DISCLAIMER- ALL CHARACTERS AND LIKENESSES BELONG TO JOSS WHEDON AND MUTAN
ENEMY. THERE ARE ONLY A FEW CHARACTERS (YOU SHOULD KNOW WHICH ONES, THAT I
HAVE CREATED
Cleveland, Ohio
"How many do you count?" Vi asks from atop a roof looking down at a bunch of people gathering in an alley below. Although it has been a few months since her and the other slayers destroyed the first hell mouth , she is still very shaky about just bursting into battle. She looks at her brunette counterpart, who is always ready to battle.
"There's about ten all together, vamps don't usually gather in that big a number." Kennedy looks at Vi with a very eager grin. Kennedy took the lead slayer role very easily once Buffy left for Europe, and Faith had to cross the border. And Vi knows that it was because of her ambition and confidence is why she sort of became the leader of this new group of Scoobies. "We can take them."
"You sure, we've only been slaying for a few months? Maybe we should get Xander.."
"No, we can do this on our own." But right as she says this Kennedy is tackled from behind, Vi recognizes the bumps on his forehead and immediately pulls for her stake. Kennedy yells at the top of her lungs as she struggles with the vamp that has his arms grasped against her neck, which is a very stupid move as the vamps below look up to see what the commotion is all about. Vi is able to stake the vamp through the back and right into the heart, suddenly, Kennedy finds herself in a cloud of dust. She gets up and reaches for the weapon that hangs on her belt buckle, the scythe. She looks sort of unsure at Vi. " I told you we could handle them."
"What about them?" Vi points to the vamps who are making their way up the building by using the balconies and rafters on it. Without saying a word Kennedy leaps off the top of the roof and lands on the balcony below, Vi follows suite. Kennedy begins to scale down the ladder to next balcony where the first three vamps are, Kennedy stops to begin fighting them. Vi notices two vamps on the balcony beneath the one they are on now, and the other five are distracted by something approaching below. Vi swings off the top balcony knowing that Kennedy can take care of the three on her own, she lands on the platform below and starts throwing blows and block with the two vamps. Up above Kennedy dodges an attack from the first approaching vamp and throws him off the balcony onto the ground below to focus on his approaching comrades.
In the alley below, a school bus comes crashing through the gates, it doesn't stop for the vamps who are down there. Three manage to get out of the way, but the other three (including the one who was just knocked off the platform.) get ran down by the hulking Sunnydale High School bus, not dusted though. The six vamps below recover and get back on their feet as the bus stops and the doors open up. Two very brave vampires run up to the door as it opens, one of them gets met by a swinging battle axe to the neck. As the dust of the first vamp flies, Xander Harris leaps out from the doorway with the battle axe and begins fighting with the other vampire. The four other vamps on ground level run to team up on Xander, but are flung back by an invisible force from inside the yellow bus, they all hite the surrounding walls. They look up to see a grinning red head in the doorway of the bus, she steps out almost daring them to approach her, of course they know what she is, a very powerful witch. She is followed by a scrawny looking young man wearing a coat that looks it like it came out of the movie "The Matrix" and wearing a pair of sunglasses to match the coat. Seeing that this boy looks the most vulnerable, the four vamps decide to ignore the red head and go towards him instead. As they lunge toward him, he pulls what looks like a super soaker out of his coat, he points it at them with a confident grin and begins to pump it. But before he can pump up the soaker enough, he is forced to the ground by the first oncoming vamp, he begins to struggle and flail his arms as the vamp begins to go for the kill. "You didn't give me enough time to pump up my holy water, no fair, no fair."
Kennedy finishes off the first two vampires above, and jumps down on one of the vamps below. Kennedy gets off the vamp and back up towards Vi as they stand face to face with the two vampires. "Don't you love this power?" Kennedy says to Vi not taking her eyes off the vamp across from her. "You know your dust right, we are slayers, you are just a bunch of piss poor vampires." Vi stands next to her nodding her head in agreement.
"You know she's right, you guys are dust?" Vi says with confidence.
"Two slayers? I thought there is only supposed to be one." The vampire looks at his comrade confused.
"Well, the rules have changed just a little bit." Kennedy says right before both slayers engage in battle with the vamps, within two seconds both vamps are dust. They look down to see that they have been joined by the rest of the scoobs. One of the vamps is in a sort of grudge match with Xander, who doesn't really equal his strength. Andrew is on the ground being pummeled by another vamp, no surprise to the two girls, and Willow is holding the other three at bay trying not to use too much magic. Vi and Kennedy leap down to the alley way to aid Willow. Both land on their feet next to Willow and Kennedy gives her a sweet look holding up her scythe. "You miss me?"
Willow returns to look to her girlfriend. "Always, but next time you should tell me next time you go out patrolling for the grrrarrrg."
Xander looks back at his group as he struggles with the vamp. " I hate to break up the girl talk, but the men are getting their asses kicked."
Vi looks at Xander who has just been knocked down to his knees. "And that's different from the other patrols how?"
Andrew yelps from beneath his vamp. "Ha-Ha. This vamp just broke my new sunglasses, that's the fifth pair this month."
The girls look at each other and shrug, then burst back into battle mode. Fire pulsates from both of Willow's palms as Kennedy twirls the Scythe in her hands as Vi rolls towards Andrew's attacker. Kennedy takes out one of the vamps very easily as the other two burst into flames, the three turn to dust at about the same time. Vi pulls the vamp off of Andrew and leaps on his back as Andrew squirms on the ground. He finally grabs for the super soaker that he dropped on the alleyway ground and in crouching position aims it for the vamp that Vi has climbed onto. He blasts the holy water into the chest of the vampire, he slowly disintegrates into dust as Vi suddenly falls to the ground of the alleyway with a small thud. Andrew gets up with a very professional look on his face, then he breaks it and a look of glee appears. " I just dusted a vampyr." Vi coughs a little bit and Andrew lifts his hand to help her up, although she hates having a nerd help her back up she lets him. "Xander did you see that? I just dusted my first one."
Xander is back up still fighting back and forth with the last remaining vampire. "Sorry, I missed it, I'm a bit preoccupied. Plus, you know, missing an eye here." Vi walks up to the vamp and pulls him off and shoves him to the corner of the alleyway. The vamp looks up as Willow and Kennedy take the lead with Xander limping behind them next to Vi and Andrew brings up the rear holding his super soaker close to his chest.
Kennedy holds the end of the scythe towards the vampires neck. "Alright, one chance, one question."
The vampire gives Kennedy a fearful gaze and then the begging begins. " Please don't I'll tell you whatever you need to know, just don't dust me."
Willow has a smile on her face. "I love it when they beg, you don't see that too often."
"Well, with a super extra surplus of slayers nowadays, I can see why vampires might think they are becoming an extinct species." Xander replies behind Kennedy.
The vamp looks down at the Scythe being held to his neck. "Wait, wait, wait, I am a vampire with a soul."
Xander and Willow laugh at this. "Wow, that's one I haven't heard yet. But there are only two vampires with souls out there and we know both of them. Oddly enough, one is actually a phantom now."
Andrew butts in. "Wait, Angel is head of an evil law firm AND a phantom? WEIRD"
Xander corrects him. "No, Spike is vampire turned vampire with a chip that won't let him hurt humans turned vampire with a soul turned trigger to The First turned phantom. And Angel is the vampire with a soul turned evil turned good again turned detective turned evil again turned good once more turned head of evil law firm." Xander looks around at his group. "Does anyone else find this 'vampire with a soul' a little confusing?"
"Yeah, they've had more changes than Logan or Weapon X as he was called back in the day."
Willow stops the conversation. "Guys, we got a vampire pleading not to be dusted, we should have this whole soul conversation a bit later."
"We don't believe the whole soul thing, what else do you have or can I just ask you what I need to know then get to dusting you?" Kennedy asks now very impatient.
"Wait, your going to dust me any ways?"
"Yeah, pretty much, it's what we do. No offense." Vi says.
"Then why should I tell you anything?"
Kennedy shoves the Scythe even deeper into the neck of her enemy. "Because on top of dusting you, I can make you hurt, badly."
"Okay, okay, what's your question?"
"Where is the hell mouth?" Willow asks without the vengeance that her girlfriend has.
"I don't know.." He is cut off by the power of Kennedy's Scythe and then turned to dust.
"Wrong answer" Kennedy says as she puts the Scythe back into her belt buckle.
"Does anyone else find Kennedy kind of scary at times?" Andrew asks as they begin to walk away from the pile of dust.
"Just aggressive." Willow answers the weakest of the crew.
"That's the way you like it." Kennedy says grabbing onto Willow's right hand.
Xander looks back at Kennedy. "As much as I want to hear more, believe me I do. Why did you dust him so quickly? We could've got some information out of the vamp."
"He did seem fairly desperate." Willow agrees.
"He did'nt know where the hell mouth was, he lost."
Xander looks down at Kennedy from the doorway of the bus. "Maybe if you rode it out a little, we could have gotten some information on at least where to begin."
At this Kennedy begins her trademark defensive attitude. "We don't need him, we'll get the information some where else."
"But this is the third time you did it this week?" Xander corrects her, the other three stay out of the conversation knowing that the two are getting into it.
"And when did you become my dad, you can't tell me how to do my job." That snotty attitude is something that Kennedy has had since day one.
"Um, Honey?" Willow says inside the bus putting her hand on Kennedy's shoulder, now everyone is inside the bus. " He actually can."
"What?" Kennedy asks, very upset not only in the fact that Xander can boss her around but that Willow is going to take his side again.
" I got back the paperwork today from one of Giles and The New Watcher's Council's messengers, I'm officially yours and Vi's Watcher."
"I don't need a watcher," Kennedy still complaining even as she enters the Scoobs very small apartment building. She is followed Willow, then Xander who has been hearing her crap for the last fifteen minutes enters with a frustrated look on his face, Vi is next in the doorway, then bringing up the rear holding bags of groceries is Andrew. "We blow the hell mouth sky high, there's really no need for me to have a watcher."
Xander sits on couch just listening to his new charge bitch and moan. " There is more to learn, do you know how many times Buffy averted the end of the world and still needed a watcher?"
Andrew butts in. "By my count, five" Both Xander and Kennedy give him a 'stay out of this' look and he shuts up.
"Also" Kennedy begins. "No offense, but what watcher experience do you have? And aren't supposed to be british?"
It's Willow's turn to interrupt the argument. "Wait just a minute," She gives her girlfriend a very stern look, everyone looks at Willow, when she speaks everyone listens in. "Xander has had more field time then most Watchers, he's helped Buffy on many occasions. There's no way you can say he's not qualified to by your watcher."
Kennedy begins to speak again from the doorway leading into the bedroom, she looks straight towards Willow, very upset. "Why are you always on his side? I know you two hooked up a couple of times, but..."
"Hey, hey, that's stuff we don't talk about around the young ones.." Him and Willow both look shocked that he brought this up as do Vi and Andrew. Xander looks towards Willow a little betrayed. "You told her that?"
Willow, now feeling very awkward. "Xander, she's my girlfriend." Then she looks towards Kennedy still very nervous, she hates confrontation like this, it's been happening a lot between Xander and Kennedy. "Kennedy, it's not that I'm taking his side. Well, yeah it is, this time, but I'm not always on his side. But this time he has a good point. Xander has been around slayers and vampires for about eight years now, he's had our back through and through. He has everything it takes to be a watcher, that shouldn't be questioned what so ever."
Kennedy hits the wall in anger, knocking off a piece of it, she begins to speak in frustration. "I can't believe this, we spend the whole summer dropping off and locating slayers. We get no action what so ever in fighting vamps and when we finally get to Cleveland we can't find the stupid Hellmouth.." "Because somebody keeps on dusting our leads." Xander says from his couch.
Kennedy now even more frustrated at Xander. " This should be easier, we have a witch and two slayers, this shouldn't be that hard."
"Ah yes, this band of misfits" Andrew says from his area in the kitchen as he and Vi put away the groceries.
Kennedy looks at him, interrupted again, and then looks back at Xander. "And that's another thing, what's he still doing here? He's useless."
"Hey wait a minute missy" Andrew says in a very defensive tone. "I do the chores and might I say that's not an easy task, you guys are pigs."
Xander looks at Andrew to tell him that he's not really helping and then looks at Kennedy. "Andrew is here because he wants to help out with our cause, even if that means getting torn apart by vampires or something even more savage." Andrew gives a bit yelp at that. " And I'm someone who appreciates that. He's a member of the Scooby gang now, end of story."
"Don't you get it Xander, there are no more Scoobies, that was something you had back in High School when Buffy was still around. That is why you are not cut out to be a watcher, your still living back in Sunnydale."
Xander stands up very defensive at the girl now. "Don't you ever shut up, Kennedy?" Everyone is shocked that he finally says something. "All you do is complain about every decision I have made, if you don't like it, then choose not to be a slayer. That's what Willow's spell was all about, either accept to be a slayer with every perk that comes along including having me as a watcher or leave and live the life of a normal bratty girl."
Kennedy knows she's been backed into a corner now and walks into the bedroom and slams the door. Willow sits down next to Xander giving him a very concerned look. Vi notices that they probably want some grown up time and excuses herself, "I'll go talk to her, maybe I'll be able to calm her down." Vi then goes into the bedroom to speak with Kennedy. Willow and Xander then look at Andrew who can't really take a hint, he just continues to stalk the cabinets.
"You know, I can probably make a brilliant tuna cassarole tomorrow night for dinner.." Both Willow and Xander look at Andrew with contempt, he looks back and finally gets it. He reaches for the trash can and pulls the bag out. "I think I'll take out the trash." He then leaves in hurried fashion and shuts the apartment door.
Xander looks at Willow very frustrated. "You know your girlfriend is evil right? I liked Tara much better, was'nt as standoffish."
Willow frowns at this, then she puts her arm on Xander's shoulder. "She's just stubborn, she'll come around soon."
Xander one good eye winks at her with a coy smile underneath. "But you know she might be right about something?"
"What?"
"I'm probably the last person who should be a watcher of a slayer, much less two slayers. What was Giles thinking referring me to The Watcher's council without asking me if I wanted to do it."
Willow looks at Xander with a sweet smile. "Xander, do you want to be a watcher?"
He looks back up at her. "Of course I do, it's something I always dreamed of back when I was in High School, I just never thought it would happen." His smile turns to a frown as he continues. " But dammit Will, I'm not sure I'm up to it now, look at me I'm a wreck. My ex-fiancee died, I lost one of my eyes, and my first girlfriend is in a coma after giving birth to an evil love god." Then a confused look on his face appears. "Why are things so much more confusing in L.A than the Hell mouth? It makes no sense."
Willow passes this off and gets right to what is really eating at her old friend. "Your still missing her aren't you?"
A little tear drop comes from his one good eye, he didn't know he would break down like this at this point. "I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to her, I should have been there fighting by her side."
"Xander, it's not your fault."
"Of course it is, Will" He wipes his eye then continues. "I shouldn't have listened to Buffy, I should've went with Anya."
"She might've died any ways, Xander. You don't think I felt the same way after Tara died?"
"Well, I actually thought you were thinking 'Kill kill, Die, die'." He smiles a little at this as Willow frowns. "And it's just the way I acted after hearing that she was gone, I pretended that nothing was wrong, I pretended that I didn't care. Anya didn't even get a funeral and I didn't say a word about it. But now.."
"Now your beating yourself up." Willow holds his hand in a very sisterly way. " It won't bring her back and it will just make you feel worse, hindering you from your new work."
Xander puts his head down. "Can I really do this? Is this really my role in life?"
"Deep down inside, you know it is." She stops to hear Andrew's footsteps coming up the hall. "I believe in you Xander, Anya believed in you. That should be more than enough to motivate you to lead our group into the hell mouth."
As Andrew enters the doorway Xander touches Willow's leg and smiles. "Thanks, Will. You have always been there for me."
"You've always been there for everyone."
"There's no way that Wolverine would be able to defeat Darth Vader." Andrew says from his bed on the living room couch looking down at Xander who is in sleeping bag on the floor. The living room doubled as the men's bedroom at nights, while the real bedroom belonged to Willow, Kennedy, and Vi. Xander thinks it might be very hard for Vi to sleep in that room with the happy couple. Andrew doesn't give Xander a chance to continue the thought. " Maybe Wolverine can slash up young Anakin maybe even Luke, but not the Lord Of The Sith."
"Yeah, but I'm fairly certain that Vader has no chance against Gandolf the Gray." Although Xander would never tell him, Andrew has become like a little brother to him. In the last seven years he has never had a best buddy since Jesse was sired. Sure, he had Oz and Riley in the past, but they didn't have the same interests as him and plus they were just there because they were dating his two closest friends. And Giles was more of a father figure to him. And forget him ever being good buds with Angel or Spike, although he did room with the latter for a short period of time, but they were far from friends.
"Sorry, but Harry Potter could take down Gandolf, the only person in the Galaxy who can go against Vader would be Thanos and maybe The Mighty Thor." Andrew says thumbing through his Green Lantern comics, Xander gives him a look of agreement. Another reason why Xander likes having Andrew around is it's sort of like having Anya back. Not in the way that Andrew would look good in a thong, but just the whole comedy aspect. He remembered Anya bringing him such comfort with her comedic look at the world and the fact that she was just plain funny. Andrew was sort of the same way and plus he is the last little souvenier from Anya. He was the last person to see her alive and he has a feeling that she died saving his life, given his fighting skills he's pretty sure that's what happened or so he would like to believe. Andrew looks back down at Xander with a very curious look. "So, why haven't we found that hell mouth yet?"
"I'm not sure, back in Sunnydale we would just look down and know it was there. But here, no bad feeling, no strange happenings, it's very weird."
"Couldn't Willow just do a locator spell to find it, that seems to have worked in the past."
"That is another issue entirely, Willow's been having problems lately. It's all pretty much due to the spell she has done, she can locate slayers, but she can't for the life of her find the Hell mouth." Xander tries to hide that he worries for his child hood friend, her powers have been waning on and off for the last couple of months. Sure, she can still cast good spells in battles, but when it comes to going any further her powers fade out.
"So would this Hellmouth be just as powerful as the one in Sunnydale?" Always interested in knowing more is Andrew.
"Well, so far we haven't found any strange happenings, but we've only been here a week and didn't really start researching. Too bad Giles isn't here with his books and we don't have online access to get old data, so we can't do it like the old days." Xander thinks how much things have changed since he first met an extraordinary girl named Buffy Summers, back then even though they had no clue what they were doing, even Giles, they even had some resources. Tomorrow Willow and Kennedy are to go down to the local library and try to find some information but he is certain they won't find anything of importance. Then he thinks of his other plans for the next day, one of them involves him and Vi doing something that both of them will hate and the other involves his new little brother. "Andrew, I have a favor to ask you."
"What is it, it better not involve dressing in drag again." Andrew regrets a misadventure they had over the summer.
"It looked like a vampire hang out." Xander tries to forget the little misunderstanding at "The Mr./MRs. Club" a while back. " Anyway, you have experience summoning demons right?"
"I'd like consider myself retired actually, because most demons don't like going back to where they came when I'm done." Andrew stops to ponder for a moment. "And plus, it's only something that I did when I was a super villain."
Xander chuckles at Andrew's delusions of being a super villain. "I'm sorry Andrew, but you were never a super villain and you know it. You were a lackey to sexist murder who's greatest achievement was failing an attempt at the slayers life. We've been through this before, you know how the story goes" He looks at Andrew who is a little hurt by this, but the little geek needs to be reminded at times. "You see the thing is, we need your summoning skills tomorrow."
"What exactly do you need me to summon?" Andrew looks very reluctant, but there's not a thing he wouldn't do for Xander.
"Something that could give us information on the hell mouth in this area, preferably a non violent demon."
Andrew thinks about this for a few seconds. "Well, first of all the only demon I really can summon are usually hench-demons, not really sure I can do one that has any knowledge." Andrew stops for a moment and thinks for the cause he signed on for. "But I do have a few books in my luggage, I can see if I can find something close to what you are looking for."
Xander grins at time. "Thanks Andrew, I know it doesn't seem like it, but your help here is appreciated."
Andrew just smiles back him, Xander has always been a little afraid if Andrew had a crush on him, seeing that he seems a little gay. But it is really no problem with him, he knows Willow and had to ignore all of Larry's pick up lines in High School. And he can't really be sure if Andrew is into the men or not, something he doesn't really talk about and it doesn't really matter anymore. Andrew's cool for a guy who aided in making Buffy's life a living hell.
Once again, Vi can't get any sleep, it's kind of hard when your two bedmates are cuddling and making out on a regular basis. They probably think that she is fast asleep, she can't blame Willow and Kennedy, she fakes being asleep very well. The lovebirds have finally gotten sleep, but now she finds herself in deep thought about a lot of things, most of which what is she doing. She knows that she chose this life of being a slayer, but now she is getting a major case of cold feet, she is not a super hero. Sure Kennedy loves the slaying, but Kennedy already graduated High School and lived the life of normal teenager, she hasn't even gone on her first date yet. When she was in the Hell mouth she did enjoy the rush of kicking some Turok-han ass, and it was with that high that she agreed to go on Willow, Xander and Kennedy's crusade into this new hell mouth. She wonders if she could've just fought vampires in her own hometown like Rona had decided to do at least then she could balance a normal life, but that wouldn't be it though. She's heard stories from Buffy, once you are a slayer or CHOSE to be a slayer as it is the case now, there's no having a normal life without consequences. She also could have gone the road of Chow- Anne who decided not to be a slayer whatsoever, or so they think all she did shake her head and was yelling in her native tongue. But there is a part of her that wishes the Bringers forgot about her and didn't kill her watcher or her foster parents for that matter.
Suddenly, her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the apartment door opening and closing, her first thought are that the Bringers are back to finish up the job. Of course that's nonsense, isn't it? She looks over to see if the sound woke up Kennedy and Willow, it didn't. She thinks to wake them up, but then decides to check it out herself, she is the slayer isn't she? She slides out of bed without waking up her roommates and goes right to her luggage and pulls out one of her stakes and holds it towards her chest. She slides open the bedroom door in fear that something is going lunge out on her, nothing does. She opens the door even more to just see the living room of the apartment, Xander is fast asleep on the floor in his sleeping. As she looks it at him, she can't believe that he is the person who will be their watcher, not that she minds, he's just always had that cool older brother vibe going for him, not the lame stuck up watcher attitude.
As she walks further into the living room she gets a good look at the couch, Andrew is missing from it. She wonders why he would need to leave the apartment at 3:00 in the morning, but really why should she care? He is old enough to fend for himself, sort of. Then she hears footsteps going up the stair case in the hallway, she thinks that must be Andrew going up to the roof, but why would Andrew be heading up top? She ponders investigating, maybe he is up to no good after all or maybe he just wanted some alone time. Still she thinks she should check it out, in fact, she wants to check it out, she doesn't even know why. Plus, it would be good to have someone to talk to she thinks as she wedges her stake in between the waistband of her pajama pants and slowly makes her way out the apartment door. She shuts the door softly so she doesn't wake the others having them worry about her and Andrew both. She slowly makes her way through the hallway knowing that vamps don't need any invite to get to the complex. Once she is down the hall she climbs up the metal steps making a clanking noise as she gets to the door to the rooftop of the apartment building.
She opens the door once again half expecting a vampire or demon to spring out attacking her. Once again, nothing of that sort, just the Cleveland nights sky looking back at her and all the way at the edge of the building is Andrew, sitting down reading something. She reconsiders talking to him, he looks deep in thought like she was just a couple of minutes ago. But she is very curious as to what he is doing and why do it up here? She tries to creep up silently not to startle him too much as she thinks he looks kind of handsome when he isn't talking and in a background like this, just thinking to himself. As she gets closer, she tries to get that thought right back into her head and not to think that again about Andrew. Once she gets right behind him she slowly puts her hand on his shoulder.
He turns around and screams at the top of his lungs and grabs for a small squirt gun and sprays the holy water in her face, luckily she's not a vampire so it doesn't work. "Taste the power of god, blood sucking fiend." He screams at her. Then he realizes that it's not a vampire, just Vi and he puts the squirt down. At first she is a little pissed off at the nerd for squirting her, but then realizes it's half her fault. He still looks a little startled, "What are you doing? Don't sneak up on a guy when he's reading Zalarr's guide to Demonology." Then he looks a little upset that he snapped at her, then he begins to laugh a little bit, as does she. "Sorry, you just scared the bejesus out of me." He grabs a cloth from the bag he brought up with him and hands it to her.
"No, that was my fault, I shouldn't have snuck up on you. Sorry Andrew." She says this as she begins to wipe her face off flashing Andrew a bright smile beginning to laugh . He kneels back down reaching for his book again, apparently he lost his place, and with her reflexes she is able to grab the book before he does. She hands it to him with a smile. "Did you lose you place?"
He looks up at her a little shy. "Not really, it's not like I'm reading a Stephen King novel, hey have you read his latest?"
She shakes her head at this. "I'm more of an Anne Rice fan."
Andrew nods knowingly. "Fitting for a slayer of the Vampyr."
She giggles a bit each time he pronounces vampire like that, it's funny that he lives in his own little world she thinks, kind of cute. She gets a good look at the book she is reading and looks down at him. "What were you working on? And why are you doing it up here?"
He looks at her, trying to come up with a good explanation on what he is doing. "Xander wants me to find a demon to summon to help us locate the hell mouth. I told him that I'm not good at summoning demons who's purpose goes beyond just beating and torturing humans, but I figured I'd give it a try."
"So how does summoning a demon work?" Vi is still so very inexperienced on the supernatural despite having been involved since last January in fighting vampires.
"Well, different demons require different actions, some need sacrifices, I try to stay away from that, some just a few mystic words. Of course, I don't know as much as my older brother, Tucker, but Xander really wants me to give this a shot. And I'm willing to try."
Vi listens to this and thinks back to her thoughts about herself earlier about why she stayed with The Scoobs. Which brings her attention to Andrew, he was the only one who could've gone back to a normal life, but he didn't. He chose to live in a world where he is always a second away from being killed by a vampire or demon. Interested, she takes a seat next to him on the roof looking at this thoughtful young man. "Andrew, can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot for it. People love asking me questions tonight." Andrew still deep in thought, looks at her with a half smile.
"Why did you decide to go with us on this mission, you could've have easily gone back to Tucker and a normal life."
"You really want to know?" He asks, she hasn't seen him serious like this before, it's kind of nice. He seems kind of shocked that she really wants to know though.
"Of course." Vi finds herself scooting closer to him smiling at him.
"Well, a few reasons actually. The first, the most important really, is that I'm trying to live out Jonothan's dream." He looks down a little bit with a half smile.
"Wait, isn't Jonothan the person you killed" She is sort of confused at why he would want fulfill a wish of a person he killed.
"I know, I know," Andrew gives her a remorseful smile. "That's a sin that I will always atone for, maybe I'll never get my redemption because I still feel guilty. He was my best friend, such a Cypher, you know from 'The Matrix', to do. And I was so damn gullable for letting The First trick me into killing him, but all along I knew what I was doing, but I wanted to stay in my fairy tell world. You know, pretending it was one big episode of long running series. I should've died in Sunnydale."
Vi finds herself putting her hand on his shoulder trying to cheer him up. "But you didn't, your still here, still able to atone." She stops to think about the other people in her group. "And unless you haven't noticed, one of the people leading us also was a murder."
"Yeah," He thinks about Warren and how him and Jonathan went along with him. "That was also partially my fault, if I wasn't such a lap dog."
"You know your problem is that you are still living in past mistakes, it's done and over with and you know it." She didn't mean to take a stern tone with him, but he shouldn't be beating himself up.
"Yeah, I guess your right. Thanks."
She removes her hand from his shoulder, because it kind of felt weird and out of place and she didn't know why she did it in the first place. "No problem, you were talking about Jonothan?"
He gives her a thoughtful smile and then continues. " Yeah, all he ever talked about in Mexico was being a member of the Scooby gang and helping fight evil. Of course, they probably never gave him a second thought in High School and then further and he didn't care, he just wanted to fight the good fight. And he remembered them fondly, he let go all those feelings of rejection by that time. In fact, the last couple of things he said was how much he missed High School and how those memories were still there. But I know he was hoping to be apart of Buffy's gang and if it wasn't because of me that might have actually happened."
"So, your fulfilling the only thing he really wanted." She is kind of touched by this, she never knew he could be that deep.
Now his look has become very sad. "But dammit Vi, he was such a better person than me. I also feel like I ripped him off, I killed him then took the spot that he should have had. But I'm here and he's not, someone must live his dream, I know it sounds morbid."
"No, really it doesn't." She looks at him, he gives her a very sorry excuse for a smile.
"Thanks and also there's another person who is responsible for me going along with this mission."
Vi is now curious to know more about the many reasons Andrew is motivated. "Who?"
She can tell that Andrew is embarrassed to admit this next confession. "Anya, she made me feel like crap most of the time, but during those last couple of days I really got the feeling that she was the only one watching my back. Sure, she talked about using me as a human shield and cannon fodder, but in the end she fought bravely and died while she was covering me." He looks at her with convincing eyes. "You know the weird thing was that once we were out of Sunnydale, I was pretty much over the whole living out my Star Wars fantasy thing. I was ready to go back to my normal Babylon 5 watching lifestyle. But in my gut, I felt that Jonothan AND Anya wanted me to stay and fight like another stupid human. So that's why I went with Xander and Willow here, I might not be the best fighter and probably my best talent is washing dishes. But I'll stay until end like Chewbacca."
She thinks about her earlier doubts and how much it kind of relates with Andrew's story. " You know before I came up here, I was thinking of packing my bags and going back to my normal life. I wasn't sure I can make it as slayer for a long period of time, I'm still not so sure. I mean do I want to do this until I die? Probably not, but I don't want to let Xander and Willow down and god knows what Kennedy would do or say." Andrew is the last person she thought she would be opening up to, but she finds herself more and more comfortable with him, it's kind of nice but different all at the same time. "But the truth is, I want that normal life as a teenager, something that slayage would indeed corrupt. I mean I was so psyched that we helped destroy the hellmouth, so I didn't think on what a commitment going down here would be, I didn't know what I would be missing out on. Well, I knew, Buffy warned all of us many times after the Hell Mouth was destroyed, but I just passed it off. But now.."
"Now, your thinking you can be normal without slaying."
"Yeah, but then I think to the people who don't know what's going on to the people who can't defend themselves. Like my foster parents who didn't know and that got them killed. And like you, I think to Molly and Amanda and the other potentials that died, both of them wanted to BE slayers after awhile. And now from what I just heard from you, you don't have slayer powers, but you stay and I do, but I want to leave. What kind of person does that make me?"
"A completely sane individual." Andrew replies
"True, but that also makes me a coward. And I was given these amazing gifts and I want to squander them because I want to be selfish and live a normal life. So many people died for this power that is mine, so many others will if I don't accept my path. So now, more than ever, I want to be a slayer, not the greatest or the longest, but just a slayer who will fight to protect those who cannot." Andrew notices the confidence grow inside her as she has her little speech. " And I think I have what you just said to thank for that."
"Thank your self," He says with sweet eyes. "I'm just a geek who can't fend for himself. Like Rocky, the power was always there inside you."
"Maybe, it was." She looks back up at him and she has no clue why she says this next remark, but she does. "But I'm sure you're a better fighter than you think, but if your in any trouble just know that I will be there to protect you."
She gets so nervous after she says that, she really questions what inside her made her respond like that. But she wasn't even prepared for his response. "I'm not sure if this means anything, but I'll be there protect you as well although I'm not sure how well." Suddenly, they both look down and realize that they are holding hands, she wonders when that happened, she doesn't even remember grabbing it. They both let go and she gets up and he opens his book. "Well, I better get back to my research. Have a good night."
She backs away very flabbergasted at what just happened. "Yeah, I, uh should probably get some sleep. Good luck with the demon research." She speed walks to the doorway leading back into the building wondering what just happened. She just wants to get off this roof as fast as possible now, although it seems like forever she gets back to the stairs and closes the door. It is only halfway down the hall that she realizes that she has the brightest smile on her face. She tries to get rid of it, but can't, even as she gets in the apartment she still glows. She falls asleep with that huge smile on her face.
"Hi Dawn," Xander tries to speak while dodging Willow, Kennedy, and Vi in the cramped kitchen. It's about 8:00 in the morning and everyone has just woke up for breakfast, except for Andrew who apparently has gone somewhere else for breakfast. Xander is finding it incredibly hard to talk on the phone and dodge the girls who are fixing breakfast at the same time. He takes the phone into the living room to concentrate on his conversation. "How are you enjoying London."
Kennedy, who is sitting at the tiny kitchen table eating her cereal looks up at Vi who just entered the kitchen and gives her a long hard stare. "Why are you glowing?"
Vi doesn't know how to respond to this accusation. "I'm glowing?"
Kennedy grabs the milk. "You look happy about something." Vi replies to this by trying to hide her smile, but she can't so she just goes to the fridge to grab something, anything.
"Really? They all smell like Giles over there? Interesting." Xander continues his conversation with Dawn. He puts the phone aside and looks at everyone and yells. "Dawn says hi everyone."
Willow, Kennedy, and Vi respond at the same time. "Hi Dawn."
Xander goes back to the phone. "Everyone, accept for Andrew who is missing at the moment says hi." At the mention of Andrew Vi accidentally bumps her head on the top of the fridge she gives a little yelp but tries to hide it, still everyone looks at her.
"Are you okay, Vi?" Willow asks from the kitchen counter slurping from her cereal bowl.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just looking for my..uh" She pulls something out of the fridge not even looking.
"You were looking for Xander's half eaten egg salad sandwhich?" Willow asks very confused.
"Um, I gotta go to the bathroom." She throws the egg salad sandwhich back into the fridge and runs for the bathroom.
Kennedy and Willow exchange a glance. "Why is she acting so weird?" Kennedy asks Willow.
"Do you think maybe she was awake last night we were. being close?" Willow is a little afraid that she might have overheard them making out and cuddling.
"She was fast asleep, I checked."
"Yeah, apparently now I'm watcher-rific" Xander tells Dawn over the phone. "Speaking of which, is Giles there? I'm not really sure what this job entails. I'm not really sure if taking care of young girls is the thing to do nowadays. It might have worked for the Watchers a couple years back, but it certainly didn't work for a Mr. Kobe Bryant." He listens in a bit more and then responds. "Okay, I'll hold on."
Kennedy puts her bowl in the sink and slides up next to Willow holding her waist. "Are you still having problems with your powers?"
Willow looks upset at this. "Yeah, every time I try to locate something I get static."
Kennedy takes a sip of her orange juice. "Have you talked to the covenant about it?"
Willow shrugs. "I'm not sure it's that big of a deal, might just be some backlash from the slayer spell. But this is making limiting my powers much easier, keeps me in check. Might just be a blessing disguise actually."
Kennedy grimaces at this. "That's bull, honey and you know it. If were going to battle on the hell mouth we are going to need you at your most powerful."
"HEY!" Willow gets defensive. "It's not like I'm completely powerless, did you see me last night? Two fireballs at once."
Kennedy grunts. "You know that's amateur stuff compared to someone at your level."
"Yes, Giles, glad I finally got ahold of you. Oh and by the way, did you know that you are insane?" Xander listens to his former mentor and passes it off as Watcher gibberish. "You thought I would be happy that you just made me a watcher and didn't even ask me, that's a lot of responsibility." Xander listens in deeper to Rupert Giles. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been doing this job for seven years I've was just given the official title yesterday. Willow beat you that conclusion last night."
As Xande continues to speak to Giles over the phone the apartment door opens as Andrew walks in holding his bag full of demon summoning books another book under his arm and a coffee in each hand. "Xander, I found something." Andrew screams at the top of his lungs.
Willow looks at Andrew and makes an observation. "Who's the other coffee for?"
"Um, well, it's for me." Andrew tries to cover up that he is lying to her.
Kennedy looks at Willow. "Aren't you already wound up enough? You need to drink all that coffee?"
Andrew ignores this and goes to Xander, who is still trying to hear Giles. "Xander, I found a demon."
"Hold on Andrew, I'm on the phone." Andrew just stands there by Xander waiting. "Yeah, he's still with us, the boy wants to help I say let him help." Giles says something over the phone. "No, we still haven't found it yet, Willow's powers are acting up a little." He pauses and answers Giles next remark. "She's says it's nothing to worry about just yet. And by the way, why couldn't you just make her a watcher? Will is a whole lot more qualified."
Andrew tired of waiting for Xander to get off the phone decides to put his stuff down on the kitchen counter as Willow and Kennedy move to the bedroom to get ready for their day. As they enter the bedroom, Vi comes back from the bathroom and enters the kitchen at the exact time Andrew enters from the other side. They both stare at each other for a second or two. Vi is the first one to say something. "Uh, hi, did you find your de.."
Andrew nervously cuts her off. "Um yeah, it was kind of hard but I finally found something. Did you get enough slee.."
Vi not thinking, cuts him off like he did her. "Yeah, I did."
They both just stand there for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to say. Then Andrew looks at the extra coffee he has in hand and hands it to here. "Uh, here, I got an extra cup."
She takes the coffee giving him a sweet smile, not knowing exactly what to say. "Thank you." She sits down and begins to make herself cereal and sips on her coffee. He stares for a moment with a stupid smile not knowing exactly what to do now. Vi tries to look casual while eating her cereal, but can't get that wide smile off her face.
"Really? The Watcher's council doesn't allow Slayer/Watcher relations? How do you explain you and Buffy?" Xander holds listening to Giles response which is a lot of defensive yelling that Vi and Andrew can hear. Xander has a huge smile on his face as Giles continues to insist that him and Buffy weren't dating and the thought was just disgusting. "Giles, relax, I'm joking. You were saying something about giving me an occupation. Please don't tell me I'm going to be a librarian." He listens to Giles ramble on a little more for a couple more seconds and Xander's expression is priceless in Vi's opinion. "SHOP TEACHER? Wait, the watcher's council got you a comfy job at the school library and I got shop teacher." He listens to Giles some more. "Yes, yes, I am good with my hands." Vi and Andrew burst into laughter at this, Xander looks back at his charge and his sidekick with an upset look on his face. "Keep laughing Beavis and Butt-Head. You were saying Giles?" Another pissed off expression is on Xander's face. "Wait, I have to interview? Today? What time?" He looks at his watch and rolls his eyes. "That's in an hour and a half, I haven't even taken my shower yet. You couldn't have told me this yesterday?" He pauses to listen to more. "Yes, I know of the time difference, listen Giles I got to let you go. I gotta go ready and brief the group, Cheerio!" Xander slams down the phone a little frustrated at Buffy's former watcher.
Willow comes from the bedroom noticing Xander's frustration. "Xander what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong really, I'm just running late." He pauses. "Get Kennedy, we need to have a group meeting." He looks at Andrew taking up a seat across from Vi. "You found a demon we could use to locate the hell mouth?"
Willow and Kennedy walk into the kitchen and both grab chairs and sit at the table as Andrew sits on the counter scattering through the books. "Um yeah, I found one, the Mizerak Kazarak, took me hours to find it."
"Good," Xander pauses making sure everyone is listening to what he's going to ask. "What do we need to do to summon the Buttcrack Epilak?"
Everyone turns to Andrew. "The summoning for the Mizerak Kazarak shouldn't be hard, but.."
Xander looks at him even more concerned now. "What's the but for, what don't want butts."
"Uh, well you see, the Mizerak is a very powerful locator demon and well requires a test." Andrew tries to explain.
Kennedy looks at him. "What kind of test?"
"Well, from the looks of this passage, the demon must be defeated before he can locate the hellmouth for us. Not killed just defeated by one person."
Willow stares at Andrew very interested. "Hmmmm, I never have come across a demon that wants to get the information beaten out of him. Interesting."
Xander gestures to Andrew. "The passage say how many tries we get to defeat?"
"Apparently, one try per person." Andrew replies reading the passage.
"So, this should be easy. Kennedy will be the first to take him on, if that fails then Willow will give it a try, then Vi, then me, sorry Andrew, but your only in case of emergency."
Vi raises her hand, trying not to make eye contact with Andrew. " This isn't a battle to the death is it?"
"Nope, just a regular fight. But he does have this venom that squirts from his stomach. It's cool."
Kennedy chimes in and makes sure all eyes are on her. "Well, we can't have this here."
"We'll do it at the local grave yard." Xander says then takes a sip of orange juice and continues. "We'll have to do it late tonight though."
Andrew looks at his hero Xander. "I still need to gather a few things for the summoning though. Shouldn't be too hard, I just need some spending cash."
Xander raises an eyebrow at Andrew. "How much you need?" "Fifty dollars." Andrew shrugs as he says this.
"You don't really need fifty dollars do you?" Xander asks a little impatient.
"Well, the ingredients and a new pair of sunglasses will cost that much." Andrew says as Vi can't help but giggle with her glowing smile, Kennedy looks over at her disturbed by her buddies weird behavior.
Andrew walks up holding his hands out with a wide smile. Xander hands him a twenty dollar bill and Andrew frowns. "That's all you get." He looks at the girls as Andrew stuffs the money in his pocket. "As for the rest of us, we need to talk about what we are going to do from here. Now I have an interview today at the local high school very soon."
"Are you going to be the librarian?" Willow asks with an eager smile, she likes books.
Xander has a grimace on his face. "Shop teacher." Willow, Kennedy and Vi burst into laughter. "Don't start laughing just yet, I'm not the only one who needs to get a living." He looks at Willow and Kennedy with a smile on his face. "Along with your studies today, you two need to find a job."
Kennedy begins to wine. "I'm a slayer, I shouldn't have to work."
"Honey," Willow begins to carress her hand. "You being unreasonable again."
She points to Andrew. "How come he doesn't need to get a job?"
Andrew replies to that. "Well, Mrs. Smarty pants, I just so happen to have applied at numerous comic shops."
"THAT'S SO COOL!" Vi bursts out then realizes that she just implied comics were cool and that everyone is staring at her. What has gotten into her? She thinks.
"Glad you seem so enthusiastic for him, Vi." Xander has a big smile on his face. "Tomorrow, you will be enrolling in High School, the same one I'll be working at."
As the conversation continues, they don't hear the little footsteps outside the door of the apartment though. They don't know that they are being eavesdropped on during their little conversation. But standing outside, listening through the hollow wall are two dark haired teenage girls. They both look alike and have the gothic look going on, in each hand is a wooden stake and each have an anarchy sign on each arm. They look at each other, one of them whispers to the other. "They are none the wiser, we make our move tonight." With that they both walk off snickering
Cleveland, Ohio
"How many do you count?" Vi asks from atop a roof looking down at a bunch of people gathering in an alley below. Although it has been a few months since her and the other slayers destroyed the first hell mouth , she is still very shaky about just bursting into battle. She looks at her brunette counterpart, who is always ready to battle.
"There's about ten all together, vamps don't usually gather in that big a number." Kennedy looks at Vi with a very eager grin. Kennedy took the lead slayer role very easily once Buffy left for Europe, and Faith had to cross the border. And Vi knows that it was because of her ambition and confidence is why she sort of became the leader of this new group of Scoobies. "We can take them."
"You sure, we've only been slaying for a few months? Maybe we should get Xander.."
"No, we can do this on our own." But right as she says this Kennedy is tackled from behind, Vi recognizes the bumps on his forehead and immediately pulls for her stake. Kennedy yells at the top of her lungs as she struggles with the vamp that has his arms grasped against her neck, which is a very stupid move as the vamps below look up to see what the commotion is all about. Vi is able to stake the vamp through the back and right into the heart, suddenly, Kennedy finds herself in a cloud of dust. She gets up and reaches for the weapon that hangs on her belt buckle, the scythe. She looks sort of unsure at Vi. " I told you we could handle them."
"What about them?" Vi points to the vamps who are making their way up the building by using the balconies and rafters on it. Without saying a word Kennedy leaps off the top of the roof and lands on the balcony below, Vi follows suite. Kennedy begins to scale down the ladder to next balcony where the first three vamps are, Kennedy stops to begin fighting them. Vi notices two vamps on the balcony beneath the one they are on now, and the other five are distracted by something approaching below. Vi swings off the top balcony knowing that Kennedy can take care of the three on her own, she lands on the platform below and starts throwing blows and block with the two vamps. Up above Kennedy dodges an attack from the first approaching vamp and throws him off the balcony onto the ground below to focus on his approaching comrades.
In the alley below, a school bus comes crashing through the gates, it doesn't stop for the vamps who are down there. Three manage to get out of the way, but the other three (including the one who was just knocked off the platform.) get ran down by the hulking Sunnydale High School bus, not dusted though. The six vamps below recover and get back on their feet as the bus stops and the doors open up. Two very brave vampires run up to the door as it opens, one of them gets met by a swinging battle axe to the neck. As the dust of the first vamp flies, Xander Harris leaps out from the doorway with the battle axe and begins fighting with the other vampire. The four other vamps on ground level run to team up on Xander, but are flung back by an invisible force from inside the yellow bus, they all hite the surrounding walls. They look up to see a grinning red head in the doorway of the bus, she steps out almost daring them to approach her, of course they know what she is, a very powerful witch. She is followed by a scrawny looking young man wearing a coat that looks it like it came out of the movie "The Matrix" and wearing a pair of sunglasses to match the coat. Seeing that this boy looks the most vulnerable, the four vamps decide to ignore the red head and go towards him instead. As they lunge toward him, he pulls what looks like a super soaker out of his coat, he points it at them with a confident grin and begins to pump it. But before he can pump up the soaker enough, he is forced to the ground by the first oncoming vamp, he begins to struggle and flail his arms as the vamp begins to go for the kill. "You didn't give me enough time to pump up my holy water, no fair, no fair."
Kennedy finishes off the first two vampires above, and jumps down on one of the vamps below. Kennedy gets off the vamp and back up towards Vi as they stand face to face with the two vampires. "Don't you love this power?" Kennedy says to Vi not taking her eyes off the vamp across from her. "You know your dust right, we are slayers, you are just a bunch of piss poor vampires." Vi stands next to her nodding her head in agreement.
"You know she's right, you guys are dust?" Vi says with confidence.
"Two slayers? I thought there is only supposed to be one." The vampire looks at his comrade confused.
"Well, the rules have changed just a little bit." Kennedy says right before both slayers engage in battle with the vamps, within two seconds both vamps are dust. They look down to see that they have been joined by the rest of the scoobs. One of the vamps is in a sort of grudge match with Xander, who doesn't really equal his strength. Andrew is on the ground being pummeled by another vamp, no surprise to the two girls, and Willow is holding the other three at bay trying not to use too much magic. Vi and Kennedy leap down to the alley way to aid Willow. Both land on their feet next to Willow and Kennedy gives her a sweet look holding up her scythe. "You miss me?"
Willow returns to look to her girlfriend. "Always, but next time you should tell me next time you go out patrolling for the grrrarrrg."
Xander looks back at his group as he struggles with the vamp. " I hate to break up the girl talk, but the men are getting their asses kicked."
Vi looks at Xander who has just been knocked down to his knees. "And that's different from the other patrols how?"
Andrew yelps from beneath his vamp. "Ha-Ha. This vamp just broke my new sunglasses, that's the fifth pair this month."
The girls look at each other and shrug, then burst back into battle mode. Fire pulsates from both of Willow's palms as Kennedy twirls the Scythe in her hands as Vi rolls towards Andrew's attacker. Kennedy takes out one of the vamps very easily as the other two burst into flames, the three turn to dust at about the same time. Vi pulls the vamp off of Andrew and leaps on his back as Andrew squirms on the ground. He finally grabs for the super soaker that he dropped on the alleyway ground and in crouching position aims it for the vamp that Vi has climbed onto. He blasts the holy water into the chest of the vampire, he slowly disintegrates into dust as Vi suddenly falls to the ground of the alleyway with a small thud. Andrew gets up with a very professional look on his face, then he breaks it and a look of glee appears. " I just dusted a vampyr." Vi coughs a little bit and Andrew lifts his hand to help her up, although she hates having a nerd help her back up she lets him. "Xander did you see that? I just dusted my first one."
Xander is back up still fighting back and forth with the last remaining vampire. "Sorry, I missed it, I'm a bit preoccupied. Plus, you know, missing an eye here." Vi walks up to the vamp and pulls him off and shoves him to the corner of the alleyway. The vamp looks up as Willow and Kennedy take the lead with Xander limping behind them next to Vi and Andrew brings up the rear holding his super soaker close to his chest.
Kennedy holds the end of the scythe towards the vampires neck. "Alright, one chance, one question."
The vampire gives Kennedy a fearful gaze and then the begging begins. " Please don't I'll tell you whatever you need to know, just don't dust me."
Willow has a smile on her face. "I love it when they beg, you don't see that too often."
"Well, with a super extra surplus of slayers nowadays, I can see why vampires might think they are becoming an extinct species." Xander replies behind Kennedy.
The vamp looks down at the Scythe being held to his neck. "Wait, wait, wait, I am a vampire with a soul."
Xander and Willow laugh at this. "Wow, that's one I haven't heard yet. But there are only two vampires with souls out there and we know both of them. Oddly enough, one is actually a phantom now."
Andrew butts in. "Wait, Angel is head of an evil law firm AND a phantom? WEIRD"
Xander corrects him. "No, Spike is vampire turned vampire with a chip that won't let him hurt humans turned vampire with a soul turned trigger to The First turned phantom. And Angel is the vampire with a soul turned evil turned good again turned detective turned evil again turned good once more turned head of evil law firm." Xander looks around at his group. "Does anyone else find this 'vampire with a soul' a little confusing?"
"Yeah, they've had more changes than Logan or Weapon X as he was called back in the day."
Willow stops the conversation. "Guys, we got a vampire pleading not to be dusted, we should have this whole soul conversation a bit later."
"We don't believe the whole soul thing, what else do you have or can I just ask you what I need to know then get to dusting you?" Kennedy asks now very impatient.
"Wait, your going to dust me any ways?"
"Yeah, pretty much, it's what we do. No offense." Vi says.
"Then why should I tell you anything?"
Kennedy shoves the Scythe even deeper into the neck of her enemy. "Because on top of dusting you, I can make you hurt, badly."
"Okay, okay, what's your question?"
"Where is the hell mouth?" Willow asks without the vengeance that her girlfriend has.
"I don't know.." He is cut off by the power of Kennedy's Scythe and then turned to dust.
"Wrong answer" Kennedy says as she puts the Scythe back into her belt buckle.
"Does anyone else find Kennedy kind of scary at times?" Andrew asks as they begin to walk away from the pile of dust.
"Just aggressive." Willow answers the weakest of the crew.
"That's the way you like it." Kennedy says grabbing onto Willow's right hand.
Xander looks back at Kennedy. "As much as I want to hear more, believe me I do. Why did you dust him so quickly? We could've got some information out of the vamp."
"He did seem fairly desperate." Willow agrees.
"He did'nt know where the hell mouth was, he lost."
Xander looks down at Kennedy from the doorway of the bus. "Maybe if you rode it out a little, we could have gotten some information on at least where to begin."
At this Kennedy begins her trademark defensive attitude. "We don't need him, we'll get the information some where else."
"But this is the third time you did it this week?" Xander corrects her, the other three stay out of the conversation knowing that the two are getting into it.
"And when did you become my dad, you can't tell me how to do my job." That snotty attitude is something that Kennedy has had since day one.
"Um, Honey?" Willow says inside the bus putting her hand on Kennedy's shoulder, now everyone is inside the bus. " He actually can."
"What?" Kennedy asks, very upset not only in the fact that Xander can boss her around but that Willow is going to take his side again.
" I got back the paperwork today from one of Giles and The New Watcher's Council's messengers, I'm officially yours and Vi's Watcher."
"I don't need a watcher," Kennedy still complaining even as she enters the Scoobs very small apartment building. She is followed Willow, then Xander who has been hearing her crap for the last fifteen minutes enters with a frustrated look on his face, Vi is next in the doorway, then bringing up the rear holding bags of groceries is Andrew. "We blow the hell mouth sky high, there's really no need for me to have a watcher."
Xander sits on couch just listening to his new charge bitch and moan. " There is more to learn, do you know how many times Buffy averted the end of the world and still needed a watcher?"
Andrew butts in. "By my count, five" Both Xander and Kennedy give him a 'stay out of this' look and he shuts up.
"Also" Kennedy begins. "No offense, but what watcher experience do you have? And aren't supposed to be british?"
It's Willow's turn to interrupt the argument. "Wait just a minute," She gives her girlfriend a very stern look, everyone looks at Willow, when she speaks everyone listens in. "Xander has had more field time then most Watchers, he's helped Buffy on many occasions. There's no way you can say he's not qualified to by your watcher."
Kennedy begins to speak again from the doorway leading into the bedroom, she looks straight towards Willow, very upset. "Why are you always on his side? I know you two hooked up a couple of times, but..."
"Hey, hey, that's stuff we don't talk about around the young ones.." Him and Willow both look shocked that he brought this up as do Vi and Andrew. Xander looks towards Willow a little betrayed. "You told her that?"
Willow, now feeling very awkward. "Xander, she's my girlfriend." Then she looks towards Kennedy still very nervous, she hates confrontation like this, it's been happening a lot between Xander and Kennedy. "Kennedy, it's not that I'm taking his side. Well, yeah it is, this time, but I'm not always on his side. But this time he has a good point. Xander has been around slayers and vampires for about eight years now, he's had our back through and through. He has everything it takes to be a watcher, that shouldn't be questioned what so ever."
Kennedy hits the wall in anger, knocking off a piece of it, she begins to speak in frustration. "I can't believe this, we spend the whole summer dropping off and locating slayers. We get no action what so ever in fighting vamps and when we finally get to Cleveland we can't find the stupid Hellmouth.." "Because somebody keeps on dusting our leads." Xander says from his couch.
Kennedy now even more frustrated at Xander. " This should be easier, we have a witch and two slayers, this shouldn't be that hard."
"Ah yes, this band of misfits" Andrew says from his area in the kitchen as he and Vi put away the groceries.
Kennedy looks at him, interrupted again, and then looks back at Xander. "And that's another thing, what's he still doing here? He's useless."
"Hey wait a minute missy" Andrew says in a very defensive tone. "I do the chores and might I say that's not an easy task, you guys are pigs."
Xander looks at Andrew to tell him that he's not really helping and then looks at Kennedy. "Andrew is here because he wants to help out with our cause, even if that means getting torn apart by vampires or something even more savage." Andrew gives a bit yelp at that. " And I'm someone who appreciates that. He's a member of the Scooby gang now, end of story."
"Don't you get it Xander, there are no more Scoobies, that was something you had back in High School when Buffy was still around. That is why you are not cut out to be a watcher, your still living back in Sunnydale."
Xander stands up very defensive at the girl now. "Don't you ever shut up, Kennedy?" Everyone is shocked that he finally says something. "All you do is complain about every decision I have made, if you don't like it, then choose not to be a slayer. That's what Willow's spell was all about, either accept to be a slayer with every perk that comes along including having me as a watcher or leave and live the life of a normal bratty girl."
Kennedy knows she's been backed into a corner now and walks into the bedroom and slams the door. Willow sits down next to Xander giving him a very concerned look. Vi notices that they probably want some grown up time and excuses herself, "I'll go talk to her, maybe I'll be able to calm her down." Vi then goes into the bedroom to speak with Kennedy. Willow and Xander then look at Andrew who can't really take a hint, he just continues to stalk the cabinets.
"You know, I can probably make a brilliant tuna cassarole tomorrow night for dinner.." Both Willow and Xander look at Andrew with contempt, he looks back and finally gets it. He reaches for the trash can and pulls the bag out. "I think I'll take out the trash." He then leaves in hurried fashion and shuts the apartment door.
Xander looks at Willow very frustrated. "You know your girlfriend is evil right? I liked Tara much better, was'nt as standoffish."
Willow frowns at this, then she puts her arm on Xander's shoulder. "She's just stubborn, she'll come around soon."
Xander one good eye winks at her with a coy smile underneath. "But you know she might be right about something?"
"What?"
"I'm probably the last person who should be a watcher of a slayer, much less two slayers. What was Giles thinking referring me to The Watcher's council without asking me if I wanted to do it."
Willow looks at Xander with a sweet smile. "Xander, do you want to be a watcher?"
He looks back up at her. "Of course I do, it's something I always dreamed of back when I was in High School, I just never thought it would happen." His smile turns to a frown as he continues. " But dammit Will, I'm not sure I'm up to it now, look at me I'm a wreck. My ex-fiancee died, I lost one of my eyes, and my first girlfriend is in a coma after giving birth to an evil love god." Then a confused look on his face appears. "Why are things so much more confusing in L.A than the Hell mouth? It makes no sense."
Willow passes this off and gets right to what is really eating at her old friend. "Your still missing her aren't you?"
A little tear drop comes from his one good eye, he didn't know he would break down like this at this point. "I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to her, I should have been there fighting by her side."
"Xander, it's not your fault."
"Of course it is, Will" He wipes his eye then continues. "I shouldn't have listened to Buffy, I should've went with Anya."
"She might've died any ways, Xander. You don't think I felt the same way after Tara died?"
"Well, I actually thought you were thinking 'Kill kill, Die, die'." He smiles a little at this as Willow frowns. "And it's just the way I acted after hearing that she was gone, I pretended that nothing was wrong, I pretended that I didn't care. Anya didn't even get a funeral and I didn't say a word about it. But now.."
"Now your beating yourself up." Willow holds his hand in a very sisterly way. " It won't bring her back and it will just make you feel worse, hindering you from your new work."
Xander puts his head down. "Can I really do this? Is this really my role in life?"
"Deep down inside, you know it is." She stops to hear Andrew's footsteps coming up the hall. "I believe in you Xander, Anya believed in you. That should be more than enough to motivate you to lead our group into the hell mouth."
As Andrew enters the doorway Xander touches Willow's leg and smiles. "Thanks, Will. You have always been there for me."
"You've always been there for everyone."
"There's no way that Wolverine would be able to defeat Darth Vader." Andrew says from his bed on the living room couch looking down at Xander who is in sleeping bag on the floor. The living room doubled as the men's bedroom at nights, while the real bedroom belonged to Willow, Kennedy, and Vi. Xander thinks it might be very hard for Vi to sleep in that room with the happy couple. Andrew doesn't give Xander a chance to continue the thought. " Maybe Wolverine can slash up young Anakin maybe even Luke, but not the Lord Of The Sith."
"Yeah, but I'm fairly certain that Vader has no chance against Gandolf the Gray." Although Xander would never tell him, Andrew has become like a little brother to him. In the last seven years he has never had a best buddy since Jesse was sired. Sure, he had Oz and Riley in the past, but they didn't have the same interests as him and plus they were just there because they were dating his two closest friends. And Giles was more of a father figure to him. And forget him ever being good buds with Angel or Spike, although he did room with the latter for a short period of time, but they were far from friends.
"Sorry, but Harry Potter could take down Gandolf, the only person in the Galaxy who can go against Vader would be Thanos and maybe The Mighty Thor." Andrew says thumbing through his Green Lantern comics, Xander gives him a look of agreement. Another reason why Xander likes having Andrew around is it's sort of like having Anya back. Not in the way that Andrew would look good in a thong, but just the whole comedy aspect. He remembered Anya bringing him such comfort with her comedic look at the world and the fact that she was just plain funny. Andrew was sort of the same way and plus he is the last little souvenier from Anya. He was the last person to see her alive and he has a feeling that she died saving his life, given his fighting skills he's pretty sure that's what happened or so he would like to believe. Andrew looks back down at Xander with a very curious look. "So, why haven't we found that hell mouth yet?"
"I'm not sure, back in Sunnydale we would just look down and know it was there. But here, no bad feeling, no strange happenings, it's very weird."
"Couldn't Willow just do a locator spell to find it, that seems to have worked in the past."
"That is another issue entirely, Willow's been having problems lately. It's all pretty much due to the spell she has done, she can locate slayers, but she can't for the life of her find the Hell mouth." Xander tries to hide that he worries for his child hood friend, her powers have been waning on and off for the last couple of months. Sure, she can still cast good spells in battles, but when it comes to going any further her powers fade out.
"So would this Hellmouth be just as powerful as the one in Sunnydale?" Always interested in knowing more is Andrew.
"Well, so far we haven't found any strange happenings, but we've only been here a week and didn't really start researching. Too bad Giles isn't here with his books and we don't have online access to get old data, so we can't do it like the old days." Xander thinks how much things have changed since he first met an extraordinary girl named Buffy Summers, back then even though they had no clue what they were doing, even Giles, they even had some resources. Tomorrow Willow and Kennedy are to go down to the local library and try to find some information but he is certain they won't find anything of importance. Then he thinks of his other plans for the next day, one of them involves him and Vi doing something that both of them will hate and the other involves his new little brother. "Andrew, I have a favor to ask you."
"What is it, it better not involve dressing in drag again." Andrew regrets a misadventure they had over the summer.
"It looked like a vampire hang out." Xander tries to forget the little misunderstanding at "The Mr./MRs. Club" a while back. " Anyway, you have experience summoning demons right?"
"I'd like consider myself retired actually, because most demons don't like going back to where they came when I'm done." Andrew stops to ponder for a moment. "And plus, it's only something that I did when I was a super villain."
Xander chuckles at Andrew's delusions of being a super villain. "I'm sorry Andrew, but you were never a super villain and you know it. You were a lackey to sexist murder who's greatest achievement was failing an attempt at the slayers life. We've been through this before, you know how the story goes" He looks at Andrew who is a little hurt by this, but the little geek needs to be reminded at times. "You see the thing is, we need your summoning skills tomorrow."
"What exactly do you need me to summon?" Andrew looks very reluctant, but there's not a thing he wouldn't do for Xander.
"Something that could give us information on the hell mouth in this area, preferably a non violent demon."
Andrew thinks about this for a few seconds. "Well, first of all the only demon I really can summon are usually hench-demons, not really sure I can do one that has any knowledge." Andrew stops for a moment and thinks for the cause he signed on for. "But I do have a few books in my luggage, I can see if I can find something close to what you are looking for."
Xander grins at time. "Thanks Andrew, I know it doesn't seem like it, but your help here is appreciated."
Andrew just smiles back him, Xander has always been a little afraid if Andrew had a crush on him, seeing that he seems a little gay. But it is really no problem with him, he knows Willow and had to ignore all of Larry's pick up lines in High School. And he can't really be sure if Andrew is into the men or not, something he doesn't really talk about and it doesn't really matter anymore. Andrew's cool for a guy who aided in making Buffy's life a living hell.
Once again, Vi can't get any sleep, it's kind of hard when your two bedmates are cuddling and making out on a regular basis. They probably think that she is fast asleep, she can't blame Willow and Kennedy, she fakes being asleep very well. The lovebirds have finally gotten sleep, but now she finds herself in deep thought about a lot of things, most of which what is she doing. She knows that she chose this life of being a slayer, but now she is getting a major case of cold feet, she is not a super hero. Sure Kennedy loves the slaying, but Kennedy already graduated High School and lived the life of normal teenager, she hasn't even gone on her first date yet. When she was in the Hell mouth she did enjoy the rush of kicking some Turok-han ass, and it was with that high that she agreed to go on Willow, Xander and Kennedy's crusade into this new hell mouth. She wonders if she could've just fought vampires in her own hometown like Rona had decided to do at least then she could balance a normal life, but that wouldn't be it though. She's heard stories from Buffy, once you are a slayer or CHOSE to be a slayer as it is the case now, there's no having a normal life without consequences. She also could have gone the road of Chow- Anne who decided not to be a slayer whatsoever, or so they think all she did shake her head and was yelling in her native tongue. But there is a part of her that wishes the Bringers forgot about her and didn't kill her watcher or her foster parents for that matter.
Suddenly, her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the apartment door opening and closing, her first thought are that the Bringers are back to finish up the job. Of course that's nonsense, isn't it? She looks over to see if the sound woke up Kennedy and Willow, it didn't. She thinks to wake them up, but then decides to check it out herself, she is the slayer isn't she? She slides out of bed without waking up her roommates and goes right to her luggage and pulls out one of her stakes and holds it towards her chest. She slides open the bedroom door in fear that something is going lunge out on her, nothing does. She opens the door even more to just see the living room of the apartment, Xander is fast asleep on the floor in his sleeping. As she looks it at him, she can't believe that he is the person who will be their watcher, not that she minds, he's just always had that cool older brother vibe going for him, not the lame stuck up watcher attitude.
As she walks further into the living room she gets a good look at the couch, Andrew is missing from it. She wonders why he would need to leave the apartment at 3:00 in the morning, but really why should she care? He is old enough to fend for himself, sort of. Then she hears footsteps going up the stair case in the hallway, she thinks that must be Andrew going up to the roof, but why would Andrew be heading up top? She ponders investigating, maybe he is up to no good after all or maybe he just wanted some alone time. Still she thinks she should check it out, in fact, she wants to check it out, she doesn't even know why. Plus, it would be good to have someone to talk to she thinks as she wedges her stake in between the waistband of her pajama pants and slowly makes her way out the apartment door. She shuts the door softly so she doesn't wake the others having them worry about her and Andrew both. She slowly makes her way through the hallway knowing that vamps don't need any invite to get to the complex. Once she is down the hall she climbs up the metal steps making a clanking noise as she gets to the door to the rooftop of the apartment building.
She opens the door once again half expecting a vampire or demon to spring out attacking her. Once again, nothing of that sort, just the Cleveland nights sky looking back at her and all the way at the edge of the building is Andrew, sitting down reading something. She reconsiders talking to him, he looks deep in thought like she was just a couple of minutes ago. But she is very curious as to what he is doing and why do it up here? She tries to creep up silently not to startle him too much as she thinks he looks kind of handsome when he isn't talking and in a background like this, just thinking to himself. As she gets closer, she tries to get that thought right back into her head and not to think that again about Andrew. Once she gets right behind him she slowly puts her hand on his shoulder.
He turns around and screams at the top of his lungs and grabs for a small squirt gun and sprays the holy water in her face, luckily she's not a vampire so it doesn't work. "Taste the power of god, blood sucking fiend." He screams at her. Then he realizes that it's not a vampire, just Vi and he puts the squirt down. At first she is a little pissed off at the nerd for squirting her, but then realizes it's half her fault. He still looks a little startled, "What are you doing? Don't sneak up on a guy when he's reading Zalarr's guide to Demonology." Then he looks a little upset that he snapped at her, then he begins to laugh a little bit, as does she. "Sorry, you just scared the bejesus out of me." He grabs a cloth from the bag he brought up with him and hands it to her.
"No, that was my fault, I shouldn't have snuck up on you. Sorry Andrew." She says this as she begins to wipe her face off flashing Andrew a bright smile beginning to laugh . He kneels back down reaching for his book again, apparently he lost his place, and with her reflexes she is able to grab the book before he does. She hands it to him with a smile. "Did you lose you place?"
He looks up at her a little shy. "Not really, it's not like I'm reading a Stephen King novel, hey have you read his latest?"
She shakes her head at this. "I'm more of an Anne Rice fan."
Andrew nods knowingly. "Fitting for a slayer of the Vampyr."
She giggles a bit each time he pronounces vampire like that, it's funny that he lives in his own little world she thinks, kind of cute. She gets a good look at the book she is reading and looks down at him. "What were you working on? And why are you doing it up here?"
He looks at her, trying to come up with a good explanation on what he is doing. "Xander wants me to find a demon to summon to help us locate the hell mouth. I told him that I'm not good at summoning demons who's purpose goes beyond just beating and torturing humans, but I figured I'd give it a try."
"So how does summoning a demon work?" Vi is still so very inexperienced on the supernatural despite having been involved since last January in fighting vampires.
"Well, different demons require different actions, some need sacrifices, I try to stay away from that, some just a few mystic words. Of course, I don't know as much as my older brother, Tucker, but Xander really wants me to give this a shot. And I'm willing to try."
Vi listens to this and thinks back to her thoughts about herself earlier about why she stayed with The Scoobs. Which brings her attention to Andrew, he was the only one who could've gone back to a normal life, but he didn't. He chose to live in a world where he is always a second away from being killed by a vampire or demon. Interested, she takes a seat next to him on the roof looking at this thoughtful young man. "Andrew, can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot for it. People love asking me questions tonight." Andrew still deep in thought, looks at her with a half smile.
"Why did you decide to go with us on this mission, you could've have easily gone back to Tucker and a normal life."
"You really want to know?" He asks, she hasn't seen him serious like this before, it's kind of nice. He seems kind of shocked that she really wants to know though.
"Of course." Vi finds herself scooting closer to him smiling at him.
"Well, a few reasons actually. The first, the most important really, is that I'm trying to live out Jonothan's dream." He looks down a little bit with a half smile.
"Wait, isn't Jonothan the person you killed" She is sort of confused at why he would want fulfill a wish of a person he killed.
"I know, I know," Andrew gives her a remorseful smile. "That's a sin that I will always atone for, maybe I'll never get my redemption because I still feel guilty. He was my best friend, such a Cypher, you know from 'The Matrix', to do. And I was so damn gullable for letting The First trick me into killing him, but all along I knew what I was doing, but I wanted to stay in my fairy tell world. You know, pretending it was one big episode of long running series. I should've died in Sunnydale."
Vi finds herself putting her hand on his shoulder trying to cheer him up. "But you didn't, your still here, still able to atone." She stops to think about the other people in her group. "And unless you haven't noticed, one of the people leading us also was a murder."
"Yeah," He thinks about Warren and how him and Jonathan went along with him. "That was also partially my fault, if I wasn't such a lap dog."
"You know your problem is that you are still living in past mistakes, it's done and over with and you know it." She didn't mean to take a stern tone with him, but he shouldn't be beating himself up.
"Yeah, I guess your right. Thanks."
She removes her hand from his shoulder, because it kind of felt weird and out of place and she didn't know why she did it in the first place. "No problem, you were talking about Jonothan?"
He gives her a thoughtful smile and then continues. " Yeah, all he ever talked about in Mexico was being a member of the Scooby gang and helping fight evil. Of course, they probably never gave him a second thought in High School and then further and he didn't care, he just wanted to fight the good fight. And he remembered them fondly, he let go all those feelings of rejection by that time. In fact, the last couple of things he said was how much he missed High School and how those memories were still there. But I know he was hoping to be apart of Buffy's gang and if it wasn't because of me that might have actually happened."
"So, your fulfilling the only thing he really wanted." She is kind of touched by this, she never knew he could be that deep.
Now his look has become very sad. "But dammit Vi, he was such a better person than me. I also feel like I ripped him off, I killed him then took the spot that he should have had. But I'm here and he's not, someone must live his dream, I know it sounds morbid."
"No, really it doesn't." She looks at him, he gives her a very sorry excuse for a smile.
"Thanks and also there's another person who is responsible for me going along with this mission."
Vi is now curious to know more about the many reasons Andrew is motivated. "Who?"
She can tell that Andrew is embarrassed to admit this next confession. "Anya, she made me feel like crap most of the time, but during those last couple of days I really got the feeling that she was the only one watching my back. Sure, she talked about using me as a human shield and cannon fodder, but in the end she fought bravely and died while she was covering me." He looks at her with convincing eyes. "You know the weird thing was that once we were out of Sunnydale, I was pretty much over the whole living out my Star Wars fantasy thing. I was ready to go back to my normal Babylon 5 watching lifestyle. But in my gut, I felt that Jonothan AND Anya wanted me to stay and fight like another stupid human. So that's why I went with Xander and Willow here, I might not be the best fighter and probably my best talent is washing dishes. But I'll stay until end like Chewbacca."
She thinks about her earlier doubts and how much it kind of relates with Andrew's story. " You know before I came up here, I was thinking of packing my bags and going back to my normal life. I wasn't sure I can make it as slayer for a long period of time, I'm still not so sure. I mean do I want to do this until I die? Probably not, but I don't want to let Xander and Willow down and god knows what Kennedy would do or say." Andrew is the last person she thought she would be opening up to, but she finds herself more and more comfortable with him, it's kind of nice but different all at the same time. "But the truth is, I want that normal life as a teenager, something that slayage would indeed corrupt. I mean I was so psyched that we helped destroy the hellmouth, so I didn't think on what a commitment going down here would be, I didn't know what I would be missing out on. Well, I knew, Buffy warned all of us many times after the Hell Mouth was destroyed, but I just passed it off. But now.."
"Now, your thinking you can be normal without slaying."
"Yeah, but then I think to the people who don't know what's going on to the people who can't defend themselves. Like my foster parents who didn't know and that got them killed. And like you, I think to Molly and Amanda and the other potentials that died, both of them wanted to BE slayers after awhile. And now from what I just heard from you, you don't have slayer powers, but you stay and I do, but I want to leave. What kind of person does that make me?"
"A completely sane individual." Andrew replies
"True, but that also makes me a coward. And I was given these amazing gifts and I want to squander them because I want to be selfish and live a normal life. So many people died for this power that is mine, so many others will if I don't accept my path. So now, more than ever, I want to be a slayer, not the greatest or the longest, but just a slayer who will fight to protect those who cannot." Andrew notices the confidence grow inside her as she has her little speech. " And I think I have what you just said to thank for that."
"Thank your self," He says with sweet eyes. "I'm just a geek who can't fend for himself. Like Rocky, the power was always there inside you."
"Maybe, it was." She looks back up at him and she has no clue why she says this next remark, but she does. "But I'm sure you're a better fighter than you think, but if your in any trouble just know that I will be there to protect you."
She gets so nervous after she says that, she really questions what inside her made her respond like that. But she wasn't even prepared for his response. "I'm not sure if this means anything, but I'll be there protect you as well although I'm not sure how well." Suddenly, they both look down and realize that they are holding hands, she wonders when that happened, she doesn't even remember grabbing it. They both let go and she gets up and he opens his book. "Well, I better get back to my research. Have a good night."
She backs away very flabbergasted at what just happened. "Yeah, I, uh should probably get some sleep. Good luck with the demon research." She speed walks to the doorway leading back into the building wondering what just happened. She just wants to get off this roof as fast as possible now, although it seems like forever she gets back to the stairs and closes the door. It is only halfway down the hall that she realizes that she has the brightest smile on her face. She tries to get rid of it, but can't, even as she gets in the apartment she still glows. She falls asleep with that huge smile on her face.
"Hi Dawn," Xander tries to speak while dodging Willow, Kennedy, and Vi in the cramped kitchen. It's about 8:00 in the morning and everyone has just woke up for breakfast, except for Andrew who apparently has gone somewhere else for breakfast. Xander is finding it incredibly hard to talk on the phone and dodge the girls who are fixing breakfast at the same time. He takes the phone into the living room to concentrate on his conversation. "How are you enjoying London."
Kennedy, who is sitting at the tiny kitchen table eating her cereal looks up at Vi who just entered the kitchen and gives her a long hard stare. "Why are you glowing?"
Vi doesn't know how to respond to this accusation. "I'm glowing?"
Kennedy grabs the milk. "You look happy about something." Vi replies to this by trying to hide her smile, but she can't so she just goes to the fridge to grab something, anything.
"Really? They all smell like Giles over there? Interesting." Xander continues his conversation with Dawn. He puts the phone aside and looks at everyone and yells. "Dawn says hi everyone."
Willow, Kennedy, and Vi respond at the same time. "Hi Dawn."
Xander goes back to the phone. "Everyone, accept for Andrew who is missing at the moment says hi." At the mention of Andrew Vi accidentally bumps her head on the top of the fridge she gives a little yelp but tries to hide it, still everyone looks at her.
"Are you okay, Vi?" Willow asks from the kitchen counter slurping from her cereal bowl.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just looking for my..uh" She pulls something out of the fridge not even looking.
"You were looking for Xander's half eaten egg salad sandwhich?" Willow asks very confused.
"Um, I gotta go to the bathroom." She throws the egg salad sandwhich back into the fridge and runs for the bathroom.
Kennedy and Willow exchange a glance. "Why is she acting so weird?" Kennedy asks Willow.
"Do you think maybe she was awake last night we were. being close?" Willow is a little afraid that she might have overheard them making out and cuddling.
"She was fast asleep, I checked."
"Yeah, apparently now I'm watcher-rific" Xander tells Dawn over the phone. "Speaking of which, is Giles there? I'm not really sure what this job entails. I'm not really sure if taking care of young girls is the thing to do nowadays. It might have worked for the Watchers a couple years back, but it certainly didn't work for a Mr. Kobe Bryant." He listens in a bit more and then responds. "Okay, I'll hold on."
Kennedy puts her bowl in the sink and slides up next to Willow holding her waist. "Are you still having problems with your powers?"
Willow looks upset at this. "Yeah, every time I try to locate something I get static."
Kennedy takes a sip of her orange juice. "Have you talked to the covenant about it?"
Willow shrugs. "I'm not sure it's that big of a deal, might just be some backlash from the slayer spell. But this is making limiting my powers much easier, keeps me in check. Might just be a blessing disguise actually."
Kennedy grimaces at this. "That's bull, honey and you know it. If were going to battle on the hell mouth we are going to need you at your most powerful."
"HEY!" Willow gets defensive. "It's not like I'm completely powerless, did you see me last night? Two fireballs at once."
Kennedy grunts. "You know that's amateur stuff compared to someone at your level."
"Yes, Giles, glad I finally got ahold of you. Oh and by the way, did you know that you are insane?" Xander listens to his former mentor and passes it off as Watcher gibberish. "You thought I would be happy that you just made me a watcher and didn't even ask me, that's a lot of responsibility." Xander listens in deeper to Rupert Giles. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been doing this job for seven years I've was just given the official title yesterday. Willow beat you that conclusion last night."
As Xande continues to speak to Giles over the phone the apartment door opens as Andrew walks in holding his bag full of demon summoning books another book under his arm and a coffee in each hand. "Xander, I found something." Andrew screams at the top of his lungs.
Willow looks at Andrew and makes an observation. "Who's the other coffee for?"
"Um, well, it's for me." Andrew tries to cover up that he is lying to her.
Kennedy looks at Willow. "Aren't you already wound up enough? You need to drink all that coffee?"
Andrew ignores this and goes to Xander, who is still trying to hear Giles. "Xander, I found a demon."
"Hold on Andrew, I'm on the phone." Andrew just stands there by Xander waiting. "Yeah, he's still with us, the boy wants to help I say let him help." Giles says something over the phone. "No, we still haven't found it yet, Willow's powers are acting up a little." He pauses and answers Giles next remark. "She's says it's nothing to worry about just yet. And by the way, why couldn't you just make her a watcher? Will is a whole lot more qualified."
Andrew tired of waiting for Xander to get off the phone decides to put his stuff down on the kitchen counter as Willow and Kennedy move to the bedroom to get ready for their day. As they enter the bedroom, Vi comes back from the bathroom and enters the kitchen at the exact time Andrew enters from the other side. They both stare at each other for a second or two. Vi is the first one to say something. "Uh, hi, did you find your de.."
Andrew nervously cuts her off. "Um yeah, it was kind of hard but I finally found something. Did you get enough slee.."
Vi not thinking, cuts him off like he did her. "Yeah, I did."
They both just stand there for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to say. Then Andrew looks at the extra coffee he has in hand and hands it to here. "Uh, here, I got an extra cup."
She takes the coffee giving him a sweet smile, not knowing exactly what to say. "Thank you." She sits down and begins to make herself cereal and sips on her coffee. He stares for a moment with a stupid smile not knowing exactly what to do now. Vi tries to look casual while eating her cereal, but can't get that wide smile off her face.
"Really? The Watcher's council doesn't allow Slayer/Watcher relations? How do you explain you and Buffy?" Xander holds listening to Giles response which is a lot of defensive yelling that Vi and Andrew can hear. Xander has a huge smile on his face as Giles continues to insist that him and Buffy weren't dating and the thought was just disgusting. "Giles, relax, I'm joking. You were saying something about giving me an occupation. Please don't tell me I'm going to be a librarian." He listens to Giles ramble on a little more for a couple more seconds and Xander's expression is priceless in Vi's opinion. "SHOP TEACHER? Wait, the watcher's council got you a comfy job at the school library and I got shop teacher." He listens to Giles some more. "Yes, yes, I am good with my hands." Vi and Andrew burst into laughter at this, Xander looks back at his charge and his sidekick with an upset look on his face. "Keep laughing Beavis and Butt-Head. You were saying Giles?" Another pissed off expression is on Xander's face. "Wait, I have to interview? Today? What time?" He looks at his watch and rolls his eyes. "That's in an hour and a half, I haven't even taken my shower yet. You couldn't have told me this yesterday?" He pauses to listen to more. "Yes, I know of the time difference, listen Giles I got to let you go. I gotta go ready and brief the group, Cheerio!" Xander slams down the phone a little frustrated at Buffy's former watcher.
Willow comes from the bedroom noticing Xander's frustration. "Xander what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong really, I'm just running late." He pauses. "Get Kennedy, we need to have a group meeting." He looks at Andrew taking up a seat across from Vi. "You found a demon we could use to locate the hell mouth?"
Willow and Kennedy walk into the kitchen and both grab chairs and sit at the table as Andrew sits on the counter scattering through the books. "Um yeah, I found one, the Mizerak Kazarak, took me hours to find it."
"Good," Xander pauses making sure everyone is listening to what he's going to ask. "What do we need to do to summon the Buttcrack Epilak?"
Everyone turns to Andrew. "The summoning for the Mizerak Kazarak shouldn't be hard, but.."
Xander looks at him even more concerned now. "What's the but for, what don't want butts."
"Uh, well you see, the Mizerak is a very powerful locator demon and well requires a test." Andrew tries to explain.
Kennedy looks at him. "What kind of test?"
"Well, from the looks of this passage, the demon must be defeated before he can locate the hellmouth for us. Not killed just defeated by one person."
Willow stares at Andrew very interested. "Hmmmm, I never have come across a demon that wants to get the information beaten out of him. Interesting."
Xander gestures to Andrew. "The passage say how many tries we get to defeat?"
"Apparently, one try per person." Andrew replies reading the passage.
"So, this should be easy. Kennedy will be the first to take him on, if that fails then Willow will give it a try, then Vi, then me, sorry Andrew, but your only in case of emergency."
Vi raises her hand, trying not to make eye contact with Andrew. " This isn't a battle to the death is it?"
"Nope, just a regular fight. But he does have this venom that squirts from his stomach. It's cool."
Kennedy chimes in and makes sure all eyes are on her. "Well, we can't have this here."
"We'll do it at the local grave yard." Xander says then takes a sip of orange juice and continues. "We'll have to do it late tonight though."
Andrew looks at his hero Xander. "I still need to gather a few things for the summoning though. Shouldn't be too hard, I just need some spending cash."
Xander raises an eyebrow at Andrew. "How much you need?" "Fifty dollars." Andrew shrugs as he says this.
"You don't really need fifty dollars do you?" Xander asks a little impatient.
"Well, the ingredients and a new pair of sunglasses will cost that much." Andrew says as Vi can't help but giggle with her glowing smile, Kennedy looks over at her disturbed by her buddies weird behavior.
Andrew walks up holding his hands out with a wide smile. Xander hands him a twenty dollar bill and Andrew frowns. "That's all you get." He looks at the girls as Andrew stuffs the money in his pocket. "As for the rest of us, we need to talk about what we are going to do from here. Now I have an interview today at the local high school very soon."
"Are you going to be the librarian?" Willow asks with an eager smile, she likes books.
Xander has a grimace on his face. "Shop teacher." Willow, Kennedy and Vi burst into laughter. "Don't start laughing just yet, I'm not the only one who needs to get a living." He looks at Willow and Kennedy with a smile on his face. "Along with your studies today, you two need to find a job."
Kennedy begins to wine. "I'm a slayer, I shouldn't have to work."
"Honey," Willow begins to carress her hand. "You being unreasonable again."
She points to Andrew. "How come he doesn't need to get a job?"
Andrew replies to that. "Well, Mrs. Smarty pants, I just so happen to have applied at numerous comic shops."
"THAT'S SO COOL!" Vi bursts out then realizes that she just implied comics were cool and that everyone is staring at her. What has gotten into her? She thinks.
"Glad you seem so enthusiastic for him, Vi." Xander has a big smile on his face. "Tomorrow, you will be enrolling in High School, the same one I'll be working at."
As the conversation continues, they don't hear the little footsteps outside the door of the apartment though. They don't know that they are being eavesdropped on during their little conversation. But standing outside, listening through the hollow wall are two dark haired teenage girls. They both look alike and have the gothic look going on, in each hand is a wooden stake and each have an anarchy sign on each arm. They look at each other, one of them whispers to the other. "They are none the wiser, we make our move tonight." With that they both walk off snickering