[FFML] [FIC][BtVS][SG-1][MAU] Repost: Worthless 4/?

[Gandalf The Green]

Sunday

As Xander, Dawn, Buffy, and Joyce transported back into the Summer's home,
Willow Teleported in after them laughing. "Oh Xander! Did you see the look
on that guy's face when you lightsabered his desk?"

"Yeah, well he shouldn't have tried to pull that mafia crap on us. I mean,
those guys have this reputation for being able to read people really well,
but I guess when it comes down to a 125 million dollar jackpot, all their so
called good sense goes right out the window. And Buffy, did you really need
to break that guy's jaw?"

"Xander, he had his hand up my skirt. Yes, he needed to have his jaw broken,
and he's very lucky to have gotten only that."

When Xander heard that, he became visibly angry, "I didn't know about the
hand Buffy. You are correct, breaking his jaw was very restrained of you."

Dawn summoned drinks for everyone from the kitchen and asked, "So what was
our final take from those crooked creeps anyway?"

Joyce answered, "Well, after the blatant demonstration of various powers and
abilities of everyone in the room at that point, they did offer to pay our
taxes for us, so we kept the entire amount. So if we each get an equal
share, then it's 25 million each. Of course, we may need to see a lawyer to
see about getting the shares divided without having to pay more taxes on the
money, doubtless there will be some sort of legal fiction involved, possibly
some sort of trust."

"How about this in the mean time, I want to pick out a property to set up
our land based facilities, so if you buy them, then sell them to me for
significantly below value, say oh I don't know, a buck? Then just subtract
what you paid for the property from my share," Xander stated.

"I don't have a problem with that Xander, and I doubt you need to maintain a
regular income since you replicate just about anything you may need, and
what you can't replicate, you can get from the MAU. We should see about
getting a look at those properties this afternoon if you're really in that
much of a hurry, and buy one on Monday."

"Thanks Mrs. Summers, I appreciate it. While Willow would let me stay with
her at her parents house for as long as I like, I doubt her parents would be
very happy having their daughter's boyfriend staying there any longer than
necessary."

The five of them continued to talk about what they could do with the money.
Dawn let Xander borrow her holographic computer, and he checked the local
internet listings for available real estate that might suit their needs. He
preferred something a bit more isolated so that they could simply deploy the
capsule home and Capsule Corp. buildings, and he also wanted something that
had no pre-existing structures.

Isolated he found. Undeveloped, he did not.

"Hey, I think I've found the best I'm going to find. The Estate is 3.5
million, but there's plenty of room for Capsule Corp. and it's overlooking
an ocean front cliff. This says that there is easy access to it's own
private beach, and according to the Map of the Sunnydale Cave system, there
is a series of large caves beneath the mansion, some of which are under
water."

"Where'd you get the map Xander? I hadn't gotten around to making a detailed
scan of the area yet."

"I linked to the Defiant and had the ship's sensors scan the area Dawn. Took
all of 10 seconds." 

Xander then put up a hologram of the mansion for the others to see. The
'small' mansion had about 20 rooms, including a library, dining hall,
ballroom, several studies, a nursery, and a greenhouse, in addition to the
more family oriented dining room. Each bedroom had an attached bathroom and
a walk-in closet and plenty of space for vanities, desks, dressers, and
large beds. While the mansion itself was stripped of it's furniture, it
would make a very nice basis on which to decorate, and Joyce said so.

While Joyce, Buffy, and Willow were discussing decoration options, Xander
and Dawn discussed technical issues.

"With the cave system as a security concern, we could set up shield emitters
at these four points," as she pointed them out, "and we would secure a large
portion of the surrounding cave system for our own use. If we install a
fusion reactor here, that will provide more than enough power for the house,
the shields, sensors, and a defensive grid. I have enough power for my Lab,
but I can't power all that without additional reactors."

"That's fine, I'd rather you keep your Lab's reactors for your own usage,
especially if you're going to start running experiments like the Digger's
sisters and Washu preferred. Besides, it'll give me enough power to install
an armory here, and I can use this area as a holodeck."

"Would you think it's a good idea to keep a Delta Flyer here as an emergency
vehicle? It's small enough to fit through this tunnel, and we could use the
submerged passageway here to avoid announcing to the world that we've got
space capable vehicles. Just fly her a few miles off shore before surfacing
and heading for orbit."

"Probably a good idea, but I think we should enlarge the underwater section
of the passageway, it gets a little tight through here."

Xander may not have noticed, but Dawn certainly took note that Xander put
his arm around her shoulder as they stood back and examined the hologram
that integrated the changes that everyone wanted. Willow came up to his
other side and put her arm around his waist, and his absentmindedly went for
hers as well. When all three of them were snuggled together happily studying
the hologram, Joyce snapped a picture.

This, of course, startled the three teens out of their mutual embrace, and
Xander nervously extricated himself from Dawn, not wanting to upset his
girlfriend Willow.

Each of the five people were silently considering the implications of that
picture. Some thoughts were on blackmail material, but most of the thoughts
were along the lines of 'do/does I/she really like me/Xander that way?' and
'is/am she/I trying to steal him/Xander from her/Willow, or is there
something more?' In fact, the only one who wasn't thinking 'is a threesome
really that far out of the question considering the three of them?' was
Xander to whom the thought never occurred. To him, it was a choice of one or
the other as a properly respectable relationship was only two people.

After much pondering not just of the picture itself, but the reactions of
the three teens in question, Joyce announced dinner.

Dinner was a much quieter affair than normal for the Summer's house. Willow
and Xander still found it hard to keep their eyes off each other, but now
they also included Dawn in their actions. Dawn was still amused by the
actions of Xander and Willow, as it was obvious to her that they were both
attracted to her, and the only thing stopping them from doing anything
appeared to be Xander.

Well, she could certainly talk with Willow later and get things moving
again, one way or another, but the tensions couldn't go on like this
forever, especially now that they were considering purchasing a mansion
together.

 

* * *

It was a few hours later when Buffy approached Xander who was sitting in the
back yard staring up at the stars.

"Hey Buffy. What's up?"

"Hey Xander," she said as she sat down next to him and watched the stars
with him. "Did you mean what you said, you'd let me retire from the Slayer
gig?"

"Yeah Buff. This fight, it's a choice for everyone but the slayers. I don't
know who makes the decision as to who becomes a Slayer and who doesn't, but
to take that choice away from someone is wrong. It's a violation of Free
Will."

"That's what I thought too, but I never had the opportunity to put it to
words." Buffy paused for a few minutes, thinking while she observed the
stars. All of that stuff out there, just waiting to be discovered and this
is my moment of decision. This is the point where I decide what I'm going to
do with my life. Some times the price for not doing a thing is a lot higher
than sticking with it.

"I'm going to stay the Slayer, Xander."

"You sure Buffy?"

"Yeah. I don't think I could really live with myself if I didn't help when I
could. Besides, with all the cool stuff you've got, I'm sure that we can
make very short work of the vampires when ever they rear their ugly little
heads, so I might have a chance at a social life anyway."

"Alright. Have you decided who you're going to vote for our little party
leader?"

"Yep. And I'll tell you tomorrow afternoon. Mom is even going to join us at
school after she gets the property purchased."

"Cool. Mrs. S, The G-Man, Ms. C, and the rest of us. Big meeting, I better
bring one of the portable replicators for snacks and such."

"There's a portable version?"

"Yeah. They are usually stored in shuttles and runabouts for extended field
use."

"Oh. Can we install regular versions in the Mansion?"

"Don't see why not. I'm also going to have a bunch of droids running around
the place, both as servants for us as well as security for the place. I
think we should arrange for the droids to meet Dead Boy. See if they can
determine if he's a vamp on sight. If so, we can possibly have some battle
droids fitted for normal patrols and information gathering purposes."

"Cool. So, what's the big plan for the starships?"

"Well, I'm thinking that we can set up a colony on Mars. Once we get the
basic system defenses up, which should take Data less than 6 months, I think
I'll set him to constructing the Mars Colony. Once that's done, I think I'll
turn him loose on a survey mission. Find the nearest dozen worlds that can
support humans, find out what other resources are near those planets. Once
we've got the Mars Colony, we start getting people off Earth. What happened
to the Dinosaurs will not happen to Humanity."

"That's a pretty big plan."

"Yeah, but we've got the technology to do it, so why not do it?"

"Good point. What about people? How are you going to choose who to offer to
take off planet?"

"Well, I want younger people, people who can still learn and who aren't
still set in their ways. People open to new ideas and new possibilities.
That and if they are willing to sign the colonization papers, I won't have a
problem with it, I don't think."

"Going to be a new US of A or you going to try something else?"

"I think I'll try something new. I want it to be democratic without the
roadblocks our government has. I figure something like an elected Grey
Council from Babylon 5 would probably work all right. I think, if we have
two Houses, like in the US, then the lower house, which is all elected, can
handle the running of the government. The upper house, or our Grey Council,
I think should be lifetime appointments by The One, confirmed by the lower
house. I think that The One should be Hereditary. The current One chooses
which of their kids becomes the next One. Again, either the lower house or
the Grey Council can confirm the appointment."

"Sounds pretty fair. The people still get most of the say, but someone in
charge can still tell them that they are being childish, and no, they can't
have a cookie, it'll ruin their dinner."

"That's pretty much my thought. We could probably use the Upper house as a
supreme court to make sure that things stay within the rules."

"Could be more stable than our government, but also introduces far more
ability for who ever is The One to abuse their power."

"Nah, see that's why the Grey Council idea works. You aren't that big a fan
of the show, so you don't know all the ins and outs of how it works, but
while The One can over ride the Grey Council, they can also tell him to go
stuff it if he gets too far out there. The One can't start any Laws, but he
can make requests to the lower house. Obviously if they don't think it's a
good idea, they won't pass it. Nor would the upper house approve it. And
when Dukat was The One, he didn't use his override unless the council was
being incredibly stubborn. He led the council. He didn't make decisions
because he didn't need to, he already explained to the council all the
reasons and points of view of a given decision and led them to make the
right decisions in the first place."

Buffy was silent for a while. Xander having made his point about leadership
only reaffirmed her decisions about what she was going to say at the Scooby
meeting the next day.

"Alright. Now, next question I have for you Xander is what are your
intentions towards my sister?"

Xander was nonplused for several moments, before he could think again. "I.
really don't know right now Buffy. Every time I see her and Willow looking
at each other like that, it hurts. It hurts because I want them to be happy,
and they seem to want to be together. If they do, then I won't stand in
their way. If Dawn looks like she's waiting for a chance to make a move on
Willow, and Willow looks like she's willing to accept such a move, I'll get
out of their way. That will hurt me a lot, but I'll do it because it's the
right thing to do."

"You do have other options you know?"

"Yes, but they are non-options. I won't make decisions for other people, not
like that. I can't."

"Xander, that's very noble of you, and I realize that you are hampered by
being male, but do try to see what's going on, not just what you are afraid
might be." Buffy got up and walked back into the house, leaving Xander to
think about her last words. They confused the hell out of him because he
thought he was trying to see what was there. He did acknowledge that the
problem could be in his basic assumptions, but couldn't figure out what
could be wrong with them. If you start with what he thought were perfectly
acceptable assumptions, the logical conclusions supported his fears, that
Dawn and Willow were attracted to each other. If they wanted to be together,
then he would be the responsible adult and get out of their way. It was the
only thing he could do and still be himself. That was the responsible adult
thing to do, wasn't it? He seemed to think so.

 

 

 

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