I still do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any mythology.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank Tammin for all his hard work.

Explanations

Revello Drive 1630

The sun felt a lot gentler in the back garden, even though it was still early Buffy was sure she could feel the difference. Her body flowed into the forms of Slyppr without conscious thought, the power within in her following the movements just as easily.

It all left her mind free to ponder things like that. But the distraction didn't hold up long before her mind found its way back to the subject of Kendra. 'I still can't believe she's dead. I mean, I know she is. Giles wouldn't joke about something like that, but...'

"In your memory, she is still that stiff young girl that helped you rescue your boyfriend and left Sunnydale alive," Mjöllnir supplied.

Buffy mulled that over for a moment before replying. 'Yes, that's exactly it. And now there is this new Slayer out there and I got no idea what she's like. Does she even know who Kendra was? Is she anything like her?'

"Do you know who came before you?"

That question gave her pause, so much so that she briefly hesitated before completing the exercise. Only after she'd gotten her power back into its source did she answer. 'Actually, no. I never even asked,' Buffy admitted sheepishly. 'And maybe I should... Giles should know, he's got those diaries.'

Nodding to herself, the blond resolved to do just that when she saw her Watcher again. Taking a deep breath, she summoned that crackling energy again and let it flow through her body. Unlike in the desert, she didn't even hop to get some momentum, she just willed herself to lift up.

It wasn't easy, and by the time her feet left the ground she'd started to sweat. Still, she was defying gravity right now and without Mjöllnir's help. Hovering a foot above the ground, Buffy stopped trying to go higher and instead focused on just staying aloft.

She even dared to open her eyes again, which she had closed in concentration earlier. It was then that she noticed, "Mom!"

Startled, Buffy let go of her power in a reflex to hide her abilities. It wasn't until she was falling that she remembered there was no need. Her mother already knew. The blond managed to land on her feet but did wobble for a few moments as she fought to keep her balance.

"Uh, hey, good morning."

Mom had taken a step closer when she saw Buffy fall, but now she stopped as Buffy had landed on her feet. "Good morning," she retorted. "Isn't it a little early? I was sure you would still be in bed. You seemed eager enough to stay in it last night," Joyce teased.

"Yeah, uhm." Buffy scratched her head sheepishly. "Sorry about not talking about... stuff last night. I was just tired and I felt real icky so..." and she shrugged as she didn't know what else to say.

"I figured it was something like that and it's alright honey. I was just glad you were home again. And that you looked fine. Now, I'm going to make pancakes so why don't you come inside. I'm sure you're starving." Her mother waited until she nodded happily before turning towards the house and going inside.

Buffy followed and made a straight line for the refrigerator as the smell of melting butter filled the kitchen. "So, I saw you, uh, floating?"

Buffy bit her lip and didn't answer right away, instead she concentrated on pouring a glass of OJ. 'Is she, is she hinting that I shouldn't be training in the backyard? Is she worried the neighbors find out what a freak her daughter is?'

i"Or maybe she's being a bit clumsy in her attempts to show interest in you."/i

'Oh... Yeah, that could be it too.'

"Uh, yeah," Buffy answered out loud. "I can't do much more than that on my own though. I still need Mjöllnir to really fly."

Joyce took her eyes off her cooking to give her daughter a surprised stare. "You can fly?"

Feeling a little unsure, Buffy just nodded. "Huh, and I suppose you have super strength too. That would explain why all the jars are so tightly screwed on," Joyce mused.

"I can control that fine," Buffy defended. "I only broke a... well, a couple of doors and some alarm clocks. But most of that was right after I became an Aesir. I just got surprised by how much stronger I'd gotten."

Smiling ruefully, her Mom returned her attention to the stove and flipped the pancake. "Uhm, Mom," Buffy started slowly. "I know I was kind of... I'm sorry I didn't really try to talk about everything last night, it's just..."

Her mother interrupted. "Buffy, it's alright. You just spent more than a month in the desert. God knows I would be desperate for a hot bath and a soft bed after that much time doing without." She turned around and slid the pancake on Buffy's plate. "Although I was sure you'd be starving too, and that's not the case."

With those words she turned around again and put some batter in the pan, missing Buffy's shrug. "Mjöllnir helped me figure out what I could eat and how to prepare it all. I ate a lot more meat than usual though, and freaky meat too. Mostly lizards and snakes," Buffy finished putting syrup on her pancake and dug in.

"Oh, uh, how does, uhm, lizard-meat taste?"

"Not as bad as you'd think, but you're pancakes got everything I made beat cold." The kitchen got quiet, only the sound of the skillet sliding against the pan as Joyce flipped a pancake broke the silence. "So..." Buffy began, "are you okay with all this? With the whole, me not being human anymore?"

Her Mom didn't answer, seemingly absorbed by the random pattern of the pancake in front of her. "Mom?" the blond prodded.

"I'm sorry Buffy, I just don't really know how to answer that." She looked over her shoulder to meet her daughter's eyes. "Because honestly, I can't be happy that you're a, a, a superhero now!"

Buffy recoiled from hearing that and she must have looked stricken because her Mom turned around and quickly explained why. "And it's not because of what you are," she assured the blond before sliding a pancake on Buffy's now empty plate. "I'm your mother and that means I worry about you. Knowing that you go out there every night to fight monsters only adds to that."

She held up her skillet to forestall any argument from Buffy. "And I'm not asking you to stop doing that, because I already know you'll just do it behind my back like before. And knowing you care like that..." Her eyes glistened with tears as she shot Buffy a dazzling smile. "It just makes me so proud of you." The smile dimmed. "And nauseous with worry. But I don't want to be shut out of your live anymore. I want to be there for you."

Now it was Buffy's turn to blink back tears. Working past the lump in her throat, Buffy croaked out her thanks. Then, not really knowing what more to say, Buffy started eating again and her mother went back to cooking. Her eyes kept returning to her Mom's back and her words.

"Uhm, Mom," Buffy spoke up. "I, there's a few things you should know about Angel."

"Like how he's not your history tutor?"

"Yeah, uhm, like that. You see, the reason he had to go to Asia wasn't his study. And also... he isn't exactly, you know, human."

"What?!"

Willow's Home

"Coming!" Willow yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It was only half past eight on a Saturday morning and she'd planned on another solid hour of sleep. But whoever was ranging the bell had dashed those plans leaving the redhead with just a hint of irritation.

Especially since she was sure it wasn't anybody she knew. Xander would still be asleep too, Giles would call, and things had been quiet anyway while her parents had left yesterday for yet another conference. They wouldn't be back for another week. This meant that whoever was at the door had to be a total stranger.

"Okay, what's the emergen-" Willow cut off as Buffy smiled apologetically at her. "Buffy!" One moment she was still staring at her best friend, the next she was hugging her for all she was worth. "You're back, and you're fine, how long have you been home? Why haven't you call-" Pressing her lips firmly together, Willow stopped her babble firmly in its tracks and let go of the blond.

"Hey, Willow. I got back last night and I thought you'd want to know I was back from me in person so... here I am." She threw her arms wide.

"And here you are," Willow agreed. "Uh, right, why don't you come in and we can talk. Have you seen anybody yet? I mean, apart from your Mom obviously."

"Actually, I went to see Giles first, last night."

Willow gave Buffy a startled look as she sat down on the couch, her legs snugly tugged underneath her. "You did?"

The blond nodded as she too took a seat. "I wanted to know how my Mom was handling everything, like, what kind of welcome I could expect."

"But it was a good welcome, right? I mean, I haven't talked to your mother much since everything, but Giles and Xander have and they thought they'd explained everything."

"They did and they have," the blond agreed. "Mom's totally cool with me being an Aesir now. Well, not totally cool. She's worried I could get hurt and she prefers to call me a superhero," she amended. "But there's worse things to be called."

Willow made a sound of agreement. "But we are superheroes, aren't we? I mean, we got superpowers and in the comics some of the superheroes are gods. They even got a Thor!"

Her best friend shot her a bemused smile. "I suppose. But enough about me, let's talk about you. Giles said you were learning magic. So, how's that going? Turned anybody into a frog yet?"

Willow quickly shook her head. Even becoming an Aesir hadn't cured her of her frog fear. "Noooo, uh, how much did Giles tell you?"

She really wanted to know how much Giles had told, because there had been some incidents with that. Siffy had started her training, but she'd been a little too slow for the redhead's taste. So she'd convinced Giles to share some of what he'd learned.

But he too had stuck to the easy stuff so Willow had felt she'd had no other option than to experiment. Siffy had stayed quiet the whole time so Willow had figured she didn't disapprove, even when she'd accidentally killed some plants... and her bedspread... and that blouse she'd liked so much, not to mention...

i"As I explained to you then, my problem wasn't with making mistakes, it was with your refusal to learn from them. That series of disasters should have thought you to go back to the basics to see what you'd missed."/i

'And I didn't, I know, I know. You were right about taking my time to learn this, it's just that I won't have much time for this once school starts and I'm sure the Hellmouth will start to throw trouble our way too. I just want to learn,' she thought wistfully.

"I understand, but using seidr requires more than technical knowledge. You need to know when to use it, and when not to. In other words, you need to acquire some wisdom."

'Well, I think this fiasco thought me some, wouldn't you say?' And it had, she'd even taken a week off from studying and just had fun.

"...and he told me way more about what's happened with you than Xander. I think he's trying to spring some surprise on me," Buffy finished.

"Uh," Willow said as she furiously went over her memories to find out what Buffy had just said. No, apparently Giles hadn't said much except that Siffy had done most of the- "You got a tattoo?!" she exclaimed.

That earned her a reproachful look from Buffy. "Weren't you listening? I found this sword in the desert and it decided to hitch a ride."

"Oh, right, yeah, sorry, I was just talking with Siffy and when I remembered I kind of started talking before I recalled everything. So, could I see?" And it would explain why Buffy was wearing that T-shirt.

Sighing, Buffy obliged pulling the collar down so Willow could see down to the hilt of the sword drawn on her skin. "Well, it actually looks pretty interesting," Willow commented. Then froze as she realized what she'd just said.

Buffy was blushing too as she let go of the shirt and looked away. "Yeah, well, I've got no intention of showing it off to everybody so that means half my wardrobe just became a no-go until it's gone."

"I can see why," Willow agreed.

"Tell her about you trying to run before you'd learned how to walk," Siffy prompted.

'Are you sure? Because I am totally okay with not telling. And what if she hates me when I tell her, when I tell her that...'

"Exactly, which is why you should. Consider it part of your punishment if you want, consider it another lesson, but you need to be open about your mistakes. To your friends and yourself anyway."

She could see the point, so after taking a deep breath Willow plunged ahead. "Uh, well, you know about me learning about magic but Giles left a few things out. I kind of, I did a stupid thing," Willow admitted as she curled up a little more on the couch. "I started playing with seidr, I wasn't ready, and I just didn't see the problem - I mean, I thought I was ready but I wasn't and I couldn't see that," Willow babbled.

"Willow," Buffy cut in, "breath." Seeing her friend do so, she went on. "Now, tell me what went wrong."

"Oh, oh, I was playing around with the runes and I accidentally summoned something... I had to fight it and we wrecked several tombstones. It wasn't my first... accident, but after that one Sif set me straight. So many people could have gotten hurt if that thing had gotten away." Tears started to leak and Willow's voice hitched. "I just didn't think things through and I feel so stupid. I'm supposed to be smart!"

With those words, she ducked her head down and hugged her knees. Buffy's hand landed lightly on her shoulder but Willow didn't look up. "Willow, even smart people are allowed to make mistakes." Hearing that, the redhead looked up to meet Buffy's gaze. "What you aren't allowed, however," Buffy went on with a mock-stern voice, "is not learn from them."

"I've learned my lesson," the redhead assured her friend in a small voice. "I'm even spending more time with Oz. I kinda neglected him a bit before," she admitted.

"Right, how is Oz? Looking forward to college?"

"Actually, he's pretty busy finishing summer school."

"Huh?"

Willow's snort of amusement got a little messy on account of her earlier crying. "He didn't graduate on account of not having done all the exams. And then I found out he was planning on not going to summer school either!"

"Isn't he supposed to be really smart?" Buffy wondered.

"Exactly," Willow responded as she got more animated. "And he is. But I had to point out that repeating a year would be even more of a waste of time he could be devoting to his music or anything more worthwhile really! He even thought I would find it cute!"

"Guys," Buffy summed up with a grin.

"Yeah, guys, with their weird guy ways. Anyway, he saw logic and now he's almost done but I don't think he's going to college. But that's alright," Willow assured the blond. "I know he love's music and if he wants to focus on that after he graduates than I'll be 100 percent behind him on that."

"After he graduates," Buffy repeated and Willow gave her a firm nod. "Okay then. That just leaves Xander and the mystery of where he's living now. Giles didn't give me the address."

"Yeah, I can. I've been there a few times and you really should see what he's done with the place."

6 Crawford Street

'Giles said it was a mansion, but somehow I hadn't really believed he meant a real, honest to God mansion. How the heck did Xander afford this?' She would have thought she'd mixed up the address somehow if not for her clear memory of Willow telling her what the address was. And this was it.

The place had something of a castley look, except it was obviously modern too. 'Or maybe its a bit more like a cathedral,' she mused as she looked up at the big windows. Walking up the stairs, Buffy was confronted by a double-door set in some very sturdy looking walls. It only reinforced the impression of a fortified building Buffy had gotten even if the doors themselves looked new and a bit flimsy.

Hearing the sound of hammering coming from inside, Buffy made sure to knock extra-loud. And she must have gotten heard right away, 'cause whoever was using a hammer stopped.

***

Xander took another zip from his water bottle as Buffy wrapped up her story on her first day back in Sunnydale. They were both sitting on the old second-hand couch he'd scrounged up, which like the rest of the furniture, didn't really fit with the house. They were facing the small garden with the big fireplace on their right and the entrance hall to their left, the smell of jasmine doing its best to cover the scent of sawdust and mold.

"So it's going to be a while before I can fly without Mjöllnir, but I don't care. Just being able to is... I can't really describe it, Xan. It's like you're free, free of everything." Buffy got quiet, her gaze upon the small garden. Then she turned her gaze back to him. "But I've talked enough. Now I finally want to know why you bought this place. Not to mention how!"

Xander smiled. "Has Mjöllnir already told you the Children got this nifty habit of hiding away supplies and info any time they get to some new place? Before they try to do whatever they came to do."

"He has. It's supposed to be insurance in case things go wrong. That way their successors don't start from scratch."

"Exactly," he said as he leaned forward. "After your mom described where they'd held her I got an idea of where she was. When I found those smashed in doors, I was sure. Of course, finding their stash helped too. They had just about everything on us, Buffy. They knew where we lived, our class schedule, where we patrolled. Everything."

"And I get wanting to keep that away from the bad guys. And I know that those supplies usually are money 'cause it doesn't spoil like food and the like. What I don't get is how you could use that bit of cash to buy this place. Mjöllnir has been scratching his head too, he's never heard of a case where they had millions stashed away."

Now Xander grinned, because Mjöllnir was absolutely right. "Oh, this place didn't cost as much as you think it did," he stalled. "Nobody's been living here for twenty years and the last owner died years ago. The town took it over after that to keep it from turning into a total ruin. They were just glad someone was finally going to do the maintenance this place needed."

Buffy wasn't fooled though. "Xander, we're still talking about a lot of money. So how did you manage to turn a few thousand into this." And she waved her hands around to indicate his place.

His answer was to dig out the one coin he kept with him and tossing it to Buffy. "What the? Is that gold?" she asked.

"Yep, a twenty dollar coin. They had a small bag of those mixed in with silver dollars hidden away underneath the fireplace. And all of them are at least a century old."

Buffy didn't take her eyes of the coin. "Are you seriously telling me the bad guys were running a century behind?"

Xander shrugged. "Don't know about that. But whoever is in charge of handing out the money sure is. The whole bag is worth millions, the one you're holding right now might be worth a million on its own. I'm not sure, though, because I've kept most of them and only sold enough to afford this place and a few other things. After all, they don't belong to just me. You, Willow and Giles fought those Children too so you all own a part of the booty too."

That caught Buffy's attention. "What?" she looked up at him, then down at the coin again. "I- are you sure? I mean, I'm still living with Mom so I don't really need it. Not like you do."

"I'm fine," he assured her. "But I do have some ideas for it. I already talked it through with Giles and Willow and they've helped me flesh them out. This place is actually part of those plans."

"Xander, quit trying to mysterious and just tell me," Buffy told him exasperated as she gave back the coin.

"I will, I will," he assured her with a mischievous grin as he slipped the coin back in his pocket. "You're looking at the future corporate headquarters of 'Aesir Solutions'," he declared waving his right arm expansively. "I thought of the name myself."

Buffy just blinked. "Huh?"

Getting a bit more serious himself, Xander got up and started pacing. "After Giles told us the Watchers wouldn't help us any longer if they found out you weren't a Slayer anymore, I started thinking. I mean, it's only a matter of time before they find out. The fact none of us age like a human should is going to make sure of that. And that means, we'll be on our own one of these days."

"Okay," the blond said slowly. "I'm following you so far, but... I don't really see the problem. I mean, they aren't really doing anything anyway. We got Giles and his books, not to mention Willow."

Xander nodded along. "And Willow's great, but most of the time we still get our info out of the books. Books paid for by the Council so I'm thinking they'll probably consider them their property. But what about after we graduate?"

"That, uh, I hadn't thought about that." She winched. "We couldn't really go to the library after we've graduated. People would totally notice that and Snyder would just kick us out or call the police. And I don't think Giles has enough room at home for all those books."

"Exactly. And that's just the immediate problem. When the Council finds out, well, they'll want their books back not to mention their Watcher. I don't think he'll leave," he added quickly, "but that'll get him fired and then what?"

"Okay, my mood is now officially spoiled." Xander opened his mouth to apologize but was stopped from doing so by Buffy. "And that's alright, these are things I need to worry about too. Still, how do you go from Giles getting fired to starting up your own company?"

He shrugged. "If we want to replace the support, we need an organization and a way to pay for it. A business seemed the best way to do that and there's more than enough room here for a library and training rooms."

"A company also makes money, how are we going to do that? Because so far, Loki's Kids are the only ones that had any money."

"Not true, we also got something off of stopping Spike."

"We did?"

He grinned. "Yeah, Du Lac's cross had quite a bit of gold on it." Xander didn't mention he'd forgotten about it too until Fel reminded him of it at the start of the summer. He'd had to ask Willow and Giles to find out what happened to it, luckily the Watcher had kept a hold of it.

"But yeah, getting our hands on treasure like that isn't going to happen a lot. So I was thinking that maybe we could, you know, rent out our services."

"What, like the Ghostbusters? I don't know Xander, I'm not going to not help somebody simply because he can't pay. And who would pay us anyway? People in this town are really good at ignoring the supernatural."

"Who says we should operate just in Sunnydale? You can fly and Giles can teleport. Right now he can't get make it any further than LA but he's confident he'll be able to teleport all the way to England in another year. The supernatural is everywhere so there are bound to be people somewhere who got money and a demon problem. It's just a matter of finding them," he ended passionately.

Buffy stayed quiet, her eyes focused inward as she considered that. "You've given this a lot of thought," she finally said.

"I have," Xander confirmed. "And there's still a lot I haven't thought of. Willow and Giles managed to come up with a dozen problems I hadn't even known existed right of the bat when I came to them with the idea. I'm not planning of actually doing this any time soon, but if something happens it would be good to have a plan, right?"

"Right. But," she went on frowning, "if you're not planning on setting up this company any time soon, why did you get this house? I mean, what if we decide not to use your idea, what then?"

"Sell it again, probably. And with all the repairs I've done I'm pretty sure I'll actually turn a profit on it too. In the mean time, this place can be our hideout. I had Giles put wards on the place so if we ever get a situation like with those Tarakan assassins or another visit by Loki's Children you can hide your mom here. And we'd have a safe place to sleep."

It earned him a dazzling smile from Buffy. "Great idea, but what about Willow's parents. Or yours? Oh, and Miss Calendar."

"Well, of course Miss Calendar is welcome to crash here. But chances are that Willow's parents will be off somewhere and as for my parents..." He wasn't sure if he should just come out and tell Buffy he didn't care about them. He'd never really told her about his home-life and he honestly didn't feel any desire to start now. But she deserved an honest answer too. "They wouldn't even listen if I did try to warn them. And that's when they're sober. If they're drunk they'll throw in some swearing and... stuff."

"Oh," was all Buffy could say. Silence stretched on as they both sought a safer, lighter topic.

"But you never told me what you think of my suggestion," Xander started. Seeing Buffy's look of incomprehension he tried to clarify. "I mean, for the name of the company. I thought it sounded descriptive, with a hint of mysterious. Like Cyberdyne Systems, or Omni Consumer Products. But without the soullessness."

"Hmmm, I don't know. OCP works, I'm none too sure about being an employee of the AS corporation."

TO BE CONTINUED