Li-Nang ran. The lush landscape of what would much later become Korea was covered in darkness of night. The growls behind her told her they were getting closer. Terror burned in her heart, which in turn burned in her throat along with her breath at her effort to stay ahead and get to her village. Her husband - all of sixteen years old, she herself fifteen and here 100% adults - had just bought her a few minutes reprieve . . . with his life. The pain and anger she felt toward that were drowned out with fear and the determination to survive; to not dishonor her husband's sacrifice.
The demons behind her though were bigger, and faster. Not to mention tough enough not to be bothered by branches and bushes - they just bulldozed right through them.
Li-Nang stumbled over a rock, and trudged onward, desperately needing a breather. She prayed quietly for salvation, "Great god Dinak, save me from these demons. I will sacrifice to you, please don't let me dishonor my .husband's sacrifice."
The demons kept coming closer, and her plight more desperate. She tried Dinak again, to no avail. Then she tried another of their tribe's gods, and another. Eventually even praying to gods she knew of other tribes, and once again there was no help: the demons were not vanquished with a lightening strike, no angel came down to smite them.
"Please, I beg of all the gods, deliver me from this evil. Wherever you are, whoever you are, please, let me live. Let me honor his sacrifice," she whimpered in fear, as she felt the demons getting very close. She was right, after another fifteen seconds of desperate running a demon knocked her off her feet.
She dropped face first, and instinctively turned around so she could see the demon. It's sharp pointy fangs - two sets of two - glistened in the pale moonlight. It was bald, and just plain looked horrific. "Hmm, tasty," it managed to croak out, as Li-Nang became aware of four similar buddies, grinning down at her with evil, yellow eyes.
She scampered back as one leant forward, and she managed to get to her feet, but she knew for certain that she would not be able to avoid the thing's lunge. Then - instead of being grabbed tightly around her neck, as she expected - the vampire - of the Turok-Han variety - stopped. She was confused for a moment, why would the vampire stop? She really should run, not stay thinking! That's when she noticed the other four were equally inert. She frowned, taking a step to her right, away from the frozen vampire. It was then that she noticed that not only the demons, but even the plants and insects were frozen.
"You asked for my help," a friendly voice stated out of nowhere.
Li-Nang whirled around in alarm. With wide eyes the girl looked upon the man, who was sitting casually on a bolder. He was adorned with shoulder-length white hair, and was dressed in some kind of robes, the color of which she could not positively discern in the darkness of night. The truly amazing part of him were his eyes, they seemed to be made of whitish energy. On occasion a sizzle of energy arched around his body, which she could only classify as lightning. "Wh-who are you?" she managed in fear and awe, instinctively knowing this was one of the gods she had begged for help, but fearful instinct keeping her from doing much more than ask.
"I am Raiden, god of thunder and lightning, and protector of this world, and with it, your race," Raiden told her with a friendly smile.
Li-Nang dropped to her knees, saying with reverence, "Oh, great Lord Raiden, vanquish this evil, deliver me safely home, and I shall be your priestess, I shall sacrifice . . ."
"/Get/ /up/!" Raiden commanded with annoyance. Li-Nang looked up fearfully, and slowly did what she was told. "I've got more than enough priests and priestesses worshiping me already, I wish they would stop. And I am a god - what do you think you could possibly sacrifice that I don't already have? Or could have with a mere snap of my fingers?"
Li-Nang shrank back, but no punishment came. Raiden sighed, "I'm here to help, remember? I did not came to hurt you, and I want nothing in return. I however cannot simply destroy them." The girl looked questioningly at Raiden. "I am bound by rules," Raiden explained to her.
"If you can't help me, then why come to me?" Li-Nang asked him, fearfully.
Raiden grinned, and gently stepped off the rock. He took a step, smiled mysteriously, and said, "I never said I couldn't help you. /I/ can't destroy them, but that doesn't mean you can't, after I give you the power to do so."
Li-Nang's eyes suddenly came back to life, burning with a lust for vengeance. "You can do that?"
Raiden nodded, smiling, and said, "Yes, but not quite. There's a process going on, one that will still take six centuries or so, to come to fruitition. I can speed it up, though, but you alone can decide on whether I should."
"I don't understand," Li-Nang said in confusion, shaking her head a little.
Raiden smiled and clasped his hands behind his back. "Only a human could decide this, it will affect your race for rest of time. There are consequences - and a few catches; first you'd be given instincts of a predator, of a killer, of a Slayer, a butcher. And once you're done with these, you're expected to become humanity's protector, you'll have to hunt /all/ the demons and the forces of evil, till the day you die, most likely violently at a demon's hand."
Li-Nang was silent for a few moments, digesting what the god had told her. She supposed it was a small price to pay for avenging her husband. Was it even a price? Or was it a gift? "No problem," she replied resolutely.
"There's more," Raiden told her. "I will only do this if I'm allowed to make some changes to the process, and once again only a human can give me permission. When you die, another will be called, and given the abilities you are given. If you give me permission, that will only be girls, of your age and younger - most of them innocent , they too will be given the instincts of a predator, of a killer and most will die young, killed by the demons they will be expected to fight. If you choose not to, men will be fighting as well - if you think that's the way it should be. Your life should not be a consideration ; you won't die here," Raiden told her gravely, but smiled.
Li-Nang didn't know why the god only wanted girls, but she felt no deception on his part. "Do it," she answered, her need for revenge large, her need to fight back, and protect her race larger - she knew her descendants would be willing to make the same sacrifice.
"So be it," Raiden intoned. "Brace yourself, this will hurt." Then Raiden lifted his right arm, and snapped his fingers.
Time started flowing again, and Li-Nang found herself in the same position as before with a happily growling Uber Vampire reaching for her neck. Her eyes suddenly widened at the sensation of fire burning through every fiber of her being.
The Turok-Han stopped his lunge and his eyes widened in surprise. The others wore an equally surprised expression, for Li-Nang was suddenly glowing blue. A hellish scream ripped from her throat, pain like she never felt before burned through her being. Those who would come after her, would be born with the potential, Li-Nang wasn't, she had to have her DNA mutated from ordinary human, to potential slayer, to Slayer all in one go. The scream echoed in the heavens where a thunder cloud formed, and lightening flashed down followed by rolling thunder.
The vampires took a fearful step back as the ground beneath their started trembling. They watched in awe as the girl's muscles suddenly became sleeker and more pronounced. They looked with fearful fascination as electricity started crackling in her hair and whipped them up. Terror nailed them to the ground when her eyes turned pitch black, and suffering - their own - was reflected back to them from within those eyes. They were flung off their feet as a shockwave of sky blue energy blasted out from their intended prey.
Li-Nang stopped screaming and grinned. She walked over to the vampires who were dazedly getting to their feet. With her safety, and her husband's and her own honor secure, fear was no longer in the picture and her anger had free reign. She reached the one that had tried to grab her by the throat, and smashed her fist easily through its head. The head splattered open before it and its body turned to dust. Before the Turok-Han to her left could even move, the newly born First Slayer twisted and rammed her fist easily through its chest. Her hand came out its back, and the bone and cartilage that had been protecting its heart, along with copious amounts of blood sprayed about. She pulled her hand back out, and revealed the heart before squishing it in a powerful grip. Its owner promptly burst into dust.
With a speed and casualness that terrified the other two, Li-Nang turned around, grabbed a third Uber-Vampire by its head and tore it off its shoulders. It smoothly turned to dust.
The other two ran as fast as they could. Li-Nang grinned and blasted then away with two energy balls. She looked at her hands, marveling at what she had just done, at the blue glow surrounding her. She realized something, and after a little concentration the blue glow and the rest of the transformation disappeared. With a little flexing and an outcry the transformation returned, then she powered down again, wondering how she was going to go about finding more of these things and kill them.
"Those who come after you will start out like this," Raiden's voice sounded. Li-Nang whirled around to face the thunder god. "Stronger, faster, and healing much more rapid than a Human, so be careful around fragile things and people till you get accustomed to your new strength."
"Start like this?" Li-Nang questioned confused.
"They'll have to reach to become the Slayer, they'll have to accept who and what they are, like you've already done in giving me permission," Raiden explained with a smile. "It's a precaution they put in, both to the Slayer, as well as to Humanity; putting that kind of power in someone who is not ready, nor willing or not accepting of such power, is very dangerous. On top of acceptance, they need a bottom strength, and emotional stress."
The girl looked at her hands, studying them, and then smashed her fist into a tree. Her fist went straight through. She pulled back out, wrenching some wood along, and she looked astonished at her now bleeding hand. Pulling it back out had made some of the sharp points of the shattered wood cut into her skin. "I'll leave you now, your village is that way," Raiden said, pointing North East. "Remember, you and all that follow are the Chosen Ones, I'm with you, always." Then the god of thunder turned into lighting and disappeared into the ground, leaving several glass tubes.
Li-Nang knelt down at the tubes, and said, "Thank you, great god." Then she sped off in the direction Raiden had indicated.
The woman jumped over the headstone of the grave with simple ease. The vampire she was chasing looked back for a moment, and widened his eyes in shock. The woman, around forty years old, sped up, as the vampire tried to do the same and failed. The graveyard they were in lush with green. A church stood in the middle, and roofs of houses could be seen in the distance. The vampire looked back and looked in shock as the woman stepped on a headstone, pushed herself off on it, and came flying straight at him. Unable to duck in time, the vampire's head was kicked aside and it went down. It struggled to get up, as the Slayer landed on her feet. She reached the vamp, and grabbed it by the collar. "No!" the vampire protested as she ran forward and smashed his head against a headstone; breaking off some stone, and dazing the vampire. A moment later a stake entered the bloodsucker's back and it turned to dust.
The woman turned around and watched a man approaching, wheezing. She smiled affectionally as his came to a stop a few meters away from her, and bent through his knees, breathing in and out heavily. She gently walked to him, and he said, "Twenty years ago, /I/ would have dusted him. I've gotten to old for this. And you, you look older, but you've only grown stronger and more virile. It's not fair."
She gave him a chuckle and then bent down, giving him a passionate kiss. "I'll live with it," he heavily breathed out, and they smiled at each other.
There were hundreds of them, thousands even. Turok-Han, vampires, demons - if they were evil, and it existed, they were there. Fighting on the plain with a forest to the south. They were fighting exactly two people. One man was a hunter, and that was the name he carried as well. An experience warrior, strategist, companion, and lover to the second. The second was a girl, a few years younger than he was, she was a chosen one: a Slayer. On girl in all the world chosen to fight all the demons and forces of darkness. Her name: Stubborn One.
The ancient demon that commanded the army of demons, was one who had put himself up as a new king, or emperor, or whatever name it had chosen for the title. The moment he heard of the two's vicinity, he had someone - a human - beg their help, and walk them straight into this trap.
The fight was desperate. Demons were killed left and right, but there were simply too many. Tears flowed silently from Stubborn One's eyes when she and her lover were irrevocably separated. She knew it was only a matter of time now before Hunter, and then she fell. Still, she fought on, killed, hit, punched, kicked desperately trying to get to Hunter who was surrounded and still managed to keep the army off him. Under the crescent moon overhead, Hunters cries of victory dispersed among cries of pain made an eery sound.
Stubborn One killed several more demons, moving toward her companion, determined to join him, so back to back they stood a better chance. The demon's parted ways then, giving her a clear path to her lover, who was screaming out one final death defying scream. His broken body was dumped to the ground, drained by a Turok-Han.
"NO!!!" Stubborn one screamed out in anguish. She sped across the short distance, as the demons closed ranks, sealing her in a surrounded position, grinning evilly at her emotional pain. "No! No!! NO!!" Stubborn One screamed, standing at her lover's broken body. She loved the man as much as life itself. Her breath quickened, sucking in and gushing out breath like an angry bull. Then she threw her head in her neck and screamed at the heavens. Pain, and, anger, and hate rushed through every vein in her body - and she started glowing white, just before the real transformation started.
The demons who had thought an easy meal now that the companion was dead, looked with mounting terror at the spectacle. Confused, and shocked, some took a careful step back, not knowing what to expect. A low rumbling sound came from the ground where Stubborn One stood. The glow started flickering, blue electric sparks crackled through it. Cloud cover suddenly arrived, obscuring the moon. The vampires and the demons were starting to run away from the unnatural sign. With the agonizing scream still tearing from Stubborn One's throat, her hair started crackling with electricity, her eyes turned pitch black, and then with a massive shockwave a pulsing sky-blue chi-flame burst around her. The shockwave moved outward from Stubborn One, tossing the closest demons about like they were nothing, even killing several vampires and a Turok-Han.
Stubborn One screamed out then, a roar of anger, anguish and grief, a scream that terrified all the demons present, "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS! I WILL KILL EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF YOU!!!" She stretched out her hand, and moved it in an arc, purely on instinct a massive beam of energy burst out. In an instant, the army of thousands was a reduced to a handful. A few seconds later that handful was gone as well. The embodiment of death had emerged: the Slayer, the True Slayer. And in the state of grief, and rage, fueled by instincts to kill, Stubborn One lost all sense of right or wrong. Only one burning desire: kill every demon she could find.
Without even noticing she did, Stubborn One burst into the air, tears streaming down from her pitch black eyes. First target: the demon who would be king that sent the army after them. She burst across the large town he had built, filled with demons and an equal amount of humans. She didn't care, there was only the target: his palace. She went straight through the wall as if it wasn't even there. The king demon gave an order that Stubborn One didn't even register. His subjects, human and demon alike attacked, with arrows, swords and an occasional spell. Stubborn One ignored them, the attacks bounced off her chi flame as if they were non-existent. With a roar she burst across the hall and smashed her fists into the king's chest, then tore him apart, flesh, and bone flying everywhere. The humans and demons fled, uselessly. Stubborn One was far from finished: for six years Hunter had been her companion, her lover, her general, her father - he, and he alone - had been her entire world, and she had loved him with every fiber of her being. His loss, in this manner, was just too great. She howled out her pain as she burst up into the air, going through three floors and bursting out through the roof of the palace. Her rage burning, she pointed downward with both her hands, charging a powerful ball of chi. Only seconds later she fired it, straight down. The resulting mushroom cloud rose rapidly around and past her. The explosion that caused it, burst outward, vaporizing the town. Demons burned, people were vaporized, and were torn apart. In less than two seconds ten thousand human beings were wiped out. The fire wall spread beyond the town and destroyed another hundred farmers' lives situated around the town.
Stubborn One did not care, could not even comprehend - although that would come later, but she still wouldn't care. She flew away, sometimes the long road, sometimes the short one, east, west, north, or south. She didn't care, she didn't even know where she went, and why she went. There was only one thing on her mind: death - death to the demons. During her voyage, she barely took time to sleep and eat - usually the demons and humans she killed that day. For humans she did kill. She simply did not care: if she thought demons were hiding in a town, or running it - whether it was true or not - she simply vaporized the whole village, she hardly ever left a village or town standing. With screams of bitter rage she would obliterate everything in her path. She did not care whether it were humans, babies, demons, angels, or gods. Everything that just happened to be in her path she destroyed. Fireball after fireball would light up the planet. Animal species that had managed to survive the last upheaval of the Earth, she put into extinction when she leveled an island where they had managed to thrive. Parts of what later would become America faired no better than the 'old world'. Everything and everyone was destroyed, the death toll in the millions. Gods relearned fear wherever she passed, fear of the empty black eyes . . .
. . . until she reached Egypt.
The god - almost five meters tall - laughed when he saw the girl, and her black eyes. The terrain around them was part lush forest, and part desert. Egypt was in a state of transition, going from a wet, lush place to the desert it would be in the future. The god was lit brightly, as if made from plasma, as if it was the sun itself. Stubborn One did not care, she simply attacked the laughing orange and yellow figure. Her first punch missed, the second one hit and sent the god flying, until it crashed against a huge lion carved from a natural large rock. Its face crushed and broke apart, shrinking it in size, as the outer ridges broke away and tumbled down.
The god growled in irritation, and flew at Stubborn One. Its punch doubled Stubborn One over. "Insolent mortal, who do you think you are?" the god hissed at her. It followed up with an uppercut, and a beam of pure energy. The combination attacks dazed the Slayer, but she did not care. She attacked, firing several powerful energy balls as she charged. The explosions rocked the god, but that's all that it did. It roared in anger as he engaged Stubborn One fully. He blocked a punch and grabbed the Slayer's head, smashing it down on his knee. The Slayer rammed her fist into its stomach, and the god just laughed it off. He rammed his knees into her torso several times, causing her to yell out in physical pain for the first time since her transformation. The insane Slayer had completely lost all sense of pain or tactics a long time ago, so she just attacked with everything she had. Several punches connected, but then the god countered with a powerful ball of energy, that once it exploded it heavily wounded the Slayer. The god grabbed her, and he rapidly went downward. As he landed - sending a massive shockwave outward, leveling off a mountain top into a platform - he smashed the girl with her back onto its knee. The sound of broken bones could be heard. Stubborn One looked up dazedly, as the god placed his hand on her chest. "Stupid mortal," he told her, as heat erupted from his hands. The Slayer screamed out her death as a fire quickly burned up her body, leaving nothing but ashes to twirl to the ground.
The Slayer was defeated, but she did her damage. Her path of destruction left a massive impression on everyone's psyche; for this was seven thousand years ago.
With a gasp Faith sat bolt upright in bed, bathing in sweat from the nightmare. Next to her a still bandaged up Wesley woke with a groan and looked at Faith sitting up, looking directly ahead. It had been several days since Faith beat the big bunny. Gunn was laid to rest already. Faith and Angel had already healed up, but those without super healing were still recovering.
Wesley gently laid his hand on Faith's shoulder. Her head shot around to regard him, and he asked, "Are you alright?"
Faith nodded, and whispered, "Nightmare, Slayer dream of the past actually."
Wesley started to move to sit up, and groaned a little at his still healing wounds. Faith smiled at him, and placed a hand on his chest, indicating he shouldn't move. She laid down again then, with her head on his shoulder, her arm around his stomach, and she snuggled up to him. Wesley smiled and embraced her around the shoulders. Thus they lay, Wesley able to comfort Faith without having to endure sitting up. Wesley didn't prompt, he knew the brunette would talk to him sooner or later. He marveled again at how far the girl had come, a few years ago she would never have talked even if he or someone else would have pulled and pulled and pulled. The recent few days after her transformation had been confusing though. She had been confident as hell, much less sweet, yet at the same time far sweeter - undoubtedly a result of the confidence with which she brought it. She seemed more crass at certain times, and reveled in it, a whole lot more pelvic - although she kept it mostly to the privacy of their bedroom. He had fallen in love with the amazing girl all over again, for her change had been for the better.
Especially at times like these, which he had to admit this was the first real time. She showed her insecurities securely, which was another weird contradiction. It felt fantastic to still be needed, when she was /so/ far more powerful then him now, to feel her body against his seeking his comfort and strength. "Wes?" Faith asked gently, which - with her mouth so close to his skin - felt very nice.
"Yes," he asked her.
"I suppose somebody might consider you my Watcher, right?" Faith asked him.
Wesley smiled for a moment, thinking about how to answer that. "Haven't done much watching, but yes, somebody might think that, in a weird way, although the Council would heavily frown upon our relationship. Watchers and Slayers are a giant no- no, even more so than a student-teacher relationship."
Faith, having gotten used to British understatement, translated, "Meaning, they'd kill you, me, or both of us if we were still within the system, and they'd try if we were still within their power to defeat."
"Yes," he answered.
"That's weird," Faith replied, making Wesley look at her. "Because I've seen plenty of Slayers being lovers with their Watchers in the dreams, they seem to be an organic team that is nearly unbeatable, although most Watcher / Slayer teams where there was an active Watcher were very good."
*Then again, considering that last dream, that might not be too weird, after all,* she thought, as she noticed Wesley look down at her astonished.
"Really?" he asked a little startled, thinking things over.
Faith stayed silent for a few seconds, and then said, "I want you to be my Watcher again, Wes, help me train. Not my physical body, I'm a little out of your league - you'll catch up, I have confidence - but my mind, my soul, learning about my past, and the slayer line's past. Are there any annals about past Slayers in the Council? I don't want entire journals, but something like a family tree, line in this case? Perhaps with a single page describing the Slayer, like summary: name, date of birth, date of death, place of birth and places where she fought, a quick sum up of her greatest battles, and how she died?"
"There are such books, yes," Wesley replied to Faith thoughtfully. "I can probably get Giles to send some or copies of them to us. Why?"
"Because, Wes, I just had a dream about a slayer that was at least forty years old," Faith said, and she heard Wes gasp in astonishment. "I'd like to know what the Watchers know or do not know about her, and from the cemetery where she fought, and the clothes she and her . . . Watcher were wearing, this was not in prehistory."
"That was the nightmare?" Wesley prompted the girl in his arms. He felt her arms tightening around his stomach.
"No," Faith said, still going over the dreams, the frightening last one she kept away for now. "It seems there hasn't been a Slayer in seven thousand years, not Buffy, not Kendra. I'm the first since then." Wesley stayed silent, he didn't need to articulate his confusion. "What Buffy is, and I am /right/ now is an intermediate step, too the true Slayer away from girls who couldn't handle the power. The Super Slayer is the only /true/ Slayer."
"Whoa," Wesley stated, realizing the implications of that.
"Yeah, it's really weird, I don't know the language they speak, have no idea about the words, yet I understand what they are saying in the dreams," Faith muttered, and Wesley felt her nervousness grow. He looked up, as Faith propped herself on her elbow, and she looked into his eyes. "I just dreamed of a Super Slayer. She was called 'Stubborn One' - I've had dreams of her before. Her . . . Watcher, her lover, her mate, her everything got killed by an entire army of demons. They led them into a trap, cut him down like so much yesterday's news. She didn't just became a Super Slayer, she also went insane with grief. She destroyed everything in her path. Cities, demons, humans, gods, it didn't matter. And not like Xander fighting Loki, that he the only way to defeat him and save billions he had to destroy half that town, this Slayer just destroyed everything, without provocation or need. She killed millions." Wesley looked at her shocked. "That was bad enough, but then she arrived in, I think, Egypt. That lion had to be the later Sphinx. The god was almost three times as large as she was, and all fiery . . . no, looked like a humanoid sun. He killed her with ease, he barely even broke a sweat, so to speak. He burned her to ashes, if I'm correct, everything went to black before it completed what it was doing."
Wesley grabbed Faith tightly, and pulled her to him in a hug, "That could only have been Ra - the Egyptian god of the sun."
Faith nodded, hugging him fiercely, with misty eyes. "He killed her so easily, Wesley, it felt like he was killing me."
"That was not you, that was another Slayer, don't forget that. Whatever happened to her, won't happen to you," Wesley whispered soothingly to her.
Gunn kissed Fred passionately, and she kissed him back equally so. She felt him thrust inside of her with deep, gentle thrusts that drove her wild. Then they intensified, grew stronger and stronger, deeper and deeper. Pleasure grew to discomfort and quickly beyond that. She tightened her arms around his chest desperately, trying to mumble a 'stop' past his lips, but suddenly her hands fell down and upon her own body. Shocked she opened her eyes, seeing a crushed head floating above her, brain matter drooling out and threatening to fall down and upon her. Fred's eyes widened in terror, and she looked down; not Gunn's penis was thrusting inside her, but his severed leg.
"Don't you love me anymore?" Gunn somehow managed to ask.
"AAAAHH!!" Fred screamed out in all her might, seeing her own room, lights on.
"Sh," Lorne soothed, stroking Fred's hair. On the other side of her sat Angel and he quickly hugged her. "It's gonna be alright Fred, it was just a nightmare."
"Gunn," Fred wailed, hugging her hero close. "Not much difference with real life," Fred sputtered out between sobs, holding Angel tighter.
"We know, sweetums," Lorne told her gently. "We miss him terribly too, you just let it all out." Fred continued to cry.
"Hi, guys," Faith said happily as she watched Zoey and Archie walk into the lobby of the hotel. Angel and Wesley who were in the lobby as well, greeted Faith's friends. Faith had been absent from school the past few days, so she could deal with Gunn's death and go to his funeral. Zoey and Archie had wanted to go as well, they had liked Gunn a lot, but he wasn't close enough to them to get the day off from school. So now was the reunion of the three friends. Faith got up off the couch, wearing tight leather pants, and a blue-green tight top. To the two friends' shock, Faith turned around and backed up in between her friends, and wrapped her arms around their shoulders. She hugged them tightly, saying, "Everything five by five with you guys?"
"Five by five?" Archie muttered, as Faith walked them up the stairs.
Faith grinned at him, and said, "You could say I refound myself, without sacrificing any of the advancements I've made in the past few months."
"Uh, Gunn?" Zoey wondered sadly and a little concern.
Faith turned her head to regard. "I'm grieving," Faith told her, her smile faltering for a moment, her eyes becoming deep pools of sadness, which moved Zoey to her core. Faith lightly shook her head, and smiled again, "But does that mean I'm not allowed to be happy when my best friends pay me a visit?"
The trio reached the top of the stairs and turned toward Faith's room. "Best friends?" Archie prompted looking over the railing at Angel and Wesley.
Faith gave him a nod, and explained, "Boyfriend, father, and the others are also too much like family to be best friends. Come on, I think it's time for another self-defense class."
Zoey threw her punch at Archie, who deflected it and twisted her arm around, putting her off balance. A leg sweep later Zoey was on her back, and Archie rammed his fist down. He stopped right above her face. "Very good, both of you," Faith complimented with a slight smile. Archie helped Zoey back up and Faith added, "I think most normal freaks, and the occasional fledgling vampires are yours."
Archie and Zoey both breathed very hard, and he commented, "Really, then why do I feel so tired? I'm not gonna win a fight if I get this tired."
Faith grinned at them, and said, "Haven't you guys noticed how things seemed to get easier steadily and then suddenly you became exhausted again? And then repeat that several times."
"Uh, yeah?" Archie wondered.
Faith smiled, "Have you noticed you've been losing weight, Arch? And the both of you gaining strength?" The two nodded, and Faith smiled more broadly.
"But," Zoey said, "That couldn't be just this self-defense, besides what has that got to do with us being exhausted."
"Exhaustion equals heavy workout," Faith said stepping to them and turning them around. She pointed at the control panel and said to them, "Read that."
"Two point two gs," Archie stated dumbfounded.
"I've been sneaky, I've rigged the place so that the warning lights and force fields are off," Faith told them with a smile. "You started at 1.2, then 1.3, then 1.5, then 1.8, today I upped it to 2.2 gs. This way, a simple self-defense class becomes a heavy workout, and instead of weights, it's your own body - you work out without the difficulty of lifting weights, doing pushups or crunches."
Archie looked down at himself. He wasn't thin, or smoothly muscled, but he certainly was less pudgy. He had vaguely noticed, but he was never one to really scrutinize his appearance like that. "Son of a bitch!" he suddenly exclaimed in shock. "Artificial gravity plating is going to be the biggest seller of this century. Mr. Littica and I are going to have to talk business planning. Imagine gravity plating lining every house, every bedroom. Every step you make, every breath you take will burn enormous amounts of energy. Watching tv, hell /sleeping/ will be workouts! This will put the health food industry out of business!"
"Archie, calm down, nice you want to make money, but graduate first, ok?" Faith suggested a little perturbed; for a moment there she could have sworn she could see dollar signs in Archie's eyes. She grinned then, and said, "Guys, while I was in Sunnydale, I learned something new, I transformed. I've become a Super Slayer, wanna see?"
"Uh, yeah!" Zoey said enthusiastically. Archie nodded.
"Ok, a word of warning, I might look like a merciless, uncaring, killing machine, but I'm still your good old Faith," Faith told them. Her two friends nodded. She blasted off, put some distance in between her and them. Then with a scream she transformed. Archie and Zoey looked astonished at the ethereal blue flame of energy surrounding their friend, and the electricity crackling in, and whipping up her hair. Faith went back to them, looking at them. Zoey and Archie took an involuntary step back at Faith's empty black eyes, but then forced themselves to stay put. "The eyes are kind of scary, aren't they?" Faith asked smiling, she had studied herself in the mirror a few times by now.
"Yeah," Archie muttered, and he and Zoey circled around Faith. They could feel the energy and static electricity blasting against themselves. Archie's hair even went to stand up. The audible, powerful, high pitched pulsing added to the air of incredible power.
"You look awesome, Faith," Zoey finally said.
"Yep, absolutely," Archie added, and Faith smiled gratefully. She had hoped her two friends wouldn't run away screaming in terror.
The cone of energy suddenly collapsed around the two witches. They breathed heavily after their exertion. They were in the basement of the Summers' house. Dawn sat on the stairs down, and looked with intrigue at the spectacle, a schoolbook in her lap. Buffy sat in a chair opposite the stairs. Xander was leaning against a wooden support pillar, waiting patiently, smiling. "And?" Xander asked.
Willow and Tara turned toward him. Tara said, "We've gotten pretty close."
"But not yet close enough?" Xander asked confidently.
"We need to stir the hornets' nest if we want to pinpoint Wolf, Ram, and Hart, Xander," Willow told him. "We've intercepted a few communiques from Wolf, Ram, and Hart to their underlings, but there are just too little too fast to allow to get their locations."
"However," Tara started, giving a weak smile. "We have found quite a few messages going between one location in LA other Wolfram & Hart offices, and the organizational layer in between them and Wolf, Ram and Hart themselves. We think they're like the big bosses, like personal lieutenants or liaisons, right hand men of Wolfram & Hart upon Earth. Taking it out will be quite a stirring of the nest."
"Beware though, from what we've gathered, when they are together they are quite powerful," Willow explained a little timidly.
"Sounds like the perfect job for a Super Slayer - don't you guys think?" Xander smiled at them. The witches looked at each other for a moment and then nodded enthusiastically. Buffy looked troubled.
The ceiling crumbled, and Faith came down through it. She was right above a red table with a black circle with thorns on them. As she landed, she went through it, breaking the table in pieces. Her white chi flame lit up impressively. The demons sitting around the table locked shocked, then outraged. "So, you are Wolfram & Hart cronies, huh?" Faith asked the demons with a determined grimace.
"You insolent- vaporize the bitch," the demon formerly at the head of the table hissed out. The demons chanted and a moment later violent discharge of energy coming from all of them at the same time impacted on Faith. A sphere of energy concentrated on where Faith was. It contracted then and exploded.
The demons grinned satisfactorily. The power they had unleashed could destroy tanks, crumble small armies, level buildings. The light waned, and they gasped in shock. A blue flame now surrounded Faith, her hair whipped about by electricity, and the sound of her power was incredible. Worse, she was unscathed. When they saw her eyes they froze in fear. "I'm not impressed," Faith told them coolly. She opened her fists, charging two very powerful energy balls.
"No, such power, can't be!" one demon with extra senses exclaimed.
Faith grinned and fired the balls. A moment later the room was flooded with destructive power, and then things went quite, the room covered dust, rubble, and the occasional remains of the demons. Faith lifted up in the air, detransformed, and let her cell phone dial. "Hey, Xan, it's Faith," Faith greeted. "The hornets' nest is rattled."
The Angel Team, minus Fred, was in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for any possible customers. Cordelia was near the phone. Faith had just returned from school, and was busy doing her homework behind the long counter. The others were in the back sitting in the office area. Connor was in his crib upstairs, taking his afternoon nap. They were silent, each reflecting on their recent loss. The sound of Faith's pencil moving was driving the others crazy. Finally Wesley said, "So, Angel, how's Fred doing?"
"Nightmares, almost constantly crying, she's gone back into cave girl mode," Angel answered subdued.
"Ah," Wesley returned, and then they were silent again. Faith's working once again got to him. "Do you think we could try . . . I don't know, cheering her up?"
Angel looked at him, Faith's pencil wrote away. "I don't know," he suddenly answered, trying to blot out Faith's writing. He never would have thought, one day he would wish he had never sent the girl to high school. "She seems worse than before, people might frighten her."
"What in blowout sale's name!?" Cordelia suddenly screamed out, jumping out of her seat. The others had sensed it too, even Lorne's mystical senses going haywire. They all looked up. Then they jumped up and ascended the stairs running.
Angel reached Fred's door first. He tried the handle: closed. With a quick shoulder the door was knocked open, and everyone's jaw dropped. Fred's room was bathing in red light, a giant, red, magical fire burning in the center of a pentagram in the middle of the room. A black candle was on every vertex of the pentagram, and flames rose a meter in the air from them. Fred herself was sitting cross-legged just at the apex within the pentagram. She was chanting something, her body jerked with strain and what must have been a lot of pain, as energy was flowing between her and the flame. Her face was contorted in a demonic image.
Angel sped forward, circled the fire and then dove forward. He grabbed Fred thus, and pulled her along his flight path out of the circle and away from the fire. He turned himself over, making sure Fred was above and he rolled over two candles. He rolled twice across the floor, finally ending with Fred lying on top of him and he holding her tight. He was pretty certain that if he had caught fire it would be smothered between his body and the floor. The magical fire instantly disappeared down into the center of the pentagram the moment Angel had pulled Fred out of the circle, returning the room to its normal dark color.
As Fred screamed and wailed 'no', and for Angel to let her go, Cordelia turned on the lights, and then she and the other three went to turn out the candles.
"LET ME GO!!" Fred cried out, struggling against Angel's unrelenting grip. "LET ME GO! I'LL BRING HIM BACK!! I'LL BRING GUNN BACK TO LIFE!!" Tears streamed down her face as she tiraded onward, the Angel Team gathering around.
"Fred, calm down," Cordelia said, and soon the others made similar comments, comforting and hugging the distraught brainiac. The others made similar comments, and after several minutes of protest and crying and demanding Fred calmed down, but only a little bit. "Why won't you let me bring him back!?" she wailed out, the pain raw in her voice.
Wesley had picked up the magic book Fred had been using, and said, "You can't just cast a spell of this magnitude, Fred. It requires years of knowledge, experience, and lots of power. The power would have, and already was, consuming you alive."
"Then you cast it!" Fred yelled out, still being held by Angel, but the vampire slowly sat himself and her up.
"I can't cast it either," Wesley answered her.
"Then get Willow to do it . . . or Tara, they could!" Fred said through sobs.
"Where did she get it anyway?" Cordelia wondered confused. Her eyes had misted up.
"From our collection," Wesley answered as he knelt down and looked Fred in the eyes, ready to try and make her understand. Faith had tears running down her cheeks by now as well, seeing Fred like this, remembering Gunn.
"We've got these kind of dark magic books?" Lorne asked a little perturbed.
"If you know how a dark ritual is performed, you know how to stop it, should some evil being ever decide to perform it," Wesley answered gently, and then gathered Fred's attention to him. "Fred, you can't bring someone back - not without consequences. It would be Gunn, but a Zombie, or a demon possessed Gunn, or you get Gunn from a completely different reality, one who could be evil, or you'd simply get a Gunn that's half brain dead."
"No," Fred whispered, the tears coming in thick streams of grief now. "He can't be dead, bring him back . . . please."
Angel answered her sadly, "Even if you managed to circumvent all that, Fred, and really got Gunn back one hundred percent exactly like he is back, there's no body. I've never encountered a spell that restored a body. Healed up a damaged one, but not bring a torso out of thin air. You would have succeeded in making Gunn's head alive, put his soul back in him, and let him experience dying in the six seconds his brain has to live in a black coffin all over again."
Fred sobbed and cried out, leaning back against Angel and her body shaking with grief as if she was experiencing physical pains. Suddenly she jerked, and she stopped crying. She sat up as straight as she could in Angel's tight, albeit loosened, embrace. "Dragonballs," Fred intoned suddenly, her eyes drying up, hope returning. "That's what Xander called them!" she exclaimed with hope shining brightly from her eyes. Faith's mouth dropped open, as she remembered. Why hadn't she thought of it? But then taking a trip through dimensions wasn't exactly standard operating procedure for anyone. "Dragonballs, seven of them," Fred continued, as the Angel Team listened with wonder. "Gather them up, call forth a dragon, and make any wish you want, including resurrection. Thousands of them at a time even, people who had been vaporized. The dragon brought them back, he said, restored their bodies, put their souls back in, with no repercussions whatsoever. Nothing, nada, 'as they never had died at all'." Fred looked around the silent Team, who were thinking her words over. "We take Xander's ship, we go there, gather up those balls, and we'll have Gunn back!"
"We don't know if the dragon can do this across the dimensions," Wesley said cautiously, not wanting to get everyone hopes up, but he too felt the possibilities, "from what Xander says the universes are very different."
"But we'll try," Angel suddenly said resolutely, and stood up, pulling a smiling Fred along. "We have to. We owe it to Gunn."
Wesley nodded gently, and said, "Alright, Angel. You, Fred, and I will go to Sunnydale, and then into another dimension. Cordy, Lorne, you hold down the fort, take care of Connor, and make sure Faith gets to school in the morning - I think we're going to miss beginning of school if I made my estimates correctly."
The Team looked at each other, Faith a little disappointed she wasn't coming along on the trip, but she understood - she had already missed several days and had only just started again. Then Angel, Fred and Wesley stalked out of the room in front of the others.
Xander and Anya had personally mailed the invitations they had ordered printed. All the names and addresses had been automated though, but they had wanted to post them themselves. One box was left though, that one was filled with invitations meant for people that mail didn't deliver to. Xander was still torn over whether to go to the other dimension and mail them there, or leave it at the verbal one of earlier. There was one other invitation. It was lying on the low table in front of Anya and Xander, who were sitting in the couch, holding on to each other. The addressee was clearly readable: Charles Gunn.
"Could you have beaten the bunny?" Anya asked. She wasn't crying, she didn't know Gunn well enough for that, but she was sad.
Xander's gaze bore into the envelope; he too didn't know Gunn enough to be crying, but he was deeply saddened. "Easily," Xander answered gravely.
"Was there a way . . . ?" Anya let it hang there.
"The poison would have killed any of the others instantly if one of them had attacked it, it had to be me to attack the slimy one," Xander said softly, still feeling the loss of a friend, "I lived through it. There are poisons out there that can kill me just as quickly undoubtedly, and they could have been survived by humans in the same way. There was no way to know, but I was the only one who could have attacked it." Xander continued to look at the envelope, gathering his thoughts, then continued, "If I had blasted the demon away, the explosion could have flung the slime past me, put me out, and kill most if not all of them."
"How about vaporizing him?" Anya questioned.
"Vaporization is a tricky business; he was standing against a wall," Xander explained gently. "Let the beam go on too long, even for an instant, and you might vaporize a whole lot more. If there's some room in between the enemy and whatever is behind him, it isn't so difficult, you can let the beam dissipate before it hits anything, or direct it of course. Vaporization; not a good idea in this case." Xander stayed watching a few more moments, and then added, "Sometimes Anya, no matter what you do, you loose. You can't always dwell on every possible outcome, every possibility - you'd spend so much time dwelling, you'll be defeated long before your finished dwelling, sometimes you just have to act."
Xander got up, got the invitation, and slowly and deliberately tore it too shreds. Anya got up as well, held Xander by his hand, and pulled him toward her. Then she kissed him deeply and passionately, until they were rudely interrupted by a constantly ringing doorbell. After a few moments Xander sped to the intercom, pushed its button, and said, "YES!"
#Hey, Xander,# Harmony greeted. #Uhm, I'd like to talk to you.#
"Why?" Xander asked, almost growling.
#I've got a business proposal,# she answered, the intercom crackling.
Xander's eyes widened in surprise, and then looked over at the woman the vampire was keeping him from. He turned off the intercom and looked at Anya. "A business proposal?" he asked Anya who shrugged her shoulders with equal disbelief. "The most stupid vampire has a business proposal . . . this I gotta hear."
A few moments later Xander was outside, looking at a nervous Harmony. His arms were across his chest, and he looked at her with equal parts intrigue and coldness. "Uh . . ." Harmony started nervously, then regained herself, shaking her head. "I take it you know Spike has thrown me and Maxine out." Xander gave a nod. "Let me and her leave to Las Vegas."
Xander laughed out loud, and then said, "Now why would I possibly want to do that?"
"Because I'm useless to you here," Harmony told him. She paced back and forth once - she'd seen an important bigwig do it one time. "I can't fight, the bunny didn't even know I was there. Being thrown out keeps me from keeping Spike 'happy'. In short, I can't do anything here."
Xander grinned, almost evilly, "And how are you useful to me in Las Vegas then, Harmony?"
"If I go there now, I will rule it," Harmony answered with a certain amount of pride. Xander looked at her, silently. Then he smiled and shook his head. Before he could say something, Harmony added, "I mean it. Queen H of Las Vegas. I will rule it, I basically rule it now, except that I haven't been back yet to take my rightful throne . . . of course, if I don't get there before the locals think I'm a fabrication and kill my minion in charge, that's pretty much out the door."
Xander looked at her, and muttered, "You have got to be kidding me, or are you really this stupid?"
Harmony pulled out a paper sheet and handed it to Xander. "The deed to the Tropicana," Harmony stated with an evil grin. Xander checked it through - this was not a fake. "There are more where it came from," Harmony told Xander with a smug grin. "Here's the deal," Harmony said to Xander. "I'll pay a million dollars a year into your back account, if you let me go."
Xander narrowed her eyes at the vampire, who fidgeted under the gaze. "I don't need money," Xander told her.
Harmony grinned evilly, vampires ears had really come in handy this time. "Your internship hardly pays, most of your time is spent there and not at the lucrative construction job. Your millions are gone into the gravity gyms. You paying for a wedding soon, a honeymoon . . ." Harmony gauged Xander's reaction, and grinned deeper, " . . . and I'll bet you'd like to buy Anya that house with the picket fence."
Xander looked intently at the vampire, then said, "Ten million, and no less."
"Aagh, Xan, you're killing me here," Harmony pouted with satisfaction: she wasn't dust yet. "Two million."
"Nine," Xander retorted calmly.
Harmony sighed, "Come on, Xander . . . I've got the IRS breathing down my neck; four that's it."
"Seven," Xander stated, looking at her more sternly.
Harmony growled, then said, "Five, that's it, Xander, I really can't afford anymore. You're bleeding my dry here."
"Deal," Xander said, grasping Harmony's outstretched hands. "But remember, the rules stand, and more. If Las Vegas isn't cleaned up, if more and more deaths continue to mount up up, you're dust. Vampire turns a human, you're dust. Do more than slip up, and I'll torture you to death, got that?" Harmony nodded timidly.
An hour later Fred, Angel and Wesley arrived at Xander's door. He let them in. Smiling he greeted them, and asked what they were doing here.
"We want to use the Dragonballs to resurrect Gunn," Fred blurted out instantly.
Anya, sitting next to Xander, looked surprised, as her fiance exclaimed, "WHAT!?"
"You heard her," Wesley returned, leaning over looking into Xander's eyes. "Let's take that ship of yours, go to your dimension and gather up those Dragonballs."
Xander shook his head, getting up out of the couch. "No, no, no," Xander muttered.
"Why not!?" Fred wailed out in anguish. "You get to go there while we fight this war, we die fighting, but we're not allowed to use those balls?"
"Because . . . this isn't . . ." Xander faltered, concern for his friends was his motivation. He saw Fred's pleading look, and realized she had already placed all her hope on this. More than that it seemed to him. She wouldn't rest, he realized. She would never stop trying to get to the Dragonballs, never feel complete. She had to do this.
"Please, Xander," Fred whimpered now, pleading with her eyes. Xander looked over at Angel, and saw in the vampire's eyes the same concern for Fred.
"Fine," Xander said with a sad shake of his head, "we'll go." As Fred screamed out in hopeful happiness, Xander became very sad. He looked over at Anya, and she too looked concerned.
Twenty minutes later the four of them reached a smooth building. Xander opened the doors, and led them inside. A large sphere stood in the middle of the large hall, covered in blankets. "I rent this, so be careful with the place," Xander warned as he walked toward the space pod. He quickly pulled the sheet aside, and added, "here we are then."
The Angel Team admired the spaceship that was going to send them into another dimension. Xander place his hand on a reader, and promptly the computer asked for name and password. Xander said them, and the computer said his voice was recognized and the passwords correct. The ramp went down, and Xander gestured for the others to go in first. The three of them quickly complied, and Xander then followed them.
Several minutes later the ship disappeared in a bright flash of light.
With a flash of light the interdimensional space ship arrived in the other dimension. Space was dark, and bleak. Angel, Wesley, and Fred looked astonished out the windows of the large almost luxury cruise space ship. This was the first time they were in another dimension /and/ had time to appreciate /it/, and the significance.
"LOOK OUT!!" The three of them screamed, just as an asteroid hurtled at them. The ship casually moved aside and the rock passed harmlessly by. The three of them sighed collectively with relief.
Xander grinned at them, saying, "The dimensional funnel generator makes sure we don't end up /inside/ a solid object, but it isn't that well with onrushing death yet, for that we have the auto pilot that moves the ship aside the instant it detects a collision threat after a dimensional shift." The other three glared at him.
Wesley looked out the window, and saw nothing but blackness. "The Earth isn't destroyed here is it?"
Xander looked at him for a moment, then shook his head and pointed out the window on the opposite side of the Angel Team. The three looked through it and noticed a blue dot in the far distance. "Ah," Wesley stated, also noticing the orange-yellow glow from the sun framing one side of the window. "Right, the other side doesn't have the sun, could have known that."
"Uh, about the sun," Angel said nervously noticing the windows didn't seem to have any curtains.
"Relax, will you, Angel?" Xander said, as he tapped the buttons on the control console, and the ship starting moving in the direction of the Earth. "The windows block virtually all harmful radiation. Only the visual spectrum is really let through, and I doubt you'll be set ablaze by the visual spectrum, 'cause then you'd burn to a crisp underneath a streetlight as well. And if I'm wrong, I'll dance on your ashes, no big loss there." Xander grinned evilly at the souled vampire.
"Very funny," Angel remarked dryly, earning the two a laugh. There was a high-pitched sound, which quickly turned to a heavy drumming, and then the windows and the screen showed they were rapidly on the move toward the planet Earth of Xander's birth dimension.
Vegeta was annoyed. He had just spent several hours in a measuring booth, so Bulma could recreate proper Saiyan royal armor. The armor he was going to be wearing at Littica's wedding in a few weeks. Thus, wanting to have some fresh air and open space, instead of Bulma's claustrophobic idea of measuring, he exited the building and inhaled deeply. Vegeta easily ignored the sense of ki energy rapidly approaching, it was not his concern after all, even if the kid coming closer /was/ Saiyan.
Vegeta stretched out his body so he could get the kinks his Frankenstein wife had introduced back out. Vegeta got more annoyed when the Saiyan boy set down in his garden. He was properly knelt down, his tail sticking out. "Lord Vegeta," the teenager greeted. He had to be about fourteen. He was one of those his son from the future had deigned to save back on New Vegeta, where Kakarotto's brat had defeated another Super Saiyan. The boy, along with the other Saiyans, had been placed in Human foster homes. The race of pitiful three feet green fools they had saved back then as well, had been transplanted on a new uninhabited planet, Vegeta remembered, and got even more annoyed.
"/What/ are you doing here?" Vegeta sneered at the boy. He had been pretty convinced he had gotten the point across when he ordered the kids to stay with the foster homes, and train to their hearts content, as long as they obeyed their homes' rules.
"Prince Veg- . . ."
"/King/," Vegeta immediately interrupted with a sneer. "Two Saiyans crowned me according to the ancient traditions, you shall address me as 'king'."
The boy looked startled for a moment, then bowed his head deeper, and added, "King Vegeta, my name is Piedan, and I wish to ask you a question." Vegeta gestured for the boy to hurry up. "Why, your majesty, haven't you destroyed these pitiful weaklings yet? Why don't we just take over?"
Vegeta regarded the boy, then suddenly with rapid speed he grabbed him by his neck. Vegeta squeezed and lifted the boy off the floor and pulled him very close to his face. "My wife is one of 'these pitiful weaklings', my son is half that . . . if you ever dare insult my wife or my son again, I will rip out a few of your ribs and impale you on them, got that?" The boy nodded fearfully when he looked into the bloodthirsty eyes of Vegeta. "In addition, I know several so-called weaklings who could kill you in less than a second, and they have a greater balance when it comes ki, you fool. They know things, have developed abilities that you could learn from if you opened your eyes and mind - that's one thing that makes me the king and you a fool. I never was so stupid /not/ to open my eyes and learn from those I encountered if they knew something I didn't yet." With a casual motion, Vegeta flung the kid away from him. The teenager landed on the gras, and rolled backward several times. "Get back to your adoptive parents, obey them, and /learn/, you maggot. If you don't, I will kill you myself."
"Y-yes, lord Vegeta," the boy stammered, all his earlier bravado gone in an instant at Vegeta's rough treatment, and hateful words. The boy quickly burst back into the sky and fled back to where he came from. Vegeta growled in irritation.
"So," Krillin asked behind him, leaning in the door frame, "Can we get back to the dojo, or is Bulma not done torturing you yet?" Krillin had a class to teach later that afternoon - Yamcha had a day off - and when Bulma had practically dragged Vegeta out of the Gravity Gym after turning it off he had been busy doing nothing. If 18 ever found out he'd just been sitting here waiting . . . but how was he to know it would take this long?
Vegeta started to grumble, and then both of them looked up into the sky. Both of them were surprised, and Krillin was the one to say, "What could he be doing here? We aren't late for the wedding, are we?"
"We'll find out when they get here," Vegeta grumbled in annoyance.
Indeed, fifteen minutes later the spherical space ship gently touched down in the garden. Its ramp extended, and the entrance opened.
Inside, Angel looked nervously at the sun becoming visible as the door slid open. Once the door was open, Wesley told him, "Time to find out."
Angel nodded, and slowly walked toward the wide beam of light entering via the door. The other three waited impatiently and with curiosity. Quickly Angel shot his hand out into the light, and pulled it back. The immediate stinging he got back home didn't happen. Tentatively he put his hand back in the light, ready to pull it back the moment it became necessary. There was no pain, but a small irritation started. "Well?" Xander asked. Angel held up his other hand in a 'wait' sign. Slowly time passed, the irritation growing into an itch, then a tingling. Angel grimaced when after about one and a half minute after putting his hand into the sunlight, the tingling turned into a numb painful sensation, that after that quickly grew.
"What are you still doing in there!?" Vegeta demanded with irritation as he marched into the space ship, then looked astonished at Angel.
A moment later Krillin caught up to Vegeta, standing next to him. When he saw Angel's hand smoking, he blurted out, "What the hell!?"
Just before his hand would catch aflame, Angel pulled it back out of the light, and started rubbing his irritated hand with the other.
"He's a vampire, demon animated corpse, bloodsucking fiend from beyond the grave," Xander explained casually, as Fred oddly looked intimidated at the arrival of the royal Vegeta, and bold - fueled by sadness - all at the same time. "A vampire drains you dry, you drink some of their blood, you're still dead but a demon of absolute evil will animate your corpse. Except this vampire killed the wrong girl and her family decided to give him a very creative punishment. They returned the soul to the body, now the demon trapped beneath the soul is forced to feel all the guilt, and the nice, sweet, good emotions Angel here feels. For the demon: torture, the worst kind."
"They're kind of immortal, already being dead and all," Fred explained, her eyes now filled with hope. "They can be killed though: wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, fire, and sunlight."
Wesley looked solemnly, as he added, "Back home his hand would have been on fire after five or so seconds. I'm Wesley Wyndam-Price."
Vegeta regarded the Englishman coolly as Krillin introduced himself to the man and shook his hand. "Vegeta," Xander greeted, and then indicated Fred. As he introduced the girl, Angel went to put on some gloves and pull his coat up over his head, then he went to stand in the sun to see if it was enough protection.
"Nice to meet you, your majesty," Fred greeted the Saiyan king, giving him a quick bow.
Vegeta hmpfed and focused Xander, asking, "So, what's the reason for the visit, Littica?"
Wesley looked at Angel, pointedly still not smoking with the coat up and protecting him. Xander answered, "We lost a friend to the darkness, and we'd like to use the Dragonballs to revive him."
Vegeta didn't say anything, but Krillin frowned, and said, "I don't know."
"WHAT!?" Fred shrieked out, taking a few steps to regard the ex-monk. "You get to resurrect people with the dragon, but we're not allowed to is that it? Are you a hypocrite?"
"No, no," Krillin replied waving his hands. "That's not what I meant. We've never tried to revive someone across the dimensional barriers. I don't even know if the Dragon can do that, and whether there are any consequences if the Dragon does."
Angel took a step forward, and said, "Let's go find us some balls, we'll worry about any consequences later."
"Don't ever say that again," Xander warned, a shudder running down his spine. Angel looked confused, going over what he said. Xander quickly stepped past Vegeta and Krillin, and out into the fresh air of his birth dimension, wanting to be far away from the confused vampire and the terrifying images that sentence could induce.
The others followed the Saiyan out, and Xander looked into the sky with satisfaction. Then he raised his eyebrows and looked back. Gohan could be in a dimensional chamber like a gravity gym of course, but Xander considered the chances especially since - judging by the sun - it was around noon slim at best. "Gohan?" he asked, not feeling the most powerful being on the planet.
"He's fine," Vegeta grumbled in irritation.
"Yeah," Krillin explained with a wide grin, "he just hitched a ride with Bulma's early prototype. He's stuck in another dimension until they fix it, or Bulma finishes the new fully outfitted one. I'll go get the dragon radar." The ex-monk quickly disappeared into the capsule corp building, and re-emerged a short while later.
"Let's split up in two groups," Xander suggested calmly. "Angel, Fred, you go with Vegeta, me and Wesley will go with Krillin." Xander looked at Vegeta.
The king made an annoyed sound, and then said, "I might as well, some wide open spaces will be a nice change."
Xander looked confused, and Krillin commented, "You /don't/ want to know." Vegeta walked off in the mean time, ready to blast off.
"Don't we need a radar to?" Angel asked carefully hidden underneath his coat.
"/I/ do not need a stinking radar," Vegeta sneered, and then beckoned the vampire and the scientist to him with one imperious gesture. Angel grabbed a hold of Fred, and as Vegeta burst into the air the two followed.
Krillin looked down onto the display, and said, "All right, let's go." Then Xander, Wesley and Krillin blasted off as well.
Vegeta, Angel and Fred flew across the ocean, although Fred didn't really 'fly' more like she was carried along by Angel. The two watched as Vegeta steadily, and rapidly put distance between them and him. "HEY! WAIT UP!!" Angel screamed in frustration at the silent king, who was casually flying onward with his arms folded across his chest.
Vegeta looked back with extreme disdain, and sighed, "Pathetic." He slowed down, and once the others joined him, he enveloped his ki around them. "Hold on, weaklings. I will not lower myself to flying at your snail pace," the Saiyan king sneered and then burst forward. He accelerated fast enough to jar Fred and to a lesser extent Angel, but he was still careful enough not to injure them.
Fred shrieked in fright, and groaned at the sudden pain that rushed her body. Angel called out from under his coat in anger at the Saiyan, "Can't you watch out? You hurt Fred."
"If I hurt the woman you'd know, fool, a little jolt will do her good," Vegeta told him gruffly.
"Listen, pal- . . ."
"Shut up, or I will blast you into the next dimension," Vegeta interrupted Angel in irritation.
Angel was fed up with the king, saying, "I don't think, Xander- . . ."
"Littica would thank me for the favor," Vegeta told the vampire with an evil smirk plastered on his face, unable to be seen by the vampire from his position. Angel though shut up, realizing the king was probably right. Xander might consider him an ally, but the vampire didn't delude himself into thinking Xander would shed a tear over his dusting. In fact, his once nemesis for Buffy's love, would probably jump for joy - Angel still felt the stinging true words Xander had told him in the hospital.
"Can't you be nicer?" Fred piped up, half timid, half annoyed. Vegeta snapped his head down and regarded the girl with steel eyes. "Your majesty?" she whimpered under Vegeta's cold, hard gaze.
Vegeta put his back forward and grunted with disapproval. "What?" Angel said, risking a quick death, but was pretty certain, that however evil this man once was - he wouldn't kill with such disregard anymore. For one thing, he doubted Xander would leave Vegeta alive if he still was a stone cold, purely evil being.
Vegeta turned back, narrowing his gaze at the vampire. He then turned to Fred, and looked straight at her, making the girl shrink into herself. It was quite obvious that whatever Vegeta had to say, he didn't say it because Angel had demanded it. "You are weak," Vegeta told Fred harshly. "Truly pathetic. Flinching back at a simple gaze. If you've got something to say, got an opinion, give it, and stick by it. You got a question you keep your head up and demand an answer. That way you gain respect, show you're not a coward. It might get you killed with some people or under certain circumstances, but at least you will have shown you have a backbone, some /pride/." Vegeta turned his head back, and sighed in irritation. This still was going to slow for his liking. As Fred and Angel looked astonished at the man's answer, trying to wrap their minds around the king's answer, Vegeta transformed. His hair now golden, his ki flame equally so, he burst forward to even greater speeds, once again making sure the acceleration wouldn't be too much for his passenger, but still enough to jar then. "After all," the Saiyan added with an unseen smirk, "I could snap my wife's neck with such speed she wouldn't even feel me do it. Do you think she seduced me by being a sniffling coward? The woman would stare down a /thousand/ Super Saiyans, and probably got a few to flinch before they vaporize her." The love, devotion, and admiration the man had for his wife was so obvious neither Fred or Angel missed it, making them wonder in astonishment once again.
"Right there," Wesley said, pointing at a round orange ball that reflected sunlight. The three of them were standing in a forest, finding their first Dragonball. The tree's trunks were exposed, giving the sense it was placed on top of a lot of legs. Underneath the tree, within the darkness behind the trunks the Dragonball lay, and had gone unnoticed until the sunlight reflected off of it, and Wesley had seen it happen.
"Good," Krillin said, and quickly squatted down and reached between the roots. A moment later he pulled out the shiny ball and held it up. "The three-star ball," Krillin announced showing the three red stars on the orange ball.
Wesley and Xander came closer and regarded the ball. "Seven of these, huh? So unassuming," Wesley commented looking at the small ball.
"Yep," Krillin replied with a grin. "Seven of these, and the world is at your fingertips."
"Remarkable," Wesley commented with wide eyes.
Krillin nodded, "Created by god, Kami, a Namek, re-energized by his successor - the dragon contained within can do anything within it's creator's, or the one who re-energized them's power. Quite some amazing trinkets, aren't they?"
"Indeed," Xander said with a British accent. Wesley looked at him. With a smile the Saiyan said, "That was what you were going to say, wasn't it? Stiff upper lip watchers are so predictable."
"Let's get going, and see if we can beat Vegeta and the others to the fourth!" Krillin said excitedly and transformed, his sphere of electricity forming around him. The energy and wind blasted past Wesley who's jaw dropped, watching at the grinning Super Human.
"Let's," Xander said, transforming as well. He picked up Wesley, and they blasted off.
Vegeta watched as the nimble small form of Fred wiggled her way past the boulders. Soon she managed to grasp the Dragonball with her right hand. "I can just blow everything aside," he commented with impatience, still in a Super Saiyan from. Angel and Fred had been looking around in astounding at the beautiful mountainous terrain they were in - Angel was still doing it now.
"You will /not/ harm the baby dinosaurs," Fred called out with authority, pointing up at the dinosaur nest right above her. Fred could get quite strong minded when there was something she felt passionately about. Cute baby dinosaurs - long extinct in her world, thus it appealed to her scientific mind as well as her nurturing side - were one of them. The fact that this was the big king she was half afraid of, and the other half afraid of to insult and potentially screwing up enough she'd ruin Xander's wedding somehow, yet she was more than talking back to him was not lost on her. Apparently he had been right about his speech about confidence, at least he seemed to respect it, and her more now.
"Got it," Fred said triumphantly as she managed to crawl back out of the rock cove. She smiled widely, until she noticed it, both with her eyes, ears, and touch. There were a few trembles moving through her. Angel across from her was equally looking around nervously. The mother - a giant monster of a dinosaur, walking on two legs, that made T-Rex look like a cute squirl- came stomping toward them, and it was most certainly pissed they had dared to come this close to her nest. Vegeta just kept his arms folded across his chest with his back to the dinosaur.
"Vegeta," Angel said warningly, nervously.
"Vegeta, behind you," Fred mumbled taking a fearful step back. Vegeta just moved his eyes from Angel to Fred in annoyance, like a stupid animal cut hurt him.
The dinosaur roared and snapped her head down. She was intending to bite the little insect in half, right at the waist, and have two tasty treats for her young. Instead her teeth didn't even manage to hit Vegeta's flesh, they crashed and stopped. Cracks formed in the teeth, and the dinosaur howled out in pain, snapping her head back up. Vegeta casually turned around, charged an energy ball in his right hand, ready to blast the dinosaur, and said casually, "You will pay for that insult."
"Don't kill her!" Fred shrieked out, once her astonishment had past.
Angel understanding, added, "She was just protected her young."
Vegeta looked back at them, hand still pointed at the dinosaur with the energy ball still at ready. "Do not . . ." Vegeta warned narrowing his eyes. The energy attack disappeared. ". . . overstep your bounds," Vegeta finished, and blasted outward his ki. The mother dinosaur was launched off her feet, landed twenty meters further, hurt some of her bones, and bounced up. She tumbled up and over twice before coming to a stop. Slowly, and moaning in pain the dinosaur got back up, and started limping back to her babies. She would try to protect them, even if it meant her death.
"Let's get going," the golden-haired Vegeta muttered in irritation. "Littica and Krillin have powered up, they want to make this a race." Vegeta smirked a familiar looking smirk, and blasted off, pulling the other two along.
And so the race was on. Vegeta's team reached the second ball first, but Krillin's team managed to catch up, getting the third just ahead of Vegeta and co. The seventh ball could be found in the desert, and both teams reached the general vicinity of the final Dragonball at about the same time. The ball was invisible, undoubtedly buried beneath desert sand somewhere. The visitors to this dimension quickly found a place on the sand, and looked up at the two golden warriors squaring off against each other. Both smirked as they hung in the air across from each other. Krillin soon decided to stay out of this and landed.
Both Super Saiyans rapidly powered up, their energy whipping air and sand about. It didn't take long before they were at the center of two tornadoes, that sent sand blasting away in every direction - a quick and efficient way to dig for a shiny ball.
Krillin didn't need to do much to keep the sand out of him. Angel, and Wesley however were a different matter. Angel had enveloped his ki around Fred, and Wesley had raised his around himself, but still they held up their hands as shields, and had difficulty staying standing. "Why are they doing this!?" Fred yelled out, trying to overpower the noise from the tornadoes. "This is Gunn's life they're playing with!!"
"I don't know," Angel answered with difficulty. "Must be a Saiyan thing or something."
Electrical discharges formed inside both Saiyans' ki flames, and with a short yell and shockwave they powered up to the second level, sending their hair up straighter. The tornadoes grew in power, and both Super Saiyan enhanced vision saw the orange, shiny ball being pulled along in a circular vacuum. Down below the others too noticed the ball after Krillin pointed it out to them. The ball was being carried along in Vegeta's tornado, and quite close to the Saiyan king. Both Saiyans' smirks deepened. "You think you can keep that ball away from me?" Vegeta asked challenging.
"We'll see, won't we?" Xander answered his king, and readied himself. Vegeta suddenly shot toward the ball, and with lightning speed Xander blasted his ki out from his hand directly at the ball. The ki wasn't visible apart from a slight shimmering, it was just a powerful shockwave. It did exactly as planned, pushing the ball out of the tornado and in another air current before Vegeta could reach it. Xander shot forward and quickly smashed his fist across Vegeta's jaw.
Vegeta howled out in approval and placed his left fist into Xander's ribs, jarring him. Xander smashed down a double handed blow, hitting Vegeta on the back. Vegeta reacted with an uppercut that Xander avoided by flying back, and shooting suddenly right at the Dragonball. With a roar Vegeta smashed into Xander from the side, keeping his rival away from the magical trinket. In response to the Saiyans' movements air currents changed rapidly, and the ball danced off in another direction.
The two Super Saiyans exchanged several blows moving toward the ball, as their energy whipped up the winds even more. Xander fired an energy beam that Vegeta quickly deflected. In the same motion the king sent out some of his energy to move the ball to where he wanted it to be. Xander reacted, sending out his own energy and preventing the ball to go where Vegeta would surely have reached it first. A moment later he dodged an energy ball and shot toward the shiny sphere that was almost lying back in the sand. Just when Xander would close his hand around it, Vegeta grabbed one of his feet and threw him back. An instant later Xander was back next to Vegeta both reaching for the Dragonball. Just as Vegeta was about to grab it, a hand closed around the ball and pulled away.
"What?" Vegeta grumbled and watched the hooded vampire holding the ball only a meter away from.
"Dead Boy," Xander muttered with squinted eyes.
Angel smiled unseen, and said, "This is a classic case of 'When two dogs fight for a bone, the third walks away with it.'"
Xander and Vegeta detransformed, and the winds and tornadoes quieted down. Vegeta growled lightly at the vampire, then smirked and turned to Xander. "We win," he told his fellow Saiyan. Xander gave an annoyed noise.
A chuckling Krillin and laughing Wesley and Fred reached the other three. "Fine," Xander said, folding his arms. "Let's summon the dragon somewhere else shall we? I'm tired of the sand in my shoes."
Sometime later on the grass planes outside of Western Capital, Xander pulled off his shoes and shook out the sand. At the same time the seven Dragonballs were placed together on the ground. Vegeta stood watching as Krillin did the task, his arms imperiously folded across his chest. Fred was completely excited, bobbing up and down. Angel and Wesley not much less so.
"Shenron, eternal dragon, I summon you forth!" Krillin called out.
Angel and Wesley especially, but Fred too noticed the change. It was as if all went silent, as if nature was waiting for a massive event. The Dragonballs pulsed twice then, and the sky darkened. It did not get covered by clouds, it just darkened, as if light of the sun was blocked, and yet the sun was very much still present. And yet, Angel put away his coat and noticed the prickling sensation was no longer present. Then as the Dragonballs pulsed again, the sky went from dark to pitch black.
"Oh, my," Wesley muttered in astonishment, as a powerful golden yellow light shot up from the Dragonballs. They were small tendrils of lightning from the balls themselves, and combined a powerful beam just above the balls. The beam rose to enormous heights and size, and circled about, weaving a complex pattern of curves and loops. The beam brightened suddenly, and then completely disappeared, revealing a giant green-scaled dragon, with yellow underbelly, that wove about where the beam had been before.
"It's . . . so huge," Fred whispered in shock. Wesley's jaw was dropped, and Angel too was stupefied.
"I am Shenron, you have summoned me from my slumber," the dragon intoned with an eternally rumbling voice, that seemed to reverberate through time and space itself. "I will grant you any two wishes, state them . . . /now/."
Krillin gestured to the awestruck Fred, and slowly and timidly she took a step forward. "Uhm, Mr. Shenron, sir?" Fred asked sweetly. The dragon shifted his gaze slightly, looking at Fred and gave a short rumbling growl. Fred swallowed, and finished, "I h-have a wish. P-Please revive Charles Gunn."
The dragon growled again, and his complete red eyes suddenly lit up, making Fred flinch back. "I cannot find one by the name Charles Gunn," the dragon rumbled, his eyes returned to normal.
Fred took a step forward again, pleading, "He's not here. I'm from another dimension, Charles is from that dimension as well, that's where he died."
The dragon growled, obviously with irritation this time, as if saying, 'you should have told me that sooner.' The dragon looked directly at her, and his eyes glowed once more. He kept them trained on Fred, and she nervously twitched, not knowing what was happening. The dragon rumbled again, and lifted his head, looking straight ahead, his gazing seeming seeing into infinity. The dragon's eyes glowed even brighter, and stayed silent, only emitting an occasional grumble. His body twisted and undulated calmly, and thus everyone waited with baited breath.
After several minutes, the dragon's eyes stopped glowing, and he looked down at Fred. "I cannot grant your wish, it is beyond my power to do so," the dragon intoned once again.
Fred's eyes misted up, equally so on Wesley's and Angel's face, but Fred was worse. "No! No!" she suddenly cried out, and took another step forward. "Please, you must bring him back. Why can't you bring him back? You were supposed to bring him back!"
"Your dimension has no general spanning dimension to which the dead go," the dragon rumbled in explanation. "I have found several smaller pocket dimensions close by your home world with souls of the dead, but there is no Charles Gunn in any of them. I have expanded my search beyond your solar system, but I cannot find Charles Gunn anywhere within your galaxy. Your galaxy already contains more stars than this entire universe, my power is not great enough to reach beyond your galaxy and into others. I cannot even find an end to your universe. I cannot resurrect Charles Gunn. Do you have any other wishes?"
Fred had her mouth open, and stared into nothingness. Xander nodded, his suspicions confirmed. He let out a deep breath, and with his hands in his pockets he turned around and walked slightly away from the others toward their ship. Angel and Wesley felt the pain, despite their reserves they had been hoping fervently.
Fred suddenly looked up, and as tears welled from her eyes, she cried out, "Can't we use both wishes for this task? How about if we bring the Dragonballs to our dimension first!?"
Several people wanted to step in, but the dragon did it for them. "How much wishes you wish to use matters nothing. Bringing me to your dimension, even if you could persuade god to come along, would matter nothing. Your universe is too vast, I cannot reach to the next galaxies, and if Charles Gunn is not inside the pockets surrounding your planet, then it is highly unlikely he is countless light years away. Other wishes?"
The dragon was obviously impatient, and Krillin took a sad step forward, saying, "We have no wishes eternal dragon."
"Then I will take my leave," the dragon grumbled, and he turned back into light. The lightbeam rapidly shrunk and disappeared back into the balls. They glowed, and then as a circle they rose into the air. The energy linking them together disappeared, as did the black sky revealing blue once again. As Angel quickly covered himself again, the balls all shot away into different directions.
"No, no!" Fred muttered before breaking into sobs. Wesley quickly reached her and enveloped her in an embrace. "He can't be . . . he can't stay . . . he should re- . . ."
"Shh. We'll get through this, Fred. Things'll be alright, trust me," Wesley soothed her as she cried.
Wesley and Fred were in one of the bedrooms, while Xander sat preparing the ship on autopilot. Angel was standing to Xander's left and behind him. "You knew," Angel accused.
"I strongly suspected," Xander told the vampire with an empty sigh. "Lohesh the soul killer," he stated and then turned around to look at Angel. "And even if the Bunny didn't eat him, the Powers wouldn't put Gunn's soul in a heaven dimension unless it amuses them."
"Why did you let her go through with this? Bring her hopes up and then . . ." Angel said, his pain and emotion at the whole situations written plainly on his face.
"Would she have taken a 'no'?" Xander asked Angel solemnly. The vampire looked at him, remembering the magic Fred had attempted to cast, then he looked down. "You know as well as I do, she would simply have tried to 'borrow' my ship on her own, or find some other means to cross dimensions and get to the Dragonballs. This way she gets to hear quickly from the dragon Gunn can't be revived - from this giant awesome dragon - allow her to start her grieving quickly, and hopefully her healing." Xander and Angel shared a short silence, then the Saiyan activated the dimensional ship, and added, "Besides, chances were tiny but I could have been wrong, then the dragon would have resurrected Gunn."
Mid morning the three defeated Angel Team members entered the hotel lobby. Fred was sobbing against Angel's chest, and he was holding her close. Cordelia and Lorne quickly came over and took Fred out of Angel's arms, soothing her. "It didn't work?" Lorne asked superfluously.
Angel shook his head in defeat. Wesley was the one who explained, "The dragon could not find Gunn's soul within the solar system, or this galaxy, any of the bordering dimensions and dimensional pockets, and his powers do not allow him to reach beyond the galaxy."
Fred cried harder, holding onto Cordelia, who gave the other girl a comforting kiss on top of her head, and embraced her more tightly.
"I took the liberty of taking some looks around in the past few days," Anya said as she lead Willow, Xander, Dawn, Faith, Tara, and Buffy in the bridal shop. "I've seen a few very nice potentials, but I have to see them on you, to make a real choice," she said. Faith grumbled something under her breath that nobody could hear. Xander grinned at the spectacle.
An employee arrived and with a smile of recognition said, "Ah, Mr. and the future Mrs. Littica, and finally with the bridesmaids to try the possibilities on and take measurements if necessary I see, or am I wrong?"
Anya smiled broadly, and said, "Yes, all except the redhead, she's Xander's best man, he'll pick something out for her." The employee nodded and gestured for a colleague.
Willow perked up considerably, while Buffy asked, "What!? She doesn't have too . . . but . . .?"
Anya studiously ignored the outburst and was already gesturing for her bridesmaids to go to the back. Xander told them, "Yep, can't have my best man be dressed up all girly-girly, you'll be no less feminine though, Will."
Willow happily joined Xander and the second employee. "This isn't fair," Faith muttered. Willow turned her head around and stuck out her tongue at all of them, before they were ushered away to the dresses.
When they arrived in the lushly decorated room, they saw four different designs lying there. One dark shiny green, one pink, one blue, and one yellow. The were all frilly, or wrapped such they would de-accent their best traits, and make their worst more prominent. Blue looked best - but still bad - green worst, they were already dreading what Anya would eventually settle on.
Willow had come out of the fitting booth twice before already. The first time she had been wearing a bluish garb that had made Xander turn her back right away. The second time she'd been wearing an all black pants suit, although better than the first outfit, Xander sent her back right away again. He had conferred with the employee then, and her eyes had suddenly lit up, saying she understood exactly what he wanted. She had returned with a set of clothes that Xander couldn't really make out draped over her right arm, but he could tell this wasn't a standard outfit. The employee grinned at him before disappearing into the fitting room with Willow. A minute later she came back out, holding the old outfits and quickly returned them to where she got them from. Another minute later she was back.
Only a short while later the drapes covering the fitting booth swished open, and Willow came out - swaying her hips like a professional seductress. A bright smile that was absent the first two times she came out adorned her face. She wore black high-heel pumps, and black stockings that couldn't be identified as such. A red and white dress that came to half-way between her thighs and knees was on top of them, covering the fact they were stockings. The upper half of the dress was white, and hugged her breasts. The dress was low cut enough to give tantalizing glimpses of the top of her breasts. It was in a v-shape mimicking the upper part of a waistcoat. The straps of the dress were white as well, but that couldn't be seen. A short, tight, black feminine jacket was worn on top of it. It looked very much like a male tuxedo jacket, but was tightly wrapped around Willow torso, arms and shoulders. The jacket closed very low - low enough most of the upper white part of the dress was visible, and unlike a male jacket it stopped right above the hips, allowing the flare of Willow's hips and the red dress hugging them to be visible. To complete the effect, a choker was round Willow's neck that had the front of a bow tie mounted on it. Willow placed her hands on her hips and pushed them out to her right. The outfit just brought it out of her. "I look hot," she commented to her kindergarten friend.
"Indeed," the employee said with a big smile. She walked over and moved her hand through Willow's long red hair. "Put on the proper make-up, and fluff up your hair, you'll look even better at the wedding." The employee then turned around and looked over Willow's shoulder at an assessing Xander. "I took the liberty of take a few leeways with your description, sir. Also, I kept it subdued enough so she wouldn't outshine the bride, since I know what she'll be wearing. What do you think, sir?"
Xander suddenly broke into a smile, and said, "Perfect. I'll have the hottest best man ever." Willow smiled back broadly. "We'll take it," Xander said smiling still.
Xander and Willow returned to the dress fitting session with the bridesmaids. Willow managed not to carry a huge smile and ruin the effect her outfit would have two weeks from now. They walked in on the last fitting; the shiny green dresses. With Anya checking out her bridesmaids critically, the bridesmaids themselves complained.
"I feel like a cut short cucumber," Buffy muttered in annoyance.
"Or an unripe banana," Tara added, looking at the horrendous flaring out dress, and the rippling torso that effectively hid a feminine chest. Xander smiled at the bridesmaids, and Willow had trouble keeping her laughter in seeing the sour faces.
The complaining wasn't over yet though, Faith commented, "I feel like somebody puked all over me."
"Radioactive puke," Dawn agreed with the slayer assessing the shiny material.
"Perfect!" Anya exclaimed with excitement. The employee smiled broadly she had a sell, Anya turned to look at Xander and Willow and had a huge smile splitting her face. The bridesmaids groaned in horror.
The throne room had been built in the past few months on order of Harmony. Where it was nobody but a select few knew. Harmony was sitting on her throne, wearing a tiara-like crown, and a sparkling, blue gown that hugged her figure, and left most of her body bare. The throne was on a raised platform; four steps led up. The room was large, spacy, and well lit - especially the throne. Two rows of four large pillars of marble, let out from the throne to the exit, in between a red carpet lay leading to the steps. The rest of the room had different colors, none clashing with the marble of course, and there were even a few statuettes, some of them of Harmony placed in strategic positions. Harmony felt good sitting there, powerful. Dis was standing next to her throne, to her right. To her left, on a much smaller throne sat Maxine, in full slave, yet fully royal looking, regalia. Down below there was a collection of people and demons. The mayor of Las Vegas was among them, as was the police chief. Two human crime bosses, several of the highest legit human bosses, and then the demons.
"Glad you could come," Harmony said with a lustful smile - lust for power and life. "My name is Harmony Kendall, I'm Queen H. You may address me as 'your majesty', 'my queen', and a very respectful use of my name. Understood?"
The people below did not answer, they just looked suspiciously. Harmony kept Dis - who was about to demand an answer in check - saying, "I'll take that as a 'yes'."
Harmony surveyed her subjects for a few moments, twenty-five in all plus their own guards, and then smiled. "I have some form of power over each and everyone of you. I expect you to obey me, and to pay a never unreasonable percentage of your profits to me, and if you don't have any profits, obedience is enough. Any questions before I go onward?"
"Yes," one demon said calmly. "You don't have any power over me. I'm mostly here to see if you aren't someone I should kill and take over myself, seeing as you killed the prophet, the messiah. I admit, you've directed this coupe very well, you've taken over most of the personnel, clientele, and assets of the old guard - well played - but I have managed to get some of that too. Worse, /you're/ a weak, little /vampire/."
Dis started growling. "Dis, please, some manners," Harmony told her right hand man with a smile. Lazily she got up out of the throne and started down the stairs with hypnotic swaying hips. Finally she reached the demon that had protested, and she smiled at him, offering him her cleavage.
"I think sex would be something you'd like, am I right?" Harmony asked with a smile. The demon turned to face her fully and raised his eyebrows. The others looked astonished, and were basically ready to leave the vampire with herself, if she needed to whore herself out to keep control. The demon licked his lips. Suddenly Harmony's fist shot out, and she punched him in the stomach, simultaneously she vamped out. The demon doubled over and groaned in pain, much to the others' shock. She grabbed the demon by the head and bashed it against her knee. His bodyguards started to intervene as the demon groaned out in pain, and tried to stand. With one single back hand punch, that Harmony pulled from her left in a half circle all the way to her right, she launched both bodyguards and the demon high into the air. They landed with groans of pain, and Harmony jumped over the people that had come to see her toward the demon. She snarled as she landed with legs on either side of the demon. With the demon still groaning in pain, Harmony grabbed his head, and snapped his neck with one quick smooth movement.
Harmony put her human face back on as she got up, and gestured to one bodyguard who had just gotten up 'no no', by waving her right index finger back and forth. "Tell his second in command he's in charge now, and he works for me. No power struggles, sweety, or I'll have to intervene." The demon nodded in shock, and Harmony casually walked back to her throne. The demon she had just killed was five times more powerful than even the stronger vampires, and Harmony had killed him without breaking a sweat. Harmony may not be much of a fighter, but training in ten gs and more had made her far stronger.
"How? Where did you get so strong, you're just a vampire," one high up demon wondered, while the others looked at Harmony with suspicion.
Harmony smiled and sat herself back down on the throne before answering smugly, "The Sedra Soli gave me a tiny fraction of his power."
Not all of them understood what that meant, but the ones how did screamed profanities at Harmony, mostly 'traitor', 'bitch', 'you've killed us all', or 'sold us out', and several permutations of 'kill her'. Some demons started forward amongst their shouts, and gun muzzles appeared from strategically placed shooting windows: Dis knew his stuff. "QUIET!" Harmony screamed out, and they obeyed, seeing the enraged and once again vamped out vampiress and guns pointing at them.
"Good," Harmony said, and stayed standing in front of her throne, "the prophet saved you all exactly as he said he would." Harmony gauged their reactions, which was mostly stunned looks. Then she continued, smoothly lying, spinning her tale, "He did it, by letting me kill him, or do you think it was coincidence he was right at the window through which I would crash? The fanatics that followed me, that I had to outmaneuver and kill one by one, drove me straight into the hands of the Sedra Soli, and allowed me to meet the real him. The demon gods, the gods, and the prophecies lie. He has no interest in destroying the world, nor destroying humanity or demons, in fact he's here to protect mankind, by destroying all the gods and the really evil things. Which means, the demons that don't harm innocent humans are not killed at all." Harmony looked around. If there was one thing she was good at, it was lying, and sucking things from her thumb. She had managed to destroy Cordelia's reputation that way, she had managed to make Cordelia unpopular instead of Xander popular with the tales and lies and rumors her tongue had produced. "I made a deal with him; if I make the Las Vegas demons not harm humans, be good community members of society, we get spared. Thus my decree: no more humans will be killed or harmed, no more humans will be turned, strife ends here where I unite Las Vegas under me."
One of the human crime bosses snorted, and said, "We're not demons, obviously we don't have to fear this Sedra Soli, whoever the hell that is. Why would we listen to you? "
"Innocent, you're not," Harmony told him with a sweet smile, "you've murdered, broken the law, and do you think you and your organization can defend yourselves from hungry, immortal, super strong beings?" She placed her tongue against one of her fangs suggestively.
The man swallowed, when he realized what that meant; vampires not having drunk anything but blood bank or animal blood, the potential for a fresh kill would only make them more vicious. "No . . . your majesty," he answered her. The others nodded.
Harmony smiled broadly, "Good." She knew she'd be dust by the time Xander would be done with the demon gods, and the gods, and he'd kill the demons here, but now she had it all; money, power, popularity, sex whenever she wanted to from anyone or anything. Oh, yes, she would enjoy her last few years to the absolute max. Unlife wasn't just good, it was fantastic.
The bell of Xander and Anya's apartment rung. Moments later Xander pushed the intercom button, "Yes?"
"We've found Wolfram & Hart," Tara's voice sounded with excitement. Xander quickly opened the door.
A minute later Willow and Tara were sitting in the couch a map on the table. Xander and Anya were in chairs across from them. Willow amended, "To be precise, we found Wolf and Hart, Ram is more elusive."
"Doesn't matter," Xander cut it with smile filled with death, "I kill Wolf and Hart, and Ram will have no choice but to come to me, if he wants to keep control over the organization. So where are they? Which dimension do I have to go to?"
"They are right here on Earth," Willow announced, and Xander looked startled.
"Really?" Anya asked surprise.
"Yes," Tara answered, and folded open the map. She pointed at a place midway the American continent, just above the border with Canada. "That's where Wolf is. From the other research we've done, it seems it's one of the Native American primordial Wolf entities. Hart, or Herne the Hunter, or Cernunnos, or 'The Horned One', can be found here, in the UK, in Windsor Forest. Both have surrounded themselves with a magical barrier." Willow threw a hanger over to Xander who caught it. Tara explained, "We enchanted it. Wear it, and you should be able to see the barrier and how to pass it."
"Doesn't sound like ancient demons," Anya commented.
"They're not, but they are no less evil and no less intent on destroying the world, and they have lots of demons under their command," Willow replied with a pout. "Ram though, I think is demon in nature."
Xander stood up, and hung the necklace around his neck. "All right then," he said a smirk forming, "time to kill some evil gods."
Xander arrived at the designated coordinates, and smiled as he saw a shimmering barrier. He tried feeling it, but he couldn't. It was obvious they had put a lot of effort into appearing they weren't there. He patted the hanger for a moment, and then landed in front of the barrier. He looked around and saw a weakness, which had to be the entrance. Deciding to check out the power of the field, he powered up and walked to the edge. He squashed the urge to walk around it, obviously intended to keep wanderers and animals from walking against it. He placed his hands against the barrier, and shimmered. He power up more, then transformed at which point he burst through the barrier and came out the other and.
A building stood there, and ancient, stone temple it seemed, with some luscious foliage around. He was about twenty meters away from the temple. Demon guards were all around, each were startled when at a completely different place then should be possible a golden hued being appeared. Xander grinned, and fear gripped the demons, realizing suddenly what they were up against it. They attacked, and Xander fired energy balls, smashed one demon's skull in, and snapped a final one's neck. "Wolf!" Xander called, walking toward the temple.
A few moments later a grim-faced Wolf appeared at the top of the steps. The being was standing on two feet, had grey fur - his chest bear though - and a wolf's head. Xander assessed the ancient being's power level and smirked. "The wolf is a noble animal," Xander told the god. "You have soiled its nature, it will applaud my destroying you."
"You bastard, how dare you judge me," Wolf hissed out at Xander. "Once I was revered across the world, now they have forgotten all the protection I lent them. Humanity should still be bowing before me, they will pay for abandoning me." The Wolf attacked, and Xander blocked his punch. The one Xander threw at the Wolf's gut connected and the god doubled over. Xander followed up with a kick that sent the wolf back and straight through a few of the pillars of his temple.
Xander lifted in the air, and charged his favorite energy beam. "Tanekakosa!" he yelled and fired the beam. A moment and a massive explosion later, the temple was gone, Wolf vaporized and the stealth field collapsed. "One down, two to go," Xander said with a smile.
Xander stood surrounded by trees. A similar shimmering barrier was right in front of him. He grinned and passed through it. This time the insides were much bigger, filled with trees, and once again demon guards. Xander made quick work of the first group, and worked himself forward until finally he reached another building. This one was grey, and looked somewhat like part of a castle. Xander entered and the minions he found were mostly very afraid. He finished them off before opening a set of double doors leading into a throne room. On the throne room at the far end sat a horned being. "Ah, another ancient god of old, I presume?" Xander asked with a bloodthirsty grin.
The horned being seemed to shake with rage, and that's how he spoke, "You will /never/ get all of us."
Xander chuckled, telling him, "I already got Wolf, and when you're dead, Ram will come to me."
Slowly and in control the being stood up, and then his power shimmered around him. With a roar he attacked and bashed Xander across the head. Xander avoided the next blow, but got launched away with a kick. He crashed against the wall painfully. Cernunnos gave a laugh, and said, "I'm thinking, I will kill you here."
Xander transformed, and instant later he was next to the Hart, and smashed his fist straight through the Horned One's chest. "You think?" Xander questioned, as the being looked with wide-eyed shock, mouth open and twisted in pain. Xander grabbed the back of his head with his other hand, and made a rapid kick. The body moved onward, the head stayed, the neck was torn apart. Xander watched as the blood splattered everywhere from the tumbling body, himself protected by his chi. He regarded the head with a cool calculating look for a while, then looked at his bloodied hand. He tossed the head aside casually, and used the blood to write a message on the wall.
"It is as you suspected, master," a particular powerful demon stated from his knelt down position.
Up on an elevated throne, Ram sat. "Oh?" it said, his eyes shimmering with anger. The Ram had hooves, his arms and legs were covered in fur, as was its torso, but the chest was bare. It was humanoid, and at least two and a half meters tall. His head was a mixture of human and ram: pointy ears, human lips, but a chin and nose of a ram, including a goatee, and finally two short straight horns. Its skin was a deep dark brown. The Ram had sent the scout when he felt the control over his and his companions vast organization lessen, muttering of malcontent and doubt among the members of the organization. Along with it he had felt a sense of loss.
"Wolf and Hart have been slaughtered, the one who did it left a message with Hart, great one," the demon replied.
"Show me," came the order.
The demon made a wave with his hand and a piece of air shimmered to reveal the message in blood. Ram read silently, 'I doubt you have the guts to come face me, Ram. You can find me outside the Hellmouth to prove me wrong. SS.' An angry growl came from the Ram's throat as he got up. The growl reverberated through the room, and outward across his domicile, making every lesser being present shudder in fear. "The SEDRA SOLI!" Ram roared out. "I will make the bastard pay for this. I've sat back and thought this over for too long, I'll take him down now."
"Of course, great master," the demon answered shaking in fear, counting his lucky numbers that Ram hadn't killed him.
Xander was at his internship when he felt the arrival of the demon god Ram. He smiled, this was it. After excusing himself on some bogus reason, he left the place. He quickly transformed to Super Saiyan level 2.
Above Sunnydale the Ram was floating, a reddish flame of energy surrounding him. "Come out, come out wherever you are, or I start blasting things!" it roared out in annoyance.
Xander arrived moments later floating across from him. Down below Buffy, Willow, and Tara arrived, all three of them coming from Sunnydale U. Dawn arrived a little later from school, and the four of them looked up, swallowing at the power Ram was exuding; it was massive, it was no wonder he had been able to effectively hide from Willow and Tara if it had access to that amount of power.
"So," Ram muttered annoyed, "You're the Sedra Soli huh? You've been transgressing on my plans lately, including killing my two partners, that is something I will have to rectify."
Xander grinned, the electric discharges surging through his chi flame. "And you are something I will have to kill," Xander told him, his Saiyan battle smirk coming full on.
"You don't really think, you can kill me with the little power you have, do you?" Ram questioned having gauged Xander's power and found it lacking.
[Play Super Saiyan 3 theme]
Xander smirked again, and then bent forward a little, and roared. His power shot upward instantly, and Ram's eyes widened with surprise. Above Xander dark clouds formed, and moments later lightning came flashing down. Sunnydale started vibrating with the power Xander was exuding. His hair elongated, his brows thickened, while his eyebrows retracted. The electric discharges intensified and increased in number. Finally his pupils became a little darker green. Five seconds after Xander started his power up, he stretched out, and with a finally cry an energy shockwave shot out from him. Tthe transformation was complete: Super Saiyan 3 Xander floated in the air. "So, still confident you can beat me so easily?" Xander asked with a growling voice.
Ram violently forced air past his nostrils with irritation and anger. Suddenly he shot forward and threw a massive punch. Xander blocked it with his right arm. The two looked at each other for a moment, gauging each other's reactions, then the fight was on. Ram threw his other arm viciously, and Xander blocked it too, kicking out with both feet and catching Ram in the stomach. The demon god doubled over and flew back. Xander followed up with an energy blast that the two-and-a-half-meter tall Ram deflected rapidly. The ram god instantly sped across the distance and smashed Xander down to the ground. Xander twisted around, landed on the pavement with his feet - cracking and lowering the pavement - and flew backward, all in less than half a second. Ram missed Xander, but not the pavement. The follow up punch rammed into it, and pavement and street were strewn up, creating a wide and deep crater. With a flash Ram shot after Xander. They exchanged several blows shooting right over Sunnydale's main road, far too fast for the human eye to follow. Several cars were pushed aside as if they were nothing by the energy enveloping the combatants, and crashed against lantern poles or buildings. Ram kicked Xander, but he blocked it, and enveloped the leg in his left arm. Xander saw Ram readying to deflect a blow to the leg and free it, so instead Xander gave an immensely powerful uppercut that scraped across the demon's chest, crashed against his chin and sent him straight up into the air. The ram groaned in pain at the perfect executed hit, blood splattered from his mouth, and from the gash across his chest that the chi-enveloped fist had wrought. Xander shot up after the demon, and charged his energy beam.
"TANEKAKOSA!!" Xander roared out, and fired the beam. Ram couldn't avoid the beam, but he could mount a weak defense. The massive energy beam enveloped the big demon, and seared his flesh. The wave exploded then, all the energy shooting upward with shockwaves and it sent Ram tumbling backward. A lot of his fur was no longer present and he was bleeding from multiple cuts.
With a roar of anger the god regained himself, and fired energy balls rapidly down at the onrushing Xander. The Super Saiyan couldn't avoid them and they impacted and then exploded. Xander tumbled downward with more and more hits of energy balls that kept coming, the demon firing them with great irritation. Xander got wounded in the process. Xander stopped his downward motion then, and shot away to his left, turning to fly backward and keep an eye on the demon. The Saiyan managed to avoid the energy balls that crashed on the street and exploded. People screamed in terror at the event, and ran around panicked. Realizing that this could get decidedly unpleasant for the people of Sunnydale, Xander shot upward again. This time he formed an upside down shield in his hands. The curving made a bowl, instead of something that surrounded Xander. The balls came down and were caught in Xander's shield bowl. With a roar Xander started to bring the energy together forming a massive ball of energy, and still he was coming straight for the demon god. Ram realized what Xander was doing, and he responded in kind to head it off. He shot downward, charging a massive ball of energy between his claws. With a roar the two warriors smashed against each other and the energy exploded with devastating force. The shockwave shot outward as both warriors were flung aside. Both of them ignored the pain and the new wounds. Xander's shirt was torn apart in the event and it hung in tatters around his waist. He tore it off in annoyance. Down below the shockwave of energy blasted everything. Windows cracked and exploded, cars were lifted up and throw aside, as did people and pieces of roof and pavement. Xander shot up and back, his face looking upward, straight at Ram. Ram shot to him, and both started raining massive blows on each other.
Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn looked up at the sky with their jaws dropped. In the sky a few streaks became visible now and then, as Super Saiyan 3 Xander continued fighting the demon ram god. As the two combatants fists collided it was with such force an audible shockwave was produced. It was not made of energy, but pure displacement of air.
"C-can you see them?" Dawn asked in awe.
Buffy's head whipped about trying to keep up, "An occasional streak, if I'm lucky."
"This proves it, if we didn't know it already," Willow said softly, continuing to try and keep up, "when I thought I could kill him I was officially nuts." They continued watching in shock. They had seen Xander train in the gravity gym, but it was obvious now that the relatively confined space didn't suit Super Saiyan 3 well to go all out with speed. Out here that wasn't a problem.
There was a sound, and Buffy spotted the ball of energy first. All four girls stood stiffly on the pavement, as the ball rushed at them, shooting right along the street at chest height. That's all the girls had time for, the blast was moving so fast they didn't even have time to blink. There was a whoosh, for a moment an image so blurry fell on the girls retinas they couldn't even make out who or what it was if it wasn't for the intense golden color that was part of it, and then nothing, the ball of death gone. The girls swallowed heavily.
"Shit," Dawn muttered, as they watched the storm clouds pick up again, lightning flashing around. "You know, back with the bunny, I thought Xander was a little underestimating us . . . you know all of us together we might have a small chance against something that could take him on . . ." An energy beam became visible for a moment, and changed course as on of the two combatants, judging by color they guessed it was Xander, deflected it. A moment later there was a shockwave probably a kilometer below. The two combatants became visible suddenly - out over the desert Buffy and co guessed - as the two exchanged blows and counters close together and stayed at almost the same position. Then they disappeared again. " . . . but he was right, we don't stand a chance, we'd get our necks snapped and be dead before we'd even know what happened to us, even /with/ Super Slayer Faith." The others nodded in awe.
Energy blasts started raining downward, a lot of them crashed down in between houses, and exploded. The people out in Sunnydale ran around in panic and fear. Others looked upward in stupefaction having no idea what caused the rumbling and explosions and the lighting storm that grew in intensity. Only when the two super warriors, god-like beings became visible for a second did they get an inkling. Ram landed in the middle of the road, on asphalt, becoming visible suddenly as the asphalt cracked beneath him and sank down. He blinked out of existence again, and a moment later it was Xander's turn to smash his fist into asphalt where Ram had been only moments before and caused a massive crater. Instantly Xander blinked out of existence again, shooting up after the demon god.
Xander shot out his fist at the demon's right shoulder. Ram deflected it and then grabbed his wrist. He twisted Xander up and over him, as he went down and kicked up with both hooves. Xander yelled out in pain as the two massive hooves crashed against his chest. Ram grinned as he pressed his advantage. He followed up with an elbow that would have reduced an untrained human to a meat patty, but only jarred Xander heavily. Then Ram smashed his fist down at Xander's stomach. Ram was surprised when Xander shifted position and caught his lower arm between his wounded legs, the pants torn in many places. Xander twisted around, making Ram yell out at the twisting of his arm. Xander was now slightly above and behind the demon god, and smashed him across the cheek, making him reel forward. Rapidly Ram swung himself around, lessening the stress on his arm, and snapping out his leg, hitting Xander in the face - making him lose grip on the arm - and causing him to speed away.
Ram fired a fire ball after Xander, which he deflected by raising a shield. He sped at Ram again, avoiding a few more blasts and the two met in the middle. Xander went under the massive claw trying to rake him open and smashed his right arm in the Ram's stomach. Ram groaned. Xander pulled his arm back and punched hard, without pulling back he charged an energy ball and it exploded, hurting the demon heavily. Xander zipped backward and rapidly hurled three destructo discs at the demon god.
Ram barely avoided them, in fact he failed to avoid the third fully, and it sliced open his upper right arm. Ram roared out in pain, but didn't let it keep him from turning around and firing two energy balls that impacted on two of the discs and destroyed them with an explosion. The third was coming back for him already, and preoccupied with it, Xander took the opportunity to smash both his feet into Ram's back. The demon arched his back and roared in pain, even as Xander started to rain blows. Ignoring Xander for a moment, Ram focused on the potentially instantly deadly cutting disc, and fired another ball to destroy this last one. Extremely pissed off, the demon instantly whirled around and managed to catch Xander across the face with an elbow, sending blood flying from the Super Saiyan's mouth. Knowing Xander was too good to allow an instantly fatal blow to get through, Ram opted for something less fatal. Rapidly he raked his claws across Xander's chest, tearing it open. The Saiyan screamed in pain, and more so when Ram followed up with a knee to his stomach, where blood now oozed from ten gashes. With a roar of triumph he hit Xander with a combination left, right across the face and ended with a powerful, red beam of energy that he fired from one open hand. Xander avoided the beam knowing it wouldn't hit Sunnydale and it shot outward to the ocean, where eventually it collided with the water. An instant later there was a massive explosion that turned the sky first white then orange. A shockwave shot across Sunnydale a minute later, weakened enough it managed to crack walls and shatter whatever window remained, but not do any serious damage.
In the mean time, after punching the demon's large stomach twice, Xander had already hit Ram's knee hard enough that the pain made the demon god fly back. Pressing his advantage Xander first fired an energy ball down that exploded and disrupted the Tsunami that had formed, then he fired a Tanekakosa wave that Ram only barely deflected, leaving him open for a knee to the side of his head. Xander grabbed Ram's head then and yanked him down, back first on his knee. Ram roared in pain, fired an energy ball up that Xander's nimble head avoided, and rammed his elbow back in Xander's stomach, making him fly back.
Ram turned back around and regarded Xander as he came to a stop. Both were bloody, but unlike the demon god, Xander was breathing very hard. Down below Buffy and co finally got to see Xander and Ram for a longer period. Before the breather both of them were taking, neither had been visible for more than a fraction of a second. "Xander's really hurt," Willow almost whimpered.
"So is Ram," Dawn muttered still in shock at the spectacle that had transpired before her.
Then Tara picked up on something disturbing, and asked, "Xander's losing, isn't he?"
Buffy nodded solemnly, "Yes, his energy level is dropping way too fast."
"You're finished," Ram told Xander with a grin. "You're out of breath, I am not. Your power level is dropping rapidly . . . that's a weakness of this form, isn't it?" Xander grimaced, more so when he felt his control slipping. His hair receded, and his eyebrows returned. He was back at the second level. Ram laughed hard, "Now you are definitely finished." The Ram god charged two powerful red balls of energy, one in either hand, and grinned at the weakened Xander.
"Oh, no," Dawn said as he looked at Super Saiyan 2 Xander. If level 3 wasn't enough to take this thing down, level 2 would mean Xander'd be dead soon.
"I am not done yet," Xander told the Ram bitterly, and closed his eyes, concentrating. Wind started flowing around him, and lightning flashed with greater intensity above him.
"What the . . . ?" Ram muttered letting the balls dissipate, which could be a fatal mistake. He was too surprised at feeling Xander's power slowly rise though, and he looked at what Xander was doing.
"Where is he drawing this power from?" Tara wondered out loud, feeling Xander powering back up.
"I don't know," Buffy answered in awe.
What Xander was doing was something he had never tried before. If one would have to make a comparison, it was similar to King Kai's Kaioken, but at the same time very different. Xander dug in every limb, in ever cell of his body, searching for the elusive energy he needed. He dug it up, bit by bit, and brought it to his stomach, where he let it churn, the small vortex of energy he then expanded throughout his body. From it and from the resonating with the energy in his body, power was generated.
"Shit," Ram realized when Xander started screaming that he might have let this opportunity slip by. He charged forward, firing his two red energy balls, but he was right he was too late. Xander's hair elongated again, and the eyebrows once again disappeared as his brows protruded, the ki flame returned churning more violently then before. The first energy ball Xander blasted away with one of his own, the other he took and fired back at Ram as he himself charged forward. Ram's ball of energy exploded on him, and got hit by Xander's devastating punch to his stomach. He grabbed the doubled over Ram by the neck and plunged down, Ram's head first. As he did this, he fired off an energy attack.
Willow, Buffy, Tara, and Dawn looked with astonishment as the two warriors crashed into the mountain side where Dracula's castle still stood, which was instantly destroyed with the impact. They noted the energy attack that had left Xander just before they crashed. With an explosion of dust and energy Ram re-emerged smoothing out his neck, yelling, "BASTARD!" He started firing red energy balls down. Xander emerged, sending most of the blasts up into the atmosphere, and some he formed into a bigger ball and fired back at Ram, who squatted it aside. Xander then smashed his feet into Ram sending him flying back toward the ocean. Xander followed up by firing his own blasts rapidly at Ram, who equally sent most of them away from him, and fired the rest right back at Xander, who either took them straight to himself, or avoided them or squashed them away. Then the two connected again, and the furious streaks once more obscured the four's vision of the fight.
They watched with astounding as the streaks resumed their furious battle. Energy balls flew around, the lightning flashed once more with greater intensity. Audible shockwaves came with the impacts, most people had receded to their homes by now, hoping they wouldn't die. Sometimes the two became visible for a moment, then blinked away crashing into each other again. Sunnydale rumbled with the power exuded by the two super beings.
"What's Xander doing?" Buffy whispered in fear. "He's losing too much energy, he won't last long this way."
"Uhm, what are those attacks he's been firing off and are there above the ocean? Destructo Discs?" Willow wondered to the others.
Buffy frowned and looked at where Willow was pointing, as did the others. Buffy's superior Slayer eyesight allowed her to identify them, "No, I don't know what they are, but they're ring-shaped."
Indeed they were rings, three of them in total. Xander yelled out in rage as he punched, kicked and fired a few more energy blasts, slipping a fourth ring past Ram. The demon god grinned. Like Xander against Glory, he let Xander come to him, protecting himself against the desperate attacks, allowing a few non threatening attacks to connect. He knew Xander would soon be out of energy they way he was going and then it was time to finish him off. Xander had thus beat Ram back to over the ocean slowly, toward the rings he had sent there earlier, but the air too was slowly eating away at the rings' energy and thus their effectiveness. Finally Xander faked losing a lot of momentum. Ram, deciding it was time for the true counter attack to begin, started his attack. Xander ducked, and threw a suddenly fast massively powerful uppercut. Ram groaned as he was launched upward, and Xander followed up by flying both his feet into the god's chest launching him further up, and making the goat groan.
Instantly, the moment Ram was free of Xander, the four rings swivelled into place. Two passed from above over Ram's head, the other two came over across Ram's legs. He noticed the ones going over his face. He opened his eyes and looked at them, and exclaimed, "What!?" He instantly recognized the inner edges: the same razor sharp edged sides as the destructo disc that had cut him across the arm earlier. His eyes widened as he realized his predicament. He powered up instantly, channeling every last bit of power he had, even as the rings shrunk down rapidly. He was too late to burst forth and escape the rings, and so they cut into him with everything they had. Ram roared out in pain as the rings cut into him, but they stopped after barely a centimeter. His energy was keeping them at bay for now, because they were still shrinking, trying to cut him into five pieces. There he struggled against the cutting rings, struggling for his life.
Xander in the meantime had placed his hands in front of him and charged a powerful and large energy ball between them, he was concentrating hard, sweat running across his bow. The energy ball had a deep blue color and was growing. Breathing hard at this task, Xander lost the third level transformation, dropping back to Super Saiyan 2. The energy ball grew some more, until it was the size of Xander's chest. Ram's defiant roar put an urgency to his task, but he couldn't haste, because then this would go wrong. He pulled his hands back, like performing the Tanekakosa, the blue ball now having gained flecks of gold and pink.
"TA-NE-KA-KO-SAAA ANIHILATION!!" Xander roared out, and brought his hands forward, firing the devastating ball forward. A bright blue beam fired the ball rapidly onward, shooting upward.
With a final defiant roar Ram flexed his arms and energy and the cutting rings were torn apart, and he was free. He widened his eyes and put himself upright and looked down. His widened further, and he exclaimed, "NO!!" He put his hands forward and pushed them against the brand new devastating attack, intending to push it back. Both the speed, and the power of the ball had different ideas. They quickly overwhelmed and enveloped him. The cuts that the rings had made weakened Ram, destabilizing his chi field there. The energy of the combination of the Tanekakosa wave and the Annihilation Attack quickly overpowered Ram's chi there and pored into his body, having nowhere else to go - apart from outward, and it did with a massive explosion.
With a powerful roar of pain Ram was obliterated in the massive explosion. Two rings of blue energy, perpendicular two one another, almost making a ninety-degree angle, blasted outward, tearing the demon god apart, sending small pieces of him flying everywhere. The rings pulsed, and undulated with energy as they fired outward. A second shockwave of energy more uniform followed the two rings in quicky succession. The rings quickly destabilized and were quickly absorbed into the second sphere of raw energy, which blasted past Xander.
The four female friends looked on in astonishment, as far out into the ocean the massive explosion was visible. The shockwave rapidly grew bigger and closer, and a moment later the energy blasted past them, lifted them off their feet and flung them back before they landed unceremoniously on their asses. They sat up and weakly and looked around. Buffy watched in astonishment as she saw a shredded eyeball roll across the asphalt away and pointed it out to her friends. They all looked around. They were pretty sure every house in Sunnydale was damaged, but it was obvious Xander had maneuvered Ram far enough out above the ocean no serious damage had occurred. Sunnydale had their hands full repairing the craters in the road and pavement the battle had left though.
The four of them climbed back to their feet. "Damn, he pulled it off after all," Dawn said, and then broke into a grin. The others followed suit, and Willow jumped up with excitement and relief. Willow fell into Tara's arms and the two kissed deeply.
Moments later a heavily breathing, and grinning Xander landed. He dropped down to the first level, and he said, "It's done." He then detransformed fully, and he added, "Wolfram & Hart, as they say, is history."
[Stop Super Saiyan 3 theme]
"Unbelievable," Cole Turner muttered as he walked through the San Francisco library. He reached his girlfriend not much later, she being at the place she said she'd be. "Unbelievable," he said again.
"What is?" Phoebe Halliwell asked softly, not wanting to disturb any other library users.
"Wolfram & Hart is destroyed," Cole answered still with wide eyes.
Phoebe looked at him smiled, and asked, "Courtesy of our friendly neighborhood Sedra Soli, obviously." Cole nodded. "The fragment of the asteroid that entered the atmosphere and exploded over the ocean, as news reported?" Cole nodded again. "As I said, it was pretty unmistakable. So what was Wolfram & Hart?"
"An organization bent on world destruction," Cole answered equally softly, now also to make sure nobody overheard. "At the head of it the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Ancient, immensely powerful beings, gods, worshiped in ancient times, and by some still today, not counting those within their organization. It spread through every walk of life, from humans, to demons, from the lowest to the highest, from angels to whitelighters to darklighters, and even other gods. There are those from all of them that followed Wolfram & Hart, and a lot of those worshiped them. They were the most powerful players, with an immensely strong power base, penetrating multiple dimensions. They were the most feared of all the evil really, until Xander made his presence known of course. They had virtually unlimited resources; they were long term. They didn't just decide on some plan and work it, then watch the good guys stop them. No, they had been working on whatever they were exactly planning to do for countless millennia, and still their power grew. They took their time, whenever a few good guys decided to fight them they managed to take out a few clogs in the giant wheel that was Wolfram & Hart, but those clogs were easily replaced. They seemed to be unstoppable, and now, just like that, gone. The three themselves were destroyed, their organization is crumbling to ruins. One part of the organization is fighting the other part for dominance, another committed suicide . . ." Cole shook his head, and Phoebe smiled. "So what did you want to show me?"
Phoebe looked up at him excitedly, and pointed at the computer screen. "Alexander Lavelle Harris, right?"
"That's what the vampire told me," Cole confirmed.
"I decided - for some reason I can't put my finger on - to find out his human name's meaning," Phoebe told him. "You're not going to believe this. Alexander means, 'Protector of Mankind'. Now that's pretty impressive on its own. Then you get Lavelle, French, meaning, 'the wolf'." Phoebe looked up at Cole from her sitting position with eyes shining with secret knowledge.
"Impressive name," Cole answered.
"Yeah," Phoebe said grinning. "Now is where we get to good part: Harris." Phoebe looked at Cole and saw his mind turning. Phoebe continued, "Harris, first name turned into a family name, either from the Indian Hari, or the English Harry. The English Harry is a transformation of Henry, which in turn comes from the German Heinrich, which means literally 'home ruler', or for short 'king'."
Cole nodded, "The wolf king."
"How about we go to the Indian, oh, what was his race at its base again?" Phoebe asked with a wide smile.
Cole looked stunned, why the Indian. "A tailed monkey," he answered with a frown.
Phoebe grinned full of amusement, and said, "The Indian Hari, has three meanings, either 'brown, green', or 'lion', or 'monkey'."
"Son of a bitch," Cole exclaimed in shock, and then quickly went soft again.
"The Sedra Soli's full name is, 'Protector of Mankind The Wolf Brown, Green Lion-Monkey King'," Phoebe said smiling widely. "What is his eye color? I'm not sure, didn't really see it."
"Brown," Cole answered, jaw dropped. "And they go green when he transforms."
Phoebe smiled, "When he fought the god outside of our house? The hair?"
"The mane of a lion," Cole whispered feeling chills running down his spine. "Nobody has a name that describes them this well." Phoebe smirked. "There's more?" Cole whispered feeling the chills grow.
"The Monkey King is a legendary Chinese figure, Sun Wu-K'ung," Phoebe whispered, seeing him nod in recognition. She had been staring at the screen for a while in disbelief for at least half an hour before she had called Cole. "At the height of his power he wore a golden armor."
"The transformation," Cole said.
"Sun Wu-K'ung apparently fought the gods. Trashed heaven, and they sent a hundred thousand heavenly godly warriors after him, and he defeated them all, then they sent more after him, and even those new few could only subdue him because they had the help of those hundred thousand warriors," Phoebe told Cole, looked back up at him and smiled. "Just like the Sedra Soli has been doing today, just like the Sedra Soli of legend. Sun Wu-K'ung is a hero, and he and the Sedra Soli of legend can't be anything other than one and the same." Cole nodded. "Sun, is a name given to him by his teacher, it comes from Hu-Sun, which means 'monkey'. What did he call himself again, did you say?"
"Xander Littica," Cole answered confused.
"No, what he is," Phoebe clarified, whispering still.
"Super Saiyan," Cole muttered and he saw it, his eyes widened. "Sun is the contraction . . . Hu-Sun, Super Saiyan Harris."
Phoebe nodded, "Other name Sun Hou-Zi, Harris again. Have you ever wondered why the lion is the king of the animal kingdom? Why people call someone 'brave like a lion'? The male lion - thus king - attacks weaker animals with giant teeth, nor really brave, which actually it doesn't. The lion lazies about while the female hunts the food and brings it to the pack."
"A little monkey that takes on the gods themselves. Brave like the monkey king, with the mane of a lion, brave like the lion-monkey king," Cole instantly latched on chills once again running down his spine.
Phoebe nodded and smiled, "Cole, this guy's name, isn't something that just happens. His name penetrates every myth, every legend, every part of our customs and figures of speech across the entire world. His name doesn't describe him, he /is/ his name. If we didn't already know for sure, we would be now, you're not the destroyer of life with a name like this . . . he could be the greatest hero this world has ever seen."
"We could use this to convince your sisters," Cole said, and bent through his knees, slinging his arm around Phoebe's shoulders and hugged her close.
Phoebe shook her head sadly, and said, "No, they'd ask where you got his name from, they'd figure it out, they'd distrust you and the abilities he's taught you again, as well as doubt it even is his name, that you just made it up."
"Damn, you're right," Cole muttered, as they stared at the screen for a while longer.
Faith put her school stuff down on the main couch in the lobby, and let herself fall into it. "Phew," she said with a relieved smile. "That was an exhausting day, thankfully it's over."
From the counter Cordelia smiled at the tired Slayer. "So exhausting a Slayer can't handle it?"
Faith turned her head toward the other girl, and smiled, "Let me rest, please?"
Fred came down the stairs then, and called, "Faith!" Fred's face was twisted into cold rage and hate as she walked toward Faith. Faith groaned in irritation, she just wanted to lie still and rest, perhaps even go to bed and sleep an hour. With her Slayer constitution that should be enough to get her rested enough to do some homework, patrolling, and then finally go fully to sleep.
Faith slowly sat up, and looked as Fred approached her. The Slayer frowned at the cold face looking at her. "Faith, train me."
"Huh?" Faith muttered her brain not fully up to speed yet.
"Train me, teach me!" Fred said out loud. Cordelia appeared from behind the counter and looked concerned. Fred's shout drew out the three men not much later, Angel holding his baby son, gently trying to sooth the crying infant. Fred had startled him it seemed.
"You want me too . . .?" Faith started.
"Yes," Fred said immediately, with cold determination.
"Why, Fred?" Wesley asked her gently.
"Because I want to make them /pay/," Fed said with a cold look. "The demons took Charles away from me, now I want to tear them apart. I want to tear their throats out and make them eat it. I want to blow them into a thousand little pieces and make them feel the same terror Charles must have felt. No more sweet nice Fred, I want to /kill/."
"Uhm," Cordelia said with a little trepidation. "Fred, is that attitude wise?"
"I don't care about wise, I just want to inflict pain," Fed answered angrily at about anyone and anything, or just the general existence of the universe.
"Fred, that's not really a sound attitude if you want to learn how to use your chi," Faith tried, not really liking the idea of giving such an enraged girl access to this kind of power.
"I don't /care/! Didn't I just say that?" Fred screamed, she took a few steps forward and looked Faith in the eye. "Please?"
"All right," Faith reluctantly agreed, realizing Fred would never back down, and perhaps teaching her the balance required to use her chi, would allow to reach some balance out here as well. "But you will have to do as I say, no questions asked. Because I was angry like you are now once, and I got power dropped in my lap. The result was, I went evil, killed people, and helped a maniac try to decimate an entire town, so I'm not just going to drop this power in your lap, I'll have to teach you responsibility, and control, and balance, got that?"
Fred nodded enthusiastically, saying, "Yes, just make it so I can kill demons."
"I'm tired as hell now, we start your training tomorrow," Faith told the diminutive girl.
The television was on when Faith entered the apartment. She found Wesley watching the news. "Faith, look at this," Wesley said, suddenly sitting up straight. Faith frowned and walked over.
On the screen the newsreader said, "Wolfram & Hart has gone bankrupt. All across the world its offices are closed down or being closed down. Massive lawsuits and trials await everyone involved with Wolfram & Hart across the world. Almost two months ago, when the LA branch was destroyed in an explosion a police officer let on that Wolfram & Hart were into illegal practices and that they were being investigated. Almost immediately Wolfram & Hart lawyers started a lawsuit against the state of California for slander, but now in a surprising turn of events the lawyer leading the lawsuit - Mr. Nichols - has turned state's evidence against his former employers. Equally the apparently only survivor of the LA branch catastrophe has done the same. That person's identity has not been released to the public for his or her safety."
"So, Xander really did it then, Wolfram & Hart is gone," Faith commented with some surprise.
"Yes," Wesley said and turned off the tv. He got up and got out a big bag. "Giles came through for us!" Wesley told Faith, pulling out several books and placing them on the table. "Several volumes of slayers, with date of birth and date of death, and a quick summary of what they did, and how they died, if that was recorded."
"Great," Faith said, and looked at Wesley. She walked over to him when he was done placing five thick volumes on the table, and gave him a caring kiss, which he returned. "Thank you, you can return the sentiment to Giles."
"I'm certain he will like the kiss as much as I did," Wesley dead panned in typical, British, stiff-upper-lip manner, making Faith smile. "There's actually another such bag waiting in the storage closet."
Faith's eyes widened for a moment, and then looked down at the table, picking out the newest volume. "Well, then, I guess I start with the newest, and work my way back." Faith went to the final entry, seeing herself, with date of birth, date found, date of activation her failure to protect her watcher, her killing of Kakistos, and then her evil deeds, and no date of death. She let her eyes glide over her evil deeds. She smiled when she realized that was finally behind her. She looked up at Wesley, and said with a smirk, "We could add reforming, ascending and killing the pure form of Lohesh to my list, right?" Wesley nodded. Then she turned the page backward, finding Kendra on the right, and Buffy on the left. Buffy's accomplishments were numerous, but Faith's gaze was more pulled to the Slayer directly preceding her, studying the two small photographs on the top of the page: one full body shot, one portrait.
"What would have happened if you hadn't died?" Faith wondered out loud, then looked up at Wesley who looked down at her with compassion. "Weird isn't it?" Faith asked Wesley. "On the one hand, I'm glad she died, so I could be called and be taken out of the hell hole that was my life back then . . . on the other hand, if she hadn't died, well, she'd be alive, and I probably would never have killed anyone." Wesley sat down next to her, and slung his arm around her shoulder. Faith smiled at him, inviting him silently to read along with her this time, and turned the page backward, finding two more Slayers.
"So, what are you looking for?" Wesley asked her.
"Gaps, and just about anything else I'll know when I see," Faith said, reading the page of the Slayer preceding Buffy.
Fred was sitting in her room putting on the training clothes she had bought for her first training. Around her were Cordelia, Angel, and Lorne, who were trying to console and convince Fred her course of action might be unwise.
"Fred, are you really sure you want to do this?" Cordelia said, sitting next to Fred. She looked as Fred pulled the pants of her gi on.
"Yes, absolutely," Fred answered her, shifting her pants in the most comfortable position. "I'm done sitting back and watching people die, it's time for payback. They took my Charles away from me, now I'm going to take everything away from them."
Lorne watched the determination on Fred's face, and couldn't help but admire it. "Sweety," he tried with a gentle tone, "How about you let me read you first? I could tell you if the path you've chosen is the right one . . ." He trailed off at the end, Fred looked up at him, her powerful, determined eyes bore into him.
"Or if I die an early death?" Fred asked him, her voice filled with heat. She finished, "Then I die an early death, but I will take as many of those bastards with me as I can on beforehand. Save as many lives as I can through it. Make as many of those filthy things suffer as I can." Cordelia, Angel and Lorne were taken aback at that statement. There was no waver, or doubt in her voice, nothing but the heated determination and hate to take this path.
*Wow,* Lorne thought feeling the waves of her emotions, *I never knew she could be this in control.*
Angel was the last to try, "Fred, losing Gunn was horrible, it hurt me too, but you've never fought in your life, you've never taken a life, human or otherwise. This isn't a simple little thing, it's tough . . ."
"Selfish bastard," Fred told him, looking up, her eyes blazing. Angel was so taken aback, he actually took a step back. Fred finished tying the jacket closed, and as she got up said, "You too, Cordelia. You just want me to be your little token non-combatant, that you can think off as a representative of the humans you /have/ to protect. Guess what? Start thinking of Lorne in that way, or Faith's friends, or the family living in the drain, or the bachelor living in the apartment three streets down, because I just became a combatant. I /will/ fight, you won't have to protect me anymore, and in time I'll bet you won't have to protect a single human being anymore. We're rising, even mousy little science students. And there is nothing you can do about it." Fred turned to the door leading to the hallway and walked to it.
"Do you really think it is good to feel all this hate? Do you think that is a good reason to do this?" Angel made one last ditch effort.
Fred turned around, regarded him a moment, and said, "Hate is not evil, hate can be a tool against evil, against the demons. It's what you hate, and how you act upon the hate that makes the difference."
"Do you really believe that?" Angel asked one final time.
"Faith does, Xander does, Charles did," Fred told him, and stayed silent for a moment, delivering the message with her eyes, "and the hate does not control me, I control the hate." Fred then turned around and walked resolutely out of her room.
"She does, you know," Lorne stated, amazed at the new and in his eyes improved Fred, "control the hate I mean. She's controlling it through her intellect, her logic, and that's very powerful."
"You certain? Because I've never been in control of hate," Cordelia asked the green interdimensional alien.
"Neither have I," Angel added.
Lorne looked at them a moment and then replied, "Hey, who is the mystical reader of auras here? She may not have sung, but hate, and uncontrolled raging hate, they come off of people like an avalanche comes down a mountain."
In the gravity gym, a few moments later. Fred stepped up to a warming up Faith, and she joined her. Once they were done with the warm up, Faith turned to Fred, and she said, "We'll start training at one point five gees to build up your strength. First we'll do defense. Without a good defense, you will never have a good offense. We'll start with very general chi training and build up, but no full on energy usage, for basically the same reason. The most important things in this first phase will be the theory, and philosophy behind martial arts, without them you will never find the balance you need to get better. I alone will decide when you are ready to the next level. Understand Fred?"
"Yes, F-. sensei Faith, I understand," Fred answered her, her eyes twinkling with anticipation.
"Good, then let's start," Faith said, and started training the other girl.
Faith and her friends and Wesley were sitting in the dance club where they served no alcohol, so they could be there. They were sitting on stools. Faith was dressed in a skirt and halter top. Ever since the dress and her first date's reaction she had come to appreciate dresses and skirts a little more, and had went to go get a very few for nights like these. Wesley was nervous, with his hand around Faith's waist, and she returning the favor. This was the first time he really was with Faith's school friends, and they looked awfully young to him.
Archie and Zoey were in smooth clothes. Several days ago Tiffany, and Cordelia with Faith's supervision had given Archie and Zoey a makeover: some better hairdos, some new clothes, with Faith making sure the clothes Tiffany and Cordelia picked wouldn't be antithetical to who Archie and Zoey were. So Archie now looked like a smooth executive ready to run a multi-million dollar company: jeans that fit him better, and blouse that hugged his form and was very stylish. His hair was now less unkept, or like a helmet and more like an in control person. Archie felt better, he didn't look like some jock or a knife-wielding maniac in leather, but he did look good.
Zoey similarly, had undergone a slight transformation. Her hair looked more like it flowed, and it had a few red highlights. She wore striking lipstick, and further light make-up. The blouse she wore hugged her torso, and left a bare shoulder. It was shiny blue, had no buttons, and wrapped around her. Underneath was a short plated skirt, and heels, not high heels, but they added something. She was still Zoey, she didn't look like a Playboy centerfold (unlike Tiffany) but she was most definitely not unattractive.
"There's a hot babe that doesn't go to our school," Faith said, pointing out a girl in a skirt, bare belly button and bare shoulders surreptitiously.
"She definitely has style," Tiffany commented with a smile.
Zoey nodded, saying, "Yeah, isn't afraid to show off either. Very nice."
"God," Archie said shaking his head, "checking out girls should be done with guys, not with girlfriends."
"A man's perspective then, she's quite attractive," Wesley supplied seriously.
Faith grinned at him, and squeezed his arm, then told Archie, "Come on, Arch, I'm bisexual, you can trust my judgement as well, and you heard Wesley. Besides, what's more pathetic, having several hot babes as friends who help you bag other girls, or some testosterone driven guys who just leer and sit and do nothing?"
Archie looked dubiously at her as Tiffany said, "Bag other girls?"
"Yeah, Tiff, we're traitors to our sex, and I for one am proud of it," Faith joked and then offered a high five to Zoey, who timidly slapped it. Then Faith moved on past Archie to Tiffany on the other end, and the former abusive bitch smiled and slapped it as well. "Go on, Arch, go get her."
"Yeah, Archie," Tiffany told the guy with a smile. "Just remember, introduce yourself, be yourself, don't try any lame pick up lines - we've heard them all - just tell her you think she looks good, and be polite, but not too polite. You don't want to come across as apologizing for even having the audacity to talk to her. If the conversation gets to the point of talking about opinions about things, even if she shows she thinks the opinion is crap, defend your opinion. There is nothing more ugh than a guy who quickly changes his opinion to yours in order to get you in the sack."
"Confidence," Faith confirmed with a nod, "most important thing you need for a girl to notice you. Why would someone want someone who doesn't even him- or herself think he or she's worthy of any attention? Just remind yourself you're hot, you're sexy, you're a catch - don't get arrogant though: turns most girls off. All you have to do, is show her you believe it, and convince her of the same, then you're set to go. Oh, one last tip, don't get discouraged if it doesn't work the first time or the first few times around, thousands of different girls with different tastes out there, there's always another one."
"Why thank you, Faith," Archie told her sarcastically, "it's such a boost for my confidence you think it'll take a thousand tries before I succeed."
The other girls and Wesley smiled, Faith gave a chuckle and said, "See that's the spirit, don't be afraid to talk back to the girl. If it wasn't for Wes here, I'd be in your arms right now."
"Go for it, Archie," Zoey encouraged, and Archie sighed.
"Now I'm with girls who are experts at picking up girls, there's something wrong with this picture," Archie commented before getting off his stool, and taking in the girl at a round table talking to a couple of her friends. His friends laughed lightly at his comment. "Let me guess, hitting on her friends if I fail with her isn't a good idea. See, I'm learning." Faith gave him a thumbs up and he started for the girl, avoiding dancers on the dance floor on his way over.
"Shall we dance?" Faith asked Wesley with a smile, as she got off her stool.
"You'll have to teach me how people dance nowadays," Wesley commented with a little trepidation. Faith grinned and gently pulled him along on the dance floor.
"So, that leaves us," Zoey tried looking at her former abuser.
"Actually, that just leaves you," Tiffany answered as she got off her stool. She bent closer to Zoey and pointed without attracting attention. "Nothing to do with you Zoey, but that guy is too hot not to make a pass."
"Ok," Zoey said nodding as Tiffany walked over to the guy with a predator's gleam in her eyes.
So there she sat, looking around sadly, and not much later deciding to check up upon Archie. She looked over to him, talking to the girl, and was just in time to see his face stiffen and be all sad despite the smile he kept on. He nodded then and turned away from the table with girls. In surprise she watched, as Archie first looked defeated, then got a determined look, and started scanning for the next try out. More surprising one of the girls at the table seemed to be getting in an argument with the girl that Archie had tried for. A few moments later the girl left the table and hooked up with Archie, and after a quick exchange of words led him to the dance floor. He looked over to Zoey with a surprised look, and then pointed at the girl and gave a shrug, then smiled. Zoey smiled back.
Once her friend disappeared in the crowd, she was alone again. She sighed, and wondered what to do. "Uh, hi," a male voice said. Zoey looked over, and looked at the guy her age with a little surprise. "Uh, wanna dance?"
Zoey didn't have to think long. She smiled self-consciously and said, "Sure, I'm Zoey by the way."
As she got off her stool the guy looked extra nervous and said, "Brendan."
Faith was sitting like a sack of potatoes in the chair in Angel's office. The vampire entered, and closed the door. Faith groaned out, and Angel looked at her as he placed himself behind his desk. "Couldn't you let me sleep?" Faith asked the vampire.
"You were up early this morning, now you're sleeping? Where's the Slayer constitution?" Angel asked his daughter by judicial decree.
Faith groaned. "I partied late last night, plunged into a patrol right after, and forgot to turn off the alarm clock, I woke up early," she complained to the vampire. "Couldn't get back to sleep, so I went and did a heavy workout in three hundred gs as a Super Slayer. That was a very bad idea." Angel smiled at Faith. "Ha, ha," she told him.
"So . . .how is everything on your end? Grades still up? Friendships okay? Wesley not being annoying?" Angel asked Faith who groaned at him. "Hey, I'm your guardian, I can ask these questions and demand an answer, or put you back in jail."
Faith glared at him for a few seconds and slowly sat up straighter. "Friendships great. Grades up. I love Wesley, and I've redeemed myself; I've forgiven myself, Angel, and it feels damn good no longer constantly looking over my shoulder, hoping I give off the image of a good person. I /am/ a good person, I don't care what people think of me unless they're friends or a judge. I don't need to act like someone I'm not."
"Ah," Angel said, and then looked down, sad.
Faith looked at him, frowned, and asked, "And you, have you given the whole redemption and forgiving thing some thought since then?"
"Yes, and I can't forgive myself," Angel answered Faith, and then looked up at her. He continued before she could say something, "I can't do it, not because I feel the need to continue punishing myself or something, but because if I forgive myself, if I don't continue to feel this guilt, then I know . . . look at what I have: a daughter I love and am proud of, a son of my own flesh and blood that I love, and a big extended family that I love equally. If I didn't feel guilt, then a single moment of happiness won't just happen once, it'll happen continuously."
"Shit," Faith said, as she understood Angel's dilemma, "and then it's bye, bye Angel, and hello, psychotic, killing machine." Angel nodded. "Well then, simple, we have to focus part of our resources on finding a way of removing the curse aspect, make the soul permanent." Angel looked at her, and blinked. Faith nodded, and got up, her sleepiness forgotten. She beckoned Angel and he followed her out into the lobby. Faith looked about and saw all but Wesley, Wesley was undoubtedly lying at home in his bed after last night's lateness. "All right," Faith said with a grin, "me and Angel have just had a deep conversation and we realized something: we need to get rid of the curse. The soul has to be made permanent somehow, and we have got to start to put some of our time into finding a way! It's too dangerous to hope Angel /never/ gets a single moment of pure happiness again, especially with Connor around these days. There has to be only one moment when he cradles Connor in his arms, one moment where he looks and sees his son smiling up at him, one moment that Angel thinks 'hmm, how nice,' one moment where he lets his feelings of guilt go, and bam!"
Everyone stayed silent for a moment, looking at Faith and her order, and then Cordelia said, "Good idea! We should call up Willow and Tara as well, undoubtedly they know more about magic, and where to look for something like this than anyone else here!"
"We should have wished that to the dragon!" Fred suddenly called out, and everyone was silent. "We were so wrapped up in resurrecting Gunn . . ." Fred paused as pain flickered across her face, ". . . we completely missed it. We could go back and wish it anyway."
"No!" Angel ordered resolutely. "I will not have it. There's a demon type out there, a Mohra demon, it has regenerative blood. A small amount of its blood turned me human the first time around, but I had the Powers reverse time. Making my soul permanent is a simple matter of finding one of those. If we want to keep me a vampire in the mean time, undoubtedly there are more ways to make my soul permanent. Gunn's death is huge compared to this problem. If we go to that dragon every time we hit a little snag and are too lazy to do our own work, it won't take long before they over there are going to be very pissed off at us, and then they might not allow us access to the dragon for something actually big enough the dragon is the only possible course of action. We won't be lazy, we'll put some effort into it!"
Faith clapped her hands. "Damn, Fang," Faith told hm with admiration, "Now that's a speech, not to mention a show of nobility, and dare I say it? Wisdom."
"Ah, well, I have my moments," Angel said embarrassedly dismissing Faith's praise. Lorne, Cordelia and Fred though were smiling as well.
"Let's get to work," Lorne said with a smile.
"I'll contact Willow and Tara," Cordelia said and went to pick up the phone.
"I'll get some books," Fred said, actually managing a smile.
Faith grinned widely, and pulled out her cell phone, "I'll call Wesley, he knows most about stuff like this here!"
"Wesley, come look at this," Faith said. It was a day later, and they were in his apartment. She was sitting on the chair, book opened on the table. "You're not going to believe this."
"What is it?" Wesley asked getting up from the couch and looking at the book Faith was looking at.
"Look here, she died in 1523, the next slayer was called in 1552," Faith said excitedly.
Wesley looked at her, and said, "They say on occasion the council misses slayers for a period of time."
"Twenty nine years, Wes, the time frame is right. Mid teens, twenty nine years, mid forties," Faith said with shining yes. She placed her finger in the middle of the book, and said, "That's the slayer I saw in my dream, and there are more gaps like these." She picked out another book, with a bookmark in it. She opened it at the bookmark, "Fifteen years." She went to another bookmark, "Twenty six years." She put the book back again, and grabbed another. "Forty six years," she pointed. She put that book away and picked out another one, "Nineteen years. You worked your way up, have you found any gaps?"
"In the beginning a lot, but then they wouldn't be very well organized back then, and the distances would take immense amounts of time to traverse," Wesley said, and Faith nodded enthusiastically. "But later there is an occasional gap."
"This is a regularly recurring phenomenon, I've seen the Slayer of nineteen years as well, in fact she had a very rudimentary control of her chi. Once I saw the timing of the twenty six years, I realized I've seen her as well. Slayers who've dreamt of them haven't really noticed their age, because Slayers seem to age slowly," Faith said with a wide grin at Wesley.
Wesley sat down in the couch, and he said with wide eyes, "There's only one explanation for this."
Faith nodded, he had come to the same conclusion. She hadn't dared voice it yet, on the off chance she was wrong, but now she did, "There's another group out there training potential Slayers, they have less resources and find less potential slayers than the Council, but whenever one of their potentials is called, that Slayer consistently lives a decade to decades longer than a Slayer trained by the Council!"
Wesley looked at her, and they smiled, nodding at each other. "I want to find them, Wes, I want to find out what things they know," Faith said with a big grin.
"I'll put out some feelers," Wesley said, amazed at the revelation: a second, unknown group of Watchers.
It was two days before the wedding between Xander and Anya, Thursday the fourteenth. Xander's friends from construction were helping with the first of the final preparations. Most of the work would be done by the people working for the Wedding Chapel they hired, but here and there, there would be a few things they could do. Like now they were carrying a red carpet that neither of them understood what it was for.
"Into the Summers residence, and all the way to the back garden, guys," Xander told them with a wide grin. Ed, Daniel, and Michael looked at each other, shrugged, and went onward. He smiled at them going in, and watched as a smiling Dawn, Buffy, Willow, and Tara came out. They had managed to get Dawn out of school for these two days, under the provision Dawn did an extra project to even things out. Anya stood grinning beside Xander, watching them go. Xander could easily carry the carpet himself of course, but that would probably get his clothes dirty, and seeing as he would soon be greeting his king.
"Alexander!" a voice called out, and Xander's mood darkened. Xander slowly turned to his right, Anya turned with him, and watched as his parents got angrily out of their car. Anya's face too darkened upon their sight.
Buffy, Dawn, and Tara looked confused. "Who are they?" Dawn asked Willow softly, as all of them felt Xander's energy rise with his rapidly growing anger.
"Xander's parents," Willow whispered in answer, and eyes of the other three girls widened. Dawn frowned. "Don't feel guilty for not having seen them before, Dawn," Willow added when she saw Dawn's look. "Feel lucky."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Tara whispered as they watched Anthony and Jessica Harris reach their adopted son.
"Alexander Lavelle Harris!" Xander's mother started angrily.
"_Littica!_" Xander corrected in forceful anger, stopping both his parents in their track. "The name is /Littica/! /Xander/ /Littica/!"
"What?" Tony Harris said taken aback.
"Of course, you wouldn't know, would you? Because you bastards don't give a fuck about me, so you won't bother to keep up! Here, check out the driver's license, I had my name changed!" Xander hissed out, putting his driver's license in front of their faces.
"You ungrateful brat!" Tony Harris yelled and threw a right hand, that connected with something he couldn't see or comprehend. With a scream of pain as most of the bones in his hand were bruised and a few broke he staggered back, taking his injured hand in the other and cradling it. Xander chuckled with dark amusement.
Jessica looked at her husband as he struggled to compose himself, then turned back to her adoptive son. "Uncle Rory called, wanted to know about arrangements for 'the wedding'. Apparently you're getting married, to whom, when, how can you forget to invite us?"
Xander laughed out loud, frightening the woman. "Oh, stupid woman, I didn't forget to invite you at all, you're not invited."
"We are your parents!" Jessica demanded.
Instantly she felt Xander's hand wrap around her throat painfully tight, and felt herself being lifted off the floor. "Bastard!" his father called out and attacked, but soon found himself in the same position as his wife, having difficulty breathing when he could breathe at all.
"You are /not/ my parents," Xander told them with an angry growl. "You have /never/ /been/ my parents, and you never shall /be/ my parents! If you, or any of the family except Uncle Rory, dare to show up on my wedding uninvited, you will end up in a hospital, understand? _Understand?_"
"Yeaaas," Jessica gasped out.
Xander then tossed them away from him, and they landed on their asses several meters further and rolled over backwards until they lay still. "Get out of my sight, before I decide to put you in a hospital, /now/." His parents did as told, and scrambled back to the car gasping for air, looking fearfully at their once son. Once they had driven off Anya slung an arm around his waist and put her head comfortingly on his shoulder. Xander calmed down instantly. A few moments later Dawn, Willow, and Tara joined the two. Willow embraced him, placing her head on his chest, the other two just stood behind Willow smiling comfortingly.
Buffy was about to say Xander should have controlled himself better, when Tara said, "It's good you kept yourself in check, Xander."
Xander grinned at her, hugged Willow and Anya for a moment, and said, "Yeah, I'm kind of proud of that myself." They broke the hug as Ed came back out.
"Hey, Boss, we unrolled the thing where you said you wanted it, but aren't you marrying in the chapel? Who's going to walk over it?" Ed asked Xander gruffly.
Xander grinned at him, "You'll see."
A few moments later everyone was in Buffy's garden standing about three quarters of the way from the start of the red carpet. Xander and Anya were in the middle in their pre-wedding official 'greet the royalty' get ups. Xander right, Anya left. Anya's was a purple dress, a functional one that hugged her form, the dress was straight and it ended just above her knees. It showed a little cleavage, she was wearing makeup and a necklace. Xander was in a black suit. The others had less formal clothes on, but except Xander's friends from work they were dressed up enough, not to look like trash. They group of friends flared around the couple, with Xander's school friends behind him and slightly to his right, and his friends from construction on the other side.
They stood there, waiting calmly. "Uhm," Daniel, the youngest of Xander's construction colleagues prompted. "What are we waiting for exactly? And how long will it take?"
Xander smiled and looked at his watch. "One minute more," he said with a smile. A minute later nothing had happened yet. Xander looked at his watch again, and just as even the Scooby Gang was about to complain, it happened.
The air just in front of and above the red carpet shimmered. Then it seemed to collapse in on itself and a sphere of energy came into existence, twisting around its own axis rapidly. Michael, Ed, and Daniel's jaws dropped, and Michael muttered, "What the . . .?" Suddenly with a flash the sphere was filled with a spherical ship, smoothly hovering there. As the Scooby Gang smiled broadly, and Xander's other three friends' eyes widened and jaws dropped, the energy sphere collapsed and disappeared. Three legs came from the bottom of the ship so it could land.
As it descended, Ed - the most simple minded of the three, and in a good way, as in 'common sense' - turned his head to Xander and said, "You really are an interdimensional alien."
Xander smiled broadly and turned his head to his friends, saying, "Yeah." The other two looked over from him to Ed.
Michael finally cursed, "Fuck me!" The Scooby Gang grinned at them.
"You can handle it, I know you can," Xander told them with a big smile. "Still your pal, just some different DNA than you thought."
"Uhm, isn't this taking a little long?" Willow wondered pointing at the big spherical ship, as tall as the house.
A few moments earlier as the big ship reached Xander's dimension, Vegeta's eyes widened in shock as he felt something he'd never thought he would feel. The moment the sphere collapsed and Xander's home dimension was allowed to take hold of the interior, Vegeta felt his hair fall down alongside his head.
"Whoa, I feel like I just came home," Krillin muttered testing out movement. The Human chi-users agreed, the ones who didn't, didn't notice a thing. When Vegeta grumbled gently in irritation, people looked at him, and their eyes widened at seeing his normally proud standing up hair hanging by his face. It made the cape and the Royal armor with many ornamentations look ridiculous. Several hands went to mouths, as they kept from laughing out loud.
"I expected this might happen!" Bulma said with a wide grin. Her royal, but functional dress, equally with a female ornamented breast plate that hugged her breasts and showed them off looked impressive on her. "Xander did say the first thing changed was his hair growing. I brought hair glue!"
Vegeta grumbled something bad that nobody understood, snatched the tube from his wife, and then disappeared to a room with a mirror, muttering bitterly, "The humiliation." The moment he was gone from hearing range many laughed out loud, no longer able to keep their sputtering inside. Even the always gruff Piccolo was forced to let out a few snickers. Bulma snapped out though, coming to her absent husband's defense, and they slowly stopped.
Yamcha - with Puar on his shoulder - tested out powering up as they waited for Vegeta to finish doing his hair, and he muttered, "Incredible, didn't Littica say he felt the energy of this dimension pressing down upon him? To me it's the other way around."
"Well," Bulma the scientific mind speculated, holding Trunks in one arm. Next to her Chi-Chi was holding Goten to her chest. "This might be attributed to the difference in Human and Saiyan physique. When you go Super you drain power straight from the space time continuum don't you?" The Super Humans nodded. "It seems that a Human processes that energy differently than a Saiyan does, hence feeling better in a higher energy universe." Off to the side Master Roshi nodded in agreement. Choazu and Tien try it out as well, and are slightly amazed.
As they processed this, Vegeta, his hair back in place, albeit a little stiffly, returned. "Let's get going," he growled out in irritation. And so Gohan pushed the button that would open the ship's hatch, and it did.
Xander and his friends watched as the hatch to the ship finally opened slowly. Once it was open, the royal pair - with their baby son sleeping in Bulma's arms - with the others behind them came down the hatch. Vegeta noticed the carpet and smiled almost imperceptibly. Especially Xander's construction friends looked transfixed at the royally dressed couple, and even more so when the green-skinned seven foot Piccolo casually came down the hatch. The Scooby Gang looked astonished as well, but less so, they were used to a whole lot more. Anya kept her gawking in check, it wouldn't do to offend royalty.
Once Vegeta and Bulma were in front of Xander and Anya, Vegeta smirked. Xander made a polite bow and said, "King Vegeta. May I present to you my fiancee, Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins?" Xander indicated Anya.
Anya in turn took one step forward and bowed as well, saying, "It's an honor to meet you, your majesties."
"Oh, and why is that?" Vegeta asked arrogantly.
Anya looked up, and straight just a bit, but kept bowed somewhat, and said, "Because of Xander's stories, sire." Vegeta looked over to Xander for a moment, which Anya didn't miss.
"Tell me, why do you think, you are worthy of being a Saiyan's wife?" Vegeta asked, causing shocked gasps from his entourage, even his wife and Xander looked somewhat surprised.
"Because I love Littica, and he loves me, sire," Anya answered getting aggravated, this wasn't in the planning.
"Ah, so you just nod whenever Littica tells you to, can you do anything when he's not around," Vegeta sneered at her.
Xander's eyes darkened, he didn't just hear what he heard, did he?
Chi-Chi bent over to Gohan and whispered, "What's going on?"
"Don't know," Gohan whispered as he shrugged.
Xander's friends stayed silent, not understanding. Anya was the one to answer the question, and she said, "If you're implying I'm slut without a backbone that sleeps around, you better take it back, before I get angry and you get to sleep on the street! . . . Sire."
Vegeta laughed out loud at the answer, and turned to Xander, saying, "Very good choice, Littica, marvelous voice indeed."
"Of course," Xander managed rather confused.
The tension defused rapidly, and then suddenly Master Roshi stepped in front of Vegeta and Bulma, giving a chuckle as he leered at Anya, "Good choice indeed, but ooh . . ." Roshi went over to Buffy and let his hands glide across her legs and tight jeans. He finally stopped at her tank-top encased breasts, and practically drooling he said, "And who are you, pretty?"
"Uh, B-buffy," Buffy muttered, swallowing deeply at the old man's leering and groping gestures, not really knowing what else to do at the complete and utter uncompromising way Roshi did it, and feeling very uncomfortable.
Master Roshi looked up into her face, his sunglasses gleamed, and he said, "Pretty indeed." Nobody really knew what to do as the old man moved on to Tara, and licked his lips, taking in the figure hugging, and smooth nature dress. "My, aren't you a hot one."
Tara blushed, somewhat flattered and swallowed - he was just an old man after all. But Willow didn't care, she was getting angry at the man for insulting her girlfriend, glaring at him, and getting ready to say something as the old man shamelessly let his tongue fall out of his mouth and took in every inch of Tara's body. Suddenly he switched to Willow, and grinned evilly, taking in Willow the same way, "What luck! What luck! There's just no end to the babes." Willow suddenly looked frightened.
Ed leaned over to Michael, and he said, "That guy makes you look normal." Michael glared at him.
He then turned to a mini-dress wearing Dawn, his jaw dropped, his tongue practically rolled out, drooling. His hands moved up to grab her breasts, and took a step forward, Dawn automatically took a step back in fear. "Hot! Hot! Baby, shake it, I'm . . ."
Really, Xander or some of the others would have interfered sooner, if a commanding twenty-something redhead in a short skirt, a tight top, and big firm breasts hadn't stalked from the Dragonball crowd and walked resolutely over to Roshi. An instant later there was a loud 'swat' as the girl smashed Roshi across the back of his head and across his cheek with one loud slap.
"OW!" Roshi howled out as a red palm print formed on his cheek and he backed away from Dawn.
All the home team people looked with even greater shock as the redhead said, "Roshi! How dare you!? Ogling, leering at, and frightening women while I'm right here, and then having the audacity to /not/ grope the women and trying for a /teenager/!"
"Look at her," Roshi whispered pitifully.
"/I/ am the /only/ one you get to grope, Roshi!" the redhead hissed at Master Roshi. "If you try to grope any of the women here again, no sex for a month, try the teenager again, and you're going to wish you were never born!"
"I'm sorry, Donna," Roshi whimpered.
"Apologize to /her/!" Donna let out and folded her arms across her chest.
Roshi returned to Dawn and he muttered, "I'm sorry." Then he turned back to Donna, and he tried, "Snuggums?" At the same time he wrapped his arm around her waist and squeezed her ass.
Donna smiled, and kissed Roshi ferociously, and told him lovingly, "You're forgiven." Then sternly, "Just don't try it again."
As all of the Dragonball group groaned in frustration, Xander muttered, "H-how in blazes . . ."
"Don't ask," Gohan said walking to in front of the Saiyan king and Queen, "we don't know either."
"Yeah," Yamcha added annoyed, as the 'happy couple' continued to snuggle. "All we know is she was glued to his hip after the birthday present tournament over a year back, identifying herself as his girlfriend."
"I'd like to know his secret," Michael whispered to Daniel, only Piccolo able to hear as well. It earned the eternal bachelor an elbow in his upper arm from Daniel, and he groaned in pain and annoyance.
"Well, I guess introductions are in order. You've seen and some of you talked to King Vegeta and Queen Bulma Briefs with their son Trunks, the guy that just stepped forward is Son Gohan," Xander introduced with a smile.
"Gohan?!" Buffy exclaimed in shock. Willow and Tara looked equally surprised. "As in the guy more powerful than you, Xander? The one who beat that Cell monster?"
"That would be him, yes," Xander said dryly, looking at his best friend not so good lately.
"But, but, he's barely thirteen," Buffy said, and Gohan sighed.
Xander said with a glower, "He was eleven when he fought Cell, I told you he was a lot younger than me."
Buffy blinked, and Willow said, "I thought about sixteen or so, like our age when we started fighting the darkness." Buffy nodded.
Gohan sighed even deeper and said, "I'm so damn tired of everyone being surprised about my age. 'He's only this old', 'he's only a kid'."
"Right there with ya, Gohan," Dawn nodded her support. "I was five times stronger than Buffy was before Xander started training her, a year older than she started fighting the darkness, two years older than when she started dating, and I /still/ wasn't aloud to go out alone. 'Cause I'm the younger sister."
"Weren't you stealing?" Bulma asked with a frown.
Dawn glowered at the green-haired queen, and said, "Learned my lesson by then, and grounding was long over." Gohan grinned and joined his compatriot in philosophy, putting his arms across her chest just like Dawn was doing. They looked at each other for a moment, and nodded in satisfaction at having found an ally.
"I /do/ believe Xander was introducing everyone," Anya interjected, and everyone's attention returned to the Saiyan in question.
"Right, ok," Xander said and pointed at Willow. "My older friends first I guess. My best friend since kindergarten, Willow Rosenberg, witch extra ordinaire."
"Hi," Willow greeted nervously.
Xander continued, "Next to her is her girlfriend Tara McClay, super witch." Tara blushed at the flattery, and gave a timid wave.
"This here is Buffy Summers, whose house were to guest at at the moment, and Slayer, chosen champion of the world, destined to fight the forces of darkness and all that," Xander said with a smile.
"Hello," Buffy greeted, somewhat admiring Piccolo's size and trying to guess which was taller: Ed or the green alien.
"Finally, there's Dawn Summers, the newest addition. She's Buffy's magically created sister, once vessel to the Key, inter-dimensional energy form that could unlock all the dimensions, you had a run in with the consequences of that," Xander explained with a wide smile. Dawn and Gohan shook hands, smiling at each other.
"On the other side," Xander continued, pointing out his three friends from his job, "we have Michael Sykes, notorious womanizer." Michael grumbled out a greet at his description. "Daniel Ashby, all around great guy." Daniel greeted the interdimensional crowd with wonder on his face. Xander then pointed out Ed, and said, "And finally the big lug is Edward 'Ed' Studley." Ed made a greet and salute, and the interdimensional people once again greeted back.
"All right then," Vegeta said with an evil smirk, "the next round is mine. You've already been introduced to Son Gohan, and had the distinct displeasure of coming face to face with the pervert Roshi, that leaves . . ." Vegeta turned around and pointed at Yamcha, ". . . the weakling with the cat is Yamcha."
"Hey!" Yamcha said folding his arms across his chest in indignation. Puar blinked.
Vegeta grinned evilly and continued onward, "The fool who needs a third eye to see is Tien, with his height challenged friend Choazu, an emperor who prefers /not/ to rule and just annoy the three-eyed one." That earned the king several chuckles from Xander's side.
"Why I oughta," Tien grumbled out at the Saiyan king, who just smirked challengingly, and Choazu looked intimidated at the Saiyan.
Vegeta pointed at Krillin who had very short hair and 18 in a short skirt and top, saying, "The ex-monk who's finally figured out it's good to have hair and stopped shaving it off is named Krillin. His girlfriend Android 18 likes to bleed the short stuff's money away with shopping."
"I'm going to kick your ass for that, mark my words," Krillin told the Saiyan King with narrowed eyes. Vegeta just gave him a battle smirk that said, 'Bring it on.'
He turned onward to Piccolo, and said, "The one who perpetually seems like he's going throw up is named Piccolo." Some more chuckles and laughs, and even Son Gohan had to chuckle at that.
Piccolo grumbled out, "Vegeta."
Vegeta turned onward, and indicated, "And last but not least, Son Chi-Chi, Gohan's mother, and that third class clown Kakarotto's second son, Goten."
Michael appraised the women that he guessed at about his own age, and smiled, she was sexy, and if he guessed right, said third class clown was out of the picture.
"Ok, how about we go inside, decide who sleeps where, and have something to drink?" Buffy asked, taking on her role as hostess. Everyone agreed and they entered.
Ed waited to join Piccolo, and he looked at the green alien, as he walked beside him, marveling at the evolved snail. They're eyes were at the same height. "Hello, the name's Ed. You know, this is the first time in years I don't have to look down in order to look someone in the eye," Ed greeted with a broad smile, his simple nature already forgetting about the whole 'he's an alien' deal, enjoying talking to someone as tall as he was.
Piccolo look at him for a moment, and then said, "Same goes for me." And so the two started exchanging 'I'm really too tall' experiences.
Buffy and Dawn went into the kitchen, with everyone else sitting in the living room. As the hostesses for the time being they were in charge of getting the drink. Buffy told Dawn, she was going to the cellar to get a pack of orange juice they had bought for the occasion, knowing that in the next two to three days a lot of people were going to want something to drink.
Dawn went to a cabinet and opened it. She proceeded with picking out the good cups and saucers. The coffee and hot water for tea had been turned on just before the interdimensional travelers arrived. Unbeknownst to Dawn, Puar, Yamcha's cat had followed the Summers girls into the room and jumped upon the counter. They had 'forgotten' to ask if she wanted anything to drink. "Those are some nice cups," the cat commented looking at the nicely ornamented porcelain.
Dawn jumped and whipped her head to her right. "Aaah!" Dawn screamed, startling Puar. When the cat saw Dawn readying a chi blast, she miaowed in protest and jumped away upon the middle counter also servicing as a table. Dawn fired a stray energy bolt at the cat that blasted a few pots and plates instead. "Demon cat!! Everyone watch out! Talking demon cat!!" Dawn screamed out in fear.
Puar screeched more than miaowed as she jumped, and then jumped again up and off the table, two more energy blasts narrowly missing her and slamming two small holes into the far wall. There was a yell of concern coming from the cellar, but Dawn was running after the little feline that skittered past the door to the living room. Dawn smashed open the door entering the living room. Xander and several others including Yamcha had gotten up. Puar ran behind Yamcha and flew up behind his back, hairs raised, and shaking in fear. Dawn though had missed it and was looking beneath the tables, and spying around, yelling, "Look out! There was talking demon cat in the kitchen! Quick help me find and kill it!"
Xander and others had already figured out what had Dawn spooked, and Xander said calmly, "Dawn, do you feel any demon presences?"
"Uh, no," Dawn said perturbed still peering around.
"What does that tell you?" Xander asked with everyone watching, Puar peering around Yamcha's neck.
Dawn got up, thought about it, and then as Buffy entered behind her, she yelled, "Oh, my god, it can mask its presence!! Everyone search for the demon cat!!"
"Demon cat?" Buffy asked concerned, looking around.
"_Dawn_!" Xander commanded suddenly, making them look at him. "In their dimension, some animals can speak. It's not demonic." Xander pointed out Puar who slowly got more bolder looking around from behind an amused Yamcha. "See, just a sweet kitty cat that happens to speak."
Dawn looked there, staring, Buffy equally so mostly confused. Everyone started laughing out loud, and Dawn blushed deeply at her goof. Xander said, "This is Puar, Dawn, apologize to her."
Continuing to blush Dawn stepped toward Yamcha and Puar under more laughter, and said, "I'm really sorry I mistook you for a demon." Puar suddenly hissed at Dawn, making her take a few steps back, and everyone laughed again, Buffy joining in.
"Puar that's not nice," Yamcha admonished his cat.
Puar growled high pitched, and said, "This is no laughing matter, the bitch nearly killed me!" Everyone started laughing again, Dawn still deeply blushing with embarrassment. "Don't expect me to be nice to /her/ anytime soon."
"Excuse me," Dawn muttered and quickly disappeared back into the kitchen. Buffy joined her moments later, smiling brightly.
In the kitchen Dawn was all but crying. "What's the matter, Dawn?" Buffy asked the distraught younger girl.
"I made a fool out of myself in front of Xander's friends," Dawn said almost sniffing.
"Big deal, I've made a fool out myself as well," Buffy said comfortingly.
"That's true," Dawn could help but put in.
Buffy frowned and smiled at the same time at her, and added, "And undoubtedly you'll get to make a fool out yourself lots more often. It's not the end of the world, Dawn, and they won't hold it against you, promise." Dawn nodded with a smile. Buffy surveyed the damage her sister had done to the kitchen, and added, "And you pay for new pots and pans and whatever costs Xander has to make the repair the damage to the walls."
"What?" Dawn squeaked out.
Not long after that the Summers girls came out carrying the cups off coffee, tea, and juice for those who didn't drink the others on serving plates, and passed them around. When the girls sat down, everyone in a large oval around the living room, all the way from the front window to the door to the kitchen, the first thing that was discussed was sleeping arrangements. Also keeping in mind that the Angel team would arrive tomorrow, Buffy came up with an idea. "Ok, since this house is already filled with women, and the babysitter for the wedding day is coming to this address, I suggest we put all the women and thus the kids here. That would be Bulma, Chi-Chi, 18 and later Faith, Fred and Cordelia, including Vegeta, as Bulma's husband, and Angel as Connor's father, Krillin as 18's boyfriend and of course Gohan as he is Chi-Chi's son."
Roshi's eyes gleamed, and Donna told him, "No, that means /we/ do not sleep here." Roshi slumped.
Xander was the one to pick up, "That leaves the rest of the men for our apartment. Except Wesley, I think he'd want to snuggle Faith close, and Giles, Buffy and him want to rebond."
"And /that/ leaves why we came two days early," Vegeta stated with irritation over the 'meaningless' topic.
"Yes," Anya told everyone with a smile, "you have to get the license to be allowed to marry people so it's all 'official'."
"/Bureaucracy/," Vegeta huffed in irritation. "Fine, let's go /now/ and get it over with." The Saiyan King got up and walked toward the front door. Xander quickly got up and followed his king out the door, giving Anya a quick wave goodbye.
After Xander convinced Vegeta not to fly and take the car, Anya turned to Buffy, and said, "Can I borrow your car, Buffy, so I can take our guests to the apartment and set up the sleeping bags, and where they can put their clothes and such?"
"Uh, yeah," Buffy said, and then Willow took the key from her pants pocket and threw it at Anya. That made the guests look rather astonished.
Buffy blushed lightly as Anya got up, and Willow smiled, "Don't ask."
"I don't think we can cram everyone and the baggage in one trip, so Roshi and Donna, and Krillin and 18 I think you should be coming on the second trip," Anya said, and then gestured for the others to follow her out to the car. They quickly did.
When they left, Ed got up resolutely like a overbearing giant and said, "Well, since our help isn't needed here anymore, we should go as well, we only have the morning off after all, and the foreman can get damn angry even over a few minutes late. Coming, guys?" Michael and Daniel nodded, and then got up to follow the biggest of the three out the house.
"Well, that empties out the room quite nicely," Buffy said with a smile. "Anyone want more to drink? You, your majesty?"
"Leave the royalty at the door. Just call me, Bulma, and yes, orange juice would be nice," Bulma answered Buffy and the Slayer nodded. She went to pick up Bulma's cup and saucer and left towards the kitchen.
Dawn got up off her chair and went over to Gohan uncertainly, sitting down next to him. Her self-confidence took quite a bruising with the whole 'demon cat' fiasco and so she asked him nervously, "Wanna get away from the 'adults' and do something fun?"
"Sure, I thought you'd never ask," Gohan told her with a big grin. "Did you have something in mind?"
Relieved Dawn smiled at the half Saiyan and said, "How about the Gravity Gym? I'd like to see how I stack up against the best."
Gohan's eyes lid up, and he grinned widely, "Sure." The two got up, and excused themselves for a moment, then Dawn led Gohan to the kitchen and then to the Gravity Gym.
Inside the gym, Dawn went to the control console to shift one mat to twenty-five gs, in doing so she stretched out, putting her ass and one breast on display. When she turned back she managed to see Gohan taking her in before carefully turning away. "Are you checking me out?" Dawn asked the younger boy with an amused smile.
Caught red handed, Gohan really had only two ways to go, stutter out an apology or go on the offensive. Gohan grinned at her, "Is that bad?"
Dawn chuckled and walked toward the mat, she looked back at him and said with a sexy smile, "No, but you might piss off my boyfriend if you do it in front of him."
"Ah, a marked woman, someone else's territory, I'll keep myself in check then," Gohan returned with a grin, walking after her.
Dawn smiled, and they went to stand across from each other. "I suggest I go to my max, and you power up to the same level, if you go all out, I won't even land a single punch," Dawn said smiling at the boy.
"All right," Gohan agreed, nodding. Dawn smiled ferociously at him, and then screamed out, her chi flame burning around her, her power going up and up. When she was finished Gohan smirked at her, and his chi flame burst around him smoothly. Dawn gave him a bow, and he returned the gesture. Gohan went in a battle stance, and then Dawn attacked. She threw a right punch which he deflected and he twisted off to her right. She twisted around throwing a twisting left back hand punch, which he avoided by bending backward. Gohan attacked then with a left uppercut. Dawn ducked and immediately went to swipe his legs from under him twisting around her own axis in a crouch. Gohan jumped to avoid it, then flew up, and hung almost horizontally facing down. He fired a chi blast, and Dawn quickly jumped back, avoiding the powerful explosion.
She flew at him, avoiding a second ball, blocked his left cross, but got his right leg across her back. She gave a quick yell of pain, but didn't let the pain deter her from connecting a quick left uppercut. Gohan kicked out instantly with both feet, sending Dawn away from her. She groaned in flight, and then quickly formed two destructo discs and threw it at Gohan. The half Saiyan avoided the first, and threw the second back at her. She blew the disc up with an energy blast and used the explosion to mask her approach. Too bad for her, Gohan didn't fall for it. When she arrived at the other end where Gohan was supposed to be, there was no one.
"Kamehameha!!" sounded from below her. Dawn didn't let that fool her, her sixth sense told her the blast would come from a very different position. She twisted around and put her hands against the powerful beam of energy that came right at her. Pushing back wasn't enough, she was forced back toward the shield surrounding the mat. Biting her teeth at the effort she managed to slip from the beam just in time. The explosion that followed when the beam hit the shield was enough to hurt her a little, and sent her tumbling off to one side. Quickly she righted herself, and was just in time to block Gohan's left kick. She kicked out, which he avoided. His follow up punch hit her right in the middle of her stomach.
"Oof!" she exclaimed doubling over, and trying to regain her composure so she could fight on, but the uppercut that followed was unavoidable.
Xander had parked the car, and Vegeta in armor and all got out the car. He surveyed the parking lot, the Sunnydale town hall, and the garden way to it as if he owned it all. "How quaint," Vegeta muttered. A man who came out of the town hall noticed Vegeta, and did a double take when he saw the royally ornamented armor and suit Vegeta was wearing. The king gave the man a cold look, and he quickly hurried along.
Vegeta waited impatiently for Xander to join him, and then the non-royal Saiyan led Vegeta to the entrance of the town hall. The entrance consisted of two consecutive doors, glass next to them, thus giving the idea of an airlock. Inside were two burly guards.
"We need to pat you down, sirs," one of them said. Xander spread his arms out so he could; the terrorist craze at work. As the guard started on Xander, the other took a step toward Vegeta.
The Saiyan kept his arms folded across his chest, narrowing his gaze at the guard, and the guard said, "Arms out please." Vegeta didn't do anything for a few seconds, then just smirked at the guard. The guard saw Vegeta's muscles on display in the tightfitting royal armor slash working clothes slash tuxedo. It unnerved the guard. The smirk on Vegeta's face, and the glint in the king's eyes, giving an air of bloodthirstiness that seemed to say, 'Go ahead and pad me down, and I'll tear your arms straight out of your arm sockets and use them to beat you up with,' only made it worse. So the guard jerked his head toward the second door and said, "Very well, sir, go on."
Once both Saiyans were fully inside the town hall, Vegeta stated with irritation, "I cannot believe you tolerate that ridiculous crap, as if a pat down can find something if one /really/ wants to hide it. Passing through an X-ray cubicle would help more, /and/ is faster."
"Yeah, well, could you be a bit more amiable," Xander said hopefully, checking out the signs on which stood which line he should join. Vegeta just grumbled, and his eyes widened when he saw four lines to different counters for different purposes. Xander quickly found the one they needed and placed himself behind one of the longest lines.
"What?" Vegeta growled, standing next to Xander. He narrowed his gaze, and growled out, "I'm a king, I do not belong in a line, people should be in line to see /me/."
"They don't have kings in this country, Vegeta, just suck it up, please?" Xander asked him, getting a growl in response.
Dawn had pains and aches across her entire body, but she fought on. She blocked several of Gohan's blows, avoided another, and then countered the follow up by throwing him over her shoulder. Immediately she fired two energy balls after him, but Gohan quickly sped off to her right. No matter, she made the balls quickly follow him, and went on the offensive. Making a big mistake, Gohan was able to grab her right wrist as she threw a punch, and turned into her defense. Gohan's elbow connected and pushed Dawn back, groaning in pain. The action made it impossible for the half-Saiyan to avoid both energy balls, but it was worth it. The first ball crashed and exploded against the mat's force field, the second smashed into his crossed arms and exploded. Gohan shot backward a bit, before twisting around to grab Dawn's heal as she came flying in. The two hung in the air there, like that, for a few moments. Gohan smirked at Dawn as their chi flames intertwined. She gave him a nervous smile back. Gohan suddenly threw her down to the ground, and made a back flip. She landed on her hands, and noticed Gohan coming at her.
Suddenly she raised her chi rapidly, and kicked out too fast for Gohan to avoid. Both her feet found their mark in his stomach, sending him backward in pain. Rapidly she turned around, already charging the attack. "TANEKAKOSA!!" she yelled out, firing the energy wave. It went straight for Gohan. Suddenly Gohan sped out of the way of the energy wave, making Dawn's eyes widen in surprise. His elbow smashed in her chin, and she spun away as her energy wave crashed against the force field and exploded. She flew up to avoid Gohan, but a moment later he landed a double handed smash to her stomach and she was sent down to the floor hard. "OOF!" she yelled out as she crashed to the ground. "Ugh!" followed a moment later as Gohan placed his left foot just below her breasts hard, and he stood over her.
Defeated Dawn looked up at Gohan's grinning face. "Nice try," he said, smiling broader, "except I knew you were hiding a big part of your energy right from the start, I was just waiting till you let it out."
Dawn's eyes widened for a moment, and then her face fell. "Damn it, I thought I could surprise you," she said sorely.
Gohan grinned at her, and offered his hand after taking his foot off her stomach. She took it, and as he pulled her up, he complimented, "You're pretty good, especially considering you haven't even been training a single year."
"But you're better," Dawn pouted, looking down at him now that she was standing. She rubbed her sore body, and asked, "how often did you leave an opening unused?"
"Not that often," he told her with a smile.
Dawn felt the sweat in her arm pits, and noticed Gohan had barely warmed up. "Let's go to my room, gives me the chance to freshen up a bit as well," Dawn suggested to the demi-Saiyan, and he nodded in agreement.
As they walked side by side, Gohan asked, "So, Dawn, your sister really that overbearing?"
"Oh, yeah," Dawn answered as they reached the exit, "must do this, must do that, can't do this, can't do that, and not with things that make you think, 'Right, away, sis,' but useless details. She's been mellowing out lately though . . ." Of course that could be because she was going bonkers, but that was something that Dawn didn't mention.
"My mom was the same way," Gohan said with a grin, as they headed toward the living room. He paused as his mother was sitting there, chatting with the other women, and the couples. Roshi looked around like he was in heaven. Dawn nodded to Gohan, and she smoothly went into a discussion on a martial arts move. Once they were upstairs, Gohan continued, "she basically was a stuck record, 'study, study, study, study!'" Dawn opened the door to her bedroom, and let him in. "Don't get me wrong, I like studying, especially the interesting stuff like science, and history is fun too, except you can't do it 'all the time, every time'. It's like she expected me to study even while I was asleep."
Dawn nodded in sympathy, opening her clothes closet. As she started pulling off her sweaty shirt, she said gently, "Could you turn away?"
Gohan nodded, turned around and sat down on her bed with his legs in the lotus position. Sitting there, he continued, "Granted, I wasted a year when Piccolo dumped me in the wilderness and trained me to fight Vegeta and Nappa when they'd arrived, so I had some catching up to do, and now again with spending a year in the Room of Spirit and Time, but still. Anyway, I kind of got the guts to make a stand, politely of course, but it made her a lot more agreeable."
Dawn smiled as she pulled out a new set of clothes and started pulling them. "I did the same thing! And you know, I had the time with the whole shoplifting and stealing from friends thing, so Buffy had a good reason to start out overbearing." Dawn sensed Gohan was going to ask, so she quickly said, "Don't ask, whenever I think of that dark page of my history I cringe at my thought patterns, I was stupid, and don't even fully understand how I came up with the crap that made me go out stealing. Sometimes I wish . . ."
"Yeah, me too," Gohan said wistfully, lying down, his hands behind his head, and looking pained up at the ceiling. "Often I wish I hadn't waited so long . . . when I beat Cell the first time . . . I didn't finish him off when I had the chance. Cell was going to blow himself up, and Earth along with him. So my father had to come to the rescue: he took Cell and teleported him away, sacrificing his life so we could live . . . of course Cell regenerated and then we got to see Littica show of a skill level we never even dreamt of."
Dawn, dressed now, crawled onto her bed, next to him. He shimmied aside a bit so the two could share her single bed. "Yeah, I still remember that day on the tower, with that hole in the fabric of space and time shimmering in front of me . . ." Dawn turned around and went to lie on her back as well, except with her head on the pillow. Gohan took the hint and turned to join her there. Looking far past the ceiling, Dawn continued, "my death would close it, I knew, the blood had to stop flowing. So I went to the edge, planning on jumping straight through the hole and down to my death . . ." Gohan looked at her with large eyes, admiring her. ". . . except I hesitated, giving Buffy the time to get to me, pull me back from the edge . . ." Dawn stayed silent for a moment, and then turned her head to look at Gohan, and finished, ". . . she said she loved me, said that I should live, that dying is easy . . . and that since I was made from her, she could close the portal as well . . . and then she jumped, like a graceful swan, or an Olympic diver . . . and then bless heaven and hell, Xander appeared, _/flying/_, enveloped in a white glow, like a godsend angel, grabbing Buffy and saving her, then burning my wounds closed, so my blood stopped flowing, and the tear closed."
"So that's what happened while were protecting our world from demonic invasion, eh?" Gohan said smiling.
"Yeah," Dawn answered him, then smiled painfully, and said, "I guess that's why I'm so protective of Buffy these days. She's not comfortable in her skin, I got /real/ protective when her ex showed up . . . and that's a whole other story. There isn't much to be done, no real intervention possible, forcing the issue. But her words of that night still echo through my mind, 'Dying is easy, living is difficult' . . ." Dawn frowned looking back up at the ceiling, ". . . it was the hardest thing I had to do, what went through my mind when I stood there, ready to jump and do my duty and all, was, 'I don't want to die, somebody give me an alternative.' Hesitating - living - was easy. Yet Buffy thought it was easy to die, and difficult to live, she didn't jump off that tower /just/ because she was heroic and it was her duty, although that was part of it, a piece of her didn't want to live, a piece of her wanted it all to end, to die . . . that scares me till this day, because how much different is her life now? Does she still think living is difficult?"
They both took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling for a few silent moments. Gohan smiled then, and said, "You and me, huh? Two peas in a pod." They looked at each other then, and laughed. "Boyfriend, what's he like?" Dawn's face instantly lit up.
Anya opened the door to the building with her key, and then said to her entourage, "Everyone inside."
And so they did. On their way toward the apartment Anya came across a neighbor couple, and the woman greeted her, "Hi, Anya, I'm looking forward to the party."
"Hi, Janine, it will be a blast," Anya returned the greeting.
Then they noticed the green giant that was Piccolo, and their jaws dropped. They quickly closed them again and walked onward. Once passed them, the guy whispered to the girl, "Such an obviously fake costume. Did you know Ed was into Star Trek, or Wars. or whatever?" Janine shook her head.
"Ed sends his regards," an angry grumbling voice sounded behind them. The couple froze, and they turned around looking at a very angry Piccolo. "I just talked to him, he's glad he didn't have to look down on the /little/ people. I don't know what Star Trek is, but /this/ is /not/ a costume." The couple gaped in shock and a little fear and the angry twitching antennae proving they weren't fake at all. Piccolo then pointed at his ears, and growled, "These aren't there for nothing."
The guy swallowed, and stuttered out, "S-s-sorry." Then he and his partner quickly turned around and walked away. Piccolo's companions behind him chuckled and laughed lightly. Anya smiled as she gestured to the opened door.
Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes and not even two meters progression. Vegeta was fuming on the inside. On the outside his face was simply as cold as ever. Only the tapping fingers of his right hand on his left upper arm showed he was getting really impatient. Of course the chi fields he was giving up, gave it away as well, and Xander was getting quite nervous. He had never expected this. Vegeta leaned to the right, and waited calmly. Then as he saw the person who's turn it was now pick up her bag and turn away from the counter, Vegeta instantly said loudly, "_Aside!_ _Royalty's_ _privilege_ . . . _/now/!_" The tone Vegeta used was dripping with authority at every single syllable. At the same time as he spoke, he resolutely walked forward. Too surprised, and reacting to the authoritative voice, and the way Vegeta walked forward the line split apart. Xander quickly followed his somewhat friend. Vegeta walked to the counter without one moment missing to impress that he had the gods given right to do this.
"You should wait your turn," the female clerk behind the protective bullet proof glass said.
Vegeta sneered at her, "I forced no one to step aside, they gave up their place out of free will." By this time people started to get their wits about, but it was too late. Grumbling the people behind the two Saiyans closed the line as Vegeta refolded his arms across his chest, and told Xander, "Let's get this over with, Littica."
"Ah," Xander said, actually nervous now. It had been ages since he had felt nervous, and some that was often just an act. "Yes, he traveled here from far away . . ." Xander started. Vegeta interrupted him by snorting. ". . . to preside over me and my fiancee's wedding. So in order to make the whole thing official, 'under the state of California' and such, he needs to be appointed a 'Deputy Commissioner of Marriages' for one day, namely Saturday, so we need to fill in the paperwork."
"I see, you have the marriage license already, right?" the woman asked Xander.
"Obviously," Xander replied rolling his eyes.
The woman nodded, and put the keyboard to her computer in front of her. "Name?" she asked.
"Vegeta," Vegeta supplied the woman. She looked up at the strange name, and the fact that no family name was coming.
"Just Vegeta," Xander supplied, as he saw Vegeta's eyes narrow.
"Very long way," the woman muttered and typed it in. "Occupation?"
"King of all Saiyans," Vegeta answered coolly.
The woman chuckled, not amused, and said, "Very funny, sir, now, can we try that again?"
Xander shook his head, but he really knew it was already too late. "Are you calling me a liar?" Vegeta asked, looking down at the sitting woman with a freezing stare.
The woman fidgeted, but remembered she was behind bullet proof glass, and there were two guards out front. "I'm sure it's an amusing joke, where you are . . ." the woman started.
Vegeta's left hand suddenly lashed out, faster than the woman could possibly have followed. Xander desperately tried to stop his king with hand gestures and some attempts at calling out the king's name. The bulletproof, virtually indestructible glass shattered as if it was nothing. Vegeta's hand wrapped itself around the woman's collar and lifted her out of her chair. She never had the time to push the silent alarm. Everyone present, including other clerks, except of course Xander looked in shock at the brutal display of strength. Xander instead groaned in defeat, and looked in disbelief that Vegeta would actually do that. "Are /you/ calling /me/ a /liar/?" Vegeta asked, keeping the woman above the floor, an energy ball charging in his right hand.
As Vegeta made sure not to squeeze the woman's neck, she could shake her head and say, "No, not at all. I was just kidding, really, please, forgive me." The fact that she could see the energy ball bouncing in Vegeta's hand really wasn't necessary - having the hand wrapped around her neck without problem or broken bones, or hurt after just smashing through a bullet proof glass easily really was proof enough; this man was not joking, or lying, or otherwise not telling the truth.
Xander looked with mouth ajar as the Saiyan king placed the woman back down in her chair, while saying, "Good, continue."
The whole skirmish was over, and none of the clerks had or would press any silent alarms, it was obvious it would take at least a hail of bullets to bring this guy down, and they'd probably die in it themselves, and the man didn't seem to really intend to hurt anyone. "Address."
"15 Western Main Street, Western Capital, Earth," Vegeta answered, his arms folded back across his armor. Xander's jaw dropped further.
Fearfully the woman looked up, and said very softly, "But there is no Western Capital on Earth."
"Speak up, woman!" Vegeta ordered, making everyone but Xander flinch.
"There's no Western Capital on Earth," she repeated.
Vegeta narrowed his gaze, and said with an air of superiority, "There is in my dimension. Don't know the dimensional coordinates, you'd have to ask my wife for that."
"Ok," the woman said and typed it in, adding 'parallel dimension' behind it.
A few minutes later, outside again Xander was still shocked, holding the necessary paperwork. "I can't believe you did that," Xander said,shaking his head.
"We got it, don't we?" Vegeta said gruffly, Xander nodded. "Then stop complaining."
"But we still have to go back. Within four days after the marriage the signed documents have to be delivered," Xander explained where his trepidation came from.
"Great," Vegeta growled sarcastically.
"You didn't!" Dawn exclaimed in awe at the two-year younger boy next to her sitting, up rapidly in the process. Gohan nodded. "Really? And not just stroking, petting, and an occasional oral fling, but the real deal, actual . . ." Dawn's head was bright red. She put her left index and thumb together, then moved her right index finger back and forth through the created circle. Gohan smiled at her, and nodded again. "Whoa, you're really at it early. What was it like?"
Gohan slowly smiled, remembering, and then answered, "She had pink hair."
"For real or dyed?" Dawn asked half-confused, half curious, trying to figure out what he meant without having to ask and possibly look stupid.
"Real."
"How do you . . . oh," Dawn said, eyes lighting up in understanding, but not about the 'pink hair' comment. "So what does that mean, exactly, 'pink hair'."
Gohan blinked at her in confusion, and then understood, "Oh, right, no pink hair here. Well, you know what they say about redheads? You have redheads right?"
Dawn nodded, and frowned in thought, "Uh, they're firecrackers? In bed too, I guess." Dawn was blushing again.
"Yeah, well of pink hair it is said, they can be sweet as pink one moment, and ten times more of a spitfire than a redhead the next, and back again to sweet the moment after that," Gohan grinned up at the ceiling when he said it. "Let me tell you, if Bunny was any indiction, they are correct."
"Bunny?" Dawn asked incredulously. "Her name was /Bunny/? For real?"
Gohan nodded, "Usagi, which means Bunny."
Dawn giggled, then laughed out loud, and Gohan looked strangely at her. "No wonder you were going at it like bunnies then," Dawn explained what had her laughing, and started laughing harder. Gohan joined her. When she calmed down, Dawn asked, blushing deeply, "So what was it like for her?" Dawn blushed even deeper as she realized how that sounded, and she quickly added, "Just curious, you know, I have no interest in getting you into my bed . . ." Dawn looked around, gulped, and finished, ". . . although appearances may be deceiving."
Gohan laughed at Dawn, who looked shy for a few moments. "You really should ask /her/, I can't know for certain," Gohan explained to Dawn with a smile, "although the fact that she wanted it a second and then a third time makes me lean strongly to her liking it a lot." Dawn gasped, then smiled broadly for a moment. Finally she went back to blushing furiously. "Promise me, you won't tell anyone, especially not my mom?" Gohan asked.
"Promised," Dawn answered, and went back to lying next to him, her head on the pillow. Gohan got up then, and went to the window and then looked out, sadly. Dawn looked at him for a few moments, then sat up, shimming over to the side of the bed, so she sat with her legs on the ground. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Gohan looked down contemplating. He turned around toward Dawn, and said, "Remembering that brought something else back. There was a bull-alien there. Immensely powerful, I had to go to level 3 to beat him . . . he said something to me, that's been going through my mind ever since."
"What is it?" Dawn prompted with curiosity.
Gohan contemplated for a few moments, and then told the tale, "He said he was once like me; a hero to his people, very powerful even as a kid, saved his people and planet several times. He said that one of the last bad guys he defeated told him the same thing, and that his answer was the same as mine - he is wrong, never. He said he found the non-powerful people lacking. He went out in the universe, and when he got back, all he could see was a bunch of pathetic insects, and he obliterated his own planet. He said he came to realize that his power made him superior, or at least them inferior. It was because he was so vastly more powerful as everyone else he came to this conclusion: that he could do whatever he wanted to the weaker people . . . and he said, that I, like him, would inevitably see the same thing as he did."
"And you're afraid, he's right?" Dawn asked softly. Gohan nodded. "He's not. He didn't say what his reaction was, long term that is, I think he never gave the guy's words a second examination. He never got afraid he would turn out that way. That's the difference, because you are afraid you might once degenerate to that, means you won't. If you weren't afraid, then I'd get worried. Here's something Xander once said, it was a long-winded speech then, so I'll condense it somewhat; all the people out there, aren't weak. They are strong. They have fantastic inner strength. They could be as powerful as you are if they wanted to, and they already have gone through many things without all that raw power, and come out victorious anyway. Admire them for it."
Gohan looked at her, and then slowly smiled. Finally he said, grinning, "You know, Dawn, apart from pink Usagi, you're the first girl I've come across that isn't insane."
"Hey!"
Gohan and Dawn came down the stairs, Dawn giggling, Gohan chuckling. Once they reached downstairs they quickly stopped and went to find chairs. Willow leaned over to Tara, and whispered, "That can't be good."
Tara nodded in agreement, adding, "Yep, two teenagers giggling and then stopping the moment adults become visible . . . that /really/ can't be good." Buffy and Chi-Chi too looked over at the two teens, wondering.
The front door opened, and Anya with her entourage entered. She gestured for the guests to take a seat again, and then she turned to the final couple. "All right, Master Roshi and girlfriend, android and boyfriend grab your luggage, it's your turn." Reluctantly, the old martial arts master got up, Krillin did the same and they went to get the luggage. A short while later the five left.
Not long after that Vegeta and Xander returned to Buffy's house. "So did you get it?" Willow asked her oldest friend. "There were no problems?"
Xander held up the papers, making Vegeta scowl at the hole procedure again. "On Saturday Vegeta is officially a Deputy Commissioner of Marriages. And there were no problems, not really, not after Vegeta shattered the bullet proof glass at least."
"You didn't!" Bulma exclaimed in anger, scowling at her husband.
"Thanks a lot, /scientist/," Vegeta scowled at Xander, who looked apologetic.
"VEGETA!" Bulma screeched out in anger.
Xander didn't really want to get in between a fighting couple, so he tried to defuse the situation, "He didn't hurt anyone, just put a little scare in them, and everything worked out fine, no need to get angry."
That seemed to calm Bulma down some, but she folded her arms across her chest resolutely, turned slightly away from her husband, and said, "Mmh."
Luckily for everyone the doorbell ran. Buffy quickly went over, and opened it, revealing the AI Team and Giles, Lorne up front holding baby Connor. Angel was missing of course, he was still in the blinded car. "Hello, Sweet Lips," Lorne greeted, and then the whole team parted, opening a path. A door of the car opened, and closed, revealing a blanket-covered Angel. The vampire ran across the distance with all his vampiric and chi-enhanced speed, quickly getting inside before he burst into flames.
"Hello, Buffy," Angel greeted warmly, as he dropped the blanket and the rest of the team entered the house.
"Angel," Buffy returned with a smile. She closed the door behind them, and led them to the living room.
"Whoa!" Lorne exclaimed, and handed Connor over to his father. "Now there's a sight for sore eyes: a fellow green face," Lorne said with a big grin immediately walking over to the empty chair besides, Piccolo. The Namek didn't light up of course, but there was enough of a hint of a smile to show that he didn't disapprove of interacting with someone else who was green. Lorne reached the Namek and held out his hand, saying, "I'm Lorne."
Piccolo took the man's hand shook it, and said, "Piccolo."
Lorne looked at his hand dwarfing in Piccolo's and really took a look at Piccolo's size, "You're a big fellow, aren't ya?" Lorne said and sat down. "So, are you as tired of sick and throwing up jokes as I am?" The scowl Piccolo threw Lorne answered that question.
"Well, I guess as the hostess I do the introductions," Buffy said with a vague smile. "You've already heard the Namek's name, so there is Son Chi-Chi and son Goten . . . he came out of her belly, it's also his name but . . ." Buffy frowned shook her head, and continued onward. "King Vegeta and Queen Bulma Briefs, with son Trunks Briefs," Buffy pointed the couple out. Trunks was trying to pull one of Bulma's ornaments off her dress, and she patted his hand away.
"Mommy," the two-year-old whined and was quickly shushed, much to the toddler's dismay.
"Then we have Tien and Choazu, and finally Yamcha, and the talking cat Puar, she's not a demon," Buffy added the last part to be certain the cat wasn't attacked again, and keep the house from sustaining more damage. Dawn blushed. "Last but not least, there is Son Gohan," Buffy indicated the half-Saiyan, "Also son of Chi-Chi."
Buffy then turned to the AI team, and said, "There are two couples more: Master Roshi and his girlfriend Donna, and Krillin and his girlfriend Android 18 but they are bringing their luggage over to Xander's with Anya. And be careful with Roshi, he's a pervert with loose hands." The people in the room who already knew him laughed at the description, the AI team frowned. Then she started another round of introductions. "This is Angel, the vampire cursed with a soul. Next to him is Faith Williams - the second Slayer, no longer psychotic - with boyfriend Wesley Windam-Price - who is apparently less of a prick these days," Buffy stated. Faith frowned at her introduction, and Wesley kept his head high regardless of his. Gohan's eyes were taking in the dark-haired Slayer, her leather pants hugged her hips, her midriff was bare, and the tank top she wore offered up cleavage. Dawn noticed. Her blush forgotten, she folded her arms across her chest and her face twisted with annoyance. Buffy continued, "genius Winifred 'Fred' Burkle, a former classmate of mine: Cordelia Chase, and finally, once again last but not least, in fact he's probably the most, Ruper Giles, my mentor and once watcher."
When Buffy was done, the AI team went onward into the living room, intent on finding a chair, and shaking everyone's hand in between. Faith and Wesley came past Dawn and Gohan, and the girl bent over, offering her hand. "Hey, kid," she greeted.
"Hi," Gohan returned his eyes glued to the very inviting look at the top of her breasts this way. It took him every last ounce of willpower he possessed to look up into her eyes. Faith smiled knowingly at him, not angry at all.
Wesley landed a light pat on her backside, making Faith straighten up with some surprise. He whispered in her ear, "Come on, Faith, stop showing off you're an exhibitionist and find a chair." Faith grinned and found a empty chair a little further onward. Wesley shook Gohan's hand without bending down, the demi-Saiyan standing up instead. They greeted and then Wesley joined Faith, who gestured for him to sit first. Faith then sat down upon his lap, and Wesley wrapped his arms around her waist. She gave him a quick kiss.
Gohan watched the whole proceeding, every sway of the girl's hips, every movement of her body, her ass especially when it was turned to him. Dawn gave a soft growl, and leaned over to Gohan's ear. She asked softly, "What is it with guys and Faith, huh? Is it the slutty look in her eyes? The fact that she runs around naked? Is it the skanky ass-swaying? Or the attitude that says, 'I'll give you a blowjob, all you have to do is ask'? What?"
Gohan looked amused back over at Dawn, and answered, "I think it's the whole package. Jealous?"
"Of her, uh, uh," Dawn muttered very defensively, as another female member of the AI team showed up.
Cordelia Chase ruffled Gohan's hair, and said, "Look at what a cute little boy you are."
Dawn swallowed, and Gohan's eyes narrowed. "I can beat you up," he said coldly. Dawn threw her hand in front of her mouth, trying to keep her laughter in.
"Ok," Cordelia said, carefully taking her hand off of Gohan's head as if she took it off of a rabid dog. She then quickly moved onward.
"Gohan!" Chi-Chi admonished him angrily. "Apologize."
"I'm sorry," Gohan told Cordelia his eyes still cold though. She quickly sat down on an empty chair and waved him off. Dawn giggled out then, grabbing Gohan's shoulder reflexively in support. Gohan looked at her and smiled.
"I'm sorry, it isn't funny," Dawn told everyone else who was looking at her astonished. She emptied her face, mouth straight, and said, "See, no laughing." Nobody missed how her eyes shone with mirth, and were contracted together as if she was laughing. Her mouth quirked upward a few times, but mostly she kept her expression schooled. The others decided to ignore it, and started talking with each other.
Gohan leaned over to Dawn and said, "You know, you can observe Faith, and add just a bit of what she has into you, I'll bet every guy would be looking at you too, I certainly did, remember?" Dawn blushed and furiously shook her head.
When everyone was seated, Buffy interrupted everyone's conversations, "Ok, we made sleeping arrangements already, because they were here, I hope you guys don't mind. Faith, Wesley, Giles, Angel and Connor, Fred and Cordelia will be sleeping here. Lorne will go over to Anya's and Xander's place."
"No problem, not even a dust in front of the sun," Lorne said with a smile, seeing as he was the only one going over to Xander's place.
"Good," Buffy said. "Dinner is ordered, and should be delivered soon - lots and lots of it, then everyone can get ready for the bachelor parties." Buffy then went to sit with Giles, and talked with him.
"I can't believe I'm going to get to see a male stripper," Dawn said excitedly helping doing the dishes. They were just done eating.
"Sorry, Dawn, but where I'm taking the girls, only eighteen and up are allowed," Buffy told her sister with a sly grin.
"WHAT!?" Dawn exclaimed in horror. Around them, the rest of the Scooby Gang, also helping with the dishes turned to look at this confrontation.
"Yes, Dawn," Buffy added, and looked sympathetically at Dawn, "I'm really sorry, but taking this option was the most value for the buck."
"I don't believe you, stay at home let a stripper come over should be far cheaper than bringing them somewhere!" Dawn complained heavily. "You're just doing this so I can't go! Wasting money!"
"Not at all, Dawn, I really researched options, and the moment I dropped Xander's name at the Fabulous Ladies' Nightclub in Oxnard, I was offered this /huge/ discount that I couldn't pass up," Buffy said innocently, her eyes glittering with sneakiness. Xander stiffened at the mention of the place, and everyone looked over at him.
"Why would Xander's name get you a discount?" Dawn asked suspiciously, and Xander calmly kept toweling off plates.
"Apparently while he was stranded there when his engine fell out on his road trip, and working there as a dishwasher, he really /saved/ them one night," Buffy said with a smirk on her face. Thank god for a dirty mind, and lot's of wondering in curiosity, thus keeping Xander's talk in mind!
Everyone looked even more at Xander, and he explained, furiously toweling along, "Yeah, you know: vampires, damsels in distress, some of them male, dust, the usual."
"This is /so/ not fair!" Dawn yelled out and stomped her foot on the ground.
"I'm /really/ sorry, Dawnie, I'll make it up to you, I promise," Buffy said, grinning evilly. "Besides, I don't trust a thirteen-year-old /boy/ with three babies, and I /do/ trust you with them, and Gohan could probably use a babysitter as well."
"Babysitting!?" Dawn's eyes bugged out. She narrowed her eyes when she saw Buffy's rock-solid face, she decided she might as well drag out of it, what was to be dragged out of it. "How much does it pay?" She returned the rock-solid face, arms folded across her chest.
"Twenty-five bucks?" Buffy suggested.
"Seventy-five, and no less," Dawn countered.
"Deal," Anya suddenly said. Everyone looked over at her, and she said, "Hey, it's our wedding, our parties, we're paying, and I feel sorry for her not coming." Dawn smiled smugly at Buffy.
The large hotel suite that Willow had rented for the party (with Xander's money, as promised Harmony had paid up the first payment on time) was beautiful. It had a bar, a server came along with it, and lots of different drinks she could poor. The girl wore a uniform that showed off her cleavage (it was a bachelor party after all, and the hotel catered to such events). Chips and other snacks were present, and could be fried when necessary.
All the men, except Piccolo (who was technically not a man), were present, and talking and drinking amongst themselves, celebrated Xander's for to last day of 'freedom'. Willow had been dragged to be with a few men by Tara, and so the nervous redhead tried to make conversation, something Tara seemed to be better at. With every moment the conversation continued between her, Tara, Krillin and Yamcha confidence returned. And she had to admit, seeing the rippling muscles on the two guys was very nice: they really worked out.
There were a few knocks on the door, and the bartender went to open the door. Two beautiful women, one an Asian in a police officer outfit, the other bright blond hair with a pony tale in a nurse's outfit entered. Tara grinned appreciatively at Willow, who grinned back.
"All right, people!" the cop called out with authority. Everyone looked over. "There were reports of too much noise, we're going to have to solve this problem, or arrest some people."
In another group of people, Vegeta wanted to growl at the insulting manner the cop dared to speak, but Xander held him back with a hand, shaking his head 'no', already figuring things out. "Much more importantly, there was life or death situation," the nurse stated looking around, seeing nobody lying on the ground dying. "But it seems somebody here made a prank call, officer?"
"Now who's responsible for this party!?" the cop demanded sternly.
"That would be him, officer, he paid for all this," Willow said pointing out Xander, who took several steps forward and smiled.
Tara noticed Roshi and the way he looked at the girls, and she suddenly pointed him out at Willow saying softly, "He's going make them run away before they even get anywhere." Willow's eyes widened, looked at Tara and as the show continued, the two witches made their way over to the perverted old man, who was practically drooling at the skimpy outfitted young women.
"Uh, sorry officer, I don't see how we could have produced too much noise," Xander apologized to the 'cop'. "And nobody here used a phone, I can assure you."
"_Everyone_ _sit_ _down_, _except_ _you_," the cop ordered, and so they did. Wesley understood, and was shaking his head with a smile when he sat down. The couches were placed in a point, and two more parallel alongside the ends, making a shape like that of a house without foundation, making for perfect viewing of the tv that stood in the middle, or other entertainment in the same position. The cop resolutely got a comfortable chair and pulled it along as everyone sat down.
Tara and Willow quickly sat down next to Roshi as the strippers moved over to the middle. They mumbled a spell and touched Roshi, who's lower body stopped moving. The master's chuckling quit as he tried to move but couldn't. "Hey . . .!" Roshi started.
"Quiet, old pervert," Tara told him, magically sealing his mouth, "no touching of the strippers allowed, be grateful we don't turn off your eyesight for the duration of the show."
"I will have to interrogate you, there's no way around it," the cop said gruffly, pulling the nurse along. Several moments later Xander was sitting in the chair, and smiled up at the cop. The girl bent over, face right before his, offering a fantastic view of her breasts encased inside her skimpy uniform coat. "Now, if you don't tell me who made the call, I will be forced to use the hormonal way of interrogation - it won't be pleasant."
"Nobody here made the call, officer," Xander answered truthfully.
"That's it then," the Asian cop said sternly and turned to the nurse. "You will assist me," the cop said, and the nurse nodded. The cop took out a stereo and turned on a slow but rhythmic song. Then the two girls stood close together, and ran their hands across their breasts, and down, licking their lips sexily.
Everyone looked with bated breath as the strippers started dancing together. After a little while the cop started unbuttoning her blouse, and the nurse her short overcoat. Everyone's eyes widened with enjoyment as the offending garments were removed, revealing smooth tummy's, tight skirts, and lacy bras encasing big, but not too big breasts for the blond and nice C-cups for the Asian. Xander looked with wide-eyed enjoyment at them, and some of the men whistled and yelled in approval. Willow and Tara too grinned widely. "Very good choices, baby," Tara whispered at Willow getting worked up.
Willow's hands were around Tara's waist, and she said, "I thought so."
The cop then lifted her right leg and slung it over Xander's shoulder, putting her panty-clad crotch right in front of his mouth. She then bent backward, revealing the stockings and garter belt she was wearing underneath the skirt to everyone. At the same time the nurse had gone behind Xander and moved her hands across his back wherever the back of the chair wasn't covering it. When the cop reached her apex, her cap fell to the ground, and long black tresses of hair fell from beneath it. She grabbed Xander's hands, and placed them just above her breasts. Moving her head forward, she looked deeply in Xander's eyes as she moved his hands down her body, over her breasts, down her tummy on top of her skirt, and then pushed them of. Xander was erect by now and smiled at the Asian girl, who made a kiss mouth at him, before moving on to the next stage of the striptease.
"You Humans have got some weird customs," Vegeta growled out in approval.
Krillin next to him stood up, cheered the girls on, and told him, "Yeah, don't you wish you had one of these when you married Bulma?" Vegeta chuckled. Next to him Yamcha reached for the nurse's ass, who was shaking it invitingly.
The cop pulled her leg off of Xander's shoulder, watched Yamcha reach, and she said, "Uh, uh, only the interrogee gets to touch, and only when we say so." The girl said with an admonishing, but friendly tone. Looking disappointed Yamcha sat back.
The nurse circled around, and crouched down in front of Xander, moving her hands across his chest. Slowly she started to pull off his shirt. When Xander's very becoming torso was naked she suggestively moved her hands across his chest. While she did this, the Asian went around the room dancing, entertaining the others. The nurse followed up by moving her chest up Xander's torso and giving him a kiss on the tip of his nose. She then turned around and waved her ass in his face, and pointed at the zipper while she looked suggestively over her shoulder. Xander grinned and slowly pulled the zipper down. She closed her legs together then, and gave him a smile. He placed his hands on her ass. He felt it for a moment then pulled the skirt down, revealing a g-string and garter belt. She stepped out of her skirt with her left foot, and kicked it away with her right. She turned around and bent forward, letting her hair land on his chest, and moved down. Xander let his hand fall back at the sensation of the girl's soft hair. She reached his crotch and as she unbuttoned his pants, he opened her eyes. He made eye contact with Willow, and mouthed, 'Thank you, I love you.' Willow grinned wickedly at him, and gestured for him to pay attention to the nurse, and he did. He lifted his ass up a little and the girl pulled his pants down, so the strippers could stimulate the skin on his legs better, revealing tight boxer shorts.
The two strippers switched position again, and the Asian with the expressive brown eyes, moved her hands across his chest and down his legs. Then she stood up and unhooked the bra. Then she sat down in his lap, pushing her crotch against his, never losing the rhythm of the music. She let her stomach and naked breasts press against his skin, moved her mouth to his ears, letting her soft hair tickle him. "Ready to talk yet?" she whispered in his ear.
"If it means you stop taking off clothes, no," Xander answered and smiled at the girl.
She gave him a chaste kiss on the lips, and said sternly, "You'll talk differently soon." She lifted off him, and bent back going into a handstand, allowing the skirt to drop down. She split her legs, and moved onward till she was standing again. With a suggestive movement she pulled her skirt down, and kicked it near the nurse's skirt.
The rest of the audience was cheering on the nurse in the mean time, who took her bra off as well, right in front of Lorne, who blew her a kiss, and said, "Artwork, baby, master piece."
She bent forward and asked Lorne, "Oh."
"I used to be in showbiz myself, my bar sadly got blown up, I see quality work when I see it," he told her, and then she backed away from him. She moved onward to Choazu and smiled down at the little guy.
"Oh, boy," he said with large eyes. She gave him a quick show, and Ed next to him equally.
The cop placed Xander's hands on her breasts and moved them down while she pouted at him. Xander, not surprisingly smiled widely. She moved his hands across her breasts for a few seconds before pulling them down and then behind her back across her creamy skin. She sank down against him, straddling his legs with hers, stimulating him with the feel of her stockings against his bare legs. She moved Xander's hands across her ass, and then forward, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of her g-string. "It's the only thing that can come off now," she said huskily.
Xander nodded and pulled it down, his eyes captivated by her big brown orbs. Once the panties were halfway down, she stood back a bit, and she let them fall the rest of the way Xander looked down and got to see her pussy. It was beautifully shaped, with smooth, tight, pouting lips, which were bare. She had shaven off her pubic hair, except for the short hairs above her mound arranged in an exclamation point. The dot of the symbol surrounding the beginning of her slit. Xander's eyes widened at what more he saw, and he looked up at her. She licked her lips suggestively, and undulated her middle spreading her legs on the way, confirming what Xander had thought he saw earlier. He smiled up at the stripper, and she smiled back at him, then backed away, only for the nurse to take her place.
The nurse started by gently rubbing her panty-clad crotch across his upper leg. She unhooked on garter, and continued until all four of them were unwrapped. She gently wiggled out of the white high heels she was wearing. She got up, and bending her leg up over Xander's shoulder she leant her foot on his the back of Xander's chair. Knee bent, the tops of her stocking was right at the height of Xander's eyes, and she slowly started to unroll it. Once it was off, she did the same with the other stocking. Kneeling down over Xander's boxer-clad erection, she leant back, her bellybutton at Xander's mouth. She undulated her pelvis highlighting the garter belt. Xander quickly unhooked it and tossed it aside. Righting herself, the nurse smiled sexily at him, rubbed herself against his chest and legs one more time, then got up and turned around. Gently, she pulled the panties down, as she bent forward right in front of Xander's eyes. "Oh, wow," he said looking at the beautiful ass stretching, and the revelation of the secrets that lay below.
The cop, wearing only her stockings, garter belt and short black, high-heeled boots had enticed almost all of the audience when she reached Giles, Michael and Daniel. She paid especially attention to the distinguished Brit, working him over by lowering herself to just above his lap, and giving him an eyeful. A couch further, Willow and Tara watched, and Willow was shocked as she noticed Giles irrevocably grow erect. She quickly turned away, and said, "I never thought I'd see that. The Asian girl decided she had enticed the three men enough, and went over to the two witches and the strangely silent old martial arts master, who had long since accepted all he could do was watch, and did so, looking with wide eyes at the beautiful Asian woman. She danced in front of Willow and Tara and the witches' eyes were glued to the woman. They let their eyes move up and down, taking in every centimeter. The stripper then turned around and bent over, moving her ass and pussy right in front of the lesbians before straightening back up.
"Did you see that?" Willow said looking up in the smiling face of the stripper.
Tara nodded, the shock of what she had seen made her stutter a little over her answer. "S-she's d-dripping wet. S-she's g-getting off on this."
Willow nodded, replying, "A real exhibitionist alright."
The Asian slowly turned around and sank down on her knees over Tara, and she softly told the two, "Not /just/ that, last time there was such a hot guy in the center seat and this many hot and well-trained men and women with fantastic bodies around, was at the birthday party of a football star." Grinning at the astounded witches, she got back up and moved over to Angel and Wesley, the final two.
Angel looked with wide eyes at the beautiful girl, and said, "I should have never have come here."
Wesley next to him muttered, "I hope Faith is having as much fun as I am."
"Go for it, Anya! WHOOO!!" Faith screamed out, jumping up and down from her position, as on stage on a chair the male stripper sat on Anya's lap bent back, and made her move soapy sponges across his bare chest. Anya was grinning ear to ear, and was happily soaping up the man, making his chest glisten sexily. Before this, the pole dancer dressed like Indiana Jones had been the height of this evening, but this was literally getting Faith's juices running. She sat back down as around her, the other women yelled out similar encouragements to the soon to be bride. Once sitting, Faith rubbed her legs together hotly, and commented, "Wesley won't know what'll hit him tonight."
Bulma screeched out, waving a dollar, and then said, "Damn, I wish Vegeta gave me one of those on occasion."
Faith pulled the green-haired woman down, and asked her, "Have you tried giving him one first?" Bulma looked at her, and shook her head. Faith grinned, and said, "I gave Wesley one a couple of weeks ago, and I've noticed him preparing what I think is a nice surprise for me. Show your husband how much fun it is receiving one, and he might decide to return the favor."
"I'll keep that in mind," Bulma answered with an evil grin.
On the other side next to Faith was 18, who earlier in the night when they reached the nightclub had been incredulous they went to see strippers, and had gotten pissed off when she realized Krillin was probably equally looking at naked women. Anya had calmed her down some with the statement that she was looking at naked men, he at naked women and thus they were even. She had been stewing for a long time since then, but was now equally screaming for the stripper to take off the tight leather pants that seemed to be the only thing he had left on. "Well, she loosened up," Faith commented to Bulma who grinned before returning to her own screaming.
On the other side of the stage were Fred and Cordelia, cheering on the stripper to take more off, and Anya to make the stripper's chest even more yummy to look at. Buffy was at the curve of the end of the stage, and even the usually restrained, subdued, and depressed woman couldn't help but have a good time with all the hot, naked men she'd seen so far and would see later on. To 18's left were Melissa - Daniel's girlfriend still - and Diana - Ed's wife, equally loving the show.
As the dancer got up and turned around to dance in front Anya, Melissa told Diana loudly to get over the music and the other women, "I love these people, if I didn't before, I certainly would now."
Diana nodded in agreement, and asked, "And Daniel? Everything still okay, with him?"
"Oh, god yes, I love him, I certainly do. My father was livid at me dating a guy not going to college but working already," Melissa returned, taking in the stripper with wide eyes as he lowered himself down to Anya and bent over him, making humping motions. "But Daniel is not only good looking, considerate, supporting me and my goals - even with money on occasion, much to my but more so my father's annoyance - but none of the men my father would like to see me with, would have allowed me to come here. Thee's no way I'll fall out of love with him anytime soon." Diana smiled at the college girl and returned to ogling the stripper
Chi-Chi, paradoxically, was the loudest of all. The woman often lost it, but never over a guy, not even Goku. But things were different. She only recently came out of the emotional, hormonal roller coaster ride of a pregnancy, and spent another year between then and now without company of men, as her husband was dead. Add to that she lived in the woods far away from entertainment like this, it became a whole lot less surprising.
All lathered up, the stripper stood up again, turned around and bent over. He suddenly pulled his leather shorts down. The girls went wild, yelling. To their mixed disappointment and increased pleasure, he was still wearing a g-string, which gave Anya a beautiful view of his ass. "Ooh," she said admiring his tight, round butt, and thought, *Not quite Xander's ass, but it'll do, oh, will it ever do!*
The stripper left Anya alone for a short while to dance closer to the others and give them entertainment as well, of course not forgetting to give Anya a show at the same time. "Oh, man!" Faith yelled out, when the stripper was close by her, and she got up and got even closer, taking in the man's sexy physique. The stripper moved on, and Faith shook her head, saying "Dawn is going to be so pissed not being here if we tell what we got to see. She won't get this kind of entertainment for another two years." Faith had said that loud enough for Anya to hear, and the bride to be smiled sneakily before focusing completely on the stripper again, when he returned to her. He teased her with his bulge, and soon after with threatening to take off the g-string.
Goten gulped down the milk in the bottle with incredible speed. "Slow down, Goten," Dawn commented, "or do you want a tummy ache like Trunks did tonight?" The baby didn't listen, he just drank and swallowed happily. Soon the milk was gone, and Goten seemed to want more. Dawn decided to let Goten's stomach process the milk first, if he still wanted more half an hour from now, she could always give the half-Saiyan kid more. Gohan sat across from her smiling at the picture.
The bell rang, and Dawn looked up. Gohan gestured for the baby, and Dawn gently handed his little brother over. A few moments later she opened the door, and gasped, "Li! What are you doing here?"
"We'll get to that later," Dawn's boyfriend answered and wrapped his arm around Dawn's waist, pulling her closer. He gave her a kiss, maneuvering them into the house and closed the door behind him. Dawn looked up into the half-Asian's eyes, smiled and then turned around. "Li, I'd like you to meet Son Gohan, he's a friend from Xander's birth dimension," Dawn told him. Li greeted the younger boy. Dawn then continued, "Gohan, this is my boyfriend, Li-Huei Kissimota."
Gohan returned the greet, smiling and Li corrected, "Kijimuta."
Dawn looked apologetically up at him, and said, "I'm sorry, I keep getting it wrong."
Li smiled, taking off his coat and told her, "Don't worry, as long as you get it right by the time it's your name." Dawn's eyes widened at that statement, and smiled at the half-joke. "Let's go to your room."
"You can handle things alone down here, Gohan?" Dawn asked her newfound friend. Gohan answered positively and gestured she go up with him. The two teens then raced up the stairs.
Inside Dawn's room, Li maneuvered Dawn to her bed and sat her down. "So why are you here, already?" Dawn asked him again.
Li grinned, and answered as he pulled out a cd-case, "I got a phone call that you'd be all alone to night." He turned on Dawn's radio, and exchanged her CD, for his, while he continued, "/She/ said that while everyone else was at a bachelor or bachelorette party and enjoying stripteases, you'd be here babysitting." He pushed the play-button and music started to filter. "Then she said I should come over and cheer me up, and I wondered how to do that, when I realized, I could let you experience a striptease after all." Dawn's eyes widened when Li started to dance somewhat clumsily; he didn't have time to practice much, and the small space in Dawn's room didn't lend itself for a striptease anyway. Hopefully teasingly, he pulled off his shirt, revealing an undershirt and some first glimpses of skin.
"Oh, god, Li, you're the best boyfriend ever!" Dawn said with a smile, getting hot and bothered, and giggled when the shirt that Li threw away kicked over an empty glass she had brought back down yet. "Go on!" she encouraged.
Li then removed the belt in a flashy manner that made it slap against his forehead, and he yelled out, "Ouch!" He rubbed there, as Dawn giggled, and gesturing for him to continue with shiny eyes.
Slowly he pulled off his pants then, following his undershirt. "Hmm, yummy," Dawn commented at his smooth muscles. Encouraged, Li continued with pulling off his socks, jumping up and down while doing so. Finally he gently pealed down his underpants. Dawn licked her lips at his familiar manhood. Li grinned and stepped out of the boxers, or tried to. His foot hooked behind the waist band. He jumped up on his right leg twice before keeling over onto the bed next to Dawn. She laughed out loud, much to his embarrassment. She helped him take off the boxers, put him on his back and kissed him passionately, her tongue massaging his. She disengaged the kiss, and Li looked up at her, embarrassment forgotten only sexual heat rushing through his body. "Li, that was the most romantic, and sexy thing you've ever done for me," she said with a broad and sexy smile, "If it's any indication of what you can do with practice, you'll be incredible."
"Thanks, I guess," Li said smiling, and scratching behind his head as he didn't know what to say. She then helped him back into his clothes. They sat beside each other on her bed after that, kissing each other hotly.
"Let's go back downstairs, sitting here kissing all night would be rude to Gohan," Dawn told him, looking lovingly in his eyes. Li nodded, and let himself be pulled downstairs.
Back at Xander's party, the striptease had finished. The girls had put their high heels, and panties back on, but it stayed with that. The blonde had pulled up Xander and started dancing with him. The Asian had taken up Giles, the older Brit had an effect on her she like. "Okay!" the Asian and obviously the leader of the two strippers said smiling, gesturing for the rest to get up. "The striptease is over, but this party isn't anywhere near. We're celebrating this guy's last few times as a free men, before he permanently gains a ball and chain, so music, drink, food, and LET'S PARTY!!" Everyone agreed with that sentiment as the bartender turned up the music on the suite's stereo installation.
Most people had slept late, some were /still/ sleeping, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo and Xander had not been among them. They had spent a good part of the morning training in the gravity gym. Their training had been gentle, easy going, since they /had/ been to bed not until early this morning. They were out of the gym now, and in the Summers kitchen, which also contained Dawn, Buffy, Faith, and Chi-Chi with Goten - that Dawn and Buffy were fussing over, and Faith occasionally looked after. The girls were busy making and eating what for them was breakfast, and for the fighters would be a late lunch.
"Oh, yeah, cute boy, eh? Bubabubabuba," Dawn said, holding the baby in her right arm, and waving a finger from her left in front of Goten before stroking his hair. She brought her hand forward again, and Goten suddenly grabbed her index finger. "Ouch, ooh!" Dawn exclaimed at the half-Saiyan's iron grip, making some of them laugh. She raised her energy until the kid's grip was no longer hurting her and she pried her finger out of his grasp, brought it to her mouth and blew furiously on it. Goten giggled. "Yeah, laugh it up," Dawn told the baby with a glare, making Goten giggle only harder, including most people present.
Buffy wound down her laughing, and went over to the boy in her sister's arm and stroked his hair. "Just ignore the dumb girl, Goten," Buffy told with a smile.
"B, wouldn't that mean he should ignore you?" Faith commented as she ate her chocolate paste sandwich. Buffy turned her head to glare at the other Slayer, who gave her a grin. It made Buffy's hand move in front of Goten's face, who grabbed a finger, and pulled the digit to his mouth. Buffy whipped her head back at the baby and watched as it took the tip in its mouth, and started sucking. She looked astonished for a few moments, then somewhat offended as Goten spit her finger back out with a 'puh' and made a face.
"Hey!" Buffy exclaimed, making everyone laugh.
Chi-Chi finished a sandwich and walked over to Dawn. "Here, let me, I know what he wants," she said. Dawn handed her son over to her, and she sat down on a stool. She bared a breast, and put Goten to it. A moment later the baby was happily suckling on her nipple, drawing in the delicious milk and gulping it down. All the girls now looked fascinated, even Faith.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Dawn asked, as he saw the baby happily sucking away on Chi-Chi's flesh.
"Not if done right," she answered looking down proudly at her son. "I remember having to do some experimenting with Gohan the first few days, until we found the right way to do it."
The back door opened and closed audibly, emitting a certain blonde vampire. Spike walked into the kitchen, cigarette sticking in his mouth, smoke flowing up, and he muttered - barely giving the kid a glance, except a hungry one - "Slayer, I'm going some rounds in the bloody gym."
"Put out the damn, cigarette, Spike!" Buffy ordered him instantly. "It isn't just us you're poisoning, now there's a little baby."
"Fuck you," Spike told her calmly, with their relationship gone, he had no reason to go out of his way to be nice to her.
Spike looked over where the sudden increase in energy came from: four very angry men, one green. The one with the weird hair, growled at him, saying, "Put out the cancer stick, demon, or you'll be sorry."
"Listen, you bloody ponce," Spike told the king, taking a step forward. Several warning calls of Spike's name came out, warnings he should keep his mouth shut and do as told, but he didn't care. "I can do whatever the hell I want to as long as I don't break the rules of the little agreement I have with them. Not smoking is not a rule." Spike then poked Vegeta repeatedly in the chest, punctuating his next words, saying, "So shut up and back off, be nice to uncle Spike, and leave me alone."
There was sudden energy blast from Vegeta's hand, and Spike's cigarette was disintegrated. Vegeta smirked evilly at Spike, which bounced off of the demon easily. "You think that stops me, wanker?" Spike told Vegeta and pulled out his cigarette pack. "AAH!" Spike screamed out. He hadn't even seen Vegeta's hand move, but it was now around his wrist and crushing it. The pack of cigarette's had already dropped to the ground, and Spike followed, sinking through his knees at the pain. Everyone else looked calmly at the scene, except Chi-Chi, but when she saw nobody else reacting or admonishing Vegeta, she calmed down as well - she'd ask later. "Let me go, you bloody bastard! MMERGHH!" Spike yelled out in pain. A moment later Vegeta's right fist smashed across Spike's face, snapping Spike's head back, and cracking his jaw. Vegeta pulled his right arm back, smashing the elbow across the vampires face, sending some blood flying, and making the vampire groan dazedly in pain. He then grabbed Spike by the neck, and lifted him casually off the floor.
Panicking, Spike called out hysterically, pain lacing his voice, "You can't do this! We have a deal. I'm not hurt if I don't break the rules!"
"No," Vegeta told the vampire with a wide grin, "You and him have a deal. A deal I don't give a damn about."
"Droopy," Spike gurgled out. "Stop him, we have a deal."
Xander gave a laugh, and said, "That deal does not include protection, Peroxide Boy. Besides, he's my /king/, any deals I make are disbanded the moment he orders it so." Xander smiled ferociously, while the other chi-users from his birth dimension did the same, looking with disgust at the demonic thing they felt. Then Xander added, "You could still be useful as canon fodder, Sparky, and that's about it. If Vegeta decides to dust you, I'll watch with a song in my heart."
Vegeta chuckled, making Spike look fearfully. A moment later Vegeta's knee smashed into Spike's ribs, breaking several and making the vampire double over, groan and heave for air. Vegeta then smashed the vampire painfully stomach-first to the ground, and kicked down in the Vampire's back making him scream out in pain. With a final bash to Spike's head, he slumped into unconsciousness. "Get this trash out of my sight, he isn't even worth killing," Vegeta grumbled and incinerated the pack of cigarettes with a burst of energy with enough heat to make the nicotine fall apart to its base components. The king then imperiously turned around and left the kitchen.
Xander said, "Come on, Buff. Let's get this halfwit back to his crypt."
"Ok," Buffy said, and Xander picked up the battered Spike with one hand, and they left the house.
Xander unceremoniously dumped Spike to the floor of his crypt, making him groan in pain and slowly come back to consciousness. Spike looked up from his position, and grinned. "Droopy, tell me, you bloody bastard, did you betray your friends just as easily as you betrayed me? How many of them died when you could have saved them, but stayed hidden instead, hmm?"
Xander grinned at him, sank down in a crouch, and said, "Spike, if you want to be dust after all, do keep talking."
Spike chuckled evilly, "Well, I have to give you one thing, unlike the Slayer over there, you don't fuck me, you might fuck /with/ me, but you don't /fuck/ /me/." Buffy blanched, and looked down in shame, unseen by Xander, who laughed and stood up.
"Next time you'll tell me, you're fucking Tara," Xander told him, as he slowly moved to get up.
Spike grinned, and said, "Why would I lie, with her present?"
"To try and mess with us," Xander said, looking over to Buffy, expecting her join in, except she still looked down, and then guiltily looked up at him. "Buffy?"
Buffy looked like a whipped dog, blushing with shame, not really knowing what to say. Spike rose up on his feet shakily, chuckling lightly, the broken bones still complicating his movements. "I'm sorry," Buffy whispered. "I don't kn- . . ."
"_SHUT_ _UP_!!" Xander shouted in anger, making her flinch back. Then he turned to Spike, the anger burning, and the vampire took a step back, his grin faltering.
"Now listen here, I didn't break the rules, and she came to me, fucking me, she practically raped me. We have a deal, you can't kill me," Spike said fearfully seeing the cold rage in Xander's eyes, his irises even tinged green for a few moments.
"True, but it doesn't specify other punishments for lesser infractions," he told her with utmost self-control. Suddenly Xander blasted forward, and smashed his fist straight into Spike's gut. The vampire doubled over, and gasped and squeaked in shock and pain. Buffy's eyes widened in shock, putting her left hand in front of her mouth. "I've always wanted to know if vampires, and you in particular, had any guts," Xander hissed out sadistically. Then he took a step back, and pulled. Spike roared in pain, and straightened back up before dropping to his ass. In Xander's hands he held dead entrails and dropped them to the floor. Spike screamed with the shock, and the pain, looking at his own guts lying in front of his feet on the floor, blood and several strands of organs lead from his stomach to the pile. "I guess you do, who'd have guessed that?" Xander said with a wide grin, Spike looked up at him, jaw dropped, face twisted with pain. "I think the healing will go quicker if you stuff them back in."
Buffy took several steps back as Xander moved over to the refrigerator Spike still had standing in his crypt. He took a bottle of water from it, and used it to clean his hands of Spike's blood. He returned to the exit, and said, "That's gonna take - what? - three months to heal, Spike. We'll see your ugly mug again then. Let's go, Buffy." Buffy nodded, gave the horrified Spike, who was indeed stuffing his entrails with extreme pain back into his body, a last fleeting glance and followed Xander out.
Buffy could have started about Xander's handling of Spike, but her friendship with him, and her guilt were more important. "Xander?" she tried as she walked alongside the angry Xander. No answer came, and she started to cry, a tear forming. "Xander, let me explain," Buffy tried weakly again.
"_Shut_ _up_!" Xander told her angrily. "You listen to me very carefully, Buffy. We've known /something/ has been going on with you, but /this/ . . . you disgust me right now, /disgust/!"
"This isn't really any of your business," Buffy said painfully, trying to alleviate his anger, and getting a little angry herself.
That anger was quickly cut short, when Xander answered, "No, and my choice of friends isn't yours." He took a step forward, and looked in the stricken face of Buffy at that statement. "Nothing, Buffy," Xander told her menacingly, lifting one pay-attention finger. "Nothing, for the next few days, I will not hear nor see /anything/ about your necrophilia, /nothing/!" Buffy's eyes filled with pain at Xander's description of her sex-life. Xander continued undeterred, "No tears, no complaints, no self-pity crap, /nothing/. You've ruined my wedding with this crap Buff, fine, but if you ruin Anya's wedding, our friendship is over, and you do not want to know what I'll do to you. Got that!?"
Buffy nodded with a quivering lower lip, and tears flowing from her eyes. She quickly moved her hands up and started rubbing away the tears. "Nothing," she confirmed, nodding working hard to get herself under control. "Anya will have the perfect wedding, I promise." Xander nodded and started walking. Buffy followed him.
"What is it with him?" Faith asked. She was sitting in Wesley's lap on the couch in the Summers' living room, and they had just been eating lunch. She had caught Vegeta looking over to them several times, very disapproving. The living room was arranged again like the day before, the mattresses and sleeping bags having been put away for the day. Everyone from Xander's birth dimension was present, they had slowly trickled in.
Krillin who sat next to them answered, "He's the 'king'."
"And?" Faith wondered. "Doesn't mean he has to look at me like I'm evil incarnate."
Krillin shrugged, not really having an answer. Gohan who sat next to them on the other side, and Dawn next to that, said, "Who knows? The 'king' has this sense that if you're polite you're weak or something, and weakness is a big no-no. Honestly, I think he needs a psychiatrist."
That earned him several chuckles from Yamcha, Tien and Choazu. Krillin just smiled; he had gotten to know the king much better lately. "There he goes again," Faith complained, slowly getting angry.
"Calm down, Faith," Wesley subdued his girlfriend with a tone, and pulled her bit more snugly on his lap. Of course, that didn't stop Vegeta from just looking onward, and getting Faith worked up; a mixture of curiosity and anger.
"That's it," the dark slayer hissed, and got resolutely up off of Wesley's lap. She stalked over to the sitting King, whose arms were folded across his chest. Bulma, who sat next to Vegeta, looked astounded at the dark presence of Faith. "All right, Vegeta, why are you looking at me like that?"
Vegeta smirked up at her, and said, "You're a warrior are you not? Or at least like to pretend you are?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Faith asked the Saiyan king with annoyance.
"Look at what you're wearing," the sitting Saiyan king said with a cold smile. "Leather pants, tank top, bare midriff, heeled shoes. That's not the attire of a warrior."
"Vegeta, why do you have to antagonize people all the time?" Bulma questioned, not noticing the change on Faith's face.
Wesley did see it, and knowing Faith he had said at the same time, "Uh, oh."
Faith pushed her face down and forward, hanging it right in front of Vegeta's. Their eyes bored into each other, and cold rage reflected in Faith's. Steadily, coldly, she said, "I wear, what I /damn/ well want to wear; that's none of you business! And if you think these clothes would keep me from kicking your ass, you've got another thing coming!"
Vegeta's infuriating smirk deepened - he had gotten what he wanted - and said, "I accept the challenge, where do you want to do this?"
Faith's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then they narrowed back into anger, and she said, "The gym's right here."
Vegeta shook his head, "No, too restrictive, I want a real battle. Can't have you claim the force fields defeated you and not me."
Faith growled, and Dawn piped up, "You can always go out into the desert."
"Perfect," Vegeta said and got up, pushed Faith back into a straight standing position. The king imperiously walked to the front door, and Faith followed him. Many of the others looked, and got up to follow them, they were: Gohan, Dawn, Wesley, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin.
When Vegeta opened the front door, he almost bumped into the returning Xander and Buffy. "Where's everyone going?" Xander asked seeing the whole train of people coming out.
"I'm going to beat your king into the ground out in the desert, that's where we're going," Faith told him with a growl.
"Huh?" Xander muttered and watched Vegeta and Faith blast off into the air, the others following. "Well, I'm coming with," he said, and blasted off alongside Tien.
Buffy looked at them go, waved a hand and said overly friendly, "Have fun!" Then she turned into the house, schooling her features. She would /not/ ruin this wedding.
Several minutes later the group of super warriors arrived at their chosen location. Faith and Vegeta stood across from each other down in a valley, the others stood on a sand dune. Vegeta smirked perpetually at Faith, much to her annoyance, and he asked her, "Ready?"
"Born ready," Faith hissed at him, her chi flame erupting around her. The same occurred with Vegeta, who still had his arms folded across her chest.
"Well, then, little girl, show me what you've got," Vegeta told the Slayer.
Faith growled and sped toward him. The first few punches, Vegeta simply avoided without moving from his position. With a grin Faith suddenly sped up, and Vegeta was forced to move his hands and fly back. His counter punches were equally blocked by Faith. She suddenly sidestepped a punch and made rapid kick to Vegeta's face. Vegeta ducked and swiped at her remaining standing leg. Faith jumped over it, and on her descent, kicked both feet out, catching the king in the chest. He flew backward, smirking, and fired two rapid chi bursts. The first hit Faith in the chest, the following crashed on her quickly erected shield, her hands crossed in front of her.
She flew upward then, Vegeta following, and fired her own energy balls that the king avoided. They crashed into the ground and exploded mightily. While they were doing this, both their power levels rose dramatically. Suddenly Faith shot down, and attacked with punches and kicks. Vegeta managed to parry the first few, but the suddenness of her speed and even more rapid power up was too much for the Saiyan king. Two punches across his chin, and a double handed blow to his chest hit, sending him down, and caused a trickle of blood at his mouth. "Annihilation attack!" Faith yelled, as she powered the massive ball of energy between her two hands, and fired it down. Vegeta's eyes widened in appreciation at the power the girl wielded, and prepared himself. He caught the ball against his hands, and already noticed its internal energy ready to implode and then explode outward. No time to send it back at her. So he pushed it away, to his right. A short while later the powerful attack exploded, lighting up the sky, and for a sunlit desert that's saying something.
Faith had taken the time Vegeta was busy to fly downward. With a tremendous spinning right kick, she smashed her foot into the side of Vegeta's face, sending him down and to his right. Vegeta took over the flight before he crashed into the desert sand, and grinned at the approaching Faith. He countered her punched by locking her arms together, and then twisting her aside, sending her further on her with a burst of chi. With a roar Vegeta transformed into the Super Saiyan, his golden hair waving with the energy, the hair glue flung off under the power. Vegeta's hair now standing up under the power the Super Saiyan supplied. "Nice playtime, but now it's over," Vegeta smirked at Faith.
Up on the hill, the people from the Dragonball dimension assessed it with the same conclusion. "She put up quite a fight, but she won't stand a chance against a Super Saiyan," Yamcha said interested. Xander folded his arms across his chest, and smiled, looking calmly at the fight. Piccolo gave a agreeing grumble.
"Mmh," Gohan put out, wondering. Dawn smiled broadly, knowing they'd be in for a treat.
Wesley spoke, "I wouldn't be too sure."
Vegeta and Faith floated across from each other Faith smiled at Vegeta, "You're right: playtime's over. Time to do this for real." Faith then roared out, which with her female voice sounded more like a scream. Vegeta's eyes widened when he felt Faith's energy skyrocket at an incredible rate. The air trembled under the power, the very few clouds that were in the otherwise blue air pulled toward Faith and formed together a bigger cloud. Sparks of electricity shot through Faith's hair. Her hairs raised up, as the electricity crackled between her hairs. When they reached the apex and arched away the hair fell down again. Her chi flame turned ethereal blue, so close to the sky's color it was difficult to make out. And most strikingly, her irises and pupils turned to empty pits of blackness.
As Faith finished her transformation - the energy expanding in a quick shockwave - Xander said with a smile, "Legendary Super Slayer versus Legendary Super Saiyan, now we get to see how they stack up against each other." Gohan grinned, and a few moments later so did the others.
Vegeta was quite surprised himself. He knew what was necessary to reach Super Human, and there was no way anyone could do that with a couple of months of training, it took a massive amount of skill and experience to pull it off. So, this /girl/ going to a Super version of herself came as a complete surprise. Worse, she went from nothing to far beyond his present power in one go. Faith burst forward the moment her transformation was complete, and lunged a punch at Vegeta's chin. With Vegeta completely unprepared the punch hit, and sent him careening backward, crashing into a mountain side, rock was flung aside from where he crashed. With every last ounce of power he managed to get out of the way before Faith's hand crashed where he just was, sending even more debris flying. Instantly Faith turned around and flung two destructo discs at the Saiyan king. Vegeta jumped back, twisted around his axis between the discs and brought them under his control. A moment later he sent them back at the onrushing Faith, who needed to slow down and blow up the discs with two energy balls.
She moved onward again, feeling Vegeta's power up. He had used her tangle with her own discs to power up to Super Saiyan Full Power. Faith's next two punches missed, but she easily blocked Vegeta's retaliatory knee to her mid section. Realizing this was the time to strike, Faith threw a massive and incredibly rapid punch to Vegeta's chest. Vegeta had time to block it, but that was all, and Faith's punch went straight through the block. Vegeta groaned in pain as he flew backward. Faith's next cross right hit, and blood was flung from Vegeta's mouth. Vegeta was sent back, swing backward till he was almost horizontal. A two handed blow to his stomach sent the king shooting down to the ground. A smirk crossed his face as he groaned with the pain; this was better than he could ever have hoped. Then he crashed sending up tons of dust and sand.
Feeling victory in her grasp, Faith smiled as she shot after the Saiyan king. Vegeta was out of the hole in time though, and she flew after him. Vegeta avoided a few more punches, and then locked hands with Faith. The two stood on the ground testing each other's power. Vegeta groaned at Faith's strength feeling his hands slowly be pushed downward, and his torso back. "You're as fast as I am, but I'm much stronger," Faith told Vegeta with a satisfied smile. "Can I fight yet in these clothes, or not, huh?"
Vegeta smirked then, startling Faith, not expecting there to still be enough in Vegeta to smirk and not just grimace in effort. "We'll see," Vegeta told her, and suddenly stopped pushing back. With wide eyes Faith went forward and over, as Vegeta turned around, so his head was down and kicked Faith up powerfully with both feet into her stomach. Faith moaned in pain as she was shot upward.
A moment later Vegeta emerged above her and elbowed her down. Faith yelled out, at the impact, and grimaced with annoyance. It was time to finish this. She suddenly turned around and still shooting downward, she channeled her chi, and called out, "GALECK GUN FIRE!!"
Vegeta looked astounded at the beam rapidly coming toward him, and then got incredibly pissed off. With an extreme effort he batted the beam aside and up into space where it evaporated, the movement looking casual. Vegeta looked down at her shocked face, and he got enraged. "You think you can beat me with my /own/ move, created by /myself/!?" Vegeta shouted at her in anger. "You really are one arrogant little /bitch/, aren't you!?" Then Vegeta roared out, his power shooting upward. His hair stood up even more, and electrical discharges formed in his chi flame. Faith looked up in fear. "Let me show you how it's done!!" Vegeta roared out, and fired the beam, shouting, "GALECK GUN /FIRE/!!!" With shocked wide eyes, Faith threw up her hands, and erected the most powerful shield she could muster. A moment later the Galeck Gun hit, and exploded with a massive explosion.
The people on the sand dune erected their own shields, protecting them from the shockwave and sand that washed over them a moment later. Once the explosion was past Vegeta lowered himself down. The whole group quickly blasted off to the downed Faith. Once they reached her, they found Vegeta already there, who commented, "Pathetic." He then turned around, and looked royally disinterested, powering down. When he felt his hair fall down he went super instantly again, groaning in frustration, nobody had noticed though their interest was held by Faith.
Everybody looked down at Faith, who lay there, bloodied and bruised. Her leather pants were destroyed halfway to her upper legs, one of her tanktop straps was torn. The lower part of the top was torn in many places. "He's very impressed," Krillin translated for her, pointing at Vegeta. The king frowned in frustration. "And so are we."
Faith coughed once. Whimpering in pain, she said, "Xander, you never said he could go to level 2."
Xander grinned down at her, along with the others, and he said, "No, but then when I told you about him, he couldn't reach the second level yet. I do believe this is where that first lesson should have prevented you from this humiliation . . ." Xander looked over to Dawn, Gohan and Wesley.
The three of them chanted together, "Never ever underestimate your opponent."
As everyone except Vegeta laughed lightly, Faith groaned. "Oh, cheer up, Faith," Xander said holding out a hand to her. She took it gently, and she moaned with pains as Xander pulled her to her feet, and told her, "You'll be fine by morning, and in the meantime your boyfriend will undoubtedly fuss all over you."
"Absolutely," Wesley said taking Faith in her arms, and murmuring at her, "You ok, baby?" Faith nodded, laying her head soundly defeated on his shoulder. He cradled her close, comforting her, Faith making a few painful noises when he touched sour areas.
"Now what?" Krillin asked to no one in particular.
"I'd like to see the two most powerful here go head to head," Dawn perked up looking from Gohan to Xander. There were several murmurs of agreement, and a snort from Vegeta.
Xander and Gohan gave each other a look, and Gohan said, "All right." The two then walked away from the group, and the group returned to the hill. Xander's and Gohan's chi flames erupted and they attacked each other in a nice warm up. Steadily they rose in the air, more and more. Finally high up in the air, they stopped and parted. They flexed their muscles, testing if they were suitably warmed up.
Xander asked, "How do you want to do this?"
Gohan smiled, and said calmly, "Let me guess, you're an adult and level 3 doesn't drain as much as it does with me, right?"
Xander grinned, answering, "Yes. You sensed I can go to the third level: good."
Gohan smiled, and said, "I guess we keep it down to level 2 then, if we go to level 3, all you'd have to do is defend yourself successfully long enough until my transformation runs out, and you'd have me."
"Would be a good training," Xander suggested.
"Yeah, but I'm in the mood for a good action packed fight, not another race against the clock," Gohan replied smiling.
"All right then," Xander said and powered up, so did Gohan.
Down below everyone looked expectantly up in the sky. When the two went to the second level, and continued powering up toward the maximum of Super Saiyan 2, the people from Xander's birth dimension dropped their jaws in amazement, except Vegeta who just grunted and growled in frustration. Dark thunder clouds formed under the influence of their transformation, lightning bolts struck downward. "No way," Yamcha muttered, with jaw dropped. "They've gotten so much more powerful." Faith, Wesley and Dawn grinned at that, proud of Xander.
Then the two started their fight, energy blasting back and forth, the two swishing around. Xander's form solidified when he crashed feet first into the desert sand, creating a crater. He blasted away in a blur instantly, just in time to avoid a massive explosion coming from an energy blast. "Incredible," Piccolo whispered as he followed the fight with some difficulty. Vegeta grunted again.
Up in the air an amazing battle progressed. As Xander and Gohan shot all over the place, Xander twisted around to avoid a kick of Gohan. Now he was upside down while Gohan was straight up. They exchanged blows, most of them deflected or avoided for a short while. Then one of Gohan's punches managed to hit Xander's face. He used his momentum to turn around, up and over Gohan. With Gohan still going forward on his momentum, Xander could kick him in his back. Gohan twisted around instantly landing a spinning back kick making Xander tumble backward. Xander fired his Tanekakosa wave, which Gohan avoided by jumping forward of all things, and twist around upside down, hollowing his back. Thus he kicked Xander in the face again. Gohan followed up with his own Kamehameha wave. Xander twisted back letting the wave shoot right over him, and went downward at the same time. Free of the wave he fired a good energy blast that impacted on Gohan, sending the half-Saiyan careening back, tumbling about.
Xander quickly closed the distance and threw a punch. Gohan caught it, and countered it by spinning Xander sideways. Quickly Xander countered the counter by pulling Gohan over his shoulder. Gohan once again returned the favor. A few more times the two continuing like this, twisting and turned in an incredible display of agility and prowess, in the mean time they each landed punches or kicks on each other. Finally Gohan twisted himself free of Xander's grasp, and threw a destructo disc at him. Xander caught the disc between his hands, pushing on the flat side. With a grunt he stopped the disc, and disintegrated it with a pulse of chi. Two energy blasts crashed against him, making him yell out in pain. Gohan came right after it, but Xander twisted aside the kick, and rammed his left fist straight into Gohan's stomach. The half-Saiyan called out at the sudden loss of air, and quickly moved to get away from Xander who was now in an advantage.
"Damn," Tien muttered looking up at the fighters, fighting a battle at a power they couldn't grasp, and although they themselves could move faster in their home dimension, they couldn't here, and so they had difficulty keeping up on occasion.
"And to think, they aren't even at their max," Faith said in admiration. Dawn next to her, looked a little disappointed, having seen a fight in Super Saiyan 3.
"What?!" Vegeta exclaimed. The others from the Dragonball dimension looked at her in surprise.
"I've seen him /far/ more powerful," Faith said with a small smile. "Never in action though." Vegeta grimaced, while the rest looked onward.
Several energy bombs shot down to the Earth and exploded. The two combatants shooting onward in their fight.
Xander landed a right cross on Gohan's cheek, even as Gohan moved downward and slightly to the right. The half-Saiyan landed a left punch in Xander's gut, making him bend slightly. Gohan immediately followed up with a right uppercut that connected perfectly, making blood fly from Xander's mouth, and Xander fly upward. With a yell Gohan twisted on his side, bringing his left foot to Xander's head. Xander twisted backward around his middle axis, and onward, avoiding's Gohan's kick and smashing both his feet into Gohan's back. The boy shot upward and rapidly twisted around. "Annihilation attack!" he yelled and indeed fired the destructive ball of energy from both his hands. Xander avoided it barely, and it crashed down upon a small mountain. Everything went white and a mushroom cloud formed at the massive explosion, which obliterated the mountain completely.
Xander threw a punch that Gohan deflected, Xander made sure the thirteen-year-old couldn't grab his arm and pull him off balance. Gohan ducked beneath Xander's next punch, and immediately shot forward, sending a powerful energy ball in Xander's stomach. Xander flew downward, and was ready to defend himself when Gohan went for him. Then Gohan did something completely unexpected; suddenly he sped up and circled around Xander, placing a powerful elbow in Xander's back, making the full Saiyan groan in pain. Gohan used the time to twist back above Xander and then fired a massive beam down. Unable to avoid it, or mount another suitable defense, Xander was shot downward until he crashed into the ground and the energy exploded.
Xander was lying there in a crater, coughing, feeling pains going through his entire body. Parts of his clothes were destroyed, and blood slowly flowed from multiple smallish wounds. "I yield!" he called out, and a moment later Gohan landed next to him, smiling.
"You've gotten better," the boy commented.
Xander grinned, and retorted, "So have you."
Gohan reached down. Xander grabbed his friend's hand, and let himself be helped up. The two Super Saiyan 2s looked at each for a few moments, chi flame not surrounding them. "Could I talk to you, sensei? Alone, away from big ears, in private?" Gohan asked Xander, gesturing toward Piccolo.
Xander nodded, "Sure." Then the two shot into the sky and away before any of the others could reach them.
"Why did they leave?" Yamcha asked.
"Gohan wanted privacy," Piccolo answered.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Xander asked, suitably far away from Piccolo's ears.
"I'm pondering something," Gohan answered him, looking down, thinking his words over. "I fought someone I could only defeat with level 3. He said he was like me when he was little, powerful, fighting for good, a hero, but he was so far more powerful then the rest, he eventually came to look at them as pathetic. He destroyed his own planet, wiped out his own people. He said that eventually I would come to think like he did, that it was inevitable because I was so much stronger than everyone else. I told him he was wrong, he said he gave the same answer to the same tale given to him by an evil attacker when he was small."
"You are afraid he is right?" Xander asked Gohan.
"What if he is? Aren't you worried about it?" Gohan asked.
"No, I'm not," Xander answered him gravely. "When I look at humanity, all the 'weak' ones, all I see is strength and I admire them for it. At their core, humanity is stronger than the Saiyan race was. I won't destroy what I admire." Gohan looked down, thinking. "Gohan," Xander continued, making Gohan look up again. "This is something I can't really help you with. Some things, nobody can do or solve for you. They may give you advice, point out consequences of choices, but in the end, some things you will just have to deal with all on your very own. It's part of growing up."
"Growing up sucks," Gohan said in answer to that.
"Oh, yeah, of course it has a few benefits, bachelor parties for example," Xander said with a wide.
"Not funny," Gohan returned.
Later that day already turned into night, Buffy sat sulking in her bedroom. There was knocking and she invited whoever it was in. She looked over when the door opened, and said, "Giles! Hi, how's my favorite watcher?"
"Patronized, but I'll live," Giles stated deadpan, making a ghost of a smile appear on Buffy's face. He took a chair and sat down in front of the blonde Slayer. "How are you, Buffy? Everything is all right, correct?"
"Oh, yeah, of course, no troubles here. Great wedding tomorrow, am really happy for Xander, everything's fine, just peachy!" Buffy immediately answered with a huge smile.
"Buffy," Giles started looking at the still smiling Slayer. "Last time I heard someone made such a long winded sentence to describe she was happy and /meant/ it, was Willow describing a science project somewhere in the second year I lived here. And 'peachy'?"
Buffy's smile faltered, she so wanted to open up to him, but she'd knew if she let it out now, there'd be no way to stop it. It would continue until every last bit had been confessed to everyone, and there was no way she'd let that happen. She didn't want to ruin Xander and Anya's wedding any more. She wanted to lose Xander's friendship even less, although she suspected he had mostly said it in the heat of anger. Thus she would keep her emotions locked away untill well after the wedding - she would not give anyone a bitter aftertaste. So, her fucking-soulless-demons confession would have to wait until the wedding couldn't be associated with it. "I won't answer," Buffy said with finality, "Giles, someone already knows what's on my mind, and there's no way I'm going to tell anyone before the wedding is over. Tomorrow is Xander's and Anya's day, and I won't ruin and overshadow it by dumping my problems on them, ok?"
Giles sighed deeply, and nodding, he said, "Ok."
The next day, before ten o'clock when the wedding would start, they were at the wedding chapel. Buffy, Willow, Faith, Tara and Dawn had one large dressing room where they could change in their clothes. Since they were part of the ceremony, and there were too many opportunities for their clothes to get dirty on the way over here, they had opted to dress at the chapel, as had the bride. Faith and Buffy were finished first and took in each other's horrible appearance. Their makeup - as specified - was so they looked cute, and the dress was worse. "This is torture," Faith muttered horrified.
"For once we agree," Buffy said. From behind to more screens, Dawn and Tara emerged, and the four looked at each other.
"Somebody pinch me, please. Tell me this is just a nightmare," Tara said softly looking at her fellow bridesmaids.
"I think I just went blind," Dawn added, much to everyone's agreement.
"Tadaa!!" Willow called out, stepping from her own screen, swaying her hips and holding up her arms in the air as a way of presenting herself. The bridesmaids' jaws dropped at the vision of sexy red dress and jacket combination. Willow took a few steps forward, swaying her hips.
"/This/ is /not/ fair," Dawn said, almost as if ready to cry with the unfairness of it all.
Willow smiled at all of them, and said, "Best men get to look good, hot, and sexy, bridesmaids will have to look horrible, that's the way it's always been."
"I can't believe Anya chose /this/ for us, and Xander /that/ for you," Faith muttered in shock, and then whined, "Why couldn't /I/ be best man?"
"Why didn't Xander stop Anya when he saw this!" Buffy whined equally, indicating the horrible shiny green dresses.
Tara's jaw was dropped for a very different reason. She took several steps forward, and slung her arm possessively around Willow's waist, and said softly, "Ooh, baby, what do you say to looking up a closet for a quick enjoying-ourselves?"
"Sorry, Tara, but the radioactive grape look, really turns me off," Willow answered way too sweetly.
"Willow Rosenberg, you're so going to get a spanking for that later," Tara told Willow with a horny growl.
"Tara!" Willow exclaimed in fright.
"Yeah," Buffy chimed in, "I'll help, I'll dump Anya and Xander next to her."
Faith grinned evilly, adding, "I think I can get my hands on a whip somewhere." Willow's worries were quickly abated, seeing as nobody took Tara's statement seriously.
"And me some table tennis paddles," Dawn completed the circle.
"Ok, guys, as much as the fantasies are fun, I think we need to focus on the wedding," Buffy said, and then pointed at the door. The others perked up, and gestured for Willow as best man to lead them on, which she did.
All of them arrived in Anya's dressing room a few moments later, and went over to her. Anya was finishing up putting on her wedding dress, and associated frills. Buffy, Willow, and Tara went to help her out. Anya's dress was beautiful, white, a bare back in the shape of a heart, and low cut, rounded cleavage. The dress part itself was short, halfway to her thighs, and across her torso there was a red-hued breast plate that fallowed the contours of her breasts and dress. It was not made of metal, but a durable, bullet-proof composite and plastic material, that looked awesome. Further she was wearing white stockings and white high heel pumps. Finally she wore a veil that reached just barely to the shoulders, so nobody would have to worry about stepping on it, or having to lift it up.
When Anya was done fussing, she turned around, showing bright red lips, and almost perfect makeup: sexy, and classy. "Well?" the ex-demon asked her friends.
"You look great, Anya," Dawn said sourly.
Anya had been taking the others in, and she said, "You guys look perfect. Best man, and bridesmaids, just perfect."
"Apart from Willow, we look horrible," Faith stated with some annoyance.
"You look perfect, don't sell yourself short," Anya told them all, and Faith seemed ready to tear out people's spines.
Buffy quickly diffused the situation, saying, "You look beautiful, Anya." She went forward and hugged the ex-demon, making sure not to crumple her dress. Anya was a little astonished at the hug. "I wish you and Xander all the luck in the world," Buffy said then breaking the hug. She thought to herself, half-surprised, *I mean it.*
"Yeah," Willow added, and quickly went to hug Anya as well. "All the luck, and blessings of the Earth," she said and then took a step back. "I hate to admit it, Anya, but you've come a long way. You're nothing like the blabbermouth woman caring only for money and sex like you were a few years ago - although there is still room for improvement."
Buffy nodded, "I haven't really noticed you blabbing on about sex at every opportunity and even when there's no opportunity lately either."
"Have you ever noticed that I did /not/ blab out Xander's secret?" Anya asked Buffy with a smile. The blonde slayer looked over to Willow, who returned the look, and then turned back to Anya. "You see," Anya started explaining with a smile. "I don't like secrets, never did, which became worse after my husband cheated on me and I cast a revenge spell that got D'Hoffryn's attention. Secrets among friends, and lovers is something I find almost intolerable, it's something Xander and me fought a lot about, whether he should finally spill his secret to you guys. When I couldn't tell Xander's fantastic secret, that I so wanted you to know for so many different reasons, I kind of felt the need to compensate. I may have gone overboard a little."
"A little?" Willow asked amazed, more about the confession than about 'little overboard'. Buffy was equally impressed. Anya looked somewhat uncomfortable. Tara gave Faith a quick look and moved her hand behind Willow's back. Faith grinned and did equally with Buffy, and they gave the rooted girls a slight nudge. Willow and Buffy snapped back online, stepped forward and then hugged Anya close in a three-way hug.
"You'll make Xander happy, I know it," Buffy said to a surprised Anya. The ex-demon quickly hugged back after that.
"Yeah, you've got my blessing, Anya, you had it before, but now I've said it," Willow muttered in the hug. Then they slowly broke apart.
"Exactly why did you call us here, Littica?" Vegeta half demanded at a side exit of the wedding chapel. Xander grinned and pointed to the other side of the exit, still invisible since the door was closed.
Around Vegeta were the other men, and one Namek, from Xander's birth dimension. They extended their senses, and Piccolo grumbled, "Demons?"
"Ugh, they're horrible," Gohan muttered shocked at the inky blackness, he could never get used to them.
"Why are they here?" Choazu asked, both suspicious and curious.
"We invited them," Xander said with a smirk. He turned around and looked at the stunned faces of his companions. "They are Anya's 'friends', 'family', 'colleagues' and 'employer' from the time she was still a vengeance demon. And I invited them here to /kill/ them. Wanna help me do the honors?"
Everyone's faces had lit up by now, and Vegeta chuckled evilly, "When there's vanquishing of enemies to be done, I'm there."
"Demons, filthy evil things, I'll help," Tien stated with a grim tone. The others nodded their ascend, and so Xander opened the door. They walked outside, wearing serious expressions filled with anticipation. They walked along a short path, garden on either side, and a group of demons stood at the end of the path.
"Well, Xander Littica," D'Hoffryn stated in great annoyance. The vengeance pimp stood in the middle of the thirty or so demons, "what took you so long? I've been waiting here ten minutes!"
"I was waiting till you were all here," Xander said smiling, which turned into a smirk. The others started smirking as well.
"You're here now. Let us in, I'd like to talk to Anya before this wedding starts, give her my blessing and such, perhaps I could be giving her away?" D'Hoffryn asked deceptively friendly.
"Nobody will be giving her away, certainly no demon, say goodbye," Xander stated and stretched out his hand, so did his friends. D'Hoffryn's eyes widen in surprise as very suddenly a energy ball formed at Xander's and then at the other's hands. Xander's ball was aimed directly at the old vengeance lord, and before the demon could react the ball of energy was fired and exploded on D'Hoffryn, reducing him to some flying intestines and a limb instantly. At almost the same time the others' energy balls found their marks and blew away some more demons. Immediately after the first volley the warriors of good fired more energy balls, rapidly after another, each landing on now panicked demons. Less then a minute later all the demons were dead, and blood and gore colored the street. Xander charged a low intensity beam and fired it at the mess, until it was all vaporized.
"Now that was fun," Vegeta said with a Saiyan battle smirk. "Killing your bride's family and friends - I must say, it has a nice ring to it, perhaps we should turn it into a new tradition."
Krillin chuckled himself, and said, "Yeah, in theory it sounds nice, Vegeta, except you /like/ your in-laws."
"I do not," Vegeta protested as everyone filed out.
"Really?" Krillin asked sneakily, "think of all the training you'd be missing when they babysit Trunks." Vegeta gave a growl of annoyance, since the ex-monk had a point. The others chuckled.
"Yeah," Yamcha said wistfully. "We'll be stuck with them. Perhaps I should find myself an ex-demon for a wife, then I can kill all the family and friends as well."
"An android with nothing but a twin brother who only hammers away in the woods would do as well," Tien supplied the ex-bandit with a grin.
"Very funny," Krillin said half annoyed, half amused. He folded his hands across his chest, and added, "Just so you know, anyone who makes a pass at my girlfriend will end up dead meat." Everyone laughed out loud as they entered the chapel again, and closed the door behind them.
Dawn and Buffy walked into the chapel area of the building. They watched as a lot of the guests were already seated, or taking a seat. The two of them walked over to the entrance, where the imposing Ed let people in, or kept them out, or pointed them to another entrance (but that didn't happen anymore). Those he let in, he pointed toward the wardrobe, where they could place their coats. Buffy tapped Ed on the shoulder, and said, "Thanks, Ed. You can join your wife, we can take over from here."
"No problem," the giant said, and went to do just that.
Buffy went to stand with the door, and let in one of Xander's neighbors. "That should be about the last one, huh?" Dawn asked looking into the chapel, looking around. "I think I see most if not all of Xander's neighbors, his friends and a few colleagues from work, a few of Anya's business associates, Angel and co, and of course everyone from the other dimension."
Buffy nodded slowly, "Uncle Rory, do you see him?"
Dawn looked around. Said uncle Rory had arrived yesterday late, somewhat intoxicated - although from Xander's tales nowhere near the intoxication level he could have been - and they found he was a pleasant guy to be around, intoxicated or not. Like Xander had said, the only one in his adoptive family who didn't turn into a shouting, violent loon whenever he had one glass of beer too many. "You don't think he's still at Xander's sleeping off his buzz, do you?" Dawn asked somewhat concerned she had to go get the guy.
"I see him," Buffy said pointing. Dawn peered along Buffy's finger, and noticed Buffy's superior slayer sight had indeed spotted the old coot.
Dawn frowned as she asked, "Is he trying to chat up Melissa?" A moment later Daniel, sitting on Melissa's other side got up, twisted around his girlfriend and grabbed Rory by the collar, and his mouth moved, his face angry.
"Yep," Buffy confirmed. A few moments later and a seeming apology from Uncle Rory Daniel sat back down, and Xander's uncle looked forward. "Speaking of old perverts," Buffy said, somewhat afraid. She and Dawn quickly found the true old pervert, a big smile on his face, ready to talk to one of Anya's very female business associates in a very becoming short-skirted business suit, showing some casual cleavage for the happy occasion. Before Roshi could talk though, his girlfriend Donna stuffed what seemed like a roll of socks into his mouth and forced him to sit still. "Phew," Buffy sighed with relief.
"One person missing," sounded, and the Slayer and her sister looked over to the entrance at Li.
"Li," Dawn said with a bright smile. She walked over and gave him a sweet kiss on his left cheek. "I was starting to think you'd be late."
"Japanese are never late," he answered her, with a perfectly straight face, perhaps a little too straight.
"It's your Caucasian side I was worried about," she returned with twinkles in her eyes. He gave her a quick kiss on her lips, mindful of the seemingly fuming big sister.
"I still can't believe you took him back," Buffy muttered with narrowed eyes.
"Tough," Dawn bit back. She turned back to Li, and said, "Let's go join Gohan." Li nodded enthusiastically and the two were off.
Buffy stayed with the entrance for another few minutes, and then decided to close the door, before going back to Anya and the dressing area. She gave a quick look to Willow and Tara who were standing at the front.
Xander and Vegeta found themselves in the kitchen of the wedding chapel, which could also be used for dinners, and a whole lot of other parties. One last conversation before the wedding began. At the moment nobody else was there, seeing as it was still too early to prepare any food for the parties. Only several trays of snacks that had been prepared the night before and could be passed around by a waiter stood prepared. Drinks, warm as well as refreshing, would be prepared somewhere else in the building, and so the two of them had the place to themselves for a few moments. Xander leant against the oven, arms folded casually over his chest, mounted into the counter, on top of which were gas burners. Vegeta was leaning against the large table in the middle.
"I spent quite some time with Anya yesterday, Littica, just observing, and occasionally talking," the king said with a slight smile. "I'm even more impressed now than I was the day before. You've picked some woman. She comes close to Bulma, and that's saying something . . . and she does it without having to yell at an annoying pitch that makes my ears hurt." Xander chuckled.
Suddenly he frowned at looked over at the entrance to the kitchen, and frowned. Vegeta had noticed the same thing, and asked, "I thought we got all of them."
"So did I, must've double counted one, or something," Xander replied with the frown still in place. A few moments later the door opened and an old man in a trench coat entered. His gray hair was swept back, and he walked somewhat bent over.
He took in the royally dressed Vegeta for a moment, and then looked further up. He recognized Xander, and said, "Xander, I need to talk to you, you cannot get married today!"
Xander looked at Vegeta, who looked oddly back, and Xander said, "Oh? Tell me, old man, why not?"
"You don't recognize me, do you?" the old man said, and looked hesitantly at Vegeta.
Xander smiled, and said, "Anything you want to say to me, you can say to him."
The old man halted a short while before replying, "Very well. I'm Xander Littica, I'm you." Xander's eyes were wide in surprise. He looked over to Vegeta who seemed ready to attack, and gave him a halting signal with his hand. The old man continued, not noticing the interchange, "I came from the future, to warn you."
"Really? You're /me/?" Xander asked incredulous.
"I can prove it," the old man said, and pulled out a pinkish, half see-through orb. He looked at Vegeta again for a moment. "Getting married today is a big mistake. It will be hell. I can show you the future, give you a glimpses of what is to come."
Xander's smirk opened, turning into an intrigued open-mouthed smile, and holding Vegeta back with a gesture again, he said, "I'd like to see that."
"Look at the orb," the old Xander said, and held the ball up. Xander looked at it, and it started glowing, energy shimmering inside. A beam of pinkish energy shot out, and landed on Xander's forehead. Vegeta decided to humor Xander, but was ready to intervene.
Xander in the mean time, got to experience hell. He was sitting on a chair in front of the tv, a half-empty beer bottle in one hand, zapping away with the other. Two kids ran into the room and out again, playing: one boy, one girl, with crooked, very large pointy ears. The boy teasing his sister about the ears. Xander called for Anya, and she appeared putting on a pink business suit, ready to go to work. They fought over Xander not working because he had a busted back, and that he shouldn't have helped Buffy, and that it mattered nothing, she was dead anyway.
The vision then shifted, years later, in a restaurant. The son and daughter sitting in a booth across from their parents, Xander and Anya. The son and Daughter were in their late teens, Anya had gotten gray, Xander still looked like his young self though - /he/ was in there, not his future self. Once again they fought, over Xander drinking too much wine, and the girls parentage.
Finally the vision shifted one more time, in a kitchen. Xander was standing, Anya was sitting at a table. Once again they fought, over their daughter's parentage, over not enough sex and why Anya had cheated. Anya wishing she had never married Xander, and told him he ruined her life. Xander was angry, very angry, he screamed at her to shut up, grabbed a frying pan, and smashed Anya's head in.
The visions ended and Xander looked up at the expectant looking old man. The corners of Xander's mouth quirked upward, just a tiny bit, and he said, "Now, you see, I've got a few questions, about a few troubled areas. First, if that was me, why would I need to grab a frying pan to hit Anya?" The old man looked oddly at him suddenly, what kind of question was that? "Second, if you're me, how come you have a demonic side? And worst of all, if you're me . . ." Xander's right hand suddenly lashed out. With his face twisted into anger, the Saiyan grabbed the man tightly by the throat and lifted him off the ground. He then finished, ". . . how come you're so /weak/?"
The old man looked down at Xander in both anger, and frustration. Before he could speak though, Vegeta said amused, "And if you're him, demon aside, how come your ki is nothing like his? You're not even of the same species."
The old man growled, and then transformed. He grew taller, his skin turned blue-grey, multiple horns came from his head; his demon self. "You, bastard!" the demon hissed out in anger. "You were supposed to . . ." The demon growled in anger and frustration. He threw a punch at Xander, which only hit chi. With a groan of pain the demon pulled his hand back.
"Who are you, and /what/ do you /want/?" Xander hissed out angrily.
The demon growled angrily, and said, "/I'm/ one of your 'sweet' fiancée's victims. She turned me into this in 1914. I was going to make you leave her at the alter, and ruin her life like she ruined mine!"
Xander nodded, and looked thoughtfully. "Ok, then we're going to see a few witches," Xander said, and started for the door out of the kitchen.
"I hate you, you bastard," the demon growled out, struggling futilely against Xander's superior grasp.
"Shut up," Xander said, Vegeta following him. "Or I'll decide to just kill you and be done with it."
The demon growled in frustration, and Vegeta said with a smirk, "Just shut up and feel yourself lucky. If you had tried this with me on /my/ wedding, you wouldn't have survived the first sentence you uttered to me."
Xander entered the chapel area, and made a come along gesture to Willow, who was entertaining the guests with floating objects. She put them back and gave Dawn a look. The teen nodded and quickly walked forward to take the redhead's place.
A few moments later Xander and Vegeta walked into Anya's dressing room. Buffy, Tara and Faith looked up as Xander dumped the demon in front of them. "You shouldn't see me in my dress before the wedding," Anya said looking at Xander and then at the demon. Willow entered right behind them.
"What's this?" Faith asked unsure.
"/That/ is one of Anya's victims," Xander said with an annoyed tone.
"One of my victims?" Anya asked dumbfounded.
"Chicago, 1914. You don't even remember me, do you bitch?" the demon hissed in anger, not daring to attack the ex-demon. "I remember you though. I was a philanderer, and one of those hussies called upon you. You turned me into this and locked me into another dimension, where I was tortured for fifty years before I managed to escape."
"Oh, you!" Anya said with a bright smile that she remembered. "Oh, my god, I'm so sorry." Anya looked up at Xander with pain in her eyes, and she said, "He didn't deserve what he got, he just sweet talked women, told them on beforehand he wanted nothing but a one night stand, she thought she could change him, he didn't lie, he didn't even exaggerate. I'm so sorry." Anya was looking down at the guy again, making the half-demon blink.
Xander looked from Tara to Willow, and he asked, "Do you think you two can break the spell, turn him human again?"
"What?" the demon muttered.
Tara answered thoughtfully, "Uh, I-I think so."
Willow added, "B-but not right now, we need a little research, ingredients and such, w-we could try tomorrow?"
"Like being an old man changes anything!" the demon hissed out angrily.
Anya observed, "You've hardly aged. The demon has a life span of almost a millennium. If they manage to turn you back, you miss only two or three years."
Xander bent down, his head right above the demon's, and he asked, "Are you going to behave? Or do I kill you?"
With a growl of frustration, the demon nodded, and said, "I'll behave, bastard."
Xander nodded satisfied, and turned to Faith, "Find him a seat will you? Then we can finally start."
"Ok," the dark-haired Slayer replied, and took the demon along.
Xander and Anya stood side by side in front of the aisle. On the other side stood Vegeta, in full royal ornament. Next to him stood the four bridesmaids, nervously, and Willow the best man. The music started, not the bridal march music, but a more robust sound. Xander and Anya then resolutely walked down the aisle, hand in hand. The public started and looked with smiling faces at the marrying couple. In about half a minute the two traversed the distance, and then to all the guests' shock, the bridesmaids walked forward, blocking the way, and Tara said with an ominous tone, "No further." The music disappeared. "This farce has gone on long enough, you won't get married." Their chi flames, gently, appeared around them and went in a battle stance.
"You want to get married," Dawn stated sternly. "You'll have to go through us first."
To the public's even greater shock, Xander's chi flame appeared, and he said, "Fine with me." He shot forward. Dawn attacked with a punch. Xander easily grabbed it, and flipped her to his right. With a kick of his right foot she was sent sailing through the air, until she crashed upside down against the wall, and dropped downward. Tara and Buffy attacked simultaneously. Buffy with a punch and Tara with a levitation spell. Xander threw Buffy in between and she was lifted off the floor instead, making swimming motions to try and move. Before she could power up enough to breach the spell, Xander kicked Buffy who flew backward with a shriek, tumbling end over end. She crashed into Tara and spun off toward Dawn. Tara lost her balance, and with a tiny energy blast and the blowing of air out through his mouth, Xander sent Tara skidding off, twisting on her own axis. Soon she crashed against the wall and drooped down.
"Ah, hell," Faith muttered and powered up further. Xander was meant to go through them, not humiliate them while doing it. She was really going to fight this, not fully of course, but she was determined to look good while being 'defeated'. She jumped forward and attacked Xander with a flurry of punches that he easily blocked. He sped up himself, made a few punches that didn't breach her defenses but /did/ force her back. Suddenly her foot caught on something, then her calves. She swung her arms around for balance and then went up and over backward. She looked down, and saw a strategically placed Anya on her hands and knees smiling evilly up at her. Before she could do anything else, Xander had jumped over his fiancée. With a spinning kick to Faith's head while he was still in the air, the dark Slayer was launched to Xander's right, where she soon after joined the other three bridesmaids. "Ow," she muttered in humiliation, as a painful shock went through her backside when she landed on it against the wall, and then the floor. She watched, along with the others - Dawn still dumbfounded upside down - how Xander gently pulled Anya up, dusted her off at knee-height, and turned to Vegeta.
"That was humiliating," Buffy muttered struggling to get up.
Dawn answered her softly, "Who's the one upside down?" She dipped back to her knees, upright once again.
"You didn't get tripped by a kneeling Anya," Faith returned slowly getting back up. She looked down to check if the green dress still hugged her breasts, and wasn't under them.
"I will never be a bridesmaid again. Mark my words, not for a Human wedding, certainly not for a Saiyan one," Tara added in annoyance and mortification as she got up. "Those two owe us /so/ big."
"Me too," Dawn replied and the other two nodded in agreement. The four of them walked to their assigned position next to a wickedly smiling Willow. They glared at her, and then gave a defeated bow, showing that indeed they would not try to stop the couple anymore.
The king spoke with a very officious voice, "By working together to fight off this threat to your union, even your very own friends and family, you have proven worthy to be wed." At those words even the final few who in the room who hadn't figured it out yet, widened their eyes in revelation and calmed down. Vegeta continued for another minute with several sentences of traditional Saiyan wedding speak, and then he said, "And now it's time for the couple to exchange some words to each other."
Anya went first. She unfolded a piece of paper, and started reading what she had written, "Xander Littica, I have no idea what I could possibly have done to get you as a reward, in this life, or any others. I was once a vengeance demon: an evil, bloodthirsty bitch, a dirty shrew, and I targeted /men/ of all people. Then you came along, a target really, of a scorned woman that I appeared to. But I lost my demonhood, and met up with you as a woman. In the past two and a half years, I've felt more joy, more love, more pleasure - more /orgasms/ - . . ." Some of the people laughed, others chuckled, Anya herself smiled broadly at Xander who smiled back. She continued, ". . . more alive than in the twelve hundred before. Through it I've learned more about myself, about right and wrong, and most importantly about love and friendship in these past few years then many people will in their entire lives. And I owe it all to you, a /man/ shockingly, a hero, and I can say with absolute certainty, I love you Xander Littica, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, come hell or high water . . ." There were several sniffs and whimpers from the crowd, including Willow which made the bridesmaids look at her. She shrugged at them, mouthing, 'I can't help it, it's so beautiful.'
Anya ignored the crying sounds and finished with another joke, smiling brightly, ". . . and that's in order of declining possibility." Most people laughed again, Xander as well, even Buffy couldn't keep the smile from appearing on her face.
Once the quick laughter had past, a brightly smiling Xander picked out his paper, and said, "I'm afraid I won't be as eloquent." People smiled, and then Xander said, "Anya Jenkins, you're mine - sometimes I still can't believe that, especially considering how we got started, although you would probably tell /that/ tale in detail, I will wisely keep my mouth shut. I couldn't do it justice if I tried, I can't do this justice either, so I will just say, 'I love you,' and can I still be yours after this pathetic attempt?" His whimpering tone at the last question had everyone in laughter - including laughter with a disapproving tone coming from Vegeta - and Anya nodded her head proudly, grinning widely.
The two then faced back to Vegeta, and the king started speaking again - everyone immediately shut up. "Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins, will you take Xander Littica as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for richer or for poor, and do you promise to love support and respect him for as long as you both shall live?"
"I do," Anya answered proudly, smiling.
Vegeta turned to Xander. "And you /Xander/ Littica . . ." Vegeta said, saying 'Xander' with distaste, but they had managed to make him promise he'd use Xander's full name, ". . . will you take Anya Jenkins as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for richer or for poor, and do you promise to love, support and respect her for as long as you both shall live?"
"I do," Xander answered, equally proud.
"Good, the rings," Vegeta spoke. Nothing happened. Xander and Anya turned to look expectantly at a smiling Willow, who had a few tears running from her eyes. "Rings?" Vegeta asked again, getting impatient.
Dawn, standing closed to Willow, elbowed Willow in her arm and hissed, "The rings!"
Willow jerked to wakefulness, and whipped her head around. She looked at Dawn for a moment, with a quick look of intense concentration, and then suddenly perked up. "Oh!" she said with a mortified squeak, "the rings, right." She quickly pulled open the left side of her tight jacket, and pulled out the box with her right hand. Embarrassed she opened the box, and handed Anya's ring to Xander. Xander took the golden ring with small diamonds along the top and Saiyan symbolism engraved in the gold and turned to Anya. He gently slid the ring on Anya's left ring finger. Then Willow picked out Xander's ring, took a few steps forward, and give it to Anya. Xander's ring had no diamonds, but had equally Saiyan symbolism engraved in the ring. The ex-demon then turned to Xander as Willow returned to her place, and she gently placed Xander's ring on his right ring finger.
"Good," Vegeta stated with conviction. "Then with the power as King of all Saiyans - and the power invested in me by this /ridiculous/ state called California - I pronounce you husband and wife. You may ravish the bride!"
The guests cheered in appreciation, as Xander lifted Anya's veil. He looked in her face, and long blonde hair for a moment. Then he wrapped his right arm around her waist, and lifted her off the floor, much to Anya's delight. He kissed her deeply and passionately for all to see, and she returned it equally. The bridesmaids yelled in encouragement, as Willow put the box away. Xander put Anya back down. They turned around and grasped hands. Thus their ringed hands - right for Xander, left for Anya - were clasped together. Xander raised their hands in triumph, under applause and congratulatory shouts from the guests. Xander and Anya put their hands back down, and thus walked back to the beginning of the aisle.
When they were finished, Dawn yelled out, "All right! Benches aside, music on, drinks out, _PARTY_!!"
"Dawn!" Buffy scolded her loudmouthed sister even as everyone took her advice, and the curtains in front of the stage moved aside, revealing the band for the day.
"What?" Dawn asked.
People started dancing at the music, waiting for their turn to congratulate the couple as a line quickly formed of more determined and closer guests. The first to congratulate Xander was Cordelia, who hugged him close, and said, "Congratulations, Xander." She then moved over to Anya and congratulated her too. Fred came next, she just shook hands. Wesley followed, and then a very determined Willow.
She hugged Xander very close. "Congratulations, Xander," she said, and reluctantly broke the hug. "You'll be very happy, I know it. Never thought you'd get married first." She moved on to Anya, and more people followed.
After an elaborate lunch, and a banquet for dinner, with mingling and partying in between, it had become night. Buffy was sitting at a table in a corner, looking glumly at the scene of dancing wedding guests. She wished she felt like dancing, but the guilt had been eating away at her. Of course, she had plenty enough dances and talks under her belt so nobody noticed, but she had mostly bluffed through them. To this point only one other had been as static as she was, worse even, and that was Piccolo. To her shock she watched as Tara of all people pulled the green giant up off of his chair and forced him to dance, much to comedic effect - with the Namek looking somewhat terrified. Buffy barely managed a weak smile.
She watched as Faith danced with Krillin, and worked her feminine charms on him with wicked teasing in mind, and it was obviously working. If Buffy bothered to think of the consequences, it would undoubtedly mean that 18 was going to have a busy night, and probably Wesley the same way. The happy married couple was dancing with each other, and happy they were in deed, in Buffy's depressed state at the moment sickeningly so. The king only really danced with his queen, although he was of course forced into at least one dance with the bride, and the groom with the queen. Bulma herself danced with a few more people, but mostly kept to her husband. 18 was dancing with the giant Ed at the moment, and Melissa with a charming Yamcha who - judging from her blushing state - knew how to flirt effectively with her. Her boyfriend was dancing with Willow, and they seemed to be getting along great, both smiling during their conversation, and the occasional laughter from either of them. Angel was dancing with Cordelia, and Fred with Choazu. The little guy was flying to be at head level with girl.
Michael had procured Chi-Chi for a dance. He had been spending quite some time with her today; talking a lot, managing to make her smile and laugh on occasion. He had been and was laying on the charm heavily. Sex with an attractive interdimensional woman was just too big of a rarity to pass up. Chi-Chi giggled at one particular raunchy joke. He moved his hand just a bit lower, just at the overlap area of the small of her back and her ass. She didn't protest, and protested even less when he pulled her close enough so her breasts were pushed quite nicely against his chest. Her dress covered them up nicely, leaving the skin above her breasts bare, but he could now judge them by the feel, and he judged them to be very ample.
Chi-Chi loved the attention of the man. He was charming, funny, intelligent, very, very forward without reducing to groping like the old pervert. He was everything Goku hadn't been, and was very taken with him, in fact she was downright aroused. There was one thing Goku and Michael had in common though: irresponsibility, wanting to be free. Michael with women, Goku with martial arts. She looked up into the man's smouldering greenish grey eyes, and felt herself go weak.
"I feel very attracted to you, to the point of feeling like we have a connection," Michael whispered with a disarming smile, "My apartment is only a few blocks away - how about we sneak out for half an hour or an hour?"
"I shouldn't," Chi-Chi whispered back.
Michael's smile widened, saying, "I go first, you follow me out a few minutes later, I'll wait for you right outside, nobody will ever notice."
"I have two sons," Chi-Chi weakly protested, still captivated by his eyes. Oh, did she want to give in.
"Does that mean you're their slave who will never be allowed to set a foot outside the door without taking one or both of them with you? Must you be a nun?" Michael asked, and she averted her eyes a little. Michael dipped forward and fluttered a kiss onto her throat, Chi-Chi gasped softly. "Are you not allowed to have a life on your own? No fun?" he whispered. His mouth was right above Chi-Chi's ear. Hearing his voice, and feeling his sexy breath against her ear, made her ready to feel her knees buckle.
"My husband . . ." Chi-Chi defended feebly.
" . . . is dead," Michael finished for her gently. "I distinctly heard 'as long as you both live' in the ceremony, didn't your wedding vows contain something similar?" Chi-Chi nodded timidly. "That means you are free," Michael went onward. "Enjoying your femininity now, or searching for a new partner, does not diminish your love for your first husband, or the love for your sons, Chi-Chi - it simply shows you are still alive. So, what do you say?"
Damn, he was right. He was so nice and sexy, and Goku /was/ dead. And she /did/ want to continue her life, taking care of her children would be part of that, but she was in no mood spend the rest of her life doing nothing /but/ taking care of her children. Especially now that this handsome man was stirring up emotions she hadn't suspected to ever feel again. She nodded and said, "Ok." After giving her a quick kiss, the two snuck off one by one.
On the other side of the ballroom, Li, Gohan, and Dawn were dancing across from each other in a triangular pattern. "This was a great wedding," Li said with a grin to his girlfriend and new friend. "Good food too."
Gohan nodded enthusiastically in agreement at that statement. "Give you two any ideas?" Gohan asked innocently.
"No! No marriage for us for a long time!" Dawn stated almost panicky. Li looked hurt, puppy dog hurt.
"You are so cruel, Dawn," Gohan said sadly with sympathy.
"Yeah, I was just getting psyched," Li whimpered.
"But, but . . ." Dawn said, whipping her head from one guy to the other. Then their faces suddenly smiled. Dawn's nervousness quickly disappeared. She gave a half sigh, half growl. "You're just messing with me. Fine, be that way."
In the middle of the room, Xander and Anya were dancing, looking around the room, people celebrating and talking to each other from all their friends and family circles, and Ed's wife seemed quite capable of keeping Roshi in check, even when his girlfriend was off dancing with someone else. "What are you thinking?" Xander asked Anya with a smile.
Anya looked up, and said, "Perfect, just perfect." Anya's smile widened further, and so did Xander's. He dipped down and kissed her passionately.
Late the next day, in the Summers' backyard the Dragonball crowd was ready to leave. The Angel Team was busy packing their bags, and had already said their goodbyes. Faith had done so especially to Yamcha and Vegeta. She had enjoyed the former's company, and surprisingly, despite that the conversations had been heated arguments about what makes a warrior and other stuff, which they disagreed heavily on she felt a kinship - as reformed people go - and a friendship forming with the latter. From this side of the dimensional barrier the same people were present who had greeted the ones from Xander's birth dimension, minus the workers.
Once half the goodbyes had been said, Krillin and 18 stepped forward, holding hands. "We have an announcement to make," Krillin stated with a wide smile.
18 continued, "Yes, the wedding got to us, we got engaged." Congratulations were rapidly extended, until Krillin calmed everyone down so they could continue.
"Ok, so although we haven't yet set a date, you here are all invited to the wedding," Krillin added with a smile.
"We'll be there, pal, guaranteed," Xander offered with a grin. Anya confirmed it, and then the congratulations, and goodbyes continued. A short while later, once they had all entered the interdimensional ship, it disappeared into the ether.