FicWad

---

As Xander dragged himself down the hallway to his apartment he wondered if he could get Anya to give him a massage. It had been a long day, what with the trip to L.A. and the combat practice in Warren's basement. He hoped what he'd learned from helping Buffy train would be enough to keep them all safe.

He opened the door to his apartment, and heard the voice of the last person he wanted to see.

"Actually, I think turquoise polyester is a commonly acceptable substitute for blood larva and burlap these days," said Spike.

"Really?" Anya replied. "Because I do want to be traditional, but Xander has been objecting to-"

"Get out, Spike," said Xander. Spike and Anya looked up from the couch, where they had been looking at bridal magazines.

"Hello to you, too, Xander," said Spike, closing the magazine he was holding and standing up.

"Oh, don't lose my place!" Anya said. Spike handed her the magazine.

"Why did you invite him over?" Xander asked Anya. He'd encouraged Anya to have friends of her own but maybe he should have mentioned a few restrictions. For one, no evil undead. Where was that disinvite spell Willow always used?

"Actually, I came over here to see you," Spike said.

Xander couldn't think of any good reason Spike would want to see him. "I'm thrilled. Get out," he said.

"Heard that you and your buddies are trying to be heroes," said Spike

Xander looked over at Anya, who shrugged. "I might have mentioned it this afternoon," she said.

Great. She'd been talking about him at the Magic Box again. They really needed to have a discussion about mission secrecy. Xander sighed and turned back to Spike. "So you, what, came to mock me? Fine, you've mocked, now leave."

"I came here to help," said Spike.

"You want to help? Okay, whose pants are you trying to get into this time?"

"Not yours, Superboy. Look, I got some information I thought you and your mates could use. Figure I could make a few bucks, that's all," Spike said.

Xander sighed. "Fine. What've you got?"

Spike held out his hand. "For a hundred dollars."

"Twenty. If I think it's worth it," replied Xander, ignoring Spike's hand.

"Eighty."

"Thirty."

"Seventy."

"Forty."

"Fifty," said Spike.

"Fine, fifty," said Xander. He got the cash out of his wallet, but didn't give it to Spike. "Let me hear it first."

Spike rolled his eyes, but withdrew his hand. "Word on the street is that there's a sorcerer, a pretty powerful one, looking for an amulet. Don't know the details on it, but sounds like it's the kind of thing you goody-goody types might want to get to first."

"Don't suppose you happen to know the name of this amulet? Or the sorcerer?"

Spike held out his hand again. Xander shook his head in exasperation, but handed over the money.

"Don't know the sorcerer's name. The amulet's called the Chraka Rathklo," said Spike.

"The Shock-a what?"

Spike glared at Xander, but he picked up a pen and notepad from among Anya's wedding stuff. He wrote the name on the pad, and handed it to Xander.

"Chra-ka Rath-k-lo," Spike said slowly. "Got it?"

"Got it. Get out," said Xander.

"Gladly," said Spike. He pushed past Xander, and left the apartment.

"You could have got it for thirty," said Anya, who was still studying her bridal magazines. "You started too high. In a bargaining situation-"

"Anya, it has been a very long day. Can you save the economics lesson for another time? Please?" asked Xander.

Anya looked up at him, and put her magazine down. "You know, I got some new oils today. The lady at the shop said that they're edible, and if you put them on your skin and rub them, they heat up. Do you want to test them out?" She smiled at him, and Xander smiled back. The evening was looking up.



When Xander arrived at the Magic Box the next day, he found Jonathan already there, studying one of the books piled on the table. At least one of the new gang was taking this job seriously.

"Hey," said Xander, as he sat down next to Jonathan. "What've you got?"

"Well, Anya said these books," he pointed to the stack of books on his left, "are the most likely to contain references to the Chraka Rathklo, since it sounds like a Grethlan object. But these books," he pointed to the stack on his right, "may have references to magical amulets and modern sorcerers."

"Cool. Thanks honey!" Xander said to Anya, who was doing inventory on charmed objects near the front of the store.

"Don't talk to me. I'll lose count," said Anya. "You can thank me properly later."

"Okay," said Xander. His brain offered a few images of how to thank her, but he sternly ordered it to focus on the task at hand. His brain protested, offering up memories from the previous night. He allowed his brain to show him a few images, then told it to save the rest for later. He turned back to Jonathan. "How far have you gotten?"

"This is the first book I've looked at."

Xander nodded, and picked up a book himself. He was three-quarters of the way through that book when Andrew and Warren finally walked in. Jonathan was starting on his third book.

"You're late," said Xander. Whoa, did he just sound like Giles? He'd have to warn Anya to keep him away from tweed, just in case.

Andrew and Warren sat down at the table. "We were working on some stuff," said Warren. "And what's with the change of venue? I thought we were meeting at my place."

"I asked you to meet me here because I got a tip that an amulet called the Chraka Rathklo could be important. So we're here to find out what it is and why it's important," said Xander.

"Ah," said Andrew, nodding wisely. "Because knowing is half the battle."

"Exactly," said Xander. "And the other half involves pointy sticks. But we're working on the knowledge part today." Xander pushing research. Who would've thunk? He handed Andrew a book. After a moment, Warren reluctantly took a book, too.

"So where'd this tip come from?" asked Warren.

"Um, this guy I know named Spike," said Xander.

"The vampire?" Warren exclaimed. "We're working with vampires now?"

"Just this one. He's neutered," said Xander. "The government put this chip in his head so he can't hurt any living thing."

"Really?" said Jonathan, looking up from his book. "The government?"

"So is he like the Bionic Vampire?" asked Andrew.

"No, he's a normal vampire. Still evil and all. Just harmless," said Xander.

"How long has he been... neutered?" asked Warren.

"Couple of years. Guys, can we focus? Forget Spike. He's not important," said Xander. "We need to find out about the amulet."

"Okay."

"Yeah."

"Whatever."



"Don't they make comic book versions of any of these?" asked Andrew. They'd been researching for a couple of hours now, and he was starting to get restless.

"They're not Moby Dick," said Jonathan. "These are incredibly rare volumes filled with ancient mystical knowledge, doofus."

"Hey! I'm just saying this would go faster with pictures!" said Andrew, glaring at Jonathan.

"Yeah, if we knew what it looked like, moron!" Jonathan replied.

"This one's got pictures," said Xander hastily. He handed the book he was holding to Andrew. Warren was engrossed in a book of his own, and seemed to have tuned out the others.

"Ew! Gross!" said Andrew, staring at the woodcut.

"Let me see!" said Jonathan.

Andrew pulled the book close to his chest. "No way, you scruffy-looking nerf-herder! Get your own."

Jonathan tugged at the book. "Let me see!"

Suddenly Anya appeared behind them, and grabbed them both by the hair. The boys froze.

"Jonathan, let go of the book," she said. Jonathan removed his hand. "Andrew, put it down on the table." Andrew carefully set the book down. "That book is worth more money then either of you will ever see in your lifetimes. If you hurt it, I will eviscerate you. Got it?"

"Yes," said Andrew and Jonathan together.

"Good." She let go of them.

As she walked away from the table, Xander mouthed, "Thank you!" at her.

"We're going to have a long talk about proper discipline before we have children," Anya said.

"Of course," said Xander. Children? "Sometime in the... far future."

"Ew!" said Jonathan, who was looking at the book of woodcuts. "Is that even possible?"

Xander glanced at the picture. Oh yes. That one had given him interesting nightmares his senior year. "Only under a full moon."



"Oh, I think I found something!" said Jonathan, two hours and one pizza break later. (The pizza had been eaten far, far away from the books after a scorching look from Anya.) He skimmed through the page in front of him. "The Chraka Rathklo is one of five Chrakas, one for each of the five elements."

"Five?" said Xander. "I thought there were four."

Jonathan nodded. "Those are the four basic elements; earth, air, fire and water. But there's a fifth, sometimes known as 'spirit'. It's representative of the metaphysical world. 'Rathklo' is the Grethlan word for 'spirit', so the Chraka Rathklo is the spirit Chraka."

"Yeah, but what's a Chraka?" asked Warren.

"It's..." Jonathan studied the pages in front of him. "It's like a conduit. It connects the bearer to the element it's associated with. Then they can channel it."

"Channel it? Like a psychic or something?" asked Andrew.

"No," said Jonathan. "More like a fire hose. The Chraka lets the bearer tap into the element, but it doesn't control it. The bearer has to be strong enough to do that himself."

"Which fits with there being a powerful sorcerer looking for it," said Xander. "I'm thinking it's not something we want them to have?"

"Probably not," said Jonathan. "A sorcerer connected to the spirit world in that way would be able to make changes to the very fabric of reality. Odds are pretty high that he would burn himself out trying - but if that happened, it could tear a hole in the veil between our world and the spirit world."

"Wow," said Andrew. "It'd be like in that massive DC/Marvel crossover where Superman and the Amazing Spiderman battle Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus, and that guy kept trying to patch up the hole between worlds with duct tape!"

"Sort of. Only not!" said Jonathan. "This would be more of a nightmares-come-true situation. Ghosts would be able to steal the bodies of the living, and all the demons and spirits that can't normally affect our world could do- well, whatever they wanted."

"Okay. So we have to stop it," said Warren.

"Right," said Xander. "How do we get the Chraka, and how do we destroy it?"

"There's a spell in here that will help us track the Chraka, but the ingredients might be hard to find," said Jonathan.

"Make a list of them. Anya can probably get them for us," said Xander.

Jonathan nodded. "There's several references here to a 'Chraka destroyer' but I can't tell if that's a spell, an object, or a person. The translation's a little spotty."

Xander sighed. "Okay. You know what this means."

"Time for a massage from Swedish twins?" asked Warren hopefully.

"More research," said Jonathan.

"More research," agreed Xander. His brain offered up ideas of things he'd rather be doing. He glanced over at Anya. His brain helpfully offered up a slide show. He groaned, and picked up another book. There'd be time for that stuff later, he told his brain. And share that message with the other body parts, or else the guys might get the wrong impression, he ordered.