Buffy and Dawn were on patrol. Currently they moved through the streets of Sunnydale, on their way to the next cemetery. "So, what has you so glum lately?" Dawn asked. Buffy stayed silent. "Buffy?"
"What?" her sister answered.
Dawn sighed, and said, "You know, beautiful fantastic wedding a week ago? Xander and Anya looking for houses now? They've booked their honeymoon? Happy occasion, happy times in Sunnydale? I saw the A+ on the German midterm you brought back? You should be happy, instead all you've been doing is moping. I mean, you've been moping before the wedding, but now it's like chronic disease. So what gives?"
Buffy looked down, and said nothing yet, as they walked onward. Finally she couldn't hold it anymore, and spilled her secret. "When we put Spike back in his cave, Xander found out I've been having sex with him, Harmony and Maxine, till he threw us all out. He's disgusted with me."
They were standing across from each other, and Dawn's mouth was slightly open. She stood there, processing the information bit by little bit. Suddenly she threw a right cross, while she yelled out, "BITCH!" Buffy didn't defend herself, she was even a little surprised at the ferociousness of Dawn's action. Buffy found herself flung off her feet and crashed against the wall of the building that they were standing in front of. Then she sank to the floor. Buffy looked up at her angry sister, who told her, "You fuck soulless animated corpses, sickening evil things, and you have the guts to criticize me and Li!?"
"You're right, I'm sorry," Buffy whimpered pitifully.
"Ooh!" Dawn exclaimed pacing back and forth, and surprising herself, she calmed down. Still angry though, she asked, "Why?"
Buffy whimpered, shaking her head as she slowly got up, "I don't know, I don't know. I can't remember my reasons, I probably didn't really have any. I wasn't needed by you all, you didn't like me . . ."
"And Spike likes to be in your pants?" Dawn spat out with disgust. "Why couldn't you just pick up guys in a bar and have gangbangs like normal, slut sisters? Or be a bit more modest and just have fun with one at a time? Hell, I have a few guys in my class who would have loved to lose their virginity to a blonde college girl, I could have set you up with them!" Buffy turned away in shame. "AARGH!" Dawn yelled out, and then turned and walked toward the cemetery. "Come on, Buffy, let's finish the damn patrol and go home, so I can go sit in my room and . . . and . . . and fucking meditate on it!"
Buffy walked next to her younger sister. "You're not mad at me?" Buffy asked hopefully.
"Of course I'm mad, you . . ." Dawn groaned out in frustration.
"What I mean is, you might forgive me one day?" Buffy asked.
"You're my goddamned sister, they only family I've got close by, I love you, of course I'll forgive you some day, just nowhere soon," Dawn bit at her, her anger slowly subsiding, reducing to a violent simmering.
"Do you- do you think the others can?" Buffy asked, guilt dripping from every syllable.
"Ask them!" Dawn told her angrily. The two walked onward, one in anger, one filled with guilt, and thus neither payed much attention to anything. Finally the two reached the cemetery that was their destination, and walked inside. After several steps, they stopped.
A dark-haired guy in a long brown duster, a brown hat, and black boots was fighting four vampires. One vampire growled as it attacked, but the guy kicked it away from him with a backward roundhouse kick. He twisted onward, just to just the right position to grab an onrushing vamp's punch, and use its momentum to throw it over his shoulder. The vampire landed with a groan, and the man rapidly staked it, making it turn to dust. One vampire decided to run away in the opposite direction of Buffy and Dawn. Smart, but not smart enough. The man turned to it, and put out the palm of his hand. With obvious intense concentration he charged a small ball of energy in his hand and fired it, much to Buffy's and Dawn's surprise. The aim was true and the energy blast entered the vampire's heart through the back. The vampire jerked and screamed in pain just before it turned to dust. The two remaining vampires decided to tag team the guy, and charged from either end. Buffy and Dawn were about to call a warning, when he turned toward them, and pulled something small that seemed wooden from his inner pocket. Suddenly it expanded to almost two meters, and the guy easily swivelled the long stick in his hands, which proved to be a wooden stick with points on either end. The guy twisted the stick horizontally in front of him, and the vampires impaled themselves on either end before turning to dust. The guy swivelled the stick from left to right hand and back for a few more seconds before placing it on the ground. He leveled his gaze on Buffy and Dawn, and said, "Hey, Buff, been a long time."
"Pike!?" Buffy exclaimed in shock, when she could finally see his face properly.
He grinned, took off his hat, and gave her an over exaggerated bow. "At your service milady," he said. He straightened back up and closed the distance between them. "And who is this lovely lady," Pike asked with a grin, taking in Dawn's physique.
"Uh, this is my sister Dawn," Buffy muttered still not over her surprise.
"You have a sister?" he asked with a frown.
Buffy blushed and said, "Yeah, I guess you never met her, and I suppose I haven't mentioned her either." Dawn gave a growl, her observation of the proceedings quickly wearing thin and the anger at Buffy's actions returning quickly, not to mention irritated at not even being mentioned..
"Well, we did meet at times when . . ." Pike took in Dawn and estimated her age, ". . . nine-year-olds aren't meant to be awake, and vampire slaying doesn't really lend itself for conversations about family. And you have grown very nicely, haven't you?"
"I've got a boyfriend," Dawn told the guy who was giving her 'appreciative' looks.
"Dang it," Pike said, and then turned his gaze to Buffy, smiling. Buffy glared at him, if he thought she'd take him back right after he hit on her sister he had another thing coming.
A short while later they were at Buffy's place. Tara, Willow, Xander and Anya were there as well. They had been busy setting up Anya's victim with a new identity so he could live out the rest of his life. Once that had been finished, he had left to go make his fortune somewhere else. After that Xander and Anya had shown some potential houses they had printed out, and the two of them had been discussing them with Tara and Willow, and whether or not they could remember any houses for sale they could have missed. Thus, Buffy introduced Pike to her friends. The man sat down comfortably in one of the couches, and Xander narrowed his eyes at him, arms folded across his chest.
"So, you're the illustrious Pike?" Willow asked in wonderment. Xander snorted at Willow's description. At the same time Dawn sat down on a chair, fuming over Pike, and her sister doing the nasty with his sound-alike. Further Anya placed herself across from the man in the second couch, and Tara sat down next to her.
"I see my reputation precedes me," Pike spoke with a grin, as he casually tossed his hat, and it landed smoothly on the clothing peg. At the same time, Willow sat down next to Tara, and Xander placed himself on the armrest next to Anya, arms still folded across his chest.
"I'll go get refreshments!" Buffy said excitedly. She knew what everyone else would want, but not Pike so she looked questioningly at him.
"Orange juice," her first love answered with a smile. Buffy nodded, and sped off toward the kitchen. She was nervous as hell, and very curious about why he suddenly was in Sunnydale, and one hell of a chi-fighter. On the way over, she hadn't gotten up the nerve to ask, so they had just been chatting about nothing at all.
Pike looked over at the two witches, smiling, and said, "You two must be Willow and Tara." Everyone looked stunned for a few moments, and Pike added, "Oz says, 'Hi.'" Now everyone looked even more stunned.
Finally Willow asked, "You know Oz?"
Pike grinned for a moment, and watched as Buffy returned with a tray of drinks. As she started passing them around, he said, "Yeah, came across him in Tibet. He's one cool dude, perhaps even a little /too/ cool. So we meet, he's there learning how to control his wolf even more. We talk, since we're the only Americans there, we found out things about each other, and I tell him about this amazing, blonde girl I knew, this vampire slayer . . . and he says, 'Buffy Summers.' You can imagine my surprise."
Buffy finished putting the drinks in front of everyone and sat down next to Pike, smiling at him. Willow asked, "So, Oz, how is he?"
"Fantastic," Pike answered her with a smile. "He's got himself much more under control. He can change at will, is in control of his wolf form, and I've even seen him in a half wolf, half man form, which is a form you really don't want to go up against. He's learning more understanding of himself through control of his life force at the moment, and even if he hadn't learned control, he's got a girlfriend he's very much in love with, so you don't have to worry about him going wolf on you ever again."
"What's she like?" Tara asked intrigued.
Pike shook his head with a smile, and answered, "A beautiful, Asian, love goddess - not literally a goddess. Really annoying that all the good ones are taken. You must be Xander Harris, and . . ."
"Littica!" Xander immediately interrupted. "Xander Littica, I changed my name."
"Ok . . . and ooh, I don't think he's mentioned you, honey," Pike said, his gaze landing on Anya.
Xander glared at Pike as he answered for her, "Anya /Littica/, she's my /wife/."
Pike's expression changed drastically, from appreciation of the female form, to a guy having a hundred guys shooting machine guns at him. Pike gave a weak, hopefully disarming laugh, and groaning said, "I should have known. Allow me to take my foot out of my mouth, and cut it off so I can't put it there again?"
"Speaking of Oz," Anya said, smiling at the exchange, actually hearing Xander say that she was his wife protecting her honor warmed her insides. "We tried to find an address to send him an invitation to the wedding we had last week, but we couldn't find him."
"I'll write down his address for you later, and if I meet him again, I'll tell him you expect a visit . . . Speaking of missing persons, where's your mother, Buffy?" Pike asked with a bright smile. Pike looked around the silent room, seeing their downed reactions, and he slowly realized he made another goof.
"My mother died, Pike, a year ago," Buffy answered him subdued.
"Oh," Pike said, shocked, and automatically said, "I met her only once, after Buffy burned down the gym. I liked her, I think she liked me too, although she told me in no uncertain terms I was bad for Buffy and I should take a hike and never come back."
Everyone looked pained for a few more minutes, but Buffy didn't feel like staying in that particular doom and gloom mode, especially with at least one other doom and gloom was already playing her like a piano. So she asked, "So where have you been all this time? And where did you learn to fire energy balls?"
Pike smiled painfully at the memory, and explained, "After you broke up with me, I took your mother's advice. I roamed America, then outside of it, eventually I found my way to Asia, and Tibet in particular. Wherever I went, I tried to pick up stuff that allowed me to kill vampires quicker. In Tibet I was taken under the wing of a teacher from an ancient organization, a martial arts teacher. They considered me good enough to teach, one of the things they do is tap into their life energy, their chi. And they taught me too, I could teach you . . ."
"That won't be necessary," Dawn told him with a smirk, and put out enough of her energy to start to glow. With simple ease she charged to balls of life force, one above either hand, and grinned at him.
"Whoa!" Pike exclaimed. He had seen some of his teachers show much more power than he had, but even what they pulled off was nowhere near the amount, or the ease with which the little sister of his ex wielded it ow. Dawn pulled her power back in, smiling. Pike turned around, and said, "I should have known you would figure it out by yourself."
"She didn't," Anya supplied helpfully.
Then Xander added the double whammy, "I taught them all."
Pike looked over from the grim face Xander and back to Buffy, who gave a shrug. "Why do I feel like I'm digging my own grave here?" Pike asked nervously.
"Just go on, they're all bark and no bite," Willow told him enthusiastically. "You were at an ancient organization? What kind?"
Pike took a deep breath, and said, "The Hunters, and they recruited me, I /am/ a hunter now."
"Hunters?" Tara asked confused.
Pike grinned and with the tone of a well rehearsed verse explained, "Once, ages ago, the Slayer walked alone. Then at a time unknown, millennia ago, a Slayer took a companion, a male with her. Upon her death, she asked him to find the one that would succeed her, and teach her everything he knew. He didn't just teach her successor, but also his own, multiple ones. Over time they grew into an organization - nothing like what an organization is today, the distances and everything were far to great. But, whenever a trained companion or someone who knew of them found an active Slayer, that Slayer would get a companion. This companion would be her confidant, brother in arms, father, caretaker, anchor to the world of the living, general, and often lover. The problem with Slayers they found out rather quickly, was her predator nature, she too often went with kicking and punching and killing without thinking things through; her companion would also see to drilling her to think first and act later if possible.
"Now for several thousand years, this went ok, until some number of Millennia ago, things changed, something that put the fear of gods in people," Pike explained with conviction. "There was a split, one side wanted to control the Slayers, use them as tools, bind and chain them forever, so as to make sure that what happened would never happen again - these ate what later would become the Watchers. Then there's us. We believe that Slayers were meant to be free, connected with the world, given the best training, and companionship, with friends and family preferably. We hunt demons ourselves, we fight them, and kill them. We fight alongside the Slayer, not just look in books and then tell them to go fetch, we're the Hunters. Like the Watchers we too seek out potential slayers and train them, but as you can see from the descriptions the Watchers are far more ruthless, and uncaring. We couldn't compete properly with them unless we became just as ruthless, and so they were able to get the upper hand. For every Slayer we have, they have a hundred."
"Do you know what happened? What caused the split?" Willow asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.
Pike shook his head. "About twenty three hundred years ago the Watchers tried to wipe out the Hunters. They almost succeeded, forcing the Hunters back to a small handful of Asian territories where they had such a home field advantage, and still have to this day, that it was impossible. They did however destroy and kill an enormous amount of information, books, and those who knew it, or had them. That information sadly is one of the many things that were lost."
People sat amazed, digesting that information. "So the Hunters knew chi?" Dawn asked remembering the guy who came to help them against the asteroid.
"Not exactly," Pike answered her, and explained. "They knew chi, but very rudimentary. And they were learning me all these nice slow movements, and gentleness, and calming yourself and such, and I just couldn't learn properly. My teacher accused me of not having myself under control enough, not being calm enough for the umpteenth time and it finally got to me. I let my anger out, I raged like hell, and since I was busy with the chi exercise - boom! I felt my power rise like never before, I started glowing some, and even caused electric disturbances to charge between my hands . . . once I did that, the others quickly figured out why I had suddenly surpassed everything they could do, and applied it themselves, making them instantly stronger than me again." Pike sighed wistfully at that.
Xander nodded, saying, "The balance of chaos, not the balance of tranquility. There's no energy spikes and surges at calm sea, there are when there are thirty-meter-tall waves."
"So why are you here now?" Buffy asked of her erstwhile boyfriend.
Pike smiled broadly, and explained, "There's been a guy in LA, he's been making inquiries about the Hunters via, via. Claims he's a former Watcher who has a Slayer under his wing. The Hunters decided to send someone to investigate and make contact if he's legit, they decided to send the one most familiar with the field of engagement, which is me seeing I was born here in America, and about the only of the Hunters who's been here at all. Oz had told me where you lived, so I decided to check upon my favorite Slayer during a short detour."
"Wesley Wyndam-Price," Xander said with a smile.
"You know him?" Pike exclaimed in wonderment.
Xander smirked, and said, "He's my daughter's boyfriend."
Pike's face was priceless, and everyone grinned at him. Anya explained, smiling, "Legally appointed daughter - which is the Slayer, Faith Williams." At Pike's even more dumbfounded face, Anya frowned at a thought, and asked, "Does our marriage make me her mother?" Everyone laughed softly at Pike's slack-jawed look.
"So I take it they're on the up and up?" Pike asked, really unnecessarily.
"Yep," Dawn answered with a grin. "And she's even better at this chi stuff than anyone else here, except for Xander that is."
"Damn," Pike muttered. "Just when I thought, I had something to teach an actual Slayer."
Later Buffy and Pike were sitting outside in the garden, the outside lamp was on. Buffy looked down at the ground, swinging her feet. She asked, "So, I guess you'll be moving on to LA tomorrow or so, hmm?"
"Yep," Pike replied. "So how are you these days?"
Buffy looked further down. "I've got friends, and family, a nice full house, enough money to pay off the mortgage and tuition . . . I guess I don't have anything to complain about, a lot of people have it a whole lot worse," Buffy answered him.
"But?" Pike questioned, hearing the word with a giant exclamation point in Buffy's tone.
"But . . ." Buffy started, hesitating, ". . . but I don't feel so good, I feel like everything just passes me by, I feel . . . Pike, I'm not the nice, sweet, innocent girl from back then."
Pike chuckled, making Buffy frown. "Buffy, I don't think you ever were 'nice, sweet, and innocent', but I know what you mean. You've been fighting for seven years, you've grown in a beautiful, young woman; you weren't meant to be the same girl I met back then," Pike reassured her. Buffy stayed silent. "Hey, Buffy, you're my hero. You saved my life several times over."
Buffy snorted bitterly, and said, "Yeah, whoopee, the guy inside the house once told that to me, 'you're my hero'. He was lying through his teeth at the time, just to perk me up, and even if he wasn't lying, he sure as hell doesn't consider me his hero now. He doesn't like- hell, he's disgusted by me."
Pike smiled disarmingly at her, and said, "There's nothing on this planet that could make me think otherwise."
"You think so?" Buffy asked bitterly. "I've been sleeping with vampires." Pike twisted his head around and looked stricken at her. Buffy gave a bitter chuckle, and told him, "Yep, that's me, Buffy the Vampire Layer. Now the first one was cursed with a soul, he's a good guy, he fights for the side of good. His name is Angel, you'll meet him, he's in LA as well. I got to know him /before/ he knew it was a vampire, I'm still fond of him, so he's not some bad evil thing I did, but . . ." Buffy chuckled at herself again, "The ones I've done in the past few months, one evil bastard who's only with us to get strong enough to beat us all, and his girlfriend one airhead skank of a vampiress, now those were."
"Why?" Pike asked shocked.
"I don't know, whatever reason must have been a really stupid one," Buffy answered him with pain, remembering the same explanation she gave Dawn earlier. "My best friend was psychotic at the time, I just had a disturbing visit from my ex military, demon-hunting boyfriend who cheated on me with vampires, and he brought a brand-new, military, demon-hunting wife, and everything was just . . . so somewhere along the line I got the sick idea that a vampire sex-slave might bring me some release . . ." Buffy started sobbing, and Pike slung his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close and held, much to Buffy's surprise. She finished, "Dawn knows, she hates me, Xander does, he hates me, it's only a matter of time before the others know and then they'll hate me."
"Are they your friends?" Pike whispered, and Buffy nodded. "If they are, then like me, they won't stop loving you, and they won't hate you. I wasn't here, so I won't judge, they might be pissed, and angry, and perhaps even disgusted at you, Buffy, but they won't stop loving you, they'll stay your friends, and they'll help you out. Perhaps not immediately, they might need some time to cool off, but they will . . . or that friend of yours that was psychotic wouldn't be here now, Willow?" Buffy broke down, crying, and nodded her head. "You'll be fine, just confess to everyone."
"You think I should?" Buffy asked, and Pike nodded.
Slowly Buffy got up and walked into the house, gesturing for Pike to stay. Once back in the living room Buffy found her friends. "Uhm, guys?" Buffy whispered barely audible. Everyone looked at her, Willow and Tara turning around fully in the couch. Buffy shook with nervousness. "Dawn and Xander already know: in the past few months, I've been having sex with Spike," Buffy confessed, feeling relieved the secret was finally out, and dreading the answers at the same time.
Xander and Dawn just turned away, already knowing. Anya, Tara and Willow though looked at her with dropped jaws, and shocked expressions. Anya looked away, and then Willow asked, "A-are you in love with him?"
"No! Ew, yuck!" Buffy exclaimed, startling some of the others. "In love with Spike!? I just fucked him, ok? Used him as a sex toy. In love with Spike." Buffy shuddered at the concept.
"W-well, that's a p-plus," Tara replied, her stutter returning at the shock of that revelation. "W-will you stop?"
"I've already stopped," Buffy answered and then looked down in shame. "Spike stopped it, he didn't want to anymore."
"If he said, 'let's fuck like bunnies again,' would you?" Anya questioned, and then suddenly whipped her head toward Xander, and said, "I just said 'bunnies', and I'm not freaking out!" The married couple smiled at each other.
"No, I wouldn't," Buffy answered quickly. "Never again."
"B-buffy," Willow said, pulling the conversion to her. "I can't say I'm exactly thrilled with you right at the moment, but Tara did some things to endanger us, Xander did some things to endanger us, I outright tried to kill you all, and we all got forgiven, and have been allowed to better ourselves, so, despite the whole 'ick', and disgust factor, you're forgiven, by me at least." Buffy's face lit up with some relief, she wasn't exactly there yet.
"I forgive you too," Tara added, making Buffy feel elation.
"I've been a demon, so me too," Anya added with a sad smile. Anya then looked at Xander's face.
He sighed, and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're forgiven, just don't expect me to be all nice and sweet about it, or that I'll stop being disgusted at you for the next weeks to come." Xander made a quick gesture to indicate a quick turn around. Buffy nodded, relieved but pained.
Everyone looked at Dawn. The younger Summers face was filled with anger directed at Buffy. "Fuck no," she told a Buffy who immediately caved in at the vehemence. "Fucking Spike and then telling me Li is this, and that and I'm stupid for being with him. You've got a long way to go before you get my forgiveness." Buffy looked disappointed, but nodded in acceptance.
"B-buff?" Willow drew her friend's attention. "W-why did you do it?"
"I don't know, lots of different reasons I guess," Buffy chocked out looking down in shame. "Everything just got too much, we were down each other's throats, and . . ." Buffy shrugged.
"Well, ok, I was evil," Willow muttered. "So I was out, but everyone else . . . Will you please promise to come to us for help when you feel like that again, or even half of what you felt? Please?"
Buffy nodded, "I promise." Then Buffy moved further and hugged Willow across the back of the couch.
A few moments later, Pike arrived back in the house, and he said with a grin, "Nobody came running out huffing with anger, so I figured everything's alright?" Buffy looked back at him, smiling at him for the first time for real for a very long time, and nodded.
Two days later, after Pike had left for LA to go and talk with Wesley, Faith and the others, Xander and Anya were looking for houses. The realtor led them to a house surrounded by green, and trees, much like the Summers house. It was only two streets away from Buffy's place as well. There was a hedge surrounding the garden, with a small wooden doorway in it slightly off to the left. A path lead diagonally right to the front door. The door was dark green, and had four small windows in it. They were looking at the front, the narrow side of the house. Its long side went back. A nice stretch of grass was to the left of the house, leading to the back garden. From this side an apple tree could be seen in the back garden. To the right of the house was a very nice garage, the way to it covered by trees. Further to the right started the next house, a red car in the driveway. The house was the mirror image of the one the realtor led them into. Once inside they looked around with wonder. The tiles of the hallway were a light brown, the place did not have furniture. To the right were two doorways, after which started stairs upward. Under the stairs was open. The second doorway led to a toilet, the first to a room, in the back of the room was a door that led to the garage, which was L-shaped to allow for storing stuff. In the hallway to the left was another door, which led to the living room, which had a hearth in the middle with a chimney. Wide windows had been in this one as well as the other room. Xander and Anya smiled and were led to the back of the living room, which ran all the way to the back of the house. A door to the right led to the kitchen. In the kitchen there were three doors to the right. One led to a walk in closet, cool enough to keep lots of edibles in. The second door led back to the hall, and the third led to a spacious basement. There was a counter, with an oven and microwave and everything else built in which could be changed of course as the realtor told them. She then led them to the backyard, showing the apple tree, a cherry tree, and a prune tree. The hedge went around the entire property. Further there was a small pond inside a small plant garden. There was some nice pavement and further grass. Perfect for kids playing, and sitting around in the summer, with enough shade if necessary.
"Wow," Anya said, looking at the very nice garden.
"Yep," Xander answered her.
"And it's close to Buffy's too," Anya commented.
Xander nodded with a smile. "Yep, of the three we've seen so far, it's definitely the best till now. It needs some more isolation here and there for a proper air conditioning system, I've seen some faulty wiring, but till now, it's pretty nice."
"The living room needs to be changed though, I hate the coloring," Anya added with a gleam in her eye.
"Do I still have to show you the upstairs, or shall we just sign the contract now?" the realtor asked them with a sly grin.
"Show us the upstairs," Xander told her with an equal grin.
She nodded, and led the two back inside the house, asking, "Are you experienced with houses?"
"I build them," Xander answered with a smile, his arm around Anya. "I'm a foremen, or at least I will be again once I finish my Ph. Ds next year."
"Interesting, what in?" the realtor asked as they walked into the hallway.
"Micro-biology - genetics - and physics," Xander answered with a grin.
"And you're a foreman by day?" she asked somewhat surprised as they turned and walked up the stairs. Xander shrugged, Anya grinned proudly. "You know, you're right though, of the five you'll be seeing, this is definitely the best one, and the most beautiful."
"Also the one that gets you the biggest commission, I'll bet," Anya said with a grin as they reached the top of the stairs. The realtor looked at her with a smile. "I sell things too," Anya added, and the realtor shrugged.
At the same time, in the center of town, after school, Buffy was taking Dawn on a shopping trip into Sunnydale, to try and make up. The two of them walked into the mall, seeing people everywhere. Dawn had her hands folded across her chest.
"This won't work you know," Dawn told Buffy with a grim tone. "I won't be bribed into liking you."
Buffy held back a scathing remark, and said, "Dawn, I'm not here to bribe you. I'm going to show you I'm bettering myself. And it won't stop with this, it'll be in general, ok? This is just one thing in a step of many that will show you I'm not a villain-fucking skank anymore, and I won't ignore you either. This is sister-bonding time."
"You'll have to do a lot of bonding before I bond with you. You could try tying yourself up, and letting me beat you up, that would help," Dawn told her sister with irritation.
Buffy forced herself to keep smiling, and said, "Perhaps I'll do that, but I'll try some less drastic measures first." Dawn snorted at that. "All right," Buffy continued as the two walked onward. "What do you want to go buy first? Shoes? Computer games? Name it, we go check it out."
Dawn blew air through her nose, and then suggested, "How about DVDs? Then we can all go watch it together later." It was a rather pointed comment, that it wasn't just Buffy and Dawn who'd be watching a movie.
"Ok," Buffy said, not letting Dawn's barbs get to her. "That could be fun." Buffy and Dawn then angled toward the movie and music shop. "You know . . ." That's how far Buffy came when suddenly there were hissing sounds coming from everywhere. "Huh?" Buffy muttered as she and Dawn looked around. At least fifty hissing canisters producing yellow smoke came flying through the air, covering the entire mall. Clangs followed as they dropped onto the floor, and bounced onward. A few of these canisters surrounded Buffy and Dawn as well. Almost instantly they started coughing when the gas entered their noses. "Shirt for nose," Buffy told Dawn rapidly, coughing at the same time. They turned around, coughing, their shirts didn't offer that much protection. They started generating their chi to get out, but they felt their legs buckle beneath them. A few moments later they were lying on the ground, struggling, trying to crawl, along with everyone else in the mall. But their arms wouldn't react either. Several moments later the two lay still, unable to move, unable to speak. Something instinctual kept their lungs breathing in and out, they managed to move their mouth slowly like a fish on dry water, sounding like a wailing seal instead of speech, and they could blink their eyelids, but that was it.
A few moments later four men wearing gas masks appeared, and one said, "Get the blonde." Two others went to Buffy and went to pick her up.
Inside Buffy's mind, she screamed, *NO!! NOO!! LET ME GO! AND DON'T HURT DAWN OR YOU WILL PAY!!!* But what came out of her mouth was a low, "Mwa, mwa."
Dawn watched Buffy being hoisted on top of one man's shoulder and she mentally screamed, *LET HER GO! LET HER GO, YOU BASTARDS!!* Her eyes filled with more panic when her mouth produced no better sound than Buffy's. Dawn felt tears coming from her eyes, fearing for her sister. She couldn't move though, and terror gripped her more and more, as she casually saw the men turn around and walk away. Dawn struggled for all she was worth, but she didn't even manage a wiggle.
The men walked away from Dawn, and toward the exit, speeding into a jog. "Shit," the guy carrying a panicking Buffy said, "why can't we just kill her and be done with it."
"Because, you fool," the leader bit at him, as they reached the exit, "if she's without a shadow of a doubt dead, they'll come looking for us directly, it won't take them long to figure out who might want her dead. But if they're filled with hope she might still be alive, they'll waste time and effort locating /her/, keeping them disoriented allowing us to prepare to attack the other ones. Didn't you pay attention?"
"Yeah, yeah," the man carrying Buffy grunted, while Buffy's eyes widened and tears started to flow. *Kill me?* she thought in horror. *NO! I WANT TO LIVE! SOMEBODY HELP ME! HEEELLLP!* Buffy then heard a van's sliding door open a short distance away.
"Ready to do the masking spell for her?" the leader questioned as Buffy heard the van start its engines.
Back inside Dawn was panicking! *NO! BUFFY! BUFFY! I HAVE TO HELP HER! CONTACT XANDER OR SOMETHING! PERHAPS MY CELL PHONE! CAN'T MOVE!! AAH!!* Dawn thought, struggling uselessly, tears flowing from her eyes. *BUFFY! BUFFY!!* Her struggles were in vain, her mouth barely moving and emitting unrecognizable sounds. *Stop it!* she told herself. *Panicking won't help you! You're in no danger anyway! Inhale, exhale, calm down! Now think! You can't move your body, you can't speak, you can only think, and see and hear and feel! Now think!* Dawn stayed silent, letting her mind ponder the dilemma. *Whoa! That's it! I can still feel, and see, and breath so not everything is shut down - and I could still feel my energy rising before I collapsed and panic took over. I might just be able to . . .* Dawn concentrated, feeling her body, feeling her chi, feeling it flow from cell to cell, throughout her body. *Right, that's it, sensing my chi, that should mean chi control is still active as well.* Suddenly her chi flame burst around her. *YESS!!* she screamed soundlessly as she felt herself raise in the air, her arms hanging down useless. *Let's go for it!* she said as she started to flicker her chi flame on and off, knowing the others would never miss that. At the same time she started floating ever faster, with careful control toward the exit the men had used. She looked like a doll with cut cords held up by someone's hand as she floated onward.
The automatic sliding doors did not react, because there was no pressure on the feelers in the floor. Hesitating only a moment, Dawn folded her life force more protectively around her and crashed through the glass. *Where did they go!? I can't feel Buffy anymore!* she asked herself, having to turn her whole body using her chi to look left or right. Finally she saw someone get in the front seat of a dark brown van holding a gas mask in the hand he was using to lean on the door. Her eyes widened, as she saw the van start to take off. Dawn wasn't sure of her speed in this diminished capacity, so she thought, *One chance.* With everything she had she blasted off toward the side of the van, hoping they hadn't loaded Buffy in a different car or van.
"All right, we did it," the leader of the Watcher team said, with a smile. The only thing left to do know was get to the other car, switch, and then kill the slayer once they got to their remote location where nobody else in traffic could see them do it. There was also a nice convenient way to completely dispose of Buffy's body present there. To their utter shock, there was suddenly a loud bang accompanied by being jarred in every direction. They felt the car's left wheels leave the asphalt, higher and higher, and then the van tipped over completely. With a loud crash and more jarring the van landed on his side.
"What happened?" the leader questioned in irritation, working to get his seat belt free so he could get out.
"Shit," the driver said, busy with the same. The leader looked up and his eyes widened in shock. There hung the Slayer's sister, limp it seemed, but the visible angry, white energy flowing audibly around her kept her up, a string of drool left her limp open mouth.
"Fuck," the leader said and managed to remove the seatbelt. He got up, going alongside the driver, and stood up through the window. He pulled out his silenced gun, aimed, and fired. To his fear and irritation, the bullet bounced off the energy that now had the appearance of a solid piece of colored glass. With an angry look, solely visible in the eyes, Dawn suddenly blasted forward, banging into the leader's torso and head. The leader yelled out in pain and then again as his back slammed in the back of the window. "Damn it!" he cursed and pulled himself out of the van, and turned around looking at the limp, but floating Dawn, who turned to meet him head on again. He fired again, and got knocked off his feet as Dawn once again slammed into his body.
The back doors opened and three thugs got out to help their leader and driver who was busy getting out as well. *Xander,* she thought, as she charged at them, *now would be a good time, since I don't know what more toys they've got.* She knocked the three down, and turned around to face them again as they got up.
"Dawn! What's going on!?" a familiar voice sounded. Dawn rolled herself over, until her eyes were pointed upward and looked with relief at a floating Xander. She jerked her body forward and back, indicating the guys getting up, and she made several moaning sounds.
Xander noticed the guns, and the gas masks the men had put on again. Two of the thugs pulled a grenade from their arms belt around their torso. They flipped the handle to arm them, and Xander suddenly burst down. He grabbed the canisters, ripped the arms belts from their bodies - making them groan in pain - and went to do the same with the remaining thugs. He took the whole bundle and rapidly fired them high up in the sky with an energy beam. Then with a short yell he fired a thicker, more rapid moving ball of energy up along the beam. Once it reached the gas grenades it exploded, disintegrating the grenades, and igniting the gas, rendering it harmless. Dawn sighed with relief, as she watched Xander tear open the side of the van that was pointing upwards. Xander looked into the van briefly, and noticing one more thug, and Buffy lying on her back, and folded double. She was crying and looking up, her eyes instantly filled with relief when she saw Xander. Xander pulled out the last thug, then rounded up the others, and rapidly wrapped the side of the van around them. "All right," Xander said with an angry grimace, "You're going to tell me who you are, and where you came form, or things will get very unpleasant."
Xander carried the Summers' girls into their house. He had one over each shoulder. He placed them gently down into the couch, and then stood up, looking at the paralyzed girls. Their eyes were filled with happiness and gratitude.
Willow and Tara came bounding down the stairs, and looked at the two still girls. "What happened?" Willow asked concerned.
"Watchers, used a paralyzation agent, so we would hope she'd still be alive, didn't exactly go as planned," Xander explained and then pulled out his cell phone, and used a programmed number. "Fred, it's me, Xander," he said, to the one on the other side. "Listen up, a couple of Watchers just tried to kidnap and kill Buffy using a paralyzing gas and some grenades to keep us disoriented. They were planning to hit Faith and then me while everyone was still looking for Buffy. That means there's a team near you as well, get everyone out of the hotel, and buy gas masks somewhere first thing, then find them and take them out ." Xander waited for Fred to finish saying something, one of which was screaming for everyone to get down, making Xander pull the phone away from his ear for a moment. When Fred was back on, he said, "They tried it in the mall, so if Faith is still out, call her and get her back, and tell her if they do hit her with the gas, she can still use her chi, one thing they failed to anticipate."
Xander waited for a moment, and said, "All right, keep in contact." He then turned to Willow and Tara and said, "Can you create a magical gas mask for everyone here, or the house?"
Willow and Tara looked at each other, and Tara answered, "Well, for a single substance I could, but I would need to know the gas."
Xander nodded, and said, "There aren't many gas agents that have these specific effects, can you go look it up on the internet, Willow?"
"On it," Willow answered, and went to the higher table in the back of the room where her laptop stood ready.
"Good, it was yellow by the way. Anya is coming here as well, once she is, I'm going to spend a little time searching around to see if the bastard I interrogated told the truth about where the rest are," Xander stated cooly.
"Ok, what did you do with him?" Tara asked, already knowing the answer.
"Vaporized him, as I will do with any of the others I find," Xander answered with a grim smile. Tara nodded, not liking it, but what else to do? They'd just try again.
"And them?" Tara asked indicating Buffy and Dawn, who listened, not much else to do with them.
Xander looked at them, smiled at the ridiculous paralyzed pair, and then said, "If they used deadly gas, they'd get the feds and the anti-terrorist units on their backs for all the victims at the mall, so I'm guessing it will wear off from Buffy with her Slayer metabolism in a couple of minutes, and Dawn will take another half hour I think." Dawn gave a squeak of irritation and protest.
"Bingo," Willow called out, and Xander and Tara walked over. Willow indicated a complex name on the screen. "This does everything it did on Buffy and Dawn, right color, and from the effects I'm pretty confident it isn't evasive enough to block the use of their life force."
"I'll prepare the spell," Tara said immediately and went upstairs to get ingredients.
Buffy made some more intelligible noises, and Xander turned to watch. First her body quivered, then her legs moved some, and then with a jerk she raised her arm. "Oh, thank god, you saved us, Xan. Thank you."
Dawn's energy flared angrily, and she made a peep. Xander grinned and told Buffy, "Thank Dawn, Buff. If weren't for her figuring out she could use her chi, you'd be chop liver." Buffy looked over at Dawn in astonishment. Dawn gave a peep, in reflex she wanted to nod her head and fold her arms across her chest in an affirmative gesture of smug superiority, which of course didn't happen. So she gave an indignant peep, and rolled her eyes in irritation.
"Well, thank you Dawn," Buffy said, her face filled with shock, and incredulity.
A few moments later, Anya came barging into the house, and said in panic, "What is it? What is it?"
"Calm down, Anya," Xander told her with a smile. "Once Tara is finished with the gas mask spell I'll find the rest, and then I've got a promise to keep."
"What promise?" Buffy asked.
Xander turned to her, and grinned, "Of what I'd do to their headquarters if they every tried some of this crap again."
Xander never made idle threats or promises. So approximately four hours later - three and a half of which he spent flying at Super Saiyan 3 in an arc across the north pole for the shortest path - he arrived in London, where it was early morning. Darkness still covered the country, the sun only just started to light up the east. Finding the headquarters wasn't difficult once he detected Giles chi. A moment later he crashed through the statuesque building, already transformed down to level 2.
The ones organizing the raid were up of course, and already aware of their failure. One Quentin Travers was one of those awake and watching in horror as the roof caved in and the golden glowing Xander Littica entered the building. "Take a wild guess on why I'm here," Xander told him with an evil grin.
"What's this bloody racket!?" a familiar voice shouted. A few moments later Giles still in pyjamas arrived at a landing higher up. "Xander!?"
"Hiya, Giles, your little watcher bastards wanted to kill all of us, so now they get to pay," Xander said with an evil grin, energy balls forming at his hands.
"Xander, there was no order given to attack any of you, I'd know. You must be mistaken," Giles said desperately as more and more watchers came to check what was happening, rubbing sleep from their eyes.
"Oh, I'm not mistaken," Xander said with a grin. "Tell me what mister fancy pants here is doing dressed and up, not to mention the guilty look in his eyes."
Giles looked around, and noticed a lot of sleepy watchers, but picked out more and more dressed, wide awake ones that looked with anger and frustration at the golden being. "I warned you all," Xander growled out, rising, putting more and more energy in the pulsing balls of energy.
"Travers!?" Giles questioned, angry now, suspecting that Xander might be right after all. More watchers gained a mixture of worry and anger, the anger directed at Travers and the dressed watchers.
"You don't understand, you fool!" Travers hissed out, mostly directed at Xander, but also the rest. "Faith will destroy us all. She won't be able to control the powers that come with being a Super Slayer. She's a demon god made form, that won't stop until we're all destroyed. Eventually she won't care about demons, or humans, babies or geriatrics, she'll be a cold, merciless, killing machine! A Super Slayer's power cannot be allowed to grow, she'll lose control!"
"No, Faith won't!" Xander told him loudly, angrily. "I trained, and a Slayer is no demon, there's nothing demonic about her, guaranteed: I can feel a demon, I can feel a soul - a Slayer is all soul."
"Xander, don't destroy this place," Giles said desperately. "Not all of us are like him, and there's still an incredible amount of knowledge here, the library is so vast!"
"I warned you," Xander said sinisterly rising further into the air.
"Xander, please," Giles pleaded, hoping the connection he had with the Saiyan would change his mind. "At least let the library exist, there's no telling how valuable it could be if it's turned into a depository for future slayers!"
Xander looked at him, and then roared out, shooting up through the roof. A moment later he fired several balls of energy down, resulting in massive explosions, obliterating the whole building. Giles, slowly opened his eyes and saw the devastation. He was enveloped by a golden orb, and so were several more Watchers, all of them in sleeping clothes. Travers was gone, vaporized no doubt. He slowly was lowered as the stairs and the landing were gone. Looking further around, he found with relief the library section of the once huge building intact, surrounded by a wall of energy that collapsed then. He sighed in relief.
"/This/ leniency is only because of what I share with Giles!" Xander told the Watchers loudly, and angrily, one warning index finger pointed down at a tense right arm. The Watchers looked up, still in shock at the devastation. "But no more, if you ever again dare to attack me or anyone else I care or know about, I will find and /kill/ every single Watcher on the face of the planet, with the exception of Giles, understood!" There were nods. "UNDERSTOOD!" Xander demanded.
"Understood!" they called in answer.
"Do with the books as you wish, Giles," Xander said, and then blasted off in northwest direction.
That night, in Sunnydale, Buffy walked along aimlessly. So she had most of their forgiveness for sleeping with Spike, but that was really only a symptom of the real problem eating away at her, a problem Buffy refused to acknowledge. Dawn had saved her life! Her little sister had saved her life by figuring something out, that she hadn't! Buffy was the Slayer, she was supposed to be protecting Dawn, not the other way around, and she was one person that hadn't yet forgiven Buffy. Her Slayer battle instincts should have been able to do what Dawn did, but she hadn't.
Thus Buffy walked onward, confused beyond everything. Her friends were nowhere in sight, Xander still in England or on his way back. In England, killing humans! Souled beings! They may deserve it, but still . . . The others were back home, and Dawn was with Li and his parents, apparently playing monopoly, or some other game.
Buffy walked passed by a bar, looked at it for a moment, and then just walked in. It was packed, no demon in sight, or in range of her senses. Disco lights swirled, a heavy beat of music sounding throughout the bar, and dancing. It wasn't the Bronze, had to be a new place. The mass of faces and dancing bodies did nothing to Buffy as she wormed herself a way through the crowd.
Then there was that thing inside her. That blackness, that death, that had taken her over a few times already. That thing that she felt growing stronger seemingly by the minute. That same blackness she saw in Faith's Super Slayer eyes. It would not stop, would not go away, the harder she tried pushing away, the more she tried denying it access, the stronger it seemed to become. She couldn't be that, she wasn't like that. She wasn't that- that . . . /thing/. That utterly complete blackness off death, with no conscience, no restraint. Buffy shivered as she remembered looking into those black, black eyes, those empty holes, she remembered the fear that blasted through her then - fear that Faith would kill her and everyone else. Despite the fact that Faith seemed to be in control, she feared her still, feared herself, feared that thing inside her taking over. Faith could control it, but Buffy had already failed to control it several times.
Some half-drunk guy pulled her into a dance, and she let him, not really caring. She carrouselled around the dance floor in the unknown guy's arms, mauling over everything inside her head. They didn't need her. They really didn't, they just didn't. Did she need them?
Those were disturbing thoughts, and she freed herself from her dance partner's grasp. She quickly wormed her way back out of the bar, and ran off in whatever direction. After a kilometer or so, she slowed down, and the doubts, and insecurities returned. Not that they had been gone, but in the mindless race they were thrust to the back of her mind. She couldn't . . . she mustn't . . . she should . . . Guilt flooded her when a small part of her thought of some mindless sex with Spike to get her mind off of things. She shook her head; not anymore, even /if/ Spike wanted to.
Should she take Dawn's advice, and just pick up a guy from a bar? She wondered. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind, and the jumble made her remember her promise. She felt like the ground opened up underneath her, the thing inside stirring with relish. She forced it back down, and then made her decision.
[Stop Buffy's confused theme]
Buffy stepped into her house, closing the door behind her. She saw Willow and Tara making out on the couch in the living room, and felt guilty for breaking up the beautiful scene. "Willow?" Buffy asked timidly. The two lovers broke apart, a little reluctantly, and Willow looked at her. "Can I-, can I talk to you, alone?"
"Uh, sure, sure," Willow replied and gently got off of Tara's knees. Her lover gestured for her to go on, and so the Slayer and the witch went up the stairs.
A minute later Willow was sitting on her bed, her lower back against her pillow, and her legs stretched out. Buff was facing her, her legs in the lotus position. "So, what do you want to talk about?"
"About everything, about nothing, I'm confused, Will, and I feel lost," Buffy told Willow truthfully.
"Again? I mean this what made you go to . . . you know who," Willow said softly, deep concern in her face.
"Not again, I don't think it ever stopped," Buffy answered, pain etched in her voice and eyes.
"Oh?" Willow prompted.
Buffy fidgeted for a few moments, and then said, "You've all surpassed me, none of you need me, I feel like a fifth wheel."
"That's not true," Willow said panicky. "Of course we need you, you're our friend, and Dawn hasn't surpassed you in power or anything."
"But she matured so much, she can handle herself anywhere, some places better than me," Buffy muttered depressed.
Willow looked at Buffy, and replied, "Wouldn't that be considered a good thing? You know, you've managed to get through to her in the past few months, that she's started growing up. That's usually considered a good thing, right? That she can take on the real world out there?"
"Yeah, but she's got Li, you've got Tara, Xander's got Anya, and now with you all better than me, and Dawn handling herself or with Li otherwise, I feel useless," Buffy muttered pitifully.
"You're our friend, Buffy, you're not useless. So we don't need help right at this moment, doesn't mean we don't need your companionship. Times change, friendships grow, I still love you, Xander does too, and Dawn totally does," Willow told Buffy, who listened somewhat disheartened. "Hell, I think Tara and Anya love you to, and if you and Li would get to know each other better . . . and that's really incestuous." Willow shook her head quickly to clear the image, and continued, "You don't have to value yourself on how many people you need to help and save Buffy. You can live your life for yourself: Focus on school, I know you actually like the language classes you've been taking, you bring home straight A's and A+'s. You can go out, just have fun for yourself, you might even meet a nice guy and date him - and have some other illicit fun, and actual fun this time." Willow smiled a secret, suggestive smile at Buffy, who couldn't help but smile back. It sounded nice, dating, 'illicit fun', how Willow came up with the euphemisms was beyond her, and damn did she actually know what 'euphemisms' meant? Yep. Willow was right on the 'not having fun' part with Spike though, every time she did anything with him it felt like she was torn in two pieces, mentally, not physically. Willow was on a role, continuing with suggestions, going onward, "And you could put all your effort in training, catch up to Faith you know, you being Slayer and all, huff, huff."
"No, no training," Buffy suddenly said stricken.
"No training?" Willow asked confused, and then her face lit up in revelation. "There's more is there? What's with the training?"
Buffy quickly looked down, and fidgeted. "What if? What if I can't control it? What if the power corrupts me?"
"That won't happen!" Willow assured the Slayer.
"It corrupted Faith. It corrupted you! What makes you so certain it won't corrupt me!?" Buffy asked in an accusing manner.
"But- but you're Buffy!" Willow exclaimed with a big, sure smile. "You're the savior of the world multiple times over, you've fought the forces of darkness for years. Now look at me and Faith. You're better than us, it won't corrupt you!"
"You sure of that, huh?" Buffy asked, and looked down. "What if it has already corrupted me?"
"What makes you say that?" Willow questioned in disbelief, and some shock.
Buffy fidgeted some more, figuring out how to say this. "Because . . . I've been taken over, Willow," Buffy answered, and Willow looked even more shocked. "A few times. There's this thing, black, a predator inside me. I'm suppressing it, but it grows stronger. Every time I use chi techniques, whenever I go all out, it grows stronger. With every training session I feel it growl up at me, wanting to take over, growing stronger. A few times it took over, I was nothing but a mindless animal hunting prey then, a killing machine."
Willow looked stricken. She then got off the bed and pulled out a few ingredients. Buffy watched as Willow performed a quick spell, and then looked somewhat relieved. "Well, you're not possessed or anything, there's nothing alien inside of you," Willow told Buffy, which made Buffy no less upset as all. She almost wished it had been so easy, exorcize a demon or malicious spirit and voila, but she'd known already that wasn't the case; she'd /known/.
"Dracula said I was made of darkness," Buffy muttered, remembering the ancient vampire's speech. "What do you think he meant with that? I know Faith and Xander are convinced Slayers don't have anything demonic inside of them, but . . ."
"You don't," Willow told Buffy resolutely. "You can sense demons and souls, can't you? Well, I and all of us can too if you remember, and I can tell you, I sense nothing demonic in you." Buffy looked down, thinking. "I know!" Willow suddenly exclaimed, and turned back around. Buffy looked up surprised, and as Willow gathered up some ingredients, she explained, "Last year Giles took you on this vision quest thingy, to talk to your inner Slayer. We're going to take a trip out in the desert, and do another one. So you can find out what this black thing is, and get rid of it permanently." Willow turned around, holding the ingredients in her arms, smiling excitedly.
"You think that will help? Last year, all I really got was 'Death is your gift' and that was a big stinker," Buffy said skeptically.
"We'll never find out until we try!" Willow said, and walked out the bedroom, Buffy following behind. After explaining to Tara their intentions, they flew off toward the desert.
Buffy watched as Willow drew a circle around some twigs, big enough for the both of them to sit in. Finished, Willow put some powder over the twigs, and then pointed her finger and said, "Ignis." A small fireball shot from her finger and a moment later the twigs lit up, and a green fire crackled.
"This is different than what Giles did," Buffy said, looking at the green fire that lit up the night sky.
"I know," Willow replied as she turned off the lantern they had brought. "There's more than one way to skin a cat, and why would anyone want to kill a sweet pussycat?"
"Perhaps they were talking about tigers about to tear you apart?" Buffy replied with an odd guessing expression.
"Yeah, well, sit down across from me," Willow said, and Buffy did. "Lotus position, close your eyes, let your mind wander." Buffy once again did as told, and then, Willow started chanting. Buffy breathed in, and breathed out. Then, just as she was about to ask Willow how long this took, there was a whoosh.
A moment later she was standing somewhere else, in a sunlit piece of the desert. "Back here again," Buffy muttered, looking at the familiar place where she had been before, and in her dreams with the First Slayer after they killed Adam.
"Indeed, back here," a voice sounded, and Buffy whipped around. There the First Slayer calmly walked toward her, only her silhouette visible now, in between the air shimmering from the heat. She came walking forward, perfectly straight, like a modern human. Her black skin wrapped in rags looked surprisingly good. She stopped when she was only about two meters away from Buffy.
"You again, the First Slayer," Buffy said, looking at the figure.
"I am not the First Slayer," the figure stated calmly.
"You're not? Then who is?" Buffy asked dumbfounded. The figure morphed into an Asian girl. "Huh?"
"You never met the First Slayer, Buffy," the Asian spoke in perfect modern English. "I am you subconscious, I am the Slayer essence inside of you. You gave me form, out of your expectations. I am what you are, I am what you hate, I am what you love."
Buffy shook her head in confusion, and told her, "You're not making any sense. Why am I and you here?"
"This is your mind, Buffy, you are still sitting with the green fire, and we're talking to each other, because you wanted to, because you summoned me," the Slayer spoke.
"You tried to kill me the first time around," Buffy accused the figure.
"I am sorry, but I was rather upset at the time, you performed a huge enjoining ritual to beat a foe that you should have been able to tear apart piece by piece without breaking a sweat, the magics involved in the ritual didn't help any," the Slayer explained with a smile.
"And last time, you had this entire crap about my 'love is bright', and 'love is pain', and 'death is my gift'," Buffy told the Asian Slayer, upset. Everything she had thought was real was being turned upside down . . . again!
"You're love /is/ bright, and when you lose your love it /is/ pain," the Slayer answered her, smiling. "It's how we know we are alive. And death /is/ your gift. I am sorry, last time I could not appear as fully as I can now, and last time that bitch that wanted you to jump off the tower was messing with the ritual. I really tried, Buffy, I really tried to make you understand, I sadly failed."
"What are you talking about?" Buffy said, almost panicking, slowly realizing she was not going to like what her inner Slayer had to say.
"You're not the Slayer," the Asian answer.
"I /am/ the Slayer, or at least /a/ Slayer," Buffy returned almost desperately, forcefully.
The Slayer shook her head sadly, and said, "No, Buffy. You never have been, and are not now a Slayer. There is only one true Slayer upon this Earth right now."
Buffy watched the Slayer for a few moments, and then muttered, "What do you mean?"
The Asian's eyes turned pitch black, her hair stood up, crackling with electricity, and a blue chi flame erupted around her. "This, you are not a Slayer until you've become this," the Slayer told her.
"No, no!" Buffy said, pointing accusatory at her, taking a few steps back. "I'm not a stone cold killing machine, I'm not that."
"You are, and this is the crux of the problem, is it not, Buffy?" the Slayer asked calmly. "You refuse to accept this, you refused to accept this then. Death is your gift, /this/ is your gift. /This/ what we are, /this/ is what you could have become, if you had accepted this truth, if you had let the pain of lost loves and about to be lost loves drive you onward. Even back when Glory had Dawn.
"You've had no idea just how much power you'd already accumulated back then, because you denied it, like you do now. You already had enough to do this; Slayers don't need as much base energy to transform as Saiyans do," she explained.
"Death is /not/ a gift," Buffy said desperately.
"It is, whenever you kill a demon, you save a human," the Slayer explained with a smile. "That is your gift to humanity. This is what you are: death itself, the very embodiment of it. A predator, a hunter, a killing machine."
"No! No, no, no! I'm not a killing machine, I don't kill, I slay, I'm not that. I protect people, I am not like that, I'm a Slayer, not a killer, I'm better than that!" Buffy told the Slayer desperately.
The Slayer smiled, gave an amused sigh, and then sat down in a lotus position. She let her transformation go, and then looked up at the upset blonde. "Ironic, I know this because /you/ do; you've taken Germanic languages," the Slayer said, looking up at Buffy. "Dutch, and German, exchange the 'y' in Slayer for 'c-h-t', and also in Dutch to a 'g', what do you get?" Buffy staggered back, eyes wide. "Correct, you see, the Dutch and German never had the Watchers Council, never had 'Slayer' in their vocabulary as the English vocabulary. The Watchers use of 'Slayer' added a euphemistic meaning. But originally, like 'slachter', or 'slager', it meant the same thing: butcher. That's what a Slayer is, a butcher of demons, a predator, a killing machine, death." Buffy looked down, about to cry. "Now we get back to what you are afraid of, that thing taking over on occasion," the Slayer explained onward, Buffy looked up, a few tears leaking from her eyes. "That's me."
"What?" Buffy asked shocked.
"That's our problem, Buffy. You deny what you are, you refuse to accept that this is what we are," the Slayer paused, chuckling. "'We', there shouldn't be a 'we', only you. You've always denied deep down, but ever since you let yourself believe, accept it tentatively for a short period of time with Faith and the consequences of it, you've been repressing it even more. And lately with every greater fervor, and determination. The one thing you keep a hold of, you ideas of superiority. You had those ideas when you were a mere cheerleader, and then you became the Slayer. But instead of thinking there were things greater than you, you went the other way around, believing you were even better and greater than you always thought you were." Buffy looked at the sitting Asian, shocked at how well she knew it, wanting to deny that truth. "Then you get friends, they even forgave you being a bitch, and that belief went up even higher, then suddenly one of those friends turns out to be more than they are. It was a shocker, sure, and you accepted that there may be one or two better than even you, or your equal, a fellow Slayer, and an alien, but the rest eh? You're better than them, you're not a killer, not a predator, because you're 'better than that', and now with Xander's training, the others are catching up to you, and perhaps even surpassing you. How can that happen? Aren't I superior? The whole cascade of events that followed kind of showed that you're not as superior as you thought, but you refuse to accept that, and so you cling to one final thing. You're better than a simple killing machine, and so you deny me, with increasing need, more and more, and more and more you force me away, separating me from you, Slayer and Buffy, two separate entities." The Slayer paused, looking in Buffy's dimmed eyes. "And the more separate I become of you, the more powerful I become. The more you deny me, the more you deny yourself, and so eventually you will deny your very existence, and then I will push you away, leaving only the Slayer, and Buffy Summers will be no more."
"I'll bet you'd like that," Buffy spat, a whole mixture of desperate emotions boiling in her.
"No! Of course not! You stupid girl!" the Slayer hissed at Buffy. "Why would I possibly want that? Haven't you seen what I was the first time around? And then last time, and now? Don't you see the difference? It's because as I gained more power, I gained more from you. But once you're gone, I won't get your intelligence, I'll just be an animal, worse than the first time. A mindless killing machine. Haven't you felt what I was when I took over? We were meant to be /one/, you and I: Buffy Summers, the Slayer." Buffy turned her head away. The Slayer shook her head, and said, "And that's the next problem. You equate killing machine, with a mindless killing machine like I would become.
"Buffy, you're making the mistake in assuming that means you're bad, or that you're not human, humans are predators too, they hunted their prey for food, with spears, and that is still inside them, that's why the Slayer could be created, because you are human, Buffy," the Slayer said empathically, trying to reach her. "You may be death, but your essence is /life/. You save life, you give life to every human you save whenever you kill a vampire, or some other demon. Everything about us is preserving life. Why do you think you get aroused so easily, especially while slaying? Why do you think Faith has such a sex drive, why she's even proud to brag about it? Just because of her bad past? Sex is procreation, procreation of life Buffy. Ultimately, that's what we are: life through death."
Buffy looked over, a little hopeful, and then less so at the last statement. The Slayer continued, "Why do you think most of the ones that came before you died so quickly? Because the Watchers denied them life, denied them contact with their very essence: life, other people, boyfriends, love, sex. They had no connection to their basic essence, the Watchers tried to turn them into mindless killing machines, because they are afraid of this." The Slayer transformed again, and continued, "They denied the very essence of their charges, denied them the life that was so essential to their mission, and to their survival. And /that/ is why virtually all the Watchers' Slayers had death wishes, and found a way to die early, while the ones the Hunters trained, who did allow the Slayers to come in contact with their essence, and explore it, lived so much longer."
"I am /not/ a killer, I am /not/, nor am I slut like Faith is! I refuse to accept it!" Buffy told her other self forcefully and loudly.
The Asian sighed, and said, "Then I have failed again, and you will soon be gone, and only I will remain. I am sorry, I've tried everything, explained you everything you are. There is nothing more I can do, go." She waved her hand dismissively at Buffy.
The sunlit desert disappeared, and Buffy opened her eyes with a snap, seeing the twigs green after glow. "So?" Willow came into view, asking excitedly. "What did you learn?" Willow shrank back when she saw the pain in Buffy's eyes. She'd never seen anything like it. "Buffy?"
"Nothing, nothing you'd want to know, useless," Buffy spat out, as tears flowed from her eyes, and she quickly got up, walked away, and then flew off. Willow caught up after picking up her stuff, and flew silently alongside a depressed and often crying slayer, hoping her best friend would open up. She was tempted to remind Buffy of her promise, but she was certain that would only make things worse.
It was early morning, and the door to the Summer's house opened, and Buffy zipped inside. Without talking to anyone she ran upstairs, except for the announcement, "I'm done training."
Willow followed the blonde in, and turned to her left. There Xander, Tara, and Dawn stood. "And? As if I couldn't guess," Xander asked her painfully.
Willow looked at them, instantly grasping that Tara had told him and Dawn what she and Buffy had been doing. Her gaze paused on Dawn for a moment, and she did a double take. She usually wasn't up this early in the morning, and for the past months she hadn't been exactly observing, but she was now. Dawn was in work out clothes: pink, skintight, thigh-length, workout pants, covered by a black, high-cut, bikini-bottom, which had to be a g-string, and a skintight, equally pink, top. Her arms were bare, so were her legs, and her top showed off her breasts. Her skin was tight, and her body showed off her smooth, muscular, very feminine frame, with all the curves in the places where they counted. *Damn, Li is lucky,* went fleetingly through Willow's mind, and then quickly focused back on the matter at hand. "I don't know exactly, whatever she found out can't be good. Perhaps she can't /become/ a Super Slayer, or perhaps she has to do something she's not capable of, or doesn't want to do. Or perhaps it's something else about the Slayer she doesn't like," Willow told them. She paused, thinking for a moment, and then finished, "Whatever she found out, she came out worse than she went in."
Xander sighed, and then said, "Dawn, you still want to train, right?" Xander turned around and as Dawn answered positively she turned around to follow the gi-wearing Xander. "Good, there wasn't much I could teach Buffy anyway without her needing a lot of self-accumulated experience, I did think about gearing her training toward Super Human, but her decision pretty much ends that option. So, we're going to focus on your training, and we're going to focus that training on you becoming a Super Human."
"Really?" Dawn asked excitedly as they entered the gym.
"Yep," Xander said.
Half a minute later they blasted with great speed at each other to start a sparring session.
"Welcome to the Littica Settlement!" Anya enthused, gesturing for everyone to come inside. Two weeks Anya had spent preparing the place. In the end, the close proximity to Buffy's house had been the deciding factor. With regular informing of Xander's opinion, she had had the living room repainted and recarpeted. The room directly right from the entrance, had become Xander's very own room. The living room was decorated for a large part hers, several of her decisions had been to accommodate Xander; the lazy chair and some of his stuff. Of course, the plasma tv and the DVD recorder had been for both of them.
The room directly to the right of the entrance had been designated Xander's room. The kitchen was all her. Upstairs was their bedroom, the bathroom too had been modernized, including some inventory geared toward easy use during sex (of course).
All four girls entered the house and looked around at the hallway. Once Anya and Xander led them into the living room, their jaws dropped. One side was purple hued, without their being much purple, the other side dark blue and black, the transition was smooth. There was a high, rectangular table in the back, purple section, one that could be used to do games on, or be a dining table when there were guests, like today, and so it was already set for diner. The dark blue leather couches and chairs, and one lazy chair of the same color, looked stylish without becoming pompous. The TV was in one corner, in such a manner it would always be out of the sun. "Wow," Dawn commented for all of them.
"Now for the kitchen!" Anya said, beckoning them all along.
The kitchen was functional first and foremost, the delicious smell of the spaghetti Anya was cooking a testament to that. Tara's stomach rumbled, and she blushed. "I know how you feel, Tara," Xander said with a grin.
"Just be patient," Anya laughed. "You'll all get the food soon enough. Let me show you the upstairs."
Everyone did, and she first showed them the master bedroom, and the bathroom. Anya then opened one of the other rooms and explained, "Guest bedrooms now, eventually rooms for any children that might come along, right, Xan?"
"Yep," Xander confirmed with a grin, and the girls looked pleasantly surprised.
"So kids are definitely in the planning?" Willow asked excitedly.
Anya nodded with a grin, "Oh, yeah, and you'll all be godmothers, unless you think being an aunt is enough."
"Well, for me it is, in the beginning at least," Dawn told them, waving them away from her.
Tara smiled brightly, and said, "Well, I would love to be a godmother, right Will?"
"Yeah, me too," Buffy said, less than enthusiastic.
"Well, upstairs is the attic . . ." Anya started, interrupted by Tara's once again rumbling stomach. Shortly followed by Xander's growling stomach. Anya grinned brightly, and finished, " . . . and seeing as how it's empty and you're all starving, we'll go downstairs and eat."
"Yay!" Dawn said with a wide grin, and simply jumped down the stairs, using her life force for a smooth landing. "What are you waiting for?" the teen asked up to the others and ran into the living room.
"Teenagers," Willow said with a grin. "Were we ever that bad?"
"Worse," Xander answered her as they started down the stairs. "Undoubtedly much worse."
"Well, I wasn't, I was mostly trying to convince myself I wasn't a demon," Tara added with smug superiority.
"Very funny, Tara," Willow answered her girlfriend with a failed scowl.
Dawn practically gulped the spaghetti down, hardly taking care with the sauce. The other guests were a little more subdued. Xander ate the fastest and the most of course, seeing his Saiyan nature, but was more careful with the sauce. "God, this good," Dawn said, taking her second helping.
"Yeah," Willow said somewhat surprised. "Did you make this, Anya?" Tara nodded in agreement.
"Yep, me and my recipe book," Anya answered with a big smile. "And some help with dumb labor by Xander."
"Hey," Xander commented, grinning ear to ear, before going back to his food.
"Very tasty, Anya," Buffy answered with a smile. She too got a second helping.
After the spaghetti, came ice cream. Delicious ice cream covered in fruit pieces, juice and whipped cream. Once again a hit with everyone. When everyone was done, Anya put the dishes away in the dishwasher, demanding nobody help. When she returned to the living room, Dawn was drooling at the plasma tv. She turned her head to Anya, and said, "Please tell me you got something special to test this set up."
Anya grinned deeply and took out a plastic bag. "I sure do, bought it especially," she said with a smile. "One movie I haven't seen before, the youngest among us might never have seen before, and everyone of us has never seen in its full, widescreen DVD glory. It has comedy, it has action, some science-fiction or fantasy elements, and even a little romance and sex appeal. In short everyone will get something out of it." Everyone waited impatiently, as Anya turned on the tv and the DVD player. Then she pulled out the DVD, and announced, "Ghostbusters!"
Everyone's faces lit up, at that choice, and urged Anya to put it in. A short while later they were watching the movie, with Anya sitting in Xander's lap, his arms wrapped around her. "I love you," he murmured in her ear.
"If you didn't, the ring would be on the wrong person," Anya murmured back, indicating her wedding ring, and then kissed him deeply.
Dawn and Li arrived at the mall, and looked at it. "So, you ready to go back in there?" Li asked his girlfriend.
"Definitely," Dawn answered him with a grin. "If Buffy is determined to bribe my like of her, then by golly I'll bleed her dry."
"By golly?" Li asked her.
"Did I say that?" Dawn asked, and Li nodded. "Don't ask," she said and shook her head to clear it.
"You really want to rub her face in her failure, or do you want to see about reconnecting with her?" Li questioned.
Dawn twisted her head and looked angrily at him. "Who's side are you on?"
"I'm just saying, you obviously love her," Li said, waving his hands to ward Dawn off.
She forgave him, for she looked around, and said, "Do you see Buffy yet? She told us to meet her here."
"No, let's go look around for her," Li-Huei suggested, and so the two teens started walking toward the street and walk around to see if they could find the blonde, older sister. They reached a corner. "Could she have mixed entrances?" Li wondered.
"Let's go see," Dawn said and she went around the corner, Li going a long. A short while later they were at another entrance. With Li standing at the street side of the two, they peered around. Finally Dawn looked straight out to the street, and said, "Hey! There she is!" Li looked where Dawn was pointing and he saw her. "Oh, my god!" Dawn exclaimed. Buffy walked onto the street hardly looking. Whatever the reason, she missed the truck barreling at her.
By the time Dawn had started the letter 'g', Li ran. Li had ben well-trained himself, his occasional training sessions with his girlfriend in the gravity gym, had boosted his strength and speed. He avoided a car, and then jumped straight forward. He collided with Buffy when he heard the truck honking, and its screeching tires. A moment later he and his girlfriend's sister were rolling over the pavement. Buffy looked at him, shocked, and then looked over to the now standing still truck. The driver came around and looked at them, his face was flushed with fear, as he said, "Are you two alright?"
Buffy nodded, and Li-Huei answered, "Yeah, we're fine. Not a scratch"
"You're nuts, girl," the driver added, and then angrily went back into his truck.
Dawn reached the two then, and hugged both close in relief. Then she stepped back, and said, "Have you lost your mind, Buffy? Ever heard of looking left and right!?"
"Sorry," Buffy muttered, looking at the truck driving off. She then turned to the now hugging couple, and with a shocked face, she said, "You two have my blessing, all the way. I should have given it sooner, would have if I had seen you sooner after my confession, and now you've saved my life, I would be really sick if I didn't now."
Dawn smiled brightly, and whispered in Li's ear, "You hear that?" She gave him a hungry kiss that he happily returned.
That night the whole Scooby Gang including Dawn and Li were at the bronze. They were sitting around a table, and Xander asked, "So, you saved Buffy's life I hear?"
"Ah, well," Li answered somewhat embarrassed. These people were so much more than him, he really couldn't consider himself a super hero. "If I hadn't been in Dawn's way, she would have done it, and I doubt Buffy would have gotten hurt if she'd managed to raise her chi on time."
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Xander answered with a big smile. Dawn smiled, tightening her arm around Li's waist.
"Let's go dance," Anya said with a smile, and pulled Xander onto the dance floor. Willow made some shooing motions to Dawn and Li, and they too went out to dance.
"They're such a cute couple," Tara commented to the other two women, as Dawn and Li started dancing.
Buffy's eyes widened when Dawn changed her normal dance to the routing of a seductress, swaying her body and riding up against her boyfriend's body, who was having the time of his life. "Well, they seem to be having . . . fun," Willow commented, and then grinned at Tara. "You want some . . . fun?" Tara looked over at Buffy who made a gesture. Tara smiled and then quickly got off the stool and let Willow lead her onto the dance floor. Buffy looked at the three couples, and smiled weakly.
The air shimmered at an enormous altitude. The shimmering start twisting rapidly on its own axis. Suddenly its insides collapsed and a spherical contraption appeared in it. A few moments later the twisting energy field disappeared, and then the ship descended.
It landed smoothly in the Summers back yard. A kissing Li and Dawn who were lying in the yard on this sunny Friday broke their kiss and looked surprised at the ship. Its hatch opened, and Son Gohan appeared in the opening. "I'm gonna get him," he hissed and then blasted off with great speed.
"Gohan, wait!" a female voice called out, and then Chi-Chi appeared as well. She groaned in frustration and then looked down noticing Dawn and Li lying there.
"You almost flattened us," Li muttered in surprise.
Dawn latched onto something else entirely, "Uhm, who was Gohan going to get?"
"Dawn! He's after Michael," Chi-Chi answered, and quickly descended the ramp. "Can you fly me after him?"
"Uh," Dawn said getting up. "Better yet, I can fly you right to Michael, but I doubt I'll get there before Gohan. Even though he has to look, he's really fast."
"Good, good, hurry!" Chi-Chi commanded, and after giving Li a shrug, and he gesturing she should go, she picked up Chi-Chi and flew into the air.
Xander was just finishing up with his work for today, when he suddenly looked up. He blinked, and then sped over to his boss' office. "Hey, boss, mind if I take off fifteen minutes early, I forgot something," Xander asked with a disarming smile.
"How's your Ph. D. Project coming then?" his boss asked.
"Still ahead of schedule," Xander answered truthfully. Xander's boss nodded, and gave a 'go' gesture. "Thanks, boss," Xander said. He went back to his place, and quickly cleaned up. Then went out of the building and blasted off.
It didn't take Gohan long before he felt the chi signature that had to be Michael. It had cost him some time remembering from the wedding, and the process of elimination as he flew in circles over Sunnydale though, but now he found them.
He sped down to the construction yard, and stalked onto it, straight toward Michael. "MICHAEL!" he called out and the thirty-something everlasting bachelor looked over at the angry teen.
Michael got down from his welding job, lifting his goggles, and said, "Gohan? Right? What are you doing here?"
"What am /I/ doing here? I should . . ." Gohan started dangerously.
"Gohan!" called out a familiar voice. Gohan looked back and saw Xander walking onto the construction yard. "Hey, pal, what are you doing here?"
"Gohan, don't you hurt him!" Chi-Chi's hysterical voice sounded. She and Dawn came running onto the construction yard. The other workers had put down their work, and looked at the spectacle.
"I was /not/ going to hurt him . . . much, he's got a job to do," Gohan answered with anger aimed at Michael.
"Uh, I'm confused," Xander said looking from Gohan to his mother and back.
Gohan turned toward Michael, pointed at him, and yelled, "That bastard knocked up my mother!"
"LANGUAGE, GOHAN!!" Chi-Chi called out angrily, while everyone's jaws dropped.
Except a few workers, one of which Ed, who told Daniel, "It had to happen some time." His and Xander's mutual friend nodded.
Gohan sucked in breath, and said, "Sorry, he impregnated my mother!"
Xander turned around and put his chi-sense to use, and so did Dawn. They quickly confirmed it, although faint, there was the beginning sense of life growing inside Chi-Chi. "Michael!" Xander said in anger, "Did you!?" Michael nodded. Xander walked over to his friend, looked angrily down into his eyes and growled, "Ever heard of condoms?"
"I got condoms," he answered nervously only for Xander to hear. "But she wasn't from our dimension, I thought it was impossible." Growling Xander then slapped Michael from cheek to cheek several times.
"Guess what, you were wrong!!" Xander told him, and then sighed. He looked around the construction yard, and said, "Let's do this in private."
A minute later, after some harsh demanding from Xander for discretion, they were all inside Xander and Anya's knew house, and living room. "So, Gohan, what did you have in mind?" Xander questioned.
"As much as I hate to do this, he's just going to have to marry her, doesn't he?" Gohan said simmering. Michael blanched back at that suggestion.
Luckily, Chi-Chi came to his rescue, "Gohan, just because one of his seeds melted with one of my eggs, doesn't mean I'm going to marry him. I got myself into this."
"Mom, remember how tough pregnant with Goten was on you, while I was off to school?" Gohan asked her mother desperately. "Now imagine that while having to take care of Goten at the same time!"
"I will /not/ marry him, Gohan, I'm not going into a marriage half-cocked, I'm to too old for such a gamble," Chi-Chi told her son resolutely.
"Wise choice," Xander commented. Dawn looked at the scene with wonder, having nothing to contribute, but she thought it was fascinating.
"Great!" Gohan said sarcastically. "Well, at least he can come over and take care of you during the pregnancy. He's helped enough to get you in this condition to owe you and the baby that. Better yet, once the baby's out, he can get a job and pay child support."
"Plus, Chi-Chi," Xander began gravely, "you're completely right about not just jumping into marriage, but he is the father of the child, you two could date, and get to know each other; who knows, you two might find yourselves liking each other, and eventually even fall in love. Two genuinely loving parents would be best for the baby." Gohan nodded.
"Well, that's ok, but I'm not just going to let him have his every which way," Chi-Chi said.
Dawn piped up, "Didn't he kinda already have his way with you?"
Chi-Chi glared at her, pressure slowly building. "Not helping, Dawn," Xander said coolly.
"Sorry," the teen muttered, defusing Chi-Chi.
"Xander," Michael got Xander's attention. "Doesn't this kind of mean I have to go live in their dimension?"
"Michael," Xander returned calmly. "You don't like to be tied down, but I've never seen you shy away from any responsibility that lay on your shoulders."
Michael's head slumped, and then he got resolutely up. "Ok, then, let's get some of my things that I really need, and let's go." Gohan and Chi-Chi looked astounded, they hadn't really expected that reaction from the man.
An hour later the interdimensional ship returned home. Dawn was back in Li's arms, and then suddenly burst out laughing, finally able to let it out. Xander looked at her along with Willow and Tara who had gotten home from college in the meantime and heard the whole story. "It's not funny, Dawn," Xander told her.
"You're right, I think it's hilarious!" Dawn answered, and went into giggle fits. Willow and Tara then joined in, fully able to see the humor as well. Li joined not long after, and only then did Xander join them; she was right, it /was/ hilarious.
Buffy walked along, through the night of Sunnydale, disinterested in about everything. The pavement beneath her feet made a sound whenever her feet hit it, but she didn't hear. She reached a crossroads, and after barely checking if something was driving there she casually crossed it. She continued like this, walking aimlessly, not caring about much. The emotions insider her boiled. She walked past an alley, and looked inside. There was a girl, made up and dressed to go pick up guys. A vamped out vampire was ready to bite her neck, and she screamed, and screamed. Buffy just watched as the fangs sank into her neck, and started draining her dry. Inside of Buffy there was a growl, a need, welling up. No matter how much she tried to push it down, she failed. She wanted to help the girl, but not like this, not under its influence. To appease the growing entity insider her, she brought up her arm, and she fired an energy ball. A moment later the vampire turned to dust. The girl looked shocked and relieved all at the same time, while Buffy struggled not to let the thing take over fully.
Before the girl could thank her Buffy bolted, crying. She ran for a few blocks, reaching a cemetery with adjoined park area. She entered it and walked on, unwilling to do much else. From one of the graves a hand shot out, and then a vampire followed. Buffy watched it as she walked onward, making no motions to kill the thing. Once it was out, it growled and looked around. It immediately attacked Buffy, who casually twisted out a stake and dusted the vampire while it was still in the air. Uncaring she walked on, entering the wooded area. Inside she came across two female demons eating away at a dog's carcass. They paused their feeding frenzy and watched Buffy intently. She looked at them with empty eyes as she walked. She continued onward, not caring in the slightest.
Finally she came out the other end, at another cemetery. She looked at a tomb and recognized Spike's crypt. She looked at it, and shrugged, walking onward. She watched another vampire rise from the grave, but simply continued walking. The vampire briefly considered attacking her, but something made it decide to turn away from her and run as fast as it could. Buffy ignored it as she stepped back on pavement, and continued walking.
She came across a group of girls and boys, half drunken, and laughing at each other. "Hey, cutey, how are you doing?" one of the guys leered at her. One of the guys slapped her ass, making the other guys giggle. The girls were too out of it to notice. Buffy paused for a fraction of a second, and then moved onward, her face blank. The guys called after a few more times, but she ignored them, and eventually they turned to the other direction again.
Buffy kept walking. Stepping was more like it, one step in front of the next. Loud music came out of a bar, probably the bar where the group of drunks had come from. Buffy turned her head almost automatically at the window. Disco lights played across her face, which stayed blank. She paused for another moment, dully taking in the people having fun inside. Then she continued her aimless trek again.
A boy came out of the darkness, screaming in fear. He came across her, and grabbed her collar. "Run! The other way!" he screamed with fear, a bloodied throat showing what the culprit was. Buffy shook herself free and walked onward. The vampire that had attacked the girl followed soon after. In a trance she pulled a stake, which the vampire practically walked into, and turned to dust. She put the stake away with the same air of indifference, and continued.
A block later she paused, looking at the sight: a church. She hesitated, looking at the building. Then she turned and walked on the path leading to it. A moment later she entered the dimly lit building, only the statue of Jesus and the altar were brighter lit. Buffy looked at it and walked forward, until she reached the altar area, and looked up at the big crucifix. She stood there, looking up at the cross for several moments, then she asked, "Well?
"WELL!?" she screamed again, anger and rage and grief burning through. She yelled out her emotions, and while doing so grabbed a chair and threw it into the church benches. Not done she continued raging, and tore a marble bench from its place, then threw it into the church as well, destroying several of the benches. With a kick she smashed a hole in a pillar, and with a final scream she sank to her knees, and smashed her fists into the grey marble floor of the altar area, cracking it in a starlike pattern. She broke down and cried on her knees.
"Could I be of service child?" a voice asked, quivering.
Buffy looked up and looked at the priest. "What would you know?" she spat out, and then added, "How long have you been here?"
The priest slowly came forward, and gave a smile. "I thought it prudent to wait until after you were done tearing my church apart, I had a feeling that might be better for my health," the priest answered seriously, and yet with humor. "As for what I know, I am the proprietor of this place, His spokesmen you could say, and we'll never know until you ask me a question."
Buffy gave a hysterical laugh, and then her face twisted into anger. "/NOTHING/ makes sense anymore!" she burst out, smashing her fists onto the floor, making the star pattern bigger and lower a bit more. The priest took a tentative step back. "Everything is upside down, and twisted around! My best friend would kill me if I get in his way! The ones I'm charged to protect are protecting me! Good is evil, evil is good! Hell, my little sister and my boyfriend saved /my/ life while I'm the Slayer. /ME/! Worse, /Spike/ of all people and things doesn't want me anymore! /Spike/!"
Buffy looked up and at the priest, who seemed mostly confused at the names, but Buffy didn't really care, "Worse, killing is good! Killing machines are nice! And /DEATH/ is a gift, /my/ gift to you! Nothing makes sense! NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!!" Buffy went on crying.
"There have often been times when nothing made sense to me either," the priest said, greatly disturbed at Buffy's speech. Hoping to calm her down enough so she could take her time and explain a bit more. Killing is good? Death was her gift to him? That didn't sound right. But he was a man of god who believed; he would be cautious, but he would not turn his back on a soul in need. "I found that when I placed my trust in god, everything eventually became clear, and worked themselves out," the priest stated.
Buffy laughed out loud. "Trust in god!" She laughed some more, going down into a chuckle, greatly disturbing the priest more. "I've once trusted in gods. Didn't really pray to them, or did any worshiping, but all of them either manipulated me, tried to kill me, or tried to kill my friends!"
The priest was taken aback at that, she was talking about gods as if they were living breathing beings that were right here in this plane of existence that you could talk to as easily as he was talking with her now. He was not to be deterred though, so he said, his hands in a embracing manner, "Then perhaps you have placed your trust in the wrong gods."
"And your god is the right one?" Buffy asked with a snicker. "A god that demands worship before he helps? A god that casually destroys and punishes people. A god that punishes people for /his/ actions. And what has that god ever done for me? Mmh?" The priest looked at her, and she gave another laugh. She got up and said, "No, your god is as useless as the rest of them. And what can a god do for me anyway, when I have the power inside of me to destroy gods?" Buffy shook her head, and made a throw away gesture, "Your god is not for me, you can have him."
The priest looked stricken as Buffy turned the way she came, and slowly but steadily walked out of the church. Outside, Buffy looked around. That had been useless. She then turned in a random direction and started walking, pain in her heart. She wanted this to end so badly. Why couldn't someone just alleviate her of all this crap? She walked like that, passing some more drunk people, and a demon she let go. She didn't know where she went, why she went, but eventually she found herself in front of a bar. She looked at it, and she decided to enter.
[Stop Buffy Defeated theme]
She wormed herself to the bar, and told the bartender, "Whisky, straight up, leave the bottle." The bartender took a look at the diminutive blonde. She sighed and pulled out her ID. A few moments later she had her bottle, and slammed away her first glass of whiskey. Slowly she poured a second glass, watching the liquid slosh around as its level raised. She put the bottle back down, and looked at it. "Here's to the fucking universe, and damn the gods," she said and gulped down her second glass.
"Bartender!" a jovial drunken voice shouted right after Buffy. "A round for everyone!" The bar erupted in shouts and whoops, and Buffy looked around at the man with long white hair falling to his shoulders. She snorted and turned back around, picking up the bottle for a second refill.
"What are you snorting at?" the man asked the girl. Buffy didn't answer. "Look at you, young, strong, great body, what could you have to complain?"
"Just get lost, drunkard," Buffy told him, taking up the glass of Whiskey and drinking it down quickly.
"Pot, kettle," the drunken man told her with a big grin.
"Fuck off," Buffy said irritably.
"I intend to, in a short while," he said grinning. He took a conspiratorially step forward, and told her softly. "Look over there, see the hot brunette, with the lovely breasts? I'll be joining her in her bed soon enough. She's very grateful after I gave them to her."
"You're a plastic surgeon who seduces his own patients?" Buffy questioned, half confused, half disgusted.
"Hhhell no!" the man said, slamming his hand on her back. He pointed with a little difficulty at the girl and added, "Those babies are real. One hundred percent tissue and fat. She was pining for even bigger ones, but in the long run, she'll find these suit her much better, and will attract her many more men."
Buffy frowned, then looked at the girl, and looked back at the man. "Who the hell are you?" she asked.
"Name's Raiden," the god sputtered out, offering a shaky hand to shake. "You must me Buffy. 'Be', I mean 'be'."
Buffy looked with dropped jaw at the intoxicated god, his eyes briefly changed to pure electricity. "I didn't know gods could get drunk," Buffy muttered shocked.
"Of courze we can . . . of courze I can snap out of it whenever I want to - I just don't want to," Raiden told her with a smile.
Buffy suddenly got pissed off, and said, "So why the fuck did I never get to see you, or have your help, huh? I'm not good enough, but that slut Faith is?"
"Who says I never helped you?" Raiden asked her bewildered. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him. The god sighed, and said, "Christmas 1998."
Buffy looked at him confused, and repeated, trying to calculate back the years, "Christmas 19-. . ."
"Here, let me refresh your memory," Raiden told her, and snapped his fingers. An instant later Buffy was freezing, and snow was piling up on the bar, much to Buffy's shock. Thunder rolled, lightning flashed, and Buffy looked up shivering in the howling freezing wind. There she could see cloud cover. Her eyes widened: /inside/ the bar!
Buffy snapped her head back at the thunder god in revelation, and said, "You!"
Raiden nodded drunkenly, and with a snap of his fingers the snow storm disappeared. Some of the patrons moaned out at the disappearance, others just giggled as they played with the snow. Raiden nodded, and said, "You didn't really think that sudden cloud cover that kept your boyfriend from frying was natural, did you?" Buffy looked at him with dropped jaw. "And oh, yeah, who do you think got him out of hell in the first place: 'the First Evil'?" Raiden made quotes in the air with his fingers, and chuckled, "You didn't believe that fool, did you?"
"I thought you weren't allowed to interfere?" Buffy wondered.
Raiden grinned, "Sometimes there are loopholes, sometimes its open season. Most of our not interfering has to do with you choosing your own destiny. Angel wasn't human, he's a demon animated corpse, who you sent to hell. Not much choosing going on before, or /in/ hell. Not to mention, what do you think this is? I've been waiting here all evening, for you to finally step in through the door."
Buffy stared at him for a few moments, then snorted and asked, "All right then, great almighty Raiden. What advice can you give me on my present predicament?"
"Advice? Advice on your mental knots, you mean?" Raiden asked, and chuckled. "Get over it."
Buffy just finished taking a new sip from her beverage, and whipped her head around. "Get over it? That's your advice?"
Raiden shrugged, "All superior, makes Buffy a very stuck up little girl." Buffy growled at him. Raiden continued, "It's really very simple you know: you already know, you asked yourself, went inside and took notes from your subconscious. Just take your own advice and do it."
Buffy rolled her eyes, and said, "Oh, great advice, Mr. All Powerful. You've been a big help."
"Yep," Raiden replied with a smile. "It's the sign of true intelligence: seeing the simple solution where everyone else is looking for a complicated one." The god got up, and said, "I'll go to my sweet piece of ass. She'll have the best night filled with the best orgasms of her life!" Buffy looked at him incredulously. "Too bad for her she's so drunk, she'll probably won't remember in the morning."
"I guess you'll be taking her new found loves away the moment she gave you what you want, huh?" Buffy told him suspiciously.
Raiden looked at her, and grinned, "Oh, no, she'll get to keep them. A gift from a humble, and grateful god." Buffy just looked at him with a stone expression. "Oh, about you're little hope that not all of them are as evil as you know they can be, don't bother putting any faith in them. You'll have to do this all by your lonesome selves. I won't help, because you need to choose your own destiny, fight your own battles. Have fun, I know I will." Raiden grinned at her and then disappeared into the crowd. A few moments later he arrived at the table of the girl.
Buffy turned back to her whiskey, and thought gloomily. She gulped the last of the fluid down, and dumped money on the counter. Then she left the bar, shaking her head, raging against the unfairness of it all in her mind.
Oh, the night is my world
City lights, painted girls
In the day nothing matters
It's the night time that flatters
In the night, no control
Through the wall something's breaking
Wearing white as you're walkin'
Down the street of my soul
You take my self, you take my self control
You got me livin' only for the night
Before the morning comes, the story's told
You take my self, you take my self control
Another night, another day goes by
I never stop myself to wonder why
You help me to forget to play my role
You take my self, you take my self control
I, I live among the creatures of the night
I haven't got the will to try and fight
Against a new tomorrow, so I guess I'll just believe it
That tomorrow never comes
A safe night, I'm living in the forest of my dream
I know the night is not as it would seem
I must believe in something, so I'll make myself believe it
That this night will never go
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh, the night is my world
City lights, painted girls
In the day nothing matters
It's the night time that flatters
I, I live among the creatures of the night
I haven't got the will to try and fight
Against a new tomorrow, so I guess I'll just believe it
That tomorrow never knows
A safe night, I'm living in the forest of a dream
I know the night is not as it would seem
I must believe in something, so I'll make myself believe it
That this night will never go
Just how much more perfect lyrics can you get? Not to mention the music. Although one can see very different things are meant, applying them to a Buffy the Slayer, they fit perfectly.
Joachim Witt mit Heppner - Die Flut also often shown as Rammstein Witt Heppner - Die Flut. Get this! This theme more than any other should be listened to while reading. If read with the same speed I read (a stiff pace, without starting to speed read), what's in the story should directly reflect the lyrics sung at that moment.
"PIKE!! YOU BASTARD, GET BACK HERE!!" Faith raged out. Pike ran with everything he had, face flushed with fear. He more stumbled then ran down the stairs. Fred and Lorne were behind the counter, and watched as the guy that had come out of nowhere claiming to be a representative of a group of people Wesley had been looking for, came running down as fast as he could.
The stairs ended at the entrance, and that's where Pike arrived. He quickly turned toward the lobby and them. He ran as fast as he could, outdoing Olympic sprinters with ease. He looked around, searching for a hiding spot as he ran onward. Unfortunately for him, Faith didn't bother with the stairs, she simply jumped down from the railing, and used her life force to fly down with far greater speed than gravity alone could muster. She landed powerfully on the ground right in front of Pike, so powerfully Fred was afraid she'd crack the floor, but apparently the Slayer had kept herself from doing just that. An instant later she grabbed the Hunter's collar and lifted him easily off the floor. "IF YOU EVER, OPEN MY DOOR AGAIN WITHOUT KNOCKING FIRST AND ASKING PERMISSION TO ENTER, YOU'RE GOING TO HURT YOU!" Faith shouted out in anger.
Lorne and Fred could finally make out what Faith was wearing, which was not much. She wore a small, tight, thin top that she normally obviously only wore underneath real clothes, or wore to bed, and a small white, frilly, g-string. Pike swallowed heavily. "Uh, I'm Buffy's first love, as you know, she might not like that," Pike tried to save himself from a beating.
He wasn't around long enough to know better, so it wasn't really his fault. He would never make that mistake again though when he saw Faith's eyes darken, and she said, "I don't care if you were Buffy's long lost, resurrected first puppy dog, you'd still get it. And if Miss Stuck Up has a problem with that, I'll give her a good asskicking as well." Faith pulled him closer, and told him, "It's bad enough you walked in on me, but then you have the audacity to stay standing and /watch/!!"
Pike swallowed, and tried to avoid the beating he felt coming, by explained, "I'm sorry, I just was nailed to the floor in surprise, you know, it's not every day I walk in on a girl DP masturbating with dildos and fondling an exposed breast at the same time."
As Faith's anger grew by the moment, Lorne and Fred looked at each other, and Fred muttered, "Oh, boy."
Faith let go with her right hand and balled it into a fist. "I shouldn't have said that, should I?" Pike asked with a nervous grin.
With a growl Faith bashed her fist across Pike's face, then pulled it back and rammed on in his gut. The Hunter groaned in extreme pain. Then Fath started violently shaking him, screaming, "_WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU_!!"
Pike fluttered about like a rag doll, but he managed bubbly, "I think I'm going to be sick."
Faith stopped her shaking, and looked at him stricken. "Ugh," she muttered and quickly tossed him away from her. A moment later the young man crashed butt first on the ground and he let himself further fall until he lay on his back, where he breathed in deeply to regain his equilibrium.
The doors to the lobby opened at that point, emitting a hasty Angel, Wesley, and Cordelia, who quickly closed the doors behind them. "We've got a very big problem," Angel said hastily.
"Indeed," Wesley added, and explained, "apparently our defeat of the Watchers wasn't complete. One managed to get away, and she hooked up with a group that wants Connor. Since Wolfram & Hart is no more, the protection for Connor we got from them is gone."
"What slowpoke is trying to say here," Cordelia took over with a grim tone. "The Watchers want Faith dead, the groups want Faith dead to get to Conner, we've found evidence they're going to open a huge portal to admit insanely powerful demons."
Faith chuckled, put her legs apart, raised her finger to the sky, and said, "This sounds like a job for Super Slayer!" They all looked at her in shock, she looked ridiculous doing that in nothing but her underwear. Faith folded her arms across her chest and explained, "I've always wanted to say that. Although it was with 'girl', not 'slayer'." She looked at everyone and added grumbling, "An abuse victim has to get her jollies where she can get them, okay? I've had fantasies."
"Supergirl was usually wearing more than you are," Angel said deadpan.
Wesley added, pointing Faith's spread upper leg, "And she wasn't showing that."
Faith looked down and saw a little of her juices glistening. She blushed and immediately closed her legs, then her red intensified with anger, and she growled at the still grounded Pike, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!! YOU INTERRUPTED ME!!"
Pike quickly scrambled back, and whined shaking her hands back and forth to ward her off, "I'll never do it again. I promise, I'll knock from now one. Please, don't kill me!"
Faith growled in frustration, flexing her hands in fists and back again, sometimes she /really/ wished she was still evil. "I think the power and the numbers of the demons they're planning to summon, not even one Super Slayer is enough," Wesley said, jolting Faith from her murderous thoughts. "So it might be better if you get dressed, while Fred calls Sunnydale, Xander is going to be needed." With a sound of annoyance Faith blasted up and over the railing and back to her room.
"Xander is in Paris remember? He and Anya went on their honeymoon a week ago," Fred stated as she dialed. "The best you can get is two super witches, a normal Slayer, and an ex-Key."
"That is not good," Wesley answered remembering. "Chances are we will not be able to find them before their ritual is complete."
Cordelia placed her hands in her side, and said in disbelief, "Not good? You can safely say everything is going down the toilet faster than Xander eats lunch!"
Angel turned to Pike who just finished getting up, and as Fred talked on the phone he asked the guy, "So, are you certain you are Buffy's first love? Or did you just suck that out of your thumb? Because I don't think Buffy's taste in men contains 'doofus'."
"Yeah, well I would never have guessed 'dude hiding in shadows' was her taste in men either, Dead Boy," Pike told him with irritation.
Cordelia walked away from the two and told Fred and Lorne, "You can easily see why she dumped one, and got no more interest in the other."
Angel didn't really notice, because he said, "Did Xander tell you that!?"
"No, Buffy's sister told me she used to think 'you hiding in shadows was oh so romantic' until she grew up," Pike returned bitingly.
Angel growled harder at that, hating that he couldn't really refute that, and hissed out, "No! I meant the name, you bastard."
"Why the hell would him and me exchange insults to vampires?" Pike returned, getting pissed off.
Angel growled, ever since the guy had come in and insulted him with his insult about 'trading him in for a lesser model', he had gotten on his nerves. "You're the biggest blundering fool when it comes to women I've ever seen! You managed to piss them all off with your blundering. Better a 'Dead Boy' than you, because a 'Dead Boy' would be more alive!" Angel returned.
"Shut up!" Fred called out. "You're little testosterone, name calling match will get us all killed. So suck it up, and be done with it!" Angel and Pike looked over at her, blinked, and then looked ashamed.
"Well," Cordelia said with a dumbfounded face as the two males in question grudgingly accepted Fred's admonishment, "Somehow, this guy doesn't quite pull it off as well as Xander . . . must have been the Speedo." Lorne and Fred looked at her uncomprehending.
An hour later the four women from Sunnydale arrived. Buffy went to sit in corner underneath the stairs, taking a breather and ignoring the rest. Tara, Willow and Dawn were tired too, they had put a lot of energy into their trip over. The Angel Team with Pike's addition welcomed them, and got the tired girls a seat on the central circular couch.
"What's the lowdown?" Dawn asked them all.
"One remaining Watcher seems to be determined to countermand the Council's order, continuing her murderous path. She's hooked up with a group of humans and demons wanting Connor," Wesley explained rapidly.
"Yes, and I believe I've pinpointed them!" Lorne exclaimed, and everyone looked over. A crystal had stuck to a place on a map, that he had placed on a chalk pentagram with black candles on the points.
"The spell broke their shielding, finally," Cordelia commented, looking at the position on the map. She closer her eyes, extended her senses to the place, forced some of her developing mental powers on that position, and after a few moments said, "Oh, that's them alright. We've got to hurry if want to get to them before they're finished."
"What's with, B?" Faith asked hastily noticing the blonde Slayer slowly getting up from her position, readying to join the fight she didn't want to join, but her conscience kept her from just staying away.
"She's not entirely . . ." Tara tried to explain.
With everyone feeling the haste coming on, Willow quickly explained, "We went to do a Slayer vision quest, ever since we came back, she's been like this."
"Perhaps you should stay behind, Buffy," Wesley suggested. Buffy looked at him, apparently not really caring.
"We need her," Tara corrected. "Although we're more powerful, and we're already powering up, she's got one major advantage still: speed."
"Let's get going," Cordelia said already going for the door, "We /really/ don't have time for this."
"Ok, let's go," Wesley commanded, and he led the extended team out the hotel.
When Fred started to come along, Faith said, "No, Fred, you're not ready yet. Besides if we fail, Lorne can't get on a plane with Connor and get him to Xander." Fred looked annoyed but stayed put with Lorne.
The entire Angel team stood in front of the building that the bad guys were hold up in. It was a medium sized building, with a store at ground level. Somewhat further on to their left were high rise glass and metal office buildings. At their place and too the right were mid-size buildings, which gradually grew smaller further to the right. They were right at the threshold of inner city and suburbs. Everyone looked rather shocked at the bad guy's hold up, and Dawn voiced it, "A vegetable store? What? They're gonna kill us with broccoli?"
"No class these days," Wesley said with disdain, shaking his head.
"Let's move! We might still have a chance at stopping them /before/ we get into the fight of our deaths," Cordelia yelled in irritation, her psychic senses were telling her the magical energies were gathering. Willow and Tara nodded in agreement and the whole group surged forward.
While they broke through the glass and went onward, Wesley added, "What happened to the mansion on the hilltop? Or the mist shrouded castle with perpetual thunder storms? Or even the abandoned warehouse would be acceptable, but a vegetable store?"
The group quickly broke down a door and found a staircase down. It ended in a large spacious cave, hewn out of the rock. Thirty magic users - some of them human, some of them demonic - stood in between them and an altar on which stood another more powerful mage. Five young, jailbait girls, virgins no doubt, were positioned at the points of a pentagram of which the altar was the center. They were glowing blue, and screaming in pain. Energy lashed up from them, to above the mage, where it circled around in a complex pattern.
"Stop them!" one of the thirty magic users said, they charged energy and some lifted off the floor. They fired all sorts of magical attacks, which bounced off a shield that Willow and Tara had erected around themselves and the others.
"Kill them all!" Wesley ordered, and the extended Angel Team burst into action, except Buffy who stayed nailed to the floor at the order to kill humans.
Angel snapped a human's neck, while Willow and Tara set three demons ablaze, and trapped a human behind a force field. Next to them Dawn knocked a Human unconscious and blew up another demon with a well place chi blast. Despite Wesley's order, which they understood, they weren't the kind to kill Humans. Pike and Cordelia for their parts, fighting side by side, really didn't care, both of them had come in contact with too many Humans who didn't deserve to live to be bothered by it. Cordelia blocked a magical blast, and fired an energy ball into the man's heart, while Pike smashed a demon's nose bone up into its brain. After which both protected themselves from a Human's super charged magical attacked, and they proceeded with taking him apart.
While everyone except Buffy was busy fighting the thirty protectors, Faith shot past them all, bashing a few aside. She banged into a force field that shimmered when she crashed into it. She took a step back and saw the slit in the rock face on either side from whence the field came. She growled and smashed her fist against it with all her untransformed might. There was a wobble in the field, then a sizzle, and the rock walls exploded outward, showering Faith who moved onward. Once the explosion settled, lots of wiring and destroyed circuitry was seen in the place. The captured virgins lifted off he ground and started to twist around the circle of the pentagram with ever increasing speed, the energies released increased as well.
Faith saw crystals mounted in the wall a short ways off, and she fired a powerfully concentrated energy ball. A moment later it exploded against another shield, and the crystals promptly exploded showering Faith with another load of rock. That made one technological shield, and one magical. The circling girls now moved so fast a normal human would only a see a twisting blue ring.
"_You're too late!_" the mage intoned impressively. He laughed then, as the virgins screamed louder, and Faith looked in horror at how they were torn apart by the forces generated by the combined blue light and the speed at which they moved. The ring kept circling rapidly, and from the complex energy patterns above the mage, several tendrils shot up, destroying building until it came out on top. Faith could see a vortex grow through the holes, a vortex that seemed to collapse into nowhere, and energy seemed to flow outward. Quickly Faith fired an energy blast into the energy, in the hope of stopping it from forming fully. Faith watched with annoyance as her energy blast was simply absorbed by the magics involved and was used to accelerate the process.
"And you die too soon to see it," Faith hissed at him in anger, and with a well-aimed energy ball killed the sorcerer. Faith looked with satisfaction at the dead man. Suddenly she rapidly twisted around and grabbed the wrist of a descending arm holding a knife. "Watcher," Faith observed, looking into the hateful eyes of the woman that had come from a hiding place. "It's because of you that they know how to do this! Don't you care about everyone living in this city?"
"You're worse, bitch! Those three are easier to kill by the time you lose control," the woman hissed at her.
"Three?" Faith muttered in revelation, and then blew the watcher away. She looked up and saw one very big demon come out of the vortex. She couldn't quite estimate its size, but she could see its dark purple hide, and the spikes coming out the back of its elbows, as well as its razor sharp claws. Faith ran toward her comrades, who had either killed, or trapped all the thirty obstacles. "Let's go now, before they blow up the whole building with us in it!" she called and pulled Pike and Cordelia along back to the exit.
"Get rid of the shield, it's a drain on your energy," Wesley hurriedly told Willow.
"What are . . . you won't hurt them?" Willow said confused not knowing what he was planning.
"Of course not," Wesley told her, and the witches lowered the shield. Then the ex-watcher fired five energy blasts in quick succession each penetrating a heart. Then he pulled the witches along, as everyone started to move, Angel pulling along Buffy.
"You said you wouldn't hurt them!" Willow said in protest as she ran.
"I didn't, they didn't feel a thing," Wesley returned, making Willow and Tara look shocked at him.
Willow looked up, as if she could see through the ceiling, and said, "It feels just like the Hellmouth."
"It /is/ the Hellmouth," Tara returned, making everyone look back as they ran. The close quarters made it impossible for them to use the super speed without crashing into each other, only the point - Faith - could do that, and had sped away from them. "They displaced it, all the magical energy is keeping it open and in place here, once it's used up, it will close and snap back to Sunnydale on its own."
"Fuck, never ever a break," Pike commented in irritation.
Faith blasted out on the street, and looked up at the Hellmouth vortex. Three of the same, two-and-a-half meters tall demons were present just like the Watcher said. Of course, the small squadron of about twenty-five demons - each not much taller than a hundred and forty centimeters Faith estimated - ranging from dark green skin color to light or dark brown, was something the Watcher had forgotten to mention. The skin of the smaller demons seemed more solid than simple skin, but not quite as stiff as rock. Their faces ranged from multiple different horrific shapes, yellow or red eyes, and rows of sharp teeth, that had fallen out with some of them. While the large purple demons were all naked, most of these smaller ones wore different shaped cloths. The small demons rapidly fell down and landed feet first, it seemed they couldn't fly, unlike the larger ones who hovered lazily above her.
The smaller demons started surrounding her. "Ooh, baby, are you as good at fucking as you look?" one of the smaller demons commented with a leer. Faith gave a low growl. Finally she could, before the time it took to transform would have wasted too much time. She sent her power up rapidly, with the smaller demons just licking their lips in anticipation of ravishing her. The larger demons' eyes widened at the massive power surge coming from the deceptively weak-looking girl. Faith then let out a scream as she raised her power further. The rest of them arrived at the vegetable store's entrance and watched Faith transform as she was surrounded by about twenty-five small, but tough looking demons. The asphalt beneath Faith's feet cracked under her power, her hair slowly raised up, electricity sparkling to life between them. Now the smaller demons started to notice too. Faith's eyes turned black in black, making them take several steps back, and then with a small shockwave her heavenly blue chi-flame erupted into existence.
"You take care of her friends, we'll deal with the little bitch Super Slayer," the leader of the three purple demons ordered to the small demons. The small demons grinned evilly and turned as one to the Angel Team that backed up a little.
Before Faith could do anything about the small demons, the three large ones attacked as one, diving at her. Faith blocked two of the demons' punches, the third she avoided by twisting around. The small demons quickly went to the store, the Angel Team backing up to get room to maneuver. Faith fired an energy blast up, that crashed against one demon, and it was launched back. It didn't get killed thought, because the other two had already reached her, and fired energy blasts from their inhumanly cold eyes. Faith deflected one, the other blast hit her dead on. She stumbled back, and shot up into the air. She was in trouble, she could tell. One of them she could handle, probably even two, but three . . . Two of the demons reached her already. She twisted around one punch, only to have her stomach sliced by the other's elbow spike. She kicked one in the face, and avoided an energy attack from the third. She blasted down rapidly, and landed a punch in one of the demons' guts, doubling it over, and making him spit some blood. She only barely avoided the kick the second demon sent at her, but flew straight into another blast from the third. Luckily she had anticipated it and had raised a shield, so although her body didn't get hurt it still took its toll on her energy level. She charged two destructo discs and sent one at the third demon, and the second down. She charged a third after that, and sent it at the third as well. Using the two demons' distraction caused by the quickly identified razor sharp discs, Faith zipped down and landed a massive punch on one demon's face. Its head snapped back, and blood flew from its mouth. Moving on, she grabbed its elbow spike, and yanked hard. She felt a satisfying snap, and then destroyed it with a burst of chi. The demon roared in pain, as she quickly dodged the onrushing second demon, who managed to nail her with a glancing blow of its spike across her arm, drawing blood. She went on to fight the third. If this went on without a decisive strike in her favor, Faith realized, she would lose.
Meanwhile the small demons had crashed through the glass of the store and eyed team Angel. Some licked their lips. One commented, "Tasty."
"Not to mention hot," another murmured eying Dawn, while another nodded in agreement leering at Cordelia. They didn't seem too worried by the energy fields surrounding the people, or the energy attacks ready and charged. Angel fired a blast, and Willow finished mumbling a spell that should turn one of the demons into a fluffy bunny. Angel's blast hit, but the demon remained standing. The spell did its work, but the demon didn't change.
"Oh, god, most of the energy is deflecting by their hides!" Willow exclaimed as she took several steps back. "Magic included."
"Oh, yeah," one demon leered at her, licking its lips suggestively. "I've never had a redhead before." Willow gulped when she distinctly noticed the demon's loin cloth raising in anticipation.
"Attack!" Wesley ordered, and he and Pike charged. They both landed a punch on a demon, and both demons' heads moved back, and that was it.
With a grin the demon Pike hit, commented, "What was that? My baby's grasps hurt more!" It giggled evilly and with a well placed backhand sent Pike flying back through the air in a nice high arc.
All pandemonium broke loose! Demons attacked, good guys returned the favor, good guys got beaten senselessly. Energy blasts flew but hardly harmed the armored demons. Buffy jumped in the fray. Just demons was not a problem, or it shouldn't be. She smashed one fist across the smaller demon's face and it staggered back under the force. "Ooh, a strong one, hot too!" the demon leered, as she felt her disgust for the thing grow by the moment.
"Say, aren't you a Slayer?" another demon leered at her form. She blocked one punch, and started charging an energy ball when it happened. The thing inside her growled with satisfaction and reached up. Buffy froze, and then staggered back, shaking her head, using every last ounce of will power to keep it bottled up. This allowed one demon to crash into her stomach and sent her flying back until she crashed into the back wall of the store. She fell to her butt, and stayed there, eyes wide. Fear was visible in them as she hunched up, shaking her head.
[Play music theme]
Four demons advanced on her and one of them licked its lips, saying, "Ooh, a Slayer. Remember the last Slayer we had, boys? Best fuck we ever had, especially after she broke." The demon grinned and the others chuckled. Buffy looked at them in shock, knowing her fate should the demons prevail. Tears started forming in her eyes.
"Yeah, this one doesn't seem much of a fighter though, too bad, that's much more fun," another leered, reaching for her legs. She slapped its claw away, and watched her friends and sister .
Dawn blocked a swipe from a demon, then blocked a punch from its other claw, and rammed her own fist in its jaw. It took a step back, but followed up with a quick high kick to Dawn's stomach. As she doubled over another demon landed on her back and head, ramming both its fists into her head and the back of her neck. "Aah!" Dawn called out in pain. She stood straight, and grabbed the demon, then rapidly bent forward again, tossing the little thing with its tough hide in her first adversary. It knocked the first back a bit, but soon both were standing and leering at Dawn.
"Feisty, I like that in a woman before we break her," the demon leered.
"Bring it on, bitch!" Dawn told it vehemently.
Buffy blocked a few half-hearted punches and kicks. The demons were obviously interested in an intact body to enjoy. Buffy shook her head, this couldn't be happening. She looked up at the ceiling, and yelled, "Why!? How come you don't do anything? This is not supposed to be! Help me, help us, do something!"
"Sorry, babe, but praying won't help you now," another demon muttered licking his lips in anticipation. The demon was right of course, no divine interruption came, no miraculous saves occurred, no magical super powers granted.
Fearfully Buffy defended herself from a few swipes, watching her friends suffer. Pike got doubled over with a punch. A demon pulled Tara's legs out from under her, making her fireball go astray. The demon landed on top of her, groping her body, and making motions for a kiss. "Come, baby," he kissed, while Tara struggled in vain.
"KEEP YOUR FILTHY PAWS OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!!" Willow screamed out in rage as she kicked the demon hard in his head, launching him off of Tara. The blonde witch quickly got up, muttering a thanks.
"Lesbians! Even better!" a demon hissed with anticipation from behind the witches.
Willow was still enraged and charged a fireball and sent it directly at the demon she had kicked off of Tara. It hit, and the demon was enveloped in flames . . . for only a few moments as it got out relatively unscathed.
"Sorry, sweety, but the hide is fire proof, if it's any consolation, I /burn/ for you on the inside!" the demon cackled an evil laugh.
Cordelia held up two demons in a telekinetic grip, but a third tackled her down, making her lose concentration. "Now why don't you use those hands to hold me?" the demon now groping her, mocked. With a yell and a backhand she sent the demon off her. Jumped up, she flung two destructo discs at the demons' necks, absorbed instead, the demons weren't decapitated as planned. Cordelia yelled out with pain and stumbled forward as a demon crashed feet first into her back.
Buffy shook her head, this couldn't be happening. She tried to block the demon's gropes and closed her eyes. Angel! Angel would save them. Angel grabbed a demon and snapped its neck. He twisted the dead demon into another, and fired an energy ball at point blank range into a demon's face. Joining forces with Wesley the two fired a joint blast that destroyed it. Buffy opened her eyes, and watched in shock as a demon held the arm of a struggling Angel. The demon's other claw sliced up along his gut and neck, blood splashed up and the souled vampire staggered back. The demon then kicked Angel off his feet, and sent him flying back through a barely left standing stack of bananas and crashed painfully against a wall.
Two demons advanced, and one of them said with a grin, "All right boys, let's un-undead ourselves a vampire." The demons and his companions chuckled, a few of them even giggled in an eery evil way.
Dawn cried out as a demon's claw opened up her lower arm. An energy blast kept the demon off of her a little while longer. Another demon jumped her ass, grabbing around her stomach, "Oh, baby, what an ass!" the demon told her dry humping the teen. Dawn's eyes went wide, and then she grimaced in anger. With a scream of rage she flew back, crashing through some courgettes and ramming the demon into a wall behind her. "Oh, I knew you were eager, baby, but not this eager. I think I'm gonna come!" the demon mocked her efforts. With another scream Dawn lashed around, launching the demon off of her with an elbow, only to be mowed down by two more demons and slumping into unconsciousness.
As the demon's hides protected them from another of Willow and Tara's magical attacks, Pike standing back to back with Wesley from demons surrounding them, said, "Fuck man, we're doomed. Doomed I tell you!"
"I'm not willing to give up yet," Wesley answered, as he looked at the slimy tongues of the demons. These things were disgusting.
"They've got better puns and one-liners, man," Pike told him in fear. "Don't you watch any action movies? When the bad guys got better one-liners, the good guys lose."
"Stop it!" Buffy yelled out, as the demons tried to pry her legs apart and were succeeding, watching as two demons punched out Willow, then Tara and more demons piled on top of both of them, yelling more mocking profanities. "Stop it!" she yelled again, anger taking a hold. Anger at the demons, anger at herself. Seeing how demons started dancing overly happy, mocking Wesley and Pike's back to back stance. With another mock the demons jumped in between the two and separated them. "Stop it!" she screamed, her rage turning into hatred, as Pike and Wesley were viciously attacked. These demons didn't just hurt her friends, they were mocking them, /playing/ with them. And she was letting it happen! She was letting them down, in a fight - and no matter how bad she had ever been or had gotten, Buffy never let anyone down in a fight. She had even promised Xander. She felt disgust entering her being, disgust for these sickening things. "Stop it!" she screamed again, as disgust for herself added into her feelings. How could she be superior if she was just sitting here doing nothing and letting it happen? How could the bitch she was before being called be superior? She had been inferior! "STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!" she screamed drawing a few of the demons away from their quarry. Buffy hated herself, she hated these sickening evil things that hurt, and planned to rape and murder, and play with her friends and family. She wanted to stop them, to kill them, to make them pay. Her emotions finally reaching its apex. Buffy let it out, all of it, and all of her rage and hatred and killer instinct and murderous intentions came spelling out. For almost seven years she kept them bottled up, tucked away, always kept it walled off. No more; like a tidal wave, an avalanche it burned through every fiber of her being. And within all that rage, hate, desire to kill, to hurt, within all that murderous intent: acceptance came easily. "_STOP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT_!!!" she screamed one final time, and her eyes warbled, her irises swallowed with a black, black vortex into an even blacker abyss.
"What the . . ." a demon muttered and staggered back at the terrifying eyes. Others did the same, and the demons at Buffy's companions got up and looked at what was happening.
Buffy's head angled back, and from the deepest depth of her soul came a scream like she never screamed before. It was high pitched, making her throat raw, think streams of tears flowed from her eyes, and rapidly down her cheeks. The scream changed pitch, lower, more like a growl, as tiny electric sparks started sparking in her hair. Cracks formed in the floor beneath her, and in the wall she was sitting against, running up past her head, where her hair wildly moved about, electricity starting and falling away again. The cracks went further, reached the ceiling and ran along it, making the demons take another careful step back.
[Stop Music theme]
Finally it happened; the electric charges in her hair started coming constantly, the blue glow flickered one more time, and then her scream stopped simultaneously with a small sonic boom. One demon staggered back under the onslaught of blue-colored energy. The wall and ceiling didn't hold and burst open, blocks of stone falling forward, and down from above, a lot of it from parts of the walls even higher than the ceiling. In an instant Buffy was covered by stone, and sealed from sight.
"You think she got crushed?" one demon muttered fearfully.
"Did that look familiar to you guys too?" another demon asked, looking at the rubble. The demons' eyes widened as they saw a blue, audibly-pulsing glow surround the stone that had buried Buffy. A similar sound sounded from outside, and some of the demons looked around at it. Just below the edge of the door, the same blue glow was visible as it hovered there. The demons turned back around, to watch as stone was pushed aside, and Buffy Summers stood up from it, placing her right leg out on top of the pile of stone. A terrifying, angry look adorned her eyes. Her face was twisted with a cold rage like she never had mustered before. he electricity charging her air around wildly, made her look even more dangerous. The blue glow pulsed ominously.
"Oh, shit," one demon said in shock, angling back from Super Slayer Buffy Summers.
Joachim Witt mit Heppner - Die Flut. The song is awesome, fantastic sound, and fantastic lyrics. (Below the original German with English translation.) It was so good, and fit so awesomely perfect it slightly changed Buffy's transformation theme. In the original concept it would only be a description of the battle, and Buffy and what she thought, but now it changed to being written from Buffy's point of view, her thoughts mimicking the lyrics. I hope you like it!
Wenn ich in mir keine Ruhe fühl'
Bitterkeit mein dunkles Herz umspült
Ich warte auf den nächsten Tag
Der mir erwacht
Wenn Finsternis den klaren Blick verhüllt
Kein Sinn mehr eine Sehnsucht stillt
Ruf' ich mir herbei
Den einen Traum
Der sich niemals erfüllt
Und du rufst in die Nacht
Und du flehst um Wundermacht
Um 'ne bessere Welt zum Leben
Doch es wird keine andere geben
Wann kommt die Flut
Wann kommt die Flut/Über mich (gleichzeitig)
Wann kommt die Flut
Wann kommt die Flut/Die mich berührt (gleich)
Wann kommt die Flut
Wann kommt die Flut/Die mich mit fort nimmt (gleich)
In ein anderes großes Leben
Irgendwo
All' die Zeit so schnell vorüberzieht
Jede Spur von mir wie Staub zerfliegt
Endlos weit getrieben
Von unsichtbarer Hand
Gibt es dort am kalten Firmament
Nicht auch den Stern, der nur für mich verbrennt
Ein dumpfes Leuchten
Wie ein Feuer in der Nacht
Das nie vergeht
Und Du siehst zum Himmel auf
Fluchst auf den sturen Zeitenlauf
Machst Dir 'ne Welt aus Trug und Schein
Doch es wird keine andere sein
Wann kommt die Flut . . .
Und Du rufst in die Welt
Daß sie dir nicht mehr gefällt
Du willst 'ne schönere erleben
Doch es wird keine andere geben
Wann kommt die Flut . . .
When I feel no calm in me
Bitterness surrounds my dark heart
I wait for the next day
that awakes me
When darkness enshrouds clear sight
No sense stills a desire anymore
I call to me
the one dream
that will never be fulfilled
And you call into the night
And you beg for miracle power
To bring a better world to life
But there will be no other
When comes the flood
When comes the flood/over me (Simultaneously)
When comes the flood
When comes the flood/that touches me (Simul)
When comes the flood
When comes the flood/that drags me along (Simul)
To another great life
Somewhere
All time passes so fast
Every trace of me like dust scatters
Blown endlessly far
By an invisible hand
Is there in the cold firmament
Not also the star, that burns only for me
A dim glow
Like a fire in the night
That will never go away
And you look up to heaven
Cursing the stubborn flow of time
Making yourself a world of deception and sham
But there will be no other
When comes the flood. . .
And you scream into the world
That you don't like it anymore
You want to experience a better one
But there will be no other
When comes the flood . . .
"Heh, heh, nice Super Slayer," a demon said soothingly, slowly backing away. Buffy's expression didn't change, she simply raised her hand and a energy ball formed at it, pointing directly at the demon. The blast was sent away and crashed against the demon's hide, penetrating it instantly and then exploded, destroying the demon. Her hand switched to the next demon of the four that had wanted to rape her, and then one was blown away with no more effort than the first. The demons tried to run, and Buffy fired, and fired. One blast after another at the four demons with her, and the rest of the demons on the left side of the vegetable store, blowing up one of the front windows.
The ones on the right side looked in shock at the simple ease with which their comrades had been dispatched. They watched as the Super Slayer's hand casually started an arc to the right side of the room, and the eleven remaining demons. The first few blasts got the few closest to the exit. Casually Buffy continued, her face cold, destroying one demon after another. Her conscious allies lowered themselves as close to the ground as they could, wrapping their arms across their heads. Two demons managed to scramble past the exit, the third was blown away on the threshold.
With the sudden power surge and accompanying thunder, a not so easily-breathing Faith stopped her movements, looking down at the store. The other demons, equally tired, and having multiple wounds on their bodies, again like Faith - although she had less - stopped their fighting as well. They all looked with wonder and anticipation. A few moments later the front of the store exploded with a few explosions.
One of the purple demons laughed hard, "Well, sweety, that's the end of your friends!"
"I wouldn't be so sure, if I were you," Faith commented with a grin.
The demons frowned and looked onward. A moment later two of the smaller demons came bursting out the shop, and another moment later the first was blown up by an energy ball. Then the same happened to the last demon that had almost managed to reach the other side of the street. Faith grinned, waiting patiently.
Inside Buffy lowered her arm, and let her chi flame wane. Her hair came down, so only the black abysses of her eyes showed she was still a Super Slayer. Casually she turned toward Willow and walked over. She took in a groaning Dawn. She knelt down in front of the half-conscious redhead witch, as around them the others slowly came back to their feet. "Willow? Willow?" Buffy said gently, and slowly Willow opened her eyes. The first thing she saw were Buffy's eyes, and she flinched back, until she notice it was Buffy and her eyes widened. "Are you alright?"
Willow nodded weakly, muttering, "You . . . you did it."
[Play Super Slayer Buffy theme]
Buffy just nodded, and then she stood up. She turned to the exit, and walked to the shattered glass. Her steps were casual, her gaze locked into eternity. Angel managed to get to his feet, holding his still bleeding cut, a human would have bled to death by now. "Buffy," he said. Buffy didn't even hear him, she simply kept walking. "Buffy?" he asked, but no answer came.
Pike sat up straight, also asking, "Buffy?" Buffy kept walking, when she reached the exit leading out, her chi flame burst up around her as if it had a mind of its own.
Faith grinned with a huge smile as she watched the blue chi flame of Buffy walk from the store. "Alright, B!" she called out with excitement, and limbs itching to finish the fight. "You did it! You're a Super Slayer!" Faith snickered and then turned to the three stunned demons.
Buffy took several more steps and then slowly looked up, looking at the large purple demonic beings. "You won't mind if I even up the odds a little, do you?" she asked calmly, slowly rising into the air.
"One, there should be only one Slayer," one of the demons muttered confused.
"Sorry, boys, but it's been several years since that changed," Faith grinned with a big smile. "Alright, B, just like old times! You ready to kick some demon butt?"
Buffy didn't answer for a few seconds, and then she screamed into the sky, powering up further, wind and energy blew past Faith, and then the blonde shot forward, smashing a devastating punch in a surprised demon, doubling him over. With an equally destructive uppercut she sent the demon flying upward, groaning in pain. She fired a pinpoint blast of energy in the second demon's chest, making it sail backward before it stopped itself. "I'll take that as a yes," Faith said, landing a left hook on the third. She grabbed its right arm and twisted it around, then landing a kick on it. A satisfying snap indicated she had succeeded in breaking the demon's arm. It lashed out with its left arm, flying its claws at her. Faith flew backward a little avoiding it.
Faith took a look at Buffy and was surprised, the blonde was fighting a brawling match. She ducked underneath one demon's swipe, and elbowed him in the stomach, making him double over. She blocked the second demon's right punch, taking the hand straight to hers. The demon's claws and small spikes on the top of its hand obviously had to cut in her hand, but she didn't even seem to notice. She twisted the arm around, going underneath it and snapped its spike off with a well-placed kick. The other demon fired beams from its eyes and Buffy didn't even bother to avoid them or raise a shield, she simply took them head on and it seemed like she didn't feel a thing.
Faith avoided a kick, and twisted a punch away from the third demon, then flew backward in the direction of the center of the city and the large buildings, allowing her to send the following demon's eye beams up into space with a swat.
Buffy in the mean time was upside down, in the midst of a backward flip kick, that connected perfectly with the demon's jaw. She got punched in the gut by the second one, and mildly doubled over. She simply grabbed the demon's foot, twisted around and flung him at the other demon. With a roar she sped at them, clotheslining both with one arm. Then she kicked them both away. Faith smoothly avoided the two onrushing demons and they crashed into the third. Buffy charged her energy, her eyes intent on her enemies, "_KA-ME-HA-ME- . . ._!"
Faith crashed into Buffy's left side, and yelled, "_Have you lost you're mind, Buffy_!? If you put that much uncontrolled power into the Kamehameha you'll level the entire city!"
Buffy looked at Faith with a very unpleasant look, until she broke into a grin, and said, "Then I'll just have to put that much /controlled/ power into it, don't I?" Then she blasted off toward the demons who had just managed to disentangle themselves from each other.
Faith looked shocked at how Buffy went to fight the three demons without regard for common sense or her own safety. Shocked she watched how an elbow of Buffy landed on the chin of one of the demons and sent it reeling back. She followed it by smashing her fist into the demon to her left doubling him over, and then smacking the back of her head into his chin. With a dangerous grimace she took a claw straight to her face from the third, but her brightly burning chi flame kept it from even hitting. "KAMEHAMEHA!!" she yelled, firing the energy wave from both her hands at point blank range. The beam crashed into the demon, and burst through it, then shot upward into space. She then grabbed the already dying demon and swung him to her left and back, catching the second demon and pulling him along. Onward she went taking the first still dazed demon along for the ride, sending her toward the large glass buildings. She shot after them, appeared above the bundle of three demons, and hammered then down to the street with a double-handed blow. The two still living demons groaned in pain then once more as they crashed into the street in the middle of an intersection, creating a crater.
"DIE!!" Buffy screamed and fired an energy ball down at the demons. She followed it by another, and another, and another, screaming, "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Faith looked at the spectacle and muttered, "She really has lost her mind."
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Buffy screamed, sending energy ball after energy ball from her hands down. Each blast exploded on impact down below, which had long since been obscured by the smoke rising from the impact site, which was starting to reach Buffy. The blonde Slayer had enough, and lifted both hands above her head. Electricity crackled between her outstretched hands, and then filled with a massive energy ball, as Buffy growled loudly. Finally she decided the one and a half meter in diameter sphere was enough, and she yelled one final time, "_/DIE/_!!!!" She flung the energy ball down, under scrutiny by Faith, Willow, Tara, Angel and the others who had come out to watch by now. The ball crashed into the crater and exploded with a devastating explosion. A column of energy flashed upward, and a shockwave blasted outward from it. Instantly glass in several blocks shattered. The two glass towers framing a heavily breathing and growling Buffy shattered equally, sending glass shooting out from them everywhere.
Slowly a dangerously grimacing Buffy lowered herself down until she stood on the edge of the crater waiting for the smoke to clear. It did a short while later, revealing a three meter across crater almost five meters deep. Faith too lowered herself to the ground, looking astounded at her blonde counterpart. "Yes! She did it!" Tara said with a smile, glad the three super powerful demons were gone, and even more so the twenty-five smaller ones. Faith kept her chi flame up, as was Buffy keeping hers up. There was something wrong with this Buffy, Faith thought.
"Faith, you and I have some unfinished business!" Buffy said loudly and turned half around, her head traveling the rest of the distance to Faith. "It's time we address it, don't you agree?"
Faith looked shocked into Buffy's black eyes, unease creeping up into her spine. She'd seen her own eyes in the mirror, they looked scary, even if she managed to tone the impression down so her friends wouldn't run away screaming whenever they saw her like that. But with Buffy, there something else there, something even scarier, something insane. The twisted grin that then crept up Buffy's face punctuated that point. Before Faith had any more time to contemplate Buffy's state and her question, the blonde shot at her with a murderous roar. In reflex, Faith blocked the punch, raising her power, and tried, "What are you doing, B? We're on the same side, remember?"
"SHUT UP!!" Buffy screamed and threw a rapid combo of punches and kicks. One kick to Faith's gut and an uppercut got through. Faith consecutively doubled over and was sent flying back and high through the air. She twisted around, landing a devastating kick to the side of Buffy's head, who had followed after her. Faith barely noticed the horrified calls for them to stop from the others. Buffy didn't really seem to notice the kick, let alone the calls. Her face was simply twisted in a mask of insanity. Faith blocked a few more of Buffy's attacks, and then landed an elbow to Buffy chin. The dark-haired Slayer backed away and looked incredulously; despite the bruise forming, Buffy hadn't even flinched, let along showed any other acknowledgment of pain, unlike the hits Buffy had landed on her.
*Shit, shit, shit!* Faith thought, blocking Buffy's following attack. "Buffy, I don't want to fight you, stop this!" Faith called out hoping to get through to the blonde. The right cross that sent her staggering back proved she hadn't. *This is not good,* Faith told herself, once again on the defensive. *She's nuts, no longer feeling any pain, and she's fresh while I fought those three demons damaging them with everything I had.* She jumped up and over the blonde Slayer, kicking her in the back of the head, and using it as a jumping point. She screwed through the air, landing back with the rest of the team facing the insane Buffy who turned around, rage clearly on her face. Faith watched in shock how Buffy snickered insanely and started charging a massive Kamehameha. *All right, Faith,* she admonished herself, powering up, *time to stop playing around. She has to be stopped or a lot of people are going to die . . . and there is really only one way to stop someone so insane she doesn't feel pain . . . I'll have to kill her.*
Faith hated the thought, but knew it was the only way. Just before she was going to do something decisive, Willow slid in front of her, hands spread wide, yelling, "Buffy, stop this! You don't want to do this!"
"Get out of the way, redheaded bitch!" Buffy snarled, her eyes not really showing any rationality.
"Really, thank you, Willow, but you should get back there, I doubt she even recognizes you!" Faith said desperately, enveloping the diminutive redhead within her protective chi.
Buffy was still talking with a snarl, "I will kill that bitch, even if it means destroying you!" The Kamehameha increased with power, Faith readied to continue fighting, while Dawn, Tara, and Angel pleaded with Willow to come back.
"Don't flatter yourself, Faith, this is for Buffy, not you," she told the girl behind her, and then called back out to Buffy, "This is not you, Buffy! I know you're still in there! You'll hate yourself forever if you kill her. I know she's a bitch, but she's with us!"
"SHUT UP!" Buffy screamed out loud. "This is your last chance, you stupid cow. Move, or die with her!"
"Willow, I know you love, Buffy, but if she fires that wave, she'll destroy LA completely, I /will/ have to stop her if she fires, by any means necessary," Faith said through gritted teeth.
"She won't kill me, she won't," Willow told Faith while calling out, "Buffy! It's me! You know who I am! I'm Willow! I'm your best friend!"
At the same time, Faith muttered, "How the hell did this happen anyway? I thought she needed to accept everything she is before she could do this, and nothing happened to make her go insane, nobody died."
"Get out of the way!" Buffy called again, as Willow's eyes widened, remembering the last few weeks' events, Buffy's insecurities about her friends and her abilities. Buffy continued, "Nobody can be that bitch's friend, nobody would sacrifice herself for such a monster! But I will kill you along with her even if she brainwashed you, this is your last chance!"
The thoughts went through Willow's mind, Buffy's talk with her inner Slayer, her complete shutdown after that, what Buffy had told her before, her fears. "She did," Willow said in realization. "She did accept it, and it shattered her mind.
"Buffy we're all still here! You can beat this, you're still my friend, Buffy!" Willow called out at Buffy, Faith getting more ready.
"I WARNED YOU!!" Buffy screamed. "KAMEHAMEHA!!" The massive beam of energy was fired an instant later.
Willow looked shocked for a moment, and then straightened her back, put her hands out again, looking straight into Buffy's eyes. "She won't do it!" Willow said with conviction.
*Damn it, Red,* Faith thought grinding her teeth, only moments before the point of no return, at that point Faith would act, no matter how much faith Willow had in her blonde friend. How ironic.
The wave of energy raced along the distance with enormous speed - every moment making it more difficult for Faith to stop it - and then, just as it would be too late, there was a flicker in Buffy's eyes and they widened a bit as they were locked with Willow's resolve-face eyes. The Kamehameha curved upward suddenly, shooting up into space. Willow and Faith could feel the energy and the heat radiating over her. "Willow!" Buffy blurted out in shock, staggering back shaking her head. She looked down at her hands as the transformation left her, and she dropped to her knees. Willow and Faith, and the others to a lesser extend, sighed with relief. "Willow . . . I almost . . ." Tears returned instantly as Buffy broke down, sank to her knees, and then dropped further down completely. "Willow . . ." she sobbed out, tears streaming from her eyes crying in horror.
[Stop Super Slayer Buffy theme]
Willow ran over to her friend, and sank down next her. She grabbed the sobbing girl's shoulders, and pressed down against her, hugging Buffy close, and soothed, "It's okay, Buffy. It's gonna be okay. You saved us, and you didn't hurt anyone. It's okay. You'll be okay, I'm okay, it'll be fine." Willow started crying along side her sobbing friend, unable to hold herself in check as Buffy's crying affected her.
The others gathered around Buffy, Faith last. Tara joined her girlfriend, and tried to cheer both, and especially Buffy up. Dawn knelt down, and despite the blood still leaking from her wounded forearm cradled Buffy's hands in her, getting a little woozy at the blood loss. Faith watched with relief at the scene, but not too long. She being the least invested with Buffy's crying, said, "Guys, I think we should treat the worst wounds first before some of you die of blood loss."
"Yes, and I start licking the blood you're losing off the street," Angel added somberly, his large chest wound demanding blood to heal.
Faith sat with Archie, Zoey, and Tiffany playing a game of 'Hotel' in the Hyperion's lobby. They had just finished a satisfying self-defense class under guidance of Faith. The game had been bought by Faith, Archie and Zoey a few months earlier when Zoey's sense of irony had flared; playing a game to be the most successful hotel entrepreneur in an old hotel gone bankrupt. Thus the four were enjoying a slice of pizza, as Zoey tossed the die. She moved her red car the amount of dots the die indicated.
"Throw girl! Show me how many nights you wanna stay, and then pay up!" Tiffany told the other girl with a big grin. She took the last of her slice of pizza in her mouth as she picked up her card indicating the rates of the hotel, and chewed. That was her first and only slice of pizza unlike the others who were either already starting their second - third for Faith - or would get it later; a high class girl had to watch her figure after all.
It was a week since Buffy - who according to contact with Sunnydale was lying in bed sobbing, and crying most of the time - almost destroyed LA, killing everyone living there. Anya and Xander would soon be returning from their honeymoon. Wesley and Cordelia were a little bandaged up still, but Pike was already hopping around like nothing ever happened to him, to such an extent that Lorne had wondered wether the guy had Slayer or vampire blood in him. One good thing about a bandaged up boyfriend, Faith mused, was a good excuse to play 'nurse', remembering the latest bouts of 'the patient gropes the nurse and she loves it.' "Faith, you're turn," Archie told the Slayer, interrupting her train of thought.
"Huh, oh!" Faith said grabbing the die and tossing it on the board.
The doors to the hotel swung open and a young woman entered. The game playing foursome didn't react to the new customer, apart from Archie and Zoey taking a quick look. The young woman walked forward a little bit more, going down the three steps leading from the entrance down to the lobby floor. She looked around, and settled her gaze on Faith. "MURDERESS!!" she yelled, pulled a gun and started firing, her arm shaking with rage. Faith got up instantly, as everyone looked with shock at the young woman, even Angel and Cordelia behind the counter. Faith caught the bullets out of the air, until the .38 the woman was using produced a click, no longer a bang. Faith shot forward, grabbed the young woman, and then pulled her out the front door, and then she blasted up in the sky.
Above LA the young woman screamed for Faith to let her go. "Sure, but I suggest you look down first," Faith told her in answer.
Despite herself, the young woman looked, and froze in shock. "You're gonna kill me! You'll drop me close by a building and claim it was suicide, you bitch!" she accused.
Faith sighed, and sped up. A few moments later she reached the Hollywood sign and set down with the profanities-screaming girl just above the sign. Faith let the girl go, pushed her back a bit. The girl looked shocked for a moment, and then narrowed her eyes, saying angrily, "How the hell are you unscathed? At least one of those bullets should have hit you!"
Faith tossed the bullets he had held in her left hand over. The girl caught one of them, and looked in shock at the bullet. "I caught them," Faith told her, and then said, "Now will you please tell me who the fuck you are, and what I did to you?"
The girl's face twisted into anger again, and told her, body tense, "I'm Melissa Bradley! And you killed my father, murdering bitch!"
"And who pray tell is your father?" Faith asked; there was one man she had killed accidentally, then there was one other she had murdered, and back then enjoyed doing it. Guilt, and regret flooded her as she remembered that event.
"Professor Marcus Jernigan!" Melissa yelled at Faith. Faith regarded her, seeing the tears starting to form in the girl's face. "I spent fourteen years wondering what my father was like! And finally on my twenty-first birthday my mother tells me who he is; a charismatic professor she met one day, and spent one night with, he never even knew I existed! Then I come here to look for him, and find him dead! Murdered! By you! And then I find they just let you go, you filthy bitch!"
Faith nodded, and sighed. "Yes, I murdered him," Faith told the girl gently, making Melissa tremble with rage. "So you decided to kill me, including whoever happened to be in the way, or close by if you missed."
Melissa snarled out, "Friends of murderers are just as bad as the murderers themselves!"
"Ah," Faith sat, and sat down, her knees up, and wrapping her arms around them. Melissa looked at her in shock. "I suppose the judge and the jury who let me go were just as bad eh? Kill me, then my friends, and then kill the jurors and judges, the bailiff, those who were there to watch . . ."
"Fuck you, bitch, I'm not like you!" Melissa told her angry.
Faith nodded, and said, "And yet you'd kill my friends, friends who I met years after what I did, after a judge let me go, friends who might not even know what I was. The bullets that missed both me and them could have gone out a window and killed the mother that was pushing along her baby cart." Melissa stayed silent, her body tense with rage. "You would have been as bad, if not worse than I am. If I couldn't catch bullets, you probably would have murdered more people then I have, and then twenty years from now, once they let you out of prison, another daughter would come for you."
"CUNT!" Melissa yelled out and threw a punch. She hit Faith's chin, and then pulled her hand back in pain.
Faith turned to regard her with a smile, and said, "I catch bullets with my bare hands, and you think a punch was going to hurt me?" Melissa growled, cradling her painful hand. "Listen, your father is dead, I murdered him; if I could, I'd bring him back to life, or stop myself from killing him, but I can't," Faith explained taking in Melissa's gaze.
"Quit the teary act, I haven't seen you once acting like you care. I watched you first, you know, wanted to know what the murderess of my father was like, and I find a bitch that laughs, has friends, plays games . . . you don't give a shit about my father!" Melissa accused enraged.
Faith turned her head back around, looking over LA. "You're wrong," she answered Melissa. "Very wrong, I care a great deal about what I've done. I'm guilty of murdering your father, and there isn't a week that goes by that I don't think about it at least once. Wishing I had been smarter, better, not as angry, more trusting, that I had screamed out for help from the place where I was, wishing I hadn't killed him. The guilt I feel sometimes overwhelms me, there have been times that I wished I had never been born, so my victims could live. I've tried to kill myself, even. But I've spent over a year in jail for what I've done, I've forgiven myself, I'm moving on, and yes, I'm enjoying my life, for I no longer feel guilty over my crimes."
Melissa snorted, and told Faith with disgust in her voice, "Do you even listen to yourself? 'I feel guilt, but I don't feel guilty.' '/I've/ forgiven myself?' What makes you think you sickening bitch, you /get/ to forgive /yourself/!? You don't give a damn about my father /or/ me, or anyone else for that matter!"
Faith shook her head, and then said smiling, "A very wise being once told me, that redeeming yourself is a lot easier than proving to those you've wronged that you have." Faith looked up her victim's daughter and continued, "I have redeemed myself by forgiving myself and stopping my path of crime. I feel guilt, because I'm guilty, but I no longer feel guilty, though I have felt that a long time. Feeling guilty means that I don't think I've changed, that I'm still the same sickening, evil bitch that killed your father. I'm not anymore, these days I only harm those who wish to harm me, my friends and family, or those out there and the world in general."
"You're nuts! If not in prison, at very least you belong in an insane asylum! The world?" Melissa raged out.
Faith grinned at her, and chuckled, then said, "In case you've forgotten with you single minded focus on being angry with me, I caught the bullets with my bare hands, and we /flew/ here. I've got responsibilities you can't fathom." Melissa blinked, and looked blankly ahead, thinking, then looked down at Faith, who told her, "I really hope you quit with this destructive and self-destructive path, Melissa, I'd hate to have your incarceration on my conscience on top of your father's murder. You can be angry with me, you can hate me, you can choose to never forgive me, that is your choice, there's nothing I can do about that. You can even try to kill me again and again, I'll accept that, and I won't attack you, although I will defend myself. If you succeed, you'll end up in jail no doubt, but that won't matter much to me when I'm dead. But . . ." Faith got up, and turned to the girl. She stepped close, and looked the slightly taller brunette directly in the eyes, then as a matter of fact said, "you try to kill me in such a matter that you endanger my friends, my family, or anyone else innocent again, I will call the cops, have you arrested and put away for attempted murder and manslaughter, understand?" Melissa nodded. "I can't hear you," Faith stated.
"I understand," Melissa said, looking at the 'bitch that killed her father'.
"Some advice," Faith said, looking Melissa deep in her eyes, "stop being angry at each and everyone and everything in the world, including yourself. I was once like that, couldn't see anything for the anger, wouldn't trust enough to ask those who would help me, when they tried to help without me asking, I got angry because 'I didn't need anyone', or I thought they just wanted to fuck me. It's how I ended up a criminal. Don't go that road yourself; you won't like where you'll end up."
"I'm not angry at each and everyone, just at you," Melissa bit at Faith.
The Slayer smiled, and said, "If that were true, you would have tried not to hurt my friends and innocents, not just walked in and start pulling a trigger." Faith indicated the empty .38 that Melissa was still gripping. The girl raised the gun and looked rather astonished at it, completely forgotten it was still there.
Melissa then looked at Faith, and asked, "You'll really let me go? You won't even hurt me?"
Faith nodded and took the gun from her calmly. She crumpled the gun until it was useless and tossed it away. "I won't even hurt you," Faith confirmed, as Melissa mulled over the conversation. Faith picked up Melissa and gently flew back to the hotel, where she set her down upon the sidewalk. "Goodbye, Melissa, if you ever want to talk for some reason, you can find me here," Faith said. She shrugged, rather nervous now at what to say. Tiffany, Zoey, and Archie appeared in the door, looking angrily at Melissa, ready to attack the girl that had tried to kill their friend. "Leave it, guys, her father was my victim, she's got a right to be angry," she told her friends and ushered them back inside under several of their protests. Faith looked back at Melissa one more time and entered the hotel.
"Want me to call the police, hot stuff?" Lorne asked with concern, the rest of her family looking expectantly at her.
"No," Faith said and looked back for a moment. "I've got a feeling she won't try again."
Cordelia was speeding along the street, in the convertible with the top down. Pike had announced he'd be leaving the day before, and she had been elected to go buy a goodbye present for him. Despite his flubs with the girls, and pissing off Angel as bad if not worse than Xander did, he had been pleasant company most of the time. So there she was now, going along traffic trying to get back in time before Pike left. She just hadn't been able to resist trying out that fantastic dress in the window, and that done the skirt and the . . .
Cordelia shook her head. Why in blazes couldn't people take into account other people's shopping needs? "Get off the road, pirate!" she yelled at one car she sped along. She was making really good time . . . until her car stopped. Cordelia blinked, and then realized it wasn't just her car, it were all cars! "Don't tell me X-Files is real too, I'm gonna wring Xander's neck if so," she muttered and then noticed it was not just her completely standing still car, as all standing still cars, but also everyone inside the cars, and the sound was gone. "What the . . .?" she muttered and looked around. The road was packed with standing still cars, and sitting still people. She noticed a few people standing behind a window of a building, and they too were standing still.
"Cordelia," a half-familiar voice sounded from behind.
Cordelia turned around and saw Skip. "You!" she said in anger, and jumped out of the convertible. "Which part of 'fuck the Powers That Be' didn't you get last time?" she hissed out at the big armored demon.
"Well, Cordelia, they are very impressed with your ability to handle the visions much better," Skip said friendly. "You have performed beyond all expectations, and some of the higher ups have found you are worthy to ascend."
"Ascend?" Cordelia asked coldly, her eyes narrowed.
"You become a higher being," Skip told her with a friendly smile. "As a higher being you will look down upon the Earth and guide your friends, and family, and many more people. It is a great responsibility that you cannot forsake."
"And why not?" Cordelia asked him coolly.
"Because . . . because you will do great good for everyone, without it things . . ." Skip started and then was very surprised at Cordelia's interruption.
"Really!?" Cordelia said with a goofy smile, jumping up and down in happiness as if she were a little girl. "Of course I take it then! I couldn't possibly forsake . . ." Cordelia suddenly stopped jumping and said, "Wait, I have a better idea." She put her hands next to her body and charged a powerful ball of energy, making Skip's eyes widen in surprise. "I'm gonna test out this little attack I mastered just recently on an actual demon like you . . . _Kamehameha_!" The energy wave rushed from her hands a moment later. Skip was unable to dodge, and was hit full on by the powerful energy attack. With a powerful explosion creating a small mushroom cloud, Skip was torn apart, and vaporized. Cordelia watched with satisfaction as her attack left nothing of the demon, created a small indentation in the road, and left all the cars untouched: it wasn't powerful enough to disrupt the broken flow of time, the explosion didn't expand enough, and the small shockwave didn't touch them because she, Skip and the energy blast were out of sync with the cars. Cordelia gave a satisfied nod, and said, "And they say I can't act, at most I need some practice to do the juicy stuff."
Suddenly, as if someone pushed the play-button on a paused VCR, the sound returned and the cars started moving again. Cordelia's eyes widened, and instantly jumped back, making a backward somersault and made a screw to change direction. Smoothly she landed back in the driver's seat of her car, and put her foot back on the gas. In the car behind her, a man looked in disbelief, and then shook his head.
Xander and Anya sat next to each other in the plane. First class of course, with Harmony's first payment, and Xander's tallness there was no way they were going to be flying in the cramped, leg- and back-breaking coach section. Anya looked exited out the window, looking at the clouds they passed. "This is great, Xander," Anya said with a wide grin.
Xander who sat lazily in the comfortable chair nodded. Flying himself would be faster, and more fun, but by no means more comfortable, especially considering the occasional insect that managed to slip past a slit in his chi-field, or the thunderstorm he might have to fly through. This certainly was less exhausting; here he could just sit back and enjoy.
A stewardess arrived and offered them a complimentary honeymoon refreshment, and champagne. Xander and Anya thanked her and took the glasses and the hart-shaped chocolates. They then got congratulations from the other first class passengers and they thanked them. "Hmm," Anya said, tasting the creamy chocolate. Xander agreed with the sentiment. A few minutes later they finished their refreshments and kissed each other.
"I know we've already done it out there," Anya whispered with a mischievous pout, pointing out the window, and continued, "and now that they know we're on our honeymoon, they'll never believe we just went to pee if we both go to the bathroom, will they?"
"I suppose not," Xander returned softly.
Anya grinned deeper and asked, "Is that a problem for you?"
Xander breathed in his new wife's sent, and felt himself stir. "Hell no," he whispered.
"Two ticks with your nail," Anya said and got up out of her chair.
Xander followed Anya's sexy body as she walked off to the bathroom. He waited a minute or two, and then followed. Suppressing a smirk, he maneuvered the aisle of the plane, avoiding occasional passengers, until he reached the bathroom. There was luckily no line, and he went to the first cubicle - not locked. Carefully he went around to the other one, and tapped it twice with the nail of his index finger. The door became unlocked and he checked whether anyone saw, then quickly went inside.
Back in first class a stewardess went to check upon the passengers, seeing if they needed anything, and noticed the newlywed couple gone. One of the other passengers, said with a secret grin, "They went to the bathroom, one a few minutes after the other. Perhaps the chocolate was bad, or the champagne."
The stewardess shook her head in disbelief as a few more passengers snickered.
Several minutes later Anya returned slightly flushed, and sat down as if nothing was the matter. "Had fun?" a woman asked.
Anya smiled at her and said, "As much fun as one can have, peeing in a tiny cubicle."
"Hmm mmh," the woman said clearly not believing, as did the few other passengers, who grinned or shook their heads.
A few moments later Xander returned with a straight face, his chi abilities having eliminated whatever flush his wife had given him. "So, you had as much fun as peeing as your wife?" the same woman asked.
"Taken a dump actually," Xander said deadpan, "and lots of fun, wondering how big the lawsuit would be to the airlines if my dump happened to fall right on top of someone's unfortunate head." He earned a few laughs and disbelieving faces.
"Paris," Anya said, looking out the taxi window in wonder. She sat back down and looked at Xander. "I've been here before, but everything looks so different now, vibrant, alive."
Xander grinned and sat, "Courtesy of being a living human in love, sexy." Anya smiled, moved over and kissed him deeply.
A short time later they arrived at their hotel, and checked in. A bell boy helped them to their room. Anya looked around the beautiful and spacious honeymoon sweet. "Ooh!" Anya exclaimed twirling around. She jumped on the heart-shaped, four-poster bed, and then turned on her back, purring at the soft sheets. "Xander," she called, after she watched him send the bell boy away with a tip. He looked around and regarded her. Anya wiggled out of her skirt, revealing the white high-cut g-string, the front slightly discolored from their earlier bout in the plane, and the wetness that her arousal was forming now. "We've /got/ to break this bed in."
Xander grinned lecherously at Anya who shimmied backward further on the bed. "You're right," he said, and was with her instantly. Not bothering with the niceties, he simply tore her panties away, making Anya squeal in delight. Then he dove in.
The naked, satisfied, just married couple lay next to each other. Anya was breathing hard, while Xander breathed in and out deeply, but easily. "You're so good," Anya murmured in satisfaction.
"So are you, baby, so are you," Xander said, and then gave her a deep kiss.
Anya and Xander stood in the long line in front of the Eiffel tower. Xander bent right, while Anya bent left. "Uh, how long is this going to take?" Xander whimpered. They had spent there at least twenty minutes and they were still nowhere near the entrance.
Anya sighed, and said, "Long. But we're going to stay here nicely. I never went into the Eiffel tower, never cared for it in my former occupation."
"Nope," Xander said, getting an idea.
"Xander, we /will/ go up the Eiffel tower," Anya commanded.
"Yup," Xander answered, and looked around. Anya looked at him in confusion. Then he grinned, and put his right arm around Anya's waist.
"What are you doing?" Anya asked.
"Hold on," he said, and then burst into the air rapidly. Anya felt her stomach flip but didn't scream out. Right over the ticket booth Xander let the necessary Euro bills and coins fall, and then zipped up to the first floor of the steel tower. The bills were pulled along by the coins and they fell into the small opening in the plastic window. The girl selling the tickets looked astonished at the money, then looked out the window and tried to look up, not getting where the money came from.
Anya blinked when they were on the first floor, and looked up at a widely grinning Xander. The Saiyan looked around, and saw a few kids, and an occasional woman and man pointing at him and Anya, and then being scolded by parents, significant others and friends. A few similar events happened on the tower, but apparently not enough people had really noticed, Xander simply had gone too fast. "There," he said with a huge grin. "We're on the tower."
Anya grinned and shook her head. "You're a bad, bad man, Xander, kiss me," she said. He complied. Then they went to explore the tower.
When they were at the highest where people were allowed, they looked our over Paris, he had his hand around her waist, the wind whipping Anya's hand about a little. "What a view," Anya said with a huge smile. "So romantic," she added, and they shared a kiss.
Xander and Anya stepped upon the beach of the Channel, the Atlantic ocean in between France and England. It was not that far from Paris, and perfect for a regular visit if they left early enough and it was a particular warm day like today. Xander smiled as looked across the beach. There weren't many people present. April wasn't vacation time, and it wasn't really warm yet. Anya smiled with him; there were a few good-looking, topless girls. "You watch, Xander, and remember all the pent up energy gets spent on me tonight," Anya told him with a wide grin.
Xander smiled at her, and answered, "On who else?"
The two quickly walked forward and found a nice spot. They put towels on the sand, and they took off their clothes, Xander was already wearing his swimming trunks and Anya her bikini. Once the clothes were off, Anya took the bikini top and untied it. She took it off and dumped it in their bag. "Freedom," she said with a smile, shaking her torso left and right provocatively. "Not like back home where you get people telling you to put on clothes if you don't want to get arrested, just because you're waving your fiance goodbye!"
"What are you talking about?" Xander asked confused.
"Oh, just venting some longtime irritation," Anya said with a huge grin, turning to him, and he took in her naked breasts, and smiled. "Let's go swim!" Anya ran to the water and dove in, closely followed by Xander. Once inside Anya resurfaced, and stood shivering at Xander. "Cold, water is so cold!" she said with chattering teeth.
Xander agreed with Anya, and now knew why so little of the beach goers were in the water. "Solved in no time!" Xander said with a grin. He charged his chi. Anya quickly stopped with cold when she felt the water directly around her quickly reach acceptable temperatures. Xander then put his hands in the water and looked around. He charged two energy balls under water, and let them go. He did that several more times, and then sent the balls on their way. Anya watched and saw vapor coming off the water where the balls went. Of course that was only in the paths that the energy balls made. Xander looked around a few more times, and then the energy balls exploded sending their energy into the water everywhere making a nice light show, and some of that water was blasted upward. A quick chi shield kept the water from hitting anyone and their baggage on the beach. Immediately he let the chi shield drop, and he looked around, smiling.
"Blessed warmth," Anya said, feeling the now warm water.
Someone asked in French if they were alright, and Anya answered them they were fine. After which the man asked if they didn't think that was freaky. Anya answered she did, but had no idea what it was, except that the water was now warm. When the man turned away, Anya took some water and splashed it over Xander, who returned the favor. He took her in his arms then, and kissed her, before pulling both of them under water. They came back for air a few moments later.
Xander and Anya lay in one of Paris' parks on a picnic blanket. As other couples, they were making out. Anya was on her knees straddling Xander, and kissing heavily. "Mmh," she murmured while kissing. She gave a quick giggle when Xander turned them around, so he was lying on top of her, kissing. They broke the kiss, and Anya said, "This has been a fantastic honeymoon so far."
"I'll say," Xander said, and then looked up. It was faint from such distance, almost non-existent, but the power of a Super Slayer was undeniable. "Faith just transformed, I think they're in a fight."
"Wanna go help them?" Anya asked concerned.
"No," Xander said, a bit restless.
"Why not?" Anya asked out of curiosity.
Xander smiled down at her, and said, "Too far away. Take me hours to get there, by that time it'd be too late. And if they lose there's always time to go after whatever it did then. And more importantly, they have to fight for themselves. I can't hold their hands all the time, they'll never get stronger, they'll never gain the experience."
"Some of them might die," Anya pointed with some fear. They were her friends.
"Yes," Xander said heavily. "Let's not worry about it. There's nothing we can do. Let's just enjoy the honeymoon." Anya nodded and they resumed their make out session.
After a few minutes, Xander broke the kiss and looked up in wonder. "What?" Anya asked concerned.
Xander then smiled and looked down at her, "Buffy just went super." Anya smiled, and then it widened before they continued there kissing.
Xander and Anya walked along the Seine, smiling. Honeymoons were good! Xander had his arm around her shoulders and they were enjoying the stroll toward another sight they hadn't seen yet. They were sharing an ice-cream cone that Anya was holding. As they walked like that, a sudden unfamiliar sound was heard. They looked up and Xander extended his senses to more than a basic passive check to keep unwanted surprises from happening. Thus Xander quickly looked in the right direction, and Anya along with him. An odd spherical ship with fire around it zipped across the sky, obviously it just entered Earth's atmosphere.
Xander recognized it, as well as some of the chi signatures inside. The sides of the ship that became ever more visible as the superheated plasma diminished around it was lined with vertical, oval-shaped, pod-like protrusions. The underneath outer edge was also lined with metal gleaming strips, that Xander knew could fold out and would function as stands. "Frieza," Xander whispered.
"I thought he was dead," Anya asked him.
"Oh, he is," Xander answered, starting to smirk, as the ship disappeared across the horizon, which with the buildings around them wasn't very far. "He and his kind uses those kinds of ships."
"Whoa. How can one be here?" Anya asked dumbfounded.
Xander smirked deeper, and said, "Either he came through the dimensions, or they developed in this universe as well."
"You want to go fight him, don't you?" Anya asked amused.
Xander looked down at her, and asked, "Do you even need to ask?"
Anya smiled and shook her head, then said, "The crown on our honeymoon, isn't it?"
Xander nodded with a smile, and said, "He certainly picked the right moment and the right place. Now there is a tiny chance this one isn't evil, but I sure hope he is. Permission?"
"If he's like Frieza, then there's a good chance he's really strong, right?" Anya asked Xander. Xander nodded with a grin. "But nowhere near a Super Saiyan 2, let alone a Super Saiyan 3?" she asked Xander.
Xander nodded, answering, "The possibility of him being out of my league are slim to none."
Anya smiled then, and said, "Just don't leave me back here, take me along, I'd feel much safer close to you."
"You got it," Xander said, and lowered his arm to her waist before blasting off.
Xander and Anya arrived at the landing site outside of Paris. They landed on a hill overlooking the site. The ship had set down in a cornfield, a highway ran alongside it. Several cars had stopped, the drivers staring at the ship. A formation of military jets flew over. Xander watched as heavily armed men streamed out of several exits from the ship. And one person that Xander caught especially. He was snow white where Frieza had been grey, and instead of purple and pink, it was brighter and dimmer light green and pale blue.
"Stay here," Xander said, and Anya nodded. He blasted off and flew over to the gathering of soldiers, straight toward the Changeling. The Frieza-like alien was in his second form, two and a half times as tall as Xander. Xander landed in front of the gathering of aliens, and the Changeling took him in. The scouter on his left eye making computations.
"Well, well, look at that, a power level of two hundred," the alien spoke with an eery gravel-like voice. Many of the aliens snickered, and even laughed.
Xander could see the commander didn't accept his scouter's reading so easily. Xander smiled, and said, "The name is Xander Littica, give me yours as a courtesy among warriors."
The alien laughed hard this time, and said, "My name is Avalanche, although I don't consider you a warrior, monkey." The men around him laughed again, readying there weapons, with some it was generating chi. Xander just smirked. Avalanche took a step forward, and said, "Mightily interesting. I don't trust this little power reading, I think you've got a lot tucked away." Xander just kept smirking, and the aliens looked a little less disinterested. "You see, there's another little thing this evolved Scouter shows me, like it showed my ship's sensors, it shows me that although the rest of these pathetics look like Saiyans without tails, you /are/ a Saiyan without a tail," Avalanche finished speaking. Some of his men looked confused and ignorant, another section laughed with disrespect only harder, and a final section gulped and looked at Xander with new eyes. Avalanche grinned, and added, "I'm thinking, your power level is really around two thousand, am I right?" More men gulped, more men snickered.
Xander shrugged, and said, "Last time I checked, there's no Saiyan race here, so if you know about it . . ."
Avalanche laughed, and said, "Yes, I'm from another dimension, and I'm guessing we're from the same. How /is/ Frieza these days? You don't by any chance happen to know?"
"Dead," Xander said.
Instantly a whole section of snickering aliens stopped snickering and looked shocked at Xander's revelation. "Good," Avalanche said with a smirk. "That little bastard and his family always did annoy me. They /were/ always the strongest, and still they didn't have the guts to fight me one on one. When I found the anomaly leading to another dimension, I decided to take it, and see what fortune it would bring, and what a magnificent dimension this is, isn't it? Such power here. I can't even blow up one measly little planet. Such size too, I still haven't seen half of one single galaxy. I take it you found the same anomaly, or did you find another one?"
"No, my father built an interdimensional ship, and sent me away just before Frieza destroyed Vegeta," Xander explained with a continuing smirk. As long as he kept these guys talking, they weren't out destroying things. None of them stood a chance against him, but they had numbers. If he blew them all up, seeing the power needed for Avalanche would undoubtedly harm bystanders, including Anya and himself. He could wipe them out by going to Super Saiyan level 2 and generating a powerful enough shield, but transforming took time, time which they could use to get away and hurt people. Good thing was, in this dimension, military hardware /could/ harm most if not all of the weaker aliens, and seeing the military craft that were circling, the rest of France's army couldn't be far behind. Now here was hoping them surrendering all the time was an exaggeration. "This is my home planet now, you can understand I like to keep it intact. So the question is, why are you here? Do you wish to sell the planet to the highest bidder, or on commission like Frieza? Or are you not hostile?"
Avalanche laughed out loud, and said, "I was hired to do reconnaissance, but the people living here are so weak . . ." He looked over at the cars on the highway and the people that had gotten out, watching in shock, then at the jets flying overhead, and then finally to his left, at the city of Paris. ". . . they make tempting target practice for my men, but really, the moment I detected you while we were in orbit, this planet's fate was sealed. I've been itching to tear apart a monkey."
"You're rather talkative, aren't you?" Xander asked.
"Yes, well, the gods forgive me, it's not often I meet a fresh person from my dimension of origin. I'd like to do a little catching up. Have you noticed the martial arts here? Far superior to our own, apart from power levels involved," Avalanche grinned evilly.
"Of course, it's good learning it," Xander returned, both of them letting the other see a card from their hand.
Avalanche nodded, and asked, "So, Frieza dead, huh? Who did it? Another Changeling? Did he offend someone else he shouldn't offend?"
"Yes, he killed a friend of the being that finally killed him. Sent his killer in a berserker rage, wrong choice, eh?" Xander answered grinning. Behind him Xander noticed that the army indeed arrived. Tanks and rocket launchers and men with mostly useless guns.
Avalanche laughed, "Frieza always was a fool."
"Sir, talk aside, may I have the honor of killing him?" one impatient chi-user said.
Avalanche turned his head and looked down angrily. "Fine, since he's so pathetic, it's really a waste doing it myself," Avalanche said with an evil smile. "Monkey, I would suggest just let him kill you, let it be quick and painless. His power level is four thousand, two hundred, and a little bit. You don't stand a chance."
Xander's grin deepened as the yellow skinned alien stepped toward him, and said, "Well, Avalanche, you know us, we Saiyans never did know when to quit." Avalanche laughed again.
Up on the hill Anya watched the proceedings, when tanks rolled out on the hill and below on the highway, getting the civilians to drive on. From one tank a French battlefield commander emerged. "Ma'am, you should leave. We are not convinced these aliens are hostile, but they could be," the colonel said in French.
"Oh, they're hostile all right," Anya said, and then turned to look at him. "And I'm not going anywhere, my husband's down there, and he told me to stay put. Besides, I know more about what's going on than you do. You speak English? I'm better at it."
"What?" the Frenchman asked astounded, and took out binoculars, quickly finding a human looking guy, in Earth clothes in front of the small army of aliens. "What does he think he's doing?"
"Protecting us, so don't fire at him. He wants you to start thinning out the herd," Anya told him with a grin. "But leave the large white and green one alone, that one is too powerful, too fast, and Xander wants him for himself."
"How the hell do you know that? And what makes you so dismissive of our army?" the commander asked her in shock.
"Telepathic contact, and experience," Anya told him with a grin.
"Are you insane?" he returned.
Anya just turned her head back toward the soon-to-be battlefield, and pointed with her right index finger three times. For a moment the colonel hesitated that he brought up his binoculars and watched.
Yellow alien grinned evilly as he stepped in front of Xander. "Now you die, monkey," he said, the purple fin-like protrusion on his head vibrated. He shot forward and threw a punch, that missed because Xander simply bent sideways to the left. "Huh," the alien exclaimed looking at the casual smirk on Xander's face. The alien gritted his teeth and twisted his body around in a vicious kick. Xander casually ducked underneath it, smile not once disappearing, and landed a punch in the alien's mid section. The yellow alien doubled over, coughing up blood. "You bastard," the alien told Xander and shot backward, then fired a powerful ball of energy at Xander, who squatted it aside with simple ease. It landed on the other side of the space ship and exploded. Xander shot after the alien, landed two punches on the guy's face, then zipped behind and landed an elbow to his neck. With a yell of pain, and shocked, wide eyes the alien dropped forward to his knees. A kick from Xander sent him back to come to lay still in front of Avalanche. Xander jumped into the sky, and rapidly fired an energy blast down. A moment later the alien was blown to bits, while Xander moved back to Avalanche and then lowered himself to the ground.
Avalanche looked at his soldier's destroyed body. The head was one of the very few things that remained mostly intact. The large alien took a step forward and kicked the head away casually, as aliens around him looked with shock at Xander and their scouter's readouts. "Pathetic, annoying and a fool," Avalanche said with a grin as he saw the head bounce away. "Truly the worst combination. Your power spiked at fifty-two hundred, if the fool had been smarter, he'd know even that is nowhere near your max. What are you? A Super Elite?"
"Super sounds about right," Xander said with a smile, making more aliens take a step back, looking in fear at Xander.
The battlefield commander took his binoculars away from his eyes and looked at Anya. "Thin the herd, keep away from the big one," Anya repeated with a big grin.
He then took a portable radio, and relayed his orders. A moment later the tanks, men with rocket launchers, tank mounted rocket launchers, and airborne units started firing.
"Super sounds about right," Xander said with a smile, making more aliens take a step back, looking in fear at Xander.
There was an explosion then, and the sounds of screams mixed in with rockets rocketing forward, and heavy machine guns wrecking havoc in the ranks of those carrying plasma guns themselves: those without the power to stop bullets in their tracks. Several rockets and shells went straight for the space ship but they exploded against a shield. "Aah! You fools!" Avalanche exclaimed with irritation. "Blindly staring at the Saiyan, the rest of the fools are here too! Destroy them! It's so difficult to find good help these days . . . it's difficult to find good help /all/ days."
Xander had shot away after on of the more powerful aliens, and blew him away. Another one fired an energy ball at a tank, and Xander fired it aside with a ball of his own. The aliens's numbers were quickly lowered, the initial firing where hardly any of them protected themselves because they were too focused on Xander had done the most damage. One tank got destroyed by a plasma gun, but that alien was soon blown up by a shell from another tank. Several aliens that were flying were hit by tank, or jet fire, and were obliterated. Another alien used his chi too keep a rocket at a distance before he destroyed it with a well-aimed chi blast. Right after that, Xander's fist rammed on his face, sending him spinning around. Xander grabbed his head, and then snapped his neck, dropping him dead to the floor.
Xander zipped in front of a powerful energy blast from a female alien intent on wiping out an entire squadron of tanks, and then shot up toward her. With a quick movement, he smashed his fist through her gut. Clutching her open torso, the woman fell down. Xander smashed in her skull, killing her instantly before going to the next.
About six minutes after the fight started, Xander stood back in front of Avalanche, and three fearful aliens - the only survives. With a few blasts he wiped out the remaining three. Casualties on the French army side were relatively light. Five tanks destroyed, three F16s; a total of twenty-two dead, and ninety wounded.
Avalanche growled, when he saw the decimation of his personal little army. He could replace them of course, pretty easily, but these had been good, and worked and obeyed well. "You do realize you all just signed the death warrant for this retched planet, don't you?" he said.
"Perfectly, show me what you've learned," Xander said, grinning. This was going to be fun.
With a roar Avalanche attacked Xander, but hit only ground, creating a small crater. Avalanche grinned and looked up, his horns looked specifically demonic right now. His green-with-flecks-of-blue eyes, made him look even colder than his name suggested. Avalanche told Xander, "You don't stand a chance, monkey. My power is over five hundred thousand in this form alone."
Xander smirked and said, "Is that supposed to scare me, Lizard?"
Avalanche's eyes widened at Xander's statement. He looked up, and his eyes widened further when he saw Xander. Xander's chi flame was burning around him wit a golden tint to it. The scouter read 354,296. Avalanche muttered, "Super Elite, and a whole lot more." The Changeling then chuckled, "You talk a good game, monkey, but can you deliver?" Then he attacked Xander again, who avoided the first few attacks, and then as he felt Avalanche's power rise rapidly he was forced to start blocking hits.
After several crashing blocks, Xander smirked, and Avalanche threw another punch, then whirled around, letting his spiked tail move where Xander was. The Saiyan ducked beneath it, and delivered a massive uppercut to his face, which for Xander was high up in the air. Avalanche groaned at the unsuspected power behind the punch. Xander turned around at the same time, stretching out his right leg and made a helicopter kick, hitting Avalanche five times in a row. The moment Xander stopped his motions, he put his hands in front of him and charged a large ball of chi. He then pulled his hands back, and yelled, "TANEKAKOSA ANNIHILATION!!"
The deep blue ball of energy, with a core of white and lighter blew sped across the plain at Avalanche with an incredible speed. The Changeling's eyes widened in shock, and he placed his hands against the devastating attack. He placed his feet on the ground, and his face grimaced with effort. He his green-white body pushed further back, throwing up grass and ground and then with hasty, supreme effort he sent the ball and beam of energy up into the air, where it exploded a moment later. The shockwave it produced rained down, and the shield around Avalanche's ship flared.
The battlefield commander looked with shock at the massive explosion. Undoubtedly enough to level several blocks of a city. Tanks closer to the space ship were simply pushed aside, sliding across the terrain. Jets were tossed around and the pilots had trouble keeping them in the air. Two tanks were just picked up and tossed away, landing with a crunch. The shockwave reached him and everyone else on the hill, but a flaring of some kind of shield prevented them from being hit by it. He didn't want to think what would have happened if the explosion had occurred on the ground, or closer to it.
Anya looked at the spectacle with a smile, and then turned to the commander. "I think it's best to get anyone who isn't close to me out of the way. I doubt Xander has the time, patience, or power to protect everyone there."
The colonel looked at her for a moment, and then nodded, grabbing his portable radio and giving orders.
Xander stood almost casually on the ground, looking at Avalanche. Avalanche looked at him, the scouter read just over six hundred thousand now. The Changeling laughed. "All right then, let's see you handle the next form," Avalanche said, as his body started to transform. It grew a little smaller, his head elongated, the horns shortened, but new spikes came out around the chin and up the cheeks. Several more formed on the wrists and ankles, as the muscles and bones grew thicker, and the outer breastplate did the same. Avalanche chuckled, and took a look at Xander. His eyes widened in shock; Xander was enveloped in a pale green chi flame. The power meter showed well over a million.
"Do you like it? Green looks good on me, no?" Xander asked with a big smile. "I call the technique 'Spirit of No Origin'. It's a technique that allows me to boost my chi well beyond my max. It's an ability I developed recently, I perfected it and used it first during a battle with the half-witted demon-god Ram. As you can see, I'm still here, while he's dead."
Avalanche laughed out loud. "Ah, you surprise me, Saiyan," Avalanche spoke smiling. "I don't think there's ever been a monkey quite like you. Good, because it's been a very long time since I had a battle in which I had to dig this deep."
"I'm glad I don't disappoint you," Xander answered, and flung a destructo disc at Avalanche. The Changeling twisted aside, and then burst away avoiding the follow-up punch. He fired a blast of energy that destroyed the disc, then threw his own version of a cutting disc. Xander put his palm against the flat side and threw it back, only for Avalanche to do the same thing. Xander blew the disc away going after the disfigured alien and threw a punch that was blocked. The Changeling went into the offensive, firing small balls of energy from his fingers. Xander avoided them, and landed a kick to the Changeling's knees. After a roar of pain, Avalanche rapidly punched down and hit Xander in his stomach, sending him flying down. Avalanche flew after him. Xander fired several balls of chi upward, allowing him to move aside from Avalanche's follow up attack, as he was preoccupied with avoiding Xander's attacks.
"Tanekakosa!" Xander yelled, now level with the white and green alien. The beam shot directly at Avalanche, and he widened his eyes. At the last minute he took the beam and fired it back at Xander, who squatted it aside, exploding and vaporizing a hill in the far distance. He continued going straight for Avalanche and landed rapid punches in the alien's gut. Avalanche's guard was down due to the surprise of seeing the power level of Xander steadily and with quite some speed climb further. Xander switched his punches to Avalanche's face, then grabbed the alien's counter punch and threw him over his shoulder. Xander swivelled around his own axis and landed a massive kick right in Avalanche's gut. With an 'oof' and a powerful groan the alien was launched down to the ground, and a moment later he crashed into a hill, sending large amounts of dirt up in the air. Xander folded his arms across his chest, and placed himself down on the ground, waiting.
Xander smirked as he felt Avalanche's power go down sharply. The mountain started to heat up from the inside out. Vapor rose from it, and the large hill started forming cracks that glowed green. Finally the hill was torn apart and dirt was flung everywhere. Avalanche himself was glowing green, cracks forming in his deformed outer shell, which then blew away as well.
Xander grinned, looking at a slightly heavier breathing Avalanche. His body was completely smooth, no horns or similar protrusions, and much smaller, he couldn't be larger than one meter forty-five. It was still white, but with gleaming blue, blue-green and pale green shiny pads. His forehead was one, his knees and elbows as well. His three-toed feet were blue-green. His chest too was shiny darker green. "You wasted a huge amount of chi with that transformation," Xander observed. "What are you at? Twenty-five thousand?"
Avalanche grinned, his voice had gained a higher pitch, making him sound freakishly evil, and he said, "Twenty-six and a bit, but I gained so much more!" A blue-green chi flame erupted around him, and Xander's eyes widened. "There, about twelve-million, and I'm only at half," Avalanche said with a grin. "Where's your smug mouth now, monkey?" Xander shrugged, and watched as Avalanche raised into the air. "You're going down, Saiyan, I'm done playing with you," Avalanche mocked, deliberately disrespectfully changing the pronunciation of 'Saiyan' by changing the as from the as in 'paratrooper' to the a in 'table'. The Changeling lifted his right arm in the air, and charged a massive ball of red-orange energy at the lifted index finger of his four-fingered hand. He laughed as he reached a respectful height, and a ball of energy the size of a good-size house was at his finger. "Back home, this would have obliterated a planet with ease, here it will only level half a country, but it will do," Avalanche said with a grin at the still standing Xander, not having moved a muscle apart from angling his head up. "DIE, MONKEY!" the Changeling yelled and threw the ball down.
The battlefield commander looked in fear as the massive ball of energy being held at finger-point. "Half a country!? Oh, my good," he muttered.
"DIE, MONKEY!" the alien screamed and threw the ball down, directly at Xander, who was standing about a kilometer behind the space ship, which the alien would undoubtedly keep safe.
"What should we do?" he asked in shock.
"Nothing," Anya commented with a grin as the ball of energy came closer and closer to her husband.
"Then it's over?" the colonel asked.
Anya smiled, and said, "Yes, for him."
[Play Xander Super Saiyan theme]
Avalanche watched the ball of energy which had power count in the millions, take the Saiyan from sight. He chuckled evilly, and then stopped, just as his ball of destruction stopped. "What?" he asked himself, and then his eyes widened as the ball slowly rose back up in the air. "That can't be." Steadily the ball rose higher and higher, and as less and less of the ball blocked the scouter, the power reading from Xander went up and up. Millions, ten million. Finally the ball rose higher than Avalanche and Xander became visible. Avalanche's shrank back in disbelieving fear, for the only thing touching his ball of energy was an index finger, enveloped in a deep golden glow. Xander became more visible: his hair was golden and flowing of its own accord. The golden chi flame surrounded him fully, and he was looking down, eyes closed. The scouter finally stopped at nineteen million and some change. Avalanche watched as Xander lifted his head, and opened his eyes. Avalanche flew back a bit in reflex, he shook when he looked into those cold, cold pale green eyes seemingly without pupils.
"I told you I was super, Super Saiyan that is," Xander said coolly, and then smirked.
"The legend," Avalanche whispered in shock, "it's real."
Xander nodded smirking deeper, "A Super Saiyan killed Frieza, now a Super Saiyan is going to kill you." With a roar Xander pulled his arm back and flung the ball back at Avalanche. "Here, not properly stamped, return to sender. TANEKAKOSAA!!" Xander fired his self-created energy wave right after the ball of energy. His wave entered the ball and rapidly pushed it forward.
"No!" Avalanche said, placing his hands onto his own ball. He could have stopped his own, but extra powered and sped up by the Tanekakosa wave he didn't have a change. He was launched up into the sky, because he was powerful and good enough not to let the ball envelop and kill him. Not long later he felt the freezing cold of space touch his back. It didn't matter, his species could survive in space. "Must get off," Avalanche said with gritted teeth, exerting his energy more when he saw the center of the ball grow more and more whitish-blue, and the red-orange of his own energy start to sizzle and crackle. Soon it would explode. With a last effort he pushed himself off, and flung himself back down to the planet. With great speed he re-entered Earth's atmosphere and protective magnetic field. Everything lighted up as the energy attacks above him exploded, virtually all of the energy directed at the Earth buffeted by its magnetic field. "I will make that monkey pay, super monkey or no super monkey," Avalanche hissed as he shot back down to the Earth.
He landed across from Xander, who had lowered himself back down. "So, finally back, huh?"
Avalanche growled, and then roared, his chi flame burning brightly. His muscles expanded, until he looked like a small body builder. "Full power," he said with a grin, "Twenty-four million. Super Monkey is still just monkey trash." Xander's left mouth corner went up a bit and his chi flame burst around him. "Twenty-three and a half million," Avalanche muttered. The alien gritted his teeth and attacked. Five rapid punches in succession and Xander blocked them all. They both jumped backward from each other and then jumped up into the air, forward again. Xander smashed his fist across Avalanche's cheek and drew blood. In return Avalanche landed a punch to Xander's gut. The follow-up punch Xander caught and prepared to throw the alien over his shoulder, but Avalanche was prepared this time. He pulled his legs up, and drove them in Xander's back. Immediately afterwards he yelled, "Kienzan Disc!" He threw the red and purple cutting disc right at Xander's back. Just before it would cut Xander's back in half, the Saiyan generated a shield and the disc impacted on it. The sphere of energy acting like a wall was struggling with the disc which tried to cut through.
Xander chuckled, his shoulders moved up and down. Then he turned his head, grinning. Avalanche went rigid for a moment, looking into those cold eyes. He had been surprised the monkey could generate a chi shield powerful enough to stop his Kienzan Disc, but that he was doing it with such ease he was laughing about it was truly amazing. He watched Xander turn around in his spherical shield and then he slammed both hands on either flat side of the disc and destroyed it. Avalanche roared and started firing energy bolt after energy bolt at Xander. When they impacted on Xander's shield, they exploded and jarred him and the shield enough that he actively started squatting them and firing his own blasts back. Avalanche raised his own shield.
After a while he was tired of throwing energy blasts back and forth and shot forward. He smashed his fist glowing with energy and it was enough to breach Xander's shield, at which time Xander grabbed his wrist, keeping the glowing hand away from his body. "I'm not impressed, Lizard," Xander said coldly, Avalanche looked up into his eyes.
With a quick yell he freed himself from Xander's grasp, and charged a massive beam of energy. He fired it at Xander, and Xander fired his Tanekakosa in response. The two blasts collided and worked for dominance. Slowly Avalanche's beam prevailed, moving toward Xander. Then Xander grinned at the Changeling and said, "Do you think I'm at my max? Do you think I can't pump up my muscles like you did, Lizard?" Avalanche frowned, and then his eyes widened. On his scouter the Saiyan's power level went up, /way/ up. He watched as Xander gave a short yell, and then indeed, his muscles expanded.
"A hundred and twenty million," Avalanche muttered in disbelief. Xander grinned and then roared out, firing his energy into the Tanekakosa. Instantly Avalanche was overwhelmed and the beam collided with him. There was a massive explosion and a severely hurt Changeling was flung to the ground. He crashed and continued moving backward, digging out a big trench. He went straight through the road, putting a big gap in it. He continued onward until he finally stopped at the foot of the mountain upon which Anya and a part of the French army was standing.
"Merde," the battlefield commander muttered. Anya smiled at the comment, and similar ones that had been uttered.
Xander landed just next to the trench, folded his arms across his chest and waited. Groaning, the heavily wounded Avalanche slowly stood up, and looked in frustration at Xander. Bodily fluids oozed, and flowed from multiple wounds; blood that was dark purple in color.
Avalanche growled as he flexed his power. "This is it," he said, looking seriously pissed off. "If you think I'm finished, you're wrong. Frieza only knew three transformations, I found a fourth." Avalanche growled, and roared, and then he grew in size until he was about one and a half times Xander's size. His muscles shrunk in size, but seemed to look much more powerful. His chest expanded, growing wider. An oddly shaped plate shoved from the back of his head, diagonally up, having two narrow protrusions in the far corners, his green gleaming pad elongated with it the plate. Then a protector formed on his mouth, and a lot of the wounds he had closed with the transformation. "But you know what the real joke is? I found a fifth, and I'm done playing," Avalanche said, and roared. His body started glowing, and clouds gathered up above. Lightning flashed rained down, and the ground started vibrating and shaking and splitting open around the Changeling. His roar continued, and like with the third transformation to form four, cracks formed in the energy.
It took about twenty seconds before the shaking subsided, and the energy shell cracked away. The storm overhead calmed down, but stayed present. Xander took in Avalanche. His four fingered hands were sharp claws. His gleaming white head except for the pad of shiny green was covered in small horns. His face was still a mixture of white, green and blue, but he had large fangs. His body was lean though, less bulky as before, but there was a solid breastplate. His white tail had spikes all around it. Two short spikes were at his elbows, made of the gleaming green / blue material. "Four and a half billion," Avalanche said with a grin. "Well, monkey, got something to say before I tear you apart?"
Xander looked coldly at the Changeling, and said coolly, "/You're/ done playing?" With a roar Xander's power skyrocketed. He threw his head in his neck, and his arms were tense and done outward. The storm above intensified, lightning struck a tank. Lightning smashed into the ground. Steadily Xander's hair that was waving about stood up more and straightened out a bit. Electric discharges started to form in his chi flame.
Avalanche looked at Xander in shock, noticing the counter on his scouter. Hundreds of millions shot past. One billion. Four billion. Seven billion. A massive shockwave shot out from Xander, making the shield he had around his wife and her companions flare. Xander paused his roar for a moment, and then he started again. Eight billion. Ten billion. Eleven Billion. Avalanche's jaw dropped, shocked at the incredibly fast power up, far beyond his full might. Fourteen billion. The numbers kept zipping past at enormous speed, he really could only see the billions and the hundred millions. Sixteen billion. Seventeen billion. Eighteen billion. At around Eighteen and a half billion Avalanche's scouter burst into pieces, the sensors overloading, and still Xander continued powering up, and up, and up. Finally he stopped his roar and his powering up, and looked at Avalanche, smirked and said, "/I'm/ done playing. Ready for level 3?"
Avalanche's eyes widened more, and he muttered, "No way." Xander bent forward, and slightly through his knees. With a new roar his power once more rocketed up to unmeasurable heights. The ground cracked open, sand and grass blasting around. Several lightning strikes hit him, but didn't do much otherwise. The electrical charges started coming faster, his eyebrows retract, even as the golden hair on his head grew longer and longer. The hill split in two, only kept together by Xander's shield. Xander's hair reached just above the back of his knees as his brows protruded and his pupils became visible again with a slightly darker green tint as his irises. The electric charges sizzled almost continuously through his chi flame now, an occasional blast with the power of a real lightning strike occurred. His long hair waved around. Xander chuckled as he straightened up, and looked, straight into Avalanche's eyes. The Changeling stood shaking in fear, jaw dropped. The simian face that looked back at him was one of his worst fears, especially that cruel smirk. "What's the matter?" Xander asked, voice twisted into growling. "You should have known. We aren't legendary for nothing."
Xander then shot forward and rammed his fist straight through the Changeling's gut. His fist came out the other end, dripping with purple blood. He pulled the fist back, and Avalanche dropped to his knees, screaming in pain. He grabbed his stomach and groaned deeply. Xander chuckled, and told him, "Avalanche, hmm, you should change your name to Snowflake." Xander zipped next the Changeling and kicked him in the back of the head. Horns crushed as Avalanche was flung forward rolling end over end, creating a new trench.
Xander casually started walking over, until Avalanche stirred and tried to get up. Xander zipped over, and stood wis his feet on either side of Avalanche's back. There was a heavy sound, and Xander looked over. He saw Avalanche's ship shake, and its standards retract. Those remaining in the space ship had evidently seen enough and were trying to make a run for it. Xander growled in irritation. He quickly grabbed Avalanche's arms and snapped both like twigs, then with a yell he smashed his foot into the Changeling's lower back. Avalanche screamed out in pain, and then lay still. Xander then blasted off, simply crashing through the hull of the starting-to-lift-off space ship.
[Stop Xander Super Saiyan theme]
The French battlefield commander just stared forward in shock, barely comprehending. Slowly he looked over to Anya and asked, "That's your husband?"
Anya nodded with a big grin, "He's so fantastic!"
The colonel swallowed, and asked, "His power?"
"Chi, life force, lots and lots of training, that's the key," she said with grin, nodding enthusiastically. "Of course you won't get golden hair, from what he told me, humans generate an electric sphere around them when they get to the golden level . . ." Anya frowned and then added, ". . . and it is reached differently."
"Oh," he muttered. The sound of the space ship wound down, and the struts came down again.
Xander came back out, and then went over to the immobilized Changeling. Xander picked the alien up, making him face him. He lifted him into the air, until Avalanche's feet didn't touch the ground either and Xander could look him in the eyes. "The reason why you're not dead yet, Avalanche, is simple, I need information. You're going to tell me who hired you, why you came here and whether or not I can expect him to send more. If you don't answer, things will get a whole lot more unpleasant before you die, do tell, and it'll be quick and painless."
Avalanche coughed a few times, tears forming in his eyes when he realized he would soon be killed. "Who it is matters not," Avalanche managed to bring out. "There were a few. Multiple ships didn't return from this system for the past three hundred years. They all vanished without a trace." The Changeling coughed up some more blood. "They feared some kind of barrier, or some other reason, they wanted to find out if it was still in place. Nobody but me dared. I thought it superstition, and if there was a barrier, I'd be too powerful to be stopped by it. I've proven there's nothing here, fools must have collided with asteroids . . . only to find you. They won't dare to send in more, my disappearance will keep them away for a long time to come: afraid."
Xander looked the Changeling straight in the eyes, gauging him. Finally he decided he wasn't lying. He let him go, and then grabbed the head again. With a quick vicious snap he broke Avalanche's neck. There was a gurgle, which quickly stopped. The eyes dimmed, and the body slumped. Xander then let the body drop to the ground.
His grim expression changed suddenly to a smiling one and he turned to Anya. He dropped out of his transformations and flew over to his wife. He took her in an embrace and kissed her. "Great going," he then said to the Frenchman in command. "No more of them will come, you can keep the body and the ship, donate it to ESA or something. If you don't mind, me and my wife are going to enjoy the rest of our honeymoon."
"Uh . . . uh, yeah, sure," the man said.
"Oh, and keep my involvement out of the press will ya, I /do/ want to /enjoy/ the rest of my honeymoon, and not be hounded by the press," Xander said, before he lifted off the ground, taking Anya in his arms and he whispered, "After that I'm in the mood for something fun, and then sex, lots of it."
"Ooh, I like fun, and sex I'm willing to provide," Anya muttered.
Bathing in the afterglow of some great sex in the bedroom on the bed of their hotel suite, Anya zapped along the tv channels. She stopped when she came across the picture of smoke and the sound of an explosion somewhere in the distance, accompanied by an English voice explaining, "The French military kept us away for our own protection. The aliens that landed this afternoon were hired guns on an information gathering mission that had no connection with any kind of invasion plans. The French military said that we didn't have to worry about any more of the same ones coming. The aliens were hostile though, and the French military engaged them. They said they were unable to capture any aliens alive, they were forced to kill them all. They have acknowledged they have had casualties, but were unwilling to divulge precise information out of respect for their family members." The screen switched to a show of the space ship as it was being hoisted by a big crane on a big truck. The voice continued, "You see here images of the alien craft as it is loaded on a transporter. The newly elected European president has said the ship will be sent to ESA and any weapons systems to the new European Military Development divisions for examining and quarantine. The president promised that once the ESA and European Army deems them safe, any non-volatile information and technology would be released to the public. The revelation of today has sent shockwaves through the scientific community, who've stated this is the most monumental and at the same time sad occurrence in Human history: First Contact with extra-terrestrials that ended in bloodshed. Further they have stated that the effects of this occurrence wouldn't be truly visible until after years to come."
"Something else, will ya, Ahn," Xander asked with a lazy smile, covers only half covering him.
Anya zapped a few times, and found a station with a panel of people sitting at a desk in a semi-circling. Curiously she listened in; it were 'experts' talking and speculating about the alien contact. One of them was saying that just because these were hostile we shouldn't consider every alien out there hostile, and we should be careful about making contact before opening fire. Xander nodded vaguely.
"I wonder if these were even hostile at all," another expert piped up. "I wouldn't be too surprised if the military screwed up, or even if them simply being present seemed so hostile to the aliens, they were provoked into attacking."
Xander laughed out loud at that statement. "Yeah, right," he said. "Isn't there Farscape on somewhere?"
"I'll go check," Anya said, and started zapping again.
Finally and sadly the honeymoon came to an end. They were back at LAX. They had picked up their baggage and headed for the exit, finding Dawn with Li, Willow with Tara, and Buffy waiting for them. When they got close Buffy was the first to fling herself in Xander's arms. He hugged her back and whispered, "So you went Super after all, huh?" Buffy nodded, and he heard her start to cry. Anya was hugging Willow and Tara, while Dawn patiently waited for Buffy to let Xander go. "It's good to see you again, Buff, but shall we do this later, so we can get home sometime soon?" Xander asked her.
Reluctantly the recent Super Slayer let her friend go, and looked up at him, eyes wet, and said, "I'm so glad you're back."
Next up was Dawn who hugged Xander fiercely, saying, "Welcome back." She then went over to Anya, who had finished her greetings with Willow and Tara and hugged her too. Li shook Xander's hand, welcoming him back. Then Willow wrapped herself around Xander's neck.
"I missed you, Xan, welcome back," Willow said with a big grin, and planted a big kiss on his right cheek.
He returned the kiss and said, "I'm glad I'm back too, Will."
Finally it was Tara's turn, who give Xander a caring hug, welcomed him back, and asked, "How was the honeymoon?"
"Great, lot's of fun, topless beaches, Anya was fantastic in bed as usual, and I got to fight some evil aliens," Xander said softly with a huge grin. "One of the race that blew up my home world, so . . ." Tara broke the hug, and looked up at him.
"Yeah, we saw on the news," Tara told him.
"All right, everybody to the cars," Dawn said, getting everyone moving. "American Idol is starting soon." The guys groaned.
The Asian man looked up in shock at what he saw. The massively overgrown, grey demon with red eyes, and claws sliced open the flying girl's stomach. Blood splattered everywhere, also from her mouth, and she flung downward.
"NO!" he screamed in shock, at watching his lover fall from the sky.
His lover, the Slayer dropped to the ground in the middle of the lush forest, as the demon laughed, and charged a ball of energy to end it. Coughing up blood, the Slayer forced herself to her knees, and then to her feet. She looked up at the chuckling demon. Anger burned through the Slayer. There was no way she was going to let it win. She burst into the air, going straight for the demon, charging her own energy blast. The demon only laughed more at her pitiful attempts, until he took another looked at her grimacing face. What was happening to her eyes? They grew completely black, electricity crackled in her hair. With a scream of bloodcurdling, murderous rage a blue flame burst around the Slayer, and her energy attack tripled in power and size.
"AAAAH!!" she yelled, as the demon tried to avoid the onrushing Super Slayer. A moment later the demon raised all his defenses and attacked when he knew he couldn't avoid her, then both collided, and there was a devastating, massive explosion that took both away from view. The Asian man was flung backward off his feet at the shockwave until he crashed painfully against a tree.
He groaned in pain, but he forced his eyes open. He watched as his Slayer fell from the sky, amidst pieces of demon. He got up with difficulty and ran over. It took him three minutes before he found her, lying in a small indentation in the ground, covered in blood; most of it hers. She had far more wounds now than she had before her startling power boost, he could tell. He sank to his knees next to her, looking at her beautiful black hair. He had run into the Sumerian girl a few years earlier; she had been amazing. Like him, she hunted demons, but she was immeasurable stronger then him, and she moved like a cat, like a predator. He had joined her, and soon the two had fallen in love. He took her hand, and with tears forming in his eyes he said, "Laris, please don't die, come back to me."
She coughed up blood and slowly opened her eyes, making him hope, which was crushed quickly when he saw her eyes. He felt her hand tighten around his, and gurgled out, "Djang, listen, upon my death . . ."
"No . . ."
"Sh," she said, moving her other arm with difficulty to take his face comfortingly. "Upon my . . . death, a new girl like me will be called, with the same speed and strength and . . . instincts. Try to find her . . . and teach everything . . . I taught you." Djang shook his head, several tears falling from his cheeks and mixing with the blood on her body. "I . . . love you," she finished with difficulty.
"I love you too," he said, crying harder and dipped down kissing her deeply, before she slumped from his lips. "No," he whispered looking at her lifeless body. "NOOOOOO!!!"
"NOO!!" Buffy screamed, jerking into a sitting position as she awoke from the nightmare. She shuddered at the images and feelings she had felt during the dream. She hugged herself close, and then felt another pair of arms wrap around her and hug her close.
"Another Super Slayer dream?" she heard her sister ask gently. She nodded, tears spilling from her eyes, stating a wailing sound from behind her lips. "Shh, it's going to be all right," Dawn shushed her sister. "It's just a dream, Buffy. Just a dream." Buffy wrapped her arms around her sister, and rested her head against her shoulder. "Xander will come home today, Buffy, I hope you're willing to talk with him present, we want to help you, do you get that?" Dawn asked gently. She felt Buffy started to sob and shake against her. Willow and Tara appeared in the doorway, and quickly joined the sisters on her bed, hugging Buffy, trying to comfort her.
"So, Super Slayer," Xander said to Buffy. They were in the Summers' living room. Buffy sat in the couch at the window, hands wrapped around her torso. The others were sitting in different positions around the room. Xander sat next to Anya across from. Willow and Tara sat next to Buffy, and Dawn was sitting on a chair. Buffy nodded weakly. "You almost lost it?"
Buffy nodded again, and said, "I don't know how Faith does it, I don't ever want to feel that again."
"Feel what again?" Xander asked gently.
"Blood thirst, like you wouldn't believe, it was . . ." Buffy shuddered as she remembered what was going through her then. "I almost killed Willow and Faith. I don't want to fight, I don't want to train, I just want to be a girl."
"But, but," Willow started, rather startled at Buffy's announcement. "Super Slayer would be immeasurable an asset. Buffy, you have to . . ."
"Why?" Dawn helped her sister, who shrank in on herself. "She doesn't /have/ to do anything. It would be better if she did, but she doesn't /have/ to."
Tara shook her head in thought, and gave her own two cents worth, "With great power comes great responsibility, you can't simply hide from it."
Willow nodded in agreement, adding, "Yeah, and it won't happen again, Buffy. That wasn't the Super Slayer making you go nuts, it was you accepting what a Slayer is, what you are. You've made that step, and came out the other end, you can't now turn around and walk back to where you came from!"
Anya agreed with that, saying, "Exactly, Super Slayer means you have to protect the world from big bad demons, and such."
"Dawn's right," Xander said with a tone that said the discussion was over. "If Buffy doesn't want to, she doesn't have to."
"But- . . ." Anya started.
Xander turned to his wife, and said, "Anya, I'm not forcing you to improve your magical ability and making you train in the gravity gym, now am I?" Anya looked down. Xander nodded and looked at a hopeful Buffy. "Buffy, you can do whatever you want to, but consider this; hiding from the power won't make it go away. It's there now. We'll still fight, and there might come a time when we're so in trouble you'll get angry enough to let it out, and if you haven't learned how the handle it, explored its nature, that time you might lose control again, and that time you might not come back. What do you want to do?"
"I just want to be girl," Buffy pleaded looking at everyone with big eyes. "I just want to be a girl. I want to go shopping, for myself, not trying to bribe Dawn, I just want to do normal girl stuff."
Xander nodded, "Then that's all you'll have to be and do, and we have to hustle our patrol schedule a bit."
Buffy lay on her bed, hugging Mr. Gordo, her stuffed pig. There was a knock on the door, and Buffy said, "Come in."
The door opened and Willow softly entered. "Hey," Willow said gently and walked around Buffy's bed. She sat down at the food end, looking at Buffy's teary eyes. Buffy wrapped herself closer together.
"You're disappointed in me," Buffy whispered in pain.
"I can't say I wasn't hoping for more from you, Buffy," Willow said softly, "But I'll never not be proud of being your friend."
Buffy gave a whimper and looked at her, then asked, "You're still my friend?"
Willow smiled brightly and laid down, facing Buffy. "Of course, silly, we talked about this before didn't we? I love you, as a friend. Can't have Tara hear me without the last three words, she'd be pissed off." Buffy gave a slight smile at that. "Shopping, huh? Can I come along?" Willow asked with a smile. "Just two girl friends on a shopping trip?"
"I'd like that," Buffy answered, smiling more brightly.
Willow smiled back, and said, "First thing on the shopping list: skirts, and dresses. You haven't worn any in quite some time, and the few you've got left are old. You wanna be just a girl, time to start dressing like one again." Buffy nodded, smiling, giving a few last sobs; of happiness as the bad mood started to lift. "Low-cut tops, high on the list too," Willow said with a smile. "A girl wants to dazzle guys with her cleavage, right?" Buffy nodded again, smiling, despite her face still grimaced in despairing crying. Willow smiled back, saying, "Lipstick, nice deep, red lipstick; make your lips all kissable." Buffy broke down, crying with a mixture of happiness and sadness. Willow pulled her best, female friend into a tight hug, and let her cry.
A few days later Buffy stood in front of a mirror. It was late evening. She had decided to go out, alone. Just see what the night brought. She fluffed her long loose hair a bit, and tested her breasts. She wasn't wearing a bra, and the blue top she was wearing was snug. It was tight enough to show the curves of her breasts. It was low enough to show the start of her globes. It stopped just over her navel leaving it bare. Spaghetti strips kept it up around her shoulders. Beneath it she wore a short, black, mid-thigh skirt. It wasn't stiff or tight, but it didn't flutter around either. Finally she wore a pair of high heels. She took the lipstick Willow had picked out for her, and applied it liberally. She rolled her lips to spread the lipstick evenly. She looked at herself; enough make-up to draw attention to her face, but not enough she looked cheap, except the thick, deep, but bright red, very kissable lips. The contrast looked good she decided, and grinned. She felt fantastic; like a girl, a woman. She hadn't felt like this in a long time.
She stepped out of her room then, and went down the stairs. She looked for a moment as Dawn, Li, Willow and Tara were playing monopoly. "Guys, what do you think?" she asked with a smile. Everyone looked up, and she did a twirl.
"Wow, can I trade in for the older sister?" Li-Huei asked. Buffy smiled flattered, and Dawn elbowed him. "Oof!"
"I was thinking along the same lines, actually," Tara said with a smile taking in the improved Buffy. "Oof!" she too exclaimed when Willow's elbow hit her.
"It seems to carry the male and lesbian seal of approval, Buffy," Dawn told her, and added, "you look great."
"Yep," Willow added. Buffy smiled, and got out her jacket.
"Well . . . I'm off, see you later," Buffy said, waving her friends and sister with boyfriend goodbye, before stepping out in the open Sunnydale air.
Buffy's first night out was enjoyable. She danced, letting the music rule her body, flirted with some guys. When she came back, she felt even more like a brand-new woman. Twice more in a row she would go out, then there was a pause of two days, and when it came Saturday she went out again.
Looking hard this time, she found a secluded but nice looking club on the back of campus. She entered it, and found students of both genders dancing and talking and laughing and doing all the other things young people do when they go out. Buffy smiled, and went to the dance floor. Doing normal girl things was good. The music was great, and she let herself go. People danced up against her, she even felt a few guy's hands daring a fondle. She didn't mind, as long as they didn't pinch or started full on grope contests they could make subtle touches. A few guys and girls deliberately danced against her, and she returned the favor, enjoying contact with other human beings. After a few minutes she felt thirsty and went to the bar.
She ordered an alcoholic cocktail, and once it was brought to her she took a sip. "Buffy!" a familiar voice called, and Buffy turned around.
"Sean," she greeted as her college friend joined her. He had brunette hair, his blonde dye job lost. They smiled at each other as Sean joined her at the bar, ordering something to drink for himself.
"It's been a while, eh?" he asked her. "Does the switch to . . .?" he frowned, remembering, ". . . Germanic language work for you?"
"Very," she said with a bright smile. "Never thought I could be good at languages, but it seems I am. Like it too, it's quite fun. My German teacher says that those who creatively 'mangle' a language, are usually best at it. Not out of incompetence, you know, but to make the language /theirs/."
"Well, that's good," Sean said with a grin. "I'm doing quite well myself, have one subject to redo, the rest is going."
Buffy smiled, looking up into his green eyes, and suppressed a shiver. Dang, now that she took him without any stress to delude her senses, he didn't look half bad. In fact, he looked downright yummy. *Focus,* she told herself, and answered, "That's real good. So are you alone, or . . ."
"No, I came with a few friends," he answered. Now why did Buffy feel relieved he didn't say 'girlfriend' or 'date'? He took a good draught from his drink, as she took a big sip from her cocktail.
"Good friends, I hope?" Buffy asked him.
He nodded, "Yeah, not like the losers in my building. They actually know about the . . . you know."
"Yeah, I know," Buffy said.
"You know, it's funny, for a short while there, people actually seemed to wake up," Sean told Buffy who looked up at him. "With that big monster and the explosions, then came that other thing . . . don't even know what it was . . . just streaks, one guy and a monster blinking in and out, thunder storms, nuclear-power-equivalent explosion . . . I guess that was just too much, gives me the shivers as well, no human could do that."
"Actually we can," Buffy answered with a sad grin, remember her own Super abilities, although still nowhere near Super Saiyan 3. From what she gathered from Xander though, he expected all of them to reach those levels eventually as well. "Requires a /huge/ amount of training, under multiple times Earth gravity, and I doubt /all/ humans have the talent to do it before they die, but humans can." And on that note, her mood went down. Before Sean could answer she decided to banish thoughts of Super Slayer and other fighting crap out of her mind, and asked him, "Wanna dance?"
"Uh, ok," Sean replied somewhat surprised at her answer. He gulped away his drink, as did Buffy and then she pulled him onto the dance floor. They started dancing across from each other close by, and after a few seconds a smile crept on her face. It was nice not to have to worry, not to have to live up to some sense of superiority. Just a girl enjoying herself.
She took her friend in, top to bottom, noticing the tight jeans, and what showing of his legs and pelvis. The loose shirt he wore that left his arms bare was a welcome addition. *Nice, very nice, I wouldn't mind- Stop thinking like that!* Buffy thought, the last bit angrily. *Those eyes, those lips, I'm wondering about his tongue- . . . Stop it!*
*Why?* she asked herself, as she let the music pound through her body, getting aroused at the possibilities. *You're just a girl. Girls enjoy themselves sexually, don't they? Faith has told you to let yourself go in that regard countless times, and all you ever did at those suggestions was lift you're nose and consider yourself oh so superior and her such an inferior slut.*
*Parker . . . Parker dated you several times, fucked you, and left you hanging. That wasn't a one night stand, that was a fuck up job,* Buffy thought, taking in Sean again. *This guy is hot, sexy, and kind, so why not? You fuck soulless demon vampires but a normal, living, warm-blooded guy is a no-no? No condoms, you didn't bring any! There are machines, and perhaps he has them.* While Buffy was contemplating thus, she had subconsciously gone to dance closer to her casual friend. So close now, she slung her arm around his waist and started a sexier, much closer dance. She looked at him, felt him. He looked back and returned the loose embrace around her waist. She looked at him, felt herself growing aroused more, and with a sly grin she let her right hand lower to his ass. He widened his eyes and looked at in askance.
She went closer, and lifted herself on her toes even further than the high heels already made her. "I hope you don't think less of me, but . . ." Then she whispered in his ear, and his eyes widened even more.
He looked down into Buffy his bluish-grey eyes, "One night? Are you certain?"
Buffy nodded self-consciously, and said just hard enough for him to hear, "If you have condoms or a way to get them, I was such a fool to think I had no interest in this sort of thing."
Sean smiled and dipped down. He gave her a quick heated kiss, and oh my did his _hot_ _warm_ tongue, lips and body feel good against her. "Buffy," he said after breaking the kiss, "It would be my honor." Buffy grinned. "I just have to go tell my friends I'm leaving and they don't have to wait up, ok?" Buffy nodded. "Go get your coat, wait for me at the exit." Buffy nodded again, smiling brightly, only half believing she really was going to do this.
Sean took the key for the motel room from the guy behind the counter. He then turned around and pulled Buffy along with an arm around her back down to her waist. Buffy looked nervous as they walked to the room, and she said softly, "This is the first time I do something like this, you don't think me a slut, do you?"
Sean chuckled, and said, "You want to have sex with /me/. What would I think of myself if I considered you a slut for that?"
Buffy grinned at him, and nodded grateful, then she looked down. "I'm not entirely truthful," Buffy muttered somewhat ashamed. "I /did/ have a one night stand before, but it wasn't intended to be, at least not from my side . . . The bastard was a nice guy for a long time, invited me to a party, and a date here . . ."
"Parker," Sean supplied rather vehemently. Buffy looked surprised a him. "He built quite a reputation the last few years. I clocked him a few when he did the same thing to another friend of mine. I should find him and do it again."
Buffy grinned, batted her eyelashes and asked, "Would you?"
Sean smiled at her and said, "I hate bastards like that. Worse they're fools on the side. Plenty of girls enjoy one night stands /without/ being tricked into it. Bastards like that ruin it for the rest of us, too many of the girls deceived like that get so distrustful of guys, they'll /never/ put their full trust in a guy again . . ." Buffy looked down, smiling, thinking it over. ". . . let's not even talk about those girls enjoying one night stands and a good screwing by the rest of us guys."
Buffy's mouth flew open and she looked up at him, "Hey!"
He grinned down at her, "Just kidding, well exaggerating . . ." He chuckled, and she laughed along, enjoying the casual air they had going. They reached the room and he unlocked it.
They went inside, and Buffy nervously looked around, doubts filtering into her mind. She felt his hands on her shoulders and heard his voice, "Sh." He kissed the back of her neck, let his tongue do its magic. Buffy breathed in deeply and let it out, feeling her arousal of which some had left her on the way over quickly return. He pulled her blue top off her, and turned her around to face him. Buffy looked up in his face as he admired her firm breasts. He cupped them, and gave them a caress. Buffy smiled, and then decided he was most assuredly wearing too much clothing. She took his shirt and pulled it off him. Once it was lying on the ground, she let her hands moved across his very nice, and warm chest. He moved forward, tilted her head and kissed her deeply. Slowly he maneuvered her to the double bed and made her sit down. Smiling he knelt down and started laying a path of kisses and licks across her breasts and further down. While he did this he reached for her high-heeled shoes and gently took them off. Reaching the upper hem of her shirt with his mouth, he broke contact. He straightened and looked in Buffy's eyes as he moved his hands to grab her waist.
Buffy was breathless. His hot breath and equally hot lips, tongue and saliva where making her go wild. Her nipples were rock hard, and below her vagina felt ready to overflow. No demon-animated corpse had ever got her so hot in such a short of time. The sent of his sweat which he had accumulated dancing in the hot club was ready to make her go insane. Her eyes pleaded wit him to continue what he was doing, and don't ever stop. He smiled and pulled her skirt down and off her legs, and he took in her panties. They were white, and high-cut. He smiled up and her. He made an indication with his hands and slowly she spread her legs, so he moved forward in between them. "You're beautiful, and very sexy, Buffy," he told her, making shivers go down her body. Riley had told her that, but with Riley she never had the raw, pure sex she was beginning to experience now. Somehow this coming from a semi-friend just for sex made it sound incredibly arousing.
"You're damn fine yourself," Buffy returned huskily, feeling like he owed a return compliment. He grinned, almost evilly, and she watched him go down gently. To her shock, he didn't remove her panties, he just pulled them aside. To her even greater shock, she felt him go down, and then pull her lips apart with the index finger and thumb from one hand. And then his tongue, that heavenly warm tongue touch her there, and everywhere. Quickly Buffy locked her chi down, making sure she didn't have the strength to accidentally crush his skull later. He inserted fingers, taking his time. After a minute she couldn't keep herself upright, and let herself fall back on the bed, and lying she let herself go completely under his expert control. She felt fantastic, pleasure racing through her body.
"Hmm," came his voice and he broke contact looking up. Buffy lifted her head to look at him pitifully. "I just love the taste of a beautiful woman," he told her, and it was obvious he'd sampled a taste of quite a few. She smiled sexily at him, lewdly undulated her pelvis to regain his attention. He pushed his fingers in a bit, making her buck forward. "Impatient?"
"God, yes," Buffy breathed out hotly. He grinned, catching her eyes, slowly his hand motions. She pleaded silently with him, and then he went back. She went to massage her own breasts and took special care of her nipples. After another minute Buffy was desperate, ready to burn up. "Please, stop teasing," she begged breathlessly, her body tingling all over, "please."
He complied, finally licking her there, first with the mere tip of his tongue, and then more. Fast, slow, fast again, somewhere in the middle, rapidly changing the pattern. Buffy's body exploded. She went rigid, every muscle tensed and spasmed - starting with her toes and riding up along her body until it reached her head. She shuddered with her spasms, pleasure exploding in her mind, her legs closing around his head, urging him on with the hand she instinctively brought behind his head. Sean didn't quit, he continued, and while she was still enjoying her first orgasm, she experienced second, and then a third. She sighed in disappointment when he finally pried himself loose.
Buffy raised her head and looked at him dreamily, and he said, "I do think I should get some in return, don't you?" Buffy laughed out loud, then nodded eagerly, and sat up. He took off his own shoes since her position wasn't right for it. Once he was done, she unbuttoned his pants, and then pulled it down, revealing boxers: the tight kind, not the swirly ones. When his pants were off, he took them and got his condoms out from somewhere Buffy couldn't see and placed them in preparation on the night stand, then dumped the pants. She then pulled down the boxers, and held her breath when his erection came in sight. Once his boxers were down to his knees she took a better look. His penis was hard, but she could tell it could still grow harder and bigger; she guessed that's were she and her return favor came in. His penis wasn't exactly big, but it /was/ thick.
She smiled, ready to take on the challenge. She let her hands glide over his muscled upper legs, and imagined them work to drive that tool into her. She let her hands slide over his hard cock until she reached his ball sack, and let them roll in her hands. From his reaction, a contented intake of breath, she was doing the right thing. She came forward then, hesitated on what to do first, and decided to lick the shaft from bottom to tip first. The hotness, hardness, and then the sponginess of the head were heaven against her tongue. She repeated the action from the other side, and then looked at the head, hesitating. Carefully she took his cock in her hand with her free hand and looked up at him. "You never done this before?" he asked somewhat surprised.
Buffy shook her head. "My only real boyfriend was too much of a boy scout, I guess. Never asked, always made sure it never got to this, bypassed it. I guess he thought, or was taught it was denigrating to women or something and didn't want to do that to me." Buffy shrugged, "Parker was just about getting his fastest record to get in me down there, mouth didn't count I guess." Buffy thought to herself, *And that bastard Spike I would never give that pleasure, and that's spent way too much time thinking about him.*
"Well, I'm not in a race with Parker, and I'm not a boy scout. Denigrating or not, work those lips, Buffy," he said with bated breath.
Buffy nodded with a smile. She pulled his penis down a bit, and then mustering her courage she engulfed his head with her mouth. "Oh, yeah," Sean muttered as he felt her start to suck. "Deeper, and use your tongue and imagination," he requested and then moaned as Buffy complied. He groaned with greater desire as she started to bob her head up and down with slowly increasing speed. She listened to his sounds, and changed her movements of her tongue and lips to draw out the most pleasurable sounds. She smiled as she realized her efforts were not in vein. Up and down she moved her head, drawing her lips tightly around his flesh. She opened her eyes when she felt his heartbeat in her lips. Whenever another shock of blood went through his veins, she felt it beat against her lips. And he was so warm! She felt herself grow more moist rapidly, making several more up and down movements, and she pulled free.
She looked up at a panting Sean who grinned at her. She grinned back and pointed at the night stand, saying, "I want you in me." He reached over, grabbed a condom and then handed it to Buffy. She put the package to her teeth and quickly tore it open. Then letting the plastic package drop she got the condom and placed it on the top of his penis. After that she rolled it down. She looked up and his hand moved through her hair, drawing her to him as he kissed her deeply. She moved back onto the bed. He went along, quickly pulling her panties off, and he turned her so she was lying lengthwise along the length of her bed. She wrapped her hands around his back as he did with her, and a moment later he sank into her. Buffy moaned as she felt her innards being pushed aside to admit him. Her inner muscles contracted around him, then let him go so he could go fully inside. Their lips met, and tongues played with each other. Then she felt his body press against her, and reaching full depth. Her vaginal walls wrapped themselves tightly around him for the up stroke, and both of them moaned into the other's mouth. He went down again, and up. His next thrust was with greater power, and he quickly found a smooth, powerful rhythm where he felt her body falling to pleasure.
"God, your tight, Buffy," he said with pleasure, breaking the kiss.
"Hmm, oh, yes, go on, Sean, ooh, uh, mmh, this is good," Buffy moaned out, bucking back, and wrapping her legs around his waist. His instincts hadn't failed him again. Buffy was in heaven; his body was so warm, everything was filled with passion and lust. Last time she felt this was with Riley, but then something had been missing, and she knew what that was. She had been too busy being in love with the 'idea', the 'fantasy' of Riley, especially juxtaposed to the horror that had been Parker to ever let fully go. She was letting go now; with every wave of pleasure that his thrusts brought out in her, she was completely loose. No worries, no responsibilities: just Buffy enjoying herself. And the heat! Oh, the heat! Parker she couldn't remember, having spent too much time trying to forgot. But this was so much better than drug-regulated temperature of Riley before the drugs were stopped - she had definitely noticed the difference - and infinitely better than room temperature or worse crypt temperature of a demon-animated corpse. Sean was alive, filled with sexual need, desire and passion. If she hadn't known right after the Spike fiasco - which she did - she knew it know: no vampire ever came in her bed again, soul or no soul. "FUCK ME!" she demanded, moaning louder as their passions heated up.
"Buffy, Buffy!" Sean called gently, shaking the bottle blonde.
Buffy groaned and then slowly opened her eyes. She blinked as sunlight assaulted her eyes. Then she blinked again when she didn't recognize her bed. Groggily she looked around, and suddenly the night came rushing back to her.
"Buffy, we have to get out of the room in less than half an hour," Sean said gently.
Buffy let the words go through her mind, conjuring up pleasant memories from the night before. "Four times," she muttered and smiled brightly. She let herself drop back in the comfortable - oh, no wait, quite uncomfortable, but it would do - bed, and asked groggily, "Do we have to get up, can't we start where we left off?"
"Sorry, Buffy, and yes, it was fantastic, where the hell did you learn that energy thing?" he asked with a bright smile just above her face. "And can I learn?"
Buffy groaned and turned over, counting her blessings again that she remembered Faith and Anya both commenting on the benefits of chi use during sex. "Tai Chi," she commented as she slowly forced herself to wakefulness. "Look it up, takes lots of practice though."
"Cool, now up," he said. Buffy nodded, and slowly sat up. She looked around, and sniffed. She still smelled like sex.
"Is the shower usable?" she wondered out loud.
"It's in working order, but I'm going to shower at home," he said with a suggestive look as he started putting on his pants.
Buffy nodded, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She started gathering her clothes, and then put on her g-string first. As she readied her skirt she looked over to Sean as he buttoned up his jeans. He was one fine specimen of manhood, and the human species, she decided. She finished putting on her skirt and readied her top, and then she got a very, very naughty idea. She shouldn't, she really shouldn't. She finished with the top and then put on one high heel after the other. "Come on, want me to walk you home?" Sean prompted and asked all in one sentence as he was holding the door open.
Buffy smiled, and walked to him. Instead of going though the door she closed it, and went to stand in front of him. Mischievously - and when was the last she had felt mischievous? - she smiled at him, and said, "I'm not letting you go that easy. Still one thing I want to do, one thing I never did, and want to experience; if you want out of here, you're just going to have to let me."
Sean looked surprised at her, and then smiled back, asking, "And what's that?"
Buffy's mischievous grin deepened, and she slowly let herself drop to her knees. She licked her lips suggestively, and unbuttoned his jeans again. "Oh, boy, Buffy," he said looking surprised. A few moments later the front of his boxers were down, his jeans still up, and his flaccid cock out. Buffy hesitated for a moment, and then she reminded herself, *Just a girl.* Quickly she engulfed his penis with her mouth and felt it hardening rapidly.
"Oh, god, Buffy," Sean moaned, as he quickly got to full strength. He looked down as Buffy paused. This was as deep as she had gotten him last night. Then with a determined frown she forced herself down. With some sounds of difficulty she managed to take him down into her throat, until her nose was in his pubes. "Oh, wow," he moaned, and leaned his arm on the door to fully enjoy and appreciate the full-fledged blowjob he finally realized he was getting.
Buffy walked across the pavement, heels clicking on the stone. She was almost home. She grinned. She couldn't believe she had done that; last night, and this morning even more. But she felt so good for having done it! She touched her chin with her right fingers, where some of it had spilled earlier. She licked her lips delectably, savoring the taste she still had in her mouth. *I can't believe I did that,* she thought with a grin, *I can't believe I liked it, all of it.* She put her hand above her stomach, and tried to feel inside. She smiled brightly, and continued walking with a spring in her step.
A few minutes later she walked up the walkway across the lawn to her front door. The door flew open and out burst Dawn, Willow, and Tara. "Where have you been all night!?" Dawn asked with concern. Willow and Tara nodded in agreement, equally worried.
"In a motel room," Buffy answered with a smile she couldn't get off of her face.
"Uh, why?" Willow asked gently.
"A guy," Buffy answered, practically beaming at the answer. "Living," she added, smiling even more brightly at her own half-joke half-reassurance.
"Wow," Tara said in surprise, while Dawn and Willow looked shocked. Tara then added, "You were /safe/, right?"
Buffy nodded putting her arms behind her back proudly, and said, "Condoms used."
"Are you fake?" Dawn asked still shocked, they all turned to look at her, "'Cause you know, Buffy, fucking corpses, but one night stands?"
Buffy's good mood ended. She looked angrily at her sister, and said, "He was a living, human guy. I'm trying to be just a girl here, change myself for the better. Enjoying my life for the first time in years without the weight of the world on my shoulders, and without a sickening superiority complex. You can be angry with me, pissed with me, hell, I hope you clonk me over the head and drag me into an insane asylum if I ever start anything with a demon or a vampire again, or if you find me digging up corpses. But if not, it's really not your business, now is it, /little/ sister? Excuse me if I noticed a nice, living guy, a friend, really, and I spend the night with him enjoying his and my body - actually enjoying myself!" Buffy then angrily stalked into the house and up the stairs, leaving Dawn staring forward dumbfounded. She couldn't remember the last time Buffy got so righteously angry, and managed to make such a passionate speech about it.
"You were really a bitch, Dawn," Tara said, folding her arms across her chest and looking scoldingly at Dawn.
"I wasn't trying to be, it was just . . . it was just . . ." Dawn said pitifully.
"No week's allowance," Willow decided.
"What!? But . . . I'm sorry!" Dawn said, with suddenly slumped shoulders.
"Dawn, let your sister cool off, then apologize to /her/, not us," Tara said gently, and then steered both girls into the house. "And I think the punishment is a little overboard, Willow, she didn't mean it that way."
"Oh, okay," Willow said, and then pointed Dawn to the tv, while they went upstairs. With relief Dawn did as pointed.
The two witches knocked and then entered Buffy's room. The blonde lay on he bed, depressed. She looked over, and then asked, "So, you mad? You here to stomp me in the ground as well?"
"Mad!? Where did that come from?" Tara asked Buffy in surprise. "We just want . . ."
". . . details," Willow finished with an eager face.
Buffy brightened smiling, and said, "You know that what you two just did is really freaky, right?"
The witches looked at each other, and then quickly went over to the bed. "Where should I begin?" Buffy wondered with a smile.
It was two and a half weeks later, and Buffy was walking home form college. She was in deep thought, thinking about the revelations that had come to her since the night before. In the past two weeks and a half she had asked herself whether she could keep casual sex with relatively well known friends or with perfect strangers. She had come then to the conclusion that strangers were okay too, providing it was absolutely safe; no-condom blowjobs were out of the question. Thus, in her quest to find out about the girl Buffy Summers, and just the girl, and catching up on all she'd missed in her past two years of misery, she had decided to let her sexual side get a bit more than most girls would, she'd guessed, and go looking for sex deliberately. Three times more she had spent the night with a guy. The first two times had been great, and then had come last night.
She had worn the same clothes as that first night with Sean, and the same clothes as the very first time she had gone out to just be a girl and enjoy herself. Halfway to the bar she had decided to visit this night, she was startled by a scream for help. She had acted purely on instinct, and the sense of duty, responsibility that had been drilled into her by two watchers, and more so the examples of her friends. She bolted, using her chi to reach great speeds and had soon found the guy intended to be breakfast by four vamps. Not long after the vampires were dust, and the man shakily on his way home.
Buffy had then gone back toward the bar she had originally intended to go to. She had been on a euphoric high she hadn't really wanted to analyze. She had gone in the bar, not like a girl looking for a nice guy to spend the night with, but like a predator. Hot guys she winked at, licked her lips seductively at, let her hands feel around bodies, but none she had taken. All of them she had rapidly filed somewhere subconsciously under 'maybe'. Then she had spotted him. He wasn't good looking, he seemed pitiful, and his attitude seemed downright deadly. But she had gone to him, more like prowled over. She had proceeded with seducing him like she was a seductress that had been doing this every day of her life. She had winked at him, felt up his body, and all but told him, 'Fuck me, now.' There had been an odd mixture of hope, excitement, pain, and distrust in his mood, but he had come along quickly.
When they arrived in the motel room for the night - that she had payed herself without thought - they took off their jackets right away. Then she had walked out in front of him, swaying her hips suggestively, and then it had happened. She had barely been startled, and she had most certainly not put up even one iota of a fight. She had heard his zipper, and then he had suddenly grabbed her skirt, and pulled it up until his hands were around her waist. He pushed her forward then, while at the same time bending her over, until she was bent slightly across the front rack of the bed. Not only had she /not/ put up a fight, she had welcomed it as her legs had instinctively found a spread and inviting position. A strange heady horniness and lust had come over her that was running her actions. Then he had torn apart her panties in his haste to get them off and plunged in - no holding back, no gentleness, just one powerful, needy thrust until he was lodged against her cervix. She vaguely remembered giving a moan that was somewhere in between a purr and growl of approval. She had welcomed the following too very powerful thrusts before she put her left hand behind her and on his chest, gently, but undeniably demanding he go grab a condom from the purse she had dropped somewhere when he took her. He had started to apologize profusely in shame, when she had cut him off with a very aroused growl, demanding he stop gibbering, put on a condom and fuck her senseless. He had been speechless for almost a tenth of a second, and then he had complied.
During the surprising short time the guy - who had seemed to be clumsy and insecure - she hadn't moved a muscle, apart from undulating her ass just so it was rounded a bit more in an even more inviting position. His second entry had been no less brutal or enjoyable than his first. With their clothes still on - except her torn panties which were around her right ankle, and her top which he had managed to get off somehow during the sex - they had fucked like animals. Just raw pure lust. She had never done anything like it, and never felt anything like it. She was woman, he was man, and that was all they needed to know as they came as close to literally fucking each other's brains out as people could. Forty minutes straight, he did not quit, not even after his first, and her third climax. At the end he had climaxed a second time and she had climaxed for her fifth. They had taken a break of fifteen minutes, during which time they completely undressed, got a new condom, and then they had gone at it again, although this time more passionate, and less pure lust since they had satiated a lot of it already. Later he had somewhat embarrassedly explained that two girls had been fondling him all over including his crotch insinuating they wanted a threesome with him until he had been rock hard and they had left him high and dry, laughing at him.
Buffy hadn't really fully grasped, or understood what happened, but she had been thinking about it all morning amidst feelings of complete contentment. It didn't occur to her until just before this day's lunch break. In class she had come to the sudden epiphany. Like her inner Slayer had told her; a Slayer's essence is life, and life's essence was sex, how they could get easily aroused after slaying. Last night she had let go, she had simply been the Slayer when she dusted those vamps, pure instinct. Afterwards she had looked around the bar, instinctively for the guy with the most pent up sexual energy. Her first time had been with a vampire, all star-crossed thing, more fantasy then real opportunity, and going against every single instinct inside her that had been screaming to dust the thing. Followed by Angelus, and the return of Angel, which meant a year of closeness to her love but no sex. Then Parker, followed by Riley who was again more the fantasy of the perfect guy, mixed in with the whole failure-of-Angel-and-then-falling-for-a-creep-like-Parker thing. Along with Riley's own insecurities and hang ups it just was never 'it'. Then there was Spike and using the other vampire and their pet. There was no real sexual pleasure there, constantly attacked once again by her instincts, as well as her emotional mess and the guilt and shame. It wasn't until Sean that she could really, fully just be 'Buffy' and enjoy herself, let what she was out - and like she should have realized since she knew she was the Slayer. Like her inner Slayer had tried to tell her and she had accepted the moment she went Super, and so every time she had been searching to simply be 'Buffy', just a girl, she was also inadvertently doing the same with the Slayer. When she was Buffy Summers, just a girl, she was really letting out, for the first real time; Buffy Summers the Slayer. And last night this had coincided with saving lives, along with enjoying sex, the whole mixture came to an explosive and very enjoyable head; she had instinctually gone searching to satisfy and catch up to seven years of bottled up Slayer sexuality in one magnificent sex-session.
She was nearing her home now, thinking over those things, and what she had been preoccupied with since her revelation. For despite her seeming complete out of control lust, she remembered she had stopped the guy and got him to put on a condom first. She had been in control, enough to keep her faculties straight. It hadn't been the Slayer who had gone out on the prowl for sex after dusting the vampires; no, it was her, Buffy, Buffy Summers the Slayer. And there was nothing wrong or bad about that. She was just a girl, not a preordained champion, not a slut. Her friends approved, they still considered her good old Buffy, perhaps even more 'good old' Buffy then before. One morning she had returned, she had walked into Xander on his way out after one of his daily morning training sessions with Dawn. She had been nervous, wondering what her only male friend would think. He had just grinned at her and given her a thumb up. Then when he passed her, he had given her an encouraging slap on her ass which she had received with a shocked yelp and she had turned around. He had turned his head as well smiling, and wishing her a good day. She had found afterwards she had quite enjoyed that. Even her sister after her initial outburst of shock, had come to apologize, and was now glad Buffy was enjoying herself, especially since it was exactly like Dawn had suggested earlier.
Buffy reached her home and stepped through the door. What had her thinking was her still in control nature, and the words that had been mauling through her head ever since that revelation. Xander's words: 'Buffy, you can do whatever you want to, but consider this; hiding from the power won't make it go away. It's there now. We'll still fight, and there might come a time when we're so in trouble you'll get angry enough to let it out, and if you haven't learned how the handle it, explored its nature, that time you might lose control again, and that time you might not come back.' The question that had plagued her was; would she lose control again? She stepped into the kitchen, then to second room of it, the washing room, and the door in the corner that lead to the gravity gym. She looked at it hesitating, afraid. Did the control she had last night spill over into the Super Slayer? Had Willow been right when she said the Slayer hadn't lost it, but she had? Faith hadn't lost it, after all. And Xander /was/ right, wasn't he, that she'd lose it again if she didn't familiarize herself with her transformation?
Buffy swallowed and hesitantly opened the door. She stepped inside and found no one. That was good, if she was going to lose it, it would be better if all she did was destroy some equipment. She looked around, closing the door behind her, and still hesitated. Finally she walked over to a training mat, and upped the gravity to fifty gs. She powered up to withstand the force, and looked around for no reason. Her heart beat into her throat with apprehension. She took a deep swallow, and then powered up. She searched inside her body, and quickly found the trigger. She screamed as the transformation took place in a short period of time. The moment she was the black-eyed engine of death, she felt them: the emotions and instincts, the need to fight and to destroy, the need to kill. "No!" she yelped in fear, pushing it away, and the transformation disappeared.
She breathed deeply, shaking her head, readying to leave. She set one foot forward and something occurred to her. She wasn't mindlessly destroying anything. The moment she didn't want it, the transformation had gone. She took her foot back, heart beating even harder in her chest. Once more she swallowed, and once more she transformed. The instincts and feelings were back with a vengeance; kill, destroy, hunt! Buffy wanted to run away again, putting it away, but fearful for future possibilities she forced herself to stay in this state. She swallowed fearfully at what she felt, but she was still not running around firing energy blasts mindlessly. A new sense, an even greater feeling pierced her earlier urges for destruction. Something that was there with even greater importance: protect!
She was in control, Buffy realized. She was not a mindless killing machine, she was here to protect people, to protect life, the essence of the Slayer as her inner Slayer had told her. She made an experimental punch, and smiled. She was not being overwhelmed, it was just power, energy flowing through her. She flew around a bit, sped up, tried firing a few energy blasts, and nothing happened. Nothing, as in nothing she had been dreading; no black thing was trying to strangle her from below and pull her away, no mindless need to destroy everything; she was still Buffy Summers the Slayer, a /true/ Slayer, a Super Slayer.
"Computer, 250 gs," she asked. The computer acknowledged her request with a verbal answer, and instantly the ground pulled much harder to her. She actually felt it, having to put a little effort into staying standing. "Computer, combat training, maximum difficulty," Buffy ordered curiously. Several tiles lowered out of the way, and ten robots emerged. They immediately started attacking Buffy and she shot out of the way. She crushed a robot, which was quickly replaced. She blasted a few out of the sky, and she went faster and faster. To her shock, and pleasure she was not losing her mind or control. After several minutes of this workout she ordered the computer to stop. As she lowered herself to the floor, she looked at her hands in wonder. She was in control, completely. Slowly a smile crept up her face.
"Buffy, that was . . . I thought you didn't want to do that anymore?"
Buffy turned around, landing on the mat and looked at Willow just outside of the force field. The redhead was in workout clothes. Apparently she had come in planning to get a workout in. Buffy smiled and walked to her. "I changed my mind," Buffy said with a wide smile. Willow waited patiently for an explanation. "Willow, this is so awesome, I finally understand what it means to be a Slayer. Life, protection of it, immersing yourself in it. Strength and speed; I'm just a girl, just a human girl with extra speed, boosted healing, and a higher sex drive, and some violence. But I'm just a girl, I'm not a monster."
"Well, duh," Willow replied and then grinned.
Buffy grinned, and then instinctively turned ninety degrees to her left, and saw a see-through First Slayer, the true Asian First Slayer. Willow looked confused at Buffy, not seeing anything. Buffy looked equally confused at the Slayer, who then grew a bit shorter, her hair became blonde, followed by some more morphing. Buffy's eyes widened in surprise when she looked at herself. Her inner Slayer then smiled and nodded at her, before walking forward and disappearing into Buffy's body. Buffy put her hand on her chest, and looked at it, blinking. She turned back to Willow and smiled.
"What happened?" the redhead asked.
Buffy's smile broke into a grin, and said, "I feel whole, Willow, I /am/ whole, for the first time in a long while."
"Uh, good," Willow said a little confused.
The air high above Earth's surface collapsed in on itself, and then a spherical ship appeared from out of nowhere. Gently it descended, until it finally landed in the capsule corp garden lawn. Slowly the exit hatch and ramp in one opened until its edge was just above the ground. In front of the ship a group of people stood waiting.
From out the ship first came Xander and his wife, then Dawn and Li, behind which came Buffy, Willow and Tara. Behind them, came Ed and his wife Diana, and Daniel and his girlfriend Melissa. Finally, closing the lines came a an older woman, and a girl in her latter twenties, who very tentatively came down the hatch. Once off the hatch they spread out a little and looked.
Everyone but Xander looked around with great interest. Ed and his wife, and Daniel and his girlfriend looked around astounded. The girl and woman looked around with dropped jaws, especially noting the very alien-looking building style of a dome-shaped building. The clothes the people down at the ramp wore, were completely 'wrong' clothes as well. "We're really in another dimension, aren't we?" Jennifer Styles whispered in awe at her mother, who nodded dumbfounded in response.
"Yep, we're not in Kansas anymore," Melissa told them both.
The Son family with Michael, Krillin and 18 and of course the Briefs family were present, that is minus Vegeta, who was training. Chi-Chi took several steps forward and bowed respectfully in front of Sally and Jennifer Styles; Micheal's mother and sister, which had to be difficult, and staying like that had to be a strain on her back with the clearly extended belly. It couldn't be more than two months before she had to give birth. "I am Son Chi-Chi, it is a great honor to meet my fiance's family at last. I regret not having been able to meet you before. I hope you approve of my application to join my fiance's family."
"Uh, well . . . uh," Michael's mother muttered in shock and confusion at the still bowed Chi-Chi. "You . . . uh . . . seem ok, I guess, I . . . uh . . . accept, or something?"
Chi-Chi slowly raised back up and said, "I am honored with this acceptation, my house is your house for the durations of your visits." Chi-Chi then stepped over to Michael's sister, and shook her hand, smiling.
After that Chi-Chi stepped away, and while Bulma, Krillin and 18 greeted their friends, Michael - holding a sleepy Goten who regularly fell in and out of consciousness - went to his still dumbfounded sister and mother. "Hi, mom, sis," he greeted and they noticed the baby in his arms, their eyes widening even more. "This is Goten, Chi-Chi's son," Michael said with a smile introducing the baby. His mother and sister looked with even greater shock, and Michael turned sideways. He indicated Gohan, and said, "And this is Gohan, Chi-Chi's oldest son."
As Gohan stepped forward, Jennifer and Sally seemed about ready to faint. Gohan took a bow, and greeted, "It is an honor for me too to meet Mick's family." Then Gohan straightened back up, smiling.
For a moment Michael's family's jaws dropped again, staring at the teen. Slowly Michael's mother muttered somewhat defeated, "I always wanted you to settle down and have a family, give me grandkids . . . but this isn't exactly what I had in mind." Sally indicated everything.
"Yeah, you getting married . . . to a woman who's already got two children," Jennifer said with wide eyes. "This is /definitely/ a different dimension."
Michael grinned, and said, "And let's not forget the Ox King, Chi-Chi's father."
The huge man came over, his bearded face in a bright smile. Michael's sister and mother looked astounded at him. "It's so nice to meet you finally!" the Ox King beamed, wrapping the two in a crushing hug, making them gasp for breath, and making motions to Michael to get the 'monster' to finish. "Oh, I apologize," Ox King said as he noticed their predicament. He took a step back and said, "I'm so pleased that my daughter found a new man to make her so happy. Goku was incredible, but sadly passed away, and it he's not coming back, he said." The Styles women looked at him with a shocked face, Michael chuckled.
In the mean time the rest had greeted the others once again, Chi-Chi talking with Michael's friends, who she led to Michael. They too greeted each other and then the whole precession of people went to the big building. Chi-Chi, Michael and his family up front. Right behind that were Xander, Anya and Gohan and then the rest followed. Xander saw how smoothly Chi-Chi placed her arm around Michael for the support she desired with her extended belly. Kind of like he and Anya, who's hand was wrapped in his.
"So . . ." Xander said thinking. "When exactly did this come about?" he asked a smiling Gohan.
"I don't really know," Gohan said looking up trying to remember relevant details and when they occurred. "At first they did go out on dates, and /that/ took some getting used to. They took the hovercar to the city, and she taught him how to fly it during, but basically they just got on each other's nerves. There was one event though that I think marked the change, and I still don't believe it was possible."
"What?"
"Mom is volatile enough as it is, but with pregnant hormones running through her . . . I can't even remember what set her off, I doubt she remembers either, but what happened then . . ." Gohan said, relaying his memory.
Gohan grabbed his head, and started running from the kitchen, Michael alongside him, when Chi-Chi started screaming profanities at them, both ducking. That was until Michael looked back and watched as Chi-Chi grabbed the frying pan of doom and swung it back for a powerful blow.
Something in Michael changed, he stood up and turned around. Gohan felt the fear for the guy, that he had surprisingly come to like a bit. He had a rather surprising cool world view, not 'cool' as in 'great', but 'cool' as in 'levelheaded'. And now he was most likely going to end up in a hospital. Michael spoke then, with a surprising command in his voice for the party guy, "_Put it down . . . /now/!_"
The frying pan stopped, mere centimeters from his face. Chi-Chi looked with surprised open mouth at Michael and at how close she got to hitting him, then at the intense gaze in his eyes. "_/Now/! /Put/ . . . /it/ . . . /down/!_" he ordered once more. Slowly Chi-Chi moved the frying pan back to the stove, and Gohan stood straight looking in shocked surprise.
Michael kept Chi-Chi's attention with his blazing eyes alone, and then spoke, "Chi-Chi, you will listen to me, and listen to me /very/ carefully." Chi-Chi nodded, already slowly grasping what she had almost done. Michael continued his sudden speech, "Your husband having the power to obliterate planets in his fingertips might barely notice a frying pan . . . like getting poked with a finger, but I'm nothing like them. Hit me with that pan and you put me in the hospital, if not kill me outright. I think even /here/ there are laws against spousal abuse, no?" Chi-Chi swallowed, and Michael ended his pause, "And if you think I'm going to be your punching bag ending black and blue in a hospital every other week, whether my seed melted with your egg or not, you've got another thing coming! Then we're through with this little experiment right here, and in fact I will not let my child be raised by a woman who might kill him or her with a frying pan in a fit of anger. I will fight for custody and raise my child by myself." Michael stopped talking again, and looked at the stunned Chi-Chi who's shoulders slowly slumped, her eyes wide in horror. Michael then finished, before his fury ran out, "So, Chi-Chi, get your act together, go to a friggin' anger management class or something if they have them here, whatever. You can be angry, you curse and scream and slam your hands, but ever, /ever/ pick up something like a frying pan again in this house or any other and . . ." Michael finished by making a simple wiping aside gesture with his right hand. "Understand?" Chi-Chi nodded, horrified had what she had almost done; years the frying pan kept Goku in check knowing she couldn't even really scratch him with one, more often then not she had to buy a new frying pan and the Saiyan was no worse for wear; now she had almost put the father of the child growing in her womb into a hospital. Michael nodded in satisfaction, and then turned around, walking resolutely out of the kitchen.
Gohan blinked several times, looking with surprise at the ending of the scene.
"That's quite . . ." Xander started and didn't really have the words.
"Yeah," Gohan answered with a slight smile. "Shortly after that he asked me to teach him some basic martial arts, so he could keep up with mom, he said. I reluctantly agreed. He told me I could come to him for whatever I needed, and if he could he'd help, even if he and mom didn't work out, he said. While training with him I kind of found he isn't half as bad as I thought he was. Mom and him kind of slowly started to hit it off, she /did/ go to anger management classes, by the way."
Behind them Melissa said, "A double marriage, that's kind of romantic."
"Don't you mean 'cheap'?" Daniel asked innocently, half-joking.
"I HEARD THAT!!!" Chi-Chi's voice suddenly screeched, making Daniel flinch back.
"The beach!" Li proclaimed with a huge grin at the head of the group made out of Scooby Gang members and significant others, Z warriors and significant others, and friends and significant others. The beach in front of him was filled with men and women in bathing clothes already. Behind them was the skyline of Western Capital. "Home of hot babes," he added, gaining a triumphant pose.
"And hot guys!" Dawn said as she came to stand right next to him with her eyes wide in anticipation, wearing nothing but tight jeans shorts, the bikini top and slippers.
"Eh?" Li said, his triumphant pose slumping. "Dawn, what about me?"
Dawn turned to him with a smile and hugged him close, pressing herself into him, her head and with it her hair against his shoulder, and she said, "You're my bestest, best, and hottest boyfriend." The rest of the group snickered a bit.
"But . . ." Li said with a weak voice.
"Doesn't mean I can't look, right?" she asked him innocently.
Li-Huei looked at her, and muttered, "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"
"You can look too," Dawn suggested with a big grin.
Li sighed and said, "Sometimes I wish you were a little less progressive." Dawn hugged him closer smiling as some of the others chuckled.
"Anya's a bad influence on you, Dawn," Buffy said somewhat miffed, but the smile on her face betrayed her true emotions. She looked around trying to find an empty space, big enough for all of them.
"And proud of it," Anya added looking around and doing the same. It wasn't that the beach was that full, but that they were with so many. Between the entire Scooby gang and significant others, many of the Z Warriors and significant others, and family and friends . . . and significant others, they were quite a large group. The only ones not present were Bulma and Vegeta and son, Piccolo, Tien, and Choazu. "There!" Anya pointed out an empty space of sand that seemed big enough.
Xander nodded and the whole group started running to the place. Moments later they arrived and opened their bags, quickly pulling out towels and laying them down. Dawn pulled down her short jeans revealing a high cut bikini bottom, that left quite a bit from her ass bare. She got several admiring views not just from Li and the men among her group. When 18 revealed herself in her own lovely bathing suit even more beach goers looked. Krillin grinned at his soon-to-be wive, and once again realized how lucky he was. 17 grumbled at his sister getting all looks not to mention her fiance. Their dating had been bad enough, but when she had gone to live in the same house he was about ready lose it. Their plans to get married had resulted in him fighting Krillin for his sister, and 17 getting his ass royally kicked, after which 18 had kicked his ass some more, screaming about being insensitive pig of a brother, that he should be happy for her, and more stuff like that. He had finally accepted it, but that didn't mean he was going to like it. Some women noticed him take off his shirt, but he didn't notice them, he simply sat down on his towel and sulked - he hated the beach, or rather the occasion.
Xander noticed how Yamcha, while he took off his clothes to reveal his bathing boxers, took particular interest in the undressing of Willow, Tara, Buffy and Michael's sister Jennifer. He grinned, and took in his friends himself. They looked very good in bikinis. When was the last time he saw any of them like that? And being happy to boot? Never? No, a year ago, once, just after he revealed himself, with Faith in the garden. The girls casually went to lie down to work on their tans, and Xander smiled.
Yamcha and Puar where the first in the water, followed by Oolong. Ed gave Xander a nudge as he and his wife went for the water as well, while Daniel and Melissa opted to lie down. Anya took off her shorts, and once done, she grinned and casually took off her bikini top, and let it drop onto their beach bag.
Jaws dropped, eyes popped out of practically everyone who could see. "Anya!" Willow said shocked.
"What? I checked, it's legal to be topless here," Anya asked innocently. Several men, not just in their group keeled over.
"Do you /see/ anyone topless?" Buffy asked in shocked a tone.
"Me," Anya said with a wide grin, and then turned to Xander saying, "Come on, time to hit the water." Everyone but Xander watched with a dropped jaw as the topless girl ran to the ocean. Xander grinned, quickly pulled off excess clothes and ran after her, not giving anyone the chance to look at him. Soon Anya giggled loudly as she and Xander splashed into the water to play.
"Wow," Michael muttered, once she and Xander were gone.
Chi-Chi then laughed, and turned to Michael saying, "She's nuts." She took off Goten's clothes then and put him in his swimming trunks. After that she took of her own clothes revealing a bikini-clad, highly pregnant, but very becoming body. "Wanna go play in the water, Goten?" Goten nodded, reaching his arms high into the air from his fragile standing position. Chi-Chi picked him up, and looked at Michael as she went for the ocean. Her fiance quickly turned and brought his sister along, and they too quickly went into the water.
As the rest went to lie down, Dawn urged Li to take off his clothes. He did until he was only in his swimming trunks and he stretched his muscular upper body. Dawn caught a few girls looking and grinned with pride at her boyfriend. Gohan next to them sighed and gently took off his clothes as well. Once done with that, he lazily stretched out his smoothly muscular body, and yawned. He flexed his arms a bit, and shook them loose. He then slowly turned his head to his right, and his eyes widened in shock. There was a group of girls, his age, a few older, that looked at him. Eyes wide and shiny with excitement, a few were all but drooling. "Uh . . . hi?" he tried hopeful that they would just leave him alone.
Everyone looked over in shock as the throng of girls started exclaiming while reaching for Gohan who walked backward with fear. Some the exclaims were 'marry me', others 'date me', and more then a few were a whole lot less honorable. "Heh, heh, aah!" Gohan exclaimed and then turned around running, as the girls chased after him. He ran a circle, then a figure eight, but the girls kept following him around, some beating each other up to keep the other girls from getting Gohan. Briefly he considered flying away, then a savior came.
With a yell from her most deepest, fearful, feminine, territorial being a glowing Dawn positioned herself between Gohan and the girls. With clenched teeth, and an angry face she added, "_Keep your paws off him!_"
The girls evaluated their newest rival, as everyone looked at the shocking scene, and one of them asked, "And why should we do that?"
"Because . . . /I'm/ his _/fiancee/_, and you'd _piss me /off/_!" she hissed at them angrily, eyes glowing ember with anger, and then she flared her energy. For a moment her ki flame burst around her, and a wall of ki flew from Dawn toward the girls and shot past them. Their hairs whirled with the movement of air, and they looked fearfully at suddenly very dangerous looking Dawn. They chuckled nervously and then quickly dispersed. "There," Dawn suddenly said perkily, smiling while straightening up, "that takes care of them." Dawn smiled further and looked over to Gohan who stood with clenched fists. "See?" she asked and then looked over to her right. Directly across from Gohan stood Li, his fists clenched as well, grimacing.
"Have you been messing with my girl, Gohan?" Li asked dangerously.
"Eh, what?" Dawn tried in shock, her head whipping from Gohan to the other. "No, Li, you don't get it, that was just to get rid of the girls. I'm not /really/ his fiance!"
"Of course, you can't satisfy her, someone else has to," Gohan told Li with clenched teeth.
"What!?" Dawn exclaimed in shock, and now all their friends and family still on the beach looked over.
Li stepped into a classic battle stance, and said, "You will have to pay for that!"
Gohan's Super Saiyan golden ki flame erupted around him and said, "Bring it on, and I'll tear you apart." Gohan showed a Saiyan battle smirk, and Dawn was still whipping her head back and forth between them.
"No! No! No!" Dawn panicky exclaimed, waving her hand frantically around in a stop sign. "Stop it, you two! It was all a lie! Nothing happened!"
"Stay out of this, Dawn. This is between the slit-eyed buffoon here, and me!" Gohan said preparing himself by going into a battle stance.
Dawn stepped closer to Li and pleaded, "Stop this, Li! He'll tear you apart, he's a Super Saiyan! And he's just messing, nothing happened between us!"
"Doesn't matter, Dawn! The moment he said he did, he soiled my girlfriend! /This/ is a matter of honor that must settled one way or another!" Li said angrily a small ki flame bursting around him. "You're a girl, I don't expect you to understand. Step back, this is between me, and piss boy over there."
Dawn's eyes were wide with concern and fear, and made one last ditch effort, "Gohan, please! Stop this! He doesn't stand a chance against you! Nothing happened, everyone's way overreacting!"
Gohan's face was twisted in a grimace, not having missed Li's comment about the color of his hair and aura, and he hissed out, "That's nice, Dawn, but the moment he insulted me that was over. Like he said, this a matter of honor now. Men's business. Step back, so I can kill him."
Dawn stood rooted to the ground in fear, while Li burst forward and around her, while saying, "Don't bother, I'll come to you!" With an ever increasing roar Li rapidly closed the distance between him and his grossly overpowered, intended target. At the last moment his fist suddenly flew forward with every little bit of speed he possessed and . . . stopped his fist right before a grinning Gohan's nose. Li opened his fist, place his middle finger at the inside of his thumb, and then let it snap forward, right in Gohan's nose.
Everyone's eyes, especially Dawn's were glued to the disaster waiting to happen. Then their eyes snapped wide as Gohan was launched off his feet with a powerful, and painful groan. His Super Saiyan transformation disappeared and he landed with a thud in the said. He groaned some more and then slowly sat up looking at his victorious opponent, and groaned out, "I yield; I am no match for your middle finger of doom technique, Li. You are the better man. Dawn is all yours." Gohan then slumped back theatrically as Li grinned triumphantly and looked back at Dawn and the rest, smiling. As Gohan got back up with a wide smile, their friends who had witnessed it burst out laughing . . . except Dawn.
Dawn let out a growl, her arms were tense, and her hands were clenched into fists. When Li noticed this, his smile disappeared and he swallowed. "Uh, Dawn?" Li said, her growl deepened. He made warding off gestures, and said, "Calm down, Dawn. It was just a play act, see? A joke. A little funny sketch. It wasn't real."
"Joke? Joke!? I'LL SHOW YOU JOKE!!" Dawn screamed, ki flame burst around her, ki balls forming at her hands. "Take your joke!" she yelled and fired at him, missing. Li jumped backward.
"Run!" Gohan called pulling his friend along and running along the beach with an angry girl at their heels.
"Get back here you two!!" Dawn screamed in anger, firing energy balls that exploded in the sand. Everyone look shocked. Non of the balls hit the running and zigzagging boys, nor any of the other beach guests. "Stop and take what's coming to you like men, you cowards!" Dawn screamed firing more energy blasts.
"I knew it! I just knew it!" Gohan said in irritation, avoiding another blast of energy that sent sand up in the air a moment later.
"Knew what?" Li said breathing hard.
"Women are insane!" Gohan said with gritted teeth. "I knew she'd show her insanity sooner or later, I just knew it!"
Li blinked and thought he liked to think about women in general and his Dawn in a better light. He noticed that none of Dawn's energy blasts hit, nor was she overtaking him, and he knew Dawn was a lot faster than him. "Well," he said, "I'd like to think better about my girlfriend." He stopped abruptly and turned around.
"Are you crazy . . . too?" Gohan asked stricken, slowing down and stopping.
With a screech of anger Dawn ran at Li, pulling her fist back for a devastating punch. Li swallowed, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Just a moment before the fist would hit, Dawn's arm slowed down and her fist transformed into an open hand. "Ouch!" Li exclaimed when the slap loudly went across his left cheek.
"Don't you /ever/ do that again, Li-Huei Kijimuta!" Dawn yelled at him. Gohan looked at the scene apprehensively.
"I won't ever make a joke again," he said solemnly, not quite understanding.
"No! Worry me, you idiot!" Dawn screamed as tears sprung into her eyes. Suddenly she fell against him, hugging him close around his neck. "I really thought you were going to die back there," she whimpered, and then cried into his shoulder. "Don't let me think that again?" Dawn muttered crying.
"I promise I won't," Li said a little shocked and then hugged Dawn closer, letting her get rid of the emotional stress.
Gohan looked at the two in disbelief. One moment, and then. He shook his head and started walking past them, back toward their places, and he muttered, "Insane. Absolutely, utterly, completely bonkers, all of them, I swear."
Chi-Chi giggled as Michael placed a kiss in her neck, holding her belly from behind her. She sighed as she let herself lean back against him. Goten who she held in her hands laughed himself and splashed his hands in the water. "Mommy, mommy!" Goten yelled with excitement, splashing more water. "Much!"
"Yeah, whole lot more water than you're bath, huh, squirt?" Michael asked the baby with a grin.
Goten looked at him for a moment, and then smiled brightly splashing more water. "Dang," Jennifer said, watching his brother and his fiance with her son. "Since when did you become the family man? I hate to admit it, but it suits you."
Michael smiled and shrugged. "Yes," Chi-Chi added with a smile. "I don't think you ever told me how it changed either. I remember you in the beginning mostly just going through the motions. You didn't really like being here, apart from the mandatory kissing and dating to see if we could get a relationship going."
Michael smiled and sighed as he looked up to remember exactly. "Remember when I came over for the first time while you were hanging up the laundry to dry to kiss you?" Chi-Chi blinked a moment and then nodded, smiling. "Well, sis," Michael said, remembering, "the Son house is across the continent, and lies in the middle of a forest, close by a mountain, and has a big field of grass with a few fruit trees in it. You'll see when we show you. Anyway, in the first few weeks, perhaps two months, I was mostly sulking. I was stuck in this alien dimension with a woman pregnant with my child, whose husband is dead and two sons already here. I had never really planned on a family, and if I did, it most certainly wasn't like this. So there I sat one moment, just looking around doing nothing, and suddenly found myself enjoying the view and the birds chirping, an occasional sound of another animal intermingling . . . and then Chi-Chi comes out and starts hanging up the laundry to the drying lines. And I look at her, and I notice again why I wanted to bed her in the first place." He dipped down and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek, making her smile. "She's absolutely, stunningly, fantastically gorgeous, and sexy, and her pregnant frame did nothing to detract from that. At that moment I realized /my/ child was growing in this beautiful woman, I live in a place stunningly beautiful, what did I have to complain about? All I had to do was convince her I was perfect for her, and I could be with her all my life. Before, that scared the life out of me, but there in that calm forest, with no rushing cars and the sounds of life rushing by . . ." Michael shrugged.
Chi-Chi grinned, and finished, "So he walked over to me and gave me the absolutely, most fantastic, passionate kiss I every had, smiled at me, and then just walked inside the house, whistling, leaving me standing there dumbfounded, still reeling from the kiss. It /fully/ dawn on me what 'it', 'him', and the kiss meant in the same way a little over a week later, I think."
"Other dimension, aliens, it still blows my mind, and here you've got two for sons soon," Jennifer muttered and shook her head.
"Half, to be exact, but yeah," Michael answered with a smile.
18 stretched her left leg, giving her fiance that was standing right next to her a great view. Krillin grinned; damn was he lucky to have such a woman. Several men strutting their muscles, just as tall as 18 walked up to them. One of them asked, "Hello, babe. How about a date, eh?" Krillin gritted his teeth. Were they blind? Didn't they see the ring on her finger?
"Ignore him, it's me you want, and I'm sure you're little brother can take care of himself for a while," another musclebound buffoon suggested.
Krillin had balled a fist, having difficulty controlling himself. 18 in the mean time looked around, and said, "What are you talking about? My brother is there in the ocean." The men looked at her for a few moments.
"You know, you look familiar," another guy said, a little less bound, and a little less of a buffoon, but no less a macho pig.
"Now that you mention it," a fourth said looking 18 over. "Hey! You were in that tournament a few years ago, or rather you jumped in. Didn't you have to protect some weak, short, bald freak? Yeah, your boyfriend, I see you ditched the dude, good choice." 18 just looked dumbfounded at the stupidity of them, while Krillin made several noises from his throat trying to keep his tirade back, his right fist up in intense concentration, and then it broke . . .
"I'M THE BALD, FREAK, AND SHE'S MY FIANCE, SEE!!!" Krillin screamed out in anger, grabbing 18's hand and holding the diamond ring out to see. Krillin then let go and extended his hand, with a burst of ki he sent all of 18's suitors flying away crashing in the sand and getting covered by it.
18 looked down at Krillin and gave a rare bright smile, "That's one thing I love about you Krillin. You still have the old sense of protecting your woman's honor." She then bent down just a bit, grabbed the back of Krillin's head by moving her hand through his hair, and gave her fiance a passionate kiss; another thing she rarely did - at least in public. Krillin smiled as he kissed back, growing a bit red. 18 straightened, and added, "Few would still do that, especially for a woman of my caliber."
"Yeah, well, what can I say, they got on my nerves," Krillin said, scratching his head with a big smile. "Let's go swim," Krillin suggested, and 18 nodded. Krillin sprinted to the water saying, "Last one in has to do the dishes for a week." 18 blinked, and then folded her arms across her chest, casually walking to the water in a composed manner. Sometimes he really got on her nerves, but then, she considered, would she want a man that didn't? She gave a smirk, and soon joined her fiance, counting her blessing they had a dishwasher.
Yamcha raised his head over the water, and grinned at Puar who thankfully stayed flying over the water. Cats and water didn't mix after all. Oolong the pig yelled out in happiness and rose above the water as well. Right in front of Yamcha another head arose from the water, followed by the rest of a girl's body, stopping halfway her breasts. She had bright blonde hair, darkened by their wet state. The wet hair hung around her shoulder, and made her look very good, like siren. The spaghetti strapped bikini top clung wetly to her breasts, in short she was a vision of wet loveliness that would make most men turn into gibbering fools. She looked surprised at Yamcha, it was obvious she hadn't been expecting anyone being so close by where she surfaced.
Luckily for Yamcha he was somewhat of a ladies' man so after staring a few moments, he managed an even, "Hi."
"Hi," the girl returned with a smooth voice that made him shake in his boots, if he was wearing boots of course.
Puar looked at the scene and Yamcha's wide eyes. The Z warrior collected himself, smiled, and said, "I'm Yamcha."
"Delilah," she returned somewhat amused. She was used to guys gibbering quite a bit before they collected themselves, this was a refreshing change. Of course, the few men who had equally started out as 'refreshing changes' she soon found out were a bunch of horn dogs with no respect for the female species, while those who sputtered a bit before collecting themselves always turned out to be the much better choice. Sadly according to her, not even any of those relationships had lasted.
Puar made a sound, that got even Oolong to stop his antics and take in what was happening. "Oh," Yamcha said, indicating the cat that had placed herself on his right shoulder. "This is my cat, Puar."
"Hi," Puar greeted the girl, who only now noticed the cat. Delilah took in the cat, and admonished herself, realizing the man had a greater effect on her than she had thought.
"And this is Oolong, a bit of an acquaintance," Yamcha stated, indicated the pig.
"H-h-h-hi," the pig stuttered. Blonde women were like slim, athletic versions of female pigs, and this was an exceptionally good looking specimen.
Puar took in the scene of the two humans looking at each other, and said, "Oolong, come on, I don't like the water."
"Huh?" the pig said.
"Get going, you lazy pig," Puar told him as she flew off of Yamcha's shoulder back toward the beach.
"Oh, uh, right," Oolong said, not having much to complain about, he /was/ a lazy pig after all, literally.
Delilah, smiling nicely, watched the two go, and suddenly her eyes widened in shock. "The cat's flying," she managed to choke out.
Yamcha laughed, and said, "I can fly too."
Delilah yanked her had back to him, and said, "You can't."
"Oh, I can," he returned, and then suggested with a smile, "Shall I fly you over to the beach stand so we can have a refreshing drink, before diving back in?"
Delilah blinked at him, hesitated. This guy was either insane, or . . . "Ok," she said a challenge in her voice.
Yamcha smiled and took a step closer, moving his hand under water around her waist. "Now, hold on tight," he said as he pulled her against him. She placed her arms around his shoulders, and around his neck, feeling his body fully against her. He had a lot of smooth muscles she observed, very smooth. She looked nervously into his smiling face. "Ready?" he asked her. She nodded timidly, if they were going to fly . . . if he was insane she was awfully close to him; she wondered why she even let herself . . . Oh, my! She could feel herself lift off the ocean bottom, and then a prickling like static electricity envelope her body. They moved faster and a moment later they were floating above the water.
Delilah looked down, and said in awe, "Wow."
"Hold on tight," Yamcha told her and she looked at him with wide eyes. He burst rapidly upward, and made several loops and screws. Delilah screeched at first, and then felt like being in a roller coaster, and laughed out loud.
"Wow! This is amazing! And real! This is definitely no trick! WOO! How?" Delilah yelled out in delight at her stomach twisting and turning, and seeing ground and air zip by consecutively.
"I can explain over that drink, or better yet, dinner," Yamcha said, as he slowed down, and landed next to the stand, a lot of people staring, other dismissing it as a 'trick' as the hero Mr. Satan always said. They took a step back from each other, and both took the other in.
Delilah then smiled and said, "I'm willing to take the risk you're an insensitive pig."
"I'm hurt," Yamcha said with a hand on his chest. "I'm willing to accept you're not wearing your plus 30 glasses, and you're mistaking me for Oolong." Delilah laughed and went to sit down on a free stool, Yamcha joining her.
Willow let her hand go over Tara's tummy. She loved the way her girlfriend looked in a bikini. She felt rather proud of her. They should definitely go to the beach more often. Tara turned her head and opened her eyes, looking questioningly. Around the two some of the others were equally sunbathing, Li and Dawn had returned too. Gohan had entered the water to spend some time alone and away from women. "You look so good, I couldn't resist," Willow told Tara softly, who smiled proudly at the compliment. A moment later Willow's lips touched Tara's and she kissed the blonde deeply.
"You look pretty good yourself, I've even noticed some guys ogling you," Tara said with a smile. "I think Gohan took a peek."
Willow blushed deeply, and said, "They didn't." Tara nodded. Then Willow added, "Well, I've noticed a few guys checking you out as well, and I think the brunette girl in the red bathing suit over there did as well."
Tara grinned, and said, "I guess it's time we face it; we're two hot, lesbian babes, and everyone wants a piece from us." Willow looked at Tara and then chuckled. Tara then moved her hand over and stroked Willow's back suggestively, and asked, "Like the book?"
"Yeah, it's enjoyable. Have read better though," Willow answered with a smile. Tara grinned and planted a kiss on Willow's forehead, then turned around on her stomach as well. She held out her head, and Willow pulled a different book from their bag and handed it over. "Two girlfriends reading a book," Willow said with a smile as Tara started reading, then softly, "before doing some naughty bits later at night?"
"You bet, my sweet," Tara answered with a bright suggestive smile.
The next day
"Tag, you're it," Xander said as he tagged Willow on the shoulder. He quickly turned around and ran away. The park they were playing in was somewhere away from the Western Capital, and he, Willow and Buffy had come out all alone. They had agreed not to use their chi, so Willow could keep up, and had long forgotten what had prompted them to play the childish, but very enjoyable game.
Willow grinned, and decided to go for Buffy who grinned with mock fear when she noticed Willow gunning for her. The redheaded witch ran after Buffy with all she had, her skirt that fell just below her thighs swirled about. "Don't bother running, Buffy," Willow said with a grin slowly catching up and then saw Buffy turned around a tree. She went to the other side of the tree where Buffy appeared, smiling and suddenly widening eyes. Quickly the slayer went the other way, and so did Willow. Buffy emerged from behind the tree, and Willow stretched out her arm managing to touch Buffy's shirt at a corner. "You're it, Buffy! You're it!" Willow yelled out, breathing hard.
"Uh, uh, you didn't touch me!" Buffy returned running away.
"No way, Buffy! I touched your shirt, you're it!" Willow called out, slowing down, getting angry.
Buffy returned to Willow and looked at her closely, saying, "If you're not lying, you're still it!" Buffy tagged Willow right above her left breast, and then laughingly ran away.
"Damn you!" Willow yelled quickly running after the Slayer, bent on tagging her properly and not get tagged right away again. The two girls ran through the knee-high grass, and emerged out on the shorter mowed grass. "You're gonna be it, Buffy!" Willow called out, speeding up. She reached out her hand, and Buffy arched her back, giggling, and making Willow miss. Willow tried again, but Buffy ran just a little faster. Suddenly Willow veered off, ran straight at a surprised Xander and tagged him, his jump aside was just too late. A heavily breathing Willow leaned against the tree Xander had been standing near, Xander grinned at her. "Oh, please, Xan," Willow whined.
"Oh, alright," Xander said and put his sights on Buffy who suddenly got very nervous, and started running. Xander ran after her with everything he had, and rather quickly caught up.
"You can't get me!" Buffy yelled at him, laughing out loud.
"Oh, no?" Xander asked with a grin; he could do this the long way, but he added a little bit of his chi, and tagged her easily on the back. "You're it!" Xander said, and then quickly ran back in the general direction from which he came from.
"You cheated!" Buffy yelled out. "You used chi, you cheater! Cheater! Cheater! Xander is a cheater! Cheater, cheater, panties eater!"
"No, I didn't! But edible panties can be quite tasty," Xander replied, making Buffy and Willow look at him strangely. He grinned evilly. "I'm not a cheater! You're just a sore loser! Buffy's a bad loser!" Xander stuck out his tongue.
"Willow! Tell him he's still it! Xander's a cheater! He admitted it too, he eats panties!" Buffy said running half-heartedly after Xander.
Willow having caught most of her breath, said with a smile and a glint in her eye, "Sorry, Buffy, but I felt no chi coming from Xander. You're just a sore loser."
"Liar!" Buffy accused, pained. "It's not true, Xander cheated!"
"Buffy, just grow up, and get with the program: you're it!" Willow returned.
"Oh, really!" Buffy challenged somewhat pissed off, and Xander watched amused. Willow was about to return when Buffy suddenly burst forward and started tickling Willow. "I'm going to tickle you until you admit you lied!" Buffy said with a huge grin as Willow laughed and was squirming to get out of Buffy's fiendishly ticklish grasp.
After a few moments, Willow couldn't keep standing as Buffy said, "Tickle, tickle, tickle!" Willow sank to her knees, and then keeled back bumping her ass on the ground with a little force.
"OUCH!" Willow called out in reflex; which Buffy ignored as a feint at first. Willow continued squirming at Buffy's tickling, and through laughter she called out, "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Stop it, Buffy! Ouch!" Buffy stopped looking concerned, realizing Willow wasn't faking this, Xander looked amused, thinking.
"Is something wrong? You didn't fall on something sharp did you?" Buffy asked concerned looking at where Willow's ass was on the ground.
"No, no, it's nothing," Willow tried to wave Buffy's concern aside, climbing back to her feet.
"Let me see, Willow, there could be some alien insect that has deadly poison or something. Remember dinosaurs still roam here, there's no telling . . ." Buffy said with deep concern.
Xander grinned, shaking his head at Willow, and said, "Buffy, leave it, she's fine." Willow started blushing, understanding Xander had figured it out, but then he'd probably seen that behavior before seeing as Tara had probably gotten the idea from Anya's straight forward mentioning of such things.
"How can you say that, Xander?! She's obviously hurt," Buffy said shocked and concerned.
Willow shook her head at Xander, terribly embarrassed. "Buffy," Xander said in as discrete an explanation as possible, "not all hurt is bad."
"Huh?! What does that mean!? We need to get to her to a doctor!" Buffy said with concern, making Xander snicker imagining a doctor's reaction upon his examination if Buffy had her way.
"No need, no need, it's no insect, nothing the matter," Willow squeaked out, growing redder.
"Willow!" Buffy admonished her friend, panicking at several horrible boils and other scenarios of what Willow might have to go through if they didn't get her to a doctor soon, "You don't have to be embarrassed about playing tag! You can always make up some story to the doctor!"
Xander's face was contorted with mirth, while Willow looked down in embarrassment. Xander finally explained, "Buffy, I think Tara considered Willow a bad, naughty, little girl last night."
"Huh!?" Buffy exclaimed in even greater confusion, as Willow turned completely beet red, almost brighter than her hair. "What the hell are you talking about, Xander!?" Buffy exclaimed looking from a grinning Xander to the embarrassed Willow. Suddenly something dawned on Buffy, and her eyes widened. "Oh, is that . . ." Buffy really didn't need to finish the question, looking at Willow. "Oh, my . . . Tara gave you . . . oh, my . . ." she added.
"This is so embarrassing," Willow said, shaking her head trying not to make it so; she hadn't put on the soft skirt that kept away from her backside's flesh for nothing, and now . . .
"God, you're slow, Buff, Riley never . . ." Xander started, as Willow slowly regained some of her composure.
"No!" Buffy protested at Xander's suggestion, hating him for it. "Never! And with . . . there I was . . . and I just beat him up . . ." Buffy made a gag reflex and swallowed it back. "I just want to forget those few months ever happened. And why the hell am I telling this to a guy!?"
"'Cause the three of us are best friends?" Willow suggested, and Xander nodded.
Buffy sighed, and said, "I've got such a screwed up life, if someone told me this would be me in ten years ten years ago, I'd probably kill him . . . okay, called the cops on him . . . or her."
Xander gave a laugh and then embraced Willow with his right hand, wrapping it around her back to her right side, and said, "Willow, nothing to be ashamed about you know, so you've got a very healthy sex life." He rubbed her supportively, as Buffy joined them on the other side, giving Willow the same supportive rub. Willow smiled, feeling her embarrassment leaving her. Xander then broke the embrace, and . . .
"OW!" Willow yelled out as Xander gave her a supportive tap on her ass, smiling brightly, and mischievously. She narrowed her eyes at him, but before she could say something more, Buffy spoke.
"I agree with Xan, Will. As long as you're not doing vampires, well, 'nough said," Buffy said, and added her own friendly tap to Willow's ass.
"OUCH!" Willow called out, and then narrowed her eyes at her friends. "You two are evil! I should turn you into toads for that!" Willow growled, making Xander and Buffy laugh out loud. When Willow gave another growl, they started running playfully away from the dangerous witch, and she told them, "Get back here!"
Exhausted the three friends let themselves fall upon their towels, making Willow wince just a bit. Xander was in the middle of them and looked around the beautiful scenery. This had been a fantastic amount of fun. Buffy pulled some sandwiches and a bottle of soda for all of them and hand them over. They ate and drank in blissful silence.
When they were done, Xander laid back down and his friends joined him. Each girl using his outstretched arms and more so his shoulders for cushions. Xander looked at the beautiful blue sky with the occasional cloud floating by, and he sighed. Then he said, "We should have done this a long time ago, guys. Just the three of us, alone, enjoying, remembering, and keeping the friendship we share."
"Yeah," Buffy said wistfully, both girls nodding.
Xander nodded, and went on, "No weddings, nothing in the way, just us three and talk, sharing problems and seeing a solution. We probably would have avoided a big chunk of last years problems."
The girls nodded, and Willow added, "Of course we should have done this back in our first year in college, and the year after, and regularly, we kept apart for a large part without this back then."
Buffy and Xander nodded, and Buffy said, "We need to make sure that we do this regularly, like once in a month, or two at most. I'm sure your present significant others, and any future ones I might conquer, or conquer me, will understand."
"Anya will definitely understand," Xander said with a smile.
"Tara was the one who suggested to invite you two, for us three alone," Willow said with a contented smile, then frowned. "Of course she probably thought I'd wait till after my ass was no longer sore." The three friends laughed out loud.
"God, we're so screwed up," Buffy said with a huge smile.
"When were we not?" Xander asked, and the two girls looked up at his face, trying to remember. Then they snickered at their own expenses some more.
"Then I hereby pronounce you husband and wife," the minister stated out loud, then first turned to Chi-Chi and Michael. Chi-Chi was in a long gown, with bare back, no sleeves or anything over her shoulder, offering up her cleavage. The white, see-through veil completed the look of a true, traditional fantastic-looking bride, the extended belly not one moment detracting from it. Her eyes sparkled with happiness; she never expected to ever be here again with another man she'd be deeply in love with. "Mr. Styles Michael, and Mrs. Styles Son Chi-Chi," the minister paused and turned to 18 and Krillin. Where Chi-Chi was a traditional bride, the only thing traditional about 18 was the veil. She was in white, see-through high-heels, white see-through stockings, a thigh-length white dress, with a high enough split to show of the lacy tops of the stockings and the garter attached to it. The skirt part of the dress was tight enough to show off all her curves. The top part of her dress equally hugged her form and breasts which stopped just enough to encase her breasts, where the dress switched to a see-through substance that moved around her neck. The android gave a cool, calm look as always, but the visible garter hinted that beneath the cool surface may lie a boiling volcano. The minister finished, "And husband and wife, Mr. Krillin and Mrs. 18, you may both kiss the bride."
Everyone in the room cheered the couples on. Michael gave Chi-Chi an intense kiss, while 18 picked up Krillin and with a twinkle in her eye gave the guy a scorching, hot, deeply passionate kiss, that left the guy breathless - incidently proving the boiling volcano suspicion.
Half an hour later everyone was at the party site; a party hall they had hired. It started off with everyone congratulating the couples and their family: meaning Gohan. Goten was at Capsule Corp headquarters with a babysitter, Trunks in contrast - being almost three, and his parents not the ones throwing the party - was happily walking along holding his mother's hand, or sitting in her lap whatever the case may be.
Once the congratulations were over, a big feast was served for everyone: a /very/ big feast, there were Saiyans present after all.
Later at night the party started with the two newly wedded couples dancing. Krillin and 18 showed off some very advanced ballroom dancing; Chi-Chi and Michael took it a lot more easy - obviously. Michael held his new magnificent wife close to himself, not quite wanting to believe how lucky he got; especially giving their inter-dimensional status. How great were the odds against that? "Oof," Chi-Chi muttered, her left hand moving to her belly.
"The baby kicked again?" Michael said, moving his hands to her belly.
"Yeah, he or she is quite an active one," Chi-Chi said with a smile. "Even without Saiyan blood he or she is probably going to defeat Gohan and Goten quickly."
Michael grinned, and said, "I've got good genes."
Chi-Chi smiled and put her head to his shoulder, and she felt another, weaker kick, and so did Michael now. "Wow," he said with a smile, "I doubt he'll allow himself to stay in there for the full nine months, eight and a half at most, and he'll come through the top if necessary."
"He better go down the right way, or he'll be grounded for life the moment he gets out," Chi-Chi mock threatened. Michael grinned as more couples went onto the dance floor. Xander and Anya over there, Vegeta and Bulma over here, and Dawn dragged both Li and Willow and Tara along.
After a while of enjoying the dance, Xander and Anya broke up. Anya went over and got Gohan to dance with her, the young teen nervous. "Don't worry, Gohan," Anya told him with a smile. "I'm certain you still remember what you were taught about dancing at my wedding."
"I hope so, I don't want to look like an idiot again," Gohan muttered, making Anya laugh a little.
"Buffy," Xander said, and offered his head. "May I have this dance?"
Buffy looked surprised at him for a moment, and then nodded happily, taking his hand and letting him pull her up. Once on the dance floor, Xander wrapped her in and danced to the subtle music. Buffy smiled, and looked up at him, smiling even brighter, and asked, "So you really have forgiven me, for all the crap I pulled this year?"
Xander nodded, and said, "If I didn't, I would be kind of a hypocrite, I wasn't exactly Mr. Nice myself."
Buffy breathed in happily and went closer, laying her head on his shoulder and hugging her six year best friend, not counting Willow. "Thank you," she said with a wide smile.
"Nothing to thank me for, I should've . . . I should have done /something/," Xander said with pain.
"What could you have done? It isn't like I would have let anyone help me," Buffy asked him gently, vowing never to ignore any of her friends' again, and ask, no /beg/ for help when there was even so much as a hint she needed it.
Xander sighed, and then noticed Willow dancing with Tara, and the redhead made a motion to Buffy with her head. "Willow wants to dance with you," Xander said and twisted Buffy away from him, receiving Tara in return. He wrapped the other blond in his arms, and after a little stumbling the two were dancing.
"Sorry," Tara said with a smile, "had to adjust to not leading." The witch gave a quick look over to her shoulder to Willow now leading Buffy across the dance floor.
"No problem," Xander said with a wide smile, and then said with a grin, "Just remind me not to break any of your rules you might instate. You're mighty strict." Tara looked up with wide eyes, her cheeks reddening a bit. Xander grinned and said, "They other day, Willow remained a little sore, so Buffy and me found out."
Tara blushed deeply, trying for words, gasping a some air inside, and stuttered, "W-well, she-she w-was kind of a-a-asking f-for it." She felt embarrassed, especially since her old stutter returned, a stutter she had steadily been losing, especially around her friends.
"I'm sure she was," Xander said with a wide smile, hugging the witch supportively close. Tara relaxed a bit.
"I can't believe you two found out," Tara said shaking her head.
Xander chuckled and said, "How long did you think you could hide it?"
"W-well, I kind of tried . . ." Tara took a deep breath, and said softly, "I-it isn't like we d-dress up in rubber or anything; Willow isn't my big ol' . . . uh . . . s-slave or anything. I-I just . . . uh . . . w-well, you know . . . when she's being . . ." Tara swallowed, feeling herself go red again, "So . . . uh . . . I . . . uh, you know . . . b-by morning sh-she'd be . . . uh . . . fine . . . must've g-got carried aw-aw . . . y-you know."
The fact that Xander had been grinning at her and giving chuckles hadn't helped Tara at all, she felt like sinking through the world and coming out the other end. In this universe she could probably pull it off, she realized fitfully. "Yeah, I know, sometimes Anya complains when she returns home, of course that gets her going later on," Xander told her innocently, making Tara blush more, remembering the night after.
"You're an evil man, Xander Littica," Tara told him with a slight smile, as the blush died down.
Willow looked at Buffy as she let her friend across the dance floor. It was nice leading a girl again, the reversal in her and Tara's relationship also dipped over in the dancing. "So, dancing and smiling at a wedding is a lot more fun than sulking in a corner, huh?" Willow asked, neatly summing up the changes Buffy had managed in her life recently. "My therapist would say, 'change is good, stagnation leads to . . . well nothing', or some such."
"Yeah, I suppose, but going to a therapist is kind of useless to me, if you were thinking of talking me to go to one," Buffy said with a neutral smile. Willow looked questioningly at her friend. So Buffy explained, "Our little ceremony sending me deep into myself to talk to my inner slayer, kind of explained to me what my problem was, and the only way I could transform was acknowledge the problem and transcend it. You could say I had a thousand therapy sessions compressed into two. God, Will, I felt like I had hit rock bottom, and then one person came over and kicked me straight through rock bottom, then another and another; until I could either hit lava and melt, or fight my way back out. I chose the latter, and just in time too, I think. That thing taking over I told you about? It would have done so completely soon if I hadn't stopped denying its existence."
"You know, you've been working all upon bettering yourself, and I loved seeing you blossom, but you never did /fully/ tell me what was going on?" Willow asked her gently.
"You might not like a glimpse of my psyche, and what I struggled with to banish," Buffy said self-consciously.
"I'm your friend," Willow replied, which said it all.
Buffy nodded, and said, "Shall we stave off the whole 'how bad and stupid was Buffy'-confession until we get back home?"
Willow nodded, and smiled, hugging her friend close while dancing. "You know, Buffy, as much as I like dancing with you, you're no Tara, mind if we go find a man to dance with?"
Buffy grinned, and nodded, saying, "Some of Xander's warrior friends have got some nice muscles and asses."
Willow chuckled, "Oh, the old Buffy is definitely back, and I'll keep an eye out sending the best to you; seeing as I'm spoken for and interested in the other sex."
"And I'll send the hot babes to you so you can dance with them, deal?" Buffy asked with a smile.
"Deal," Willow said, and they parted.
The interdimensional ship appeared in Buffy's back garden and landed. A few moments later the ramp came down, and all of the interdimensional travelers (minus the Styles women who had decided to stay) came out. "I'll put it in the hangar later," Xander muttered to all of them, yawning. "First I need a strong coffee." All noticed the chilly air of a very early morning, while in the other dimension it had been midday.
"Yeah, me too," Tara said and yawned herself.
"Well, I could use a nap as well," Dawn said holding onto her boyfriend as they all entered the house.
Ed said, "Me and Diana are going home right away." Melissa said the same thing about her and Daniel.
"Xander and me are going home too, get some sleep, and then he'll be back for the ship," Anya stated, pulling Xander gently along. Buffy and the rest nodded in acknowledgment. The Slayer pulled her key back out, and they reached the front door. She unlocked it, and went out with Xander and Anya and the other two couples, wishing them all a good sleep. Daniel, Ed and their women left first, and Xander hung back a bit to see them off. The two couples walked by a parked car in front of the house, and once they passed the driver's door opened.
"Buffy," a raspy but familiar, and not very-well-liked voice called. Buffy looked over, a little shocked at the unkept man closing the door of his car. He walked around it, seemingly too far away to wonder why he hadn't seen Buffy go /in/ her house first.
"Who's that?" Anya asked.
"That's my father if you can call him that, right, Hank?" Buffy asked unfriendly, almost hatefully. She folded her arms across her chest, and waited defensively for what he had to say.
"I know, Buffy, I've been horrible," the man said, his arms and legs trembling as he took a few tentative steps closer. His grey eyes started to tear up, and he said, "I haven't even been to your mother's funeral, I can't forgive myself." He shook his head pitifully, and continued, "I don't understand it, I don't even understand why I didn't come to help you out, why at least I didn't send you money, why you had to sick a lawyer on me before I did. I'm so sorry, Buffy, I'm so sorry, I so hope you can forgive me." Hank Summers display got to Xander and Anya, and Buffy was startled, but she wasn't about to give up on the notion her father might just be playing this, just for him to leave her again. Hank's arms trembled and he groaned as he took a step closer. "I . . . I love you, I love you so much," Hank said and groaned again, this time grabbing his stomach. "I know this in my heart, and yet I stayed away from you, it even hurts trying to get you, it hurts all over. I pretty much forgotten you, how could I, if I love you so much? After the lawyer forced me to acknowledge you and send you monthly money you more than deserved, I . . . I-I was reminded of you and still I couldn't come, I had to force myself to finally . . ." Hank Summers groaned again, making Xander look at Anya in shock, and then at Buffy who was completely torn between running at her father, hugging and helping him, and not falling for a big old play.
Dawn made the decision for her, apparently the teen had noticed Xander and Anya weren't leaving, and recognized her father while finding out why. "DAD!" she yelled out in happiness as she sprinted past her sister and their friends. She jumped and wrapped herself around her father's neck. Hank Summers held the girl barely, completely startled. "I knew it! I knew you wouldn't stay away. I missed you so much, daddy!" Dawn exclaimed in happiness, pissing Buffy off that her little sister couldn't hold a level head and remember what their father had put them through by being pretty much incommunicado for the past two years, if not more.
Then Hank asked, "Who-who are you?"
To Be Continued in the Hera Saga part 1: Death
For those who read all the 'The Evolution of Buffy Z' bits, they'll remember I wrote there were two major things that pushed Buffy Z towards actually being written. The Super Slayer was the second.
The idea of a Super Slayer had been around in my mind for a long time. As far back as 1997 and the first season of Buffy, I never quite got the 'one girl in all the world given the power to fight the armies of darkness' bit. First, whoever thought that one girl was enough? So basically I had a pet theory that there really was one girl per section of the world, but even can't be enough. Because after all, the Slayers aren't particularly shown to be powerful when it comes to the forces of darkness; it's more like
'One girl in all the world given just enough power to kill a vampire,
and if anything more powerful, or with more numbers comes along
she's dead meat.'
I always had the idea that there just had to be /more/ to the Slayer. Something we hadn't seen yet. So then came the Super Saiyan, and my ideas for Xander being a Saiyan and a Super Saiyan, and eventually it combined with the notion that there had to be /more/ to the Slayer, and so the Super Slayer was born.
I tried to make the Super Slayer similar, but still different than the Super Saiyan, most notably what it takes to become one, but now I'm going into spoiler theory.
For a long time, I just knew they were going to be fighting a giant demon. It didn't become a Bunny until fairly recently, like eight months ago or so, because we've never /really/ seen why Anya's so afraid of bunnies. The vague implication in the show was just nuts, so vague and implausible in fact, that I didn't even notice there was an allusion to Anya's bunny problem in S7's 'Selfless' until I read about it much, much later.
Originally this battle, where Faith goes Super Slayer, was set at the end of vacation a year earlier, but over time I knew it was just too early. It didn't give time for more story and character development, so it was pushed back.
A little pat on everyone who gives feedback's backs: originally the Dragonball Z characters weren't even meant to come! It wasn't until after lots of comments of wanting to see the Dragonball Z characters in the Buffy universe that I decided they could nicely be guests on the wedding.
The origin of the Hunters is truly weird. Somewhere along the line, I got the impression there's an episode in the first season of Buffy, where a mysterious young guy arrives hunting some demons. Buffy and him meet, Buffy likes him in 'that' way, they fight together, and later Willow is completely 'details'. So they meet again, fight more demons together, and then more like him arrive, and he explains they're a group of demon hunters that call themselves 'the Hunters'. At the end of the episode they leave. I have this episode so complete entrenched in my mind that I was surprised when it wasn't aired, and even now, although I now the episode doesn't exist, I somehow expect it to be in season 1. Whether I dreamed the episode, whether it's from another show and I confused them, whether it's a fanfiction, or just something I fantasized up is beyond me. Either way, 'the Hunters' from this fantasy episode eventually became 'the Hunters' as the opposing watcher council in Buffy Z.