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Game of Masks

© Kylie

Alexander LeVelle Harris groaned as he sank back into his chair. Rubbing his tired eyes, he tried to get his mind to go completely blank for a few precious moments.

With no luck.

Xander sighed. So much for that particular little trick. His email buddy in Delaware had told him about it, as a way of a quick 'refresh' when doing alot of computer work. Problem was that Xander just couldn't get his mind to blank out. Every time he got close, another annoying thought would pop into his head.

*How did Broots do it?* Xander wondered as he tried to re-focus on the monitor full of cryptic algorithyms. After trying unsucessfully for about five minutes, he gave up in disgust. There was no way he was going to be able to finish this tonight, as he'd hoped.

Hopefully after a decent sleep, the mass of numbers and letters on the screen would once again make sense, and he could get this program finished.

Xander quickly checked his email, a grin blossoming on his face as he saw the email waiting for him.

One from Lia. She and Angel were fine. Deadboy had managed to get himself impaled again, scaring 10 years off her life, but he was now his normal not-as-broody-as-he-used-to-be self. Wesley was apparently thinking of asking Virginia to marry him, and Gunn had finally been talked into moving into the hotel. On the condition that the rest of the 'family' got to come too. The team at AI had just gotten alot bigger. Lia was seriously thinking about seeing if her old apartment was still available, just so she and Angel could have some privacy.

'....Pam and Tommy we're not. I had no idea it would get this....loud, hectic, crowded, busy...heck take your pick. We haven't had 'quite time' for almost a week, and I'm getting seriously frustrated here! We got a little carried away in the kitchen last night..... Gunn almost got an eyeful! At the moment I'm envious of you and Anya, stealing away for a little quality time. In a five star hotel, no less! Right now I'd settle for a hotel that charged by the hour. On second thought.... that would probably end up being more expensive than your entire getaway.........'

Xander had to grin at that. How so like Cordelia that was. He was honoured to be one of the few people she opened up to in this way. A year ago, if someone had told him that he would be sending regular, innuendo filled email to Cordelia Chase, he would have told them they were nuts, and signed the commital papers himself. But then, about eight months ago Willow had begged him to go to LA to fix Lia's computer, because she was too busy to do it. He had moaned and groaned, and reluctantly made the trip to LA.

Once on her doorstep, his perverse nature had taken over, and he had taken great delight in the shock on her face when she had opened the door. It had quickly become apparent that this was not the Cordelia he had known in Sunnydale, and he had found himself unable to find the inclination to continue the 'dumb clown' act that he had perpetrated most his life.

During that visit, he had found himself telling her about the Center, and about what he truly was. He had also apologised for his 'kinda' cheating on her with Wills. She had taken it suprisingly well. It was then that he realised that he wasn't the only one who was more than they appeared, and they had become friends again, setting email records between Sunnydale and LA.

Of course he'd almost blown it with that stunt, finding out that Angel was her annonymus email buddy. Fortunately she had been in a really good mood when she found out about that. Probably due to Angel. As he'd pointed out, if it hadn't been for a slip of Xander's tongue, they might still be dancing around each other. So she hadn't killed him. She had however, managed to convince Willow to help her get back at him.

And Anya had helped.

He wasn't sure if he should feel nervous or comforted that the three most important women in his life were such close friends. It tended to depend on what they were up to.

But for the most part he was happy about it. As long as they weren't plotting against him.

Buffy hadn't taken the news of Angel and Cordelia's marriage as badly as Xander had feared. She had been invited to the wedding, but declined, sending along her best wishes.

It had been a strange year. 'Hobby' wise, the Hellmouth had been it's normal hellmouthy self, drawing all kinds of demons and unspeakable evil, and in his personal life, Xander had managed to find a sense of peace that he hadn't felt since he was was five. Anya, Willow, Lia, Angel and Tara all knew about the Centre, and in sharing that, it felt as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders. He hadn't told Buffy or Giles, not wanting to burden them. And he wasn't sure that he could stand the former watcher and the slayer getting more overprotective of him than they currently were. He got more than enough 'lets-stick-Xander-on-the-sidelines-so-he-won't-get-hurt' as it was. How was he going to tell them that he was more than capable of taking care of himself now? For the last two years he had been taking self-defense classes, and learning everything he could about combat and survival. The way he figured it was, the skills would come in handy, one way or the other. Either fighting demons on the Hellmouth, or fighting the Centre's goon squads. He was going to have to tell Buffy and Giles soon, before one of them got hurt trying to protect him. Or the Centre discovered he was still alive, and came after him. As it was he knew that it hadn't come to light, simply because they had been so wrapped up in her own problems. And he hadn't felt ready to face the questions that would inevitably be asked.

"Are you going to be coming to bed anytime soon?" Anya asked suddenly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and resting her chin on his head.

Xander leaned back and looked up at her with a smile. "I think so." He reached behind himself and pulled her onto his lap. "I was just reading an email from Lia."

"Oh, how are they?" Anya asked, glancing at the screen.

"Frustrated." Xander grinned. "They finally managed to convince Gunn to move into the hotel, but he would only come on the proviso that the rest of his team did too....."

Anya winced sympathetically. She could see where this was going. "You think Dennis could manage to evict current tennant, and they move in there?"

"Lia is giving serious thought to it. And we may be getting an invite to another wedding soon. Wesley's thinking of asking Virgina to marry him."

"Good. With the heat coming off those two, I'm suprised the hotel doesn't catch fire."

"Did you have anything special planned for tomorrow?" he asked with a secretive grin. It was their second anniversary, and he had a suprise planned.

"Well, I was thinking...."

"Yeeesss...."

"What would you say to spending the entire day in bed?"

"Considering how often we do that, I'm not sure that could be considered special." he teased.

"Unplug the phone, ignore the demons, no work....." she tempted.

"If I say yes, what do I get?" Xander teased back, silently giving in.

Anya's mouth curled up in a smile. "Lifetime supply of Turtle Wax?" she teased, kissing him lightly.

"Try again." Xander captured her mouth with his in a drugging kiss.

"Uh...well...how..about.....?"

***********

At a truck stop in the icy cold of Northern Canada, Logan poured over a map of the US. The lead that Xavier had given him had proven to be frustratingly little. It had taken him over a year to find, and when he had arrived at the abandoned military-looking base, hoping to find some clue as to his past, that's all he had found. He had been hoping to find his past, chapter and verse, so that he could get back to Westchester and Marie.

Instead he had found a clue. Buried in archaic computer, he had managed to find a partial record. He was amazed he had even found that much. The complex had been purposely wiped clean of anything that could identify what had gone on here. And while the hardware of the computers were still in place, everything had been wiped from the hard disks. It had been sheer dumb luck that he had found what he had.

A partial number sequence from his dog tags, a cryptic note about a center in Delaware (center for what?), SL-27 (whatever the hell that ment), and part of a memo about something called the Initiative in Sunnyd.

So now here he was, pouring over a map of the US trying to find any place that began with Sunnyd. It sure as hell wasn't a state, which gave him a more precise place to start than the clue about Delaware did. Sunny Mountain, Sunny Vale, Sunnydale, Sunny... Sunnydale! California.

He paid for his meal, and headed out into the inclement weather. It was times like this that he wished the Storm was around. He started his 'borrowed' bike with a sharp kick, and headed for California. As soon as he was out of sight of the truck stop, he pushed the turbo button. The sooner he found out about his past, the sooner he could get back to Westchester.

***********

Jarod sighed as he accepted a drink from the flight attendant. What was he doing, chasing off to California after a now defunct military project? Ok, some soldiers had gotten killed, but the military had shut down the operation a year ago. Why was he doing this? Because they had ties to the Centre a little voice in his head whispered.

He had stumbled across some papers while on a pretend as a CID officer in Virginia. Something about a project called the Initiative. Activity on the project had steadily increased up to a year ago, when things suddenly fell apart. Somehow prisoners had gotten loose and attacked the personel at the installation. They had lost quite a few personel, though an official reports tended to be frustratingly vague as to the exact numbers. In fact, all the reports about the Initiative were vague. There were vague mentions of problems with some of the soldiers, medication schedules, and something about outside intervention. When he had done a search through the military databanks, not much had come up. On what had, however he had noticed a code that experience told him ment the Centre.

He hadn't found much more in the Center mainframe, other than some truly bizarre medical reports, sent from the Initiative. So here he was, at 30,000 feet, headed for a small University town. Sunnydale, California.

********

Spike was on a mission. He silently stalked behind the couple, hidden by the bushes. Pity that the moron and the vengence demon weren't with them. It would have been interesting to see them in action again.

Last night as he'd been doing a patrol through one of Sunnydale's many cemetaries he had stumbled across the slayer's little friends. They had been standing around talking, and kept looking at a crypt, and he had realised that they were waiting for something.

So he hadn't been too suprised when a demon, followed by a cadre of vampires had burst out of the crypt. He had been suprised at the skill and efficiency at which they had dispatched them though.

Red and Tara were alot more powerful than they let on to the Watcher. And Anya... She fought dirty. He had been glad that he hadn't been fighting her. The moron had really suprised him by fighting with a grace and skill he had thought the boy had lost after that halloween.

So he'd decided to see if he could find out what the hell was going on with the Scoobies. He'd bet that the Slayer and the Watcher didn't know that they were out vanquishing demons on their own.

The ground in front of a headstone about 20 yards in front of the couple 'burped'. Soil seemed to jump, and a hand reached up out of the ground. The fledging vampire pulled it's self out of the earth, and turned to discover what the heady scent nearby was... and found himself face to face with a young woman.

"Hello sleepy head!" she called out cheerfully, and forcefully thrust a stake at his heart. Reflex caused him to catch her hand with his as she swung. Shock spread across her face, and before she could react, he spun and threw her over his shoulder. "Ummphh!" her breath left her body as she hit the ground. The vampire was so focused on the girl in front of him, he failed to see the girl behind him. Until pain bloomed accross his back. He spun to see what was causing it, and disintegrated into ash, as he was engulfed in flames.

"Goodbye flameboy." The girl on the ground muttered. "Where the hell did that come from?!" Willow demanded as Tara helped her to her feet.

"The fireball?"

"The flipping me over his shoulder bit."

"Wasn't he on the Judo team?" Tara asked as she tried to place the face of the vampire she had just flambe'd.

Spike's mouth hung open in shock. That witch was one person he wasn't going to piss off in a hurry!

************

Buffy stood in the middle of one of Sunnydale's many cemetaries, staring at a headstone. 'Slayer' was the only identifer on the simple slab of stone. Chills crept up her back. Was that supposed to be her grave?

Suddenly the ground in front of the headstone moved, a hand reached up out of the ground, followed by a body. Buffy readied her stake, and at the first opportunity, aimed for the heart.

The body blocked the blow with a speed and strength she hadn't fought in a while.

"Hey B. Long time, no see."

"Faith?" Buffy was stunned. Faith was in prison. How could she be here? And if she was a vamp, why hadn't she vamped out?

"The world's changing, B. You sure you're where you're supposed to be?" The other slayer grinned, and suddenly Buffy found herself in Angel's old mansion.

A group of seven masked figures sat in the center of the main room, playing cards. Squinting at them she recognised Angel, Dawn, Cordelia, Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow.

"A pair of 9mm semi-automatics." Cordelia placed her hand face up on the table, her tone smug.

"My full auto, crossbow, and sword beat that." Dawn stated, as she placed her cards on the table.

"Uzi, stake, holy water, and the Initiative." Willow showed her cards.

"Holy water, crossbow, and protection spell." Tara laid down her hand.

"Vengence demon, protection spell, stake." Anya threw her hand into the center of the table, disgusted.

"Vengence demon, Vampire, Slayer, Seer." Xander threw his hand onto the table with a triumphant flourish. "I win."

"You got all the good cards!"

"Angel?" Buffy asked hesitantly, unsure of what was going on here.

"Buffy. Things have changed."

"The world is changing." Xander noted.

"Someone's coming." Cordelia added.

"Wanna play?" Offered Willow, holding out a deck of cards.

"It's a game of masks." Dawn informed her.

Movement in the shadows caught her attention, and moved to take a closer look. A hooded figure looked at her silently. A hand reached up to remove the mask.....

*********

Angel awoke around noon. He smiled as he looked down at his still sleeping wife. She was laying partially on him, her head resting on his chest, her arm slung across his body, a leg tangled amongst his. He loved waking up like this, with her in his arms. And more, and more he was. Lia had gradually started to keep more, and more to his sleep/awake cycle during the last few months.

She mumbles something incoherent, and moved restlessly, her hair moving to expose the scar nestled in the crook of her neck and shoulder. His mark. No other vamp would dare touch her now. Lia refered to it as her 'vamp hickey'. Every now and then they'd.. ok..he'd..refresh it, some primal instinctint him driving him to claim her again, and again. She never seemed to mind. Especially seeing as she had managed to draw his blood on more than one occasion. His Lia was a little hellcat.

He smiled as he remembered the last eight months. He was a little suprised that Dennis wanted them to move back into the apartment. During that first month, they had seriously warped the poor man. What could he say? It had been a long time for him. Gradually things had settled down, though. Well, as settled as things could be considering his job, and that he was head over heels for Lia. Even after all these months, she could turn him on with just a look. But now it was easier to handle his frustration. She was his. And at night....day.. he got to sleep with her beside him.

"Wha' you smilling at?" Lia smiled up at him sleepily.

"You."

"Tha's all right then." she stretched up to kiss him, moaning as he deepened the kiss....

CRASH

They sprang apart, startled.

"What the hell was that!?" Lia demanded, now fully awake.

"I don't know." Angle reluctantly climbed out of bed, hurriedly pulled on a pair of pants, and went to investigate.

Lia made it as far as getting out of bed, before her stomach revolted, and she made a beeline for the ensuite. "If I ever find the bastard who gave me this god damned flu, I'm going to kill them." she muttered as she gathered herself together. She hadn't been feeling the best for the last couple of days. Yesterday had been the first day she had thrown up, and she had ended up fighting queasyness and a headache for the rest of the day. Tylenol did absolutely nothing. She opened the medicine chest, pulled out a bottle, and swallowed a couple of multivitamins. If vitamins would get rid of this thing, she would swallow enough capsules to put a hypochondriac to shame, and drink enough juice to turn into an orange.

"Lia, are you ok?" Angel's worried voice reached her from their bedroom.

"I'm fine." she called back.

"You look awfully pale." he noted, entering the bathroom. "Throw up again?"

"How did you...?" She had been going to ask how he knew she had thrown up yesterday, but realised he had a) heard her, and b) felt that something was wrong through their bond. "I think I've got the 'flu."

"Maybe you should see a doctor."

"Why? All he's going to say is that I need to drink plenty of fluid, keep warm, and take some vitamins. I'm already doing that."

"Mmmm." Angel would feel better if she went to a doctor, but he understood why she didn't. She didn't particularly like them, and she was right about what they would tell her. But still.... "If you're feeling no better in a couple of days, you're going to a doctor." Even if he had to drag her kicking and screaming.

Lia was about to protest when she saw the set of Angel's jaw, and the concern in his eyes. "Fine." She sighed. "So, what was the crash?"

This time it was Angel who sighed. "Lisa and Frank were sparring, got a little carried away, and knocked over the shelves in the gym."

"What? How did they manage that?" Those shelves were really heavy, and set firmly against a wall.

"I don't know. I don't want to know. However, the noise did wake Faith up, so now we have a grumpy slayer stalking around." Faith had been parolled yesterday, and they'd offered her a place to stay.

"She's not a morning person, huh?"

"No. I don't think Gunn knows how to take her." Lia lifted a brow. "I'll rephrase. I'm not sure Gunn knows what to make of her."

"So, they introduced each other?"

"If you call Faith dropping him on his ass when he got a little too close for her comfort, introducing themselves... then yes."

*********

Jarod sighed as flopped onto the small motel bed. There wasn't much too this town. He had spent the day driving around town trying to get a feel for the place. He had discovered a couple of bars, clubs, a burnt out school, a University, plenty of residential areas, a respectable shopping precinct, docks, warehouses and a military base. Which had checked out. That base had nothing to do with the Initiative. But that ment that there was another facility somewhere around here. And right now he didn't have a clue as to where. He was going to have to spend some quality time with his laptop and internet connection.

*********

Giles removed his glasses, and absently began to clean them. He had been suprised when Buffy had come to see him regarding her dream. She hadn't had one for several months. Or if she had, she hadn't informed him.

"So, what's the bad?" Buffy asked as she dropped breathlessly onto Giles' couch. She had just gone three rounds with the training dummy.

"I don't know." Giles sighed, and rubbed his eyes. When Buffy had mentioned the masks in her dream, he had immediately thought of the Game of Masks prophecy. A contact in Paris had sent him a copy a couple of months ago, and it had stuck with him, mainly because he couldn't figure out what the hell it ment. And he still couldn't. "When the Game of Masks, nears it's end,
And the time of unveiling comes,
Together stand the Warriors and their clans.

In each of the two, stands a wronged,
And those who would be wronged,
With the arrival of another, the time is at hand.

Of Sight, of Light and Dark,
Of Vengence, of Masks and Knowledge,
Sorcery and Allies, complete the First.

Of Healing wronged, of Weather,
Of Death's Touch, and Allies,
The second of Masks and Knowledge,
Complete the Second.

Unexpected to Hell's Slayer, the First,
Unknown to Hell's Slayer, the Second

Unclear the First at prophecy's end.
Two clans depart, 'Til Rebirth." Giles read aloud. "The only thing here that has any connection to you is the paragraph about Hell's Slayer. And I don't have a clue what it means."

"Obviously something is about to happen. Why else the dream?" Buffy pointed out.

"Was there anything else in the dream, other than the card game?" Giles asked, desperate for any detail which might shed some light on this.

"Faith crawling out of a grave." Buffy shrugged. "And the card game was really weird."

"Weird how?"

"The cards were weapons and stuff." Buffy couldn't see how this was important. "Xander won."

"Xander won?"Giles was puzzled. He knew that even the smallest thing in a slayer dream could have the greatest import. Unfortunately he had never been able to make Buffy understand that.

"With a really weird hand. Um.. A Vengence demon, a Vampire, a Slayer, and a Seer."

"Vengence demon.... seer...." Giles had a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Buffy? Do you know where Anya and Xander are?"

*********

Logan slammed the motel door behind him. He had arrived in Sunnydale around noon, and having gotten some sleep, and having a shower he felt almost human.

Now he was ready to check out what sort of nightlife this little town had.

*********

Spike fought the urge to break down the door, as he tried for the third time to pick the lock. He knew that once he opened this bloody door, he would have no problem getting into the house. Anya and Xander had invited him in when he had helped them move, and they hadn't bothered to remove the invite. Why was he even here? The watcher had asked him to check if Anya and Xander were home after they had been unable to contact them, but he could have done that with a phone call. So why was he picking this damned lock?

Click

Finally the lock gave, and Spike let himself into the house. A deep breath confirmed that the couple weren't home. Their scent wasn't strong enough. Damn. Part of him had hoped that they would be home.

"You know that this is illegal entry, right?" a voice from behind him spoke up. He whirled around to see Dawn, the Slayer's little sister, standing in the doorway.

"Bloody Hell!"

"So much for your boasting about knowing what's going on around you." she noted with a smirk.

"Damn it pet, what are you doing out, roaming the streets after dark? You know better." Something about this girl, brought out the protective instincts in him. As well as other, more primal instincts. If the Slayer knew about that, he'd be dust faster than he could say, oh shit.

"Felt like going out." she shrugged.

"Then where's Slutty? Or your mum?"

Dawn got an annoyed look on her face. "They don't know I'm gone. And I can take care of myself, pet"

He considered her for a moment. She probably could too. "So why you here?"

"Saw you pick the lock." she took a couple of steps into the room. "You know, don't you?"

"Know what, pet?"

"About the Game of Masks. The end of the game is near. Buffy may loose her friends if they don't take care."

"What do you know about it?"

A mysterious smile formed on her lips. "I know all about it. 'Unexpected to Hell's Slayer, the First,
Unknown to Hell's Slayer, the Second. Unclear the First at prophecy's end.'"she quoted. "No one is sure how this will play out."

Great. She wasn't any help. He bet he'd get an answer that would make more sense from the oracles. "Do you know who the players are?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet?"

"No, I bloody well haven't!"

"Then why are you here?"

"Figured the Vengance bit, had to do with Anya. Since the Slayer and Watcher are trying to get in touch with them, I thought I'd check if they were here."

"You could have just knocked, you know." she sounded amused.

"All right, I knew they weren't here. I don't know where they are. I figured maybe I'd find something that would make this damned thing make some sense!" Damn the chit anyway. How could she see through him like that?

"They'll be home soon. They're going to have visitors."

"Visitors? Who?" He was beginning to get very frustrated with her mysterious smirk. Who was she? The Mona Lisa? The smirk deepened, but she didn't answer. He lent back his head and let out a frustrated growl. As he straightend up again, a flashing light caught his attention. It was the light on the answering machine, signalling that there were messages. His curiosity getting the better of him, he rewound the tape, and hit play.

"Xander? Are you there? I'm really hoping that you guys are there. Hello? Xander, Anya, if you're there, pick up. It's important. Damn. Ok, look, I've called your mobile and left a message on your voice mail. Please, call us asap! It's really important."

Spike raised his eyebrows. That sounded like the cheerleader who was working for his poofy grand-sire.

*Beep*

"Damn it Xander, I'm not joking! This is really important. Either pick up the damn phone, turn your mobile on, or CALL US! I've left another three messages on your god damned voice mail, and I'm getting really sick of talking to your god damned machines!"

The agitation in the cheerleader's voice had risen.

*Beep*

"Xapper if you don't answer one of your god damned messages, I swear to god, I'll stuff this bloody answering machine down your god damned throat! Me, vision. You, in trouble. Get your ass home. And CALL US!"

Vision? What did she mean vision? And what was this about trouble?

*Beep*

"Xander? It's Buffy. When you get this, can you give me a call? We've found another prophecy. Giles thinks it has something to do with Anya. Thanks."

The bloody slayer didn't sound too concerned. After the frantic phone calls from the cheerleader, it was jarring.

*Beep*

Xander? Angel. It's just on dark. Lia is going nuts. She had a vision that you're in trouble. And since we can't contact you..... We're on our way to Sunnydale. Both of you be careful."

The poof? Coming here? Oh bloody hell!

As the beep sounded to signal the end of the messages, Spike heard movement out the front of the house.

Dawn was smug. "As I said. Visitors."

********

Angel paused on the doorstep, sensing a familiar presence. "What's he doing here?" he muttered, puzzled.

"Who?"

"Spike."

Lia grasped the crossbow more firmly. "We won't find out standing out here." Angel opened the door, and they entered the house.

Spike noted that the Moron must have invited the poof in at some time, as he felt his grand-sire enter the house. At the same time he smelled a scent that reminded him strongly of the cheerleader. But if it was her, something had happened. Her scent had changed... Oh Hell!

"Spike, what are you doing here?" Angel asked warily, as he entered the room. "Dawn!" a huge grin spread across his face, and he hugged the younger woman. "How are you?"

"I'm good. So are you, I see." Her mysterious smile had been replaced by a knowing one.

"Certainly can't complain."

"Good to see you, Dawn. How's life treating you?" Spike watched as the cheerleader had lowered the crossbow as it had become apparent that he wasn't about to attack them. Damn it all to bloody hell! What was it with this lot? Ok, so he'd tried to kill them all a couple of times. He hadn't done anything like that in more than a year. Didn't he get time off for good behaviour?

"Not as good as it's treating you, obviously." Dawn grinned, raising an eyebrow at the bite mark visible on the cheerleader's neck. Damn. The poof had done that? Maybe he wasn't quite as soft as he'd thought. The cheerleader flushed lightly, and grinned.

"Anya and Xander home?"

"They'll be back soon."

"You didn't answer the question Spike. What are you doing here?"

"That's what I want to know." The moron's voice spoke up from behind Angel.

"The Slayer and the Watcher have found out that the Game of Masks prophecy is about to play itself out. They think it has something to do with Anya, and have been trying to get in touch with you." Perhaps if he got straight to the point, they would miss the fact that he didn't have a key to the place.

"So you picked the lock to get in? Why?" Anya grinned at the shock on Spike's face.

"I have to point out Fangless, you're not very good at it." Xander added. "Lia does it much better."

"What!?" That came from Angel and Spike.

"You pick locks?" Angel asked incredulously.

"Xander!" Lia glared at her friend. "Yes." she admitted. "Had to a couple of times, to get back into the house." Lia looked a little emabarrased.

"All right. You have to teach me how to do that." Dawn grinned.

"NO!" Angel, Spike, and Xander yelled in unison.

********

"So what's this about a prophecy?" Angel asked, lounging back on Xander's couch, Lia's head in his lap, a cup of coffee in his hand. Once they had been reassured that Xander and Anya were fine, and in no immediate danger, everyone had relaxed, grabbed a seat, and a drink, and begun talking. He had been reassured by Dawn, that Spike wasn't going to try anything. Although if he tried anything, Dawn would probably pull him up. There was something going on between those two....

"The Game of Masks prophecy." Dawn confirmed.

Anya's brow furrowed. "Doesn't that have something to do with clans?"

"When the Game of Masks, nears it's end,
And the time of unveiling comes,
Together stand the Warriors and their clans.

In each of the two, stands a wronged,
And those who would be wronged,
With the arrival of another, the time is at hand.

Of Sight, of Light and Dark,
Of Vengence, of Masks and Knowledge,
Sorcery and Allies, complete the First.

Of Healing wronged, Of Weather,
Of Death's Touch, and Allies,
The second of Masks and Knowledge,
Complete the Second.

Unexpected to Hell's Slayer, the First,
Unknown to Hell's Slayer, the Second

Unclear the First at prophecy's end.
Two clans depart, 'Til Rebirth." Dawn quoted.

"I think the first clan is us." Lia mused.

"Lia?"

"Of Vengence? That has to be Anya. Of Light and Dark? I'd bet that's you."

"Of Sight. A seer. That's you Lia." Angel added slowly.

"Masks and knowledge would be Xander."

"The sorcery bit would be Wills and Tara." Anya pointed out. Seeing the 'Are-you-sure?' looks directed at her she sighed. "Why is it, than whenever sorcery is mentioned, people automatically assume that they're male? Sorceress' people! Some of the strongest masters of sorcery have been female!"

"What about the second clan?" Lia asked. "Any ideas? 'Cause quite frankly, I'm stumped."

There were various replies in the negative.

"Why not ask the Kid?" Spike spoke up, from around a cigarette. "She said she knew all about it. Didn't you pet?"

"Spike, if you call me pet, one more time... I'll stuff those god damned fags so far down your throat, you'll be smoking out your arse!" Dawn bit out, annoyed by his continual use of 'pet' names for her. She hated being called Kid.

The whole room went silent in shock. Then Lia began giggling at the imagery that brought to mind. Anya had a proud look on her face, as if to say, 'that's my girl!'. Xander had buried his head in Anya's shoulder, and his body was shaking with supressed laughter. Angel had to bite the inside of his cheek, to stop himself laughing at the expression on Spike's face. His Grand-Childe had been so shocked his cigarette had fallen out of his mouth. He was staring at Dawn in stunned amazement.

"What did I say?" he managed, in a hurt tone.

"Don't call me kid, and don't call me pet." she ground out. "Do I look like a stray cat to you?" she glared at him. "The name's Dawn. Try remembering it."

"If you insist. Dawn." Spike emphasised the name. "Why don't you us about the prophecy, since you know so much about it." Damned if she didn't have fire in her. And here he'd been beginning to think that the Slayer had smothered it.

"Can't. I can confirm what you already know, but I can't tell you any details."

"Oh I hate those." Lia grumbled.

"Are you sure you don't work for the Oracles?" Angel asked frustrated.

"It's like school." Xander groaned. "There's always one person who's like 'Gee, I know all the answers, but I can't tell you, it's better if you figure it out for yourself.'"

"I don't know all the answers!" Dawn protested. "I mean details. You know what I mean. I know who's involved, kinda. And I have a rough idea what's going to happen. A very, very rough idea. Basically? No-one knows how this is going to end."

"Oh, that's comforting." Lia sat up. "Well, since I had the mind-numbing-skull-crunching vision of Xander being chased by some very strange people, let's assume that he's the wronged guy."

"I was being chased?" Xander was horrified. The first thing that jumped into his mind was that the Centre had found him. He must have gotten lax somewhere along the line.

"By a black guy with a very large gun." Lia confirmed. "And an off the rack suit."

"Shit!" He recognised that description. Mr Wheezy's lackey, Willie.

Angel saw the look of recognition in Xander's eyes. "The Centre?"

"Sounds like Doc Wheezy's personal sweeper, Willie."

"Bad guys?"

"Very bad guys." Xander confirmed. "Likes kidnapping people, preferably children, and conducting experiments on them."

"Which could be the reason I saw a pair of jumper cables." Lia mused.

"Nooo..." Xander didn't like the sound of this. He had seen the footage Angelo had sent him of Jarod. "That would be Lyle. One of Doc Wheezy's experiments gone horribly wrong, or terrifyingly right, dependant on your point of view. Likes torturing people by 'jump starting' them."

"Is it too late to decide we don't want to do this, and run?" Lia asked, half serious. This was beginning to sound weirder and infinitely more disturbing, than fighting demons.

"Knowing our luck, we'd run right into them." Anya pointed out.

"And they would have a field day with this group." Xander felt compelled to inform them. "I mean, what do we have here? An ex-vengence demon, who still knows her stuff, a seer, a vampire...uh two vampires," he corrected himself as Spike glared at him. "a pretender, and ...uh..Dawn. I'm sorry honey, I haven't got a clue how to classify you. Key girl?" He gave her a small apologetic smile. "But it's a safe bet that they'd love to get their hands on you anyway."

"Oh, gee. So nice to be wanted."

"I guess that's what the prophecy means." Spike noted. "'And those who would be wronged.'"

"So if Xander is Masks and Knowledge," Angel began. "and he's a pretender, does that mean that we're about to meet another one?"

"Huh?"

"'Second of Masks and Knowledge'" he quoted. "Does that mean another pretender?"

"The only other pretender that I know about... Well the only other trained pretender I know of, outside of the Centre, is Jarod." Xander muttered thoughtfully. "He's been leading the Centre on a merry chase around the country for the last few years. If he's coming here...."

"They won't be far behind." Anya finished. She sighed. "I really wish I still had my powers."

********

Logan glanced around the bar in confusion. This had to qualify as the strangest bar he'd ever been to. If it weren't for his sense of smell telling him that the patrons weren't human, he might think that this was a mutant bar. Cautiously he approached the bar. A nervous looking man stood behind it, watching him.

"What can I get ya'?"

"Beer. Information." Logan growled out.

"One beer coming up. As for the information? That depends on what you want to know." The bartender poured a beer.

"Ever hear of something called the Initiative?"

Suddenly the bar was dead quiet.

"That would depend on why you're asking."

"They have something I want."

"And what would that be?"

"Information."

"What kind?"

"None of your damned business."

The bartender studied him for a moment. "Whatever it is buddy, let it go. The facility here is closed now, but anything to do with the Initiative is bad news."

"I didn't ask for your opinion." A warning growl rumbled in his throat as a threatening looking... uh well Logan wasn't sure what is was... sidled up beside him.

"So you're interested in the Initiative?" It wasn't just this guys looks that was threatening.

"What of it?"

"I don't feel like being hunted by the likes of you." the stranger sneered. Grasping Logan's shoulder, he roughly yanked, spinning Logan around... and was brought up short as long, cold, metal claws erupted from Logan's hands, and were placed against his neck and midsection.

"That was a really bad move." Logan growled.

*********

"You shouldn't be out after dark."

Dawn whirled around at the sound of Buffy's voice. Damn. Caught climbing back into the house through her bedroom window. She was gonna cop it now. "I can take care of myself." Her chin came up in defiance.

"So, how long have you known?"

"Known what?" This wasn't what Dawn had been expecting.

"The prophecy? Key girl?" Buffy raised one eyebrow.

"Eavesdropping?" Dawn raised one of her eyebrows. "That's not very nice."

Buffy shrugged. "I got curious when I saw Angel and Cordelia at Xander's. How long have you known?"

"That I'm not actually your sister? Since a couple of months after I arrived. I began noticing a difference between my memories, and the memories given to me. They felt different."

"You figured it out because your memories felt different?"

"And I knew things. Things I couldn't possibly know. I can quote prophecies I've never seen, let alone read. And I can just tell if someone is not entirely normal. Like that Wills and Tara are stronger than even they realise, and Tara isn't exactly normal human. Or that Anya still has traces of her powers. She doesn't know that by the way."

Buffy processed this quietly. "What about the prophecy?"

Dawn sighed, and sank onto her bed. "You mentioned a prophecy earlier, and it was like a lightbulb over my head. Suddenly I knew what it was about, and I knew that it involved Xander and Anya. Other information about it keeps popping into my head. Usually after someone else has already figured it out. It's like I'm confirmation girl."

"You couldn't have come to me or Giles with this?" Buffy was a little hurt that Dawn hadn't told her about this before.

"What would you have done?" Dawn asked pointedly. "You and Giles would have gone into overprotect mode, I'd never get any time alone."

Buffy winced, remembering when she had felt that way about her Mom and Giles. "I could have done...something. Anything."

Dawn sighed again. "Buffy, you can't fight this for me. It's just the way I am. And you can't fight this for them, either. You might be able to help but... What they're about to go up against? Human. Not demon."

"I hate this." Buffy collapsed onto the bed beside Dawn. "People chasing Xander? Why? What is this all about?"

"That's for Xander to tell you. You'll probably find out tomorrow."

Buffy glared at Dawn, frustrated. "Ok, then. Mind telling me what you were doing out so late, without me, mom or Giles with you?"

Breath exploded from Dawn as she lept off the bed. "I'll have you know that I'm more than capable of taking care of myself!" She spun to face Buffy. "They didn't leave me totally defenseless, you know."

"No I don't. You won't talk to me!"

"Why bother? You don't seem to hear what I say anyway! I don't know if you've realised this or not, but you tend to get so wrapped up in your own life, that you don't seem to see anyone else." Dawn pointed out sharply. "Not that we could really blame you this year, with mom and all. But still. You get tunnel vision, and we don't know how to get through to you."

Buffy thought on that for awhile. She'd done it again hadn't she? She'd done what she'd promised not to when they'd defeated Adam. Gotten so wrapped up in her own life, her own problems, that she had stopped paying attention to her friends. To Dawn. Damn. Now what was she supposed to do?

"You could try listening for a change." Dawn's voice made her realise that she'd spoken the words out loud. A small smile crossed her lips as she recalled that Giles had said the exact same thing five years ago. The smile grew as a thought occured to her. "You really threatened Spike?"

**********

Angel and Xander approached Willie's cautiously. Lia had had a vision of a guy in trouble here. Not really suprising. Trouble was easy to find at Willie's. The noise emanating from the bar let them know that Angel's next rescuee had already managed to find it.

CRASH The sound of breaking glass made itself heard over the shouting.

Angel and Xander shared a look, before taking a deep breath and entering a mad house.

They both froze at the door. Whoever this guy was, it didn't look like he needed their help. Three demons lay unconscious on the floor, at least they thought they were unconscious. A vampire was slowly, and from the looks of it, painfully, pulling himself up from behind the bar, where he had been thrown. That would have been the cause of the the broken glass and spilt liquor covering the bar. The mirror that lined the wall was now in about a million pieces. Nobody would be seeing their reflection in that anytime soon.

Willie was huddled behind the bar, and around the room, patrons were either huddled into their chairs trying to become invisible, or beating a hasty retreat. No way were they going to stick around with this maniac on the loose!

In the center of the room, in a defensive ready stance stood a man in jeans, a black t-shirt and a denim jacket. Everything about him screamed 'don't-f***-with-me". And that definetly included the metal claws that extended from the man's knuckles. Unfortunately there was one vampire who wasn't getting the message.

He snarled and attacked, ploughing into the man, tackling him around the waist. The man simply hit the ground, then rolled, up and over his head, to his feet, and stood over the suprised vamp.

Xander's jaw dropped open in suprise as he got a look at the man's face. "Logan?!"

Logan cocked his head in the direction of the person who called his name. The vampire below him took instant advantage of the momentary distraction, sweeping Logan's feet out from under him, and springing to his feet. He morphed into his game face, snarled and attacked the prone form.

Logan's jaw dropped as his attacker suddenly disintegrated into dust. He coughed as the dust got in his face. As his vision cleared, he saw a tall figure in a black duster standing over him.

"You ok?"

"Fine." He climbed to his feet, and regarded the stranger cautiously. "What the hell was that? Sure as hell wasn't human. Or a mutant." Logan inhaled again. "And neither are you." He brought his claws up in a defensive posture.

"Ok. Time out!" A young man stepped between them, making a T sign with his hands. "Logan, this is Angel. He's here to help. And he's my friend. I'd appreaciate it if you didn't try to slice and dice my friends. So can you sheath those please?"

Logan and Angel both stared at Xander. "You know me?"

"You know this guy?" They spoke as one.

"Who the hell are you?" Logan added.

"You don't remember me?" Xander was puzzled for a moment. "Oh of course you don't. I was only five at the time." he muttered under his breath. "It's a bit of a long story. Here is not the best place to go into it." Xander informed him louder. "What are you doing here?"

"Asking questions about the Initiative." Willie spoke up, from behind the bar. He got a good look at the damage done to his establishment and moaned in pain. Oh man, this was going to cost a fortune to repair! "That's what got him into trouble. Phygos took it as a threat. He won't be doing that again." Willie looked disgustedly at the corpse of the dead demon. "Since he's your friend, Harris, you can tell him what he wants to know." Willie glared at the small group. "Now get the hell out of my bar!"

Xander took a look at the mess, and decided to do as Willie demanded.

**********

Broots looked up as he heard the statacco clicking of Miss Parker's heels enter the room.

"M..morning Miss Parker."

"What is it that's so important, that requires you to wake me at 5.00 in the morning?" Miss Parker ground out. The nervous techie had called her at a god forsaken hour this morning, and she hadn't been able to get back to sleep. She was not in a good mood.

"I discovered this last night while I was doing a security check of the mainfraime." He handed her a manila folder. She opened it, and glanced at the sheet of paper inside.

"Canada?"

"Well, closer to the Yukon actually. It's a base similar to the arctic station where they were doing the Gemini research. It was abandoned a few years ago."

"So why are you bringing it to my attention now?" Parker demanded.

"Some of the security surveillance equiptment is still in place. Two days ago it picked up an intruder."

"Jarod?"

"Don't know. Whoever it was accessed one of the computers and found this." He brought the file up on the computer. "It's all that was remaining after the hard drives were wiped."

"Where did you get this?"

"A cleaning team was sent up there yesterday. I intercepted the report."

"So what's this Initiative? A Centre project?"

"Kinda. It was a military project that the Centre supported. In return they sent back some truly bizarre information." Broots shivered at the thought of what the reports contained. "A little over a year ago, everything went to hell in a handbasket, and the project was shut down."

"Get to the point Broots."

"Jarod knows about it. His last pretend? He accessed the military files on the project."

"So he'll be investigating." A predatory smile crossed Miss Parker's face. "At least we'll know where he'll be."

"And so does the team your father sent out last night."

"What?!" Parker's voice lowered dangerously.

Broots passed her another file. Parker opened it to find Centre travel records. Lyle.

"Get the jet ready."

*********

"Would ya mind telling me again why we're doing this?" Rogue drawled, as the SUV glided through the small town.

"Because the Professor wanted us to?" Jubilation Lee, better known as Jubilee, asked.

"What is so great about this mutant anyway?" Bobby Drake asked the exotic woman behind the wheel. "Why are we doing this, and not more of the X-Men?"

"Because the Professer asked you to." The woman known as Storm explained patiently, for the fifth time. "And because she'd probably react to people her own age better than a group of strange adults."

"And you don't get stranger than some of our adults." Kitty Pryde muttered under her breath.

"I heard that Kitty." Storm glared at the teenager in the rearview mirror.

"Well it's true!" Kitty defended. "I mean, hello? Mr. Summers? We're about to go undercover at university, and he's giving us homework!? When are we going to have time to do it?" she demanded, outraged.

Storm supressed a smile at the teenagers reactions, silently agreeing with them. Cyclops could be a little.... stiff at times.

"We can always look at it this way." Rogue spoke up. "At least when we get back to Westchester, we'll be ahead of everyone else. Maybe we'll be allowed to skip a few classes."

"Not Mr. Summer's classes, I bet." Bobby grumbled, idly forming an ice rose in his hand. Jubilee instantly melted it by shooting a spark from her finger tips at it.

"Hey!" Bobby protested. Jubilee poked her tongue out at him.

"Ok, you two. That's enough. We're almost there." Storm broke up yet another brewing argument between the two teens. "This looks like the place." She pulled up out front of a large, sprawling building. Students were milling around, lounging on the grass, some reading chunky texts.

Rogue took a look at the University in front of her. Did she really have to do this? She still felt uncomfortable when there were more than a few people around her. Being able to kill people with a touch tended to make her a little paranoid in crowds.

"Congratulations, guys." Storm grinned at their discomfort. "You are now enrolled at UC Sunnydale."

*********

Jarod looked out onto a sea of faces. He could see at least four who were asleep, and probably thought he couldn't tell.

THWACK THUD

He dropped the heavy psychology volume on the desk, startling the whole class, and waking up the sleepers. Well, at least it was good for something.

"Good morning class. My name is Jarod Green, and I'll be taking this class until a permanent replacement for Professor Walsh is found." A redhead in the second row muttered something under her breath. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Yesterday Jarod had spent some time going over all the Initiative files he had a copy of. An interesting pattern had emerged. Nearly all of the Initiative personel either attended or worked for UC Sunnydale. That had to be more than coincidence. So he had gotten a job here. With so many of the Initiative personel spending the majority of their time here, the Initiative base had to be close by. This gave him the perfect excuse for looking.

**********

"Any luck?" Bobby asked Kitty as they slid their trays onto an empty table.

"No." Kitty snorted. "This would be going better if the Professor supplied a picture, don't you think?"

"Nah," Jubilee joined them. "that would make things too easy." She poked suspiciously at a mound of... well the sign had said pasta salad, but it more resembled the blob of gloop they'd had to analyse in Chem class.

"Ah saw a couple of girls floating pencils in the Library." Rogue drawled as she sat down.

"So mission finished? We pick them up and go home?" Bobby asked hopefully. He'd had a really bad morning. The math professor had surprised everyone with a pop quiz. Bobby had been so nervous he'd accidentally frozen the test paper. The professor was going to be really surprised when he finally came across the waterlogged paper.

"No. First of all, there were two of them. And I couldn't tell who was doing the floating." Rogue informed them. "Second, I don't think telekinesis was the power this one's supposed to have." Rouge's face screwed up as she tasted the pasta salad.

"Yeah, didn't the Prof. say she was like Sparky?" Bobby grinned at the reaction that got from Jubilee.

"Call me that one more time, you walking slushy machine, and I'll shoot a sparkler where the sun don't shine." she threatened, in a fair imitation of Wolverine's growl. Bobby shut up, but kept grinning.

"At least it gives us a place to start." Kitty said, as she glared at Bobby. "So who were they?"

***********

"This is where the Initiative was based?" Miss Parker stared out the windsheild of the rental they were sitting in, at the main building of UC Sunnydale. "At a university? Who's brilliant idea was that?"

"I..I don't know Miss Parker. But this is the location given for the Initiative in the Centre's files." Broots glanced nervously at the woman in the driver's seat. "According to the files, there's an entrance in one of the frat houses."

"Wonderful." Parker sighed. "Found where Lyle and his sweepers are staying?"

"Umm.. Local motel. Three Flags Motor Inn."

"What about Jarod? Any sign of wonderboy?"

"Umm, no, not really."

"Broots."

Broots sighed at the warning in her voice. "I can't find where he's staying, but a new psych professor just started at the University." Broots shot a glance at Sydney. "Jarod Green."

"He's in there?" Parker gestured with her head, to the building across the road. "What are we waiting for?"

************

Buffy burst into Giles', and came to a sudden stop when she noticed the people sitting on the couch. She'd been anxious to talk to Giles about Dawn, and this prophecy. She'd expected to see Angel, Cordelia and Xander here, but she hadn't expected the strange man, sitting uncomfortably in one of Giles' recliners. He looked as if he were about to bolt at the slightest thing.

"Hi Giles. Angel, Lia. What are you guys doing here?" Willow greeted cheerfully as she entered the condo, Tara just behind her.

"Vision. Xapper in trouble. Here we are." Lia informed her.

Willow paled. "Xander's in trouble?" She looked to Giles "That's what you needed to see us for?" She noticed the stranger, and a puzzled frown crossed her face. "Who are you?"

"That's what I was about to ask." Buffy informed her.

"This is Logan. He's a friend of Xander's." Giles sighed, and cleaned his glasses. "Logan, this is Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenburg and Tara Maclay."

Logan regarded the teenagers closely. He'd swear that one of them was mutant. "Summers? You aren't related to anyone named Scott, are you?" That would be just his luck. To get stuck with one of one-eye's relations.

"Scott?" Buffy's brow furrowed as she thought about it. "I have a cousin Scott." she offered. " Grandpa and Dad don't talk about him much. Last we heard he was working as a teacher somewhere in New York."

"Westchester." Logan growled out. Great. This was just great. What's the betting she'd be as annoying as Cyke? Probably a perky, all-american, perfect boyfriend, perfect life, annoying teenager. He looked at the three teens again. All were slender, and petite. What's the betting they couldn't handle themselves in a fight if their lives depended on it?

Willow squirmed under Logan's gaze. Something about him reminded her of Spike. Probably the way he was sizing them up, assuming that they were no threat, and generally finding them lacking, based on whatever criteria he had in his head.

"Logan." Steel ran through Xander's voice. "Play nice with my friends."

"Look kid, first off, I don't take orders from you. Thanks for the info on the Initiative place last night, but second, I don't know you from Adam, so how the hell do you know me?"

"I'll tell you when everyone gets here." Xander sighed. "I only want to have to go through this once."

"They're here already!" Logan growled out, frustrated, at the same time as Dawn and Anya arrived.

"Go through what once?" Dawn asked.

"The Centre Q&A session." Lia informed her.

"Oh, cool." Dawn grinned. A puzzled expression passed her face as she caught a look at Logan. It cleared after a moment though, and her lips curled in a mysterious smile.

"Everyone grab a seat." Xander started. "This is going to take a while."

**********

"You're telling us, you're a genius?" Buffy asked in disbelief. "Xander you only just scraped through high school!"

"For two reasons. A) It was as boring as hell, and B) I already knew it. So I didn't bother doing most the homework."

"What about all those study sessions with Willow?"

Willow looked a little embarrased, while Xander's face lit up with devilish amusement. "You wouldn't believe some of the stuff we got up to during those!"

"Xander!"

"I still can't believe we got away with most of that stuff." Willow muttered.

"What kind of stuff?" Giles asked, not really sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Did you know that our wonderful principal demon chow, had two off shore bank accounts?" Xander asked. "Or that, a five year old could access said bank accounts, and make alot of people very happy?"

"What!?"

"Well, actually that was Wills idea. I voted for exaggerating his fraud and sending an annonymous tip to the IRS. I was outvoted. Actually, come to think of it, I got outvoted an awful lot during those sessions." Xander glared at Willow in mock annoyance.

"Xander?" Willow smiled sweetly at him. "Bite me. Think of it as justice for Mr. Raithway." Xander began laughing.

"Mr Raithway?" Tara asked puzzled. She hadn't heard this one.

"That was you guys?!" Lia sat up straighter, her mouth open in shock.

"Uh..hello? Explanations please? For those of us who don't have a clue who you're talking about?"

"Mr Raithway was our grade six teacher. We all hated him with a passion." Willow informed them.

"He ranked right up there with Snyder the troll." Lia added.

"Final day of school came, and we decided we'd play a trick on him. It was pretty standard stuff."

Xander joined in. "It was all Wills' idea."

"Super Glue!" Willow protested. "I said super glue! We were going to superglue him to his seat." she explained.

"Only I couldn't find superglue. So I improvised." Xander shrugged.

"With thumbtacks?!"

Lia began laughing at the memory. "He jumped so high, he must have set a record."

"He didn't sit down for the rest of the day." Xander reported gleefully.

Logan supressed a smile, as he pictured Cyke in Mr Raithway's place. Maybe if he asked Marie nicely.....

"Yes, well.." Giles muttered. "So if you were abducted by the Centre, how did you escape?"

"Angelo."

"Huh?"

"Angelo. He's an empath who lives at the Centre. He basically has the run of the place. There was a fire on our level, SL-27," Logan's head snapped up. "and in the confusion, he got me out through the ventilation system."

"SL-27?" Logan asked suspiciously.

"Yeah." Xander sighed. "It stands for Sub-Level 27. It's the lowest level of the Centre. That's how I know you."

"I was there?"

"Yep. They were running some kind of experiments on you, testing how fast you healed, that kind of thing. You were moved about a month before the fire. I never saw you again."

"Do you know what they did?"

Xander paused. He guessed it had something to do with the metal claws he'd seen Logan using last night. And that ment that that they had used that sim.... "Not exactly." he hedged, and pulled out a small metallic disk. "Angelo sent me this when I contacted him last night, though." He handed Logan the disk.

"So Angelo's your email buddy in Delaware?" Lia asked. "Your emailing someone at the Centre? Xander, if they find out...."

"No, that's Broots. Angelo and I... well we kind of give each other a heads up when necessary."

"So what is this?" Logan studied the silver disk.

"It's a DSA. Digital Surveilance Archive. My guess is, that it's the feed from the cameras when they were doing the experiments on you. You'll need to find someone with a DSA player to view it though. I don't have one."

The room was silent for a moment. "So why are you telling us this now?" Giles inquired. "You could have told us about this at anytime. Why now?"

"The prophecy." Anya told him.

"What prophecy?" Willow and Tara asked in unison, while Logan just looked at them in puzzlement.

"When the Game of Masks, nears it's end,
And the time of unveiling comes,
Together stand the Warriors and their clans.

In each of the two, stands a wronged,
And those who would be wronged,
With the arrival of another, the time is at hand.

Of Sight, of Light and Dark,
Of Vengence, of Masks and Knowledge,
Sorcery and Allies, complete the First.

Of Healing wronged, Of Weather,
Of Death's Touch, and Allies,
The second of Masks and Knowledge,
Complete the Second.

Unexpected to Hell's Slayer, the First,
Unknown to Hell's Slayer, the Second

Unclear the First at prophecy's end.
Two clans depart, 'Til Rebirth." Dawn quoted again. Giles looked sharply at her. How had she known that?

"We know who the first clan is." Anya continued. "It's us. Lia, Angel, me, Xander, Wills and Tara. Not too sure about the Allies bit, but we're assuming that it's you and Buffy. Maybe Spike, if we bribe him."

"And seeing how the other we're waiting on is Jarod, and given your healing abilities, I'd bet that you're the healing wronged person in the second clan." Xander informed Logan. "So, any ideas who this weather person is? Or Death's touch?"

Logan swore, leapt out of the chair and began pacing. Xander looked questioningly, one eybrow raised.

"You know something." Angel observed.

"Sounds like Storm and Rouge. Damn. How did they get involved in this?" Logan stopped short, and glared at the people in the room. "Come to mention it, how did I get involved in this."

"Well...." Xander started.

"That's something I'd also like to know." Giles added. "But first things first. You know about the prophecy?"

"Yeah. Dawn and Spike filled us in last night. Deadboy," Xander grinned as Angel growled. "and Lia turned up on our doorstep, after Lia had a vision of me getting chased by the Centre's goon squads."

"Goon squads?"

"Sweeper teams. Basically MIB yes men with muscle. Think evil secret service and you'll be on the right track."

"Wonderful!" Logan bit out. "So what's all this about a god damned prophecy? How the hell do you know about us?"

"Well that's something...." Giles began.

"Giles." Dawn interupted. "Tell him. All of it. He won't beileve us otherwise." Her voice rang with authority.

***********

"Vampires and Demons?" Logan asked in disbelief. Then thought about it. It would explain the strange patrons of Willie's. "Oh."

"You took that awfully well." Buffy was suprised.

"That's because he introduced himself at Willie's last night." Angel told her.

"You're the one who busted up Willie's?" Spike asked in disgust. He had joined the Scooby gang during the Watcher's "Contrary-to-popular-belief-this-world-did-not-start-out-as-a-paradise" speech. Damn. The one place he could go, and still cause mayhem, and hairy-growly guy busts up the place! Willie had closed the bar for repairs. Now what was he supposed to do for fun?

"What can I say? Someone took offense at something I said, and started a fight. I finished it." Logan shrugged. "So this town draws demons to it?"

"Like ants to sugar." Tara confirmed.

"God damn it! I don't want Marie anywhere near this place."

Buffy and Willow stiffened. "Um...did you say Marie?" Willow asked nervously.

"Yeah, why?" he asked suspiciously.

"There was a new girl in psych today. Her name was Marie."

"Covered head to toe, southern accent, brown hair with a shock of white at the front." Buffy described. "Was pretty chummy with a group of other newbies."

Logan swore again, at the same time Cordelia cried out and clutched her head.

***********

Miss Parker swallowed a mouth fun of scotch, and leaned her head back on the headboard. They'd found that Jarod had indeed gotten a job at UC Sunnydale. However they'd been informed by a highly suspicious and slightly hostile woman at the office, theat he had already left for the day by the time they'd gotten there.

And Broots had still not been able to find where wonderboy was staying.

Well they'd just have to wait until tomorrow. Parker smiled as visions of returning Jarod to the Centre and gaining her freedom, danced in her head. It may never come true, but she could dream.

A shout from outside captured her attention, and she cocked her head to listen.

"Jarod!"

Parker shot up, spilling the remainder of her drink. Grabbing her gun, she bolted for the door.

************

Angel, Logan and Buffy tumbled out of Spike's DeSoto in front of the Three Flags Motel. Buffy flexed her hand to ease the mucles. She'd been holding on to the window frame so hard, she was suprised it didn't have her fingerprints indented into the surface. If Spike was driving back, she was walking.

Spike grinned at the shaken expression on his passenger's faces. That was fun. He was going to have to do that again.

"So what's the plan?" Buffy asked.

"Find this guy, get him out of here before the goon squad finds him." Angel froze as he scanned the motel. Too late. "Damn."

"What do you know? MIB's. Just like the kid said." Logan allowed himself a small smile as the andrenalin began to flow, in anticipation of a fight.

"Jarod!"

A man dressed in black jeans, black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket froze for an instant, then took off.

"Spike, stay with the car, get ready to go." Angel ordered, then went after the fleeing man.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Spike was pissed off. Why didn't he get to beat the crap out of someone? Oh yeah. They were human, and it would set off his chip. Damn. He gunned the engine, and waited.

************

Jarod froze the moment he heard his name called out. Then he recognised the voice. Shit. With a quick glance to find where the sweepers were, he took off. Using the car was out of the question, he'd never get to it before they got to him. He ran along the balcony of the second story rooms, heading for the stairs. This was going to be the hard part. The sweepers would be able to ambush him coming down the stairs.

A door opened just in front of him. Maybe he could duck through there, and go out one of the windows? That thought was short lived. A familiar figure stepped through the door, brandishing a nasty looking pistol. He came skidding to a sudden stop. Oh shit. What now?

"Jarod." Miss Parker purred, a predatory smile on her lips, her gun pointed directly at his chest. "Time to go home."

"He's going nowhere with you lady." Parker spun to face a familiar, young blonde woman. It took a moment for Jarod to place her, she was in his psych class. The woman let fly a powerful kick that knocked Parker's gun flying. Jarod took advantage Parker's shock, pushing her back into her room, and pulling the door closed behind her. He quickly jimmied with the doorhandle, breaking the lock, effectively locking her in.

He turned to face his recueer. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet." she told him, as she grabbed his hand and took off, headed for the stairs. "We've still got to get you out of here."

Once again, Jarod skidded to a stop, this time at the top of the stairs. On the landing three men were fighting. Two of them were sweepers, judging from their suits. The third Jarod had never seen before. He seemed to be having a wonderful time of it. One of the sweepers punched him in the face, and let out a yelp of pain. The man spun, and brought an arm up, backhanding the sweeper across the head, knocking him out. Then he turned his attention to the other one.

"Come on." The girl whispered to Jarod, and began leading him down the stairs, trying to avoid the warring men. Jarod stopped almost at the bottom and scooped up one of the sweeper's pistols. He checked to see if it was still loaded, and stuck it in the waist band of his jeans.

They'd almost made it to the waiting black car, when Lyle stepped into their path, his gun drawn.

"Go ahead. Give me an excuse to pull the trigger." he snarled.

"No problem." a voice behind Lyle growled. Spike grabbed the man's shoulder and spun him around, driving his fist into the mans jaw, breaking it in three places, and rendering him unconcious. Then he grabbed his head and howled, as pain lanced through his head, settling right behind his eyes.

"Spike, I thought Angel told you to wait in the car?" Buffy ground out annoyed.

"Well, sorry ducks." Spike bit out. "Thought you could use some help."

"Get in the car." She ordered both men. "I'm going to help Angel. Get him back to Giles'." she directed Spike then took off, to help Angel with the two men he was fighting.

"She always that forceful?" Jarod asked the strange peroxided blonde in the driver's seat.

"You have no idea."

*************

Lia sat on the floor of Giles' bathroom, holding her head in her hands. After Angel, Buffy, Logan and Spike had left to rescue tall-dark-and-in-trouble, her stomach had finally rebelled, and she had barely made it to the bathroom in time. Normally she felt a little queasy after a vision, but not like this!

"You Ok?" Anya asked quietly as she slipped through the door.

"It's official. I'm definetly going to kill the person who gave me this god damned flu!" Lia groused, as she flushed the toilet, and dragged herself off the floor.

"I don't think you really want to kill Angel, do you?" Anya asked amused.

"Angel? Angel's dead. He doesn't get the flu. How could he have given it to me?"

Anya didn't say anything, just handed Lia a box.

Lia stared at it in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding!"

*************

"Well that was fun." Logan grinned wolfishly, as they began making their way back to Giles'. Behind them, at the motel, they'd left seven unconscious bodies, one pissed of woman, who had ended up shooting the doorhandle off the door to get out of her room, and two slightly concerned, highly amused men, desperately trying to pretend that they hadn't seen anything.

"You call that fun?" Buffy demanded.

"Honey, I used to make a living cage fighting, in northern canada." Logan informed her. "A good fight's always fun."

"So what do you do now?"

"The same mostly, for now. I'm trying to find out how I got these." he tensed his muscles, and nine inch metal claws shot out of his knuckles. Buffy jumped back in shock. "Guess I'm a bit closer to that, thanks to the kid. After that... I'll go back to Chuck's."

"Chuck's?" Angel asked curious. They'd told him about the Initiative last night, trying to give the non-demon story, but he hadn't told them much about himself.

"Professor Charles Xavier. He runs a private school in Westchester, New York." Logan shrugged. "I could probably get a job with him."

"You, a teacher?" Buffy screwed up her nose. "Somehow I don't see it."

"Hey, someone's got to teach the little brats how to defend themselves. I'd hate to go into a fight with them, with only Cyke's training." he gave a dramatic shiver at the thought. In reality he didn't really have such reservations. Summers may get on his nerves, but he wasn't too bad in a fight. The kids could do alot worse.

Buffy decided to change the subject. "Are Cordelia's visions always that painful?" she asked Angel as she stepped onto the road to avoid the mass of bodies spilling out of the cinemas.

"Yep." Angel didn't sound impressed. He'd never been particularly fond of the way the visions knocked her around, and was even less so now. "We've tried talking to the PTB's, but they just say that if they didn't hurt, she might mistake them for a daydream or something."

"PTB's? Powers that Be?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah. Their emissaries used to be a couple of Oracles that lived under the post office, but they were killed. Now it's Cari..." Angel broke of as he heard a sharp grunt coming from the alleyway just ahead. Another step, and he could feel the presence of a couple of vampires.

"Trouble." He and Logan spoke together. Logan had caught a familiar scent. He couldn't place it just at this moment, but the grunt didn't bode well. The trio headed for the alley, Buffy pulling a stake out of her boot.

Logan froze at the sight that greeted them.

Marie, the hood of her cloak thrown back, exposing the brilliant shock of white in her hair, stood facing a fully vamped out vamp, fear in her eyes. The boy that had been playing with Marie when he'd left Westchester, knelt on the ground staring at his hand. It took Logan a moment to realise that he was freezing the ground beneath the other three vamps. A dark haired girl wearing a bright yellow jacket, nodded her head sharply, causing the sunglasses that she'd been wearing ontop of her head, to fall into position over her eyes. She made a gesture with her hands, and bright sparks began to shoot at the vamps. The vamps were stunned, and began to back away, only to slip on the ice, and fall flat on their faces. The vamp facing Marie turned to see what the problem was. Marie and the girl standing next to her took advantage of the distraction, pushing him violently to the frozen ground.

Buffy pushed past Logan, breaking his paralysis. Quickly the three adults, if he could consider Buffy and adult, dealt with the vamps, turning them to dust. That completed, they straightened, and turned to face the teens.

**********

Xander watched Lia and Anya come down the stairs, concerned. Lia looked pale, shaken, and a little dazed, while Anya looked a little concerned, and rather pleased with herself. What was that all about? He realised when Lia had made the mad dash for the bathroom, that she was probably going to throw up. Again. She had thrown up earlier too. Briefly he wondered how many of them it was going to take, ganging up on her, to get her to see a doctor. Then he laughed to himself. If Deadboy did it right, it would just take him.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Huh?" Lia seemed to start, as if she'd been away with the birdies. "Oh. Umm yeah...fine. Just terrific."

Xander frowned, and raised a questioning brow to Anya. Was this really Lia? Why wasn't she threatening to kill whoever gave her the bug? Or cursing the PTB's for the mind-numbing-skull-crunching pain that accompanied the visions? Something was seriously wrong.

Anya just lightly shook her head, and mouthed, 'She's OK'. Xander wasn't particularly reassured, even though he knew that Anya was probably right. She had, after all, been around for more than a millenia.

Dawn, who had been talking to Giles, caught the silent exchange, and was puzzled for a moment, before looking closely at Lia. What was... Oh. A grin spread across her face, and she turned her head to hide her expression. That had come sooner than expected.

Giles looked quizzically at the young woman he considered a daughter. What was she smiling at? He sighed, as he realised that it could be any number of things that he wouldn't have a clue about, if what they'd been talking about was true. Damn. He was beginning to feel too old for this.

Suddenly the door burst open, and in strolled Spike, a tall, dark haired man, with a wary expression on his face, following in his wake.

"Ok, we saved the ponce, Peaches, the Slayer, and the other guy are walking back.... and where the hell are my smokes?" Spike demanded of Dawn.

Dawn just raised an eyebrow at him, pulled a packet of cigarettes out of her shirt pocket, and threw them at him. She'd confiscated them earlier, informing him that he'd get them back after he'd helped Angel, Buffy and Logan rescue Mr Tall-Dark-Handsome-and-rather-dangerous-looking-now-that-she-saw-him. But boy he was a hottie!

"Hello Jarod." Xander greeted.

Jarod started, backed up a step, and looked suspiciously at Xander. "How do you know my name?" Then he spotted another familiar face. The red head who'd been sitting next to the blonde who'd rescued him. What was her name? Something to do with a tree. Willow.

"Professor Green?" a confused expression crossed her face before clearing. "Oh. Oh. You're like Xander? That's kinda cool." Then comprehension dawned. "Or not. I mean, it's not that you're being chased and all, and I... I'm babbling aren't I? I'm shutting up now." Willow flushed slightly and tried to hide in the couch.

Jarod looked at the young woman, with dread pooling in his stomach. She knew he was being chased? And what did she mean, he was like Xander? She didn't mean he was a pretender, did she?

"Any problems getting away from the Centre goon squad?" Lia asked from one of the recliners.

"Nah." Spike grinned at the memory, and lit up a smoke. "That Logan guy is a good one to have around in a fight. He took out at least four of them. The Slayer snuck this guy," he gestured to Jarod. "past the fighting, and I got to beat the crap out of someone." Spike was really happy about that last part. Everyone other than Jarod, looked at him in disbelief. "All right, all right. I punched him in the jaw, and my head exploded. Happy?"

"So much for the idea that Lyle is really a demon." Xander muttered.

Jarod thought he might faint. These kids knew about the Centre? About Lyle? And they thought he might have been a demon? Well, he had had the same thoughts on occasion, he had to admit.

Giles noticed the strange expression on Jarod's face. "Perhaps you'd like to sit down Mr Green?"

Jarod just nodded dumbly, and sank into a chair.

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I mean, thanks for the rescue, but who the hell are you?"

All eyes turned to Xander.

"You get to do the explanations this time Xapper."

**************

"You're trying to tell me that vampires and demons are real?"

Everyone in the room nodded.

"And that you two," Jarod pointed at Willow and Tara. "are witches."

Everyone nodded.

"She's an 1100 year old ex-vengence demon?"

Everyone nodded.

"He's a vampire?"

Everyone nodded.

"And she get visions of people in trouble, and that's how you knew to rescue me."

Everyone nodded.

"You're all nuts."

"Let's do this the easy way then." Spike sighed, and morphed into his game face, in full view of Jarod.

Jarod went completely and utterly still, his jaw practically on the floor. Oh Shit.

"Spike, that was uncalled for!" Dawn admonished the now human faced vampire.

"Yeah, but it was fun." He grinned. "Believe 'em now?" he enquired of Jarod.

"Ummm." Jarod blinked a couple of times. "I... I.... You're really.... um..." he stammered out.

Giles thought he was taking it all quite well. Briefly he looked around the room, seeing it through the eyes of a stranger. Oh dear. This would be a little overwhelming to strangers. Not to mention the fact that he was beginning to get tired of explaning everything. Maybe they should all get name tags with their names and what they did on them. Or maybe he should just get a big sign that read 'This is the Scooby Gang. We Fight Vampires and Unspeakable Demons'.

Jarod finally managed to pull himself together enough to form a coherent sentance. "He's a vampire." He looked to Giles. "Why haven't you staked him?"

"He's been nuetered."

"Hey!"

"The Initiative put a chip in his head so that he can't hurt humans without a great deal of pain. He can only hurt demons, so to get his fix of violence, he helps us."

"The Initiative?" Jarod asked, voice full of suspicion.

"You've heard of it." Anya noted the flash of recognition in his eyes.

"They have... had... connections to the Centre. That's why I'm here."

"Oh this Centre place just gets better and better." Lia scoffed. "Are they the one's that killed Bambii's mother as well?"

"Wouldn't be suprised." Xander and Jarod spoke as one.

"You said something about a prophecy earlier." Jarod looked inquiringly at Xander. "About knowing that I'd be here because of a prophecy. What did you mean?"

"Well..." Xander started.

"Look pet, if you want to know about prophecies, talk to the Kid." Spike told him, gesturing to Dawn.

Dawn's eyes flashed with annoyance and anger. She made a sharp gesture with her hand, and Spike suddenly found himself airborne. With a sickening crunch, he impacted with the wall just beside the front door, just as it flew open, slamming into the front of his crumpling form.

"Damn it Storm, you're supposed to be keeping an eye on them!" Logan growled as he stalked into the room, behind Buffy, and a trio of teenagers.

"They," a calm, melodious, voice began, "are more than capable of taking care of themselves. They went to see a movie, not hang with boozers at a nightclub."

"Look, can you guys finish this sometime else?" Jubilee asked in annoyance. Since Storm had arrived to pick them up from the movie, she and Wolverine had been arguing over the little fight that Wolverine had witnessed. Well, Logan had been arguing. Storm had just calmly refuted his every growl. Quite frankly she was getting sick of this argument.

Kitty and Rogue stopped a few steps inside the room, uncertainly looking at the group already in the room, a couple of them from her classs today. They were all staring at a young woman with dark hair, a look of utter shock on their faces. Suddenly a groan came from behind them. They spun around to see the door closing, and a peroxided blonde man, dressed in black jeans, black T, red shirt and long duster, coming into view.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" he demanded.

"Don't. Call. Me. Kid." Dawn bit out.

Spike was thunderstruck. "You mean that you...? You did....?" he spluttered out. "Well, what the bloody hell did you do that for?!"

"What did she do what for?" Angel asked, dropping onto the floor in front of Lia.

"Umm... she threw him across the room." Lia informed him, finally getting over her shock.

"WHAT!?" Every eye in the room was now trained on Dawn, who looked rather uncomfortable under the attention.

"He keeps pissing me off!" she defended hotly. "And it's not like it's going to kill him, or anything."

"You threw him across the room?" Buffy asked, stunned. "That's what you ment when you said they didn't leave you completely defenseless? You're telekinetic?"

"Kinda. Sort of. Not exactly."

"Well that's certainly a crystal clear explanation." Kitty noted. "Wonder if that would work in Mr Summers English Lit class?"

"Oh please, if we answered any of Cyclops' questions like that, we'd find ourselves doing a thousand word report on War and Peace so fast our heads would spin." Bobby scoffed.

Buffy ignored the comments. "You want to explain that?"

"I'm not telekinetic as such." Dawn shrugged. "I can manipulate the energy fields surrounding objects and people. How I do it, that's up to me."

"Oh." Buffy spoke at the same time as Storm, "You're mutant?"

"Mutant?" Dawn was suprised at the question, then she took a closer look at the person asking it. "Oh! Um.. no. I'm not mutant. Just Key girl. And confirmation girl."

"This is the Hellmouth." Anya informed the new group. "Powers are more likely to have a supernatural origin here."

"Hellmouth?"

"You won't believe this Stormy." Logan muttered.

**********

"That is so cool!"

"Bobby!"

"Just think about it Jubes, if prophecies, Vampires and demons are real, then what about some of the other legends? Merlin and Camelot, fairy folk, leprechauns..."

"Let me guess, you want to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." Kitty rolled her eyes him.

"Hey, why not? I wouldn't have to worry about my allowance, like forever!"

"And you could buy St. John a new gerbil." Rouge pointed out.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault! I didn't freeze Herbie on purpose!"

"You froze someone's gerbil? Why did you put it in the freezer in the first place?" Willow asked puzzled.

"I didn't. I sneezed while holding him." Bobby looked embarrased. "I still have some control issues."

"Tell us about it." Kitty muttered.

"Although turning the stairs into a slip'n'slide was kinda fun." Jubilee noted.

"Better than almost burning the kitchen down, Sparky." Bobby shot back at her.

Dawn took pity on the Scooby gang, and Jarod. All of them wore expressions of confusion mixed with amusement. "They're mutants, guys. They're talking about their powers."

Giles massaged his temple, then replaced his glasses. A group of teenage mutants. The group in front of him were mutants. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever come across. He had met a few, and gotten along quite well with them. He'd just never been in a room with six of them at the same time before. It made him a little... nervous. Well actually, the teens made him nervous. Especially the dark haired one in the yellow jacket, who looked as if she'd had waaayy too much sugar. What had the boy, Bobby called her? Jubes? Sparky?

Storm was a little suprised at the calm that greeted the teen's identification of them as mutants. Most people reacted. Some screamed and headed for the hills, most got scared, angry, and treated them like lepers. But then, this group had been fighting demons and vampires for 5 years. Heck, two of them were vampires. "Forgive us. We should have introduced ourselves. I'm Ororo Munroe,"

"Also known as Storm." Logan added.

"this," she pointed to Logan "is Logan, who you've already met, apparently,"

"Also called Wolverine." Rogue inserted.

"Marie,"

"Rogue." Jubilee grinned.

"Kitty Pryde,"

"Shadowcat." Kitty quickly added, before Bobby could open his mouth.

"Jubilation Lee,"

"Sparky." This time Bobby got the first word in.

"Hey!"

"and Bobby Drake." Storm finished, ignoring the extra comments thrown in by her students.

"IceBoy!" The three girls chorused.

"IceMan, thank you very much!" Bobby corrected indignantly.

"Ice Man....because you freeze things?" Tara asked curiously.

"Yeah."

"And what do the rest of you do?" Lia asked, curious. The idea of having powers like that was really cool, no pun intended.

"Well, Jubes does her own fireworks displays." Bobby grinned and formed an ice rose in his hand as he waited for her reaction.

She didn't dissapoint him. "And Bobby is a walking slushy machine!" Jubilee retorted, shooting a burst of sparks at the rose, obliterating it.

"Who you keep getting to make you said slushies." Rogue pointed out.

"Of course, I do. It's a hellava lot cheaper to buy soda and get him to freeze it, than it is to buy normal one's!"

Storm sighed. She knew that it was only good natured bickering, but she was beginning to get sick of it. Did they ever stop?

"Kitty plays ghost." Rogue informed the scoobies.

"Huh?"

"I can phase through things." Kitty explained, demonstrating by putting her fist through the coffee table. That in itself wouldn't have been overly impressive, after all Buffy could do that. But when Kitty did it, the table remained in one piece. "I've been trying to cut back though."

"Phasing into the boys showers'll do that to you." Jubilee nodded sagely.

"Hey, that was an accident!" Kitty defended hotly. "Is it my fault Peter pushed me?"

Logan just stared at the group partly in amusement at their antics, and partly in disbelief. He'd left Marie with this lot? What had he been thinking? Oh, that's right, he'd been under the impression she would be in the company of mature, responsible adults. Stupid him.

"Storm can control the weather," Bobby continued to identify their powers, trying not to remember the details of the shower incident. "and Rogue can kill with a touch, and fly!" That pronouncement got a few different reactions.

Giles' thoughts instantly went to the prophecy. Death's touch, that was the young woman in front of him. And the rather exotic woman, Storm, could control weather? Oh dear. That probably ment that the bickering teens were their allies. Mentally he groaned. They were all doomed.

"You can fly?!" That was the reaction of the scoobies and Jarod.

"Since when?!" Logan demanded. Or rather growled. He was really good at that.

"A couple of months." Rogue shrugged.

"And how the hell did that happen?!" Although he could take a pretty good guess at it.

"Someone held on too long." Pain flickered in Rogue's eyes, as she recalled the incident. It had taken a while for her to find herself again after that. Having an insane mutant floating around in your head would do that to you.

"Damn it Storm!"

***********

"You ok?" Dawn asked as she flopped down on Giles' back stairs, next to Rogue.

"Just a little angry and frustrated." Rogue sighed. "Why is it that he thinks I need a god damned babysitter?"

"I know the feeling." Dawn commiserated.

"Really? Who does it to you?"

"Everyone. But especially Buffy and Spike."

"Spike being?"

"The vamp I threw across the room earlier."

"That is a good power to have." Rogue noted. "Draining people of their life force just isn't the sort of superpower I wished for, when I was six."

"But you can fly right? I'd love to be able to do that."

"Yeah, I can fly." Rogue said quietly. "But that isn't my power, it's someone else's."

"So when you touch people, you get their powers?"

"For a little while, unless they hold on too long." Rogue stood and began to pace. "And you get them in your head. Everyone I've touched since my powers manifested themselves, are floating around up here." She tapped her temple.

"Ouch."

"Just a little." She smiled. "You shoulda seen me after Logan touched me. Suddenly I had a craving for cigars and went around growling at everyone."

"Oh I bet they loved that." Dawn grinned.

"I startled Bobby so much, he accidentally froze one of the keyboards in the computer lab."

"He always do that?"

"Nah. Normally he's really good, but when he gets nervous, his control gets a little shaky. He is getting better though."

"What about you? You adjusting all right?"

"Yeah. Everyone at the school's been great. Storm's been teaching me how to control the flying, and the Professor's been helping me try to control my mutation."

"Any luck?"

"Not so far." Rogue stopped pacing and looked at Dawn. "So what about you? What's your story? I mean you have this power, yet you're not a mutant."

"I'm... well I'm not entirely sure what I am. A being of energy? A portal? I don't really know. This insane blonde keeps calling me the Key. The people who were protecting me, made me human and gave me to Buffy to protect. That's why she gets so wigged when I'm out of her sight." Dawn shrugged sheepishly. "She didn't know about the throwing-people-across-rooms thing until today."

"So this really is real? The Hellmouth? Slayers? Vampires? Demons?"

"Yep."

Rogue sighed. "And here I though that those guys were mutants."

"What guys?" Dawn asked puzzled.

"Oh, when we came out of the movie we were kinda attacked." Rogue resumed pacing. "Logan saw it and went right off! That's why he was so peeved with Storm when we came in." Rogue began to get angry again. "Damn it, I can take care of myself! I don't need a baby sitter! Who does he think he is anyway?"

"Worried about you?" A voice spoke up from the shadows.

"Lia, whatcha ya doing out here?" Dawn turned to face the brunette stepping out of the shadows. "And can I tell you how annoying it is to be skulked up on?"

Lia grinned. "Hey, I live with a professional skulker. It must be rubbing off." she shrugged, and sat down next to Dawn. "I needed some fresh air, and heard you talking. Sorry to eavesdrop." Dawn shot her a look. "Ok, I'm not sorry to eavesdrop."

"You really think Logan's worried about me?"

"Yeah. I can tell by the way he looks at you that he cares. I think he's beating himself up that he wasn't there to protect you. Angel does the same thing to me. I get so much as a scratch, and he goes into brood mode."

"But you guys are married." Dawn pointed out.

"Yeah, but he did it before that too. When I was pregnant with demon babies? After that he was seriously overprotective."

"You were pregnant with demon babies?!" Dawn and Rogue both demanded in disbelief.

Lia sighed. "It's a long story, for another time. But the point is, he's going caveman on you because he cares."

"I know that! I like that he cares! I just don't like the neanderthal-take-care-of-the-little-girl routine. I'm not the unsure 17 year old he left at Xavier's over a year ago."

"But he doesn't know that yet." Lia pointed out. "This is the first time you've seen him since then?" Rogue nodded. "Well give him a while to get used to the changes in you." Lia suggested reasonably. Then ruined the mature-responsible-adult impression with her next words. "And if that doesn't work, then you can knock some sense into him with a very large club." How Lia managed that deadpan, she didn't know.

Rogue and Dawn both stared at Lia trying to figure out if she was serious or not, before Dawn asked thoughtfully, "Think that would work with Spike?"

"Nah. Sledgehammer would be better there, I think."

Dawn began giggling as an image of Spike, being hit over the head with a sledgehammer by Daffy Duck, suddenly jumped into her head. "Or one of those ACME one tone weights." she suggested.

"You have watched waaaaaay too many Loony Tunes cartoons with Xander." Lia observed, desperately trying not to laugh at the imagery. If she started, she wouldn't be able to stop. And given her current queasiness, that would not be a good thing.

"I have not!" Dawn protested indignantly, then sheepishly admitted. "It was with Mom."

The three of them sat in silence for few minutes.

"So, what's going on in there?"

***********

Jarod was not a happy man. Oh he was glad not to be in the Centre's custody right now, and although his rescuers and their friends just kept getting stranger, and stranger, he would have to say he felt pretty comfortable in this weird group. But he wasn't very happy. In fact he was seething. Right now, all he wanted to do was break Raines' jaw. And his ribs. And every other bone in the wheezy bastards body.

The bastard had used that sim. One of the few sims that Jarod had been confident, could never, actually be used. Well, he'd been wrong. Again.

The boy, Xander, shot him a warning look. Then, - to be heard over Bobby and Jubilee bickering, Logan growling at Storm, and Spike still complaining about being thrown across the room - let out a ear splitting whistle.

When his hearing returned, Jarod shot a glare at the young man, who ignored it.

"Ok, I hate to break up everyone's little powwow's, fights, complaints, growls, etcetera, but we got a problem."

"Problem? What problem?" Kitty demanded.

"MIB's with guns? Wanting to lock us up and use us as labrats? This ringing bells for anyone else?"

"By now they would have contacted the Centre about you rescuing me." Jarod informed everyone.

"No doubt, with very good descriptions of everyone involved." Xander added.

"Would they recognise Logan from a description?" Angel asked worried.

"Probably." Xander looked thoughtfully at Logan. "You're appearance has hardly changed in the last 15 years." he noted. "Hair's a little shorter, your eyes are alot older, but basically you look the same as you did then."

"So comforting to know."

"You can guarantee that by morning there'll be at least two more sweeper teams, and at least one cleaner team in town." Jarod noted grimly.

"Cleaner teams?" Lia asked as she, Dawn and Rogue re-entered the room. "Any chance of them being the type that would do windows?"

"No, no and Hell No." Xander shook his head emphatically. "You know how I said sweepers were like evil secret service guys?" Lia nodded. "Think of cleaners as evil CIA assassins."

"This just keeps getting better and better." Buffy groaned.

"The Centre will send out the teams, then run computer checks to try and identify Jarod's rescuers." Xander began to list the procedure. "Once Id'd, they'll do complete background checks on that person, and everyone associated with that person.

"Everyone?" Willow asked, worried.

"Yep, 'Every person who has ever had any association with the subject.'" Xander quoted. "They actually have a procedure for this."

"Are they good enough to crack through Xavier's encryption, and find out about us?" Storm asked concerned.

"Probably."

"The Centre makes the CIA look like amateurs." Jarod added.

"And that means that there are going MIB's jumping around us like jackrabbits, unless we do something first."

***********

Angel wasn't so sure he liked this plan. This situation just kept getting worse and worse. He wanted Lia as far away from these people as possible. Preferably in another country. But both Xander and Jarod had pointed out that the Centre had branches in most countries, not just the States, and that they'd be checking airports. Still, he had tried to send her back to LA. She had just given him a 'yeah-right' look, and told him that she wasn't going anywhere. In her 'try-to-change-my-mind-or-force-me-to-do-otherwise-buddy-and-your-a-dead-man' tone. When she used that tone, he knew better than to try anything. The last time he had, she hadn't talked to him for a week.

Still, he didn't like this plan. Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with something else. So here he was, back at the motel they'd rescued Jarod at, breaking into one of the sweeper's rooms. Well, more precisely, Lia, was breaking into the room. How had he missed the fact that she could pick locks?

Deftly Lia inserted the pick into the lock. Angel glanced at his watch, as she smugly opened the door.

"20 seconds. Do I want to know why you're so good at this?" He whispered.

"Probably not."

They silently made their way over to the unconscious form on the bed. Lia took out a hypodermic from her purse.

"Are you sure that you can do this?" Angel asked concerned, as she uncapped it.

"Yes, I'm sure. Xander made me do it a few times on an orange first. I know what I'm doing." Lia couldn't resist teasing. "I think."

"You think?" Angel whispered. "You're not..." he noted the teasing glint in her eye. "Very funny."

"You worry too much." she quickly injected the contents of the hypodermic into the sleeping man. "I should have been a nurse." Lia commented as the man didn't even stir. "Ok muscles, your turn." she told Angel, as she reached for the man's wallet and gun, sitting on the bedside table.

Angel pulled the man into a sitting position, then hefted him over his shoulder's. "I still can't believe we're doing this." Making sure that Lia was behind him, he carried the man out of the room. Lia pulled the door closed behind them, making sure that it was securely locked. "Isn't this a little.... juvenile?"

"You got a better idea?"

"How did Xander and Jarod come up with this?"

"Well actually, I think Willow and Kitty came up with this part." Lia noted, as they joined Jarod, Xander, Anya, Logan, Rogue and Storm in the street. Angel put the man down on the tarmac.

"Any problems?" Jarod asked, his eyes glinting.

"Nope, easy as." Lia handed the gun to Jarod.

"Ok. Let's do it."

Everyone stood back as Xander and Jarod went to work. Four unconscious bodies were arranged to look like there had been a fight, and Jarod took out a bottle of scotch and poured a liberal amount over the men. Placing the guns in the owner's hands, Xander looked at the group observing them. "Get all the permits?"

"Yep."

"Of course."

"The whole wallet good enough?"

Jarod looked like he was about to say something to Logan about that, but then just grinned mischievously, suddenly looking like a kid in a candy store. "Let's see Lyle get out of this one." Grasping the hands of the currently unconscious men, Xander and Jarod fired the weapons in rapid succession.

"We better make ourselves scarce." Storm suggested, as Lia pulled out her cell phone.

"Showtime." she muttered. Putting a hysterical note into her voice, she spoke into the phone. "He..Hello? Police? Um..I..I'm at the Three Flags Motel. I.. I think there's just been a shooting."

**********

Miss Parker fumed as she was pushed into a patrol car. She'd bet an entire year's salary, that Jarod was behind this.

She'd been woken by gunshots, and had sprang out of bed to investigate, only to find herself locked into her room. Again. So once again, she had shot the lock off.... only to find police just outside. They'd asked for ID and her gun permit. That's when she'd discovered that she'd had a visitor. Her permit was missing, replaced with a video library card bearing Jarod's name. She could almost sense Jarod close by, smugly watching. She was going to take great pleasure in wiping the smug grin off Labrat's face when she caught up with him.

She glared at the other occupant of the car. Lyle looked very disheveled, and smelled strongly of scotch.

"What the hell have you been up to?!"

**********

"What was in those things?" Rogue demanded as they observed their befuddled victims being driven away in police cars.

"Alcohol." Jarod shrugged.

"And a sedative so that they wouldn't wake up until the cops got here." Xander added.

"At last, the Sunnydale police are good for something." Anya noted with a grin. "Let's hope that others are having as much fun as we are."

*********

Willow cursed as she narrowly missed tripping yet another electronic boobytrap in the Centre's mainframe. Getting into the Centre's system had been hard enough when she and Xander had done it. Now that she was doing it on her own, it was taking on hellish proportions. Her blood froze in her veins as the screen suddenly went blank. Oh god, what had she done?

Suddenly a message appeared on the screen. ^What are you doing in here? I don't know you.^

Willow stared at the words puzzled. If this was someone trying to get a trace on her, they were going about it in a strange manner. I don't know you. How could a computer kno... this wasn't a computer. This was someone on the other end of the line. But who? If it was Broots, she just might be able to...

^Sunnydale? Zeppo? Is that you?^

Ohmigod! They had traced her to Sunnydale! Willow leaned forward to pull the plug on the internet connection, then stopped as the rest of the message sank in. Zeppo? This guy knew Xander? But that would mean....

&CJ?&

^You're not Zeppo.^

&I'm a friend of X..Zeppo's. Call me .. Red.&

^Zeppo's mentioned you. What are you doing here?^

&Helping Zeppo and Jarod with something.&

^Jarod safe?^

&For now. Can you help me?&

The cursor blinked silently, for a few long moments. ^What do you need?^

***********

"How'd it go?" Xander asked anxiously, as the group entered Giles'.

"All done. Thanks to CJ."

"Angelo?" Jarod frowned. "I'm not so sure...."

"Without him, I would have gotten caught." Willow interrupted. "Besides, he kinda expanded on the idea."

"What do you mean, expanded?" Angel asked suspiciously.

Willow, Kitty, Tara and Jubilee grinned smiles sweet enough to give a rock, hypoglycemic shock.

"Ever hear of a Blue Screen of Death?" Bobby asked innocently.

************

"What do you mean, you can't get in touch with the Centre?!" Miss Parker demanded.

"We just keep getting really strange sounds on the other end of the phone." Willie muttered, as he looked anywhere other than at the rapidly-getting-angrier Miss Parker. "Maybe the phone lines are down."

"*All* of them?" Parker scoffed. "How many independent lines do we have going into that building? 10? 20?" She glared at the men in front of her. She had been put into a cell on her own, with the rest of the sweepers and Lyle had been put into the cell opposite, so she had a perfect view of their disheveled state, and unfortunately, a perfect whiff of the aroma emanating from them. What had they done? Taken a swim in scotch? "Did anyone think to try one of the other offices?"

"Same thing at the LA office." Lyle sighed and leaned his head back against the bars. "It's like the entire Centre phone system has been cut off. Three guesses by who."

"Jarod." Parker growled. She really was going to skin Wonderboy alive.

************

"So...what's the latest from the Sunnydale police, Wills?" Xander asked about an hour later. Everyone was getting ready to leave, and get a good nights....well a couple of hours sleep. But first they needed to be sure that they wouldn't accidentally run into a sweeper on the way to their respective beds.

"Well... the guys are being charged with carrying concealed weapons, firing a firearm while under the influence, drunk and disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment, carrying firearms without a permit... should I continue?"

"I gotta hand to you Wills. This was something I would never have come up with. You too Kitty."

"Where did you guys come up with this, anyway?" Logan asked suspiciously. If they could get this creative.... suddenly he wasn't too sure he wanted to return to Xavier's. Maybe he could just take Marie and run.

"Weellll...." Kitty drawled, shooting Willow a grin.

"Did you know, that if you find someone breaking into your house, and you hurt him, you can be sued?" Willow began.

"Best thing to do, is knock 'em out, pour alcohol over 'em, and dump 'em in the street." Kitty continued.

"Then call the cops claiming that there's a drunk outside your place...."

"I don't know where Willow learned that, but I was told that by a cop."

"Anyway, these guys won't be a problem for a while... at least until they call a local lawyer rather than the Centre's legal team. And with these charges? I doubt even the best lawyers will be able to do much. The woman however... that's a different story."

"Parker?" Jarod asked, a strange smile quirking his lips.

"Yeah. Destruction of property, and carrying an unlicensed firearm.... She'll probably be bailed by mid-morning."

*********

Broots nervously glanced around the room. Miss Parker was not going to be happy. How had Sydney managed to talk him into this? He didn't want to be here, bailing Parker out of prison, and giving her bad news. He wanted to be home with Debbie. Or in Paraguay. Or on Mars. Mars was sounding really good right now.

Miss Parker was led out of the, shooting daggers at the the large cop who was leering at her. Quickly the paperwork was processed, and they made it all the way out to the car before Miss Parker finally snapped.

"All right Brootsie, what the hell is going on?!? And where's Sigmund Freud?!"

"U..Umm Miss Parker? Maybe you'd better wait until you talk to Syd.."

"Broots!" Parker advanced dangerously on Broots, and took hold of his shirt lapels. "In the last 12 hours I have had my gun taken away, had wonderboy pay me a little visit, have been unable to contact the Centre, and have been locked up with Lyle and his goon squad, without my cigarettes, I must point out. Now is not a good time to piss me off." Her eyes narrowed, as Broots gulped. "Now. What. Is. Going. On?"

"W..Well, uh..the Centre's entire communication system has gone bye-bye's?" Broots closed his eyes and hoped she wouldn't erupt.

Parker didn't. What she did was worse. She grew deathly still, and suddenly very quiet. This was not a good sign.

"What do you mean, 'the communication system is bye-bye's?!. What the hell does that mean?!"

"All telephone, internet, satellite into and out of the Centre are dead."

"How the hell could that happen?"

"Well..."

"In English, if you value your life."

"Um... all the systems, including the telephones, are run by computer. The computer system has uh.. well it's..."

"If you say bye-byes, you're a dead man." Parker growled.

"BSD!" Broots blurted.

"What!?"

"Blue Screen of Death. It's when a computer system locks up and has to be restarted."

"So have they ...restarted... the mainframe?"

"Yeah. 12 times."

"12 times?"

"Whatever's happened, it's not letting any of our people into the system to fix it."

"How did you find out about this?"

"Jerry from the tech pool called the hotel. From a payphone at the post office."

"Why not your cell phone?"

"None of them are working. All Centre issued phones are..."

"Bye-bye?" Parker asked, sarcastically.

"Yeah. The computer froze all access to the SIM's. None of the networks will recognise the cells."

"Wonderful! Labrat strikes again." Parker released his shirt with a shove, and stalked to the driver's side of the car. "So did you get Jerry to pass on the information, that we were in prison?"

"Uh..yeah. Yeah I did. He said not to hold your breath though. Apparently before locking up, the system misdirected some sensitive files to the FBI. Legal is scrambling trying to save their collective asses."

"And what does Freud have to say about this?"

************

"Jarod's gone to too much trouble for this to be about just him."

"Well thank you for stating the obvious, Dr. Spock. Why don't you use that wonderfully analytical mind of yours, and tell us what would this be about?" Unfortunately, Miss Parker's sarcasm appeared to be lost on Sydney.

"His family, maybe?"

Broots frowned thoughtfully. "Does anybody know who those people that rescued Jarod last night are?"

"Weren't you getting a download from the Centre before everything locked up?" Sydney asked.

"Well, yeah." Broots admitted. "But I didn't get all of it. Not even half. I'm not even sure..." he trailed off as Parker glared at him. "I'll get right on it."

**********

Logan sat in the UC Sunnydale cafeteria, extremely uncomfortable. Students were looking at him strangely. He was beginning to feel like he was in a fishbowl. Not to mention the fact that he was questioning his sanity.

His first instinct on waking this morning, hell...before even going to be last night, had been to get away from this town, as far and as fast as possible. He had even gone as far as to grab his duffle and head for the door. He'd been stopped by the kid, Xander. Why had he agreed to stay with them again? Oh yeah. Because it probably wasn't safe to go back to the motel. The kid had asked him where he was going to go, then pointed out that his best chance of finding out exactly what happened to him, lay with the goons they were currently trying to avoid. Did he mention that he hated it when people used logic like that, and were right? It was downright annoying.

Suddenly he caught a whiff of a familiar scent, and his senses sharpened. Marie was heading for his table, carrying a tray of ... well the school passed it off as food, but he had his doubts.

He watched her silently as she approached. She was different than he remembered. For the last year, his memories of her had been as a scared, insecure young girl, only just beginning to find a place for herself. She wasn't insecure anymore. Or scared. And she sure didn't seem so young. What had happened?

Last night when they pulled that stunt with the goon squad, she had seemed ... well almost X-men like. Competent. Sure. Adult. And quite frankly, it terrified the hell out of him. He couldn't keep her pigeon-holed in the little mental box he'd kept her in. She wasn't a kid anymore. And the feelings he was feeling about her at the moment were anything but familial.

"Logan! What are you doing here?" Rogue raised an eyebrow at him. She'd half expected him to hightail it out of town at the first opportunity.

"Decided to have a talk with that Jarod guy. Since he's teaching here...."

"You decided to grace us with your presence for lunch?" her mouth quirked at his discomfort.

"Glue and rotting gym socks." Bobby announced as he plonked his tray down on the table, and dropped into a chair.

"What are you talking about Frosty?" Jubilee demanded from behind Bobby.

"That's what I think lunch is. Sure isn't anything edible."

"Thanks. I didn't really want lunch anyway." Kitty pushed her tray away with a sick look on her face.

"So you having any luck finding your mutant?" Logan asked curiously.

"Not really." Bobby shrugged as Jubilee and Kitty nodded.

"Yep."

"Think so."

"You have? Why didn't you guys tell me?" Bobby demanded.

"You didn't ask."

"They think it might be Tara." Rogue informed him.

"The redhead's friend, right?" Logan asked, trying to remember which one of the Scoobies was Tara. Jubilee nodded emphatically.

"We were talking to her while you guys were out playing with the MIB's. Did you guys realise that they really are witches? They can turn things invisible and create uber-fighters and ..."

"Uh..Jubes?"

"Yeah?"

"Can get to the point?"

"Oh. Well, we were talking to Tara, and she was telling us about some of the spells she can do. Like throwing fire balls."

"Only the way she described it, it sounded more like a mutant power than an actual spell."

"So, does that mean we can go home now?" Bobby asked hopefully.

"Having a bad day?" Kitty grinned at Bobby's pained nod. "Again? What happened this time?"

"Math professor found yesterday's test."

"You flunked?"

"Ummm.. nooo. I have to take it again because he couldn't read it. Too waterlogged."

That was the first time Logan had ever seen Marie do a spit take. With Coke. All over Bobby.

**********

Lia sat nervously in the doctor's office, waiting for the test results. She hadn't told Angel yet. She wanted to be sure first.

"Congratulations Cordelia." Dr. Herbert, an elderly man who had known Cordelia most of her life, smiled at her. His smile slipped at her reaction. "Not a planned pregnancy, I take it?"

"No." Understatement of the Century. Lia thought she might faint. This was not supposed to be possible. Vampires could not have children. It was, like, a rule! Well apparently they had broken said rule. Actually they had broken lots of rules, but that was somewhat beside the point. She supposed that she shouldn't really be so surprised. She'd had a few hours to get used to the idea. Angel's baby. Angel was going to .... well actually that was the part that worried her. She didn't have a clue how Angel would react to this.

She was standing just outside the doctor's when the haze that had enveloped her, when Dr. Herbert announced her pregnant, cleared. She didn't remember finishing the appointment, or sorting out the bill with the receptionist, or Dr Herbert giving her the prescription she currently held in her hand. Iron tablets? She shook off the last of the haze, and headed for a pharmacy.

She didn't notice the man following her down the street.

***********

"What is it Broots?" Sydney asked, noting the horrified look on the techie's face.

"Umm... The Centre. They've sent out another sweeper team and a couple of cleaners."

"Why?" Parker's voice rang through the room like a gunshot.

"B..Because of one of the people who rescued Jarod. Apparently he's an old project that they...'lost'. And um..we..we've been recalled back to the Centre."

Parker ignored the last comment. "What do you know about this 'lost project'?"

"N..Nothing. Just that he's to be considered dangerous."

"Find. Out. More."

"But Miss Parker, shouldn't we be heading back to the..."

"Now Brootsie." Miss Parker's voice was suddenly syrupy sweet. "I'm out on bail. I can't go anywhere, remember?" Her voice hardened again. "Find. Out. More."

*************

Angel paced Xander's lounge room, constantly glancing at the clock on the wall. Damn. Her appointment had been for 12.30. It was now 3. Where was she?

Normally Lia being out longer than expected wouldn't be particularly worrisome. But since around 1 o'clock he'd had a feeling that something was terribly wrong. Surely the doctor would have called if it was something medical? Wouldn't he? That left.... Possibilities flooded Angel's mind. There were just too many ways for Lia to get hurt in this town. Especially now.

Growling he grabbed the phone, and dialed Lia's cell phone again. Once again he got the recorded message telling him that the phone he was calling was turned off. Frustrated he slammed down the phone. Then picked it up again, and dialed The Magic Box.

*************

"Well, it's official. Willie's a cowering idiot." Buffy announced as she and Logan entered the Magic Box. Willie had taken one look at Logan and begun blubbering. He didn't know anything! Nothing had been happening lately. Other than that bit of excitement at the Three Flags last night.

"Tell us something we don't know."

"Willie doesn't have a clue where Cordelia is."

"But Wesley does." Angel announced as he hung up the phone. "They just got a call telling them that they'll swap Logan and Jarod for Lia. 10pm at the factory."

"Hardly seems a fair trade."

"The factory? Well, they couldn't keep her there." Giles commented. "They'd have to be staying somewhere else."

"The Centre usually favours safe houses." Jarod informed them. "But I'm not aware of any within 50 miles of here."

"I could do my ghost thing if you'd like." Kitty offered. "Phase into places, looking for her."

"Kitty..." Storm's voice held a warning.

"Tempting, but no." Xander told her. "If you got caught....."

"And we don't use our powers to invade other's privacy." Storm finished.

"Tell that to Xavier." Logan snorted. Chuck had checked in with him a few times in the last year. Just popping into his head unannounced. "Though it is a pity she isn't a mutant. We could get Xavier to find her with Cerebro."

"Cerebro?" Anya asked. "Who names you people?"

"It's a huge mutant locator thing." Logan described vaguely. "And don't get me started on the names."

"Locator?" Tara's head shot up.

Willow caught on immediately. "Angel, do you have something personal of Lia's?"

"Of course. Wh.. Oh." He dug into his pocket and pulled out a thin chain. "This do?"

"Yep. Thanks." Willow and Tara quickly arranged themselves opposite each other.

"Um..what are you guys doing?" Jubilee asked curiously.

"Locator spell."

"Oh."

The mutants watched as Willow and Tara began to chant. The thin chain between them suddenly started to glow. Once the glow faded, Willow handed the chain back to Angel.

"It'll begin glowing when you're within about 50 meters of Lia."

*************

The sweeper let out a relieved sigh, as he finished tying the gag into place. There had to be easier ways to get to Jarod and this Logan guy. Anything would be easier that putting up with this girl and her mouth! So ok, they had kidnapped her off the street. That wasn't any reason to bite him! The little hellcat had drawn blood. And that hadn't been all. The insults she'd hurled at them once she'd regained consciousness had been real doozies. He'd bet that she was related to Parker.

"Finished?" The sweeper looked up at the cleaner standing in the open doorway.

"Yeah."

"Mmmmppphhllpf!" the woman siting, bound, and now gagged, in the chair struggled against her bonds, and shot glares at both men.

The sweeper just shot her an annoyed glance. It was a good thing that looks couldn't kill, otherwise they would both be nothing but smoldering corpses. "Find out anything else about their friends?"

"Nah. Just about where she works. We've let them know that we have her, and what we want. It's just a matter of time."

The woman in the chair made a scoffing sound in the back of her throat, and rolled her eyes. The cleaner entered the room and squat in front of her, so that his head was level with hers.

"You're in no position to be making things more difficult for yourself, Miss Chase. If your friends can't get what we want.... Well, you're of no consequence."

The sweeper watched as the woman's eyes narrowed in anger, and she sharply headbutted the cleaner, knocking both him and herself out. Well that was an interesting move. He was going to have to remember that one.

************

Angel looked up at the two story house, the chain glowing in his hand. Fighting the impulse to dash in and get Lia the hell out of there, probably getting both of them killed in the process, he pulled out his cell phone, and dialed the magic shop.

************

Buffy watched Dawn carefully as Logan, Jarod, Jubilee, Storm, Rogue, Kitty, and Bobby all headed for the SUV parked out the front. Dawn was watching Xander and Anya with a small smile on her face.

"So what happens now?" Buffy asked as she moved to stand beside Dawn.

"I don't really know." Dawn shrugged. "The prophecy just states that there's going to be a fight. It doesn't say what kind, or who wins."

"I hate this. They're out there fighting the bad,"

"Human bad. Not your area." Dawn points out.

"and I can't do anything to help." Buffy brow furrowed in puzzlement as a thought occurred to her. "Didn't the prophecy say that Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander would also be fighting?"

"Not all fighting is physical." Dawn looked back at the small group.

Willow was hunched over her laptop, Tara leaning over her shoulder, Xander sitting next to her, craning to see the screen.

"Anya, I don't think we can do that." he informed the woman sitting in his lap.

"Why not? It'd work!"

"Yes, but it's not legal."

"Neither is hacking into Snyder's bank account and donating his money." she points out.

"Ok, I'm not sure ..... Oh heck, it sounds great, and I know that Logan would go for it, but realistically? With our luck? And Sunnydale PD incompetence? We'd get caught, they'd get off. Tempting as all hell, but no."

"And talking of the Sunnydale PD." Willow broke in. "Looks like our friends finally got in contact with their lawyers. There being processed and bailed as we speak."

"Well how about...." Anya trailed off and turned to look at Dawn. And suddenly smiled. Xander wasn't sure he liked that look. In fact he knew he didn't. That look meant trouble. "I have an idea."

**********

Angel didn't even glance behind him as the group of mutants and the pretender approached him.

"That the place?" Jarod nodded at the building in front of them. They were hidden from the occupants of the house by some rather dense shrubbery and foliage.

"So says the glowing chain." Angel held the chain up.

"Cool!" Bobby exclaimed.

"I have got to get one of those." Jubilee muttered enviously.

"So, what's the plan?" Logan asked, his body twitching, readying itself for a fight.

"Get Lia the hell out of there." Angel growled.

"Oh great, another one." Rogue muttered under her breath.

"I vote Logan and myself distract them, while you get her out." Jarod put forth.

"Just don't let them actually catch us." Logan added.

"Just a thought, but how many of them are there?" Rogue asked in a you-would-have-thought-to-ask-this-but-you're-too-busy-getting-ready-to-beat-the-crap-out-of-someone tone. She hadn't actually seen this side to Logan before. Oh, she'd felt it. He'd survived her touch twice, other than herself, he was the strongest presence in her mind. In fact it was only because of that, that she hadn't given into the temptation to shake him senseless when he'd protested at her coming with them on this little rescue mission. What could she say? Lia's suggestion of the club was beginning to sound awfully tempting.

"I've seen about 4."

"Say about six to eight to be on the safe side. Two sweeper teams of three, and two cleaners." Jarod examined the area around the house critically. "Even with a distraction, getting into the house isn't going to be easy."

"I can help there." Rogue informed him. "I'll fly you up to the second floor balcony. You aren't afraid of heights, are you?" she asked Angel.

"No."

"What if someone sees you?" Logan demanded.

"That's where I come in." Storm tilted her head back to stare at the clear sky. Her eyes clouded over, becoming a milky white, and clouds began to form, fog rolling in, laying a heavy blanket over the ground and rain began to fall from the sky.

"Ok. This is a little more cover than I would have wanted." Kitty gasped as the cold rain drenched her.

"We'll take lookout duty." Jubilee volunteered shivering, her teeth chattering at the sudden cold.

"Sounds like a plan. If it all goes to hell, get the hell out of here. Go back to the Magic shop. Don't try to be hero's." Logan growled at the teens.

"Fine."

"Ok."

"Got it."

"Sure thing, growly man."

After aiming another growl at Jubilee for the nickname, Logan and Jarod headed for the front of the property, while Angel and Rogue headed for the back. Bobby quickly ducked out with Logan and Jarod, and knelt on the front walk, being careful to keep low, so as to be mostly hidden by the thick fog.

"What the hell are you doin' kid?" Logan demanded.

Bobby ignored him for a moment, concentrating on what he was doing. Then he sprang to his feet and grinned. "Don't slip guys." With that warning he ducked back into the covering of the brush.

"What did he me..whoa!" Jarod discovered what Bobby had meant, as he took a step on the walkway and slipped on slick ice. "A more comprehensive warning would have been more appropriate." he muttered as he regained his balance.

Logan opened his mouth to comment, but was cut off as the front door flew open. Well Bobby had killed two birds with one stone. He'd laid a trap and gotten their attention. He made a mental note to thank the boy.

When Hell froze over.

**********

Rogue glanced up at the second story balcony, then at the dark man beside her. He reminded her rather strongly of Logan for some reason. "You ready?"

Angel nodded. "Yes."

"Hold on." Rogue took a firm hold of him, reaching up to grasp him under his arms. At the sound of a scuffle out the front of the house, she gently rose into the air. Depositing them both silently on the balcony (damn, she'd gotten good at this!) she moved to peer through the second set of windows, as Angel peered through the first. She was about to give up, and see what she could do about getting them into the building, when a flash of steel and black caught her attention. "Angel!" she whispered harshly. She jumped as he appeared beside her. Geez! He moved as quietly as Logan.

"And what have we here?" Angel muttered as he spotted a sweeper exiting the room. "This is it."

"Sure?"

"Positive."

"Don't suppose you know how to jimmy the window, do you?" she asked as she discovered they the windows were not the type she was used to.

Angel answered the question by putting his fist through the glass.

************

Kitty's amusement at the goon squad's prat falls on the ice covered path quickly abated as they caught on, and began avoiding the path. Unfortunately this meant that they were all now firmly on their feet, and taking shots at Jarod and Wolverine. And Wolverine he was at the moment. The claws had come out as the first bullet buried itself in his shoulder.

As another Sweeper took aim at an otherwise occupied Jarod, sparks suddenly shot out to hit his feet, and he stumbled backward, lost his balance and ended up flat on his back.

"Jubilation Lee!" Storm hissed.

"Well I wasn't about to let 'em kill him!" Jubilee defended hotly. "Besides, you can't really say anything!" Storm had been directing lightning bolts close to the sweepers since they had first pulled their guns, so generally the atmosphere was confused and panicky. Not a good combination.

Kitty did a quick count of the goons in the front yard and cursed. Damn! There were at least three still inside.

"Miss Munroe? Could you take out the power please?"

"Why? Kitty!" Storm called out as Kitty took off running for the house. Left no other option, Storm directed a lighting bolt that took out the electricity connection to the house.

Kitty phased into the house and cautiously looked around, searching for MIB's. One was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his gun drawn, alternatively looking down the hall, to the front yard, and up the stairs, as if checking on something. The sudden lack of power seemed to have made him jumpy.

Kitty realised that she had the advantage, seeing as her eyes were already used to the dark, and she quickly crept (and phased when necessary) around him. She cast her eyes around, looking for a weapon. Grabbing a glass lamp, she hefted it a few times to check the weight. Then she brought it down on the goon's head, with all her strength. Sometimes, you did learn something from TV. The sound of the lamp breaking was almost as satisfying as the groan the goon let out as he sank unconscious to the floor.

She quickly stepped back, and phased through the wall, as she heard footsteps, attracted by the sound of the lamp shattering. One down. Two to go.

***********

Lia froze as she heard the sound of shattering glass. Where the hell had that come from? Downstairs, or.... This was not good. First the power, now this. On second thoughts, yes that was good. The MIB guarding her frowned, brought his gun up, and left to check for the source of the noise.

Now that he was gone, she began trying loosen her bonds again. Her already chaffed wrists protested. Loudly. She let out a muffled moan of pain.

"Lia, don't struggle." A quiet voice in her ear startled her, and reflexively jerked in the direction of the voice, trying to do some damage, before realising who the voice belonged to.

Angel. Thank God. All of them. She'd build shrines to every known god, as long as they all got out of here in one piece.

The gag in her mouth was removed, and she gagged. (NO PUN INTENDED!) "Angel." she breathed, relieved.

"Ready to get out of here?" he asked as he untied her hands and feet. He growled as he saw the red, angry areas on her wrists.

"God yes!"

Angel scooped her up into his arms. "Then let's.."

CRACK

Lia yelped as she felt something sharp penetrate her shoulder. Immediately Angel whirled, putting himself between Lia and the shooting sweeper. He winced as bullets buried themselves in his back.

The shooting suddenly stopped, and Angel turned his head enough to see Rogue stepping over the unconscious form in black.

"Thought you could use some help."

"Looks like you could use some." A voice from behind her ground out coarsely.

**********

Jarod was pissed off, tired and sore. He was also a little amazed. He'd never lasted in an out and out fight with a sweeper team this long. Mind you, he'd never had a storm and lightning bolts raining from the sky, some very well placed fireworks, and an extremely pissed off mutant on his side before.

The last two sweepers were knocked out at the same time. Jarod finally managed to get under Lennie's guard and deliver a knock out right-hook. God that man had a hard jaw! He turned to see an out of breath Logan... um perhaps not Logan at the moment. Wolverine. Wolverine was sniffing the air as he glanced around the yard.

"Rogue." Logan stalked toward the front door.

"She hurt?" a concerned Jarod wasn't far behind.

"Scared."

**********

Kitty crept up the stairs behind the goon. She watched Rogue step into the room, and the goon pull a gun on her. Then Kitty got angry. Nobody threatened her friends! Especially not a goon in a we-get-these-suits-discount-from-bad-guys-r-us suit! So Kitty did the only thing she could think of. She took him down in a football tackle. St John would be so proud.

**********

Rogue took a startled step back as she identified the shadow in the shadowy man's hand as a gun. Damn. This was not good. Fortunately the situation was short lived as she heard a familiar yell, and the man stumbled forward as Kitty, she assumed it was Kitty, tackled him. Taking advantage of the distraction, she quickly knocked him out as Kitty rolled off him.

"Is everyone OK?" A worried Kitty demanded as she sprang to her feet.

"Lia's hurt." Angel's voice was grim. Of course that was the exact instant that Logan and Jarod arrived. Jarod instantly assumed his doctor identity and began to check out her wound.

"I'll call an ambulance." Kitty headed for the door.

"No!" Jarod stopped her. "How far from here is the hospital?" he asked an extremely anxious Angel.

"About 5 minutes."

"Well take the car."

They'd made it as far as the top of the stairs when the sounds of sirens reached them.

"Out the back."

After taking her from Angel, Rogue gently flew Lia down to the ground and gave her back to her husband. Storm, Jubilee and Bobby met them.

"You guys go ahead. We'll meet you there." Logan waved the others on, and grabbed a handful of Rogue's cloak to stop her going with them.

"But I don't know where the hospital is!" she protested.

"We'll find it."

Storm raised a questioning eyebrow at Rogue who nodded silently. She had a sinking feeling that she was in for the third degree.

**************

Miss Parker cursed as she saw the flashing lights of the patrol cars. The annoyance of the flashing was made worse by the way the light bounced off the rain, and the fog that hung heavily in the street.

"Broots, are you sure this is where the other sweepers were staying?" She demanded.

"Y..yes Miss Parker."

Parker cursed again and drove slowly past the house. They couldn't see much, due to the patrol cars, but Parker was sure that she saw a sweeper, Lennie, being pushed into a patrol car. Damn it. These idiots couldn't do anything right! Well, they had screwed up. She wasn't going to get involved. A grin spread across her face as she imagined Mr Wheezy's reaction to this latest stuff up.

"Looks like Labrat's been busy."

***********

Spike watched curiously as he spotted Dawn hiding in a bush, just outside the police station. What was she doing? Then he caught sight of Red, Tara and Anya sitting on the stairs. What were they up to?

"What are you doin' here pet?" Spike's voice startled Dawn. She whirled around and reflexively pushed with her mind. This time however, Spike was a little more prepared, so didn't go flying. He did however land on his ass.

"Damn it Spike, don't sneak up on me!" Dawn glared at the blonde vampire. "And don't call me pet!"

"Alright, all right. Dawn. What are you doing?"

"Watching." Dawn turned her attention back to the police station.

"Watching what?"

"Them." Just then, a group of men, dressed in rumpled suits stepped through the doors.

Anya nodded, and the trio stood and started climbing the stairs, 'stumbling' in front of the group of men. They annoyed men helped them to regain their balance and continued to the car waiting for them, not seeing the triumphant smiles on the girls faces.

"Ok, pet. What was that all about?"

"Damn it Spike!" Dawn ground out. "Don't call me pet!"

***********

Lyle was about to climb into the car when he spotted a familiar face. That was one of the guys from last night! "Go on ahead. I have something I have to do." he waved the others on. As the car pulled away he quietly circled around and approached the familiar bleached blonde figure from behind. The man was too busy arguing with a teenager to notice him, so he decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. Reaching forward he tapped the man firmly on the shoulder. As the man spun he pulled back with his right.... and grunted as the girl punched him in the nose. As he reeled back in shock, he suddenly found himself floating. Six feet off the ground. Shit. He wasn't good with heights. In fact he was absolutely terrified of them. He started to hyperventilate, and the world began to dim. Vaguely he heard an outraged voice demand to know 'what did you do that for?! I could have handled it!', before the world went black.

***********

Dawn glared at Spike. That was it. "Listen here buddy." she began to count out on her fingers. "A) He was about to deck you. B) He's human. You can't hurt humans. Chip, remember?! And C) Don't fall over yourself thanking me for saving your ass!" And with that she bean to storm off. Ungrateful, arrogant, blind, sexy vampire! Ok, so that last thought wasn't exactly keeping with her angry-extremely-pissed-off-with-said-sexy-vampire mood, but she couldn't help it. If Buffy knew what she really thought of Spike, she'd probably stake her. Or lock her up in the nunnery. Neither option was particularly appealing.

Spike stared after Dawn's retreating figure in shock for a moment. He glanced up at he floating unconscious man above him and grinned. He'd be damned. She liked him! Then he took off after her.

************

"You're mad at me, aren't you?" Rogue sighed as she walked, well semi-ran, trying to keep up with a stalking Logan.

"I'm not mad at you."

"Oh please." she scoffed. "Try that with someone who hasn't had you floating around in her head for more than a year." She almost ran into the back of him as he suddenly stopped.

"Ok. Yes I am mad at you." He glared at her. "Why the hell did you go in there?! You were supposed to fly him up and leave. Stress the leaving part!"

"Angel was getting shot! Lia already had been! What was I supposed to do? Walk away and let the goon squad play duck shoot with them?! The idea of this was to get Lia out of there, remember?"

"We were taking care of it!" Logan bit out.

"They needed help!" That sentence came out in such a good imitation of Logan's growl that he was startled.

"You should have just left when Angel got inside." He repeated, with less aggression.

Rogue was surprised to see the fear in his eyes. "What are you really afraid of Logan?" she asked quietly. Suddenly she found herself crushed against his chest. She froze for an instant, then relaxed. It felt so good to have someone hold her. To not be afraid of getting too close. Bobby, Kitty and Jubilee were great, but even they were a little cautious. And they never held her like this.

"Damn it Kid, don't scare me like that." he muttered into her hair.

"I'm sorry I scared you." She mumbled into his chest, then pushed away gently. "But dammit Logan, you can't wrap me up in cotton wool. I can take care of myself." She tapped her temple. "And I have you to thank, in part."

"Only in part?" Logan half-heartedly tried to sound indignant. "Why didn't you tell me? When I called? About the new powers?"

"Oh and what was I supposed to say. Me in New York, you in the wilds of Canada. 'Oh things are just great here, I can fly now. And oh, by the way I have an insane mutant running around in my head. I had to kill her, she was trying to kill us all.'" She rolled her eyes at him. "That would have gone down well."

Logan digested this silently. Then simply nodded. A smirk lifted the corners of his mouth as he asked "Where did the mouth come from? You been spending a little too much time with Jubilee?"

"Lots of things have changed since you left." Rogue shrugged.

"I'm beginning to see that."

"Good. Maybe that means we can forego the club."

"Huh?"

**********

Xander watched as Anya, Willow and Tara approached the car giggling. "Do I want to know what you guys did?" he asked, as they climbed into the car. For some reason that set Wills and Tara off again.

"You'll see." Anya was extremely pleased with herself. So, ok, this wasn't like the good 'ol days when she had her powers and could bend reality as she saw fit, according to the wish, but it certainly was just as fun. There was something to be said for cruel and unusual punishment.

"Where's Dawn?!" Xander demanded as he realised that she wasn't anywhere nearby.

"Spike'll be walking her home. They have a few things to sort out." Willow informed him.

"Spike?" Xander's jaw dropped open as he processed the meaning behind those words. Anya reached up and shut his mouth with a finger beneath his jaw.

"And you call yourself a genius."

***********

"I don't suppose saying I'm sorry will get me out of the dog house, would it pet? Dawn." Spike quickly corrected himself as Dawn suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Probably not a good idea to peeve her off any more than she already was.

Dawn slowly turned to face him. "For someone who's over a hundred and twenty you are amazingly dense! Not to mention blind, arrogant, condescending, aggravating, annoymmph!" her tirade was cut off by Spike's mouth.

"Uh..um.." Spike grinned as Dawn tried to form a coherent sentence. "What did you do that for?!"

"Let's just say, suddenly I can see."

"Oh. Well. If you think that's going to get you off the hook buddy, think again!"

"Dawn?"

What do you know, he remembered her name! "Yes?"

"Anyone told you, you talk to much?"

***********

It was amazing how these things made sense after the fact. Giles re-read the prophecy, and sent up a silent prayer for the next one to be a little more obvious.

When the Game of Masks, nears it's end,
And the time of unveiling comes,
Together stand the Warriors and their clans.

The Game, Giles was willing to bet, refered to the idea that we all wear masks of some kind. It had turned out that Xander and the others had been wearing some very good ones. But now, all had been revealed. Talk about an eye opener. It was going to take some getting used to, the sudden change in Xander's attitude. Oh he was still a smart mouthed wise cracker, but now he wasn't bothering to hide his intelligence and seemed much more self-assured.

And to find that Dawn knew... That she knew about things Giles had never even heard of. It was a little disconcerting.

Giles glanced around the room at a group of anxious scoobies. Finding out that Tara was a mutant had come as a bit of a shock. Kitty and Storm had offered her a place at Xavier's if she ever needed a place to go or someone to talk to. Jubilee had almost begged her to go with them. She wanted to learn some magic. Preferably something she could use on Bobby, so that he'd stop calling her Sparky. Tara had laughed and told her to come and see her in a couple more years.

Unclear the First at prophecy's end.

This line bothered him though. He couldn't quite pin it down, but this line made him rather uncomfortable. Did it mean they'd be confused? Not sure on who the First clan was? Or would they lose someone? Giles hoped to god it wasn't the last choice.

************

Angel was wearing out a path in the linoleum flooring of the waiting room. Well, not really, but he wasn't far off. Neither was Xander. If the situation wasn't so serious Buffy would probably be laughing right about now. Xander and Angel sharing a hobby. But the situation was serious. They were all sitting here waiting on news of Cordelia. The bullet had entered her shoulder making quite a mess, and she had lost alot of blood. She had been in surgery almost an hour.

Buffy looked around the waiting room, a room she'd come to know rather well, at alot of very concerned people. Angel and Xander paced. Willow and Tara were trying to keep themselves occupied with the puzzles in the old magazines left laying around. Spike and Logan were in similar positions, seated uncomfortably in the hard plastic chairs, Logan with Rogue leaning against him, and Spike with Dawn asleep on his shoulder. Buffy wasn't sure she wanted to know why they were getting on so well all of a sudden. Storm had slipped out about half an hour ago to call the Professor. Kitty appeared to be trying to count the number of holes in the roof. Even Bobby and Jubilee had taken a break from annoying each other. Bobby was forming small ice sculptures in his hands then melting them, and Jubilee was alternating between raiding the vending machine down the hall, and helping Willow and Tara with the puzzles. Jarod had bugged the nurse for the first half hour, and was now sitting in one of the chairs trying to get a little sleep. Without much success. And Anya fidgeted. She'd tidied up the waiting room and looked to be about to do it again when the door opened to admit a tall man in surgical scrubs.

He was a little taken aback to see so many people waiting for information on Miss Chase. When he'd gone into surgery there had only been two people with her. "She's fine."

Everyone let out breath's they hadn't realised they'd been holding.

"She's going to have difficulty moving her arm for awhile, we'll put her into physio for that, but otherwise.. Both she and the baby are fine."

"When can I... What?!" Angel was stunned. Had he heard correctly?

"Baby!?" The word exploded loudly around the room as 11 voices expressed their shock. The exception being Dawn and Anya.

"I knew it!"

"Miss Chase is about three months pregnant." The doctor confirmed, a puzzled frown clearing as he realised. "You didn't know?"

Anya knew she'd remember this day, as the first time she'd ever seen a vampire, a watcher and a pretender faint at the same time.

**************
SIX MONTHS LATER
**************

"You have visitors!" Rogue declared cheerfully as she and Jarod entered the hospital room, followed by an uncomfortable Logan.

"What are you guys doing here?" Lia demanded happily. "I thought you had exams this week?"

"Did. Finished early, so here we are." Rogue grinned as she spotted the small bundle in the crib.

"Angel called us to let us know." Jarod handed Lia a small wrapped package. "For the baby." He handed her a cellophane wrapped gift basket. "For you."

"Thanks! Um, can you put them just over there? Thanks." Lia looked at her friends in amazement. "How did you guys get here so fast?" She'd only had the baby 12 hours ago. They must have gotten onto the first flight available.

"Well um...." Rogue started a guilty smile on her face.

"We're abusing X-Men facilities." Jarod grinned. "With the Professor's blessing."

"We took the jet." Logan finished.

"Logan?!" Lia gaped. She hadn't realised who he was until he opened his mouth. He looked so different! For one, he'd shaved, and had a haircut. And he wasn't wearing denim or leather! "What happened?"

A growl rumbled in his throat as Rogue began to giggle. "Jubilee. Kitty." As if that explained everything.

"Huh?"

"Jubilee and Kitty accidentally spit gum into his hair and beard." Rogue explained.

Lia tried unsuccessfully to suppress her laughter as a rather interesting picture formed in her mind. "Oh." It was all she trusted herself to say.

"So do we get to meet her?"

"What? Oh!" Lia lit up as she realised what Logan meant. She leaned over and lifted the small bundle out of the crib. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Moira Lynn."

Moira blinked sleepily, not particularly happy at being disturbed from her sleep, looked blindly at the shadows in front of her and decided to go back to sleep.

"She's adorable." Rogue whispered.

"You want to hold her?"

"What?!" Rogue was stunned at the question. "Um..no I.. I can't."

"Why not?" Lia demanded.

"Well I ..." she had been going to say something about her mutation, but quickly realised that, in this case, it was a moot point. Moira was bundled up in as much fabric as she was. "What if I hurt her?"

"She won't break. I promise." Lia grinned. She'd had the same reaction when she'd first held her daughter. She was so tiny! That was something that no pre-natal class had been able to convey. And Angel had refused to hold her at all. That hadn't stopped him from spending the next hour, while he thought she had been sleeping, from standing over Moira's crib talking softly and gently rubbing her temple, though. Lia had quickly realised that he was afraid of the same thing she was, that he'd accidentally hurt Moira.

Gingerly, Rogue took a seat, and Lia carefully handed Moira to her. Moira fussed a little at this new disruption to her sleep. Goodness! Did they think that this was pass-the-parcel? Rogue took one look into those deep chocolate brown eyes, inherited from her father, and was a goner. Moira would have a slave for life in Rogue.

Logan really wished he had a camera. Just to capture the look on Marie's face as she gazed down at the small bundle in her arms. He owed Lia for this.

"So, where's Angel?" Jarod asked as he sank into one of the chairs.

"Wesley and I ganged up on him. He went home to get some sleep. He should be back soon."

"He's back now." Logan informed her. "And you're about to be invaded."

"Huh? What do you...?"

"Weesa here!!" Xander announced with a grin, and suddenly the room was full of people. The entire Scooby gang, including Spike and Dawn crowded into the small hospital room.

"Oh. My. God. How did you all get past the nurses?"

"Very carefully."

"It's a little crowded in here, isn't it?" Willow observed.

"There's a rec room down the hall we could use. Might give us a bit more room."

**********

Xander settled back into a surprisingly comfortable chair (for a hospital), Anya on his lap, and glanced around the room at his friends. Lia was in Angel's lap, her head resting against his shoulder. Buffy, Willow and Tara sat on either side of Rogue, who was still holding Moira, and didn't look to want to give her up anytime soon. Logan and Jarod sat opposite watching them in amusement. Spike sat sprawled in a chair with Dawn curled up on the floor at his feet. Giles had managed to find a coffee machine that made a halfway decent cup of tea, and was now happily ensconced in a chair regarding the group with a vague look of amazement.

"So Jarod, enjoying Westchester?" Xander asked the elder pretender. Jarod had accompanied Logan, Storm and the 'kids' back to Xavier's. Partly to satisfy his curiosity about the place, but mainly to help Logan find out the rest of what the Centre had done to him. He'd quickly found that while the Centre had used his sim, they'd also used Xander's, which made things a little more difficult when it came to sorting everything out. Eventually he had accepted a teaching position in the school, although he still did the occasional pretend.

"Yeah. It's certainly never boring." The pretender grinned. "And the professor's been great. He's keeping an eye out for the rest of my family." Now that he didn't have to worry about the Centre chasing him so much anymore, he had high hopes of actually being able to find them again.

Right now the Centre was too busy trying to save their own ass', to come after him, or anyone else. Angelo had modified Jarod and Xander's little virus program slightly, sending sensitive files to the FBI. Ever since, the FBI had been going after the Centre, keeping a sharp eye on all their activities. When they finally got enough to be able to go through the Centre's files, they would find everything that the Centre had a record of. The virus didn't just lock up all the computer's. It prevented anyone from deleting anything. And while the lock up effects of the virus had been bypassed, the rest was still kicking around the Centre's mainframe. In his less sympathetic moments, Jarod got great enjoyment out of imagining the trouble Broots would have had trying to restore the system to a fully operational condition.

Broots, Miss Parker and Sydney weren't at the Centre anymore. In fact all references to them as permanent employees had disappeared from the Centre's records at the same time they did. Jarod knew that Angelo was responsible for that. He had kept tabs on them, some habits were hard to break. Both Broots and Miss Parker lived in New York. Broots had started his own software consulting firm and was doing quite well. Miss Parker seemed to be taking some time to find out who she was away from the Centre, and Jarod was happy for her. Sydney lived in a small town about a hundred mile south of the City. They got together regularly. Maybe one day Jarod might surprise them, but for now he was content to know that they were well, and safe from the Centre.

"You heard anything yet?" Xander was curious. Angelo had been sending both of them scads of information, alot of which made really glad that he didn't have to worry about the Centre anymore. Surely there had been something about Jarod's family in the files Angelo had sent him?

"Not yet." Jarod shook his head. "Hear about Lyle and the sweepers?"

"What about Lyle and the sweepers?" Angel asked suspiciously.

"The guys that were in Sunnydale? The ones we got arrested?" Xander asked, and Angel nodded. He remembered. "They're all in the loony bin."

"What?" Angel wasn't the only one surprised. Pretty much everyone in the room had the same reaction.

"They're all in a psychiatric hospital." Xander grinned. "Didn't catch why though. Do you know?" he asked Jarod.

Jarod began chuckling. "They'd be fine, then suddenly they'd start doing the chicken dance."

Everyone looked flabbergasted. Except Anya, Willow, Tara and Dawn who looked slightly guilty, and alot pleased with themselves.

Lia noticed. "Ok. What did you guys do?" she demanded.

The trio looked at each other for a couple of moments before Willow admitted, "Hypnotism spell."

"Everytime they hear a phone ring, they do the chicken dance." Tara elaborated sheepishly.

At the strange looks they were getting, Anya got defensive. "Hey it was that or the Macarena! And I figured that was too cruel, even for me!"

Xander was the first one to get over the shock and begin laughing. God he loved this woman! Ok, so it wasn't what you'd normally expect from a vengeance demon, but hey, it worked!

"So that's what you were doing!" Spike exclaimed.

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to laugh. Laughing at such a juvenile prank would only encourage them. He should not encourage such behavior. He really shouldn't.

"Hey guys, I think we finally cracked G-Man up!"

*************

Most of the group had left. Logan, Rogue and Jarod had gone back to New York, and were right now probably flying somewhere over one of the mid-northern states. The rest of the scoobies had left. Xander returned to Lia's hospital to give her the gift he had left in the car earlier. He stopped in the doorway and just watched the scene for a few moments.

Angel was asleep on Lia's bed, propped against the headboard, Lia and Moira both asleep on his chest. They looked so peaceful, Xander wasn't about to disrupt them. He quietly stepped into the room, placed the gift on the table, and crept out of the room, taking one last look back.

Lia and Angel were happy, the Centre wasn't a threat anymore, his friends were safe, or as safe as could be expected, and he was hopelessly in love with a 1100 year old ex-vengence demon who loved him back. All was right with his world.

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