"I seem to be saying this a lot lately," Xander said slowly, getting up from the ground "but what the hell?!"

Willow and Cordy, who had immediately gone to Xander, turned around and saw just what Xander was staring at, then ran behind him. No one spoke for a moment, and then Willow asked, "Is he evil?"

"No, Will, he isn't evil...But he did come back from Hell..." Buffy replied tiredly. Then the Slayer's expression turned angry and she glared at Xander, "Thanks to Xander Harris. Xander, you owe Angel an apology."

"I don't owe him anything..." Xander replied stubbornly, " I did what had to be done..."

Buffy looked about to punch him, but Angel held her back. That confused her, and she turned around to look at her love.

"He did the right thing..." the vampire told her.

"Lying was the right thing? Not telling me about the spell was the right thing?" The Slayer asked in a rage.

"Yes..." Angel murmured back, "If he had told you that I might get my soul back, you wouldn't have fought like you did. You wouldn't have had the fury. You wouldn't have survived our battle, and then the world would have been sucked into hell. He was right."

Buffy looked to Willow, who had come out from behind Xander. She nodded. Then she looked to Cordy, who also nodded. Finally, she looked into the eyes of Xander. And in those eyes she found his core. The Slayer looked behind everything, the joy and the pain, the friendship and the hatred, and found the core. The core within the Keeper that was stronger than anything she had ever seen. A core that could love beyond her wildest dreams, and would ruthlessly defend those it loved. He hadn't done it for some petty reason. He had done it to save the world. And she once again realized just how little she had known Alexander Harris. She lowered her eyes.

There was silence for a moment, then Xander asked good-naturedly, "So, Deadboy? What's up?"

Angel just stared at the transformation. He'd just seen Xander commit some of the most horrible things he'd ever seen, done things with a chainsaw that Angelus hadn't even dreamed of, and now he was back to good old goofing Xander. It was mind-boggling.

"Well, you're obviously up from the big fiery pit, aren't you?" the young man continued, still in that cheery voice, "So how are things?"

"Good..." Angel managed to get out from his shock, "Good."

"That's good..." Xander replied, "You wouldn't have borrowed a book from Giles without asking, would you? And then read it aloud?"

"No, I don't think so..." the vampire replied, rather nonplussed, "Not that I can remember..."

"Well, you'd remember this book. It's bound in human flesh, written in human blood, and contains rituals for raising evil demons and other nasty things...such as what is spattered around this room..."

"No, can't say I saw it..." Angel replied dryly, "And by the way, what is going on? What are these things?"

"Deadites..." Buffy replied before Xander could, "Demons that posses people that can be called by the book, which has gone missing..."

"Oh" said Angel.

"Yeah, it kinda sucks..." Xander put in, "So, what are you doing in the middle of a buncha deadites?"

"They invaded my home, and set up a guard." Angel told them, "I didn't know what was happening, or what those things were, so I hid in the basement. I got some weapons from the basement, and I was about to attack when the Sunnydale Chainsaw Murderer ran in..."

Xander didn't even blink. "What were they guarding?"

"This..." responded Willow, pulling out a wicked looking dagger. It was old, very old, and it had detailed engraving on the hilt in the way of bones and skulls. It looked like the kind of thing Indiana Jones would dig up. "I took it from the altar in the middle of the room..."

Xander stared at the dagger in Willow's hand with something akin to awe, but so much more than that. He felt as if that blade was his, as if it had been born with him. Only pure willpower kept him from grabbing the blade from Willow's hand.

"Xander?" Buffy asked, walking over to him now that she was calmed down a bit, "What's that thing?"

"Candarian dagger..." Xander murmured, gleaning the knowledge from somewhere, "My dagger. Keeper's dagger..."

"Yours?" Willow asked, looking at it for a moment, "Then how did they get it?"

"Mine." The young man whispered fervently, "My dagger. My birthright. Mine..."

"Willow, you had better give him that thing..." Cordy cautioned.

The redheaded witch did as the girl had said, and Xander snatched it out of her hand. The second the blade pressed against this skin, the young Keeper let out a sigh of pure contentment, and placed it carefully against his chest.

"Xander?" The Slayer asked, a bit worried at his strange love of the weapon.

Xander shook his head at her call, and then looked down at the dagger. "It's mine." He told them all, his voice returned to normal, "The dagger was meant for me. The Apprentice... There's another one for Ash, but this one is for me..."

"Oh." Was the general reply.

"Yeah..." Xander went on, "I don't know exactly how, but I know this knife can put the Necronomicon out of business, at least for a while..."

"The Necronomicon?" Angel asked in shock.

"Yeah...someone stole it from Giles today, and set loose the evil..."

"And the Protector is?"

"I prefer Keeper," Xander told the vampire with a smile, "but that would be me..."

"You?"

"Yeah, me. But I'm the Apprentice, if you didn't hear. The Master Keeper is my best friend, Ash."

"Oh...I, uh...noticed you looked a little bit different..."

"Yeah, that's what a few months training will do to you..." Xander replied with a smile.

Buffy sighed in relief. This was so much better than what she had thought would happen. She had expected an all out brawl, and the funny thing was, she wasn't sure who would have won.

"So what now?" Buffy asked Xander.

"Well, I say we meet up with the other group, since north turned up only the dagger..."

"It's as good a plan as any..." Cordy said, "Not that this plan was all that great."

Xander rolled his eyes at his girlfriend. "Thank you, oh wonderfully supportive love of my life..."

"No problem..."

Xander rolled his eyes once again, and then turned to Buffy, Willow, and Angel. He handed Angel the katana he had at his waist.

"Take that. Only way to kill these bastards is dismemberment. Now let's go..."

***

"This is so gross..." Oz realized.

They were standing in a room full of convulsing parts, all dripping with blood, which came in several colors. The three figures standing were the ones that had heartbeats, and there were all covered in the disgusting mess as well.

"This is never going to come out of tweed, is it?" Giles murmured fretfully, rubbing at his jacket with an already-soaked handkerchief, "You know, you should have warned us that it was going to be a bloody mess..."

There was silence in the room, and then Giles looked around. "Ash? Oh...Ash?"

Finally, they found him, staring at a strange device that stood on a pedestal in the middle of the room. The Watcher and the werewolf walked over to where the Keeper stood transfixed.

Apparently, it was a dagger, though it was one of the strangest weapons Giles had ever seen. It was made completely of bone, which was elaborately carved with bones, skulls, and other things the Watcher didn't want to think about. It didn't have so much of a blade as a point. Giles put his hand out to examine it closer, but suddenly he felt Ash's iron grip upon his wrist.

"Mine..." the Keeper said in a slightly obsessive voice, "My dagger. Mine."

"It is yours? Then how did the deadites acquire it then?"

"Mine. My legacy. Mine to use in the hunt and the kill..."

"Okay." Said Oz.

As the two watched, Ash picked up the strange weapon and held it to his chest,  moaning softly as he fingered the blade. Then he pulled it away and stared at it for a moment.

"The Master Keeper's dagger. The weapon that killed Annie..." Ash told them, "The girl whose father woke the thing up in the first place. She was saying the incantation to send the evil away, when my dismembered hand stabbed her with this."

"Your what?" Oz asked in disbelief.

"My hand, the one I cut off..." Ash said, lifting the stump with the sword on it, "It was like 'Thing' from the 'Addams Family' but really evil..."

"Oh." It seemed to be the comment of the day. Then again, considering all the unbelievable crap that had happened today, it was entirely understandable.

"Yeah..." Ash replied, "I wonder how it got here? Last I saw it, it was in Annie's back in the middle of Tennessee...unless..."

"Unless what?"

"That damned hand. It's not gone." The Keeper growled, "Giles, what were you saying about that note with the book, while we were walking here?"

"Um, it didn't say much. It just called you a bastard."

"Did the handwriting look like this?" Ash replied, pulling out is wallet and picking out a piece of paper. It was a small note from a while ago, one he had written to Xander and forgotten to put down for the boy. He'd kept it in his wallet because he kept on forgetting to throw it out.

"Yes, it did. The 'f' is the same on, and the handwriting is done at the same slant, and..." Giles stopped, and then looked up at Ash, "Are you trying to tell me that your evil hand is behind all of this?"

"Not all of it..." Ash replied, "The hand obviously sent you the note, but it can't have done it all. The hand needs a partner. It can't speak the incantations; no mouth."

"So we are looking for Thing's evil cousin and it's friend?" Oz asked.

"Pretty much..."

"Okay, just checking..."

There was silence for a moment as all three men thought about the situation. Then Ash spoke up.

"We had better join up with the other group, since we didn't find anything in this direction other than the dagger..."

"Good idea." Giles agreed, shaking his head briskly to clear it, "Let's be going..."

TBC