"So let me be sure I have this right," Giles said, sounding like he wished he was wearing glasses at the moment, just so he could take them off and polish them. "In the brief span of time I was away, you children somehow managed to uncover previously unknown truths about the Slayer, leveraged that information to silence the First Evil, revealed Buffy's secret- and not just Buffy's but Dawn's as well, a potentially much more dangerous exposure- to a pair of young men with a connection to an American military operation, and, lest I forget, somehow defused the psychological trigger that was turning Spike back into a conscienceless killer?"

Xander winced at the rising tone in the older man's voice. He'd forgotten, when Giles had called to let him know when to pick him up from the airport, that Buffy's Watcher had been way, way out of the loop on everything that had happened over the last couple of weeks while he'd been with the Devon coven. So Xander had ended up stumbling through a disjointed, rambling report of the highlights as a consequence of trying to explain why there might be a couple extra teenagers of the male persuasion at Buffy's house when he arrived.

"I know, I know how it sounds," he chuckled, weakly. "We're all still in whiplash mode, ourselves. The whole Slayer Emergency Kit thing happened so fast, Buffy just kinda steamrolled right through it, and struck the Seal while the iron was hot. I don't think even she expected it all to go as well as it did. I mean, it's not even May! I hope that doesn't mean something else is going to go down in a couple months; it's bad enough we're still having to feed and house all the Potentials. Not to mention Andrew. The rest of us are helping Buffy as much as we can, but if more girls end up here before word gets out they're not being actively hunted anymore..."

"And you're sure of that?" Giles cut him off. "I know what you said happened under the school, but..."

"Do we have any proof?" Xander didn't blame him for being skeptical; he would have been, too, if one of his subordinates had told him no need to show up for work today, thanks, they've already finished the warehouse they were building overnight. "Surprisingly, yeah. Buffy and Spike went hunting for Bringers this morning and found a few still holed up in some old winery outside of town, supposedly waiting for a prophet to arrive. He never showed, but Wil found this spell that was supposed to let dying people say goodbye to their loved ones, and Andrew ended up channeling one of the tongueless freaks while they interrogated it. Even they apparently can't hear the First anymore, so they have no way of knowing where to go or who to attack. Survey says the deeper binding should last as long as Buffy does, so. It's as solid as we can check it."

"I'll have to track down a few specialized spells to further verify the state of affairs," Giles replied, grimly. "And the rest?"

"Can't really speak to the Spike thing." And really, he didn't want to. He'd gone looking for Buffy to ask her something earlier that afternoon, and caught them cuddling- fully clothed, thankfully- on Spike's bed in the basement; for the sake of everyone's peace of mind, he'd backtracked immediately. And not just because of the whole, whatever, Buffy and Spike thing; he still didn't really get what it meant that Buffy was technically not a Slayer anymore, and he didn't think she did either. But he hadn't missed the fact that she'd walked around ever since the ritual under the school acting as if a huge weight had fallen off her shoulders.

"Except," he remembered, "after he broke through the conditioning during the attack, he said he recognized what song the First had been using as his trigger. He asked Dawn to download him a digital copy of it, but that's all I know. About the guys, though..."

Xander knew Nick and Jon still hadn't told the Scoobies everything; they'd been very careful about what they'd said, and how they'd said it. But to be fair, the Scoobies had been just as careful about the details of certain things they'd shared in return, and the two had fought as hard as anyone else to guard the Seal of Danzalthar while Buffy had been putting her plan to muzzle the First in motion.

"Buffy's secret was as a lost cause after everything they saw, but we didn't actually tell them all of Dawnie's. Just that she was only technically born a couple of years ago, not why or how. And we only told them that much because they told us, first, that some mad scientist actually made them both last year. That's why their personal histories are so full of holes. The scientist wanted to do some kind of tests on their freaky genetics, but they got rescued before he would have, ah, ended the experiment, so... they were looking for somewhere to live where they wouldn't stick out like weirdos, I guess."

"And, naturally, ended up in Sunnydale," Giles said on a sigh. "Dare I ask why they told you that much?"

"We sorta might have maybe mentioned the Initiative in the course of trying to explain Spike?" Xander winced.

"Ah." Giles' tone was eloquent in its resignation. "Of course. Well, I suppose the damage is done now- I trust Buffy is making certain not to leave either of them alone with her sister?"

"I'd assume so? But I'm not gonna ask; I'm actually kind of relieved the Dawnster's not fixated on me anymore, and I don't want to put myself back in the middle of that." He had more than enough on his hands at the moment with his occasional, continuing, confusing, post-breakup hookups with Anya.

"I suppose I can hardly blame you for that," Giles said. "I suppose I'll investigate what I can on this end before I catch my flight, and I'll talk to the Academy headmaster about the Council's other surviving locations. Once I've verified the danger's passed, we should be able to find somewhere for the girls to stay that isn't on Buffy's floor. You can let her know that, as well; perhaps that'll reduce her stress somewhat."

"Will do, G-Man. See you in two days, then."

"Do stop calling me that, would you?" Giles griped, and ended the call.

Xander hung the receiver back up, then leaned back in his chair, stretching until his back popped.

"So do you have any other calls to make now that you've wasted fifteen minutes confusing Giles?" a matter-of-fact voice came from the bed. "Or can we finally get back to our celebration?"

Xander glanced over, and felt his mouth go dry at the sight of his mostly-ex, stretched out sans even the sexy negligee she'd had on under her blouse and skirt when she'd shown up on his doorstep to 'celebrate not having to spend twenty-four seven with a bunch of hormonal teenagers hogging the bathroom and spraying toxic fear pheromones all over everyone else's mood'.

"Naked celebrations are the best kind," he agreed wholeheartedly, all thought of anything else that might have been or might be or might be going to happen in the town abruptly and thoroughly banished from his mind.

He might not know where things were ultimately going with Anya anymore, but he did know that she was right here, right now, still giving him some kind of chance; she deserved to be put first for once. So he was going to do exactly that. Everyone else could just take care of themselves for a little while.

"So let me get this straight," Jack O'Neill said, after a long pause over the secure phone line. "I sent you to California to investigate rumors of Goa'uld, and you come up with proof that Darth Anubis is even less original than he thinks he is, instead?"

"Yeah, because that's the important part of everything I just said," Nicolas Jackson snarked back. Leave it to Jack.

"No, I get it. Vampires, demons, and witches, oh my." Jack heaved a resigned-sounding sigh. "I don't suppose the next thing you're going to tell me is that all that was a metaphor for whatever's really going on?"

"Sorry, Jack."

"Vampires, really? On top of everything else? Damn it, Daniel... sorry. Nick."

"I'll take that as a compliment, this time," Nick replied, dryly. "You should have seen the look on Jon's face when it sank in for him that all of it was real. Look, I know how it sounds, but I swear to you, we're not crazy- and you should be able to find proof on your end to verify the basics, at least. Ms. Summers said the Army's been here before, part of a secret group based under the college who were researching this kind of thing and called themselves the Initiative. At least two officers who knew Buffy's people pretty well supposedly made it out alive. A Riley Finn and a Graham Miller; and I think the second name sounds familiar."

"Captain Miller? Huh," Jack said, thoughtfully. "I think you're right. I thought that guy took the introductory briefings a little too well. All right; I'll table my skepticism 'til I have time for a little chat with him. Speaking of chats; you know anything more about that contact that gave Daniel the info about the Order of Aurelius? 'Cause I'm thinking, there was a suspicious lack of fangs and sorcerers in the story he spun us."

"Not much. We're not exactly friends; but we crossed paths back when Daniel was getting one of his PhDs. Guy knows his stuff, but he was a little stiff in the everything back then, and more than a little condescending. And he paid a lot more credence to references to the supernatural in his research than I did. Now I'm wondering if he isn't a part of that community himself, and just censored out the more overt references from habit. He'd have had no way of knowing that the details he did leave led us down another path entirely. I'll double check now that I can call him on it, but I'm pretty sure that's all it was. He'd have had no way of knowing anything about what we do at the Mountain."

"You're sure about that?" Jack pressed. "All of it?"

"Jack...? Is everything all right?" Nick frowned; the general sounded unusually stressed. He didn't typically think of the original version of his best friend as old, but before their cloning Jack had been a decade or so Daniel's elder, and Daniel himself had been pushing forty. And they'd all seen how the job had worn on Hammond.

"Oh, same old, same old. Nothing I can actually talk about, even given present circumstances," Jack replied, bluntly. "Subtitled, more of the same. Just- watch yourself. Maybe it's a good thing you're around a lot of tough customers right now, even if every last one of them is batshit."

"Jack?" Nick repeated the man's name. Gossip around the mountain used to say that Jack and Daniel could hold entire conversations just saying each other's names; it didn't work as well between Nick and Jack now as it did between Nick and Jon, given the changes in names and voices since the clones were dropped back into the middle of puberty, but it was still pretty close.

"Let's just say a certain someone is MIA with a bunch of Legos right now, courtesy of last year. Don't know if they know enough to go for you, too, if he doesn't work out, so... stick close to Jon, all right?" Jack cleared his throat, roughly.

For a long moment, Nick had no idea what to say. He'd just gotten used to being one of two Daniel Jacksons in existence; he wasn't prepared to be the only one again, anytime soon. "I, uh. Of course, Jack. You'll keep us posted?"

"As much as I can," Jack agreed. "Could take a while, though. Sam's dad's here now; I have to be in a briefing with him in half an hour."

Nick winced; whatever had brought Jacob Carter to the SGC from the Tok'ra had to be dire, given what little he knew about the current state of things between their High Council and the Tau'ri. "Guess I'd better leave you to it, then. You all right with how much we've told these guys?"

"Not really; but as long as you don't tell them any more, I doubt it'll do much harm," Jack groused, leaping on the opportunity to change the subject. "I should have expected it anyway, as soon as I heard there was a girl involved."

"What?" Nick didn't think he'd said that much about Dawn. "What did Jon tell you?"

"Hah; he didn't have to. I was there when you- when Daniel- met Sha'uri, remember? You know, that time he fell in love so fast- and I'm not even talking about the surprise diplomatic marriage part of things, here- that he agreed to abandon his whole life and planet in favor of a smart, pretty girl and her fascinating new culture, less than twenty-four hours after they'd met? I can't imagine why that came to mind, just now."

Nick felt his whole face flush at the suggestive sarcasm. "I'm old enough to be her father, Jack."

"You mean Daniel is. Actually- from what you said, it sounds like this girl's actually just a year older than you. How do these women even find you guys?" Jack made a tsk'ing noise.

Nick snorted. "Let me guess, you haven't stopped teasing Daniel about his new friend the pirate yet?"

"Oh, like I'd let material that rich go anytime soon," Jack replied, dryly. "You should see the security cam footage. In fact, I think I'll have some of it sanitized for telltales and sent to Jon- he needs to know what to expect. Hair pulling, Nicolas. I never woulda guessed you had it in you."

"So you keep telling me," Nick replied, dryly. "As if he's never been embarrassed by some of your encounters with women on missions."

"Save that conversation for Jon," Jack said, loftily. "I gotta go, kid. Stay safe. Keep checking in, even if one of us isn't available. Someone will be, eventually."

"Ditto," Nick replied, then hung up the phone as the other end disconnected.

Not the ringing endorsement he'd half-hoped for; and not good news either on the home front. He could only imagine what the Replicators wanted with Daniel's buried memories of his year Ascended. But that wasn't his life anymore; this was.

He and Jon had transferred to Sunnydale in hopes of doing some good despite being exiled from the calling they had both devoted their lives to; and they'd done that. Were doing that. Would keep doing that, it sounded like, for the foreseeable future- it wasn't like they could return to the SGC for years yet, anyway. He'd have to get another degree... maybe at the same college as a certain young woman?

A reluctant smile tugged at his mouth as he thought about Jack's teasing, again. Then he shook his head, got up, and went to find Jon to tell him about the conversation. They had school in the morning, and then they were supposed to meet at the Summers' house again, and then... well, they'd see what they'd see.

In a place out of time, in the inner chamber of a hidden tomb, a woman with long white hair turned over in her sleep. Her dreams had been rising toward waking for years, filled with the conviction that her long wait would be over soon; that the Last Guardian of the Hellmouth was near, ready to claim Mʔ from its rocky vault to wield against the minions of Sineya's old foe. But something had changed.

The sense of the anomalous presence in her mind, the knot in the Slayer line she'd always known would one day come, had unraveled without ever drawing close enough to call her from her rest. It had been inevitable that one day the Shadow Men's short-sightedness in casting the curse to pass Sineya's abilities from one Chosen girl to the next would disturb the magics guarding the Seal of Danzalthar; but somehow, the matter had self-corrected without her input.

One day, another Slayer would live a second life; one day, that girl would come to wake her. But that girl would not be Buffy Summers.

Content, the sole remaining ancient guardian sank into a deeper slumber, prepared to wait as long as she must.

-8/8-