Fic: CPA6

Author: Norgco

Summary: Xander and Faith come to a grim assessment of the future, Scully and Martha Kent turn out to be `old friends'

Rating: NC-17

Couples: Anya/Faith/Xander - yes, I think they need each other. Martha Kent/Scully, and a host of others, as Rocky and Bulwinkle always phrased it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this.

Feedback: Yes.

CPA6
By Norgco

The desk of the dark slayer.

Faith Wilkins Rosenburg, CPA, sat in her office at Harvey, Norman and Bates, contemplating life in its variations and diversity. She was now famous, and not simply as 'the second slayer', or 'psycho slut', but as a hero who helped save the world regularly. She was married to a woman she loved more than life itself, plus two others she was very fond of, and a man she respected. So the information she was reviewing disturbed her more than it might in her younger days, all of five years ago.

One, or rather at least one, of the scoobies was not going to survive the end of days. The prophecies were clear on that, the description of two slayers and 'the companions' could be no other group. They spoke of '...surviving members of the heroic band's shock and awe at the diminution of their numbers...' and all she could hope was that Willow was one of the grieving, not the grieved about. It was selfish, it was shallow, but the red head and their child were her world.

"I'm an expendable asset, after all, I'm a slayer, and it's in the job description." The dark slayer was well aware she was, 'in slayer years', an old woman. She was 21 after all, of the thousands of slayers in the Council records; fewer than 400 had lived to be over 18. "Ok, so the Crucimentum had something to do with that, but still, 21 is the equal of a normal person living to be 100 or something."

This was the sort of situation that Xander might best be consulted on. He had always acted as if everyone else was more important than him. All right, as a Super Soldier he was virtually unkillable, they had been known to re-assemble themselves from dismembered chunks of bloodied, burnt flesh, BUT HE HADN'T KNOWN THAT AT THE TIME.

It seemed fitting, somehow, that this document was his analysis based on a discovery by Chloe Sullivan. She had noticed it, and its importance, which was more than so many Karnak Chroniclers had. The demon race was relentlessly logical, orderly, organised and systematic - can we say 'born accountant' - but imagination was severely lacking. The Smallville blonde was being paid $100 an hour after tax because she had investigative journalist ability to piece together clues in a way the Karnak could not. Apparently the Chroniclers thought they had a bargain at the price.

"Xman will help protect Willow, she's his oldest friend, he'll protect her, and he won't let me down." The former convict was obsessing on this, and she knew it, but what else could she do. Armageddon was coming, and the archives could not predict anything at all about what would happen after. "I can't let them get lost in all the 'big picture' thinking about this, and they will if we're not careful."

She would have been surprised at how differently Xander Harris saw the situation.

The owner's office, White Knight Construction

The analysis did not change; regardless of how many different ways he did it. The whole universe was up for grabs, and every species in it. This was the final battle between good and evil for this entire plain of reality. The human race was being asked to defend the existence of every other non-demon species, and for that matter some of the demon species too.

The alien invasion was planned for the same day as the Evil One's arrival, by some miracle of Karnak influence. Hopefully the two would kill each other off, leaving only the survivors for humanity to deal with. They had better, the aliens were so far in advance technically only divine intervention, or in this case satanic intervention, could really allow victory against them. Victory was assured, by prophecy; it was the cost he was concerned about.

"After all, the extermination of the human race would be a small price to pay if we save millions of other intelligent species. We are all His children, after all" the former Zeppo muttered to himself.

The Karnak were keeping their contacts off planet a closely guarded secret, because the Consortium, the humans working for the alien invaders, had contacts everywhere. The demons had contacts with a rebel group of aliens who had been fighting without real hope of victory for untold millennia, and who had their foes infiltrated. "If I had spies planted high enough to get final invasion plans altered like this I wouldn't tell me anything important about it either."

This seemed to be putting an enormous amount of faith in the Karnak, but what else could he do. As one of the few - actually the only, as far as he was aware - humans who knew the real situation, he was a security risk. But then, he wasn't entirely human either, and maybe they trusted his genetically programmed personality more than the product of random genetic mixing by old-fashioned procreation.

"But they didn't program me, humans did." Humans who would still be alive, after Armageddon, if this prophecy was true. Faith was horrified at the idea of their being only a few scoobs left. He was grateful beyond words that there were supposed to be ANY survivors. Hopefully they would not be the only humans left alive, but with the stakes this high someone looking only at 'the big picture' might think having to restart the human race at Adam and Eve level was acceptable. "Collateral Damage is an interesting concept, when you think about it."

"I hope Willow and Jake come out of this intact, I'll talk to Faith about it, I can count on her to put them first."

Area 51 maximum-security vault

Getting a mixed vampire and feyoral demon attack force this big together, and then getting them in position to attack this important an installation was the most incredible feat of criminal planning in recent history. But it had worked, they were inside, and the 'apparatus' was already loaded for removal. So were other interesting items, like the UFO from the Roswell crash, but that was for the money to be obtained from sale.

But the real prize was an apparatus invented by humans, in fact by the physics team at the University of California, Sunnydale, based on studies of Willow Rosenburg Wilkins. Working on the principle that 'you can't do anything that is physically impossible' they had felt that her magic had to involve scientifically study able, and therefore reproducible, principles.

As is routine in pure scientific research, they had discovered something totally unexpected that was vastly more valuable than what they had actually set out to find. This is so common in science there is a term for it, Serendipity, and another term, Synergism, for a third thing that results from the interaction of two others that could not have produced it independently. The interaction of the two concepts is central to advanced research, a key to why people bother to do it. The new things that come out interest them, such as the apparatus that resulted from the synergistic reaction of their quantum mechanical work and their study of Wicca Magic.

In this case, it was interest in the sense of the old Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times.' The 'apparatus' generated a field that transformed any matter that crossed it, such as atoms in the air, or toxic sludge, into energy. It had a potential to eliminate the entire energy production industry and replace it with absolutely clean power.

One kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of anything going into the field generated energy the equivalent of 20 million tons of TNT, or one thousand Hiroshima size atomic bombs. It had been instantly classified ULTRA secret, the level above Top Secret, and moved here. The demons, working directly under orders from the First Evil, believed what he did, that it was a cover up to protect corporate interests from competition.

The Evil One needed it to open, and KEEP OPEN, a dimensional gate that could pass his demons from hell to Earth. With the carnage of the last year or so, He needed to bring an army with him, because the one he had been expecting to find already there was mostly dead. The energy demands of such a gate were beyond any magic to produce, for more than a few seconds.

The logic was flawless, but proceeded from a false premise. The 'apparatus' was not being kept secret to protect corporate interests, except in the sense that preventing the planet from being blown up was in the interests of big business.

The Kent farm, Kansas

"Mulder, I'm so nervous, what if they hate us on sight, what if they decide we can never see William again, what if..." Dana Katherine Scully was not so much nervous as frightened out of her wits. Nothing in 10 years with Fox Mulder had terrified her as much as meeting the parents who had adopted her son. Giving him up for adoption had been the hardest thing she had ever done, but with the Consortium's remnants and the Genetic Super Soldiers after them it had been the only safe thing to do. Even if they were found and killed the boy, would be safe.

Fox Mulder was trying to comfort his wife, but he himself was too worked up to be able to drive, which was why Lex had insisted on taking them himself. The Kents were apparently so wholesome and all American it was sickening, but that just meant they would be likely to reject as bizarre a couple as the Mulder's. He looked at the farmhouse as they drove up with badly disguised fear, expecting failure, not knowing if his beloved Scully would be carried out by him, or be carrying him out, after a total collapse.

They got out of the car and walked up to the front door, which Clark opened. Mulder looked at Jonathan and Martha Kent, who's picture he had seen but Scully had refused to even look at, not wanting to see the face her son would grow up calling 'Mommy.' The red headed former agent had refused to learn anything about Martha Kent, finding it simply too painful. Now she looked at the woman in front of her, and the farm wife looked at her, and both faces changed.

"Katherine, is it really you, I thought you married a dentist in Philadelphia?" Martha Kent said. Mulder was immediately on guard; he knew the context Scully used the name Katherine in.

"Mar, my god, Mar, I never thought I would see you again, I..." Then the two women rushed towards each other and kissed with violent intensity. Martha was the larger of the two, and kept moving forward a little after blocking Scully's momentum.

"Well Mulder, at least we know Martha and Scully get along." Lex commented. Jonathan Kent was in shock, staring at the scene before him. He had expected to find out certain things about Dana Scully, but that she was a natural red head was not one of them. Having Lex Luthor and this Mulder guy learn that Martha was a natural blonde, who dyed her hair black in college because she thought as a brunette she would be taken more seriously and never got out of the habit, was certainly something he had not expected either.

"As long as no one expects me to try and get along with Mr Kent that well ..." The former agent said it with a smile, but meant it. Scully's tastes were not a secret, at least to him, but he had always wondered why she went for women with a certain look. Now he knew.

It was Martha's look.

"Martha, maybe you should move to the bedroom with your, ah, friend, Martha, Martha, can you hear me, testing, testing, one, two, three, four... Oh what's the use?" Jonathan Kent looked around to find that Clark had vanished, presumably as soon as he saw his dear mother rip another woman's slacks and panties down in one smooth, practiced motion.

"Mr Kent, perhaps we should adjourn to the Talon for coffee and leave the ladies to it. I don't think either you or Mr Mulder look ready to join in, or likely to let the other live if you did." Lex Luthor had seen many scenes like this before, the whole 'Club Zero' thing came to mind, and Mulder seemed blasé about it, but Jonathan was in shock. At least he was not shouting or going for a shotgun, which was promising of some kind of civilised arrangement coming out of this.

"The Talon?" Mulder asked.

"A coffee shop in town, converted from a movie house, it was Lana's idea actually, and we're partners. Best coffee and Danish in Kansas, I guarantee it." The billionaire had bought a franchise from Xander Harris, after tasting some pastries Faith had brought out on one of her visits. It was the only one in Kansas, and if there was one thing Xander Harris had ALWAYS been accepted as an expert on it was delicious, empty calories to go with coffee. In Lex Luthor's far from humble opinion they really did have the best Danish in the state.

"Yeah Lex, coffee, great, should we lock the door?" He could not believe what he was seeing; Scully had her WHOLE HAND in Martha's...

"Just get your keys and lock up. I'm leaving a note so when they finish they can join us." The boy billionaire said. He had experience at things like this, and so he made a call to the castle, getting extra bedrooms ready. The unresisting form of the elder male Kent was moved out by Mulder, who also had already moved Jeff Kent, aka William Scully, to the limo. The only surviving Luthor arranged babysitting during the drive. The youngest Kent had stayed overnight before and had his own room.

"Mr Mulder, I do hope you and your wife can come to my wedding." Lex announced. He was assuming Scully and Martha Kent would be off the kitchen floor by then. "I'm holding it here in Smallville, in four months."

"Four months, and here in Smallville, isn't that a little odd for a man in your position?" For someone of Lex's wealth and fame a wedding with thousands of guest, and entertainment expense sheet like a medium size nation's defence budget was more normal. Mulder had been the FBI's best profiler, after all, he KNEW people, had a real interest in how they thought.

"Well I had planned to wait a year, but a friend of Clarks, Chloe Sullivan, became very insistent that it had to be before her birthday, so I decided to combine the two." Actually Chloe had looked a little panicked about her b irthday, like the world was going to end or something. It was just her 18th, after all. "The whole Sunnydale crew will be here, you both know at least some of them, and Oz and his werewolves will be invited. It should be quite a blast."

None of them noticed the truck unloading a large, odd-looking apparatus into a building being renovated down the street. It was a small town and people noticed new people, but with the need for new business investment no one pushed too hard in case they were scared off. The plane from Nevada had unloaded at a small field an hours drive away, and disappeared at low level to the Bermuda Triangle, where a crash would be faked. Some of the deepest water in the world is in the area, and no recovery crew would find out that the apparatus stolen so violently was resting in a quiet farm town.

It was four months minus one day to Lex Luthor's wedding.

It was four months to Chloe Sullivan's 18th birthday.

It was four months to Armageddon.

END