Buffy Z

The Super Saiyan Xander Saga

Episode 1 - 9

Author: 3D Master <3d.master[at]chello.nl>

Website: http://members.chello.nl/~jg.temolder1/

Rating: R

Keywords: X-Over Dragonball/Z/GT, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angst, Drama, Action.

Summery: Xander turns out to be a Saiyan in disguise.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its characters do not belong to me, but Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions. Dragonball Z, its characters and the concept of the Saiyan race belong to Akira Toriyama.

SPOILER ALERTS: FIRST FOR DRAGONBALL Z, THE CELL GAMES!! THEN FOR BUFFY - THE GIFT


Episode 1
The Escape

"Dad!? What's happening, dad?!" he screamed, as his father ran through the building toward the lab at high pace. An eery orange light was all around, and it was getting stronger.

"Don't worry, son. You'll be alright! I promise that!" the father yelled above an terrifying wine that kept getting stronger as well.

The son, far too sharp and intelligent for his age, as he always had been, asked, "But what about you dad? And what about mom?"

The father at a loss for words, for once in his life hesitated for some time. He ran into the lab and looked forward at his only hope. A spherical contraption stood there, in the middle of a messy lab; tube, leading water, energy, other necessary substances to and away from the lab. Finished and partial inventions, mostly weapons lay on tables everywhere. Computer screens and sensor grids were at the places the rest wasn't. "You can't worry about us anymore, Littica! You have to think about yourself now, you must survive. You are our races only hope for justice!"

"But . . ." the boy started.

The father pushed a button on the contraption and with a his it opened. "No buts!" the man said and quickly placed his son inside. "Listen to me very carefully, Littica! You already now what this ship does, you also know it has plenty of rations and fuel to get you anywhere within a galaxy! When I send you away, do not come back here unless you have the means to destroy that bastard! Promise!?"

"I promise," the four-year-old boy said with tears in his eyes. His father nodded, backed away and the hatch closed. Quickly he pushed a button on the console in front of the spherical ship to make sure the hatch would stay closed until after the dimensional jump was complete, he could trust that his little boy would open it in an emotional fit. The orange light that was filtering to the windows took that exact time to flare brightly. An instant later a massive explosion could be heard, fires broke out all through the lab and a support beam crashed down from the ceiling.

The boy looked through the glass that separated him from the rest of the word, and saw part of the ceiling crash down upon his father. "Daddy!" he screamed smashing his little fists against the glass that didn't give a micro meter. "Dad! NOOO!!!" the boy screamed again, as he heard bigger and bigger explosions all around him. Everything started shaking. Somewhere in the back of the boy's analytical mind he knew the entire planet was breaking up, which was punctuated by an enormous explosion and a massive fountain of lava that could be seen sprouting into the air through some of the windows of the lab. The boy tried the opening sequence desperately, but the ship stayed closed, then he continued with pounding his fists on the glass and screaming for his father. Some of the debris in the boys vision moved slightly and he saw his father crawl out from under it. "Daddy!" the boy screamed with mixture of fear and happiness. More explosions rocked the planet and more debris fell from the ceiling. "Dad!" the boy said, pounding the glass again. His father crawled forward, blood oozing out of multiple wounds, he looked backward with a frown, when he couldn't move forward. Again an explosion, one side of the wall was becoming orange; lava was starting to burn through it! The boy screamed and pounded on the glass again, even as he felt the temperature rising. He saw his father violently yank on his tail that was stuck, a moment later he staggered heavily to his feat half a tail left. "DAD!!!" His father leaned heavily on the console and reached forward with a trembling arm. The boy heard a massive ripping sound and saw the floor to his left rip open, lava welling up from it. His father staggered, than with extreme difficulty reach forward he pushed a button.

"Dimensional drive engaged," a calm computer voice sounding in the small craft and then a high whine could be heard as its engines powered up.

"DAAADD!!" the boy screamed once more as tears streamed down his cheeks, and he saw the energy field generated by the pod pulse out side in time with the whine that became louder and higher. The world out side slowly began to become see through. With an explosion the boy's father was ripped apart as a fountain of lava opened up inside the lab. "NOOOOOO!!!!" the boy raged, then with a flash, the lab disappeared from view, replaced by a tunnel of colors. The planet exploded a moment later.

*****

With a start, the young man sat bolt upright in bed. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He closed his eyes and as he brought his breathing under control a tear slipped from his eyes.

Episode 2
Reflections

He sat in bed, darkness all around him. He calmed down, and wiped some sweat off his brow. Next to him his girlfriend started to murmur.

"Ssh," he said soothingly, "Go back to sleep, hun. Nothing to worry about, I just had a nightmare."

"Mmmmok," she murmured, before turning around falling back asleep before being able to fully awake.

He looked at his alarm clock; almost 5 o'clock. He carefully slipped out of bed, but not careful enough and stumbled across his shoes.

"Mmmeewh," the girl got out of her mouth as she awoke partly again.

"Go back to sleep, baby," the guy whispered. "Nothing the matter, hon. Just going off to train, Anya."

"Traimmmm, y'geuhmmm," Anya moaned and fell back into a deep sleep.

Glad his girlfriend was back to sleep - he really didn't like the moods she got in when she woke up too early - he blindly grabbed his clothes off the chair he knew was present behind him. Then he got his shoes with his other hand and tiptoed out of the room. Once out side the room, he rushed toward the exit door of his apartment, dressing himself as he went. He unlocked and opened the door, walked outside and closed and locked the door behind him.

He quickly walked outside the building and started to jog in no particular direction. A minute later, convinced nobody was around, a white aura erupted around Xander Harris and he flew into the air and away toward the desert at great speed.

*****

Xander a.k.a. Littica flew rapidly over Sunnydale, staying low, as to minimize the chance of being seen. Soon he reached the outer edge. The nightmare reoccurred on a regular schedule, the memory of the destruction of his home world fueled him with pain and rage. Xander allowed himself to remember the awe inspiring event of his arrival in this new dimension, this new universe.

*****

"Nooo!" Littica roared one final time against the vista of colors that the space pod was flying through. The boy let his tears flow freely. Suddenly the colors disappeared and a star scape came in its place. He was too distraught to notice, and he sat slowly down in the pod's chair, the artificial gravity keeping him down.

"Dimensional drive disengaging," the cold computer voice intoned and the energy field that had pulled the pod through the dimensional barriers and protected it from that barrier at the same time dropped away.

Suddenly Littica felt as if he was pushed and pulled under something. It felt like he was drowning in energy, as if an anvil the size of a mountain had fallen on top of him. He started panicking, for a little time he was in an internal struggle, after which he calmed down. Calm he noticed that everything was all right with him, and although the oppressive energy was still present it wasn't hurting him, or impairing his body's ability to perform vital functions.

Littica looked out the window for the first time and then his jaw dropped; stars, stars everywhere. Wherever he looked, there they were, and light spectacles that he classified as nebulas and things he couldn't classify at all. "This can't be," he whispered. "I must be hallucinating. Computer count the stars in this galaxy." After the computer's confirmation, Littica at first waited patiently for the answer. As it took longer and longer, he was starting to worry. The computer should have been long done by now, was he hallucinating not hearing anything too?

After about six minutes the computer voice answered, "There are between 650 and 700 billion stars in this galaxy."

"That's not possible," Littica announced confused. Was he hearing this that weren't there as well? "Again." Another six minutes later, the computer announced the same answer. This wasn't possible. *A galaxy has between 50 and 80 million stars, one quadrant of the universe possessed four galaxies: North, South, East and West. In turn a universe has North, South, East and West quadrants, making a total of 16 galaxies. This galaxy would have almost a thousand times more stars that an entire universe . . . my universe.* His universe! He was no longer there, he had breached the dimensional barriers; different rules could apply here, different laws of physics.

"What's the size of a galaxy?" Littica asked in awe.

"Oval shaped, max length 110,000 light years. Max width 70,000 light years," the computer answered.

"Well, dad, I guess you were wrong about going everywhere in a galaxy," Littica said. Since there wasn't much else to do instead of moan, he ordered, "Computer, count the number of galaxies in this universe."

After almost a quarter of an hour the computer answered, "Unable to comply, unable to scan the full universe."

*WHAT!* Littica thought in astonishment. A universe bigger that this ship could scan! Amazing! "Make an estimate."

"Unable to comply," the computer voice said coldly. "Only certainty: there are more galaxies in this universe, than there are stars in this galaxy."

Again Littica reeled with astonishment, this universe was continuously crushing his wildest expectations. "Turn that into a number."

"Lower boundary 800 billion galaxies, upper boundary potentially not present," the computer answered once more.

*An unlimited universe!* Littica thought. The concept alone, although it was by no means certain this universe was like that, was staggering. "Damnation! No wonder I feel all this energy pressing on me . . ."

"Computer, scan for the closest habitable planet," Littica told the computer sullenly. *650+ billion stars, 800+ billion galaxies!!*

"Habitable planet found, 2 light years away, inhabited by a primitive civilization, detecting highly modulated sub-light-speed signals," the computer announced.

Communication signals! "Display them!" Littica ordered. Even with the best error recovery the heavily degraded signals only showed glimpses, but they were enough. *They look almost like Saiyans, but they have no tail,* shot through Littica's mind, it reminded him of his race, the Saiyan race, and his planet, his mother and father. 'You are our races only hope for justice.' His father's words echoed through his mind. Littica wasn't even classified a warrior, he was a scientist's son. Even in a Saiyan's, unclassified, scientist's son, the warrior blood flowed, and it boiled now. Littica screamed, not in grief, in rage, and hatred. "YOU'RE GOING TO PAY, FRIEZA!!!" he yelled. His father had probably meant, Littica should build a devastating enough weapon to destroy Frieza, but he had already been picturing ripping Frieza limb from limb with his bare hands . . . and he knew, he had to be a Super Saiyan in order to do that. Littica was in luck, in legend a Super Saiyan only emerged once every one thousand years, which were over, and he was the only Saiyan left alive, he just plain had to be the one who would become a Super Saiyan. If he went there, he had to conceal his true nature, he had to appear as the race on that planet; he really didn't want to end up on a lab table being cut open alive, and you always had that potential with primitive civilizations. He would have to cut off his tail . . . he really didn't want to, there was much power in that tail. But a whole planet of Saiyan look-a-likes would be a perfect hiding place should Frieze find out about him and find a way to send his henchmen after him. His decision was made. "Get me to that planet as fast as you can, and activate stasis sleep."

Two months later, Littica stepped out of the space pod in the desert of the United States of America, Earth.

*****

Xander flew rapidly across the landscape, the white energy of life force, his ki, or chi as they called it in this dimension was crackling around him. He still remembered cutting off his tail and hiding his ship in the desert, then - once he learned the English language, which wasn't difficult for someone with his intelligence - he got himself into an orphanage. The Harrises came soon after, him infertile, she forcing them to adopt, because she just had to have child. When he was with them, he became a constant reminder of his inadequacy, drinking soon followed, the beatings for both the now called Alexander Lavelle and his new found mother soon after. His mother felt guilty, after all it was her insistence of adopting a child that had caused her husband such grief and irritation, so she just let him continue. When she started drinking to drown her grief and guilt, there was nothing left of a once deeply in love couple, nor was there of Xander's family life.

Episode 3
More Reflections!

Washup Xander? Or Super Saiyan Littica?

Xander landed and looked around. He had never told anyone about his true self, adopting a gullible, goofy, weakling persona to fool everyone. There were times when he wanted to tell, but for many reasons he didn't. He felt a little guilty about that, but knew he had made the right decision when the initiative had arrived. He really didn't fancy himself being drugged when he least expected it, and then being cut apart and having parts of becoming part of that thing Adam. Anya though had found out soon after they started dating, the woman was insatiable, and on one of her unannounced visits to get more sex, she had caught him training.

Seeing that this piece of desert, that was relatively alive with grasses and small bushes scattered about was as good a place as any, Xander powered up with a yell. The white flame of Ki burst forth and became brighter that it ever been. Xander kept screaming and powering up, anger flashing through him as he thought what his friends considered; a weak, goofy fool, who didn't know what was good for him. Of course if they bothered to look a little further than their nose was long; after all who was the only person who directly saved a slayer . . . and two at that. First there was when he had led Buffy to daylight in the underground tunnels, when sadly his best friend had been turned into a vampire. Even today he still kicked himself for letting that happen. Then there was the time he dragged Angel down into the catacombs, battled hordes of vampires to get to Buffy and then brought her back with CPR . . . and Angel proved himself a doofus by not knowing how to do it, and a horrible liar; no breath meant no speech, and he still had hands to perform the hart massage didn't he?

Xander screamed, forcing the ki flame to become even brighter. Then there was the girl Angelus had turned and come to life in front of his and Buffy's eyes. She had gotten so close to draining Buffy dry, it was good thing he rammed the blunt broom stick into her heart, which takes more than some considerable strength, slayer level strength. Then was the helping hand Buffy had needed to latch onto when the steroid, mutated fish monsters almost had her for diner. The memory of Cordelia, Buffy and Willow going all slack jawed and googoo eyed when they had seen him in swimming trunks only, it still gave him a perk even today. But still they didn't latch on.

His power soured higher, his body trembled slightly in the desert. Then there was that demon he smashed his car into and thus saved Faith's life; of course he only happened to conveniently cruise by; more like he had sensed Faith's ki and that it was waning. Not to mention the bomb he had made its creator disarm. That was when he had been all insecure about his abilities; the group's ignoring of him had questioned whether he could be useful if had been only human. So he had decided too fight not using his full abilities. He had proven he could be helpful rather well . . . ok, he had cheated a bit, by using some of his real strength to lift a guy off the ground while driving a car, but that was just a minor infraction and necessary at the time.

Going back to stupid fool who let himself get beat up by even the weakest of the demons - and subsequently got stronger by healing from it - wasn't such a problem. Well, he had to be a bit more of a general facing that mayor some time later, and oh yes, he got that from the time he was turned into a soldier by magic, ha! And of course he only used the abilities he got from that halloween night when it was absolutely necessary to save the day. It was rather amusing how playing stupid could get everybody to overlook such things.

Xander stood there, trembling with power as the sun started coming over the horizon. He was so close, he could feel it. His thoughts returned to earlier that year. 'If you want to get to the master, you will have to go through me.' Riley hit him with one punch and he was out. When he woke up he had been consumed with anger, unconsciousness had reset his mind. That damn Dracula had actually manage to take control of him through his goof ball persona; it was a good thing the goof ball, stayed the goof ball; he really didn't want to know what would have happened if Dracula Fan Boy had actually had access to his full might and abilities. He had went on to find Dracula, at that moment he no longer cared whether the rest knew about his real self, when he found that bastard he would have crushed his head between his hands personally. When he found Dracula had already been taken care of, Xander had calmed down a little. But it had become painfully clear he couldn't keep going on, goof ball Xander had to be reduced and reintegrated in his real self. His split up by that demon Toth and his weapon a few weeks later had driven the point even deeper home, which incidentally brought up another time he saved a slayer's life by pushing her out of the way of that beam.

Xander screamed one final time, surging his power higher. It had become time to work towards revealing who he was and reaching his goal anyway. Just before that time he had found he had reached a barrier, one that seemed breachable, but in all the months that came afterward he still hadn't done it, he would come close, and he was getting closer, but it just wouldn't happen. Xander collapsed to the floor, his ki flame disappeared, he still couldn't do it. Tears leaked from his eyes and he roared up toward the sky, "WHY?! WHY CAN'T I DO IT!?!!!" He sank back down and cried. The weakness disgusted him, in anger he dried his tears. His anger quickly turned into a rage and he sat back up again, and roared once more, "THAT'S IT, I'M DONE! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! DO YOU HERE ME, FRIEZA! I'M COMING FOR YOU WHETHER I'M A SUPER SAIYAN OR NOT AND I WILL DESTROY YOU!! REVENGE WILL BE MINE!!! YOU WON'T DESTROY ANOTHER PLANET EVER AGAIN! I WON'T EVEN LET YOU HURT ANOTHER HAIR UPON ANYBODY AGAIN! YOU'RE DEEEEAAAAAAD!!!" Through his tirade a golden glow had started around his body, the more angry he got, the more powerful it became. His hair had started to stand up and with some failed attempts in between it got the same golden color, and then finally the pupils and irises of his eyes became emerald green. The anger, rage and power that reflected in them were terrifying to behold.

Xander shot up in the air, in rage in frustration he started making punching and kicking motions. To the human eye he would be not much more than a blur. When kicking empty air didn't alleviate him he, he returned to ground. By now close to a mountain he smashed his hand through a rock half his size and the rock shattered on impact. Jumping up the mountain in small hops he smashed and kicked rocks to pieces, when there weren't any rocks he simply smashed his hand through the rock face. When his rage was finally spent he was at a small stream, he knelt down, legs still on dry land and smashed both his hands on the bottom, splashing up a big fountain of water. He growled as he felt the wetness on his hands, he opened his eyes and saw a face with angry green eyes and golden hair looking back at him. Startled he jerked back and then he recognized the rest of face's features; it was him! "What the?!" Xander exclaimed. He sat up and looked down at his arms. A golden aura surrounded them, so did it the rest of his body. He reigned in his ki and the glow disappeared. He looked in the water again, his hair was still golden and his pupils still green. He closed his eyes for a moment, calmed down, he felt the transformation; power and strength seeped away. He opened his eyes and he looked at his old, familiar self. Xander looked for a moment, reflecting on his raging outburst and what he did before he reached the stream. He threw his head in the back of his neck and roared, his ki flame returned, a few seconds later it turned golden and the transformation took place again.

"I understand now, no balance, no need," Xander whispered. He turned to his right and stretched out his right arm and hand. A ball of energy formed in front of it and Xander let it fly. It impacted with the ground a short distance away and it erupted with a massive explosion. Xander was hit full by the shockwave, without even bothering to restructure his energy into a shield the golden, pulsing aura easily deflected the blast. Then Xander shot up into the air and tested his speed and power. After two minutes he stopped and said out loud to himself, "Incredible I'm at least a thousand times more powerful now than I was before . . . I did it! I'M A SUPER SAIYAN!!!!!"

Xander laughed and then suddenly shot of at incredible speed, at this level he was at the site in no time. He rammed his hand through the loose sand and easily pulled the spherical inter-dimensional space ship out of it. Then he shot off toward home.

*****

Xander landed in the small front yard of the apartment building. He placed the ship on the ground, and he de-transformed instantly. He ran into the building, unlocked the door to his apartment and closed it behind. He ran into the bed chamber and found Anya still asleep. "Wake up, Anya!" Xander shouted.

Anya awoke with a shock, "What!?" Then found her mouth crushed by Xander's, for a quick fifteen minutes he made wild, passionate love to his girlfriend. Once he was done he immediately started putting his clothes back on.

"Hey!" Anya said indignant, yet pleased, "That's usually my MO. What's the occasion?"

"I did it," Xander said, getting up and ready to go.

Anya looked confused, getting up and in all her naked glory, not caring if anyone could see her, except Xander, she wanted him to see her. Then it dawned on her, "You're a Super Saiyan?! Really? I mean, I don't really see a difference!"

Xander gave a patented Saiyan smirk and said, "Trust me." Then he walked purposefully out the bedroom door and towards the exit.

"Hey, where are you going?" Anya asked, quickly following Xander.

"Back, and kill Frieza," Xander just said, the dangerous smirk never left his face.

"Now!? I mean, Glory. Dawn. Key. Portal to all dimensions. Apocalypse. Tonight!" Anya said in panic.

"I have to Anya," Xander said, reaching the front door of the apartment and opening it. "That portal will open up in my home dimension as well. If Frieza happens to come across it and learn how to duplicate dimensional portals with technology . . ." Xander turned back and looked at Anya, while keeping his forward motion. "You don't really want an evil son of a bitch with the ability to blow up entire planets ever coming here, do you? Think about it, if he gets his hands on that technology he'll not have one universe to terrorize, but countless universes!"

"Ok . . . I get that. But Xander, I'm scared, what if you don't make it back in time?" Anya said with trepidation.

"Don't worry," Xander said, opening the door to the apartment building, making the pod come into view. "Compared to this universe, mine is an insignificant spec of dust, and I've been upgrading the pod with technology and energy from this universe. I'll find Frieza, pound his brains into the ground and be back well enough in time to crush Glory's head and then blow the rest of her skanky body across the universe." Xander reached the space pod and opened it. He stepped inside with one foot then turned around, grasping her hand and gently rubbed it and her engagement ring and said, "And then we're going to have and engagement slash Yiipy-the-bitch-is-dead-and-the-world-is-still-here party."

"Will there be presents?" Anya asked enthusiastically, giddily moving her body up and down in anticipation.

Xander frowned and answered, "People give engagement presents, although you would have to give them time to shop tomorrow."

"Night of rest, then party," Anya answered happily. "Go, go, and come back soon. I'll be fantasizing about what I'll get."

Xander smiled, she was incorrigible, but then that was the way he liked her. "Step back a bit, hun. Don't want you to get hurt by the back wash." Then he stepped further inside and closed the hatch behind him. He performed the pre-flight checks and activated the pods propulsion systems. He watched as Anya walked away from the pod, turned back around and waved him goodbye happily. He waved back, and then the pod shot up into the atmosphere rapidly.

Anya looked up after the pod and smiled, "What a good boyfriend . . . wait! Fiance! Must not forget that, and now he's off saving entire universes. I'm so proud!" After a while she caught something in the corner of her eyes and looked back down, a jogger that had been passing the entrance way to the building stood there staring at her. "What are you looking at? You better not piss me off, or I'll sick my boyfriend on you. He's more powerful than gods, you know. He could squash you like a bug!"

"You're naked," he stammered.

"So?"

"Well . . . you're outside. It's illegal to be naked outside!" the jogger managed, to blurt out before he looked like a pervert or a fool. He patted himself on the back for it.

"Are you serious?" Anya asked concerned.

"Yes."

Anya placed her hands on her hips and with a pout she said, "What is this world coming to . . ." She turned around and walked back into the building. ". . . if its illegal to wave your boyfriend goodbye without clothes on early in the morning." Strangely the jogger couldn't disagree.

High above the earth, a small pod enveloped in a rapidly rotating energy field disappeared with small flash of white light.

Episode 4
Home Sweet Home

The Cell Games

A tiny flash of light occurred above Earth, and with it a space pod emerged from an interdimensional journey. Nobody noticed though, they had more pressing matters to attend to. The lone occupant of the small pod looked out the window, and saw the planet. His jaw dropped, it was Earth. For a moment Xander thought he hadn't traveled across the dimensional barrier at all. The star scape proved otherwise though; so . . . empty. *There's an Earth here too,* Xander realised. *How odd!* Then he checked the planet with his senses and realized something with a heavy shock; he could destroy the planet with ease, he didn't even need to become a Super Saiyan to do it.

"Of course, stupid!" he admonished himself, "I should have known, the energy back home, it isn't just an energy field, it's inside the very fabric of reality, even matter has much more of it, it's infinitely stronger than here. Back home I can destroy a good size town with one blast, over here the only difference between a planet and an insect is the size of the mess it leaves after I crush it. Then Frieza isn't as dangerous to other dimensions as I thought . . . but he still is here."

Xander punched the buttons, and brought up the data his father had taken with a covert scan of Frieza ages ago, finding him would be easy . . . or so Xander thought, the scan of the universe came up short. "What!? Could he left this dimension already? Is he dead?" Xander cursed and refined the search parameters. This time he got something; Frieza was down on Earth below him. "Oh, my god," Xander said, then took a closer look at the readings. "Huh!? This doesn't make sense!?" Xander used his own senses to latch on the position the computer indicated. Shocked he could only confirm the readings: there was something there that was Frieza and at the same time wasn't Frieza.

"Well . . . there's only one thing that I can do . . ." Xander punched in the commands for the ship to start landing. "Go find out what it is . . . and kick its ass if necessary."

A short time later the ship landed and Xander got out, looking around for a moment and thought, *Here goes nothing.* Xander burst into the air and flew in the direction of the strange reading. *My god,* Xander thought, there was no mass of energy to slow him down; he was faster here than he ever was back home, even while he was a Super Saiyan.

*****

Xander came to a halt, and lowered himself on the high point overlooking the valley in a desert. Down there was a large square floor of polished rock it seemed. Each of the four corners had a pole on it. On the floor stood a green being. *Definitely not Frieza,* Xander thought and studied the being, ignoring the other power levels that tugged at him. He sat down in a lotus position, but he kept his hands crossed in front of his chest, as he noticed the being's face. *That color, that gleaming sphere, those ears . . . how? What is that thing?* When Xander started assessing the beings power level, which was difficult when it was so inactive like now, Xander got the shock of his life. It was so powerful it was insane, it was at least a hundred times more powerful that Xander was . . . at Super Saiyan level.

*****

Down below Krillin noticed Xander's arrival, "Who the hell is that?"

"I don't know," the green skinned Piccolo answered thoughtfully. "But he's suppressing his energy, that's for sure, he's not like that halfwit over there." He gestured toward a loud mouth with an over the top mustache bragging into the camera of a tv crew.

"I've got no idea either. You Yamcha? Tien? 16? Vegeta, Trunks," a golden haired Goku answered cheerfully, and happily went down the line of friends asking whether they knew the mysterious new comer. All shook their heads.

Unnoticed to the rest Vegeta stared up at Xander and thought, *He's too far away to be certain, but why does he look so familiar?*

*****

Xander was still studying the green being, who suddenly looked up at him and then smirked eerily. Xander new that smirk everywhere, it was the smirk that often looked back at him from a mirror. The being smirked a Saiyan battle smirk, how could that thing be part Saiyan? Was it a Saiyan perhaps? One that had undergone some madman's experiments? And why couldn't he define the being, it was almost as if it was more than one being? And then there were the parts of the being that were just off . . . almost as if they weren't there?

Frustrated Xander decided to examine the other people present, perhaps they could shed some light onto things. Xander contemplated joining them, but decided against it for now. First there was the camera crew, Xander quickly glanced over them and his gaze fell on some guy screaming in the camera, like he was some crazed wrestler or something, once in a while he pointed at the green thing. That fool wasn't actually planning on taking on the green being did he? He had no power level to speak off and the being could have a Super Saiyan for breakfast. Then again, there was a nice ring, perhaps it was just a tournament with rules, and it was just another fighter. But then, why was only he standing in the ring, and the rest all banded together?

Xander had heard the helicopter that soared over him from behind the mountain he was sitting on earlier, but apparently the ones he had started to study didn't - the mountain must have blocked the sound - because they were all startled when it flew overhead, interrupting the loudmouth fool as it settled above him and two horrifically dressed men and a sexy woman jumped out, apparently trying to out stage the rest. They had even less power than the loudmouth with the big mustache. Ignoring them Xander focused on the tall thee-eyed one. *A human?* Xander thought as he assessed the man's life force. No doubt about it, than he had some sort of mystical, psychic eye. Weird, and the guys power was enormous for a human, he could whip Buffy using only his pinky. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," Xander whispered to himself. "Definitely a different dimension."

The two guys from the helicopter actually attacked the mysterious being, one by one, and found themselves right back where they started. Either the thing wasn't evil and not into killing, or it just didn't consider them worthy of wasting his energy. Xander decided to step up his pace, he went further finding a green-skinned being. He recognized his species. After a little digging in mind he found the name too: he was a Namek. "What the . . .? He's more powerful than I am, more powerful than a Super Saiyan! A Namek!? Man, why do I start to get the feeling it was a bad idea coming here," Xander said out loud. The Namek's head shot towards him, never moving the rest of his body, arms comfortably resting on his chest. "Whoa! Don't tell me you actually heard that!?" The Namek grinned. "Man! You did! Now I know what Little Red Riding Hood felt like. 'They're big so I can hear you better, sweety.' Wait a minute, did you hear me whisper to myself just now?" The Namek's mouth turned down and looked slightly puzzled. "Well, lucky me, or else I would've looked really stupid." The Namek frowned. "I'll shut up now," Xander said, embarrassed.

As Xander moved on to the next fighter, he picked up the word 'Cell' for the umpteenth time from the loud mouth as the fool actually challenged the green thing. Xander wouldn't be surprised if someone on the other side of the planet had heard it as well, but at least he knew the being's name. Checking the guy in black, green and sporting a mohawk, Xander got another shock. He couldn't feel any Ki from the man. *What the . . .?* Xander tested him on several other levels and noticed the man looking up at him, while the rest of his body stood still. No, a more accurate description would me motionless, no movement at all, not even from the eye lids. Something clicked and Xander whispered, "A machine! An android! And they say watching Star Trek isn't good for anything."

Suddenly Xander realized something. The parts in this Cell creature that Xander couldn't feel, they must be machine in origin as well. Checking Cell again, Xander noticed something, he could feel the three-eyed human and the Namek inside him as well as Frieza. In fact if he allowed his Ki awareness spread across the small gathering of fighters, all of them except the fools, the android and another two he hadn't identified yet, were present in him. "A genetically engineered cybernetic organism. 'Cell'. Somebody took the cells of those down there and created this Cell from them, and augmented it with cybernetic implants. I guess that means I stay here and figure out, how it got Frieza's cells."

The loud mouthed mustache guy flew through the air and smacked against a cliff side some distance further after one smack from Cell. The guy actually got up slowly, seemingly he hadn't broken a bone; he might have no power level to speak of, but physically he was in good shape, nothing like a slayer though.

It was time for the real fight to begin, Goku stepped forward and Xander focused on him. Golden hair, green eyes . . . "A Super Saiyan?!" Xander exclaimed with surprise. "But how? I'm the only one left! He can't be a Saiyan." Not quite wanting to deal with the ramifications now, and preoccupied by them nonetheless, Xander looked further to the left, overlooking Gohan, checking out the two humans superficially, the bald, little one was the most powerful of all the humans it seemed. Then further. His eyes widened in recognition, he would recognize that hair everywhere. "Vegeta!" he exclaimed. *Then I really am not the only survivor. It can't be the king, Prince Vegeta. But he's so old, in his thirties. Oh! The energy, it's everywhere, in the very fabric of space . . . and time; it influences it. Time back home moves at about half the speed here; everything moved along at twice the speed . . . Oh, no! Then Frieza had thirty years in stead of fifteen!* At the last thought, Xander growled to himself in frustration.

*****

Vegeta was still studying the stranger when their looks crossed. The sudden wide-eyed reaction of surprise confirmed that they must have met sometime. But who . . . *Wait! Those wide eyes!*

*****

A little Vegeta and his father, King Vegeta, looked out the window. Multiple space pods leaving the planet shot forward. "The weakest of our race are being sent off so they won't be harmed."

Arms crossed across his royal armor little Vegeta said, "Good riddance to trash."

"Vegeta, you are one of the strongest Saiyans alive. If you train hard enough, you just might become a legendary Super Saiyan one day," the King said, with his hand on Vegeta's shoulder and looking into his eyes.

The king was about to say more, when Vegeta suddenly turned around and glared at the intrusion he had sensed. There in a doorway stood a little boy, eyes wide with curiosity, but at Vegeta's glare he quickly jumped back towards his right and disappeared behind the wall. King Vegeta smiled and said, "Littica, Ardipel's son."

"The scientist?" Vegeta sneered, and watched as Littica peeked his head from behind the wall, eyes still wide in curiosity.

"Yes, and without minds like his, we wouldn't have space ships and such. Don't underestimate intelligence Vegeta, he might just invent a weapon too powerful for even Frieza to handle. And pure brawn, but stupid will always loose against someone less powerful but intelligent and outsmart brawn. Even now he's working on something he thinks could save us all when all else fails. Something about sending people to another dimension," King Vegeta mused.

"I could do that for him. One good ki blast . . ." Vegeta said, smirking.

King Vegeta chuckled and interrupted his son, "I don't think he means the afterlife, Vegeta."

"Hmm . . ."

*****

"Littica . . . but, how!?" Vegeta whispered. *It can't be!! He's too young, he should be older than Kakarott, but he's Trunks' age. Littica's son perhaps? No . . . Littica would have had to be awfully young when his son was born. How did he . . . Wait.* What had his father said? Sending people to another dimension? Ardipel must have perfected a prototype and sent his son away just before the blast. *A different dimension, different laws of physics. Might explain why he looks so young,* Vegeta thought.

"Hmm," Piccolo grumbled, noticing the interchange between Vegeta and the newcomer.

*****

*If Vegeta is still alive than that guy really is a Super Saiyan. And one who is much more powerful than I am,* Xander mused silently as he looked at Goku and Cell going at it. *So who is he? Do I know him?* Cell and Goku paused for a moment and he got a good look.

*****

Littica looked through the glass part of the space pod and examined the happily kicking and waving child inside it. His hair stood out in all directions. "Who's he dad?" "This is Kakarott, Bardock's son. If the kid is in anyway like his father, then even though he's rated at only a third class fighter, he's going to be very powerful. Epeen seems to think so, something about Kakarott's volume when crying," Ardipel answered with a smile, as he punched in the launch commands on the launch panel.

Littica looked down astonished as the little baby, knowing that if it was rated third class, it could probably beat him up even now. "So why is he sent away?"

"He's sent to a planet that he has to cleanse, so Frieza can sell another one," Ardipel answered bitterly. "Get off the pod, Littica. I'm about to send it away." Littica got off the pod and joined his father at the console and watched as the pod blasted off. "All right then," Ardipel said, offered Littica a hand that he eagerly grabbed. "How about you and I go do some more cutting edge stuff, like interdimensional travel?"

Half way to the lab an orange glow shone on them that rapidly increased in size. They looked up and saw a whole army of warriors in air and a massive orange ball that grew larger in size by the second, before it came down towards the planet. Ardipel grabbed his son and started running.

*****

"Kakarott!" Xander exclaimed in recognition. "Man, those two are really going at it." Xander decided to check out the two he hadn't checked out yet. First the kid next to Vegeta. The kid had shoulder-length purple hair. "Now why do I have the feeling that's not dyed," Xander whispered to himself. "Huh?" He looked closer at the boy, he looked a little like Vegeta. "Vegeta's son?" Xander asked himself. "Vegeta would have to have gotten at it early in his life; and why do I not believe that. What kind of cookiness is going on here?" Then Xander moved toward Gohan. "Oh, man! The kid's hardly twelve if it all, and he's a Super Saiyan already!? HOLY SHIT!!!" Xander examined the kid again, he was definitely not mistaken. In awe he thought, *He's more powerful than his father!*

"THAT'S IT!" Cell yelled. "How about we do this for real Goku?! No more rules!" Cell fired an energy ball and the ring blew up.

*Well, that puts the friendly tournament theory squarely in the trash heap!* Xander thought.

Goku and Cell fought with incredible power; punches, kicks and energy attacks went everywhere. Xander had difficulty keeping up. After a while of this Xander started to realize something. The movements were relatively simple, and straight forward. He looked closer and was shocked; where was all the energy? He looked closer and noticed something. Goku punched and meters behind the place of the punch dust and rocks flew away. Cell punched and the same happened, Goku kicked and it happened again, a small rock cracked and a small crater formed in the rock ground below the desert sand. For a moment Xander thought it was just air displacement, but no air displacement short of a tornado would crack rocks and the rock ground. Not to mention air couldn't move through a body. *Why are they wasting all that energy!?* Xander thought. *They are so much more powerful than I am, they should be so much more advanced, yet . . . they seem like rookies to me? Are they not showing everything to each other? Keeping some aces in the hole?* Xander was puzzled and kept following the battle, but it didn't change. *Of course!* Xander realized something. *It's the energy again! Back home the energy field is so much, pressing down upon everything, the people there never figured it was possible to raise your energy level. Whenever one did, the difference was so insignificant compared to the energy field of the universe they never noticed a difference, and they gave up upon it. Instead they focused on muscle control, anticipating and countering opponents moves, and the few people who did tap into their Chi, learned to improve how they handle it, do a whole lot with whatever little you had. Waist nothing, use it all, be subtle. They improved their skill in all the ways of Martial Arts to the extreme. But here, one point of power difference is obvious, and it is much easier to figure out how to do it, they just keep increasing their power, more power, more! The speed with which it is done dwarfs the time needed to increase skill, which was an accumulative process over centuries back home! And I joined the two schools of thought together! All except the humans are more powerful than I am, but I can beat them all!* The realization sent chills down Xander's spine, things were starting to look up again, but where was Frieza? Was he really as dead as Xander was beginning to suspect?

"KA . . . ME . . .!" Xander looked at Goku, hovering in the air, as he started to gather energy for a massive energy wave attack. Cell was down on the ground. Xander was realizing the same thing as the others down below did, which was made known through their nervous mannerisms and their panicky speech, although Xander couldn't decipher what they were saying exactly. If that wave hit the planet, the planet was dust.

"HA . . . ME . . .!" Suddenly Goku was enveloped by a white halo and disappeared, he reappeared right in front of Cell. "HA!" And then the wave blasted forward and obliterated the upper half of Cell's torso.

*Was that speed!?* Xander thought. He quickly assessed the assumption and realized it couldn't be. *He teleported himself, wow! Well . . . I guess this is the end of Cell.* Xander was about to get up when he saw it. "NO WAY!" Xander exclaimed, but there was no way to avoid what he saw. Cell's upper body just grew back. "What kind of thing is that!?"

Cell smirked and with one massive punch smashed Goku across the plain and he smashed into a cliff side that crashed down on top of him. After a few seconds Goku burst forth and with a fury released volley after volley of fireballs each crashing on Cell's body and causing the monster to bend under the might. It wouldn't last long however, because then Cell generated a light-purple energy shield that rapidly grew bigger and bigger. The shield quickly reached Xander, who didn't budge from his position. Not even his angry gaze directed at Cell wavered. He modified his energy field a bit, opposite to Cell's and the shield passed right by him, and he was inside. The furious combatants hadn't noticed a thing.

*****

"Piccolo!" Krillin exclaimed. The Namek looked at the bald headed human in irritation, his only expression a growling 'hmm'! "Look! If that guy doesn't get out of there, he's going to get crushed by Cell's shield! We've gotta get him out of there."

Piccolo growled in frustration when he noticed Krillin was right. "That damn fool. There isn't anything we can do, Krillin. We would never get there in time."

With dread they watched the shield reach the mysterious man . . . and pass right by him. He was now inside of Cell's shield. "Whoa!" Krilling exclaimed, Piccolo's eyes went wide in surprise. Their companions looked at what was so interesting. Trunks, the lavender-haired young man, articulated what they were all asking themselves, "How the hell did he get in there?" Only a few seconds did their attention stay on Xander, because then something a lot more shocking happened.

"You win Cell! I give up!" Goku exclaimed.

"What!?"

"No Way!?"

"Uuh!?"

*****

Xander wasn't really surprised, he had been noticing Goku's decline in power for some time. The fighters below though seemed a lot more surprised, shocked even.

Cell was the same, "What!!?"

"I give up! I can't beat you!" Goku repeated. "I've met my match!"

"If you give up, Goku, there's nothing left on the planet to interest me. I'll destroy it and move on," Cell intoned.

"I can't beat you, Cell," Goku exclaimed with ridiculously happy grin on his face. "I must say, when I started this fight I wasn't sure that I could beat you, but you've shown me that I'm not up to it, and that I've much more to work for. For what it's worth I thank you for that. But there is someone here who can beat you!"

*Let me guess, your son,* Xander thought, even as the rest, except for the android, looked at Goku dumbfounded.

"Oh, really? And who might that be?! Vegeta? Trunks? Or that mysterious stranger on the peek!?" Cell intoned sarcastically.

"Well, I don't know about the guy on the peek," Goku said, seemingly lost in deep thought, as he looked up at Xander for a moment. Than he shrugged and said, "Gohan can beat you!"

"Gohan, huh? Nice name," Xander said to himself only. The others though, including strangely enough Gohan himself, again except the android, were all surprised.

"Gohan!? Are you kidding me!?" Cell said, astonished. He recovered quickly though, saying, "Well, fine, if you want to see your son die, bring him on!"

Goku flew over to Gohan and his vote of confidence to his son was inaudible for Xander, they were too far away. *Well, kid. Now I get to see what you can really do,* Xander thought with a smile as Gohan flew down from the cliff to the floor of the valley for the fight to begin. Strangely Goku then threw something at Cell, Cell ate whatever it was and he was suddenly fully restored. *What the fuck!? What did Kakarott say? Fair!? Is he insane!? Who cares about fair!?* Xander thought. Then Gohan powered up, causing the cliffs to crack with his power and a small tornado to whirl around him. *No way!?* Xander thought with amazement, the power level wasn't that big of a surprise, but what he felt from withing Gohan was. *This much incredible power, and it's nothing compared to what he's capable of! He's still holding back, this is just a fraction of his full power! Incredible!* Gohan didn't do much and despite some defensive moves and a few, but devastating offensive ones just let Cell pummel him. After Gohan freed himself from a pile of rubble, once a mountain, that Cell had smashed Gohan in, he started talking to Cell. Xander couldn't make out what Gohan said, but once he was done Cell started attacking Gohan with a vengeance. Eventually he held Gohan up in a lock grip that hurt Gohan a lot. *Come on, kid! Fight back, unleash all that power you keep hidden away. I've still got to get back home, it would be better if a native was here that can handle things like this.* After a few minutes of this Cell let go and flew to the other fighters than grabbed something away from the bald headed guy, and went back to Gohan. The Android suddenly stepped in and grabbed onto and clung to Cell, holding him inches from the floor. The two of them were loud enough for Xander to pick it up, since the Android wanted everyone to hear, his warning to stay away. The Android, named 16 apparently, was talking about self destructing and taking Cell along with him. After a short time, though it seemed it wasn't happening. *A dud?* Xander thought and shrugged. Then the bald-headed guy screamed the bomb was removed. Then Xander watched how Cell destroyed the android with ease. Xander cringed, someone who was willing to sacrifice himself like that deserved better.

Cell then talked to Gohan, goading him more, then little mini Cells came out of his back. Seven in total. *Oh, man!* Xander thought with dread. *A mix of Namek and live born reproductive systems. Whoever created this bloody bastard was one sick son of a bitch! Oh, no . . . Spike's been hanging around us way to much!* The little monsters started attacking the fighters on the other side. Xander was too shocked about the mini Cells to do anything at first and the fighters were getting creamed. Not even Vegeta and the purple haired boy that were fighting the things at Super Saiyan level, and still fresh, could stand up against them.

*Time to start doing something, Xander. Let's see, I could help them out myself, but that would keep the kid from reaching his full potential, better keep that option open until there's nothing else left to do. They can still keep themselves from getting killed outright, let's try Gohan first,* Xander thought and disappeared with great speed only to reappear close to Gohan.

Gohan seemed paralyzed by fear and shock, even while Cell was goading Gohan to free all of his power. "Gohan," Xander called as he walked toward Cell and Gohan gently. "If he wants it so badly, why don't give it to him. I've found it's a serious flaw in almost all bad guys, so arrogant, they always ask for the very thing that will destroy them."

"Well," Cell said smoothly, "the mystery man speaks. You should listen to him, Gohan. It seems he knows what he's talking about, or do you want to watch your friends die?"

Gohan growled in frustration, but otherwise did nothing, remaining rooted in indecision. "This sick bastard here is pure evil, Gohan, he won't stop unless you make him stop," Xander said in a friendly tone. "This thing deserves it. Unleash all that power I know you posses. What are you afraid of?"

"The planet . . ." Gohan managed barely.

"Aaah!" Xander said in revelation. He had been pondering the same thing for a while, until he had seen Cell and Goku go at it. "You're afraid if you let it all go, you're going to destroy the whole planet. Trust me, kid. If your father and this freak could go at it without destroying the planet, you'll be able to exercise the same control. With that added power, you might even have more control."

"Hmm, sorry to disappoint you, fool. But you're taking to long, I think it's time to find out whether Gohan is as unresponsive to the plight of a stranger as he is to that of his friends. I'll even make it more interesting, you'll get two to fight," Cell interrupted with an evil grin and promptly added the deed to the word as two more of Cell's children sprouted from his back. Grinning like two crazed hyena's, the little monsters advanced on Xander, which incidentally brought back some bad memories.

"Destructo Disc!" both of the horrific creatures said with a high pitched voice and a yellow flat energy disc appeared above the hand they each held in the air. Than they swung and the two discs flew right at Xander. Just as they were about to hit him, he plunged a fist through each of the discs' flat sides. Cell and Gohan were somewhat surprised, the creatures were more than just a little surprised. The two discs shrunk into two powerful balls. Xander, know one of them wasn't enough to finish of one of the creatures, so he joined the two together in front of him, pushed some of his own energy into the now single ball and let it fly at one of the two creatures, who was too astonished to do anything and was blown to bits in an instant.

"All right then, you want to go the way of your brother?" Xander said, ready to take on the second of Cell's children, when they were all startled by a few thuds and the arrival of 16's head. Xander followed what must have been the head's trajectory and saw a glimpse of loudmouth fool hiding behind a rock and trying to scurry away, he may be a fool but at least he was brave. But why wanted the android to be here?

The android started talking then. "Gohan, let it go. It is not a sin to fight for the right cause. There are those who words alone cannot reach. Cell is such a being. I know how you feel Gohan. You are gentle, you do not like to hurt. I know, because I too have learned these feelings, but it is because you cherish life that you must protect it."

"Woelgh. Ths sentimental down poor is killing me," Cell said, and walked towards the Android's head. "It's so nice of you to help, 16, but I plan on doing this my way."

Strangely, 16 smiled at Gohan and continued, "Please, drop your restraints. Protect the life I love. You have the strength; my scanners sensed it. Just let it go." 16 kept smiling, even as Cell crushed his head in with one stomp of his foot.

*That got damn, bastard!* Xander thought, rage filled his being. *There was nothing left of him but a head! Native protector be damned.* Xander was about to let all of his rage out in a massive burst of energy, but Gohan beat him to it. In an instant the boy's power skyrocketed beyond Xander's highest expectations, and incredibly Xander still felt that Gohan hadn't even begun to power up. The scream that accompanied the release went through bone and marrow. Chills ran up Xander's spine as the wind that were cause by Gohan's power blasted sand in his face. Small rocks flew at Xander and he had to raise his ki flame to keep it from hurting him. Everybody including the little monsters were stopped in there tracks at this first power up. But soon the little mini Cells continued hurting Gohan's friends.

"Stop it! That's enough! Tell them to stop iiit!!" Gohan raged, and electrical dischargers started coiling around his body, his power lever went up even more.

"No way!" Xander exclaimed, jaw dropped in awe. The rock ground underneath Gohan's feet split open and than with an awe inspiring scream Gohan's power breached every barrier known in existence. His hair stood up straighter, his muscles increased in mass. "This is insane!" Xander roared barely coming out over the wind and the pulsing energy of Gohan. "Incredible!" Then, with several shockwaves, that knocked Xander of his feet and made him tumble backward several times, and another ear piercing scream Gohan Super Saiyan Level 2 emerged.

Xander got up and watched as Gohan leisurely walked forward and than grabbed the bag that Cell had gotten from Krillin out of his hand. "No games," Gohan said after Cell made a comment about it getting exciting. Gohan disappeared, Xander followed him and saw him come to a stop in front of one of the little creatures.

"That speed!" Xander said in awe, and watch how Gohan dispatched the little monster with a single blow. Then Gohan landed in front of two of them that were attacking Krillin and after a silent threat the two monster flew off one by one. The second quickly stopped a little higher and fired energy blasts down. Much to late, Gohan, now holding Krillin was already above him, than in less than two seconds, Gohan went down, landed, placed Krillin on the floor, disappeared, reappeared next to the little creature and killed it with a single kick.

Xander flew up and landed beside the other fighters, knowing if he'd stayed down in the valley he would just get in Gohan's way. "Man!" he exclaimed in awe, as he saw Gohan blow of the creatures with nothing but his energy. He caught the conversations between the other fighters, in particular Trunks comment on that Gohan seemed to be only warming up. "Yeah," Xander answered, "He's incredible, he's doing all this and he's still holding back. There's even more energy inside of him, he can still power up more if he wanted."

"Are you serious?" Vegeta asked him in disbelief as they watch Gohan take a full on simultaneous hit of six energy attacks by the creatures and it did him nothing. Xander nodded and they watched Gohan take care of the six remaining little creatures with ease.

Gohan threw the pouch he had taken back from Cell up, and said, "Pass these around, Trunks."

"Sure . . . sensei," Trunks said, whispering the last part just loud enough for Vegeta and Xander to hear. Trunks powered down from Super Saiyan, took one himself and then first went to the others to give them all a senzu bean.

"That really your son, my prince?" Xander asked looking after the remarkable young man.

*My prince,* Vegeta thought incredulously. *Could it be him after all?* "Yes, that's my son, Trunks Briefs."

"Now that's what I call a weird name," Xander answered with a smirk.

"Tell me about it, it's this weird planet and their customs, family names whoever thought of that, and my woman demanded to name him," Vegeta answered gruffly.

"Women! So . . . how come he called Gohan 'sensei'?" Xander asked curiously.

"Trunks is a baby lying in a crib at home, that one is a future version who came traveling back in time to warn us for these androids and fight along our side," Vegeta answered.

Xander smiled and laughed, "I figured as much, since you had to have started pretty early to have him."

Trunks came back and gave Vegeta something that looked like bean. "I hate it when I'm forced to take these," Vegeta commented before popping it into his mouth.

"Do you need one?" Trunks asked wide eyed and assessing Xander.

Xander looked at the bean Trunks held out and asked, "What are they?"

"Senzu Beans, they restore your health," Vegeta answered powering down himself.

"Nah, didn't even get hit once," Xander said Trunks, making a throw-away gesture, then assessed Trunks. "If there was anything left to inherit, he'd make a fine heir." Trunks was taken aback by Xander's statement. The other fighters started gathering around interested in the mysterious new comer.

"Indeed he does. Are you really who I think you are? Are you Littica?" Vegeta asked, finally unable to do anything but ask.

"Yeah," Xander answered, and his and the others' attention switched as Gohan and Cell started their fight.

Vegeta joined him and stated, "I guess that means your father managed it, didn't he? Dimensional travel?!" It was obvious Gohan was the better and more powerful fighter, Cell's punches didn't even land, and Gohan even took the tv crew, the girl and the three losers out of the way, while fighting Cell at the same time.

"Yep. Swished off a dying planet just before it would have taken me with it . . . and seeing you have aged double of my time, in my dimension time moves only at half the speed as it does here," Xander answered. It felt good being among fellow Saiyans, yet Xander felt the tug to get back home and finish of a certain hell god as well. "So what happened to Frieza?" Xander asked, finally wanting to know whether his quest was done or not.

"First Kakarott beat Frieza right after he became a Super Saiyan. Frieza survived and his people healed him with cybernetic implants. He came to earth and Trunks here finished him off once and for all," Vegeta explained.

"Good," Xander said, a little disappointed he didn't get the chance to rip Frieza limb from limb himself, but glad that chapter could finally be laid to rest. Cell was apparently fed up and powered up so much the whole planet started to shake. There were several comments of awe and fear coming from the fighters, and Xander answered, "Cell doesn't stand a chance against Gohan."

The proof came immediately after, with just two punches Cell was barely able to stand. "Yeah, it looks like he really did it. Cell's finished," Trunks said.

Piccolo entered in the conversation with his characteristic gruff voice, "I wouldn't be so sure. You shouldn't count Cell out just yet."

"You don't get it do you?" Xander said, with a smirk, gesturing to Gohan as he explained further. "When Gohan powered up the first time he was already in Cell's league, when he powered up the second time; and you leave out this new level, Gohan was already too powerful for Cell; with this new level, Cell doesn't stand a hope in hell." "Really?" several of them asked.

"Yeah," Xander answered with a grim smile.

"That's it!" Cell roared and flew up into the air. "I'm going to destroy this whole planet! KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" A massive ball wave of energy flew from Cell's hands straight toward the planet.

Gohan stepped underneath it and looked up with determination. The people around Xander started screaming to Gohan not to do it, that there was nothing to do, including his father. Xander found it rather strange, even if it was true, if Gohan didn't do anything he would die anyway, better try that just let the planet go. "Don't worry, Gohan can take it," Xander said smoothly. They looked at him for a moment, than turned back and saw how Gohan fired his own energy wave and it pushed Cell's wave out into deep space, and greatly damaged Cell in the process. Gohan waited, and let Cell regenerate. Then Cell increased his size and strength but it slowed him too much. Gohan easily avoid him.

Xander and the others wondered why Gohan didn't just finish Cell off. When they urged him, Gohan said that he wanted to make Cell suffer first, and with a mighty punch Cell spit out a human form and he changed, making him much less powerful. "What the hell!?" Xander exclaimed, he was starting to get really confused.

"18!" Krillin exclaimed, then turned to Xander. "It's 18! Dr. Gero created 17 and 18 to fuse with Cell and make him perfect!"

Then the unthinkable happened. Cell started expanding rapidly, and then screamed he was going to self destruct and take the planet and everybody on it with him. They all looked on in horror. Then Goku made decision and started saying his goodbyes to his friends. Xander though didn't here it anymore, inactive for too long he raced down towards Cell and as the monster looked at him, Xander picked Cell up and raced into the air. The group of warriors looked up astounding and Goku observed, "He'll never make it."

Goku disappeared from the ledge and landed near Gohan. Quickly saying his goodbyes to his son. He disappeared and reappeared next to Xander, and as they shot up higher into the air he placed a hand on the monster Cell. "I may not know your name, but thanks for the help and what your willing to do here."

*What's he planning on doing,* Xander thought, then suddenly he knew. "Kakarott, NO!" Xander screamed, but it was too late, he and the monster disappeared right in front of Xander's eyes. "DAMN YOU!! I could probably have saved the planet without anyone dying." Realizing there wasn't much else to do, Xander soared back down. He joined the gathering of the warriors as they mourned the loss of their friend.

Dejected the warriors introduced themselves to him in turn. Then suddenly a large cloud of dust arose out of nowhere. "That's not possible!" Xander exclaimed as he looked at the cloud. Then a pulse of energy shot forth and hit Trunks in the chest. He flew backward several meters and landed with a thud. In shock the warriors looked as the dust cleared and showed Cell in his perfect form, and this time electrical discharges coursed around his body.

"Well," Cell said, evilly. "Now this is a surprise. I have to thank you Gohan. Forcing me to self-destruct was the best thing that could have happened to me . . . It seems I need only one Cell left intact to regenerate. Dr. Gero was a genius when he created me. My core is stored in every cell, and when I self-destructed a few stayed intact. I regenerated, at first I didn't remember who I was, but soon my memory came back. I hadn't expected I could regenerated in my perfect form, but my cells tasted the power and now they restored me to my former glory . . . and more. So you see your fight is useless, I'm immortal, I'm a god. Still want to take me on?"

Gohan powered up and said, "I'm going to finish you off this time, Cell."

"You are such a stubborn fool," Cell stated. Just then Trunks jerked and the warriors went to him, saying he was still alive. Vegeta lost it then and attacked Cell with everything he got. As a reward he got beaten down with one fist.

"Only I decide when it ends," Cell started to say, pointing a hand at Vegeta. Xander understood what he was going to do and raced toward the unconscious Vegeta. Cell finished, "And it ends now." A powerful energy ball shot from his hand toward Vegeta. Gohan realized Xander wouldn't make it. Besides neither Xander nor Vegeta could withstand such a blast and he flung himself forward.

Xander saw Gohan race past him, and throw himself over Vegeta. Xander sped up the last bit he needed and stretched out his right hand. That was it! He felt the energy ball make contact. Realizing he was imbalanced, Xander allowed the energy to pull him along. He redirected the kinetic energy and allowed himself turn around his axis one complete rotation. While he turned around he allowed the energy of Cell's attack to envelope him in a large sphere, than he redirected the energy again to a small, concentrated attack in his hands that were right beside his body. Gohan, surprised he didn't feel anything yet, looked up and was even more surprised to see a sphere of energy be redirected into Xander's hands and then he watched as Xander sent the attack right back at Cell.

"Holy shit!" Yamcha exclaimed in astonishment as the attack hit Cell and exploded massively. "Did you guys see that!?"

"Y-yeah!" Krillin exclaimed, "he fired that attack right back at Cell as if it was nothing!"

Piccolo grunted in surprise. The smoke cleared and an astonished Cell who had to step back under his own onslaught became visible. "What!?" he exclaimed.

"Gohan," Xander answered, a cold fury underlining his calm voice.

"Yeah?" Gohan asked astonished.

"You keep them safe from any stray energy attacks, ok?" Xander said, as a smirk appeared on his face.

"Uh, ok," Gohan said.

"Don't worry," Xander said, without looking back at Gohan. His smirk deepened, and he clashed his right fist against his left open palm and closed it around the fist. "Now it's my turn."

Episode 5
Xander Vs. Cell

Power or skill; what will win?

Xander walked across the plain at a leisurely place. Cell, who had no idea about what to make of this strange man, who had just fired Cell's attack right back at him, just stayed still, waiting for Xander to arrive. Xander stopped about half a meter in front of Cell and said, "Let me introduce myself to you first, Cell. I'm Littica, I'm a Saiyan, as a matter of fact, I'm a Super Saiyan. I left for another dimension when the planet Vegeta was destroyed, and until recently I've been training there in order to come back here and get my revenge."

Cell smirked and answered, "And that's supposed make me care?"

Xander chuckled. "Well, your creator made one big mistake when he created you, did you know that!?"

Cell laughed. "Oh, and what mistake is that?"

"He gave you Frieza's cells. If you didn't have them, I wouldn't be here. I hate Frieza so much, I don't want a single cell of him left intact. That means I'm going to have to vaporize your carcass. No Frieza's cells, no vaporizing by me," Xander said coolly, a dangerous smirk across his face.

Cell laughed again and then, with infinite scepticism he said, "A Super Saiyan he says, now why don't I believe that, or care for that matter!? And you want to vaporize me?! A human!? And even if you were a Saiyan, you're no Super Saiyan. And you think you can rival Trunks or Vegeta!? Let alone Gohan!?" Cell laughed again.

"You're pathetic, Cell. You're nothing to me. I don't need power to finish you. Just watch . . . and learn," Xander answered grinning.

"Why you!?" Cell and exclaimed and swiped at Xander. He missed and for his efforts he got a devastatingly painful blow to his stomach. He kicked his right leg, only to feel a foot cracking the bone on his left knee. Then a powerful kick to his head sent him sprawling across the floor.

*****

Vegeta slowly came too, and saw wide-eyed Gohan looking out over the plain. He followed Gohan's gaze and couldn't believe his eyes.

"Piccolo," Krillin stammered, in disbelief. "How the hell is he doing that!? At his power level, Cell shouldn't even feel his punches."

"I . . . don't know, Krillin," Piccolo answered slack jawed.

*****

"What's the matter, Cell?!" Xander taunted Cell as he lay on the floor. "You can regenerate limbs, but you can't knit together bones!?"

"You, little!" Cell exclaimed and ripped off his lower leg. In an instant it regenerated. Cell got up, chuckled, and charged the seemingly relaxed Xander at full speed. Cell pulled his fist back and let fly, planning on killing Xander with one powerful running punch. Instead, Xander shot forward, grabbed Cell's arm, twisted underneath it and then used Cell's own momentum against him as he twisted Cell through the air with a vicious yank on Cell's arm. Cell's speed made him twist around extremely fast, that is he would have, if Xander didn't smash his right foot in Cell's face while he was still in the air. Xander let go of the arm, seeing as he was facing the wrong way now, using his own speed he turned around rapidly, re-grabbed Cell's arm and pulled him down powerfully, smashing Cell powerfully on the ground, creating a small crater. Cell, not expecting the rapid speed changes and powerful punches was dazed for an instant. Xander used that instant to ram his foot onto Cell's shoulder, causing Cell to cry out in pain. Then Xander pulled up, and pushed down with his foot at the same time, then twisted around and flew into the air, ripping Cell's arm off. Xander flew a few meters and landed.

"Thanks for the helping hand, Cell," Xander said, chuckling evilly. "I'm sure it will come in handy."

*****

"Oh!" Krillin exclaimed, "He's using Cell's own strength and speed against him!"

"Hmm, mm," Piccolo said, nodding.

"Man," Tien said, "This guy is good!"

*****

Cell roared with fury and got up. "Do you really think that'll do you any good!? I will simply regenerate that arm, you fool!" The arm promptly regrew.

"Do you think that's a good thing!? Well, ok, it is for me! This way I can just keep ripping arms off of you, keep inflicting the pain, and use your own arms to beat the crap out you! Let me demonstrate" Xander answered Cell with a wide grin, and wiggled his eye brows with impudency, slinging the arm leisurely on his shoulder.

"You, god damned bastard!" Cell roared and attacked, getting his own arm smacked across his face from his right. Then a kick to the stomach doubled him over and Xander grabbed Cell's right arm with his left. He used his right foot to kick Cell's shoulder down, and smashed Cell's arm across the back of Cell's head and letting go of it at the same time. The arm bounced away. With another powerful pull Cell's arms went off again. Enraged Cell got up and swung his remaining arm at Xander. Xander fully prepared for it, caught the arm with his body, the fist harmlessly off to Xander's side. Xander burst forth with his power flying, in combination with Cell's speed in opposite direction, the arm doubled back, Xander by then was with his feet at Cell's head level and smashed his feet in the back of Cell's head, even while he flew in the opposite direction. Cell stumbled forward and with a neat rip the arm came off.

Unarmed Cell turned around in shock and saw Xander hover in front of him. "See?" Xander said and Xander flew rapidly at Cell. Cell used his only defense left and kicked out his right foot, which Xander hit with one of Cell's own arms. Thus totally of balance Cell started to turn around on one leg. Cell used the opportunity to fly around Cell and smash him around his body with the arms, causing indentations all across his body. Then when Cell's arms were half way regenerated, Xander stopped Cell's turning, twisted Cells arms around with a quick throw, so that the hands were facing forward and rammed them through Cell's chest; sharp nails came in handy some time. Xander placed his hands over the severed arms, he smirked up to the wide eyed Cell and with a yell he formed a ki blast under each of his hands and let them fly. Cell flew backward immediately, as his pierced, and thus weakened chest blew out.

*****

Up in the other world, Goku and King Kai were following the fight. "King Kai are you seeing what I'm seeing!?"

"Of course I'm seeing what you are seeing, you fool!" Kink Kai yelled, his antennae vibrating. "If I wasn't seeing what you were seeing, you wouldn't be seeing what you are seeing!"

Goku grinned embarrassed, and scratched his head. "Oh, yeah! But look at this guy, he's incredible. He's nowhere near the level of a Super Saiyan, yet his punches do the same damage. Unifying your spirit and body is one thing, this guy has taken it a step beyond; it's like his fists and feet are enveloped with spirit bombs!"

"Hmm, very apt analogy, Goku!" Kink Kai said with intense concentration. "Perhaps more so than you think, he's not just using his own energy, but that of Cell as well and even the energy around him, in the air."

"He is?" Goku said, and payed close attention. "He is! Man, what a fighter, I guess we all can learn a lot from this guy. What a treat! I'll play close attention, than I can pick up as much of him as possible and learn it myself!"

"WHAT!?!?!" King Kai screamed, in disbelief. "Cell could still destroy the Earth, and you're fretting about some new technique you can learn!!?!?"

"Well, always look on the bright side, I say," Goku said, shrugging innocently.

King Kai keeled over.

*****

Xander avoided several blows as he floated in the air. Then there came a red energy beam from Cell's index finger which he narrowly avoided. Frustrated Cell roared, "That's it!" Xander used Cell's distraction to fire an energy ball which exploded on Cell's right side. An instant later Xander was there to capitalize on Cell's light injury. He avoided one of Cell's punches and planted his own fist right on the place where the energy ball just hit, causing Cell to roar in pain and jerk backward. Xander flew forward and Cell threw punch at his head. Xander however just did a little limbo dancing, throwing himself backward even while keeping his forward momentum, thus avoiding the punch. He however didn't get back up, his feet went up and he smashed both his feet in Cell's chin. Cell, not to be out done grabbed for Xander's middle, but Xander crunched himself up in a backward somersault and narrowly avoided Cell's arms. He stretched his legs and smashed his feet into Cell's head. Xander moved forward, Cell punched again, this time Xander flashed upward grabbed onto Cell's head. Xander bent backward while keeping his hands on Cell's hand, thus stretching Cell backwards and kicking him with both feet in the lower back. Xander turned further and threw Cell to the ground in which he smashed with a shockwave and a massive up turn of dust.

Xander hung in the air, crossing his hands across his chest. When Cell became visible again in his private crater Xander said, "What's the matter Cell!? Lost some speed!? Need a geriatric pass!?" With a roar of anger and frustration Cell flew up to attack Xander.

*****

"I've never seen a style like that before," Yamcha said in wonder. "It's so . . . so . . . different."

"Dynamic?" Krillin asked looking up at the battling pair.

"Yeah!" Yamcha answered.

Vegeta, who together with Gohan had joined the rest of them, thought to himself in frustration, *It's not enough Kakarott and his son have surpassed me, now a scientists son, who wasn't even given a warrior rating has done it. And he isn't even a Super Saiyan! How can this be!?!?* Out loud he questioned, "But how can he be this fast!? He's not even a Super Saiyan, he shouldn't be able avoid those hits, he simply isn't supposed to be this fast!"

"He isn't," Piccolo stated looking up. The others were astonished at his statement. "Just look. Closely!"

They did.

Xander ducked. Then Cell threw a punch that would have hit Xander if he hadn't had ducked. Xander punched Cell with his right fist and moved slight off to the left. Cell threw a punch with his left hand that passed through the place where Xander just was. Xander gave Cell a vicious uppercut with his own left fist, and continued moving upward slightly, and backward at the same time. Then suddenly he moved downward with a flicking of his body, the energy ball that came just afterward missed. Xander kicked out and hit Cell in the knee, causing Cell to roar in pain.

The Z warriors eyes widened in shock. "He-he's moving before Cell does," Vegeta whispered in awe.

"He's anticipating all of Cell's moves!" Krillin exclaimed.

"No. It's more than that," Piccolo answered grimly. "You were right before, Krillin, when you said he was using Cell's speed and strength against him, but that's not all. He's using Cell's way of fighting against him. He's manipulating Cell into doing what he wants Cell to do. Incredible. He's beating Cell on skill alone!"

Nearby android 18 moaned and slowly woke up. Krillin was beside her quickly and asked, "Are you all right, 18?" The rest looked at her for a moment, but quickly turned back to the fight.

"Yeah, wh-what happened!?" she answered slowly looking into Krillin's face.

"Well, you got absorbed, and Goku fought Cell, and he lost and then Gohan fought Cell's, smashed you right out of him. But he went to self destruct, and Goku used his instant transmission to teleport Cell away. A bit of Cell survived and he regenerated, he came back stronger, and know Littica is fighting him. And . . . I'll shut up now," Krillin answered sheepishly.

18 got up slowly and looked at the combatants in the air. Her eyes widened and asked softly, "Who is that guy?"

Krillin answered in between happiness, excitement and still some fear. "He's a Saiyan that escaped the destruction of his planet into another dimension. He came back to finish of Frieza, but he was a little late for that." Krillin tried to make eye contact, but 18 was looking at the fight with captivation and so he returned to watching it again.

*****

With a mighty punch from Xander, Cell went flying down into the dirt. Xander was winded, Cell was fast and he wasn't at Super Saiyan level, and Cell had managed to get in a few hits in the past few minutes, nothing major. Cell was just too arrogant to use his full speed and strength. Xander landed on the ground and started firing a huge amount of small energy balls from his hands. In between he fired, one much bigger ball, that he needed to create with both hands, it flew along the same path as the others, zipping passed Cell and the back wall of energy balls. Eventually it moved up over a mountain plateau and then went down and crashed into it, but there was no explosion.

Cell got up and saw the balls flying at him, in reflex he crossed his arms in front of himself, but then the balls stopped. "What?!" he asked himself and took a better look and saw himself surrounded by them. He moved forward and the balls moved with him, he fired a shot to get one out of the way, it simply moved aside to avoid the blast and then returned to its former place.

Xander in the mean time held his hands beside his body powering up his own Kamehameha and Galeck Gun counter part. "TA - NE - KA - KO - SA!" The beam went flying right at Cell.

Cell, fed up with the little balls taunting him, was about to blow them all away with his energy, when he detected the Tanekakosa wave coming at him. "What!?" he exclaimed as the beam and all the balls impacted on him at the same time. The resulting explosion was so massive, the Z warriors had to shield themselves from the shockwaves, sand and stones that accompanied the mushroom cloud.

"THAT'S IT!" Sounded from with the dust cloud. Then a somewhat damaged Cell came flying out of it at his max. Xander had barely enough time to raise a protective shield, when Cell's fist connected with his cheek. In an instant Xander flew back, banging and tumbling on and along the ground several times.

*No pain! No pain!* Xander chanted the mantra in his head. He knew this would happen sooner or later, it would have been better in that instant to have been a Super Saiyan already, but he needed to humiliate Cell, and that was about to start. Xander manipulated his energy and with out stretched arms he came to a stand still. Then his eyes widened; a massive and very fast energy ball came right at him, then it impacted.

Cell chuckled at the massive explosion that had an enormous dust cloud around him. "There, that should take care of him," he said, as he felt himself regenerating. Just when he thought it was time to deal with the rest of the losers he heard clapping. He whipped his head around and his eyes widened in shock.

*****

"Oh, my god!" Tien said.

"Oh, no!" Krillin exclaimed. The others just gritted their teeth. Gohan started to power up, feeling his anger fueling his power, Cell was going to pay.

Then they heard the clapping, and they looked at where the sound came from. Their on a peak, bungling his legs, sat Xander, seemingly without a care in the world.

"Brilliant!" Xander exclaimed enthusiastically, "Absolutely Brilliant! It was about time you unleashed everything you had! You know, if I had still been there, that blast would actually have killed me . . ."

The Z warriors looked on as Cell screamed, "You dare mock me!" He let another blast go and it headed straight for Xander who didn't budge. With a massive explosion the peak crumbled, leaving only a massive dust cloud. Cell laughed.

"How did do that so quickly?!" Gohan asked astonished. The others looked at the cloud of dust with shock written on there faces.

"Yeah," Yamcha added, "One moment this, the next . . . like flipping a switch!"

"What are you weaklings talking about!?" Cell asked, in frustration.

Then there was a loud scream and the dust cloud was blown away revealing . . . Super Saiyan Xander Harris.

"He <is> a Super Saiyan!" Vegeta whispered, "He wasn't bluffing after all!"

"But . . . you said . . .!" Cell started only to be interrupted by Xander.

"You should have let me finish, Cell. I would have added, 'at this level'," Xander said, his face betrayed the violence he was about to perpetrate. The cold fury of a Super Saiyan was written on it. A second later he appeared before Cell. "I'm tired of playing games, Cell! Now I'm going to finish you off!"

"How . . . how did you transform so fast! Even Trunks, Gohan and Vegeta still require some effort to change!?" Cell said in astonishment and shock.

"It's easy, Cell," Xander said, smirking at him, "if you spend your whole life living in a dimension with so much energy blanketing everything, it's like walking through bricks instead of air." Xander smashed his fist in Cell's stomach, following with a massive uppercut. Cell retaliated, but Xander easily avoided the blows, and landed his own every time. After a short time of this, Cell staggered and Xander flew into the air, immediately generating an energy wave attack. "TA - NE - KA - KO - SA!"

"That'll destroy the whole planet if he fires it from there!" Krillin exclaimed in shock. Knowing that there was nothing they could do, the rest of them clenched there teeth.

"That's right!" Cell said, as he looked at Xander. "Fire that! Destroy the whole planet, and I will have won."

The beam came and Cell moved out of his way. Surprisingly he suddenly encountered energy balls that impacted with him and he stopped to deflect the balls.

The Z warriors looked at the beam as it impacted with the planet right after Cell avoided it. But instead of exploding it suddenly moved to the right and dug itself out of the pit it had dug.

Xander was firing the balls with his left arm, Cell stayed nice and still. With his right he pulled the Tanekakosa wave back, and let it fly around a corner straight at Cell. Cell noticed it far too late and the explosion crippled his body.

Xander smirked at the dust cloud and sensed through it. Cell was regenerating fast. "NO MORE!!!" he raged and flew at Xander and started laying a flurry of blows on him. Xander tried to keep up with this new speed that Cell was finally tapping into. Xander wasn't capable of keeping up, but he compensated with his skill, for every two blows he landed, Cell got in one also. Realizing he couldn't keep this up without serious damage, Xander flew higher in the air suddenly. Cell did exactly what Xander wanted, he started firing Ki blasts at him, which Xander started sending right back at him, and adding his own. Every blast made Cell real, but he still kept firing his balls and following Xander upward. Xander started firing much more Ki blasts, know it would obscure some of Cell's vision. He then formed two powerful Ki blasts and kept them in his hands. Then he went down rapidly, Cell emerged from the mas of Ki blasts and his shots went passed Xander, as he came down rapidly. "Huh!?" Cell exclaimed in surprise as he felt Xander's Ki filled hands smash against either side of his head. The blasts exploded just as Xander zipped down back to the surface, leaving Cell to regenerate his head.

Xander landed, looking back first if he was in front of the plateau, then looked up, waiting. Cell's head regenerated and he landed opposite of Xander. "HOW!?!" Cell roared. "THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE!! I'M A GOD!! I'M THE PERFECT BEING!! NOBODY CAN DO THIS TO ME!!!"

Xander huffed and then answered with a smirk. "Gohan could. But I already told you, you're not perfect, you're pathetic."

Cell screamed his raged and attacked, streaking across the plain. Xander without warning let himself fall, and with and upward kick sent Cell flying into the air. Cell was disoriented about the unexpected turn of events and so had no answer when Xander appeared above him and started laying on punches and kicks faster than Xander had ever moved. Each blow sent Cell closer toward the mountain plateau. Cell fought back, but seeing as he was still upside down in relation to Xander, and Xander had gained the offensive he couldn't defend himself well. He blocked a lot of the punches, but that was simply all he could do. Than he slammed into the rock face and Cell felt the pain lancing up his back. Stuck in the rock and pinned by Xander's punches and kicks he couldn't do anything and he got himself beaten into a pulp.

*****

*What is he doing?!?* Piccolo asked himself. This just couldn't go on. Xander's power was waning fast. Now that Cell had started putting all his power in his moves, Xander had to put all his energy into his to keep up despite the difference in skill level, and that was costing him. Piccolo could feel it, every punch drained more of his energy and he was dangerously low already. He had no idea how Xander was planning on defeating Cell, but what he did know was that if he kept going like this he would be finished soon. *Cell doesn't seem to be noticing it, better not mention it out loud, in case Gero gave him my hearing as well. Please don't let him think he can beat Cell this easily, please don't have had him become overconfident with the ease he's been beating Cell.*

"He's really doing it isn't he !? He's beating Cell!" Yamcha exclaimed. Piccolo made a sound inside his mouth that said he was doubting that.

The Z warriors looked as with one final massive punch Cell was smashed even deeper into the rock face and stayed there.

*****

Xander crossed his arms and looked at Cell, his face a contortion between anger and shock. "Are you giving up yet?" Xander asked, as if he was fed up with Cell.

"You, insignificant insect! Do you think this can stop me!? I will get out in a second and then I will destroy you!!" Cell roared.

"Suit it yourself," Xander said and snapped his fingers.

*****

Piccolo looked with astounding as the kid snapped his fingers and suddenly the whole mountain plateau exploded in a blinding explosion. "Uh!" he exclaimed. "That larger ball! It went in there earlier. He planned this! Incredible, he isn't just technically that he's fighting this battle, it's even strategically! But . . ." Piccolo almost realized he gave something away, but shut his mouth just in time, thinking the rest of his thoughts, *if he's planned this, than the way he's been fighting must also be part of his strategy. But what kind of strategy is depleting your fighting energy?*

*****

The explosion ripped through Cell's body, splintered rocks perforated his torso, legs, arms and head. Xander burst forth, forming his energy in a wedge and crashed straight through Cell as he came at Xander propelled by the shockwave of the explosion. Then he turned around and with everything he got smashed Cell across the plain.

*****

Tien looked in shock as Cell bounced across the plain and stopped not too far away from their position. Vegeta grunted in frustration. And the others just looked with wide eyes as Xander walked toward Cell purposefully.

"I will make you pay for that!" Cell screamed, and got up, the damage regenerated. "I will . . ."

The Z warriors looked on in shock as Xander interrupted Cell by started a massive attack. "THIS IS IT, CELL. SAY GOODBYE!! SUPER . . ." Xander called and in an instant an energy ball half the size of a man was in front of Xander's two hands. "DUPER . . ." The energy ball was already twice the size of a man. Cell's eyes went wide as the energy ball rapidly grew in size, quickly growing taller than a house.

"No way," Tien exclaimed. "If he fires that it doesn't matter if it hits the Earth. It will take it out anyway." Fear started showing on there faces including Cell.

"DOOPEY ATTACK!!!" Xander screamed and the ball of energy by now the size of a small storey building flew at Cell.

The Z warriors and 18 saw the massive ball of energy move slowly towards them, they were nailed to the ground with fear and shock. "No way!" Vegeta managed.

"We're all dead!" Yamcha exclaimed with dread.

*****

King Kai looked at the ball in frustration. How could he do this! A moan left his mouth. Next to him Goku blinked his eyes several times and then started laughing. Startled King Kai looked at Goku. Goku laughed harder, grabbed his stomach and then fell down from laughing so hard. King Kai started sweating and then he screamed, "Would you mind telling me what's so funny!?!?" King Kai screamed, suddenly angry.

"Haha, ha, super duper doopey attack!" Goku managed and promptly started laughing again.

"You're laughing over the funny sounding name when the Earth is about to be obliterated!?" King Kai screamed in rage.

Goku managed to stop laughing. "Don't you get it, King Kai!? Check it's power level!!" Goku said and promptly started laughing again.

King Kai did, and then first he started a smile, then laugh, and a second later he joined Goku on the floor. Bubbles, King Kai's monkey, scratched his head in confusion.

"This . . . [laughing] . . . one's . . .[laughing] . . . already earned . . . [laughing] . . . his training . . . [laughing] . . . with me!!!" King Kai managed.

Goku answered, "I wish . . . [laughing] . . . I wasn't . . . [laughing] . . . dead, . . . [laughing] . . . I want . . . [laughing] . . . to test . . . [laughing] . . . myself against . . . [laughing] . . . this guy . . . [laughing] . . . so bad!!"

*****

The huge ball of energy impacted on Cell and exploded . . . in nicely colored fireworks, doing absolutely no damage. Xander who had already moved to behind Cell, grabbed Cell's head, and with a sickening crunch snapped Cell's neck.

The Z warriors were showered by the frilly energy fireworks. Krillin than said, "A decoy, just a decoy!"

Xander proceeded with breaking the bones in Cell's limbs, then with several precision punches cracked the monsters ribs. With a violent kick he kicked the screaming monster away. Xander walked over to him slowly, when he was near enough for Cell to hear he laughed, and then said, "Super duper doopey attack!? You actually fell for it!? Boy are you stupid. What's the matter, Cell. Oh wait, I think I get it! Bone knitting problem again, he? Takes so long, doesn't it? Here, let me help!" Wide eyed, Cell saw Xander raise a hand and form an energy ball. Then Xander fired it and a powerful explosion followed, ripping Cell apart.

Xander waited for Cell to regenerate. When Cell was regenerated he started screaming, "HOW!??! HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS!?!? I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG!!!??"

Xander laughed hard. "Fine," Xander said, smirking and crossing his hands across his chest. "I'll let you in on a little secret, Cell. There are three pillars of power; strength, speed . . . and skill. And the last one is the most important of them. You can have all the strength and speed in the universe, but if you don't have the skill to back them up, they are utterly and completely useless. Now unlike you, Cell, <I> have the skill to back them up!"

"Skill this!!" Cell roared in frustration, and two read discs appeared above his hands and he threw them violently at Xander.

Xander just grinned and waited for the two discs to arrive. He jumped over the first, crouched in mid air, moved his left hand down to just a bit above the disc below him, his right went under the disc that was at his neck level. With a horizontal and vertical screw through the air, Xander landed on the ground and threw the discs right back at Cell. Cell's eyes widened in disbelief as the discs circled around there axes and crossed at his shoulders and cut straight through him. Cell fell in four pieces, head and part of his torso, two arms and part of his torso and his lower part. Xander blasted towards Cell and started a violent show of violence on the head and upper part of his torso. Every time something grew back, Xander hacked and slashed it off again. Cell screamed in pain as Xander did so, never allowing anything to grow back. For several minutes this went on, before Xander stopped. He watched as Cell regenerated.

"You . . ." Cell growled.

Xander interrupted by saying, "Save it." He gave a throwaway gesture and he powered down. Then turned around and started walking away.

The Z warriors look at the display with shock. Was Littica giving up!?

"What are you doing?!?!?" Cell roared.

"What, are you blind or something. I'm leaving," Xander said, looking over his shoulder for a moment.

"WHY!?!"

Xander stopped and turned around. "Duh," he said, raising his hands gesturing 'what do I do with this'. "Look at us. You don't stand a chance against me. You've barely touched me and you're ready to explode of frustration alone. You're pathetic, Cell. An insect I can crush whenever I want to. Continuing this fight just wouldn't be fair. You're softened up enough, I'll have Gohan finish you off." Xander turned back around and started walking.

"GET BACK HERE! YOU ARE THE INSECT, NOT ME!!! DO YOU HERE ME!?!? I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!" Cell roared in rage and hate. Xander just shrugged as he kept walking away. "TAKE THIS!!" Cell roared firing a powerful blast. But Cell was totally out of control and so was the blast, Xander turned around, took the ball between his hands, pulled back, and fired it right back at Cell who took the explosion without phasing. Xander had made him so angry his energy pulsed visibly and audible, electric discharges all around him.

"See what I mean?" Xander asked casually and turned around continuing to walk away.

*****

"What the hell is he doing!?" Krillin asked with fear. "If he keeps this up, Cell will just self destruct out of pure anger and take all of us with him!"

"I don't know, Krillin," Piccolo answered, "If you asked me, he's gone completely off the deep end."

"YOU GODS' FORSAKEN . . .!!" they heard Cell start.

Then Xander interrupted, "Fine, fine, fine! You get one more chance you show me it's not a waste of my energy wiping you out. I mean come on, the way you are now, I'd bet you don't even have the power to blow up a measly, little planet, like this one!"

"I don't like the sound of this one!" Yamcha said with dread.

They looked on as the unthinkable happened. "YOU THINK SO!? I'LL BLOW THIS PLANET SKY HIGH!!!" Cell raged as he flew high into the air, orange balls starting to grow from his index fingers.

"THAT'S RIGHT, WEAKLING! SHOW ME WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" Xander raged at Cell, almost like a crazy man. "COME ON, CELL. THAT'S NOTHING, MY LITTLE BROTHER AND I USE THAT TO PLAY FOOTBALL WITH!! IF THAT'S ALL YOU'VE GOT I'M LEAVING!!"

"YOU INSECT!! I'LL SHOW YOU POWER!!!" Cell roared with uncontrolled rage, and the he exuded energy only Gohan could match. Cell roared and his energy level went up, pulsing around him, the spheres grew in greater size and wind started blowing every where, even as clouds gathered and lighting started to flash.

"THAT'S RIGHT YOU PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR A MONSTER!!! GIVE IT TO ME!! ALL OF IT!!!" Xander roared right back.

"I WILL!!!" Cell roared.

The Z warriors looked up with dread as he saw the core of the huge orange balls pulse with white blue light, that quickly expanded to cover the entire spheres, bathing the entire desert in an eery white-blue light.

"Oh, god!" Yamcha exclaimed!

"NOTHING CAN STOP THESE!! A FINGER WON'T BE ENOUGH THIS TIME! NOT EVEN YOU GOHAN CAN GET RID OF THESE, AND BETTER NOT TRY TO BLAST THEM AWAY, THEY'LL EXPLODE ON CONTACT!!!" Cell screamed, and laughed hard afterwards. "HERE YOU GO!!" Cell raged and threw the spheres down toward the planet. "AND FOR GOOD MEASURE A THIRD ONE!!!" Cell raged, forming a third sphere and sending it down with the other ones. Then he started laughing.

"We've got to stop these things!" Gohan said and powered up. Then he flashed away and reappeared underneath the first ball. Piccolo followed Gohan's example, landing underneath the second sphere, Vegeta did the same for the third.

Cell laughed then stopped as he looked at Xander. Puzzled he looked how Xander bent forward and suddenly out of nowhere started breathing heavily.

The first ball reached Gohan and he placed his hands underneath pushing up with all his might, but feeling the ground gave away underneath him anyway. The same happened with Piccolo's sphere, only he almost immediately sank down to his knees under the onslaught of that much energy. "I need help here!" he yelled. After an initial hesitation, Yamcha, and Tien flew off and landed next to Piccolo and started pushing up. If only it helped. Krillin flew over to Vegeta.

"Go away, I can do this alone!" Vegeta yelled at Krillin.

"Him with his damn pride!" Krillin muttered and joined Piccolo and the others, but it still didn't make a difference.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER, LITTICA!? GIVING UP!? FINALLY REALIZING YOU CAN'T WIN!?!?" Cell roared in satisfaction. To his surprise Xander started laughing.

*I can't believe I was so wrong,* Piccolo thought. *I thought he had a plan, but he completely screwed it up!* Piccolo picked up the laughter from Xander near by and looked at him. *Dead man's laugh, or . . . no way, it can't be!*

*****

Goku stood looking with a big grin, as King Kai exclaimed, "That fool! The Earth is doomed."

"What are you talking about King Kai?" Goku asked confused. "He's done it, he's beaten Cell."

"What!? Winning usually means your planet stays intact Goku!" King Kai yelled out in frustration. Bubbles nodded in agreement. King Kai's cricket just sat on the ground watching the interchange.

"King Kai, look how much energy Cell has used up creating these balls! This guy is some piece of work!" Goku exclaimed happily. "He never had the power to destroy Cell, defeat him in battle yes, but completely destroy him, impossible! So he did the next best thing, he made Cell gave him the power he needs to destroy Cell! Haven't you seen how he's kept firing energy right back at Cell?!"

"Are you crazy Goku!? His body can't handle this much energy. I don't even think Gohan can handle this much energy!" King Kai answered him with disbelief.

"I trust this guy! He's been to good to slip up with this! I don't think his body needs to handle the energy! Just watch!" Goku answered with confidence.

*****

"WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT!?!?" Cell screamed in rage.

Xander flew up in the air, higher than the energy balls, lower than Cell. "At you, you stupid fool!!"

"WHAT!?!?!?" Cell answered in frustration.

"You still don't get it do you. I didn't have the power to destroy you, fool. I'm only a Super Saiyan level one, and a low level one at that," Xander said grinning at him and breathing heavily. "The only thing you had to do was tire me out and you would have won, instead you give me all the power I need to finish you off once and for all! Ta ta!" Xander turned Super Saiyan then and started to rapidly spin around his axis, causing the wind created by it and his energy to work as a vacuum. Then he flashed downward and the energy of the first sphere was sucked up and started rotating around him. Then he moved to the second sphere, the first one sucked along, and the second too was sucked up, joining the first. Xander kept spinning in the middle, his energy forming a nice barrier to protect his body from the energy of the spheres and at the same time working like an anchor keep it close. Finally Xander moved on to the third ball of energy.

*****

"I will not be defeated by that bastard," Vegeta roared and pushed up with all his might. He felt himself moving upward. "I'm doing it! I'm . . ." Then he felt the energy sphere leaving his hands and he looked up, seeing Xander enveloped by an enormous ball of energy, it's radius easily five times Xander's length, flying up to meat Cell. "How is that possible!? His body shouldn't be able to handle all that energy pressure!" he exclaimed in disbelief and rage over his own inability.

"It's not," Piccolo explained. "Don't you see how he spins in the middle!? It creates a void inside in which there is no energy, the spinning is what is keeping the energy in place, it doesn't touch his body at all!"

"That's just incredible!" Gohan said in awe. Yamcha, Krillin, and Tien nodded in agreement.

*****

Cell looked in shock at how the young Super Saiyan came up to his height, enveloped by his own energy.

"Cell!" Xander exclaimed, stopping the spinning and pointing his hands at Cell. "It's time to die!" Then a massive beam of pure blue-white energy lashed out of the sphere directly at Cell.

"NO!! Cell roared and brought up a Ki shield just in time. *It's too much,* he thought, *I can't do much else than defend.* He pushed his energy field outward slowly, hoping against hope.

Xander, realizing Cell was fighting back, pored more energy into the beam, making it bigger and more intense. Immediately the energy went back to almost touch Cell.

"No!" Cell exclaimed, "I'm am the perfect being! I will not be defeated!" He pushed harder and the energy went outward, he took the opportunity to blast a Galeck Gun at it and push it slowly back.

Xander screamed in frustration and drew more power from the sphere, making the beam almost man size, and twice as bright. The energy beam slowly started pushing back Cell's Galeck Gun back toward him.

"No!" Cell increased the power from his battered body, pushing the energy back slowly again, keeping himself from getting vaporized. "I just have to keep this up until that sphere is gone!"

Xander decided to put his own power in the mix, however little he had; "TA - NE - KA - KO - SA!!" Added beam of energy blasting into the core of the one that already was gave it an immense boost, if that wasn't enough Xander drew on more power form the sphere and the energy blasted forward. It was back at Cell's body in an instant, staying only centimeters away, the energy clashed forward this time, went half way around Cell, deflected of his Ki shield, before it bled off into the air.

"NO!!!" Cell roared again, putting every bit of effort in it, managing to push the energy back a little but holding there.

*****

*Gohan!*

"Dad!?" Gohan asked astonished when he heard his father's voice, he looked around, but then noticed it came from within his head.

*Yes, son, I'm talking to you via King Kai. Listen, there's a pretty good chance this Littica guy can beat Cell, but I don't want to find out if I'm wrong!* Goku said with urgency.

"Got it, dad!" Gohan said, and rapidly moved below Cell. He powered up and he yelled, "KA - ME - HA - ME - HA!!!" A massive Kamehameha wave left Gohan's hands and shot straight up toward Cell.

*****

Cell, too preoccupied with keeping one beam from vaporizing him, didn't notice Gohan's Kamehameha until after it was fired. "What!?" he exclaimed in shock and looked down, seeing doom speeding towards him. "NOOOO!!!" he roared and tried to deflect Gohan's beam as well, but against the two of them, he didn't stand a change. The two beams connected and a few seconds later there was nothing left of the so called perfect being.

No longer needing the energy stored in the massive sphere, Xander moved his arms apart and stretched them toward the sky, and letting it all flow into the depths of space harmlessly. Xander sighed in relief, let his Super Saiyan power bleed away. He turned back to normal, and let himself lower toward the Earth, breathing heavily. The eery glow was gone, Cell was gone, the Earth was tranquil once more.

Episode 6
Dragonballs?!!?

Some Extra Training Never Hurt Anybody

Xander landed next to Gohan, who powered down at the same time.

"Is it really over!?" Yamcha asked, a little bit concerned they failed again.

"Yeah," Piccolo answered. "There's nothing of Cell's energy left. He's really gone this time."

"That's a relief," Krillin commented. Xander looked around the group of people, and strangely he almost felt like being with the Scooby gang.

"Well, I guess introductions are in order," Tien said. He walked over to Xander and made a polite bow. "My name is Tien."

Xander bowed back and commented, "I'm used to shaking hands, but I guess this isn't bad either. Littica."

All of them except 18 and Vegeta bowed during introduction. 18 just stayed put while she introduced herself and Vegeta didn't need to introduce himself, he and Littica already knew each other.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save all of them," Xander said, looking at Trunks' body with sad eyes.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Krillin said with a smile.

"Yeah," Gohan answered, "We'll just revive them with the Dragonballs."

"With the what?" 18 asked.

"Dragonballs!? What the heck are dragonballs!?" Xander asked at the same time.

"Dragonballs allow us to summon the eternal dragon, it'll grant any wish within its power," Piccolo explained.

"Cool!" Xander exclaimed and looked around the group again. "I guess we go do that huh!?"

"Not me," 18 said. "I'm leaving." And she burst into the air away.

"Me too," Vegeta said, and started to leave.

"Hold on a minute, prince Vegeta!" Xander exclaimed. It stopped Vegeta dead in his tracks, and turned around with a sound that said, 'what do you want'.

"Prince Vegeta?" Krillin whispered to Yamcha in a sarcastic tone.

Yamcha smiled and they both got a glare from Xander. There eyes went wide and they made gestures not to blow them away. Xander continued, "I still have a hell god who wants to bring down the barriers between all the dimensions just to get back to her own to take care of back home. I have less then a day before I have to get back there, so I can't train with you . . ."

"Actually, you do!" Krillin piped up suddenly. The group turned to him saying 'huh'. "Yeah, you see, there's this Chamber of Spirit and Time up on the lookout, and . . . uh . . . well, it allows you to train for a year inside and outside only a day will pass."

"Yeah, that's true," Gohan said, "Me and my dad were in there, training to beat Cell."

Xander looked at them for a second and than his face lit up. "All right, I can teach you guys what I know! And you all have got to teach me what you know! I'm certain there are some things you can teach me!"

"Vegeta can't go in there," Piccolo's gruff voice interrupted. "He's been in there twice already. If he goes in there now, he'll be stuck there forever."

"Damn!" Xander said and turned back to Vegeta who crunched his teeth together in frustration. "That leaves me to what I originally wanted to ask you, prince. If you allow me telepathic contact I could download everything I know about martial arts. It'll take you some time to master them, but I'm sure you can do it, and I'm sure Krillin won't mind training with you."

"Hey, I . . ." Krillin started, but was interrupted by a dangerous glare from Xander. "Ok, no problem," Krillin quickly said.

Vegeta grinded his teeth again, and made an inner mouth sound of frustration. "I don't need a weakling like him training me."

Xander stepped forward to close the gab between him and Vegeta and said, "Once I've trained him, you'll be pleasantly surprised!"

Vegeta made the sound again and said, "Fine!"

"You will not regret this," Xander said with a smile and placed his right hand against Vegeta's temple and closed his eyes. Half a minute later Xander was done and withdrew his hand.

Vegeta looked startled for a bit. Xander then said, "A gravity room! Why didn't I think of that! Man, I could have been a Super Saiyan a long time ago. Prince, you don't suppose your wife is willing to give me the plans to a gravity generator do you? I could probably figure out how to build one myself, but it takes time and I probably need to modify it so it'll work in my dimension, but it would be great help

"Uh, probably. She just loves to help," Vegeta sneered, he turned around and said, "All right then, I'm leaving." Then he flew off.

"So are we gonna get these Dragonballs?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, I'll get trunks," Tien said, and ran to Trunks' body and picked it up.

"All right, lets go," Piccolo said and the remaining of the group flew up into the air.

*****

Some time later they arrived at the guardian of Earth's palace high above Earth.

"Well, we don't have this where I live," Xander said with astonishment looking around the large white tiled half-sphere, the garden and trees, and the magnificent palace that was build on top of it. Piccolo smiled at Xander's comment and the others chuckled lightly. Tien placed Trunks' body nearby on the floor.

"Gohan!" Dende exclaimed, running from across the grounds. Mr. Popo followed close behind. "I'm so glad you're alive," Dende said, giving Gohan a hug, who laughed embarrassed. "All of you. And thank you very much for saving the Earth, sir," Dende continued, addressing Xander with the last sentence.

"Ah, all in a day's work," Xander said, gesturing with one hand Dende didn't need to thank him. Then Xander stuck out his hand and Dende shook it, "Name's Littica."

"I'm Dende, newly appointed guardian of the Earth," Dende introduced.

Xander smiled and answered, "Well, you've got your work cut out for ya, kid."

Dende grinned and said, "Do you need some healing?"

"I've got some bruises here and there, yeah, are you telling me you're a doctor too!?" Xander answered, looking at the boy with wide eyes.

"Something, like that," Dende answered, as he stepped closer to Xander. He stretched out his hands and a glowing, yellow, pulsing light came from them. After a second he stopped and Xander felt fresh as a bird. He threw a few punches and kicks in the air.

"Now this is what I call medical treatment," Xander said happily, feeling completely refreshed. The Z warriors laughed, chuckled or smiled at Xander's exuberant behaviour.

Dende in the mean time finished healing Gohan and then asked the group, "Anyone else need healing!?" The Z warriors answered they didn't.

"You still have the dragonballs, right?" Tien asked with impatience.

"Yeah," Dende answered and turned to Mr. Popo. "Mr. Popo would you please get the Dragonballs?"

The caretaker of the palace nodded with pleasure and answered, "Sure, Dende. I'll be right back."

*****

Meanwhile android 18 was flying aimlessly across the Earth. Finally, much to her disliking, curiosity got the better of her. *A dragon that grants wishes!?*

She moaned in frustration and turned towards the direction her sensors told her the Z warriors had flown off to.

*****

The seven small balls lighted up, then as a powerful yellow light sprang out of it the sky turned pitch black. After some times, as the yellow light formed a long, sinewy strand it solidified into a giant green dragon.

Xander looked at the giant beast in astonishment, and said, "Holy crap, now that's what I call a dragon."

"Yeah," Tien said. "I never get tired of seeing him."

*****

"Oah! Incredible," 18 told herself, looking at the pitch black sky and the silhouette of the dragon. She quickly sped up, intent on seeing with her own eyes what was going on, without them seeing her. She really didn't want them to be able to tease her constantly.

*****

"Choose your words carefully, I will make any two wishes within my power true," the dragon boomed.

Yamcha made the wish, "Please, revive all those people killed by Cell."

The dragon's eyes lighted up red and it boomed, "Your wish has been granted. What is the second wish?"

Xander looked too his left, and too his astonishment he saw Trunks sitting up and looking around himself, before standing up completely. *Wow!* he thought, *It's actually working!*

"As I feared," Piccolo said with concern. "I can't feel Goku's energy anywhere. Goku has already been revived before. I had hoped Dende's upgrades would allow him to revive people more than once, like Porunga."

"Can't we use our whole second wish to bring Goku back?" Yamcha asked in desperation.

"How badly you want it makes no difference," the dragon boomed. "Goku has been revived before, and cannot be revived again. It's impossible."

"Hey guys!" Dende exclaimed, having a good idea. "Porunga back on Namek can bring back anyone as many times as you'd like. We only need to go there!"

Tien's mood picked up and said, "Yeah, that's how Krillin and Choazou were brought back!" The group nodded, while Xander watched the interaction. *Just like the Scooby Gang,* he thought with a grin.

"Yeah, then it's settled!" Krillin exclaimed lifting a fist in triumph. "We're going to Namek with the last wish!"

*Hey, don't I get to have a say in this?* a disembodied voice sounded in all of their heads.

"Goku?!" most of the group asked as one.

*Yeah, it's me! Hi, guys, I'm talking to you via King Kai!* Goku's voice sounded again. *Listen I've been doing some thinking, and I think it's better I stayed dead.*

The group of Goku's best friends made several claims to the contrary, or of shock and astonished.

Once they settled down, he said, *No, I think it's better. You see the last few of our enemies came to Earth because of me. Think about it, my brother Raditz, then Nappa and Vegeta because of him, then Frieza, and now the androids and Cell. I think if I'm dead, there won't be so many bad people coming trying to destroy me and the Earth.*

"Yeah, but you keep it safe too," Krillin tried with sadness, somehow already knowing it would be of no use.

*Gohan is more than capable of protecting the Earth, guys. Besides, by the time Littica here is done training you, you could probably all kick my ass. What do you need me for?* Goku said with a laughing voice.

The warriors' heads turned toward Xander with shock on their faces and he grinned at them. "I . . ." Tien said, he hesitated for a moment. "I hadn't even thought of that. We'd be better than Goku?"

*Yeah, and guys, listen to this: I've done enough good that they let me keep my body. I'll get to travel around this world and meat up with new people and get to know them. King Kai says some of them are the greatest warriors who've ever lived. Imagine that, and I get to test myself against them. The food is supposed to be good as well, so you don't have to worry about me,* Goku rattled on, happy as always.

"Just another adventure," Piccolo said softly, smiling. The others slowly nodded their exception.

*Great!* Goku said, the laugh on his face audible in his voice. *That leaves me just one thing. Littica, I'd like to thank you very much for staying and helping to save the world. You've shown a level of skill and control I can strive for, shown me there is so much more out there, then just what we've know here. For that, I thank you. I wish I had the chance to test myself against you.*

Xander somehow felt Goku bowing and he made a slight bow back, "No problem, Kakarott. It was my pleasure. After all, if you're psyched up for Frieza, only someone with Frieza's cells will do."

*Thank you, anyway. Bye guys!* Goku said and then his voice was heard no more.

The group of warriors seemed defeated for a moment, before Tien said, "So, what do we do with the second wish?"

"Well, I think we should leave it to Littica, after all, he did help us out big time," Gohan interjected, pointing his right finger at Xander.

"Yeah," Yamcha answered.

"Me!?" Xander asked astonished, and then answered. "Nah, I've got a fiance at home, and a job that pays the bills. The only think I want is to train with you guys for some time, and I don't need a dragon for that. Besides, what could I possibly wish for here, take back home, and still be useful over there?!"

Gohan laughed and then said, "Yeah, I guess we get to decide. Anybody got a wish over here."

When no one immediately answered, the dragon boomed, "Hurry up. If you don't make the wish soon, I will go away."

Krillin then stepped forward and said, "I have a wish! Can you make the two androids into humans?"

"That wish is beyond my power to grant," the dragon boomed with finality.

"Heh, heh! Krillin's got a crush on android 18!" Gohan said with a big grin on his face. The other warriors laughed heartily, except Trunks, Xander and Piccolo who managed a grin, and a grunt or two. Krillin laughed with embarrassment and he had a big blush on his cheeks.

Krillin stopped suddenly and changed back toward the dragon, "Then remove 17's and 18's self-destruct mechanisms. You can do that, can't you?"

The dragon's, red eyes flared up and he said, "Wish granted. Now I will take my leave." The dragon turned back into yellow energy and returned to the balls, who flew up into the air and then suddenly shot into seven different directions. Then the sky turned back to blue with the same quickness as it turned black earlier.

Frantic footsteps were coming toward them, and as the group of warriors turned toward the sound a high pitched voice screamed, "What did you that for??!?" It was 18 and soon she was standing next to Krillin looking at him angry.

"Well . . ." Krillin started nervously, not knowing where to look, so he started turning his fingers.

"And why did you remove 17's as well!?!?" 18 screamed with anger.

"Well, I thought you and him make such a good couple, and I wanted to see you happy," Krillin said, shaking in fear and embarrassment.

"Man, Krillin, you really got it bad," Yamcha said, with a grin.

"17 and I are twins, you fool! Do you expect me to drop to my knees and thank you from the bottom of my heart and kiss you all over now!?!?!?" 18 screamed at Krillin. Krillin just laughed miserably, managing a soft 'no' but that was about it. "Well, you can forget about it!" 18 raged, turned around and started stalking away. After a few steps she stopped and looking over her shoulder and looked at Krillin from the corner of her eye. She said, "But it was nice what you did." Then she flew off.

Yamcha elbowed Krillin and said, "Did you here that!? They're brother and sister, you got a good chance with her, Krillin! Trust me. Goku may be the best fighter, but when it comes to women, I am the king!"

"Yeah, no woman gets that angry in public unless she cares for you deeply, pal," Xander said with a grin.

"They don't!?" Krillin asked in disbelief. "Not even if they hate the guy!?"

"Oh, no," Xander said, turning to face Krillin fully. "They've got someone they consider an enemy and they hate him or her, women become shrewd, calculating bitches, who'll destroy their enemy with mean tricks and stabs in the back. They'd never risk public humiliation for an enemy like that!"

"If you people call this love," Piccolo grumbled, as he crossed his arms. "Count me out!"

The group looked at him for a moment then, Xander smashed his right fist in his left open palm getting everyone's attention. "All right, no more talking. Time for some action, lets train!"

"Train?" Trunks asked confused who up until now had looked at the spectacle mostly dumbfounded.

"Oh, yeah. You were out when we decided, we'd train in the Chamber of Spirit and Time, and I teach you what I know, and vice versa," Xander explained quickly.

"Trunks can't go back in the chamber. He already used up his two full days in two goes, like Vegeta," Piccolo interjected.

"What!?" Xander exclaimed in shock and frustration. "Damn!! The rest of you can go in there right!?" The group nodded. "Ah, good! Well, I guess I'll do the same as with Vegeta. Give you the knowledge, telepathically!" Xander said, and moved his hand toward Trunks' head. He hesitated for a moment, silently asking Trunks for permission. When he nodded, Xander placed his hand on Trunks head, and started the information interchange. "There, done," Xander said a couple of seconds later.

"Whoa!" Trunks exclaimed and steadied himself. "That was something! Well, I think I'll be going to my mom's house while you train. You guys are gonna be there tomorrow to say goodbye when I leave right!?" The group answered positively.

"Well, except me," Xander said, with an encouraging grin to Trunks. "I don't have that much time. Say, could you ask your mother to look up the plans to the gravity room in advance for me?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Trunks answered a little confused.

"Great, see you there soon then!" Xander said, and then Trunks blasted off, with several goodbyes interchanged between him and the group.

"All right, if you're on a time table. Let's get going," Piccolo said gruffly as he turned and headed to the palace and within it the Chamber of Spirit and Time. All except Dende and Mr. Popo, followed Piccolo to the chamber.

"Mr. Popo," Dende began, a smile on his face as he looked after the group of heros. "All this excitement has gotten me hungry. How about we get a bite to eat?"

"Sure, Dende," Popo answered.

*****

"You know, I've been thinking," Xander said, when they were about halfway to the room.

"About what?" Yamcha asked a little nervous about going into a different time dimension.

"Well, with all the energy back where I live, it might very well be the humans there are every bit a Saiyan's equal," Xander said, his face in a frown of deep thought.

"There are humans there!?" the whole group, even Piccolo, exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah," Xander said. "Parallel Universes and all. I even live on the planet Earth." The group looked at him in astonishment. "And, well, that might mean the humans here are a Saiyan's equal too."

"How come!?" Tien asked curiously and astonished, he had never seen a human equal to a Super Saiyan before..

Xander stayed deep in thought for a moment, before answering, "It's a very complex theory on dimensions and they're interactivity . . . Aah, forget it."

*****

Nothing but white. Nothing but white everywhere, except for the small building, with a door in it, leading out, the small colored artifacts around it and the people fighting in front of the construction.

"That's it! Don't force it, Krillin, that won't do you any good," Xander called from an imaginary side line, deeper into the unending whiteness, even as he made his own practice moves. "Be subtle. Allow the energy to flow, Piccolo. Gohan, tell me, what did your father made you do when you were in here."

"Well," Gohan said, as he blocked Piccolo's punches, then suddenly grabbed his arm and threw Piccolo over his shoulder. A 'very good, your starting to learn' was interjected by Xander, before Gohan continued to tell him, "my dad, made us be Super Saiyans all the time. You know become one, and then never power down, not even in your sleep."

"Mmmh, smart guy your father," Xander mused as he transformed himself into a Super Saiyan then let the flame of energy wane. Xander watched some more and gave some more pointers, as the three Humans, one Namek and one Saiyan-Human hybrid trained to use energy much more subtle. Xander observed that Gohan and Krillin learned the easiest, Piccolo the least easy.

Then Xander heard his stomach growl, and he felt an extreme emptiness that needed to be filled. "Oh, boy. You keep going I have to eat first!"

"Eat!?!?" Yamcha exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yeah, we've eaten less then ten minutes ago. If you really need to eat, you're worse than Goku!" Krillin exclaimed wide-eyed in shock.

"To his defense," Gohan said, as they all watched Xander fly into the building at the entrance. "He hasn't eaten a whole lot from my perspective."

"Yeah, I forgot I need to so much more over here, than back home!" Xander called loudly. "Hey, where was that store room with food?!"

"In the back!" Piccolo called to Xander.

"You don't eat much where you come from!?" Tien yelled back.

"No, more energy remember! There's even more of it in the food," Xander called. "In the beginning when my appetite hadn't adapted yet, I gulped the food down in the same quantity and speed as here. Trust me when I say, you haven't felt a stomach ache until after you eat nine pies in two minutes, when a quarter pie is enough to keep you satisfied for half a day."

The group of determined fighters laughed at Xander's comments as they practiced more. Then suddenly an hysterical scream came from within the building. The whole group rapidly went toward the source and found Xander inside the food store room looking around him in dread, eyes wide.

"Uhm, what's the matter!?" Krillin asked not knowing what was the matter.

"Look at this," Xander gestured around the room, bags and pots of rice littered the shelves, a lone refrigerator was in the back. "Nothing but rice, you can't expect me to eat only rice in the next couple of months!"

"Huh!?" Piccolo asked confused. Gohan looked equally so. Tien, Yamcha and Krillin looked a little pale.

"I was hoping for some, steaks, nice chicken, vegetables and potatoes," Xander said, then gestured around the room. "But there's nothing but practically dry rice, and the refrigerator is almost e . . ." Xander stopped his sentence when he opened the refrigerator. Then he continued, "filled with everything my heart desires." Xander looked at the now suddenly stock full refrigerator with his favorite foods. He looked around and the rice had been replaced with sacks of potatoes and vegetables, in other cases all kinds of fruit. "Heh, heh, false alarm," Xander answered embarrassed. The group of warriors grumbled in frustration. A second later Xander finished his first banana classically Saiyan style and said, "You know, I could get used to this place." The Z warriors tumbled to the floor in utter frustration, as Xander dug into an apple, and fried a couple of sausages with his energy.

*****

Three weeks later

"I need a hair cut!" Xander announced at breakfast. "Please tell me there is a pair of scissors here!"

"Yeah!" Gohan answered. "There should be here somewhere. My dad used it to cut my hair while I was in here before."

"I could use one as well," Yamcha said, holding his hair up with one hand.

"I thought you true blood Saiyans' hair didn't grow?" Piccolo asked surprised.

"It doesn't, not under normal circumstances," Xander said with a grin at the wide-eyed group. "This is one perk of living in a different dimension under different rules of physics. My hair started growing about a month after I arrived there. Hearing your mother say, 'You need a hair cut honey, your hair's gotten quite long,' is horrific for a Saiyan the first time around." Xander found the scissors and raised them in the air victoriously.

*****

Another week later

Piccolo held Gohan in a powerful bear hug. Gohan screamed, it hurt. "Stop toying around, Gohan. Free yourself! Now!" Xander yelled. Gohan let his energy flare and freed himself instantly, following up with a punch to Piccolo's gut that sent him flying several meters.

Tien fired a blast at Yamcha, who caught the energy ball and threw it back at Tien. Tien dodged it barely.

Krillin stood off to the side and focused his energy. He moved his arms in circular motions, than he sank through his right knee, while stretching his left leg and then went back up. Several more times he made similar motions and then a wind started blowing around him. The others stopped and looked at him, his power level rose exponentially. Blue electricity started circling in his eyes and soon it was flowing around his entire body, then an oval-shaped halo formed around him, and started twisting around him. From everywhere across his body electrical discharges shot to and from the halo. Krillin roared in pain for a moment, but it quickly vanished. His white Ki flame stayed untouched inside and slightly outside the halo. Then he started flying around doing rapid punched and kicks.

"Whao! Krillin," Gohan exclaimed. "You're like . . . a Super Human! The first!"

Xander tested Krillin's new found power. It wasn't at Super Saiyan level, but it was pretty close. *Well, I guess that puts the final nail in the coffin of that theory!* Xander thought, realizing he was right about the humans' strength.

The Z warriors looked astonished at Krillin until Xander interrupted the silence. "All right then. I've definitely taught you everything I know. Have a question left, ask Krillin, he's surpassed what I could possibly teach him. Gohan come on, we go in much deeper for our training."

"Ok," Gohan answered nodding, and turned toward the group. "Bye guys see you tonight at supper." Then he and Xander flew off, deeper and deeper into the time chamber, where gravity and energy levels rose rapidly.

They flew for hours until finally gravity started to effect the both of them even at Super Saiyan level. "Man," Xander said in frustration. "We come out here, and we can fly right back, if we want to get food in time."

"Yeah," Gohan commented, as his stomach growled. "We should have brought enough food for a couple of days and stay here."

"And how do you suppose we bring all that?" Xander asked with frustration. "I haven't exactly seen a sack lying around here in which we can dump it. And even if we could, most of it would go bad."

"Well, I guess someone has to go outside and bring a sack from there," Gohan answered with some frustration as well. "Hey, wait a minutes, what's that black dot!?"

"I don't know let's find out," Xander said and they descended down toward it. Finally close enough they noticed a similar building as at the entrance. They went down further, landed and explored the building.

"All right!" Xander said, "Food chamber, beds the works! Whoever designed this thing thought ahead! And the gravity is pretty heavy! Even sleeping is training here!"

"Yeah!" Gohan exclaimed with a grin.

"Gohan, your the fastest of us two. Go to Super Saiyan Level 2 and get back to our friends and tell 'em we're staying here!" Xander said with enthusiasm.

"Right!" Gohan said, and started powering up further. After a minute Gohan finally breached the level and stood as a Super Saiyan Level 2.

"And Gohan, stay like this!" Xander exclaimed just before Gohan would blast off. "All the time at level 2, just like your father had you do with the first level ok!?"

"Ok, I'll be back as fast as I can!" Gohan said and flew off.

Xander flew even further into the room and there started an extreme training.

*****

About the same time it took for them the first time around to get out here, Xander returned to the second building and found Gohan stuffing himself with food. Gohan grinned and as pieces of food flew out of his mouth he said, "Flying to and back at Super Saiyan Level 2 takes a lot of energy."

Xander grinned and felt his own stomach growling. *Relax, baby,* he thought. *Just one more thing we have to do before we can join, Gohan.*

Xander started to steadily raise his energy level, eventually he reached a barrier and Xander roared as he pushed his power to even greater levels. The floor underneath Xander's feet sank deeper under the onslaught, and cracks moved across the tiles from Xander's position. Then Xander stopped screaming and his power stayed in limbo for a moment. Then he reached into his being for the greatest pains: Frieza, the destruction of his home world, the death of Jesse, Faith's turning to the dark side, breakup with Cordy, Buffy disappearing on him and his friends, his urge to beat up Buffy and subsequent guilt over it after she returned, Jenny's death, Angel, Angelus. An inhuman scream came from the bottom of Xander's being, his muscles increased in size and mass, without becoming steroid, body builder like, they stayed sleek and fast, his golden hair stood up straighter and electrical discharges formed around his body. Then, with a shockwave that send Gohan and his food tumbling backwards about a meter, Xander's Ki flame grew in size and the transformation was complete: Super Saiyan Level 2 Littica stood impressively on the cracked white tiled floor.

"Wow! You did it after only a month!" Gohan exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, I have a lot more control over my energy, courtesy of other dimensional physics and martial arts!" Xander said with a grin and he let the Ki flame and with it the electrical discharges disappear. "Now I want some food!"

"Dig in!"

*****

Xander and Gohan felt the gravity pressure increase as they went deeper into the chamber. Xander stopped and hovered not too far above the ground. Gohan stopped next to him.

"I guess this is where we begin our real training," Xander said with a smirk on his face. Gohan looked up at him and matches his smirk. "Lesson number 1 Gohan, the most important one: never underestimate your opponent. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever underestimate your opponent. Don't overestimate him either, but it's better to overestimate one than to underestimate one. Following that means don't overestimate yourself, don't let confidence become arrogance, don't become too cocky. If you do, than I guarantee you, you'll get yourself killed, even by weaker warriors."

"Ok, got it," Gohan firmly said, nodding his affirmative.

"Try to hit me," Xander said. Gohan swung a fist and Xander dodged. "Again!" Gohan went after it earnestly, after several minutes of fist after fist flying, Gohan paused to catch his breath. "Lesson number two," Xander said with a grin. "He who can't be hit, can't be beaten. This is a two-edged sword, on the one hand if your opponent can't hit you, he can't beat you, on the other hand if at the same time you can't hit your opponent, you can't beat him either!"

"I understand," Gohan said, and they continued.

After several hours like this, they were exhausted and they returned to the second recuperation facility and they got the food out fo the storage room. They went to eat after starting a nice, cosy, warming fire. After a few seconds of stuffing himself, Xander said, "Gohan, tell me what happened here after the destruction of Vegeta."

"Uh, ok," Gohan said, and started telling the history of this dimension and in particular Earth.

*****

Another month later

"Destructo Disc!" Xander yelled and let a massive flat disc of razor sharp energy fly. One of the moves Krillin had taught him. It went directly for Gohan, who at the last minute placed his hand one of the flat sides of the disc and then threw it back at Xander. Xander placed both hands inside the energy disc, entering from the flat sides, they reformed in energy balls, and he fired them at a rapidly advancing Gohan. Gohan was about to deflect the balls, but Xander rapidly moved behind Gohan and sent him flying toward the balls with a vicious kick to Gohan's back. The explosion sent Gohan flying back to Xander. Just as Xander was about to land a devastating blow Gohan disappeared, reappeared above Xander and fired several balls of energy down toward him. The first one hit, but Xander managed to avoid the others.

Xander and Gohan started trading blows, kicks and throws, they were even blow for blow. Suddenly they both moved backward rapidly and they both started powering up there energy waves.

"KA - ME - HA - ME - HAAA!"

"TA - NE - KA - KO - SAAA!"

The two massive beams of energy collided. At their collision point started to grow a massive ball of energy. Both of them pushed their energy into their beams until the ball of energy exploded massively, sending chunks of energy flying everywhere. Milliseconds later they collided again with furious punches and blows. Xander caught Gohan's arm and threw him over his shoulder, but Gohan twisted in mid-air and countered by doing the same to Xander, who in turn twisted out of Gohan's grasp before Gohan could smash him into the ground.

*****

Krillin threw Tien, who just like Krillin was powered up into Super Human form, across his shoulder and smashed him into the ground. Tien groaned as Krillin laughed and said, "You've got to do better then that, Tien."

"Yeah," Tien said, as he took Krillin's hand and got up from the ground. "Chauzou is going to love it when I teach him this stuff."

"Yeah," Krillin said, suddenly he jerked his head toward the deeper part of the Chamber of Spirit and Time. Tien followed suit. A few meters further, Yamcha and Piccolo, who were in a furious fight of their own, stopped and looked up as well.

"Wow!" Krilling exclaimed, "What incredible power!"

"Yeah," Tien said.

"But is that one or two people!?" Yamcha exclaimed in astonishment.

"I don't know," Piccolo grumbled as usual. "The energy of the room itself is interfering to much. I can't tell."

"Hey!" Krillin exclaimed, looking up and pointing in the same direction. "What's that?"

The others looked up as well, it was as if a tile in the roof, if the chamber even had a roof, was shimmering, since everything was white that was all that was visible.

"Guys," Yamcha said, a little worried. "Is it just me or is it getting bigger." All of them looked at the shimmering object with greater intensity, and Yamcha was right; the shimmering was getting bigger . . . fast!

Piccolo eyes went wide when he recognized it. "TAKE COVER!!" he roared.

With shrieks the warriors jumped aside, just before an energy ball slammed into the ground between them, it exploded and the energy washed over the four warriors. Once it was gone, deeper into the chamber more energy balls hit on the floor and the warriors watched, with dirty clothes, scrapes and bruises, at the vista of the balls exploding.

"Well, I guess now we know it was two massive powers colliding," Krillin said with shock on his face. Piccolo grunted in acknowledgment.

*****

After a particular powerful punch from Gohan, Xander went flying straight to the floor and crashed in there causing a massive crater, that strangely enough started repairing itself immediately.

*Man, the kid's like a sponge,* Xander thought in admiration. *He's already surpassed me.* Xander heard Gohan coming at him with a battle growl. "Uncle!" Xander called, lifting his right hand in defeat. Gohan slowed down in surprise, not knowing what Xander meant. "I give up!" Xander yelled and lifted himself up slowly and painfully. "Wow, Gohan. You've got to teach me some of those moves you used against me!" Xander said with a grin as he slowly flew up into the air.

"But, didn't you just teach them to me!?" Gohan asked in astonishment.

Xander now level with Gohan shook his head, "Uh, uh, those were brand new."

*****

Another month later

Gohan looked at Xander in astonishment. He was screaming as his power level breached every barrier Gohan thought existed, and it still rose. The wind coming from Xander would have blown him away if he wasn't at Super Saiyan Level 2. Xander's fists were balled together in front of him and he stood bowed forward on the ground of the chamber. To Gohan it seemed as if Xander's hair was elongating, and as if his eye brows were shrinking.

Xander knew there was at least one level beyond this second one, and he was close. He reached deep inside himself and felt some of the most primitive parts of his being responding. This wasn't anger that was propelling him, it was power pure out of the deepest reaches withing himself. He felt his eyebrows retract into his skin, which was on odd sensation, and his hair growing longer. Xander roared and reached deeper, as he felt the eyebrows coming back out. They quickly retracted again. With every effort he could muster he powered up further . . . and then he collapsed, eyebrows back out, hair back short, but spiked upwards and back. Super Saiyan Level 2 and no more. "Damn!" Xander roared, "So close!" He sighed and stood up, then looked at Gohan.

"Wow!" Gohan exclaimed in awe. "I could never do that!"

Xander laughed, which earned him a curious look from Gohan. "I guess I haven't taught you enough about knowing your own power . . . Gohan, you can . . . and you will go beyond. Right here and now. You will reach this third level."

"What!? No, I . . ." Gohan started.

"No buts, no nos, Gohan, come on show me everything you've got, now!" Xander ordered, and Gohan obeyed. Gohan roared as he powered up and he felt power grow incredibly fast. Even faster than Xander had done, where was it coming from? Than he reached a barrier and he couldn't go further up. Littica must have been wrong after all. But then his voice sounded, "That's it, Gohan. You've reached the barrier already. Now reach within yourself, find the essence of your being, your most primitive self. Picture the giant ape in your mind and go through him, search your deepest regions!" Gohan took Xander's advice and then he felt something breaking, like a window shattering, and his power blasted through him, his hair burst forth down to at least his waist, some of it further, and his eyebrows retracted into his skin. "Don't stop now Gohan, see how far you can go!" Xander yelled above the sound of the wind blasting passed him, and Gohan raised his power upward further and further.

*****

"No way!" Tien exclaimed as he felt a power he had never felt before.

"What is that!" Krillin exclaimed is shock. "That can't be just one person, can it!?"

"I still can't tell!" Piccolo said, eyes wide in disbelief like the other. "This blasted room!"

Yamcha shot in the air and started looking into the room with hawk eyes.

"What are you doing, Yamcha!?" Krillin asked loudly.

"I don't want to be surprised by anymore shimmering things," Yamcha answered in frustration.

*****

*Incredible,* Xander thought as he looked at Gohan, Super Saiyan Level 3, and his power was still rising, shockwaves of it blasting over Xander. Xander just stood there dumbfounded at the screaming Gohan, the ground beneath Gohan was being blasted away, more than once Xander had to dodge a piece of it.

Finally Gohan stopped his power-up. "Incredible, Gohan! Wow!" Xander exclaimed with joy and astonishment.

Gohan stood there, testing himself and then exclaimed, "This new level has a weakness."

"Huh?!" Xander exclaimed with surprise.

"Yeah," Gohan said. "It's draining power quickly. If I'd be bigger I might have been able to retain it longer, I don't think it was ever meant to be reached by someone as young as I am. The power is draining out if me even as I just stand here."

Gohan was right, Xander could feel Gohan's power level go down rapidly. "All right, power down to level 2," Xander said. Gohan's eyebrows returned, and his hair returned to his formerly spiky position. "Well, Gohan, I guess I didn't entirely fail with teaching you how to assess your own abilities after all." Xander placed his hand on Gohan's shoulder and he said, "You're incredible kid." Gohan smiled up at him. "Listen, Gohan, I want you to promise me something?"

"What!?" Gohan asked surprised.

"Ok, I've learned something over the past years. You take out one bad guy, and a stronger one is right around the corner, so promise me this Gohan. You are now the most powerful protector of this world, so keep training! Don't allow your abilities to wane, grow more powerful, find new techniques and strategies! I'm not saying you should go against your mom and not study, or give up on having some fun, but you should try to balance the three, ok!? I managed it, so you should be able to as well," Xander explained very seriously.

"Ok," Gohan said, nodding with determination. "I promise."

"Great, then let's get out of here, I've got myself a hell god to barbeque!" Xander said with a grin.

Gohan grinned at Xander. Then Xander looked down, "You know what!? If that bitch somehow manages to breach the barriers anyway, you better be prepared. The barriers will open here as well. And all sorts of nasties can come through!"

"Let's see," Gohan started while nodding determined at Xander. "It should still be hours at your side. Double the speed, that should make it here in about half a day. I should stay ready before that time and a half a day after."

"Yeah, now let's go," Xander said and the burst into the air toward the exit.

*****

"Whoa!" Krillin exclaimed as Xander and Gohan landed before them.

"Not him too," Piccolo whispered seeing Xander's spiked hair and feeling his power level.

"Let's get out of here," Xander said and they all left the time chamber.

*****

About an hour later.

"All right, Bulma. Thanks for the plans to the gravity room," Xander said waving at her, her son, baby and grown up, Gohan and Krillin. The others had decided upon going home instead of going with them.

"No problem, Littica. Hope I see you again, I liked our conversations," Bulma said.

Xander opened the pod, stepped inside with one leg, than waved goodbye one last time, saying, "Good by, guys!"

"Goodbye!" they all said in chorus.

Xander closed the hatch and fired up the engines. The Saiyan pod lifted into the air, then a powerful distorting fields started twisting rapidly around the pod and than it disappeared with small flash of light.

Episode 7
Xander Is Late?!?!

Have Faith!

The blue energy that was nothing short of a rip in space and time grew bigger. It was the size of a small house, and all kinds of beings, some harmless, others the size of the portal and interested only in destruction came forth from it, trashing whatever was in their way.

Glory stood up on a high platform attached to a tower, a bleeding Dawn was on her knees next to her. "It's time! It's finally time!" Glory yelled in happiness. She jumped and she got sucked into the portal. She turned around, as a male body fell out of her back on the platform. Glory then transformed, she became bigger and turned all dark blue and scaly. Red horns protruded from her strangely still blonde hair-covered head, (aren't dyed blondes out there wishing you had her brand) and her eyes became red with dark green irises. "Now my revenge on that retched town!"

"Wait!" the now liberated Ben called. "You promised, you'd said I'd live."

"I lied!" Glory said, and then laughed loudly, before opening her mouth and a massive flame came forward just as she disappeared into her home dimension. First it burned to cinders the tower and anyone on it, including Ben and Dawn, reducing them to skeletons in an instant, which caused the portal to close behind Glory. Then the fire hit the ground, and burned the flesh of everyone there, demon servants, insane people, Giles, Willow, Tara, Spike - who's skeleton turned to dust immediately after - Anya, and Buffy. Then it consumed the rest of Sunnydale in less than half a minute.

*****

An Los Angeles prison

Faith woke up with a start in her solitary confinement cell, sweating profusely. Darkness surrounded her. Every night the dream had haunted her sleep for two months straight. Seeing the deaths of her - former? Friends? Colleagues? Something she still wasn't sure of - and the destruction of an entire town, hearing, seeing and feeling the pain of those who died was taking a giant toll on her. She fought back the tears only barely; she <really> didn't need that in this place. For some reason she knew the dream would come to be very soon, possibly even this day, or night. And there was nothing she could do about it.

Out of nowhere the room lit up. Startled Faith looked at where the light came from. Beyond all expectations electricity - lightning? - was crackling in the middle of her cell in mid air, and it started spelling out sentences. 'Don't you feel the need to do something?'

"What the fuck?!" Faith whispered and yet still managed to exclaim.

The sentence disappeared and a new one formed, 'No, not that one.' Faith's eyes widened in greater disbelief, and sat up in shock, slinging her feet over the bed and putting them on the floor so she sat facing the words. 'Sorry, little joke,' was added to the already existing letters.

The sentence disappeared again, as a new one formed, 'Don't you feel the burning need to ram stakes through chests? Don't you want to save peoples lives by ripping out hearts of demons?'

Faith's thoughts were a jumble, several incoherent thoughts raced through her head, an important one sounded something along the lines of, *Can't! Must sit out punishment for killing several humans! Must redeem myself!*

'You think by being locked up here you can redeem yourself? You think you're doing good by staying in this god awful place, forsaking what you were born to do?' the new sentence spelled out, hung there, the letters were a bit more spiky, as if they were angry, agitated or frustrated.

"But I have to atone . . ." Faith started, interrupted suddenly by the buzzing sound of the electricity increasing in volume as it started spelling out another sentence.

' . . . for the two humans you killed? That won't do you much good, Faith. All those people dying out there, because you didn't slay the demon that killed them are going on your conto! Not to mention you've seen your dream . . .'

Faith thought for only a moment and asked, "Did you send it to me?"

The sentence disappeared and nothing happened for a moment, although for some reason Faith felt like someone was laughing heartily. 'No, Faith. The Slayer doesn't need anyone to send her prophetic dreams.' The words were somewhat more shiny, conveying amusement.

"So how am I supposed to stop that bitch!? She smashed Buffy aside as if she was an insect. I'm not going to be much help if she can take out Buffy that easily," Faith asked with uncertainty.

'You sell yourself short, Faith . . . besides, you don't have to stop her, just stall her long enough for Xander Harris to return,' the lightning spelled out. Faith refused to freak out, even though seemingly living electricity was in her Cell.

"Xander!? Since when is he Mr. Superman!?!?" Faith exclaimed, out loud this time, in surprise. She slung her hand in front of her mouth, she really didn't want anyone finding out what was going on in here. Faith sensed a mysterious smile, before a new sentence formed.

'He doesn't, not for another two hours, give or take a few minutes,' the lightning spelled out.

"Ok, if you don't want to tell me, fine," Faith said, as she got up and walked toward the solid metal door. She grabbed it and yanked several times, "But in case you've forgotten, whoever designed this prison was seriously paranoid, or he knew about the things that go bump in the night, because this cell is Slayer proof. Well, I could get out of here, but it will make so much noise, I'll be looking at several gun nuzzles not much later." Faith grinned smugly, see what the stupid letters had to say about that.

'I haven't forgotten,' the letters spelled out, then blinked out and the far wall just split open. Like an automatic mall door they soundlessly slid aside, somehow disappearing in another part of the wall. For a moment Faith looked dumbfounded . . . then she ran through the hole and jumped down toward the ground two stories below; the Slayer's instincts to protect were just too great to resist, and if a higher power thought she didn't belong in that hell hole, who was she to argue? She used the wall to slow her descend somewhat and than landed on the ground with a soft thud. She looked up and saw the wall closing back into position. Then after looking around to make sure she would avoid any search lights she ran forward toward the high wall and jumped straight up it, with a second push off against the wall she somersaulted right over it and landed on the pavement behind it a second later. Then she started running forward, crossing a road and going toward the center of LA.

After about a minute, Faith slowed down some, and at that point electricity crackled up out the ground. Faith looked stunned as the lighting formed into the form of a man before coalescing into one. He wore long plain robes and a large straw hat, the pupils of his eyes though, were not so much pupils as electricity.

"Hey, wait a minute, your look familiar somehow . . . weren't you in a movie a short time ago," Faith said with astonishment.

The man chuckled, before answering, "The creators of the video game that the two movies and a television series were based on took me from an ancient Japanese legend, one that happens to be partially true. I am Raiden, god of thunder and lightning and protector of the planet Earth." The god smiled at a stunned Faith before saying, "Now this really can't do, you look far too much like an escaped convict." He snapped his fingers and the next moment Faith's hair hung around her shoulders, shining like they had recently had the perfect shampoo treatment. She was made up, bright red lips like usual, but the eyeshadow and the make-up on her skin was less profound, giving her a sexy, but more natural look. She was wearing ass-kicking boots, tight leather pants, a shirt that was cut low so a little cleavage showed and the finishing touch a leather jacket that fit Faith perfectly. "Much better," the god commented with a smile.

"Whow," Faith said in surprise, she made a few practice punches and kicks and realized the clothes were literally made for her, nothing was in her way. She smiled up at the god, who smirked at her.

"That way," Raiden pointed and continued, "with some speed, we don't have the whole day."

"Ok," Faith said and started running in the direction Raiden had pointed. He kept up with ease, although he wasn't strictly running, his feet never hit the ground. "Won't everyone see you floating like that," Faith said, while she kept up her speed and was starting to get freaked out at the power this guy showed he had.

Raiden grinned as he answered, "No, you are the only one who can see me."

Faith looked at him for a moment, and commented, "Ok, could have seen that one coming. So I take it you are one of The Powers That Be Angel keeps yapping about!?"

"Oh, no," Raiden answered extremely seriously, almost darkly. "I'm nothing like those bastards. Purely measured in power, I'm to them even beyond what they are to you."

"That powerful huh?" Faith asked, not quite able to figure out what that meant.

"Yep," Raiden said, grinning again. "Ever seen Star Trek? I'm like the Q fella, omnipotent, all powerful, there is nothing that I cannot do."

"So, if you wanted the Eiffel tower to stand in the middle of LA . . ." Faith started.

Raiden finished the sentence, " . . . all I had to do was snap my fingers."

Faith thought for a minute, running along LA in the deep of the night, street lights burning everywhere. "So what makes the PTB such bastards!? I thought Angel said they were the good guys."

Raiden hmpfed, and answered, "They're not. They don't care about any of your lives. All they care about is their amusement, 'look at what the mortals are doing now'. They throw one demon after another at you, just so they can have their jollies. They manipulate and at time out right force people to do things they want them to do. They make empty promises of redemption and rewards, they threaten with hell if people do things badly, and promise a heaven if they do things right, but when people finally die they all they get is hell, whether they were good or not."

"But didn't they give Cordelia the ability to see visions that can be stopped?" Faith asked a little confused.

Raiden answered gravely, "Yes, and it's killing her. Cell, by cell, with every vision. A few more months and she's dead."

"And you wouldn't do such things?" Faith asked, just to be sure.

"No, everyone makes their own destiny, god and mortal alike, and that's our most sacred belief," Raiden explained patiently.

"Our?" Faith asked again, running around a corner that Raiden indicated she should go.

"Others of my race," Raiden answered calmly.

Faith slowed down and stopped, breathing a little more heavily than normal, "So let me get this straight. If I say, 'screw everybody' and decide to take the next plane to the Bahama's you'd let me, no threats, no manipulations, and when I die you won't send me to hell."

"Yep," Raiden answered simply.

Faith looked at him trying to asses the god and then said, "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"You don't." Simple again. "Behind you," Raiden warned.

"I know," Faith said, which earned her a smile from Raiden. She looked around and found two Vampires coming out of an alley who thought a crazy chick talking into mid air would be an easy meal. They were completely unprepared for the girl turning around to face them, groping in her leather jacket, revealing a stake and then dusting them both before they could wipe their stunned looks off their faces.

"Take the second left," Raiden said, indicating with a jerk of his head. She continued onward.

"Is that an order?" Faith asked, testing him one last time.

"A suggestion," Raiden answered with a grin.

Faith started running again and said, "You don't mind if I don't trust you, do you?"

"With bastards like The Powers That Be out there, I'd say that's a very healthy attitude," Raiden answered as he floated next to her again. Faith reached the street Raiden had told her and she turned left. "Cross the street," Raiden said with a mysterious smile. She did, and then continued down the street, at which point her sensitive hearing picked up a scream of terror. For a moment she froze, instinctively silencing every sound she was making so she could assess where it came from. Once she did, she was about to start running again when Raiden interrupted her. "You want to get that sword first," he said, pointing to a beautifully forged sword behind a heavily guarded store window. "Trust me, those things that are attacking the couple you heard have hides like a medieval knight's armor, you're going to need it."

Faith stayed with indecision, for a moment. "Don't worry," Raiden said, gesturing toward it, "the shop owner thinks it's a fake, that's why he left it here. It shows signs of being made with techniques and even technology that couldn't possibly be present in the middle ages. But then nobody until now knows it's about 13,000 years old, made with the most advanced technologies they had back than. For one thing its blade is made of titanium and it's imbued with some of the most powerful magics. One of the very few weapons on this planet capable of harming Glory . . . the bitch you saw burning Sunnydale, you are really going to need this sword."

"But I thought want, take, have; stealing was a bad thing," Faith stated, with a little scared look on her face, she didn't want to go down that road again.

Raiden chuckled, and said, "But I wasn't suggesting want, take, have, Faith." He snapped his fingers and a letter appeared behind the window, next to the sword, along with four one thousand dollar notes. "I was more thinking along the lines, of need, borrow, return later. The money comes straight out of the National Depository, they're going to have a field day, figuring out how it got here."

Faith looked at him ashamed for a moment then read the letter. Shocked, she noticed it was her own handwriting.

'Hi,

I'm sorry for the damage and taking your sword without permission, but I need it very badly to save a lot of lives. Here's some money that should cover the damages. When I'm done, I'll bring back the sword.

Faith Williams'

Faith looked up at Raiden and grinned at him, then grabbed the armored protective grating covering the windows, and ripped it out of its sockets and threw it on the street. Alarm bells started ringing. Then she shattered the armored windows with two swift kicks and plucked the sword out of the window still. She swivelled it around admiringly for a few seconds, then ran towards the screams at full sprinting speed.

Crossing over two roads without looking left or right, Faith reached a park, getting closer now to the screaming. A few seconds later she saw them, a bit of the light of a nearby park light reflected off them. They were completely brown, Raiden was right, their skin looked like hard polyester. Vicious claws and teeth made to tear flesh from bone were gleaming in the pale light, and they seemed to be getting read to do exactly that. Ten in all, several held the woman and man down while above each of the couple stood one of the demons ready to tear their hearts out in some sick ritualistic way. For a moment Faith froze, she didn't want to kill, not again, not do what dragged her down in the first place. The muffles from the two people reached deeper into herself, they reached the Slayer instincts deep inside Faith, and they screamed up just two words, 'PROTECT! SLAY!' Faith went into action. Higher brain functions slightly pushed back into her mind, she ran on instinct alone. The first demon lost his head to the sword in Faith's hand. The demons were startled as one of their comrades fell, and Faith used it to slice the sword through one of the heart-ripping demon's heart. The demons flung into action and Faith reacted by turning full circle and catching one demon across the throat with the sword - it promptly grabbed his throat, trying to keep the flow of green blood from spilling, but fell down to the ground in its death throws instead - while at the same time she kicked one of the demons far away with her left foot.

Slowly her higher functions returned, and Faith had never felt so good in a long time. She was whole again! Hacks, slices, kicks, punches they all fell perfectly, everything went the way it should, the instinct and desire to kill returned in an instant. The same familiar buzzes coursed through her body again, and they were heightened, beyond whatever she felt before. For the first time in her life she wasn't just killing things, but actively protecting people's lives in her own body. Once she finished off the last of the demons by sticking the sword through its heart and into the ground below, she turned toward the frightened couple. She pulled the sword out of the demon, fumbled in her jackets pocket and smiled as she felt a cloth. Omnipotent guy thought of everything.

As Faith cleaned the sword of blood, she told the couple, friendly, "You people really shouldn't be out this time of night, and if you must, stay in the fully lit and filled with people parts of town."

"We will," the man stammered. The three of them looked up startled as the demon bodies started rapidly decomposing into an icky green see-through goo with loud hisses.

"Thank you, so very much, y-you saved our lives," the woman said, who was up by now and shaking Faith's free hand with both hers wildly.

"No problem, it's what I do," Faith said with a wide, satisfied grin on her face. "Just get home in one piece and quickly." The couple nodded at Faith's remark, and they ran away.

Faith looked after them just standing there with a smile on her face until she heard some light clapping. She looked around and saw Raiden sitting on a bench and he said, "Well done, Faith. That was very good."

She smiled at him, and started looking for a way to hide the sword. The jacket elongated into a coat and Faith noticed a scabbard appear in which she could place the sword easily. "Thanks," she said.

"Tell me something, Faith. What did you feel when you where fighting those demons just now," Raiden asked with an encouraging smile on his face.

Faith looked down to the ground in shame. "Answer me," Raiden demanded gently.

"I felt good, I felt fantastic, I felt better than I have felt in a long time," Faith said, solemnly, then looked up with tears in her face, almost hysterical. "But that doesn't mean I will kill innocents again, I won't go that road again . . ."

"I <know>, Faith," Raiden interrupted her. "Why are you crying? What makes you so upset?"

Faith wiped away her tears in shame, "I'm not supposed to feel that way. I shouldn't feel pleasure when killing. I should feel bad about it, nothing more but a job."

"Why? Because Buffy says so?" Raiden asked dryly. "Because Giles does . . . or Angel." Faith just looked at him with teary eyes. He didn't say anything, waiting for her to answer, when she didn't he stood up and walked toward her. "Close your eyes," he said, when Faith looked at him unresponsive he added gently, "Trust me." Faith closed her eyes. "Ok, go back to just before you attacked these things. They're about rip that couple's hearts out, what's going through your mind?" Raiden asked, allowing a little hypnotic quality to enter his voice.

"Protect, slay," Faith answered without thinking, she looked up a little startled.

"Very good, close your eyes again," Raiden suggested, and she dead. "Let's go back in time, you're bad, you've thrown your lot in with the Mayor. You're in a Sunnydale High class room, you're trading Willow for a box with spider thingies. Some of them have escaped, your standing there, looking for them. One of them climbs up the wall behind Wesley. It could kill one of your enemies, if you just let it. Go deep in yourself, tell me what happens and what you think."

Faith answered, "Demon. Danger. Protect. Slay. I let my knife fly and hits the spider precisely." Faith opened her eyes and looked at Raiden surprised.

"Must have been hell suppressing those instincts. How many times have you had the urge to kill the minions that worked for the Mayor, or even kill the Mayor himself, hmmm?!" Raiden asked rhetorically, giving Faith a grim face. "Faith those feelings you feel, aren't bad. They are what you are: a hunter, a predator, a killer. Buffy may wish to deny those feelings, suppress them, ignore them and believe she's miss nice girl who just happens to have been given the powers to stop evil and do so, while condemning any type of joy that comes with it, and anyone who feels it, but she still feels it too, however deep she's suppressed them, she feels the same elation, and pleasure when she kills another demon and thus keeps another life safe. You're made of darkness, you two are beings with one singular purpose, hunt down the demons and kill them all."

Faith looked up at him disbelieving and shocked, "So I do come from darkness. Our powers . . . we do have a demon inside of ourselves."

"No, what gave you that idea. Haven't you been listening, Faith," Raiden answered, deeply concerned at this unexpected event.

Faith still looked up at him, "But you said we come from darkness."

Raiden laughed and then answered, "Faith, darkness and evil are not one and the same. Evil mostly prefers darkness, but there is nothing demonic about darkness. There's nothing demonic about, or in you. Darkness can be good, and bring it forth, just as easily as light can be evil. A little love, some jealously and see how evil someone can get, all rooted in light. Do you understand, Faith? Darkness and the emotions belonging to it aren't evil, it's what you do with them that makes someone evil."

"I think I get it," Faith answered slowly, feeling better and starting to get her good mood back.

"Do you want to know the secret to redemption?" Raiden asked gently. Faith looked up to him and nodded. "It's easy really. First, stop doing whatever you needed redemption for, second realize that you are guilty of those acts, and third forgive yourself. That's all."

"How can you forgive yourself, isn't that completely arrogant? Hey, remember those friends I killed of you, too bad, but I've forgiven my self," Faith answered angry.

"Faith, being guilty of an act, and knowing you are doesn't mean you can't have forgiven yourself. Forgiving just means you can start anew with a clean slate. How could you leave bad acts behind, be a good person, if you can't start over, not even with yourself?" Raiden said, all gentle and complete serious. Faith thought over his words, he had a point, yet things didn't ring entirely true either. "That's why Angel will never reach any kind of redemption, he's feeling guilty for actions he didn't even do, and then he's incapable forgiving himself for things he didn't do. Ironically, here is a man who doesn't need to redeem himself for anything, looking for it anyway, and obviously he'll never find it. You see, being guilty, and knowing you are and feeling guilty, whether you are or not, are two very separate things. You'll never find redemption as long as you're feeling guilty."

"But . . ." Faith started, she finally figured out what ran untrue.

She didn't need to continue though, Raiden already knew what she was going to ask " . . . What about the people you hurt, directly or indirectly? Now that's a whole other matter, convincing them you have redeemed yourself is a lot more difficult. You'll have to show them exemplary behaviour, save people's lives and a lot more stuff."

When Faith was lost in thought, Raiden asked her, "You think you can think and run at the same time?"

"Huh?" Faith said, "Oh, yeah. What way?" Raiden pointed and Faith started running again, thinking over the recent events and the god's words. And they made more and more sense, and he became more and more trustworthy as she thought everything over. He didn't ask her to do anything, he just suggested, he told her she could make her own destiny and her own choices. No tests, no manipulations, no prophecies and empty promises. 'Forgive yourself'. She remembered when Angel visited her once, and he went on about having found away to redemption; he would be human again, a prophecy said so, if he fought long and hard enough for the Powers he would be given his humanity back. He was so happy and enthusiastic, she had been happy for him. But to her he seemed like happy a puppy dog, with a bone hanging in front him, tied to a fishing pole which in turn was strapped to his back, by some really cruel boys. It was easy to spot for her, she had been like that; 'just use your hand, honey, and move it up and down, that's it,' 'use lips, sweat heart, you'll like it, I'll never hurt you again if you're a good girl,' 'I promise baby, this will be the last time, just spread your legs,' 'trust me, sweety, just get up on your hands and knees and raise your ass, I'll make it good for you, I promise I'll really will not hurt you again, and this will even be the last time we do this.' Of course, unlike Angel, who just fell for it to like a big dupe, she had the additional crueler boy with the whip, hurting her if she didn't ran hard enough to his liking. And now she knew, she just knew, she had been right all along. She was so used to it by now; the so-called father and mother, the friends and family you couldn't trust, they promised you one empty promise, and gave you one evading answer after another, she had spotted it immediately. But this guy was different, he answered everyone of her questions with a straight answer, he didn't try to sweet talk her, he even told her not to trust him or anyone like him. Of course he could be doing all that to fool her, but her bull-shit-o-meter, which had been honed for far too long, wasn't going off this time.

"Are you the one who created us? Did you chose me and Buffy and all the others?" Faith asked suddenly, because this was the kind of god she could picture actually doing something good for mankind. The her surprise Raiden laughed, before he started explaining.

"No, nobody, no entity or god or power chooses Slayers, Faith. It's a quantum-mechanical and hyper-dimensional function that triggers dormant Slayer genes. See it as a wide encompassing net made out of elastic that connects every potential slayer with The Slayer. When The Slayer dies, it's like someone cuts the elastic with scissors." Raiden made an elastic appear between his fingers, and a pair of scissors operated by a hand that had no arm or body attached to it. The hand cut the elastic and it slung back with a loud 'splat' sound against his hands. "The potential slayer the elastic smashes into is called and becomes The Slayer, The Chosen One."

*Another straight answer!* Faith thought as she ran forward.

"Left here," Raiden said, and Faith turned. "However, reducing it to just that, just wouldn't do the process justice. It is far more complex and fantastical, but if I explained it to you in every minute detail, it just wouldn't it justice either. This is something you should find out all on your own, and providing you live long enough, Faith, you <will> find out."

For a moment Faith feared she had been wrong after all, but again she realised it was a straight answer, no evading answer, just an enigmatic one, but no demands, no provisions, no 'if you do this', just this; something to find out for herself.

"As for creating you, no," Raiden said. Then he paused, trying to figure out how to say this. "It's more that I steered it into a more productive direction, and sped up the process a little."

"Process?" Faith asked, somehow the alarm bells weren't going off, even though he wasn't giving a very simple, easy to understand answer.

"I can't explain it," Raiden said matter of factly. "It can't be put into words, I could just beam understanding into your mind, but . . . that kinda would destroy the whole, you'll find out by yourself about the elastic net as well. When you understand the net, you'll understand the process as well."

Faith smiled at him, and asked, "Ok, so the whole just women thing, is that your doing? Wait a minute, go right here?"

Raiden nodded, and they rounded the corder, the bus terminal became visible in the distance. "Yes, goes for both questions."

Faith grinned, "It's because we're better right. We're smarter, better than men, right?!"

Raiden laughed hard and answered, "No."

Faith suddenly looked surprised and disappointed all at the same time, earning her a chuckle from the thunder god. "You know how the saying goes, 'power corrupts . . ."

" . . . and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Yeah, so?" Faith finished the saying.

"Well, men already have power. There have been men in history who could defeat slayers, they were that good. Now imagine giving them the added strength and speed multiplication of The Slayer," Raiden explained gently.

Faith felt a bit niffed about Raiden's words and answered a little frustrated, "Wouldn't that make them only more effective against demons?"

"Indeed, problem is, they were already fighting, they were the warriors in almost all cultures. It's in their genes, protect and hunt prey for food, and it translated into being soldiers. When they get an added power boost, they wouldn't think it any different from what they already have, nothing unnatural, just more power. They wouldn't go after demons, they'd do what the other men would do, fight their way up a rank and power ladder. Then absolute power comes in," Raiden explained friendly. "While women, when they find out they can beat the crap out of some of the best and most powerful men with ease, they know something's up. It's a greater balance of things thing."

"That's it!?" Faith asked incredulously. "That's the whole reason!? Men already have power, too big a chance the added boost won't seem special enough for a guy to say, let's start killing vampires?!"

"Yep," Raiden grinned, and added, "Well, the added bonus is, that a women's more natural instinct to submit, while a man's is to lead - goes all the way back to the men saying 'the herd of prey is migrating, pack up your things, we need to follow it' - it means when a man, woman, or group of people tell a woman she should fight the demons, she most likely will, and man might go, 'who the hell do you think you are telling <me> what to do, I should be the one leading you.'"

"Oh, boy, was I wrong," Faith said, shaking her head as she ran up the bus terminal and slowed down. She turned toward the ticket machine and realized something, as she instinctively started searching in her coat pockets. "Oh, great, I don't have . . ." Faith pulled her right hand out of her jacket and looked at the bills in her hand. " . . . any money," she finished perplexed. She looked at a smiling thunder god and said, "Thanks."

*****

Half an hour later, she was in the bus on her way to Sunnydale, and she just sat there pondering, life, hers in particular and life in general, and Raiden's words. She looked out the window while she did it, looking at a dry vista. While the night was partially receded, light was returning as the sun would soon start coming up. Thus she wasn't too surprised at the golden glow that suddenly appeared in the sky, until she noticed it came on a little two sudden and had the wrong color. Strangely it disappeared again soon after. Faith decided to forget about it and kept looking out the window and thinking. A few minutes later, to her surprise Faith saw a quick yellow light fly across the horizon, one moment it was there, the next it was gone. *A shooting star!* Faith thought happily. *What should I wish for? There isn't much I want to wish for, except time travel and make sure all the bad things never happened, but that's just too wishful thinking . . . I know! I wish all the demons and bad, gods and powers . . . Hey! Wait a minute!*

"Raiden!" she hissed angrily. The thunder god materialized right next to her, startling Faith for a moment.

"I thought you said, you wanted to sleep," Raiden said out loud, nobody but Faith could hear or see him after all.

"Shh," Faith said without thinking. "If you're so powerful, and the demons and the powers are so bad, why haven't you just snapped your fingers yet, and got rid of them," Faith accused.

"Remember what I said was our greatest good," Raiden whispered back, humoring her.

"Yeah, everybody decides their own destiny," Faith whispered, still angry, but starting to get the god's point.

Raiden smiled, and whispered back, "Exactly, from that it quickly follows that you let societies and civilizations, species develop naturally without interference. Now if I just wiped out all the bad things, that would kind of defeat the point, wouldn't it!?"

"But then what's this," Faith asked, pointing to the two of them.

"Well, gods manipulating you, and creating demons, screwing up and making them too powerful for them to control, sending them after you, those demons trying to destroy you, isn't exactly natural development. Which means I have some lee way, helping here and there, giving advice, steering people in the right direction, helping with the coming into existence of the Slayers and breaking the occasional Slayer out of jail," Raiden explained calmly. "And . . . you're the Slayer. The one girl in all the world chosen to protect mankind from all the bad things. I've always been there for all of the Slayers, always have been, always will be. Most never knew, and I was there with them in spirit, but the occasional one got to see me just like you do now."

"Oh," Faith said, thinking it over for a while and then saying, "I think I like that." Faith pondered for a short while again and then said, "All right, now I will go to sleep." Raiden nodded and disappeared.

Faith thought things over again as she tried to sleep. Was she being fooled again? Her sixth sense hadn't gone off, but then it hadn't gone off with Willow, Buffy and the rest of the scooby gang either. *That's not true and you know it,* Faith admonished herself. *You just didn't want to accept it from a fellow Slayer.* She should have seen it coming, really. Granted Buffy had tried in the beginning, but to her, her mother and Giles, Faith had all to soon degenerated into the girl that could take over while she went off to college and have a nice life. Willow had been cold to her from the start, never really talking to her, hardly even in 'Scooby meetings' and then only the barest minimum. She remembered Willow's little speech while she was captive. What had hurt back then wasn't Willow's accusation she had abandoned her friends - *Ok, it did,* Faith interjected her train of thought, *but it wasn't Willow, Buffy, or Giles, but Xander and Angel.* - but what had hurt more was Willow's claim she had been Faith's friend. It had been like a kick in the stomach while she was down, to actually have the audacity to claim she was Faith's friend. Cordelia had only seen her as competition for Xander.

*Xander,* Faith thought. Now there was an enigma. He hadn't been exactly 'with' her, or trying to get to know her and be her friend, but somehow he had become her greatest friend, except Angel, perhaps. It was weird, but she had been attracted to him, even had a crush on him, and she had sensed from the get-go he was hiding something, she had been attracted to someone who was like herself, she now realized. His flippant remarks and jokes were a shield that kept people out, she had too much experience building her own shields not to notice. Now that she looked back on it, she realized he didn't talk on a personal level with anyone else of the 'Scooby Gang' either. He had been the rock in the chaos the rest of them were built on, he lifted them up with jokes when they threatened to become to depressed, he went to them when they needed a shoulder to cry upon, he would throw himself in between them and danger if they didn't look out, or just couldn't protect themselves from it when they did saw it coming.

*Like he did for me!* Faith realized, remembering the car crashing into the demon, a few other occurrences, the time he tried to get her to open up and she strangled him for all his effort. *Damn, why did Angel have to interfere!* Faith screamed inside her head. Xander had just been lying there, she could still remember how there was no strength in his hands at all, because he wasn't trying to get her off. He had just looked up into her eyes, into her soul. She had been so close to breaking, to letting go and let everything she had been holding in out, if only Angel hadn't interfered. That's why he couldn't really get to her as well, she had hated him so, because he kept her from coming clean and much more with Xander. Xander made friends instantly, Faith realized, he assessed you and then you were his friend, he took you in instantly and totally, but for some reason he made the other way around very slow, he would allow a friendship to grow slowly, just a little deeper every time. He acted no different with me, than with anyone else. This made Xander an enigma, and the enigma had only grown after Raiden said she just had to buy time for him to return.

Now that she thought about Xander, Faith realized she remembered vaguely that she heard his voice - apologizing? - muffled, close by while she was in a coma. He had been the only one who had bothered to visit her, she realized. Faith wiped away a tear, this really wasn't the time for emotional digging. While she was wishing with every fiber of her being, she had never gone over to the Mayor's side, she fell asleep.

*****

Faith stepped off the bus and yawned. She happily started stretching her arms and legs after sitting in the cramped bus for those hours. "Welcome to Sunnyhell," she said, when she was done and had a chance to look around. "Hope I fair better then last time I was here."

Raiden reappeared and she was startled again, quickly making sure the few other passengers were out of ear shot she said, "Don't do that again, will you! Appear some meters away and walk up to me!"

Raiden chuckled again and said, "I'll try to remember that."

"Now what?" Faith asked.

"Hey, I've done my part. Now I'm only here for moral support. This your show," Raiden said as he clasped his hands behind his back.

Faith looked at the watch on her left hand, 8:34. Then decided. "Ok, breakfast first, I'm hungry, and I feel it's a bad thing confronting people you've wronged on an empty stomach . . . not to mention, I really don't want them to be in a bad morning mood when they see me. Too many chances I get another knife in my gut."

Raiden shrugged and said, "Lead the way."

*****

Anya opened the door to the Magic Box and walked inside happily. "Hi," she greeted the group already assembled there. Willow was typing on her laptop, which hooked up to an alert Buffy bot. Buffy was in the back training with the hammer of a god, while Tara was sitting in a chair nearby talking gibberish. Spike was on Tara duty and was sitting next to her, making sure she couldn't run off straight into danger. Giles was researching spells, trying to find something that would allow Willow to return Tara back to her normal self, he looked up and asked, "Hey, where's Xander?"

"He left on an important errand, he promised he'd be back in time to kick Glory's butt," Anya answered with enthusiasm.

"That's not good," Willow commented.

"Indeed," Giles commented, as he turned a page.

"Yeah," Buffy said, "I was hoping his soldier persona, could come up with some backup strategies. He's good at that."

"Hey, he's going to be back in time," Anya said, defending her boyfriend.

"Don't worry," Buffybot happily supplied. "Spike will beat up that mean old Hell God. Spike is very strong. Right, Spike?"

Everybody looked at Spike with accusation. "Uh, yeah. Sure," Spike answered self-consciously.

"Warren placed some serious protection in her, probably so she won't short circuit," Willow said frustrated, this was going to take a little longer than expected.

Buffybot answered with a big smile, "Willow is fixing me." She nodded profusely afterwards, as if it would somehow make the statement more true.

"You people have got to listen to this," Spike said, in his usual British drawl. "These days even girls get out of prison for free."

"What!?" all except Anya and Tara answered stunned.

"Yeah, it's going to be up after the commercials, apparently they didn't know she was gone until much later," Spike snickered at a prison not even able to keep in a girl.

Buffy put down the hammer and said, "Turn up the volume."

Spike looked at her for a moment not understanding and then decided to turn up the volume on the little television.

The male anchor returning after commercials started the new item. "This is just in, and it's important for everyone who lives in LA and environs. Faith Williams escaped this morning from an LA prison. We go over to Susanna Morgan on location. Susanna."

"Faith!" Buffy hissed. "Like we don't have enough problems already."

Susanna came into the picture. "Yes, Michael, you're not going to believe this. If anyone wants to know why people think the police are incompetent, stay tuned, this one will go in the books as a classic. This morning, somewhere between four thirty and five thirty am, Faith Williams escaped from the prison behind me. She promptly went into the center of LA and stole a sword from an antique store. I spoke to the owner and he said, and I quote: 'Although the sword isn't old, it's forged somewhere within the last two decades with the most modern of technologies, it is fully battle ready, and razor sharp.' He said, you can easily cut someone's head of with one swipe using that sword."

"Oh, great. That's just peachy," Willow said, looking at the report.

"That's not good," 'Michael' interjected.

"That's not good at all, Michael. But it's only starting to get good," Susanna answered. "You're not going to believe it. Get this, Faith Williams leaves a note, saying she stole the sword and signed it with her own name."

"What!?" Michael interjected in disbelief.

"I told you, you wouldn't believe it," Susanna said. "But it gets better. Now police officers don't have to know every known criminal by name, but they have extensive databases. The police officer in charge checked the name, and found Faith Williams listed as incarcerated. So he figured it was either a coincidence and someone else with the same name committed the crime, or someone just tried to throw the cops off the trail - after all, what criminal leaves a calling card at the scene of a crime. The problem was that the prison didn't know Faith had broken out. They had no indication of any break out at all, so they hadn't reported it, and the police officer thought our lovely Faith Williams was still safely locked up. Of course when prison guards this morning at 7:15 went to check up on everybody and wake up all the incarcerated they found Faith's cell empty. They reported the jail break, and the smarter cops put two and two together, realizing it really <was> the very same Faith Williams who committed the break in."

"My god," Michael said, with a laugh it was just to ridiculous not to. "You have more."

"Much more," Susanna stated with a grin. "Things still haven't hit rock bottom. I had a little talk with a few of the inmates."

"She's weird, when some of the 'people' and use the term loosely, beat up on her, she doesn't defend herself, she just lets them do it. Next morning, not a bruise on her. But when some of the same 'people' beat up on some of the girls who really are people and they have no way to defend themselves she comes to their rescue. I've seen her beat up a whole group of . . . 'women' that were twice her size, and on steroids," one inmate behind a fence was shown saying.

"Yesterday she saved me from some of the gang members, beat them up good to. It got her into solitary confinement. I don't get why she was in here in the first place, or why she would escape," another one stated.

"Some of the guards don't have high praise of her, cooky, nuts and weird are the most common words. Probably because Faith didn't protect herself against whatever punishment they decided to dish out. Seeing as they are under investigation of abusing inmates after an anonymous tip, that isn't very surprising. However I did talk to one guard, who said she couldn't believe Faith would escape, after all she said, that Faith was friendly, greeted her, had conversations with her and that she had turned herself in a little over a year ago and confessed to two murders. I don't know about you, Michael, but this doesn't exactly sound like a stable woman," Susanna said again. "But we're not done yet, I managed to speak to the person in charge of security in the prison, he said, dumbfounded I might add, and I quote, 'She couldn't escape. It's not possible. The door of her cell was still locked, no signs of lock picking or being forced open, and if she had, we would have seen her. There's no way she can walk about inside the prison without a single camera picking her up. The outer wall and its window didn't show any sign of force either and were intact, it's like she just walked through the wall.' So in the end we have a crazy woman and self-confessed killer, who might or might not be able to walk through walls, who couldn't be caught by the cops in the first place, running around LA with a razor sharp, battle-ready sword."

"Thank you, Susanna," Michael said and turned back around facing the screen. "The police have asked that if you have seen Faith Williams . . ." A picture of Faith and a telephone number appeared on the screen, next to him the picture, the number in the lower part. " . . .or have any idea about her whereabouts, please call this number, or your local police station."

"I knew she couldn't be trusted," Buffy hissed angrily.

"I think it better we stay focused on Glory," Giles said, with a grim expression. "We'll worry about Faith later."

*****

Faith ducked back as she saw the report on her escape. She looked around the little cafe, and was relieved when she realized the few people who were there weren't paying attention to the public television. After swallowing a mouthful of the bun, she whispered, "They finally found out."

"Hmm, mm," Raiden answered, smiling and nodding his head. "Better eat up and find a place you can hide."

"I can only hide if someone lets me," Faith whispered to him. Again Raiden nodded. Faith stuffed herself with the rest of her breakfast and left some money - that she luckily found in her pocket again - on the table. Then she walked out.

*****

Several hours later
A little past 12 o'clock

Faith played the arcade game with abandon, being careful not to rip the joystick right out of the machine. The rest of the hall was filled with teenagers skipping classes, (or having a free period, don't want to generalize here), and twenty-somethings on welfare, or too rich to be bothered by a job, all playing games. It was a nice cover, and the cops that Faith had almost walked into wouldn't bother coming in here. And the gamers' eyes would be glued to their respective screen. She really was smart!

Raiden stood next to her looking at the game screen and asked, "Don't you think it's about time to get out of here?"

"Have to hide from the cops, remember?" Faith whispered at him.

Raiden nodded and then pointed out, "That was three hours ago, Faith." Faith stopped steering the joystick, and her character got seriously pummeled.

"You're worried about the meeting, aren't you?" Raiden asked friendly. Faith nodded. "It's just me, but . . . I prefer to do things I worry about quickly, so I no longer have to worry about it. But it's your choice of course," he added. Faith nodded again and after a little hesitation she walked outside, then turned toward Giles house. "Uhm," Raiden interrupted her, and pointed straight ahead of them. "They're that way. In the magic store, Giles bought it."

"Oh," Faith said and crossed the street rapidly, entering the side street.

*****

Faith opened the door to the magic box, not knowing what to say, she decided to go on the Xander Harris tour, "Hi, guys. Am I on time for lunch?" She hopped further into the store and went down the steps, so she couldn't be easily kicked out.

"Faith," several voices said, all laced with rancor. A very angry Buffy advanced on her, holding a very big hammer. Ok, perhaps that was a bad idea. "I'm gonna . . . " Buffy said as she raised the hammer.

Faith raised her hands defensively and backed up, "Ok, it was a bad joke, I admit it." Just then her stomach decided to speak. Faith swallowed with a little fear, Buffy seriously wasn't in the talking mood. "Although I could use lunch," Faith added sheepishly.

"You, bitch," Buffy snarled as Faith tripped over the steps and fell backward on her ass, painfully.

As Buffy was about to let the mallet descend, Faith blurted out, "Hey, I'm on your side." Faith rolled aside of the hammer, that Buffy barely kept from destroying Giles' new store's floor. Buffy swung the hammer at Faith again. "Buffy, I want to help!" Faith - who was back up on her feet - said as she jumped back to avoid the hammer. She was done playing, and on the next descend of the hammer she jumped forward and grabbed Buffy's wrists, keeping her from squashing Faith like a bug. "Listen to me," Faith said angrily. "I don't want to fight you, but I came here to help you fight that hell bitch and that's exactly what I'm going to, even if it means leveling Sunnydale in a fight with you. Got it!?"

"Shut up!" Buffy screamed, wriggling herself free from Faith's grip and jumping back. Instinctively Faith pulled the sword from her coat and held it ready.

"Buffy, stop it," Giles ordered.

"What?!" Buffy exclaimed in surprise, lowering the hammer just a bit.

"Yeah," Willow put in. "Why stop?! I say squash the bitch!"

"I'll go out on a limb here, and say she's another Slayer?" Spike drawled.

"Shut up, Spike!" everybody but Tara, Faith and Anya yelled.

"Hey!" Spike exclaimed indignant, getting up and walking over the counter. "You all told me it didn't concern me who Faith Williams was. Now she's here. I just have to say, 'Ha! You were wrong about that one.'" Spike jumped up and sat down upon the counter and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Shut up, Spike!" Buffy ordered him again, louder and more insistent this time. "Gilles, give me one good reason why shouldn't pound her into the next life."

Giles removed his glasses pensively and asked, "Faith, how do you know about Glory."

"Prophetic dreams, duh!" Faith fumed, here she was to help them out and Buffy was trying to kill her. "I saw the bitch turning Sunnydale into nothing but ashes."

"You're lying, I would have had those dreams as well," Buffy hissed, starting to swing again.

"Buffy!" Giles interrupted her and asked, "Are you telling the truth, Faith?"

"Do you think if just wanted to escape I'd come straight to spook central and the only person on the planet capable of putting me back in jail!?" Faith asked Giles with sneer. "If I really wanted to escape, I would have booked myself a flight to Buenos Aires."

Giles thought for a moment and said, "I think she's telling the truth."

"Thank you," Faith said, relaxing a little.

"But, Giles! I would have dreamt it to," Buffy wined.

"When did you have your last prophetic dream, Buffy?" Giles asked calmly.

Buffy looked at him dumbfounded and she said, "How do I know? I haven't kept track!"

"I have, it's my job," Giles intoned, then said, "The last time you had a prophetic dream was four years ago, before your brush with death."

"What!?" Buffy exclaimed completely confused. "Wait a minute, are you saying that was passed on to Kendra and then to Faith, but I didn't keep that part."

"I'm standing right here you know," Faith interjected indignant as Giles nodded to Buffy.

"So she had prophetic dreams, big deal!" Willow huffed. "What about stealing that sword, huh? I'll bet she can't wait to stab us in the back with it the moment we turn around."

"Yeah!" Buffy pouted.

"I didn't steal it, I borrowed it!" Faith said indignant. "I told the guy in the letter I'd bring it back once I was done with it. And this <sword>, for your information, <Willow>, is 13,000 years old, imbued with magic, and it's one of the very few weapons on the planet capable of harming Glory. So there!"

"Could I have a look at it?" Giles asked intrigued.

Faith looked skeptically at Buffy's hammer, but then decided she had to show them trust, so she handed it over and said, "Sure."

Spike jumped off the counter and said, "I vote she's in."

Anya piped up saying, "So do I, with Giles's that makes it three to two. If I've gotten this democracy right, that means we win." Buffy and Willow glared at her.

"Will you help beat, Glory?" the Buffybot asked happily, not having enough intelligence to fully understand what was going on.

Faith did a double take: there was a second Buffy. "What the . . .?" she muttered.

"Hi, I'm Buffy. Glory has Dawn, she's my sister, and she hurt my Spike. She must pay and we must save Dawn. Right, Spike?" Buffybot continued without losing the smile on her face.

"Ok, what's with the Barby doll here, because that's just plain freaky!" Faith exclaimed, looking at the wires running from the robots head, into Willow's laptop.

Buffy was ready to sink through the floor. She couldn't believe Faith actually got to see the Buffybot. "Spike, had her made," Buffy managed to force across her lips, in the frustration she felt, she wanted rip the three of them into a thousand little pieces. "Willow, please tell me you can change her programming, because there is no way Glory is going to believe that's me."

"I'm almost ready to upload the new programming. She'll still be too perky and some other stuff, but she should be close enough to you to fool Glory for a short while," Willow said with a nervous smile.

"Faith is right," Giles said, and dumped a book on the table. The whole group looked over on the book, a picture of the sword was there. "Although she isn't completely correct, it says here it's about 4,000 years old. It's the first steel sword forged, and bound in magic. It's considered surpassed only by Excalibur. Capable of deflecting most magical and energy attacks. It was used to destroy Deimos, several Akkadian and African gods, Pan . . . and it's the weapon that was used on the Viking Gods, it's the cause of Ragnarok, the Dusk of the Gods. It's name it says here, is Methudei, Akkadian. Loosely translated . . . The Slayer of Gods. That's one hell of a weapon."

"Whoa," Willow said, suddenly jerking away from the sword that Giles held delicately in his hands. Buffy too looked at it with new respect, and looked back Faith, she couldn't quite believe it herself, but she was considering Faith was telling the truth.

Faith trusted the God she'd been talking to a lot more than some crackpot who wrote a book and she said so. "The book's wrong, it's 13,000 years old and the blade is titanium. I guess whoever wrote book didn't know what titanium is."

"Well, I happen to disagree with you there, Faith. I'd like to know what, or who your source is, and why you think it is better than Merlini's Dictionary of Magical Weapons, which has been around for over a thousand years and never been wrong," Giles stated, with some elitism.

Damn! How to put this? Lying would be bad, but if she told the truth, they'd probably accuse her of lying anyway.

"We can prove her wrong easily," Willow huffed and carefully took the sword. She walked behind the counter and retrieved a microscope smugly. She tried to take a little metal from the blade, but nothing came off. "Magic must be protecting it," Willow said, and instead she just held the whole sword underneath, and peered through the microscope. The whole group, except Faith who was confident of the outcome, looked at her with interest.

"Well?" Giles prompted when no answer came from Willow.

A short time later Willow looked up and said, "It's titanium." The whole group turned around to Faith expectantly.

"A god told me," Faith said, not sure how to proceed.

"One of The Powers?" Giles asked, a little skeptical, there were many legends and myths about all types of gods, the Powers Angel had come into contact with though, Giles had never quite trusted them, and their supposed godhood.

Faith thought of how Raiden felt about The Powers. How did she explain this. "Not exactly," she said.

"Gods, schmods," Spike said. "There are like a hundred of them in a can, hate all of them, the good gods and the bad. What I'd like to know is how you managed to avoid the cameras, because Buffy sure as hell can't do it."

"Can too," Buffy said, irritated by the argument they'd been having all morning.

"What cameras?" Faith asked confused.

"The security cameras in the prison, you dolt!" Spike exclaimed irritated. "They've been showing the damn layout on the news all morning, proving they didn't screw up with security. I now Buffy's abilities, and I know she doesn't have the speed and agility to keep from getting spotted. She refuses to accept it. And unless you managed to become twice as fast and agile as Buffy while in prison, I'd like to know what trick you used to keep from getting detected. So I can use it myself should I ever need it!"

"I didn't avoid any cameras," Faith answered not quite knowing what else to answer.

The group looked stunned at her, and then Buffy said, "Then how the hell did you get out of jail."

"Well, you must know the story of Moses and the Red Sea parting?" Faith asked a little defeated. The group nodded. "Now you can add the story of Faith and the prison walls parting," she answered, splitting her hands apart in demonstration. The group looked at her dumbfounded and in disbelief, yet they all were thinking about what if she was telling the truth, after all, she had been until now. "Yeah, right before that, I had a conversation with sentences that were written totally in electricity. Then the walls parted, I jumped down, jumped over the wall, met the guy in person. He pointed me to the sword and told me about it, then sent me on my way here."

Willow asked the question that was on everybody's lips. "So does this god have a name?"

*Ok,* Faith thought, sighing in resignation. *Here goes nothing.* "Raiden, god of thunder and lightning and protector of the planet Earth."

Spike, Willow and Buffy's eyes widened in complete and total disbelief, then shock, and finally fear and then they took a few steps back involuntarily. "Giles, call the cops, quick! She's gone totally off the deep end. She's seeing computer game characters as real life beings now. Tell them to bring the nice white straight jackets, and enough drugs so she won't see the pink, polka-dot flying elephants next," Buffy answered, fearing Faith, she worse enough evil, but a Slayer who was completely bonkers was just a bit too much to handle. Anya looked confused and so did Giles.

"I'm not crazy, damn it!" Faith exclaimed in frustration.

Giles pulled of his glasses and started cleaning them, "I'm not quite certain what you mean with computer game characters, Buffy," Giles said, totally in lecture mode. "But Raiden, the god of thunder and lightning is a Japanese myth. As we've seen other legends and myths come true over the past few years. We shouldn't discount her story outright."

"What!?" Buffy and Willow exclaimed.

"Raiden is real," Anya interjected, nodding her head enthusiastically. "I met him once. I was busy performing one of the most creative vengeance wishes ever, and then . . . poof . . . nothing. Then suddenly he appeared out of nowhere, introduced himself and said the guy didn't deserve what I was going to dish out to him and the consequences for all of humanity would be too great for him to allow me to perform it. Then he sent me on my way and he disappeared."

The whole group, including Faith, excluding Tara, looked at Anya in shock. "Is that true?" Faith asked Raiden, knowing he would be close by.

Anya mistook it for a question to her, and as Raiden appeared, leaning against a book case and telling Faith 'yes', Anya continued. "Yeah, what was the guy's name . . . Oh, yeah! Einstein, Albert Einstein! That was it!"

Willow defended her childhood hero, by blurting out, "I refuse to belief Einstein did anything so bad to a woman that she felt she would have to call upon the vengeance demon of smitten women."

"He didn't really," Anya answered smiling as she remembered. "She was his teacher. He was less then ten years old, he corrected a mistake she made during a public gathering. She was publicly humiliated in front of a large group of people. Now that I'm human and look back on it, I realize it was her own stupid mistake and she was being a real bitch calling upon me to take revenge by having his brains ripped out through his ears."

The group looked her with a mixture of disgust, relief and appreciation, when Faith asked, "Uhm, Giles. Not to be rude, but can I have the sword back? I'm going to need it against Glory and I still have to bring it back later on when I turn myself back in to the cops."

"Ah, yes, of course," Giles answered and gave Faith the sword. "Raiden or the dreams didn't by any chance reveal why we're going to fail, did they?"

"They did. Xander is going to be late, I'm his replacement," Faith answered, only half true. She had a pretty good feeling after the show about her telling them about Raiden, another dose of hard truth was just a bit much. "Where is he anyway?" Faith whispered while Anya exclaimed her disbelief to them.

"No way!" Anya exclaimed in panic. "Xander isn't going to be late. He promised he wouldn't."

Raiden answered with a grin, "In his birth dimension, taking care of something that makes Glory look pathetic."

"He'll be late anyhow," Faith answered and looked around before asking, "So, are you continuing with the killing of me, or am I in?"

Buffy glared daggers at her, but the expression said enough, yes, she was in.

*****

Glory screamed as Willow pierced her head with glowing fingers. Then Willow pulled them out and placed the glowing finger tips against Tara's temple. Tara's expression became more focused and then Willow pulled her behind cover.

Glory tried to balance herself in her daze and saw Buffy standing across from her. "What's the matter, Glory? Mind give you trouble?"

"You bitch," Glory muttered and attacked, Buffy avoided the first hit of a seriously weakened Glory, and smashed her fist into Glory's face. She twisted around Glory, during her next punch and now their positions were reversed. With a sudden burst of speed and a yell of frustration Glory attacked and punched Buffy's head clear off. But there was no blood, only electrical sparks. "What!?" Glory exclaimed then felt pain lancing through her side as something impacted with her and she flew back a few meters. Looking up she saw Buffy standing there, a massive hammer slung across her shoulder.

"Seeing double?" Buffy asked with an smirk. Then ordered Spike to walk up the ringading tower to protect Dawn.

"I'm having a little problem," Spike answered irritated as he was busy fighting a whole hoard of Glory's minions, who were backed up by insane people, Giles at his side and Anya firing cross bow bolts at the demons from behind cover.

Buffy groaned frustrated and attacked, the hammer missed, a kick and a punch connected. She managed to force Glory back a bit, but Buffy got thrown away with just one connecting punch from Glory.

Glory screamed in pain as she felt something pierce her chest, black blood flowed from the wound in between her breasts. Shocked she saw the point of a sword stick out of it. "Not possible," she whispered.

Faith grinned, for a moment thinking they might not need Xander after all, "Nice sword, huh? It's called the Slayer of Gods. What d'ya think?" she taunted and kicked Glory in the back and off her sword.

Glory slumped to the floor and looked around to look at Faith. "Who in all blazes are you?"

"Name's Faith. I'm the Slayer," Faith answered and watched as Glory's eyes widened. "These days, you get two for the price of one. Come to think of it, that kind of makes this sword belonging to the right person, don't you think!?

Buffy, up by now, attacked and let the hammer descend where Glory was. Glory turned around super fast, avoiding the hammer, and punched Buffy in the gut, doubling her over, and making her stagger back in pain. Glory got up and screamed at Faith, "You think you can beat me that easily!"

Faith, to her surprise, noticed the wound was getting smaller, it was happening slowly, but it was happening none the less. *I should have cut off her head, while I had the chance," Faith thought as she avoided one of Glory's blows. She ducked beneath it, and let the sword cut a deep gash on Glory's shoulder. Glory roared in pain and frustration and was about to attack Faith again, but got a hammer in her face for her trouble. She flew back several meters landing beneath the tower.

"Let's finish her off," Faith said and the two of them advanced on the hell god. Glory got up and caught Faith's arm as it swung the sword at her and threw Faith back a few meters. Glory got pummeled by Buffy several times with the hammer, before she managed to connect a weak punch and throw her off her for a moment. By that time Faith was on the attack again, Glory threw a punch she was sure would connect, but Faith had anticipated it and ducked beneath it. She sliced the sword across Glory's belly and side, then as she was behind her stuck it through Glory's back, black blood bubbled out of Glory's mouth. This was it, Faith was ready to finish it. She turned around in a full circle, intending to cut off the god's head and end this once and for all, instead Glory suddenly grabbed Faith's wrists with her left hand and rapidly jabbed her elbow in Faith's side. Pain lanced through a shocked Faith, feeling how two ribs cracked underneath the assault. How could she move so fast?

Glory was as fed up as she was desperate and she put everything she had in her next punch. It connected to Faith's chin and sent her flying high into the air, sword and all. Faith had felt the punch at least bruise her jaw bones. She flew through the air, finally landing in a pile of junk, smashing her head into a metal object. Her vision swam, and her body screamed she should just rest and go to sleep. Faith wouldn't have it, and forced herself awake and sat back up, and was shocked at what she saw in front of her.

Buffy swung the hammer, and Glory ducked beneath the swing, even as blood still came from her slowly closing wounds. She grabbed the handle and then kicked Buffy back viciously. Buffy couldn't hold onto the hammer that was in Glory's steel grip and she landed a few meters further.

"That's it," Glory hissed, walking unbalanced toward Buffy. "Now I have the pleasure of killing you once and for all, Buffy. Your brains are going to make some nice graffiti, I wonder if I could charge people for the work of art." Then Glory heaved the hammer above her. Buffy's eyes widened in fear. Glory aimed at Buffy's head and let the hammer descend rapidly toward Buffy's certain death.

Episode 8
Xander's Arrival

The Final Fight Begins

Author's Notes: From now on I'll be adding information on some songs/music before the episodes if appropriate. I would urge you to find them in mp3 or something, and play them; beware playing the song and then keeping them, without buying the song on single or album is a violation of copyright laws. (Throwing them away after sampling though is not.) Let it not be said I encourage criminal behaviour, whether you want to keep them, illegally or buy the song is your business. When I write I usually have music on, it helps me focus. If I don't have music on, I notice my writing goes a lot slower. It's a tip for all you aspiring writers out there, play music while you're writing - get appropriately themed music, don't have hard rock on when you're trying to write a heart wrenching death scene - and you'll properly find the music drives your writing onward. Now on occasion when I listen to the music I come across a song that really grips me, usually because it fits something I'm writing, or planning on writing that's still a concept in my head so well, that in my mind the song gets locked to the scene/character/whatever. On a very rare occasion I make minor adjustments to the scene so that they interlock even better. Not always does a song stay part of a scene/character, sometimes I hear a new song and it gets replaced, or I realize it fits something else even better. I'll give a quick note when you should start playing the song in the story.

The first: Xander Littica Super Saiyan Level 1 Theme: Rammstein - Wei�s Fleisch. A hard rock song that awesomely fits an energetic battle like this. On top of that, for those of you who know German, check out the lyrics. The song is very sick depiction of probably a rapist's, and/or serial killer's feelings about his next victim. Stretching your imagination you could see it as depiction of lust for somebody else, but then you'd have to see some of the phrases as not literal, but a very overt, and twisted way of depicting things. But the violent explanation of the lyrics is probably exactly the way a Super Saiyan would see his enemy, in this case Glory. A note: if the story would have been on screen, the lyrics would have been ripped out of course, only instrumental, but with a story, the lyrics might actually be good. (If you can strip lyrics from songs, or have the song(s) in instrumental, mail me, please!)

With a flash of light a small pod appeared, hovering above the garden of an apartment building in the outskirts of Sunnydale. It slowly descended down to the ground and landed softly. The wildly spinning energy field that was surrounding it, blinked out and then the hatch opened.

Formerly Alexander Lavelle Harris, now Xander Littica as he saw himself, jumped out of the pod with fear etched on his face. "It's night!" he exclaimed in frustration. "It can't be night! How is that possible!? It should still be day!!"

Xander flew into the air while fear gripped him, wondering if he was too late. *Oh, no! That stupid time chamber!* Xander thought, realizing it could be the only answer. He checked for energy, Glory was still here! Her power level was unmistakable, the gang's energy was right next to her and . . . *Faith!? What's she doing here!?* Since they were still here, that meant the chamber didn't slow down time outside of it alone, or 128 days would have past here. *In order to reach that 365 to 1 ratio it must not just speed up time inside the chamber, but also slow down time outside it. Either that, or since whenever eons ago the damn thing was built it broke, bleeding some of the effect outside, and nobody knows!!* Xander groaned in frustration and blasted off towards his friends.

Barely a minute later Xander saw the tower looming in front of him. After passing the wooden fence that separated the rest of Sunnydale and the area in which the tower stood, he landed on the ground. He was just in time to see Spike being thrown back from the stairs that led up to the tower by Glory's minions and the insane people who were attracted to the interdimensional super hot spot of alignment where the barriers between them would soon fall. Xander raised his hand and blasted them all away one by one. The humans he nicely rendered unconscious, the demons all had a smoking hole in their bodies.

"Bloody hell!" Spike muttered stunned, seeing all the demons he had futilely tried to get past, being dispatched so easily. He looked at where the blasts came from and did a double take when he saw Xander. Giles who was looking on behind cover, trying to put a bolt in his crossbow, didn't say anything: he just looked stunned.

When Spike didn't move, Xander told him irritated, "Get up there and protect Dawn, Spike. That was the plan wasn't it?"

"Right!" he said, and ran up the stairs, not having the time to contemplate Xander's abilities.

"Anya!" Xander called concerned. Anya emerged from behind some junk and looked around.

"XANDER!!" she exclaimed, happily. Seeing the demons were dead she got from behind her cover and ran over to Xander screaming, "Didn't I tell you?! Didn't I tell you he'd be here on time!?"

As Willow and Tara cautiously got up, Giles reset his glasses and said, "Strictly speaking he is not on time, Anya. He is almost a quarter of an hour late." Anya slung her hands around Xander's neck and hugged him close for a moment.

"Y-you did say that," Tara said, in her traditional timid way. She looked at Xander. Was it even Xander? He stood tall, no slouching, no hint of a fool or weakness she had come to expect from him. This was a different Xander. And his clothes, they seemed normal enough; jeans, shirt, open coat, but they were wrong. As much for Xander, as the entire planet. Somehow the color and style schemes did not belong anywhere.

Xander noticed her looking and he looked down at the clothes Bulma had given him. Xander gave a short chuckle and said, "Training day in day out for months, tends to ruin clothes. They gave me these as replacement." When Xander noticed their confusion only grew, he answered as he started walking away, "Explain later. Stay here. I'll help Buffy." Then Xander turned into a blur as he shot forward.

Xander turned around several corners of junk covering the ground, unerringly going toward Buffy's, Faith's and Glory's power signature. He slowed down when he knew he would be able to see them and turned right toward them. His eyes went wide, Glory heaved the hammer above her head, said something about graffiti Xander couldn't quite make out and let the hammer come down rapidly.

*****

Glory's eyes were fixed on Buffy, an evil grin contorted her face as she gleefully smashed the hammer downward. Finally that pain-in-the-ass-Slayer would be out of the way, then she could take care of that second one, and then it would be on toward home. The hammer descended rapidly . . . and then stopped. Glory's eyes widened in surprise as she kept them focused on Buffy, whose eyes were going from fear, to relief, to stunned surprise. Glory yanked, trying to get the hammer to smash the annoying Slayer's brains in, but the hammer didn't budge a millimeter. It was like it was caught inside an impenetrable force field. Glory looked up diagonally, following her arms. There was the beginning of the hammer's handle, then came her hands holding it. *So far so good.* More handle. *Good.* A right hand. *Goo- A right hand?* She followed the hand, to a wrist, a right arm, right shoulder and finally a face. The black-haired guy she'd seen with the Slayer a couple of times.

"Sorry, bitch," the guy said, and yanked the hammer out of her grip without any effort at all. Glory turned toward him in surprise and saw him switch the hammer to his left hand with the same amount of effort, then his right hand grabbed her by her neck. He continued, "But we really can't use you here right now." Then he just threw her away - like she was a pesky annoyance, an insect you swatted aside - high through the air. As Glory flew, tumbling end over end, right across the wooden fence surrounding the tower - some of the blood still coming out of her healing, and much smaller wounds, splattered in her face - one thought raced through her mind, *That bastard is going to pay. As soon as I get some neural energy and I'm back at full power, he's going to pay dearly.*

*****

"You alright?" Xander asked, extending his right hand to Buffy. The confused Slayer took it and got up.

"Where were you Xander? We needed you," Buffy accused. She had gone through so much of a roller coaster in the past minutes that she forgot about Xander's impressive demonstration of strength.

"It's a long st-" Xander started when he was interrupted by an odd sound, a mixture between a scrape and a metallic clang. Both Buffy and him turned toward it and saw Faith crawling across the floor toward them, the sword clutched in her right hand, clanging and dragging on the floor when she moved it. Her determination not to let unconsciousness claim her had gotten her this far, on all fours.

She looked up. "Oooh, Xander," Faith said, her voice sounded almost drunk, but was happy, and completely dislocated from time and place. In short, it sounded very bad. "I guess that means: mission accomplished. Going bye, bye now. See you later." Then Faith's hands and feet gave away beneath her and with a thud dropped on the ground unconscious.

*That's one tenacious Slayer,* Xander thought, admiring how she wouldn't give up while they had needed her, being proud of her for it. He asked Buffy, "What's she doing here!?"

Just as Buffy was about to answer they heard a decidingly British voice scream, "BLOODY HELL!" right before they saw the owner, one William the Bloody, aka Spike, smash into the floor a distance off.

Buffy eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Dawn!!" Then she ran off. Xander looked after her for a moment, then bent over and put the sword in his left hand, so that he was holding both the magical weapons. Then he gently picked up Faith with his right hand and slung her over his shoulder as delicately as he could. He started to jog back toward where he came from, he was too afraid Faith couldn't handle any rapid accelerations to go any faster.

When he reached the group, now joined by a groggy Spike, he gently threw the weapons in front of Giles. "Take care of them, Giles. If they can hurt Glory as much as I've seen, I don't want a demon to go off with them."

Giles nodded and asked, "Is Gl-"

"No," Xander cut him off harshly and gently put Faith to the floor. "Tara, Willow, Anya. See what you can do for her, perhaps some healing magic if you know any. I felt some broken ribs, but her head injuries are what you should concentrate on. She sounded really bad before her lights went out." Willow stalked toward him and was about to protest against helping the girl who had dared to turn against them, kill people and try to kill Angel. Xander stopped her with a glare, and chastised she knelt down, joining Tara who wasn't the kind of person to judge and was already there examining Faith. Anya walked forward intending to help them, when they were all startled by a loud noise. They looked up and saw the blue opening that signaled the barriers beginning to drop. The unthinkable had happened, several nasty looking creatures came forth from the portal.

Willow stood up in shock and unthinking walked a little forward. Anya quickly joined Xander and held onto his arm fearfully. "Damn," Xander muttered and was about to fly off and do something about the portal when he saw the disaster occurring. The tower - built by a couple of insane people influenced to do it by some complicated hyper dimensional physics as a result of the time drawing near of the possibility for the rip in the fabric of dimensions being opened - wasn't the sturdiest construction built; the sudden stress of a hole in the fabric of space nearby caused stones, rocks and a few metal support beams to drop down, directly on top of them. Unable to let his friends just die, Xander stayed looking up with determination. He felt Anya push and looked surprised at her, but didn't let the push effect him. He smiled at her, grateful for the sacrifice she was willing to make, and lifted his hand above his head. Blasting the debris would cause pieces of it to fly anywhere and possibly hurt someone, so he couldn't do that. "What did you do that for?" Xander asked Anya as he formed a chi shield around his friends and the innocent psychiatric cases still lying unconscious nearby. The debris bounced harmlessly off the shield and further down to the ground.

"Bloody hell!" Spike exclaimed his favorite curse.

Before others could exclaim similar expressions of disbelief, Xander - who was still looking up - said, "What's Buffy doing?" He could just go up and ask, but dread at something he knew in the back of his mind that just wouldn't form, kept him grounded, trying to figure out the mystery.

Willow looked up with a confident smile at what held Xander so captivated. "She's probably trying to find a way to close the rip."

"Yeah," Xander said, continuing to look up, the fearful thing still wouldn't form. "Than why does it look like she's saying goodbye to Dawn, really goodbye. I thought she was pretty adamant about not killing her."

"I don't know," Willow answered uncertain. Giles and Spike drew closer to Xander and looked up at well.

*Oh, my god!* She couldn't be thinking about doing what Xander thought she was thinking about doing. "Didn't you say something about Buffy mixing blood with Dawn a couple of months back!?" Xander asked. Buffy just couldn't be doing it, the utter horror and total incredibility of the concept still kept Xander nailed to the floor.

"Yeah, when Dawn had her identity crisis and Buffy wanted to dispel it," Willow answered confused.

"That means, per Spike's explanation here, Buffy's got some of the Key inside of her," Xander said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to Spike, while he still looked up at Buffy and Dawn.

"So!?" Willow asked.

"So what do you do, if you have an unlocked lock, a key and you want to lock it?" Xander asked rhetorically.

"You put in the key and turn it," Giles cut in with a tone that said, 'obviously'.

Willow looked at Giles for a moment before understanding dawned on her, "You don't think she'll . . ."

"Yep," Xander said, and pointed upward at Buffy, who took a running start and jumped. Now that everything was clear, there was nothing fearful about it anymore. Nothing he couldn't handle. Xander burst into the air, avoided the portal with a part circle, grabbed Buffy at the collar of her clothes and flew up on the tower.

"Xander, no!" Buffy exclaimed in frustration, she had to make the jump. Her death was her gift! It would close the portal, but Xander would hear nothing of it. Buffy quickly realized that her struggles were futile, and then she felt herself flying through the air. Xander pressed for time had thrown her, gently, clear over Dawn and she landed butt first, a little painfully, on the square grating the stairs ended on, a bit dizzy at all the rapid changes in direction.

Xander walked briskly and purposefully to a tearful Dawn and he said gently, "Don't have time to explain. You trust me, don't you Dawnie?" Dawn nodded and managed a sobbing yes, he was Xander, the guy she had secretly had a crush on for quite a while, of course she would trust him. "Grab my shoulders and steel yourself. This is going to hurt, a lot." Dawn did so. Finally someone who would do what was necessary. She still couldn't believe Buffy had been going to kill herself. Dawn was the ball of energy turned human. She would have to die, not the protector of all human kind. Then Dawn pulled herself together, determined to take death like a man, so to sexistically speak. Xander ripped the bloody blouse, that was covering her wounds apart, placed his hands above the wounds, and let energy burst forth. Dawn screamed.

Buffy recovered from her dizziness and watched in horror as Xander's hands glowed, followed by a horrifying sizzled and crackling sound of energy and Dawn's earsplitting scream of raw pain. Buffy's horror increased, nailing her to the grating as she saw Dawn jerk as if she was being shot by a machine gun, and it seemed as if Xander was methodically cutting out pieces of flesh. Xander stopped and Dawn sagged to her knees and in Xander's hands like a rag doll. The sizzling rip in space and time behind them shrank and winked out of existence. Blind fury gripped Buffy and she stood up and ran at Xander screaming, as tears sprang from her eyes, "YOU KILLED MY SISTER!!!"

Xander looked up and saw Buffy running faster then she had ever done before, right arm pulled back, ready to deliver punch unlike she had ever thrown before. Faster and more powerful than ever the fist came flying, if Xander had been Spike her fist would have smashed straight through his head and splattered his brains out the back of it. Xander calmly raised his left hand and caught the punch and stopped Buffy dead in her tracks.

"Buffy," Dawn croaked out weakly. Buffy looked down at her sister in astonishment. Xander let go of the arm that suddenly lost all its strength.

"Dawn?" Buffy managed, disbelieving. Xander pulled the ripped blouse apart and showed Buffy hideously black crusts that covered Dawn's former wounds.

"The ritual stated the portal would stay open until Dawn's blood stopped flowing, meaning she stops bleeding. I found it rather odd, everybody went on about Dawn having to die. You don't have to die in order to stop bleeding," Xander explained calmly. "I burned her wounds closed." Buffy's eyes teared up, she knelt down and took Dawn in a fierce hug, causing Dawn to wince in pain. Buffy cried and looking up at Xander with a grateful look.

"Uh, still need to breathe here, big sister," Dawn said weakly. Buffy loosened her grip, looked at her little sister and gave a laugh, smiling and crying at the same time.

Xander suddenly looked a little astonished down towards Dawn. "What is it?" Buffy asked concerned when she caught his look. Dawn looked up at Xander. She had no fear, just trust and expecting an explanation.

"You know, squirt," Xander began with a face that slowly turned into a smile. "You always had an odd buzz around you. It just left. No more Key, just Dawn from now on." Xander smiled down at Dawn and stroked her hair gently. Buffy laughed heartily, releasing a whole army of pent up worries and frustrations. Everything seemed peaceful . . . until a loud crash caught everyone's attention.

"THAT'S IT!!!" Glory screamed hysterically. Pieces of wood which had been part of the fence where she had crashed right through it, were tumbling through the air around her. Her wounds were gone, and there was no waver, or imbalance in her movements. Obviously she had found a new donor for neural energy. "NOW YOU'VE EVEN CLOSED MY ONLY WAY HOME!!" she screamed again, this time pointing a finger at Xander. "YOU WILL PAY, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!"

"No!" Buffy muttered in fear as she saw Glory blasted up the stairs as nothing but a blur. To her surprise, Xander moved around her and Dawn as nothing but a blur also, and stopped Glory at the top of the stairs, a whitish halo that looked a bit like a flame surrounded him.

Glory was shocked, she had moved so fast nobody should have been able to see more than blur, let alone make the five steps necessary to move from where he stood to where he was right now. Nobody should even be thinking about stopping her in her tracks - she should have barreled right through anything like a giant truck. But here he was, the black haired guy, right in front of her and not budging an inch. She looked in his eyes, and the look of cold determined, hateful fury rattled her for a moment. The white energy field she was looking through didn't help any. She felt herself lifted of her feet by the collar of her robe and then thrown up in the air just a little bit. Too surprised to do anything she saw the man point his hands at her and with a short scream unleashed a powerful white beam of energy.

Xander followed the beam of energy he had shot along its trajectory for a moment. "Is she dead?" Dawn asked hopefully from underneath Buffy's protective embrace. Her eyes were a little dreamy as she looked at him. She didn't care about where all of Xander's power came from, if he had been her hero before, he was it even more now.

Xander turned to look at her and her sister, who looked at him with a mixture of surprise and fear. He gave them a calming smile and said, "No." Xander had realized Glory had a lot more power than she had let on until now. The anger she had toward him had made her unleash some of it. Xander wondered why she hadn't unleashed it earlier, she probably would have killed Buffy instantly and rid herself of all the troubles she had caused. "If I had fought her here for real, you guys . . . and innocent bystanders . . ." Xander looked at the houses further away from the tower for a moment. ". . . would probably have gotten killed. I just sent her toward the desert. She should land there in not too long a while . . . unless she turns into Ben first, than we're rid of her quite effectively."

Buffy got up and helped Dawn do the same. They walked over to Xander and he gave Dawn a big smile. He reached over and rummaged through her hair as he said, "So, Dawnie, ready for a trip to the hospital? Those wounds of yours probably need a whole lot of cleaning and stitching."

Dawn looked down at her stomach for a moment, looked back up and said with a smile, "Yeah."

"I'll fly her and Faith over to the hospital and meet you guys there, okay? Explanations come later, we don't have time for them with that hell bitch still around," Xander said to Buffy.

"Okay," Buffy answered with a skeptical tone and watched as Xander gently took Dawn in his right arm as she held onto his shoulders and he moved down toward the rest of the Scooby Gang. Then she started walking down the stairs.

Xander landed just in time for Faith to groggily come to. "We've done what we can," Tara explained with a nervous smile to Xander. "I think her head is just fine now, but I'd feel better if a real doctor took a look at it, and there are still her ribs."

Xander nodded. "How?" Giles asked, looking from a living Dawn, to the place where the portal was a minute earlier.

"Death isn't the only thing that stops somebody from bleeding. Closing the wounds will do just fine," Xander said, Dawn pulled her blouse aside, showing the black crusts. "I'll take Faith and Dawn to the hospital and meet you guys there. Flying will be faster and less bumpy. Oh, and bring as many of the head cases as you can. They're going to need their psychiatrists probably more than they do now." Xander saw them nod and Giles start to ask something. Xander understanding held up his empty left hand in a 'halt' signal and said, "I'll explain everything later, but right now Glory is still out there and we can't afford any delays."

"She's still not dead?" Willow asked rhetorically and watched as Xander shook his head and gestured to Faith to join him.

Faith, who had confusedly listened to the conversation until now, got up, wincing at the pain in her broken ribs and asked, "Flying?"

"Just trust me, Faith, and hold on like Dawn is doing," Xander said, and waited until Faith did what he said with an occasional wince. Then Xander took into the air, gentle at first, and then slowly sped up.

*****

Glory flew through the air completely stunned, her rage boiling slowly to the point of explosion. After a while the energy beam that had been propelling her dissipated.

"That insignificant asshole . . . I'm gon-. No, not now!" Glory muttered dangerously. She was just about ready to do something about her situation, when she transformed into Ben.

Ben felt cold. Then shockingly he became aware he didn't feel any ground anywhere beneath him. He looked around and finally hesitantly down and screamed in fear.

*****

Xander's Birth Dimension

A rip in time was like a solar flare in pitch black empty space to the Z fighters' sensitive senses. Not much later they arrived in the middle of Northern City and found chaos. A vehicle they didn't recognize was crashed into a building and was stuck there. They didn't sense anyone alive in it, so either whoever was in it had died or had gotten out already.

Several beings that were obviously not from this Earth looked around surprised, shocked and stunned. Several others that came flying out of the large blue hole that was getting bigger by the second were not souled beings, their utter blackness and insidiousness made the Z warriors recoil.

"Demons," Yamcha exclaimed and blew one up with an energy ball. The others followed suit with the other demons.

"Just like Littica warned us," Tien said as he blew another demon up.

Another demon came through, this one completely different, on foot completely deep purple with golden eyes and it fired an energy ball at one of the souled beings that had come through earlier. It seemed that the alien knew how to handle one of those demons for it avoided the ball of energy, attacked swiftly, pulling a sword from a scabbard and stabbing the demon through the torso. The man pulled the sword out and proceeded with chopping the demon's head off. The demon's body dropped to the floor and stayed there as the head bounced on the floor a few times.

Another demon came through, this one green and wiry, jumping around and moving like a very fast insect. Gohan was faster and smashed a fist in its stomach. The demon doubled over, hissing in pain. With punch to the creature's face it flew back where a newly arrived companion kept it from flying back into the rip in space and time. "Masenko-ha!" Gohan screamed and let a powerful wide beam of energy loose on the demons who disintegrated on contact.

"Man!" Krillin exclaimed in frustration, as he dispatched another demon. It seemed whole armies were coming from the rip in space and time. The alien with the sword was hacking and slashing away at the monsters, protecting the other aliens, who were of a completely different race and probably dimension, and were too frozen in fear and shock to do anything. "There's no end to these things. Littica better close the damn thing at the source."

Then a leg came through the - by now - giant hole. It was easily fifteen meters in length and slowly a giant grey and light blue massive being came forth, roaring in fury and pain. It had apparently had a rough ride and it was agitated. It smashed a fist through the a side of a building and the pieces flew everywhere. Luckily it was only a corner, probably not killing anyone inside when it did so.

The Z fighters and anyone else nearby looked on in dread and shock at the monster, which was the size of an apartment building. The guy with the sword then put it away and started ushering the other aliens and anyone else out of the way and off the street.

"Holy crap!" Krillin exclaimed wide-eyed in shock. "And it isn't even a demon. It's like a dinosaur, only its power level is much higher." The monster proved Krillin's statement by firing powerful red beams from its eyes and destroying a large piece of the street and anyone in the blast's vicinity.

"We've got to calm it down and release it in the wild somewhere!" Gohan called loudly, hoping they had a suggestion.

Piccolo grumbled and answered grimly, "We can't calm it down enough before it kills half the city's population. We have no other choice."

The five of them looked stricken for a moment then their faces resolved, and powerful energy beams formed at their hands. "I'm sorry, Big Fella," Gohan answered as they let their energy waves fly.

"Why do I have the strange feeling we're forgetting something?" Krillin' called out just before their energy beams hit the monster. A powerful explosion followed and the beast went along with it, great and small chunks of meat flew all over the place splattering against the tall buildings or falling on the floor. "Oh, that's right an umbrella!" he added. Krillin looked and the cloud of extremely smelly meat - that was unavoidable if they wanted to stay there and take out as many demons coming out of the rupture as they could - rapidly caught up with them. They flared up their ki to keep the horrible, smelling meat from touching them. The alien fighter apparently didn't have that ability because he got showered with the meat.

"I sure hope this city doesn't get its revenue from tourism," Yamcha observed. "This stuff is going to drive tourists away for a long time to come. Its stench is unbearable."

"And it isn't even rotting yet," Tien added for good measure.

The rip started rumbling, violent electrical discharges came from it. The planet shook somewhat under the onslaught. "Now what?" Piccolo grumbled. Suddenly without warning the rip shrank and disappeared.

"Alright!" Krillin' exclaimed! "I guess Littica and his friends managed to close the rip from their side!"

"Yeah," Gohan agreed, joining the other Z fighters in the air for a quick strategy meeting. "Let's take out the remaining demons, and then see what we can do for our just arrived inter-dimensional travelers."

"All right," Yamcha called. "Let's do it!"

*****

Sunnydale hospital
3 AM

"So, Faith. Why <were> you here?" Xander asked as he watched a nurse dress Faith's ribs with utmost care.

"Keeping her busy, until you arrived," Faith answered, wincing now and then as the nurse tightened the bandages.

"So how did you know I was going to be late?" Xander asked, leaning leisurely against a wall, arms folded over his chest. The nurse finished the dressing, ushered both of them out of the room - making way for any other injured people - after Faith put her shirt back on, and pointed them toward the waiting area. Faith and Xander slowly walked down the hall.

"A god told me," Faith answered looking down at the ground, a little nervous.

"One of the Powers That Be, huh?" Xander sneered. "I don't like them or any other god. I heard Willow go on all excited about Angel's little redemption prophecy. I've been keeping prophecies coming true ever since Buffy came here. Seems more like a bone they're dangling in front of him, and it's not like they've done anything to help us at all."

"I do too, but this god isn't one of the Powers That Be. He's much more powerful, straight up, no lies, cryptic messages, demands for worship, or any empty promises. I think he really has the best for all of us as his main interests. The guy even said it was a healthy attitude distrusting any god, including him. I should come to my own conclusions, and decide my own destiny, he said," Faith answered with a form of desperation in her voice. She really didn't want to disappoint him. She just met up with him again, and thinking she was letting him down again was a horrible concept to her.

"Hmm," Xander mused and said nothing as they sat down in the waiting chamber for someone to come tell her Dawn's treatments were done and the rest of the gang to arrive.

"So . . . what's up with the sudden super Xander thing?" Faith asked, not quite knowing how to bring up the subject and eventually settling on blunt.

Xander smirked at her and said, "I've always been very powerful. Just couldn't quite let anyone know, so I took on the fool Alexander Lavelle Harris gig." Xander then leant over and whispered in Faith's ear, sending chills of excitement and euphoria through the Slayer. *He still likes me!* shot through her head. "I'm not even human you know. I'm an alien from another planet and dimension. Couldn't quite have the government drag me off to Area 51 and cut me into little pieces. Not to mention hiding from potential pursuers." Xander sat back and smiled warmly at Faith. There were very few times that he wished he had broken cover, and most of them involved Faith: if only he had thrown her off him before Angel intervened and talked to her himself, if only he had just whisked her away from Sunnydale after vaporizing the Mayor's ass, if only he had just flown to her right after she came out of a coma, if only . . . if only . . . Faith was one big regret, the one person who had really needed his help, and he had refrained from giving it to her. But she had gotten herself out of trouble and successfully rehabilitated herself. It filled him with a sense of brotherly pride. "But all of that is a very long story, and once Dawn's treatments are done, I've got a hell bitch to grind to dust, so there is no time for long stories . . . besides, I have to explain everything to the rest of the gang as well, and I really don't want to tell the entire story twice."

"Ok," Faith answered happily and smiling, the fact that Xander smiled at her and didn't seem to hold any grudges was more then enough for her.

Xander smiled back at Faith until a familiar high pitched voice interrupted him hysterically. "Where's Dawn?" Buffy shrieked, fearing the worst as she arrived at the hospital, dumping one of the insane people rather unceremoniously and carelessly against the main check-in counter. Behind her Willow and Tara carried an insane woman, still unconscious - apparently influenced by a mystical convergence combined with Xander's stun blast took a lot out of them - with some difficulty and were forced to explain to the nurse behind the counter. Giles, Anya and Spike followed behind them, the men bringing another one of Glory's victims.

"Relax, Buffy," Xander said, gesturing for her to calm down with his hands. "They're disinfecting her wounds. Can't exactly do that in an un-disinfected room, with un-disinfected people around, now can you?" Buffy visibly relaxed and was soon joined by the others, Anya sitting down on Xander's lap and kissing him passionately.

When she broke away, she said to the others, "My hero! . . . Well, our hero, but you don't get to kiss him, he's my fiance."

"Fiance!?" the others exclaimed astonished.

Anya nodded happily as Xander answered, "I proposed last night." Anya grabbed in one of her pockets, retrieved her ring and put it on. Proudly showing it to the others.

"This was the right time right?" Anya asked Xander after she frowned, and thought about Xander's 'the right time'-speech of last night.

"You could have waited for Dawn to get here, but yeah," Xander said, and gave Anya a quick kiss after she 'oopsed' embarrassedly.

"Congratulations," Tara, always the practical one said and shook the both of their hands, while the others still looked stunned. Then the others followed suit, except Spike of course, who just mumbled something congratulatory as he leaned against a white support pillar.

"We'll have a party too," Anya said, nodding her head in enthusiasm. "Day after tomorrow, I expect presents." The gang looked at her astonished and a little insulted.

"That's not good, Anya," Xander said calmly, tightening his arms around her a little, showing his love for her.

"It isn't?" Anya answered like a hurt puppy.

"Uh, uh," Xander said, turned her a little so he looked her in the face. "The way you say you expect presents is rude. You don't do that. That way you also will never get any presents, you're basically forcing them to buy something for you, and then you don't get gifts or presents but demands. Trust me, you don't like the difference. Gifts, the word says it, need to be given, because the people who give it like you enough to get them for you. The important part of gifts is not getting them, but that people who love you give them to you, showing they care for you."

Anya thought over Xander's words for a fraction of a second, and got extremely embarrassed as she realized Xander was completely right. "I'm sorry," she said, looking deeply apologetic at the rest of the gang, and blushed for the first time since she became human. "You don't have to buy us gifts, although I'd love to get them."

The gang looked a little uncertain, not quite knowing what to say. Then Giles decided to change the subject to get everyone off the hook. "Xander, would you mind explaining where you learned how to fly . . . and the rest."

Xander grinned up at him, then stood up gently, scooping Anya off his lap and setting her on the floor, and he turned toward a hallway and just waited. Everybody looked the way he was looking. Just as they were about to ask what was going on, a nurse wheeled in Dawn. Buffy's eyes widened with concern and was at her sister's side in a second. "Is something wrong, Dawn?"

"No," Dawn answered irritated, and slowly got up from the wheelchair. "It's a stupid tradition; wheel your patients to the front lobby. One TV show shows it, and now every hospital in the whole wide world has to do it."

"Do you re- . . .?"

Dawn cut the nurse off with a deep sighing, "Yes." She sighed again in frustration and continued, "I heard, and understood you people the first million times."

The nurse smiled and give a short chuckle, folded the wheelchair and said, "All right, you all have a nice day . . . night . . . whatever you want." Then she turned around and walked the way she came.

"What did you understand?" Buffy asked her sister, eyeing her with concern.

"Oh," Dawn said and pulled a paper and a tube from her pocket. "They gave me this subscription in case the tube runs out. My bandages have to be changed twice a day and then this disinfecting ointment has to be put on."

"Look," Anya said, raising her hand and showing the ring to Dawn.

Dawn looked at the ring for a second, before saying, "You guys got engaged!?"

"Yes," Anya answered with a wide smile.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Dawn exclaimed with a big smile

"Thanks," Xander said grinning. "So you're alright, Dawn?" Dawn nodded. "In that case, I'm going to find Glory and finish her off," Xander said, as a smirk of deadly delight formed on his face.

"Are you certain she's still alive?" Faith asked suddenly. She had kept quiet all through the arrival and talk of the 'Scooby Gang', with the exception of giving Anya and Xander her congratulations. She had been a little afraid of how the gang would react now that the danger was over and they didn't need her anymore, but it seemed the danger wasn't entirely over and they were more pre-occupied with Xander's stunning abilities.

"Actually no," Xander answered in stopping for a moment, "I don't feel her power, that can mean two things: either Ben made a big smacker and their dead, or she's just Ben. . ."

*****

Ben soared through the sky, straight down and about to be reduced to an unidentifiable pile of meat and crunched bone. Ben was praying to a higher power in desperation: namely Glory. "Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh please. Take over, come on, Glory, take over," Ben desperately exclaimed. His fear overwhelmed him and he receded into his mind in defense, going into a shock-like or catatonic-like condition. In his receded condition, Glory automatically came to the front and Ben morphed into her.

Glory opened her eyes and only saw pitch blackness, with an occasional refraction of light off of a reflective surface from the stars. The realization hit her that she only saw ground. Then she smacked into it, upturning a good quantity of dust and sand and creating a small crater. The sudden, totally unexpected impact on her body caused her to slip into unconsciousness, and when Glory was unconscious, Ben was would become conscious, and so Glory morphed back into Ben.

*****

". . . wait!" Xander exclaimed, then grinned dangerously. "Scratch that, she's definitely still alive. You guys go home, get some sleep. We'll talk afterwards." Then he bolted out the door and blasted off in the general direction he felt Glory's power spike for a moment just before.

"We have to follow him, he's going up against a god. He'll need help," Buffy blurted out, concerned for her friend, who she partly still saw as the good friend who couldn't knock a dent in a pack of butter. "If we take Giles' and Spike's cars, maybe we can catch up."

"Well, I disagree, pet," Spike drawled. "From what I see, we would just be in his way."

"We're going, and you're driving," Buffy stated with absolute authority.

"And I'm coming too," Dawn piped up. She was fed up with being not present during the fighting all the time as it was, but she would be there and potentially help out when the bitch and bastard who had made her life hell for the past year went down.

"No, Dawn, you're injured a-," Buffy started, trying to veto her little sister with her big sister veto rights.

"Uh, uh, Buffy," Dawn interrupted her, folding her hands across her chest in defiance. "I'm coming and that's it. The only way you can keep me away, is if you knock me out, and I think she's going to have a problem with that." Dawn pointed to the nurse behind the counter with her index finger and looked smugly at Buffy.

As the rest of the group looked at the interchange between the Slayer, Spike and later Dawn in silence, unwilling to get in between the fighting threesome for fear of physical injury, Buffy tried to come up with a solution and found none. "Fine," Buffy said with resignation, and Dawn smiled at her smugly.

"And I'm still sure as hell not going," Spike said with determination and started to walk away.

Buffy whirled around, her instinct was to give Spike a good smack in the head, but she remembered Dawn's little argument; the woman behind the counter had the power to dispatch the entire Sunnydale PD with the push of a button. Buffy grabbed Spike's balls and squeezed, shielding what she was doing with her body. "You're going," she hissed angrily, emphasizing by squeezing harder. Giles winced sympathetically; Spike was evil, but not even he deserved that. Subconsciously he felt if his genitals were still alright.

"Ok," Spike managed to sputter out. When Buffy let go, he doubled over and exclaimed, "BLOODY HELL!!" The nurse was startled for a moment, but quickly resumed reading her book, nothing special about a curse from a guy who accidentally hurt his groin, she never considered one of his 'friends' would intentionally hurt him. Spike proceeded with rubbing his balls, futilely trying to alleviate the pain. Weakly he followed the rest of the group out of the hospital.

A short moment later a doctor arrived at the counter and saw the group leave the hospital. He was about to ask what he came to ask, but switched, "Isn't that the girl who was on the news?"

"Don't know, was sleeping all day, haven't seen the news," the nurse answered looking up at the doctor.

"Come on, you must have heard about it: the jail break," the doctor urged, concerned they just let a brutal killer walk out of here.

"Oh, that," the nurse said and thought for a moment. "Can't be, that woman on the news didn't seem stupid and coming back to the town she committed her crimes in is stupid. And if she was that stupid, the police must have been ready for her to try it and then they would have caught her already."

"Yeah, you're right," the doctor answered and proceeded with what he came for in the first place.

*****

A few minutes later in Giles's car on a forgotten desert road, they realised Xander was long gone and they had no idea in what direction he had gone. "I have an idea," Willow said. "Giles, do you have a map in here."

"Yes. Buffy," Giles answered pointing at a small compartment in front of Buffy who sat in the passenger seat. She opened it and got out the map after some rummaging, and gave it to Willow.

Willow folded it open and said, "I need a crystal, preferably on a neckless, something to fo-"

Tara, who had already figured out what Willow was planning, took off her neckless which held a crystal and interrupted Willow by giving it to her and smiling. "Perfect, I knew I kept you as a girlfriend for something," Willow said grinning and held the crystal above the map.

Tara said grinning back. "And here I thought you kept me for the wild fantastic sex. I feel insulted." The two witches giggled in amusement.

"Please, quit the Anya impersonation, will you?" Buffy asked smiling. "One couple I know every dirty secret of is enough." The girls laughed together.

"Oh, brother," Giles whispered and thought, *I never thought I'd miss Xander and his stupid jokes. Let's hope hell really did freeze over.*

"I'll need your help for this, Tara," Willow said when she managed to stop her giggling. Tara nodded and they clasped one of their hands together. Willow gently let the crystal circle and then started reciting a spell, "Gentle Xiara, help we need. Two people are lost to us, Ben and Glory. The direction we need is foggy, lift the veil and let us see." The crystal was yanked down to a place on the map and then Willow and Tara pointed in a direction and said simultaneously, "That way!"

Giles turned into the direction the witches pointed in and looked in the rear view mirror to see if Spike followed them.

"So this works on Ben and Glory?" Buffy asked Willow.

Willow nodded as she answered, "Yes, it doesn't matter which one is dominant now. Why?"

Buffy answered, "Then if we get lucky, Glory has turned back into Ben and we can catch up to Xander. Step on it, Giles!"

*****

Ben stumbled through the lush sand in the direction of LA. The lighter sky due east allowed him to find his direction. He hated Glory, he hated everything about her. Now she had gotten him stuck in the desert with morning, and with it burning heat, fast approaching.

Suddenly out of nowhere, the sand about ten meters in front of him burst up in the air and moved outward from the center position. He looked astonished and noticed someone was standing there with his hands folded across his chest. He looked closer and as the dust slowly settled he recognized him. It was one of Buffy's friends, what was his name . . . Xander?

"Well, well. What have we here?" Xander said darkly. "A nice bug for me to crush." Xander pointed his right hand at Ben, palm open and an energy ball formed in his hand. "I was hoping to smash Glory's skull in, but you'll do just fine."

"I didn't do anything! I didn't have a choice! I'm just an innocent human being," Ben stammered, trying every gesture he knew to try and make the guy believe he didn't need to be killed.

Xander grinned as he told him, "Do I look like I care?"

At that moment two cars loomed up over the hillside about twenty meters behind Xander and he looked back for a moment recognizing Giles' red, and Spike's black cars. Xander frowned, turned back toward Ben and let the energy ball fly.

"My god," Buffy said, looking through the window and seeing Xander fire an energy ball directly at Ben with all the casualness of going shopping. "Ben is just a human being, he can't kill him."

As Giles stopped the car and the ball exploded, he answered calmly, "I would kill him too." Buffy looked at him in horror before getting out of the car with the rest of them. The dust of the explosion settled, but instead of the charred pieces of flesh everyone was expecting there was only an unharmed Glory. The scooby gang all looked at her in dread.

Glory sputtered and waved her hand to get the sand out of her face. After crunching a few more grains of sand between her teeth, she continued sputtering and using her hand to try and get the sand out of her mouth. Glory spit again and exclaimed, "Yuck."

"The weapons are in the trunk. Right, Giles?" Buffy asked, ready to get the god slaying weapons. Giles nodded.

"Stay out of this," Xander commanded, his voice sounding demanding at the same time, stopping Buffy dead in her tracks. Spike, Willow and Anya who joined the first group, looked just as startled as Buffy, even though they had seen Xander turn around and they could expect him to say something. "I told you to go home, since you disobeyed and came here you can stay and watch, but that's all you're going to do." The Scooby Gang looked at Xander with surprise and shock, and they stayed put.

"So," Xander said to Glory, as he turned back toward her. "It seems I'm going to have the pleasure of finishing you off personally after all." A smirk crept up his face with grim determination.

Glory looked up at the sound of Xander's voice, finally stopping to try and get all the sand out of her mouth. "YOU!!" she screamed hysterically and attacked, turning into nothing but a blur as she threw a punch at Xander. Xander blocked it easily with his left arm, then with a quick yell a whitish blue, see-through halo of energy formed around him and he punched Glory in the gut with his right hand, doubling her over. He followed up with a left hook that sent Glroy sprawling several meters across the desert floor.

Xander flew at her turning into a stretched blur himself. Suddenly a deep purple chi flame surround Glory and using her hands for support and leverages she kicked out her bare feet - Ben had lost the shoes in flight - directly into Xander's stomach, sending him flying back. Glory flipped back over her hands, and as she landed on her feet, she fired an energy ball at Xander. Xander stopped his backward motion, landed and crossed his arms in front of him, forming his chi into a shield and took the impact of the energy ball. Once the ball had done its job Xander slowly straightened up and grinned at Glory.

"Well," Xander said, his grin turning into a smirk. "You can use your ki after all. Why didn't you use it before, you could probably have killed Buffy easily and rid yourself of a lot of problems."

"And risk destroying the Key in the process?" Glory answered with a grim face. The mortal had shown remarkable, and totally unexpected power, better to keep her anger in check and approach him a little level headed. "I don't think so."

Xander nodded and said, "Hm, that would be kind of counter productive, wouldn't it?"

"But I don't have to worry about that anymore, now that my one chance has past," Glory said and attacked with a powerful punch. Xander grabbed it, and turned it into throwing Glory over his shoulder. Glory twisted through the air, adding her own power and turned the throw into a somersault, landing on her feet and doing to Xander what he had planned for her. Xander smashed on the ground, leaving his form in the sand, Glory bashed her fist rapidly into Xander's head and stomach. He got up on his hands and kicked Glory in her chin backward, sending her flying away.

Xander flew at Glory rapidly, expecting the defensive punch and avoiding it by suddenly flying upward. He stopped, floated in the air, and fired a powerful ball of energy at Glory. It impacted and exploded. Glory then moved off to the left, so she had visibility and then rapidly flew up diagonally and elbowed Xander in the stomach, followed by a rapid punch with her right hand, making sure not to give Xander the opportunity to counter it. Then she punched him diagonally to the ground. As Xander impacted she started firing blasts of energy at him. Xander flew backward rapidly, moving left and right to avoid the blasts. The blasts threw up sand and stones from the ground which bounced off Xander chi flame easily, except the bigger and faster ones, they penetrated the halo of energy, but they were so slowed down that by the time they hit Xander they bounced of harmlessly and fell to the floor.

Suddenly Xander blasted high into the air and as he screamed, "TA - NE - KA - KO - SA!" He fired the powerful energy wave down at Glory. Glory only had time to protect herself by raising a shield and was forced to take the wave head on. The wave exploded and she felt herself get injured superficially, as she was thrown back by the shockwave she thought, *Definitely a good call and taking him on level headed."

Xander raised his hands and flattened them and yelled, "Destructo disc." Two flat yellow discs, Krillin's signature move, that he had taught Xander, formed above them. Then the threw them down toward Glory. The two discs tumbled around their own axis, a little addition by Xander so it was more difficult to stop them.

Glory got up and saw the two discs coming at her, realizing what they were, she avoided them narrowly. The discs missed and flew behind her and immediately turned around right back toward her. Glory who had had the smarts to turn around and see what the discs would do, saw only one option left. She fired an energy ball at the discs and the three energy attacks exploded as they impacted with each other, sending Glory tumbling.

Xander flew down rapidly, intending to kick Glory in her head hard. But Glory was up on time and blocked the kick, then rapidly kicked Xander in the stomach while he was still in the air, which would send him flying back, if she didn't grab his still outstretched leg and used it to throw him over her and smash him hard into the ground.

*****

Buffy saw Xander's halo of energy, bluish, white, totally see-through, and saw how all kinds of things bounced off it, like a shield. She flashed back to her fight with Adam, his arm turned into a super machine gun and he fired at her. Without thought she powered up, forming a powerful see-through energy shield around her, that the bullets just bounced off of. It had been Xander! It had been Xander all along! She had always figured it had come from Gilles and perhaps Willow's magic, like they had used to put the machine gun back in Adam's arm and making it useless to him, but now she knew it had been Xander. The fight had been somewhat of a haze with her three friends present in her mind, but she had always felt the fight had gone a little too easily and quickly. She had been expecting a long drawn out fight, but she had somehow been able to anticipate and counter all of Adam's moves, as if she had fought him before without getting anything but her ass kicked, but actually had had some effect on him and thus knew how he fought. Xander! She had thrown her punches differently then too, as if her muscles had only been afterthoughts, as if she was throwing them with raw energy, causing much greater impact on Adam. Xander! He had been guiding them, she realized. It had been him the whole time.

Now that she knew Xander had helped them secretly on at least one occasion, others came to her mind quickly. The clues had always been three, she just never had put them together until now. The time the really tough female demons that had tried to open the hellmouth. They had been fighting them in the cave and Xander had been out cold behind a couple of rocks, or so it seemed. She had always had a nagging feeling there had been more, and from the reaction of her friends they must have had the same feeling. There had been many times, when Xander seemingly bungling or by out right getting himself hurt throwing himself in the path of demons, had taken out said demons. And there had been other times, too numerous to mention.

"It was Xander all along," Buffy said out loud.

"Huh?" Willow said.

"When we fought Adam, the energy shield, it was Xander all along," Buffy explained a little surprised at her own admission.

Willow and Giles made several sounds of surprise as they realized Buffy was right. Buffy turned her attention back at the fight between Xander and Glory. She got frustrated, for every punch Xander landed, Glory landed two, she was moving faster and was probably stronger then Xander. "Damn, why didn't let us help. She's a god. You can't beat a god on your own. Let's get out the weapons," Buffy said, and went to the trunk of Giles and popped it open. The gang looked at her as she got the hammer and sword. She threw the sword at Faith who caught it.

Faith looked at the sword dubiously and asked, "What good will these do? I can barely see her move, how am I supposed to hit her?"

"We'll just have to find a way," Buffy answered determined.

"Perhaps we can do the binding spell again, and turn you both into super slayers," Willow suggested uncertain.

For a while there, Anya had been thinking Xander wasn't a Super Saiyan after all. *Anya, keep them away,* she heard Xander say in her head. Her eyes widened. Xander had told her his race was lightly telepathic, capable of communicating that way when they touched and that they could communicate even without touching if they were around people long enough so they were familiar with the other person's presence and mind, but it still came as a surprise. *They'll only get themselves killed if they go in. And don't worry.*

"Don't go in there," Anya told the group as they discussed whether they should perform the feat with six people and transfer it to two slayers, or make one group of three for Buffy and one for Faith. "Trust me, Xander hasn't begun to fight. So stay, you're only going to get yourselves killed if you don't."

The rest of the gang realized Anya knew Xander's secret a lot longer than they did, they looked at her as she turned her attention back to Xander. They looked at her for a few moments in indecision, but then decided to trust her, since she seemed so calm and the broad confident smile alleviated their immediate fears.

*****

Xander and Glory traded punches and kicks. To Xander's surprise she matched him punch for punch, kick for kick. She was as skilled as he was. Cell had been easier to beat, and to think that monster had been so far more powerful then both him and Glory. Xander grinned, this match was a pleasant surprise, this was one that was really a battle the kind he hadn't had in years, not counting Adam, but that battle had been cut short. Cell just didn't have the skill to really call it a battle, and Gohan in the time chamber was far more of a challenge than the god before him, but they had just been sparring.

A knee hit him in the ribs, and he felt it bruise. His own knee did the same to Glory, and they both hit each other in the head. Then he kicked out both his feet and sent Glory flying backward. He landed and thought, *Time to bring out the big guns.* "SUPER DUPER DOOPEY ATTACK!" Xander roared and an energy ball twice the size of a house started moving toward Glory. Xander moved in a blur, encircling Glory as the ball of energy impacted with her and exploded in harmless fireworks. For all Xander's trouble he got a violent kick to his stomach, three rapid punches in his face, earning him a few more bruises, cuts and scrapes. Then with a powerful kick Xander flew back, a moment later an energy attack exploded dead on him, giving him some more small wounds and sending him flying and bouncing on the floor backwards.

Xander flared his energy, stopping his momentum and lowered himself to the floor. Enough playing around, he had tested her abilities nicely, time to finish it.

*****

"Trust you!?" Buffy exclaimed at Anya in fear, frustration and anger. "Look at that. He's just standing there, Xander's finished. Glory is ready to kill him!"

Anya didn't say anything, she just looked at the scene with a grin as feral as a Saiyan's. "Hey, do you even hear me!?" Buffy screamed.

"Calm down," Anya answered with a big grin. "Keep trusting me. It's happening now. I can feel it; sense it. I know Xander. The Super Saiyan is emerging."

The whole group looked at her like she was crazy.

"Just watch," she said, pointing at Xander and Glory.

*****

"Super Duper Doopey attack!?" Glory asked in disbelief and anger, as she walked closer to Xander. She stopped a couple of meters away from him, about half of the sun's disc colored the sky orange behind her. "Do you think I'm stupid or something!?!? In case you haven't been paying attention, I AM A GOD!!"

Xander grinned and folded his hands in front of his chest. "It worked perfectly on the bastard I fought back in my birth dimension. He was going on about being a god this, and god that. As a matter of fact he even upped the ante by claiming he was the perfect being. The guy was a hundred thousand times more powerful than you are now, and he got his ass vaporized, courtesy of yours truly, moi. In my experience gods are just mortals with a long life span, a bit of power, and too great an ego."

"You little, insignificant . . ." Glory said in frustration, her fists balled next to her body. She stopped and calmed herself, she wasn't going to let him get her mad so she would start making mistakes.

"I must say, your skill is surprising," Xander said, his smirk deepening. The bitch had no idea what was coming for her. "The so-called god I just told you about, he didn't know his kicks from his punches, the fool didn't stand a chance. You though, are a pleasant surprise."

Glory gave a grunt as if insulted, and amused at Xander's stupidity at the same time. She told him, "I'm over 200,000 years old. You tend to pick up stuff in such a span of time, even if you're not planning on it. I'm glad I could oblige your fighting sense by crushing your head, in a couple of seconds."

Xander gave her an evil smile and went on with his little talk, "Since your skill is as great as mine, and you're stronger and faster then I am, I guess I have only one option left." His hand was now thoughtfully stroking his chin, mockingly pretending to be in deep thought.

"Yes," Glory said, giving him her own patented evil smile. "It's called dying. You'll love it, I promise."

"No, that's not it," Xander answered, eliciting a short surprised look from Glory. Xander was looking down, faking deep concentration on a giant intellectual problem. "Since I can't very well increase my skill level just like that, I guess I have no choice but to increase my strength and speed."

Glory laughed and said, "And how are you going to do that within the fifteen seconds I need to rip off your head with my bare hands."

[Play Xander Super Saiyan Level 1 Theme] Xander smirked and lifted his right index finger to gesture 'pay attention'. "Watch closely now, you're going to get to see this only once in your entire life, all five minutes of it. So you should pay attention because you don't want to miss this, and fail to be properly impressed." Xander balled his fists next to him and he roared, the chi flame returned with a vengeance, white and blue blazing upward. The sand around Xander's feet blasted outward and away, a fierce wind blasted away from him and upward into a powerful updraft. Xander realized he was understating this dimension to Cell, it wasn't like walking in bricks, but hardened concrete and he had to push it all aside with his power. His hair stood up, and then with a brilliant flash, his eyes turned emerald green, his hair a deep golden color and the flame of chi turned to the same golden color.

*****

"What the bloody hell?" Spike exclaimed as he saw Xander's power increase. The white halo almost became too bright for his eyes. The wind that was coming from Xander in the distance was obviously visible, the desert sand blasted away from him with great speeds. Then there was a flash of light, obscuring Xander from view. A moment later Xander was surrounded by a deep golden glow.

"Am I seeing this right? Is his hair golden?" Buffy asked astonished.

"Yes," Faith answered, only Spike and the two Slayer had the eyesight to see it from this distance, the others only saw a golden glowy thing.

"All right! Xander's a Super Saiyan!" Anya screamed in happiness bordering on hysteria. "Go Xander! Kick that bitch's butt! Pound her into the ground! Make her pay, Xander! It's her turn!" The group looked at her as if she had gone mad and Anya asked, "What!?"

When they couldn't find any fault in what she did, after all, they had the urge to scream the same things, Willow asked, "What's a Super Saiyan?"

"<That> is a Super Saiyan," Anya answered pointing at Xander. "If you need more explanation, just watch."

*****

Glory looked a little startled at the transformation, but soon resumed a determined stance.

"I'll give you a little advice, sweety," Xander growled. "You want to beat me, better go to your absolute max, because nothing short of that will get you anywhere with me. Now, show me what you've got." Xander beckoned her with a hand gesture.

Glory attacked, again she was nothing but a blur and she punched Xander square in the jaw. Xander stayed put where he was, only his head had been turned slightly by the impact, but nothing else was there to show there even had been an impact. Glory looked up stunned, it just wasn't possible a mortal could possess this kind of power.

"My turn," Xander said softly, and with one punch sent Glory flying and skidding along the ground, for tens of meters.

*****

"See! See!" Anya exclaimed.

The gang looked stunned as the until now considered invincible Glory bounced across the floor like a skippy ball after just one punch. They watched as the golden Xander slowly and deliberately started walking toward Glory, who got up off the ground slowly and with difficulty. Then Glory started firing energy blast after energy blast rapidly at Xander who didn't change his mannerism at all.

In fear the gang, except Anya, looked how blast after blast hit Xander dead on. The explosions obscured Xander from sight. After about twenty seconds Glory stopped and looked at the dust cloud expectantly. To everyone's, again except Anya, surprise Xander walked out of the dust cloud without a new scratch on him. It seemed as if he hadn't protected himself extra or even slowed down his walk.

*****

Glory looked at the cloud with satisfaction and expecting to see nothing emerge from that. *Foolish mortal,* she thought, until . . . her eyes widened in shock. It couldn't be, it just wasn't possible. But there it was: the golden glow. At first nothing but that glow, but then, it got the silhouette of a man, and then Xander Harris walked out of the dust cloud calmly. He hadn't even needed to do anything to deflect the blasts.

Xander took a few more paces so he was completely out of the dust cloud, stopped and said, "Was that all you've got? Here, let me show you how it's done." He stretched out an open hand, pointed it at Glory. An energy ball formed and then Xander let it fly. When it impacted on the stunned Glory, it exploded with a giant bang, seriously hurting Glory and sending her flying backward. Xander moved faster than the human eye could follow and before Glory could land on the ground he kicked her hard up into the air. Then Xander appeared above her and with a powerful chop sent her back down to the ground. Xander reappeared on the ground and elbowed Glory hard into her back sending her flying away from him and tumbling on the ground.

"Now you die," Xander said slowly and deliberately. Then he felt Glory's power rise rapidly.

"I don't think so," Glory said, her voice gaining an ethereal like quality. Xander turned around and regarded her, as she wobbly got to her feet. Black blood pored from multiple wounds all across her body. Her power rose rapidly anyway, the whites of her eyes suddenly going blood red, her hands turned into razor-sharp claws, and then a new halo of power surrounded her. It was purplish red, and unlike her chi flame before, and Xander's all the time it wasn't jagged and vibrating, but smooth, like a plastic see-through wall.

Xander grinned at her and as he turned to face her fully he folded his arms across his chest. "Why didn't you do that when I told you to? Now, you've all these wounds weakening you," Xander said with a tone as if he was berating a little child.

"You damn fool!" Glory exclaimed with evil amusement. "You still don't get, do you? I am a god. Wounds don't weaken me, they heal up. I am Immortal and you are not, you lost this battle before you even started it." She was right, Xander saw the wounds rapidly heal.

Xander grinned and said, "Remember that windbag I told you about. He was going on about the same things, 'I'm Immortal.' 'I regenerate.' 'I can't be killed.' . . . I still vaporized his ass. But it's good to know I'm no longer an insignificant insect, at least your realizing I'm your equal in power, that could make this battle interesting." Glory listened to Xander in disbelief, the fool was still making jokes. He continued, "So you're finally up to your max, huh? Good, I suppose then, you're ready to kick it up a notch or two. It's about time we start doing this for real."

Glory eyes widened in shock. It couldn't be that the guy had already known her full power, and it couldn't be the simple mortal still hadn't reached his max. Glory attacked and Xander avoided her first blows, blocking one. Trying to avoid Glory's next attack didn't work, and Glory's claws sliced through the flesh of Xander's upper right arm. Xander looked astonished at the cut, blood oozed out of the wound as Glory looked at him with satisfaction. Those things were sharper than he had expected, better not get hit by them again. Xander smashed his fist into Glory's face. To her surprise the punch actually connected, somehow managing to actually force a way passed her chi shield. No mortal should have the power to be able to do that. Hell, a majority of the gods shouldn't be able to do that.

*****

"My god! She was just toying with us," Buffy exclaimed realizing how truly awesomely powerful Glory was as she saw her transformation.

"You figured that out only now?" Spike asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What happened? She pounded you too many times in your head or something?"

Buffy glared at him and went on, "If she hadn't been so arrogant and used her full might from the start, not even Willow's magic would have been able to hurt her."

*****

Glory got in a lucky shot, and racked her claw across Xander's stomach, shredding his clothes and leaving four gashes of blood. Glory grinned. She got a punch in her face for all her trouble, followed up by a kick made by both feet that sent her reeling back. Glory attacked, and Xander grabbed her arm, throwing her over his shoulder. This time Xander didn't give her the opportunity to do anything. He let her go in mid air, totally surprising her and then kicked her high up into the air. He flew after her, and they started trading punches and swipes. Glory quickly put some distance between them and fired a few energy balls. Xander avoided them with some impressive twists and bursts of energy. He followed up with a set of his own energy balls, that Glory in turn avoided. Then Xander stopped moving, and hung there in the air motionless for a few seconds, startling Glory. Xander gestured down and up with his right index finger and Glory looked. To her horror she saw the energy balls she thought she had avoided float there. At that point they all moved and smashed into her, exploding on impact.

When the dust cleared, Xander flashed forward and smashed his fist into a dazed Glory's stomach doubling her over nicely. He threw himself backward and down going in a backward somersault, letting Glory's swipe go over his body, then kicked Glory as his feet came up and sending further upward into the sky. Glory fired an energy blast toward an onrushing Xander. He avoided the blast and Glory attacked where she knew he would go. The first two punches Xander blocked, a third he avoided, but the swipe that came afterward left four new red stripes, vertically this time, on the left side of Xander's chest.

Xander smashed his fist into Glory's face send her back down. Xander pressed his attack and threw another punch, Glory avoided it by flying around him. Glory threw her own punch, which Xander avoided by encircling her. Several more times they encircled each other rapidly like that, each throwing punches and missing each other. Ducking underneath another punch, Xander was fed up, turned around to face glory and moved quickly backwards diagonally. He placed his hands next to his body and a ball of energy formed in it. "TANEKAKOSA!!!" Xander roared and sent the powerful energy beam down toward Glory, who only barely managed to avoid getting hit. The beam went further down and ended up hitting a nearby mountain ridge. Xander stopped the energy wave, as everything went white for a fraction of a second, and then with a deafening sound the explosion followed, blossoming into a small mushroom cloud, and as the shockwaves still moved outward the ridge collapsed in on itself.

Glory looked at the destructive power with wide eyes of shock. For the umpteenth time she asked herself how a mortal could be this powerful, but for the first time that day, she felt doubt about the outcome of this battle. "What's the matter, Glory?" Xander asked with a sickening friendly tone. Glory's head jerked in his direction to look at him, wide eyed. "Finally realizing I have the power to destroy you?"

*****

"My god," Tara whispered, looking with shock at the giant explosion, and subsequent destruction of a small part of a mountain ridge. She was no longer looking at the two of them fighting as just that. She looked up and to her they had become other worldly, which in fact they were.

The rest of the gang looked at the destruction speechless, while similar thoughts as the one Tara just articulated ran through their minds, except Anya. Anya, an over 1,000-year-old ex-demon, was used to much more, and she cheered Xander on, "Yes! Yes! Go, Xander! Go, Xander!" She jumped up and then stomped both her feet on the desert sand at every sentence to emphasize her point.

"Bloody hell," Spike then exclaimed, turned around and started towards his car, realizing he hadn't been much smarter than Buffy by staying here. "I'm getting the hell out of here. I really don't fancy getting vaporized by a missed blast like that."

"You're staying," Buffy told angrily. "If Xander needs help . . ."

"Go wank yourself further into denial," Spike interrupted and started opening the door of his car.

Buffy pulled a stake and told him coldly, "Get in that car and you're dust."

Spike looked into Buffy's eyes and realized she was as serious as they came. With the chip in his head he didn't stand chance, so he said, "Have you gone bonkers, slayer? Did you see that explosion? If something like that hits anywhere near us, the only way they can identify us is if they perform DNA tests on the drops of blood they'll find fifteen miles in that direction." Spike pointed his hand in no particular direction at all. Buffy didn't say anything, and just glowered at Spike. Sighing, Spike closed the door and hopped on the hood of his car, and muttered, "Great, just bloody great. Here I am, in the middle of a battle between two powers that are capable of leveling a city, and I'm stuck here with the only insane slayer on the god-forsaken planet."

The rest of the gang had watched the interchange between the two, and they weren't sure which of the two was right. Spike's point, had a rather big piece of evidence supporting him, or was that evidence in big pieces. They silently decided to follow Buffy's instincts . . . for now.

*****

Glory screamed and attacked with a vengeance. Kicks, punches, energy balls, beams of energy from her eyes, she threw everything she had at Xander using every little bit of energy she pull out of her hat. Glory was desperate, she had felt the energy Xander had used for his Tanekakosa wave and knew he had used only part of the energy that was at his disposal, and it had already been enough to destroy her completely. The tactic, if one could call it that, seemed to work, a few kicks and energy balls got through his defenses now and then. To Glory's dismay, her razor sharp claws - that she was slowly starting to realize were her only hope, after all, no matter how powerful he was, if she pierced his heart he'd be dead - did not hit him. Xander, she realized, was allowing the kicks and energy attacks to get through his defenses now and then, so he was certain she couldn't cause more damage with her claws. Glory's barrage continued, until Xander decided to use an opening and land a devastating blow in Glory's face.

Glory flew backward tumbling end over end from the impact; all those kicks and energy attacks that had landed and no result, and he needed only one punch to send her reeling. Glory breathed heard, and knew for the first time what being tired, felt like. For the first time there someone who could tire her out. She looked at Xander, who's infuriating smirk smiled back.

"Keep doing that, and you'll tire yourself out," Xander told her grinning. Glory had been far too confident she'd win, she hadn't bothered with restraining and pacing herself at all, and had wasted far too much energy. Her panicked attacks didn't help any.

Glory attacked again. Xander avoided it, by ducking underneath the attack and moving past her, turning around to face her again, and blocking her next swipe and kick. Then Xander rammed his fist into her stomach and she doubled over, spurting a little black blood out of her mouth. Glory backed away and tested her mouth with a finger, looking shocked at the blood. A simple punch had caused her to bleed! "It'll heal," Glory said out loud, more for herself than Xander.

"You're finished Glory. Let me demonstrate," Xander said and attacked with a punch that Glory blocked. The leg Xander kicked to her right knee at the same time was totally unstoppable for her. The crack that followed made it clear Xander had broken her knee. Glory face contorted in pain as she instinctively grabbed for her knee, giving Xander the opportunity to give her a powerful blow to the nose. Glory's head snapped back as black blood flung from her face. Xander followed up with a double handed overhand punch that sent her down to the ground like an anvil. Xander flew after her and started kicking her in the stomach with a downward bicycle kick. Just before Glory smashed into the ground, Xander grabbed the collar of her ripped robe and hissed at her, "You do understand you never stood a chance, do you? I've been fighting you with only a tiny fraction of my power." Then Xander let her go and gave her an extra powerful kick using both his feet, making Glory crash into the ground. He flew up immediately, and pointed both his hands down and formed a big energy ball as he yelled, "ANNIHILATION ATTACK!" He sent the energy ball down toward Glory. Slowly, but steadily its speed increased.

*****

Anya looked at how Xander pounded Glory into the ground and then saw him flying upward, two hands downward and forming an energy ball. The way Xander held his hands, and what she could pick up from what Xander yelled before he sent the ball down, made a click in Anya's mind and her eyes widened.

*****

"Annihilation Attack," Xander said calmly and a small ball of energy formed in between his hands, no more than two centimeters in diameter. Xander had pushed the furniture aside for his training session, leaving the room mostly empty.

Anya walked into the main room of the apartment yawning some of her sleep away. Her sexy neglige clung to her curves, remembering the wild night before she was glad she had bought it. "You can't be serious. Are you training here too?" Anya asked from the kitchen, starting to fix herself breakfast.

"Of course," Xander answered without thought, letting the small ball between his hands go into several different permutations, and slowly let it float around between his two hands.

"But this is a brand, new apartment!" Anya exclaimed as best as she could, still fighting her sleep.

"Still need to train," Xander answered. "I might kick something over on occasion, but nothing more. It's not like I'm going to blow up the place. You can train with little things, to do the big things, see." Xander lifted his hands to show Anya the tiny energy ball.

"You can't be thinking of letting it explode!" Anya exclaimed shocked and a little afraid.

"Sure," Xander answered, smiling at her. "I put everything aside, none of the breakables here. The air displacement might push a few things aside, but they can't break, so nothing to worry about. I did it back in the basement too, remember? No bad things happened there."

"Xander, I don't think you should do that," Anya said apprehensive, she really didn't like the thought of exploding energy balls in the beautiful, new apartment.

"Nothing to worry about," Xander said and let the small ball float a little forward. Then the little ball exploded, an instant later the large windows in front of him - and behind the energy ball - shattered inward, sending shards of glass everywhere. Xander instinctively raised his energy to keep the glass from cutting him. Anya ducked behind the counter without thinking.

Once the noise died down, Anya came back from behind the counter, looked at the broken windows and exclaimed in indignation and a little anger, "What did I tell you?!"

Xander turned around, and as he looked at her, he started to scratch the back of his head embarrassedly, "I forgot the basement doesn't have any windows."

Anya groaned frustrated, her anger already gone, as she said, "I told you not to do it. What are we going to do about this mess?"

"Get a vacuum cleaner and then put in new windows," Xander said shrugging. Then he turned back to Anya and grinned, "Good thing I got insurance."

*****

*If that little thing did that . . .* shot through Anya's mind. Then she grabbed Dawn who was standing nearby, and threw herself and Dawn down as she screamed, "Get down! Take cover!" The gang looked at her astonished. As Anya held down a struggling and complaining Dawn, and protected her with her own body, she screamed at the gang hysterically, "DO IT!" The group looked at each other only a moment, before they frantically dived down to the ground.

*****

Glory staggered to her feet with enormous difficulty. Every part of her body hurt. Then her attention was drawn upward by something. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the energy ball coming directly at her. The next moment it impacted and exploded with enough power to vaporize Glory completely.

*****

The mushroom cloud rose over the desert as the Annihilation Attack exploded. The shockwave burst forth from the center of it, dragging sand and rock along. Cactuses and bushes were either ripped out of the ground or just shredded. The sand-carrying shockwave blasted past the Scooby Gang, putting fear in all their hearts. Spike heard the cars changing position, slipping over the sand as the shockwave pulled the cars slowly along. With a start he realized that if they had still been standing, they would have been pulled off their feet and dragged along until they had smashed against something. Finally after only thirteen seconds, but what seemed like an eternity to them, the shockwave dissipated and they tentatively got up.

"He did it," Dawn murmured, the others nodded in consent. Then she said it out loud, in a happy tone. "He really did it. Glory is dead!"

The group watched with increasing mounting levels of happiness as Xander who was still floating in the air, slowly descended down. He landed some distance away from them in front of a massive dust and sand cloud that the final attack had thrown up in the air. The golden glow disappeared from around Xander, but his hair kept the color. He started walking in their direction leisurely.

Without warning a woman appeared out of nowhere behind Xander, and fired a red energy ball. It hit Xander in the back, and it exploded in a giant explosion and a new mushroom cloud. "Xander!" the female members of the Scooby gang screamed in fear and helplessness. Spike and Giles' looked at the spectacle in shock, and their gazes hardened.

"XANDER! NO!!" Anya screamed and tears sprung from her eyes. She knelt down in the sand in defeat, as the shockwave from the new explosion rushed passed them. With some difficulty the members of the Scooby Gang managed to keep standing, holding their arms in front of them to shield them from the sand.

Episode 9
Plans Ruined

The Fight With One Pissed Off Goddess

The goddess seethed as she passed back and forth in the great hall. Several other gods and goddesses were present as well, some had brought their favorite slaves, ranging from human to demons, to angel-like beings, all served their masters without question.

"Calm down, Xiara," a fellow god said, as he forced the male human slave to take his member deeper down the throat. "You're getting worked up over nothing. They're just mortals."

"I don't give a damn about the mortals, Kwoth!" Xiara snapped angrily, adding a few Russian curses. "I had such a fantastic plan! It was a work of art! Nobody of us has been this creative in over seven millennia! That little slayer would have killed herself, I would put her in a dimensional pocket where she would feel nothing but joy. A little prodding and manipulating here and there, and her friends would bring her back from the dead! It would have been so utterly fantastic, a slayer who doesn't want to live, feels like she's in hell, a witch completely over the edge. Oh, how utterly interesting that would be! But now this! . . . COME ON GLORY, FINISH THAT SON OF A BITCH OFF! Then kill Buffy so my plan can go on." The goddess looked into a large, crystal ball in the middle of the room that functioned like a television set.

"Would you please stop screaming, Xiara!" Andraste, a goddess of war as she saw herself, exclaimed, "You're ruining my buzz here." She turned back to sucking brains through a straw from a still living creature that was too weird to contemplate its origins. It was chained and had already lost too much brain matter to still be able to scream, not that the gag had allowed him more than a muffle when he still could.

"I scream if I want to!" Xiara answered with a cold fierce stare at her fellow goddess.

Andraste stood up angrily and looked Xiara directly in the eyes, "Do you want to try me!?"

"People, people," a fourth god piped up gently, circling a vicious fluid in a crystal glass that was probably blood from the half-dead and heavily bleeding creature hanging in chains next to him. It seemed to be in ecstacy. "We're the Powers That Be. We're supposed to be above these things."

Xiara snapped her head toward him and hissed, "Do I look like I care what we're supposed to be above?"

The god looked at her, gulped the blood down in one swallow and said, "Not really."

"Then stay out of this!" Xiara snapped in anger.

"Hmm," another god said who had come standing next to the crystal ball. "It seems Xander Harris has killed Glory." The god's fiery complexion grinned at the crystal ball with evil amusement.

"WHAT!?" all the gods present roared in disbelief. The god who was getting an enjoyable blowjob threw the human male without thought back against the wall behind him, his skull and brains splattered over the wall. "That's not possible!" Kwoth roared, "he's just a mortal, no mortal can kill a god!"

"See for yourself," the fiery god with eyes like green swirling plasma said with an amused grin. The gods did so and watched into the ball. The mushroom cloud made it rather clear there was nothing left of Glorificous.

"That damned bastard," Xiara screamed in rage. "That son of a bitch! I'm going to make him pay, I'm going to make them all pay! I'll teach them a lesson they'll never forget about defying a god's will!"

"Calm down, Xiara. This isn't worth . . ." Andraste tried, all she got was a 'shut up' as Xiara disappeared from their midst.

"Oh, brother," Kwoth said exasperated, "The young ones are so damn impulsive." He turned around and saw the mess his sex slave had left on the wall. "Damn!" he exclaimed, "And he was good to." Kwoth sat back down annoyed and gestured toward a nude girl, wearing only a metal collar, and a chain that allowed the god to pull her along like she was a dog. "Come here, slut."

The girl jumped forward eagerly and knelt down in reverence, "Yes, great god, Kwoth. What can I do for you?'

"Finish what he started, whore," Kwoth said absentmindedly.

"Of course, oh great one," the girl answered, her eyes glazed over with reverence and pleasure as she took his penis into her mouth.

The fiery god turned and started walking away, he looked back at the assorted gods behind him and grinned evilly as he thought, *Bunch of fools. He has finally arrived, the Sedra Soli and they have no idea what's coming for them. Neither does he for that matter.* He softly and evilly laughed to himself.

*****

Xiara appeared behind the mortal named Xander Harris, the insignificant insect who had the gall to so completely and outright defy gods. He was going to die, grinning with satisfaction she fired a red ball of energy from her hand and watched as the ball of energy impacted on the golden haired fool and destroyed him in a mighty explosion.

Grinning she flew forward and landed a little in front of the growing dust cloud. It was always fun to put the fear of gods in the hearts of mortals. Her long red hair waved in the wind, nicely visible to the group of insects she was about to crush. The hair whipped up and she showed off her yellow skin covered in red stripes, it made her look like an angry tiger. Her eyes were totally green instead of white and the vertical cat-like slits she had as pupils were deep purple. She was wearing a skintight deep-green leotard that left her legs bare, the unprotected look always helped add to her aura of power, and it could distract men nicely. She powered up a bit. She knew she would give off an unearthly glow. She saw the stupid humans stagger back in proper respect: fear. Grinning she started talking; augmenting her voice so it sounded properly like a god-like boom. Grinning she saw them properly shrink back at the sound of her voice. Oh, yes, these could still me worked with, massaged, perhaps she was going to get her creative scenario after all. A little threat of killing all of them, then kill only a few and come with that lovely phrase about forgiveness. Ah yes, that always worked.

*****

All of the Scooby Gang, except Anya who was still on her knees crying, shrank back at the terrifying visage and the boom voice. "You, insignificant mortals. Did you think you could defy the gods like that!?"

"Oh, my god," Buffy whimpered. Faith looked up at the sky, scared out of her mind, for a moment she hoped Raiden would come and help. But she knew he wouldn't, they had to choose their own path, but what path was there to choose when you were about to be vaporized by a god.

"Mortals have chosen to fight on the side of darkness," the booming voice continued. *And then only when we wanted the fools to,* Xiara though to herself. "But no-one has ever dared to defy our will in such a manner."

"Bloody hell," Spike muttered and looked over to Giles who looked back with a grim look. He could see the same contempt for the god he felt in his own body, and the same helplessness.

"I am the goddess Xiara, and I punish all who dare defy me!" Xiara continued with an evil grin on her face, but she was too far away from the group for them to notice.

Willow involuntarily took a few steps back, she felt as if she had been punched in the stomach by a slayer. Xiara! One of her goddesses, one she only just called upon to locate Glory. She didn't know whether she should feel betrayed, or whether she should feel guilty for betraying her god. It ended up as a mixture of both. Tara took a step back. She was too confused about the last minute of events to able to feel anything coherently.

"Your slayer was supposed to die! Now all is going wrong. This is much bigger than you foolish mortals could possibly understand. If you're not willing to sacrifice her, I have no other choice but to take all of your lives!" Xiara seething, feeling clever for adding that little bribe about things going wrong. The mortals would feel guilty about that.

Buffy sank to her knees in defeat, and said out loud, "Xander, why did you have to do that. I should have closed the portal with my death. We should let these things up to them and follow the course. This stuff is beyond us to just do as we please, it's bigger than us."

"The hell it is," Faith answered vehemently, and looked back toward Xiara, raising the sword in her hand defiantly, ready for battle. "Come on, what were you saying about magic and creating Super Slayers? Let's go, one god, two gods, we'll bring 'em all down." Those bastards had messed with her life long enough. The Scooby gang looked at her stunned, she was actually ready to take on a god.

"Are you nuts?" Dawn piped up in disbelief. "Did you see that?" Dawn pointed at Xiara, who was slowly walking toward them.

Faith followed Dawn's finger and stated defiantly, "I don't care how powerful she is!" Then with shock she watched as the goddess stopped dead in her tracks. The expression on her face could only be one of shock and perhaps even fear. Then the god turned around a quarter clockwise and turned her head to look at the giant dust cloud behind her that was slowly settling.

*****

Xander got up on his knees slowly, then continued to stand up. Every part of his body hurt, myriads of cuts and bruises had been added to ones he already had, but that wouldn't stop him from hurting someone really bad. As a matter of fact, it only made him more dangerous to be around, because nobody, <nobody> attacked him in the back like a cowardly, dishonorable cockroach, and lived to tell about it. He looked through the haze of sand and dust and saw her, booming on like the petty, jealous, half-witted goddess she was. He laughed hard - and it stopped the little bitch, who had dared this ultimate feat of dishonor - cold. No matter how bad the Saiyan race had become in the years before his departure, they never attacked someone in the back like that, <never>. "You stupid bitch, did you really <think> you could kill me that easily? A sneak attack in the back and it would be all over!? And what's with this crap? A little booming voice a little cryptic talk and you think that actually still works, that they'll just drop to their knees and start worshiping you?"

He saw the bitch turn around and peer through the sand finding him. Then she muttered, "Not possible."

"Not possible!?" I'll show you 'not possible'!" Xander exclaimed angrily, raising himself to a new height. "You have no idea what you're up against! I am legend! I am myth! Where I come from I am feared across the universe, and revered across it at the same time. I am the Super Saiyan!" Quite expectantly the goddess just looked at him without comprehension. Xander grinned and continued, "But even here I am known, even here I am legend, to the ancient, super powered demons, as well as to the gods. I think you know me better as the Sedra Soli."

Involuntarily Xiara took several steps back in fear, before she caught herself, "I don't know how you got a hold of that fairy tale, but that's all it is. Told to children gods to frighten them into obedience. The Sedra Soli doesn't exist."

Xander laughed hard, and saw how Xiara shrank back involuntarily again. "How ironic," Xander said, teeth bared in a vicious, blood-thirsty smile. "The roles are reversed for a change. Let's see how well a god likes it, when one of their nightmare, fairytale creatures comes to life. Don't believe me? I'll show you." Xander screamed, as his golden aura erupted around him and only now truly started powering up. The sand in the double cloud starting to turn rapidly around him, transforming into a sand tornado.

*****

"Why is she looking into the cloud for no reason?" Dawn wined, seeing how the three people - and I use the term loosely for one of the individuals - with super vision, looked transfixed at the newly appeared Goddess.

"She's not just looking; she's talking, I can see her lips moving," Spike drawled.

"Huh?" Dawn blurted out in confusion. The two slayers slowly nodded.

Tara blinked in confusion and stuttered, "Y-y-you think, Xander, could s-still be alive?"

"Xander still alive!?" Anya asked her tears slowing, and looking at the clouds of sand and dust. Then clouds slowly started turning, faster and faster they went. The cone lifted into the air until it formed an upside down tornado. The sand spreading thin enough for the golden glow that powered the tornado to become visible. "He <is> still alive!" Anya exclaimed in joy, thinking to herself in awe, *I should never have doubted the power of the Sedra Soli, the Super Saiyan. The legends don't do him justice.*

The group looked on in awe as the wide disc on the bottom grew wider and the Goddess was forced to shield her eyes from the sand with her arm. "I can't believe my bloody eyes," Gilles muttered, stunned. The next moment he too had to shield his eyes as the rapidly circling sand disc reached the scooby gang. "EVERYBODY," Giles screamed out loud, barely coming above the sound of the loud wind, "TAKE COVER BEHIND THE CARS, NOW!"

Giles, Anya, Dawn and Buffy found shelter behind Giles' car. Tara, Willow, Faith and Spike sped behind Spike's car at the same time, where Willow observed, "SPIKE, YOU'RE SMOKING!!"

"BLOODY HELL!" Spike screamed, he had been so wrapped up in the spectacle of Xander fighting Glory and his apparent death and subsequent power up, that he hadn't even noticed the itches across his body as the sun slowly got more intense. If he wasn't a natural wearer of things that were pretty good at keeping sunlight off his skin, he'd been toast a long time ago. Faith hastily opened the side door of his car and Spike dove in scooting further to the driver's side. Faith followed him in, deciding inside was better than outside. Tara and Willow followed suit with the back door and seat. "Wank me!" Spike exclaimed looking passed the heavily shielded window of his car with his superior vision. "That sodding, wanking bastard! You all do know what these means, don't you?" he asked pointing toward Xander of whom only he and Faith had a clear vision.

"What d-do you mean, Spike?" Tara asked from the right side of the back seat, scared. Things had been unreal before, now things had gotten downright terrifying.

Spike turned around and looked at her like she was a dimwit, "While we - you - were all going, 'No, Xander, don't fight her alone. She's a god. You can't beat her. Oh, my god, you're gonna die now. Glory has won. We warned you,' he was just toying with her. If he had done this from the start, he would probably have killed the sodding bitch with one blow."

"Is it just me, or is it getting darker in here?" Willow asked nervously, unable to see what was going on outside.

"It's getting darker," Faith answered slowly, shock dripping from her voice. Spike turned around and his eyes widened in surprise.

Outside, the warm air that Xander's power-created tornado was pushing upward had reached enough height that it touched a cooler air current. And when such things happen, things get volatile. Add to that Xander's energy and things get down right nasty. Ions combined, which attracted water molecules and before one knew it, dark, grey clouds, almost black, formed above Xander and were blown outward across vast reaches of the desert.

When the inevitable first crack of lighting flashed down from the heavens, even as Xander kept powering up, Buffy had just dared a look over the car. "Oh, my god!" she slowly exclaimed, spellbound in reverence. Up until now Buffy hadn't quite realized, or hadn't wanted to realize Xander had outmatched them all. She had always been the one everyone counted on to save the day, it had been so natural to her, that she had still been expecting that to be the case. But this awe inspiring display of power had her figuratively and literally thunderstruck. But even though she had finally realized it, she wasn't quite ready to admit it yet.

*****

San Francisco
At the same time

The television was on CNN and the weather man assigned to international weather was happily doing his job. "And from Australia we come the west coast of the USA. For all you early risers in southern California, you don't have to worry. It will be another beautiful day with clear skies. As you can see from the realtime satellite feed, there's not a clou-... What the fu[beeeep]?!" As the man turned around to point at California, the expected picture of a clear sky was changing, a small point of cloud cover had formed and it rapidly blossomed outward to cover a large area. By the time he was looking at the small television screen near him in the studio - that allowed him to see the picture that was projected on the blue screen he was standing in front of - it was a nice round disc of clouds.

"My god. That has to be connected to it," Phoebe Halliwell pointed at the screen. Earlier that morning she had woken up with a start. She was sensing something very strange and she had no way of understanding what it was. The only way to describe it was glimpses of power. Her rising and rummaging about, had woken her two sisters not long after.

Prue - short for Prudence and one of her sisters - looked at the screen. Her hands were folded across her chest defensively, her mannerisms were jittery. She was nervous; something was happening, it affected her sister, and she had no idea what it was. "Wow. Really?" Prue asked, astonished, up until now she had had no idea what it was that was affecting her sister, but she had never imagined something with this kind of power.

"Come on, Leo," Piper Halliwell, Phoebe's other sister said even more nervously than Prue, dragging her heavily yawning husband down the chairs behind her.

"What does it take to wake you up anyway? We called, nothing," Prue asked a bit amused, and glad she could still find something that could amuse her now.

"Enough sleep, I haven't seen bed until two o'clock two nights in a row, and its now, what? Not even seven o'clock?" he answered, yawned profusely all through it. "What's going on?"

"That," Prue pointed at the round disc of clouds on the screen. The weather man had moved onto other areas in the US by now. "It wasn't there two minutes ago."

Leo looked at the screen and said, "You sure?"

"You should have heard the too late beep to cover up a certain f-word when it formed. And his admission that at least he had no explanation," Phoebe told him, looking up at him with expectation. "I felt that," she continued, pointed at the screen. "More likely I felt whatever did that. It woke me up an hour ago. It's gone on and off until just now when it became permanent, then the storm appeared."

"You certain it's the same thing?" Leo asked, frowning thoughtfully.

Phoebe expression became uncertain as she said, "Pretty much. It feels the same, except the power has gone up, way up. It makes what I felt before, look like a bunny rabbit. And if its origins are all the way over there . . ." Phoebe pointed at the center of the storm, just before the picture of North America changed to that of South America. She looked annoyed at the screen for a moment than continued her sentence, "then it was already huge to begin with."

"How come we're not sensing anything?" Piper asked her husband, and her and her sisters' equivalent of a guardian angel.

"It's probably tied in with her power. Getting visions from the future is an extra-sensory perception even for the standard, extra sensitive, senses of a witch which all of you got. Detecting whatever this is probably requires such a sixth sense, one that makes her more in tune with nature," Leo thought it over and agreed with himself, then thought of something else. "Perhaps whatever this is, even triggered a new sense, another power in you, Phoebe."

"Great," Phoebe answered, the tone of her voice betraying she didn't think there was anything great about.

"Leo," Prue cut in. "Could this be just a natural phenomenon that the weather scientists have never seen before?"

"Possibly," Leo answered hesitantly.

"But?" Phoebe asked, supplying Leo with the word she heard in his voice.

"I highly doubt it, it doesn't feel natural to me," Leo answered thoughtfully.

Exasperated Piper threw her hands in the air and as she walked around the couch Phoebe was sitting on, and knelt on it next to her sister facing Leo, she said with a raised voice, "Of course not, it couldn't be possible there is a nice simple answer that doesn't involve us, could it?"

"Do you think you could check with the elders?" Prue asked, once more her arms folded.

"Yeah," Phoebe added, scratching the back of her head thoughtfully. "I want to hear you tell us they told you there was nothing to worry about, because trust me, if whatever that is, isn't generated naturally by the sun or the weather furnace of the entire planet, none of us want to know what could wield such power."

"Ok, I'll be back as soon as possible," Leo said, and he disappeared in a sparkling light.

*****

An Air Force base nearby

"Charly Bravo Tango, ready for lift off," the pilot of the F16 fighter plane told the tower. He looked back and to his left and saw his wingman in a second F16 signaling he was ready.

"Captain Meadow, in the past hour or so we've been detecting several unidentified flying objects. However, they appeared and disappeared with such irregularity that we thought we had a malfunction," the colonel on the other side of the communications device paused for a moment. "We've just found out that a large storm system has appeared out of nowhere directly at the coordinates we saw our UFOs. Your training mission is cancelled, you're to go there asap and find out what the hell is going on! Sending you two the details now."

"Details received," Meadow answered and read the most important parts in his heads up display. Plenty of time in flight for the rest. "We're ready, when you are, colonel."

"You're cleared for lift off," the man told them.

Meadow's and his wingman's planes shot forward, and they lifted off the ground. When the landing gear was retracted, Meadow heard his wingman comment. "Man, I always thought those pilots who said they saw UFOs needed professional help, but if the brass sends us out there to find the suckers specifically, I might have to rethink that position."

Meadow gave an amused laugh and said, "Let's change course and go to mach 1.5."

"Afterburners ready," the man said excited.

"Let's go," Meadow answered, and the two planes changed course and burst forth with great speed.

*****

The wind died down a bit, and Anya, Dawn, Buffy and Giles looked over the car to see what was going on. Xander still stood there, his power still fueling the tornado of sand, but he had stopped powering up and now everything was moving a little less fast and powerful.

Spike opened the door of his car and stuck his head out. If he was careful, the newly formed cloud cover would help ensure he didn't burst in flames. "I'm getting the hell out of here, slayer. I was nearly toast just now."

"No, we stay," Buffy said, not with the same conviction she had earlier. "He might need . . ."

Spike interrupted her, "Our help? Bollocks. You're living in denial, you sodding cunt. He doesn't need any help. And if he does, he's so far out of our league, we can't give him any. Go ahead and dust me if you want, but I'm getting out of here." He slammed the door behind him, and started the car.

Buffy looked at Xander, and he moved so fast she could barely follow him, his fist slammed into Xiara's stomach and she doubled over. When Xander attacked, the dynamo that kept the tornado going, his power, was gone, and the sand dropped to the ground almost instantaneously and the tornado returned to being just a dust cloud, that was still circling on its momentum. With the storm though, nature had taken over, and it had started fueling itself, and stayed fully intact. The next moves Xander made were so exuding with power it was just frightening. "Spike's right," Giles said, and walked to the door to the driver's seat. "Buffy, we've got to get out of here. We stay here we're nothing but a distraction to Xander, potential hostages, and we'd just get in the way."

"Yeah," Anya piped in, as she opened the door to the back seat and pushed Dawn protectively inside. "We need to leave now, before we get ourselves or Xander killed."

Buffy groaned in frustration, realizing they were right and she went to the passenger side of the car and got in the front. Then Giles drove of after Spike as fast is his car went.

*****

Xander stopped powering up below Super Saiyan Level 2. Better to keep something in reserve. He calmed down for a moment, then looked at the goddess who was looking at him in shock.

"Are you ready to die?" Xander asked with an evil grin and in almost a growling tone. "If not," he continued in the same tone, looking directly at her, "you better get ready . . . For <die> you will." Then Xander shot forward and smashed his right fist into Xiara's stomach, doubling her over. The Tornado of sand collapsed when he did so. Xander followed up with a knee to her face, sending her standing back up, giving Xander the opportunity to give her a left hook, afterwards he kicked her right knee from under her and with a powerful kick to her torso sent her flying to his right more than a hundred meters. He flew after her, appearing behind her and then smashing his elbow in the back of her head, she fell dazed to the floor. But not dazed enough to keep her from rapidly turning around and punching at Xander. Xander blurred for a moment, moving backward, avoiding the punch.

"You're good, but you're not on my or Glory's level of skill," Xander said, coldly. "You said you thought I was just a fairy tale, I guess that means you are young yourself, you lack the experience of age that Glory possessed. You may be stronger and faster than her, but you don't stand a chance against me."

"I'll show you skill," Xiara growled and started firing energy rays from her eyes. Xander avoided the first, then there came a second and a third, energy balls form her hands joined them. Whenever they struck the ground, narrowly missing Xander, they caused small, but powerful explosions. Xiara went up in the air, so she could look over the dust they caused. Xander ducked, and twisted while he moved backward. Eventually he had enough of it, and he caught three of her balls, formed them together in one and sent it flying back. It hit her dead center and exploded, the concussion wave dazing her for a moment. A moment Xander used to speed up and forward and fly into her stomach with his elbow, then moved around her and used double handed blow to send her flying into the ground below, creating a big crater. Xiara flew up with all her speed and managed to send her fist into Xander's gut. Xander almost doubled over, but he caught himself and blocked Xiara's next blow, and starting trading them with her all across the sky.

*****

"Incredible," Dawn muttered, sitting on her knees in the back seat, looking back at the fight. Anya sat next to her and did the same. "They're moving so fast, I can only see blurs. They're making Glory look pathetic."

"That's my Xander," Anya said enthusiastically. The bumps the car had to cross, didn't bother her at all, she just looked at her lover fight with shiny eyes.

Buffy looked at the fight as best as she could, using the right rear view mirror, and muttered, "Where did he get this kind of power?"

"He's not human," Anya said absentmindedly. "He's always had this kind of power. Well . . . not always; he had a lot of training to do, but he's been much more powerful than he seemed."

"What!?" the other three passengers exclaimed perplexed. "Not human!?"

*****

"Ready to dip below storm clouds, Lieutenant?" Meadow asked.

"Ready, here, sir," his wingman answered.

"Let's go," Meadow ordered and the two F16's dove into the cloud cover. A few seconds later they came out below and Meadow called out, "Son of a bitch!"

His wingman exclaimed at the same time, "Holy crap!" The two of them had been expecting all kinds of things, they had discussed the possibilities on the way here, from nothing at all, to grey aliens beaming down from a saucer, to a new volcano forming, making the UFOs the radar detected, rocks it was spewing out, to some form of Godzilla, but not this, never this. There they were a man and a woman, they were hanging in mid air, across from each other, with the man a little lower. It seemed as they were taking a breather sizing each other up. Lightning flashed around them making the whole scene seem spooky. Then the woman fired two energy balls rapidly after each other. The first ball the man avoided, a golden aura appearing around him as he did so, the second he just smashed aside and it flew straight in the air, and disappeared into the storm clouds. The first energy ball impacted with the ground a moment later and exploded with a big explosion. Then the two of them became nothing but blurs as they fought each other, once in a while they became visible as they slowed down, changing course or staying close to each other to exchange kicks and punches.

"What is it, Meadow? What do you see?" ground called to him.

"Two . . . people, human . . . or at least humanoid, one male one female," Meadow answered stunned at the beautiful, yet deadly vista.

"What!?"

"Yes, sir, they're fighting each other. They're not using any kind of jetpack that I can see, sir, they're flying on their own power. And they're firing energy attacks at each other, they're exploding it seems on impact. Don't see any weapons either. The two of them and those attacks are probably the UFOs the radar's been detecting," Meadow answered in stupefaction. When the tower didn't answer anything, not knowing what to do in such completely unexpected scenario, Meadow added, "They're moving so fast I can hardly see them." He came close enough to see the persons better, and they slowed down a bit trading blows close to each other, slow enough he could take stock of their appearances. "Ok, the woman is definitely not human, she's got yellow skin with red strips like a tiger."

"Lieutenant . . ." the people on the ground started.

Meadow's wingman interrupted them, already knowing what they were asking, "No, sir. Unless I am too, and we're having the exact same hallucinations, the captain is not going crazy."

As the tower started discussing what to do, Meadow watched how the man smashed the woman down to the ground and sent an energy ball after her. Just before she hit the ground she suddenly moved to her left, the ball of energy exploding where she was only a moment before. She sent two energy attacks up toward the man who avoided the first, then crossed his arms defensively and took the second head on. It exploded and he came out the other side, flying down to meat the woman where they continued their fight. After a short time they split apart and flew up in the air, each on the same height and a respective distance apart.

*****

"That's it!" Xiara screamed in anger. "I'm done playing! Take this!" She placed both her hands in front of her, perpendicular to her body, and then with a scream a massive beam of energy sped towards Xander.

Xander grinned and called out, "TANEKAKOSA!" His own energy beam flashed forward and the two of them collided in between the combatants. They formed a ball of energy where they crashed into each other.

"Impossible! His beam can't be as powerful as mine," Xiara muttered in disbelief and poured more of her power into her beam. It seemed to work the ball of energy slowly moved toward Xander. Then Xander did the same and the ball slowly moved back to the middle until Xiara again poured more energy into her end.

*****

"What's that!?" Dawn and Anya asked at the same time looking at a ball of energy hovering in the distance. Then its light turned everything around the car eerily whitish blue. "Is that an attack that's going to get fired or something?" Dawn added a little fearful.

"No," Buffy answered, turning around to look at the two of them. "They're firing something at each other, and that's the point where they're colliding," Buffy added, displaying her superior, Slayer battle instincts.

"For the gods' sakes," Giles muttered in horror, looking in his rear view mirror.

"No," Anya answered pensively, "I think it's for our sakes."

*****

"Incredible," Meadow finally managed to mutter as he watched the tug of war in astonishment.

"What's happening?" ground demanded.

"The two of them have each fired a massive beam of energy at each other, sir. At the point of collision a giant ball of energy has formed," Meadow answered, as he looked at the spectacle.

Then a lighting flash struck the ball of energy, and instant later, Xander and Xiara flew back in pain, as the electricity fried them both good. Their energy beams were forced off, and the ball shattered, sending smaller balls of energy everywhere.

"Holy shit!" Meadow exclaimed and started swerving to avoid being hit by the energy balls. His wingman did the same.

*****

Some of the smaller balls of energy impacted with the ground near Giles' and Spike's cars. They exploded on impact, jarring the two cars, whose drivers started swerving to avoid getting hit.

"What's happening? Is she aiming at us!?" Anya asked afraid. Dawn sat shaking with dread next to her, nodding in agreement.

"No," Buffy answered, holding tight as the car rocked by a nearby explosion. "The two colliding energies exploded and sent these balls flying everywhere."

*****

"Holy shit!" Meadow's wingman shouted. They both had managed to narrowly avoid the energy balls that had come at them, and watched how they exploded all over the desert, sending sand and dust flying up everywhere.

"What do you think, lieutenant? If those beams had hit a city intact, would they have leveled it?" Meadow asked, already knowing the answer, since he had asked himself the same question.

"Oh, yeah," his wingman answered.

"Captain," the colonel called from the ground. "We want you to take a shot."

"Sir, I don't think what we're packing is enough to take them down," Meadow answered concerned.

"If they are as powerful as you say they are, we need to find out," he answered him.

"Which one, sir," Meadow asked him. "And be quick, sir. They're still recovering from that lightning strike, if they start moving again, the missile won't go fast enough to catch them."

"Whoever is closest, captain," the man on the ground answered again.

"Alright then," Meadow answered, looking at the one who was closest; the woman. He turned his jet toward her and armed a missile and waited till he had weapons' lock. "Here goes nothing," he said and pushed the fire button. "Missile away, sir," he said as he followed the exhaust plume with his eyes. A few seconds later the missile impacted on her. "Direct hit," he called, he heard a happy clamor on the other side of the communication link. He watched and saw the woman emerged from the explosion unscathed, and obviously very angry. "And its only effect is make her angry!" Meadow answered in panic. The clamor died down and turned into mutters of shock and disbelief. He saw her stretch a hand toward them and an energy ball formed in front of it.

"Oh, shit! Sweet mother of Jesus help us!" his wingman screamed in terror. Meadow himself just looked on, shocked into silence. Then, just as the ball was fired, there was a blur in front of him and it solidified in the man, he stood on the nose of his jet, hands outstretched to either side and a golden sphere of energy enveloped his and his wingman's planes. The energy impacted on it, exploded and they were safely inside it.

The man then turned around, hovering above the nose as he did so and screamed at him, "Get out of here!" Meadow couldn't hear the man: glass and the roar of his planes engines kept that from happening, but even though he had never learned to lipread, the man's words were too obvious not to know what he had said.

"Yes, sir. No problem!" he exclaimed, in dread. "180 degrees, lieutenant, retreat, full afterburners!"

"Thank you, Captain," his wingman answered in relief, while both of them yanked their steering sticks. Once they had turned around their afterburners fired and they shot away.

*****

"You actually care for these insects!?" Xiara asked in disbelief.

"That's what insects do, they stick together. Or has your biology teacher never taught you about ants and bees," Xander answered her, checking himself over in the lull of battle.

"A wasp doesn't stick together with a fly," she told him, with certainty.

"I suppose you're right about that," Xander said. He didn't care much for the torn clothes, but the gashes Glory had left were another matter.

"Why don't you join us? You can watch as these stupid insects do whatever we say they should do. It's fun," Xiara offered with an evil grin. Xander looked her over and saw cuts and bruises all over her body, either she didn't heal, or she just didn't heal as fast as Glory did, which made Xander wonder what Glory would be like if she had managed to escape her confinement in a human body and had her full power at her disposal.

"Don't you understand? I already have a few mortals whose antics I can watch," Xander grinned evilly at her, as her face turned into one of shock. "I can watch how you bunch fools that call yourselves gods squiggle around trying to keep from getting killed . . . by me." Xiara's face became even more surprised and a little fearful. Xander thought to himself, *I was right about her not standing a chance if I was unhurt. I have underestimated these wounds Glory's goddamn claws gave me; I can't move as fast and as free as I'd like. That bitch's sneak attack and the lightning strike didn't help any either. I'm going to have to finish this quickly, preferably without going to the next level, but if necessary. . .* "Besides," Xander said, added a deep smirk to his face, "don't you watch any movies? Whenever a bad guy tries to corrupt the good guy like that, she is about to get her ass kicked."

"This isn't a movie," Xiara answered, clenching her teeth together in frustration.

"It should be," Xander answered, with a broad smile baring his teeth. "One more thing, Xiara, sounds a bit Russian. I take you had those monks send the Key here, huh?"

"Yes, I did. Why?" Xiara answered with a grim tone.

"Oh, just that I couldn't figure out why those monks would send the Key to the only place on the planet where it could be used to cause some major hell breaking loose. But then I guess you never gave them that piece of information did you?" Xander asked and watched as Xiara nodded with an evil smile, apparently she had been beaten up enough she lost the ability to gloat. Xander satisfied, then raised his chi flame and attacked with a flurry of blows and kicks. Xiara blocked and avoided some of the blows but most of them hit home. Eventually Xander hit her with a massive punch of his right fist and sent her flying down to the Earth. Xiara stopped her self and formed a giant ball of energy with her hands and sent it back up toward Xander.

Xander's eyes widened in shock as he saw it coming toward him rapidly. He would not be able to avoid the ball, so he placed his hands on it when it reached him and pushed against it. It threatened to overwhelm him. *Damnit,* he thought in frustration. *This is a lot more difficult then in my birth dimension. All that other energy pressing on it, I have to overcome that as well.* Then slowly, bit by bit, he raised his hands, pulling the ball with it and over his head.

Xiara grinned evilly, he would never be able to defend himself against that attack. It would explode, and damage him even further and enough so she could finish him off once and for all. *Sedra Soli! Hah! I'm beating one, they seriously overstated his power,* she thought with an evil grin. Then her jaw dropped and looked on in disbelief.

The ball moved upward and then it revealed Xander, as he swung the ball up over his head with a roar. Then he yelled, "Right back at ya, babe!" Then like a footballer throwing in, he threw ball back toward Xiara.

She was in disbelief, but her instinct made her gather all her power for a defensive shield. The explosion was as big as the one that destroyed Glory, but it was in the air, and instead of a mushroom, it formed giant sphere of explosive power that went out in every direction. It smashed a hole in the storm cloud cover, but it wasn't enough to make the storm go away. The force of the explosion sent Xiara straight down to the Earth damaging her greatly. She got up quickly and flew back to meet Xander in a new exchange of punches and kicks. After a while of this Xander grabbed her wrist and twisted underneath it, twisting her arm and her body in a helpless position. Xander kicked her hard in the stomach doubling her over, then he sent her flying down to the Earth with double handed axe blow.

Xander started sending energy blasts down that exploded on the ground around Xiara. *If this doesn't work, it's time for Super Saiyan Level 2,* he thought. She flew backward, looking up to see the blasts and avoid them. She twisted her body in several for humans impossible poses, avoiding the blasts. Xander watched, grinned and sent several blasts ahead of her, even as he kept rapidly firing his blasts down at her. Xiara noticed the blasts that would land just ahead of her and slowed her backward motion to a crawl to keep from getting hit. This is what Xander waited for, he blasted down with every bit of speed he had and came to halt directly above Xiara. Her eyes widened in shock. With a roar, Xander smashed his foot down, using every bit of power he had. He crushed her neck, and a moment later her head rolled away from her body.

Xiara looked up at him as good as she could, then screamed, "NO!!!" Then from her head and body powerful golden-orange - the color the sun had when it set - beams of energy shot out. When they hit the storm clouds, they dissipated almost instantaneously. Then everything went quiet, and only the empty dead body of a goddess, and a living Super Saiyan remained.

Xander looked up at the sky and then he roared, "Listen to me, you stinking pieces of shit! You've messed with my friends long enough! You've messed with humanity long enough! I wasn't certain about you, until this bitch's little speech, but now that I am, start shaking in your boots, bastards! Because once I'm done with the demons, <all> of <you> are next!" Then he blasted of in the direction that his friends had driven off to.

*****

Spike turned back up the road. It was just a dirt road, but at least it was better than off road. Giles car turned up on the road not much later. Gritting his teeth and gripping the steering wheel in frustration, he thought over recent events. First he got a bleeding chip in his head that kept him from killing people but not demons, than he fell in love with the god damn Slayer, and the stupid cunt had always looked at Xander with . . . well, not love or lust or a crush, more like an attraction. And now the dimwit had shown he was more than a match for any Slayer . . . shall we say: in all areas of life. Unlife just wasn't fair.

He looked up surprised. Without warning somebody was standing in front of the car. He hit the breaks, looked closer and noticed it wax that dink Xander Harris. Golden hair swept up, gently moving around by wind and energy, an infuriating smirk on his face, arms folded across his chest, surprisingly no golden aura, and deep totally green irises. Spike felt an irrational fear looking in those eyes, they were so cold, filled with angry energy that could kill so easily and effectively. The most eery part was that they had no pupils, somehow whatever changed in the irises, the pupils had changed with them, becoming just as green and making it appear as if he had none. *That change must somehow allow him to see more things, for one moving at greater speed,* Spike deducted, *Why else would you change the insides of your eyes?* "Aaah!" he screamed, as the Slayer next to him and the witches behind him opened the doors and got out to talk to Xander. "Watch the sun! Watch the sun!" There was no more cloud cover and the sun was fully above the horizon, and they were in a desert, not a good place to be for a vampire. Spike calmed down a bit once they had closed the doors and he was safely inside the blackened car again, until he realized, "Oh, no! Sodding wankers, they're going to have to get back in!"

"Wow! Xander!" Willow exclaimed looking at the transformed Xander. "Is she . . . dead?" Xander nodded, smirking at her.

"You're fantastic," Faith added with a smile.

"Yes, I am," Xander answered with a grin.

"Xander!" Anya squealed with delight as she jumped up and held onto Xander's neck in a fierce hug, and giving him a deep passionate kiss. Xander gently slung an arm around her waist and kissed her back. When they broke the kiss, Anya moved her hand through his golden hair, and felt the energy tickle her hand, it felt thicker, yet softer and thinner at the same time, now that the energy was flowing threw it. "Oooh," Anya cooed, "we've got to have sex with you in this form!"

The whole group, including the ones that were in Giles's car, who were just arriving, groaned in frustration then listened on in surprise, as Xander answered relaxed, "I'm not so sure if that's a good idea. It's pretty difficult controlling this kind of power level, especially pushing it down artificially to keep from causing damage or hurting people. And sex isn't exactly an activity where one is always nicely in control, I'm afraid you might get seriously hurt if we try that."

"Well, we'll just have to try out with masturbation first," Anya said with a grin.

"Ok," Xander answered smiling and gave Anya another kiss, and groped her butt briefly, which made Anya giggle with delight.

As Xander gently put Anya down, Buffy commented, "That's just . . ."

"Eewww," Willow supplied.

"And there are children present," Buffy added.

"Hey!" Dawn called out indignant. "I'm not a kid. I may be younger than you, but I can definitely handle some sex talk and kissing!"

"I agree with Dawn," Xander said, with a beaming Anya next to him. "She's more than old enough."

"There!" Dawn said, happily smug.

"Hey!" Buffy blurted out. "Why aren't you agreeing with me? You usually agree with me on this stuff, and what's with all out in the open sex stuff anyway!?"

Xander grinned before answering, "That was Alexander Lavelle Harris. And he's gone, finito, finished, never to be seen again. Only Xander, I, remain. Xander Littica to be exact."

"Ok, time for answers," Giles said.

"No, I think we go home first. Because out here, or with just the doors open, Spike would fry, and I really don't feel like explaining everything twice," Xander said, smiling. "I say we get in the car, drive to Buffy's house, we go sit around a table, something to drink, and while we relax I tell you the whole deal. OK?"

"Ok," Giles answered.

"Can you turn back to normal," Tara asked before things went further. The golden hair and green eyes were fantastic, but also very scary.

Xander smiled and the golden hair turned black again and fell around his face, his eyes were once more brown. "Let's get going," Xander said, and steered Anya to Spike's car. When they got in, quickly, cause Xander was mindful of Spike's aversion to sunlight, Dawn quickly jumped in after them before Buffy could protest, and slammed the door shut. As she got in the passenger side of the car, Faith shrugged her shoulders at Buffy, who looked dumbfounded at how Dawn had outsmarted her.

"Let's go, Spike," Faith said to the vampire.

Giles, Buffy, Willow and Tara quickly got to Giles car and followed Spike.

"Well, look here," Xander said, grinning, placing his arms around Anya's and Dawn's shoulders and hugged them. "My two favorite girls in the world, a hot Slayer and a vampire who has to keep his hands on the steering wheel. I must be blessed. How about a foursome?"

"Wha!?" the three girls exclaimed, while Spike grunted in exasperation.

"Hey, just kidding. I still like to joke around, you guys," Xander said, with a smile, it earned him a punch from both Dawn and Anya in the gut, not that it bothered him in the least, but he grunted for show any way. "Hey, what was that for!?" he exclaimed indignant.

*****

San Fransisco

Worried Prue paced around the room.

"Would you please stop doing that?" Phoebe pleaded from the couch. "It's driving me insane."

"You stopped feeling the power ages ago, and Leo still isn't back. What is taking so long?" Prue complained as she did her sister a favor and sat down.

"I don't know, but wearing out the floor won't change anything," Phoebe told her sister with a frown.

"Breakfast," Piper announced as she walked in with an entire plate full of all kinds of editable things.

"Whaow," Prue exclaimed as she saw the pile of sandwiches, some fried sausages and more. She looked up at her sister and said, "Piper, where did you and Leo find the time to conceive, bear and give birth to a hundred kids, and why aren't I seeing them?"

"When I'm nervous, I like to cook," Piper bit back as explanation.

"See," Phoebe said to Prue, with a wry smile. "At least she does something constructive." She picked a sandwich from the dish and started eating it.

"Very funny," Prue retorted, and got herself a sandwich as well.

Leo reappeared in a sparkle of light. Prue jumped up, and called out loud, with her mouth still full of food, "What took you so long?" She muffled up the sentence and spit out some of the sandwich as she did so. Quickly she placed a hand in front of her mouth.

"I believe what my dear sister was trying to say is, 'What took you so long?'" Piper loudly said and with irritation.

"Things are really hectic up there. Everything is going hay wire, one of the Powers was just killed," Leo said, dread, fear and helplessness in his voice and on his face.

"One of the elders got killed?" Phoebe asked confused.

"No," Leo said, sighed and then said, pointing his right index-finger upward, "The Powers That Be are the ones on top, <all> the way on top. They're the gods several steps above the Elders."

"What!?" Piper exclaimed with concern, disbelief and dread. "Are you telling us, there's something on this planet that has enough power to actually kill a god!?" Leo nodded.

"The Source?" Phoebe asked, dreading the answer.

"No, they don't know what it is that did it," Leo answered, solemnly.

"So, what do they want us to about it?" Prue asked, all business after the initial shock.

"Nothing," Leo answered.

"Nothing!?" all three witches exclaimed in disbelief.

"I couldn't believe it either. They say it is completely out of your league," Leo said with dejection. "Others, more powerful would deal with that threat, they told me."

"We're the charmed ones," Prue stated. "What could be possibly out of our league?"

"Or more powerful than us?" Piper added to the question.

"Apparently something capable of destroying a god," Cole interjected. The half-demon boyfriend of Phoebe walked into the room leisurely.

"Cole!" Phoebe exclaimed, jumping up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just teleported in and caught the last part of your conversation," he explained.

Phoebe reached him and hugged him, then looked up and said, "Wait a minute didn't you have to hide from demon bounty hunters."

"Not at the moment," Cole said, looking in her eyes lovingly. "For the past 25 years there's been a hell god on this planet, Glorificous. She was thrown out of her dimension by her two brothers who feared her power, which just kept growing. Every demon - and other beings - on the planet who knew she was here have been deathly afraid of her, or of running into her, including The Source I might add. Along with Xiara - the goddess that got killed, I heard - she was destroyed as well. It's got the entire demon population buzzing, they're not interested in little old me at the moment. Although that will only be temporarily, they will come after me again, sooner or later."

"That must have been the first thing I felt," Phoebe said, in comprehension.

"Huh?" Cole asked.

"I sensed a power, at first it just blinked on and off, and then it suddenly spiked extremely high. The first must have been a fight with this Glorificous and Xiara and she beat her for all our sakes, the second when the power surged upward, must have been whoever killed Xiara and her powering up somehow, to fight each other," Phoebe said, walking around the room a bit animating her talk with hand gestures.

"Possibly," Leo said.

"Wait a minute," Piper cut in. "The Source of All Evil is afraid of something?"

"The Source of All Evil?" Cole asked in surprise. "He's not the source of all evil, he's just called The Source. He's the head of one branch of demons, but he's nowhere near being the source of all evil. There are demons and demon gods out there who could squash the Source like a bug, literally, some of them are that big." Cole mimicked with his right foot stomping an insect.

"You're kidding us, right?" Prue asked hopefully.

Cole shook his head.

*****

Once they all had a glass to drink, mostly coffee to keep from falling asleep, and they were all sitting down, Giles said, "<Now> will you tell us?"

Xander nodded and started his tale. "Once, on a planet many light years away, a long time ago in a dimension that is not this one, there lived a noble warrior race. The name they had given their planet was Saiya. They were the Saiyan race, they were the race of Saiya."

"Nice Star Wars beginning there, geek," Spike cut in with a scowl. "What has this got to do with you?"

"Would you like to be dust, Spike?" Xander asked with a gentle smile on his face.

"No," Spike answered nervously.

"Then shut up and let me finish, we'll come to that later," Xander told him irritated. "As I was saying, the Saiyan race. Great noble warriors. They helped people who were in need with their superior strength, by lifting things others couldn't lift, rescuing people where others couldn't go and defending whole races against threats no one else could stand against. The Saiyan race became stronger as time went by. Eventually there were Saiyans who, using an energy beam like I used, could destroy entire planets.

"One of the Saiyans' allies became fearful of the Saiyans' power, so they devised a virus, made to kill everything on the planet Saiya," Xander said, looking dejected and regretful. "They released it and it started killing everything on the planet immediately. Many of the Saiyans managed to escape their dying planet on time, although the Saiyans didn't know who did it, they knew it could only have been an ally, no one else could have gotten close to the planet Saiya without raising any alarms.

"At first, the Saiyan race still cared about not punishing any innocent people, but as time went by and they wandered the galaxy they became bitter and enraged, and they started hurting and killing people who didn't deserve it. After many centuries they returned to their region of origin, not caring whether they hurt innocents or not," Xander said looking around the now captivated audience. "They simply attacked their former allies, good or bad. Over time the former allies had figured out which of them had betrayed the Saiyan race, the Tsufuru. After the Saiyans destroyed the first planet of their former allies, in an attempt to divert the Saiyans' wrath the rest of the former allies all told the Saiyans who did it.

"The Saiyans took the information greedily, went to the Tsufuru and their planet Plant and wiped them out, taking their planet as their own and renaming it Vegeta. It didn't spare the other former allies from the Saiyans' wrath though," Xander said. He looked up for a moment regretting how things had gone with his race. "You see, the Saiyans didn't want a repeat, so they were going to make sure none of them could do it. Not all the former allies were wiped out as completely as the Tsufuru, some were simply plunged back into the stone age.

"And now we get close to what this all has to do with me," Xander said, smiling around the room. "You see, those cleansed planets got the attraction of a being of almost pure evil; his name was Frieza. A warlord for hire, all who wanted a clean planet for their own, simply hired Frieza and he would find you a planet or simply go get you the one you indicated, it didn't matter if the planet was inhabited, the inhabitants would simply be wiped out. Frieza considered the Saiyans ability to cleanse planets so effectively and easily a great asset to his operation and offered the Saiyan race employment and wealth: Cleanse planets for him. The Saiyan race excepted the treaty, partially out of respect and a little fear of Frieza's power, partially because they just didn't give a damn anymore, and considered a get rich quick scheme the best way to go."

"Under Frieza's rule, and the constant fighting the Saiyan race became stronger, much, much more stronger. Our weakest warriors, started to become equal and even superior to Frieza's elite troops. The warlord realized, that should the millions of Saiyan warriors that lived band together to fight him, they might very well win, and if they weren't strong enough at that time, they would soon be. On top of that, there was a legend, a myth among the Saiyan race and the rest of the universe. That of the Super Saiyan. About once in a thousand years, a Saiyan was borne whose power exceeded all others, he would be so powerful he saw no difference between an insect and a planet, each equally easily destroyed. Since the thousand years were almost over, and the collective power of the Saiyan race was growing rapidly, Frieza feared the emergence of a Super Saiyan that could destroy him, so . . . he destroyed the planet, and all the Saiyans on it," Xander told, swallowing a lump quickly. "Only very few Saiyans weren't on planet, most them who were, were hunted down and killed. One of those who weren't on planet was a baby boy named Kakarott, he landed on the Earth in that dimension and lost his memory when he bumped his head. He was raised as a human boy, and would later become a Super Saiyan and finally beat Frieza." The whole group gasped at that information. A whole planet destroyed, and an Earth there as well.

Xander continued, "Now, not all Saiyans agreed with the choices their king had made. Some advocated a return to their once noble ways. One of them was a scientist named Ardipel, and he was the most brilliant Saiyan mind. He knew that if the Saiyan race wanted to successfully revert to their noble ways, they'd have to beat Frieza first. He also knew that Frieza's reach was all across the universe. So if one wanted to send some Saiyans away in order to become powerful enough to beat Frieza, or build a weapon powerful enough to do so one would have to go to another universe to do so. When he brought his plan to the king, the king told Ardipel, 'prove you can send something to another universe,' and gave him the funds to try."

"Ardipel set out to modify a Saiyan space pod to be able to make an interdimensional journey. Test on one and then go for a bigger number for the actual execution of his plan. He was too late. On the day he was ready to test his interdimensional transport, Frieza blew up the planet. But he wasn't completely too late, he was just in time to send his four-year-old son away into the interdimensional pod. As the planet blew up around the little boy the pod flashed out of existence and reappeared in another dimension. Soon he found a planet that was inhabited by a species that looked remarkably like his own. Evolved from apes, like his own. He only had to cut off his tail in order to blend hin. The boy's name is Littica and I am that boy," Xander said, looking around the room, they looked at him a little stunned, except Anya who had heard the tale before.

"My father's last words told me to find a way to destroy Frieza and go back when I could. It became my obsession: to train hard enough, become a Super Saiyan and go back to kill Frieza. I succeeded with the first two goals. You've seen the Super Saiyan; golden hair, green eyes," Xander added with a grin, looking around the room. They looked at Xander with a dumbfounded look. An interdimensional alien!

"So you have a soul?" Giles asked a little apprehensive.

"Yes, Giles, and I don't have a demon inside me either. I'm not a second Dead Boy," Xander answered with a grin.

"Hey, I didn't see the planet explode when you fought Glory and that other god," Buffy said, with a cute, lovable pout that said, 'Did I say something smart or really stupid?'

Xander grinned and explained, "My birth universe has only sixteen galaxies, east, south, north and west quadrants, each containing an east, south, north and west galaxy, slowly circling around each other. The galaxies only contain about fifty to eighty million stars. Compared to this universe, it's a speck of dust. It contains far, far, far, far less energy then this one. This universe is filled to the brim with energy, every little unlimitedly small dot of space and time, every molecule, every little instance of this universe is filled with energy. Back in my birth dimension crushing a planet is as easy as crushing an insect. Here, I can probably level a good size city, but that's it."

The gang looked at him, not quite knowing what to say or ask, until Anya said, happily, "Go on, tell the rest."

Xander smiled at her, feeling blessed with such a beautiful, loving girlfriend. If Gohan was any indication for the average Human - Saiyan Hybrid, he wondered what a union between him and Anya was going to be like. Wow, did he love her, it hit him every time, he couldn't wait for them to be married and have a few little tikes running around. "Once I cut my tail off, it didn't take long before I found myself in an orphanage. Not long after, the Harrises came along. He was sterile, and they adopted me. I became somewhat of a bane to him, a constant reminder his sperm couldn't perform, with her being guilty about him having to see it. Add alcohol and voila, it didn't take long before he beat me up, and not longer after that I found out I could goad him into beating me an inch of death." The group looked at him stunned, it was something they had never known or noticed about him. Where had been the bruises after all? "Which was good, because you see, when Saiyans get hurt really badly and we heal up fast enough that we haven't been inactive so long our muscles atrophy, we heal up stronger, much stronger. Since my dad had foresight, the pod could get stranded and with it whoever had tested it, he had placed enough supplies and blue prints in the trunk, so that I was able to build a regeneration pod. After smashing a nice hole in the wall basement, I placed it behind it. In there, even the worst damage can be healed in a day."

"That can come in handy," Spike commented sarcastically.

Xander ignored him and continued, "When I got to school, I found most tests boring and an insult to my intelligence. I was pretty much brilliant back home, and we were a lot further along science wise. Often I didn't bother to fill the tests in, only later on in the year, just enough to pass, I didn't fancy not going to the next grade. Anyway, I was obsessed with training to become a Super Saiyan, I got the training from the pod's onboard computer, from movies, books, books specifically about martial arts, at dojo's in town. No matter how obscure the information, if I thought I could use it to get better, I did. You see the source of my power is nothing other than my own life force, my ki, in this dimension, called chi I believe. As in Tai Chi."

"Angel showed me some Tai Chi, he didn't fire any energy balls though," Buffy cut in.

Xander grinned, "This universe has so much more energy than my own. You don't really feel it, you're used to this place, and I no longer feel it either, I've gotten used to it, but it's there. It pushes down upon everything. It's not present in my birth dimension, it was very easy there for people to learn how to build up their energy and how to use it to fly and such. For one thing you can feel it grow. Not here. People here gave up too soon, even if they got stronger chi-wise, they never saw or felt any results, so they never developed it. You can do it to, in fact I'm gonna teach you, everybody of you who wants to learn, I'll teach." Xander smiled, and looked from Faith to Buffy, already decided the slayers would get some serious training. "Here instead of power, skills were developed that were never considered in my home dimension. People here have learned to do far more with the same amount of energy. Unbeknownst to me, I have made an amalgam of the two. I've found that out when I went to my birth dimension a couple of mo- . . . no wait, that was yesterday. I went there to finish what I started, of course Frieza was already dead."

"Huh!?" Anya blurted out. "What's with the time?"

Xander smiled at her, and said, "There was a really powerful bastard there: Cell. He could squat away Glory as if she was a fly if power was the only thing that mattered. Kakorott's son though, he was way out there, he beat Cell first, it was just that the bastard regenerated himself, I beat him the second time, with a little help from Gohan. Anyway, through them I found out there was a Chamber of Spirit and Time there, that allowed one to spend a whole year in there, while only a day went by outside. I spent several months in there training. Good thing to, or Xiara would have gotten me."

Xander though for a moment, then said, "Where was I? Oh, yeah, then Willow walked into my life, and into the classroom. She had a bunch of books with her even back then, you should have seen her, so cute." Willow blushed as the group looked at her with a smile, Tara also looked at her Willow with a smile as she tightened the arm she had around her girlfriend's waste a little. "Anyway some jerk thought it was funny to trip her over, and there she was sprawled over the floor with her books. I fell in love with her, platonically, right then and there. I helped her out and before the day was over we were best friends. It broke the obsession I had about becoming stronger. Becoming a Super Saiyan became my main goal from then onward, it was no longer an unhealthy obsession," Xander and Willow smiled at each other remembering old and better times. "Jesse joined us, what . . ." Xander frowned, trying to remember, "Almost a month later?"

"Yeah, he was the jerk by the way," Willow said, smiling a big grin.

"We got him on the path of good," Xander said with a grin.

"Partially," Willow added, and then they shared a private joke as they laughed at some of the antics and jokes their friend had done. Then Xander and Willow looked at each other sadly, both wishing their friend was still alive.

"It didn't take long before I figured out this town wasn't normal, and then I took on every demon and monster I could find. I fought them, sometimes till I dropped and almost died, making me that much stronger once healed up. Soon, vampires and the little things didn't stand a change against me, and although I sometimes let them beat me to an inch of death before killing them - just for the power boost of healing from it - I mostly left them alone, looking for bigger prey," Xander told with a wistful grin. "Then you came along." Xander looked at Buffy, "And my life got a whole lot more interesting, no longer was I just fighting demons, we were saving the world. And all through, I always made sure everyone just saw me as a stupid dork with too many jokes, although I helped out on occasion without you knowing . . . and 'remembering' everything the Halloween green beret guy knew gave me a nice excuse to do some more. You could actually have figured out there was more to me, you know, Buffy at least."

"Huh!?" Buffy uttered. She had figured out Xander had helped out while he was fighting Glory but she had no idea how she could have known earlier.

Xander grinned at her and he said, "Name everyone who has ever directly saved your life."

"Well, there was Pike," Buffy started.

Xander interrupted her, "After you arrived in Sunnydale."

"Oh, yeah." Buffy blushed a bit, then looked up to try and remember all the instances. "Well, there was you, and then there was- no that was you, and . . ." She stopped talking and looked at Xander and said, "You're the only one."

"What!?" Spike exclaimed with surprise and jolly good cheer. "Are you telling me that dolt of a sire of mine never once saved your life!?" Buffy shook her head slowly. "Oh, I'm gonna rub that in his face when I see him next," Spike said with a wide grin of anticipation.

"Are you sure?" Giles asked surprised.

"Let's see," Xander started, a broad smile of amusement visible. "The first time was in first few days Buffy was here, she was sent down in the tunnel system by you, Giles, and I went after her and got to her in time to guide her to an exit that I knew of - I know the tunnels like the back of my hand, from when I was younger and I still hunted vampires there - I pulled her out of that tunnel system when a vampire was just about to succeed in pulling her back in and the bunch of them would have had her for lunch, the CPR with the master, when she was sick and keeled over with Angelus there, and I knocked him over his head hard enough he had to leave, a bit more indirect, but later on in the hospital I scared Angelus away, the fish on steroids swim team who would have had Buffy for lunch . . . or booty, and I rendered a helping hand she could latch on to, our classmate that Angelus turned and surprised Buffy coming out of the casket when it was standing in the school and I smashed a blunt broom into her heart . . . I think that's all the direct times, except when I saved all of your lives, by getting the bomb builder to defuse the bomb in the basement of the school, while you were all fighting the female demons and the multiple headed hellmouth monster."

"That was you!?" Giles asked in disbelief.

"Huh!?" the entire group including Xander, answered.

"When I went to get Oz the next morning, I found the defused bomb. I dismantled it and got rid of it first," Giles answered amazed. Xander shrugged and smiled at him.

"Oz was there!?" Xander asked surprised. After Giles nodded, he said, "Heh, the means the werewolf had zombie for lunch. Eew."

After a short contemplative silence, Buffy supplied, gravely, "Then there was Adam."

Xander nodded, "Spike was quite effective. I was done being treated like some halfwit, and so angry at you guys, I didn't care about keeping cover, so I went after Adam myself. If that initiative patrol hadn't passed by, and kept me and Adam from completing our fight and snapped me out of most my anger, we never would have needed to go down in the initiative, I would have brought you Adam's head."

"Bloody hell," Spike muttered while most of the rest of the group looked at Xander in wonderment. Anya gave Xander a kiss.

"Why didn't you tell sooner?" Buffy suddenly asked, and slowly got angry as she wrapped her mind around the concept. "Why lie to us Xander!? I had a secret and I trusted you with it. Why keep us all in the dark?"

"Yeah," Willow added. "You lied to me even longer, Xander!"

"Now that I'm a Super Saiyan, there's hardly anything on this planet that can get to me. And the military and the government are not one of those few things. Even drugged out, just powering up is enough to take out most people and vehicles close by," Xander started and looked at them, hoping they would understand. "They could have gotten to me before. A sneak attack while I'm a sleep, one lucky drugged dart, and I'd be in some kind of Area 51, perhaps Area 51 itself. The initiative made that pretty damn obvious, if you had known, Riley would have know, which means the initiative would have known, which means drugged darts in the middle of the night . . ."

"Which means Adam with Xander parts," Buffy added. She was starting to understand Xander's reasoning, although she still felt betrayed.

Xander nodded and added, "That's not all, if I told you sooner, I would have used my abilities a lot more than I have now. If Frieza had found out about me and found a way to breach the barrier and send henchmen or even come across himself . . . the more I used my abilities the bigger the chance they'd detect me. I always kept the use of my powers to a barest minimum, even when training myself in them and hunting the vampires and demons. Unlike Glory who had to keep from accidentally destroying the Key, Frieza would have had no problem with destroying everything in his path, and in my experience, that meant, 'Boom, there goes the planet.' I had not figured out yet that it was much easier to destroy planets back in my birth dimension."

"I think you did the right thing," Buffy said, looking in Xander's eyes conveying a whole myriad of emotions she felt toward him. He smiled.

"Me too," Willow added. And the rest of the group, those who had been affected by Xander's withholding of the truth said the same things. Xander smiled, glad that was out in the open and they didn't break their friendships with him.

"So what'll we do now?" Tara asked timidly.

"Simple," Xander told her with a big grin. "<Now>, we do nothing, tomorrow night we have ourselves an engagement party, and a 'the world is still floating through space with us on it' party. Then we're going to do all the research necessary to find a way to destroy hell. We can kill all the demons on the planet, but if hell keeps replenishing their numbers it won't do any good, and I'm planning to win this war. Then once the demons are gone, the gods will be next."

"Wha!?" The whole group managed to interject after staring at him in disbelief for a while and before Xander continued even further.

"But, but," Giles started, the expression he had was the same as the one written on the others' faces; disbelief, doubt and shock, only Faith and Spike just looked neutral, neither quite knowing what to think.

"No buts," Xander stated with certainty. "It's going to end, no more demons eating people, no more Powers That Be messing around and manipulating humanity. It will be over, freedom will get a whole new meaning. I mean it, this supposedly eternal war will end with us winning it."

"I'm with you all the way, Xander," Faith stated, giving him her support.

"Hey, I'm always in the mood for kicking the system around a bit, and stirring up trouble. Count me in," Spike commented offhandedly.

"Well . . ." Willow started, hesitantly. "Xiara wasn't very nice."

"She was going to hurt my Willow," Tarra said, suddenly quite darkly, powerfully, protectively and determined. Which earned her a surprised stare from the group, Willow's was mixed in with love. Xander's surprise quickly turned into an appreciative, and admiring smirk. "I'm with Xander," Tara added.

"Then I'm too," Willow added, no more hesitation, now that Tara had shown where she wanted to go, Willow would be at her side.

"I guess, that's settled then," Buffy said, uncertain. "We're going to wage a long term war." Giles nodded, feeling kind of proud of the group he had been somewhat a surrogate father of, humanity was about to get a whole new breed of champions, which made him realise he would quickly become useless here. The Scooby Gang could handle things on their own, best way he could serve them, he realized, was by returning to England soon, and find a way to force himself back into the Watcher's Organization to get access to the much bigger storehouse of books and knowledge they had stashed away in their libraries.

"But first," Xander interrupted everybody's trains of thought, "tomorrow we go to LA. You gals probably love to go shopping in the big city, for one thing for potential engagement gifts, can't see you find some nice things in this place without some extreme luck. Faith needs to return the sword and turn herself back in as well. They're probably going to set a trial date for her escape trial, and we're going to use that trial to get her out of jail. And you gals will probably love to go shopping in the big city." Xander looked surprised when he saw two stares of shock looking at him: Buffy's and Willow's.

"Get her out of jail!?" Buffy called out, almost bug-eyed with disbelief. "You mean lock her in the deepest dungeon and throw away the key!"

"Yeah!" Willow added, in outrage. "She turned away from her calling, and from her friends - us - went to work for pure evil, killed several people . . ."

"Tried to kill Angel," Buffy interjected angrily.

" . . . tried to kill Angel, and helped the mayor try to kill all of us and decimate an entire town, namely this one, and probably worse!" Willow said, figurative fire burning in her eyes. "And that while we gave her friendship and support and did nothing but accommodate her."

"The hell you did," Faith replied slowly and darkly, turning everybody's attention on her. She was sagged in her chair, looking out at them with dark anger. She slowly got up, and continued, "What I did, is inexcusable, something I should never have done, and although your actions should never have made me do it - it definitely isn't an excuse - you practically drove me into the arms of the mayor. So don't you dare keep going on like you're a saint and you're 'I did nothing wrong' routine, I punched you once in the face for that before. You hated me the moment I got into the town, from the moment I told you all a short history of my life as the Slayer before I got here. I was free-spirited, I wasn't uptight, I was carefree and I was threatening to take time away time that you spent with Buffy, and promptly I did, and she enjoyed spending time with me. I showed her a different side of what being Slayer meant. You barely spoke a word to me, let alone shown me friendship or kindness. Even in official meetings on how to take out the next evil thing with everybody present, you spoke only the barest minimum to me."

"You better take that back," Buffy spat vehemently. "Willow didn't do anything wrong! And I . . ."

"Shut up!" Faith interrupted angrily. Xander looked interested at the verbal fight and how Faith's outburst overpowered Buffy easily. "You were no better! Oh, you started out good all right, treated me right and as a real friend, but I all too soon degenerated into the girl who could stay behind in this hell hole so you could go off to a far away college and have a nice life!" Buffy stared at Faith surprised. "What!? Didn't think I picked up on the difference!? Or haven't you admitted it to yourself yet!?"

"I . . ." Giles started.

"Don't you dare start!" Faith screamed angrily, throwing out every ounce of anger she had cropped up for a long time. "Mister big-shot, watcher dude, you were no better. All concerned for little old Buffy, while you treated me like some freak of nature! Just a second slayer you could boss around! And when Buffy's mom and then herself started lobbying for a college outside of Sunnydale, and you agreed your precious Buffy should have a nice life, I was replacement girl with you too! A nice reason for you to exist; I wouldn't be quite Buffy, just second rate, but it was better than having no Slayer at all!"

"Oh, shut up!" Willow screamed in anger. "You're nuts, you- Hey!" Willow stopped her intended speech when Faith walked around the table, disregarding Willow, who now - with Faith not listening - had no real reason to keep on talking. Faith circled the table further until she reached Willow and stepped right up to her, looking down to her angrily. Buffy tried to place herself between Willow and Faith protectively, but Willow held her back, forcing Buffy to stand next to her, since she wanted to take on The Slayer herself.

"What I did was despicable," Faith said dangerously angry, but with an eerily low voice and looking directly into Willow's eyes, "but that doesn't absolve you - any of you - of how you treated me. The only two people, who did treat me right, were Xander and Angel, and no more." Then Faith walked out of the room, to the back of the house, and exited there into the garden to calm down.

Giles removed his glasses and ceremoniously started cleaning them, as he said, quite a bit chastised, "I was only going to say, that with the way she's turned herself into the cops and the way she helped out, and behaved while she was here, I think she deserves a second chance." Buffy and Willow looked back at him in disbelief.

"Well . . ." Xander started after a few moments of silence. He slapped his hands on his knees and got up, then commented light-heartedly, "things would have been a lot better and easier if she had done that two and a half years ago. Anya and I are going home for a while, I need some time in the regeneration pod. We'll be back this afternoon." He and a smiling Anya, who give a happy goodbye, and didn't really care if a couple of members of the group didn't get along perfectly; her boyfriend had finally shown his true self, no more lying, no more constantly making sure she wasn't blabbing about something she shouldn't be revealing, and once he was out of the regeneration pod she was certain she would get to see part of his true self the others didn't get to see. Xander and Anya were almost at the door, with a disbelieving Buffy and Willow looking at him, this new Xander was so much more confident and taking charge it still took a lot of getting used to. Xander turned around and said, "Oh, when I get back, I expect you two to be treating Faith amiably, and vice versa, because I am getting her out of jail, I already have an idea how. You don't have to be friends with her, or like her, but you will treat her with some respect. If you're still at each other's throats when I get back, all <three> of you will still be hurting a week from now in places you didn't think you could be hurting." Then he and Anya stepped outside the house and after picking her up, flew off toward his home.

*****

Faith sat on the swing in the backyard of the Summer house. The swing wagged back and forth just a little bit. A tear slipped down her cheek, as she wished for a better life.

"That could have gone better," a familiar voice said to her right. Surprised she jerked up, making the swing twist and she fell off dropping into the grass unceremoniously.

"Ow!" she yelled, as she got up the swing banged gently into her back. She cursed and pulled herself back up and looked at Raiden san hat this time, smiling at her sitting on the right seat of the swing. "What did I tell you about popping in like that and surprising me!?!?"

He scratched his head embarrassedly for a moment - ruffling his shoulder length white hair slightly as he did so - and said, "I'm sorry, even for a god, it's difficult to break habits."

Faith placed herself back down on the seat and grumbled in frustration. "You weren't kidding about how it went."

Raiden laughed and said, "I came here to say goodbye, Faith. The whole thing went down, you did great, Xander saved the world, no more reason for me to hang around."

"But . . . no . . ." Faith blurted out in shock.

"I can't hold your hand all the time, Faith. This is your life, you've got to make your own decisions, live it yourself, not become some automaton that jumps whenever I tell you to," Raiden said gently.

"I know," Faith said sadly, looking down at the ground, some more tears joining the first. "I decide my destiny and all that." She looked back at him and said, "But I was hoping you would be around guiding me a bit; I'm not sure what to do."

Raiden chuckled and give her a warm smile. "Sorry, must leave. Let me just give you one last piece of advice. Look hard enough, and you'll find more than one guide among the group. And Faith . . . I wouldn't be surprised if before long you'd be a guide to some of them."

Tara chose that moment to step outside and saw Faith sitting on the swing, obvious she had been and probably still was crying. She walked over gently, concerned for the Slayer. "Uhm, hi," she said, shyly as she placed herself on the right seat.

Faith tried to get a warning out, but Tara sat down, and - to Faith's surprise - passed right through Raiden. Now the both of them were sitting there. Faith looked at the both of them and saw how Raiden waved her goodbye, "Goodbye Faith, you'll do great. I've got faith in you." He chuckled at his own pun before fading out of existence.

"Is something wrong, other than the obvious?" Tara asked, looking around to try and find what Faith was staring at. Then she looked at herself. "I don't have a spider on me or something?"

"No, nothing's wrong," Faith said, smiling a bit at Raiden's ridiculously simple pun. She slowly got to believe the statement and starting drying her tears and rubbing them away with her hands.

"I have never seen Willow act this way before," Tara said, apologetically. "Well, I have, but then you were trying to hurt us, so she had a good reason."

"I'm sorry about how I treated you when I was in Buffy's body," Faith said with pain in her eyes.

Tara looked at Faith and smiled. "I forgive you," she said still carrying the warm smile on her face.

"You do?" Faith asked, incredulously and starting to feel warm inside.

"Yeah. What you said about Willow, is that true?" Tara asked looking deeply in Faith's eyes.

Faith felt the impulse to lash out, tell her she was lying about forgiving anything, but calmed down in tine, a small voice in her mind telling her this was Willow's girlfriend, and she hadn't exactly made the best of impressions so she just said, "Yes."

"Well, I knew I had to find some flaw in Willow sooner or later. Nobody's perfect after all," Tara said philosophically. "You won't mind if I forgive Willow as well, do you?"

"You believe me?" Faith asked surprised.

"Yeah, I can see in your eyes you're telling the truth. Before, when you accused Willow in her face, I couldn't see your eyes," Tara answered, generating a new smile on her face.

Look hard enough, and you'll find more than one guide among the group. Faith smiled at Tara warmly, she guessed she had just found one. Tara stood up and gestured for Faith to do the same as she said, "Come on, let's go back inside." She offered Faith a hand, which Faith happily took as she got up. When Faith was standing, Tara placed her arm around the taller girl's shoulders in support, and said softly, "You've just made a friend you won't easily shake, Faith. I've just been talking Giles, and he told me he didn't have the details or knew much, but he did know saying your childhood was bad is understatement. I can't possibly have known what you've gone through, but my family made me believe I was a demon, a creature of pure evil, they did everything they could short of physical violence to shred every bit of my self esteem. So I've got a better picture of what you must have gone through than the rest, and the fact that you've just crawled yourself out of a bottomless abyss, makes me admire you immensely."

Faith looked at Tara with a surprised look. Tara just smiled back. Faith said, smiling, "I don't deserve it. I forgive Giles, Willow and Buffy as well, although it's probably best if I don't tell them personally, it'll probably make things worse."

"I'm not certain. In the immediate future you're right, but in the long run, I wonder," Tara answered in deep thought, and they started walking toward the door. "I think you <should> tell them right away."

"Really?" Faith said as they reached the back door.

"Yeah." Tara opened the door and they went inside.

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