BtVS 13

After the teens made a quick change into workout clothes, they started to warm up. Faith and Buffy stretched, Oz and Xander dropped into a meditative state, and Willow tentatively approached the free-weights. Cordelia had asked for the next few days off to properly plan her Homecoming campaign, and since no-one wanted to be near her when she was like this, it was quickly granted.

Giles led his Slayers through some new fighting maneuvers before setting them off to spar each other. The Englishman was relieved that since Faith had arrived, he hadn't needed to spar with Buffy himself. He may still have some good moves, but no human can match the speed and strength of a Slayer.

After about ten minutes of sparring, Oz, his eyes silver grey, was added to the mix, turning it into a free-for-all. Oz fared poorly, as he couldn't access the full measure of lupine strength and speed without losing control, but he made up for it in part with his resilience and the bassist's natural intelligence coming into play. He had the habit of ducking a shot at the last moment and letting it hit the third participant, much to the surprise of both Slayers.

Xander finally managed to bring his beast to the fore and leapt into the spar with a keening howl. Again the odds changed as teams arose almost instantly, with Oz and Faith facing down Xander and Buffy. Xander's connection to the primal gave him greater strength than Oz could manage, but at the cost of higher reasoning, a flaw that he was trying to work on.

Willow, who had long since abandoned the weights in favor of plotting strategy, had come over to join Giles in watching the fight. The pairing off worked surprisingly well. Faith was more impulsive than Buffy in a fight, which was balanced by Oz keeping control of his wolf, contrasting Xander's wildness. The two teams seemed evenly matched, and so it remained for five, then ten minutes as the friends grew progressively faster in their moves, and more aggressive in their actions.

Finally, Giles noticed a ploy. Oz was drawing off Buffy, leaving Xander alone to deal with Faith. From past experience, Giles knew that it was over. Xander never managed to keep his head alone in a fight when channeling the Primal spirit, so Faith should be able to outmaneuver him, and then relieve Oz to deny Buffy the win.

Sure enough, Faith launched into a combination that Giles had taught a few days ago, designed to bring an opponent's guard high, leaving them open for a tripping strike. Faith followed with a snap-kick to the shin, which Xander stepped past and barreled into the Slayer, dropping to the ground with her underneath. She let out a startled squawk, distracting Oz enough for Buffy to trip him, ending the spar.

"Alright, you won! Now get off of me or buy me a drink!" Xander's eyes faded from luminous green to his regular brown as he rolled off of Faith with a groan.

"It takes twenty minutes to call the thing up, and feels like an uppercut to the pre-frontal cortex when I stop. Who thought this was a good idea?"

Buffy blinked at her Xander-shaped friend's comments. "I'm pretty sure you did. And pre-frumple gortex? Where did THAT come from?" she asked as she offered him a hand up.

He stood with a grimace "Have you met Willow? My best friend since EVER? When we played doctor as kids, we used Grey's Anatomy as a reference guide. I can still name all 206 bones in the human body in latin."

Oz gave Willow a raised eyebrow, causing her to blush scarlet, Faith hid a laugh behind her hand, and Buffy rolled her eyes.