"Angel. Do you know what time it is?"

"You haven't seen Wesley, have you? He didn't come in today, and Cordelia had this dream, but she's not sure...."

"Have you checked his flat?"

"He's not there, but nothing seems wrong. His stuff is all there. His bags. We thought he maybe was with you...."

"No. No, I haven't seen him."

"If he shows up...."

"I'll tell him you called." Giles would tell him a few other things, too. Being roused in the middle of the night by the voice of the vampire who had brutally tortured him was not on Giles's list of favorite things. He replaced the phone in its cradle and laid down. Angel had been here. He'd arranged Jenny's body....

Giles sat back up and turned on the light. He wouldn't be sleeping any more tonight. He dressed, turned on some soft music and sat in the living room with an unopened book. Angel, or was it Angelus, was a vicious killer turned protector of the innocent. He blamed it on the return of his soul, but Spike didn't have a soul, and he'd turned into an indefagitable demon fighter. Drusilla had killed Kendra, apparently without a qualm, but she had saved Giles's life. Sometimes in his dreams he could feel her mind brush his, hear her sweet laughter, taste her cool lips.

Perhaps they were only nightmares, though.

There was a knock at the door. Giles rose and peered through the peephole, and then opened the door.

"Xander? What are you doing up at this hour?"

"Working the night shift on the renovation at the mall. They don't want the noise during the day. I saw your light on my way home, and I just wanted to make sure you were all right. I got us breakfast at Krystle." The boy held up a bag from which enticing smells wafted.

"Come in, then," said Giles. "I'll make coffee."

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

"So are you going down there, or what?" asked Xander.

"Why would I do any such thing?"

"Because you think they need you. They've got this crisis, and no Watcher to do research."

"He'll likely turn up on his own, the twit."

"Sure."

"If there's anything they need, Cordelia could call."

"Right."

"Angelus is a powerful vampire." Giles's voice cracked, but Xander didn't seem to notice. "He can take care of his own. He'll take care of them."

"I could go down there with you. Job finished last night, and we don't start at the library until next Wednesday."

"Why, Xander?"

"To see Cordy again, I guess. You heard that Anya took off with that, uh...."

"The Chaos demon, yes. What is it with women and Chaos demons?"

"Dunno. Don't want to know. I wouldn't mind getting away from here for a while. If you didn't mind, I mean."

"If you want to, I suppose it might be a good idea."

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

Angel had company when Giles and Xander got to Los Angeles. Giles thought he recognized the voices, but...

"He's in trouble," one of them said. "You can't hide him from us."

"I thought you were the one who threw him out," came Cordelia's voice.

"At times like this," said another stranger, "we take care of our own, even when they don't want to be our own."

Giles led Xander into the lobby of the hotel.

"I was under the impression that it was the Watcher's Council that wanted no part of Mr. Pryce and me."

The two visitors turned. "Rupert Giles," said one.

"Where did you appear from?"

"I expect your organization could tell me what I had for breakfast, Murdoch. My question is how you don't know the exact whereabouts of your other renegade, with no need to reveal yourselves to your quarry's associates."

"Now, Rupert...."

"Bugger off, Holmes. It's not on. What do you really want?"

"It's harder to watch our Wesley," said Murdoch. "He's got the vampire looking after him, and he's more discreet than you are."

"I wasn't aware that I was particularly indisreet."

"No," said Murdoch, "you just throw off more magical vibes than a convocation of Chaos magicians."

"What do you want with young Pryce?"

"What do you want with him, Rupert? It looks to me like you're getting your needs met proper and all."

Giles moved between Xander and the leering Watchers.

"That's not what's happening," he said.

"Whatever's happening," said Angel, "is none of your business, and unless you have some message you'd like to leave for my employee, I'll thank you to let us get back to our own affairs."

The Watchers exchanged glances.

"Tell him we're not the only ones looking for him."

"Who else?"

"We don't know."

"Well when you figure it out," said Cordelia, "be sure to drop us a line."

Angel shut the door behind the two and turned to Giles.

"I'm glad you came," he said.

"I think I am, as well," said Giles. Angel almost extended his hand, but the two exchanged looks and decided against it.

"I guess you know these guys," said a young man who was leaning on the hotel's counter.

"Yeah, uh, Charles Gunn, these are Rupert Giles and Xander Harris, from Sunnydale."

"Giles, huh? You kick ass."

"Never mind the ass," said Cordelia. "Tell him about the package."

"Wesley got a package this morning," said Angel. Cordelia laid it on the counter--a long bundle wrapped in brown paper and ringed with strapping tape.

"But he hasn't seen it?" Giles said.

"No." She rolled it over, then back. " Do you think we should open it?"

"It's too big to be anything embarassing," said Xander. Giles resisted the urge to disspell the boy's innocence. Angel lifted the package, shook it and listened, then went gamefaced and bit through the tape at one end.

"Hello?" said Cordelia. "Knife?" She exhibited the letter opener from her desk.

"Uh-uh." said Angel, pointing into the package, "Knife." He reached inside and extracted a bastard sword. Seeing Giles's eyes brighten, he laid it in the Watcher's hands. Giles sighted along the blade, stepped clear of the others and swung it in an experimental arc.

"Oh, sweet! It's perfectly balanced. Where did he find it?"

Cordelia shrugged. "Why do you think he had it sent here?"

"He didn't," said Gunn. "Whoever sent it didn't know where he lived. They had to send it here."

"Let me see it again," said Angel. His fingers traced the pattern etched into the blade, the swirling brass of the grip. "It's magical," he said.

"It would almost have to be," Giles agreed.

"Well if it's magical," said Cordelia, "there's probably something about it in the Chronicles, isn't there?"

"Yes." Giles laid the blade aside and moved toward the library, following Gunn and Angel. He heard the clatter and turned to find Xander on the floor, the sword clutched in his hand, his face contorted.

"I just wanted to try it," he said.

"What happened?" asked Giles.

"It grabbed me. It's got me, and it won't let go."

Giles laid his hand over Xander's and spoke a Word of loosening. Steely tendons went flaccid, and the blade slid to the floor. Giles pushed it away. Xander curled into a small ball, his hand clutched against his abdomen, and rested against the Watcher's body.

"Hush," said Giles. "It's gone, now. It's over.

Are you hurt? Let me see." The boy's hand was uninjured, but he whimpered at Giles's touch.

"Maybe we'd better put this away," said Angel. He dug the scabbard from the wrapper, replaced the blade in it and hung the whole over the fireplace.

"I can hear it in my head," Xander whispered.

"Ignore it," said Giles.

"It won't shut up. How do you ignore a voice in your head? Even when it's not there, you remember it, so it is there."

"I know," Giles said, remembering the musky taste of a vampire's kiss. "It becomes a part of you. It's not so bad, really."

"Giles?" Cordelia looked quite worried.

"No, it's not a hallucination. It's a... a contact I had, quite a while ago, and it was unforgetable."

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

"Did the council's muscle leave a number?" asked Giles.

"They stay at Harry's, down on the wharf," said Cordelia. "The Watchers always stay at Harry's."

"Make you wonder about Harry," said Gunn. "What you got?"

"I 'got' the chap who made the sword. I thought I remembered him from when I researched the provenance on some blades for the Smithsonian."

"You? You worked for the Smithsonian?"

"Don't gape, Cordelia. I consulted. I know my blades, and that blade was made by Brian Short of Glasgow."

"He was a Watcher?" asked Gunn.

"Oh, no. Brian was quite an independent sort. He made one sword a year for eighteen years, all except for 1069, and sold them to the highest bidder."

"And this is one of them?"

"I can't prove it, but it looks like his workmanship. It's not one of the seventeen, though. They are all accounted for, either destroyed long ago, or locked up in some collector's vault."

"So this...."

"I think this is the 1069 sword, the one for which there is no record."

"When did they lose track of it?" asked Angel.

"They didn't. We have Brian's journal in the British museum. The manufacture and sale of each of the seventeen is detailed, but there is no mention of any activity in 1069, barring the shoeing of an occasional horse."

"Made in secret," said Gunn. "But who for?"

"I don't know," said Giles, "but I think we all know who does."

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

"Giles?" Xander barely moved in the big hotel bed. Giles sat on the edge.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah. Did you find out what it is with the sword?"

"Not yet, but we're going to. We're going to speak to the fellows who were here. Cordelia's going to stay with you. Is that all right?"

"You're coming back?" The boy turned his face away from Giles. "God, listen to me!"

"You've had a very bad day," Giles told him, and touched his cheek. "Go back to sleep, and we'll talk about it when I get back." Xander looked up at him, almost nuzzling his hand, and then stopped in shock.

"It's all right, you know," said Giles. "You remember how I was, when... when I'd been hurt. Sometimes you just want to be touched."

"This person in your head, is it somebody you trust?"

"Someone from whom I know what to expect, anyway. Not a stranger. Not a sword. That must be quite... peculiar."

"I'm scared, Giles. How do I know I'm still me? How do I know that if I decide to do something, it's really me?"

"I don't know. I only know that I've never had any doubt of the source of any of my thoughts or feelings. I think that I would have to intentionally allow anything further."

"Yeah, but I'm not you."

"You're still you, though."

"How do you know?"

"Swords are creatures of fire. They aren't famous for self-doubt."

"I wish it were over."

"It will be soon, Xander. Once I've spoken to these fellows, we'll know more about where we stand."

*****
Part 2:

No one answered the hotel room door. Angel laid a hand over the lock, and it clicked.

"Public accomodation," he said. "Free access."

The two Watchers had packed their bags and were retreating out the bathroom window. Angel grasped the outside one's wrist, dragged them both back into the bedroom and faced them toward Giles.

"Rupert! You decided to talk to us after all?"

"I decided to beat you senseless if you don't tell me what's going on."

"Now, how would we know?"

"You show up in Los Angeles full of concern for Wyndham Pryce. He takes himself off without notice."

"He's gone?"

"And on the morning of your visit, a long-lost sword made by Brian Strong arrives at the firm's office, addressed to Wesley Wyndham Pryce."

"You have the sword?"

"Talk, Murdoch. I know where there's a very hungry vampire, and if I were to slide a needle into the large vein in your leg and attach a tube to it, I believe he could drain you dry without your feeling a thing. It's been a while since he had a good meal. He could probably eat you both in one sitting."

"You're a Watcher, Rupert. You don't feed people to vampires."

"I'm not a Watcher any more. So, shall we take a ride to Sunnydale?"

"Rupert, don't work against us on this."

"Give me a reason."

"Okay. Okay, the sword was stolen from the Watchers this past month. It's part of a prophecy."

"Here we go again," said Angel.

"Stolen? I thought you people had unearthly security."

"We do," said Holmes. "I was there. No one saw anything, but our portwatcher saw a shadowy figure on the Zeebrugge ferry. They think it was a wizard."

"What does this have to do with young Pryce?"

"It's the Wyndham part that's important. A couple of centuries ago Sir Cecil Wyndham was Europe's premier wizard. He found himself losing influence with his king, and so he worked a great magic to tie an enchanted sword to his family. According to the Tome of Ennius Princeps, a son of their line will one day take up the sword and lift the curse froml the afflicted."

"The afflicted?" Gunn frowned.

"Vampires."

"Lifting the curse from every vampire in existence is not a good thing?"

"Depends. Best case, we get a flood of unskilled people who've been living by violence for years or decades or centuries and may not want to be integrated into society."

"What's the worst?" asked Gunn.

"That the curse isn't vampirism. It's the Slayer."

"I'll warn her," Giles said. "As fond as I am of Buffy, though, Slayers come and go..."

"Not any particular Slayer, Rupert. All of them.

The sword could destroy the magic that sends forth a new Slayer. Then a determined demon effort takes down the two we have, and the world becomes a vampire cafeteria."

"Bloody hell. Why would this fellow..."

"He was a Chaos magician. Who knows why they do what they do?"

"Indeed," said Giles. "But why now?"

"The Rite is in the Tome. It has to be done at a solar eclipse when the planets are in a certain alignment."

"And someone," said Angel, "has kidnapped Wesley to put him through this rite?"

"But we have the sword," said Giles.

"Not to put him through the Rite," Gunn said. "To stop it. It's a vampire, or a group of them.

You think they want to become hard core unemployables? They'd be defenseless."

"A whole race of Spikes," Giles agreed.

"Not entirely," said Angel. "They... we... could go out in the sun. We could get jobs."

"What sort of jobs? Obviously, you could do what you're doing now. What about Spike, though? What about those kids Gunn hunts?"

"You mean that pack of desperate killers?" asked Gunn.

"Are they going to be any less desperate when they're not vampires any more?"

"Most of them were pretty desperate before they were vampires."

"Rupert," said Murdoch, "you're talking about this as if it were actually going to happen. We have to stop it."

"And allow vampires to roam the world? Ah. And preserve a need for the Watcher's Council and all its trappings. That's it, isn't it, Murdoch?"

"Does it have to be Wesley?" asked Gunn. "There's no one else?"

"His uncles are dead. The mother and sisters are no use. He's the only one left the sword will bond to. If they keep him away for a couple of days, it'll be too late."

"How's that?" Angel asked.

"It'll make him sick, won't it? Weak as a kitten. He wouldn't be able to stand up to do the rite."

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

"Yes, I see," Giles said into the phone. Angel, whose vampire hearing captured every word, watched goggle-eyed. The others had to wait until Giles placed the phone back in the cradle and sat down.

"They're related?" asked Cordelia.

"His father has never heard of any Wyndhams, or Pryces either for that manner. His mother's maiden name was Salandrea, and Wesley doesn't have any Italian relatives, at least not in any reference I checked."

"So how come the kid spazzed when he touched the sword?"

"His family is no kin to the Wyndhams. Xander, however, was adopted. He was abandoned in a shopping cart at the Piggly Wiggly on Walnut Street in Sunnydale. No one ever found out anything about his parents."

"Piggly Wiggly?" said Cordelia.

"It's not there any more," said Giles. "It was a grocery store where Rose's Five and Dime used to be, and a drugstore after that."

"What's a Five and Dime?" asked Cordelia.

"Like a dollar store now," said Angel. "Does the location have some significance?"

"The Guild owned a sizable stake of the parent company at one time."

"These guys are worse than Wolfram and Hart," said Gunn.

"Indeed. Mr. Gunn, I'm told you are familiar with the danker areas of Los Angeles. If a cabal of vampires does have Wesley, where would they take him?"

Gunn thought for a moment.

"Out of the way, and secure enough to hold Wesley? The gas plant. Nobody's been down there for years."

"Ew," said Cordelia, "not nice smells that will not wash out of my clothes. He'd better be there, Gunn."

"You don't plan on staying with the kid?"

"Giles had better do it," said Angel. "The Watchers won't tangle with him."

"Let's hope not," said Giles. "I'm afraid this is going to be difficult enough without their showing up. You see, when I was researching Wesley's family I found a reference to a kidnapping. A shadowy figure crept into the nursery one night and stole away his young brother."

"Xander?" asked Gunn.

"I'm afraid so," said Giles. "and there's a prophecy as well, about a lost child bringing down the Dark Power."

"He's not lost any more," said Cordelia. "He has us, now."

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

"There's a broken window around back," said Gunn.

"Why don't we let Mr. Supernatural Lockpick Guy do it?" asked Cordelia.

"Oh, yeah."

Inside, the place was absolutely empty. There was not even a dustbunny anywhere on the floor.

"How long did you say this place had been abandoned?" Angel asked Gunn.

"Longer than this."

"It tingles," Angel said.

"Like magic?"

"Like vampires." Angel reached far over his head and caught the ankle of a golden-eyed boy hanging from the rafters. "Okay," said Angel. "Where's my man?"

"I'll be yo' man," said the vampire.

"I don't think so."

"Shame. It would have been more fun." More than a dozen vampires dropped to the floor, forming a circle around Angel and his companions.

"Let me get this straight," Cordelia said. "You guys don't want to be vampires any more? You're going to do this thing with the Watcher so you can be human again?"

"You watch your mouth."

"Then what do you think you're doing?"

"Like I said, they're stopping the rite," Gunn said.

"Yo' mama!" said the vampire. "We're going to do that rite up proper!"

"You don't even have a place to do it!" Angel sneered.

"Do! They're down by the beach right now, waiting for moonrise!"

"You didn't hear? The Slayer was at the beach. She staked a lot of folks."

The vampires exchanged glances.

"Look," said one, "we're going to let you go. We've got things to do."

"Yeah," Angel said. "Come on, guys. Wesley isn't here."

Ten minutes later Angel, Gunn and Cordelia watched as a van pulled out of the gas plant.

"Minions," said Angel. "They should not have left that bunch alone."

"Be glad they did," Gunn told him as he turned the lightless convertible to follow the van.

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

They could hear the vampires fighting when they parked at the top of the dunes. A group of senior vamps was literally dismembering the minions.

"No couth," said Angel.

"You think that's couthless?" said Cordelia, "Look down there." She pointed to the beach where Wesley lay buried in a pile of sand. A vampire fed from him, but not from his neck. "Ee-yew," said Cordelia.

Both Angel and Gunn folded their hands in front of their respective pubic bones.

"That has got to hurt," said Angel.

"Come on," said Cordelia, shouldering the Super Shooter full of holy water. "Let's get him out of there before someone bites it off. Not that I have any interest in it. It's purely a matter of Wesley's convenience, but I don't think he would want it eaten. Let me rephrase that. He probably wouldn't want a vampire to suck it..."

"Cordelia," said Angel, "just go."

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

"Are you awake, Xander?"

"Yeah. Did you find Wesley?"

"Not yet, but they're gone to check where we think he is. You and I need to talk before they get back."

"About the sword? Giles, I didn't mean to, I swear...."

"About why the sword affected you and none of the rest of us. Xander, what do you know about your family?"

"I know that's not it. I'm adopted."

"I meant your birth family. That sword is keyed to a specific bloodline, and it was sent here to be activated."

"Why would they send it here? Nobody knew we were going to be here."

"They sent it to your brother, Xander."

A warm hand crept into Giles's. He wrapped both of his around it and held it in his lap.

"It's not all that farfetched. If you allow for the difference in your ages and the nutrition levels in the States and in England, you actually look like brothers, especially from the rear."

"Giles!" The hand was withdrawn.

"Well, you do! Honestly, Xander, are you this shy with women?"

The boy took a heaving breath. Had Giles gone too far? Was Xander not ready to have it out in the open, yet?

"I was the first time," Xander said. "I never thought about you this way until that guy said what he did, and then, well...."

"It never occurred to me, either. I suppose I was still in Sunnydale High mode. Since last night, though, you've been giving off vibes, and... well, it's not a disagreeable concept. Is it?"

"I'm still working on it. " One of Xander's figures trailed down Giles's cheek. "I mean, I feel so safe when you're around. You're big and strong...."

Giles couldn't help laughing.

"Xander, you're a good deal bigger than I am, and I don't work construction."

"Maybe it is the school thing, or maybe the Watcher thing, he-who-knows-about-demons, you know?"

"Mmm-hmm." Giles traced Xander's lips with his fingers, and the boy kissed them.

"Giles? I don't know if I can... you know,take you inside me. I don't know if I can do that."

"There are lots of other things fellows can get into."

"You don't want to do me?"

"I'd love to, but not if you don't want. Would you like to do me, though?"

*****
Part 3:

Giles awoke when Angel opened the door. The vampire looked at him for a moment, closed the door and spoke to someone outside: "They'll be out in a minute."

Giles blinked, and realized he was sprawled across Xander's chest. They were naked, both of them, and Giles's ass had that gloriously full just-fucked feeling. He took Xander's nipple in his mouth and drew his teeth across the tip until the boy woke up.

"They're back," Giles said. "We have to get up."

"I think I already am."

"Youth. It's sickening." Giles squeezed Xander's resurgent erection, then stood up and reached for his pants. "We'll have another go later," he said, "but right now let's see about Wesley."

"Does he know?"

"Know what?"

"That he's my brother?"

"I don't know. Let's find out."

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

"I wouldn't do that," Xander said when they walked into the lobby and saw Wesley reaching for the sword.

"It's been activated," said Wesley. "It can't hurt me now." He slid the blade from its scabbard and laid it on the counter.

"Interesting," he said, and took the book Cordelia held out to him.

"Are you all right?" Giles asked.

"Comparitively," said Wesley. "Are you, Xander? With everything?"

"It isn't going to change, is it? What... what were they like? Your parents?"

"You didn't miss much."

"Did they miss me?"

"They said so. For fifteen years they carried on about how little Nigel was taken from the room where I slept, and I never woke up. That was your name. Nigel George Henry Wyndham Pryce."

"Nigel? I'm glad I got kidnapped. It feels weird, though, having a brother all of a sudden. Does it feel weird to you?"

"It's not news. I always knew you were out there."

"I was sleeping in my own bed, and somebody took me?"

"Your cot--crib, Americans call it. You were sucking your thumb, and I could smell your nappie from across the room. Nanny had fallen asleep watching Eastenders. Nanny liked her bottle, you see. I fell asleep, and I had this strange dream, where part of the curtain separated itself and drifted across the floor, and Nigel was looking up at it. Then Nanny was screaming and the light was on and he was gone. You were gone."

"A shadowy figure, Wesley," said Giles, "like a haunt of some sort?"

"Exactly."

"They think someone like that was involved with the theft of the sword," said Angel.

"So it stole Nigel away and twenty years later it stole the sword and gave it to me instead of Xander?"

"They maybe didn't know he was going to hook up with a Watcher," said Gunn.

"So they sent it to someone who actually was a Watcher?"

"Someone," said Giles, "who might be expected to be hostile to the Council?"

"Who?" asked Xander. "Who is this that's just fooling around in my life?"

"An angel," said Giles. "A real one. A servant of one of the Powers that Be."

"The Powers sent somebody to kidnap me? How come they didn't just do it themselves?"

"They did. An angel is what we perceive of a power when it acts directly in the world."

"I don't get it."

"It's metaphysics, Xander."

"Metaphysics is in your books, Giles, not in my head."

"And I have to look for it in some more of the books. Will you be all right?"

"Sure he will," said Angel. "Go do your research. I'd kind of like to talk to Xander for a while, anyway, okay?"

"About what?" asked Giles, returning to Xander's side.

"It'll be okay," Xander said. "We're just going to hang. Well, try to hang and see how it works. You know. Deescalation?"

"You're sure?"

"Go," Xander told him. "Books. Go."

Giles went.

"Hang?" said Angel.

"He's still afraid of you. If I hadn't acted like I knew what was going on, he'd still be in here, pretending not to be. I wish you wouldn't push. I'm afraid he'll get hurt."

"You're more likely to hurt him than I am."

"Say what you want to say, Angel."

"Okay. I'm the only one here with a vampire's nose. I don't see any reason--Wesley's got enough to deal with right now."

"Yeah, I guess Wesley does. What are you talking about?"

"You and Giles. I'd talk to him, but he isn't all that comfortable with me..."

"Geez, I wonder why that should be."

"Because I hurt him. I don't deny that. I was somebody else, but I can't blame him for not wanting to get close to who I am now. That's no reason, though, to hurt Wesley."

"To hurt him? How?"

"How would you have felt yesterday or the day before if you'd found out you had a brother and he was having an affair with a man?"

"Angel, I can't believe you're this shallow!"

"It's not me, Xander! Vampires are naturally bisexual. If I were still Angelus, I'd probably have a go at the both of you."

"Did you?"

"Did I what?"

"When you... when Angelus tortured him, did he have a go?"

"Why don't you ask Giles about that? Look, Xander, all I'm asking is that you don't let Wesley know."

"Let Wesley know what?" The slender watcher was standing in the door munching a banana. "Oh, about you and Giles? Don't worry about it."

"You knew?" Xander said. "Does everyone?"

"I expect so," said Wesley. "You two have been looking at one another all evening as if the other one was cheesecake. It's rather hard to miss. But it's all right. Worry about the sword, not about what we think of your love life."

"You mean that?" Xander asked.

"Of course. Would you like a banana? Cordelia's bought a huge bunch of them."

"Yeah, thanks." Xander headed for the kitchen.

"Don't ever do that again," Wesley said to Angel.

"What? I was just trying to spare your feelings."

"Don't ever try to make him feel guilty for letting his family down. He's a magnificent young man, and no one is going to treat him as anything else if I have anything to say about it. All right, Angel?"

"Yeah, all right."

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

"I may have it," said Giles.

Xander swallowed a chunk of banana.

"Have what?" he asked.

"A solution. You know that the universe is divided into two complementary halves: light and dark, good and evil, male and female."

"I know it's part of a lot of the magic you do, you and Willow."

"There is another incarnation of Duality, one very little known. They're called Silence and Song, and it was their power that was spelled into the sword."

"What do they have to do with vampires?"

"Nothing. Their power was stolen by this unscrupulous magician, and locked up in the sword. All they want is to be free."

"What do we have to do?"

"You have to stand with the sword on a cabbage...."

"A what?"

"Don't ask me, Xander. Cabbages have occult significance of a sort. Xander! Wesley checked the translation! Gunn's found one of those big ones like at the fair in a community garden...."

"Check. We have cabbage. What else?"

"You have to draw down the power of the dark sun... at a solar eclipse, it means... the same power that would set the vampires free."

"And then I do something else with it?"

"No. If it's to be disspelled, it must be done by a vampire with a warm hand."

"Huh?"

"I think I know how to manage this. I haven't told the others about it, and please, don't you."

"Giles, what are you going to do?"

"I'm not really comfortable talking about it."

"Wow. Is it more personal than what we did a while ago?"

"Xander, I never told Angelus how to destroy the world."

"Not following, here."

"Spike was working with Buffy, even then. When he saw that Angelus meant to kill me, he sent Drusilla into my mind."

"Not a comfortable image, but what does...."

"She's still there, Xander. She can use my warm hand, and..."

"You can make her do that?"

"No. I can only convey a certain amount of information, and then let her take control."

"And what if she doesn't do what you want? And Giles, once it's done, how do we make her let you go?"

"That's why I want you to have this." Giles pressed a stake into Xander's hand. "If anything goes wrong, anything at all, I want you to use this. Promise me, Xander."

"Promise you what? Giles, I've just found you! I can't lose you now. I know I can't... kill you."

"Xander, if you use that, it won't be me."

"She's not sane. She could do... anything."

"That's why you need the stake. Xander, promise. Please? Think what happens if you don't do it."

"All right. All right, but I really don't like this."

"Neither do I. Come on, get dressed."

"For what?"

"Honestly, Xander, do you not read the papers? The eclipse is in four hours!"

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

The boy didn't look bad at all. They'd dressed him in one of Angel's black silk shirts and his own black cotton jeans. He was balanced on a cabbage the size of a small hassock with the sword in his hands. Wesley was in the circle with them. They were counting on his Wyndham blood to protect him from Silence and Song. Giles's protection was more tenuous. Wesley had arranged a pinhole card so that the sun's image was projected on the sand between Giles and Xander. The circle of light had a bit of darkness along one edge. The eclipse was beginning. It was time.

A bit of darkness across the sun's face was like a shadow on the surface of Giles's mind. He muffled the fear, the revulsion, even the pity, and concentrated on one minimal strand of affection. He visualized her face, her human face, and projected the feeling toward her.

"Dru?" A cold hand touched his bare arm. Bare? Giles was wearing a long-sleeved shirt to keep the sun from his sensitive skin.

"Dru, are you all right?" Giles was dizzy. He was falling without falling. Cold arms caught him, eased him to the floor. Darla's face loomed in the dim light.

"Sweetie, are you okay? Did he make you sick?"

"All right in a while," Giles said. "Just leave me be." There was a strange salty taste...oh, God, she'd been feeding....

Giles closed his eyes on Darla and swam back to the sunlight. It was closer to twilight. The sun disk on the sand was almost dark.

-Sunshine,- came the voice in his mind.

-For another moment,- he told her.

-What are we doing?-

-Playing our game again.-

-Why's that?

-To set the prisoners free.-

-Prisoners?-

The solar disk vanished. Xander lifted the sword. Giles heard his own voice speak without his volition.

"Kitten?"

Xander's eyes were frozen on Giles--on the two of them.

"Careful," said Wesley, "keep your mind on the sword."

And suddenly the power flowed through the sword, through the boy's body, and flooded around Giles. One of his hands moved, swept it up into a ball of black that sparked and crackled.

-What now?-

-They've been prisoners so long. Set thhem free, love.-

-Set them free, or... or they could set us free. We could walk in the sun. We could be warm-

Well, there'd been no hope of keeping a secret from a powerful psychic sharing his mind.

-Darla didn't want to be human. Would you force her?-

-But she could see the sunshine.-

-She'd have a soul, love, like Angel's. Do you want her to have a soul?-

-Bad soul.-

His hand tossed the ball into the air. A ray of sunlight caught it as the eclipse ended, and it exploded. Shards of darkness caught it and glowed blue and green and pink. They spun in twin whirlwinds, then coalesced into two towering figures which soared into the blue sky and were gone.

-Sunshine pretty...-

"Giles?"

Xander had climbed down from his cabbage and was staring into Giles's face.

"Kitten?"

Oh, dear. Xander had the stake in his hand.

There was a flood of fear, and Giles was alone in his mind. Xander leapt forward, stake raised. And then Wesley was between them, Xander's momentum carrying them all to the floor. Wesley twisted the stake out of Xander's hand.

"What did you think you were doing?" Wesley asked.

"His eyes... his eyes were yellow!"

Wesley turned Giles's face and looked into his eyes.

"Green," said Wesley. His fingers pressed under Giles's chin. "He has a pulse. Could it have been the light?"

Xander shook his head.

"Giles? It is... you?"

"I believe so," Giles told him. "Are you still you?"

"So far."

Cordelia replaced her cellphone in her purse.

"Angel's still a vampire," she told him.

"I guess that's good," said Gunn.

"Yes," said Giles. "It's good. You did very well." Wesley and Xander helped him to his feet, and Xander stayed close, supporting him.

"Are you all right?" Giles asked.

"I guess so," the boy said, "but Giles, you've got to promise me something."

"What, love?"

"Don't ever call me 'Kitten.'"

Giles held Xander close for a moment, and then they walked toward the car where Wesley and Cordelia waited.