happily when he picked it back up. "She'll have to rebuild everything again, guys."

"I'm sure she'll have fun doing that in jail," Steve said. "She'll have to do it when they leave her alone."

"Quiet means she can meditate," Dawn warned.

"So no solitary confinement," Steve agreed. He cuffed her and walked her back to his truck, cuffing her into the back. He came back. "Do you guys need me or Xander?"

"No, we can pull our hair out without him," Radek said, smirking at him. "Have fun with her. Shallow witches are a head pain."

"Yes they are," Dawn agreed, strolling off. "Let me go tend Xander's vegetables so we have dinner later." Steve let her into the truck and drove them back.

Radek looked at the two soldiers, who shook their heads. "It's demon hunting that does it to him."

"Clearly," the magic using one agreed. "Or dealing with teenage witches."

"Could be," his partner agreed. "My teenage sister drives me nuts. Her having a gift like magic would put me into a home."

***

Xander walked into his favorite tea shop, seeing the glares. He grinned. "Steve arrested the witch that was trying to create a new hellmouth, and the same witch who was trying to open a minor stretch mark in the universe." He put down a picture with a smirk. "She's in jail for at least a bit."

The head of the coven looked at her picture, moaning at who it was. "We know of her. She left us because we were too Goddess centered."

Xander smiled. "She's being held on a few charges and the judge looked disgusted. She's got a really high bail."

"That might help," another agreed. "Is it open?"

"Just barely broadcasting but I got a geek in from the project in Colorado. They can monitor it. Plus two soldiers showed up. One's got magic."

"You just bring us such *happy* news," the head of the coven said with a smirk. Xander grinned back. "Damn it."

"Oh and I'm looking for a job finally if you hear about a construction or easier one."

"If we do, we'll tell you so you can quit eating out of your garden."

"Dawn doesn't like veggies. She's a weird girl."

"Yes she is. Is she coming to our coven?" the head of the coven asked.

"I'll ask her. She's nagging Kono and Chin because someone tried to curse them." He texted her. She came in a few minutes later smiling. "You get it fixed?"

"Removed it onto a necklace Kono and Chin were wearing so they could take it off and hold it." She smiled and shook the head of the coven's hand. "I'm Dawn kinda Summers."

"We heard, child." She tested her magic, nodding. "We have a natural living coven."

"I like makeup and clothes. They did make me a Summers." The head of the coven laughed, nodding. "But sure, I don't mind a lot of women to learn from. I'm not Rosenburg. I don't want to be Rosenburg."

"Mention her three times together and she might show up," Xander reminded her.

"Point. I won't mention her name again. Oh, and saw Anya, Xander. She didn't look good." She looked at him. "She looked really exhausted."

"Like she got a fond wish and killed a bunny even though she'd hate that outcome?" he asked.

"I still think it's weird she has a bunny phobia." She looked at the head of the coven again. "A millennia as a vengeance demon and she's scared and freaked out from bunnies."

"She got her former job by tormenting her husband for taunting her about bunnies," Xander said.

"Makes sense to me. She was making his life a living hell for making hers one," Dawn quipped. "I hope my future boyfriends or whatever are nicer to me."

"We'll just hide the toads," Xander said dryly. "Unlike Willow turning me into a dog because I told her she was being a brat."

"That's a nicer name than I'd use," Dawn told him, patting him on the arm. She looked at the coven, shrugging some. "I'm in Xander's spare room. Buffy threw a huge fit that I got pulled here and the coven wasn't much better."

"They do seem to be that way sometimes," he agreed. "They also had someone show up earlier to blame me for the PTB wanting the hunters gone." Dawn stared at him oddly. He nodded. "Apparently it's my fault the Army gave me cancer. They actually told me if I hadn't jumped in to help Buffy none of this would've happened so it was my fault that I upended the usual order and way of doing things. I kindly asked a local demon with those sort of skills to show them Cordy's wish verse." He grinned. "And then told her she's lucky I wasn't turned because I would've taken out the coven. And hey, I knew explosives."

Dawn giggled. "Did they quit?"

"No and she tried to curse me until that demon sent her home. So apparently it's my fault for me saving people's lives and my own at the same time. Even Willow because they decided I brought her into it."

Dawn nodded. "They need shrinks."

"The Goddess would hate them thinking that people are supposed to be victims who wait on a tiny little girl to save them," one of the coven said.

"Exactly!" Xander agreed, nodding and grinning at her. "But that coven is full of Council-related witches. Hell, they drove off Ethan Rayne and made him into the chaos mage he is. I'm pretty sure they're only supposedly on the side of good. Especially since they didn't punish the witch that hurt her boyfriend's baby mama's kids in the hospital and got a few extra kids."

Dawn shuddered. "I heard and answered the call out to raise power to help remove those illness curses. Oh my god is that wrong."

The head of the coven cleared her throat. "A witch where did what?"

"A witch in North Dakota cursed her boyfriend's new baby mama's kids to get really sick, like meningitis sick," Dawn said. The witch slumped, shaking her head. "And she got a few extra kids. The kid was already sick and in the hospital so she got half the ward. And the Devon coven didn't even say a word to her when requested. One of the Canadian covens sure did and put out a call to get some power raised so I offered them some of mine. Hopefully they've done something to that witch beyond turn her in to the PD."

"North Dakota doesn't have laws against witches like her," Xander said. "They'll have to go sideways to get her for making threats or something." The door to the shop blew in without anyone standing there. Xander looked at his necklace then at Dawn. Who shook her head. He looked back. "Yup, it's black magic and Sunnydale. Hey, Willow. Back in your body?" She appeared and glared at him. He stared back. "What?"

"She's not from here."

"Duh, you pulled me here," Dawn quipped. "Of course I'm not from here, Willow."

"You're a demon."

"I'm not a demon." She looked at the coven. "Do I feel like a demon?"

"No. Powerful but not that way." She looked at Xander, who nodded for her to flee. "Ladies, go do the inventory. And one of you go stop Belinda." She had spotted the vengeance demon showing up.

"Hey, Belinda," Xander called with a smile and a wave. "Have you seen Anya? Dawn said she looks really tired."

She came in, nodding. "Yeah, there's a reason for that." She stared at Willow. Then at Dawn, testing her. "She really did pull you from your realm. Huh." Dawn nodded with a grimace. "Okay. Well, at least you're safer. Xander, go ahead and take her with you to those nice officers so they can guard her?"

"Dawn, shoo, go be safe," he said. She blew a kiss as she jogged off. Xander grinned at Belinda. "This is a nice place that helped me a lot so let's protect these good witches." She grabbed Willow. He got the other arm and they walked her off to the nearest park. Willow got herself free and glared at them. "That way you don't destroy those good witches and their nice tea shop." He stared at her. "What're you doing here?"

"You're evil," she said.

"No, I'm just tired," he said. "Evil me is probably a bit less tired. I'll have to see if I can scry their realm to see that."

Belinda looked at him. "Evil you would be tired from your harem, Harris."

"That might be nice," he agreed dryly. "That and a job. If you hear of someone looking?"

"I'll gladly tell you, Harris. You're right, you'll need a job when Anya gets free of her current boyfriend."

He nodded. "Or sooner so I don't eat like a vegan witch anymore." Willow let out magic and his protection pendant sucked it up. "Thanks, it needed recharged." She shrieked and he let it handle it. Belinda was casting against her. Willow screamed and lunged to hit him but he held her off. They both looked over at the sound of cuffs opening. "Hey, Chin."

"Xander. Miss," he said with a nod at Belinda.

"This is Belinda. She's a wish demon, Chin. And a really nice lady. One of Anya's tea buddies."

"Ma'am," he said with a nod. "Xander, is that the redheaded menace?"

"Yup, sure is." He got out of the way. "She's decided I'm evil."

"You pulled me into hunting and my addiction," she sneered.

"No one forced you to help Buffy, to try magic, to go to your magic dealer, none of it, Willow. No one could force you to do anything. You decided to help. You decided that magic was cool. You decided to keep digging into magic even after being warned you were going too far. Even after it lost you Tara. You still did it; that was your choice. Not mine." She tried to hit him again. Xander shoved her back. "I'm not going to hit you, Willow. I'm not going to jail for assaulting you by paddling your ass like you need." Belinda nodded. "Now, you can go home, or you can you can go home. Which do you want?" She threw magic at Xander but Belinda blocked it. Willow tried to banish her. Anya's spell came out and stopped her that time. Willow screamed and attacked Anya but Xander knocked Willow down. So the magic came out but hung there. "I don't think that's what a good witch does, Rosenburg. Anya, you're really sick for some reason," he said. "I can smell it from here."

She nodded. "He was poisoning me. And himself."

"Can we get him for that?" Chin asked her.

"Please do. Though he probably won't last too much longer." Xander pulled her over to hug her. "Thank you, Xander. If you felt like this, I'm so sorry you got so sick." She patted him on the cheek. "Don't let me infect you."

"I'll be fine. I'm immune to a lot of poisons." Willow got up and was huffing. Chin was moving to arrest her but she threw magic and Xander blocked it with his body. Willow smirked at him. Xander took off his hellmouth necklace, tossing it at Anya. "C'mon. You tried to kill me before. Try again, bitch." He waved her on. "C'mon." She threw more magic and he punched her, knocking her down. "You going to keep trying?"

"Hey!" someone shouted. "Don't hit women!"

"She's trying to kill us," Xander called. "Not the other way around, dude. Just walk away from the addict before she tries to kill you too." The guy was huffing over but Anya froze him in place. It held for a few minutes. It was enough because the guy ran off calling others. He looked at Chin, who reported in to their dispatcher that he was handling the addicted witch who was causing problems. That way no other officers got involved.

Xander looked at Willow again. "Nice try." She got up and had her resolve face on as she pulled up magic to hit him. Belinda blocked her magic and Xander walked over to hold her in place. She shrieked and wiggled but the magic was going to burn her up if she didn't release it. She released it against Xander but he just absorbed it. Willow burst out crying so he let Chin have her. "We can find a way to block her being able to call up magic," he told Chin.

"There's ways of blocking magic," Anya assured them. "I'd have to look up what I'd have to draw on her." She pulled out her phone to do that. "Shoot, out of minutes."

"You can look it up at the office," Chin told her. "She's going under arrest so you can use our office's wifi." Anya nodded, following him hauling Willow back to the office. Xander took his necklace back and put it back on. He quit glowing.

Belinda looked at him. "You might have a gift awakened now," she said quietly.

"As opposed to visions, which aren't a gift?" He shrugged. "Yay me."

"Fine." She stared at him, doing a testing spell. "You're a walking hellmouth right now, Xander."

"We can find a way to dump it or Anya can pull it to do a self healing spell."

"Point. Tell her I wish her luck with that." She disappeared to report that to D'Hoffryn and the other higher demons.

Xander strolled off, waving at the coven staring from their doorway. "Chin arrested her. I'm going to let Anya have the excess energy for a healing spell."

"We can help her with that," one of them said. "You're glowing, Xander."

He grimaced but nodded. "She tried awfully hard. If you want, talk to Anya." They nodded, calling her. He went to the office, staring at the ranting witch about how he had to have a soulmate and he was profaning her wish by not admitting it. He pulled off his shirt, waving a hand. "Do you see a mark?" She stared, blushing. "Really. Do you see a single mark?" She moaned, pointing at a small mark. "That's so they could focus the radiation there, Willow. It's a miniature tattoo. Not a soulmate marking that you started off." He put his shirt on the chair that no one was sitting in.

"Besides, the PTB made sure I didn't have one. The witches that let you loose knew that." She glared. He stared back. "They did. One of them tried to find them and got slapped down by Cordy's male counterpart. The balance demon that's the mouthpiece for the PTB. Also, they don't think I'm me. They still think I'm Jesse." He stared at her. "It was never going to work, Willow. There's no soulmate for some people." He shrugged. "And I'm happy enough without that. I mean it'd be nice but it'd mean that I'd have to make sure they could handle the hunting stuff since I'm one of the last ones. Thanks to the PTB."

He stared down at her, watching her sniffling. "You've really failed on the mission they sent you on," he said quietly. "They're arrogant little bitches who enabled your addiction and kept you in the junkie state until you were their weapon. How does that feel? You're actually the universal roadsign for magic addiction. You're a *verb*, Willow. An evil verb but still a verb and a warning to other witches."

She glared at him. "I'm fine the way I am."

"Would Tara say that?" he asked. "I only met her on the Astral Plane but she was a good, nice young woman. I'm happy you had someone so nice in your life. It sucks you threw her aside." Willow flinched but went back to glaring. "I'm sad I had to escort her off the astral plane so she could go to her eternity. Thankfully it looked happy."

A male voice cleared his throat. "The PTB sent her back to her body to correct some things," the male half-demon said.

Xander looked at him. "You're Doyle, Angel's seer buddy. Has Cordelia hit you yet for giving her that supposed gift?"

"No, but I deserve it. I didn't expect her to be activated, Harris." Xander quirked an eyebrow up. "Really. If I had known, I would've given that kiss ta Angel. That way his brain could've handled it. I'd hate the Princess to join us on the astral plane."

"She's their messenger, Doyle, so who sent you?" Xander asked him.

Doyle smiled. "Janus. Because he sees all. Including that the PTB took out the coven members who weren't going to toe the line by bringing her back. It drained them to the point where some will fade soon." Willow was shaking her head quickly, making whimpering noises. "Pulling Dawn was Janus prompted to give us someone protective we can work with when the big problems come."

"She said she thought about interning under a chaos sorcerer," Xander quipped.

Cordelia faded in. "Xander, I can hit him myself for giving me visions," she said. "You don't have to get all protective alpha on me." She looked at Doyle. "I should give them back." He grinned at her. "Whistler's hiding in a closet from the fit throwing going on." She looked at Xander. "Drain. That. Now."

"Anya needs a healing spell, she can use the magic Willow hit me with. I'm like a filter," he said with a slight shrug. "We can do that later."

"Uh-huh. The PTB hate Anya, Xander. She's an unbalancing note. She made you stronger."

Xander grinned. "They still think I was weak?"

"They went back and looked at your life. They thought you were always weak." She stared at him. Xander shook his head. "They don't get that. We pointed out that surviving all that took strength. They think you're as weak as a fainting little prim schoolmarm sort."

Xander snorted. "I came out stronger than that or I never would've survived."

"Don't tempt them," she warned. Then she smiled.

Xander pulled her closer with a grin, joining their hands. "Concentrate on that thought, create a what if universe, Cordy." She did that and then shrieked and hit him a few times. He laughed, smirking at her. "Do they still think I'm weak for surviving?"

She looked up then at him. "Whistler just had a panic attack about that what if uni. Good job, you're making higher ups swear again."

"Awww, I should go to the astral plane again to go show them in person."

Whistler appeared, shaking his head quickly. "Don't you dare! If you died that way, the world would've fallen or you would've been the physical walking embodiment of the hellmouth. Both of them would've destroyed humanity when the hellmouth wouldn't close."

"Well, then someone put me in the right place at the wrong time," Xander said dryly. "Them trying to fix it will just set off her three additional curses." He pointed at Willow, who was chanting something. Cordelia reached over and grabbed her by the hair, yanking on it, making Willow scream. "Thanks. I didn't want to live on pack principals. It's hard enough to find a date that's not a beta to me."

"They'd make you an omega, one of the rare male breeders," Whistler told him.

Xander grinned. "I don't mind receptive anal sex but the radiation and chemo killed all my fertility that the mermaid taint left," he said dryly. "And if I have kids, they'll be protected and great kids. A real credit to my myths." Whistler shuddered.

"They'd be huge anime geeks worse than the geek trio," Cordelia complained. "I'd have to come back as my own child to make them normal."

Xander grinned at her, hugging her. "If you want." He winked at her. She moaned, shaking her head. He looked at Whistler. "What else do they want since their weapon's going to be killed if she tries anything else? I saw what would've happened if I hadn't gotten sick and fixed things. Including the First Evil battle that Anya fell in. Which would've been next week."

Anya looked up from where she was researching, shaking her head. "I went into a battle?"

"In the hellmouth," he told her, nodding some. "Us, a few others, all the slayers that Willow had activated to fight the First Evil and then the invasion."

"Hell no," she said, scowling at Whistler. "That's a waste."

"You could become a new watcher," he offered. "It'd do good for everyone."

She sneered. "If I die from my boyfriend poisoning me, all my owed wishes and wealth goes to my ex boyfriend Xander Harris, because he can use it," she said, casting the oath charm. Tinkling bells went off. Xander looked up then at her. She shrugged. "What?" He grinned and kissed her. "You might absorb some," she complained, pushing at him.

"I'm immune to most poisons, Anya. They had to adjust the chemo because of the mermaid taint." She shuddered. He looked at Willow. "See what you started off?" She tried to get up but she was handcuffed to the seat. "Anya, take the energy I'm carrying for that healing spell before it's too late," he said quietly.

"Let me use it to bind her first."

"You need to be healthier," he reminded her. "Or it'll be a death curse."

She nodded. "It might take that." She came over to draw from Xander's store of energy to bind Willow from magic that wasn't defensive of the world or herself. Then she cast the healing spell, passing out during it. Cordelia and Doyle caught him but Xander still cast it. She was still unconscious. Steve was calling an ambulance. Xander was taking care of her, scowling at Whistler.

Who shrugged and held up his hands. "Not my doing," Whistler said. "The PTB aren't displeased but they know that she could be a good watcher for one of the future slayers. If any survive."

Xander stood up, staring at him. "Why wouldn't they?"

"I...I haven't been shown that."

"Are they going to start the First Evil off anyway? Because if so, they've got a hell of a fight coming. I will get off my death bed to stop that. Especially since it'd take the scythe, which is now sunk into the hellmouth." Whistler's eyes went wide and he looked up then at Xander. "They also took out a lot of the upcoming slayers, so they won't have the seven they'd need who're old enough to fight. Six toddlers, Buffy, Faith, and maybe two more that're young girls won't be good enough. Do they want to throw their chess game that much? If so, I can give them a better way."

"Please don't," Cordelia begged. "Please, Xander?"

He grinned at her then at Whistler. "So, what's their plan this time since they've apparently started their own losses? Can't bet on a dead world."

Whistler got a hard message, it made him wince. He looked up then at Xander. "You could go back and be killed."

Xander laughed, shaking his head. "Then I'd definitely come back as the walking embodiment of the hellmouth, Whistler." He took off his necklace, handing it to Cordelia, who shivered as she touched it. "I carry enough of the hellmouth's energy that it considers me a brother, Whistler." He put his arm around Whistler's neck, grinning at him. "Do we want that? I can do that right now if you really want me to. It won't hurt me any and might even heal some of the lesions I'll always have thanks to those tumors. It'd never hurt the ones it loves. It just wants us to be *special*."

Cordelia put the necklace on Anya's chest, letting her soak it in. She looked at Xander. Then at Whistler. "This is also stepping on those three curses, Whistler." She swallowed, looking at Xander. "They didn't plan for you."

"They should have. A trio is always more solid and stronger than a single operative. That's why so many spells start with 'by the power of three in this coven'."

"Only a quarter of the spells," Willow said quietly. She looked up. "Most of the rest are made for single casters but they're usually used in tragic events." She looked at her hands then at Cordelia. "Can I help heal Anya?"

"Please do!" she agreed with a point.

Willow was released from the chair to kneel beside Anya and heal her. It helped but not a lot. "There's a foul feeling stuff in her blood."

"Her boyfriend was poisoning her," Xander told her. "And himself as it happens."

Willow grimaced. "I don't know how to counter that. Will another type of healing spell work?" she asked, looking from Cordelia to Whistler. Who shook his head. "Why not?" she demanded. "It's magic, it can do that!"

"Magic is a tool, Rosenburg. Not a cure-all," Whistler told her. "It's a shame Anya will die to prove that to you."

"She doesn't have to die," Danny said. "Can he use those owed wishes?"

"Not until she's gone and they've passed over during the probate," Whistler said. "Unfortunately. It's so they can't bring back people or change history to keep them from dying. It's frowned upon." He looked up then at Xander. "If you give up the wish you gave her.... Or the one you used."

"The one I used was the price Hallie gave me to fix it," Xander said. "I vowed to become the messenger for whoever needed me to spout off things so I could fix the bad stuff going on in Sunnydale. The wish she gave Willow was my price for doing it. I expected her to wish away an apocalypse instead of keeping one going."

Whistler winced. "Yeah, we all wanted that stopped." Xander nodded. "You interfered with other things."

"Yup, it needed me to." He grinned slightly. "Though I'm still owed a wish because *someone* lost a bet." Whistler's eyes went wide. "And there's also the fact that I found out the US had people who used me as an experiment while I was down. No other way I would've gotten malaria," he finished dryly.

"Shit!" Cordelia said, hopping up to stare at him. "That bet was on you?"

"Yup, without consulting me I might add." He smirked a tiny bit, shrugging some too. "They thought I wouldn't flirt with someone. They're really not paying attention. That one wasn't bad in bed but not the best ever. He did give nice blowjobs though and really loved to squeal. Which is why I'm owed that wish. I heard someone saying something like 'if he doesn't end up on the bottom I'd give him unlimited wishes'." Cordelia stared at Whistler, who was staring up but wincing. "Wasn't I?"

"You were," Whistler said then cleared his throat. Doyle was laughing. "That was between D'Hoffryn and Janus. Not us." He looked at Doyle.

"Can you heal her?"

"Not sure," he admitted. "I'm trying but the poison's a bit too strong. If someone could filter it out it might help."

"I can try," Willow offered. "It might take out some blood though."

"Yeah, that would," Cordelia said. "All of it." Willow slumped.

"There's that thing," Xander said with a snap. "Willow, summon that sucky thing that tried to get your period?" She blushed but nodded, squinting as she concentrated. One showed up and she charmed it to attack Anya's blood to get the bad stuff out. The demon moaned but did that. Xander petted it. "That's Anyanka. You're doing her a great favor and we thank you," he said quietly. The demon stared up at him. He smiled back. "Her new boyfriend did it." The demon nodded, going back to sucking out the bad things and leaving most of the blood behind. He was still getting fed but not as fully as he'd like. The paramedics got there and one flinched away.

Cordelia looked over. "It's filtering her blood. Her boyfriend was poisoning them both."

"Okay. Is it nearly done and do we know what poison?" the other paramedic asked. "Will it be biting us too?"

Steve grabbed a set of gloves from their medical kit and some gauze, soaking up the drool the demon was letting out. "Here. He's filtering it." They tested it off to the side. The demon pulled back, panting. "Thank you," Steve said. The thing nodded and Willow sent it to a local healer she knew about. She got put back into the chair but more gently this time and Danny handcuffed one of her wrists to it. The paramedics got Anya loaded and to the hospital as fast as they could. The ER doctors hated the 'demon filtered some of the poison out' explanation but it had helped.

Xander ran a hand through his hair. "I need to go wait with her. She'll hate waking up alone." He looked at Whistler and Cordelia, then at Doyle. "So?"

"We're trying very hard not to step on those curses. We don't want to see people living on pack principles either, Harris." Xander nodded, then left them to it. Doyle sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "His anger is still greater than what most people think is possible."

"Always has been," Cordelia told him. "It's what kept him alive through the being out of his body time." She looked at Whistler. "Do we have orders?"

"Get him to give up that wish," Whistler admitted. "They're worried about what he'll ask for this time."

"Probably to get to the point where he can go back to work," Danny said sarcastically. "Since he needs to start again soon."

Cordelia nodded. "He'd never use it for self gratification. He knows it'd turn out wrong." She frowned, looking outside. "NID idiots. Shit, go help him!" she ordered with a point. Steve ran out to go help. Danny and Chin followed. She looked at Doyle. "Well?"

"To keep her from going off the deep end to destroy humanity."

"Anya bound her," Cordelia admitted.

"Good!" He looked at her. "Even Janus has had enough." He looked at Whistler, who shrugged but slumped down some. "Was that your boss?"

"I'd hope not or they'd have a revolt," Cordelia said dryly. "Plenty of us would go after the Oracles for that crap. I'd cheer like I was back in high school."

Doyle blinked at her, backing up a few steps. "Sure, Princess." She smirked. "They could send you back."

"Sure, go ahead. I'm bored half the time and haven't been able to shop in years." She flicked a hand in the air. "We can do that." She looked that way. "They'll have to rescue him." She held up the necklace she had plucked off Anya before she had been taken off. "We can probably track the hellmouth." Kono snatched the necklace to start that. Cordelia looked at Whistler, who was looking scared. "What? The Oracles or the PTB throwing fits?"

"They're playing what if and it's not pretty," he admitted. He took off his hat to rub over his head. "It's really not pretty but he's right, they're going to lose humanity. They took out too many people. We'll lose the next apocalypse."

"No we won't," Willow said. "Buffy can stop it."

"Buffy can't stop something the size of the invasion by herself," Doyle reminded her. "And she'd be mostly alone after the last few moves they made." He looked at Whistler. "Do we have a plan?"

"Buffy's owed a wish thanks to a poker debt," Willow said. "Not sure if she can call it in that way."

Dawn walked in shaking her head. "Buffy's got her head up her ass again. I told her about what had happened and she said you're an innocent girl who had someone controlling you." She looked at Cordelia. Then at Doyle. "So use some of mine?"

He took her hand, nodding. "It could make you fade," he warned.

She smiled. "I'm not that weak, Doyle." She concentrated, taking Cordelia's hand. "I'll need a fence." She looked at him again. "Go ahead."

He took her free hand and concentrated. Janus moved through him to help a few things. Hunters who had been killed before were just injured now. Xander was still captured but they'd find him sooner. Willow's binding was going to hold until the apocalypse. Anya was going to be in a coma for a while, no idea how her outcome would be. Dawn sighed as he let go, sitting down with Whistler's help. He tested her then nodded. Doyle smiled. "That's more powerful than we thought."

"Yes, it is," Cordelia said, looking at her. Dawn grinned at her but she looked exhausted. "You'll need a long nap."

"I know."

"You need to move near the new hellmouth to guard it. They're going to make you the guardian. If Xander does it, he'll end up having it open to cuddle him." Whistler shook his head quickly. "No?" she asked.

"No! It'll do the same thing to her. She can't be the guardian here. She can be a guardian of another one."

"As long as I can someday date and find a nice guy," Dawn quipped. "I'm good with that. Oh, and show Buffy all this as a slayer dream? That way she can't deny it?"

Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, that last part's doable," Doyle agreed. "A lot of chaos sources don't really get a lot of dating in."

"Yeah but I don't plan on doing magic for my living," she countered. "I plan on doing it when necessary and hiding it the rest of the time so I can get a real job and afford my own shopping." Whistler shot her a dirty look. "They did make me a Summers woman."

"Point," Cordelia agreed, looking her over. "Though you're falling down today."

"I'm making due. Not like they pulled my clothes when they let her pull me here. And Xander's mostly broke right now thanks to the treatments."

"He should've went on disability," Cordelia complained.

"He tried, they turned him down," Dawn said. "I saw some paperwork from when he found out it came back. So talk to the demon cocksuckers in charge."

"Someone should," Doyle said mildly, looking at Whistler, who grimaced but nodded he could look into it. "Especially if he gets too injured this time."

Kono leaned in. "They found him, they're getting help to raid there since there's military personnel."

"If only we had someone like that NCIS guy that helped him," Cordelia said.

"I don't know him so I can't summon him," Willow said.

"Or we can do a portal," Dawn quipped. She concentrated and opened one, getting up. "Hi," she said with a smile. "Needed these two. Sorry!" She yanked the younger one over and the growly older one stomped over. "Good!" She ended the portal. "Military people kidnaped Xander again. The SEAL guy is going after him."

Tony winced. "They're so stupid," he muttered. "Where?"

"Kono, would NCIS guys help?" Dawn called.

"Hell yes!" She came in to get them and take them where Xander was being held and used to get samples from. Before he irradiated everyone by getting mad.

Tony got out of the car first, holding up his badge. "NCIS." He smiled at Steve. "Fancy meeting you here." He stomped over after his boss. "Who are they?"

"Two military people, both Marines, one Army higher up we saw the other day after that one demon," Danny said. "He came with NID people then. Two geeks in lab coats trying to take samples. Xander just started to laugh."

"That's going to get messy," Tony decided.

"His necklace hiding the hellmouth taint is at the office," Steve warned.

"Sure, we can handle that. Boss?"

"We can go in," he agreed. Steve waved and their local rapid response team moved to get into the building. Gibbs walked in first. "NCIS and Hawaii PD," he announced. "Freeze and don't give me any shit, people." A few shot at them but the locals took them down. Tony and Steve got the guys around Xander and got him free, hauling him out with Danny's help. The jeeps showing up got stopped by local PD. One was there to help the rescue so they got let through when Steve agreed he had called the base for help with their people. Gibbs came out, saluting the base commander. "Sir."

"You're on the DC team," he said, frowning.

"We got called through a portal," Tony quipped with a grin. "Because they needed it."

"Good! Means less paperwork for me."

"But we'll need your jails, General," Tony said. "Hopefully they make it to their hearings." He hauled one out in cuffs to hand over. "Found two NID ID cards, boss. The higher up from the Army in there had one in his pocket with his picture on it. One of the geeks had Area 51 on theirs so they're related to the SGC."

"He knows about them and we met a few of their docs," Danny said. "Keller was out here after that demon battle too." He looked back at the sound of an engine. "Shit," he said, pulling Steve out of the way. Steve pivoted and shot at the pickup truck, hitting it with the others shooting. The windshield broke and they died. "Everyone good? Don't make me call the paramedics," Danny called. Two officers had been clipped by the truck but were getting up with help. He called that in to get a clean up team.

Steve walked over to look at the body. "Demon," he announced. He took a picture and sent it to Dawn's phone. She sent back what it was. "Hit demon. His kind are assassins." He searched him, finding the ring Dawn had noted. "He's part of an assassin's guild."

Tony frowned. "I thought those only happened in games."

"Apparently not. Dawn said they have human and demon members."

"Charming!" Tony quipped with a smile at them. "Just absolutely charming."

Xander walked out being helped by Gibbs. He stared at the demon then nodded. "Yeah, that's Taraka's sign. They'll never give up once the contract's placed. They still have one on Buffy but consider her too hard to get." He winced as he shrugged a tiny bit. "That sucks. Who are they after?"

"No info on him," Danny said.

Xander looked then pointed. "Phone." It was pulled out and looked over. They used the demon's paw to unlock the phone and Xander took it to look at. "Hmm. Well, I can't blame them since they're after the NID assholes." He handed it back with that form open. He took it back to look up his own name. "Awww, two of my ex's have one on hold pending me not healing so I'd have a heroic death. That's sweet." He handed over the phone again. "I need to go sit with Anya."

"You need the ER," Tony said firmly. "You can sit with Anya once you get stitches." He hauled Xander off so he could go with him to the ER. Xander was stubborn enough to talk his way out of it.

Steve and Danny shared a look then Danny let Gibbs have the phone. "I can't disagree with those sort going down," Danny said. "But not this way."

"I can agree with that," Gibbs said, walking off calling someone. Their name was on the contract so it was a fair thing to talk to them about it. They were horrified that they had captured Xander, again, but said the contract was put out in his name to pay them back for taking out his family, he hadn't set the contract himself. Gibbs agreed that it was a good idea but bad execution. The general agreed they could talk about it when he got back to DC in the morning. They'd be flying back with their prisoners once the paperwork was done at the local base. And possibly a few others from what the local base's commander was complaining about. Steve pulled up information on one base person who was in the local jails so he could come get him and deal with him too. The base commander called that in so his MP's could go get the idiot who had beaten his wife.

***

Xander took his necklace back from Dawn when she got to the ER. "Thanks. Anything else happen?"

"Not yet," she admitted, sitting next to him. "I checked, Anya's in a room upstairs so we can go hover over her."

"That's cool. She'd hate being hovered over but she'll hate waking up alone more." She nodded. "You good?"

"I'm fine. They're finding me a place to be a guardian of."

He nodded. "That's nice for you. School?"

"Probably. I am in those years." He grinned. The nurse came in to let him go and she went with him.

"Miss, we don't allow anyone under eighteen without parental permission," a nurse said.

Dawn smiled at her, casting a small compel spell. "It's fine." The nurse nodded and smiled as she walked off. Another nurse glared at her. She grinned back. "Really, it's okay." She went in there with Xander. "I'm sure she'll be fine, Xander."

"I'm more worried her boyfriend will show up to finish killing her," he said, sitting down. He patted himself down and then used his teeth to get the ER bracelet off his wrist. Dawn giggled but settled next to him.

A nurse came in. "Are you her family?" she asked patiently.

"She's my former almost wife," Xander said. "Her new boyfriend was the one poisoning her. So I'm going to be here until she wakes up."

The nurse looked at the file, nodding. "Okay, that explains a few things. There's a note on here that she was attacked by a demon?"

"No, a blood feeding and filtering demon got summoned to help suck some of the poison out," Dawn corrected with a smile. "It was handy since she was unconscious at the time and paramedics hadn't gotten there yet."

"Ah." She nodded, frowning as she made that note. "So why does she have traces of strange DNA in her blood?"

Xander took it to look at. "That one drooled but it wouldn't have mattered to her. That's....oh, that's a vampire bite. It's not real recent," he said, handing the file back. "Probably within two or three weeks. It won't turn her." He looked and pointed. "Those are recent bite marks." The nurse looked then made a note with a nod. "Anya's kind of a special case. She got a job as a vengeance demon but got fired a few years back."

"She was the one that abused spouses called on for justice," Dawn said quietly. "Though she's real blunt about some topics, like sex."

Xander nodded. "Yes she was."

The nurse looked at them. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." She pulled up Anya's page on the demon web, letting the nurse see it. "It even mentions the shitbag present ex, Xander."

"Well, maybe she'll heal and get him back for it and get her job back," he said. "She hated not being employed."

The nurse read over the file, taking the phone to show the other nurses. They paged up Anya's doctor so he could see it. The doctor frowned. "It's been a necessary job," he decided. "She was born human and is again. Just really ancient apparently. That weird DNA taint?"

"Vampire bite according to her ex."

He shook his head, going in there to talk to them. He recognized Xander from the doorway because he moaned. Xander grinned at him. "She was mine at one point in time. I can protect her in case the current problem ex shows up."

"I think that should be fine for a bit." He frowned. Dawn pointed. "Those are bite marks. I ignored those. The demon that attacked her?"

"No, we summoned it and asked it to help by filtering the poison out of her system," Dawn corrected with a smile. "She was unconscious and the paramedics were a bit slower than we wanted. It filtered it because it's a blood eater. Then we sent it to a healer to make sure it's fine."

"Do you often deal with such things?" the doctor asked her.

She nodded. "My sister's a hunter like Xander is."

"Ah." He nodded. "I recognized him. Are you healthy, Mr. Harris?"

"Just got out of the ER. NID wanted samples," he said dryly. "I was about to summon something to kill them for me. Because I'll be damned if they treat me like an experiment again."

The doctor nodded. "All right. Is she human?"

"Yes. Unless and until she gets her old job or a new job in the same group," Dawn said with a happy grin. "She'd probably really love her job back." Anya moaned. "Hey, Anya, it's me and Xander with the doctor," she said quietly, getting up to arrange the woman's hair for her. "There, now it's not on your face."

Anya blinked at her. "You're loud."

"It happens," Xander said with a smirk for her. "Sometimes it even helps." She scowled at him but he patted her on the wrist. "You're fine. We're watching over you."

"No. Go home. I hate being hovered over, Xander."

"We wanted to make sure the dick doesn't show up," Dawn said.

"If he does I'll scream. Xander's going to get sick again. He's still weak from all that nasty stuff."

"My immune system's mostly back online, Anya," Xander said. "I'll be fine." The doctor gave him a confused look. "The Army gave me brain cancer. Twice." The doctor shuddered. "Yeah, about my feeling too." He patted Anya's wrist again. "She helped me remove the second tumor when it couldn't be gotten surgically." Anya grimaced but nodded. "You did really good. No extra damage. I still only have lesions from them."

She smiled a tiny bit. "That's good. You'd be horrible if I had removed part of your brain with it."

"With where it was, I wouldn't have probably realized I was in a hospital bed drooling," Xander admitted.

"Could be." Anya looked at he doctor. "I'll probably be fine. The healing spell helped."

"The filtering demon helped too," Dawn said. "We told him thank you for you and sent him to a healer."

"That's sweet," Anya agreed. "But very strange."

"Willow's help," Xander said. Anya nodded, smiling some but plucking at the sheet over her. "It's fine, Anya. We're going to protect you as much as we can."

She looked at him. "You don't have to, Xander. I can do it."

He stared at her. "Would I do the same for Cordelia?"

"Point." She sighed, looking at the doctor. "He takes very good care of what was his. He's very overprotective." Xander grinned and nodded. "Though it's a bit smothering. And I won't get sex anytime soon."

"Nope. Not until you're better," Xander quipped. "It could wear you out too much with how you like it."

"No woman is meant to only have three orgasms a day, Xander. They should all have at least six or seven. Are you better enough yet to do that?"

"Probably four," he admitted. "I'm getting stronger again."

Anya pouted. "Only four?"

"Toys, sweetie," Dawn quipped, trying not to blush. "It'd help."

"That's true and they are fun," Anya agreed, smiling at her. "Someday you'll find that out."

"Maybe. Right now they're trying to figure out where I'm going to be guarding." She winked and crossed her legs, taking her phone back gently. "We can guard her for a while. Until she's stronger and can protect herself again."

The doctor nodded. "That should be a few days," he admitted. He looked at his patient then at her ex-boyfriend. "When we send her home, she'll have to rest."

"I remember doing a lot of that," he quipped with a grin. "That's up to her though."

Anya nodded. "I'm not meant to suffer with a plebian four orgasms a day," she agreed.

"You probably won't be awake enough to have sex for at least a week," the doctor told her.

Anya pouted at him. "That's nearly torture. I can't even masturbate? It does promote good sleep."

"If you're quiet about it," he said. She nodded, grinning at him. Xander kept her hand from moving. "Please wait until you're alone in your room," he told her. He looked at Xander. "Do you have a place she can rest?"

"Dawn's on the spare bed but she can take the couch so Anya can have the bed. I have a veggie garden I've been living out of until I can go back to work."

The doctor nodded. "That's good. We'll work on getting her back to where she can go hover at your house for her own protection." He walked off making notes on her chart. The nurses were worried but they had eavesdropped. It was weird but they had probably dealt with weirder things than a sex-starved former demon.

Xander looked at Anya, who smirked at him. He let go of her wrist. "We'll come back later tonight to check on you."

"That'd help. Thank you, Xander. And if you see my boyfriend, hit him with your truck?"

"If I can." She smiled and he left with Dawn.

Anya played with herself while she thought about the righteous vengeance she could get against her current boyfriend. It gave her happy, tingly thoughts that helped her go back to her nap. And maybe it'd get her the old job back sooner.

***

Dawn came in from the garden and flopped down next to Xander. "You can afford two hens, Xander."

"No I can't."

"Craigslist says you can get some for as little as five bucks each. Then some cheap fencing stuff and some bird food, which you'll get back in eggs. You can even sell the extra eggs if you want. Every six months or so you buy a rooster and let them screw to make baby chicks, which you can raise or sell, and then eat the rooster." He gave her an odd look. "That's how it's done. You could probably even get a milk goat."

"I've never had goat milk."

"I looked it up online. They don't take a lot of room, the nubian goats were bred to taste more like cow milk, and they can graze most of the year." She pulled out his phone to look it up again, letting him see that article. "I'm betting they can eat that bit of brambley area that you have."

"That's not my land. That's open land at the moment." He looked it over. "How expensive are goats?"

"They say about two hundred to get one, but they say to get two because they're pack animals, and get loud if they're lonely, and you can buy a baby or a bigger goat."

He considered it then shrugged. "Bit too expensive for me right now."

"I got the mail," she said, hopping up and jogging to the entry then back to hand him two letters with a grin. "I think those are yours and since they're in tear strip envelopes I'm betting they're not turn down letters." She cuddled up to his side again. He opened them and smiled at the two insurance policy checks. "Is that all you were expecting?"

"No, that's paying me back for an overpayment and the other's a minor thing for my old truck where I had to sell it before I moved out here." He looked down at her. "The rest of that prepaid insurance on it." She nodded. "But it will help me some."

"You know, you can raise bunnies too," she said, looking up at him. "Last night's rabbit stew wasn't bad. And there's wild pigs around here you can take down if they're a threat to you from what I've heard."

"I might look into those. Rabbits might be cheap. Even the super big bunnies that can get up to forty-five pounds each and meant to be eaten." She nodded, cuddling his arm. He hugged her back. "We can go deposit those later." She grinned up at him. "I do need to change some of the plants in the garden. It's time to renew the ground and plant again. This time, no turnips." She laughed. "I don't like them. And I have way too many carrots too. And onions."

"They grow easily," she reminded him. "They can go in a lot of things too." He nodded that was true, cuddling her better. "Bank's not open tomorrow," she said a few minutes later. They got up and Xander drove them to the bank, who was amazed he was him because they hadn't seen him in quite a while. Thankfully his old license wasn't expired and they could easily put them into his account with a five day hold to make sure they cleared.

He and Dawn went to look at the farmer's market nearest to the house to see what he wanted to plant and how much work it'd really take. They talked to someone about him starting a few chickens for eggs too. She was really helpful about how much things would cost and how much the eggs would save him. A dozen eggs in Hawaii was nearly three bucks on sale. Chicken feed was cheaper than that per egg. So they went home with some minor fencing stuff and three hens, and a rooster to keep out of the way most of the time.

He and Dawn set up the chicken fencing and he put the hay into nest areas for the hens. Dawn put out food for them once she was done with her part of the fencing. The hens got let out of the pet carrier box and were happy to eat and crap. Thankfully Xander knew how to use a shovel so that was good for his compost pile too. The next day they could pull the dead plants in the garden for the compost pile and work on the garden soil to make it better to grow things on. Maybe even stuff he'd like to eat.

***

Steve showed up a few weeks later and saw Xander chasing a chicken, working to drive it toward him. Xander finally caught it with a sigh and put it back into the enclosure and went back to putting up a more rigid fence. "That's handy."

Xander grinned. "It's very handy. Eggs taste like heaven when all you've had is veggies."

"I bet it would." He patted him on the arm. "I see three hens?"

"And a rooster," Xander said with a point at him. He was being macho in the shade at the moment. Dawn came out to feed the chickens and help with the fence. "Someday soon we'll have to build them a laying and napping box so they're safer. Something tore the old fence last night."

"I told him about the wild pigs," Dawn quipped with a grin for Steve. "And how they hunted them."

"I'm not sure if you can eat those or not," Steve admitted. "Pigs are expensive but handy to raise if you wanted to get one."

"Dawn tried to talk me into a goat for milk." Xander grinned at her then at him. "I had plans for my old farm but I have no idea about goats."

"They're handy and eat the grass," Dawn quipped.

"That site said they like certain types of grass but not everything," Xander admitted. "I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. That may wait until later, after we make sure that overpayment check clears."

"Overpayment?" Steve asked casually.

"I paid ahead on my old farm's insurance policy so they finally got that back to me," he said dryly. "And the one for my old truck since I had to sell it before I came out here."

"Ah." He nodded. "Hopefully that'll clear soon. We do have a Costco out here."

"That could help. Meat's cheap there," Dawn agreed. "You can buy hamburger by the big roll."

"I can," Xander agreed with a nod. "I still need to figure out what else I'm planting this year." She nodded. "The strawberry plants I found look nice and I'm hoping they transplanted well enough." He looked at them then at Steve. "I'm told most everything will grow. I bought a few corn plants, some strawberries, and some tomatoes."

"Cukes probably would go nicely and you can make your own pickles," Dawn said. "Vinegar's not that expensive and the spices probably aren't either."

"True," Xander agreed, nodding some. One of the chickens pecked at him. "Hey! Quit it, McNugget." Steve burst out laughing, going to look over the garden area. Xander followed him to tell him what the various plants were and got some suggestions about other vegetables that he might like. Including potatoes, which you could grow from your last crop for the next year. Xander saw a rabbit and shot it, grinning back at Dawn when she huffed but went to gather it and put it into the sink so he could clean it out for later cooking.

Steve went to tell Danny, who had some other suggestion for 'normal' veggies guys like Xander might understand better. Plus some suggestions about berry bushes. They'd grow well and make a nice boundary for the land. Plus would probably attract birds if he wanted to shoot pigeons to eat. Or he could buy squabs to raise, same thing really.

It was good that Xander was settling in again.

***

Xander was three feet from the police station that Danny and Steve worked in when the demon walked up to him looking apologetic. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly. "Huge problem?"

"There is a vision coming, Hunter."

"I'm the White Knight," he said. "Not the average hunter."

"We know." He took the bag from Xander. "We were warned to protect you while you had it. It is....bad. Then we can teach humans how to have a proper pack."

"I sidestepped that plot by not using a wish."

"It is not on you. Or the Redheaded One." He grinned. "It'll be fine."

"Is it starting?"

"The Powers That Be decided that they had weakened the wrong things. Humanity would fall and they would be out of their amusements." He grimaced as Xander started to have the vision. "Do not," he warned a human coming to help. "It is a vision. I was sent to warn him it was coming. Someone is playing with humanity and will cause problems." He heard Xander sigh and saw him relax. "Knight?" he asked quietly.

Xander blinked up at him, wiping off his cheeks. "I need to go out of my body to go beat the living fuck out of someone." The demon smiled and nodded. "Thank you for the warning and the guarding. I appreciate that service." He stood up with help, taking the bag back. "I'll warn others. Some may help me go beat them." The demon laughed but patted him on the arm before walking off. "Guys, leave him alone please," he ordered when an officer tried to stop him. "He was warned to come protect me while I had a vision. His people are peaceful warriors who protect others." The officer backed off. The demon nodded at him and ran for his car to drive off. Xander looked at the staring officers. "Someone's going to be setting off pack dynamics in humanity to strengthen them. They're so screwed up." He walked inside, nodding at the guarding officer. "I'm bringing something for McGarrett. He said to. I know he works around here somewhere."

"Up the hall. Is that a weapon?"

Xander looked in the bag, then showed him. "He wanted flaky pastry things." They let him go. Xander headed that way, rubbing his forehead. He nearly ran into an officer. "Sorry. Headache." He walked around him, finding Chin. "Hey, Steve said to bring flaky things?"

"Yup. Why do you look like you're having a migraine?"

Xander blinked at him. "Just had a vision. Someone's going to set off pack dynamics to strengthen humanity. Which is going to suck for the eighty percent that aren't going to be doing anything but whining about not being the tough ones. Or the breeders. Who can and will be including guys."

Chin winced. "That sounds bad. Let's go make notes on that. Maybe we can stop them." He walked Xander back to their offices.

"I think we should go out of our bodies to go find the PTB and beat the living fuck out of them. It might make them stop. This is their 'oops, backspace' moment about taking out all the hunters that were protecting humanity."

"Charming." He walked him into the office. "You wanted flaky things, Steve?"

"I was thinking about it but I didn't want to drive out."

"I got a text message," Xander said, frowning at his phone. "There it is." He let him see it.

"That's not my number, it's the office's number. Flaky things are always welcome though. Why do you look like you've got another tumor headache?"

"Vision. The PTB are about to start that alpha/beta/omega stuff to backspace where they weakened humanity by taking out all the hunters."

"Like fuck that'll go," Danny said from his desk. "I'd kill them myself because I'd end up being some sort of wimpy omega bitch. Half the islands already think I am thanks to Steven. Which I'm not, just next to him I'm saner and less macho."

"Who'd be able to have kids," Xander quipped with a grin for him.

"That won't fuckin' happen anyway, anyhow," he said firmly. "Can we go talk to 'em?"

"I can try to find them on the astral plane." Danny came out to get his croissant and went back to his desk to send out an email to the ones who knew Xander and had traveled that way. Xander looked at Steve. "They warned a demon warrior guard to come protect me while I had the vision outside."

"I'll thank him later," Steve said, nodding slightly. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just a headache. I've had plenty of those."

"What about women? Are we all going to die?" Kono asked.

"No. Gender is independent of all that. So female alphas would have an elongated clit to knot their omegas with. Not sure if they'd get the self-lubricating ability that you see in some stories or not. They'd just get the bitch in heat things to destroy our self esteem."

She blinked a few times. "Like hell! I don't want to ride anyone into a moment of screaming." Steve shot a glare at her. "I'd rather be the recipient, thanks," she finished sarcastically.

"This is going to screw up humanity in many weird ways," Steve said. "Can we go around it, Xander?"

"I thought I had by not letting anyone use the three wishes waiting on me. Otherwise Willow or Anya might've set it off."

"You need less evil bitches," Danny quipped. "You really do, kid."

"Yeah but I can only date those who like me. Otherwise it's illegal."

"Point," Steve agreed, nodding some. "Did you get a sense of when?" Xander shook his head. "Well be watching then."

"It'll definitely impact population growth," Chin said, considering it. "In the one story I ran into by accident, only the omegas could have kids. And they were about twenty percent of humanity. With about an equal number of alphas, who were the only fertile ones. So apparently they want us to go to a warrior like culture?"

"Probably," Xander agreed. "Since they're trying to replace all the hunters they had killed off." He grinned a tiny bit. "They seem to forget that even if they did that, not all alphas and omegas would be fertile. Plenty of us who are more alpha have gotten into things that would hinder that. Like demon taint for anyone who was a hunter. Most of us have gotten some somehow."

Steve considered it. "A lot of the ones in the military would have been exposed to something possibly," he agreed. "Or injured. So apparently they want humanity to die off. Huh. We really need to go stomp on them." He walked off biting into his croissant.

Xander grinned at Kono. "It would mean women could become stronger socially since so many could be alphas." She grinned. "So many matriarchs of families."

"Yeah, we have a few aunts like that," she agreed, nodding some. Chin nodded faster than she did.

"Even if they did like some of the stories had where the omegas had litters, that'd still take out a lot of humanity," Danny said. "Which would suck when they all died off in a few generations."

Steve looked at him then shook his head. "I don't even want to think about someone bearing a litter of kids."

"There's been some of those but they often have medical problems, and they're born early," Xander quipped. "I have no idea how to stop it outside of going to throw a fit about the stupid this time."

"We might have to, and I'll gladly accompany you when you do go to yell at the Powers That Be," Steve said. "Before I have to see if I have to bear a litter." He went to his office to tell others that the higher beings had plans again.

Xander looked up then shook his head. "Of the three wishes, that one's probably the worst choice to have activated."

"Aren't wishes open?" Kono asked him.

"Not always. These ones were given to me for things but they were primed with an automatic activation thing. So if we use it, it'll automatically set it off with the wish itself. Apparently they decided to activate the cost without the wish." He shrugged but grimaced. "I wonder what they'll replace the cost with this time."

"What's the cost of the other two?" Chin asked.

Xander winced. "One's going to activate with the cost of activating something like active mutations so we'd have X-Men from what I was told. The other one wasn't fully stated, just hinted at, and it'd set off a different form of pack thing. We'd still end up with alphas but without the omega birth curse. But it was hinted that we might also be forced into that sort of situation thanks to something like that tv show with the zombie apocalypse so we had to form communal packs again. Basically going back to the more Native lifestyle."

Chin shook his head quickly. "I'd hate to see that one happen."

"Technically, if it happens on the mainland, we'd probably be protected unless someone managed to slip in on a ship since they'd automatically quarantine the airports for diseased ones," Xander quipped with a grin. "So we'd have to set up some watched areas or someone like Steve would probably get sent over to help eliminate the threats going on while the rest of us just waited and watched it on the news as long as they were able to broadcast. Which would mean I'd really need to up my garden more."

Steve came out, staring at Xander. "Go take a nap."

Xander smiled at him. "I could use a nap. Need me for anything else? I can go find more flaky things."

"We'll find some and you need to go gather eggs."

"I already did that. Dawn left yesterday so it's a bit easier."

"What happened to Anya?" Kono asked.

Xander smirked a tiny bit. "She got her job back from her hospital bed. They were not amused at D'Hoffryn showing up in the middle of the evening med time. Kinda freaked the nurses out when they called to see what was going on. So she's back to torturing guys who sucked to their girlfriends and wives. She did leave me some things that she had in storage. Dawn thankfully took most of the sex toys since I wouldn't need them."

"I don't need to know," Kono assured him. "Really." She held up a hand. "It can't be that exciting."

"Depended on the day," Xander quipped but he grinned as he walked off. "After the prom I had to get people to rescue me before I passed out for good thanks to her orgasm needs."

Kono groaned. "Wow. I still don't need to know." She put her head on the desk, shaking it slowly. "So damn weird."

Steve came out of his office to pat her on the head. "With how demanding she was, he used to have amazing stamina. You could date him, make him see what normal women are like."

"Hell no!"

"The family would love him," Chin said, smirking at his cousin.

She looked at him. "He's probably bi. Go for it, Cuz."

"I'm not bi. Wouldn't work. But thanks."

Steve went back to his office to smile and send out more notes. Those Powers really needed to be beaten to death soon. Or penned up somewhere if you couldn't beat them to death. He'd happily donate some ugly vases he had in a back closet somewhere.

***

Xander walked into the demon bar, looking around. "Thank whoever sent the guard to help me earlier when I had the vision about the Powers That Be starting alpha and omega stuff in humans. Apparently that's how they want humans to finally die off since only about twenty percent could breed." He grinned at one older demon, who was groaning and gripping his glass as hard as he could. "I know that'd give you guys some fun times. Apparently they think you'd win instead of something nuclear." He shrugged but smiled. "And they thought I'd be an omega so apparently they still think I'm someone else." He grinned at another demon and winked. "Someone really should have them look at who I am instead of who they think I am."

Cordelia nodded from her seat. "Yes, they should, but they still haven't. They think it'd strengthen humanity."

"With only twenty percent being able to breed, it'd cut down on humanity so far that it'd take probably five generations before we were too few to keep going."

She considered it. "Yeah, that would. Damn it!"

He blew a kiss to her. "Yeah. That's my thought since they thought I'd be an omega. By the way, you might tell them that cancer treatments mean I'm infertile." She winced, slumping down. "Oh, and you can tell the others that Anya got her job back."

"Fuck, I don't want to deliver that message, Xander!"

"Sorry, Queen C." He walked over to kiss her on the cheek. She flinched like she had been hit by lightening. "If they set it off anyway, that means I get to use that wish without cost." He winked. "Let me go back to tending my garden. That way I have dinner. If I'm going to get that much sex, I need more energy." He strolled off.

Cordelia let out a subtle whine. "Oh, damn it." She faded out to tell Whistler what he had said, and let him go tell the PTB himself. She wanted to be out of the way of that fit they'd be throwing.

***

Dawn looked up from her new assigned spot, smiling at the ceiling and the yelling she could hear. "If you want and need more alpha level people back, you should bring back the hunters you killed off," she said quietly. "Before I have to do it." The others in the pub looked at her. She grinned. "Sorry, listening to a messenger demon complaining about their higher up's plans being stupid." She sipped her beer. The watcher there to meet her stomped over. She stared at him, making him flinch back. "Hey, how're you?"

"Summers," he said with a nod. "Which messenger?"

"Cordy and Whistler."

He slumped into a seat, staring at her. "The official Messengers?" She smiled and nodded. "Why now?"

"The PTB thought about the alpha/omega stuff to make humanity stronger. Apparently people pointed out the wrong points of that idea. They're not happy with their ideas being shoved up their butts with a huge dildo that even Anya couldn't use."

"Oh, dear."

"Oh, yeah." She grinned. "If they'd just bring back those hunters...." She finished her beer. "So I'm here to take control and watch over your artifact vault for you."

"Who sent you?"

"Whistler."

"Oh," he said, sounding weak. "Travers...." She burst out giggling. "Oh, dear."

"Since Willow summoned me from my home...." She smiled and patted him on the hand, showing him what her orders were. "Tough. Someone really should've had the suck it up talk with him by now."

"Yes, they should have but none of us want to hire an assassin."

"Well...." She shrugged. "Maybe the PTB want him gone enough."

"Maybe," he agreed. "Fine, I'll bring you back to tell them that."

"Sure. I've even got two things to go into it." She picked up her purse, patting both artifacts so they'd quite down and quit glowing again. He looked and moaned. She giggled. "Exactly." They drove back to the Council building. As soon as she walked in, all hell broke loose. Almost literally. The bad watchers were attacked. She was safe. The one with her was safe. The head people? Nope. She went to the vault and touched it, and suddenly all the demons disappeared. She looked up. "Don't use me that way. I'll have to tell Xander on you." She grimaced up. "Really. Much nicer ways of doing that. Including something like a flu epidemic." She opened the vault, walking in to put those two artifacts back in their places. "There, babies." She patted them and one other one that was trying to move. "Don't give me shit, I'll have you buried." It quit. She went to make up her new office area. And possibly apartment. No one had told her where she'd be bunking.

Upstairs, Whistler appeared to the rest of the Council. "We told you to do the right thing. Next time, listen. And leave Summers alone. We want her safely guarding the vault." He disappeared.

"What the bloody hell is going on!" one of them shouted.

The one that had escorted Dawn stood up. "What do you know of the young woman that Rosenburg summoned from her own realm?"

"Rosenburg's realm? I thought she was native," another complained. "It would explain a lot if she wasn't."

That watcher got a book from a nearby bookshelf and put it in front of him. "From Summers' realm. In that realm, someone created our slayer a sister to protect. Rosenburg summoned her to protect that world better. The PTB set her to guard our artifact vault."

"Well, that fucking sucks," the loud one complained. "Is she even trained?"

"She's a late teenager. Probably about to graduate high school or something. She is powerful and magical." They moaned. "She helped with the problems in Hawaii recently."

"That brunette witch?" another one asked. "I saw her on the teleplay." The one that had escorted Dawn nodded. "Well, that's interesting. How powerful?"

"She had access to a powerful artifact on her realm."

"Oh, dear. Their Rosenburg?"

"No idea," he admitted, grimacing while licking his lips. "Absolutely no idea and I didn't ask her. Though I know that Whistler appointed her and told me to go escort her here. So apparently that was them taking out problem beings. Oh, and she said that the Powers wanted to restructure humanity so we'd be breeding less but be tougher overall. That totally irrational thread online about wolf packs of people was going to be started off. She heard them complaining and told them to suck it up and to bring back the hunters they had killed off instead before she helped come up there."

"Could she?"

"Yes," he assured him. "Yes she can. She was holding two artifacts that are scarily powerful and dangerous. She was petting them like they were purse dogs."

"Oh, dear," a few muttered.

"She's by the vault, it all stopped when she logged into the vault. I have no idea what's going on otherwise." He walked off. "I'm going to get a rather large tumbler of cheap whiskey."

The others decided to settle things so the Council would go on. Before the Powers sent more teenagers to take over for them.

***

Xander heard what happened and burst out giggling as he walked into the Wicca tea shop that had helped him. "Oh, my god," he said, leaning on the head of the coven. "Whistler decided Dawn can take over the artifact vault for the Council. The Council got halfway taken out for their bad ideas. And they decided to fix things before the PTB sent *more* teenagers to handle things for them." He grinned at her. "And there's sixteen waiting on it upcountry. They're already trying to court Dawn to get her on their side." He smiled and giggled a bit more. "Two of them have hit on her and she's turned them down. One's decided she's just an ally, and she's already kicked their butts and picked out the hunters she wants to help her with things." She smiled and patted him until he got off her. "Including six witches from the US, including your niece."

She burst out laughing. "I can't see those stuffy British people putting up with my very culture oriented niece."

"Half of them are like celebutantes, but hiding some brains." He grinned at her. "She nominated a female hunter who's a braindead slut to be in charge. Hiener, Shirley Hiener?"

She burst out giggling. "I've heard rumors about her!" she agreed. Xander grinned and nodded. "Oh, dear." She went to tell the others.

"Xander, are you in for tea?" one of the younger witches called.

"I'm actually in to hand over new contact information. They made me switch my phone and wouldn't keep my number." He handed over the hand-printed card. "We're trying to avoid the PTB's plan to set off alpha and omega people."

"If they should, we'd gladly go to war with them," the head witch said.

Xander grinned. "Sent me a vision right outside the station. Someone sent a guard to make sure I was fine while I had it. Dawn suggested they just bring the hunters back that they killed off."

The witches stared at him. "What about the rest of us?"

"Forty percent of the population would be alphas or omegas, and the only ones able to breed," Xander quipped, then grinned at the very pregnant witch. Who was holding her stomach. "We need to check the baby?"

"Yeah, we need to sense the baby right now," she said, dragging a few of her sister witches off.

Xander nodded at the staring witches. "The vision showed me her kid being one of the first. So maybe heavily working on something?"

"If we can go against the PTB, we'd adore that," the head of the coven agreed.

"I'm going to tell the Chaos Knights next." He grinned. "Because I saw her son being an omega breeder with Knight Elory's son. The younger one that's about five."

"Frick no," the head of the coven said, staring at him. "Go warn them?" He handed over a copy of the vision. "Any other cheery news?"

"Anya got her job back."

"Wonderful for her," she agreed, smiling at him. "Go tell them. Maybe they can help us do something?"

"I hope so. The PTB thought I'd be an omega." They all laughed. He grinned and nodded. "Yeah. They still think I'm someone else." He left, going to where the chaos sorcerer was going to be waiting on him. "Hidey ho, neighbor," he quipped as he walked up to him.

Knight Elory, who was a stunning looking, dark skinned Samoan man, even without his illusion, stared at him oddly. "Harris?"

"Vision," he said, holding up the copy of it. "PTB starting off shit to destroy humanity."

He took it to read, frowning. "What the fuck?" he demanded, looking up. "That's my son."

"And Witch Mina's new son she's presently pregnant with." He grinned. "They still think I'm an omega too."

"Not a chance from what we've seen." He blinked at him. "When did you have this?"

"Parts of it a few days ago. I've had three addendums to it since then. Also, Dawn's got the Council's vault locked down. Whistler assigned her there."

"Oh...Summers' sister that Rosenburg pulled?" Xander grinned and nodded. "Oh, dear." He went back to reading it. "We need to do something."

"They're checking on Mina's baby today. She's about two months from popping."

"I...I'll bring this to the others."

"Some of us wanted to go back to the Astral plane to see if we could go beat the living fuck out of them for this. We didn't even use the wish that was going to be attached to that problem." The chaos sorcerer stared at him oddly. "I have three wishes owed to me but they were all mined with powerful costs attached. This was one of them."

"Fuck that," he decided. "I'll let the others know. We'll check on Witch Mina's daughter ourselves."

"Son," Xander corrected with a grin. "Any omega can breed. Even the boy ones." He gave him a pointed look. "But it does mean your younger son's going to be pretty alpha."

"I'll get him self defense lessons immediately." He walked off calling the others to tell them what had been said. He showed up at the meeting, handing the notes over. "Harris had a few visions. The PTB are cranked. Witch Mina is apparently also having a son."

"Male pregnancies, interesting tactic," one of them complained. He took it to read, groaning. "Oh, damn it!"

"Dawn Summers has the Council's artifact vault. She suggested that they just bring back the hunters they killed off instead."

The Chaos Knights could handle some warping of humanity for the good of everyone. And a blessing on Witch Mina's son so he was a normal, healthy boy with gifts. And no ability to breed.

***

Xander showed up at the chaos sorcerer's meeting that night with some vegetable soup and homemade bread, putting it on the middle of the altar. He bowed to the statues on it then stepped back. He looked at the staring the staring chaos people. "I'm owed three wishes. Since they've activated the cost of that one wish it may be nearly free. We figured out when we were resetting things to earlier." He grinned. "We need to reset humanity to the point it was, without any cost of bringing back souls wrong or the First Evil, to July 17th, 1999. That's when they killed off the first hunter.

"If it sets off the First Evil prophecies, we'll need seven slayers." A few shuddered. "And it'd come out of the seal, which is on the Sunnydale hellmouth's area." He smiled. "If they can be wished back to the same *physical* point, then we might all be safe." He pointed at the food. "That's to amuse Janus because apparently I'm giving him a headache. Ethan Rayne told me I was and it's not even my fault. Plus, maybe he'll let me get fully better and I can start working again." He walked off. "Let me know if you need my owed wish."

They stared at the source of chaos then one of them tasted the soup. The pot was half empty thanks to some being taking a meal from it but that was good for them. The rest of them got some soup and bread and settled in to discuss how to do that plan instead. Theirs hadn't been all that concrete. One did send an email to Ethan Rayne for the idea they needed. Using the Conduit was a brilliant idea to power their Gods.


TBC....sometime.