A Call to Arms

A Call to Arms

Xander stood, arms crossed, glaring at the globe in front of him. Willow had tossed a handful of powder at it and it was now twinkling away with the location of every alien on Earth. Willow stood next to him, arms crossed, also frowning at the globe.

“Willow,” Xander started. “Why are there that many aliens on Earth? I mean, the list said alien. We just checked Earth to cover our bases but, really, you would think alien would mean outerspace.”

“Maybe I did it wrong,” she said doubtfully. Willow’d mostly outgrown her experimental phase and had settled into the knowledge of what worked with magic and what didn’t work with magic. This spell should have worked.

With one finger, Xander turned the globe slowly until North America faced them. He pointed. “Do you know what’s there?”

“At least three aliens,” she said, squinting. “Maybe more. I can’t see. We’ll have to try with a map.”

She moved to go get one when he said, “NORAD’s there. As in the military.”

Willow stopped dead then spun to face the globe, glowering at it. “The Military.”

Xander tapped the globe. “Think Riley’s not telling us something we need to know?”

She puffed up, reached out and grabbed his arm and teleported them to…wherever the hell Riley was. “He’s gonna tell us now,” she hissed, stomping through the ankle deep water, carelessly flinging a few spells that had the demons around them exploding into bits. She stomped up to a bemused Riley who’d motioned for his team not to shoot and poked the man in his broad chest. “What the hells are the military doing under NORAD that would have aliens on Earth?”

Riley coughed and gently pushed her finger away from his chest. “That’s classified.”

Willow’s hair started to darken and Riley took a step back. “Classified.” She snapped her fingers and Riley’s entire team fell onto their butts as they landed in the Council’s library. “It’s classified? Riley Amos Finn, what the hells have you gotten yourself mix up in?! Classified! You said you weren’t working on anything besides hunting demons! If you’re lying to me, I’m gonna turn you into…into…into a malamute!”

Xander coughed behind her to hide his laughter, waving the girls that had come running at her screeching away. “I’m sure Riley’s not mixed up with anything bad, Wills.”

She let out a noise that should only be made by a tea kettle and stomped off towards her office muttering, “Classified. We’ll see about that.”

“You realize that your classified project isn’t going to be classified much longer?” Xander said, hopping around as he tried to pull off his boot so he could pour the water out of it.

“She’s gonna get me in trouble,” Riley huffed, reaching out to steady Xander.

“Nah,” Xander shook his head. “She’ll totally take the blame. Just, ya know, be aware that one day you might wake up craving dog biscuit and wanting to lick yourself.”

“She wouldn’t really turn him into a dog, would she?” the youngest member of Riley’s team said, nervously shifting the gun in his grip.

“Er,” Xander said as Graham snorted into his hand. “Well. Maybe. If he’s mixed up in something that’s gonna get him killed and she doesn’t know about it. Besides the whole demon thing, we know plenty about that. Who are you?”

“That’s Marks,” Riley sighed. “And, no, Marks, she’s not going to turn me into anything.”

“Huh,” Xander harrumphed. “Shows what you know. If you are involved in something, either she’s gonna turn you into a dog or Buffy will turn you into a shish kabob. Either way, sucks to be you.”

“Stop trying to scare the kid,” Riley said, starting to look nervous.

Xander looked him straight in the face. “Dude. There are three things I will never lie to you about. One, how very stupid it was of you to tell Buffy, Willow, and Dawn that the dresses they were wearing were ‘okay.’ Two, when Spike or Angel are in the house. And three, when one of the women here are about to make you wish you were dead.”

Marks clutched at his gun and Riley paled a little bit.

He started to look like a ghost when, “Riley! Amos! Finn!” split the air, shouted by one very irate Wicca.

“Oh, crap,” Riley said faintly.

Xander squeezed his shoulder. “Just don’t look at her face. If you can’t see the Resolve face, it doesn’t affect you half as much.”

Riley looked at him, stunned, as Willow marched into the room, a breeze fluttering through her hair. “A freaking Stargate! They dug it up? How stupid can people get? There were a million warnings surrounding the damned thing and they still dug it up!”

Xander edged away from Riley.

Willow’s finger wagged under Riley’s nose. “Now. Answer me truthfully. Are you involved with the project?”

“No,” Riley said, eyes skittering away from her face. “No, we were just told in case something got loose and we had to be brought in to handle it.”

Willow released a pent up breath and patted his cheek. “Good. One classified project at a time is enough for anyone.” She looked around at the mud and gore covered soldiers. “Do you guys want to shower or should I send you back to the jungle?”

“Jungle?” Riley said hopefully.

She hugged him and Graham before waving her hand and they disappeared. She turned to Xander who rocked back on his heels. “Did you have to wind him up?”

He grinned at her. “It was funny. I thought that one guy was going to pee his pants. Besides, you would have made him be a dog for a day if he’d been involved with something. Don’t lie.”

She muttered to herself even as she went to study the globe. “One of them, do you think?”

“Maybe you can refine it,” Xander suggested. “Make it for lonely aliens only.”

She narrowed her eyes at him but tossed another handful of powder at the globe as she muttered something. Most of the lights dimmed. The three around NORAD stayed bright and shiny.

“Why am I not surprised that the loneliest aliens on the planet are involved with the military?” Xander asked, shaking his head.

“Because the military is about conformity,” Willow started to lecture, “and if you’re an alien, you automatically can’t conform.”

Xander leaned into her. “Which one?”

“Maybe I can help?” a quiet voice from behind them asked. They spun to see a young blonde woman standing there. Xander grinned as Cassie stepped forward and gently touched the shining lights. Her fingers hopscotched between the lights and then she stilled, pulling one of the lights up with her. “This one. The other two…they’re simply not the ones.”

“What’s that one like?” Xander asked, hands on his hip.

“He’s lost everything,” Cassie murmured. “They meant well, letting him survive, but if he can’t go back to what’s familiar, what’s the point? He’s a man in a child’s body, when he started out as a child in a man’s body. He needs family. He needs focus. He needs a fight. If he doesn’t gain them, well, what’s the point?”

Xander gently guided her away from the globe, the light trailing after her. “We’re going to try something.”

She nodded. “It’ll work. Just…it’ll work.”

Xander settled her in front of the computer and stepped away. The little light hovered over her fingers as she typed. Her hands finally slowed and then stopped, hovering over the keys until she slowly pulled them away and put them in her lap.

“Jonathon Samuel O’Neil,” she read, head cocked to the side. “Student of Colorado Springs High School. He’s not really a student,” she said, looking up at Xander. “He’s a soldier without a war.”

Xander squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll fix that. Part of being part of the Council family is always being at war.”

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate or Buffyverse.