"They will notice his absence soon."

"He will break soon. No one has ever withstood sixteen hours."

"You also said no one had ever lasted past ten."

The writhing figure strapped to the table screamed one last time then was still. The figure tinkering with the machine attached to the victims head looked at the two men in the doorway.

"It is done. Give us another hour to double check the programing then we will be ready to take the witch."

---

One hour later.

*********

"Alexander, are you ready to call Willow and invite her to visit you?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Once you begin talking on the phone you will revert to Xander and ask Willow to join you."

"Yes, Sir."



{"Hello, you have reached the office of Willow Rosenburg. This is Cathy how may I help you?"}

"Hey, Cath. This is the X-man can I talk to my best girl or is she still trying to convince Cray that corncob yellow would be a bad color to paint her office?"



Cathy's eyes widen in shock as the one thing she prayed never happened did. Her hand hit the emergency switch and the call went through the speakers nearest Willow.

{"You are a bit behind the times Xan. Cray is now convinced that gray would be the way to go."}

Please, Please. Let Xan be okay and this is just some minor apocalypse.

"Oh Goddess. Next he will be trying to talk her into black matte and cream office furniture. Oh well, page her for me I really need to talk to her."

Cathy stared into the horrified eyes of Willow as she translated that last code.

{"She's on her way now Xander."}



Willow's hair began to turn snow white as she reached for the phone.

{"Hey when are you gonna get back here and protect me from the evil fiend?"}

Xander looked up suddenly into the faces of he captors. He let a feral grin slide onto his face as he felt Willow's protective magic surround him.



The two men who thought they had covered every angle felt an icy chill settle down their spines. Before they could realize how badly they had underestimated him Xander sealed there fate.



Xander glared at the two men with total contempt. "Release the hounds of hell, Wills. Bring me home."



Xander collapsed at Willow's feet and was immediately surrounded by medics.

Willow brushed the hair from his eyes. "You are safe and they will pay threefold the damage they did you."

As Xander slipped into sleep he grinned.



-30-

Beep....Beep.....Beep

Magic crackled through the room as Willow stared at the unmoving form of her best friend.

The room changed color.

Xander would live and heal fully. She had saved him after he had saved himself.

The room changed color.

They had hurt her Xander shaped friend.
They were dead.

The room changed color.

Willow took a deep breath and sat back.

*******

"Xander don't be silly, This isn't some kids game we'll never need code words."
 
"Wills humor me. We might never need them but it will be fun to create a list and imagine how much fun it will be to tease the phone jockeys with." Xander started at her with his hurt puppy look.

"Fine. Fine. We will do the stupid code thing but it has to be short and simple." Willow brought out resolve face and then grinned as he handed over a small list.

Cray= crayon -There is big trouble brewing rally the forces.
Level of badness
yellow= The world will not end but we are gonna get hurt.
pink= someone is digging and we need to circle the wagons
frogs= we are in deep shit and sinking
beer= Slayers/watchers affected by magic

corncob=[ Riley ;-) ] - Military/Police present and cannot speak freely.

gray =The people you are with are good guys just clueless?
black = They are bad guys with a clue
blue= good guys with a clue

cream= Need rescue ASAP
page Willow =The only way to be rescued is magic.
Willow shook her head as she read the list.

Xander just  grinned, "Okay it's a start and we can add onto it later."

********


The room changed color.