Title: Vampire hunting can lead to adventures

Title: Vampire Hunting Can Lead To Adventures

Author: Malaskor
e-mail: malaskor@t-online.de

Disclaimer: All characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon,
Greyhawk belongs to Wizards of the Coast, the characters Justicar, Cinders, Escalla, Enid, Polk, Henry and Morag belong to Paul Kidd

Summary: Xander starts to patrol alone. Then finds this interesting stone...

Setting: Season 4 after the Initiative was discovered by the Scoobies / AU Anya left during Graduation Day never to return. Xander has already his job in construction, but doesn’t show any talent for carpentry so far

Pairings: B/R in the beginning, you won’t be bothered with it too long. B/X in the end (I hope J ), W/T mentioned

Rating: PG 13, PG 16 max. Due to some violence and swearing

Feedback: Of course, after all I want to get better.
Author’s notes: <....> denotes thoughts; //...\\ denotes telepathic communication; further notes will be added as necessary

Thanks to Tenhawk for bouncing ideas back and forth with me

Part 1

Xander sighed deeply. That was the second week no one had called him about patrols. If he didn’t know better he would think that the Hellmouth had closed and no vampires remained. But he did know better.

*So they want to keep me out of the loop again, like before graduation,* the young man thought angrily.

With that thought running through his mind the young man went over to the chest he kept his slaying gear in.

As he removed the stakes from it he felt a calm washed over him. After a moment of deliberation he also added a bowie knife and a Glock he had liberated together with the rocket launcher. He looked on the little pile of weapons on the floor, then he turned back to digging in the chest. Soon he had located what he looked for, the combat fatigues from Halloween.

With quick, efficient movement he donned the fatigues and placed the weapons in easily accessible positions.

*Wow, seems like there is more soldier-boy left than Giles thought,* Xander thought as he saw his own reflection in the mirror and nearly succumbed to the need to salute.

To his mirror image he said: "Lock and load. We are going to hunt. That will show them that I can pull my weight."

That said he got to the door leaving his basement flat. Snores greeted him from the living room where his parents had, once again, drunk themselves to oblivion.

Silently he left the house and got into his car. After a short drive he came to one of the less patrolled graveyards and parked near the main entrance. At the entrance gate Xander checked his gear for the final time then he entered.

As Xander strolled through the rows of graves he felt instincts coming back to the fore he hadn’t felt since that Halloween as a Soldier. His movements became more efficient, he listened to his senses more acutely and in irregular intervals he turned around to walk backwards for several paces. In short he was patrolling like a veteran soldier in enemy territory.

After two hours he had covered the whole cemetery and now he slowly moved back towards his car. He had nearly reached the exit as he saw that the earth of a new grave was being pushed up. In fact he could already see the fingers of the graves inhabitant as they clawed the earth away.

Quickly he crept forward to the grave and the rising vampire.

When the vampire had freed himself so far that only the hips and legs were he only parts of his body still covered with earth Xander spoke up: "Say hello to Mr. Woody."

While the vampire still tried to make sense out of this wired greeting he suddenly felt a burning pain in the chest and crumbled away. His dust mingling with his disturbed grave.

"Oh well, not too bad for the first patrol alone," Xander mused aloud as he carved a notch in the stake.

<Now why did I do that?> flitted through his mind as he looked on the newly carved mark on the stake. <Perhaps I should talk to Giles about that... Tomorrow,> the last addition to his thoughts was accompanied by a huge yawn.

Having completed his first solitary patrol successfully Xander drove home feeling tired but still happy.

*****

Ten minutes later a certain Slayer entered the graveyard for the final sweep of the evening. The call of the Bronze was too strong for her to entertain any thoughts of further patrols that evening.

Somewhat bored she crossed the cemetery getting nothing with her slayer-sense. It had been a quite night, only four vampires on as many cemeteries.

Just before Buffy left the area she saw the disturbed grave. Quickly she went over to it to look for any tracks the newly risen vampire might have left. But as much as she looked she found nothing. Just as she wanted to give up she noticed the small pile of ash that rose a little from the grave.

<Hum. Seems like Riley’s friends were here earlier....>

Satisfied that no more vampires were in the area she went to the Bronze to meet Willow.

*****

The Bronze

Willow sat already at their usual table when Buffy finally came by. She sat there tapping idly her glass to the rhythm of the music. She immediately perked up when she saw Buffy enter the club.

"Hi Buffy. How was patrol?" chirped Willow.

"Hi yourself, Wills. Really quiet. Just four vamps, no more than fledglings. It was so quiet I could have taken Xander with me."

"Oh no. Who knows what could have happened with him there. Riley is right, Xander has no powers, he isn’t even a good fighter. There is no way we can keep him always safe. It is better that way."

"You are right, we have to keep him safe. I... We can’t let him be hurt," answered Buffy.

In her thoughts Buffy added, <But somehow it doesn’t feel right to keep him out of the loop. -- No! We have to keep him safe. And Riley really is a bigger help on patrols.>

Then she saw her new boyfriend come over to their table carrying a small tray with drinks and all thoughts of Xander left her.

*****

The next day, after cleaning up from work, Xander went to Giles. Silently he entered the apartment.

<Someone should teach Giles to lock the door. Not all evil needs to be invited in,> thought the teen.

"Yo, G-man! Where are you?" his call was answered by a crash and a string of curses from the kitchen.

"Xander! How often have I told you not to call me that? And how did you get in, in the first place?"

"Sorry Giles," answered Xander looking down on the shattered teapot. "The door wasn’t locked and so I let myself in." With a grin he continued, holding up a box with donuts, "I brought you jelly-filled deliciousness. Forgive me?"

Defeated Giles let his anger slide away, <How does he do that? He is as bad as Buffy, I can’t stay angry with them.>

"So what brings you here? None of you have come by recently."

"No one? Not even Buffy?"

"Not more than once since she started to go out with this commando. She is still doing her patrols, but Buffy starts to depend on him and his comrades too much. I don’t trust them. That is bound to take a bad turn."

"Hey you are preaching to the masses here. I mean come on, the government catching demons? Just out of the goodness of their hearts? I wouldn’t wonder if those commando-guys put them in countries they don’t like."

"Well I would not go so far. But it stands out of question that the danger of nefarious use of any knowledge they gain is quite a probable scenario. But back to the original question. Why are you here?"

"OK. I’ll tell you, but first promise me that you won’t tell the girls before I’m ready for that."

Reluctantly Giles agreed. After that Xander started to tell Giles of his decision to start patrolling by himself.

"Xander, I have to strongly discourage you from patrolling alone. You know what dangers run loose in Sunnydale, the chances are high that you will encounter one you can’t prevail against."

"Look Giles I have made my decision. I can’t sit at home knowing what I know about the things that go bump in the night. And you could help me keep me up to date with hellmouthy stuff and such things. I will do this anyway the only question is do you want to help or do you like it out of the loop?"

After some deliberation and quite a lot of grumbling Giles agreed to help Xander. But not before threatening to tell Buffy should Xander take unnecessary chances. After that their conversation turned to the soldier abilities that had started come to the fore again and Xander gave a little report of his first patrol. As he did that he caught himself several time how he slipped into military-talk.

After he was finished Giles thought a bit about his answer. "Hmm, it seems as if that spell that Halloween not only left some knowledge in you, but also some of the instincts, reflexes and skills of a soldier. I haven’t heard anything like that before. Before I can tell you more I have to..."

"... to research it. I know," Xander finished for him, "I have to get going now. My food at home is calling out to me. Can’t keep it waiting. It has to meet his fate before I patrol tonight."

With an amused grin Giles nodded him goodbye already thinking about which books he would need for this piece of research.

*****

9:30 p.m.

This time Xander drove to the BuenaVista cemetery. A funeral add and article in the newspaper had sounded suspicious to him.

Ten minutes later he had found the grave of Virgil Tanner, the attack’s victim. As Xander neared the grave it became painfully obvious that he was too late. The grave had been forced open from below and only splinters of the coffin remained in the ground.

<Great. Just great. Now I have a really hungry Bela Lugosi-wannabe around here and no idea where he is.>

A growl behind was the only warning he got. Xander barely managed to roll out of the ravenous vampire’s way.

Now that the first surprise lay behind him the two began to circle each other. The vampire lunged forward and Xander dodged to the side, the whole time desperately trying to draw his stake without becoming vamp-food. After the third try he finally had Mr. Woody in his grip.

"Hey overbite! Why don’t you keep still and say hello to Woody here?"

That provoked a vicious swipe from the fledgling’s claw. His long nails raked bloody lines across Xander’s chest, "Tonight I will feast on your blood and leave your carcass to the rats!"

"Wow! That one is new. Should I be the lucky one to stake the world’s first creative vampire? Oh the honor."

Through a number of dodges Xander managed to get closer to the vampire without being wounded further. As his opponent was unskilled in combat the vamp couldn’t keep a guard up while trying to grab Xander, but still it was too fast for the boy to simply stake him. So Xander tried to slow him down somehow.

The first idea he had was kicking the undead in his family jewels. And this idea wielded such a spectacular result that for the first few seconds Xander only could stare on the vampire that was rolling on the floor screaming in agony.

After a few seconds Xander shook himself out of his surprise and stabbed his stake down in the prone vampire’s back, piercing its unbeating heart. And while the dust was still settling on the ground Xander already added a second notch to his stake.

Heartened by this success he continued his patrol of the graveyard. Half an hour later he had reached the middle of the cemetery. Here was a little grove of trees with a few benches for the relatives to it on after visiting their dead.

Out of the middle of this grove came the sounds of something big digging.

Full of curiosity Xander crept nearer. There between a few ancient oaks was one of the ugliest demons he had ever seen. It was of a sickly green color with purple and yellow splotches on its carapace like skin. It used long, ape-like arms to dig a hole, about a meter deep. Suddenly this monstrosity stopped and started to look around, loudly sniffing.

As it began to turn toward Xander he could see its face for the first time. The relatively small face was dominated by three eyes. Each as large as a grown man’s fist. Still loudly sniffing the demon began to shamble straight toward Xander.

<Shit. Eyeball is smelling me.>

Quickly Xander dismissed the idea of using his stakes on the armored monstrosity, not only wouldn’t he be able to penetrate the carapace but he also wouldn’t come close enough without being ripped to shreds by the beast’s long arms.

So he quickly drew his Glock and took aim. The first bullet hit the demon dead center in the chest. But it only ricocheted away into one of the trees. Now the monster roared once and began to move faster towards Xander.

Xander at the same time let a desperate double tap fly towards the demon, hitting the left eye.

Blue gore sprayed out of the wound and the demon let loose a keening scream. It still continued its advance but now it stumbled more than walked.

Seeing that victory lay in shooting on the eyes Xander shot again two times in rapid succession hitting the central eye in the middle destroying it and grazing the third.

With a bone chilling howl the creature sank to the ground and slowly dissolved into a foul stinking goo.

"YES! Scratch another ugly from the to do list. Now I wonder what it looked for in that hole."

Having said that Xander went over to the hole and looked down in it. There on the ground was a wooden box, still partly covered with earth. After a moments thought Xander went down in the hole and removed the last bit of dirt from the box and lifted it up.

Once again out of the ground he went to one of the benches and started to examine the box. It was a cubic, wooden box. Fashioned out of some, to Xander unknown, blood-red wood and engraved with a multitude of geometrical signs. The lid was held closed with a simple, rusty lock.

Xander drew the bowie and went to the task of opening the box, but before he did that he quickly added another notch to the stake. After a few unsuccessful tries Xander finally broke the lock open. Inside was the biggest ruby he had ever seen, nearly 10 centimeters in diameter and perfectly cut it seemed to sparkle with an inner fire.

With one hand Xander got his cell phone out of a pocket and pressed the speed-dial for Giles’ apartment. After a dozen rings the phone on the other side of the line got answered.

"Buffy? Has something happened?’ a groggy voice asked.

"Sorry wrong person to ask G-man. Just plain old me here."

"Xander! What is it? Why do you call me to that ungodly hour? Just when I had managed to get to sleep."

"Well here was that ugly demon digging in the cemetery and guess what it found before I came along...."

"Don’t keep me waiting. Just tell me."

"Geeze, did someone tell you recently that you have quite a temper when you are sleepy?"

"Come to your point."

"All right, all right. So in that hole it had digged was a wooden box with all kind of symbols on it and inside there is this really, really big, glowy ruby."

"Symbols? Glowing ruby? Xander in God’s name don’t touch that jewel! Close the box and bring it here immediately," exclaimed the suddenly wide awake Giles.

"Allrighty. One glowy jewel coming right up. See ya soon," replied Xander and pressed the disconnect button.

*****

"Wait Xander you have to..." Giles let the sentence trail off as he only heard the dial tone anymore, <God, I hope he gets it here safe and soon.>

*****

Xander pocketed his phone and started to close the box again, but he hadn’t balanced the box good enough and fell from his knees to the ground, spilling the ruby.

<Shit. Ahh well I’ll just scoop it in the box real fast. What could happen anyway?>

With that thought Xander bent down and quickly dropped the ruby in the box.

But just as he thought that a red glow came out of the box and surrounded him. A few seconds later no one would have guessed that Xander had just been standing there.

Xander had vanished.

*****

Part 2

Only a few glittering specks remained on the ground where Xander had stood when Buffy and Willow came along later all they saw was an empty hole in the ground, a multicolored puddle and some shells.

"What do you think? Were that some of those commando-friends of Riley’s?" asked Willow, staring fascinated at the yellow and purple swirls in the greenish blue puddle.

"I don’t think so," replied Buffy as she picked up one of the casings. "They use those shock thingies, not guns."

"So who was it? Another group of hunters?"

"I hope not. I mean I’m the first to cheer any help along, but it is getting kind of stuffed here with all the commandos running around here. No need to add another group to them."

"Who else could it be? I can’t think of anyone besides the Council who sends anyone here and Giles would have told you, right?"

"Damn! Giles. I knew there was something I forgot. I haven’t seen him in the last two weeks," exclaimed Buffy looking embarrassed.

"Come on Willow, lets go see him. Perhaps he knows something."

After looking around for a few moments still hoping to see the mysterious hunters they left. Though not before Buffy pocketed several of the casings.

*****

The red glow started to hurt Xander’s eyes and he had to close them. But before he had shut them completely he noticed that his surroundings began to become transparent and vanish. Even with his eyes closed he detected the glow. It was as if it became corporeal, caressing him with its warm touch. Suddenly it got cold, so cold that Xander began to violently shiver then again it got so hot that the sweat was running freely down his face.

As unexpected as the temperature changes began they ended. Again he was surrounded by a pleasant temperature.

A feeling of weightlessness overcame him it was as if he floated in the air. Then he began to fall. Minute after minute he was falling down. Until a jarring jolt brought him to a stop.

Xander felt ground below his feet and he heard some birds sing in the distance. The sudden feeling of normality made him stumble and open his eyes. The first thing he saw was the grass rushing towards his face. Just years of practice in falling safely rescued him from a painful landing on his face, so he managed a graceless but effective roll.

Dazed Xander came to his feet and tried to get his bearings.

<Shit I just had to jinx it. Now WHERE am I?> with that the young man began to look around. He was standing on the slope of a small hill in the middle of a gently rolling grassland. Here and there some isles of trees broke the monotony. A single yellow sun stood in the sky and somehow he knew it was late afternoon.

The one thing he noticed the most was the air it was so much cleaner than in Sunnydale.

<Wow. I should bottle it and sell it in LA. I could make a fortune... or not, with me here and not there.> Slowly his situation really dawned his consciousness. He wasn’t in Sunnydale anymore, not even in America. With this realization the soldier-spirit once again came to the fore, <I have to check my supplies>

First thing he did was to place everything he had with him on a small pile and then replace it on his body.

<OK, what do I have? Mr. Woody and another stake, the bowie, his Glock 21 with three clips, two of them full the other remaining with 6 rounds left, a cross and two flasks of holy water, a lighter, a pen , my keys and cell phone, the box with that blasted ruby, ID, a bit money, a water canteen and a twinkie... a squashed twinkie. Just great! I’m God-knows-where and I don’t even have decent munchies.>

"Now what do I do now?" Xander asked himself. "Hmmm, guess I’ll play E.T. and phone home." A slight smile played around his lips at that and he pressed the speed dial on his cell.

As he waited for Giles to answer the phone he looked around some more. As his gaze wandered along the horizon he saw something that made his jaw drop. There were two moons, one up in the sky, the other just beginning to clear the horizon. After the tenth ring Xander disconnected, <I’ll try it later again. Hey! Why do I have a signal here? Weird.>

About a mile from his position he saw the glimmer of a lake. After taking a health swig of his canteen and noticing that it was nearly empty he decided to head there.

*****

The doorbell rang. Immediately Giles rose from the table. In his haste to reach the door he nearly knocked a few of the many books, he had laid out for research, from the table.

While the watcher still opened the door he said, "What took you so long? ... Oh Buffy, Willow. What brings you to my doorstep?"

"‘Now that wasn’t the welcome I was looking forward to. A nice evening to you too Giles," replied the Slayer and slipped into the apartment before Giles could react further. Willow followed her smiling a greeting at Giles.

In the living room Buffy took in the sight of the table overflowing with books, a steaming cup of tea standing on one of the few free places the table still provided and several pages of scribbled notes.

"Wow, Giles. Big research session and you didn’t call us? What is up? Any prophecy to kill?" asked Buffy.

"No, no prophecy. Just something that came up. I don’t know yet if it will be important. But back to my earlier question. Why are you here? You didn’t deem it necessary to come along in the last weeks. Why now?"

"Hum, ehm...," started Buffy her face flushed with embarrassment, "Well that’s true... ummm anyway, we were in the Buena Vista cemetery and we found there this puddle, this strangely colored, stinking puddle. And there were those shells around and it looked like a fight happened near there... Well we wanted to know if the Council sent any hunters here."

Meanwhile the phone had started ringing but no one paid attention. Soon it stopped.

"Hunters? No the Council didn’t send any here to the best of my knowledge. But if it makes you happy I’ll phone one of the few friends I still have there. But you should really come here more often and report about your patrols."

"Yeah, I know. But with the Initiative around there isn’t much to report. Now it is quieter than ever before."

"Then it is even more important that you come along to train. You mustn’t neglect your training just because it is a bit quieter than usual."

"OK. I will come by more often."

"Good that this is cleared up. Well I have work to do and you should complete your patrol."

"Got you Giles. I’ll come along tomorrow afternoon," replied Buffy and left closely followed by Willow.

After the girls had left Giles removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose, <I hope Xander is only delayed and nothing has happened.>

*****

After an quarter of an hour Xander had nearly reached the small lake. As he looked around he saw many familiar plants but also plants he had never seen before. Wildlife seemed to be abundant all around him he heard rustling and chirping, <That should be long enough. I better try to reach Giles again.>

After a few rings the phone was actually answered.

"Hi G-man. Em, it might take slightly longer to bring the crystal to you.... Well, you remember how you told me not to touch it, right? I may have touched it a little bit and I don’t know how to say it, but I’m not in Kansas anymore Toto... No I’m serious. There are two moons here.... Yes. Oh and Giles? .... Giles? Giles? Are you still there? Great! No more connection home." <Now what do I do now? Food and water first. Then I’ll see on.>

His first action was to refill his water canteen in the lake. Then, as it was getting close to dusk, Xander began to gather dry wood and kindling in the neighboring forest. Soon he had enough wood to last him comfortably throughout the night. After placing the wood at his chosen resting place he went back into the forest again to look for a long, straight branch that he could use as a walking stick. After twenty minutes of searching he found one that met the expectations. Then he returned o the camp and tried to light the fire. With the fourth try he finally got it started.

As Xander sat there staring into the flames and lost in his thoughts he suddenly heard a couple of voices. One was fairly high in pitch the other lower. Immediately he was on alert.

After a few moments he saw movements in the direction he had come from earlier. Out of the darkness came the shape of a giant of a man, easily over 6 feet, shaven-headed clad in a dark scale armor, reminding Xander of ren-fairs.

Over his shoulders hung a black pelt and the handle of a sword could be seen over the left shoulder. But that wasn’t what made Xander stare. Beside the heavyset man flew a merely two feet high woman on a pair of translucent wings, so scantly clad that even Buffy or Cordelia would have blushed a bright red should they have to wear something like that.

As the pair neared the fire the man raised his hand in greeting and said something in a strange but harmonic language.

"Hi there too. I didn’t understand a word could you repeat that in English?"

The pair opposite to him shared a look, then the female darted forward and hovered in front of Xander’s face. In the light of the fire Xander could see her pointed ears clearly.

"Wow, what are you? Winged Mrs. Spock?" asked Xander extending a finger towards her

She grinned widely, her eyes sparkling with humor and mischief, then she slapped his finger before it could touch her and flitted backwards for a few feet. Hanging there in the air, her wings fluttering wildly the girl seemed to sing something then she threw him a little clay pyramid that crumbled to dust as he caught it reflexively.

Wagging a finger at him she said, "No one touches the faerie!"

"Hey, I understand you. What did you do?"

"Hoopy! See Jus, I told you it was a good idea to learn that spell for today," the faerie told her companion.

With a tolerant smile he responded, "Yes Escalla, that you did." Then he continued to Xander, "As I said before, would you mind to share your fire with me and my friends?"

"Oh not at all. It is great to meet someone who is from around here. Where is here anyway? Oh and I’m Xander nice to meet you guys."

"Well met Xander. I’m the Justicar, this lovely creature here is Escalla. The rest of my friends is still a bit behind but they should join us soon."

The tall man sat down beside the fire and laid the black wolf pelt on the ground, nearly touching the fire, and placed a piece of coal in its mouth.

// Boy smell funny.//

"What was that"’ asked Xander after hearing the voice but not with his ears.

"That was Cinders the big pooch. He likes you," grinned Escalla pointing on the pelt.

Xander threw a suspicious look on the pitch black wolfskin and for the first time he saw the glow of life in the red eyes. A tiny flame licked out of one nostril and its tail wagged a bit.

//Hi.//

Then Escalla saw the unwrapped twinkie Xander had planned on eating, "Ooh pastry! Can I get a bite?" she asked with a puppy look.

At first Xander didn’t want to share, it was his one and only after all. But between the surprise of a living, fire spitting wolfpelt and the look she gave him it was too much for him and so he caved in and cut off a piece for her. With amused chuckles Xander and Jus watched how she wolfed the sweet treat down.

By now they could hear the clatter of a wagon and several voices. And what a group it was. Xander didn’t know what shocked him more, the Sphinx pulling the cart or the young man talking with a badger or the six-armed woman with a snake’s lower body.

"Man, and I thought Sunnydale and all things hellmouthy were weird. But you guys got it beat hands on."

"Sunnydale? That is where you come from, right? Where is it? I must say I have never heard of it and have never met someone who can’t speak even a few bits of the trade tongue," asked Jus with a piercing, inquisitive stare.

"Yes, Sunnydale, California home of the Hellmouth. By the way where are we here? You guys have one moon to many for it to be my home."

"We are in the Duchy of Ulek, about two weeks from Hommlet where we are headed to. From what I gather you are from some other plane and not willingly here," replied the ranger.

"Damn right. I’d rather be at home and worry about the Hellmouth, than here with nothing but my weapons, half a Twinkie and none of my friends."

"How did you come to be here?" asked the sphinx with a surprisingly gentle voice for someone of her size.

"That stupid stone fell out of its box and I placed it back in it and wham here I am."

"You will need a mage learned in planar-travel magics. They are very expensive, I hope you have the gold to pay one."

"Gold? I have no gold, just 15 dollars and a few cents. Where do I get that much money from?"

"You can accompany us to Hommlet. There you can surely find work and should we be attacked on our way there you will get equal part of any spoils we might acquire."

"Count me in. That is by far better than sit around here without any idea what to do and where to go."

*****

Initiative Underground Headquarters

"Has the Het-Skatr demon retrieved the Ruby of Thorbriand?"

"No, Professor Walsh," answered the soldier, cringing under her piercing stare.

"And why is that the case? Did it try to leave the area of the suppression signal? And did we get at least some information on the efficiency of the cranial bomb?"

"Uhh, no, Ma'am. The Het-Skatr couldn’t deliver the Ruby as some hunter killed it with a .45er. The cranial bomb destroyed itself with acid as per security procedure."

During the soldiers reply Professor Walsh’s gaze became darker and darker. She began to tap her hand on the table, looking coldly at the soldier that started to squirm under her inspection. Then she exploded.

"Now don’t stand there like you have nothing to do! Get the search for this hunter and the Ruby started. And inform research that we might have to use the nuclear power core. Get going!’

"Yes Ma'am, at once," the poor soldier literally fled from the office and his superior’s wrath.

*****

Part 3

That night Xander slept fitfully. Once and again the sounds of wild animals woke him up. As the morning sun rose over the horizon so many birds began to sing that he couldn’t stay asleep any longer with the, for him unusual, cacophony surrounding them.

After a short breakfast the group gathered their gear and stowed it away on the cart. It all went off with a practiced ease that showed Xander that his new travel companions were together for some time already.

Jus set a quick pace for their march towards Hommlet and soon Xander started to feel his legs. But still they marched on. Over hills and through light forests. Once they crossed a small but fast flowing river that nearly carried their cart away. Only Enid’s efforts saved the cart and the totally exhausted pony.

<Man, I think I’ve never walked as far in my whole life.> thought Xander as he sank to the ground at the evening camp.

After a short break Jus left the camp again to hunt for food. An hour later the ranger returned with a large buck slung over his shoulders.

"Xander. Please come here and help me with breaking up the buck."

"Ehm, I haven’t done that before. What must I do?" he answered.

"No problem. Look here," with that Jus started to show Xander how to quickly remove the legs and how the other parts of the body had to be cut.

<Eeewww. Perhaps I should start to become a vegetarian.> thought Xander as he cut the buck into manageable bits for dinner. But then he felt his stomach growling in hunger and all thoughts of vegetarianism went out of the window. Somehow the soldier-possession must have left behind similar knowledge. After only a few minutes he started to become efficient in his work and soon he had the carcass skinned and cut the meat in decent chunks, ready for the fire.

Some of the meat they left raw as Enid preferred it that way, the rest was grilled.

After the meal they sat around the fire and Jus, after being badgered into it by Escalla, shared a story from the war against the evil demi-god Iuz. As he and a group of rangers under the command of the swordmaster Recca fought a guerrilla battle behind the demon armies’ lines.

With darkness falling Xander and the others got ready to go to sleep. Jus divided the guard duty between himself, Henry the skinny youth with his magical crossbow, Morag the Marilith and Xander.

Xander was glad that he had first watch as he felt that he couldn’t sleep yet and he didn’t fancy interrupting his sleep for standing guard.

After two hours of watching the dark for movements Xander got sleepy and happily let himself be relived by Henry.

The next morning Xander woke up uncharacteristically fast. The smell of food cooking over the last embers the fire had left coupled with a tiny hand tickling his foot proved to be too much and Xander shot up and looked around sleepily.

<Someone is missing.> after a few more moments Xander had a name to go with this feeling.

"Hey guys, where is Morag?"

Escalla answered him, "Oh she is visiting her suitor. He is currently on some layer or the other of the Abyss."

"She has a suitor in Hell? I ‘m almost afraid to ask, but what is he?"

"He is an incubus. We haven’t met him yet, but Morag has talked about him a lot already, he seems to be a nice guy."

During breakfast they talked a bit more about demons and how Morag reformed and finally rebelled against Lloth. And soon they were again on their way north towards Hommlet.

With high sun fast approaching it started to get hot on the plain. And so he reduced their pace to avoid exhaustion. Even Polk’s incessant chatter slowed down to only a trickle. Only Escalla was still overflowing with energy and flitted from one end of their little caravan to the other on wildly beating wings.

Then suddenly they heard several voices utter yipping, barking laughs.

<Hyenas!> it shot through Xander’s mind.

"Gnolls," said the Justicar. "At least five of them," he added after a few moments of listening.

"And they are directly in our way," remarked Henry and pointed towards the hill in front of them.

"Hoopy! Come on guys, I always wanted to kick some gnoll butt," exclaimed Escalla and flew a little looping.

"All right. We go in silently and see what is the best course of action. Enid, you and Polk stay here and guard our gear. The rest come along," ordered the ranger.

So they slowly crept up the hillside, careful not to alert the gnolls on the other side of the hill.

As thy neared the summit Escalla winked out of existence, becoming invisible. Only the slight whirring of her wings betrayed her presence.

Jus pulled Cinders up over his helmet so that he faced ahead too, while Henry slipped another good dozen bolts into the crossbow’s magazine.

And Xander gripped his walking stick firmer after making sure that he could draw his bowie and Glock fast if necessary.

When they reached the summit they laid down in the high grass, looking ahead out of their cover.

About halfway down the other side they saw a group of eight humanoids with the heads of hyenas carrying several bundles to a large toad-like creature that stood at least 14 feet high.

Jus silently whistled through his teeth .

"A Hezrou, that is not good. Here is the plan. I take the tanar’ri, Xander and Henry the gnolls. Escalla you help out as needed."

With that the ranger crept away, his large form blending with the grassland he vanished from Xander’s sight.

A few moments later the huge demon roared in pain. Behind it rose Jus from the ground. His white glowing sword trailing a spray of black blood. The demon was still turning around as flames shot out of Cinders’ jaws blackening its greenish skin.

//Burn! Burn! Burn the frog! \\ yelled Cinders in maniacally glee.

Meanwhile the gnolls had overcome their surprise and started towards the two combatants.

Henry lifted his crossbow and peppered the hyena-people with a stream of bolts. Many found their mark and four went down dead before Henry’s ammunition ran out. By then the last four had reached Xander and Henry swinging mean-looking flails.

One bore down on Xander and lashed out with his flail. Xander whipped his stick up and managed to deflect the blow, but he lost it as the force of the strike knocked it out of his hands. Frantically he grabbed at his belt and drew his bowie knife. With a wild slash he managed to cut the gnoll’s throat open. Coughing up blood the gnoll fell to the ground in front of Xander.

As Xander saw what damage his swipe had caused he started to retch. It was one thing to kill a vampire or demon but to kill a living, sentient creature so was too much for him.

He was so caught up in his retching that he didn’t notice the second one coming towards him with a murderous gleam in his eyes. Before the gnoll could attack the prone human a small staff became visible in the air behind him. The invisible wielder smashed the staff on the gnoll’s head and in an explosion of magical energy it vanished leaving behind a headless corpse.

Meanwhile Henry disposed of his enemy with a few slashes of his longsword, as he had learned from Jus.

The ranger was still fighting the demon. He already bled out of several shallow wounds but his demonic adversary wasn’t in any better condition, one arm hung down uselessly by and deep gashes crisscrossed the tanar’ri’s torso. With a battle cry Jus finally managed to pierce the Hezrou’s heart, killing it.

The gigantic frog-demon crashed to the ground and began to dissolve into black smoke that vanished through a small red-glowing rift in the air.

*****

Sunnydale, underground bunker

Professor Walsh sat at her desk and opened a manila folder. Inside were a bunch of photographs as well as a multi- paged report labeled threat assessment.

The first person assessed was Buffy.

Subject Elisabeth ‘Buffy’ Anne Summers:
As the so called ‘Slayer’ the subject is gifted with an abnormal strength, speed and constitution similar to the standard HST called vampire. Subject is well versed in martial arts as well as in ancient melee weapons and crossbows. Knowledge of modern weapons seems to be absent.
Threat level: High.
If cooperation has to be forced I suggest that the subject’s mother Joyce Summers be used as a means to ensure her cooperation. Should elimination be inevitable the best chances for success are present in an attack from ambush.

Subject Willow Rosenberg:
Subject has only very limited knowledge of martial arts or weapons but possesses extensive hacking skills. Her abilities to manipulate those energies called magic are incalculable in power and of unknown source.
Threat level: to be considered high due to magical abilities.
Best means of pressure are the parents and friends Buffy Summers and Alexander Harris. For elimination purposes I suggest ambush tactics.

Subject Alexander ‘Xander’ LaVelle Harris:
Said to have ‘soldier knowledge’ after possession by a spirit but displays none whatsoever. In combat more danger to himself and his friends than to opponents.
Threat level: low
Subject displays suspicion towards the Initiative. Due to that I have taken steps to remove him from the group. Should this prove inefficient I suggest quick termination to prevent him from turning the Slayer against us.

Subject Rupert Giles:
Subject shows mediocre skill in melee weapons and with the crossbow. Subject has extensive theoretical knowledge of HSTs. Due to knowledge and influence on Summers subject should either be removed or brought into the fold.
Threat level: Medium

Addendum: Tara MacLay:
Subject is extremely shy and possesses absolutely no combat skills.
Close friend to Rosenberg, otherwise no strong connection to the rest of the group
Threat level: low

*****

After several minutes Xander had no bile left and after many dry heaves he finally composed himself again.

Jus came over to Xander and took him aside, "You never before had to kill someone in combat, did you?"

"No, only vampires and I helped with a few demons but never anything like that."

"I see. But don’t be hard on yourself. It is good when it is hard to kill someone. When it gets easy you are no different from the evil we fight. From what I have seen you don’t have much training with weapons, is that right?"

"Well, I can use a stake but I didn’t get much training."

"Good or better said not good. I’ll train you with melee weapons and we’ll find out which is the right weapon for you. But now we have to find out what these gnolls had planned and for whom they worked. No gnoll I have heard from is capable to summon a true tanar’ri."

With that they started to examine the stuff the gnolls had with them. They all wore an amulet of a grinning skull with a violet spiral on the forehead. As weapons they carried flails and long daggers. Under their ragged tunics the hyena-people wore old, cracked leather armor. In total the brutes had twelve gold pieces and a few coppers with them.

In the bundles the gnolls had carried they found a mace, several blocs of incense and several hearts.

"That is not good. Sacrifices and they all carry symbols very similar to the one of Iuz," said the ranger. "It may be that we will run afoul of them again as long as we are in the area."

*****

Part 4

After discarding those weapons that were too rusted and burying the hearts Escalla produced a black circular cloth out of her backpack and spread it on the ground.

As she did that Xander looked on with curiosity that turned to full fledged surprise as she vanished in the black circle.

A few moments later Escalla popped up again, interrupting Xander’s musings.

"What’s keeping you? Do you think I should carry all this stuff alone?" asked the diminutive woman.

"Uh... sure, coming," replied Xander and grabbed the five useable flails.

With some trepidation Xander approached the hole and let the flails fall in it. Then he went back for the three daggers the incense and mace which he threw in the hole too.

"Hey look out!" came Escalla’s annoyed voice out of the hole after being nearly hit by this last delivery. "Come on in I need your help with placing all this in its place."

Grumbling Xander slowly climbed down in the portable hole. Once inside he could hardly breathe, he was that surprised. Inside the hole stood several shelves full with books and scrolls, some chests filled with all kinds of gear from shovels to ropes everything was there. Some strong-chests, probably filled with money or jewels were there as well as a two racks in which many weapons, mostly swords and quivers full of arrows, hung. Ten minutes later all was stored in its place and the two came back out of the hole.

Meanwhile Henry had been to the cart and brought it together with Enid and Polk to the scene of the fight. No sign of the Justicar could be seen though.

"Henry, do you know where Jus is?" asked Xander

"Not sure. He said something of looking where the Gnolls came from and that we should be going on in case there were more in the area."

And so they wandered on. The joyous atmosphere that had been around them was severely dampened and all looked around cautiously, watching for ambushes and other unpleasant surprises.

With time their alertness got less and less and Xander’s thoughts wandered back to the fight.

*****

Sunnydale, CA

Willow and Buffy finally had finished their last lecture of the day. Together they walked to the Espresso Pump to relax from their psychology lecture that had lasted for the last two hours and was, at least for Buffy, very exhausting.

"And another week is over. What is wrong with this place? Lately college is more exhausting than patrols," Buffy asked her friend.

"You mean beside the obvious Hellmouth answer? No idea. Hey, why don’t you take a night off?" answered Willow.

"We could go bronzing tomorrow or visit Xander and watch the Evil Dead marathon."

"Great idea. Its been too long since we got a dose of Ash," replied Buffy, only to add dejectedly after few moments, "But Riley has to patrol over the weekend. Some vampire they want to catch has managed to escape them again and again."

"Oh come on, Buffy. Riley has all those soldiers with him. He should be able to hold his own for one evening."

"You are right. Unlike Xander he can fight a vamp on his own."

Meanwhile they had reached the Espresso Pump and went inside to get their coffees and a sandwich for Buffy.

The next hour they spent in the Pump drinking several coffees and talking about nearly everything besides slaying or college. Then Buffy got up.

"I’ll swing by at Giles’ now. You want to come along?"

"No, not today. I’ll meet Tara in half an hour," answered Willow with a dreamy tone in her voice.

As Buffy noticed Willow’s tone a short stab of jealousy flashed through her only to vanish again immediately.

*****

Duchy of Ulek, Oerth

Jus scouted ahead while Escalla lounged lazily on Cinder’s fur, who was strapped to Jus’ backpack, and scratched the happily purring hellhound between the ears.

While his gaze scanned the countryside for potential dangers the ranger talked with Escalla in a low voice.

"What do you think of our new friend?"

"He’s a nice guy. A bit strange but hoopy."

"Indeed," the Justicar replied with a slight grin. "But that isn’t what I meant. He talks about killing vampires and demons as if it were an everyday occurrence, but he has serious problems with a gnoll who isn’t as powerful by far."

Before they could continue their discussion the stench of burning flesh invaded their noses and immediately both fell silent. The ranger let himself fall to the ground into the hip high grass and Escalla vanished from sight within moments as she slipped into invisibility.

"Cinders what do you smell?" asked the man in a harsh whisper.

//Fire, burning humans, few gnolls, an owlbear was there recently too. \\

"The gnolls are they still there?"

//Yes, maybe three, maybe four. Burn them? Want to see them dance on fire. \\

"No, not unless necessary. We don’t want to start a bush fire with us in the middle of it."

The only answer on this chastisement was an unhappy grumbling in Jus’ mind.

"Oh come on. Don’t be that way, I’ll give you a nice lump of coal later," coaxed the ranger and quickly the mental purring returned.

Keeping low to the ground Jus quickly crept towards the source of the stench. After about a hundred meters he reached a small copse of ash trees, somewhere in between them the fire had to be. At the edge of the trees he topped and strained to listen for telltale noises and peered around searching the gnolls.

And there was the first. Obviously the gnoll was on guard duty but anything but watchful. Silently the ranger crept behind him and with a quick swipe of his dagger slit the guard’s throat. Before the guard could crash to the ground he was caught by the strong man and slowly deposited on the ground.

Avoiding any further sound Jus crept closer to the gnoll encampment. And soon it was fully in his sight. It consisted of several tents two fireplaces and in one corner seven poles were rammed into the ground. Those poles were now partly consumed by a fire that had been lit at their bases. At three of the poles flames still licked at the barely recognizable carcasses of humans. Two gnolls stood in front of the flames and uttered yipping laughs while they urinated onto the dead.

A cold fury started to blaze through the Justicar at this sight. His face became impassive only his eyes betraying the extent of his anger.

"Uh oh," muttered Escalla as she saw the gleam in the ranger’s eyes. "Here we go again. I hope there really aren’t more of them around."

Quickly Jus crept up behind them and rose up from the ground like an avenging ghost. His sword left its sheath as he bellowed, "YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED FOR YOUR EVILS!"

Startled the two gnolls turned around but all they got to see was a large, dark shape looming over them. Then a flash as the radiant white blade descended onto them, plunging them into eternal darkness.

As he cleaned his weapon an annoyed voice wafted up from the enchanted sword.

//You, sir are no gentleman. You should have challenged them and granted them a chance to defend themselves in fair combat. \\

"I told you several times, and will do so again Benelux, that when the enemy has a chance to hit back you have done something wrong."

Escalla’s voice came from a spot of empty air beside the Justicar as she added, "You have to admit that he has style Pointy."

Benelux’ voice was the epitome of indignation. //I would appreciate it to be called by my name. Benelux. \\

"All right. Luxy."

After a bit of unintelligible grumbling the sword fell once again silent.

*****

As Xander and the others approached the little speck of forest a dark shape left the trees. Xander reached for his gun and at the same time Henry did the same with his crossbow. Before they could aim on the person Enid identified him as the Justicar.

Suddenly he began waving his arms and shouted, "Look out!"

At the same time he started running towards them and drew Benelux. Startled they turned around and saw two hulking shapes coming towards them. They looked like nothing Xander had seen before. They looked like 8 feet tall, upright walking bears whose heads had been replaced with those of giant owls. Their shaggy coat was a mix of dark feathers and brown-black fur.

Between themselves they dragged the ripped open carcass of something that to Xander seemed to be similar to a bison. About the same time as Xander saw the brutes they let the carcass fall and stormed forward, howling with screeching voices. As they drew nearer Xander could see their wicked, long claws, still dripping with the blood of their last kill. One of the beasts headed directly for Xander the other seemed to have decided that it wanted to attack the sphinx.

After Xander finally overcame the mixture of fascination and surprise that had overcome him as the beasts had started to storm forward, much more quickly than he had thought possible for them, he brought his pistol up and aimed at the massive chest of his attacker. In his haste the first shot went wide and hit the carcass the creatures had carried.

Startled by the sudden bang of the gunshot the owlbear’s swipe missed Xander only by the tiniest margin, ripping only a piece of sleeve off.

Before it could try to slash or bite him again Xander shot again, this time a double tap. On the short distance between them Xander could only hit. And hit he did, squarely in the middle of the beast’s chest. And obviously Xander hit something vital as it staggered back a few steps only to crash to the ground where it feebly waved around with its arms.

As Xander turned around he saw that Enid had in the meantime defeated her enemy. But he also saw how bad it could have ended for him, deep, long gashes ran along her flanks bleeding profusely.

"Xander! Duck!" yelled a voice.

Xander, having painfully learned the importance to heed such warnings, immediately dropped to the ground. Barely an heartbeat later a bolt of lightning thundered through the air where his head had been. The momentarily deafened Xander didn’t hear but felt a large mass fall to the ground behind him. As he turned around he saw the smoking remnants of the owlbear he had believed dead or at least near dead. Somehow it had managed to come back to its feet and nearly reached Xander’s unprotected back.

As the situation finally penetrated his mind and Xander realized how close he had just come to death, he swallowed deeply in an attempt to dislodge the growing lump in his throat.

With a slight hitch in his voice Xander asked, "What were these?"

When he didn’t get an answer Xander turned away from the body and looked over to the others, Henry and Escalla were rummaging through the cart, obviously looking for much needed wound dressings. The Justicar was holding glowing hands over Enid’s wounds. As the light faded from his hands so did the wounds on the sphinx’ side until they were no longer bleeding and much reduced in size.

What remained of the wounds Henry quickly covered with bandages.

With a weary sigh the Justicar rose from his kneeling position and stretched himself. The healing magic he had just wrought claiming its due from him. In a tired voice he finally answered Xander’s question.

"That were owlbears. And it is a bad sign that they were working together with the gnolls. Normally owlbears attack everything larger than a rabbit when they see it. Such cooperation with other races is unheard of and can only be reached with powerful enchantments. Enchantments non of the gnolls can have wrought."

As all recognized the implications of the Justicar’s observations a deep silence fell over the group.

After a few minutes Xander broke the silence, "And that is bad, right?"

"Very. And we can assume that whoever is responsible was also allied with at least one demon, maybe more."

"So we take the hellmouthy approach? Research, search, slay?"

"Something like that. First we will continue on to Hommlet. It is the only town within ten days distance. If there is something big going on chances are good that we can learn more about it there.

As the regions seems to have become more dangerous than before I’ve decided that we start tonight with you weapon training."

"Speaking of weapons. What did you use against that owlbear over there? Is it a magical item?" interjected a curious Escalla.

After nodding his consent to the ranger’s decision Xander answered the faerie.

"No it isn’t magical. It’s an ordinary gun."

"How does it work? Can you show me?"

"I can explain it to you, but I’d rather not show you. I don’t have too many bullets left and I seriously doubt that I can get more here," and with that he started to explain the workings of the pistol, drawing on the soldier spirit’s memories where his own knowledge of guns ran short.

Several hours later the Justicar had saw a small glen a bit off the path they were following. Just the place to stay overnight, fresh water, not easy to look into and in an emergency better to defend than a campsite on the open plain.

*****

Part 5

After building their camp Jus produced a wide selection of weapons for Xander to choose from. There were a broad sword, a short sword with a leaf shaped blade, two axes one one-handed and one for two hands. He also laid out a quarterstaff, a spear and a mace.

"Now lets start with your training. First we will choose the weapon that suits you best. Take each one and try to get a feel of them, then tell me which two feel best to you," ordered the ranger.

After a moment of simply looking at the weapons Xander started with the axes.

The two-handed ax was quickly discarded as it was too heavy for him to even properly lift it. The other ax joined her just as soon for Xander couldn’t find a way to grip it comfortably. Quarterstaff and spear were also sorted out quickly.

Then it was the mace’s turn. As he picked it up the first time he immediately noticed the comfortable weight and good grip he had on it. Intrigued Xander studied the weapon closer. On the mace’s hexagonal head, about as big as two fists, suns and flames were etched in, the shaft was adorned with carvings of vines and leafs.

Then he recognized it, it was the weapon the gnolls had wanted to give to the demon. After a bit of deliberation Xander quickly placed this weapon on the to-keep side.

As he was told to choose the two best feeling weapons Xander now had to decide whether to keep the short sword or the broad sword.

Both felt similarly good in his hand if he kept his arm still but after several swings and stabs with both of them Xander decided that the short sword was suiting him best. It also was way lighter than its big counterpart so he should be able to use it better for a longer time.

"Good choices," commented the Justicar. "The sword is a good choice for fighting a quick opponent and more versatile as you can stab and slash with it. So it is perfectly suited for close quarter fights. The mace on the other hand can deliver heavy punishment, especially on heavily armored enemies you would be hard pressed to harm otherwise. It also is probably much more effective against undead as several of them are more vulnerable to such weapons than to swords and on the suns etched on the head look like holy symbols of Pelor, the god of the sun. Add to that the fact that Cinders smells magic from it and you have a high chance of a magical weapon against undead, but I have to tell you that we don’t know what enchantments are on the mace, it could be an enhancing spell but it could also be a spell preventing the head to rust."

"Cool. Buffy will drool when she sees a magic vamp-ex-weapon after I get home." said a grinning Xander only to add a moment later, "If I get home...." As a short flash of pain showed in his eyes as he remembered that maybe he wouldn’t ever return to Sunnydale.

"Now to work," commanded the Justicar rousing the boy from his despair. "We start with the mace. It is the more straight forward weapon of the two and you should learn the basics of using it quickly. At first we will concentrate on your defense - It is the hardest part of using a mace and from what I have seen from you so far you biggest weakness. You may be able to dodge relatively good but that is mostly detrimental to your style of attacking. It is much better to deflect the enemies weapon so that he is open to your counterattack than to keep retreating without gaining the initiative.

So pick up your mace and I will attack you slowly and you try to deflect my sword. Then we’ll look at what you did right and what wrong."

"Uhm..., sure. But do you have to use your sword? I mean I saw how easily it cut through this bear-thing..."

"Don’t worry, I’ll keep it sheathed until you are good enough."

Xander nodded with relief and got into something similar to a ready stance he had seen Buffy use in training.

"Hold it. Don’t move," ordered Jus.

"Do you feel how uncomfortably and awkward your stance is?" at Xander’s nod he continued, "Now move your legs a bit more apart. Good. And now place the left one a bit more to the front. Yes that’s it. You even bent the knees just enough, that is good. Now I’ll attack you."

With that the ranger brought the two-handed sword above his head and started a slow downward cut. Xander held the mace like a baseball bat and hammered it on the blade of the sword, bringing it wide to his side. But this move also left him overbalanced and a light kick to his unprotected ass brought him sprawling to the ground.

"Not bad for a first try with a mace. Now, a mace is built to be wielded with one hand not two. You can use it with both hands if necessary but then you shouldn’t grip it with both hands together at the end, place one a bit further up then you can stop a swing much better and without overbalancing. ... Yes, just that way. Again and this time try it with only one hand. No grip it a bit further up."

And so it went on for the next three hours till darkness fell and Henry had nearly finished with preparing the stew.

"All right and now you will do some stretching exercises till the meal is ready," ordered Jus.

"Slave driver," grumbled Xander under his breath.

Then he asked in a louder voice, "Why? Shouldn’t I have done that before I start with training?"

"No, that is no use you would only run the risk to harm yourself. But if you do it when all your muscles and sinews are warm you increase their flexibility. Now do it," answered the ranger not without some compassion in his voice but the steel that Xander could hear beyond that told him to quit arguing as Jus wouldn’t give in.

But luck was with Xander and not even fifteen minutes later he sat with the others at the campfire. While he ate Xander watched his new companions with some fascination. Henry had just finished his bowl of stew and was now busy brushing Enid’s mane, something she rewarded with a loud rumbling purr. Polk was quiet for a change and happily lapped brandy out of a bowl. By the time Xander had his third refill Jus was finished with his meal and left for a short scouting trip around their camp. A short whir of wings told them that Escalla had decided to join him. A few minutes later Xander was finally filled up with enough food and a wave of exhaustion overcame him. With a mumbled good night he went over to his bedroll. He was asleep before his head came to rest on the ground.

Soon he was fully immersed in his dreams and frown told anyone watching him that he wasn't happy with what happened in his dream. But soon a certain Slayer entered his dreamscape and a wide grin appeared on his face telling anyone who saw him sleeping that he enjoyed this new dream immensely.

*****

Sunnydale, CA
Friday, late afternoon

Chatting about the latest gossip at college Buffy and Willow approached the Harris residence.

"You think he is there already?" Buffy asked her friend.

"Sure, Fridays he is off at 3 and seeing that it is now nearly 5 he has to be here," replied Willow and rang the doorbell.

The ringing of the doorbell was answered by the resounding crash of breaking glass and shortly thereafter two voices cursing loudly. The curses started to develop into an argument and then into a screaming match only to stop suddenly after a few minutes.

Buffy and Willow looked at each other and exchanged a worried gaze, not sure what to make out of the whole commotion. Before they could decide on a course of action the door was opened.

In the door stood Mrs. Harris wearing what looked like a faded summer dress at least decade out of fashion. Her eyes were read and puffy, the hair unkempt and the distinctive odor of beer and other alcoholic beverages hung around her like a cloud.

"What ‘cha want?" asked Xander’s mother with a slightly slurring voice.

"Hi, Mrs. Harris. We wanted to visit Xander," answered Willow in a perky voice while Buffy could only look on with astonishment.

"He’s not ‘ere," came the frosty answer.

"Do you know where he is? We wanted to ask him something," Willow asked trying to lighten the mood by becoming even more cheerful and failed miserably. For Mrs. Harris seemed to be too drunk to even notice the effort.

"Who’s a’ the door?" yelled a drunken voice from further in the house.

"Two girls looking for our ‘orry excuse o’ a son!" the woman yelled back. Buffy and Willow were both shocked into silence at that. As they tried to regain their composure they saw Harris senior coming from the living room.

"Now that are some pretty bitches the shitbag ‘as gotten there. How much’s ‘e paying you?" sneered the drunk.

Still overwhelmed from the unlikely scene in front of them both could only stare and, in Buffy’s case, clench their fists.

"The looser ain’t ‘ere. ‘aven’t seen ‘im for days," continued Harris not realizing how close the girls were to exploding. "If ya see that good-for-nothing tell ‘im the rent has to be on the table by Sunday or his shit flies out."

Having said - or better slurred - his bit he ripped the door out of his wife’s hands and smashed it closed in their faces, leaving the shaken Slayer and Witch looking on the door still fuming with anger.

After giving the door a solid kick that nearly took it from its hinges Buffy stalked away from the house towards the sidewalk, Willow following her closely. After bringing some distance between themselves and Xander’s home they stopped.

Buffy shook with barely contained rage as she went again over what Xander’s father had said.

Willow was full of indignation and asked, "Can you believe what he said? How much we charge - what did he take us for, prostitutes?"

Though Buffy shared Willow’s anger about that she was much more upset about what Mr. Harris had said about his son and she let Willow know that.

"Is that your only problem? Didn’t you hear what he said about Xander? One doesn’t talk about ones children that way. And Xander has to pay rent for that wet hole in the ground that passes for a cellar. Can you imagine that?"

"Well but we also have to pay rent," replied Willow in a low voice, taken aback by Buffy’s forceful, nearly accusing speech.

"Yes, we have to pay rent, but we live in the dorms and as far as I remember neither of us has to pay any rent for a room at home. And a much better room than his to boot."

"You are right," Willow answered with a defeated voice. "I don’t get how they could be that drunk already before dinner. I mean they were in rehabilitation for drinking when Xander was 10 and I thought they had stopped, I mean Xander never said anything anymore about them drinking and e would have, wouldn’t he? I mean I’m his bestest friend and he would tell me something like that, wouldn’t he?"

"I don’t know. All I know is that I now know why he invited us so seldom over. I definitely wouldn’t want to invite my friends if I had parents like that," that said she gave herself a mental shove and continued to Willow, "Come on, lets go to Giles. We have to do something about Xander, he wasn’t home that means he is either at Giles’ or missing. Who knows what has happened to him, maybe we have to rescue him."

"O.K. Lets go."

*****

Giles’ apartment
10 minutes earlier

Frustrated Giles shut the last book in a long row of read books since Xander’s disappearance from Earth and subsequent phone call from somewhere with two moons. Unfortunately the connection had been broken and so far he hadn’t discovered anything to contact the boy again. All spells that could contact him demanded at least general knowledge of the target’s location and so he now had to try and find the plane or planet his young charge had found himself on. So far none of his books on planar travel had wielded a success. Either the plane had too many moons or too few or it was so inhospitable that Xander wouldn’t have survived long enough to call him in the first place.

After a few moments of letting his thoughts wander freely Giles lifted his cup only to find it empty. With a suffering sigh he rose and went over to the kitchen to make another pot of Earl Gray. As the water boiled he felt a pang of hunger. He dimly remembered having breakfast but as he thought about it he remembered that he hadn’t had any lunch.

He looked into his cupboards to see if any cookies or scones were around to stave off the worst hunger till he would make dinner but he only found a half-eaten package of Twinkies.

Giles shuddered with disgust as he remembered the one time he had tried the overly sweet treat.

Realizing that he had to either endure his hunger or make dinner earlier than usual he decided to look into the freezer for something to place in the oven. As he searched through the freezer he was glad for Xander and Buffy’s enormous appetites that had prompted him to create an emergency stash of frozen meals in case one of their research sessions would take longer than anticipated.

After going through all that was there he decided to make himself some Cantonese Chicken with bamboo sprouts.

He had just placed the food tray into the oven and set the timer as the door bell rang furiously.

After a look on the clock Giles thought, <Who could that be? Buffy wanted to come along around 8, that is still three hours off. Oh my goodness, I hope nothing else has happened.> and hurried to the door. As he looked through the spy-hole he saw an agitated Slayer and equally nervous redhead standing in front of his door waiting to be let in.

He hadn’t even opened the door half-way as Buffy and Willow brushed in, nearly slamming the door into his face.

"So, what is that important that you couldn't wait for me to open the door properly?"

"Is Xander here?"

"No, he isn't. What is so important that you suddenly have to see him so urgently?" asked Giles with just the barest hint of frost in his voice.

"Well, Buffy and I wanted to watch the Evil Dead marathon with himandtodayishisearlyoffworkdayandsowewantedto askhimathomebuthewasn'tthereandhisparentswhoaredrinkingagainhaven'tseenhimfordaysandtheywerereallyrudetous and I am babbling, aren't I?"

With an indulgent smile Giles nodded and answered, "Indeed you are. Now once again and a bit slower this time, what is all that about?"

While Willow once again - but slower this time - launched into her tale Buffy watched her Watcher attentively. She had the distinct feeling that he knew more than he let on. And she quickly saw the signs of his uneasiness.

Giles removed his glasses and cleaned them repeatedly and once in a while he pinched the bridge of his nose as if to chase away some pain. All the while wearing the typical expression that screamed I'm-lost-in-my-thoughts-because-something-strange-is-going-on-and-I-can't-figure-it-out.

When Willow finally was finished with her tale both girls looked at Giles with hopeful expressions on their faces.

"So, do you know where Xander is?" asked Willow.

Giles visibly searched for the right words as he didn't really want to tell the two what had happened and how it came to that.

"Come on, Giles. Spill! I know you know something," demanded Buffy.

"What? What should I know?" a flustered tried Giles to weakly deflect this line of questioning. Now Willow also noticed something strange about Giles' behavior, if he didn't know anything he would say so and not try to circumvent answering the question and so she put on her resolve face and stared intently at Giles. Under the combined pressure of his two charges Giles started to cave.

"Xander is, as far as I know, not in Sunnydale anymore."

"What!?" Buffy and Willow exclaimed, clearly surprised. Willow continued, "What do you mean not in Sunnydale anymore? Where is he? Did he move away? And why wouldn't he tell us, his best friends, or his parents for that matter?"

At the best friends comment Giles drew a face but didn't say anything about it despite feeling an urge to do so, but it wasn't his place to do so. This was between Xander and the girls.

"No he didn't move away. He was to bring me an object for some research but he was delayed and it may take some time till he gets back."

During this Buffy had, while listening with one ear to Giles, read the titles of some of the books stacked on the table and the ground around it. The few books with English titles she could divide roughly into two groups, one dealing with possessions and the other with other dimensions.

"Hey Giles, what exactly are you researching? Possessions and other dimensions don't seem to mix."

"Well, I have been looking into possessions for Xander…," before he could continue he was interrupted by Buffy.

"For Xander? Why? Has he developed a taste for living pigs again?"

"Living pigs? Oh no!" Willow showed definite distress at the thought that Xander might again be the host for a hyena spirit.

"No, no. Nothing like that. If you had let me continue I would have told you already why I'm looking into that," said Giles his annoyance unmistakable in his voice. "Anyway, I'm researching the subject because Xander approached me about the Halloween incident. It seems that he has retained the soldier's memories more permanently than we thought. Xander told me that he has discovered that he still has a significant portion of skills and reflexes incorporated and he wondered how that was possible. That reminds me do either of you two still retain knowledge or skills of your costumes?"

Both, Willow and Buffy, shook their heads in denial, but Buffy also flushed a bright red, something that Giles picked up immediately as it wasn't something that happened commonly to the Slayer while in his presence.

"Is there something you have to tell me Buffy?" inquired Giles.

After much fidgeting Buffy answered, "Yeah. I still remember some things too. I know a little bit more French than before and I know nearly everything about knitting, sewing and embroidering…"

"Anything else? Somehow I can't shake the feeling that you have to tell me a bit more," asked Giles enjoying turning the tables on his inquisitive Slayer. Somewhere in a corner of his mind a little voice told him that it wasn't right to feel such glee but another part ruthlessly squashed these protests.

Buffy rolled her eyes. Why did he have to be so good at reading her? Slightly embarrassed she continued, "Well I don't only know how to do all that stuff but sometimes I get an enormous urge to use those abilities and then I find myself working for hours on some cushion cover or socks or shawl."

As Willow heard that she could barely suppress a giggle but despite all efforts she couldn't keep a wide grin from her face. Giles simply nodded and scribbled down a note on a nearly full page.

"And what is it with those dimension books? Do they have anything to do with that or Xander?"

"Yes, in a way."

"In a way? What way? Come on don't let us draw it all out of your nose one thing after the other," demanded Buffy and Willow nodded supportively.

Giles drew a deep breath. He knew that it could get ugly now, but faced with the direct question he didn't see a way around explaining the whole thing without lying to his charge and Willow. And that was something he was unwilling to do.

"Xander found a demon excavating a box on a graveyard and after disposing him he looked inside the box. Somehow he touched the gem lying in it and was transported off to some other dimension. He managed to contact me but the contact was interrupted and now I'm looking for clues of where he is now and how to get him back."

"What!" Exclaimed both girls simultaneously. "How could that happen?"

"I would guess Xander touched the gem and activated the contained magic that way."

"No, what we mean is how XANDER managed to kill a demon on his own?" corrected Buffy. "And what was he doing in a graveyard in the first place?"

"He was patrolling," Giles answered calmly as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Buffy's and Willow's eyes bugged out and the Ripper in Giles idly wondered if they would fall out any moment.

Then he found himself bombarded with accusations.

"He did what? And you knew about it? How could you let him do that?"

"How could I not? It was his choice to do so and I decided to give him whatever help I could give so that he had a better chance to survive than on his own. And that brings me to the question of the week. How could YOU push your so called best friend so far away that he saw no other way than to go on patrol on his own?" asked Giles, his voice gaining in volume and sharpness.

"We just wanted to keep him safe," Willow answered somewhat timidly.

"And have you asked him anytime if he wanted to be kept safe?"

"Uhm, no we didn't. But he is just a normal guy and he should live a normal life. It isn't as if he had any special destiny that forced him to fight against vampires."

"Indeed he doesn't have any destiny that forces him to fight against demon but so don't you, Willow."

"But I'm a witch. I chose to help because I'm able to do so."

"And he did the same. He also chose to help. Who are you to deny him his choice?"

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