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~~~~Part 6: Enter Shaten, the Shadow Chick from the Mountains of Japan~~~~

“Damn it, Xander.”

It was just after school, several days after the defeat of the vampire ninja.  The students were filling out from the building to go back home, or some other place they’d rather be. Lexa, Willow, Buffy and Lotion were standing under the large tree in front of the school, and Lotion was angry.

“Lotion,” Lexa tried to calm her down.

“No, you not Lotion me, future husband,” Lotion verbally barreled through her attempt, pointing a finger at him.  “This not fair, and you know it.”

“Whoever said life was fair?” Lexa half-quipped.  Judging from the storm growing a couple of notches on Lotion’s face, that hadn’t been a good idea.  “Lotion, you’ve seen her. Faith looks up to me like I’m god’s gift to mankind, and she’s still far too hurt to just toss in the deep end.  I gotta mentor her a bit, train her physically, train her mentally, get her to focus on all things that she’s got to offer herself, give her some self esteem, get her to be on her on two feet.  And you know it too.”

“But it cuts in our fun time!” Lotion protested greatly annoyed.  Lexa looked at her empathically, and she groaned.  She folded her arms under her chest, and muttered, “Sometimes I wish you weren’t so damn good.”

“Would you love me, if I wasn’t?” Lexa tried with a smile.

Lotion sulked even more, then said, “Perhaps not, but good does not equal weak.  You would have still defeated me in combat, I would still be your fiancee, at least you would be taking advantage of me and we’d be having fun - together.  Not being stuck on the sidelines of my own fiance’s life.”

“I promise, the moment I’ll build down the time I spend mentoring Faith, and the moment there’s enough free time, you get all the fun I can give you during it, okay?” Lexa said gravely, hoping to calm the incensed Amazon down.

“Fine!  I will hold you to that!” Lotion hissed, and then sighed deeply.  She looked over to the still silent Buffy and Willow, and asked, “And what’s wrong with you two?”

“Huh?” they both said, and turned their heads toward each other.  The moment their eyes met, they quickly averted their eyes again.  Buffy looked up at Lexa and Lotion, and said, “Uh, I gotta, I gotta go train Kendra - she’s lagging behind us, and you know; big ass-kicking. Yeah.”  Then she quickly hurried off.

“Yeah, and Jenny is waiting for me, doing magic stuff, see ya, Lexa,” Willow hurried out, and then ran off in the opposite direction to Buffy.

“What’s with them?” Lotion asked confused, looking from the retreating form of Willow to the retreating form of Buffy and back again.

“I got no idea; can’t be their period, not according to the calendar,” Lexa said thinking over Willow’s and Buffy’s behavior.

“You’ve got a calendar!?” Lotion asked surprised and miffed.

Lexa back up a step, and waved his hands to ward the Amazon off.  “It was Oz’s idea. With the additional numerical estrogen advantage he figured it’d be a good idea.  Kendra and Faith aren’t on there yet, of course.”

“Aargh, where do these girls keep popping up from anyway?  Is the Hellmouth a dog and they’re the flees!?” Lotion asked out loud, and Lexa gasped.  She looked around to see if anyone had picked up what Lotion had said.  “Ugh, I’m going to go do some training myself, and don’t forget your promise, future husband!”

“I won’t,” Lexa assured the amazon as she started walking off.  Then Lexa breathed out a sigh of relief, and walked off to the right, toward where she knew Faith would be waiting.

A minute later Lexa reached the other brunette who was leaning against the school building.  Her face looked like a thunder storm; which was no doubt the reason none of the guys who were checking out the girl in tight brown leather pants and blue tight tank top had the guts to go up to her.  A backpack was slung over Faith’s right shoulder.  She looked up and noticed Lexa coming to her.  Her face softened, but was she was obviously still annoyed. “I can’t believe you made me go to school, especially with this stupid backpack, I look like a goody goody schoolgirl,” Faith said darkly, showing said backpack.  The backpack was dark green, with a Supergirl picture prominently on the front, along with smaller pictures at the side.

Lexa smiled as she took in Faith’s appearance.  “Trust me, Faith, you look nothing like a goody goody schoolgirl; for that you’d have to be wearing a pleaded skirt, would look good on you,” Lexa thought, picturing Faith in a traditional schoolgirl uniform.

“Don’t you dare!” Faith almost screamed in horror, then she deflated and pulled the backpack to the front, showing the Supergirl picture prominently to Lexa.  “Look at this.  This would be bad enough without the stupid comic book picture!  But it’s got some dumb, girl scout flying blonde in a miniskirt on it. I didn’t even bring a bag to my old school!”

“That was probably your main problem right there,” Lexa said with a slight smile.

For a moment Faith looked angrily at Lexa, and then she deflated even more.  She looked at Lexa miserably, but admiring, and whimpered, “How could you do this to me?”

“Faith,” Lexa said with a big smile, while she slung her arm around the leather-clad brunette and turned her around to face the same direction as she was.  “I want you to get in touch with your softer side,” Lexa said as she started walking forward, Faith coming along.

“I don’t have a softer side,” Faith sulked, putting the backpack back over her shoulder as she walked next to her friend and admired mentor, who lowered her arm from Faith’s shoulders.

Lexa smiled as she said, “And I don’t like girls, so we’re even.”  Faith turned her head to look at Lexa with annoyance.  Lexa smile at her as they reached the pavement and turned toward Lexa’s apartment.  “Look, I don’t want to turn you into mush mush, but we both know your hard as nails exterior is a mask.”

“I’m tough,” Faith protested, looking around to see if any of the other students were close enough to pick up on their weird, and extremely personal conversation.  None of them were.

“Yes, you are, Faith, and that’s why unwilling to face the soft inside of you is so odd,” Lexa explained, and slung her arm back around Faith’s shoulder; a little awkwardly because the backpack was in the way.  “You see, completely hard and inflexible makes you brittle. Some softness makes you flexible, you can bend and absorb blows, be they physical or emotional.  Something punches through that brittle, tougher looking than it is exterior of yours, and everything you’ve bottled up inside will spill out.”

Faith sniffed lightly, looking down and remembering her breaking down with Buffy; she didn’t want her hero to see her like that; and yet her hero wanted to see her like that.  It seemed contradictory; Lexa now wanted her to show how tough she was by coming into touch and showing that weakness.  Just as strange; she remembered how the breaking down and showing all that weakness to the blonde Slayer, had indeed made her feel stronger, strong enough to erect all her walls again and show off her strength to Lexa.  Somehow, the first experience, made it both less daunting and more daunting at the same time.  “So what do you want to do now?” Faith asked Lexa.

“Now?” Lexa said with a grin, “Well, first we go home, then we have some coffee and girl talk, and then we train martial arts.”

“Girl talk?  I don’t do girl talk, and that’s not a mask.  And you’re a guy underneath this body, since when do guys do girl talk?” Faith whined, trying to get out from under it.

“Since they’re girls half the time,” Lexa said with a smile, and a wiggle of her eyebrows.

“I’m doomed,” Faith said, deflating.

*****

Buffy and Kendra exchanged rapid blows inside the library.  Suddenly Buffy went down and made a leg sweep.  Kendra jumped over it, but Buffy was too fast; the blonde immediately jumped up into an uppercut, and hit Kendra in her chin while she was still in the air.  The exotic Slayer slammed into the ground, and gave a grunt and a whine.  “Ow,” she complained.

Buffy took a step forward, toward over the downed Kendra, and smiling down evilly, she said, “For every time Xander or Lotion kicked my ass during training, I’m gonna kick your ass, unless you get good enough to stop me.”

“That should be sufficient incentive.”

Buffy and a groaning Kendra turned their heads at the interruption.  Giles, impeccably British as usual, had come out of his office and was now watching the proceedings from behind the library counter.  “I thought so,” Buffy said evilly, while helping up Kendra.

“But ees eet thee most effecteeve methad?” Kendra asked dubiously.

“That is a good point, Buffy,” Giles pointed out, liking the interplay between the Slayers and looked questioningly at Buffy.

The blonde rolled her eyes and answered him, “It’s not as if I’m doing nothing but kicking her ass.  I am actually teaching her stuff before having her put it into practice.”

“Yes, well, Kendra, the council has confirmed; like Faith you are to stay here for now, under my care.  They specifically refused to say if you are to get a new watcher other than me. I would venture a guess that they are still deliberating on that,” Giles announced.

Kendra nodded with understanding, to say, “I am glad; I like eet eer.  Friends ees better dahn no friends.”

“And Buffy Summers is right again, it never changes, sometimes it gets boring,” Buffy said with a grin, folding her arms across her chest smugly.

“And den Xander keecks your ass for vahriatee,” Kendra replied casually.

“Hey!  You’re supposed to be the good, obedient, silent type,” Buffy complained at the sudden jab.

Kendra smiled Buffy, and told her, “Friends are bad eenfluens, ent of course, eef not pheeseecallee, I must strike bahck verballee.”

“Oh, yeah?” Buffy asked and smoothly swiped Kendra’s legs out from under her.  The exotic Slayer slammed onto the wooden floor with a grunt.  “Strike that.”

“I see you two are getting along splendidly, carry on,” Giles said, and turned away, walking back to his office, reflecting on being so fortuitous he didn’t need to do the training himself anymore with a light smile.  He picked up the envelope he had received earlier, and opened it.  He perused through it, and his good mood vanished.  He lowered the letter, and looked forward stoically, thinking deeply.

*****

“So, how about boys?”  The question was a fair one.  In the last half an hour, drinking coffee in the coffee shop, they had talked about all kinds of things; like school, the weather, their past, the one thing that hadn’t come up.

“Use ‘em and loose ‘em,” was Faith’s answer, and finished unpacking a cookie that she started to eat.

“That’s it?” Lexa asked her new student, trying to figure out if it was the mask slipping back in place or the way she really thought.

Faith chewed her cookie self-consciously.  With her mouth still full she shrugged, and said, “Screwing is all they’re good for anyway.”

“You’re talking to one, remember?” Lexa pointed out a little incredulously.  Faith looked down with some shame, and then shrugged.  “What happened that made you think like that anyway?”

Faith looked up, and grinned evilly at Lexa, “Wanna see how good I am?”

Lexa smiled, allowing the change of subject; knowing Faith just wasn’t ready to open up that can of worms so soon.  “I’ll take your word for it,” Lexa said with a smile.

“I sure would wanna see how good you are,” Faith said with an even bigger grin.  Lexa raised her eyebrows at Faith.  “Oh, come on.  I know you’re my mentor and shit, but you’re a guy that’s a girl half the time.  You know what’s like to have a nice big juicy . . .”  Lexa wasn’t a prude, but this was going far, and so she was nervously looking around whether any people could over here.  Faith’s evil smile didn’t falter when she finished softly, “shaft up there.  Nice and big, and all the right spots, and uh . . .” Sitting in her chair didn’t keep Faith from putting her hand between her legs and making a rude movement with her pelvis.  “You must be amazing in the sack,” she finished.

“Uh, yeah, well . . .” Lexa said, lightly self-conscious.

For a moment Faith thought she had actually managed to embarrass Lexa into silence, but then she suddenly got an acute insight.  “You’re a virgin,” Faith said softly, with large eyes full of marvel.

“Of course not; I’m not exactly as experienced as you, but I’m not a virgin,” Lexa said, lightly offended.

“With girls, just with girls,” Faith said with her complete understanding, and Lexa stayed silent.  That was all the confirmation Faith needed, and completely forgetting she was in a public place, she spoke with rising volume, “Not with guys.  You haven’t been with a guy.  No man’s ever given it to you good and hard and deep!  Oh, I /so/ have /got/ to get you *laid*!”

Lexa was pale as Faith leaned back leisurely, grinning widely imagining how best to go about her first project.  People were staring at the couple, and Lexa got up rapidly.  “Al right, big mouth,” she said as she fished her wallet out of the back pocket of her jeans.  She dumped the money on the table, yanked her and Faith’s coats from the couch, and grabbed Faith by her upper arm, dragging her along, “we’re getting out of here.”

“But I didn’t finish my cookie,” Faith complained as she tried to grasp the plastic wrapped treat still lying next to the saucer of her coffee.

“You’ve had enough cookies for the day,” Lexa said hastily, as she pulled Faith fully upright.  The Potential stumbled for a moment, before they reached the front door and they exited.  Lexa handed Faith her jacket and put her own on.  “I cannot believe you did that out loud.”

Faith grinned as she put on her jeans jacket, and told her, “I still have to get you laid. You’re going to *love* it!”

“I’ve got Lotion,” Lexa said defensively, looking around and glad the street was mostly empty.

“Oh, come on,” Faith said with a grin, quickly passing Lexa.  She turned around and walked backward to be able to look her mentor in the eye.  “The real thing that defines a woman isn’t her period, it’s getting fucked.”

“I think some people would disagree with that,” Lexa protested a little.

“Then some people are wrong,” Faith wiped away the protest smoothly, still walking backward.  “Which is besides the point anyway.  We were just having our little ‘girl talk’ . . .” Faith made the quotations in the air, “. . . and I distinctly remember you telling me you wanted to find out what it’s like to be a girl, and that being straight as a guy, you were straight as a girl, and you’re now essentially bisexual.  There’s no way in hell you can deny that in order to understand what’s it like to be a girl, you must have had at least one good old fashioned uh.” Faith once again had her hand in her pelvis and made the lewd gesture.

Lexa paused, and looked up at the sky, raising her hands in despair, and said, “God help me.”

“Not hearing a denial,” Faith singsonged, standing still herself, grinning evilly.

Lexa pointed at Faith, and told her, “Still got Lotion.”  She walked on again.

Faith turned around and walking next to her, looking up at the taller girl, she said, “Who is your fiancee, and all butch Amazon.  If she really loves you, she understands you had to learn it yourself, get it out of your system so to speak.  Plus, it’s like a guy not minding his girl being with another girl, especially if he can join in.  You know I’m right, big old Amazon would be proud to have a man with that much confidence, especially if it means you’d get even better in the sack.”  Faith took the time to wiggle her eyebrows at Lexa, “You’re not telling me you aren’t intrigued, I know you are, at the very least at the instinctual level or you wouldn’t be checking out guys.”  Lexa stopped her walking, and Faith passed her and turned around again, facing her.  “Admit it, or come up with one hell of a good denial to convince me.”

Lexa sighed, and looked down, emotions warring inside of her.  She looked at Faith, eyes up, head still down, and gave a naughty smile.  Feeling the irrational need to be sneaky and secretive, Lexa admitted, “I’ve been . . . intrigued.”

Faith made a happy jump in the air; which on the leather-clad girl looked so wrong. Then she brought her right index and middle fingers to her mouth, give it a suggestive lick, and said, “Mind wandering, huh?  A little self-induced uh.”

Lexa shook her head with a suffering sigh, even as she couldn’t keep a smile off her face, “You’re a menace.”

“I’ve been called worse,” Faith answered with an evil grin on her face that seemed glued there.

“Well, don’t think I’m just going to jump the nearest guy I come across,” Lexa noted somewhat wryly.

“Of course not,” Faith said with a disapproving tone, “This is your first time.  We’ll set a date, so we can live toward it, get the anticipation going, have the juices running, make you so damn horny by that time you are about willing to jump the nearest guy you come across.”

“I take it back,” Lexa commented, and resumed walking, passing Faith, “you’re worse than a menace.”

“Still called worse,” Faith said with a grin, falling in step, and making Lexa roll her eyes.

*****

Night

Cemetery

Two urns stood side by side in the urn wall.  Several other ruined ones were in the same wall, but they were old, and most of them long destroyed.  The two urns though, were new, and in good condition.  One had ‘Angel’ written on it with golden letters; the other carried the name ‘Jesse McNally’.  Suddenly out of nowhere, a lightning bolt pierced the events, and slammed through the urn carrying ‘Angel’.  Both urns shattered immediately, and the ashes of both urns were strewn about - except for a small whirlwind of ashes.  Electricity crackled through it, and whirling about the ashes came together, finally coalescing with an extra powerful spark into a nude figure, that dropped to the ground instantly, groaning weakly.

Angel looked around, shivering, and whispered, “What?”

*****

Buffy and Oz finished the cemetery, and stepped back on the pavement.  They were both in loose, but not too loose clothes, perfect for fighting.  “Well, that was that,” Buffy said with a bored tone.

“Nothing,” Oz said with a nod.  “Maybe we should add seedy bars, and warehouses to our patrols?”

Buffy shrugged, and said, “We’re underage; what are we gonna do?  Beat up the bouncers?”

“Even seedier bars then,” Oz said casually.  Buffy turned her head to look at him in confusion, and was about to ask, when it dawned on her.

“Oh, yeah, bars so seedy they don’t care about ID, huh?” Buffy said with a frown.  “They exist in Sunnydale?”

“We’d have to look,” Oz answered, and then gave her an uncharacteristic smile.

Buffy looked left and right, and realized that their houses were in different directions. One walking the other home would be a waste; the one doing it, would still have to go back to his or her own home the entire way alone.  “I guess this is where we part ways,” Buffy said, and Oz nodded.  “See ya tomorrow, Oz.”

“Ditto, Buffy,” Oz said, and Buffy turned right, while Oz went left.

Buffy walked casually, liking her life right now.  She wondered if she should make a detour to Willow’s, feeling slightly guilty, but eventually decided against it.  As such she walked toward her house, passing houses some with neat gardens, some overgrown with weeds.  Then someone half naked half-staggered from a drive way onto the pavement.  His bare back was to Buffy, but it was obvious the pants he was wearing hadn’t come out of his own wardrobe; the pipes were much too short for one thing.  The male turned around, and Buffy’s heart skipped a beat; then decided to skip a couple more.  “Buffy,” the male said with a groan in his voice.

“Angel,” Buffy said shocked.

“Wh-what happened?  I feel like I haven’t seen you in months, something about . . . oh, god,” Angel stammered out.

Ouch!  Buffy had used her considerable Slayer and martial-arts-training enhanced strength to pinch herself in multiple places along her left arm; but she wasn’t waking up.  This wasn’t a dream.  “Buffy?” Angel asked again, and then his eyes widened as a fist moved rapidly toward him, and smashed into his nose.  Then all went dark.

*****

With a groan Angel regained consciousness, and found himself into very thick chains, which kept him stuck to a pillar; a pillar in a factory.  The factory was familiar and he remembered things inside it, he didn’t remember doing.

Buffy finished locking the heavy thick chains she had luckily found and tasted to be powerful enough to restrain a vampire.  “B-Buffy, what’s this?” Angel asked the Slayer.

Buffy took a step back, shivering, as he looked at her former boyfriend.  This couldn’t be real.  “You lost your soul, I dusted your soulless ass, so not with the trusting,” Buffy said emotionlessly.  “You could be him, messing with me.  How the fuck did you get back to life anyway?”

Angel was shocked at Buffy’s use of the expletive; he hadn’t ever heard her talk like that; but then he supposed this was an appropriate time.  Buffy herself was surprised it had slipped out herself, but payed it no heed, working to keep her emotions in check.  “I don’t know; I just woke up in a graveyard and didn’t know up from down,” Angel muttered, testing the chains a bit, and finding himself truly unable to move.  Angel looked back up, letting his gaze move up Buffy’s body, and pausing at her hands; she wasn’t wearing the ring he had given her.  “You’re not in love with me anymore,” Angel stated, half as fact, half as an accusation. He looked up in Buffy’s anguished face and wished he could take her pain from her.  “When?”

“Do you really want to know?” Buffy asked, thinking hard over what Angel had said. Graveyard; no doubt where his urn had been.  But how?  Angel nodded, painfully.  “The moment we started having sex; when you’ve had a living being, burning with passion for you, blood pounding in his veins, delicious smells of sweat entering your nostrils, you really notice when you’re having sex with a cold, clammy, corpse.”  Angel looked down both ashamed and hurt, as much for himself as for Buffy.

Buffy meanwhile, had an epiphany.  The lightning strike she and Oz had seen and heard! Just one.  She was going to report it to Giles in the morning, but she had a pretty good idea what that had been.  A lightning-  “Oh, my god!” Buffy exclaimed, and then felt sick to her stomach.  She had an impulse to run right away, but a momentary thought struck her.  She turned and looked around.  The factory was still littered with lots of things; some left by the vampires, most from even before.  She had to be able to find a plastic bag, a pan and duster in this place.  And so she went rummaging about hastily, looking for the stuff.  Angel watched her frantic search with confusion.  To Buffy’s relief, it did not take long to find the items she needed.

As Buffy figured out the best way to transport the things along, Angel asked, “So, Xander?”

Buffy took the momentary time to look up at Angel, and said, “No.”  For a moment Angel seemed hopeful, until Buffy added, “I’m with Willow now.  I’ll be back.”  Then Buffy sped off, leaving a befuddled Angel.

*****

Buffy ran through the cemetery, the only thing holding back her tears was the hope that she didn’t have to shed them.  If any vampires were about to see Buffy zipping by with almost unimaginable speed, they’d run away scared.  As such, it did not take her long to get to the urn cabinet; what was left of it.  The Slayer skidded to a halt, and looked with horror at the place.  It was ruined, and not like before, and the two urns that had born names were destroyed.  Some dust; possibly ashes; was all around, but Buffy knew from the weight of a full urn, most of it had already been blown away by the wind.  “No,” she whimpered and felt tears for her friends finally detach from her eyes.  She heaved in air with difficulty - her friends had suffered enough for all her failures and mistakes - they had lost their friend, Jenny had lost an uncle, and now they’d lost the only tangible remains of their friend.  She sank to her knees, sobbing, as she remembered sitting with Xander and Willow on several occasions since she placed Angel’s urn next to Jesse’s.  Just sitting there, grieving and taking inspiration from the ashes; why they were fighting, to make sure it never happened again - or at least keep the occurrences down as much as possible.  As she sobbed, cried and remembered she pulled out the duster, and a bag she had found in the factory, and tried to gather up the ashes.  After a few attempts and swiping it from the grass and sand into the bag she gave up; the little ash she got in there, was mixed with an almost equal amount of sand, and some grass, and most of it had been blown away anyway.

Buffy let go of the duster and the plastic bag, and let herself fall backward, landing on her back.  She jerked and sobbed as she cried, bringing her hands to her eyes.  Then she slammed her hands to the ground on either side, denting it, and screamed, “You bastards!  Whoever you are!  Why couldn’t you leave him dead!?  Things were good!  At least move his urn away from Jesse’s . . . you stinking, god damned, sickening . . . AAAHH!!”

She curled up and sobbed some more before making up her mind.  She got up, got the duster and the bag, and left.

*****

“Willow?” Buffy asked as she peaked behind the narrowly opened door to Willow’s bedroom, keeping the bag with no more than a hundred grams of ash, along with some other substances behind her.  She felt ashamed and guilty, and extremely nervous.

“Hey, Buffy,” Willow greeted from her bed, already in pyjama’s.  They were rather cute, white with a flower pattern, and Buffy knew them well enough to know they looked good on her girlfriend, but that’s not why she was here.  “Come on in,” Willow said with a light frown as Buffy didn’t enter immediately.

“Hi,” Buffy said, as she nervously took small steps into Willow’s room, shaking a little. This just couldn’t be good.  As the plastic bag came into view along with a slowly, step by step entering, nervous looking Buffy, Willow frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Willow prompted, as several nightmare scenarios flooded her mind, scenarios she all rejected because she couldn’t see how they could have come to pass - not without her knowing about it on before hand.

“Uhm . . . Willow . . .” Buffy started weakly, closing the door slowly behind her.  She was still stalling for time, and her breathing slowly increased with apprehension.  “Y-your not going to like this; oh, who am I . . . It’s really bad.”

“What?” Willow prompted, growing pale.

Buffy, both sheepishly and guiltily, brought up the bag slowly.  “This . . . is all that’s left . . .” Buffy slowly said, still fighting for the courage.  Willow’s much too alarmed look is what gave Buffy the courage to finish, “of Jesse’s ashes.”

Willow frowned with confusion and denial, even as Buffy could already see the tell tale signs, tightening muscles and focusing of eyes, of anger and grief.  “What do you mean?”

“A-angel is back alive,” Buffy managed, and saw Willow’s face turning into a vicious scowl, “There was a lone lightning bolt, after I ran into him and chained him up in the factory, I realized that it . . .”  Buffy swallowed, feeling miserable when Willow’s face now was a mixture of the rage and infinite pain she had seen the signs of earlier, “I ran to the urns - this is all I could save . . . and a lot of it is sand.”

“No.  No!  NO!  Tell me this is a joke,” Willow was surprisingly fast, grabbing Buffy by the collar of her sweat shirt.  Her face was no filled with grief, anger, and a last fleeting hope, a last ditch effort of denial.  Buffy actually felt scared with Willow’s face was so close to her, filled with rage directed at the most convenient target.  Willow positively snarled, much to Buffy’s surprise despite the fact she knew it was coming, “If this is a sick joke, Buffy, I’m turning you into a toad, and we’re through!”

Buffy just put her right hand, which was free, around Willow’s waist, and painfully shook her head.  And just like that the rage in Willow deflated, looking to her right at the back, and then broke down crying, “No.  No.  Nonononono . . .”  She sank down, and Buffy sank down with her, whispering at her girlfriend while holding her close and cuddling.  She put the bag down and fully embraced the sobbing Willow, and cried along with her.  She hugged the redhead close, rubbing her cheeks against Willow’s and whispered meaningless supports her girlfriend.

After a minute or so, Willow’s crying lessened, and then suddenly stopped.  “Oh, my god . . . Xander.”

Buffy nodded, “We-we should call them all together, at the library.”

“Xander alone, first,” Willow corrected.

*****

The Library

An hour later

“Would you mind telling us what this is about?”  Buffy looked around, sought support in the eyes of her girlfriend and took a few steps forward to the library table - on which was the bag holding the last few remains of Jesse McNally.  She took her time to look to her right at Xander.  Her heart filled with what she could plainly see written on his face.  His eyes were bloodshot, filled with grieve and a cold rage he couldn’t vent anywhere.  With arms folded across his chest, and a downward turn mouth, he looked like something you don’t ever want to mess with.  Forty five minutes earlier she and Willow had broken the news to him.  What Willow had gone through was nothing compared to his grief.  Worse, was that Faith had been at his apartment.  Willow and Buffy had tried to get him alone, but it hadn’t worked.  Xander had been ready to storm out and kill Angel right then and there; and not fast either.  He had cried, waled even, along with raged everything and everyone in the universe.  Willow and Buffy had held him, let him get through the initial reaction, getting to stay his vengeful hand for a few minutes by using the same reasoning she had used on herself earlier; ‘She wasn’t thinking straight when it came to Angel, so the decision of what to do with him, and determining if it really was Angel or just Angelus playing her, had to go to the whole group, and since he obviously wasn’t thinking straight either; the decision had to go the whole group.’

Xander still wanted to kill Angel, that much was easily read off his face.  Buffy also noticed Lotion on one side of him, and Faith on the other.  The brunette, at first, had looked afraid at the raging and grief-stricken male forty-five minutes earlier; until she recognized he wasn’t going to touch her in anyway bad.  While Buffy and Willow were still talking to sooth him somewhat, while he didn’t let them get close; part of him blaming Buffy which she forgave and forgot right away, Faith had conquered her fears, and gotten closer to him. Xander-Lexa’s new friend, he didn’t turn away them, helping to calm him down so she and Willow could come closer and comfort him as well.

“I guess not everyone here knows Jesse McNally,” Buffy said gently, gauging all their reactions.  Xander winced - even after already knowing; Lotion looked with wide eyes at Buffy and then immediately turned to Xander - obviously he had told Lotion.  Jenny and Oz drew a blank.  Giles obviously recognized the name and remembered; but probably didn’t quite know the difference.  As close as Giles was to her and the rest of the Scooby Gang now, back then he had only just arrived, and had had no contact with Xander and Willow yet. Cordelia blinked, flinched just a little bit, and then obviously clamped down upon her emotions.  Buffy was surprised - it was obvious the cheerleader captain wasn’t unmoved over the boy, and here she thought Cordelia just thought of him, like she did of Xander and Willow back then, as losers not worth her time - and it couldn’t be what happened at the Bronze back then, the sword-wielding cheerleader had had enough experiences with the weird and violent since then that that wouldn’t raise such a reaction from her.  “Jesse was a friend of Willow and Xander . . . he was turned when I first got here, and dusted,” Buffy explained calmly, and looked out of the corner of her eyes at Xander.  His hands had tightened around his upper arm.  “That’s all that’s left of his ashes,” Buffy said solemnly.

Most people looked blank, and had varying levels of confused, written on their faces. “So?” Oz summed up quite nicely.

Buffy looked at Willow once again, then back at the gathering and said, “His urn stood next to Angel’s.  A lightning bolt struck both . . . and resurrected Angel.”  The result of that statement was a shocked, wide-eyed looks at Buffy, which gave her the opportunity to add, “I ran in on him on the way home, I guess he was heading there; I captured him and chained him up in the factory.”

It was Cordelia who spoke first, snidely, “Did that happen today, or have you hidden him away for awhile?”

“Fuck no!” was Buffy’s shocked reply.  Xander had looked over at Cordelia’s half question, half accusation.  He hadn’t even thought of that; which he figured meant he couldn’t see Buffy doing that; he wondered if he should add ‘anymore’.  It was obvious that Buffy indeed hadn’t done that; the fact that she had resorted out of anger and frustration with an expletive - something she hardly ever, if at all resorted to, was really all one would need to realize that.  If any doubt remained, the hurt look in Buffy’s eyes and the shocked and hurt tone eliminated them quite nicely.

“Faith is a bad influence on you,” Willow said softly and completely humorlessly, rocking back and forth on her feet, still not over the shock of having lost Jesse’s urn and ashes.

“Cordelia, I saw the lightning bolt, it was tonight,” Oz said calmly as he slung his arm around her waist.

Faith shook her head, put her hands in the pockets of her tight jeans, and said, “I still can’t believe it.  First a vampire with a bone plate so you can’t stake him, one creating a rock hide so sunlight doesn’t kill him, now we’ve vamps getting resurrected.  What’s next?  Vamps who can pick up their hands and screw it back on?”

Everyone looked at her for a moment, agreeing with the sentiment.  “I say we dust him, soul or no soul, goes quicker too,” Lotion stated at once.  Her views on the entire subject simple and effective.

“I agree,” Xander said for good measure; Cordelia nodded.

“I’m afraid I must disagree, even if he’s Angelus,” Giles interjected in the whole gathering with authority drawing everyone’s gazes to him, and turning the library silent.

A silence Xander broke, by saying grimly, “You, Giles?  What happened to the Watchers’ creed of dusting them all?”

“Indeed, however these are unusual circumstances; if we do destroy this walking corpse again, what is to stop whoever resurrected him this time, seemingly with ease, from doing it again?  And this time before any of us can capture him?” Giles explained simply.

Everyone looked annoyed at the concept, and not quite having an answer.  Oz a moment later came up with a solution, and calmly said, “Chain him up in a box, and throw him in a deep part of the ocean.”

“I like that idea,” Xander commented with a feral grin.

“When he’s soulless,” Willow hastily interjected, not quite liking the idea of throwing someone, even if it was Angel, to the depths of the ocean.

“Even souled that’s a good idea,” Xander replied darkly, looking at Willow as he kept his predatory smile on his face.

“Xander!” Jenny said with a disapproving tone.  She took a step forward and leaned on the table.  “You can’t mean that; granted he wasn’t exactly a saint, but he’s still a human being, even if he is in command of a demon-animated corpse.”

Xander looked slightly guilty, but lowering his arms to his sides he replied, “Dumping him in the ocean keeps him from losing his soul; either because some industrious chick gives him a blowjob, or because some magic user works his mojo.  If magic can give him his soul, it can take it away, and you can’t use your magic on something you can’t find.  If Soul Boy has to suffer to keep Angelus bottled up . . .”  Xander shrugged to show his apathy.

“I agree,” Lotion said instantly, grinning evilly at the concept.

“Can’t say I disagree,” Cordelia added in, not liking she and Lotion agreed on something. Buffy was distressed; she may not be in love with Angel anymore, but she did have fond feelings, and she didn’t want to see him suffer like that.

Jenny didn’t like it either; she wasn’t enamored with her tribes quest for vengeance and the way it was done; it felt like she was continuing those actions.  So she said, “Perhaps before we decide on how to deal with things, we should first try to figure out whether he’s got his soul indeed back, and how and why and who brought him back to life.”

“I don’t like it,” Willow said with some measure of artificial evenness in her voice, having everyone look at her, “but if this is Angel, and not Angelus, I can’t fault Xander’s logic.”  Buffy hated the concept himself, and hated even more that she somewhat agreed, although she still wondered if the price for such an action would be greater than the reward. As far as she was concerned, they wouldn’t be tossing Angel into the ocean, that her girlfriend agreed with Xander on the subject - more so, she was surprised she did.  Willow was always the gentle one.  Willow finished, “If it’s Angelus though, chug him.”  Everyone nodded with that sentiment, except Buffy who was still wrapping her mind around the concept of Willow wanting to do the same to Angel as to Angelus.

The surprised gasp that came, clearly indicated he or she was just as surprised at Willow’s ideas on the subject.  The gasp however, did not come from anyone of the Scooby Gang.  Everyone turned around to see Angel, dressed now, stand in front of a swaying library entrance.  Likely, he was just as surprised that Buffy didn’t defend him more.  There was a moment’s silence, before Lotion hissed, “You said you chained him up!”

“I did!” Buffy defended herself as everyone stood up, and turned to face Angel, and probably ready to rush over and stake him; if not at least chain him up properly this time.  The faces of most of them, enraged.  Angel obviously didn’t feel very safe, or comfortable.

The library door swung open again, giving the Scoobies pause, especially when a smallish men dressed like a New York pimp entered through it.  “She did, and good, le’me tell ya,” the man spoke with an accent from the same city as his clothes.  “The time it took to unchain him was a lot; gave me time to talk to the knucklehead though . . . and didn’t I tell ya to not run in here?”  Angel turned to the weird man and shrugged pathetically.  He turned back to the Scoobies, and added, “Slayer, you should work in SM parlor as a mistress, you’d be rich in no time.”

Xander, Lotion and Buffy then shot forward, while Buffy growled, “I’ll kill him.”

“We actually agree on something,” Lotion said, lightly surprised, as they crossed the distance.

Xander reached the little man first, picked him up by the collar, and smashed him right against wall, powerful enough to dent it.  The weird man groaned in pain, and looked surprised into the enraged face of Xander Harris.  “You’re dead, demon,” Xander snarled, as Buffy and Lotion came up next to him, eager to join in on the dismembering fun.

“Hold it!” Giles’ even tone of wisdom sliced through the air, “Get answers first, then kill him.”

The three demon hunters now standing next to a fearful Angel, and in front of a pinned up against the wall demon, looked quite disappointed for a moment, but then focused on their knew task.  The demon gulped, realizing quite plainly he wasn’t in the company of the traditional, goody-two-shoes, harm-no-one good guys.

“Who in Xi Ama-lang’s name are you!?” Lotion demanded angrily.  If Angel had any thought of helping his benefactor, it was quickly removed when Xander and Lotion gave him a momentary glare.  He backed off and watched.

The demon was quite surprised the three of them had already figured out he was a demon - he looked human after all.  The wall was quite hard too, being hurt when he was smashed into it.  He gave a light groan, and said, “Hiya folks, I’m Whistler, balance demon, and I work for the Powers That Be . . . could you put me down so I can explain?”

Instead the arm under his chin moved back a moment, only for the hand to wrap around his neck and squeeze.  The young man’s face was filled with an almost uncontrollable rage, and if the balance demon was right, and he usually was about these things, a good chunk of grief that was threatening to spill out with tears.  “Tell me, demon, if you work for whoever those sickening bastards are; why couldn’t they have sent you to move Dead Boy’s urn away from Jesse’s before bringing the bastard back to life!?” Xander hissed, squeezing almost gleefully.  Whistler just gasped.

“Urn?” Angel asked shocked; starting to understand why they were all so upset.

“Xander; please show a few more moments restraint,” Giles spoke, the rest of the people present now having arrived close behind the first three.

With some effort Xander managed to let go, allowing Whistler to cough for air.  “I don’t know, man, I’m just a messenger boy, they send me when and where.  They’re the good guys, though.  Need the big lug over there to do some good for a change; things really didn’t go as foreseen.”

*“Good guys!?”* Xander snarled, seeing red now.  *“Good guys who use demons and demon-animated corpses!?  Good guys who resurrect /him/ and destroy the honored remains of the best friend of some of the best and strongest fighters on supposedly their side?  Human fighters!?  They could have resurrected Jesse, and once I trained him, he’d be stronger and better than that /thing/ of there!  Don’t sound very ‘good’ to me, bub.”*

“I say we kill ‘em both,” Lotion said, and Buffy got chills running down her spine; this wasn’t the voice of the gung-ho amazon she was used to, but the cold voice of a killer. Whistler noticed it too; he gulped when he realized this wasn’t going well.

Buffy realized they still didn’t have all the answers, and tried to go on a slightly different tangent, “What do you mean, not as foreseen?”

“You’re supposed to be dead, sweetheart, and Dead Boy over here was supposed to stop Acathla,” Whistler said casually, trying to sound as harmless as possible and in tune with their perceptions.  “Things didn’t exactly go as planned; things got better in some ways.  The Powers have quite an investment in vamp.  You threw one hell of a monkey wrench in things, Alexander.”

“What the hell’s a balance demon?” Cordelia asked, less pissed, than the ones who lost the ashes of their best friend; and wanting to diffuse the situation just a bit; like Buffy and Giles wanting answers before the blood-spilling began.  She looked over, and was pretty certain that Willow’s eyes were black; the energy and rage radiating off of her in waves, and her face contorted with it.  It was obvious she preferred to now rend the ‘balance demon’ limb from limb, before doing the same to Angel.

“I take it a demon that works to keep darkness and light balanced,” Giles postulated, feeling that Cordelia’s ploy was working; Willow’s anger and magic were deflating a little.

“If you mean on a personal level, yeah, Ripper.  If you mean the big forces of good and evil, not a chance.  We’re all about helping to find people inner balance and harmony and stuff; which is why I went to recruit the big oaf over there, back when he was still eating rats,” Whistler answered with a disgusted face as he remembered Angel scurrying in alleys to find the rodents.

“/You/ sent him here!?” Xander asked, pushing Whistler harder against the wall again.

“Not to do the nasty with the Buffster and turn even nastier than that, if that’s what you mean, love . . . no offense Slayer, but . . .” Whistler shivered.

“Will people quit it already!?  I know, god damn it, I’m the one who did it with the corpse!” Buffy exclaimed exasperated and looked a little guilty when she saw Angel deflate at her blunt statement.

  Whistler nodded, “Well, you were supposed to be killed by the Master, which would have spurned him on to finally get off his lazy ass.  Instead, Xander’s cross did that, he brought you back, and the rest is some really icky history.  Could you set me down, now?” Whistler asked the last hopefully, looking at Xander.

“First, you tell me exactly why we shouldn’t throw the bastard to the bottom of the ocean to keep Angelus from coming back,” Xander hissed, teeth forced together.

“No more curse, man.  They grafted his soul around the demon normally; he can do as many nasties with hot, blonde chicks as often as he wants, although I really hope he doesn’t, and he’s not ever turning in ugly and psycho again,” Whistler explained, making everyone look at Angel for a moment, who squirmed under the glares.  “Would you mind letting us go?  He’s got a lot of work to do.”

“No, I’m going to kill you,” Xander said with a smile, and prepared to lay down a buttkicking nobody ever got before.

Jenny took a few steps forward, and lay a comforting hand on Xander’s shoulder, “Xander, no.”

Xander’s fist remained, and looked back.  “Why not?  It’s a demon,” Lotion asked with a pissed look.

“Because it isn’t a sickening killing machine demon; and I do not want to see you, Xander, go down the path of revenge-killings; first it’s a non-evil, evil-killing-machine, the next time it’s humans,” Jenny said gently, while glaring daggers at the balance demon, who winced from the look alone.

Xander looked at Jenny for a moment, as did most everyone else, wondering silently what was going to happen.  Xander turned back around, and hissed, “You get to live, demon; but only so you can tell those bastard powers of yours this; they, or any of their employees and followers of theirs, you and Dead Boy included, set foot in this town ever again . . .

“. . . we kill . . .” Lotion completed with a grown, followed by everyone inside the room apart from Angel backing it up silently.

His eyes boring coldly into Whistler’s own, Xander took back over, “. . . painfully and gruesomely, you got that you piece of shit?”

Whistler nodded difficulty.  Xander then picked the demon off the wall, and with a single vicious kick sent him flying out the double doors.  Whistler gurgled and groaned out with pain, grabbing his gut which suffered at least one broken rib, and then slammed into the wall on the other side of the gangway.  He and Lotion turned to Angel.  Xander glared why Lotion said, “You hurry, before I consider it setting foot back in Sunnydale.”

“I’m . . . sorry,” Angel said with emotional pain in his voice, and felt horrible at how inadequate it sounded, and was.  He gave Buffy a last look, but it was obvious Buffy was accepting Xander’s and Lotion’s and the others’ decision with no more than a stare.  He then walked out the library, and helped the hurt balance to his feet, before leaving.

“Xander . . .” Giles started, wanting to talk to the young man and his childhood friend; there was no way he knew exactly how to deal with them having lost their friend’s remains. Xander didn’t answer, he just stepped out of the library resolutely, raging internally.  Lotion went after him quickly, as did Faith a moment later.

*****

Later

Cordelia sat on the couch in her parents’ estates pool house.  Oz was sitting next to her, and they were watching a fashion show.  “So,” Oz prompted.

“So, what?” Cordelia replied.

“So, it’s 2AM and we’re watching a fashion show rerun.  How are you doing?” Oz asked her relaxedly.

“I’m fine,” Cordelia answered him shortly, obviously not so.

“About this Jesse’s ashes?” Oz prodded gently, not moving from his position, leaning back in the couch.

In contrast, Cordelia was hunched over with her hands together in her lap.  “He was a loser who was practically stalking me.  I could have called the cops and he’d be dumped in jail. What would his ashes mean to me?” Cordelia told him, but her bitchy tone wasn’t very convincing.

“Right, 2AM, fashion show, and Xander, loser too?” Oz asked calmly.

Cordelia whipped her head around to regard him for a moment.  Oz looked in her eyes. Cordelia turned her head away, and rubbed in her face.  Finally Oz sat up and pulled Cordelia into an embrace, one she half-heartedly fought for a few moments, before being pulled to Oz’s shoulder.  It was a little uncomfortable at first, with Oz being shorter then her, but she found a better way soon.  Cordelia held tight, and then muttered, “He and Xander were the only ones who would stand up to me, you know?  The only ones who would talk back.  I wish he wasn’t a damn vampire when he pulled me onto that damn dance floor.  I know he’s a loser and we’d never last, and then I’d meet you, but part of me wonders; what if?  Closest thing I had to a friend apart from Xander back then, and he and Willow never told me and showed me they had his ashes . . . bastards!  And now it’s gone.”

“You should talk to them, tomorrow,” Oz suggested, and Cordelia sagged.

*****

Xander’s apartment

Faith was the one who opened the door, and Buffy and Willow entered.  They saw a still angry Xander sitting on the couch.  “Are you okay, Xander?” Willow asked gently.

Slowly Xander raised his head, and then said tonelessly, “I will be.”

  “Lotion, actually helped him calm down, a lot,” Faith said with wide eyes.  “I think he was about ready to tear every building in Sunnydale down after he let them go.”

The two girls crossed the apartment and sat on either side next to him, while Faith sat down across from them in the other couch, staying silent.  “It hurts,” Buffy muttered, indeed having a pained voice, “I wish he had stayed dust.”

Xander looked lightly surprised, Willow not so, she just held onto her childhood friend. Then he sobered a little, and said, “So that we hadn’t lost Jesse’s remains.”

“That too,” Buffy denied, and looked up to her best male friend, “with Angel dead, it was kind of a reminder, his urn.  It constantly showed me my greatest failures, and my greatest triumph.  I killed the thing that wore my lover’s - however sickening that is - face; I set Angel free.  It showed me I could do anything necessary to keep this world safe, yet showed me how I was, reminded me of my mistakes, you know?”  Xander looked at her, and then nodded.

“Shit.”

The three friends looked over at Faith as she sat there watching them.  “I feel like a big dumb bitch,” Faith said as explanation, looking pitiful.

“That’s because you are,” Willow said, her head still against Xander’s left upper arm. Faith looked over at the redhead, who then smiled, “So are we, which teenager isn’t?”

“Not me,” Xander shook his head.

“Not me either,” Buffy answered with a big grin.  Willow and Xander looked at her. “Used to be, but not anymore, uh uh, killed thing that wore lover’s face, just said so, remember?” Buffy clarified, and gestured her right hand at her head.  With appraising raised eyebrows Xander nodded in agreement, and Willow gave Faith a look.

“I guess you and I have got some growing up to do, huh, Willow?” Faith said with a wry smile at Willow, who was looking annoyed at her two friends; who were softly laughing.

*****

Several days later

The figure was clad only in a black suit.  A mask that showed only its eyes.  The suit itself was form-fitting around the belly, mid-section, and upper legs - which showed off a delicious, athletic, agile and very feminine physique, that could easily make men howl in pleasure.  The suit was looser up around the chest; which meant that the forward curve could have easily been the suit if the figure was male; but being as she was female, it meant they were breasts; not big breasts, smallish, perfect fitting the gymnastic figure; but still very present breasts.  The pipes of the suit became equally loose around the girl ninja’s lower legs, although never so loose they’d easily get entangled in bushes; giving her the appearance of a wraith in the night . . . if it were night.  The Californian sun shone above brightly, and in the late summer it was quite warm; not that the ninja showed any sign of being hot herself.

The girl hid between some bushes of a garden, and quickly scanned left and right; making sure no one saw her, she sprinted silently out of her hiding spot onto the sidewalk, jumped before she reached the street, sailed all the way across it and into a tree.  She landed perfectly silent on a branch, and with a second, immediate jump moved forward onto the roof of a house.  How it was possible was a secret she and others like her would never part with, but just like with the branch, she landed without a sound on the roof.  She made two equally silent steps, and jumped again, crossing the street once more; to land again in a foliage-rich tree. Still silent; not even the various bladed weapons hidden, and not so hidden, on her person made a jingle or scrape, she waited in the tree, hidden from sight.  She looked around, and as her ears had told her earlier, a car came around a corner, and passed through the street, and past her hiding tree, without noticing her.  Once the car was gone, she moved on; still equally silent.

Thus moving silent and unseen through Sunnydale, the girl soon reached her destination. The roof of Sunnydale High was the perfect look out; and when she landed on it, without a sound of course, she immediately went down to lie on her stomach.  She peered over the edge, to the empty lunch seats.  There she stayed, waiting patiently, until students came outside for lunch.  Then she pulled two things from inside her suit; a picture, and a small set of binoculars, through which she started peering at the students to find her prey.

Down below, the extended Scooby Gang exited the school building, holding trays with food.  Xander, Lotion, Buffy, Willow, Cordelia with Oz, Faith and Kendra found themselves a table and sat down.

“Tees feels still not raight,” Kendra said in her usual accent, rolling the ‘r’ heavily.  She looked around the table and at the students settling down for lunch, and some talking to each other.

“Tell me about it,” Buffy said forlorn, looking at her ‘lunch’.  “I should bring lunch from now on, or we could go out; we’re seniors we’re allowed to leave school grounds now.”

“And go eat where?  The only decent places to eat are too far away; we wouldn’t get back before the next class starts,” Lotion added, taking her fork, and looking dubiously at the food; while Xander had already stuffed two fork-fulls down his throat.

“No; I meen beeing in school, and owt een public,” Kendra clarified her earlier statement.

“It’s just like taking a plane with a ticket,” Buffy told her and Willow nodded her ascent.

“Deet not feel right either,” Kendra pointed out to her fellow Slayer.

There was a silence at that statement, and Kendra blushed lightly, moving back from her hunched over position.  Faith looked around the table for a moment, and decided not to comment on Kendra’s words.  Instead, she said, “And I’m not allowed to leave the grounds, I’m only a junior, remember?”

“We could just leave you to fend for yourself,” Cordelia told the Potential Slayer, “Would be good for your character building: making new friends in school, not get a built in group as an occupational hazzard.”  Especially Willow and Faith looked over at Cordelia. Faith because she didn’t like the cold statement.  Cordelia knew why Willow was looking at her, “What?  I’m not stupid, I know words.”

“You didn’t used to,” Buffy accused, the head cheerleader.

“I did, I just couldn’t use them. Don’t care about the reputation anymore, so I can use them now,” was the brunette’s answer before she took a fork full of whatever it was into her mouth.  She gave a distasteful look and swallowed.  “I should see about getting our chef to cook for us during lunch hour.”

“That would be greatly preferable,” Oz said, wrinkling his werewolf-sensitive nose at the stuff, and then schooled his expression before starting to eat.

By now, everyone was finally eating their lunch, and after a few moments, Kendra asked, “I am unfamiliar weeth dee term ‘mingling’, whad deet Meester Giles mean weeth dat?”

“It means you should do what Cordelia wanted Faith to do; meet new people and friends on your own,” Willow explained, and took another bite, not looking at Buffy who was sitting left next to her.

“Of the male variety,” Cordelia added with a grumble, while everyone else ate, and she herself soon continued.

“I do not theenk dat Meester Giles would want me to have a lover, too much deestraction,” Kendra explained utterly perplexed, and took a new bit of her not so well-tasting food.

“Only when he’s a cursed vampire,” Cordelia pointed out casually, and Buffy looked down guiltily, remembering said cursed vampire’s recent resurrection and the fallout for that. Nobody seemed to be particularly interested placing blame on that fiasco squarely on her shoulders; but she herself still felt like it was her fault.

“Yeah, girl, Slayers do not get horny slaying for nothing; you gotta have that itch scratched,” Faith commented with a huge grin.

“I do nod ged ornee keeling demons,” Kendra spoke completely offended, even placing her right hand on her chest to emphasize the point.  Instead of everyone believing her, they just looked at her with a slight smile.  Suddenly Kenra focused on Buffy with narrowed eyes, and almost screamed, almost shrieked, *“You told /dem/!?”*

Faith raised her hand guiltily, while smiling evilly, saying, “More like I did; Watchers’ Journals, I asked Buffy if it was true.”  Kendra looked incredulously at Faith for a moment, and then looked back at Buffy with an angry glare.

Buffy shrank helplessly, more so when Willow answered, raising her own hand with a smile, “And I answered; I’m her girlfriend after all, get to experience Slayer moods up close and personal.”

Buffy gave Kendra her patented puppy-dog eyes, and gave a helpless shrug along with a sad little whimper.  “Ugh,” Kendra said in disgust.  “I cannot beleeve dees, dees ees so rong.”

“I agree,” Cordelia grumbled, “I’m trying to eat here; I don’t need all the Slayer mental pictures.”

“They kinda give me an appetite,” Xander said with a light smile, and ignoring Kendra’s glare now directed at him, and having gone up several notches, he turned to Oz, and said, “Right, Oz?”

Oz gave a noncommittal shrug, which had ‘yep’ spray-painted all over it for those who knew him, and continued eating.

Lotion had just finished her lunch, and decided to come back to the conversation, saying, “All Slayers big sluts; but if you don’t ease the need; it could get you killed.”

“I can’t wait,” Faith said with a big grin, drawing especially Kendra’s look - more like glare - onto her.

“Why?” Xander said, turning right to look Faith, and smiling disarmingly at her, “You’re already a big slut, so what’ll be the difference?”

Faith looked dumbfounded for a moment, and then nodding said, “True.  Damn, I hadn’t thought of that.”

“You two are disturbing,” Willow said, having bent forward to look past Buffy at Xander and Faith next to him.

“She’s been called worse,” Xander said with a grin, which dumbfounded everyone but Faith, who laughed out loud for a moment.

“Just two girl friends having fun at each other’s expense,” Faith said with a grin, and Xander nodded with a smile.

“/That/ is disturbing,” Oz said; not showing a bit of disturbance on his face of course, as he looked at a very male Xander being called a ‘girl friend’.

*****

After school the gang was heading off toward Xander’s place, to train in his personal gym - with the exception of Willow, and Buffy.  Willow had stayed behind with Jenny and Amy to train their magic further, while Buffy remained behind with Giles, who after hearing both Faith and Kendra knew about many of the Slayers’ histories and journals was adamant that Buffy too would read some of her heritage - much to the blonde Slayer’s chagrin.

They just left the school grounds, and Cordelia offhandedly remarked, “Have any of you noticed Buffy and Willow haven’t been exactly couply lately?”

“Dey are a couple?” Kendra asked incredulously.

“Exactly my point,” Cordelia said, nodding her head.

“Yep, they’re a couple, they do the nasty every chance they get, so?” Faith asked the exotic Slayer with a look.

“Not lately, apparently,” Xander nodded, agreeing with the sentiment.

Kendra shrugged at Faith, and said, “Notheeng, going from threesome weeth a vampair . . .”

“We were /not/ a threesome,”  Xander interrupted with a raised warning finger.  “And from now on anyone who even hints it was, gets clobbered.”

The gang nodded with smirks, and Kendra picked up where she left off without missing a beat, “. . . to a girl ees veree strange.  Two guys, you’d theenk she’s as straight as dey come, raight?”

“She’s got a point, actually,” Oz said with a thoughtful frown.

“Pig-nosed girl was always strange,” Lotion said, folding her arms across her ample chest with annoyance.

Xander halted his forward motion, much to Kendra’s and Faith’s surprise.  Cordelia, Lotion, and Oz, in contrast, were not at all.  Xander waited a moment, and then, “Alright, you can come out now.”

There was a sudden puff of smoke some two meters in front of the group, which quickly disappeared to reveal the ninja girl.  The group stiffened and readied some more; still having nightmares of the recent encounter with a ninja.  The girl spoke, “Your adoptive father, Saotome Genma-san, has exaggerated not your warrior skills and perception, Harris Xander-dono.  I am pleased to meet you.”  She bowed deeply, which relaxed the group, while Xander felt uncomfortable being spoken to as ‘lord’ while Lotion was growing angry.  The ninja girl straightened back up, and before they could reply, she smoothly pulled the mask of her head, while saying, “I am Iwaki Shaten, of Madiko ninja village in mountains of Gifu Prefecture of Japan.”  Xander’s eyes widened slightly, and Faith not averse to the female gender let out a low breath, even Oz was not entirely unaffected.  The other girls though, except Kendra who just ogled the ninja girl in disbelief, were pissed off instantly.  The girl was stunningly beautiful; flawless Asian yellowish skin, fantastic expressive eyes, a lovely nose, and a long, raven-black pony tail that fell to below her shoulders.  The rest of her hair was practically done tight along her head, except two strands, one near both ears, that hung further down.

“Ah, please don’t call me ‘dono’, Shaten-san . . .” Xander said a little nervous, then he frowned and wondered, “Why exactly are you here?”

“Your father not made contact?” Shaten asked him slightly wondered.  She somehow managed to shrug without doing any shrugging, and bowing down again, kneeling down to a submissive one knee, she spoke, “Saotome Genma-san made contract; I, Iwaki Shaten, princess of Maiko ninja village, to be wife to you, Harris Xander-dono.”

Xander’s eyes were wide in shock, but his exclaim and of most of his friends present of ‘WHAT!?’ died as Lotion made her move.  “I KILL!” was her answer.  She instantly brought forth her concealed nunchakus and made the first movement to strike.

“NO!” Xander yelled instantly, turning to his left to intercept the enraged amazon, and bringing his hands upward, one he placed on the left of her chest, just below shoulder, the other he just to grab her right arm.

Lotion was enraged, and pained at the same time.  “XANDER!  I’M FIANCE!  SHE NOT FRIEND!  I KILL!” she yelled, her anger making her resort back to her accented and broken English.

“No killing,” Xander said more softly, and felt his heart break at Lotion’s expression.

It was almost as if she was going to cry, a pleading look that said, ‘Don’t make me back down.  Don’t make me go through that again.’  “She challenged!  She not friend!” Lotion asked pitifully; hurt, but also still resolved; she was obviously still planning on eliminating this threat to her claim.  Xander knew why Lotion was so hurt.  In Amazon tradition, more so than being defeated by a man, if another woman, usually an Amazon, came to challenge her for her husband, it meant a fight, more often than not to the death . . . unless the challengee backed off.  It would be construed as cowardice, as dishonor, and the husband would go to the ‘victor’.  Lotion had had to tolerate not simply fighting her rivals, rivals she had beaten by prevalence, and now Xander was asking her to do it again, another taint on who she was.

“If you kill her, they’ll lock you up in jail, we can’t get married, and gone is your honor,” Xander demanded gently, while the others looked on at the battle of wills; except Oz, who kept a careful eye on the still kneeling Shaten.

“Sunnydale PD is stupid!” Lotion declared, but her resolve was wavering, and it obviously hurt he brunette Amazon.

“Shaten is foreign; kill her, and it won’t be the Sunnydale stooges that will be investigating her murder,” Xander added, hoping that the dishonor of not marrying him, would outweigh the dishonor of not fighting the newcomer.

Slowly, pained, and with intense glittering eyes Lotion backed down, but not before pointing angrily at Shaten, and telling her, “Keep coming after my fiance, and we finish things bloodily.”

“Such things can be arranged,” Shaten said gently, her eyes looking up at her rival.

Xander turned around, and regarded the ninja.  Part of the reasons why he didn’t want Lotion and Shaten fighting beyond decent sparring sessions, was that he wasn’t so sure who would win.  Shaten said she was from Japan, not Indonesia, so there was more than a good chance she wasn’t a killing machine with a bag of tricks and techniques that went on forever, as the ninja vampire had been, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t extremely dangerous herself. Even now, the ninja sat seemingly unchanged and still relaxed, but to the trained eye, one could see that her muscles were ready to spring, her lovely eyes now had a deadly edge to them, and her battle aura, her chi, had gone quite a bit up.  Not to mention that that sword on her back wasn’t for show, neither were the other weapons on her person.  Shaten had moved with an economy of movement, that to Xander seemed very similar to what he learned from last year’s Halloween possession.  Cold military style: precision, efficiency, all focused on eliminating an opponent as rapidly as possible.  Unlike a soldier in the US army though; Shaten had the spiritual power to back it up.  Shaten was deadly . . . very deadly.

Xander sighed; this was getting worse by the moment.  “It would be advisable for us to discuss the details in a more private setting,” Xander said, deliberately choosing an uncharacteristic formal tone and wording to sound as little threatening, and as close to ‘princess’ level as he could.  He then looked at the ninja girl, and made a gesture, “And . . . uh . . .”

Shaten smoothly rose to her feet, she brought her hands into a seal in front of her stomach, and there was another puff a smoke.  When it cleared, she was dressed in black shoes, a pair of loose light-blue jeans, still snug enough to never get in the way of an efficient asskicking - and as a result showing off her legs and ass - a black belt, and a short red t-shirt. Her belly button was bare, and the t-shirt with a low, wide round color, fell around her not small, yet not big breasts.  She looked like a casual California teenager.  “This better, Xander-dono?” she asked casually.  Xander closed his mouth, tearing his eyes away from the amazing body of which he now could see even more.

“Yes, and please stop calling me ‘lord’,” Xander said exasperated.

“You are fiance, soon to be husband . . . husband lord,” Shaten explained casually, obviously never intending to change, while Lotion gave a growl.

“This is insane,” Cordelia finally said, disgusted with the situation, and looked around at all the girls, a mere two guys, and two of the girls weren’t even present.  “What’s wrong with this picture?  The Hellmouth now a chick magnet or something?”  Lotion turned to face the cheerleader and looked at her.  A painful thought entered her mind; the warning about the Hellmouth jinxing everything when the goddess had blessed them, her happy and very loud claim that she’d won Xander and nothing could go wrong now; the sudden influx of girls. This couldn’t have been her doing, could it?  The Hellmouth starting its evil?

“The uber-bitch does have a point, Lexa,” Faith said with a grin at her friend, and looked at the situation.  Shaten frowned at the female name, and then the frown disappeared.

“Worse, I get girls who refuse to listen to my requests,” Xander said with a deep sigh, and started walking back toward the school, slinging his arm around Lotion and pulling her along in a comforting embrace; much to Shaten’s obviously annoyance.

“Hey, I do,” Kendra said, drawing a dangerous look from Shaten.

Xander looked over his shoulder, and said exasperated, “Thank you very much.”

Kendra realized what she had done when she noticed the look Shaten gave her.  “He’s my teacher, fighteeng eenstructer,” she clarified, and hoped the dangerous ninja removed her from her hit list.

*****

The Scooby Gang loudly entered the library.  Buffy looked up from her book.  Next to her Giles got off the table and pulled his glasses off, looking at the arrivals.  In the middle of the library Amy, Willow, and Jenny were disturbed in their meditations and slowly got up, Willow automatically gravitating toward the table where Buffy sat.  Xander came in first, followed by the rest, and a new girl; nobody questioned she was new, there was no way anyone would have forgotten her.  Willow’s whispered comment of, “Yummy,” illustrated that quite nicely.

Self-consciously she looked at her girlfriend who grinned up at her.  Buffy asked, “So, who’s the babe?”  Buffy’s eyes widened, and then looked back up at the still standing Willow, silently asking whether she had really spoken the full sentence out loud.  Willow gave her an uncomfortable apologetic smile, and Buffy was instantly embarrassed.

As everyone filed in, and steadily found a seat, and Xander and the ninja girl remained standing, he answered, “This is Shaten Iwaki, from the Madiko ninja village in Japan.”  Xander the proceeded to introduce everyone to Shaten, who gave a bow and a greet to everyone, one by one.  He then finished with, “Apparently I’m her fiance.”  Lotion grumbled, as everyone else who hadn’t been there before looked silently with large eyes from Shaten to Xander and back again.

Giles finally reset his glasses, and asked, “Really?  How did that come about?”

“That actually is a damn good question,” Xander said with a little annoyance, turning to the athletic Japanese girl, “So far all we got was that Genma Saotome married me off.”

“Which is quite a feat, given that he is not your father, and in this country one cannot be married off,” Giles commented smoothly.

Xander tried to warn him with signals, making cutting motions, waving away motions, and shaking his head ‘no.’  To no avail; Giles finished the statement.  Shaten’s eyes narrowed darkly and looked to her right and up, “Saotome made deal he could not make?  Saotome dies.”

There was a collective gasp, and Xander quickly shook his head nervously, saying, “No, no, nothing like that.”

*“You are /not/ marrying the bitch!”* Lotion exclaimed with finality, getting up. “You attempt to keep this deal; I’ll kill her!”  Shaten in her turn growled at the Amazon. Cordelia, Oz, and Faith on one side of the table, looked over at Willow, Buffy, and Kendra on the other side (while Lotion sat at the head), and after a moment they shrugged, and turned back to look at what was happening.

“Heh, heh, calm, Lotion,” Xander said, and quickly zipped over, and whispered in her ear, “I’m stalling for time, just go with it.”  Xander quickly stood straight again, and smiled a little too eagerly at a very suspicious Shaten.

“Genma Saotome?  The man who rescued and trained you?” Jenny Calendar asked Xander, remembering.  She was leaning against the library counter, casually looking the ninja girl up and down, assessing her.  Xander looked over at Jenny, and nodded, walking back toward Shaten.

“I tell tale,” Shaten said.

~~O~~

Japan

One week earlier

The forest on the Japanese mountain was growing all around.  Animals of all Japanese animal shapes and sizes were about their business; gathering food, hunting other animals, or procreating.  It was a nice and tranquil place . . . except not.  Heavy sounds made animals shrink back and run away.  Trees shook with impacts, leaves fell, and with a heavy scream a kick landed squarely in a middle-aged man’s stomach.  The broken-white gi wearing man groaned and slammed painfully into the ground.  A short distance onward, a young teen guy smoothly landed on the ground.  He was wearing a red vest, green pants, and classic Japanese martial arts shoes: Ranma Saotome.

“Alright, pops,” the guy said with an annoyed tone, “now that I’ve once again proven I can kick your ass, tell me why we’re here.  I doubt you dragged me all the way out to this damn mountain just I can toss you off it.”

With a groan the man stood up; still smooth.  The man was no slouch, and had enough training and control of his chi, that even at his age no bones creaked or snapped.  The only reason why he was having a little difficulty standing up, was because the sparring left stomach on the other side of his body than where it was supposed to be.

“Indeed not, son,” Genma Saotome spoke, straightening up, and taking a deep breath, centering himself and handling the damage done to his body by his own son.  “Come, we must discuss a grave matter.”  Genma turned to the left and started walking.

Ranma blinked, but then followed, and asked suspiciously, “If you’re trying to get me to marry Akane again right away, you can forget it.  That uncute tomboy wouldn’t know femininity if it kicked her ass.”

“Of course not, son, me must deal with your great shame.  It is unseemly the way it keeps tarnishing you,” Ranma’s father spoke gravely.

Ranma sighed with annoyance.  “Pops, the only way we can deal with my great shame, is take a trip to Ju- wait . . .”  Ranma’s eyes widened suddenly with great hope.  He looked at his father, and added, “. . . unless you found a way to break the curse on this mountain?”

“No, my son, I’m talking about your other great shame,” Genma stated importantly as they reached a small clearing and they stepped into it.

With blue sky overhead, Ranma frowned, and then asked confused, “Other great shame?”

“Yes!  It is unseemly the way you cower in the face of cats!” Genma proclaimed as if he were a president in front of a captive voting audience.

Ranma’s eyes narrowed, and folded his arms across his chest, saying, “And who’s fault is that!?”

“Let the past in the past, my son.  Plus, I caused, now I will help you beat it!” Genma proclaimed once again, looking proudly at Ranma.

“And how are we going to do that?” Ranma asked more than skeptically.

“Well, son,” Genma started, folding his own arms across his belly, looking pensive in an attempt to emulate a great sage, “the best way to beat your fears, is to face them.”

“Face them!?” Ranma asked both surprised and unbelieving.

“Yes, SON!” Genma yelled out loud, and reached back to a branch of a tree.  He yanked them, and yelled, “FACE THEM!  FIGHT YOUR FEARS, RANMA!”  And as the tree branch moved, there was the sudden sound of many cats meowing, hissing and screaming in both annoyance and some pain from above.

Ranma looked up in shock, and saw dozens of cats falling from the trees around the edge of the clearing.  Ranma froze, his body stiff as a board, his face showing pure terror.  “C-c-ca-ca-ca-ca . . .” Ranma stuttered, as the animals finished hissing, looking around to see no real threat, except for the other cats.  They studied each other, some still hissing at some of the others, and again others started to groom themselves, and yet again others decided to prance away.

“That’s right, son!  Cats!  Hundreds of them!” Genma stated loudly.  “Now fight it, son! They’re just sweet, cuddly, little cats!  They don’t attack anyone, except mice!  Fight the fear, push through it!  See!”  Genma picked up a particularly cute cat, and cuddled and stroked it. The cat started purring contently.  “They’re so cute.”

Ranma in contrast, couldn’t really think about cute, he was still frozen, with his face twisted into terror, still going, “Ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-cats.”  Then something remarkable happened. A low growl came from the back of Ranma’s throat, and slowly his back bent forward, while his hands came up, and his fingers curled to mimic claws - a cat’s claws.

“That’s good too, son!  Master the Neko Ken!  Push through it, and come out!  Then master your fear and you can do it, whenever!” Genma exclaimed excitedly.

Then Ranma hissed angrily - like a cat, exactly like a cat.  He focused on one being yelling at him, and waving a hated cat in his face.  Then, with a loud growl followed by a hiss, Cat-Ranma jumped forward angrily, his claws going for the man holding the hated cat. Genma counted him fortunate that some sixth sense told him to duck, just as Ranma jumped at him.  As a result Ranma missed, sailed over his father, and landed amongst the cats.  The cats didn’t stick around at the sudden turn of events, jumping away growing and hissing, quickly running off into the forest.  The cat in Genma’s hands too knew it was time to split, and so hissing, meowing, and growling it clawed its way out of Genma’s hold and ran off.

Ranma had already turned around, and eyed Genma with hatred, still crouched over cat-like, giving him a hiss.  “Now, son, it’s time you get a hold of yourself.  Listen to my voice, fight the fear and your disposition, time get out and show just how great a warrior and a man you are!” Genma said to Ranma proudly, raising his fist triumphantly.

If there was anything that could have calmed Ranma down and get him out of his current predicament, that wasn’t it, in fact, it seemed to make Ranma only more mad. “Mrrrreowrrrr!” Ranma growled out, and jumped at the hated fool once more.

Genma bolted to the right just in time, watching Ranma sail at a tree.  As Ranma reached it, he started scratching, and no more than a second later Ranma had scratched straight through the tree.  He landed safely on the other side, while the upper part of the tree fell over and started coming down.  Genma had to jump aside, and heard Ranma give another growl as he turned, facing Genma once more.  “Now, come on, Ranma, you can beat this!  Control yourself!” Genma exclaimed, getting nervous now.  Ranma, however, was not to be deterred, and jumped at Genma again.

The father to the son, rapidly jumped away and ran off, with a growling and hissing Ranma hot on his tale.  “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Genma said to himself as he ran into the forest, just before he ducked to the right, upslope, narrowly avoiding his catty son’s new assault.

*****

A few minutes later, a desperately running Genma, yelling in a little fear for his life, was still being pursued by his cat son.  A swat of destroyed trees and rocks in their wake.  “Son!  I am your father!” Genma was still trying, as he yet again narrowly bent aside for Ranma to jump barely along side him.  Genma decided to go up them, jumping high onto the branches of one of the many trees.  Ranma came after him almost immediately, and it was then that Genma realized this was a big mistake.  Cats were better in the trees than a human.  He noticed to his shocked surprise that Ranma wasn’t coming for him, though, he was coming for the branch that Genma was standing on.  Ranma smoothly cut through the branch with his claws, and even as the branch started falling, Genma jumped onward.  “Oh, boy!” Genma realized as he didn’t quite get it right due to the falling branch; he inched only slowly toward the next tree. A yowl from Ranma told him this was going to be even closer than he thought.  He jumped onward the moment he only just landed on the branch; a moment later the entire tree came down.  Genma pushed off from the next branch he landed on; still the same tree that was falling down, and sailed forward; this time making a right push off.

It was then that Genma realized there were no more trees where he was going; instead there was a wooden guard tower, and a small village beyond it . . . and worse, one of the guards, dressed like a ninja in black, had just rang the alarm and had jumped up out at him, a razor sharp sword drawn and read to cleave the martial artist in two.  It was pure luck that Genma survived; by the simple virtue that the ninja had jumped into the path of the other person trying to kill him.  Ranma let out a frustrated growling meow at the intrusion, and smoothly yanked the sword from the ninja’s grasp and tossed him aside like he was nothing. As Genma sailed down to the ground below beyond the tower, Ranma had lost some of his momentum and went toward the guard tower instead.  Predictably, Ranma cut the wooden frame into splinters, and the tower collapsed a moment later.

The village was built within the forest itself; even though enough trees had been cleared to build houses, enough trees remained standing to cover most of the village with a natural leaf canopy, that kept hit from being detected easily.  The houses themselves were made from the wood; having white paper to cover the frames the wood made; traditional Japanese architecture.  Only one building, the central one, a bigger one, was made of stone and rock, and had a plain, un-Japanese, sloping roof, covered by leaves, grasses and other natural products for camouflage.  The stone was white, giving the building, with one taller tower further to the back, an almost ethereal look.

The alarm had more ninja guards coming to the disturbance, and if there hadn’t been an alarm, the collapse of the guard tower would have ensured it quite nicely.  Ranma, of course, didn’t care; he just kept going after Genma.  “Ranma!” Genma tried again, as he jumped up high over Ranma, and over a house; a house that moments later collapsed as cat Ranma tore it to shreds with little to no effort.

Genma ran to the left, even as five ninja appeared in a surrounding pattern.  Ranma jumped toward Genma; the heavily breathing man, blocking Ranma’s blow just barely.  The ninja came running at the two and drew their swords; while two of them, threw shuriken at Ranma and Genma.  Genma avoided them, while Ranma hissed angrily and slashed the offending throwing stars away.  A moment later ducked beneath a sword slash, sent the ninja flying with a kick, grabbed the next sword, and threw it, and the ninja holding on to it high and far away.  The next sword he kicked out of a ninjas hands, and slashed the man’s face open, only to jump up to avoid another sword, and kicking the ninja backward in the face.  The final sword slice, Ranma simply caught with his nails, yanked the sword out of the ninja’s grip, and slashed open his torso with both hands moving downward.  Giving the defeated ninja no more thought, Ranma continued after Genma; house after house falling to his rage; ruining even a small training range, while dispatching several more ninja.

From the big building a tall man stepped forward; in ninja wear without the mask, a beautiful girl next to him, and several more ninja.  He surveyed the damage for a moment, and said, “I want them alive, stop them now; three pronged attack on the boy.”

“Yes, sir,” the ninjas answered.

Ranma payed no attention to the ninja, intent on smashing the offending man with the cats to a pulp.  So he took no head of three-sided attack, he simply reacted to the first two ninja holding a net, jumping toward him, by jumping up, ripping the net apart, and kicking both ninja aside with his two feet.  The second two ninja, also carrying a net, had jumped up just after the first, underneath Ranma, and now smoothly enveloped the cat-formed boy in it. It wouldn’t have done them much good, except that the girl made the third attack, jumping in the air next from the front; now Ranma’s side as he was turning toward the two new attackers. The girl brought a blow gun to her mouth, and blew hard.  A small dart jumped from the small tube, and imbedded in the back of Ranma’s neck.  The fast acting sedative quickly put Ranma out.

A little off to the side, Genma was enveloped in a net, and knocked out by two kicks to his stomach, and a sword-pommel to his head.

*****

Two hours later

With a groan Ranma slowly awoke.  He grabbed his head, and muttered, “What hit me?  Wait . . .”  As vague memories filtered into his mind, he looked around astonished.  The hall he was in was rather big; several solid pillars supported a sloping, dark brown roof, and the floor was a hard grey rocky plate.  His vision still somewhat blurry he vaguely recognized ninja standing at regular intervals around the hall, as well as two on every side of an entrance or exit.  Finally he noticed his father sitting on a bench a meter or so away from him; the same kind of bench he was obviously lying on.

“You’re finally awake, son, these guys wouldn’t talk until you- . . .” Genma started, only to be interrupted by Ranma jumping to his legs.

“CATS!” he screamed with extreme anger.  “I remember CATS!  Pops, you bastard, I’m-”  Ranma had started for his father, intent on giving him the beating of his life, but like his father before him, he was interrupted.

Interrupted by a thundering, commanding voice, saying, “*It is /indeed/ good you are awake,* Saotome Ranma!”  The voice stopped Ranma cold in his tracks, and Ranma turned to face the direction from whence it came, and his eyebrows rose in slight surprise.  A man, dressed in ninja garb minus the mask was sitting on a throne . . . well, Ranma couldn’t say it was exactly a throne - it was too little grand, embroidered, and too low for that - but it was obviously the seat of the one in charge.  Now that Ranma was standing, the room didn’t seem quite as large as before anymore; some more benches and some tables behind him and his father.  This seemed like an official room, doubling as reception area - a place where the leader could talk with the leading body of this village, as well as a place where the citizens could speak and ask the council of their leader.  The man sitting on the throne; obviously was that leader; a man with stark, serious features, black plain hair, and many lines of stress and worry already on his face - he would probably be going grey soon, even if he wasn’t quite that old yet.  There were two women present, as well, one was young, her raven hair in a pony tail, her lovely Asian features and athletic body clad in a ninja uniform without the mask as well.  She was on the left side of the throne in front of it, from Ranma’s perspective.  The second woman was dressed in civilian clothes, and she was to the right, and just behind the throne.

“Hello,” Ranma greeted a little sheepishly.

The man nodded, his right fingers rippling on the arm rest of the grand chair, and he brought his left elbow on it, his fist up, where he rested his head.  “My name is Iwaki Yin, I’m the leader of his village you so rudely attempted to trash.  We were waiting for you to awake, so I may decide your punishment for the damage you have wrought upon this village.   I thought it would be fair for you to be awake and bring up any defense you might have.”

“It was an accident,” Genma said right away placatingly, taking a step forward.

“It’s all his fault,” Ranma said casually but loudly, pointing his thumb at his father.

“Son!” Genma said with disappointment.

Undeterred, Ranma continued, “I react to cats rather badly, he unloaded a whole bunch of them on me.  So it’s his fault.”

“I was trying to cure you of your fear, you must face it!” Genma protested at his son’s accusations.

The ninja leader interjected, “That /is/ the way to cure a fear; but it’s done by taking baby steps, not unleashing a whole herd of them in one go.  But I must admit, I’m rather surprised at someone mastering the Neko Ken.  I heard the way to master it . . . is rather unwise.”

“Unwise!?” Ranma exclaimed, getting pissed off again.  “Tying a little kid to a pole, smearing him full of grease, meat, fish, and other things cats like, then throwing a whole herd of things in with him, letting them get to the stuff, eating, biting, scratching, fighting over the food with the other cats on the boy . . .”  Ranma trailed off, shuddering as he relived the experience, then quickly suppressed the feelings.  The girl’s eyes widened every so slightly, she and the older woman, her mother, looking at Ranma with some sympathy.  After a moment, Ranma continued, “That’s not unwise, that’s . . . well, I think the book from which /he/ . . .”  Ranma pointed with his thumb at his father again, saying ‘he’ with distaste.  He finished, “. . . got the procedure from summed it up quite nicely.  ‘PS: This is a really /stupid/ way to train someone.’  On the other side of the paper which /he/ forgot to turn.  Like someone with a brain needs it spelled out: it’s stupid.”

“Son, that’s all in the past, and I was trying to make you stronger.  My heart was in the right place,” Genma said emotionally, obviously hurt.

Ranma folded his arms across his chest, and was about to add insult to injury, when the ninja leader once more took the word.  “Now that we’ve established all that; there’s a little matter of punishment, compensation, or both.  I will not lie; most people would like to see you both rot; however I’m not so quick to take vengeance.”

Genma saw an opening like the natural slippery eel he was.  He took a step forward, and folding his hands benignly together, said gently, “I’m sure gentlemen like us can come to an agreement.  After all, no harm was meant, and I’m certain insurance would be willing to pay- . . .”

“No,” the leader of the village spoke resolutely.  It was almost as if the man knew that Genma had no insurance; it was his friend Tendo that had the insurance.  It turned out it was something else, he said, “Even if they pay up, monetary gain, is not my concern.  No, we require something more substantial, something . . .”  The man’s eyes slowly moved to land on Ranma for a bit, who was looking incredulously at Genma; who amazingly seemed to be able to weasle himself out of even this one.”

“We can only come to an agreement if an opening bid is made,” Genma prompted the silent Ninja leader.

He sighed once, closed his eyes, and then nodded.  Opening his eyes again, he started explaining, “There are four clans in this village; two of them are large and powerful - I’m not a member of either of them.  As you can imagine, the two most powerful clans both wish to supply my successor.”  The young girl looked a little surprised at the man.  The man noticed obviously, looking at the girl for a moment, then looking back at the offenders, and continued after steeling himself, “There is no suitable mate for my daughter in my own clan . . .”  Now the woman of the man’s own age, looked surprised as well, and the girl’s eyes widened large for a moment.  But only a moment, as she forced her emotions down and looked neutral.  Yin continued, “. . . the fourth clan has no interest getting into the path of the other two, and the two greater clans are ready and willing to fight each other to ensure their clan provides the husband.”

“Yin,” the woman, no doubt his wife now, half whispered, half hissed, bending forward to his ear.

Yin ignored her, as the girl stiffened ever so slightly; obviously the daughter.  Genma smiled, and said, “Ah, and if there were an outside party, one physically so capable they could not deny his claim, and there be some legal way it had to be done - like the way to pay for damage done; they won’t tear this village apart fighting each other; that it?”

Yin already started to nod, and answer verbally, when Ranma raised his right index finger, and said, “Excuse us for a moment.”  Ranma stepped over to his father and with one fluent motion grabbed him by his collar, lifting him off his feet entirely.  He pulled the older man closer, and brought his mouth closer to his father’s ear, his face twisted in anger, he hissed softly, “If you think for but a moment to marry me off for the third time, old man, you won’t be walking out of this building, while I will take my chances at a get away, understand?”

Genma smiled brightly, making Ranma’s stomach turn.  The old man was up to something, but what?  “Don’t worry, son,” Genma said, tapping Ranma soothingly on the shoulder, still being held off the ground.  “I know you are taken, I know you can’t take on another one.  Not to worry.”

Ranma eyed his father for a moment, and then set him down, grumbling in annoyance. As Genma turned back to the ninja leader, stepping even more closer, Ranma was trying to figure out what Genma had up his sleeve.  He wasn’t going to offer himself as a husband, did he?  That made no sense.

“Master Yin, I regret to inform you, that my son Ranma over here, is already betrothed to the daughter of my best friend, and I do not presume to usurp an earlier given word,” Genma said smoothly, smiling friendly.  Ranma looked incredulously at his father; the old man, after all, had done exactly that when he had engaged him to Ukyo.  “However, I have another son, a surrogate son, somewhat adoptive son; not my own blood, but I trained him, and he’s every bit as capable as Ranma.”  Ranma’s jaw dropped in shock.  The old man was doing it again!  And this time with Xander, his bud Xander!  The surprise and shock was too much, and saw he watched motionlessly as he watched his father weasel out of another jam.  “He lives in America, California, in the town of Sunnydale.  I shall give you his address, so you may fetch your daughter’s new fiance, and soon to be husband.  Deal?”

“Deal,” Yin said instantly.

“YIN!” his wife shrieked, even as his daughter used every bit of self control to remain stoic under her new fate.  “We talk, now!”  Yin thought about chastising his wife, but just sighed and gave Genma a look, while Ranma’s jaw was still dropped, looking dully straight ahead.  The ninja leader stood, and he and his family vacated the hall for a more private setting.

*****

Moments later

The private room was small; no more than two and a half by two and a half meters.  A small table was in the middle, having chairs.  Yin, his wife, and Shaten, his daughter, entered the small room in the same color scheme as the rest of the building.

“Yin you cannot do this!” his wife exclaimed.  “This is barbaric and old-”

At the exact same time, straight through her mother’s outburst, Shaten said loudly, “Father, am I not to lead the village!?  Not to choose my own mate!?  This is-”

*“QUIET!”* Yin demanded with a thundering voice.  “One at a time.”

“What is this of the two clans wanting to rule the village by marrying Shaten, husband!” his wife demanded.  Yin winced; if his wife resorted to calling him husband instead of his name, things were bad; of course, he already knew it was bad.  “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Yes,” Shaten agreed, her jaw set tight against the unwelcome situation.

“That’s because I kept it from you,” Yin said forcefully, walking around the two most important women in his life and reaching the head of the small table.

They turned with him and started shouting angrily at him.  *“DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!?”* he thundered them quiet.  *“Do you think I like this!?  That I want this!?”*  Shaten and his wife were quiet, looking at the anguish in his eyes.  He leaned forward, leaning heavily on the table with his fists.  “I kept it, because I had hoped, you never needed to know.  I had hoped I could have persuaded those two idiots from letting it go, but they’re determined to see this petty rivalry through to the end.  And every year I saw you grow up, and become closer and closer of age, and every year I failed to resolve that stupid rivalry . . . it hurt.”

“But you taught me, groomed me to succeed you,” Shaten said, pain in her eyes and face; hating this.

“Only men may lead the village,” Yin answered, giving a pained laugh.  “It’s one rule that I can’t simply change; it requires a consensus.  It’s the one thing those two agree upon; no change of that rule, because if you get to succeed me . . .”

“Neither of them will,” Shaten finished hollowly for him.

“My two greatest failures,” Yin muttered, and pulled the chair back, and sat heavily down upon it.

As Shaten looked defeated to the ground, her mother protested, “But this, this is . . .”

“An opportunity,” Yin interrupted, sitting up straight again, “too great an opportunity to pass up.  An outsider that strong and capable, would be too much of a mate to protest.  If they tried, they would be seen as handling against the better interest of the village; even their own clan members would deny them that.”  Shaten looked defeated to the ground, while her mother started making protests.  “More importantly,” Yin continued, overpowering his wife, “with some luck, this outsider will have no interest in leading the village; it would mean he’d be doing it in name, while Shaten, you would be the one truly ruling it.”

Shaten remained looking down at the floor, her mother defeated.  Her father added, “I know this isn’t fair, and you must hate it.  There is a way out; you could go missing.”  His wife looked horrified at him.  “I may be able to stall, especially if there was a reason you’d left the village, but eventually a seeker squadron will be sent after you.”

Shaten took a deep breath, then straightened up, took a step closer to her father, and sank down to one knee.  “Grand me permission to find this young man, and bring him here, so I may marry him, the moment Saotome gives his name and address, and cements this deal.  I think it is only proper, and fair to the young man, I retrieve him personally.”

“Shaten,” her mother said horrified.

“No mother,” Shaten said stoically, looking up at him.  “Like father taught me, the best leaders are those who serve.  I will serve, and hope Saotome’s son does not wish to lead.”

“Permission granted, my daughter.  You once again show my why I’m so proud of you; perhaps you will succeed, where I failed,” Yin spoke solemnly, and bent his head forward in respect.

Shaten did the same, just before rising up.  Then she turned around precisely, and started for the door.  She paused, considered, and then said, “Perhaps, if he’s physically as good as Saotome says he is, he may be able to bring some . . . pleasure along with the sorrow into my life.”  Then she walked onward.

~~O~~

The group was silent as Shaten finished relating the story.  It was both terrifying - in Genma Saotome’s ruthless ways to pounce on an opening - as moving - toward Shaten’s fate.  The Asian girl was gently bent over to show her respect to the people, and especially her future husband, present.  Xander hated - really hated it.  Here Genma had done this to him; but far worse was Shaten’s and her village’s fate.  If it was some relatively trivial, and personal thing, like with Lotion and Shampoo, and Ukyo or even Akane; but Shaten’s village was destined for internal strife, killing, essentially civil war, if she did not return with a suitable mate - namely him.  (Not to mention of course, that his surrogate father would most likely be assassinated by Shaten or someone else for making a deal he couldn’t keep.)  If it were such personal thing, just like he initially did with Lotion, he would have told her to take a hike and that he didn’t give a damn about her or the deal.  But this was a bit more.

He thought about it, tried to find a way out of this, and couldn’t - he needed more time, time to think, time to figure things out, some way . . . Argh!  As Giles tried to say something appropriate, cleaning his glasses and stuttering for words, Xander said to Shaten, “Wait here.” He turned around and pulled Lotion along, who looked both confused, conspicuous and scared.  Once he was certain he was out of earshot of Shaten, he placed his left hand across Lotion’s mouth, and whispered to her, “I’m going to give her the same deal I gave you - but not really.”  Lotion’s eyes were burning with anger momentarily, then simmering down to include confusion.  “She’s never actually going to stand a chance in winning me over; but I need to stall for time to figure out a way out of this mess without bloodbaths, actually, without even one bloodbath.  Do you understand?”  Lotion barely nodded with Xander’s hand still over her mouth.  “Good, then don’t get huffy . . . actually, do get a little huffy, we don’t want to make her suspicious.”

Xander removed his hand, and Lotion nodded again, hissing at him, “You own me big time, Xander.”

Xander inclined his head then he and Lotion returned to the main area, where everyone was curiously waiting.  Xander walked up to Shaten, gave her a short bow, and said, “I must inform you, that under Amazonian law, Lotion is engaged to me.”  Xander paused, seeing if the ninja was as volatile as the other women in his entourage, and being ready to intervene when she turned out she was.  However, the only outside sign was a narrowing of her eyes, waiting apparently the hear him out first.  Thankful for small favors, Xander continued, lying through his teeth, “Genma must not have known.  Now, I gave her the following deal; in this country, before we get married, we go out on dates first, to see- . . .”

“I /know/ what a date is,” Shaten interrupted him sternly.

“Alright; since I head other suitors, and I had my own, I gave them all the following deal: go out on dates with me, while I dated the others, for me to determine who to choose; and you do not get to complain or otherwise disrupt anything I’m doing with the others; no matter /what/ I’m doing with them.  In the interest of fairness; I can only give you the same deal. Don’t accept it, and you can go home without a fiance,” Xander said, hoping Shaten took the deal.

With everyone holding their breath, hoping for the right answer, Shaten remained silent for several long seconds.  Finally, she sighed deeply, obviously releasing a lot of aggression, and said, “I accept this deal, Xander-dono.  When first date?”

“This weekend,” Xander said quickly; better get the first date over with, and keep the weekend after that free.  He gave a quick look to Faith, and wondered again how the Potential had managed to talk him into . . . that.”

*****

Later

[22:52] Captain X-Man: Guess who dropped in.

[22:52] Super Guy: Uh... Santa Claus?

[22:53] Captain X-man: Ranma, no more ffing jokes!

[22:53] Super Guy: No clue, okay?

[22:53] Captain X-man: Lemme remind you: she ninja.

[22:54] Captain X-man: Im waiting!

[22:55] Captain X-man: If you’re quitting ICQ, so help me god!

[22:57] Captain X-man: Ranma! Your dad trashed a ninja village, engaged me to their princess; and neither you nor him, could be bothered to warn me!

[22:57] Super Guy: Still here, lots to type...

[22:59] Super Guy: I’m sorry. He did it before I could do anything. I’m embarrassed; I froze up with shock and just watched.

[23:00] Captain X-man: You could have given me a heads up; theres phone, theres mail, and theres THIS!

[23:01] Super Guy: Didnt know how to say it; too shameful to admit over those. Should be big gesture, on knees, in person.

[23:03] Captain X-man: You were hoping her ship sank, or something else bad happened to her on her way here, so you wouldn’t have to tell, right!?

[23:04] Super Guy: :)

[23:06] Captain X-man: Saotome Ranma, mark my words here; next we meet, I will kick your ass. I will smash it, bash it, and knock it into a hospital. This I swear!

[23:07] Super Guy: You and what army? :D

[23:08] Captain X-man: Just keep thinking that. >(

~~~~Part 7: Dating Bureau Xander Harris~~~~

It was night out, the darkness seemed all imposing.  In front of them was the motel door.  The motel door.  The looming motel door.  How a tiny, dingy, probably rotting away, ready to fall apart motel door could loom, was beyond Willow.  But it did, it seemed impossibly, or should that be imposingly tall - huge . . . looming.  Looming was definitely the right word.  Actually, Willow perfectly knew why it was looming.  It was really quite simple really.  Buffy had asked her here; the blonde standing next to her holding the key.  And this time it was most definitely not to do all the lovely, pleasurable . . . nasty little things one could do in a motel room . . . bed.  Willow knew why Buffy had asked her here.  Willow’s funk and guilt had finally caught up to her; it didn’t help that the others had remarked several times on how they weren’t all couply right now.  Buffy was going to drag Willow in there - if it came to that, and Willow was still hoping she’d had the guts to step in there under her own power, and there Buffy was going to demand answers.  Willow would give them, Buffy’s heart would be broken, she’d dump Willow’s ass, and run screaming and crying back home.  And Willow would be known to the world like the pig she deep down knew she was - it was official, women could be every bit as piggy as men . . . and it was really time to take a breath before her brain would explode.

So here Willow had been taken to, to confess, to break her lover’s heart, and to be rightfully dumped.

The motel door was looming.  Dingy, small, simple motel doors had no right to be looming, Buffy reflected, looking at the motel door - looking at the model- . . . definitely focusing and looking at the motel door.  Anything not to look at her beautiful, magnificent girlfriend, whose face Buffy knew, would be filled with worry, the face that would break into tears, while screaming all kinds of profanity at a very deserving Buffy before dumping her ass and running out.  And it probably was better to stop thinking of herself in the third person - it was bad enough she made the average male look like a sainted angel, going insane on top of it, would just be all wrong.  She had brought Willow here, to confess her evil attraction to Xander.  There was no way that Willow hadn’t noticed something was wrong, especially with the others pointing out several times already.  Thus, Buffy had decided to bring Willow here and confess.  She’d seen enough soap operas to know that this sort of thing didn’t stay hidden, and she also knew that finding out was infinitely worse for the recipient than if someone came out and confessed.  So, Buffy was going to confess, because she couldn’t bear giving Willow any pain.  In fact, if it wasn’t for the hope that the evil, nasty, twisted, unnatural love for Xander would go away, or she could banish it by force of will - thus not hurting Willow at all - she would have confessed it long ago.

So here Buffy was, to confess, to break her lover’s heart, and to be rightfully dumped.

Buffy stretched out her hand after what seemed like an eternity, and put the key in the door’s lock.  She unlocked it, opened the door, and the two nervously stepped inside the dark room.  After some fumbling by both of them, Willow found the light switch, and turned on the lights.  The small room was indeed as dingy as they remembered - although they’d never actually been in this particular motel room.  An old two-person bed, two night stands with old standing lights having a round pyramidal cap, and a doorway to a small bathroom, a small closet to put clothes in for those who stayed longer than a few nights, and of course that bathroom, holding a toilet, a washbasin, and a shower, was all that made up the motel room.

Amazing really, how much fun such a tiny, dirty room could be.  Better not go there - being aroused while confessing one’s sins would be bad . . . really bad.

Slowly the two stepped forward, closing the door behind them, took the room in for a bit longer, and then gingerly sat down on the bed.  The two looked at each other, not expecting the other to have the same idea.  They were close, and guilt made Buffy scoot away a bit.

They just sat there for several long, and awkwardly silent, moments.  Finally Buffy managed to pull up all her courage, and started, “Wi-willow, I-uh . . .”

“I know . . . I know, w-we . . . have to talk,” Willow managed to stutter out in reply, the last words not so stuttering.

Buffy nodded, and brought up more courage, and so started, while Willow did the same, and they spoke at the same time:

“I have-”

“B-buffy, I-”

The two looked up from their shoes where they had been guiltily staring at, and looked in each other’s eyes.  For a moment, their more cowardly thoughts wanted to offer first word to the other, but then both of their courage took center stage, and they blurted out together, “I’m still in love with Xander.”

Both of them looked at each other, frowned in confusion, and said, “No, /I’m/ . . . wait- you’re . . .?”

Two sets of wide eyes looked astonished into each other, dawn settling on both of them. “B-but are you still . . .” Willow didn’t dare finish the question; so odd, to be in love with a second person and still not being able to bear losing the first one.

“Of course I’m still in love with you!” Buffy exclaimed, her hands shooting in the air with desperation; making a rather comical sight.  She looked up, frowning for a moment and wondering what her hands were doing in the air, and then quickly jerked them down.  She stated the obvious then, “And you’re still in love with me.”

“So all this time we were in a funk for nothing!” Willow added the other obvious.  They looked at each other in astonishment for another moment.  But only another moment, suddenly they moved toward each other and embraced tightly.  Tears of joy springing from Willow’s eyes, “Oh, I missed you.”  The embrace was tight, yet gentle, their arms wrapped around each other’s backs, and Willow gave a happy sob, while Buffy just smiled with her eyes closed.

“Me too,” Buffy sighed softly, happy.  Willow frowned, while still having her eyes closed and Buffy tightly hugged to her, thinking of the conundrum - how could they have missed each other, when they hadn’t been apart?  Buffy pushed Willow back a little, herself sitting up a little straighter.  Her breath had gotten more shallow, and Willow easily recognized the desire in the blonde’s eyes.  For Buffy, enough hugging had gone on, and Willow’s conundrum was lost on her.  She just said, hotly, “Time to make up for lost time.” A moment later Buffy’s lips pressed against Willow’s, their tongues searching the other, starting an erotic struggle, while the two girls peeled at each other’s clothes.  The conundrum forgotten instantly the moment their lips touched.

*****

Library
Next day

Xander was sitting in a chair, legs on the table, and holding his head, while pensively thinking.  Around him, his friends were training.  Willow was meditating with Jenny.  It was Lotion’s turn to train Kendra . . . make that, brutalize her.  And Buffy and Cordelia were taking on each other.  That left Faith to get a more basic training from Giles; which she desperately needed if she ever wanted to get to the more advanced stuff with the others.  Oz, finally, had secluded himself behind some of the book cases, to sit in the lotus position and meditate, concentrate on the beast residing somewhere inside of him.

All that though, pretty much passed Xander by.  The part-time girl was focusing on his major problem at hand.  How to get rid of Shaten /and/ save her village from civil war in the process?  It wasn’t that he didn’t like Shaten, in fact, the ninja girl dutifully followed her ‘dono’ around since her arrival two days earlier - including sleeping on his balcony, after which he had dragged her inside and made a make-shift bed out of folded up blankets next to Faith’s couch bed - and he had grown rather fond of the ninja princess.  After some initial struggles, most notably from Faith since sleeping with a stone cold, perfect assassin right next to her had proven to be difficult and the lack of sleep got to her, the two girls seemed to have gotten to an uneasy truce and a functional working relationship going.  He only liked her as a friend though - not that she left him ‘untouched’, anyone with interests in the female gender couldn’t possibly keep the drool from their mouths without some extreme measures - there simply wasn’t any romantic interest, nothing beyond care and a healthy dose of lust.

Not to mention that the stalking creeped him out; it reminded him too much of a certain undead denizen.  It was a miracle, really, he had managed to get her to stay away from the library now.

All of which of course, did not solve the dilemma.  How could you honor an agreement to marry a girl without marrying her, get the girl to accept it - not skewer anyone in the process, and then her entire village had to accept it too.  This was tough as all hell.  He thought about some other guy filling his place, but had dismissed it out of hand.  Shaten would never accept it.

This was tough.

“AARGH!”

Xander looked up at the scream, and watched Kendra sail through the air; along with everyone else - they had all stopped what they were doing and looked at the commotion.  A moment later Kendra slammed against a square wooden pole of the stairs, gave another yell, and then sank, obviously in pain, to the floor.  Xander looked over at Lotion who still had a fist in the air.

“Ow!” Kendra groaned out, and straightened her back painfully.  “Whad was dat for!?” The South American girl had gotten some brutal punishments at the hands of her new trainers; but this was ridiculous.  She felt like her head was lying twenty meters onward, away, and very severed, from her body.  Her neck still hurt from stretching at the impact, and her voice was rough and pained as a result - not to mention her back.

Lotion looked contrite suddenly, the grimace on her face disappearing instantly.  She retracted her fist guiltily and said, “I’m sorry.”  Then she straightened up, and said nastily, “It’s just that that slut is pissing me off!”

Giles nodded sagely and said just as sagely, “Lotion, you should let it go.  This anger-”

“I KNOW!” Lotion yelled angrily and then turned to Xander.  She pointed her left index finger at her accusingly, and said, “You!”  She deflated again, and then threw her hands up helplessly, “This is not fair!  Why couldn’t it be someone else!?  What did that Saotome-bastard have to choose you to sick that slut on!?  Why didn’t he have a third ‘son’ to torment!?”

Xander opened his mouth to start with ‘because’, and then suddenly shut his mouth.  He blinked his eyes.  That was it!  He smiled and jumped up suddenly.  “THAT’S IT!”  Everyone one looked stunned at him suddenly.  “That’s it!” he said again as he sped over to Lotion.  He grabbed by the shoulders, planted a quick, but emotional kiss on the lips, and told her, “Lotion, you’re magnificent!”  Then he turned and rapidly went for the exit.

Everyone looked bewildered, Lotion more so than the rest.  “Well, of course . . . wait . . . what!?” she managed to mutter out.  The entire attendance looked at each other for a moment, and then sped out after Xander, even Oz came out from behind the book case to find out what Xander had come up with.

It did not take Xander and the others long to find Shaten.  Many others would have a much harder time finding the ninja girl though, as she had blended with the tree she’d been leaning against; like a chameleon.  “What the hell?  Shaten?” Xander asked with a small congregation behind him, looking at the tree.  His sense of chi, told him she was there, and if he looked really closely he could see vague outlines that seemed like athletic feminine curves, but the eyes really only saw: tree.

Then the tree seemed to slide off of a feminine figure, and the ninja-girl, in ninja-garb, minus hood, fell from a branch, she had been standing under, upside down, without holding onto it.  A smooth somersault followed and she landed equally smoothly on her feet, moving gracefully the whole way - like a cat.  “Yes, Xander-dono?” Shaten asked politely, making a slight bow in front of her future husband.  She did not speak aloud the admiration she felt for him finding her so easily, even using this concealing technique; which she had not used the first time she and the others had detected her.

“What were you doing there, like that?” Xander asked, rather impressed by the techniques - an addition to his plan forming.  Behind him there were several gasps of surprise and shock, and one of annoyance by Lotion, accompanied by her folding her arms across her chest.  The school grounds were empty, with the exception of them, it already being after school.  Briefly Xander wondered if the Sunnydale Denial Syndrome TM would hold up if any of the students had seen the event.

“Keep an eye on things,” the ninja-girl answered without any shame.

“What do you mean, keeping an eye on things?” Buffy asked with some confusion, looking around as did the others.  “There’s nobody here.”

Lotion sighed in annoyance, the hands folded underneath her upper arms balled into fists, and she said with a grumble, “Pig-nosed girl needs to learn how to think and open her eyes before speaking.”

“Where the hell do you come off . . .?” Buffy trailed off as she realized what Lotion was on about.  There was the back library entrance in the wall, and diagonally to the right one could see the main school grounds - leading of course to the main entrance.  To the diagonal left, there was a path leading between buildings holding a few more back entrances, and finally the street running past that side of the school.  If you were just one, it was the best guard position, covering the most entrances and/or access ways to those entrances.  “Oh,” Buffy added, turning her head to look back at Shaten, and blinked, trying to wrap her mind around the concept of the girl ninja feeling the need to guard them . . . or more likely guard Xander.  Shaten probably didn’t really care much about the rest of them, least of all Lotion, who had made her status as rival very clear.

Xander grinned and started speaking, “I have the solution to our double-booked problem, Shaten.  You should not be marrying me, but someone else from America!  Or somewhere else, just not of your village.”

“If agreement not kept, Genma dies,” Shaten stated.  The statement was no threat, it was a simple statement of fact, which made the whole thing only more chilling.  As she spoke, Shaten’s poise changed slightly, to anyone trained enough, they would see she was ready to reach for the sword on her back.

“No, the agreement is kept, this was always the agreement,” Xander with a big grin, which made the people behind him, and the girl before him frown.  “Think about it.  Could you have left the village without a suitable reason - like an arranged engagement as payment for damage?”

“No,” Shaten answered, still with a frown, but a less dangerous one now.

“And that’s exactly what my surrogate father provided, he just never intended us to actually marry, but provide a reason for you to be far away from your village before either head case clan could get their claws into you.  And be with the guy and support group that can train future Mr. Iwaki Shaten to become strong and skilled enough to pass whatever test your village will throw at him!” Xander explained with a large enthusiastic smile, that worked affectionately.  Shaten visibly relaxed a little more, but not all the way, she was still doubting. “I think your father may have thought the same, or suspected Saotome Genma never intended to marry me off; he just needed a good reason for you to be gone, and come back married.”

Shaten thought it over for a moment; it did seem plausible, especially how distraught her father was, even going so far as offering her to help go missing.  Something didn’t fit though, and she asked, “Xander-dono, if this be true, why didn’t know from start?”

“What would you have done if I told you this the moment I met you?” Xander asked her, his mouth grinning wider, already knowing the answer.

Shaten hesitated, thought it over, then answered, “Possible killed you, but certain gone to Tokyo, kill Saotome, return to village.”

“EXACTLY!” Xander exclaimed loudly much to the mounting disbelief of the people behind him.  “Genma knew this, that’s why he didn’t tell me.  He deliberately didn’t, trusting that I, you, or my friends would figure it out.  He’s brilliant!  He’s an even greater man than I already thought he was!”

Cordelia couldn’t take it anymore, and folded her arms across her chest, glaring at the back of Xander’s head.  She started, “Fat chance, he j-”  Suddenly her voice was gone as a hand covered it.

Cordelia glared slightly down.  The owner of the hand, Oz, whispered, “Do you really want to give the kill-happy ninja girl a reason to disbelieve, and pull out that sword?”   Cordelia’s eyes darted back to Shaten, then her eyes widened, and she gently shook her head, prompting Oz to nod and remove his hand.

“Saotome Genma genius!” Lotion spoke up suddenly, making everyone look at her. “Met him, I know.  I should have realized his true plan and purpose much earlier.”

“Yep, me too,” Xander nodded with a big grin.  “Should have realized it sooner.  So, Iwaki Shaten, princess of . . . uh . . .”

“Madiko village,” Willow supplied helpfully, her memory still every bit as good as ever, her brain was still trying to wrap itself around Xander’s little talk.

“Madiko village,” Xander repeated with a thankful nod toward Willow, and continued, “Will you leave here married and return as head of the village, or will you let destiny slip you by?”

There was a moment of silence, and then Shaten bowed, saying, “Not will destiny slip by.  I will find man, and marry.”

“That’s just perfect!” Xander exclaimed with a big grin, making everyone look at him.   He raised his right index finger high into the sky, and finished, “Because here is the dating service that has yet to fail, Dating Bureau Xander Harris!”

Silence reigned supreme, and Xander looked back at his friends.  Then they groaned, and his smile faltered, while Buffy exclaimed, “That’s because you have yet to start!  Dating Bureau Xander Harris!?”

“Hey, it could work,” Xander said, his smile faltering, then returning full force.  Shaten remained standing, once again straightened up, confused at the scene.  Xander didn’t even notice most of his friends slowly shuffling backward.  What he did notice was a certain lack of supportive comments.  “I cannot believe this.  I thought you were my friends.”  Xander turned his head to his right, looking at Faith, and he asked, “Not even you, Faith?”

Faith blinked, straightened, and then said, “No offense, Lexa, you know I’m your biggest fan, but not even /I’m/ touching that one with a ten foot pole.”

“I teenk you can do eet, Xander,” Kendra commented with her usual accent.

“Why thank you, Kendra,” Xander said with a smile, and then returned to look at Faith.   He turned around the still confused Shaten and laid his hands on the Japanese girl’s shoulders. He smiled at Faith, and said, “You still want to go out with me Saturday, don’t you?”  He gave Faith a suggestive look over Shaten’s shoulders.  “You can help make that Shaten’s first night out at the same time, finding the right guy.”

Faith knew exactly what was Saturday, and she wasn’t giving that up for the world.   Maybe if she could get one of the others to do the Shaten babysitting that night, she could keep Saturday without being . . . Faith had finished turning around, and her eyes bugged out her sockets.  They were all gone!  When the hell had they managed to all sneak away!?  Even Lotion, Lexa’s fiancee had snuck away!  Not even Kendra, the supportive one was left - judging from the last glimpse Faith now had at the side entrance to the library, they had dragged her off, to save her from herself and Lexa.  How the hell had they managed that without a sound?  And why hadn’t they done the same for her?  Confused, annoyed, and all of a sudden filled with dread she turned back to the two people in front of her, Lexa - the male version - still smiling over Shaten’s left shoulder.  The ninja girl was looking a little perturbed and now turned her head to look half perturbed, half questioning at Xander.  Faith’s shoulders slumped, then straightened with annoyance as she realized Xander must have watched the others sneak off without warning her.  Then her shoulders slumped again, and said, “Fine, I’ll help.”

“Okay all?” Shaten asked of Xander her neck once again craned to the left to look at him.

“Perfect,” Xander answered her with a smile.  “Between Faith and me, we’ll turn you into a lean mean dating machine, in no time!”  Faith actually groaned at that statement.

*****

Library
Same time

Willow and Buffy were in the middle of the group, with Giles and Jenny behind them, the latter dragging Kendra along.  Cordelia, Lotion and Oz were in front of them.  Willow asked out loud, “Is weaseling out of a situation genetic and can it jump to even adopted surrogate sons?”   Cordelia and Oz turned to look back at her.  Her eyes were wide, and she finished gently, “‘Cause that was the biggest load of . . . bullshit I’ve ever heard shoveled, and it somehow managed to sound reasonable.”

“That’s a good trait in a future husband,” Lotion feebly defended Xander, feeling the need to honor her future husband.

“Until he sells you as some other guy’s fiancee,” Cordelia pointed out the trend in Saotome’s method of weaseling out of sticky situations.  Lotion frowned, wanting to protest Xander wouldn’t do that.

“Indeed,” Giles agreed, pulling his glasses from his head and started to clean them, then walked toward the counter - interrupting Lotion’s next words in the process.

Jenny sighed, and as she followed Giles, she said, “I’m just glad we didn’t get suckered into somehow trying to help a teenager Shaten find a teenager husband in under a few weeks, and convincing him to move to Japan, being Shaten’s whipping boy, and convincing his parents to let him go.  What’s he thinking?”

“‘Get out of sticky situation, quickly,’” Oz offered helpfully, not a muscle out of place on his expressionless face.  Although he would never admit it, keeping it in place, had taken more than a little effort.  Grins were shot and laughs were had at his comment.

“Poor Faith,” Willow lamented sweetly.

“Better her, than us,” Buffy finished with finality.  And Willow nodded eagerly in agreement.  They looked at each other’s eyes, and then gave each other a deep comforting kiss.

“Oh, no,” Cordelia said in defeat and then lifted her hands in helplessness, “they’re back. Get a room!”  Buffy and Willow broke apart.  Willow gave a blushing smile, while Buffy just gave the head cheerleader an evil grin.

“I steell teenk he can pull eet off,” Kendra offered, her arms folded across her chest with the annoyance of having been dragged away, and being forced to watch this spectacle.  The whole group looked at her for a moment, and then shook their heads with pity.

*****

Later that day

As such things went, water had found one Mr. Harris, so now a Ms. Horne was in his place walking alongside Lotion, and Faith on his other side, toward Lotion’s home: the Amazon Dragon Chinese Restaurant.

“I hate this,” Lotion complained, depressed.

“I know,” Lexa answered, taking a deep breath that stretched her vest around her ample chest.  She gently moved her arm around Lotion’s waist, and said, “I’m not exactly thrilled about it either.  Look, all of this will be over soon.  I’ll get Shaten a new husband that is not me.  Faith here seems to be finding her stride, as well as being friends with not just me, so soon this will all be over, and then we can focus on us.”

“Yeah,” Faith added her own reassurances, “it isn’t like Lexa is looking for a hot date to fall in love with, get married, and have 2.5 kids with.  It’s the ninja chick that’s up for the picket fences deal.”  Faith thought about her words in a momentary flash, and asked, “Do ninjas have picket fences?  ‘Cus I’m not entirely clear on that.”

“I don’t think so,” Lexa replied, tapped her chin for a moment, and said, “I suppose if they have TV, they could have seen it on an American show and copied it.”

“Might think they work as a great, unsuspected trap,” Lotion added jovially with a grin. “Step on a trigger, fence falls halfway, and the pickets get launched.”

Lexa smiled back and then laughed, “Yep, they probably have picket fence traps.”

“Nasty,” Faith said with a mock shiver, and the three girls laughed for a moment.

They then reached the final corner toward the restaurant, and turned it.  In the distance, in front of the restaurant, a bike stood waiting, with a guy leaning on it.  Xander and Lotion froze, and looked at the guy.  Faith came to a halt a little slower, and studied the guy.   “What?” Faith asked the other two, “You two consider him drool material or something?”

“GAK!” Lotion exclaimed with horror at the concept.

“That idiot?” Lexa added for good measure.  “That’s Pike Ambrose; Buffy’s ex, and now determined to win Lotion’s heart, the moron.  Seriously, the only reason I don’t consider Buffy’s taste in men that of an insane woman, is because I was one of ‘em.”

“Ouch - so you’re all frozen because you’re considering running away, then?” Faith speculated amused, shifting her Supergirl backpack to a more comfortable position, smiling while taking in the guy standing next to the bike.  He was still far enough away Faith couldn’t take him in properly, so it was time to get closer and watch the fallout occur.  Grinning a grin bordering on evil, Faith started forward.  “Great, let’s meet him,” she spoke stepping forward, making Lotion and Lexa look at each other before sighing in defeat and following after the brunette.

As they got closer, Faith could make the guy out.  Leather biker pants, leather biker jacket, a nice looking helmet on the back of the guy’s bike - it was a nice bike, not exactly something cool and magnificent enough to make a girl, bike lover or no, swoon, but it wasn’t junk either.  The bike must have been from the sixties or seventies, and pretty well maintained, if Faith’s judgement wasn’t wrong, and being a bike lover, she rarely was.  She couldn’t make out the brand through, as a brand indicator had long since been lost somewhere, and Faith’s tastes in bikes were toward either more modern ones, or the one’s in the style of Harley Davidson.  This rather plain bike, fit none of the categories.  Still, it looked good enough that if the rest of the package was okay, Faith would consider jumping on the back for a ride - more than one . . . kind.

The looks department of the rest of that package was definitely okay, as far as Faith was concerned.  Buffy’s taste in men’s looks was in line with Faith’s no doubt.  The black t-shirt this Pike guy was wearing under his open leather jacket was tight fitting, showing enough to show he was quite muscular.  His eyes were brown, and he had a long face.  A magnificent face indeed - clean shaven - and enough to make a lesser girl get ideas of kissing and marriage, and such.  Faith instead, was merely considering whether he was doable - he was. The guy’s hair was grungy, and short, but just long enough that he didn’t look like an impeccably styled pretty boy, or business exec.

“Well, up to now, I’m approving Buffy’s taste,” Faith said with a grin as she came to a halt.  Her tone of voice was lightly playful, built to bait.

“She’s nuts,” Lotion told Lexa with a cool tone.  Lexa shrugged.

“Lotion!  My magnificent angel!  I have come for your hand in marriage!” Pike proclaimed with a huge grin, stepping forward.  “I have trained long and hard, gained the strength I lacked to beat you before!  Prepare for combat, my goddess of love and lust!”

“Okay, I see the problem,” Faith muttered in disbelief.

“Told you,” Lexa said, as Lotion sighed with resignation and stood several steps forward to stand in front of Faith and Lexa and went into a light, not serious at all, battle stance.  Faith frowned in confusion at Lotion’s behavior.  This was not the way a guy got a girl’s heart - unless he was a caveman living thousands of years ago having a big club.

“Let’s get this over with,” Lotion said annoyed, beckoning Pike to come with the fingers of her right hand.

“Don’t worry, my love,” Pike said as he took off the jacket, hanging it on the steering handle of his bike, and made a few warm up routines, “Soon we shall be together forever, we will bond in holy matrimony, never to be parted.  This, I swear upon the love in our hearts!”

“Put jacket back on, extra armor will give you better chance,” Lotion told him with a grumble.

Lexa giggled at the ridiculous notion - not even the thick leather armor to protect during a fall was going to keep Lotion from beating the crap out of Pike, not even a little bit.  She became aware of Faith looking at him in disbelief.  “What?  It’s funny,” Lexa offered confused and innocent.

“No worries, my future wife.  Won’t need it,” Pike said, and made his move.  A rapid step forward and a high kick that would have hit Lotion in the chin, if it wasn’t for the fact she casually leaned a centimeter back.  “Hah!” Pike exclaimed as he made a sharp, and pretty well done jab at Lotion’s stomach.  Sadly for Pike, it was only well done for the more standard martial arts of the world, and for someone who had only been training for a year.  Lotion deflected the blow with the inside of her hand like it meant nothing.

Pike quickly jumped back, making Lotion sigh, and look up at the sky hopelessly for a moment.  Faith looked with ever mounting disbelief at the exchange.  The guy was actually trying to beat up Lotion - miserably, but still, not to mention good enough Faith knew she would have some trouble with him if she didn’t have the strength enhancing ring - shouldn’t they be calling the cops instead of letting her fight him?

“Well, done, my beautiful, now let’s see how you handle this!” Pike said, moving forward to make a leg sweep, that Lotion jumped over with pitiful ease.  Lexa groaned, and put her right palm with pity in her forehead.  The guy still couldn’t see just how outclassed he was.  Lotion landed, and Pike rose back to his feet and immediately threw a punch at Lotion’s stomach.  To Lotion, of course, it didn’t seem like the follow up Pike considered it to be, just another punch after a huge pause.  She caught his punching fist, his right one, with no more effort.  With a quick motion she made a move to circle to his left, while bending his entire arm away.  Lotion raised an appreciative eyebrow when Pike turned with the twist, hopping and twisting in the air himself, landed on his left foot, and kicked his right one out with speed and strength.  Of course, he missed - it would have been by a mile if Lotion took him more seriously and moved faster, instead, it was still wide by far.  The movement did make Lotion let go of his arm, and Pike quickly moved around, brought both his hands together to his side, and jabbed them forward.  “YAH!” he exclaimed loudly, and he actually threw a tiny little chi from his hand palms, without it being in the visible spectrum, causing a small bit of air displacement.

Lexa actually raised her eyebrows at that.  It was horrendously basic, but it was still very good.  Lotion just lifted her own chi a little, more than enough to buffer herself from the air displacement.  “I’m actually impressed,” Lotion commented bored, “For the months you’ve been training, this isn’t bad.”

“I know my angel, I’m sorry I have to do this, but-”

That was as far as Pike came, as Lotion’s right foot instantly connected with his chin - and she hadn’t even tried.  Her lovely shapely leg extended, made the open on the sides, Chinese, Amazon dress flow back, giving Pike a magnificent view of Lotion’s panties and crotch for a moment.  That is, it would have given Pike that, if he was able to see anything but stars at the moment.  The biker boy staggered backward, his legs went out from under him, and toppled up and over his bike, to land smack dab on the asphalt on its other side.  A groan, and then the occasional lolling moan was the only thing that came from the guy.  The bike wobbled with the event, the helmet and jacket even more precariously threatened to fall down, but Lexa quickly steadied it.

Lotion sighed, and said, “Too bad for you, idiot, I’ve been training for over a decade, and have even increased my skill and strength while you were gone.”  Not that Pike could hear her.

Faith pulled her jaw closed as Lexa stepped away from the now steadied bike.  “Wait, wait, wait!” Faith exclaimed in shock.  “What the hell was that!?  Why are you not calling the cops?  He was going to beat you up and drag you off the equivalent of his cave and . . .”  Faith trailed off, not actually wanting to say the rest, feeling disgust well up at the guy.  Not even she had ever come across someone that bad - granted, there had been some serious sick individuals, but this.

“No, he wouldn’t have,” Lotion said with a disgusted snort.  The guy was pitiful.

“Well, he can’t, but-” Faith started with mounting outrage and disbelief.

“No, Faith,” Lexa commented with a big grin, and then explained, adopting Lotion’s old accent and broken English, raising her finger in the air, grinning widely, “Ancient Amazon tradition: man beat Amazon in combat, Amazon marry man.  He knows the tradition.”

Faith’s jaw dropped for a moment, and looked from Lexa to Lotion, and then back again, to finally settle on Lotion.  “WHAT!?” Faith exclaimed in absolute disbelief.  “You cannot- . . .”  Suddenly something dawned on Faith, and she once again looked at a smiling Lexa, back to the scowling Lotion who had her arms folded under her ample chest.  “YOU BEAT HER UP!?” Faith exclaimed, half in horror, half in disbelief.  Her best friend Lexa could never do that, even if she was a guy!

Lexa shrugged, smiled at Faith, and said, “She was trying to kill me at the time.  What should I have done, just let her kill me?”

Faith’s head swiveled again from Lotion to Lexa and back again.  Lotion shrugged, and said, “Shouldn’t have eaten first place prize of martial arts tournament.”  Faith turned her head back to Lotion and her eyes bugged out - that was the reason she had been trying to kill Lexa? Lotion then looked at Lexa, and asked, “I don’t understand.  Everyone here goes hysterical over you defeating me in combat!?  It greatest day of my life!  Most romantic moment ever! Yet they all act like you’re worse than a vampire.”  Faith’s jaw dropped even lower - enough to actually start to hurt.

Lexa shrugged, and said, “Feminism.  Great for emancipating women and teaching abuse of them, the weaker sex, even when she’s your wife is bad, and shouldn’t take it, but call the police instead - but it’s gotten to a sad state of affairs by now.  Guy who hits a woman is evil incarnate - even if she was trying to add a few more vents with some bullets to the guy’s body, or strangle the guy with nunchakus.”

The almost casual way that Lotion and Lexa were talking, while they left Faith in her brain freeze, was getting on the latter’s nerve.  It was like they were baiting her, especially with the topic.

“Don’t get it,” Lotion said with a an equal shrug.  “Abusing the weaker partner is despicable, Amazons who do that to their husbands are locked up or banished from tribe. Doesn’t require masculinism, or hating Amazons who defend themselves from male aggression.”

That did it!  Faith had it up to here, and she had just gotten an epiphany too!  “FUCK ME!  And I thought /my/ relationships were dysfunctional!” Faith exclaimed with surprise, and then a wide grin.  It wasn’t just Lexa and Lotion, Faith had just realized - and she didn’t know why she hadn’t before - that the entire Sunnydale crew was in some seriously screwed up relationships.

“We are not dysfunctional,” Lotion defended vehemently, taking a menacing step toward Faith.

“And I’m Mrs. Santa,” Faith laughed out loud, making Lexa and Lotion frown.  “Four girls in a competition for Lexa, one leaving after falling for the guy she was trying to make Lexa jealous with, and taking that guy as a boyfriend by taming his werewolf side, one girl having the hots for a demon-animated corpse along side Lexa, wanting both in a harem, Lexa going squick over that girl she’s madly in love with after she does the horizontal mambo with the corpse, the other girl being corpse-girl’s best friend, who was totally hating corpse-girl after she betrayed her fencing off and screwed Lexa, now those two being a lesbian couple, leaving you two.  If that isn’t dysfunctional, I don’t know what is.”  Lexa and Lotion looked at her, and tried to come up with a reply - both failed and looked perplexed at each other.  Faith laughed out loud, almost ready to go in a giggle fit - which was so bad for her image, but it was so hard to fight.  Her stomach started hurting and she grabbed it for support, bending over and unable to keep her Supergirl backpack on her right shoulder because of it.  The bag falling unceremoniously onto the floor.

Lexa folded her arms across her chest, and with narrowed eyes looked at the giggling Faith.  Lotion reset her arms tighter around her own ample chest, and gave a growl at Faith. Lexa then asked, “What’s so funny?”

Faith gasped for air as she tried to push her giggling away.  Straightening to get the air in her lungs and able to talk, she said with laughter throughout her sentence, “I’m the normal one.  My guyfriends were all bastards, and the relationships screwed up, but they were fucking ordinary compared to you guys!”

“That’s good for us,” Lexa said darkly, actually pausing Faith further.  Then Lexa’s good mood returned, and said, “That means our relationship is going to be good.  Every good relationship has a good dose dysfunctional.  There is no such thing as a good relationship that is completely functional.”

Faith blinked and then laughed again, saying, “Fuck.  Never thought of it like that.  My relationships were all horrendous because they were too ordinary!”  Then she went back into a giggle fit.

Lotion looked from the giggling Faith, still angry, back to the still unconscious Pike, and back to the giggling Faith again.  Then she looked at Lexa who shrugged.  Lotion sighed, her anger deflated, and she cursed, “Hopeless!”  She then turned around in disgust and walked into the Amazon Dragon restaurant.

Lexa walked over to the unconscious Pike with a smile, letting Faith giggle herself into eventual silence.  She checked the guy over, and when she found he had suffered no real injuries, she relaxed, folding her arms across her chest, and waited for him to wake up.  After a few moments, Faith stopped her giggling and walked over.  “You’ve got a magnificent giggle,” Lexa said to Faith with a smile.

Faith looked shocked for a moment, then embarrassed, and finally screeched, “Don’t you dare tell anyone, Lexa!”

Lexa smiled, shrugged, pointed at the restaurant with a nod, and said casually, “Lotion already knows.”

Faith’s eyes widened, looked at the restaurant, and then threw her arms in horror at the sky, all but howling, “Nooo!  Now my reputation is as good as ruined!”  Lexa laughed out loud, her upper body jerking as she looked at Faith.  “Ah, come on, this is not funny!” Faith exclaimed pitifully, and then got an annoyed look all of a sudden.  “Oh, what the fuck does it matter!” she exclaimed throwing her arms up in defeat.  She picked her backpack back up from the ground, and pointed the picture of Supergirl at Lexa.  Pointing one finger at it, she grumbled, “This already ruined my reputation!  How the hell did you get it back anyway!?  I turned the stupid blonde in a nice black square!”

“Sorry, Faith, trade secret,” Lexa replied with a grin, her upper body once more jerking with her now silent laughter.

Defeated, Faith lowered the backpack, sighing in defeat and looking down at the floor.   It was then that Buffy’s ex-boyfriend stirred, and slowly came too.  Faith and Lexa looked down, and with a groan Pike opened his eyes.  “Hey,” Lexa said without any particular concern.  Annoyed and unhappy, Faith managed no more than a greeting gesture.

Groaning and with some difficulty Pike forced himself to his feet.  He bent over, leaning on his knees with his hand, and seemed genuinely broken - and that wasn’t physically.  It almost seemed like he was about to cry, filling the hearts of the two girls with much, and somewhat unwanted, nurturing feelings.  “I don’t get it,” Pike muttered weakly.  He stared at the restaurant.  Then shook his head and blinked his eyes, before saying, “I got stronger, I trained, but I still can’t beat her.  And she’s so beautiful, so magnificent, so strong.  Why can’t I succeed?  It’s not fair.”

Lexa tried to fight off the urge to comfort the guy, but she found that her male alter ego’s weakness for crying, and teary-eyed girls had just easily shifted genders as her body with the splash of water.  She sighed, and shook her head, thinking she was a truly cursed individual. “Listen, Pike,” Lexa started, gently laying a hand on the guy’s right shoulder in comfort, “you can’t beat her.  She’s been training since the day she could walk.  I know of only two, maybe three guys our age that can beat her.  One of ‘em trained at and mastered the most harsh and inhospitable training grounds imaginable, like the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo in China for over a decade before he finally-”

“So be it!” Pike interrupted Lexa and stepped forward to his bike.

“What?” Lexa and Faith said in mutual surprise.

“If mastering the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo is what it takes to defeat my angel,” Pike proclaimed, and kicked the starter down to the audience of two astounded girls.  The engine roared to life with heavy rumble that all but drowned out any other sounds.  Lexa tried to wave, and get Pike to stop, but the sound was too heavy, and he turned around, too intent on taking the helmet from the back of the seat.  Once it was on, of course, his vision to the side was partly obscured, and his ability to hear over the engine was gone.  “Then by god!  Master it, I will!” Pike finished his proclamation, and hit the gas, driving off.

“NO!  WAIT!” Lexa screamed desperately, jumping up and down like a madwoman and waving after the biker with both arms.  “THAT’S NOT WHAT . . .” Lexa trailed off as Pike had obviously seen her waving - raising his left hand in a wave goodbye.

With a dropped jaw Lexa stared after the rapidly shrinking bike, Faith joining her with an expression of helpless incomprehension, eyebrows raised in the middle, all but forming puppy dog eyes.  The bike turned a corner, and was out of sight.  Lexa remained silent for a moment more, and then screamed, “THAT STUPID IDIOT!!  GAAAH!  I cannot believe him!  I meant he needed to train for over a decade or find some way to close the gap artificially!”

Faith nodded, and asked, “That guy is completely screwed, isn’t he?”

Lexa sighed, let her shoulders hang in defeat, and shaking her head she answered, “Like a man-bitch in prison.”  A moment later Faith burst out in laughter.

*****

Saturday
Xander’s apartment

Night was slowly setting, and Lexa, Shaten, and Faith were sitting on the couch of Xander’s, right now Lexa’s, apartment.  It was time to slowly start getting ready for their first night out together - a manhunt more like it.  To that end, Xander had already used the magic of simple water, to turn into the girl version of himself.  Now, she was nervous as all hell . . . never had a phone looked so ominous sitting on a table.

“Get it not,” Shaten said, looking at the phone curiously.

“Just get it over with, Lex,” Faith said with a supportive tap on Lexa’s shoulder.  The latter was sitting in between the other two.

“Easy for you to say, Buffy isn’t going to reach through the phone and strangle you to death,” Lexa muttered with some dread.  The phone seemed even more ominous now.  Why in the hell of all hells had that idiot had to go and leave for Jusenkyo anyway?  A whole Friday had passed since Pike and ridden off to meet his doom.  A whole Friday.  A whole Friday of spending time with Buffy and the others - but mainly Buffy - in school, and not once had she - or rather, he, at the time - managed to find the guts and tell what Pike had gone and done, and she better be ready that the next time she’d see her ex boyfriend . . . he probably wouldn’t look like her ex boyfriend.  “Maybe I should just let her find out on her own?” Lexa suggested.

“Than she really /will/ kill you, once she finds out you knew,” Faith said with an air of defeat, folding her arms across her chest, which was now covered by one of Xander’s too big sweaters.  Too big for Faith - not Xander - the sweater was loose and comfortable, and doubled easily as a mini-dress.  “You know, if you’d just told her yesterday, you wouldn’t have to face this now.”

“And be in strangling range!?” Lexa asked her friend in disbelief.

“You said she’s going to reach through the phone anyway,” Faith pointed out with a grin. Lexa groaned.

“Xander-dono, I not get it,” Shaten said, a bit more forcefully this time.  “Why Buffy would wants to hurt you?  Is your fault not.  You tried to stop him.”  Lexa looked over to the stunning Japanese girl.  Showing her the curse - not wanting a do-over of Faith’s introduction to her double-gendered state -  had gone over rather well, actually.  Shaten had been shocked, and had been upset at first - stating that the chances of being accepted after the clan found out, would be diminished.  Faith had casually pointed out she wasn’t marrying Lex anyway.  That had calmed her down somewhat.  Now, Lexa was equally ‘Xander-dono’ as Xander himself was.

For a moment Lexa wondered why she kept tolerating all this nicknames: ‘Future husband,’ for both his genders, ‘Lexa’ (for his male version), the ever lovable shortened, ‘Lex’ for both genders, which was in turn wrong for his girl gender, and now Xander-dono had joined the fray.  Soon she’d be the person known as, ‘the man, sometimes woman, with the most nicknames given by girls’.  She dismissed the thought, closed her slightly opened mouth, and turned with twinkling eyes back to Faith.  “Faith, look!  Another one!  We’ve got a third sane female in our little group!  I’m almost starting to think we have a chance at one day outnumbering the insane ones!” Lexa commented with a bright grin, which made Shaten frown.

Faith chuckled lightly, and said, “Maybe we should start an action group, ‘Sane Women for Converting Women to Sanity.’”

Lexa smiled brightly and looked back at the confused Shaten, and said, “I like that, I like that a lot.”  To Lexa’s surprise, she hadn’t actually come up with the observation of seemingly being the only two sane females in Sunnydale - it had been Faith’s after Pike getting his ass kicked by Lotion.  She had actually made a list - starting with ‘Amazons’ without even bothering to explain things, to girl couples that barely seemed to be able to be around each other without falling to depression one day, and the next couldn’t keep their hands and lips off each other, and a girl who had decided that she was the queen bitch of Sunnydale so she went to tame a werewolf.  (This last she had found out after actually asking Cordelia about it, the concept of coming to the idea of ‘taming’ a werewolf so out there, she couldn’t figure out how someone could come up with the idea.)  Lexa gave Shaten a smile, and said, “Watch this.”

Having mustered up the courage thusly, Lexa grabbed the horn off the hook, and dialed Buffy’s number.  Someone picked up, and introduced herself.  “Hey, Buffy, Xander here.  I need to tell you something,” Lexa said into the phone.

Faith listened carefully, but she couldn’t understand Buffy’s response - the sound too soft, too unclear and too far away to make things out.  She continued to watch Lexa.

“Well, Pike was here, Thursday,” Lexa said with a face crunched up in caution.  Faith still couldn’t hear what Buffy was saying, but she had a good idea.  “He tried to defeat Lotion again of course - got his ass kicked; of course.”  Lexa paused to wait for Buffy’s response.   Faith could imagine this one as well - exasperation at her ex’s continued behavior.  Lexa made for the finish.  “Well, what I really called to say, was that I tried to explain to him trying to defeat Lotion was useless, starting to give examples of how long and hard Ranma has trained in his life - and well, I may have mentioned Jusenkyo.”  Lexa paused, obviously because Buffy was saying something.  Faith could figure this one out as well, the desperate, half-confused request for further information, without voicing that she desperately wanted to hear something else than what she was fearing.  Lexa continued, “He took it wrongly and decided he needed to master the Jusenkyo training grounds, so you should be ready he’ll return cursed - like me.”

A pregnant, momentary pause.  #WHAT!?#  Oh, Faith heard that one.

“Ow!” Lexa exclaimed yanking the phone from his ear, and started rubbing it.  Shaten’s eyes widened, looking at the phone from which now sounded a string of profanities that would make a hardened criminal blush - all very well understandable.

“Fuck, I think that hurt /my/ ear,” Faith muttered, squinting her face, and looking at the phone more than a half a meter away, from which the screaming continued to come very audibly.

Lexa looked at the phone for a moment, and then pushed it in front of her, facing away, and she said, “God, am I glad I did this over the phone.”

#WHAT DID YOU SAY!?  XANDER!?  LEXA!?  I’M GOING TO . . .#

Carefully Lexa placed the screaming horn on the table next to the phone.  She waited for a moment, and then turned to Faith and from her to Shaten, telling them both, “Thankfully she’s not reaching through the phone.  Let’s get ready for our night out.”

Lexa got up, and Shaten and Faith did the same, following her to the bedroom, both looking back at the phone and hook from which Buffy’s voice still sounded - one with a grin, the other with confusion.

*****

Lexa by now was wearing a short, tight, black skirt, high-heeled ankle boots, and a shiny, light blue, sleeveless blouse without buttons that left her midriff bare and flowed from her right shoulder to down beneath her left one, allowing the top of her left breast to peak over its edge. Her shoulder-length hair was loose.  Faith was in her leather pants, and wore a shiny long-sleeved pink shirt, that had curly patterns on it in the pink to purple spectrum, as well as her usual heavy makeup.  Medium-heeled shoes finished her ensemble.  They had waited with doing Shaten last, so they could work on her together, and get going right after.  The girl ninja was now in nothing but a white pair of panties and a bra.

“The bra’s got to go too,” Faith commented, taking in the olive-skin of the Japanese girl critically.  Shaten looked nervous.  “You’re going out girl, specifically to attract your future husband.  Off,” Faith prompted.

Shaten shyly looked at Lexa, very much aware still, that it was her former future husband, Xander-dono.  Lexa understood, and made a throwaway gesture, saying, “Oh, psah.” She walked forward and around the other girl to stand behind her, “I’ve seen breasts.  Hell, I’ve got ‘em, and I won’t bite.”  Lexa deftly unhooked the bra and pulled it off, letting it drop to the bed.  Shaten blushed lightly and brought her arms up, and not quite wanting to seem like a prude, stopped just under her breasts.

“Emphasize the athletic structure,” Faith said, and then looked up past Shaten’s head at Lexa who was still behind her.  Both of them said at once, “Tight leather pants.”

Lexa walked past the two to her clothes closet, and pulled said pants out, while saying, “Let’s hope they’re not too big.”  She held up her leather pants to the smaller girl, and said, “Guess we’ll find out soon.  Put them on.”

“Okay, but, what if not fit?” Shaten asked cautiously hopeful, taking the pants from Lexa.

“Then I’m pretty sure that Willow’s will fit,” Lexa said with a smile as Shaten eyed the pants.  “And we’ll go over to hers and plunder her closet.”

Tight leather pants to show off her figure to attract her future husband - to Shaten, the concept was still new and unfamiliar.  “Always thought choose husband I would from suitors. Princess of village would mean of those plenty,” Shaten said, having forgotten about her topless state as she held up the leather pants.

“Trust me, girl,” Faith answered her with a light smirk, allowing her eyes to roam the perfectly trained body, “You would have them anyway.”  Shaten looked over to the slightly taller girl, and then started to put on the pants.  A little later she had it on, and Faith and Lexa took the pants in critically.  It was not very tight, but still followed the contours of her body enough that it wasn’t too bad.  There were a few folds here and there, but it worked - the not really tight pants showed her great figure well.

“Needs a belt, though,” Lexa said, and returned back to her closet, and picked out two belts - one black, the other red.  “Black or red,” Lexa said, and looked over her left shoulder at Faith.  “Red,” the two said simultaneously with a nod, and Lexa hung the black on back.  She came over and put the belt through the holes for them, and pulled on both sides, than slid the lip side through the buckle.

“Uh,” Shaten grunted as Lexa yanked the belt tight.  Then she finished closing it.  With the belt it looked better.  The ninja girl looked down, twisted her body from left to right to take the pants in, not entirely sure.

“We need to buy ones that fits properly next time around, you got access to money?” Faith asked the ninja girl.

“Hai,” Shaten replied with a nod of her head and upper torso.

“Plenty?  Clothes cost a lot more than a cheap motel room,” Faith asked again - she and Xander had convinced the girl to get her own motel room the day before instead of remaining in Xander’s apartment.

“Village princess.  Village not poor,” Shaten said with a glare, her arms instantly folded across her torso.

“Okay, okay,” Faith said with a nervous smile.  She so didn’t want the sword-wielding super ninja chick pissed with her.

Lexa then critically looked at Shaten’s breasts, and then down to her own, who were quite a bit bigger.  “Faith, my tops aren’t going to fit.  We are going to have use one of yours,” Lexa said, looking at Faith.  The girl looked at Lexa and nodded solemnly.  She didn’t have much clothes with her - a couple of things she managed to stuff inside her backpack - but that was it.  Unlike a certain ninja village princess, Faith was poor.

Faith then smiled, nodded, and said, “And I think I got just the thing too.”  Faith walked out the bedroom and went to the bathroom, where a drawer cupboard had room for her clothes.  She returned to the bedroom moments later, holding up a black leather top.  It had no sleeves or straps, just hooks to close in her back.  It was mostly a bra with an extension downward, that wouldn’t reach Shaten’s bellybutton.

Shaten looked at it, even more uncertain.  “Just that?” she asked a little uncertain.

“What?” Faith asked confused, it looked magnificently fine to her.

“You want to attract a future husband, or not?” Lexa asked, half confused, half bitingly.

Faith narrowed her eyes at the ninja, and asked, “Say, aren’t you ninja all about assassinations?  I thought you ninja chicks were trained to seduce men into their beds and then kill them during sex?”

“Hai,” Shaten answered, once more nodding with her entire torso.  An obvious ‘but’ formed on her face though, crunched up in uncertainty and embarrassment, she was literally twiddling her thumbs in front of her.  “Just . . . didn’t take tlaining.  Village princess . . .”

“Oh, great,” Faith said defeated, and looked at Lexa.  Lexa had alleviated some of her anxiety at this by pointing out that Shaten for that reason should have enough seduction techniques at her disposable.  All they had to do, was teach her how to modify them for the American husband market - uh, culture.  “Now we have to teach her from scratch!” Faith accused Lexa flapping her arms up and down to her legs in defeat, the top going to her left hand, making a loud flap sound.

“She’s got enough feminine instincts - just get her dressed already,” Lexa said, remaining positive, while Shaten looked apologetic from one to the other.

“Fine,” Faith said, and gestured for Shaten to turn around.  Once she had, Faith put the top on, and went about closing the fasteners on the back.  Shaten looked a little uncomfortable halfway through the closing.

Once the top was on, they turned the girl back around, and checked her out.  She looked good, the breasts slightly pressed upward.  “Very tight,” Shaten offered her opinion.

“No pain, no gain,” Faith returned with a rather sadistic grin.

“Have to agree with my esteemed colleague this time, Shaten.  You’ll have to suffer a little - we all do,” Lexa added with a smirk.  “Now only makeup and hair, and then shoes.”

*****

Lexa, Shaten, and Faith were walking along the sidewalk, almost arriving at the Bronze.   Shaten was in the middle of the two.  She still had her pony tail - her two mentors having decided it looked very good on her; they’d only fluffed it up a bit.  Soft purple/red lipstick and light highlights around her eyes completed her look.  The shoes she wore were high heels, and although she’d never worn them, her ninjutsu, since early childhood sense of balance had her walking in them as if she was born with them on her feet.

“Alright, let’s recap,” Lexa said, gesturing toward Shaten and walking sideways looked her in the eye, “Dance . . .” she prompted.

Shaten took the prompt and said, “Sway hips, smile, laugh at guy’s jokes - but not like an idiot . . . uh . . . be interested in what he has to say, don’t forget his name, speak about myself, be honest, but not brutally so, most notably do not yet reveal quick marriage plans.”

“And don’t be afraid to touch him gently above the waist area,” Faith added with a nod, smiling.  Maybe this was going to work after all . . . the dating at least - getting a guy to marry her and move to Japan - not much hope on that one according to her.

“But don’t paw him continuously,” Lexa warned lightly, “do it continuously and you look like an idiot.”

“Or a complete slut,” Faith added her observation.

“Right,” Shaten said, nodding confidently, and then frowned.  “This is confusing.  I wish I find man with just snap of finger.”

“Don’t we all,” Lexa said wistfully.

Faith smirked and said, “I can do that.”  Shaten turned her head to look at Faith with accusation - why hadn’t she just taught her that.

“For a quick screw, but not your life mate,” Lexa countered her friend, making Shaten look over at Lexa for a moment, and then back at Faith.

Faith shrugged, and said, “Get knocked up during the quick screw.”  She peered to her left at Lexa and Shaten, smirking in anticipation of whatever reaction was going to come.

“Knocked up?” Shaten asked confused, looking from her left mentor to her right one, and back again.

“Pregnant,” Lexa clarified with an annoyed look at Faith, who wiggled her eyebrows back at her once.

“Oh,” Shaten said, thinking it over, “Try without first.”  Faith laughed out loud, which reduced down to chuckling

“You are an evil woman, Faith,” Lexa said with annoyance, as they reached the Bronze. Faith shrugged, unable to keep the smile off of her face, and grabbed the handle of the door, opening it.

“After you two,” Faith said with a flourish, that elicited a sigh from Lexa, and a confused look from Shaten.

*****

Lexa and Faith had placed themselves at the bar and watched . . . and watched with dropped jaws.  Shaten was dancing at their advice . . . if that’s what you could call what she was doing. Amid others, her elbow moved to the right, into the back of some guy.  “AH!” the guy explained.

“I’m sorry, sorry,” Shaten blurted out, interrupting her “dancing”, touching the guy gently to give him support.  He squatted her hands away angrily.  Shaten started “dancing” again, standing on some girl’s toes, making her jerk her foot up and cradle it, hopping.  It was quite a feat too, considering that her back was turned toward Shaten.   “Sorry, sorry,” Shaten said, reaching for the girl to keep her from falling over, the girl’s date doing the same and glaring Shaten away.

Shaten continued to “dance”, arms and feet flailing about, many more sorries following.

“How the hell can someone so graceful and agile fighting, turn into that much of a spaz on the dance floor?” Lexa asked of Faith, dumbfounded at the spectacle.

“I’m blank, Lexa, I got no clue,” Faith muttered slowly in horror.  Shaten tripped over her own feet and slammed into someone else, who went to topple over as Shaten landed face first on to the unforgiving dance floor - which promptly surrendered and caved in a bit, because the ninja had instinctively drawn her life force up for protection.

Lexa turned her head toward Faith, who was to the right of her, and said, “Quickly, Faith, please.”

Faith sighed, but was already getting up, and moving toward Shaten who was getting up herself.  The dance floor was in disarray two more people having fallen already and threatening to turn into dominos.  Just in time Faith grabbed and steadied a wobbling guy, who gave a thankful nod and smile as found his balance returning.  Faith paid him no heed and turned to Shaten, who was attempting to start to dance again.  She grabbed her by the upper harm, and yanked her off, dragging her along toward the exit.

“Oh, brother,” Lexa muttered, and turned around.  “Bartender,” Lexa commanded, and the bartender turned toward her.  Then she ordered, “Give me the strongest thing you got a minor can drink, and make it a double.”

“Sure thing,” the bartender answered and went to get it with smile.

Lexa let her head fall onto the bar and groaned.  “I’m doomed.”

*****

“Hey!  Let go!” Shaten exclaimed highly annoyed now.  The other girl had dragged her outside and then off into an alley.  Faith did indeed let go.  “What for did you do?” Shaten asked annoyed.

“Do you want to dance, or do you want to kill everyone on the dance floor?” Faith asked bluntly, folding her arms across her chest.  Shaten looked embarrassed.  “Then shut up, and learn.  We’re going to teach you the tried and true method of standing still and wiggling your body, but no arms or legs.  Anything more advanced, will have to wait till you’re not on the dance floor and put people in the hospital trying to learn.”

“Okay,” Shaten said self-consciously giving a slight bow to Faith in deference.

“Now, put your legs together, and wiggle your ass back and forth, like so,” Faith said, and demonstrated, standing in one position and making a gentle dance movement.  Shaten copied Faith . . . or at least tried to, making sharp, jerking movements.  “No!  Lexa’s right! How can you be this stiff when you’re so damn agile while doing your martial arts!  Think sleek!  Think hanging upside down from a tree, dropping yourself, somersault and landing on the ground like a sleek cat!”

“Hai,” Shaten answered nervously, eyebrows arched upward to think how she moved normally.  Her modifications to the movement made it more flowing but still not what it should be.

“Good enough . . . barely,” Faith muttered annoyed as all hell, making Shaten more self-conscious.  Faith was the same - two months ago she wouldn’t be caught dead making dance movements out in the middle of nowhere, helping out someone or not.  It still felt like she was some nerdy girl who didn’t have the guts to step inside the club.  “Hand positions, emphasis on ‘positions’, no movement, just a place to have them,” Faith warned, and Shaten dutifully nodded her head.  “Up at chest, or down by side, once you’ve chosen position - don’t change it,” Faith told Shaten with some urgency.  She wanted to go back in the club, she had much better things to do that tutor this killing machine on how to dance - like get laid, they didn’t come much better than that.

Shaten moved her hands out, and elbows out, as she wiggled.  She looked like a dumb bird with too small wings trying to flap them about - a drunk dumb bird unable to stand up straight try to flap her wings about.  “No, no!” Faith exclaimed, horror on her face.  She stepped forward, powerfully grabbed Shaten’s elbows and forced them down.  “These are weapons of mass destruction with you, keep them tucked in!  Not to mention you look like a chicken with its wings cut in two!  In!”

Shaten nodded with nervous concentration and complied with Faith’s rough request. Faith looked at Shaten, and sighed.  “Try down,” Faith said.  Shaten did as told, and wiggled about with her arms closely to her chest.  Faith sighed again, and then pointed back toward the entrance to the Bronze with a resolute finger, and said, “It’ll have to do.”

*****

Faith let the Japanese girl back on the dance floor while she walked back to the bar to join Lexa.  “Well?” Lexa asked as Faith took the drink that was waiting for her.

Faith turned around to look at the dancing crowd, and said, “Let’s hope for the best.”

So the two went to watch the proceedings hopefully.  Shaten got back on the dance floor, and “danced”.  She wiggled her body as taught by Faith to the beat of the music - and was no longer in danger of killing people.  “So far so good,” Lexa said, starting to get optimistic.  A few members of the male species started noticing Shaten and dancing close.

“So far much better even,” Faith commented with a smile.  Chances they were going to pull this off were going up by the moment.  One boy even started dancing very closely to Shaten.  Now Shaten only had to like him, and they were half-way there!

Shaten’s elbow slammed back into the boy’s gut, making him double over with a pained grunt.  A moment later the boy went sailing over Shaten’s shoulder and slammed painfully into the dance floor.  Before anyone could comprehend what had happened, and who had done it, Lexa was over with Shaten, grabbed her by the upper arm and yanked off the dance floor in frustration.  She put Shaten on a bar stool and exclaiming with annoyance, as Faith was gulping down her drink in defeat.  “*What’s wrong with you!*” Lexa exclaimed, all but hissing angrily.  “Why did you do that?”

“Boy grabbed my ass,” Shaten said imperiously, pointing over to the crime scene.  Her voice also carried a frustration, one she voiced moments later, “Boy grab ass is bad, is not?”

“He didn’t grab your ass!” Lexa told her in frustration, “He danced close to your back, which happens to be where your ass is located.  I watched, neither hand was anywhere close your ass!”

“About to take your hips and guide a bit more on the dance floor though, which would have been a good thing,” Faith remarked dryly with the failure.

“Still too familiar,” Shaten said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Of course he’s familiar!  That’s the point of dancing.  It’s the art of vertical seduction and foreplay!  Gah!” Lexa exclaimed in frustration, running her hands through her hair.  She signaled the bartender for another double, while telling Shaten, “Just look at the dance floor.”   She pointed over her shoulder behind her.

Shaten blinked and looked to the dance floor, where indeed the dancers, male and female, were touching body to body as they danced to the rhythm of the music.  “Oh,” Shaten answered a little embarrassed.

“Hey, Lexa, maybe we should just give her an example on how to seduce guys, huh?” Faith suggested, planning on not letting their part of the evening go to waste.

Lexa downed the glass of tasty liquid - which wasn’t alcohol so it didn’t do anything for her but taste good.  She turned to Faith, and realized the girl was right.  This had been a disaster.  And what better way to feel better than to ‘seduce’ a guy?  It would be wrong to say she wasn’t looking forward to it, as well as being somewhat nervous.  Bisexual.  Xander Harris with a boy.  If someone had told her that over a year ago, she’d have called the men in white robes with the nice straight-jackets.  Of course, back then she was still all-boy, and not a girl half the time.  And if someone had suggested she’d be a girl half the time, she’d have killed the person on the spot considering him a demon or vamp, or otherwise pure evil.  Now, she was both genders.  A blessing, and curse all wrapped in one.

“You’re right, Faith,” Lexa said and turned around, leisurely scanning the crowd for her ‘prey’.  “Shaten, pay attention to us, then pay some more attention to everything going on, then go to your temporary home on the mouth of hell.  We’ll pick up getting you a worthy husband tomorrow.  Right now, we need to get rid of some steam, right, Faith?”

“Oh, yeah,” Faith said with a wide grin.  She looked at Lexa with a smile.  This was going to be so awesome.  She’d get to coach her best friend in losing her virginity.  “See anyone you like?”

Lexa’s eyes found a guy soon after.  She smiled slyly, imagining for a moment, and noticed the interesting changes in her body.  She allowed the feelings to slowly mount, as she said, “Oh, yeah.”

Faith looked over at where Lexa was watching.  He saw a few girls, and only two guys Lexa could really be looking at.  Faith knew who she herself would be going for: the jock had a nice body.  Lexa would never go for a jock.  Faith had learned a while ago, that Lexa and jocks - as well as cheerleaders - didn’t mix.  She’d rather kill herself than even kiss a jock, losing her virginity to a jock - she’d happily jump into hell and be tortured there for an eternity before that happened.  Which could only mean one thing - it was the other guy.  “Jonathan?” Faith asked lightly incredulous, as well as knowing her best friend was going to need her expertise with him.  Jonathan was a nerd, a nervous guy, most of the time.  Faith being the last to enter the class, found herself in the only remaining seat, next to Jonathan in geography. From what she had heard, before Lexa had outed him to the whole school as ‘handsome’ he’d been a lot worse than now, and he was pretty bad.  At least the guy had gotten some kissing action from her best friend’s pronouncement.

“He’s handsome,” Lexa said with a smile.  Next to them, Shaten remained quiet, observing in anonymity with no one noticing her, like only a ninja could.  Even Faith and Lexa barely remembered she was there.

“You don’t wanna go for blistering hot instead?” Faith asked her best friend.  This was her virginity they were talking about, the first time, it should be more than a little good - even if that was rarely, if at all, the case.

Lexa turned her head to Faith, and pulled her arms to behind her head, stretching her legs relaxedly.  She answered her friend with a smile, “Maybe handsome is my idea of blistering hot.”  She smirked at Faith daring her to say anything.

Faith just rolled her eyes, and said, “Well, there’s no accounting for taste.  So what’s your game plan?”

Lexa looked at Faith with a light frown.  She was pretty confident she could pick up a guy, she didn’t exactly see the need for much advice there.  “I’m going to knock him senseless with just this,” Lexa answered her with a smile, gesturing to her body, and her pushed out chest.  She stood up sexily to emphasize the point, putting one hip out.

“Lexa, Lexa, Lexa, I’m going to have to teach you many a seduction routine yet, I see,” Faith told her friend with a grin as she shook her head.  She turned to the guy, and gestured, “Look at him, Lex.  He’s got nervous wreck written all over him.  He’s a geek, no matter how handsome or blistering hot he may be.”  Lexa looked and shrugged lightly, as Faith was probably right.  The Potential Slayer had turned to look at her friend and said, “You go at him with the you’ll-come-in-your-pants-before-I-even-get-there routine, you’re going to turn the wreck into a ruin.  He’ll be like a blow up doll with a mounted dildo in bed - you’ll be doing all the work.  You might as well get a dildo and do it yourself.  And Lex, you’re here to lose your virginity, not do it yourself.”

Dang.  Faith had a point, Lexa realized.  “Okay, you’re right, great sensei.  What do you suggest your humble student do?” Lexa asked Faith lightly.

“Art of seduction number four; the I’m-a-nervous-wreck-too,-you-know routine, especially effective if you’re a little nervous for real, like for your first time.  Show him you’re interested, use just a little of your body, and be nervous and jittery - tell him, show him, that you’re no better off than him, play on his male-must-protect-female instincts, so he loses some of his nervousness, bolster his confidence.  Build him up, so by the time you get to the bedroom, he’s ready to take, not be taken,” Faith said sagely - without being all that sagely.

Lexa nodded, and then smiled, “I can do that.  What about you?”

Faith gave a nod with her head, and Lexa looked over to the dance floor where Faith had nodded toward.  The dance floor had quite some people on it, and Lexa couldn’t tell who Faith meant.  “Scott Hope,” Faith said with a sly smile.  Scott Hope was dancing rather intimately with another girl.  Before Lexa could say anything about it, Faith added, “Right after I teach the bitch who’s trying to get into his pants right now her place.”

“Ah,” Lexa said with a frown.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to insult her anything like Cordelia’s former posse would, I’m just going seduce Scotty away from her so fast, she’ll wonder what the fuck happened, and know she doesn’t stand a chance against me,” Faith said with a smile.

Lexa rolled her eyes and then ‘nervously’ made her way toward Jonathan.

*****

An hour later

Two couples half stumbled, half walked into Xander Harris’ apartment.  One couple consisted of Lexa and Jonathan, the other was comprised of Faith and Scott Hope.  While kissing and fondling the former worked their way, stumbling past furniture to the bedroom to the left, while the latter moved toward the couch that could and soon would be unfolded into a bed.

Lexa fumbled for the door knob as she was kissing Jonathan.  Finally she found it and the door flung open under their combined weight.  They fell into the room, but managed to remain standing somehow, their tongues pleasurably massaging each other.  With a kick backward, Jonathan closed the door, and as it slammed shut, they broke apart for a bit.  Lexa looked down, her back arched back lightly as his right arm was around her waist.  She smiled, and took a step back, starting to undress.  Jonathan took the cue and started to undress himself as well.

When they were naked he looked her up and down, with wide almost disbelieving eyes. He was a guy, he had fantasies, they paled in comparison to what was standing in front of him. His fantasies would be going through an upgrade.  Lexa’s body had curves everywhere, and an athletic musculature to boot, she was magnificent.  The result was predictable, he was hard before he knew it, and was instantly self-conscious.  Doubts were running through his mind and his expression matched it.  Getting hard so early, would she freak?  Would it mean he’d come too soon and disappoint her?

Lexa had only vaguely noticed Jonathan’s discomfort.  She was just marveling at the lust running through her body.  She was going to do it with a guy on her first time, and he was hot. Granted, he didn’t have bulging muscles, or even prominent ones, but he still had some.  His stomach wasn’t a washboard thin and hard, but it was still smooth.  His legs weren’t the perfect runner’s legs, but they were nice enough shaped.  Couple it with his handsome face and he was most certainly more than adequate to Lexa.  And last, but not least, was his penis. His hard, erect, fleshy penis, that looked absolutely delectable.  Big too.  She knew with a quick comparison that her male body was slightly larger endowed, but thinking about getting it inside of her, further moistening her pussy, made it seem much bigger, but not in a bad manner.   She had never imagined it would be like this on this side of the fence.  She wanted to touch it, feel it, explore it, wanted it thrust inside her..  She felt like she was on fire - nervousness about her first time as a girl with a guy forgotten.  Before Jonathan’s nervousness could affect his mood aversely, Lexa was with him, holding him by the head, kissing him ferociously, and pulling him to bed

They sank down upon it.  Jonathan partially on top and partially in front of her.  She had said she was a virgin.  A virgin!  She had been all nervous and skittish confessing to him she wanted him to be her first.  He had to make it good for her; even if his own virgin mind was doing cartwheels of happiness and wanted jump on board and enjoy this, her, as fast and as thoroughly as possible.  He wasn’t going to do that, though.  No.  His brain was furiously pushing the cartwheels aside and searching about inside his rather vast - even if he did say so himself - reservoir of knowledge.  It didn’t take it long to remember some informative texts on the female body he had once read through in a magazine somewhere - it payed to have a good memory.  The one time in his life it was good to be a nerd.

Having come up with a course of action, he put a little more pressure on Lexa’s sides, pushing her back, while he kissed and moved purposefully forward himself.  Then somehow he slipped, fell forward and banged his upper body lightly against hers.  He had managed to catch himself and move aside only just, or he would have banged his head against hers and knocked her out, or worse, could it be worse?  He felt the blush racing up his face, and stammered, “S-sorry.”  Great going, idiot!  Way to ruin all this.

The kiss was nice, amazing.  Lexa liked his hands on her waist, and when they suddenly grew a little firmer, and with determination pushed her backward further on the bed, she couldn’t keep her lips from curving upward gently.  He pushed his lips more forcefully against hers too.  She should remind herself to thank Faith, because she had been most definitely right.  This was good, really good, she liked that he took charge; it felt like he was taking care of her, while he readied to take her virginity.  Her entire body tingled in anticipation - her virginity was something she felt she had to lose, not be a do-it-yourself project.  She made another mental note to thank Faith, and he slipped.  Their lips disengaged, and he almost banged his head against hers, but managed to move it out of the way just in time, only to bang lightly with his cheek against her right shoulder, while his chest landed against hers.  Her face was wide with the surprise, and she just watched as he jerked back and turned beet red instantly.  “S-sorry,” he stammered out.

Lexa shivered.  This was turning out better than she had hoped: he had moved to keep her from getting hurt, not to avoid getting hurt himself.  The whole sensation of being taken care of doubled, if not tripled instantly - and it had been there ever since he rejected her offer earlier.  She giggled, not even knowing it disarmed Jonathan’s embarrassment just in time.   The giggle came from the depth of her being, and it spread around her body to mix with her arousal.  It was indeed that the almost head slam was funny, but much more importantly the absolute magnificence of what was about to happen, with who and how she was doing it, as well of innate absurdity of her very existence, and thus the whole situation.  A /good/ absurdity.  God, it was /so/ good to be both genders - that was lucky enough, and then she got this gentle but strong, and handsome guy to do the honors.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lexa said, skirting backward, while pulling him along gently. “It’s our first time, we’re allowed to fumble.”

Jonathan heard the words, but he could barely believe them.  He continued onward after her gentle prodding, marveling at this magnificent girl - he was certain any other girl would have tossed him out of the room for being such a klutz.  If only he was actually in love with her - and she with him.  This whole situation was so amazing.  When she had offered a night of sexual pleasure, he had been about ready to kill anyone standing in between them and the bed they’d be having it in.  Then she had nervously revealed she was a virgin, the angel inside him had won.  Even as every male instinct and ego was telling him to do it, and a devil slapping him silly for his decision, a little angel had won out, and he had explained he wasn’t in love with her and it should be someone special like that to do the honors.  Lexa’s eyes had started sparkling more than they already were - and how eyes could sparkle he didn’t know - and told him, still nervous, but in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t with him either, he couldn’t hurt her feelings, that she considered him special, and it was simply time for her to have sex, wanting a nice night, that he tickled her fancy, and that if he declined, she’d do it with the first male she’d walk into.  Angel, instinct, ego and devil had aligned as one behind him, slapped his shoulder supportively and told him, “Make us proud.”

And he would make them proud, he would.  The memory made him smile with a bit of a predator in there, which made Lexa kiss him ferociously.  They aligned with the bed, and he felt her soft fingers roam all over his torso.  He pushed her head down on her pillow with his own, kissing all the way.  He broke the kiss, and gave her a meaningful look.  Then he went downward.

Lexa looked as Jonathan went down, passed her breasts, both to her excitement and disappointment.  Was he really going . . .?  His head went down to her body, and then kissed her gently just above her moist sex.  He wasn’t.  She found it didn’t matter, he was starting to kiss and kiss and kiss.  Slowly placing kisses from left to right and slowly upward, then right to left, up, and left to right again.  By the third kiss she was already hooked, moaning with mounting desire and pleasure, as he slowly kissed his way up her body and made her skin surge with ecstasy.  He reached her breasts, and she was desperate for him to kiss and fondle them.  He ignored them.  Once again it didn’t matter; the pleasurable kisses and rubbing of her skin continued above them, and she was at their mercy.  She couldn’t keep still as the sensation demanded she gyrated her body, and rubbed her inner thighs and arms together to get some stimulation.  Yet, oddly, she couldn’t move; moaning and shivering, she could only remain flailing about in the same spot, enduring the pleasure.  The kisses went up her neck, and then he nibbled her right earlobe, gently laying down on her as he did so.  Her arms wrapped around him, and rubbed up and down his back, as she kissed him back on his face wherever she could reach.

This was torture.  His manhood was so hard it ached.  He wanted to be in her.  ‘Don’t just pay attention to the obvious, a woman’s body is one entire erogenous zone.’  That was in the article he remembered reading.  The plan had been to go to her right arm right now, then her right leg, her left leg, then her left arm, and only then go to the obvious.  But he was a hormonal teenager, the arms and legs could go to hell.  He’d be the one going to hell if he didn’t get to enjoy those obvious parts right now.  Rapidly he left the earlobe, and fondled and squeezed her breasts, kissing and licking them, especially paying attention to the nipples - and even having the nerve to very gently scrape his teeth over them.

“Please,” Lexa moaned in pleading.  This was torture.  Delicious torture that she’d happily undergo for another hour, and more, but torture still.  She was about ready to explode, every bit of the skin where he had kissed felt like it was hyper sensitive.  The occasional brush of his teeth against her skin sent jolts of pleasure shooting through her body.  Jonathan gave in to her pleading, although not quite the way Lexa had in mind.  He went down, pulled her outer lips gently apart, sucked and licked around for a bit for the experience and taste, and then flicked his tongue over her clit, mixing it up with sucking.  With the way he had built Lexa up, it didn’t take any more.  Her back arched involuntarily, muscles in her stomach clenched and unclenched, and a rush of bliss shot through her body.  “I’m coming!  Oh, god, I’m coming!  Nnngh!” Lexa exclaimed as the climax took her away from the world.

As quickly as it came, the pleasure ebbed away, leaving the part-time girl in a pleasant after glow.  Jonathan rose back up, marveling at the taste.  “You’re delicious,” he said, licking his lips.  Lexa laughed deliriously for a bit.

Jonathan was still impatient, so he asked, “You ready?”

The question penetrated Lexa’s mind, slowly rising from the afterglow.  “I am, you’re not quite,” Lexa muttered and gestured to the night stand to her right.

Jonathan frowned.  He leaned over and opened it, revealing its contents, including a strip of condoms his eyes focused instantly on.  A lot of condoms for a virgin.  As he reached over he asked nervously, “Are you really a virgin?”

“Uhuh,” Lexa answered, to much enjoying herself to really understand or care where the question might be coming from.

It didn’t sound like a lie.  The square package containing the condom tore from the strip, and then Jonathan remembered.  She lived with her cousin Xander, didn’t she?  This had to be his stash she borrowed for the night!  Stupid square package, he thought as he fumbled with the annoying thing.  Finally it tore open and he took the yellow-colored see-through condom out.  It took him a moment of figuring the thing out, another few moments of fumbling, but he got it on.

“Now you’re ready,” Lexa purred, looking Jonathan up and down with unbridled lust.  If the delay and the fumbling had gotten him soft, that statement would have been enough to make him hard again in an instant.  Instead the instant was used by him to get back in position and bend down over her, so they’re lips could meet and they could kiss.  He squeezed her breasts gently for a moment, before he aligned himself with the moist heaven waiting for him.

This was it.  He was going to lose his virginity, he could hardly believe it.  He didn’t waste time dwelling on it though, and simply placed the tip of member at the entrance of her vagina.  He looked in her eyes, and she told him breathlessly, “Do it.”  He grabbed her waist, and pushed in gently, looking down at it.  He shivered as he felt her warm and moist flesh envelop him, and heard her moan out with delight.

The feeling of his thick member pushing her flesh aside to enter was heaven.  His cock slid along the walls of her vagina, the friction sending magnificent sensations through her.   She moaned, closing her eyes to focus completely on the magnificent sensation.  This was it.   She opened her eyes again, and looked up in his face.  He had reached her hymen, she could feel it resting against it.  Her heart thumped in her throat as she took him in, her hands on his upper arms as they were holding him.  My god how much she wanted him to do it.

Jonathan’s hesitation at feeling the tip of his penis through the condom against the obstruction was only momentary.  He had already figured out that Lexa wanted to enjoy being taken by him; and wimping out now, or hesitating too long would defeat that.  He pushed through the obstruction, hard, but remaining as gentle as he could.  He figured he rather hurt her a bit and be through, than failing to penetrate her virginity and having to try again.  Some pain, but once, he figured, was preferable to getting a thin, fragile, sensitive piece of skin pounded multiple times.

“Urgh,” Lexa groaned out, feeling his cock decisively and painfully push through.  A moment of pain, followed by a dull ache, that didn’t go away as his cock pushed deep inside her.  Despite the pain, she felt not a moment’s need to tell him to stop or pull out.  In fact, the need to have him completely inside only intensified, while she gripped his upper hands as he used them to stay up.  His right arm moved, and she let go of it, groaning as her insides continued to be stimulated.  She felt his right gently move to the small of her back and pull her pelvis, making for an easier angle for her.  “Ooh,” she grunted out as their pubic bones met.  His face was above her, and he gently laid down upon her, and she moved her own arms to encircle his shoulders and back.

“You okay?” he asked her a little concerned, keeping his hard member buried fully inside her to let her get used to it.

Was she okay?  The painful ache, no longer agitated by the friction flesh sliding against flesh, was now pulsing gently with every beat of her heart.  It probably meant she was bleeding just a little.  A handsome, gentle, masculine and in charge lover had his erection penetrated inside her.  Her sex was stretched to accommodate him.  Her muscles fluttering occasionally with approval, and desires to squeeze her channel around him hit her, fueling her lust for him.  Her entire body was surging with it, and was stimulated by him laying gently on top of her.  And she could feel his muscles - even the geek had some - in his back gently flex underneath her hand - telling her he wanted to thrust inside him.  Was she okay?  She was better than okay.

“Fuck me,” she said with a voice just above a whisper, dripping every bit of desire she felt for him.

Jonathan took that as a ‘yes’, and needed no more encouragement.  He pulled back, and gently thrust back in, making Lexa moan.  He waited a moment, as he made sure the moan was of pleasure, not pain.  Then pulled back again, and thrust back in, faster this time.  His patience and control slipped rapidly; the wet, warm, and tight emersion was just too good.   His rhythm steadily increased, until he was going full speed on instinctive need alone.

The thrusts increased with strength and speed inside her.  The friction and power as the hard penis stabbed into her were magnificent.  Lexa groaned with happiness, undulating her body against his without much focus.  She didn’t quite know where to go with her hands, so they were wandering without much direction across his body.  He had much the same trouble, but as before, it didn’t matter.  Both of them were running on instinct now, Jonathan thrusting into her, and Lexa moving her hips up to receive his thrusts and moaning with pleasure with each one.  Time and place were gone from her experience, only his body pressing against hers, and the sensation of his hard cock repeatedly penetrating her deeply were left.  Occasionally there was still a jolt of pain as he pistoled along the sore area, but she didn’t care.  The pleasure and her desire far outstripped them.  Still high from her orally-induced orgasm, she was rising quickly to her second one.

It was good thing too, for Jonathan would never last long this very first time.  It all felt too good.  She was too tight, and her body riding against his enthusiastically, emitting moans and groans of pleasure were all too much.  The whole event lasted no more than six and a half minutes.  That’s when Lexa couldn’t hold it anymore, her body tightened and a new orgasm claimed her, moaning and groaning out her pleasure, as well as the name of the one giving them all to her.  Jonathan’s answer to the gasping out of his name, was to call out, “Oh, god.” And a moment later he came himself, spilling his seed with desperate jerks and thrusts into the condom.  Their lips met but moments later, Lexa desperately kissing her first lover while his body still jerked in orgasm, and squirted his cum into the piece of plastic inside her.  Not long after the tension in his muscles disappeared, as did his jerking.  Their lips broke apart as she slid down on top of her, two sweaty and satisfied bodies lying together.

“Oh, wow,” Jonathan muttered, his body taking in hard, deep breaths.

Lexa was sucking in breath equally, and said, “Yeah.”  He was still inside her, and it felt good, even when he slowly started to grow smaller and softer.  Hating to say it, preferring to remain entangled and breathing together, she said, “You gotta . . . take of condom before you . . . grow too soft.”

“Oh, right,” Jonathan said, and forced himself to his knees.  He smiled down at her for a moment, marveling, and then carefully took a hold of the condom, and pulled his softening penis and condom from Lexa’s sex.  Once he’d taken it off, and looked around for a dustbin with a frown.

“Just dump it on the floor, and get back with me,” Lexa said with a friendly and tired tone.  “I’ll clean it up later.”

With a nod Jonathan complied, sliding back down and beside Lexa.  “That was amazing,” he said, looking at Lexa with marvel.

She nodded, a little giddy, and then kissed him on the lips.

*****

Moments earlier, on the other side of the door, a not all too dissimilar activity took place. With a final grunt Scott emptied his balls into his very own condom, and Faith moaned as she finished riding him, and herself, to orgasm.  She sank down on him, and purred lightly, smiling in satisfaction at the couch bed holding up to a nice round of sex.  Scott looked at the ceiling with a satisfied grin, Faith was good at this.

A moment later Faith sat up, and she got up off him fully, she said, “Alright, get rid of the condom, and then you can go.”

“What?” Scott asked confused, looking at Faith as she ran her hands through her hair to make herself more presentable.

“Come now, you didn’t think you could spend the night, did you?  I got you here for the sex.  Sex is done.  Time to go,” Faith said as she reached for her panties discarded earlier.

“But . . .” Scott tried in confused disbelief.

“No buts,” Faith interrupted wiggling her panties over her ass, “get dressed.  If you’re not by the time I get back from saving my friend from the other idiot male, I’m tossing you out naked - and you better hope I have enough mind to give you your clothes.”  Satisfied her vagina was safely locked behind a pair of thin panties, she strode over to the bedroom door, and to Scott’s astonishment purposefully opened it.

“Alright, I heard you finishing up!” Faith exclaimed with a smile, clapping her hands to get attention.  Lexa and Jonathan sat up, the covers keeping them covered up to their chests. They looked with dropped jaws and confused frowns at Faith’s arrival, listening to her speak. “You’ve had your fun, time to go.”

“Time to go?” Jonathan and Lexa echoed and looked at each other, as Faith walked up to the bed with determination.

“Hut, hut,” Faith said, walking over to Jonathan and reaching for him.  “Don’t complain now.  The sex is over, it’s all done, you’re not getting anything else out of us.  Pick up your clothes, and go home.”

Lexa looked at the event with some attempts to not accept what she was seeing.  While Jonathan desperately grasped for the pieces of his clothing, he tried, “But . . .”

“No buts,” Faith said, half pushing half pulling Jonathan along and putting some more effort into it, “Be lucky you got this much out of us, now it’s over.  You gotta teach these guys we’re our own women, Lexa, not their little play toys.”  Jonathan stumbled as Faith moved him along, and he desperately tried to keep his clothes in his hands.  They passed through the door leaving a stunned Lexa behind, her mind still catching up with what was happening.

Faith marched with single determination toward the front door of the apartment, dragging a lightly protesting Jonathan along.  “Scott,” she said, looking at her sex partner for the night.  Scott, finished with his pants and socks, needed to look only one moment Faith dragging Jonathan along, stumbling about trying not to fall to the floor, to know that he had no interest in such treatment.  He quickly gathered his blouse and shoes and hurried to the front door.  Faith opened it, and pushed the still naked Jonathan holding on to his clothes out the door.  Scott quickly joined the guy out in the hallway.  “Thanks for coming, see ya,” Faith said, and all but slammed the door closed, smiling satisfactory.

Scott and Jonathan looked at the closed door with wide eyes, the last of the air displacement still making their hair move.  After a moment they turned to look at each other, both equally stunned.  Putting on his blouse, Scott was just about to offer a sympathetic comment, when a high-pitched yowl of pain sounded from behind the closed door.  Said door was yanked open with equal fervor as it had been closed, once more displacing air, this time into the opposite direction.  An angry Lexa Horne, naked and with obvious flexing muscles, was a fearful sight to behold.  That very same angry Lexa Horne holding a previously equally intimidating Faith by a twisted right ear, now whimpering and yelping for her friend to let go, was down right terrifying.  Not surprisingly then, when that sight greeted the two guys, they stiffened up fearfully and took an involuntary shuffle back, ready to run for their lives if need be.  “Jonathan, get back in here,” Lexa said with command, pointing her free, right thumb over her shoulder into the apartment.  Jonathan didn’t need to be told twice - Lexa was not someone he wanted to cross right now, and he was naked out in a hallway, holding his clothes in a best effort to remain decent.

As Jonathan quickly waddled back inside, Lexa started walking toward the couch, making Faith whimper after her.  “Now, listen here, Faith,” Lexa said angrily, easily pulling Faith along and making her sit on the couch, “tossing your guy out before he’s even dressed is wrong in so many ways I don’t even want to count them, but pulling /my/ guy out of bed, and tossing him out without one piece of clothing on, without even bothering to check whether we’re actually done, or whether I even want him gone when we are, is just plain completely and totally screwed up.  I don’t know the way you roll, Faith, but once doesn’t cut it for me and my guy, and I want to wake up with my head on his chest.  So, Faith, /you/ are going to remain right here, and go to sleep, /you/, Jonathan . . .” Lexa turned and pointed at the guy, the same finger that had been accusingly pointed at Faith throughout Lexa’s rant, “. . . go to the bedroom, and /you/ . . .”  Lexa turned to Scott standing just outside the open doorway and paused.  Scott straightened at the pointed finger and command, his eyes wide, and his right hand unconsciously pointing at his chest, as if to say, ‘Me?’  A moment went by, and Lexa’s brain caught up with her actions.  She finished with a disinterested frown, “Yeah, I really don’t care what you do.”

Lexa let go of Faith’s ear, and the whimpering girl let out a hiss, her right hand immediately at her ear to massage her aching flesh.  Lexa turned and walked toward Jonathan waiting at the bedroom door with face full of marvel.  Half-way there, Lexa turned her torso around, continuing to walk onward and pointing at Faith, she said, “Oh, and Faith, tomorrow you and I are going to have a /long/ talk.”  She turned back around and reached Jonathan, and reaching for his face, she prompted, “So?”

This whole deal, seeing Lexa lay down the law to Faith, getting him back to the bedroom and her confidence in his prowess had been quite a turn on.  Enough of a turn on he found himself getting hard again, and he said, “Oh, I’m ‘up’ for round two if you are.”

“If that isn’t exactly what I wanted to hear,” Lexa said with a purr, and kissed him deeply.  She closed the door behind them as they shuffled to the bed.

Scott remained motionless for a moment, watching a stunned Faith rub her painful ear.   Then he closed the apartment door, and said softly to himself, “Well, that was different.”   Still, he had gotten to have sex with a hot chick, so all in all it had been a good night.  With a light smile, he walked toward the apartment complex exit.

*****

Jonathan awoke with a groan, and looked around him.  He took in the bedroom that had gotten rather familiar last night, and noticed Lexa missing from the bed.  He smiled as he took his sweet time remembering the night before, laying back down to do so.  Lexa riding on top of him was a memory he particularly liked.  Her lips and tongue wrapped around his member wasn’t a bade one either.  And then of course there was the mutually losing each other’s virginity, taking hers, that would remain a big one for the rest of his life.  Okay . . . so he particularly liked all of them.  After a little bit he got up, and got his boxers from the floor and put them on.  He opened the bedroom door and entered the apartment.  Light easily streamed in through the balcony windows looking out to the beach.  Faith was on her couch bed, and going by how her breathing was even and she occasionally shifted her position, she was still asleep.

Lexa was nowhere to be seen, but the sound of a running shower came from the bathroom across the room.  Bathroom, Jonathan identified and walked over to the door leading to it.  He found the door lock was white, indicated it was unlocked.  Lexa had not locked the door.  A moment he hesitated, but he figured she wouldn’t mind the guy she’d had sex with the last time, lost her virginity to, walking in on her shower.  In fact . . . there might even be some continuation.  Oh!  Jonathan reached for the handle, and thought to himself, *You’ve been corrupted.  Oh, thank you, God!*

Inside Xander stepped out the shower and turned it off.  He went for the wash bin in the middle of the bathroom, and looked himself in the mirror.  He grinned.  Last night may have started disastrous with Shaten, but one Jonathan Levinson had salvaged it.  It had been magnificent in fact.  He still remembered his gentle hands, the goosebumps going over his flesh, his manhood entering his vagina - the pleasure.  And then round 2 and 3, he could still remember the taste . . .

The bathroom door opened and in stepped the subject of the memories.  Xander’s head turned to face it, and froze.  Damn it!  Spend a year without anyone and you’ve gotten the habit of not bothering to lock the bathroom door.  Faith had walked in on him, or her, several times already and complained about it.  She was right, as this situation aptly demonstrated - had got to start reminding himself to lock the stupid bathroom door.

Jonathan froze as he noticed a male figure instead of the expected female one.   XANDER!  The Xander that had been protecting his cousin for over a year from abusive males.  And here he stood, the guy who only just took his cousin’s virginity.  In a moment he would put two and two together, and there’d be one more dead Jonathan.  Xander was going to kill him!  Or at least seriously maim him.  He couldn’t fight Xander Harris!  The guy used to be a dork, and the popular crowd threatened by him still treated and designated him that way, but most people realized - Xander Harris had returned last year a different guy - a very powerful, very fast guy.  He was so screwed.

“Oh, hey Jonathan,” Xander greeted, a little nervous.  Last night, he, or perhaps rather she, had never bothered to question whether Jonathan was aware of her two-gender state, whether he had realized it, or someone had told him.  He’d had other thoughts on his mind. And thus, today Xander still didn’t know.

“Uh,” Jonathan prompted at the casual greeting.  No dismemberment?  “Good morning, you didn’t lock the door.”

“Yeah, do that sometimes,” Xander returned, and then Jonathan turned back around while closing the door behind him.

Jonathan nervously walked back into the apartment, and nervously started thinking about the situation.  Did Xander simply not know yet?  Or did he approve of his cousin’s choice?   Would he be able to flee if ‘yes’ to the first question and ‘no’ to the second once he found out?  Wait a minute . . . where the hell was /Lexa/?  It was that last question popping in his mind that started crystallizing things - especially since he was a comic book fan and he’d always known if one person disappears from just beside you, a super hero comes to save the day, and the person reappears again moments after the super hero disappears again, he’d know the person was the super hero.  He might play along, but he’d know.

Maybe Lexa was just out doing groceries or something.  It could work, it was after all a 100% guy and a 100% girl.  No doubt about that one.  But he had never seen Lexa and Xander in the same room, had he?  And Jonathan was not oblivious to the supernatural.  In fact, he was a little of a spell caster himself.  Nothing impressive really, a few items of protection and such.  Not like Amy and Willow, who sometimes joined him and a few others in a few Wicca rituals.  Those two were being taught by Ms. Calendar, and some of their little group had asked if they could be too.

His eyes fell on the door that would lead to the room right next to the bedroom he had spent the night in, on the left side of the apartment from the entrance.  The door he had figured led to Xander’s bedroom once he remembered Lexa and him shared an apartment.  If that was a bedroom too.  He walked over, reasonably swiftly, but silently, not wanting to wake Faith.   He reached the door, and put his hand on the handle.  *Let it be a bedroom!  Let it be a bedroom!* Jonathan thought.  Then he opened the door . . . a gym.  Not a bedroom.  A gym. Silently, feeling himself grow a little pale, he closed the door in the exact reverse movement he had opened it . . . and kept the handle tightly in hand for support.

Xander entered the living room from the bathroom, wearing only a towel that reached from his waist to almost his knees.  He was still glistening from water, not having the time to properly dry off, but he wasn’t soaking wet anymore either.  Xander seemed nervous.  “Uh, hey,” Xander said, he’d spent quite a while deciding whether he would turn into Lexa before coming out, wondering if Jonathan had figured it out, whether he even knew before hand, and if he could keep it a secret if he hadn’t yet.  Not that he particularly cared about keeping his double gender state a secret, it was just that the guy he lost his female virginity to knowing right now might not be the most pleasant experience.

“You’re Lexa, aren’t you?” Jonathan blurted out.  An uncomfortable silence followed for a moment, while Jonathan waited nervously.

“Yes,” Xander admitted solemnly.  Again silence for a moment, and then Xander took a few steps forward, maneuvering the furniture and kicked out against Faith’s bed-couch. “Faith!” he called at the same time.

“Huh?  What?” Faith said, jerking to a sitting position as she awoke, looking blearily left and right, alertness rapidly returning to her.

“Get out,” Xander said, making Faith focus on him - Xander - uncomprehending.  “Get lost for an hour, will ya?”

Xander!?  In a towel!?  Last night they’d had sex, not with each other, and he had made pretty clear that the boy he’d, or rather she’d, had had sex with wasn’t leaving until the morning.  So either the guy had already left . . . wait, leave?  She turned half around, and looked straight at a white-faced Jonathan, who seemed torn between just wanting her gone, or be gone himself.  She turned back to Xander, looked up at him, and said, “Forgot to lock the bathroom door again, didn’t ya?”  He glared at her.  “Fine, I’m going already, give you and your boyfriend some privacy,” Faith said, gathering up articles of clothing of last night, and started putting them on, bare necessities first.  She didn’t see Jonathan grow paler, and Xander attempting a disarming, apologetic smile.  “You know, this wouldn’t have happened if you’d just let me toss him out,” Faith said, and almost winced at her own words.  The talk Lexa had promised last night, was going to be worse now, she just knew it.  In fact, fearing a good ass kicking for the comment she sped off even faster than she had been intending.  She opened the door, left the apartment, and closed it behind her again, while still putting on articles of clothing.

Once gone, Xander walked into his kitchen, only separated by the counter with the rest of the apartment.  “Don’t mind her comments, and you’re not /my/ boyfriend,” Xander said, managing to sound reasonably laid back.  He figured that things would go over better if he was in his girl form, so he opened the cold water faucet, and splashed some on his face.  Lexa rose, topless, and smiled at Jonathan who was taking in the change with wide eyes.  “Fell into a cursed pool in China.  Now I’m a girl with some cold water, and back to being good old Xander with some warm water,” Lexa explained with a smile, and found to her relief that Jonathan’s eyes lingered on her bare breasts.  If he could still be attracted to her breasts, she hadn’t broken him completely.  She started walking back, from where she came, so she’d be walking into the apartment, closer to the furniture where she was planning to have this conversation, and closer to Jonathan.  She untied the towel and pulled it up to retie it over her breasts at the same time, and even more at the same time, she said, “You’re not a deviant, or a homosexual or anything like that you know.  Even if that’s nothing that would make you a bad person.”  She leaned her right hand gently on the television, smiled, and took a striking posing, bending her left leg at the knee - of course, in nothing but a short towel it was rather difficult to find a pose that was not striking.

Jonathan for his part, was drinking in Lexa.  She was glistening with water, the towel barely concealing the globes of her breasts, and it barely got below her crotch.  At her behind in fact, from his vantage point, he could just see the curve of her very shapely ass from the side, and it was decidedly below the towel.  Her magnificent legs, both muscular and soft he knew from personal experience, glistened as well, and naked it only heightened their curvaceous form, not to mention the equally curvaceous form of the girl.  If only she didn’t have black hair, and was a geek like himself, someone who could talk back to him about Captain Picard versus Kirk, the Enterprise versus Defiant, the Defiant versus the Millennium Falcon, Sam Beckett meeting the Doctor or even jumping into the Doctor, and more of those things.  If that were the case, he’d be interested in her for a lot more than her body and sex with that body.

. . . And if she wasn’t a guy half the time of course.

A smile formed at that thought, and felt the nervousness recede, and warmth returning to his cheeks.  After all, he might not be interesting in sharing his life with a girl that was a guy half the time, he hadn’t had sex with the guy, he had sex with the girl.  He had sex with a super hot girl of his school, and he didn’t think anyone but a few knew she was a guy half the time anyway.  Correction - he’d taken the /hottest/ /girl/ /of/ /his/ /school’s/ */Virginity/*!  So what if she turned into a guy with water through a curse?

“I’m glad you can still smile,” Lexa said, grinning widely herself, knowing whatever more was coming couldn’t be that bad now.  She walked over to the bed-couch, and folded it, and Faith’s sheets along with it, back into a couch, saying, “Come on, sit down.”  When the bed was a couch once more, she sat down in the corner of the other, to Jonathan leftmost, couch, that together with the chair made a right corner with couch and bed combo.  She patted the other couch with encouragement.

“Okay,” Jonathan answered and walked over, for a moment thinking of sitting far away, but then went all the way to the corner where Lexa had patted, and sat down in it.  He looked at her, in her smiling face, the deep brown eyes.  It took some effort not to look down at the parts of Lexa’s breasts peaking out over the towel.

“We’re good right?” Lexa said to break the silence, still a little uncertain.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re hot!” Jonathan answered, getting more enthusiastic.

“Thanks,” Lexa replied.

“No, seriously, you’re so hot!” Jonathan said again, letting his eyes pointedly glide from top to bottom and back up again, drinking in her form.  “Look at you, who in is right mind can still care about the guy thing?  If you were a guy just wearing girls’ clothes, but you’re a real girl.”

“Why thank you,” Lexa started with a slightly mocking tone, “it’s so good to know that the guy I was born as means so much to you.”  If Lexa wasn’t smirking at him, he’d be bashing his own head in at his stupidity.  Then he looked away with a huge blush.  “What?” Lexa asked him, her smirk going down.

“I uh . . .”

“Come on,” she demanded.

Jonathan looked back at her, and managed to somehow force out, “Was I good?”

Lexa smirked again, thought about it a moment, and said, “Well, to be honest, I have nothing to remark on your foreplay, you should work a little on your stamina, and be a little more diverse in your thrusts, both form, and strength and speed . . .”  Jonathan looked at her with a stony face.  “. . . but yeah, you were good, good enough to get me off more than once.   For it being your first time, I’d think that gets transferred up to phenomenal.”  She smiled at him, and his stony face broke in a big smile.

“Really?” he prompted, both relieved and hardly believed it.

Lexa nodded with a smile, which then faltered with some nervousness, “And me?  How was I?”

“You need to ask?” he wondered stunned.

Lexa shrugged embarrassed, explaining, “I know what guys like, after all, and I think I succeeded, but still; knowing it, and doing it are different things, aren’t they?”  She suddenly looked concerned, and added, “I didn’t nick you accidentally, did I?  ‘Cause . . .”

“You were great,” he told her with a grin, and he was struck by the situation.  Discussing this with a girl would be odd enough, discussing it with a girl that was a guy half the time, and he knew the guy too, was awkward.

“We’ve got some time still, till Faith returns, we can talk some.  What’s been going on in your life, besides me?” she asked, relaxing back into the couch.

“Uh, not much, really,” Jonathan admitted, putting his hands down in front of him, his back arched with some anxiety.

“Really, I thought you’d gotten popular with the girls after I told everyone you’re handsome?” Lexa asked him with a relaxed tone and pose.

Jonathan shook his head, and leaned back with a sigh, telling her, “Didn’t last. Apparently I have too much deficiencies you couldn’t notice with a single look to be overcome with being declared handsome.”  Lexa frowned, he doubted even the geek would say it like that.  Some girl must have said those words to him.  What those ‘deficiencies’ were Lexa could tell pretty easily.  Big bad number 1: clothes.  She didn’t really care, especially not in choice for bed partners, but yeah, her critical eye could see that Jonathan’s clothes weren’t very flattering on him.

“Well, you could do with-”

“Lexa,” Jonathan interrupted her, and frowned, “Xander, you know, talking like we’re good male friends . . . kinda freaky when you’re a girl.”

“Oh, right,” Lexa said, frowning.  With a smile she got up and went to the kitchen.  She got two empty bottles and filled one with warm water and the other with cold.  After applying the warm water, and putting the towel downward again, Xander returned.  “Better?”

“Yeah,” Jonathan replied, nodding.

*****

After some knocks on the door, a familiar voice called out, “Hey, Lex!  It’s been an hour, can I come back in, yet?”

“An hour!” Jonathan blurted out at Lexa.  They’d had a pleasant conversation, once in a while Xander changing into Lexa and back again, every time something came up that didn’t sound right coming from whatever gender toward the guy who took the female side’s virginity.  “Oh, god!  My parents are going to kill me!  Bad enough I didn’t come back home, now . . .”  Jonathan was off to the bedroom, to put on his clothes.

“You can come in!” Lexa called out, and Faith walked inside.  Not long after Faith stepped back into the apartment, Jonathan, reasonably dressed, raced out of it, giving Lexa a hasty goodbye.  “So,” Lexa said, looking Faith who stood waiting just in front of the door.

“Big talk?” Faith asked, and watched Lexa turn herself back into Xander with one of the bottles.

“Right after I get dressed,” Xander said, looking at Faith who gulped.  She’d never seen him look at her which such a serious gaze before, nor had he ever turned into Xander just to talk to her.  That could only signify this wasn’t going to be smooth and easy.

Faith waited nervously, sitting herself down on the couch.  She knew what this was about, after all, if someone had run in on her having sex and pulled her partner out she’d be pissed too.  She didn’t even know why she did it in the first place.

Xander returned, wearing a loose shirt and jeans, and sat down opposite Faith on the other couch, Xander was now in Jonathan’s spot, and Faith where he had been sitting when talking with Jonathan.  “Faith,” Xander said heavily, “what you did last night . . . Tossing your own guy out is bad enough, Faith, but walking into my room and attempting it with Jonathan is just . . . wrong.  I don’t know how to put it more gravely.  What were you thinking?”

“I know, I know, it was wrong,” Faith answered Xander’s accusation, shifting nervously in the couch.  “I will never do it again, and I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I don’t believe you,” Xander said matter-of-factly, Faith looking up with a hurt expression.  “I think you do know what you were thinking.  I think you just don’t /want/ to know what you were thinking.  Try Faith, just think back, go over the events again, and remember.”

Faith kept her eyes on him for a few moments, processing what Xander had said to her.   She understood he wasn’t saying she was lying.  After a few more moments of doubt, she finally nodded, and said, “I’ll try.”  She closed her eyes and thought back, putting herself back in that position.  She had just fucked Scott, she’d heard Lexa’s moans and cries of pleasure through the walls.  And then . . . and then . . .  Faith opened her eyes, and looked down at the floor.

“Well?” Xander prompted gently.

Faith looked up at him, and then said, “I felt . . . I felt like I needed to protect you.”

“From what?  Or who?” Xander asked her, both genuinely curious as well as already having a good idea and wanting Faith to spill it herself.  “Jonathan can’t even come close to hurting me.  And you know it.”

“Not physically,” Faith countered, half embarrassed, half defiant.

“You really thought geeky Jonathan had it in him to somehow make me fall in love with him, and then use and degrade me, before tossing me out like a used rag, and leave me behind broken and weeping for the rest of my life?” Xander asked astonished.  Faith just looked contrite at him.  “Have you seen him?  I don’t think he has it in him to hurt a fly!  Which could actually make me fall in love with him, but he wouldn’t hurt me ever.”

Faith remained silent, just thinking - trying to marry Jonathan Levinson with hurting Lexa in any shape or form.  She couldn’t, and yet inside of her something boiled that refused to acknowledge it, convinced he could hurt Lexa, Faith - any girl.  Xander spoke again, “Is that the only reason?”  Faith remained silent, not knowing what to say.  Xander continued, “You know, you might wanna try something longer than just a quickie with guys, you know?   Let them stay the night, perhaps.  At least let them put on their clothes before they have to go.”

Faith was silent for a moment, and then she looked up angrily, eyes filled with anguish. “I don’t need your judgement, you’re just the same like everyone else, man or woman, after all!  I do what I like, and I don’t need to justify myself!  You either wanna fuck me, screw me over, or call me a slut!”  Faith got up abruptly, and started to storm out of the apartment.

“Faith!” Xander called and got up.  He reached Faith as she arrived at the exit, and managed to grab Faith’s upper arm.  He pulled her around and said, “Faith, I’m not judging you.”  Faith looked up, her head still in his unyielding, but gentle grip, a slight surprise at the speed with which Xander had caught up in her bloodshot eyes.  The rest of them were filled with defiance, anger and pain.  “You can do whatever you like, I’m not telling you what to do. One night stands are not wrong, I’ve had them myself, last night for example, as a girl with a guy, like you.  I’m just offering some alternatives.”  Xander didn’t mention out loud that one of the one-night-stands hadn’t been intended to be one, because that wasn’t important.  “It’s just that, if you meet every guy with that unchangeable attitude, you’ll never get to enjoy companionship, comfort, love . . .”

“Doesn’t exist; it’s for the naive, a good screw is the best you can hope for in this shitty life,” Faith said defiantly.

“Then what are you doing with us?” Xander asked pointedly.  Faith’s eyes widened, then yanked her arm free, and started marching back into apartment to pace broodingly.  Xander kept up, and asked, “You know, whatever happened, not every guy is like that.”

Faith’s lips trembled, and looked around.  The apartment felt like a prison all of a sudden.  She wanted to get out, a small part of her even wanted to pack up and leave altogether.  Faith paced and back and forth like a caged tiger.

After a few moments, with Xander waiting patiently, Faith stopped her pacing; looking down at her feet with sudden need, her hands balled into fists, and her arms tense.  Xander simply waited, keeping Faith in his gaze.  After another moment, though, he felt Faith needed more, and took a step forward, gently placed his hands on Faith’s shoulders.  “What happened,” Xander asked, his voice just above a whisper.

Very softly, Faith managed to utter just one word.  “Raped.”

“Oh, god,” Xander said weakly and took Faith into a crushing hug.  The Potential Slayer just let herself be held at first, fighting back her emotions; feeling weak and foolish for having admitted it, even more that it was a male that was holding her, a guy, one of the evil ones, but eventually her emotions broke out.  She wished she could be more like Lexa; cool and competent and powerful and skillful, she would never get in this position.

Xander gently maneuvered the crying Faith to a couch and sat down, pulling the girl tightly into his embrace.  He simply kept holding the brunette.  The girl had obviously been bottling up everything, and the whole emotional clash between him, her and the events of the night before had made it all come bubbling up, and she had no longer been able to keep it all contained.  Making her jump from one tangent to the next until she finally released the cause of it.  He gently stroked the hair of the sobbing girl, her torso shaking with the effort.  For Faith it was both heaven and hell.  She had promised herself she’d never have anything to do with a man like this ever again, and here she was.  But at the same time, this was Lexa, her best female friend, and throughout the weeks of being here, she’d never once seen an inkling that she/he was bad.  That this was the genuine article - a good person.  It felt good to cry in his arms, and yet a voice kept telling her he was going to use her as all the others, regardless of his gender.

Faith had finally worked up enough courage to face her idol despite the embarrassment of breaking down in tears with her . . . him.  She lifted her head, just her head, and looked up in his eyes.  His kind eyes looked back into hers, giving her strength.  “I was fourteen.  It was the neighbor, he wasn’t a stranger so I let him in the apartment.  While my mom . . . was drunk . . . passed out in her room . . . he forced me in my own bed,” Faith managed to hiccup, and felt Xander’s embrace tighten around her, almost to the point of hurting, but it only made the hug feel better.  Tears streaked down her cheeks, which were red and puffy, while he eyes were wide with pain.  “Spent a year . . . looking over my shoulder . . . decided to trust a guy . . . like twenty-five or so.  He always hung around school . . . always talked to me and some other girls . . . was always understanding and gave gifts.  He-he was good in bed, really.  Then he said that I needed to pay him back . . . for all the gifts, and I should get a job.”  She tightened her embrace of Xander and whimpered as she remember.  “He had a job for me . . . if I didn’t have one . . . have sex with other guys like him.”

Faith remained quiet for a bit, and Xander asked gently, not a hint of judgement in his voice, “Did you?”

Faith shook her head and pressed it back down against his shoulder.  “Got wise through the neighbor, just the same guy, just nastier and with sneakier methods, told him to fuck off . . . beat me up for it.  My Watcher found me a little later.”

“Faith, I promise you, not all guys are like that.  Most aren’t,” Xander told the slowly sobbing Faith.  “I’m not disappointed with you either, not for crying, not for falling for a sick bastard like that, not for getting raped.  None of it is your fault.  In fact, I admire you’re strength, you never gave up, you fought demons and vampires, and survived to be here.  You are strong, you hear me?  Needing comfort from friends is not weak, everybody needs somebody.  I think you’re even strong enough to see that not all guys are like that.  Scott isn’t.”

“I just fucked him,” Faith murmured with a little annoyance.

“Then you wouldn’t have been flirting with him when you got here, and remained interested enough to hijack him away from another girl,” Xander told her gently, stroking her hair and back.  “Nor would you have been so desperate of getting both of them out of our apartment before he was even finished dressing.  You were afraid, weren’t you?  Afraid another evil guy could get to you?”

Faith steadfastly did not look up, confirming with her silence.  “After last night, he’ll hate me anyway,” she told him with audible pout, the crying already dried up, the last hiccups going away as well.

“Of course not; you fucked his brains out,” Xander said with a smile, a new hiccup coming from Faith, but this one obviously coming from humor, not sadness.  “He might be pissed, you’ll have to do some apologizing, maybe even a little groveling, but he doesn’t hate you, nor will he reject you.  Trust me, I’ve gone to school with him most of my teenage years - he’s one of the good ones.  You don’t have to of course, nor do you have to do it right away, but just think about giving him a chance to surprise you.”

Faith slowly sat up, her face still red and puffy, but she was obviously cried out, and almost ready to take on the world.  “You think he won’t hurt me?” Faith asked with a small voice, a little hope filtering through.

“He’ll hurt you,” Xander denied, making Faith look at him with wide eyes.  “But he’ll do it accidentally, he won’t do it intentionally, and he’ll wish he could somehow take the hurt back, go back in time and not do what he did to hurt you.  He’ll never be malicious like the two you told me about.  You’ll undoubtedly hurt him too, hell, you already did last night.”

Faith let the words penetrate her brain, and finally said, “I’ll think about it.”

*****

Later that Sunday

Xander knocked on the hotel suite door.  Unlike the cheap place that Faith had been in when she first arrived, Shaten had checked into a place with class.  He was on the second floor - the hotel had three - room 214.  Hotel Sunnydale Sunshine Inn, profiling itself as a place at the beach, the magnificent nature of the desert not far out to the east, and just north, practically in the town, the wilderness and forest of the mountains, as well as not that far from Los Angeles, and all its tourist attractions.  Sunnydale did not have many hotels and motels, it had quite some student housing for the local college instead.  Thus the Sunshine Inn, situated just off the beach, but in the more expensive part of town than Xander’s apartment complex, did quite well.  Xander didn’t like to think about the student housing though.  He still had nightmares from him and Buffy taking on that snake demon slash god that was giving a fraternity tickets to the big time . . . in exchange for a few tasty, female morsels - preferably virgins.

Shaten opened the door, and remained silent, a little shy.  “Hi,” she said, and Xander greeted back before entering.  Red carpeting, a shower to the left, and the rather spacious room holding a queen-size bed around it.  The part of the room that was right behind the door, and next to the bathroom almost being like a short hallway.  Quite a large dresser with a TV on top of it finished the well-off hotel room.

“Shall we sit?  To talk?” Xander said, gesturing to a few stairs next to the bed.

“Sure,” Shaten said, nervous.  Last night she had made a fool of herself, and it made her embarrassed.

Xander took the room in as he sat in one chair, Shaten gracefully taking the other.  “I can’t believe you trapped your hotel room,” Xander said with a light smile, a mixture of humor and a little admiration in his voice.

“Ninja always prepared,” Shaten answered coolly - her embarrassment paling against her ninja upbringing when talking ninja business.

Xander smiled lightly.  The girl was in some casual clothes - more precisely the illusion of some casual clothes.  He so needed to be able to do that.  “Last night was productive - for me at least.  Did you learn something at the minimum after we left?” Xander asked her.

Shaten looked at him for a moment.  It was a good thing she wasn’t going to marry him after all - she would, if it was necessary, but a husband that turned into a girl with a splash of water would be weird and inconvenient enough.  A husband that had had sex with a guy in his girl shape was something she rather not ever have to have.  It was just . . . too weird.  “Hai. Seduction is performed with much touching.  As well, talking, smiling, and kissing frequently is used,” Shaten answered, struggling a little with English as she always did.

“Well, good,” Xander said with a light smile.  “Tomorrow we go and buy you some more clothes.  Today I’ll take you to the library, I’ve convinced everyone to help teach you how to dance.  I was hoping that tomorrow you’d be willing to start teach us some of your techniques?”

“Techniques?” Shaten said a little taken aback.  “Techniques from village.  Belong to ninja.”

“I know,” Xander said gesturing soothingly with his hands.  “I’m not asking for any super military secrets.  Just some basic things.  Like standing upside down on the underside of a tree branch.  That clothes illusion technique, maybe a few tiny things more here and there.   We are helping you get a husband, and I’m willing to teach you some stuff in return if you want, anything you might find useful.”

Shaten looked puzzled, and asked him, “What for illusion?”

“Heh,” Xander said, scratching the back of his head embarrassed, “Managed to avoid it, but there’s been some times where I was almost a guy in skimpy girly clothes - distinctly not unisex.  With the illusion I could quickly make it look like I’m wearing guy clothes.”

After a moment of thought, Shaten answered him, with a quick bow, “Hai.  I help.  I help train.  But only standard stuff, and you train me.”

“Yep,” Xander said and held out his hand.  Shaten took it slowly, and shook Xander’s hand in agreement.

*****

Outside Sunnydale High

Buffy, Lotion (with a glower), Willow, Amy, Oz, Cordelia, and Xander stood in the middle of the grassy field, in front of Shaten, who was near a tree.  Giles, Jenny, Kendra, and Faith were behind them - neither the Slayer or Potential Slayer advanced enough to be able to learn, Shaten had determined.  So, taking a break from their normal training routine, they opted to watch.

“All things have chi, is nature universe,” Shaten explained sagely, “living things have more, genelate it, tied to it.  Key to walking surfaces in its chi.  Must find it, sense it, then hook own chi to surface chi, like magnet.”  Shaten gently put her foot against the tree and slowly walk up it, much again to her students astonishment.  She turned to face them, bent at knees to be righted up.  “Take tree,” Shaten said, gesturing to the other trees around, “tree filst living surface, dead surface then, lifeless surface at end.  Advice I give when fail.”

“Fail?  You mean when we fall on our asses!?” Cordelia exclaimed in disgust.

“Hai,” Shaten said with a nod from her head, smiling, “Cannot learn walk without fall, cannot learn run without fall, cannot learn walk surface without fall.”

“What’s the matter cheerleader?” Lotion questioned Cordelia with a grin, “Afraid to get your clothes dirty, or afraid falling on your face will undo the nose job?”

“I have not had a nose job!” Cordelia protested angrily, “This is all natural, you Amazon hussy!”

“Here we go again,” Willow muttered and then looked at Amy and shrugged at her. Ignoring the insulting match that Buffy might very well join, she and the other witch walked forward.  With Jenny’s training and their understanding of magic, both realized this might not be so hard, for them at least.  Willow briefly watched Xander walk to his own tree, and looked at it thoughtfully.  Probably trying to find its chi, Willow realized and looked back, realizing their and Xander’s ignoring of the insult match had made the two insulting parties quit it rather quickly.  Buffy and Oz shared a tree like she and Amy were doing, and Lotion and Cordelia did the same with another one.  Shaten first went over to Xander, and Willow took a quick peek at the sexiness that was her girlfriend.  The big bad Slayer could be so cute sometimes, like the mixture of a frown and a pout that was on her face now as she was on the opposite side of a tree from Oz.

She looked back to the tree, watching Amy set her first tentative step against the tree. Willow looked at her side of the tree, and easily found the tree’s energy.  Learning to be aware of all the flows of energy around her had been a steady diet of Jenny’s training.  Tie her own energy into it; that shouldn’t be too hard either.  Making a pen float was essentially tying the air’s energy to the pen; now she just had to do it with her own.  Amy indeed was already putting her second foot forward.  Willow followed gently, ignoring the cries of frustration from the others as they either didn’t even sense the tree’s energy, or couldn’t get their first foot to stick.

“This is easy,” Amy announced with a grin, hands out, her torso bend forward, or rather upward a little so gravity didn’t bend her body backward.  “I have more trouble keeping my body straight than sticking to the tree.”

Everybody turned to look at the witch, with Willow on the opposite side of the tree below her, steadily walking up as well.  Multiple exclaims of annoyance and frustration came from the others, while Jenny gave a proud encouragement.

Shaten was surprised and impressed though.  “Incredible,” was Shaten’s comment on the witches, “No fall.  Walk surface without fall.”

Amy made a throw away gesture, and said, “Not so impressive.  Our magic training had a lot of similar things.  We’ve kinda been training this surface walk thing for months now, right Willow?”

“Yeah,” Willow said, smiling and walking up entirely straight, “and don’t use your muscles to keep your body straight Amy, just the energy.”  Willow reached a branch, and hesitated for a moment.

“Of course,” Amy said with a smile, and her back straightened out again, her torso moving downward to a naturally aligned position with her lower body.  Willow then stepped on the branch and moved onto it, upside down, her hair hanging straight down.  Amy reached her own first branch - a little higher than Willow’s then, and did the same.

“Ow!” Lotion exclaimed as she slammed into the ground, and Shaten came over to help her up, then gave her advice.

“Oof!  Ouch!” was Buffy’s quite loud exclaim as she slammed face first in the ground. Everyone looked over, and she groaned lying spread-eagle on the ground.  “Ugh, if my nose wasn’t already knobby, it would be now.”

“Always look on the bright side, right Buffy?” Cordelia asked with a mocking cheery tone, right before landing on her ass.

“That might improve your ass,” Buffy returned equally cheerily, making Cordelia look over and glare at her.  Buffy shrugged her elbows looking at the cheerleader captain, and added with a false nice smile, “Always look on the bright side.”  Then Buffy went to get up.   Xander and Oz dropped down from the tree at the same time.

While Giles and Jenny just watched, Jenny confident she could walk on surfaces pretty easy herself.  Kendra and Faith looked with some jealously at their friends learning how to walk on trees.  “Dees not fair,” Kendra protested under her breath.

Faith answered, “Yeah, come on, let’s train so we can catch up.”  Kendra nodded and moved off to the side.

Oz was looking at the tree again, silently contemplating, and Shaten arrived to give him some pointers.  He interrupted her before she could though, and said, “I do not see the purpose of this.”

Shaten blinked a moment, and then she replied, “Is about control, Oz-san.  Can do this, can contlol wolf, or at least, will be much closer.”

“Right then,” Oz said, and redoubled his efforts.

Willow was thinking about this, hanging upside down, maybe it was the blood running into her brain.  She climbed on top of the branch and sat down on top of it.  “You know, this should work with the air too,” she announced, and gently moved her first foot down in mid air.

“Uh, Willow, maybe that’s not such a good idea,” Giles commented, as everyone else looked over.

“Oh, relax,” Willow said with a grin, finding some resistance, pushing, and then standing up, readying to place her other foot.  Suddenly the air gave away - as air is wont to do - and Willow cried out, on her way down to the floor.  “OW!  Ouch, ah,” Willow cried out as she slammed into the ground, and rolled back and forth holding her aching body parts.

“Are you okay, Willow!?” multiple voices exclaimed and came rushing over, Xander and Giles reaching her first, Buffy and Shaten arriving not soon after.

“Yeah, just some pain,” Willow muttered with a groan.

Laughter came from above, and everyone looked up at Amy sitting on her own branch. “We use brooms, remember Willow?  Now you know why!”  Amy laughed at her own joke.

“Still, shouldn’t need one,” Willow pouted to Amy’s mounting laughter.

“Stupid girl,” Shaten commented making Willow and her friends look up, “Own fault.   Not run before crawl.  Dead surfaces and lifeless surface before impossible.”  Willow grunted in defeated acceptance of that wisdom.

*****

The next day, Monday Morning
Sunnydale High

While off to the side another drama unfolded that we’ll see later, Cordelia and Oz, his arm around her waist walked onto the premises of the school.  “My ass is still sore,” she said gingerly, remembering how often she fell down from the tree yesterday, and she still hadn’t mastered it.  Also, for some reason, she just about always fell on her ass, and no place else.

“Same here,” Oz returned - he too, after all the training, still had to master the surface walking technique that Shaten was teaching them.

“Hey, Cordelia, Oz, wait up,” a familiar voice called out.

They turned and let Xander catch up to them, then they turned back to their original direction and walked onward.  “What is it?” Cordelia asked, somehow unable to put the full venom she wanted to after humiliation of yesterday in her voice toward the big dork.  For some reason that first real crush on any guy refused to go away, even after an afternoon of torture that he was at least partially responsible for.

“I wanted to ask you a favor?” Xander said, as they walked toward the school, a book under his left arm.

“Are you sore?” Cordelia asked him suspiciously, making Oz actually have to put up some effort to keep his face cool.

“What?” Xander prompted confused.

Cordelia sighed with a glare, “Simple question.  You’re way to chipper to be sore, and after yesterday, you have no right not to be sore.”

“Uh . . . I’m sore, a little, I did sleep a night,” Xander answered her still a little confused, “And?”

“Are you sure?” Cordelia asked suspiciously.  Xander too, had not mastered the surface walking technique yet - in fact, just like them he didn’t even manage to stay on a living surface - although he did manage to remain up a little longer than she and the others had before falling back down.  That was, except for Lotion, apparently the girl’s life long experience with her chi allowed her to remain standing on a living surface quite well.  Dead surfaces though, still had her falling down, so she should be just as sore as the rest of them.

“Yes, why?” Xander asked, still confused.

Cordelia looked at him for a moment, pausing their walk, and she said dangerously, “Because I will not do you that favor if you’re not sore.”

“I’m sore, I’m sore!” Xander confirmed.  Cordelia nodded and they resumed their walk. Around them, students gave each other frowning, wondering looks.

“So what’s the favor, and know that I’ll be collecting with interest, should I grant it,” Cordelia said gruffly.  She might have a soft spot for the part-time guy, but that didn’t mean she had to be nice about it.

“Jonathan,” Xander said with a smile, and Cordelia frowned at him as they reached an empty bench and a place without many students around.  They stopped there for some relative privacy, and Xander explained, “Could you give him a make over, help him shop for a good wardrobe?”

“Why?” Cordelia asked him incredulously, and Oz too looked surprised and wondering.

“Well, because he needs one, apparently his recent surge in social level after Lexa’s proclamation about him didn’t last,” Xander explained with forlorn smile.

“Well, duh.  Why do /you/ want me to give him a make over?  What’s it to you?” Cordelia asked and sat down on the bench.  The two boys remained standing.

“He did me a favor, I thought I’d pay him back,” Xander answered with a light smile.

“What favor?” Cordelia asked him unbelieving.  “What could the little nerd . . .?”   Cordelia trailed off.  She had heard the rumors of course, that Jonathan had indeed managed to get a girl out of the Bronze after a while, and then some had claimed this wasn’t just walking home; there was even talk that it was Lexa.  But she had dismissed it.  Bisexual or no, part girl or no, not even Xander would be with a boy, let alone Jonathan like that.  After all, Lexa had indeed checked out boys, as Willow and Buffy had first noticed, and even Xander himself did now and then, but he’d never shown a hint of actually pursuing it.  Especially since he had several potential girlfriends, one sure fire one who considered herself his fiancee, and there was a far greater taboo of a guy on guy than girl on girl if there was even one left on the latter.  But now.  For a moment she refused to accept it, but then she said, “You were too chipper yesterday, you’re still too chipper now, and you come ask me . . . You didn’t!  You did!  You and him.  Him and you.  You as a girl, and he . . . he took your . . .”  Cordelia gawked at him.

Xander just grinned and scratched the back of his head.  Oz’s eyes were actually a little wider than normal, and he said, “I’m not sure on the protocol, but is congratulations in order?”

“That’s pregnancy,” Cordelia dismissed.  Xander looked at her.  She sighed.  “Oh, fine, I’ll do your favor - I take it it was good.”  Xander’s grin just widened.  Cordelia sighed, “I still can’t believe this.  Especially the nerd being good.”  She however gave Xander a smile, and stood up, ready to leave.

“Oh, uh,” Xander interrupted before she could get up from the bench, “could you make sure he’s comfortable in the new clothes.  Don’t change his style?  Not by miles at least?”

“Hell, no,” Cordelia said resolutely, moving her hand from left to right at hip level - this far, and no further.  “The whole point of a make over, is to actually make him over. Everything goes, especially if you want girls to notice him.”  Cordelia rushed past Xander, partially glad she didn’t have to do it, half-dragging Oz along.

“So you can’t do it,” Xander said, smirking lightly.

Cordelia halted, and turned back around, “Of course I can do it.  I just choose not to.  I can do anything with fashion!”

Xander turned around, and gave her a convincing disbelieving look, “Apparently not.”

“I know what you’re doing, Harris, you’re not baiting me that easily.” Cordelia bit at him, and Xander looked both disappointed and a little surprised.

“Sorry, bro,” Oz said calmly, “I’ve been teaching her to not let her emotions get the better of her so easily.”  Cordelia folded her arms across her chest in satisfaction, but a little annoyed that she indeed had needed help with that.  “If I’d known this, I’d have waited with teaching her until after this noble request.”

Xander’s face grew even more disappointed and puppy-dog.  Cordelia sighed - the two of them were ganging up on her, she knew when she was defeated.  “Oh, fine!  I’ll do it anyway, but you owe me big, Harris,” Cordelia warned him with a pointed finger.

Xander smiled, “Thanks, Cor.”

*****

A few minutes earlier
Back outside the school building

While Xander went off after Cordelia and Oz, Faith veered off toward the hallway.  Sunnydale had somewhat of an outside hallway - a pavement with a roof over it held by poles to shelter both from the California sun, and the occasional rain.  She walked into it, waiting at a corner and looking past it.  A few meters away, was Scott Hope slowly walking to whatever was his first class, probably meeting some people along the way.  She took a deep sigh, bringing up her courage.

That was it - the reason.  Courage.  She’d promised Lexa to think about dating Scotty - as she’d start calling him in her head.  ‘S’ just didn’t sound right.  Lexa wasn’t even expecting her to make a decision right away, but Lexa was courageous.  She faced danger and horror, and she was a part, and originally, boy, that had chosen to experience both a period, and letting Faith carol her into losing her virginity to a guy despite the whole gay taboo - even if strictly speaking it wasn’t homosexual - as well as face monster after monster.  And the rest of them were no less so; Cordelia bitch tamed a werewolf for heaven’s sake!  Which meant the moment Faith realized that it was more fear that kept her away from guys and Scott in particular, and not hate, she couldn’t possibly not show Lexa and the others that she had courage to go face it.  Not that the others knew, but still . . .

*Here goes, Faith,* she told herself and walked, even ran a little after the guy.  “Scott?” she called.

After a second shout Scott stopped and turned around, and Faith quickly caught up with.   “Hey,” she said, nervously, “hi.”

Scott looked at her.  She was wearing some jeans held up by a belt and a tight, red, long-sleeved shirt, her usual thick makeup on.  She was looking hot even in these slightly too large jeans.  He remembered the hot sex with her, her riding him to an explosive climax.  He’d had sex before, truth be told, once, but it was nothing like what Faith could do.  He also remembered she had tossed him out of the apartment right after before he was even finished dressing.  “Come to toss me out of the school this time?” Scott asked, not bitter, but it hadn’t exactly come out as lightly as he had intended.

Faith seemed to shrink in on herself, and it tugged at his traitorous heart.  “Yeah, uh, no of course not, I came to apologize for that.  I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.  I should have let you get dressed at the very, very least.  Uhm, can you forgive me?”

“You’re forgiven,” he said with a light smile, and started walking again.

“Uhm, I . . .uh . . .” Faith said, quickly walking after him, and walking next to him.  “I was wondering if uh . . . you’d be willing to . . . uh, go out on a date with me.”  He paused walking again, looking at her in puzzlement.  “You know, like a movie or bowling.”  She saw him looking, and she tentatively and awkwardly raised her right hand to shoulder height, and said, “I swear I won’t ever throw you out again . . . unless you’re being a real bastard of course.”  She cringed, hardly believing she’d added the last, and yet she had felt the need to add it, and even now was for a part glad she had.

Scott for his part, was still trying to figure this girl out.  Finally he smirked lightly in amusement, putting his hands in the pockets of his pants and taking the leisure time to try to see in her mind.  Faith got nervous under the scrutiny, and put her hand back down quickly.   Kinda wanting to actually go on the date, now that she had forced herself to go through this embarrassment, she added, “It can be a double date.  I can ask a friend . . . o-or yours, maybe a triple date with both.”  God, she sounded like a dumb little kid.  Where was the cool man-eating version of her hiding?  Of course, she wasn’t exactly here to do any eating.

Scott gave a chuckle.  This was surreal.  How a girl could be this night and day was beyond him.  On the dance floor two days ago, she’d been an uncorked bottle of pure sex, and that very sex afterward had been mind blowing.  One of the ex-Cordettes - Harmony-ettes just didn’t sound right - he’d been dancing with was one of the more date- and guy-savvy girls in the school, and this Faith had figuratively tossed her aside and wrapped him around her fingers like it hadn’t meant anything.  Now, that very same girl, stood here, nervously and ineptly asking him out like an eleven-year-old.  And damn him, if it didn’t intrigue him.  “I don’t suppose you could tell me why you just tossed me out, can you?”

Faith looked down, seeming small, even smaller than moments ago suddenly, and shook her head.  “Not yet,” she said, ready to turn away at this failure.

“Alright,” Scott said, smoothly putting his arm underneath her backpack, around her middle, feeling protective, not to mention that she was amazing in bed.  Faith looked surprised, arching her neck to her right, to see what his arm was doing, then feeling the hand lay on her waist on her left very gently.  “You have a date, Faith, I want to find out more about you.  You mind?”

“No, that’s okay,” she said and gave him a nervous smile.

Scott smiled disarmingly at her and said, “Hey, don’t worry.  Not going to bite - unless you like that sort of thing.  Just want to introduce you to a couple of friends of mine.”

“Okay,” Faith said, a little amazed.  She’d pulled it off, Lexa had been right.  Now she hoped her idol was right about the rest as well.

*****

Scott gently led Faith up an incline around another corner, where he knew he’d soon meet two of his friends.  “There they are,” Scott said with a smile as he saw Debbie and Pete, his two friends slowly come toward them.  Faith was suddenly nervous as all hell.  It was like meeting the parents for a guy or something, or worse perhaps.  She wondered if Scott would break up before they’d even get to go on their first date if his friends didn’t like her.  And she was certain they wouldn’t like her.

“Hey, guys,” Scott greeted and the boy and girl greeted back.  “I’d like you to meet Faith, we’re going out soon.  We might be potential couple-material.  Faith, this is Debbie and Pete, I’ve known them since middle school.”

“Hi, I’m Faith,” she managed, secretly impressed she hadn’t managed to screw her own name or something, that’s how nervous she was.  A single mantra kept repeating in her head, ‘Keep cool.  Keep cool.  Keep cool.’

So busy was she with the mantra that she noticed a moment later that Debbie and Pete had spoken something without her hearing.  Thankfully salvation arrived in the forms of Faith and Oz coming up a few stairs and walking past behind her.  “Hey, Cordelia, Oz,” she said, covering that she hadn’t had anything in answer to whatever Debbie and Pete had said, or if it even required an answer.  “Scott, Debbie, Pete, these are Cordelia and Oz.  Friends of mine.”

Oz halted the couple’s movement and turned to Faith, her paramour and her friends, making Cordelia slightly miffed.  “Hey, Faith.  Guys.”

“Hi,” Cordelia said, for once being the one with the least to say.  Scott and Pete looked a little surprised at the cheerleader captain, while Debbie just had bug eyes.

“Scott and I are . . .” Faith broke off, turning to look at Scott, and repeated his words with a self-conscious smile, “. . . potential couple material.”

“D-do you know who that is?” Debbie asked of Faith shocked, looking at Cordelia with eyes still as big.  Cordelia frowned, as Debbie answered her own question, “Th-th-that’s Cordelia Chase.”

”/She,/” Cordelia corrected tightly.  “I’m not a toaster, /Debbie/, I’m a person.”

“Sorry,” Debbie said with a light whimper, “But, friend, her.  You’re like this nasty b- . . .”

She was right, really.  Of course that didn’t stop Scott from looking a little shocked at Debbie, and Pete whip his head toward her a little angry.  A new surprise came when Cordelia corrected, “Former.”  Oz shrugged, giving his girlfriend’s waist a squeeze.  Cordelia wasn’t proud of some of the things she’d done, although Oz knew Cordelia still considered herself a bitch and proud of it, she also considered herself someone who would not be a bitch to good people anymore.

“She’s the former queen of Sunnydale High,” Debbie said, still elated to actually talk to the other girl, while not ripped apart verbally.

“Former?” Cordelia asked dangerously, her gaze boring into Debbie’s.

“You’re not?” Debbie asked both afraid and surprised.

“Who do you think is the queen now, then?” Cordelia asked her deceptively gentle.

Debbie looked nervous from Pete to Scott and Faith, and said, “Uhm . . . Harmony Kendall?”

“Really now, is that so?” Cordelia said coolly, and their corner for some reason felt chilly all of a sudden.

“Well, we’ve got to go, right Pete?” Debbie muttered.  She was intimidated by the possibly not so former ice queen of their high school before, right now, she actually felt scared.  “Got to study for Senior Bio, got a test and it’s really a head breaker.”

“Education is important,” Pete confirmed with a smooth smile.

“Senior Bio?” Oz asked perking up, “I aced the final last year.  I can get you my notes.”

“Oh, uhm . . . that would help, thanks,” Debbie said, with a little trepidation.

“Aced, huh?” Faith prompted lightly, being rather new to everyone.

Cordelia nodded, the ice having melted, and said, “That’s Oz, if he bothers to show up, he aces it.”  Oz shrugged.

“Ah, man,” Faith said, suddenly.  “What time is it?”

Scott checked his watch and answered, “A little over nine, why?”

“I’m late,” Faith said with a cringe, “I have an appointment with Platt at nine, the school shrink.”

“You go to Platt?” Debbie asked surprised of the girl, still nervous.  “I go too, he’s a bit of a goof ball, but I kinda like him.  In an entirely patient doctor sort of way, of course.  Why do you go?”

“The social worker demanded it,” Faith said with some annoyance, straightening up, preparing to go.  “I’m ‘emancipated’ now, my mom is in Boston, if you can call it that.   Anyway, they want me to ‘deal’ with the past so they’re making me go to the shrink at the school here.  It’s annoying.  See you later.”  Faith turned to Scott.

“Later,” he greeted back.

“Yeah, we’ve got to get to class, goodbye,” Cordelia said, and she and Oz left as well.

*****

“Ah, Faith Williams, nine o’clock, you’re late.”

Faith froze a little then finished closing the door and looked at the desk of the office.   The chair turned and a black man with a beard looked at her with appraising eyes.  “Sorry, slipped my mind, first time and all,” Faith said as she stepped further inside.

“For what?” Platt asked her with a smile.

“Uh . . .” Faith said, a little confused at the question.

“For what did it slip your mind?” he clarified.

Faith looked around uncomfortably and then started walking forward nervously.  “Boy,” she offered.

“Ah, yes, not much better a thing you can let things slip for, huh?” he asked with a smile. He took a final drag from the cigarette that was by no means finished and put it out in the ash tray.  Then he took a spray can and sprayed it around, a fresh smell assaulted Faith’s nose.

“I guess,” Faith answered him, and said, “I . . . uh . . . I was kinda hoping this could remain easy.”

“That depends, how easy can you explain your life before Sunnydale with enough detail and how much does it still inform you now.  Quite frankly, I think your past is actually less interesting than your present, after all, if you managed to let the past be the past and successfully handle the present the past won’t help either of us much, will it?” he asked casually.

“I guess so,” Faith said, taking another step forward.

“Of course, if the past /is/ still screwing with you now, you’re extra royally screwed because we’ll have to screw every loose screw of past and present in your head tight again,” he said with a grin.  Faith looked uncomfortable.  “Don’t worry I’ll be gentle.  Take a seat,” Platt told her, and Faith complied.

*****

Library
After school

The extended Scoobies were training.  Giles was keeping an eye on them, and in particular Xander, who was doing god knows what.  “Xander, how did your first attempt at getting Shaten a . . . mate go?” Giles asked curiously, hoping the boy had luck.  Of course, even if the boy had luck, that probably wouldn’t help anything.  The boy would require so much luck to pull this one off, the universe would probably spontaneously  implode from the concentration of improbability.  The thing was, that Giles hoped Xander succeeded.  He didn’t really like to see the boy leave, like any of his charges.

“Not so good, not so good, but we’ll get there,” Xander answered optimistically, but more about the hands he was moving from his chest out instead of Shaten’s mate.  “We’ll go tonight, tomorrow, and every other day.  I have the rest of the week all planned out.  More Bronze tonight, tomorrow Sunnydale U campus bars, Saturday by day the campus itself, frat houses, and every other non-demon thing where there are men, guys, and boys I can find. Right, Shaten?”

“Hai,” Shaten answered standing across from Cordelia, both sweating gently.  Shaten sheathed her sword, while Cordelia kept holding her curved blades.  “Form good, skill good, chi good.  Can teach you techniques, I thought.  First, show you old non-chi technique.  This called Death in Scabbard.”

A moment later, before Cordelia could even react, the ninja-sword was at her throat. “JESUS!” Cordelia screeched, “You could have killed me.”

“Frat houses?  University,” Buffy asked skeptically, as she was in a joint meditation with Willow, peeking with one eye.

“Sure,” Xander said, moving gently through a kata, once more ending with his hands moving outward from his chest.  “Not every college guy is a demon-worshiper who kills girls to feed to wish-granting demon, you know?”

“Sure, but college guys on the Hellmouth?” Willow offered in Buffy’s stead, who thanked her girlfriend with a nod.

“Eesn’t dad a leettle cynical, even for de Hellmouth?” Kendra asked, who was being trained by Lotion along with Faith.

Shaten in the mean time continued her teaching of Cordelia; “Hai.  No defense and big flaw.  Once committed no back.  Warriors using same, many died both.  Until we say too wasteful, improve, and design counter.  Charged weapon.  Be chestnuts with weapon.  Make shield.”

Xander gently breathed in, and prepared the same movement, and then said, “Wolf’s Protection!”  Instantly a small ball of chi formed between his hands and was fired, straight at a book case on the second level.

Giles had barely enough time to yell out, “AAH!”  The ball of chi slammed into the railing and exploded, taking a good chunk out it.  Everyone looked at it with eyes.

“YES!” Xander hissed in triumph - finally he had done it, using the emotion that usually propelled him beyond his limits; to protect his friends and surrogate family.

“You did it!” Buffy exclaimed in surprise.  After her own ball of energy had helped saved them against the ninja vampire, she hadn’t managed to duplicate it once.  Whenever she did it, it was more instinct than skill, maybe now that Xander had figured it out, she could soon do it too with some explanation from him.

“Xander!  You almost destroyed the books!” Giles scolded the boy with annoyance.

“No worries, Giles.  I aimed for the railing, and even if I’d missed, the case is filled only with the worthless books,” Xander told him with a grin.

The glasses, as expected, came off immediately.  Furiously cleaning the glasses, Giles said tersely, “There is no such thing as a worthless book.”

“Xander-dono,” Shaten said, and Xander looked over.  She took a deep bow, and said, “Would have be honor to be wife.”

Lotion made a light grunt at the ninja girl’s profession, and knew she had to surpass it.   She was pretty much going to do it anyway.  “Future husband!” she exclaimed jumping through the air, and landing on his chest, her arms around his neck, her boobs pressing against him.  “Greatest warrior that every lived, I shall be greatest wife and greatest female warrior that ever lived.”  She kissed the surprised and a little annoyed Xander hard and deep, before she whispered in his ear, “Also in bed.”

He slowly let Lotion down, and said a little embarrassed, “Yes, well.”  Then he was mostly business, and said, “Still too limited a technique though.  Too dependent on one’s emotional state.  There has to be a way to do it without the emotions, to simply draw out however much or little energy you need.”

*****

Kendra walked into the library wide awake, carrying along some books in a book bag.  In the cage in the library, werewolf Oz was grumbling not entirely content, but not exactly angry either.

Cordelia came over, her own book bag on her shoulder.  “Thanks for doing this, Kendra.   And I’m sorry this isn’t in the comfortable garden house, but it’s what I need quiet to study for the test tomorrow.”

“No thanks necessaree, Cordelia.  I’m the Slayer, it’s me dutee,” Kendra told the head cheerleader friendly.  “I have me books, me drink, and me food, I shall be fine.”

“Thanks anyway.  There’s a piece of meat for him in the refrigerator.  Give it to him around 2 or so.  See you tomorrow, Kendra,” Cordelia said.  She turned to her werewolf boyfriend, and told him sternly, “Be a good doggy, Oz, if I hear bad things from Kendra, no doggy treats tomorrow night.”  Oz laid down gently, and Cordelia nodded.  She walked out the library, and secretly marveled at herself.  It wasn’t that she didn’t study a year ago; she always did study and kept her real grades a secret to keep up her image, but spending this much effort on it to get the best grade possible had never been something she did.  But Oz was so damn smart, and so easily reached such high grades, and Cordelia was nothing if not competitive.

Kendra shook her head and looked at the werewolf.  The wolf gently looked up at her, before trying to find a more comfortable position in his crumpled up blanket.  A tamed werewolf, it still boggled her mind.  She nodded and sat down, putting her bag on the table and taking out a book.  She opened it where the reminder lay, and started reading there.

*****

The teen male ran afraid through the wooded area, looking over his shoulder to see if he had lost what was hunting him.  No, the monster in fact was just about on him.  Actually . . . “No-no!  Please!  AAH!!”

*****

“This is not good, this is not good,” Giles mumbled walking hastily out of his office.

“Eet was not Oz, Giles,” Kendra said coming out after him.  The watcher walked over to the cage.  He hadn’t been sure the weapons cage could hold a werewolf, even though Cordelia - who had more experience with Oz - said that it could.  He went to inspect it to see if he could see any claw marks or any other kind of forced exit or just about any exit.  “Eet was not Oz.  I was heere all night, awake.  I am Slayer, Giles, we can go nights without sleep.  I read my book, Oz deed not leave de cage.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Giles asked the dark-skinned Slayer.  She rolled her eyes.   She had rolled her eyes at him.  Buffy and the others were an influence on her, although he was not sure whether it was good or bad.

“Of course,” she said, and Giles went deeper into the cage.  The library doors opened and admitted Cordelia and Oz.

“Thanks again, Kendra, I think I aced the test,” Cordelia said with a smile.  “So, why did the stuffy Brit want us here?”

Giles came rushing out, pointing inside and said half angry, half horrified, “The window’s open!”

“Eet does not matter.  I was heere all night, so was dee wolf,” Kendra said, her exasperation mounting.

“What’s going on?” Cordelia demanded now.

Giles went over to the counter, picked up the news paper and held it out to Cordelia.  She took the paper and read the article about a boy being mauled.  “And you think this was, Oz?” Cordelia asked incredulously and Oz took the paper from her.

“Jeff Walken.  I knew him,” Oz said with some shock.

“Eet was not eem!” Kendra protested again.

“Are you absolutely sure, Kendra?” Giles asked.

Kendra sighed, and asked Oz and Cordelia, “Why does ee not trust mee?”

“He trusts you,” Oz answered solemnly, “he just doesn’t trust me.”

“I trust you Oz, I do not trust the wolf,” Giles said, and then shook his head, took off his glasses and looked intensely into Kendra’s eyes, and asked again, “Are you absolutely certain?”

“Eeven eef ee got out, it wouldn’t matter.  Oz-wolf wouldn’t eat anyone, ee would not want to reesk meessing de doggy treats,” Kendra said exasperated.

“Doggy treats!?” two male voices said in shock, and indeed Oz’s face actually showed the shock.  He looked at Cordelia.

The cheerleader shrugged, and said, “You like them.”  Oz groaned.

“This is no time for jokes, Kendra.  Are you absolutely certain the wolf did not leave the cage?” Giles asked once again.

Kendra folded her arms across her chest in disgust, and said, “Whad do you teenk?  Dat I fell asleep, and dreamed beieng awake and readeeng de book, exactlee as eet was wreetten, and deed not notice waking up, not eeven when de book was not read?”

“Yes, well . . .” Giles said, deflating into some relief.

Still disgusted, Kendra pulled out the book from her back and checked the reminder sticking out.  Her eyes widened, “Oh, my god!”  The other three occupants looked at her with surprise.  “Look!  Eets exactly where I put eet, *thees morning when Cordelia returned and Oz shortlee after turned back!*”  Then she angrily slammed the book onto the table, and folded her arms back across her chest, fuming with disgust.

“Well, then we have good news and bad news, the good news is that Oz didn’t do it-” Giles said, having Kendra interrupt him with a disgusted chortle, “-the bad news is that we don’t know who or what did.”

“What’s up?” Faith asked coming into the library, seeing the small congregation. Dressed in her leather pants and a shirt she looked every bit the tough girl, if she didn’t have a cute Supergirl backpack slung over her left shoulder.

Oz handed over the paper.  Reading it through quickly she looked up, and asked earnestly, “You?”

“NO!” Kendra yelled, accompanied by a crash.  They looked over at the Slayer who had made the outburst, and saw the table being broken in two larger, and several smaller piece, a fist-shaped hole in one of the two larger pieces.  She looked perturbed, and then turned back, “Sorree.”

*****

Lunchtime

The Sunnydale High mess hall was as usually a full but mostly orderly affair.  Faith held her tray, holding her lunch.  Some mashed potatoes - or at least that was what the sign said, a little lettuce, a chunk of . . . some type of meat, and milk - which was the only thing that Faith reasonably recognized.  She looked at the table in front of her.  It held Pete, Debbie, and Scott. She wasn’t sure.  On the other side sat Kendra, Cordelia, Lexa, and the rest of her gang.   Tough choice.  Was it time to share lunch with the potential couple material?  Of course, even if he was actual couple material, she didn’t always want to spend lunch with him - not even if he came over to her friends.  No, she figured that once in a while for variety she just wanted to share lunch with some of her friends alone.  And if anyone had told her she’d had friends, let alone potential couple material a year ago, she’d have laughed him in the face.  Somehow she knew if anyone had suggested something like this to her, it was a ‘he’, not a ‘she’.  She didn’t know how or why, she just did.

Finally Pete nodding to her, and Scott turning around gesturing to the free chair saying, “Come on, sit, Faith,” took the decision away.  She smiled and sat down, putting the tray on the table.

“Hi, Faith,” Debbie greeted, Pete just nodded.

“How’s my potential couple material this afternoon?” Scott asked with a smile.

“Hungry, but otherwise okay,” Faith said, and put some of the mashed potatoes on a fork.  Scott grinned, this girl was definitely being upgraded to probable couple material.

“So how was bowling?” Debbie asked interested.

“Surprisingly good for a first date - there isn’t much else to do on a Monday night,” Scott answered with a grin and saw Faith still chewing food.  “And I found girls can look damn good bowling.”

Faith swallowed.  “Tight pants and bending over to throw the ball that does it,” she explained with a grin.

“I remember my first time bowling with Pete.  I was so bad at it, Pete had to teach me how to throw the ball moving me through the motions.  It was nice,” Debbie said and looked over at Pete.

“Ah, yes, bowling,” Pete agreed with a few blinks of the eyes.  “Debbie’s still not good at it.  Can’t fathom why she likes it anyway.”

Faith finished swallowing another bite, and said with a grin, giving Debbie an agreeing point, “Played that card too.  Of course, after Scotty finished showing me how to throw, I threw a strike, but . . .”

“Ah, yes, I remember it well.  I didn’t know whether to be proud, amazed, feel like a fool, embarrassed at my behavior showing her how to throw, try to hide my hard on from teaching her, or casually show it off and get embarrassed over that,” Scott said with a casual nod and attempts at keeping a straight face, but a smirk managing to squeeze through.  Debbie chuckled softly.

“You know, that’s why you’re so attractive to me,” Faith told Scott, and he looked at her with a questioning look.  “Secure enough about yourself you can joke about your inadequacies.”

Debbie burst out in laughter, which grew a little louder at Scott’s put upon face.  Faith herself giggled lightly, trying to keep from laughing out loud.  Pete glared unnoticed by Faith and Scott at Debbie.  “I’m sorry,” Faith hiccupped, forcing her laughter under control.  Still smiling, she said, “I’m joking, you have no inadequacies.  Sorry.”  Scott shook his head, and grinned at her.  Damn it, if probable wasn’t going to highly probable.  Faith was what he liked in girls, spunk, full of life, a sense of humor, and not afraid of anything.  There was another girl like that here in school, a girl he’d been interested in, but he’d made his move too late - the girl had been hijacked away, by another girl.

“Women,” Scott said with a grin at Pete.

“I hear ya,” Pete said, with a smile.

Debbie had forced herself to stop laughing after Pete’s glare, and decided to change the subject.  “So what did you think of Platt?  Isn’t he a quack?” she asked Faith.

Faith thought about it a moment, and then said, “Well, quack is a strong word.  He’s definitely got his own way of doing things.  I kind of like him.”

“You do?” Debbie asked a little surprised, “Yeah, he can make some jokes, but still.”

“He’s a goof ball,” Faith said with a grin.  She looked over to Lexa for a moment a ways off, then turned back, and said, “I like goof balls.  Besides, he’s cute for a guy with a beard.”

“Mental note, do not grow beard,” Scott said softly, and Faith looked over at him.

“But the whole thing’s a sham, isn’t it?” Pete said, a hint of gruffness in his voice, disguised by a tone of wanting to make conversation.  “The whole thing is just talk, talk, talk. You got problems, you deal with them, you don’t lie down and talk.”

Faith shrugged, looking at her half-eaten lunch.  “It doesn’t do anything for me, that’s for sure.  It’s annoying,” Debbie agreed.

“My mom says therapy can be helpful,” Scott said, helping Faith a bit.

“It’s nothing but some psycho babble about making people feel good about themselves when they should be getting up and do, work, deal, whatever, but do,” Pete said a little pissed.

Faith shrugged, and said, “I don’t really care.  The social worker tells me to go to therapy or else I’m put in a foster home or some shit like that, I go.”

“Faith, I want you to know, that before yesterday I’ve never met these people.  I just paid them to make me look better to you,” Scott said to Faith, working to catch the girl’s eyes.

He succeeded, and with a small grin Faith said, “You should get a refund.”  He smiled back.

*****

At the popular table, Harmony laughed and smiled.  Looking around the girls and guys she had eating out of her hand.  It was good to be queen.  Then a chill ran down her spine, after which she saw the jocks and the cheerleaders, including her little troop of followers blanch. Then an ominous shadow fell over her.

“Well, hello, Harmony.  How’s it going?” the pleasant voice of Cordelia Chase all but singsonged.  The chill returned - that voice sounded perfectly sweet, but somehow she felt like an axe was about to cut off her head.  She swallowed and quickly turned around bending backward across the table, looking up at the looming, bending down close Cordelia.  At least it felt like that to Harmony, for Cordelia was simply standing straight - imperiously straight, but straight still.  “I heard an interesting story.  Someone had this mistaken idea, that you are queen of this school,” Cordelia said with a sweet smile, but cold eyes boring into her soul as if ready to rip her to pieces.  “I hope you don’t believe it yourself, because I will guarantee you this.  Just because I don’t hang around my sheep anymore, and don’t bother with these sweaty Neanderthals, doesn’t mean I don’t still reign supreme.”

The frightened wide-eyes of Harmony suddenly solidified.  That word again, that word, that word Cordelia had called her last year.  ‘Sheep.’  She’d hated being called that, hated it with a fiery passion.  She wasn’t a sheep.  It was the reason she’d dethroned Cordelia Chase, and she wasn’t going back to being in her shadow.  “You know what?  You don’t,” Harmony said, and forced herself to stand, folding her arms across her ample chest.  “I am queen. You’re a dork lover - a has-been dork lover.  Face it, Cordelia, /I/ am queen, not you, not anymore.  And that means I’m not a sheep either, a queen can’t be a sheep.  From now on, you’re the sheep.  I’ll be counting little Cordelias jumping over the hedge before I go to sleep.”

Cordelia’s cold smile hadn’t faltered in a bit, “You would think that, wouldn’t you?” She looked passed her at the former Cordettes and the jocks.  But Harmony turned around as well, and glared at them as well.

“Ah, Cordelia,” a football player said, “I’m sorry but . . . despite the rebound guitarist, which is admittedly not bad, you’re still Xander Harris’s reject.”  There was a chorus of agreements.

“Hell,” another jock added, “you weren’t even dumped, he didn’t even choose you to begin with.”

“Yeah, and we don’t like being called sheep.  You were nasty,” one of the former Cordettes said with a pout.  Harmony smiled smugly, nodding.  A chorus of ‘yeah’ joined the girl.

Cordelia still smiled, her left corner slowly moving up in a smirk.

Harmony saw it as a bear-defeat-with-a-grin grin.  She couldn’t be more wrong, but that didn’t stop the blonde from saying, “Accept it, Cor.  You’re over.  You’re now in the loser corner of this high school. /I/ am queen, and you’re a rabbit I walk all over.”

Cordelia chuckled, that damn chill returning to Harmony’s and the others spines.   Cordelia shook her head and looked around the little gathering.  “You’re pathetic.  All of you, idiots.  I always knew that, but I never realized just how big.  If the entire football team, and swim team joined together to fight Xander Harris, he’d wipe the floor with all of you even if had both hands tied behind his back.  He’s faster, stronger, and more man and more popular than all of you.  You’re just too stupid to see it.  Just because he doesn’t want to bother with you idiots, sit at this table, and wear a sports team high school memorabilia of future McDonald’s employees, you refuse to acknowledge him.  Hell, send your incompetent sports teams after /me/ and /I/ will beat you with my hands tied behind my back.”

“Ooh, hoo, big talk from a girl who likes to play with swords,” Harmony said with an evil grin.  “Think we didn’t know?  Those clangs aren’t exactly silent, Cor’.  Who is the idiot now, huh?  Or are you going to skewer us with them, hmm?  I think the police aren’t going to like that.  Let’s see, am I scared? . . . I think I’m going to have to demand a vote next cheerleading practice to see if you’re still fit to be captain.  In fact, maybe I should have you tossed off the team altogether.”

Cordelia let her eyes roam the table, and then she deepened her smile.  “You’re all going to rue the day you crossed me.  That means regret by the way.  In fact, I think some of you will wish you were never born.  Because, Harm, by the time I’m done, you will all know, that I am, was, and ever will be, Queen of Sunnydale High.  And you wish I considered you good enough to lick my heels clean.”  Cordelia turned around, and walked off, imperiously, as the plan unfolded in her head.  Oh, yes, her instincts were sharper than ever.  Accepting to give Jonathan a make-over was perfect timing.  Things were going to change around here.  She did blame herself for one thing though - she should have kept a tighter reign on her school, to let Harmony think she was the queen.  The blonde couldn’t be more wrong.

The lunchroom was silent.  It had been pretty much silent for the entire exchange.  But now, it was deathly silent.  The school had watched a direct confrontation between the two most popular girls in school, not counting Lexa Horne, and the first round seemed to have gone - well, nobody really knew.  The not popular kids all loved how Cordelia Chase had told to the jocks’ and cheerleaders’ faces what they had all wanted to say a long time ago - yet were still trying to be liked by those very same people they hated.  On the other hand, she had been one of them, and what she had promised seemed like a declaration of war.  And who wanted to know the damage would be coming from the head on collision of the popular crowd on the warpath?

*****

Later

Debbie and Pete were kidding around a bit and kissing, walking through the halls of Sunnydale High.   They reached a slightly different color section of a wall, and after checking for a moment nobody was there, they slid it aside and entered a secret room.  Debbie giggled gently kissing Pete happily.  Then Pete suddenly stopped, noticing something.  The place was some type of old storage compartment, now converted to a makeshift laboratory.  A microscope stood on a table, and old wooden cases contained all manner of pots and containers, most of them glass.

“What’s this?” he asked, walking over to a case.

“What’s what?” Debbie asked nervously.

Pete took the large glass pot out, still holding a little glowing green residue.  “Debbie, it’s gone,” he said, turning around to face her.  “Nobody else knows about this place, Debbie.”

“I-I dropped it,” she said scared, backing up.

Pete slowly advanced on her, and said, “You dropped it?”

“In the sink,” she said finding courage some place she hadn’t known existed, seeing the flicker of anger in his eyes grow.  “I wanted to help you.  You know how you get.”

“How I get?” Pete said with a growl, “Do you think this makes me ‘how I get’, Debbie? I don’t need it anymore, Debbie.  You don’t like how I get?  I made this to become the man you wanted to me, Debbie.  You made me.  And the thing is, Debbie, now all I need is your incessant whining to get ‘how I get’.  Your talk, talk, talk, it pounds in my head, and . . . raagh!”  Pete’s neck and muscles tightened up, he shook his head with the sudden effort, and then his skin became red and leathery, tougher, his face gained several bone crests to take damage easier, and his eyes blazed with unbridled rage, his teeth bared.  “I can’t stand your constant whining, and that idiotic laughter of yours!  I guess I finally know why you like bowling, huh?  Bend over in tight pants and have every guy there look at you, you slut!” he snarled.

“No, no, that’s not true, Pete,” Debbie said, tears forming in her eyes and staring down.

“Well, Jeffy won’t ever be looking at it again,” Pete snarled, making Debbie widen his eyes.  “Oh, think I didn’t know?  And that shrink!  Platt this, Platt that!  Does he like tight pants?  Maybe I did him a favor, after all, he’ll never have to hear you whine ever again, you WHORE!”  A rapid right back hand connected and sent Debbie sprawling to the floor, crying.

A moment later Pete suddenly seemed shocked, and his transformation disappeared. “Oh, god, Debbie,” he said pained, crying himself and rushed over.  He grabbed her and held her gently, rocking her and saying, “I’m so sorry, Debbie.  I love you so much.  I can’t control myself when I get like that.  I’m so sorry.  So sorry.”

*****

“Yes, thank you,” Giles said into the phone and hung up.  He turned around and looked at the table.  They had managed to somewhat put it back together with some tape - a new table would be ordered soon.  At it sat Cordelia, Kendra, and Faith, researching.  “That was Snyder,” Giles announced, and the girls looked up, “a student found Platt in his office - dead.   Killed the same way as Jeff.”

“Platt?” Faith looked somewhat stricken.  “Ah, fuck.  I kinda liked him,” she said, feeling somewhat hollow inside.

“Willow and Jenny and Lexa investigated the first victim’s body,” Giles continued, not naming the student, “Jenny said it was inconclusive.  They couldn’t find anything that fitted one type of demon or known monster.  They took Willow to get some rest, it was a little harrowing.”

“At least we can eliminate anything that only hunts at night,” Cordelia said annoyed.   They had been at this just about all day, and couldn’t really find any real clue.

“Eesn’t Oz supposed to be ere by now?” Kendra asked, looking concerned at the clock.

Cordelia looked up at the clock as well, and let it register.  It was almost sunset.  “He’ll be here,” she said resolutely.

*****

Oz restlessly waited in the Sunnydale High’s courtyard, holding a notebook of schoolwork. He looked up at the sky a moment, and checked his watch.  He could actually feel it approaching: sunset, or rather the full moon rising.  If Debbie didn’t arrive soon, he’d have to go and she wouldn’t have his Senior Bio notes.

He looked around to see if he’d missed anything.  Facing all the way back around, Debbie arrived fiddling with her bag.  “Debbie,” he greeted.

“Oh, hey Oz,” she said with a shaky voice, keeping a mane of hair in front of one eye.

“You’re a little late,” he said holding out his notes, and frowned.  He reached over with his left, free hand and brushed the hair out of the way.  “Nice shiner you got there.”

“Hmm?” she asked, as she took his notes and shakily put them in her bag.  “Oh-oh, yeah, clumsy me.  I tripped.  Doorknob.”

“Yeah,” Oz said concerned, not buying it for a moment.  “Next time the doorknob rushes at you, try to duck.  Those doorknobs are dangerous like that.”

“Uh, oh, no, this is not . . . I-I gotta go,” Debbie said and quickly left.

Oz did the same, he had to go as well.

*****

“Cutting it close, huh?” Faith asked as Oz returned from his errand.

Oz looked at the gathered group, and replied, “Still got some time.  No luck?”

“No, and there is another victim.  Platt,” Giles said, taking off his glasses in frustration.   Oz frowned.  “We can’t identify any specific species, so we’re attempting to find a common connection.”

“Debbie,” Oz said reaching the table.  “She knew Jeff, and I just saw her with a fresh shiner.”

“And she knew Platt, she raised a whole stink about not liking him at lunch today,” Faith said in confirmation.

“It’s the girl?” Cordelia asked confused.

“Not unless she’s demon in disguise,” Giles offered, leaning with one hand on the table.

“No,” Faith interjected as she recalled, “when I said I kinda liked him, she was all surprised and half agreeing he could be funny.  Just didn’t like his profession.”

“So eet’s de boyfriend,” Kendra concluded grimly, “eet’s always de boyfriend, eesn’t it? Maybe Mr. Zabuto was right, and I should keep boys away from me.”

“Let’s not get radical, here, Kendra,” Giles said gently, “I say you and me try to find - Pete, was it? - directly, and Cordelia and Faith see if they can get Debbie to talk.”

“Okay with me,” Cordelia said and rose.

“And I’ll . . .” Oz said and they all looked at him.  He nodded and finished, “I’ll be in the cage.  You go.”

“Let’s be off then,” Giles said, and everyone went.

*****

It didn’t take long for Cordelia and Faith to find Debbie.  After all, if you had a shiner, you went to cover up.  Cordelia had simply entered one bathroom after another and soon found Debbie in front of a mirror.

“Covering up a shiner, huh?  It’s tough,” Cordelia commented as she and Faith walked into the bathroom, making Debbie look up and turn around.  “You know what helps? Ducking.  It’s an ancient and tried method.”

“Go away,” Debbie said softly.

“I can’t believe this,” Faith said, shaking her head.  She’d been treated like that once - the guy never saw her again.  “You’re actually going to let him treat you like this?”

“Pete loves me.  He can’t help himself, he changes,” Debbie mumbled and turned around to continue applying the make up.

“Changes,” Faith said, grunting, “Yeah, I’ve seen a guy ‘change’ once.  Real scary too. You know what I call the change?  Being a sick bastard.”

“You don’t understand . . . you can’t,” Debbie whimpered.

“We understand . . .”  Cordelia said, reaching the girl on the right side and pulling her to face her.  “Pete isn’t exactly human, is he?”

“H-he is!” Debbie protested with wide teary eyes.  “I-it’s the drug, you see?  A-at first when he takes it, but he doesn’t need it anymore.  It’s me, it’s my fault.  He did it for me, you see?  He loves me that much.”

Faith yanked her around to face her this time, and said sharply, “He doesn’t love you. Look in the mirror.”  Faith turned the girls head to face the mirror, “Does that look like something that someone who loves you does to you?  That’s not love, Debbie.  That’s psycho. Where is he?  We’ll stop him, and he never gets to hurt you or anyone else again.”

Debbie moved her head back to Faith.  “H-he does love me.  He does love me.”

*****

Oz was in his cage.  It was coming, he knew it.  Unfortunately for him, someone was coming as well.  “Well, hello there, Oz,” Pete said as he walked into the library as if he owned the place.  “Do you like Debbie?”  Oz frowned as he watched Pete steadily come closer with an almost maniacal grin.  “Well, do you?”

“As a fellow student,” Oz said frowning.  He understood perfectly what Pete was coming to do.  The problem was, he was in a cage, and time was running out.

“Of course you do.  Who doesn’t like the whore!” Pete snarled out, reaching the cage door.

“It wasn’t like that man.  Listen, Pete,” Oz said, the guy might be a murderer, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die.  “You might wanna step away from the door man.”

“No,” Pete said seemingly calm for a moment.  “She’s a whore, you touched her didn’t you?  Did she give it to you good?”

“Pete, you wanna step away from the cage, in a few moments something’s going to happen you’re probably not going to believe . . .” Oz trailed of as Pete roared in anger and transformed.  “. . . or you might.”

With a raging scream, Pete grabbed the door of the cage, and tore it out.  Then grabbed Oz, and tossed him to the other side of the library.

*****

“He does love me, he does love me,” Debbie repeated, rocking back and forth on a bench.

“I think we actually broke her,” Faith said, squatting down for a moment, to try and get Debbie’s attention, but it didn’t work.

As Faith rose again, Cordelia sighed, and said, “In order to break something, Faith, it needs to be whole first.”  She turned to leave, saying, “Come on, she’s useless.”  Faith nodded and followed her out.

*****

Pete’s fist slammed into Oz’s cheek, and the werewolf felt it bruise as he slammed onto the stairs leading to the second level.  With a snarl Pete slammed both his fists into Oz and then grabbed him viciously and tossed him away.  Growling he went after Oz, who groaned in pain, attempting to get up.  He supposed he was lucky he was a werewolf, and the training with his girlfriend and her friends helped too.  A werewolf, even not wolfed out and during day, was somewhat tougher than an ordinary human, who would probably have been dead by now.  For one thing, he healed up, only a silver bullet through the heart and something as extensive as decapitation could kill him really - of course Pete was undoubtedly capable of that.  An ordinary human would have been dead by now, it was odd that Pete hadn’t picked up on that.

“That filthy whore!” Pete raged kicking out and catching Oz in the chest, sending him flying away.  Or maybe it wasn’t so odd after all.  The guy didn’t seem to be flying on all thrusters.

Grunting Oz got up, and watched Pete advance, and then he felt it.  That creepy crawly feeling of something deeply buried inside him starting to tear itself to the surface, and then beyond.  In reflex he looked up through a window, and saw the light of the full moon falling through the window, the evening sky darkening quickly.  “Time’s up, Pete,” Oz said with a cool tone, for once welcoming the change.  Someone talking back during this, brought Pete up short though, and he halted his advance in puzzlement.  “Rule’s change, my turn.”

A moment later an inhuman growl came from Oz’s throat, and first the skin on his hands, and then his clothes ripped open, dark grey wolf hair growing out everywhere.  He grew a foot taller, and the face formed into a short snout.  “What the . . .?” Pete said in shock.

The wolf howled out happily - it hadn’t had a hunt in ages.  It didn’t understand why the mistress didn’t allow it, even if it was always treated kindly and with love, and had enough to eat.  Sometimes it resented not being able to hunt, sometimes it thought it was its fault, but now it could hunt, and it was damn sure the mistress would approve this time.  It just hoped the stupid red version of the prey tasted as good as the pink ones.  It pounced with a growl, jaws wide to bite at Pete’s shoulder.  Pete turned his shoulder in reflex, a moment in fright, than his anger returned and with his right shoulder just out of the beast’s maw’s reach, grabbed its throat with his left, both beasts soaring through the air from the momentum.

Tearing out the furred creature’s throat proved to be if not impossible, at least difficult enough one hand wouldn’t do.  The attempted strangle instead, didn’t get very far as Oz-wolf slammed the hand away with a growl and slashed at the red prey’s torso with its claws.  The annoying fur they were always covered in ripped, and slash marks formed on his chest, although not very deep and very little blood welled up.  This prey was resilient - good, then it might be more like an actual hunt instead of just a quick kill.  Still, Oz-wolf would be disappointed if the red prey really turned out not to taste well.

The two beasts slammed onto the stone steps, Pete first, roaring with the steps edges slamming into his back.  The growling wolf slammed its fists down, but before it could bite, Pete grabbed fur and twisted, turning both of them around.  Oz-wolf grunted and snapped forward, this time managing to catch the shoulder and biting down hard - he tasted good after all!

“Aargh!” Pete yelled at the pain of the furball’s teeth sinking into his flesh.  It grabbed at the snout and yanked it free, taking some chunks of his flesh with him.  He kept holding on to the maw, and grabbed a hold of the other side with his other hand, and started to pull.

Oz-wolf shook its head as it felt pain on its jaws stretching beyond what they were designed for.  Fed up, its feet kicked out and sent the red, resilient prey flying away, roaring in pain.  Oz-wolf waited not a second, and jumped after him; it was time for breakfast.

*****

Faith and Cordelia had almost reached the library again when they saw Giles and Kendra return from the other side as well.  “Found anything?” Cordelia asked the other two.  They were about to answer, when a crash from the library startled them.  The four of them frowned at each other for a moment, and then ran into the library, watching Oz land on top of a red-skinned humanoid, and started tearing at its arm with his teeth.

“Oz!” Cordelia exclaimed in concern, familiar enough with the werewolf form of her boyfriend she noticed several wounds on him.

Oz-wolf paused for just a moment.  Mistress!  He heard only concern in her voice, not reprimand at all.  He was right!  It was time to eat!  And he continued.

The brief pause was exactly what Pete needed to regroup though, and he started to ram his free hand into the wolf’s side.  “Get!  Off!  Beast!” he snarled, punctuating each word with a punch.  The wolf whimpered even as it attempted to bite down harder.  With another snarl Pete turned the two over and slammed his head down between the wolf’s eyes, dazing it.  He managed to yank his arm free and raised both of them into fists to bring them down hard.

“Pete!  Look out!” Debbie’s voice sounded and he instantly turned around.

Kendra, a new, dark-skinned girl only recently attending Sunnydale High, was bent off to the left, holding some type of rifle.  Next to her was Debbie, having pushed her.  Just before Kendra was the librarian, who jerked, looked back while staggering forward, saying, “Oh, bloody brilliant.”  Then he crashed unconscious against a filing cabinet, bringing it down with him.

“I’m sorree!” Kendra exclaimed.  Cordelia Chase, the cheerleader captain, and Scott’s new girlfriend Faith were just behind the two.  And they were obviously pissed.  The furball below him growled, the daze obviously wearing off as it struggled and its claws already grasping at him.  He couldn’t take them all on at the same time, especially if they had a tranquilizer gun.  He snarled, got up, and jumped up to the second level, then crashed through a window.

Oz-wolf got up, and howled.  The stupid red prey had gotten away and he looked for a moment at his mistress.  Go after the prey, or play with mistress.  One of mistress friends cocking that stupid rifle made up his mind for him, and he charged up the stairs to the second level, and disappeared through a different open window, ignoring his mistress’s calling.

“Damn, mutt,” Cordelia said, and then turned to the sight at hand, Debbie already having fled out the library through the standard exit.  She looked at Giles for a moment, and then said, “You two get Pete, I’ll get Oz.”  Then she ran up the stairs.

“You don’t want the . . .” Faith called after her.

Cordelia looked back and noticed Faith gesturing at the rifle still in Kendra’s hands.  “Of course not,” Cordelia said, half-confused, and disappeared out the window.

Kendra looked at Faith and said, “I teenk Mister Giles would say, ‘Bloody hell.’”  Faith nodded, stunned at Cordelia really going after Oz without any weapon, not even her swords. Kendra looked at the rifle for a moment, and then tossed it on the library counter.  Knocking Pete out wasn’t going to help any.  “Let’s go,” Kendra said, and then one Slayer and one Potential Slayer were off.

*****

Finding Oz hadn’t been difficult.  The wolf, after all, really wanted to be found.  He stood in a hallway growling as Cordelia advanced on him.  “What?  You forgotten who your mistress is, boy?” Cordelia told it sternly.  Oz-wolf gave a bark and growled again.  “Or is it that you want to play?  Fighting that bastard got you excited, huh?” Oz-wolf growled.  “Then I’ll just have to teach your first lesson all over, again, do I?” Cordelia said as she knew she reached best jumping distance.  Not surprisingly, Oz-wolf jumped.

Cordelia rolled backward, grabbing Oz by his neck, and launching him onward with her right foot.  The wolf landed and Cordelia was already up.  Oz-wolf struggled to his feet on the annoyingly slippery floor, and rushed at his mistress again.  The cheerleader jumped over him lightly, and immediately twisted upon landing, catching the wolf’s hind legs, and sending him skidding along until he slammed into a wall.  He growled at his mistress as she advanced on her.  Suddenly she sped up, and slammed a foot in his flank.  Oz-wolf whimpered a little and jumped up to bite.  As always, his mistress seemed to know it coming from a mile away, and grabbed him by his throat with both hands and pulled him over her, and then slammed him into the floor.  A moment later he was in a head lock on the stupid slippery floor.  If it wasn’t so slippery he could probably have gotten up and prolonged the fight.

“Who’s your bitch, Oz?  Come on, who’s your bitch?  Who’s the queen mistress here, huh?” Cordelia prompted loudly.  Oz-wolf whimpered and went limp, and then gave her right breast a submissive lick.  “Better,” Cordelia said and looked behind her, suspecting something from his lick.  “You dumb mutt,” Cordelia told Oz as the erection she saw confirmed it.  She got up, and yanked him to his feet.  “Men, always thinking of either one of two things.  Come on, I’ll get you the other thing so your brain doesn’t fry,” Cordelia scalded.

Apparently right now was not mating time.  Oz had these weird memories of mating with mistress, yet having memories of never actually mating with mistress.  He couldn’t understand it, so he didn’t care.  What mattered was that mating-time was sometime else, so he trudged after his mistress who was playfully scolding him.

*****

There was a scream and a snap, and after giving each other a moment’s look, Kendra and Faith ran toward the source.  They came up to a piece of wall with a slightly different color, and having no time to find how to open it, Kendra simply slammed her fist into it, and ripped the doorway to the right with brute force.  Pieces of the door wall crumbled to the floor as Kendra and Faith quickly entered what was obviously some type of makeshift chemical lab.   In the middle lay Debbie, with a neck twisted in a very wrong angle.

Faith rushed to the body, but as she reached it, she refrained from kneeling down and checking for a pulse, on the tiny off chance she managed to survive.  The lifeless eyes said it all; she was very dead.  Kendra joined her on the opposite of the body a moment later.

“Hey, Pete, eet ends here,” Kendra said peering into the darkness, her heightened senses and common sense telling her he was still here.  “You’ve killed enough.”

A moment later he came out of the shadows, snarling, “BITCHES!  ALL OF YOU! BLACK, YELLOW, BLONDE, REDHEAD!  IT DOESN’T MATTER!  ALL THE SAME! WHORES!”

He slung wildly, and Kendra blocked the swing, kicking her left foot up in his chin hard, and making him flying back.  Faith, knowing her limitations, backed off a bit.  With another roar Pete returned with a body slam, which took Kendra off guard.  He slammed his knee in her stomach and picked her up over him.  Shifting her slightly so he had her by her lower legs, he slammed her down onto the ground.  The ground cracked with the impact, and Kendra yelled out in pain, face contorted.

A moment later before he could continue Faith had come jumping in and slammed her foot with a snarl of her own into his face.  Pete’s head snapped with the impact and he staggered to his left, but he didn’t seem to be worse for wear.  “Whore!” he snarled, taking a step forward, and swung a much too fast backhand.  It slammed painfully into Faith’s face and she was launched off of her feet to the left, falling painfully to the floor and skidding to a halt. She coughed and struggled for consciousness, and knew she’d be having a shiner of her own. Fear lanced through her as she forced herself to try and get up.  So impossibly strong, and so similar to back then.

Faith then shook her head.  No more.  She wouldn’t be afraid.  Not anymore.  She had friends, a potential couple material, people to look up to, she’d killed vampires, and demons and was cared for here.  Pete seemed indecisive on who to finish off first, and despite having a bad view she was convinced Kendra was still recovering.  She’d be damned if she let the little man intimidate her.  “Hey, yo, limp dick!  Or is it small dick!  It’s so hard to tell either way!” Faith called out, sliding half lying and half sitting further back until she reached the wall.  She had the bastard’s attention now.  “Yeah, you, let’s go.  Afraid of a girl that can talk back, you piece of shit.  What’s the matter, don’t you want it, come on, right here,” Faith snarled, ripping her shirt open and showing off her breasts.  “Isn’t this what you want?  You crave this. I’m right here, you just have to come get me.  That’s what you want isn’t it.”

“You bitch!  You whore!” Pete snarled and steamed toward.

“Yeah, that’s right, come and show how big and strong you are and rape and beat up a little defenseless girl!” Faith taunted him onward, making him snarl again.  He had almost reached her, and behind her back she shoved her ring on her right ring finger, instantly feeling the power surge through her body.  Suddenly she was up and took a step, much to Pete’s surprise.  With a scream of fury, she launched an uppercut and Pete screamed out in pain. Faith was ready to continue the fight, but to her astonishment at the grace and speed, and wanting to be able to do it as well, she saw Kendra surge upward through the air, legs first.  A moment later they wrapped around Pete’s waist, and they went downward.  With a scream Kendra snapped the scissor shut at the moment of landing.  With a snap Pete’s back snapped backwards, his head whiplashed.  His mouth shot open and some blood was flung from it.

Kendra let him drop, and immediately got up over his head.  She grabbed it, and with two might tugs snapped Pete’s neck.  Then she stood back weakly, and looked.

Faith came over to watch as well, putting the ring back in one of her pockets.  Pete’s red leathery skin shriveled up, to reveal Pete the way he was born: human.  Clearly there were teeth marks now visible on the body.

“He was bitten,” Faith said pointing at the body.  “You don’t think . . .”

Kendra thought for a moment, then took one of the cases and yanked a support strut from it, the case falling apart.  “Stand back,” she said, and Faith did.  With vicious move, Kendra slammed the strut home through Pete’s neck.  It now sported a big hole, with only two thin strips of flesh on either side, blood spurting everywhere.  “Not even werewolf will come back from that,” Kendra said, and Faith nodded.

*****

A week later

Xander closed his locker, and turned around with a sigh.  He saw Jonathan walk by in a stylish clothes and jacket.  Cordelia was a genius.  She simply upgraded the guy’s clothes.  Good matching colors, and more adult fair clothes.  The jacket reminiscent of being a college student.  In short; Jonathan look like a sophisticated, intelligent young man instead of a geek, and girls had definitely started to notice him.  Xander smiled at him, and Jonathan returned a nervous smile.

A little later he entered the library, noticing everyone was present, including Shaten.  The frustration over her got the better of him.  “Nothing,” Xander said, throwing up his arms in disgust, “either the guy doesn’t want to get married right away, move to Japan, or he has the martial arts potential of a beached whale.  I still can’t find any guys for her.”

“You are not giving up, are you?” Jenny Calendar asked him.

“Of course not, it’s just frustrating,” Xander replied with an annoyed expression.  He hadn’t even mentioned the ones that Shaten had simply scared off.  He had hoped he’d have at least one hopeful by now, but nothing.

“Xander-dono,” Shaten said with a little concern.  “If not return in two weeks, village consider me traitor.”

“I know, we’ll get it,” Xander reassured her.

The speaker system of the school announced, “Mister Harris, Miss Summers, and Miss Lu, please report to the Principal’s office.”

“Principal’s office?  What the hell does that troll want?” Xander asked out loud, and nobody gave him an answer.

Grunting he left the library, Buffy and Lotion in tow.  The trio soon arrived in the Principal’s office.  Snyder looked at them with an evil grin, that sent shivers down Buffy’s spine.  “Well, it has come to my attention that you three are the best martial artists of the school, training in self-defense,” he said, and not letting anyone interrupt he presented a pamphlet.  “Well, there is a state-tournament in Los Angeles soon, and you will be representing our school,” Snyder said with a grin.

Buffy and Lotion deflated a little, but Xander suddenly grasped the paper out of Snyder’s hand and skimmed through its content.  “Yes, sir,” Xander said with a big grin, even giving him a salute.  “We’ll make the school proud, sir.”  Then he walked out of the office leaving two stunned girls and one stunned principal.  Buffy and Lotion then went after Xander, leaving Snyder alone.

“This is not fair,” Snyder muttered to himself.  The boy hated doing anything forced upon him, and he hated doing anything for school even less, and yet he had been all happy. The Harris kid was supposed to have been horrified and he’d get the pleasure of forcing him into the tournament anyway.  But instead he’d been all happy about the idea.  Stupid teenagers!  Now there was no fun to be had.

To Be Continued . . .

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