[FFML] [FIC][BtVS][SG-1][MAU] Repost: Worthless 5/?

[Gandalf The Green]

Monday

"Come on Willow, we're going to be late picking Dawn up!"

Willow gave a frustrated cry. "I'm not ready to go yet. You go ahead; I'll
teleport and meet you when you get there." She shouted from her room.

"Alright, but don't teleport to school. We don't want to demonstrate our
abilities in public, right?" 

"Xander, if I'm late enough that I'm teleporting to school, I swear that
nobody will see me do so. I will scry my destination before I 'port.
Actually, I think I'll just meet you at school."

Xander did the only thing he could do, and gave up trying to get Willow to
hurry. She normally didn't bother trying to look good, but her new found
confidence in herself and her abilities made her reevaluate her clothing
options and she was busy arguing with her hair and wardrobe, totally
dissatisfied with her options.

Xander got into his brand new, 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500, and headed for the
Summers' home. Being the small California town that Sunnydale was, it didn't
take long, and Xander was parked out front of the Slayer's house. Xander
rang the doorbell, and let himself in, as he had been doing most of the
summer. 

Xander called up the stairs, "Hey Morning Light, you ready?"

Dawn answered by walking down the stairs moments later with her purse in a
brand new outfit that Xander had certainly never seen her wear before. Dawn
was wearing a classy gray skirt, heels, and blouse, white stockings and a
black jacket. Xander was a bit broken as she walked up to him and gave him a
kiss on the cheek. "Good morning Xander."

"Um, yeah." Trying not to sound too out of it, Xander mumbled.

"Where's Willow? I thought you were both going to escort me to my first day
at high school?"

Now that she had gotten his brain working again by heading into the kitchen
with him, he was able to answer properly. "She was busy arguing with her
wardrobe when I left. She told me she would meet us in class."

"So, I have you all to myself then," she paused for a heartbeat before
continuing, "for breakfast?"

"Sure, we just need to hurry up, because school starts soon, and you still
need to register." Xander sat and took the offered bowl of cereal.

"Nope. I hacked their computers - way primitive by the way, you could have
done it with no problems. I am registered, picked my own classes, which I'm
with either you or Willow, or both for the whole day. You do realize that
the only classes that you don't share with Willow are Phys. Ed., Wood Shop,
and Computer Science. I've managed to work it so that I have Phys. Ed. with
you, and computers with Willow."

Xander was busy eating his second breakfast that morning, while Joyce
finished her own breakfast. 

Joyce was mildly annoyed at hearing about her youngest daughter's hacking
activities, "Dawn, I don't want you hacking the school computers. There are
rules and reasons that they have the admissions process set up the way it
is. You can't just start doing as you see fit just because you can."

"It's not just because I can Mom, it's because someone had to. Tell me,
what's my birth date? Do I have any legal ID? What does that ID say? When I
hacked the SHS computers, all I did was register myself as Dawn Summers, 17,
with my same GPA as I had at Washington Elementary. I made sure that the
classes that Willow and Xander were in weren't full, so as to not bother the
teachers. I have done everything that the admissions secretary would have
had to. All I really need to do is go into the office, have my photo taken
for my school ID, and then pick it up at lunchtime. I already have my copy
of my schedule; the teachers will receive their notification that I'll be
joining their classes when they pick up their morning mail as it should be,
rather than being told after the fact."

"We could have avoided all that if you went back to being 12."

"Mom, would you go back to being 12?"

"Well, no, but that's because I've already grown up, you haven't."

"Yes mom, I have already grown up. Force of cosmic nature, remember?"

"And you have how many years of memories as a human?"

"Well, only 12, so you have a point there, but when was the last time you
could remember being there for the birth of a galaxy, or seen stars collapse
into black holes? How that perspective translates into day to day life is
going to be a rather interesting learning experience." She took another bite
of her muffin, and re-adjusted her lightsaber from poking her in the side
under her jacket.

"You will leave that thing home, right?"

"What thing?"

"The Lightsaber in your jacket that you're going to leave home."

"Mom, this is Sunnydale. Buffy carries stakes, Willow carries her pulse
pistol, Xander has his claws, and Giles has an entire armory in the library.
Ok, so his armory is all 12th century, but that's beside the point. Everyone
who is aware of the dangers of this town carries weapons with them at all
times. They wouldn't be caught dead without them, or rather they probably
would be caught, and then made dead without them that is."

Xander, looking a bit sheepish, opened his jacket and showed Joyce that he
was indeed 'packin heat.' He carried his lightsaber and tricorder inside his
jacket, and he slid his tiny type 1 "Cricket" phaser, currently on setting
one, from his pocket. "Joyce, it really is a bad idea to be unarmed in this
town. Not only can you protect yourself against the things that can stand
sunlight and still want to eat you, but you can protect others as well. None
of us carry weapons because of ego, or to make ourselves feel like big
shots, or to flaunt the rules. Despite Miss Sunshine's gloomy outlook, she
is correct. We have kids disappear from school all the time, and
occasionally turn up dead, more frequently they turn up undead."

"Dawn is not taking a weapon to school, and that's final. How can you have
an environment conducive to learning with weapons all over the place? She is
still capable of defending herself as she's got all those force powers you
explained Saturday night."

"How can you have an environment conductive to learning when you're worried
about being unarmed, and that the next person who walks through the
classroom door is going to eat your soul?" Xander asked seriously.

Dawn had tried that argument already. She was tired of having this argument
with her mother. They had been having it for about an hour before Xander
showed up and were only repeating themselves now. Dawn embraced the Force
and spoke to her mother, "I am a Jedi."

Joyce responded, slightly distracted, "You are a Jedi."

"A Jedi goes nowhere without her lightsaber."

Again Joyce repeated, "A Jedi goes nowhere without her lightsaber."

"Get going or you'll be late for school."

"Get going or you'll be late for school," Joyce repeated a final time.

Xander was looking at Dawn rather harshly, but understood why she had mind
tricked her mother. He didn't like it, but he understood it. Xander finished
his cereal and Dawn grabbed a second large blueberry muffin, and they headed
out to the car after Dawn grabbed her purse and backpack.

As they sat down in the souped up hot rod, Xander started the car, then
turned to Dawn. "You do know that you can't just Mind Trick your mother to
win an argument, right?"

"I know that Xander, but we've been having that argument for an hour before
you arrived. It's why I'm wearing the jacket as she saw me try and put it in
my purse and just started yelling. She just doesn't understand Sunnydale I
guess."

"Well, just don't mind trick your mother without a good reason. Making sure
that you can keep at least one weapon on you at all times qualifies as a
good reason."

As Xander started to head to school, Dawn answered, "I have no intention to
falling to the Dark Side, and we both know darn well that casually flinging
mental adjustments about with the Jedi Mind Trick is a very easy path to the
Dark Side. I would rather have found another way out of that situation, but
I just didn't see one. On the face of it, I would have preferred to be late
to school in order to find out why she was so against weapons in schools,
even with extenuating circumstances. I just got the feeling from her that,
no matter how good the argument for allowing me to carry my lightsaber in
school, she would have forbid it anyway."

"Possibly, although, I think you should consider how else you could have
phrased your suggestions. An approach that would have been more Jedi, and
less Dark Side, would have left her reconsidering her actions and
restrictions, but still left her with her free will, giving her the option
to confirm or oppose her decision. However, I figure, if we keep the
lightsabers concealed, either through mundane techniques or a 'Notice Me
Not' type thing, I doubt it will become a problem. It's not like Sunnydale
High has a large history of student-on-student violence, so any weapons in
the school are not likely to be used against other students." Xander thought
for a few moments as he drove quite quickly through the town. "Maybe the
anti-weapon thing is a side effect of the typical California anti-weapon
mentality." 

 

***

It was ten minutes until the bell rang for classes to start that Willow
stepped out of the basement and into the hall full of students. She had
given up trying to find something to wear about ten minutes ago and decided
to use the MAU to help her with her wardrobe emergency. She had the MAU
create a brown suede skirt and boots, a green blouse, and gray tights. She
also used the MAU to give her hair a bit more curl and much less frizz. She
carried neither purse nor backpack, preferring to keep all her things in
sub-space pockets that she had created through magic a few minutes ago. All
in all, it looked like she just stepped out of a salon, ready for a fashion
shoot.

Unfortunately, this was to be the first day that Willow would not be on time
to class, in that Larry and one of his buddies came up and grabbed her from
behind, shoving her into an unused stockroom. Willow bit one the guy who had
his hand over her mouth, and he released her, just long enough to punch her
in the face while saying "Stupid bitch! What you do that for?" The punch
knocked willow off her feet and into a pile of empty boxes.

"Maybe because two morons decided to grab me in the middle of the hall,"
Willow sneered.

Larry held up his hand at the other boy, "Enough Bob." Then he turned to
Willow, "We are here to give Xander a little message. That message being,
'mess with me, your friends get hurt.' We are going to have a little fun
with you this morning, then we are going to mess you up pretty good."

"Well, I don't see an army standing behind you, so that must mean that you
don't intend for your message to be delivered very accurately." Willow
allowed the magic to flow through her, preparing to cast spells in her
defense, and began doing so. First casting a Fear Aura upon herself, leading
the two boys to believe that they really had just stepped into some serious
shit. She then cast a Time Stop to give her time to cast strength and speed
enhancing spells. Just as the time stop wore out, Willow kicked Larry square
between the uprights, causing him to immediately kneel, clutching his
well-abused privates. She then relieved him of consciousness by breaking his
jaw. Bob grabbed Willow by the shoulder and tried to turn her around so he
could beat her up properly. Willow forced him to release her by grabbing his
thumb and bending it backwards until it either broke or dislocated. Moving
from there to grab his wrist as she turned around to face him, she proceeded
to dislocate and then break several other bones in that arm before bestowing
the Minor Curse of Nausea on both boys. "I would suggest that you get Larry
here to the nurse's office, and then call a lawyer, because you will need
one when the police get here."

Willow then opened the stockroom door and headed for the Vice Principle's
office to report the attack.

Two hours later, Snider had given Willow two weeks out of school suspension
for crippling two of his most popular jocks, completely ignoring anything
beyond the fact that the two boys had been injured. He had also refused to
contact the police, and had forbidden her from doing so as well, informing
her that if she did, she would instead be expelled.

Willow was escorted from the school property, and walked home. On her way
however, she realized that she had no way of contacting Xander and letting
him know what happened to her. None of the magic she knew could emulate the
simple form of telepathy that Xander knew, sure, once she got home and cast
Sending, she could let him know, but that spell took 10 minutes. Whispering
wind could be cast as simple as you liked, but everyone in the area would
know what the spell said, and really couldn't be used in a non-magical
society like theirs. She would have to spend some time developing a
telepathy spell so that she could communicate with psychics. In the
meantime, she would have to get a communicator, but that would have the same
eavesdropping problems that whispering winds did. Willow sighed in
frustration. There really weren't any good solutions, except to add the
telepathy power with the MAU. 

So, as soon as she got home, that's exactly what she did. Willow gave
herself a basic telepathic ability so that she could communicate with others
without line of sight. She gave herself a 20 mile range as that seemed like
it should be plenty for anything they would need it for, and if she had to
deal with distances common with space travel, then the communicator was more
than adequate. 

Willow then called Xander through the new ability, "Xander, I've been
suspended."

This caused Xander to react understandably with a good amount of shock. It
could also be understandable to those who knew what was going on that Xander
sat up in his desk and practically shouted "What!" Also understandably, as
the teacher was not aware of anything beyond the fact that one of her
students had decided to disrupt her history class, ordered that student out
of the class. Xander dutifully left the class, and instead of heading
towards the troll's office as he was supposed to, headed for the library.
Xander spoke to Willow over the 'mental channel' "What do you mean you've
been suspended?"

"What I mean is that Vice-Principal Troll decided that putting two jocks in
the hospital for attempting to rape her was a good enough reason to suspend
said girl."

"Are you ok? They didn't hurt you, did they?" Willow could hear the concern
in his mental voice and was comforted by it.

"No. They were far too incompetent to actually have hurt me, despite Bob
being on the wrestling team."

"Bob, huh? I suppose Larry wasn't too far from the action?"

"He's the other one who got sent to the hospital. I think I broke his jaw,
not that I'm sorry for doing so, mind you."

"Personally, I would have turned them into Eunuchs."

"Oh I didn't go quite that far, but beyond the aches and pains that they
will have from various knitting bones and relocated joints, I cast Minor
Curse: Nausea on both of them. Should last about two weeks if I used the MAU
properly."

"Now that is just evil. Aches, pains, vomiting, and diarrhea. You certainly
didn't fool around with them." This time, there was quite a bit of humor in
his mind-voice.

"Well, they did violate the truce at their very first opportunity, and they
did try to rape me in order to send you the message that we don't mess
around with them, so all in all, I don't feel very badly about hurting them
like I did. Of course, if anything is permanent, I might feel differently,
but I don't think so at the moment."

"I understand, and I don't blame you one bit. I'm going to stop by the
library and inform Giles about what's happened this morning and invite him
over this afternoon to hear the rest. The only real question is where to
invite him. Think we can break him if we use the Enterprise's conference
room?"

"Nah, just use the Defiant's ready room. That should be shock enough, and
one Federation starship looks very much like any other from the inside."

"True." It was at this point that Xander walked into the library and
announced his presence to the head bookworm. "Hey G-Man!"

Not having been prepared for Xander at this time of day dropped his teacup
in surprise. Xander, not wanting to be yelled at for breaking it, caught it
telekinetically and set it, unobserved, on the table next to said librarian.

"Good Lord, Xander, is no time of day safe from you and that insufferable
nickname?"

"Not really, especially as I just found out that Larry and Bob were just
sent to the Hospital."

Giles cleaned his glasses and in a less annoyed and more concerned tone of
voice, "My word, Xander, are they alright?"

"They are going to the hospital, I think that that is the very definition of
'Not Alright,' don't you?"

"W-W-Well, yes, of of course, but will they?"

"I suppose they will recover eventually, so long as they avoid me for the
rest of their lives. Willow only broke Larry's Jaw, and dislocated several
of Bob's joints."

"Willow did this?" Giles exclaimed, cleaning his glasses with even more
fervor.

"Yep, Dear, Sweet, Loveable, Willow, just hospitalized two of the school's
biggest goons for trying to rape her."

There was a very distinct snap heard, and Xander realized that it was Giles'
glasses. "Willow is alright currently, yes?"

"Yes, I heard from her just before I got here. She apparently is unharmed
and sitting at home after Herr Troll suspended her."

Giles growled, and considered, once again, simply making the loathsome
creature disappear, or perhaps 'encouraging' him to have an accident
sometime in the near future.

"May I assume then that the reason you aren't in class is that you will be
going to see her?"

"Yep, next stop is Willow's."

"I see. You will call me if you need any help?"

"Sure Giles. I need to meet with you later anyway, so I'll give you a call
one way or another and let you know where we need to meet as the where was
going to be the library, but with Willow unable to enter school grounds at
the moment, it'll have to be elsewhere. I just haven't figured out where
yet."

"Very well, Xander, I should be available any time after 3:30 this
afternoon. I was unable to find anything over the weekend about that
unplanned meteor shower, nor were any of the researchers at the Watcher's
Council, so it was most likely an unimportant occurrence."

Xander nearly laughed, but somehow managed to keep a straight face and nod.
"Glad to hear it and I'll see you later." Xander practically ran out of the
library so that he could laugh without the librarian hearing it. It wasn't
until twenty minutes later that Giles realized that his tea cup wasn't
broken, when he slipped on the spilled tea. Fortunately, he was unhurt.
Unless you count the very large headache he got from trying to figure out
why his tea cup was unharmed, how it got to the table over there, when he
was sure that he had dropped it in surprise over here where the little
puddle of tea was.

Meanwhile, since Dawn had yet to see Willow in school, and didn't believe
for a second that the girl would cut school to go shopping whatever Xander
said, especially without anyone knowing about it, she was worried.

Dawn could call up a holographic terminal at will, and also cause one to
appear near Xander, or Willow, and find out what was going on, but doubted
that Xander would pay any attention to it as he seemed quite agitated, and
it might cause no small amount of difficulty for Willow if a holographic
terminal should suddenly appear in front of her while she was in public. She
couldn't work it like a cell phone without some prior arrangement, like
Willow actually having a cell phone. So instead she packed her things and
left the class quietly, unable to do anything else. She did however, go to
the bathroom and use her computer to contact the Defiant that was still in
orbit, and transported to the bridge.

Once there, she made use of the sensors to detect that Willow was at home,
and Xander's car, with only one occupant, was on his way there.

Having the information she needed, she transported to Willow's house. What
she saw was a fairly pissed off Willow.

Dawn called attention to herself so she wouldn't get shot accidentally,
"Willow? What's wrong, why didn't you ever make it to school?"

"Oh, I made it to school alright. I just never made it to class. Larry and
Bob - you know, from the wrestling team? - decided that they wanted to send
Xander a message, 'be a good little punching bag, or else we hurt your
friends.'"

"Since you're not hurt, I assume they are?"

"Bastards tried to rape me, of course they are in the hospital, and very
lucky to be alive. 3WA training is rather harsh that way. Add magical
enhancements to it, and hurting them was almost too easy. It was over in
less than 15 seconds."

Dawn nodded and hugged Willow, allowing her to calm down. They stayed that
way until Xander came in. Willow ran over to him and hugged, and then Dawn
came over and hugged them both for several minutes. Finally calmed, Xander
pulled out his latest MAU creation, a Mini-Replicator, and had it make lunch
for the three of them. 

The Mini-Replicator was about the size of a very thick lunch tray, and he
explained that it only had enough memory to store about 4000 patterns,
including drinks, dishes, and utensils. It was good for general meals, but
not much else and it needed to be recharged every week. It was also
programmed only to produce synthahol drinks, not real alcohol, and as there
were no side effects to synthahol, most especially no chance of becoming
addicted to the stuff, nor could it kill you, and there were no laws about
the distribution to, or consumption by, minors, they each sampled a few of
the more famous concoctions while spending the day together.

 

***

It was two hours later when Joyce called Willow's house to inform the teens
that she was on her way over to the mansion, and suggested that they meet
her there. Xander and Dawn transported, while Willow teleported.

Upon Joyce's arrival, she explained that she had been able to purchase the
mansion that they discovered last night. She had already closed the deal,
and had keys in hand. "I wound up paying 4 million for the estate, including
all the commissions, fees, and the 'I want to own it now' tax. It's in my
name at the moment, but I see no reason that all of us can't move in there
together immediately as Xander suggested. It seems that Sunnydale has some
strange laws, one of which is that people under 25 can't own real estate,
but can inherit it." Joyce handed out the four extra sets of keys to the
present teens, "In any case, I suggest you all go claim bedrooms." She
glared at Xander, Willow and Dawn, "Separate Bedrooms."

The three teens blushed, but nodded.

After having studied the blueprints and scans from the Defiant's computers,
they each knew which rooms would be best in their opinions, and which rooms
should be left for others. Considering how many suites there were, each
quickly grabbed one, with Joyce being at the end of the hall, Xander at the
top of the stairs, Buffy at the other end of the hall, Willow took the first
bedroom on the right of Xander's, which joined with his, and Dawn being
across the hall from Willow. 

Willow decided that she wanted to decorate the room herself, and so began
conjuring various bits of furniture, bed, desk, vanity, bedside tables,
bookshelves around most of the walls, and a few comfy chairs with a matching
table to go by the window. Once finished and satisfied with the way
everything looked, she spelled the walls to match the furniture, and then
cast a permanence spell on everything so that it wouldn't disappear at an
inopportune time, like when she was sleeping. The room was open and
uncluttered, with a distinct sense of wilderness to it. Willow's room had a
sense that you could go out into the forest and put the book shelves up, and
if you arranged the rest of her furniture the same way, it would feel like
the same room, except that you could get rained on. Willow smiled and nodded
her satisfaction, then left to go find the others and help them with their
decorating.

Dawn quickly claimed the bedroom connected to hers as a workroom, and let
her droids out of their capsules. She took a rather immediate liking to the
little R6 droid she had read about. Dawn had also gotten 4 LE series repair
droids, 6 Dum-1 series pit droids, and two Droideka from the MAU. They had
all been modified to act as slave units to R6. She was satisfied with the
droids as they would help her build her own version of Washu's Lab, and the
first step was to design and build a high output power generator of some
kind. Considering her options, and consulting her computer's technical
database, she decided on a quantum singularity generator, similar to that
used by a Romulan Bird of Prey. Not only could it produce large amounts of
power, but she could also harness the gravity it would produce for other
purposes, like Grazers, and Bulma's gravity room. If she added in Holodeck
technology to the Gravity room, it would make a very effective training
center. Dawn realized just how many tangents she was about to go off on when
Willow knocked on her open door. "I'm in here," she called from the second
room.

"Where did the droids come from, and why the destroyer droids?"

"Capsule I've been saving for the right time. The Droideka may not be all
that useful for anything except combat, mainly because they don't have hands
or anything else really, but they are very effective combat platforms. Given
that I had the MAU create them with Federation shields and pulse phasers
rather than blasters, they should be even more effective as home defense. I
suppose we might want to get some other droids for patrolling the grounds,
something a bit more humanoid, that way they can do more than just provide
security." Dawn was off on another tangent, tapping away at her computer
while mumbling, "Maybe a series of armed protocol droids. Might be able to
sell them as police droids if they are programmed correctly. Have to do
something about weapons and shields, but a standard type II phaser should be
sufficient, especially if it's tied into the droids power systems."

"Dawn!"

"Hm?"

"I gotta ask, who all did you integrate, cause you're starting to babble
more than me."

"Oh, well, I didn't really integrate any personality, just skills, special
abilities, talents, and knowledge of Washu, Gina Diggers, and Bulma. I just
don't think I realized how like them I really am, I mean with the going off
on tangents at random." She then muttered to herself, "I'm going to have to
work on that." Louder, and to Willow again, "I've got all these ideas that I
want to work on, and they are all trying to come out all at once, so when I
get on a technical bit, it gets difficult for me to remain focused."

"Ok, would you like me to help you to decorate your room now, or would you
like me to come back later so that you can explore your tangents?"

"Now's good. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking that you could describe what you want, or show me on
your computer, and I'd just Magic up the stuff you wanted."

As they began the process of decorating Dawn's suite, which wound up being a
cross between 12-year-old girl and techno-geek, Xander came and stood in the
door, waiting for the girls to finish. Xander smiled as he watched the pair
working together. It only took about 15 minutes with magic, and they noticed
him standing there about 10 minutes after he arrived.

"We're almost done Xander," Dawn informed him.

"Take your time ladies. It's only 3pm and Giles said he would be available
in half an hour."

Willow nodded, and one discussion on where to put Dawn's electronics
entertainment center later, and they were finished.

"Xander, can I help you with your room later, or did you want to replicate
it?" Willow asked.

Xander, noticing how excited she was and how happy she had been to decorate
Dawn's room, agreed, "Sure Will, If you tell me that your magic furniture
won't disappear on me in the middle of the night, I have no problems
trusting your magic to help decorate."

Willow smiled at him and hugged his arm as they left Dawn's room to find
Joyce.

After collecting Joyce and Buffy, they beamed up to the Defiant's bridge,
Joyce and Buffy heading into the ready room to make snacks.

 

***

Xander, sitting in the Captains chair, called out, "Dawn, connect me with
Giles, if you would?"

She nodded and set up the communications interface between the twenty-third
century Defiant and the Twentieth century POTS network. Xander checked the
sensors that were watching the library, and noticed that he was alone and
sitting down and not doing much of anything. Giles answered his office
phone, "Sunnydale High School Library, Giles speaking. How may I help you?"

"Hey G-man, you ready?"

"Xander, please desist with that infernal nickname!"

"Sure thing. You ready or you still busy?"

"I am ready to leave, just as soon as you tell me where you need me to go."

"Well, in that case, stand up?"

"Excuse me?"

"Stand up."

Giles did so, but asked, "Why do you want me to stand up?"

"So you don't fall on your ass when you get here." Xander said with a smile
as he nodded to Dawn who initiated the transport sequence.

"Why on Earth." was the last thing that was heard over communications link.
It did continue as he rematerialized on the bridge of the Defiant, "would I
fall on my rear." This time, Giles did not get cut off, but simply failed to
grasp what was going on. What had just happened couldn't have in his
experience. Even the most powerful of mages found it incredibly difficult to
teleport, and he hadn't even done that. He had teleported before, in
emergencies, the watcher's council would assemble a group of mages to
perform a teleport for either a Slayer & her Watcher, or a council Retrieval
Team.

"Because you're not on Earth anymore. Welcome aboard the USS Defiant,
currently 300 kilometers above good old Sunnydale. We are cloaked, and
keeping a very close eye on the city as a whole."

Giles began cleaning his spare pair of glasses, "What do you mean, not on
Earth?"

Xander pointed to the main view screen, which was currently pointed straight
ahead of the ship as it orbited the Earth. Giles turned to look at the
display, and dropped his glasses. "This can't be real!" he muttered, and
took an injudicious step forward, stepping on his only backup pair of
glasses.

"Oh, it's real. Um, did you know you just stepped on your glasses G-Man?"

"Hmmm?" He looked down and saw that he had indeed stepped on his own
glasses. "Oh bloody hell."

"Don't worry Giles; we'll get you a new pair." Willow offered.

"Thank you Willow," Giles sighed. At least that was one problem that he
wouldn't have to stress over any longer. "Would you three be kind enough to
tell me how you got your hands on a Federation Starship?"

Xander grinned and taunted the Englishman, "Giles, you know what the Defiant
is? I thought for sure we would have had to explain everything from the
ground up!"

"Yes, yes, very droll. Although, I must say that this doesn't look a bit
like the bridge of a Constitution class Starship. I am aware of popular
culture, just not as enamored of it all as most young people these days. You
also forget that Star Trek did go all the way back to my day. I was quite
fond of the show. Hull Registry NCC-1764 USS Defiant, Constitution Class
Heavy Cruiser. Destroyed by the Tholians."

"You've got the wrong show G-Man, Hull Registry NX 74205, USS Defiant,
Defiant Class Heavy Escort, assigned to Deep Space 9 under the command of
Captain Benjamin Sisko. This Defiant has a working Romulan Cloaking Device,
on loan from the Romulans for use in the Delta Quadrant against the
Founders. Of course, in this universe, none of that exists, but this ship
does, as well as several others. We even have the latest Enterprise, a
Sovereign class."

"Enough, I can see that I might have a bit of, of catching up to do. Would,
um, you care to tell me how you came to be in possession of technology that,
um, until recently apparently, only existed on TV?"

"Sure, how about you head over there to the ready room? Joyce and Buffy
should have some snacks ready for us. I still need to bring up Mrs.
Calendar, and we'll be in momentarily."

Giles nodded and walked through the door to the Defiant's ready room. He
noticed the telephone booth sized metal box with a three-fingered handprint,
a black rectangle, and red button, standing up against the back wall, but
ignored it for now as less important than the fact that he was on an honest
to goddess STARSHIP. He greeted Joyce and Buffy, and accepted a cup of tea
and sat down to wait for the others to arrive. The china appeared quite
lavish, with gold plating around the rim, and labeled USS Defiant, NCC-1764,
NX-74205. The teacup itself had a color picture of both Defiant-class
vessels printed on it.

Back on the bridge, Xander asked Dawn to place the call to Ms. Calendar.

"Sunnydale High School, Computer Lab, Calendar speaking. How may I help
you?"

"This is Xander, are you available for a Scooby meeting?"

"Sure, I have some time. I just finished up for the day."

"Great, just stand up and then hang up, and we'll bring you up."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't worry, just do it please?"

"Alright, but you had best explain shortly." Jenny hung up and then stood
and was immediately grabbed by the transporter.

Jenny appeared on the bridge, looking slightly ill. Willow and Xander went
to support her, and she mumbled, "That was most unpleasant."

Willow nodded, "Yeah, that's about what I said, so far, you and I are the
only ones to have a problem with it. I just stuck with Teleport magic after
my first time. Of course, I was a lot worse off than you were, not that you
probably don't feel all that great right now."

"It's ok Willow. I'm starting to get my stomach settled. Where are we?"

Xander answered, "Bridge of the USS Defiant, 300 kilometers over Sunnydale,
cloaked."

"DS9's Defiant? How?"

"Yep, and answers await your pleasure in the ready room."

Jenny nodded and let the three teens escort her to the ready room, despite
the fact that she was rapidly feeling better and was already quite steady.

Xander took his seat at the head of the table, with Willow to his right and
Dawn to his left. Further down the left side of the conference table was
Buffy then Joyce. Giles and Jenny sat next to Willow.

"Well G-Man, where shall we start?"

"The beginning is usually a good place, and I thought you agreed to stop
calling me that?"

"I did, just not when." Xander grinned at the man. "Right then, the
beginning. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Giles glared at Xander, "I don't think we need to go quite that far back."

"Really? That's good, cause that's about all I can remember of the Bible."
Xander then began to explain how he found the MAU on Thursday night, and how
they had experimented with it, and learned to use the device, which just so
happened to sit in the corner, right over there. After a brief adjournment
for dinner, Xander continued with what had happened over the weekend, and
when Giles realized that the young woman sitting with them was Dawn, he
groaned and wished for a pair of glasses to clean. Xander finished with what
had happened that morning, and what they had done since.

"And Buffy has agreed to remain the slayer?"

"Yep. Her only request so far was that you not be our, well for lack of
better term, party leader."

"I see, and who does she suggest?" Giles asked the teens.

"She suggests that our new leader is Xander, says the girl being treated in
the third person," Buffy complained.

Jenny asked, "Interesting, but why?"

"Well, for one thing, he understands why I didn't want to be the Slayer. I
wasn't given a choice, just bam, chosen to suffer a short life fighting the
things that go bump in the night. Xander gave me that choice, and when he
explained why he did, I couldn't see any of the rest of us making the same
decision, we tend to accept what is, and leave it that way. Xander sees what
is and tries to make it better. He's even promised to let me play with the
machine. Said he had a few suggestions on how to make me a better slayer,
but still remain me. Other than my mom, would any of you have given me the
choice, or would you simply have gone along with the whole Chosen One
thing?"

Everyone thought about what Buffy had said for a few moments.

Once it seemed that everyone had accepted what she had said, Buffy
continued, "Our leader can't be Giles, as he has to follow the orders of a
group of people who obviously don't have a Slayer's best interests at heart,
or they would, as Xander pointed out, provide a greater support network for
the slayer. Nope, according to the Council, the only support I need or
should have is Giles, no offence."

"None taken. I always wondered about that myself. I could understand that
the Watcher might be a Field Researcher and a leader when they aren't
fighting, but I always wondered why the council didn't provide a fire team
to support the Slayer in combat. Bullets don't kill, but they do hurt and
can incapacitate a Vampire long enough to make it a worthwhile tactic."

"My mom also can not be our leader, as she would want nothing more than to
protect her daughters at the possible peril of all life everywhere, should
the hell mouth open, as is appropriate for a mother." Joyce smiled at her
and nodded her head in agreement, still not liking the situation, but not
really seeing any way around it.

"We can't make Ms. Calendar our leader simply because we know so little
about you. The few times she's been able to help us, it's been a great help,
but that doesn't make you a leader." Jenny nodded at the logic as well.

"While I may want to be leader, Xander is right, I don't do such a hot job
of it. I nearly got everyone killed. When in the heat of battle, that's
where the slayer is best and knows what orders to give. The Slayer in me
wants nothing more than to get straight to that point, which makes it not so
hot otherwise. So, between Xander, Willow, Dawn and Cordelia, I think that
Xander would be the best choice, especially since he's got all these
nifty-cool plans for that whole 'humans survive' thing and they seem to be
working out so far."

This of course started a discussion of what all Xander had planned to do,
now that he had all the things that he did. Buffy and Willow excused
themselves as the discussion started so that they could take care of their
assigned patrol, so, with liberal usage of the replicators to create tea,
coffee, and sodas, Xander and Dawn explained, in some detail, what they had
planned and why. This lead to a discussion of what the MAU was capable of,
and Giles confessed that he would need to report the existence of the
devices to the Watcher's Council. "The, um, the news stated that, that there
were over 150,000 meteors in, or rather as part of, that meteor shower on
Thursday night, and and more over the weekend, so it's anyone's guess as to
how many of those devices are currently on Earth. I can only say that it's
most fortuitous that they will cease working after, um, after 4 days.
However, that's still 4 days during which people will be using the devices
to god only knows what ends, and what happens when a demon gets it's hands
on one?"

"I don't know what will happen when a demon grabs one, assuming that it is
still active when he does, I think most demons would try to pass as humans,
just like humans would typically prefer to be stronger and faster than other
humans, or demons should they know about them. Demons are already stronger
and faster than humans, but they can't pass through our society without
attracting a whole lot of attention that they don't want. So we wind up with
Mr. Balor in a brand new Edgar suit. Of course, there is the possibility
that the MAU simply won't work for a demon, but if it's alive, the MAU
should work for it, meaning that the Undead shouldn't be able to use it. Of
course, the limitations of the device are that it can't create life, nor
will it cause harm, other than that, it is Ranma's Rules."

Jenny smirked, while Giles and Joyce looked a bit perplexed until Jenny took
pity on them, "Anything Goes. Ranma is a character in an anime. He's a
martial artist who studies the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, or
that's the common translation anyway."

"So, this, um, machine, as it were, should have no, um, difficulties in
fixing my eyesight? N-N-No more glasses?" Giles inquired.

"Correct, but then you loose your nervous habit, and then where would you
be?" Xander quipped.

Giles only glared, "But you would allow us to use the device?"

"Of course, Mrs. Summers already has. She wanted a Green Lantern Power Corps
Power Ring, and we convinced her to balance it out a bit with a few other
things, and eliminated the ring's weaknesses. So, G-Man, Ms. C., what would
you like to be today?"

After a brief tutorial on MAU usage, with an absent minded warning from Dawn
on the possible dangers of not being specific with your thoughts, Giles
stepped up to the control panel, and began entering his desired
modifications. First he got rid of his need for glasses. Permanently.
Breaking two pairs in one day was a bit much, even if there were extenuating
circumstances. He then altered his genetic pattern to conform to the
Meyerdahl Beta package, the same as Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Countess and
Steadholder Harrington, Captain of the List - RMN, Admiral - GSN, preferred
styles of Coup De Vitesse at 8th rank, as well as Grand Master rank in
Grayson-style sword fighting. He added an old west style gun belt with a
heavy pulser pistol with several spare power and flechette packs. In the
pocket of his suit coat he added the Doctor's Sonic Wrench, and then
wondered about the capsules that Xander had used to get his car, he took his
hand from the palm reader,  "Xander, Might you give me a bit of help here,
I-I find myself at a bit of a loss actually."

"Sure Giles, what do you need?"

"The, the capsules that you used to get your car and these starships, how,
how do I use the MAU to, to get the car I want?"

"Well, there are a number of ways, but I could just drop the knowledge of
what they are and what they do into your memory. It would only be temporary,
but you could also use the MAU to reinforce that memory, say with Total
Recall. And since you like books, I might suggest the always-useful psionic
power of speed-reading? I think that would be easiest."

"There, um, there are no side effects?"

"Um, other than a slight craving for Twinkies, I doubt it."

Giles glared at him.

"Just kidding G-Man," He said with a small but non-repentant grin.

"Very well, though I never believed I would ever utter this phrase to you,
educate me."

Xander did so, dropping the knowledge of how to ask the MAU for all three
items, Total Recall, Speed-reading, and the Capsules, into Giles' memory and
announced "Done."

"Thank you Xander." Giles put his hand back onto the palm print, and added
the capsule to his weapon's belt, and then put a 1967 AC Shelby Cobra 427 in
British Racing Green inside the capsule. It was, in his considered opinion,
the only color for a British roadster, and this particular model should be
able to beat the pants off of Xander's Mustang. This being southern
California, he did modify it to include a modern air conditioner, then
considered and eventually added a few other safety modifications, like seat
belts. As a convenience, he also added in a state of the art CD player and
speakers, a powered convertible roof, rearranged the dash so it was more
readable and user friendly, and then really started to add in some gadgets
that were reminiscent of James Bond. Bullet proof, Machine Guns, RPGs,
ejection seats, tire spikes, adaptive camouflage, a P90 in the glove box,
land mines, multi-mode missiles, and a few other toys before starting on his
own personal gadgets, sunglasses with X-ray vision, telescopic and
microscopic vision, Ultra-violet and Infra-red vision, and light
amplification modes, laser torch and bomb remote detonator in the wrist
watch/compass/GPS receiver, grapnel line in the belt buckle, explosives in
the heels of his shoes and cufflinks, the tie-tack that was a miniature
camera that took pictures in all the same vision modes as his glasses and
was operated by tiny buttons on his college ring, a cell phone that reads
bugs and tracking devices and acted as a remote control for the Cobra,
tranquilizer dart in the pen that could write in ink that only showed up
under ultra-violet light, the pencil that allowed one to breathe underwater
as it used charcoal rather than lead, a pocket knife that included a
miniature gaschromatigraph for chemical analysis, and a powerful computer
built into a cigarette case, and yes, it even carries cigarettes that fire
tracking devices and a lighter.

Xander slipped in a lightsaber with a blade the same color as Giles' car, as
well as the basic training in lightsaber use and basic force sensitivity,
leaving anything else up to the librarian to figure out for himself. It
would provide a rather accurate danger sense, but anything else would
require training. Giles activated the machine and stepped out grinning, "I
can see again!"

It was short-lived euphoria as it was this time that he noticed that Jenny
appeared to be having difficulty with making some kind of decision.
"Wh-what's wrong Jenny?" he asked.

She looked at Giles, sighed, and looked at Xander. She made a rather
significant point out of making eye contact with the teen. She tried to
share all the feelings of conflicting emotions that she was having. "You
know, don't you." It wasn't a question, but an obvious statement.

"What I know is what you've shown me Ms. Calendar. I know that you feel
conflicted. I know that you've been keeping secrets for some time. Those
secrets protect you, but protect others more. You feel honor bound to reveal
those secrets, but you also feel oath bound not to, which is the root of
your conflict. Also, revealing to us that you know that I know that there
are secrets indicates that you've decided that you will be sharing those
secrets with us, before those secrets can tear insurmountable holes in our
relationships. My offering to let you use the MAU is merely the catalyst
that has brought the conflict into crisis for you. You feel that you can't
use the MAU as you might otherwise. If you don't come clean before you use
it, everything after becomes tainted. Would we really have allowed you to
use the MAU if we had known the secrets? The use of the MAU under such
circumstances might constitute a major betrayal of trust, one that may be
irreparable, depending of course on the content of those secrets that you've
already decided to share with us. It was only ever a question of when, for
you," Xander said.

Jenny smiled sadly, "Sure, just read my mind."

"No, just your behavior."

At this, Jenny raised her eyebrow, "In either case, you are correct. I am
whom you've always known me to be, personality wise anyway, but my real name
is Jana Calderash, and my family is Gypsy. I was sent here to ensure that
Angelus continues to suffer under the curse that my clan placed upon the
demon."

Giles was upset. He felt betrayed, but Xander was correct in what he had
said, if she hadn't confessed now, she never would have been able to in the
future. Lord knew he had a few secrets of his own that were dead and buried.
He sat down opposite from Jenny, er, Jana, um, "er, um, what do you prefer
we call you by, Jenny or Jana?"

Xander quipped, "Well, if that's his biggest question I don't suppose we'll
be needing security any time soon."

"I think I would prefer Jana, if it's alright with you all. It's the name I
grew up with after all."

She paused to thing for a moment, "By revealing to you what I have and am
about to, a case may be made that I have failed in my instructions, which in
turn can be interpreted as an act of betrayal. If I am found guilty of
betraying the clan, well, let's just say that punishment wouldn't be
pleasant. When Liam moved here from New York City, under the influence of a
balance demon I believe, I was sent here to keep an eye on him, make sure
that the curse remained in place. They gave me a crystal that indicated the
strength of the curse upon the vampire, which I have been dutifully
monitoring. Unfortunately, all it does is report the current strength. I
have no idea what causes increases or drops in strength of the curse. I do
know that if the curse is broken Liam dies again, and Angelus is released
once more upon the world."

"And they didn't feel it necessary to share the details of the curse?" Dawn
asked.

"No. I asked, strenuously. I was told that knowing the details was
irrelevant to the completion of my task. I would have told them that I
wouldn't do it without the knowledge, but again, refusing to follow the
orders of the Elders is most frequently seen as a sign of betrayal of the
clan, which is punished most harshly."

"Do you know what the purpose of the curse was?" Giles asked.

"Well, to a limited extent. Lore has it that an old and distraught woman
with our clan when she placed the curse upon Angelus as punishment for
taking the last of her family from her. I was told by the elders that the
curse inflicts the demon by giving control of the body back to the soul that
originally inhabited the body."

Everyone was quietly contemplative about these revelations when the universe
decided to show its infinite perversity again.

Willow and Buffy walked back into the ready room.

"That was a quick patrol Buffster."

"Two groups of five and a threesome. I didn't even get my hands dirty. All
willow did was twitch and that pistol of hers was in hand and we had dusty
vamps as quickly as she could squeeze the trigger. For once in my life since
I became the slayer, I don't even have the munchies."

"Well, that's good then, isn't it?" Dawn asked.

"Yes, but we found an empty grave," Willow answered.

"A, um, A second Fledgling?" Giles asked.

"Nope. This one looked dug up."

"Ok, I mean really, who would want a dead body?" Xander asked.

Giles answered, "Uh, it, it would rather help to know who the, um, body
belonged to."

Buffy informed them, "She was our age, Meredith Todd. She died recently."

Giles asked, "Do you recall how she died?"

"Nope."

Xander spoke to the Defiant, "Computer, Access Sunnydale Coroner's office
for a Todd, Meredith between the ages of thirteen and eighteen."

Moments later, the computer returned the information that they were looking
for. Everyone read the results for themselves. The girl died, along with two
other Fondren High Pep Squad members, in a car accident of a broken neck.

Buffy asked, "Well, you know what this means."

"Fondren's in the lead for the cross-town body count this year?" Xander
joked.

"No Xander, it means she wasn't killed by Vampires. Someone dug her up."

"So, a body snatcher means what Giles?" Dawn asked.

"Well, the two possibilities we ought to worry about m-most are, are a
Voodoo Practitioner, or a, uh, a Demon looking for a soul to consume."

"Zombies?" eeped Willow.

"Well, um, well, yes, however, for the typical uses a Voodoo Practitioner
would have for a zombie, w-w-would require substantial numbers of them."

"Then we need to beam down and check for other grave robbers?"

"Yes. I suppose we will have to go tomorrow night, I have a pair of shovels
in the library." Giles stated.

Dawn, looking horrified at having to dig a body up when there was an ample
supply of advanced technology that could be used instead, "Giles, Giles,
Giles, We have the MAU. We have advanced sensor technology. We have Phasers
that can vaporize meters of rock in seconds. Hell, we have STARSHIPS for
crying out loud. Grab a tricorder, a comm-badge, and a phaser. That's
standard away-team gear. Even in the original series they had tricorders
that could read through 6 feet of dirt."

Giles looked flabbergasted. "I hadn't thought of that." He felt that these
kids were creating a world that he had absolutely no clue about, and he was
beginning to suffer from culture shock of a form that he never expected,
especially from one that was so close to the one he had grown up knowing. He
was having difficulty keeping up, but at least the modifications that the
MAU had given him were starting to help. He had remembered in perfect detail
about the Zelogian demon's penchant for eating the flesh of humans in order
to devour their souls. Perhaps Dawn might be willing to provide a reading
list, of sorts. He would have to ask later.

Xander and Giles beamed down to the gravesite they expected to find
belonging to one of the other two girls, and asked, "So, are we hoping to
find a body or no body?" Xander pulled his tricorder out and began scanning
the grave.

"Um, well, body would mean our opponent is a flesh-eating demon, no body
would, um, would point towards the, uh, army of zombies thing. Take your
pick, really."

Xander double checked his tricorder to be sure of what it was saying, then
informed Giles, "Well, looks like someone's trying to 'be all that they can
be' cause Miss Nowak here's gone a walkabout."

"Well, let's be sure and, um, check Miss Clark then. She should be just, uh,
just over here," Giles said as he led Xander to the other girl's grave.

Xander quickly scanned the grave, and once it was confirmed, "Nope, she's
gone too."

"Well, um, I suppose that means army of zombies, is more likely then."

"Yeah. Come on, let's get back to the Defiant. Jenny still gets to use the
MAU then we need to give everyone basic phaser training."

Xander and Giles beamed back to the Defiant and reported their findings.
Jenny eventually asked, "So, how does 3 girls equal a zombie army?"

"Zombie drill team then?" Xander quipped.

Giles glared, as he was required to, and Xander continued, "Anyway, my scans
of the graveyard indicate that less than 5% of the graves still had
occupants. That could go a very long way to explaining the vampire
population around here. However, it also makes it impossible to determine
just how many zombies we might be looking at here. Not only that, but our
Voodoo guy may just be passing through, stopping just long enough to pick up
a few more zombies for his army and moving on to whatever his eventual
target might be. This is probably good news in that we won't have to deal
with it, but someone will. If the Hellmouth is his target, then you all need
a crash course in phaser use."

 

 

 

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